Lookin' good so far man. Very cute first encounter between our hero and his future bride, I awww-ed a bit. I'm also loving how Stressed is so far too

My only niggle with it would be the spelling mistakes here and there, but it's nothing I'm about to hold against it at this stage cos it is NaNo after all :3

My memory of how things progressed from there is foggy. The rest of the evening, as slow as it was, passed by in a haze. I'm not sure if I was able to finish all my side-chores or if I just waited until closing and snuck out into the night. However I approached the evening, I recall not being coherant. If I had conversations with customers or my manager, they must have been spoken like an outer body experience in which I was unable to comprehend the words which came out of my own mouth.

I do recall waking up in my apartment, though. That much was clear. Home was a studio apartment in the center of the city. The type where rent was entirely based on proximity than the quality or size of the place itself. Upon walking in there was a small built in counter with marbling to indicate it was my "kitchen" area, an electric kettle and a microwave sat next to the sink as the only means of food and drink preparation. Under the cabinet was my mini-fridge which contained the supplies of unprepared food and drink. To the rear was a small chest of drawers for my clothes and then the small single bed on an elevated board designed to remove even the idea of personalization from the confined prison of an apartment. Only one other door existed, leaving to the tiny square that called itself a shower and the toilet and basin which sat next to them.

I am proud to say that for the privlidge to stay there, I paid a good 80% of my meager earnings. After tip, no less.

My eyes shot around the room, the only illumination was coming through the cracks in my blinds, a city that never sleeps is also one that never turns the damn lights off, and the center of the city has quite a number of those.

What started as a groggy rise from slumber became a quick shock when I noticed he was watching over me.

"Good morning, Craig." he said slowly, with a smile, "Nice place you have here. I bet the rent is astronomical." his face was calm with only a hint of a smirk lurking about his lips. It seems he was gaining some great amusement out of tormenting me.

"Why are you here?" I grumbled, quite sure that I'd asked him this exact question hours earlier.

"Well, I can't really go elsewhere." he said, shrugging his shoulders and turning on the lone light that the room had, "I'm as surprised about this all as you are, given how long you'd forgotten about me. But here I am." he opened his arms in a grand gesture, "Something about your life out here just brought me back to your mind. Maybe it was the loneliness, or perhaps the stress of the working world was buckling down upon you. Whatever it is, you summoned me back. If I had the ability to come back on my own, I would have."

At this point, I recalled the old days. During my early years at the orphanage, shunned for my hair, small frame and mannerisms, I found myself fairly lonely and desperate for friendship. Even to this day I cannot remember how I did it, but I somehow invented a friend to keep me company, a brother figure, strong, smart and adventurous to my meak, small and weak self. At the time, I could not remember his name. It was there, somewhere, buried under years and years of names and faces, it was easy to let the one who didn't really exist slip away.

His physique certainly did seem like an older version of the child from my memory, but aged. I could only imagine him sitting inside my soul, growing every little bit as much as me. I briefly wondered if he was trapped inside my perspective for all that time, unable to get out and doomed to watch me live my life.

"Sort of." he suddenly said, drawing my attention back to the present. While I was recalling the past he had moved over and started making a fresh cup of coffee, "I don't actively recall being aware during all of those years between you banishing me to the back of your mind and now, but I do know exactly what you were doing, what you were thinking..." a big grin appeared on his face as he gleefully added, "and what you are currently thinking."

A chill went up my spine at that revelation. Not that I could be blamed, the idea of a manevolant spirit residing inside your soul who could read your every thought and would make constant judgement upon each of those thoughts would terrify anyone.

"But, you, sir. You don't seem to remember anything, do you?" he picked up the coffee cup, which was now full and walked across to the bed where I remained. "You've been trying to remember my name ever since you remembered who I was..." he took a sip of the coffee and I could feel the taste on my tongue, "careless of you to create life and then forget all about it."

I slipped out of the sheets and sat next to him, watching his face as closely as I could, "What do you want, exactly?"

Another sip of coffee hit my tastebuds before he continued, "I want what I've always wanted for you, Craig. I want you to be happy. I want you to be the best that you can be. And..." he looked around the room dramatically, "this? This is not the best you can be or have."

Another spine chill. This one was stronger than the last. Terror was too weak an emotion for what I was starting to feel. I recall hearing the term "knife love" once, where someone stalks you and loves you and wants the best for you and will do everything in their power to make you happy, up to and including killing you. I found faith in that moment simply to pray that this wouldn't be the fate that befell me due to this imaginary friend that I had carelessly conjured in my youth.

"Oh don't be so dramatic!" he exclaimed, giving me a slap around the head, which somehow hurt despite the fact I knew the one throwing the slap had no hand to slap with. "I'm not going to kill you. What would I gain from it? We're two sides of the same coin. I was born in the depths of your heart, Craig. I can't exactly go around biting off the hand that feeds me now." perhaps it was my sleep deprived brain being unable to follow his enigmatic words, or perhaps my brain was simply overheating from running two personalities at once, but I was unable to follow him very well.

"I will make things better for you, Craig. That's who I am, and that's why I exist." he began setting me back onto the pillow, "Just think of me as the "Other You" and we'll leave it at that... now get some sleep. You have a piss poor minimum wage slave job to drag your carcus to and I'm sure you don't want to miss it."

As sleep took me, I had to take a moment to wonder if his last sentance was kind or cruel.

I'm fairly sure I managed a full night of sleep, but my body certainly didn't feel like it had. I awoke in a haze, my head buzzing with the wistful need to sleep for another few days before it felt like doing anything. As always I attempted to supplement this sensation with copious amounts of coffee. As I pulled myself from my sheet, my other leaning against the drawers, I noticed that somehow he had prepared a fairly decent breakfast from the remnants of my understocked fridge.

"...thanks." I begrudgingly moaned, as I took the plate and the complimentary coffee and sat down to eat them.

"Well, I got to do something to keep myself busy while you're sleeping." he said enigmatically. I still had no idea how he was able to do these things, given that he was strictly a figment of my imagination.

"That said..." he mused, pacing around the room, his legs going straight through the bed in a disturbingly ghostly display, "I have been testing my boundaries. Seeing how far I can move around you and such."

"Oh, and how's that working out for you?" I asked with no small hint of disinterest in my voice.

"Seems I'm stuck to the same room you're in. Figure that, we'll be roomies for the rest of your life." he gave another sadistic little chuckle, making me wonder just how much enjoyment he was getting out of this entire situation.

"Or until I stop imagining you." I suggested, starting to pull my work clothes together and get ready for another fun filled day of serving behind the coffee counter.

"That's just like you, though, isn't it? You'd rather focus on getting rid of the solution than the problem."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I demanded, turning to look at him. He was now leaning against the exit door.

He shrugged with a carefree smile, "I'm here for a reason. You seem to be more focused on preserving the status quo, which you are clearly dissatisfied with, than making a positive change in your circumstances."

I pulled my coat on, slung my keys in my pocket and walked right through him out of the door, "I'm barely out of the orphanage, I think it's too early to start complaining about my status quo."

"I'd agree, but I'm evidence that you don't really think that way." he said, following up behind me.

"You know your timing could be a coincidence, right?"

"It could be, but I know your mind, past and present, and so I know it's not." he gave me a hard slap on the back, "Don't worry, Craig, I'll put you on the right path."

"Wether I like it or not?" I responded, giving him a cautious glare.

"That's the spirit!" he merrily exclaimed, walking on ahead. I knew right there and then that this was going to be a long and difficult day.

It was a rare morning shift at The World Cafe. I walked through the doors and was hit with that familiar aroma of freshly roasted grounds, looking over to see the booths lining the window and the counter which had the bar stools screwed into the ground infront of it. As the business district was still in full swing the place still had plenty of business. Pressed suits with humans inside of them filled the booth seats, some with laptops, some on cell phones and most just chatting away and letting their coffee steam untouched by their sides.

"Wow, this place is a real suit-fest during the daytime, huh?" my other commented, leaning over and reading a newspaper that someone was browsing. I decided to ignore him, given that speaking with myself would have been a sure fire way to look crazy infront of the customers and my fellow employees, who actually existed on the floor during the daytime.

"Anything interesting going on today, Tom?" I asked the current barista, sliding around the barrier. My other was too interested in the newspaper to keep up with what I was doing. I didn't even know if it was possible for him to absorb information from texts that I have not let my eyes scan over.

My coworker, a twenty something college student with a goatee and an attitude, named Tom, overtly rolled his eyes at me, "Nope." he practically spat, sliding around, "But you're running things while I have my smoke break."

"And a good morning to you, too, you freaking asswipe!" my other yelled as he passed through the door. Business remained calm and quiet as usual, so I'm fairly sure only I was privlidged to have heard the outburst. "How do you put up with a douchebag like that?" he asked, leaning over the counter.

I just focused on getting up to speed with my tasks, attempting to ignore the spirit leaning over the desk.

"You can't ignore me, Craig. But if you don't want to verbally respond, that's fine. I can read your reactions well enough anyway." he chuckled to himself, surveying the customers. I had no time to entertain him, however, as before Tom was even out of sight, three people poured in the door ready to pick up a quick pick-me-up before they clocked in at their offices.

"Who's the bigger wage slave, I wonder?" idley mused my other, as I did my best to remain business proffessional and polite (not to mention speedy), "You the coffee monger, or them the white collar slaves who pump up at the local Starbucks." he watched my frown form, "Sorry, family owned non-corporate tiny little coffee shoppe which is not and will never be Starbucks."

This psychological abuse continued long into the day, customers came and went throughout the work day and before too long the sun was setting once again. Somehow I kept a straight face and ignored all of his antics, which ranged from dancing on a table, to going on ten minute rants about every three minute song that came on the radio for an entire hour. My sanity was being stretched to it's breaking point.

By the time business was clearing up, as it always seemed to do after the local offices had closed my other was leaning over a disgarded newspaper and reading out the job listings to me. "You could actually be working towards something, you know." he said mid-yawn, stretching out against an empty stool, "I mean, the pursuit of possessions is all well and good, but you're not doing much more than surviving from paycheck to paycheck."

I was about to respond to him, simply repeating for the umpteenth time that I was barely getting started in the working world, but then the bell chimed.

"Welcome to World Cafe!" I pleasantly greeted, smiling in my most proffessional manner. It was the girl from the previous day, Tricia. Wearing a thick coat with her school uniform underneath it. The poor dear looked like she was out of breath.

"Hey there!" she exclaimed, setting her bag down and sitting on the stool directly next to the one my other was lurching on, "I'm glad you're working this evening, I wanted to pay you back for the drink last night."

"You didn't have to do that." I responded, with no small hint of blush about my features. "But it's good to see you again. Tricia, was it?".

"Yeah." she said, brushing her hair idley, drawing my attention back to her pointed ears, "So want to make it two hot chocolates today?"

"Oh. Sure!" I blurted, getting back to business and prepping the two drinks. "So how's the after-school job treating you?" I asked casually, attempting to not screw up my first chance of making a decent long lasting friendship in my new job.

"Hard work..." she sighed, "it's certainly knocking the wind out of me." she pulled her bag up and got out a few notebooks. "I hope you don't mind me doing some school work here?"

"Why would I mind? Coffee shops are built for people to be productive in." I said, laying her hot chocolate to the side. "Not eager to head home?"

"Urgh, no." she grumpily groaned, "I live with a really uptight woman and I really prefer not being there as often as I can spare it."

"Oh, I hear you." I casually responded, finishing up my own hot chocolate and setting it down, ignoring my other as he tried to pick it up and take it for himself. "Well, I wont bother you if you want to work."

"Well, talking is nice too, I don't know too many people in the city, outside of school. I'm a suburban girl, just moved in to the city when the new school year started at the end of August." it was while she was talking that I started to become aware of how cute she was, how bouncy and beautiful her brown hair was, how soft her gentle green eyes were, how kind and sweet her voice was.

"Earth to Craig!" my other suddenly yelled in my ear, "First, she's in high school. Second, you've barely met and thirdly you're an absoloute loser."

Instinctively I swatted at him, realizing my mistake instantly and blushing up, "Oh, I was scarring away a fly." I shrunk into myself in shame and embarrassment. I caught her give an eyerolling smile which either indicated pity or amusement at my akward behavior. Whichever it was, it didn't stop her from starting up her homework and allowing me to get back to my own.

For whatever reason, my other decided reading her homework was more important than bothering me, so it was almost relaxing to be setting the store mugs around back to be cleaned, and restocking the dress-up counter. Busy work to keep me busy. None of it urgent enough to be done there and then, but there wasn't an excuse not to do it.

"...what is that?" Tricia suddenly asked, raising her head up.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, startled out of my zoned out working spree.

"That song you're whistling along to?" she indicated the radio which sat on a shelf above the array of coffee machines.

It was then I became aware that in my comfort I'd started to whistle along to the song which was playing. "Oh, it's a Rush song. Free Will, I think this one is." I said, a hint of blush about my features, "They're on this station quite a lot, I actually bought their best of with my first paycheck. They're a really good band."

