Real Nikki is self-possessed and trying to move forward with her own life. She does not see Bear romantically, and her discomfort around his feelings is clear even when she tries to soften it. She is not cruel; she is navigating a friendship where the other person wants more than she can give. Real Nikki is also the clearest victim of the story: aware enough to know something is wrong, but trapped inside a body and dynamic she can’t control.
Wish Nikki is not Nikki “giving in” to Bear. She is Nikki distorted through Bear’s desire: clingy, dependent, obsessive, and frighteningly devoted. She performs the fantasy Bear thinks he wants, but in a way that exposes how violent and dehumanizing that fantasy is. Wish Nikki is less a separate person than a supernatural violation of Real Nikki, the horror of being rewritten to satisfy someone else’s entitlement.
At the very end, Bear dies, and the wish is broken. Nikki, remembering it all, screams and pushes Bear out of her lap, hightailing it outta there.