Catalina was that girl. Girls wanted to be her, boys wanted to be with her. Honor student, ballet prodigy, going places. She always wanted to please everyone, and make people happy. She was perfection personified.

But everybody has some sort of monster, even perfect girls like Catalina. Whether it is a living terror or a figure of their imagination, they must be fought. Physical monsters can be killed, in most circumstances. Ridding yourself of mind monsters, however, is not that easy. The monsters have voices, low, dark, and scary. But not this one.

Meet Ana, your best friend. She wants to help you be the best you can be. Her smooth, sweet voice works its way inside your brain and shuts off your senses. She takes your freedom to choose for yourself and throws it away. She ruins your life.

It started innocently enough. She was too heavy for a lift in a piece for her upcoming recital. As a dancer, there is an image to maintain. Only the best can make it in the world of professional dance. The best can't be too heavy for a simple lift, even if their partner has twigs limbs.

"It's not your fault, Lina. He's a beginner, he's never lifted before. That's why he was put with you; you're the smallest girl in this company. He'll get there, don't worry."

That's what everyone told her.

Ana didn't lie to her like everyone else. She let her see herself for what she really was- flawed, inadequate. It was her fault they couldn't do the lift, not her partner's. Ana told her to make a change.

"Skip dinner, just this once," Ana whispered in her ear. "It isn't like you need food anyway. You have some fat to burn off. Just this once, it will be worth it."

Somewhere deep inside, Catalina knew she was right, but she still had enough sense to ignore the voice. Ana hadn't yet gained control over the logical parts of her mind. There was still enough of the real Catalina left to turn away from Ana.

Slowly but surely, Ana willed herself into Catalina's life. Ana wants the best for you. She would never try to hurt you. At least that's what Lina thought.

"Skipping one meal a day doesn't hurt anything. You don't need those extra calories. Be strong and do this for yourself."

But slowly, cutting one meal a day turns to two turns to three turns to nothing at all. Catalina went from zero to one hundred in a matter of three weeks. Those three weeks are all it took to take Lina from the land of the living to Ana's world.

Mia is also a friend, but a different kind of friend than Ana. They are each other’s best friend, but at the same time they are each other’s worst enemy.

Mia wants Catalina to eat. She wants her to eat so much that she throws everything up. Between the two of them, there is no room for Lina to be the girl she used to be. Her new "friends" have taken over her life. There is no "Lina" anymore; there is only "Ana's Lina" or "Mia's Lina."

Before she knew it, Catalina was so run down that she could hardly function. She was spending so much time with her new friends that she had next to no energy to put into her dancing. She was losing weight at an alarming rate, but still they could not do the lift.

The weight of her self-hatred made her too heavy to fly. But her hunger for beauty was so strong that she ignored her body's need for food.

The thing with Ana and Mia is that you are blind to the destruction going on within your own mind. They twist the truth so that you think what they are doing to you is a good thing. Everyone can see a change in you but yourself.

Catalina's lift partner noticed her weight loss. The kids at school noticed it. Her parents were concerned about her. Her grades were dropping and she was distant from her loved ones all the time. The girl who once had too much sunshine inside to even have a cough now had monsters inside who put out the sunshine and left her in the darkness of her own mind.

"It's a good thing. You don't need good grades if you're skinny. Skinny is pretty, and pretty is all that matters."

Mom and Dad got a call from a friend of Lina's. Her best friend, before Ana and Mia came around. She said that Lina wasn't eating, and that she threw up when she did. After dinner that night, which Catalina ate like a bird, she asked to be excused. Her parents let her go, they always did, but this time her mom followed her up the stairs and waited outside the bathroom, listening.

She had been caught.

She spent the night in the psych unit. The only things she remembers are the raindrops of sadness falling from her mother's eyes and her father's stone like, unmoving gaze.

Rehab, a month long stint, the doctors decided.

Ana and Mia are mad at Lina. She misses them. It's a horrible place. No visitors allowed, not even her best friends. She's miserable and alone.

Something clicks inside Catalina's head in group therapy one day. The pieces of herself start falling back into place. Her recovery speeds up and she gets released early.

Knowing how it felt to constantly have Ana and Mia around only made her happier to have her normal life back. Her grades were back up, her real best friend was back in her life, and soon, she would have clearance to dance again. She missed dancing more than life, and she couldn't wait for her next rehearsal.

The lift turned into a drop. Her heart shattered. She ran from the room into the bathroom.

"You shouldn't have started eating again. It's your fault, not the lack of practice. This is why you need me around."

Her best friend came into the bathroom right after she did. Her real best friend. She talked Lina out of Mia's arms and into her safe embrace.

Catalina remembered that it wasn't her fault. They were out of practice, it would come in time. Back in rehearsal, they tried again. This time their attempt was successful. The weight of self-hatred had been removed from her shoulders and she was a lightweight once again, light enough to fly.