"So I can tell." Tricia mused, leaning up, "I'm really into music. Infact I was trying out to be a singer before I moved out here. They really like to mess about with their time signitures, don't they?" she commented as the vocals sunk out and lead to the crazy instrumental interlude towards the end of the song.

I sunk my eyes down, not knowing a thing about music theory and therefore unqualified to respond to her assertion. "Yeah, they're cool. If you turn up again I'll let you borrow my CD, alright?"

There was a beautiful moment of akward silence where the two of us individually weighed up how good this idea may or may not have been, perhaps I may have been a bit too quick to make such an offer.

She eventually nodded with a smile. "Sure. that'd be awesome." her tone was resolute and she looked to me expecting a conversation to flow. It did not. I never claimed to be the most socially savie person in the world.

"God, you think work is boring for you, Craig. You should try WATCHING you work." my other moaned, rocking back and forth on his stool. "Can you at least do something more than pretend that being in one another's presence counts as socializing?".

I glared at him and thought the words shut up as loud as I could and went back to work. He was of course, right. Small talk, not being my forte, I didn't raise too much of a conversation with the girl, who again was the only one in the cafe, and before too long she was done with her homework.

"Well. I'm heading back. Bring that CD around tomorrow, okay?" she said, pulling her stuff into her bag.

"You got it, Tricia. I'll be here. I'm always here."

"He really is." my other added bluntly.

"Alright then. Bye!" and she exitted, leaving only the echo of the door's bell chime as a reminder she was there in the first place.

"Wouldn't it be messed up if you were imagining her aswell?" my other quipped with a grin on his face.

"Shut the hell up." I groaned, getting back to work.

The rest of the evening flowed at a similar pace, small specks of business were as exciting as it got and no further conversations were garnered. My other seemed mostly fascinated with the newspaper and thankfully ignored me for the remainder of the shift.

Before I knew it, the two of us were walking side by side down the streets of Sega City. In the business district, the streets had a tendancy of being empty until work hours resumed. I felt it was safe to indulge in some outloud conversation with my imaginary friend.

"So, how much of the days when we were actually friends do you remember, anyway?" I asked, arms folded behind my back.

"All of it. More than you, obviously. I still remember my name." he chuckled, slapping my back. "And I remember just how quickly you turned your back on me because you were yelled at. You were more concerned about what the people who hated you thought to protect the one person who did."

I studied his face, under the dim street lights, he certainly seemed genuinely upset. "But... you weren't real." I weakly protested, trying to ignore the growing sensation of guilt which was spreading across me.

"And yet here we are." he stated, walking ahead, "You were young. I'm willing to forgive you for that. But you have a responsibility to me, Craig, and I wont let you ignore your obligations. Especially in light of your past failings."

I squinted my eyes, quickening my pace to catch up, "I'm obliged? What, because I brought you into the world?"

"More or less. It doesn't really matter how it happened, but I feel real enough, and you're a terrible soulmate. I intend to improve things and you are obliged to help me."

I pinched my brow. I couldn't help but think that he was holding my entire life as a hostage so that he could enjoy himself a bit more than he already seemed to be. "Can I at least digest all of this?" I pleaded.

"Sure, but if I have to endure another boring ass day of you giving overprivlidged people warm cups of three hour old coffee, I may have to start singing annoying songs in your ear twenty-four-seven until morale improves."

"You're a douchebag, you know that." I sighed in resignation.

"Hey, I'm you, Craig. Just your potential. I happen to remember at the orphanage we were a bit more than douchebaggy."

"Okay. Shut up time now. I can see some people."

And so we silently returned home, the empty little cubicle which seemed to be so much less special for sharing it with my soulmate for a single day. Something about his presence was starting to peel away the sparkle which coated my world and now everything just seemed as dull and empty as he was attempting to paint it up to be.

Double (possibly triple) feature for today. Plot has started to kick in. By next week we would have reached the lodge and I'll have all the characters to help propel the plot.

-

Before too long I was lying down on my bed, ready for another restful night of sleep before rinsing and repeating the same process. I looked up and saw him still standing there. "You don't sleep, do you?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Nope. Don't get tired, don't get hungry, fatigued or anything. I do get bored, though, and I'm stuck in the same room as you." he grumpily asserted, looking around the room.

I slid to the side of the bed and pulled out a discman and pressed play before setting it at the end of the bed, "Have some audio stimulation. It's the least I could do."

He huffed out, before leaning over by the headphones, "You're all heart, Craig."

I didn't have a snappy comeback, I simply closed my eyes and let sleep take me at it's leisure. The past few days were having their strain on me, and an entire double shift stood between me and a much needed day off.

Like a zombie slowly emerging from it's grave, I arose at the healthy hour of 9am. My shift starting at 10am, I was able to enjoy the luxuries of a shower and cup of coffee before work. My third and final uniform was all that was left to me, given my inability to visit a laundramat in the previous few days. My other spent the entire shower time begrudging his enforced presence in the room and swearing that he would escape the confines of his limited range. I would have been more talkative, but I was barely lucid. Still fighting off the distant and dreamy haze, I opened the door to exit for work.

"Forgetting something?" my other called, holding up the Best Of... CD I'd promised to give to Tricia. "Now, don't think I'm doing this to help you. I just think it's less boring if you actually cultivate one friendship with a flesh and blood human... or elf earred humanoid." he walked up and handed me the CD, I didn't verbally respond, but a twinge of gratitude burst through my sleepy fog before I finally set out and entered the morning rat race.

Admidst the stream of people jostling me and barging past me, for their jobs were more important than mine, I felt the presence of my other walking directly through the crowd, "I wonder if the entire city counts as "the same room", or does it have to be within eye distance..." he wondered outloud. I was too tired to comprehend anything. My body just guided itself on auto-pilot towards the cafe in the same manner that it has trained itself to do the past few weeks.

"Hey there, you're in early today." Katherine, the other daytime employee, greeted with a warm smile, "Today's a busy one. We got word that there's something big happening a few blocks down, so a lot of offices are evacuating and rather than go home like sane people, they're just gathering here and doing more work."

"Oh. Yeah..." I mumbled, blinking heavily, "I guess they must really like working, huh?" I never did master the art of coworker banter, and this was why none of my coworkers enjoyed speaking with me that often.

My major problem for the day was not that I was tired, for I could always push through and supplement sleep with coffee, my problem was that I was starting to get depressed. Either through the strain of maintaining two entirely different personas at the same time, or just through his words reaching me, I felt no joy in what I was doing. I felt like all the money I was earning was just a formality to keep me in the tiny apartment. It would take months before I could even afford a TV at that rate and it was only now starting to hit me as hard as it did.

Lost in my own thoughts, I just took care of customers. Trying my hardest to smile, but never quite managing it. My actions were sluggish, my head felt heavy, the entire day was an excercize in wading against an ocean of work which was dragging me under and drowning me. Even my other had no words, for the past few days he had been nothing but ambivilant, but watching my dead soul drag itself from machine to cups to counters, to smiling and cashing out, counting change and being pleasant against my will, he just pitied me. I felt it strongly and it did nothing to cheer me up. The lines got bigger as the incident seemed to spread across the business district. I heard rumbles and rumors around me, the radio was also covering the big story.

"I heard Proffessor Bling was trying to rob the biggest banks in the city on the same day!"

"What? That's madness! Why would he do something so crazy?"

"It's okay, Electrawoman is already on the scene and she's battling his robot army as we speak."

I was aware of the talk and I was keeping up with it, but somehow that all seemed like it was another world away. Even if the entire business district closed down due to the attack, the World Cafe was still open for business and there was little I could do to change that fact. Though it did intrigue me. Sega City was imfamous for being the premier super powered playground in the world. People born or blessed with abilities existed all over the globe, but only in Sega City did anybody actively open a business which encouraged said people to have super hero attire tailored for them and actively have them battle crime. Though the modern age had far fewer active heroes and villains, ten years ago it was difficult to go a few days without hearing about Watchdog's latest game of cat and mouse with the cat-burgalar Riviera.

In that light, the idea of a super hero battle happening a few blocks away was just another fact of life, and one I assumed would not disrupt my already dismall day. However, as with so many other things in this world, in this I was wrong.

With a thunderous crash, the window furtherest from the service counter exploded in an array of glass, a figure slamming through it with so much force that the tables and chairs in it's way toppled as it crashed against the wall. The figure pulled itself up, a woman with bright red hair and what seemed to be an odd mixture of a cheerleader's outfit and rollerskates, only the addition of flames eating away at the skirt and a chunk of "flesh" missing to reveal a metal underskeleton indicated that the woman was infact one of Proffessor Bling's robots. It rushed forward and leapt out through the ruined frame where a window boldly wore the World Cafe logo.

"Holy crap!" Katherine exclaimed, hurrying past the counter and over to the area where many patrons had been knocked onto the ground which was still littered with glass shards. I could only stare blankly, unsure how to react to such a sudden shift in my definition of normal. My other was just as lost for words as he looked between me and the carnage at the other side of the room.

"Hey there, ginger!" an irrate customer at the front of the line belted out, "Y'all want to grab that double shot espresso for me so I can high tail it out of here before those powered freaks blow up the entire city."

Shocked back into the present and back to my role, I simply gasped out an apology. My other starred open jawed at the hateful man for two seconds before hopping up and walking to my side, leaning over the counter. "You have got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed in disbelief, studying the man's sweaty features, noticing just how serious he was. "You're really ordering him to make you a freaking coffee in the middle of this nightmare?" and as if to agree with the inaudible rant, all of the patrons who were not incapacitated by the robot's entrance flooded out the exit, leaving only the sole customer remaining.

I did my best to rush through the process and in my haste got blasted with steam, the cup flying out of my hand and spilling all over my apron. I yelped in pain from the sudden heat, dropping the cardboard cup to the ground.

"You freaking MORON!" the man yelled, "How hard is it for you to pour a damn drink. It's not like you're doing a real job, you waste of oxygen."

My other recoiled in shock, I just stood there, starring in disbelief, the stress from everything was just too much for me to do anything more than lock up. "Who the hell do you think you are speaking to?!" my other suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, "You're the god damned imbicile who's ordering a coffee in the middle of a supervillain attack." and a lightning blast illuminated the area as if to accent his point, "You should take your fat ugly face out there so you can be killed in the crossfire and rid the entire world of your gluttonous, sickening vile filled form. You wont be missed you sorry sickening waste of a human being. I'd kill you myself if I had the form to do s-" he continued on for a split second longer, before being cut off from another voice.

"What is going on here?!"

The voice belonged to Oscar, the day manager. A thirty-something guy who meant serious business and actually took his role at the shop seriously. "I was just done calling for the police and ambulance, and THIS is what I come back to see?"

I stand around looking confused, my other does too. It's only then I notice the lack of color on the face of the customer, the shocked expression of Katherine who was starring at me from the other side of the cafe. I looked down at my hands and saw they were shaking, rapidly.

"I don't care what the situation is." Oscar continued, pushing past me and to the front of the counter, "You NEVER go off the handle like that at a customer. I'm very sorry, sir. I'll fix up your drink and it will be complimentary."

The man grinned from ear to ear and looked at me, I watched as the color returned to his chubby cheeks and his eyes flared with a fire of intensity which burned at me deep to my core. "But that there lad done verbally assaulted me. Even went so far as to threaten my life. You gotta say he's gonna get what's coming to him."

"Oh. Don't worry about that." Oscar said slowly, dangerously. I looked to my other who simply looked back at me, as lost about all of this as I was. The building shock lightly from a devestating impact of metal against concrete a block away. "Craig, you've been a good employee to me, but I only took you in because Lost Heart's recomended you. I'm very disappointed in both you and in them. Take off your apron. We wont be needing you any longer."

I was still too shocked to respond, so my other did on my behalf "You worthless piece of crap, we don't need your wageslave prison anyway!" he looked over to me, "Come on, Craig. Let's get the hell out of here."

"WOOOOO-eee!" the customer cheered, enthusiastically, "Boy's done lost his marbles!"

I could hear the sound of the approaching emergancy veichles drawing closer. Oscar just shock his head sadly.

"Oh my God..." my other exclaimed, looking at himself with extreme satisfaction. "You can see me. You can hear me, can't you?" he was looking right at the customer.

"I can see you've bust a gasket there, small fry. Y'all wanna do what your boss says and ditch the apron and clear out so I can do the same." he seemed to be bored with our antics, and it was then that I had the same revelation that my other had a moment ago.

He was controlling my body.

The outburst that he had, that was my body moving, my voice yelling, I was the one to scream those things at the irate man who's need for coffee outweighed his need for self-preservation, and my insanity was unpeeling for the world to see, with little chance of me recovering or being forgiven.

I watched him smirk with my lips and lean up close to the customer, ripping off the apron which I did not see on his body until he pulled it off. "Gladly, jerkface!" he slammed it to the ground and stormed out of the building, plucking my coat from the rack on the way. Panicked and confused, I hastily followed pouring out onto the street which looked like an absoloute warzone from the battle that was apparently still going on further down the street.

