The train arrives, and we step inside. At this hour, it's mostly empty, so Thea and I grab a seat while Cer positions himself in front of us, his feet spread apart, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Uh, Luce?" Thea leans in to whisper.

"Yes?"

"I think I sat on something wet." She wrinkles her nose. "It smells."

"Just ignore it. It's only one stop."

She blinks.

"But it's really wet and smelly, Luce," she whines.

I sigh.

"We can change seats," I offer.

She nods fervently, getting up for the exchange. As she turns, however, I note why she was so wet. There's a yellowy-brownish wet stain on her pants, and as soon as she turns to me, the putrid smell wafts to my nose, intoxicating me. I'm sure I can see some bits of food, too.

"Uhm." I clear my throat. "I think we should just stand."

Cer, however, takes one look at Thea and bursts into laughter. She frowns in confusion until she makes the mistake of brushing her hand against her ass, the foul substance sticking to her fingers.

It takes a whole of two seconds before it dawns on her what she sat on. Her mouth opens and a shrill scream resounds in the entire train. Luckily, just at that moment, the doors open, and she dashes out of the train, still screaming into the night.

Cer is still furtively chuckling, and I look at him suspiciously.

"You knew," I note quietly.

He pins me with his gaze, his lips quirking up just as he angles his shoulders in a lazy shrug.

"I don't know what it is with the two of you, but you need to stop taunting each other," I say in exasperation.

He doesn't answer, simply stepping out of the train. I trail behind, wondering where Thea could have gone.

We get out of the station and still there's no sign of her.

"Don't worry. She'll find us. Eventually." He smirks.

Taking out the phone, I choose our location as a starting point so the GPS can give us a route to the theater.

"Okay, this way." I point ahead.

Despite being well after midnight, the area is bustling with tourists. Lights flash from the huge advertisements placed on every building, and for a moment, I just take a deep breath, absorbing everything.

It's not a dream. This is actually real. I may have a chance to get Nikki back.

It might be jarring that I've suddenly been thrust into this foreign world, but from the moment I was born, I've done nothing else but make do with the information I was given.

At sixteen, I found out there were no ancient gods and that there was freedom in the world—of thought, of speech, of being whoever I wanted to be.

At nineteen, I experienced that world for myself, savoring every moment of happiness after being deprived of it for so long.