Chapter 247: Access

Diana I lay idle in my room, tossing the mangled ball of yarn that I always kept beside my bed up at the ceiling. “Access, Diana,” I heard him say again, but I paid him no mind. At this point, his presence had simply become a dull throb at the back of my mind that I had long since come to accept. “You cannot hold out forever, you know,” he said suddenly, floating above me and catching the ball of yarn. “I won’t give it back to you,” he added, bringing his face closer to mine. Instead of absorbing his presence, I simply turned and faced the wall. By the time his face appeared in front of me, my eyes were already closed. The only thing alerting me to his presence between me and the wall was his breathing against my nose. “Breathing?” I slowly opened my eyes to find his black, soulless eyes in front of me. “Your breathing,” I said. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asked. “It means you’re alive and here. You’re alive inside the dream—or if we’re going to call it this,