My other was chuckling at the top of my lungs, raising his hands in victory. "This is the greatest day of my existance!" he proclaimed. It was then I felt a strong pulse, like a heart beat that rocked my entire body, and I emphasise the word "body", because I could feel it once again, flesh and muscle within me, all tired, exhausted and ready to throw up on the pavement.

My other took a breath in and knew right away that we'd switched back. The World Cafe was a few buildings away from us now, I sunk against the stoop of whichever office complex I'd taken refuge against. The weight of the situation was starting to sink in on me. I'd been fired from my job, endured the terror of a supervillain battle pouring into my work and my imaginary friend had somehow taken control of my body for a few moments. Any concern I may have felt about my composure had vanished into the ether, tears were welling up in my eyes and all I wanted to do was cry.

My other watched me, switching his view every few seconds to the battle between Electrawoman and Proffessor Bling which was still enacting itself further down the street. I wasn't even sure if he was capable of feeling guilt or remorse for his actions against me, but he did sink to my side and pat my back, whispering words of encouragement.

"We'll get you a new job, it'll be okay. Come on, Craig, you look pathetic." I didn't want to listen, for me this was the absoloute pit of despair. I didn't move. The police eventually came and an officer sat by me, trying to cheer me up. By that time my eyes were empty of tears, all I could do was stare blankly at the ground, like a broken doll with no energy to animate itself any longer. My other paced up and down the pavement, increasingly concerned for me.

The police presence remained for a while, and my other walked among them trying to gather intel to forward to me. At that time, all I could think about was how I'd be unable to make rent for the end of the month. Let alone get that TV I so desperately wanted.

"Hey, Craig." my other finally piped up, "They say that Electrawoman chased Bling and his robots away, the area's clear and they're packing away. Let's just sit here for a bit longer and then I'll get you home, okay?" I didn't react. I didn't want to. The world around me became calm and peaceful again, but I was more than content to just let my body recover from the adreneline rush, the exhaustion, the sadness and the strain of being puppeteered by my imaginary friend.

"Heads up, Craig. Here come Tricia!" he warned me suddenly, and that did turn my head. She was running down the street towards the cafe. Somehow I felt the energy come to me to stand and meet her before she got there.

"Craig! Oh thank heavens you're okay. I heard about the attack and I knew you were working today. I just wanted to see you were okay." she said, totally out of breath. I wondered just how far she'd run to see me.

"Yeah... I'm fine." I said, summoning every inch of bravado in my soul to cover up for my emotional breakdown. "I brought that CD for you." I added, pulling it out of my coat and handing it to her.

"Silly, I don't care about this. I'm just glad you're okay!" she saw the damage done to the window and looked back to me, shaking her head. "It looks like a lot of people got hurt, though..."

"No one was seriously hurt, though, the ambulance got here fast. Everyone will be fine." I stated with enough certainty to remove any possible doubt.

"Oh, well that's good then." she smiled a little uneasily. "So I guess the store's closed for the night, huh?"

"Yeah," I responded, looking around the area which was still litered with shattered glass, broken cars and generic rubble. "I doubt we'll be back open for another day or so."

"Trying to avoid telling her the truth, Craig? How classy!" my other commented, I had no patience for him, though, he could talk all he wanted and would not recieve a reaction from me.

"Well then, it gives me time to listen to the CD before I see you again, anyway." Tricia commented, I was now able to see her features more clearly and the poor girl looked as exhausted as I felt.

No longer wishing to keep her any longer than I had to, I patted her shoulder, "Anyway. I'm fine. You should get home before you get dragged into the police questioning or something."

"Alright... I'll see you again in a few days?" she suggested with a smile, holding the CD case to her chest.

"A few days. Yeah." and with that I turned and finally started walking home, officially fed up with the stress and torment that they day had brought me.

"Good thing I was looking through those job listings for you." my other helpfully added. I wanted to punch him, but suspected I would hit nothing but air.

I'm not going to go into full-scale critique mode here, but I just wanted to make a comment re the Persona reference in the second post (chapter?). I'm not gonna bother quoting it since I'm fairly certain you'll know what I'm on about, seeing it would be nigh-impossible to have made accidentally. Essentially it feels a little...forced. It comes a bit out of nowhere, and if you weren't aware that it was a reference, it would be particularly strange for Stressed to suddenly be talking in archaic terms. That said, it's a fitting metaphor, so I think it could just do with a bit of editing to make it work better.

I think it would help if you had Craig (character) acknowledge that it was a reference, something like him stating 'I recognised the quote from a game I had played when I was younger' or something, assuming that doesn't break the constraints of the setting for him to have done so. Reason being is threefold:

• For those who don't get the reference, it's at least clear then that it is actually a reference, and not just Stressed occasionally lapsing into Ye Olde Worlde Speeche
• For those who do, it's a bit less shoehorned in; it feels more like it's there because the characters wanted it to be, rather than because the author wanted it.
• In either case, it also provides a bit of fridge brilliance to reinforce the metaphor; Stressed would have easily known that Craig would have recognised the quote and associated metaphor for what it was, simply because they are, literally, of the same mind.[/list:u:c6ee417fe6]

I dunno just a suggestion I guess. Nothing else outright major to point out right now.

 

Your words make sense. It was very shoehorned and toning it down or outright removing it would be a good idea. Also obsessing over Persona a lot less will help. Thanks Wes

Edit: Reference removed and turned into more Stressed like dialogue. PS: I want to get his ghostly butt to the lodge already so I can start actually CALLING him Stressed. The most talkative character in my novel doesn't even have a name yet. Rar!

Good news: I am beasting my word count. I've started introducing names and concepts into canon which wont be utilized for in-world years.

Bad news: This story is very difficult for me to follow and I'm writing it and happen to know who Alex is, what the genetic division of KingCorp is there for and such. But even knowing all this it seems being invited to live in the lodge came a bit too quickly, even if it was preplanned from the moment I started retconning Lodgeworld.

Also note: In the original Lodgeworld Craig was invited to the lodge from a job interview with Matthias "Tergonaut" Johnson, I decided to switch it to KingCorp to tie in to three future stories which all involve KingCorp and the lodge. Hopefully it makes more sense this way.

-

I walked home in a daze, the events of the day reeled along in my memory and remained floating at the front of my mind like leaves or snow in the wind which would never be allowed to settle upon the ground. My blood was hot and I yet my emotions were all spent. Either out of a pensieve desire to understand all that had transpired earlier in the day, or out of a kind regard to my feelings, it seems that my other was being silent and standing away from me. This somewhat cheered me up, given the circumstances.

As soon as the door was securely shut behind me I collapsed on the bed, my sore muscles glad that they didn't have to hold me up any longer. From behind me, my other sank down on the floor next to me. "Hey, Craig. We'll manage. Don't think of this as an ending, think of it as a new beginning."

"I was still in my new beginning." I grumbled into the matress, not wanting to deal with him.

"Well this will be newer and better. Get your rest, we'll go out and start sending out applications, finding you something else to keep this dump for yourself" he patted my back, I didn't feel particularly uplifted from the gesture.

"I can't believe I could take over your waking body, though." he mused behind me, "If I knew I was capable of that feat, I may have tried it years ago. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to switch-a-roo and I'll take care of the simple things like surviving.".

Still hugging on to the pillow, my voice devoid of any pleasant emotion, I simply grumbled back, "You're sounding more and more like an evil villain out to steal my life.".

"Hey, I'm still your friend, Craig. Don't be mean.", and with that I finally stopped listening and allowed myself the luxury of sleep.

Morning came and the two of us hit the city streets hard. We walked into every store we could find to ask for an application, we hung out at the library for hours and hours filling them out and sending out online applications.

"You know you're wasting a good opportunity. I swear I saw you fill out a fast food application a moment ago. Don't fall deeper into despair. Raise yourself up a little." my other said, sitting backwards on a chair, spinning a pen on his finger. I cautiously wondered if he was doing that with my hand and I was just picturing him doing that. It would have made sense, as I was using a pen to fill out the applications. "I saw this good one for a research division at a local company. Hope you don't mind, but I did throw out an e-mail.".

"You... wait. What?" I suddenly sat up, "You can't do that. Can you?"

He grinned guiltily at me, "Well... it's getting easier for me to do. Seems the more stressed out you are, the more your mind wants to seek refuge and just let me take care of things." with a sinister grin he slowly leaned in dangerously close towards me, "Your subconcious has already started to see logic. Hopefully you'll get there too. Now trust me. Things will be okay."

I pinched my brow and tried to remain calm. Ever since he showed up at the coffee bar my life had been spiralling uncontrollably into ruin and now he was starting to gain power over me due to all the stress. It was enough to make me give in to despair right there and then, but if there was nothing else worth fighting for, it was that I still had control at that moment and if I was still in control of my life I still had choices.

The rest of the day was spent returning applications to their respective hiring managers and hoping I would get a call back before my phone was disconnected. At every stop he would continiously protest and complain about each and every place I stopped in, except the book stores, he outright stated that if I worked at a book store then work would be the only place he'd leave me alone. It was vaguely tempting, but I did not have the luxury to be picky.

After a beautiful six hour period of collecting, filling and returning applications I was ready to call it a day, but I wasn't being let off the hook so easily. I was starting to suspect that searching for work was more work than work was. At least with work there was downtime and the threat of being fired was a far calmer motivator than the threat of being evicted.

"So what are you wearing to the interviews when you get them?" my other asked out of the blue, "Your black shirt and blue jeans, mixed with your messy hair?"

I shrugged. Fashion was never my realm and haircare tips were not something that I had picked up at the orphanage. "What're my alternatives. My bank account is sliding into despair and I can't really spend more money than I earn on the off-chance of being hired.".

He frowned, remaining silent for a good few steps. "Annoyingly, you do have a point. I'd prefer your pocket change to be used at the internet cafe so we can keep up to date with the applications. How much do you have, anyway?"

"Just under three hundred..." I meakly responded, "Rent's up at nine hundred so it's not as much as it sounds."

"Fantastic." he sighed, leading me on to the next round of applications.

It was past ten in the evening when he finally allowed me to return home. A good fourteen straight hours having been invested into job hunting. Right away I checked my phone, but unsurprisingly there was not anything off the bat. I slept. What more could I do. The epic hunt would have to resume the next day.

Our first stop was the internet cafe again. Given the sheer amount of walking about we'd done the previous day, I did not mind this. My other sat at my side the entire time, guiding me around all the different sites and where to throw down applications. I felt horrifically under-qualified for each and every one of them. No further education, less than two months work experience and somehow I was supposed to dress this up to be impressive. Whatever my feelings on the matter, my other didn't stop pushing me forward, I simultaneously appreciated and begrudged his over-confident insistance on my supposed potential.

Hours passed by, I began collecting cardboard cups of coffee from my insatiable thirst for caffeine. It was the third hour when I finally saw the Hotmail text indicate (1) new message.

I clicked. My other leaning in enthusiastically.

APrince@Kingcorp.com - Re: ECGRT

I raised an eyebrow over to my other who was grinning from ear to ear for some reason. Cautiously I clicked the unread message, unsure what to expect.

-

Good morning.

Thank you for your interest in KingCorp's Empowered Citizen Genetic Research Team. After reviewing your e-mail and forwarding it to the relevant parties, we have ascertained that it would be prudent to speak with you in person. Our daily office hours are 09:00-18:00 weekdays, however if alternate arrangements are required, do not hesitate to contact the company and use my extension: 1965.

We eagerly look forward to speaking with you.

Alex Prince

PA

-

At the bottom of the e-mail was all the usual company details, contact numbers and relevant details for me to follow up on this. I didn't care much for that, though, I knew right away that this was the e-mail that he had sent without my permission or knowledge. I instinctively checked the "Sent" folder, but found it suspiciously devoid of any correspondance directed towards "KingCorp".

"Well, you see. Progress. A research facility. That sounds like it's exciting work... maybe high paid, too!" my other exclaimed, standing up proudly.

I stood and tried to catch his arm, forgetting for a moment there was no arm to catch, "Hey. Want to explain what you're doing here? What did you tell that guy to make him so interested in speaking with us!?"

He spun around, still honing his largest grin and looking to the other patrons of the cafe who were looking at me yelling at thin air, "We can have that conversation later. Let's get going. KingCorp isn't too far from here."

Grumpily I followed him back to the streets and let him lead the way. How on Earth he knew about this job or where the building was when I had no idea, I could not tell, but it was starting to really bother me.

"That newspaper I was reading the other day. It was informative. They had a big article about the contraversy of KingCorp's recent expansion." he proudly proclaimed. I wasn't about to start talking outloud with him again, but he could tell I had no idea what a KingCorp was or what it did, "They're a robotics company for the most part, they work on building those surgery tools, reconisance veichles and all of those wonderful gadgets. Turns out they're starting to branch out into genetic research... some people aren't happy."

