"You look sad, Taya."

She sits with her back to the mirror. Her knees tuck up to her chin and she hides herself in the grass. Her reflection frowns.

"Well, I am sad," she says.

"Would it help if you told me about it?"

"No."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk, anyway? About your day? About anything else? Maybe it'll take your mind off of things."

"I'm sure."

"So you'd rather sit here and sulk?"

She shrugs. There's a long pause of dream silence as her reflection tries another approach.

"Aren't you going to ask me my name again?"

"No. You're right, then I would wake up." She closes her eyes and blocks out the dreamscape with dream eyelids. She feels the reflection pull away from her, startled. His voice feels emptier when he speaks which hurts in a way she's too tired to understand.

"...is waking up such a bad thing?"

"Yes," she replies. Her voice grows quiet as she presses her face against her knees. She wants to cry dream tears, but then she'll cry real tears and have to explain them. "Then I'll have to say good-bye to Sage and leave for some weird city."

"Which is awful?" Emptier still. Fragile, suddenly.

"Yes," she repeats. "Besides, if I'm asleep then everybody's happier. He doesn't have to get rid of me and I won't have to be punished."

Another dream pause. She suspects he stopped talking and left her alone with her thoughts, though she could still feel him in the mirror behind her. Why was he here in the first place, anyway? What symbolism was it to have a twin dying to hear her every word? Egotistical, probably. Egotistical, narcissistic... though not narcissistic enough if he wants her to wake up.

Even the figments of her imagination want to be rid of her, it seems.

"At least," he says slowly, "you have the chance to sleep and wake up. To stay someplace safe or go someplace new. To meet new people who take the time to help you. It's really not all that bad, if you stop and give it a chance."

Taya raises her head from her knees and turns. Her reflection smiles sadly and dims as the mirror fogs over like the windows in Sage's kitchen. He waves, a blonde and peachy blob in a blobby red jacket.

"Wait."

The reflection ignores her and mouths something that could be a name. Taya wakes up.