You accidentally stumble across Tiffany Brian's dream.

You wave goodbye to the cute woman in glasses as she flies away on her giant airship. She yells out a thank you for fixing her ship and also for making her more confident in her cooking skills.

You zip up your pants and wonder if you'll ever see her again, either in real life or the dream world. She was a cutey who knew how to titfuck like a pro, but was sadly already in a relationship. No harem for you.

Ah well.

Satisfied with this happy ending, you turn around and entered another door to see who was next. You still had enough time left for one more person until you wake up for school.

Passing through the door, you find yourself in a rather familiar place...

It was the school cafeteria room. Except it's the middle of the night, there were lights and music, balloons, and even a whole group of faceless students and classmates dancing around and partying in generic dresses and suits.

Looks like someone is dreaming about Homecoming night, which isn't even close to happening yet in the real world. I mean, it's three months away in November. Someone seems prematurely excited, huh?

Welp, best to look the part and not arouse suspicion.

You imagined yourself wearing a fancy suit to match with the dance setting, which ironically enough is the same suit that your subconscious always wears whenever you see him. Weird how that works out.

As you walk around the place, you noticed how much bigger the space in cafeteria room actually is compared to the one in the real world. Like, five times bigger than it actually was. It was also completely crowded with random faceless background characters doing random movements which the dream host probably considered dancing.

There were only a random few people in this dream that wasn't completely faceless, and only two of them did you recognize.

In the middle of the homecoming dance, there was Tiffany Brian, head of the cheerleaders. Dancing with her is the ever muscular soccer player Zeke Cambell.

Around them were some random girls that you know are from the cheerleader squads, as well as a few guys here and there.

Some kind of sixth sense tingles your mind, and you instantly figured out that this dream belonged to Tiffany. Hey, you seemed to be getting better at this whole dream thing.

Well, let's see... Should you sit back and let Tiffany have her moment, enjoying her romantic dance with her boyfriend? Or should you crash the party for Lolz and giggleshits? You're tempted to do the second one, but...

Nah. You don't like Tiffany, but it's not like you outright hate her. She never did anything wrong specifically to you. In fact, she probably doesn't even remember you or realize you exist. Messing up her dream for no reason kinda seems petty.

Instead, you casually stole a random faceless girl from the crowd and danced with her as you got closer to Tiffany. The faceless girl doesn't seem to mind, instantly matching your dancing rhythm step for step.

Hm... Let's fix her up a bit to be something more... appealing to look at.

You imagined something to replace the faceless girl in front of you with the first thing in your mind. Instantly, the girl transformed into a teenage Bella Cardigan in her prom dress.

Heh, doesn't that say a lot about you and how you feel about Bella?

You danced with your fake dream Bella for a while, slowly getting closer and closer to Tiffany to see how she's doing.

Already you start noticing something wrong.

Instead of a smile, Tiffany kinda looks nervous and scared about something. Like at any moment, she could get an anxiety attack. Zeke is looking at her with a bored look, almost like he was disinterested in this whole thing.

Every once in a while, Tiffany would nervously look up at the stage podium where they would announce the homecoming king and queen.

Something in the air feels wrong... She gives off all the signs that she might have her own Inner Demon invading her dreams.

But you look around and see nothing of the sort. No strange black spectral popping out of the shadows. It just seems like a normal dream so far.

Hm... Might be safe if you interfered after all.

You kiss Bella goodbye before walking straight up to Tiffany and Zeke. Tiffany looks at you in confusion, and Zeke still has that bored look on his face.

You channeled your inner gentleman, and bowed before reaching your hand out, "May I have a turn with the soon-to-be-Homecoming-Queen?"

When Tiffany heard this, she gave a sigh of relief and smiled proudly at herself, regaining some of her confidence back and losing her anxiety. Zeke wordlessly lets you take his place before walking away with his hands in his pockets.

Tiffany takes your hand and soon you sway to the music together.

Okay, so now you have her in your hands. How do you wanna start this off?

Well, people in dreams seem to not question it when they see an unfamiliar face unless you actively introduce yourself as someone they've never met before. It's weird, but acting like you belong makes them more willing to trust you.

So you start off with a casual, "How you doing, Tiff?" to get things started. "You look nervous."

"Me? Nervous? Ha!" She laughs pompously, "I don't get nervous. I already know I'm going to be voted as the Homecoming Queen. I'm the most popular girl in school, and I'm dating the school's star soccer player, Zeke Cambell. I have all sorts of friends from different grades, I consecutively have straight A's, and I'm the most beautiful girl in school to boot. There's absolutely nothing that can shake my resolve."