I rolled my eyes, this didn't seem to me like it was the correct course of action, but with no alternate options I couldn't do anything but follow on. It was a few blocks before I realized what we were walking towards. The Sega City business district was full of giant buildings which reached out into the clouds, but the most flashy of them all was undoubtably KingCorp. Perhaps not the tallest building in the city, but the purple floodlights which surrounded the building and attempted to build a crown shape above the building, it was eye catching.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I whispered under my breath, forcing myself to go through the revolving door and into the lobby. It was surprisingly empty, with a dark color theme, black tiles with white marbling, blue and purple panelling behind the reception desk and a row of elevators at the end of the lobby with two doors leading into the building to the east and west walls.

"Hi there..." I piped up to the receptionist. It was a girl with a blonde bowl cut, thick and dark sunglasses, her head was propped forty-five degrees, locked on the screen and her fingers were typing up a storm.

She stopped, looked at me for a few seconds before saying in the most bubbly tones I'd ever heard. "Good morning and welcome to KingCorp. My name is Synthia. How can I help you today?"

"Oh. My name is Craig Bayfield. I wanted to set up an appointment with Mr. Prince in the ECGRT. He sent me an e-ma-" I began.

"Craig Bayfield." she suddenly said, cutting me off, "Yes. Mr. Alex Prince requested to speak with you if you were to arrive. Please use the second elevator, and thank you for visiting KingCorp."

"Holy uncanny valley..." my other breathed out from the other side of the desk, "I don't think she's a human." he walked back through the desk and followed me over to the elevators, "Her legs aren't there, she's kind of just screwed into the foundations."

I had no real reaction for that, it was creepy for sure, but after watching a fully automated robot attacking a superheroine two days ago, having a receptionist robot at a robotic's company seemed on par for the course.

The elevator doors opened and we stepped in, they closed as soon as I was safely inside and the elevator began to rise. I could only imagine how difficult it must have been to get in or out of the building at the start or end of a business day.

The doors opened again after a quick twenty seconds, leading us into a far brighter room with another reception desk, some chairs, a token painting on the wall and a single door leading to the business portion of the floor. I walked up to the receptionist's desk right away.

"Hi, my name is Craig Bayfield. I was hoping to speak with Mr. Prince today, the lady downstairs said that he'd be expecting me."

The man behind the desk, who seemed far more human than his counterpart in the lobby, leafed through a few papers before nodding definitively at me. "You're in for a good wait, but if you take a seat, we'll call you in as soon as we can."

Somewhere between walking in and reaching this point, my adreneline had spiked. Sitting just felt so refreshing after my heart had gotten used to a tempo akin to a hummingbird's. It wasn't enough that this was my first job interview, and in our combined haste we'd walked straight from the cafe without stopping to even comb my hair, but I still had no idea what the original e-mail even said or why I was being interviewed with such suspicious priority.

"You worry too much." my other sneered, sliding onto the chair to my right. "I already told you that it doesn't serve me any benefit to have you in poverty. Just go with the flow. I got you this far, didn't I?"

Time moved at a snail's pace after that. My body was stiff and tense. I was starring holes through the door and my other only seemed to be agitating me further. The man behind the receptionist's counter was just typing away, ignoring me. I wondered what a person like him did during his day, was he setting up travel arrangements for employees, contacting other companies to arrange meetings or just taking the odd phonecall.

The door finally opened, and I was caught off-guard by the person coming out. They looked very proffessional, in an undoubtably expensive pin-striped suit with a red tie, but the thing that bothered me was that I couldn't tell their gender at all, just that they were Asian of descent and had gelled back black hair. The person strode across the room and offered a handshake to me.

"Woah, Craig. Always stand up before you shake someone's hand, now you've set a precident." my other warned, as I took the hand and shook it before standing, trying my hardest to ignore the commentary being provided.

"I'm glad you were able to come at such short notice," the person said with a voice which hinted they may have been male, but did not do much to convince me, "My name is Alex Prince, I'm the personal assistant of the man who runs this division. Follow me, we'll get you set up with a quick assessment, okay?"

Thankfully Alex did not see my reaction, because the word "assessment" stood out like a sore thumb and an accussing glare towards my other was the most instinctive thing I could think to do. He shrugged his shoulders and indicated I should follow along. The entire scenario was starting to stink, and I couldn't find a way to excuse myself from it.

We walked in through the doorway and made our way into a corridor. I'd always imagined office buildings to be open plan floors of desks and chairs, rather than filing cabinets of rooms. Though I had no idea what in the world an Empowered Citizen Genetic Research Team did or what kind of equiptment it required.

We soon ended up in what could only be described as a high end break-room with cabinets, coffee makers, a fridge and a few armchairs, which Alex indicated for me to sit in.

"So, Mr. Bayfield. First of all, I would like to thank you for contacting me. We've not had very much interest in the program, as I'm sure you would empathize with, but this facility was made for the betterment of mankind. The media's reception to our quest has been less than stellar, so I thank you for your faith in us." Alex began, not breaking the proffessional facade for a single instant.

All I knew to do was freeze up, I had no idea what was being said. My other leant in behind me and began exclaiming excitedly "Let me talk, let me talk, I want to talk!" I twitched, clenching my fist at his persistant attempts at bothering me.

"Interesting..." Alex mused, tilting his head, "I doubt many people have noticed it, but if you know what to look for it's pretty clear."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, startled at the sudden shift in conversation. "Looking for what?"

Alex shuffled in, watching me with piercing yellow eyes, which suddenly shifted green. I jumped back in surprise. A sense of vertigo suddenly gripped my heart, like I was suddenly riding back down to the ground floor without any warning. A blackness coned my vision, I could hear my voice speaking, but I didn't seem to be connected to the words.

I came back to my senses soon after, feeling my heart racing. A steaming mug of coffee clasped in my hand. Alex was standing above me, seemingly troubled.

"Welcome back to conciousness, Craig." I looked around suddenly. I did not see my other and that would have been the most troubling thing, but through the window I saw a red sky, hours had clearly passed without my knowledge. "Your other self and I had a brief conversation and we agree that yours is a very strange case indeed. However, we will not be able to use you in our program. He offered us some blood samples and as far as we can ascertain of this moment, you are an entirely normal human being."

I shook my head, it was heavy and yet light at the same time, like someone had stuffed it full of cotton, I could certainly feel it inside but it was not overly present enough to hurt in any way. "Wait... you were testing on me?" I blurted out, not even sure which way was up or down any longer.

Alex plucked off a pair of glasses that I'm sure I didn't see before waking up, also his face seemed to be more masculine than I recalled it before my sleep. "You seem confused. I imagine you're not quite up to speed with all that has been transpiring. If I may take the liberty to explain," he sat down, pulling up a round mug of tea which he pressed to his lips before continuing, "The e-mail I recieved told me about what was happening to the two of you and he wanted to see if there was anything special about you which could have caused it. The possibilities were certainly curious, and so I arranged this meeting. Unfortunately, we cannot quite see what is causing it, and without any markers, there's not much you can do for us in our quest and even less we can do to find a solution for the two of you."

I shook my head, rejecting all of this outright, "You're saying my imaginary friend send you an e-mail about his existance and you wanted to test to see why it was happening? Why didn't you just assume I was crazy."

"At first I did." Alex admitting, folding his legs, "But when I saw your eyes and hair change color, I knew that there was a little more to this than mental psychosis. It's something we've never seen before."

"I saw your eyes change color, though." I announced defensively, growing more and more uncomfortable with all of this by the second.

"Well, I am a powered individual," Alex said simply, and his face rounded out, his chest expanded slightly and as he continued speaking his vocals were far more feminine in tone, "I am a shape shifter, and my genetics certainly reflect this fact. However we could not see a single indicator that there was anything abnormal with you."

"Great, so this has all been a waste of time?" I asked, looking around again to see where the heck my annoying shadow was.

"Not neccessarily. He also explained your situation, and I actually have a solution for you which would benefit both of us. KingCorp happens to fund a small facility outside of the city designed to home powered citizens. It has a rather high turnover, but we allow them free room and board in exchange for us simply knowing where they are and having the ability to check in on them. This way we will get to follow up on your case and learn any lessons it may teach, and you get to not worry about your rent." he handed me an envelope. "Of course, you're not obliged to take the offer, but your other personality seemed quite enthusiastic about the proposal."

I took the envelope and looked between it and the newly female Alex, shaking my head in disbelief. "So... what? You're giving me free room and board in exchange for...?" I gestured with a rolling hand motion, wondering what the blank to be filled was.

"No exchange. You're just a person of interest, nothing more and nothing less. You can come and go as you please." Alex stood up suddenly, "With that said, I am afraid I have business to attend to. I'll lead you back to the elevator. Perhaps you and your alternate can have a conversation about it. No need to forward your concensus on to us. We will know if you take us up on it."

And so he did as he said while I was herded on towards the elevator, still too lost to really follow what was happening. Before I could raise another question or an objection, I was standing in the, thankfully empty, elevator.

"Well... that went well..." I heard a voice gasp in exasperation from the side. I turned my head to see my other hunched against the wall, gasping in and out, "Forcing control... takes a lot out of me."

"What on Earth was all that?!" I demanded, finally able to focus on one emotion, which was my anger towards him for setting me up.

"A failed experiment..." he sighed, trying to pull himself up, "I wanted to find a way to control what was happening to us, maybe seperate the two of us, Incredible Hulk style."

"If I had a cure for you, I'd be very tempted to take it." I said dangerously. He just smirked, unphased by me.

"Anyway, we scored a sweet free ride, no need for you to be so whiny." he said, as the elevator doors opened and allowed us to walk out into the lobby.

"I think you're going to have to explain what happened to me a good three or four times. I just can't keep up anymore."

Yay. Lodge, sisters and Kim Turner are introduced. Ethan King and Ken Ellis are mentioned. Maybe Stressed will be named in the next few days.

-

Given that my body had been hijacked for the entire day, it was early evening by the time we'd left KingCorp. As my pace quickened, taking me away from the towering building, I could feel the weight of the envelope in my hand filling me with curiosity. As soon as I was able to, I sat down on a bus stop bench and fumbled through into the contents. It was a folded up map and a letter, with a check attached.

I unfolded and stretched open the map, which detailed the train transit from KingCorp to a small town just on the outskirts of the city and then a path leading out to a lake, with a blue circle marked "The Lodge". Around the lodge was a purple barrier drawn onto the surrounding area, going around the lake, and deep into a foest. It was marked as "Lodge Limits", apparently the surrounding area was owned by the company as well as the property itself

I read over the letter. It simply detailed the history of the lodge, built thirty years ago by Lucian King, the founder of KingCorp. It's design was to entice more powered people to Sega City during the rise of the superhero fad that was so prevailant in the 70's. Since the decline of the superhero fad, the lodge was kept open to house those with abilities who would have problems fitting in with normal life.

"Huh, I guess you don't fit in with normal humans." my other chuckled, reading over my shoulder.

It went on to detail that residents were encouraged to let others know of the existance of the lodge and to be hospitable to any new guests. At the very tail end of the letter, the pre-printed mail merge portion ended and made way for a personalized message.

"In consideration to your current situation, we felt it prudent to contribute a small offering to give you the opportunity to visit the location and make your decisions.

- Ethan King

ECGRT Head of Operations"

The check was only for another $50, which was by no means something for me to shrug off. I would have checked out the lodge even if the rail fare wasn't covered, but this certainly allowed things to run stress-free.

"Want to give it a try tonight?" I asked my other, "If I can avoid visiting that apartment tonight I'd be a very happy kitten."

He shrugged, "Well, I have objections to you shrugging off the job hunt for this, but free room and board could help us better ourselves without squeezing into society's tight conformist roles."

I rose from the bench and started walking up to the nearest train station, "Ever the anti-conformist, aren't you?"

"Well, someone's got to balance out how sheep-like you are. I mean, you're dropping everything to investigate some powered person lodge just because someone said you should. Ignoring the fact neither of us are powered people." he blandly stated, recovering his energy and keeping stride besides me.

"Well, I may not be powered, but I'm certainly not fit for normal society like this. It only took me three days to be made practically homeless by you, I'm not going to sit around and wait what a week does to me." I took in a large breath, I was already feeling a sense of dread and worry creep across my soul. I'd never encountered a powered person until my brief talk with Alex, and his sudden change startled me enough, I wasn't sure how I'd react to an entire house of them.

Lost in my thoughts, and ignoring all of the wonderful jokes and jabs that were provided by my other's endless audio commentary on my life, we reached a train and sat calmly, watching the city sights fade into the distance. The ride was a good forty minutes long. First the office buildings shrank from skyscrappers, to large complexes, to small three story affairs until they reached redundancy, apartment complexes became town-homes and concrete yielded to grass. By the end of the journey, Sega City was just a spike in the distance. Visible only due to the bright lights offering a halo effect on the night sky.

We left the station through the parking lot and were dumped right into the town center. It was a very quaint little place and quiet. After catching my bearings, I followed the map out towards a dirt road which took me far away from all the buildings and more importantly the lights. The final stretch of the journey was cold and dark, the grass fields stretched out and before too long I could make out lights from what I could only assume was the lodge. A lake lay behind it and I could spot a forrest out on the distance, it matched up with the map quite well.

