Excerpt: Braving Daylight

"Elizabeth!" Jarrel exclaimed, taking the bait, "You can not possibly mean that."
"Yes I can. I can mean a great many things I say in anger. I might feel differently about it later, but that's beside the point, really," she said, though it sounded more thoughtful than angry now. Maybe a little entertained. She often had strange shifts in mood like that. The elf, however, was less than amused. A moment later, she found a pair of stormy blue eyes glaring into her own hazel orbs. His long, slender, graceful arms were crossed over his lean, leather covered torso. As always, she could not help staring at him a while. He was just too pretty. She loved his wild blond hair and fair skin. And those eyes... those slightly slanted, amazingly colored, expressive and often mischevious eyes that quite often seemed to see right through to her very soul. This was the true insanity. She was crushing on a figment of her own imagination. And yet he seemed so much more real to her than that, despite the fact only she could see and hear him.
"I suppose you could always just destroy me, then. You have the power to do it. You say so often enough when we argue," he said to her.
"I could. Maybe I should, Jarrel. You are not real anyway. What would it matter? All I have to do to get rid of you forever is say my right words," she came back, perhaps hoping to end it by scaring him into submission. Destroying any of the characters that were living in her head would be a simple enough matter if she only decided to go through with it. He decided to call her bluff.
"You have not the courage to get rid of me, my dear. You still need me too much. Perhaps you always will." His gaze never left hers. He watched her as her resolve to best him faultered and she became unsure of herself. He knew he had won when she looked down at her feet.