Jesus Christ, is a slice of humble pie not on the menu tonight? You knew she was kinda stuck up in the real world, but she never acted so obviously narcissistic before.

No, wait...

She still occasionally nervously flickers back up on the podium, before looking at you with a false air of confidence and bravado.

Ahh, you see now. She's not being narcissistic, she's just trying to convince herself that she's good enough to be the Homecoming Queen and psyche herself up.

Apparently, this means a lot to her. So much so that she seems constantly worried about it in her dreams.

Might as well play along.

"You're absolutely right. As your friend, I can safely say that the title of Homecoming Queen is gonna be yours for sure this year. I wish you good luck."

She looks up at you for a moment before giving a smile, "You mean that? Phew... Thanks, John. I guess I kinda needed to hear that from someone else. Telling myself that over and over doesn't seem to help as much as I thought."

Wait, what? Did she just call you by your name?

"You know who I am?" You asked in surprise.

She raised an eyebrow, "Duh, of course. You're John Doe. You and I went to middle school together, remember?"

Huh. Wow. You were not expecting that. You thought for sure she had forgotten who you were. I mean, it's not like you two hung out together back then, so the fact that she even remembers your name and face was kind of a nice surprise.

Maybe she wasn't as bad as you thought?

"Actually, now that I think about it, it's been a while since we last talked to each other like this." Tiffany said with a frown, "Hey John, how come you never come hang out with me or my friends? I'm sure you'd fit right in. Zeke would love to get to know you if you just said hi."

You remembered how she and her group usually acts during lunch period. Loud, obnoxious, pompous, talk about soccer constantly and makes references to TV shows that you've never watched before in your entire life, always seems to laugh at the most inconspicuous habits that other students do, which then make the other students feel embarrassed-

Yeah, no. You wouldn't fit in at all with a group like that. Way too stuck up for your tastes.

"I, uh... I highly doubt that, Tiffany." You calmly declined her offer.

"Oh..." She frowned, actually seeming disappointed in your response.

Seriously, was there something you missed? You're starting to feel like the asshole here.

"Hey, Tiffany... I was wondering, how come you remember me after all these years?" You asked her, "I mean, we didn't exactly hang out that much back in middle school, did we?"

"What are you taking about? We hung out a lot back then. We were friends, weren't we?" She reminded you.

Well, this is the first you've heard of this.

You were friends with Tiffany Brian? The most popular girl in school and also your middle school crush? You barely remember interacting with her at all, but Tiffany is telling you otherwise.

Was this just a part of her dream, or does she actually believe all of this is true?

"If we were friends, how come you never hung out with me after we graduated from middle school?" You asked her.

"That's what I want to know, John!" She huffed, "You keep avoiding me like the plague ever since I started dating Zeke! It was like you didn't even know me anymore..."

Oh.

Oh shit, she's telling the truth, isn't she?

"I... I'm sorry, Tiffany..." You stuttered, completely dumbfounded at this new revelation.

Your conversation wasn't able to continue, as she suddenly shushed you and whispered, "They're gonna do the ceromony!"

The music slows to a halt, and the principal of the school, Mr. Abdul, walks up to the podium and clears his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen!" He begins, "Welcome to Somnia High's annual Homecoming party! As the principle and host of the party, I'm glad to announce the results of this year's Homecoming King and Queen!"

Well this just goes straight to the point, doesn't it? You remember him doing a big dramatic speech last year. Guess Tiffany doesn't care about any of that.

"And now to announce our Queen..." Mr. Abdul slowly opens his envelope, as someone in the background starts playing a dramatic drumroll.

You look over at Tiffany to see her not looking so hot. She was biting the middle of her index finger in trepidation, and sweat visibly pours down her forehead.

You also notice something else as strange.

Literally everyone in the crowd was staring at her. They weren't looking at the principal, they were staring at her. All of them. With emotionless and cold, dead, expectant eyes.

You were starting to get creeped out by the stares since you were so close to her.

The principal finally announce the name after an uncomfortably long silence, "Tiffany Brian!"

Out of habit, you start clapping and cheering for the girl, "Woo! Go Tiffany!"

To your discomfort however, no one else in the crowd was cheering with you. They all just stared at Tiffany with the same dead eyes. Not a single one of them had an ounce of joy in their face.

You awkwardly stop clapping as Tiffany nervously walks up the podium to receive her crown. The crowd watched her every move like a pack of Hawks.