The lodge itself was a large two floored wooden cabin which stretched out lengthwise. From my vantage I could see a door on the short side with two glass windows flanking it. The top floor had a row of windows, presumably one for each room. I spotted no less than six from this side, and it seemed reasonable to assume there would be at least six on the other side. The place was quite impressive. Like a clubhouse for a ski resort or something.

"Well, this is it, Craig. You ready?" my other asked, actually sounding like he was concerned about me.

My gut was wrenched, I had no idea what to expect, but I'd come too far off of sheer impulse. Backing up now I had a moment to think about what I was doing would gain nothing. I approached the door and rang the doorbell.

From the inside, I heard shuffiling and scrambling before the door burst open in a swift motion which almost felt like it went from being shut to wide open with no process of actually being opened.

"Why hello there!" an elated voice exclaimed. My eyes drew upwards towards the source of the voice. I did not know what to expect, my imagination had provided a thousand different scenarios, but none of them included the person who answered the door. She was a behemoth of a woman, standing no less than six feet four, her hair was a dark shade of blue which matched her vibrant eyes. Right away I could tell she was no normal person and the shock of seeing her caused me to freeze right up. Somehow this caused the giant smile on her face to become bolder than I could have ever imagined a person's smile being. She spotted the paper in my hand and reached for it, plucking it from my unresisting hands.

My other was chuckling by my side, "Good to see all that psyching yourself up paid off, Craig. You should probably say something now."

Before I had the opportunity to, the person who answered the door entirely understood the meaning of the map and letter and took my shoulders, dragging me into the lodge. "Oh, you've come to stay!" she merrily exclaimed, leading me into the living room. The living room was a wide open area with a bunch of sofas crowded around a coffee table and a television which lay dormant at the end of the room. A staircase leading to the top floor was to my side, it lead up to a loft which overlooked the room and went on to the bedrooms. Under the stairs was a door presumably leading to a basement and at the back of the room there was an open section leading to a tiled room which was undoubtably the kitchen, and another couple doors possibly for a toilet and closet.

She stopped me infront of the seating area where a warmth suddenly hit me, I turned to notice logs slowly burning in a fireplace. Returning my gaze to the seating, I saw that closest to me, stretched out across a sofa, was a tan skinned girl mostly hidden under a blanket, she didn't seem as elated to see me as the blue haired girl. Her eyes shifted up to me and then back down to a book she was nursing. "Hey..." she breathed in an unenthused tone. Across the table was another woman, this time a green haired one, she was kneeling on the floor, filing out a worksheet of some kind. She looked up at me with a soft smile, she was wearing tinted glasses and what I could only describe as girly pyjamas.

"This is my sister, Tamara." the blue haired woman announced, indicating the girl who was hiding under the blanket. "She'll warm up in no time, don't worry about her." she then indicated the green haired girl with the glasses, "And that's Kim. She's really quiet, but also really nice." she then turned to me, before snapping back, "Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Cari. What's yours?"

"Oh... I'm Craig." I managed, feeling entirely overwhelmed by the sudden immersion into their home. "It's nice to meet you all."

My other was walking through the table and peering over at the tanned skin woman and then the green haired one. "Wow, are you just walking in to a clambake or what?" he quipped, enjoying my akwardness more than I felt was appropriate.

Cari sat me down in an armchair, "Would you like some tea, or coffee, or something to eat or something?" I spotted Tamara roll her eyes from behind her sister, apparently this overhospitable attitude was commonplace.

"I'm fine." I asserted, trying to gain some footing in this situation, "I just came to check this place out due to the letter and I guess maybe I might move in?" I didn't have the confidence to say this plainly, so phrasing it as a question was the best I could muster.

"Oh, you really should!" Cari said, still smiling all the while. "There used to be so many people here, but it's so lonely lately and we would really appreciate your presence."

"Woah, you barely met the guy, woman!" my other shouted across the table, "Maybe you guys should do character assessment before you invite people to live with you."

"I could give it a try. I don't think it would hurt." I managed with a soft smile. This seemed to satisfy Cari, who bounced back moving towards the kitchen.

"Then it's official. I'm really glad." she proclaimed, before disappearing into the kitchen. I just sat back and took in what had just happened. It seemed that everything that had happened to me for the past week was being forced upon me with no room for absorbing the facts of matters as they progressed.

I slid off of the chair and crawled around the table to see what Kim was working on. It looked like a whole bunch of complicated math problems. "Hey, what're you working on?" I asked as casually as I was able to.

She drew herself back from her work, fixed her glasses and then looked to me, "I'm just finishing up some coursework." she stated plainly, her voice implied she was a little bit more formal than I was used to talking with, "I'm in my last year for getting my teaching degree. It's a lot of work, but it'll pay off."

"Well then, good luck!" I said with as much kind enthusiasm as my fatigued body could manage.

Tamara, who had been watching this exchange and how akward my socializing was, shook her head and sighed out "For goodness sake...". My other looked to her with an approving nod and added, "What she said."

Cari returned shortly afterwards with a steaming mug in her hand, "I didn't know what you liked, but I thought everyone likes hot chocolate with marshmallows!" and she handed me the cup. I stood and recieved it gratefully.

"So... where would I be able to stay? Is there set rooms or anything?" I asked.

"Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed, grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the staircase. It took great feats of balance not to spill my hot chocolate from the jerking force of her pulling me. When we reached the top floor, it was a row of about seven doors on each side, leading to a final door at the end. Halfway down the hall there was a string on the ceiling, indicating an attic. "Well, this is my room here, and there's Tamara's." she walked a little ahead, "Kim stays in this one and this room is sometimes occupied by a really nice man who does some work up here. So any other room could be yours."

I shrugged my shoulders and tested the first unoccupied door I could find. It opened to reveal a simple layout, a bed against the far wall, a cupboard to the side of the door and a chest of drawers in the corner. Certainly enough room to personalize if I so wished. "I like it." I stated honestly.

"Alright then. From now on, this is going to be your room!" she announced merrily, apparently assuming my decision was permanent.

I set the mug of chocolate on the drawers and looked back to her. "Alright! Well then. I'll just take a few minutes to settle in and I'll be back downstairs in a little, okay?"

"Alright then. See you soon. I'll see if I can add an extra serving to dinner tonight." and with that she left back for downstairs, giving me the opportunity to lay back on the comfortable mattress.

My other leaned against the cupboard, looking admiringly around the room, before locking back on me, "Face it, Craig, you hit the jackpot." he said in his best Mary Jane impression, "We'll tie up the loose ends tomorrow."

"So we're staying, huh?" I asked, surprised to see him accepting any form of compramise without giving me a hell of an arguement to trudge through.

"Of course. We have free room and board, the residents don't seem to mind and they're all attractive females. Why would you want to leave?" he asked plainly.

"Fair enough." I sighed, closing my eyes and enjoying the comfort of my new bed.

When I closed my eyes, I'd not intended to drift off, but fatigue gripped me. I pulled myself up and looked out the window, my room outlooked the "backyard" of sorts, there was a small little garden set-up out there, but for the most part it was just a big wide open area. I could see a half-moon drifting lazily across the sky and used it to discern the time. At least 2am.

I was tempted to get back in to bed and worry about the world in the morning, but it'd been an entire day without me even thinking of the word "food" and my body was in protest. Cari had mentioned that there would be dinner, and I didn't feel like moving through the lodge during the middle of the night would have been incredibly intrusive, given I was more or less a resident now.

My other, who was suspiciously quiet, followed me out of the room and came down with me. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I noticed that the kitchen light was still on. I stalked through the living room and entered. Black and white tile floor lead around a modest sized kitchen with a table as it's centerpiece. Sitting at the table, still surrounded by books and worksheets, was Kim.

"Oh, you're still up?" I asked, moving in to the kitchen and looking around. A coffee maker sat on a counter and a brief test of it's weight indicated it had plenty to spare. I felt compelled to pour myself a mug simply because it was there.

"Sadly..." Kim sighed, shifting her hair back over her shoulder and leaning up. "I don't think I was prepared for college to be this much work." her hands drifted across the table and scooped up the glasses she'd been wearing earlier. She shifted the frames back on, obscuring her eyes once again. "I like staying up late to get work done. Gives me some time alone to be at ease without locking myself in my room."

"Coffee close at reach?" I asked, walking over to the fridge and opening it.

"Exactly." she said, pulling herself up for another cup. "So I take it you'll be staying around then--- Craig was it?"

Inside the fridge was a little bowl with a post-it note saying "Didn't want to wake you. Hope you enjoy - Cari" I picked up the bowl and unwrapped the cling film from it, seeing a rather nice beef stew waiting for me.

"Oh, undoubtably." I asserted happilly, sliding the bowl into the waiting microwave. "This place is a dream. I can't believe there's only the three of you, it's a virtual paradise out here."

Kim shrugged her shoulders and slid back into her chair, "I'm not quite sure, but I do prefer this quiet little lodge. There's plenty of space and solitude. It's very helpful."

I looked to my other, who was still quietly observing the conversation. "I entirely understand. I suppose you and the sisters have unique quirks which make this solitude a neccessity?"

Kim unconciously toyed with her glasses, "Yes, that would be accurate." she stated plainly, looking back at her worksheets.

As the microwave's timer beeped enthusiastically at me, I took a breath and made the leap of faith, "My reason is that I've got a kind of imaginary friend thing going on." Kim's head turned to me right away out of confusion if nothing else, my other stepped forward intensely curious to see where this was going, "He's standing right there. It started small enough, but the last few days he's been possessing my body and ruining my life. Coming here is my big attempt at preventing him from consuming every aspect of my life."

Before Kim had an opportunity to respond, my other burst out laughing, "What life?!" he shouted, clutching his sides. "Oh that's just rich!"

"He's laughing at me right now." I dryly added.

Kim gave a wry little smirk, "Well at least you'll always have someone there for you?" she offered, I considered her skeptical for the time being.

"Don't make light of it, though. It's been happening for less than a week and I already lost more than I probably had to begin with." I didn't even mean for that outburst to sound so emotionally charged. I suppose the situation was still stressing me out, salvation or not.

Kim looked troubled, her head was turned towards me, but it was tilted at a level which would have been looking at my chest if I could see her eyes behind the glasses. "I'm sorry, Craig. But that really doesn't sound too bad compared to what I deal with." she took in a long breath, before plowing on, "My "quirk" is a little less intricate." she said, rising to her feet. "But it's a lot more destructive, so I try my hardest to hide it." she tilted her head down and removed her glasses. "You see, I have a way of compelling people to do whatever I want them to do." she admitted with a guilty tone to her voice.

I backed off to the counter, taken off-guard by something which didn't sound destructive at all, "Well, if you can do that, why do you sound so ashamed of it? That sounds like a useful ability.".

Her eyes remained closed and her head still looking down, "I'm glad I got the opportunity to warn you without the sisters about. Cari often likes to make me demonstrate to seal the point, but I hate this ability so much, I hate it!" her fist was clenched at her side. I couldn't understand why someone would be so angry with what sounded like such a wonderful power. With me, I had an ambivilant spirit haunting me, she had the power to get anything she wanted.

"You hate it?" I asked, "Is that why you wear those glasses?"

"Yeah, they're the only way to stop people from being spellbound by my eyes. One look and they just become... docile and compliant." she shuddered, apparently some bad memories were attached to this, I could at least sympathize, "It's terrible, not being able to tell if someone is doing something for you out of genuine care or out of compulsion. I didn't even know that I could do this until I was in middle school. How many people do you think I accidentally hurt?"

I did my best to imagine it. Teachers who gave her good grades may have been inclined to because of her ability, and if the compulsions were permanent, her parents may not even be the same people who had given birth to her after her power had altered them. I shuddered at all the possibilities and started to understand just why she seemed so bent out of shape about this. "Oh..." I weakly resigned, but I was never one to ignore the Silver lining on any cloud, "But you could always use it for good, and that'd be worth far more than all the misfortune combined."

Her face softened up a bit, apparently the idea of using her ability rather than hiding it had never crossed her mind, "How could it be helpful to force people to do things?" she asked, completely missing my point.

"Well, you could always push them to do things that they want to do. Like quitting smoking or something. Plus, you know, if you got this ability you shouldn't waste it by hiding it. Seems a bit of a waste, don't you think." I may have been getting a bit beyond myself there, but the moment felt right.

She frowned and put her glasses back on, "I get your point, but you barely know me. I don't think you get to say what I should or should not be doing." and she sat back down . Somehow I felt I'd lost that particular conversation.

"Craig, you are such a wimp!" my other suddenly asserted, I moved to snap my head towards him, but found my body was frozen in place. "You were actually starting to show some promise there, but once again you go all deer in a headlight when something doesn't go according to plan." he walked into my field of vision and grasped my wrist, it was strange, I could feel it locked around me. He pulled it and my arm moved with his motions. Somehow my imaginary friend was actually interacting with my physical self and I did not like it at all.

"Cut that out!" I yelled a bit too loud, but he did not stop. Kim turned, surprised at my sudden display, my right arm was being yanked forward and I was starting to double over, "It's him, he's messing with me."

"I'm just offering a practical demonstration for you both." he said, still yanking me forwards.

Kim sighed out and flipped her glasses off, rising and walking over to me. She cupped my chin and lead my eyes to hers. Right away my other let go and my body felt like it had started to shut off, all the tension drained away in a moment, I sighed out a large breath which felt like my heart itself was rising out of my mouth. Her eyes were a soft pink which seemed to sparkle in whatever light the kitchen offered it. To capsulize it in a single word, they were mesmerizing, and my entire spirit was honed in entirely on them. My mind, which had been racing moments before, just cooled down into a gentle calm.

"There." she sighed, "Follow me" and she lead me over to sit on a chair, it was like an outer body experience for me, I didn't really interact with the moment, instead I just watched it from inside my own perspective. I imagine this is how my other spent all those years he was trapped inside my soul. "Are you going to calm down now?" she asked in an almost condescending manner.

"Yeah..." I breathed out.

Her face twisted into a grumpy grimace. It was quite obvious that she had no taste for doing this, but had less inclination to witness me be puppeteered by my imaginary friend. "Craig. What was happening to you?" she asked kindly, making sure our eyes were locked upon one another's the entire time.

"He was trying to move me." I said blankly, the words pouring out of my mouth without the need to check in for an in-brain edit.

Her head tilted to the side, perhaps she didn't believe me when I first told her about his existance. "Who was trying to move you?" she asked.

"Imaginary friend." I sighed, and I added something too, his true name. Even if I couldn't remember it myself, Kim's ability was able to draw it out of me. I would have been impressed if I wasn't so out of it at the time.

In the world outside of her eyes, Kim's face was scrunching into a deep thought frown. For me, only her eyes existed, but to her there was a moment of concern, wondering if it would cause more damage to proceed or to take a hesitant pause. "Do you want him there? If he's hurting you and making you suffer... do you want him to disappear?"

My heart pulsed. Just the same way it did outside the cafe when I was fired. My ears were starting to ring, my blood was getting warm and my muscles were tensing, even despite Kim's ability bringing them to an empty tranquility. I mouthed one word, a single syallable, before a blast of energy burst out of me. I sprang back to my feet, knocking the chair down. An unspeakable rage had come across me.

"Your eyes!" she gasped, backing off in fear.

Even though I was no longer starring at Kim's eyes, I felt like a passive observer. My mouth moved and a deeper voice than my own barked at Kim "You're not getting rid of me!" before my legs bounded upstairs for the room. My body was locking up with how tense it was, and once inside my room the door locked securely behind me, I paced into the room. I starred at my fist, it was clutched tightly, my knuckles bleached white by the pressure.

"Craig!" my own voice growled out, "Don't mess with me. I'm not being sealed away again. I'm not!" I was unable to reply in any way, I was stuck behind my own eyes, not able to escape. I could hear my breath rapidly going in and out, almost hyperventilating. It was slowly becoming easier to think, to feel, until after a few moments I was normal again, able to move about of my own volition.

He'd possessed me before, but that was the first time I'd been a passive observer to his actions. I did not like it at all.

In his outburst he'd forgotten about my coffee and food. Taking a large calming breath I unlocked the door and was about to exit when I heard movement in the hallway. Cari and Tamara, undoubtably going to check up on all of the noise. Plucking up my courage, I followed and slowly went downstairs, following the voices.

"What happened down here, is everything okay?" Cari's bubbly voice asked.

"I was trying to sleep." grumbled an irate Tamara.

"It's okay." a startled Kim responded, "Well, no it's not. That new guy... I think there's something really wrong with him."

I sighed and collected my courage. As before, my other hadn't materialized besides me again. It must take him a minute or so to recover from full-on possession. "I'm sorry." I said as I walked back into the kitchen.

Three pairs of eyes turned to look at me, I hung my head in remorse "I don't know what's happening to me." I sadly admitted.

Kim, who still looked absoloutely frazzled by the entire situation looked between us all, "There really was another "you". When you freaked out your eyes turned red, then your hair became dark, and he even began speaking differently from you. I think this stressed persona may likely be an entirely different entity living in you."

I took a breath in and nodded, the version of me that I imagined. Somehow my body was able to take his shape to other people. That sounded like an impressive feat for someone who didn't have special abilities.

"Are you okay, dear?" Cari asked, giving me a gentle hug.

I akwardly lingered in the hug for a moment, "I'm okay. I just... I want this to stop. I can't live like this."

Kim cleared her throat, "I'll see what I can do to help. Maybe use my ability for good, like you suggested, if I do it right, I should be able to make you stop seeing him and hearing him. It may very well cure you."

As tempting as the offer sounded, I didn't want to barrel on with it right away, if nothing else the repreccusions sounded awful and a selfish part of me enjoyed having a guardian spirit following me all the while. That was the first time I'd ever thought of him as a positive thing. "Hold off on it for now, but if it turns out to be a real problem, we'll all take care of it."

Tamara just looked at me with annoyance, I couldn't blame her, I'd hate to be woken up at 2.30am by a relative stranger. "Look, I'm glad we can all agree that this Stressed persona is a bad thing, but it's really late."

Cari nodded at her sister, "Well, you should get some sleep." Cari said, releasing me. Her eyes then shifted to Kim "All of us".

I walked through the kitchen and grabbed both my cup and bowl. "Alright then. Good night guys, and sorry again."

"Just keep it down next time." Tamara grumbled, stalking away, back to her room, seemingly having worn out all of her patience with me and my antics.

I left shortly afterwards, desperately wishing to sleep off that unfortunate experience. As I left, I heard Cari congratulating Kim on opening up. I guess if my problems were solving someone else's they weren't all bad.

When I reached my room, he was waiting for me on the bed. "Craig, I'm not very happy with you right now." he said slowly.

I looked at him carefully. Red eyes, dark hair, deeper voice. It was just like Kim had described. They all referred to him as my stressed persona. "Stressed." I said, looking at him quite seriously, "You keep telling me not to be a pussy. This is me asserting myself. If you keep pushing me, I will stop at nothing to be rid of you."

Did someone order a filler post? As much as I am liking the pace so far, I feel that to reach the concert, split and confrontation scenes at my projections I need to slow down a bit. Thusly today is mostly Craig and Stressed. Then I'll do some Craig-Tricia, Craig-Cari and finally plot. Character development is important too, right?

-

And so I resolved to refer to him as Stressed. He had his opportunity to give me his name, but his stubborn attitude and extreme behavior had drawn a line in the sand. Until that night he was a mere well-meaning nuisance, but now to my eyes he was something darker, something less pleasant. As I pulled myself under the covers, he silently watched me with judgemental eyes. Neither one of us said a word, neither of us needed to. The message was clear, we were both livid with the other and had nothing nice to say.

I slept, he did not. As my body tossed and turned, lost in a dream, he paced and watched me. I could not imagine what was going through his head, even if his head was infact my own. But when I awoke, he was sitting on the chest of drawers, still watching me with hawklike eyes.

"Good morning sleepy head." he said, with not an ounce of cheer in his tone, "Ready to get moving? We have a lot of work to do today."

Through the veil of morning haze, I starred at him in what could only be described as fear. The moment I noticed the emotion, his eyes narrowed and he leapt to the floor. "Don't!" he yelled, pacing towards the bed, "I'm still your friend, Craig, and if you want this friendship to last, you're not going to go about fearing me."

I didn't know what was more worrying, that my imaginary friend was attempting to intimidate me into compliance, or that he could sense my emotions and thoughts. My skin crawled in sheer paranoia at the idea of having to fake being friendly and kind to him. I didn't want to put up with that for one second.

"Look. Last night was regretable, I'll admit that," I said slowly, watching him carefully, "but you can't do anything to me like this. All that you've done these past few days is antagonize me endlessly, helped get me fired and been a source of annoyance. I have no obligation to you, even if I did bring you into this world, you used that one up already." his red eyes were boring holes into me, he looked about ready to punch me and I wasn't even fully convinced that he wouldn't be able to land a blow, "But!" I suddenly said, causing him to hesitate his rage, "You're the reason that I'm here and I wont forget that. I do believe that you want to help me at least in some manner, so I'm not going to take Kim up on her offer, yet. You have to earn your keep."

He made a spitting motion and drew in a deep breath, before giving a reluctant nod. "I'm glad you can see that what I do is only for both of our benefit. But let me press an ultimatum to you, it only seems fair given the circumstances." he leaned in dangerously close, "If you even think about asking for help to be rid of me, I will do everything I can to be rid of you. I will steal your body. Your life. Even your name."

I slowly drew in my breath and nodded, a begrudging truce built over shaky ice was marginally better than an outright rejection of one another. As much as I didn't like admitting it, keeping Stressed in my good books was key to a simple and happy life.

"So. Now that we've cleared the air a bit." I said, trying my hardest to divert the topic back to the casual side of the pool, "What's our big task for the day?"

He shook his head and made for the door, I instinctively followed, "So easily do you forget, good sir, we have to empty out your old shoe locker in the city and then meet up with that girl you undoubtably forgot about."

"Tricia?" I asked, moving down the hallway towards the stairs, "I didn't forget about her at all. I suppose we'll stop at the apartment and then hang out at The World Cafe, then."

"Sounds like a plan." he responded, so calm that it made me wonder if our little threat trade had actually happened. "By the way, they're starring at you." he indicated the living room.

Cari and Tamara were looking over at me, Tamara looked sullen today, which was a radical change from the annoyed and grumpy version I'd been growing acustomed to, Cari on the otherhand looked concerned. They'd both obviously witnessed me talking to myself. Out of sheer embarrassment, I bowed and apologized, making for the door.

"Very classy display!" Stressed jeered, patting my shoulder, "I give them two more days before they start looking for lunatic bins to put you in. And don't go blaming me for that, either. You can think your responces just as well as say them."

"I'm just not comfortable with that." I said plainly, "How do you even convey emotion in a thought? It's just more convinient for me to speak and communicate in a way I'm familiar with."

"So you're more comfortable with being seen as crazy than having the possibility of your imaginary friend misunderstand you? I've got to say, Craig, you kind of are crazy if that's your rationale."

I sighed and continued on. The shaky friendship was restored, but so too was the constant berrating. "Should have added that into the list of demands." I grumbled, intensely wishing I'd used the leverage I had to bargain some peace and quiet.

The ride back to Sega City was fairly quick and simple, he was thankfully quiet the entire time and a discarded newspaper was enough to keep me occupied for the duration of the journey. An article in the powered event section mentioned that the damage done from the battle three days ago had been fixed in an emergancy effort. I was thankful to read that as it meant that the World Cafe would be open for business when I reached it.

My first stop, however, was home, or at least my old home. I first contacted my landlord and allowed him to know the situation, square out the closing deals and such. All boring and time consuming work, but neccessary. The bills were all inclusive, thankfully, so he was the only person I needed to contact about it. When I reached the room, all I really required was my clothes. The mini-fridge and kettle were both too big the keep with me the entire day and made redundant by the coffee maker and giant fridge at the lodge. The bed belonged to the apartment and the meager toiletries were replaceable.

Setting my clothes into a bagged bundle, we returned and for the final time my feet automatically pilotted me from the apartment towards the coffee shop. It was a melancholnic feeling to live through an everyday part of my old life, after finally closing the contract on it. That life was gone now and what really made me wistfully sigh was that I didn't really seem to miss it. In a single day, all the things I'd built with my life had amounted to a vague memory which I didn't overly care for.

When I reached the cafe, I took stock of the street. It was the middle of the day, so there was still a high traffic of people, but even still I could see all the evidence that a battle had taken place here a few days previously. Cracked pavement and construction work still in progress were my hints, but for the most part the world had recovered from the epic assault of Proffessor Bling and his army of robots. The window which had been destroyed had been swiftly replaced with a new slate proudly bearing a World Cafe logo.

"Ready for the walk of shame?" Stressed asked me, leaning against the door. I nodded the affirmative and entered.

I'd expected to walk in and be starred down by my former colleuges, but instead I saw the tail end of a three minute line. It was the middle of the day, afterall, I was a fool to think anything else would happen. I sighed and waited my turn. Stressed pranced about the floor, apparently enjoying both our return to the store and his freedom to roam compared to my imprisonment in the line.

Eventually I reached the front and ordered a coffee. The person serving me was Katherine, the one who witnessed Stressed's rant at the customer, the day I was fired.

"Hey there, Craig." she said akwardly, her entire body language screaming how uncomfortable she was.

"Hey there. Just want a coffee, I'm meeting a friend." I said calmly. She remained silent as she prepared it for me, I paid and dressed it up with cream and sugar as I always do. That was that. I took a booth seat next to the new glass window and waited.

"So, you're all comfy there, Craig?" Stressed asked, sitting opposite me, "Now you just have to endure your old work colleuges starring you down for the next few hours and hope that your girlfriend shows up. If she doesn't this will be really akward for you."