It was seriously unsettling.

Tiffany took the crown from Mr. Abdul's hands, and he slowly vanished from thin air. The spotlight turned on and focused on her, being way too incredibly bright.

Tiffany started off normally enough, wearing the crown on her head and standing up straight to give her speech. "I'm so grateful for every single one of you who voted for me for Homecoming Queen. I... I always wanted to wear this crown and take it home as a souvenir as an accomplishment for everything I've done to help out the school. For how much people cared about me."

It starts deteriorating from there.

Someone in the crowd started booing, startling Tiffany off her game.

"I... I... I just wanted... To say that... I'm truly grateful that you all accepted me for who I am-"

"BOOOO!!!" More people suddenly start joining in on the booing, making you confused on what they were booing about.

What the hell is going on here?

You looked around the room, seeing the whole crowd growing restless. The people in her dream who actually had faces were giggling mischievously, except Zeke, who was the only quiet guy in the room. He looked completely disinterested in everything ever since you arrived here.

More of the crowd started throwing insults at her.

"Bitch!"

"Loser!"

"Nobody!"

"Liar!"

The more the crowd ganged up on her, the more Tiffany began to break apart.

She started shaking in place, taking every insult lobbed at her like a punch in the gut.

"I... I'm sorry..." She quietly cried.

"You're not Tiffany Brian!"

"We want Tiffany!"

"Give us back Tiffany Brian!"

"Please... Please, I know I'm starting to become boring, but this is the real me!" She desperately tried to explain to them, but no one in the crowd would allow her the chance.

Slowly, everyone in the crowd started chanting "We want Tiffany Brian!" Over and over and over again.

The chanting became louder and louder until you couldn't even hear yourself think anymore.

Tiffany suddenly collapsed to her knees, covering her ears in pain, "YOU ALL VOTED FOR ME! YOU VOTED FOR ME BECAUSE YOU LIKED ME! SO WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! WHO'S TIFFANY BRIAN?! WHO DO YOU WANT TIFFANY TO BE?!"

"WE WANT TIFFANY BRIAN! WE WANT TIFFANY BRIAN!"

"JUST TELL ME WHO YOU WANT ME TO BE!! WHICH TIFFANY BRIAN IS THE MOST POPULAR?! I'LL BE WHOEVER YOU GUYS WANT, JUST STOP DOING THIS!"

Everything starts to get hazy.

The noise becomes more loud and obnoxious, and not even covering your ears could stop the noise from seeping into your mind.

You can't... You can't take this pain... Oh fuck, it hurts...

It's too loud... It's too loud! It's too loud!

You try to scream just to hear something different other than this godawful noise but it's too loud! It drowns out your scream like an ocean wave!

YOU CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING ANYMORE! YOU CAN BARELY FORM A COHERENT THOUGHT!

YOU FEEL YOURSELF FALL TO THE FLOOR AND WRITHE IN AGONY AS YOU FELT YOUR EARS BLEEDING! YOU COULDNT MOVE YOUR BODY ANYMORE, UNABLE TO WITHSTAND THE PAIN!

WHY AREN'T YOU WAKING UP YET?!

AGH, YOU JUST WANT TO LEAVE AND WAKE UP!

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPP-

You opened your eyes,

You're back in the labyrinth.

You hesitantly touched your ears to see if they were okay. Not a single drop of blood in sight.

Realizing that the nightmare was over, you fall to your knees from exhaustion.

There was two things you've realized today.

One, Tiffany Brian has an Inner Demon in her head.

Two, INNER DEMONS ARE THE FUCKING WORST.

Oh god, you wanted to puke so bad...

You felt someone to your side, pulling you up to your feet.

John was right there besides you, patting your back comfortingly. "Shit man. Looks like Tiffany's got some identity issues she needs sorting out."

"Oh yeah, you fucking think so?!" You breathlessly gasped out. "What kind of Inner Demon was that?!"

"Well, I can safely say it's not the same one you faced in Bella's Dreamworld. This is a new one..."

"God damn it, I'm gonna have to fix that, don't I?" You groaned. "Fuck, I am way too young for this shit."

"Easy kid. Why not just take a breather for the day and forget about all this until tomorrow. You can't do anything now since A) Tiffany's woken up, and B) You're way too stressed out to do anymore dream manipulations."

"Right..." You sighed.

John snaps his fingers, "Time will now speed up. Waking up in three, two, one-"

You open your eyes.