I took in a calming breath and simply thought the words "shut up".

"Oh, we're doing this now?" he asked, excitedly, "I was hoping you'd start talking to me and prove them right about being crazy, but if your savvy enough to think your replies, I'll play along."

Thinking my responces was difficult, mostly because of my active inner monologue and the fact that my natural thoughts and my responces would bleed in fairly well, no matter how much I attempted to prevent it.

"That's why I'm enjoying this so much." he chuckled dipping a finger into my coffee cup. "So how long do we have to nurse this thing for? Surely she's still in school right now."

I glared at him over the table, he was of course right about that, but he was also the one who woke me up with the hurried demand to get our business in the city concluded. Had I have insisted upon patience, the two of us would have been able to at the very least enjoy breakfast at home before coming out.

"That's true." he conceeded, leaning back, "However you would have had to sit with the girls and face their judgement for last night's freak out. Far easier to spend some quality time with me, right?"

I looked at him carefully, I wasn't sure if he was trying to spare my feelings or just keep me away from a group of people who had been discussing plans on how to excorcize him.

"Oh, no, I'm doing this for you. That Kim girl would have been at college, and I doubt her ability can do much to me anyway. I'm more than just something you voulantarily dream up, after all."

I sagged back in my booth seat, there was little reason to start an arguement about this, especially in public, plus the further my mind drifted onto the subject, the more ammo I allowed him to fire back at me. As I didn't want that, we simply got to waiting for Tricia. Stressed walked through the crowds and did as he did while I was working. Read over people's shoulders, laughed at people he judged as hilarious. Nothing too distracting, it gave me ample time to enjoy my coffee and wait calmly.

Hours drifted off the clock. I refilled my drinks and attempted to avoid the looks I was recieving from my former work colleuges, being a customer I had every right to be in the store, but it wasn't very hospitible to be treated like a skin cancer invading the calm quiet atmosphere of the little shop. I resolved that after this meeting I would avoid the place for as long as I could.

Many much talkings ensue:

-

Hours passed and the office business had all but cleared out. With the lack of a crowd to hide behind, I was starting to grow very uncomfortable in my skin. Seeing Katherine check on me every few minutes, I could imagine her summoning the manager any moment to eject me for loitering in my old workplace like a depraved stalker.

"Perhaps we should have waited outside?" Stressed suggested, noting my discomfort, startling me. Using this moment he slid in next to me putting an arm around my shoulder, "She'll be here soon. She showed up out of the blue without you arranging it and she has your CD, so she has a reason to come back. And worst case scenario, if she steals your CD then you know that she's not worth your time.".

I eyed him with cautious surprise, I'd never expected him to even attempt being anywhere close to uplifting or kind for any reason, but his gesture did make me feel better. Marginally.

"Heads up, Craig!" he said, indicating the window, where the woman with pointed ears was walking ready to enter the cafe. I pulled myself to my feet just as the bell sounded and called her name across the empty salesfloor. If nothing else it would prove to the employees that I was here for a reason.

She waved back and approached, a gentle smile about her lips "Oh, you're off shift already?" she asked, as the two of us moved into our seats opposite one another.

"Yeah... well. No. Kind of." I stammered, blushing up a bit "Wait one second, I'll get us drinks okay."

While I was away, she busied herself by laying her homework out across the table, setting my CD aside. Stressed hung about with her and examined her features, it seemed that she was far more fatigued than any of our previous encounters, though I'd not even taken notice.

"Yo, Craig!" Stressed yelled over, as I purchased the two hot drinks, "Be careful, I think she's really bummed out about something. Her smile plummetted the moment you were out of range."

I looked back in concern, from my angle she just looked like she was getting ready to do some schoolwork. I was still too new a friend to mix in with her personal business, but it was troubling to see someone I was growing to care for have to put on a brave face just to talk with me.

"Here we go." I announced a few moments later, setting two to-go cups on our respective sides of the booth, before sitting with her. I made sure to take extra careful note of her this time, another gentle smile rest upon her lips, but her ears sagged down a little, a possible tell in her poker face. "So how are you doing?" I asked as kindly as I could.

"I'm doing fine." She said perking her ears up in a show of bravado which confirmed my suspicions "School and my job are keeping me busy and it was nice doing homework with some music this weekend." she indicated the CD which she slid over to me, "So thank you."

My eyes scanned the work and I couldn't help but think of Kim sitting up at 2am still working hard, my heart wept for both off them, having to suffer death by a mountain of paperwork. Stressed was looking over her shoulder and scanning the problems, his expression showing that he was trying his hardest to think about it all.

"Well let's not talk about school or work, then." I said with a smile, attempting to keep our talk light and easy for her, "There's plenty of happy things in the world to focus on."

Stressed looked up, "Smooth, Craig. Avoid the topic of your job, maybe she'll still think you work here."

Staring a solid "shut up!" at Stressed, I smiled back at Tricia, "Anyway, I'm glad you liked the CD. They really are a great band, aren't they?"

Tricia's eyes lit up, maybe she was starting to see the good that ignoring work and enjoying herself for a few moments could bring, "Yeah, most of the songs are really good. I might have to check out the rest of their stuff soon."

"It's a shame, though. They're going to be in town at the end of the month. I wanted to save up for it, but it was too much for me." I sighed, sagging a bit.

Stressed walked through the table and leaned in, whispering into my ear, "Hey, Craig. Not that I care or anything, but you don't have bills or rent to pay anymore. Didn't you have like $300 in your account?"

I straightened up and looked between Stressed and Tricia, I'd not even considered that all of my money woes had up and vanished in a single night. A smile crept to my lips, "Actually, Tricia. Something really interesting happened to me a couple days ago."

She folded her arms on the table and looked at me, with no specific intent. Perhaps she just wanted to hear what I had to say, a sensation I had no experience with until that moment.

"Well, I was applying for a job at KingCorp, you know that big robotics company a few blocks from here?" her head tilted down and a frown formed on her face, I couldn't tell what it was about but she didn't seem pleased with my previous sentance, "I didn't get the job, but the guy I spoke to told me about this amazing lodge with free room and board."

She was listening intently, patient and calm enough to let me get all the way through my story. It was almost eerie to have this happen after so many years of assuming my opinions on any matter were insignificant.

"So, I guess I moved out of the city and I'm there now and it's uh... really cool and there are... awesome people there and... yeah, it's just amazing." Stressed rolled his eyes at watching me stumble all over my tongue, "They say it was built for powered people to live comfortably in. But they don't mind me being there at all."

She blinked and shook her head, processing my words after they had finished pouring out, "Wait, wait." she said, holding up a hand, "This is a free place for powered people?" she leaned forward, this must be what they call undivided attention.

"Yeah. Doesn't seem to be any catch to it, either." I said as calmly as I could manage, "There's only three people there right now and it's got room for like fourteen or so." she nodded slowly, I could see wheels turning. She seemed so interested, I couldn't help but make the offer, "If you wanted to go there too, I doubt anyone would mind too much."

She shook her head hurriedly "Oh, no, no. I'm still in high school. I couldn't even if I wanted to. But it's good to know" she mused rolling her hand. "You'll have to tell me more about it.".

Being the gentleman and not wanting to simply talk at her for our entire reunion, I decided that I'd save the extra enthusiasm for our next meeting. I pulled out a pen from my coat pocket and wrote down the phone number for the lodge, which had been provided for me. Adding an extra smirk, I drew a happy face inside the globe design of the World Cafe logo, and then added two triangles on the top and some lines to turn the circle into a cartoon image of a cat.

"Here!" I said, turning the cup around, "When I'm done with this, you can take it. It's the phone number for the lodge. So you can contact them when you're out of school or just use that number to talk to me."

She laughed at the design, "You're a total dork, you know that?" she said. I wasn't sure if that was an insult or not, so I nervously smiled "You kind of remind me of this guy I was friends with, back before I moved into the city."

"Oh?" I asked curiously, "Hope it was a good guy?"

"He was, really dorky, but sweet." as she continued to tell me about his endeering features, I noticed Stressed shoving his fingers down his throat and hacking, "So, don't worry, it's a compliment."

"Well I can't say I've met anybody quite like you before." I gushed without taking into stock the weight of the words I was carelessly spouting.

Fortunately she smiled, sipping from her chocolate. "You really are a dork."

I looked back to the CD which was still sitting on the table, then back to the high schooler with the pointed ears, "You know. Because of the whole housing thing, I have a bit of free cash and I really did want to see that show. Would you like to go with me?"

There was a clear conflict in her expression, perhaps I was being way too forward for someone she barely knew.

"It's only because music should be shared and I don't know anyone else who would want to go. Please?" I gave my cutest puppy dog eyes.

"Do you realize how desperate you look, Craig?" Stressed asked, "Honestly, do you feel even a little bit skeevy for hitting on a high school student?"

She was only a little more than a year younger than I was, I thought, and I was hardly hitting on her in the slightest, I just wanted to share the concert experience with someone else. Really.

"Keep telling yourself that, Craig." he said, shaking his head.

"I guess, it'll be okay." she finally reasoned, "It would be really fun, but I'm not going to let you get away with just giving the tickets to me. I don't accept charity."

I watched her as she sat up, broadening her shoulders and looking like she would kick my arse if I dared to go against her assertion. I was naturally a wimp anyway, so I had no designs of doing so. "Alright. Deal. I'll go get the tickets and I'll give you yours next time we see one another here."

She gave a quick little nod, "I'll try to come here to do my homework as often as I can." she asserted, "If you're on shift we can meet up, right?"

"Yeah, about that..." I said slowly, eyeing Stressed who was leaning in to savor this moment, "I'm not with the cafe anymore. The commute is just a bit too much for the low wages." I caught her ears sag a little bit as Stressed nodded in approval of my lie.

"Oh." she said, not really having much else to add to that thought.

"Not to worry, though. I can still come here to meet up with you, right?" I asked as innocently as I could manage.

She smiled back at me, "It'd be nice if you did."

And there it was. I had made a friend. Tricia Greiner, a high school student in Sega City.

We spoke for some time after that and it seemed like the well of topics would never run dry. The question of why she moved from her family to the city was left in the air and my history at the orphanage was not touched, but I was confident these things could come later. For now I was happy to be talking about casual topics which had no relevance to our lives. It was just nice to kick back and socialize. Perhaps it was how normal people felt.

But night came, as it always did, and the two of us were forced to part with the promise another meeting would not be too far behind.

"I honestly think watching you two talk is more excruciating than having you work a full day shift." Stressed whined as we made our way back on to the street. In all fairness, it was probably due to the fact that I was succeeding in some aspect of my life and he only seemed to enjoy my failings.

"Harsh." Stressed commented, holding his arm as if my mere thoughts had wounded him, "But I'm happy for you. At least you had the bravery to put yourself out on the line and didn't get slapped down for it. Though that may be in part because she's a niave high school girl who seems not to be enjoying her homelife."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"You're promising her an escape. If you walked to any teenager who was upset with their life and told them about a special little house in the forest with no money woes and strange people like themselves, you'd have to hold them back from signing up for it. Hell, you went straight to the place the moment you knew it existed." he was walking backwards infront of me, eyeing me with a look of severity which was pretty terrifying, "Did you watch the way she lit up when you spoke about it?"

"So what should I do?" I asked, perhaps too loudly for our public setting, "I just told her the current events of my life."

"No, you specifically offered her the opportunity to join you in your safe haven. You used it as a bargaining chip for friendship, and to be honest, that was a dispicable thing for you to do. I'm not saying it will tarnish your friendship, it may even compliment it in time, but it was a crappy thing to do." his tone was so rough, I felt like I was being scolded for intentionally hurting someone, something I was sure I'd not done.

"Kind of like finding a kid with no friends and dedicating yourself to never leaving his side and making everything better for him?" I asked snidely.

"The difference is you conjured me up and I legitimately helped you. You just confused someone and offered an escape to someone who needs to focus on improving her circumstances from the inside."

"Bullcrap!" I shouted, turning a few heads, "You think you hanging around me is not an escape. You're not a legitimate friend. You're imaginary and my hanging around with you drives me away from real people." I took a heavy breath, attempting to regulate myself, I could already feel the symptoms of my body growing strained enough to allow him control of my body again, "I appreciate your help and advice, I really do, but what you're doing right now is hypocricy. I'm willing to keep you on as my friend, but if you keep trying to poison my relationship with real flesh and blood people, I will have to remove you. Don't push me. I told you already."

The looks from people were growing more intense. I was having a full blown shouting match out on the pavement in a crowded city street, there was no way that people wouldn't be turning their heads for this.

Stressed suddenly stopped and pulled me by the arm onto a bus stop bench. "Craig. We're not going over that again. Did I ever say that I didn't want you to be friends with anyone else? No! I did not. You're just being over-dramatic because I called you out on something. Now if you'll let me sum up, I will. Be good to the girl. Don't be an idiot and don't even think of romancing her. You did a good job cheering her up, I'll give you that, but I saw the way she looked when you weren't there. The girl has some serious problems in her life and I wont have you hurting her by throwing false hope."

"Why do you care?" I mumbled into my chest, mostly to avoid being seen.

"I have an instinct about these things. I just don't like seeing girls suffer. Listen, you do your part and I'll do mine. If we're both on our best behavior there wont be problems, okay?"

"...fine..." I grumbled.

"Then let's go buy us some Rush tickets!" he announced, pulling me back to my feet. I was starting to worry that my alternate personality had a bi-polar personality.

Securing the tickets, though expensive, was not too difficult of a task. I was homeward bound by eight o'clock and feeling very pleased with myself. Stressed had calmed down since our second arguement of the day and showed no signs of acting out against me. I was looking forward to returning home.

Ending my long journey, I opened the front door to the lodge. I'd not conciously recognized it the previous evening, but there didn't appear to be a lock on the door. Given it's remote and hidden location, I could understand that, but as a city boy it struck me as odd.

The living room was empty as I wandered in, lamps were still lit, but the fireplace was dead and all chairs unoccupied. I proceeded through to the kitchen.

"Oh, hi there!" an instantly recognizable voice of bubbly cheer greeted me, "Did you have a good day?"

I smiled at Cari and went to make myself a coffee, an action which I felt would become a routine upon entering this kitchen. "Yeah, finished up with my apartment. I'm here for good now." I held up my bag of clothes which had stuck with me all throughout my travels, "It's official."

She stood up and scooped me into a hug. She apparently enjoyed doing this, and though I couldn't complain about the enthusiasm, it did make me feel extremely uncomfortable to be held so close to her chest.

"Getting a good feel, Craig?" Stressed jeered with a malicious grin.

"Well, sit, sit!" Cari invited, pulling a chair at the table out for me, "We haven't had the chance to talk yet."

I felt a little talked out for the day, but I reasoned it would be nice to get to know my housemates a bit better, "Sure. That sounds nice." she sat and I got to give her a closer inspection. Blue hair which trailed to her hips, pointed ears like Tricia's, a silver tunic with a purple short skirt and a beautiful little pendant resting above her modest chest.

"Stare harder." Stressed whispered into my ear, punching my arm.

"So, I know about Kim being in college, but what about you and Tamara? What do you do?" I asked, starting the conversation off with something plain and simple.

"Oh, well I work at a day care." she announced merrily, shifting some of her hair, "I just really enjoy taking care of kids and I'm told I have a really nice personality."

"I could see that." I said, nodding. "And how about Tamara?"

"Oh, well." she shuffled a little uncomfortably, "She really doesn't do anything. But that's okay, she likes it that way and it's not like we have any bills or financial woes to worry about."

I nodded empathetically, "She seems kind of sad, maybe she needs to be doing something to keep herself occupied."

"Maybe." Cari responded, shrugging, "By the way, how are you doing after last night? I was really worried when I woke up and heard all the yelling."

I hung my head in shame, "Yeah, sorry about that. It was just my alter-ego coming out to play, I guess he has volume control issues because he's not used to being heard by other people." I watched Stressed in the corner of my eye as he flicked me off, polite and calm as ever. "Anyway, I'm kind of tired of talking about him all of the time. It seems my imaginary friend is the most interesting thing about me."

"Well it's certainly unique." Cari said in a tone which sounded like she was putting a bright spin on it, "And if he would like to come out and say "hi" I promise I'll be nice to him."

Stressed smiled and shook his head, amused by the unending kindness of the gentle giantess.

"By the way, what would your power be?" I asked, "I know Kim's got the eye thing going on, but I don't recall hearing about you or Tamara?"

Cari straightened up, already I could tell this would be a long and involved story and she had been waiting to tell it, "Well me and my sister were protectors of a sacred artifact in another world." she begun, my jaw sunk down agasp and no words were being formed to ask questions or interupt, "When it was in danger we were sent out into the world to stop the evil forces who had threatened it. We have an older sister who had already been sent out, but she was not effective enough alone."

"So, if your purpose is to protect this sacred relic, what brings you out here?" I asked, spellbound by her story, "And... did you say another world?"

Cari chuckled, apparently seeing my reactions was worth the price of the story plus change to her, "Well, yes. Tamara and I were not originally from this world. We were each created from the power of one of the three Goddesses who made our world and we were supposed to return ourselves once the threat had been eliminated."

My eyes shifted to Stressed for some reason, and then back to Cari, "And you decided that you wanted to live more?"

She nodded, "The world is too beautiful and we didn't want to give up the gift of life. We ran away, and this is where we ended up. When I was trying to fit in with the city, I was discovered by a man named Alex who helped my sister and I get some work papers and allowed us to stay here. That was quite a few years ago. We've been happy ever since."

"And what about the other sister? Did she go back to protect the relic?" I asked, cautiously.

Cari nodded again, her smile unwaivering, "She is dutybound by nature, she was ordered to return, so she did. I think if I wasn't taking care of her, Tamara may have aswell, but she's my sister and I will take care of her."

I felt a wave of deep sympathy for the woman, despite her easy going tone and smile, these things did sound like they would have been painful for anyone to endure. One part of her story did seem to confuse me, though, "You said you got here years ago. How old were you when this was all going on?"

"Oh?" she chuckled, "Well when we were sent out, it was our first days of life. But now? Oh... well I think I'm somewhere over 200 years old now."

She said it so off-handedly, I didn't know how to respond. I just looked at her, astounded, and she seemed to eat up my expression as the most entertaining thing in this world. "Two hundred?" I mouthed in shock.

"Yep!" she chirped with a grin.

"You don't look a day over twenty-five!" I nearly shouted in exasperation.

"I know." she practically giggled.

"Are you immortal?" I asked, calming to nearly stoic levels.

"Yes." she affirmed, "That's why we have to move on every once in a while. No matter where we go, people grow old, die or leave, homes get torn down, areas are redeveloped, nothing is forever."

"Well, here's hoping this lodge is. You're a good fit here, and it seems they trust you as the makeshift caretaker of the building."

She got up and patted my shoulder, "Thank you, Craig. It was kind of nice to talk about all those things, so thank you for listening."

"Hey, any time." I smiled back at her, taking a swig of my coffee, "I'm trying to be better at the whole listening thing, anyway."

"You do just fine." she said in the sweetest voice my ears had ever been blessed to hear, and with that she gave a little finger wave and snuck away, leaving me alone in the kitchen. As I gathered together a little snack to keep me going through the day, my mind raced over how lucky I was to have found such a group of unique and wonderful people who accepted me for who I was.

"Wow, immortal, huh?" Stressed mused over my shoulder, "Have to admit, I didn't see that one coming. Though you did ask her about her abilities and she didn't really tell you."

"Being immortal is an ability." I replied as I begun compiling a modest sandwich, "I think "born in another world" counts as a good reason to be at this lodge, too."

"Well, yeah. But how do you go about fighting threats against some sacred stuff with just the ability to not age." he asked, drumming his fingers on the counter.

"I'll ask some other time, for now, I think today went well. I want to unpack my clothes and get some rest."

"Suit yourself, big man."

So, the biggest challenge with this story was to translate the Craig/Stressed split thing. It took 8 years worth of RPing for me to find a decent in universe explination for it and unfortunately it does not translate to a decent explination at the start, only at the end of RP. So the explination exists, but wont be in this story. So, to cut a long story short, this part of the story is confusing. It's nonsensical and there wasn't much I could do about that. I had to make Stressed and Craig split and I had no logical way of doing that. So I did what most writers do when they're backed into a corner, just wrote about stuff I wanted to write about and made stuff happen because I wanted it to happen.

Oh, right the story. Enjoy! MORE TALKING.

-

That evening went smoothly. Clothes were unpacked, I experienced the lodge's impressive bathroom for a well earned shower, time was wasted and eventually I slept. But as I curled inside my new bed, an incomprehensible sense of longing gripped my soul. Perhaps it was the fact there was no longer anything to strive for. Perhaps it was the lack of material possessions in the room. Nothing to read or watch or listen to.

I was not sure what gave me that tiny slither of longing, but I did know that the mere idea of it would become the source of all my problems. I could already feel Stressed standing over my bed with a snake's grin on his lips, judging my soul as I tried to sleep. He was, after all, the physical manifestation of my dissatisifaction with the world and my longings for something better. I had no idea what gave me pause for thought, but I knew that he would have ideas.

I slept. I slept and I slept until my body would not sleep any more. Each time the morning light threatened my slumber, I rolled over and forced myself back under the blankets for another few hours. No one disturbed me. Not even Stressed, who must have been stuck watching me unstimulated for the entire time.

It was 2pm when I finally pulled myself out of the sheets. I stretched out a long yawn and opened the door, ready to start my day.

"Have a nice rest, lazybones?" Stressed asked me in the most condescending tone imaginable.

I'd not managed to sleep in past noon since my first day off of work at the World Cafe, at the orphanage, the idea of sleeping in was foreign and forbidden and when I was working, even night shifts, getting up early was a neccessitiy if I wanted to visit the laundromat or have some semblance of a life.

"You never had any semblance of life." Stressed commented, knocking me out of my thoughts, "But you have the opportunity to cultivate one now, if you are willing to go through with the effort.".

I shook my head and walked on ahead. It was too early in the afternoon for me to listen to any rants about my potential or lack of life. Things would fall into place if I just gave myself some time. At that moment all I wanted was a cup of coffee.

As I walked through the living room, I spotted Tamara lying on the sofa with a book. Same unenthused expression about her face. I walked by and collected a fresh cup of sweet wonderful coffee before sitting on one of the armchairs and smiling to the tan skinned woman. "Hey there, how's it going?"

She slowly turned her head to face me and right away I could tell she had no patience for me. "I'm fine." she said slowly. Stressed sat down on the arm rest of the chair behind her, smiling ear to ear.

"I spoke to Cari last night." I said slowly, and her expression hardened, if Cari was the warm and open sister, then Tamara was shut off entirely and cold as can be. It still troubled me that the two of them were centuries old and supposedly guardians of a godly force in another world.

"I dunno, I think it's pretty exciting, certainly moreso than an unemployed orphan who talks to himself." Stressed quipped, as he was so prone to doing.

"And?" Tamara bluntly demanded.

"Well, I just." I stumbled, wondering if it would be easier to simply drop the conversation entirely, "I wanted to say I'm sorry you two had it so rough. I can only imagine how bad it must be for you two."

"That's right. That's all you can do."

"Woah, she's got some bite to her!" Stressed chuckled, "I actually think she's the more fascinating of the pair, you have to be wary of people who are happy and open, Craig. There's always a reason for them smiling and you don't know what it is, with her, you can at least tell she hates your guts and doesn't want to talk to you."

"But why?!" I pleaded to Stressed, no realizing I'd done so outloud.

Tamara leaned in and narrowed her eyes, causing me to back into my chair instinctively "Are you high or something?" she demanded, "Look, Cari might be amused by your crazy person act, but I think it's really annoying. You want to put a mental filter in?"

"I'm sorry." I whimpered, feeling like a wounded animal, "It's really hard to ignore him at times, you guys don't know what it's like to be followed around by someone critisizing your every move."

"Everyone has that." she stated, blandly, "And I don't think low self-esteem is a good excuse for waking us up at 4am."

Stressed chuckled and clapped his hands together, "Yeah, I really this one." he cheered, "She doesn't validate your %+%*+*@@.".

"Well, hey. You're enjoying a book. I guess I'll leave you to that and have a walk outside. Sorry for bothering you." I said pulling myself up. She offered a half-hearted wave in responce, allowing me to exit out the front door, still clad in my pyjamas.

"You must have really wanted an escape, huh? It's not like you to take walks." Stressed said, enjoying the outside scenary.

"Yeah, well, I've never been out of the city until I came here." I responded, "I wouldn't mind a little walk by the lake, get some wind in my hair, grass between my toes."

"Sounds good." Stressed said, honestly. I was surpised to see him enthusiastic about this, I suppose he must think that experiencing the world counts as doing something with life.

We walked to the side of the lake, he ran out into the water and stuck his head under the surface, like a little kid who simply wanted to see what was underneath. It was an overcast day, which suited me just fine. The wind was soft and there was not sign of another human being for miles. It was certainly pleasant. Already I could picture myself reading books out here, enjoying the gentle sounds of water lapping at the rocks. That longing feeling felt at peace here.

"So, Craig. Have you put any thought into what you'll do next?" Stressed asked, suddenly at my side. "I know it's been weighing on your mind."

I sat down and watched the lake, "Well, I don't really know. I think life is built on relationships with other people, more than what you put into it. You know?"

"No, I don't. I don't get to have relationships with other people." Stressed responded bitterly, "But I suppose I get the idea."

"Yeah... I just need to see where things take me, though. I don't want to go back to working a dead-end job and it's not like I'm educated or skilled enough to take on a meaningful proffession anyway. We were tricking ourselves back during the job hunt."

Stressed nodded, "So far so good. I'm not going to fault you for that.".

"So, maybe just living here for a while will help." I kicked back and sighed, "Stressed, you're my guardian angel, right? You exist because there's a deep longing in my heart and you just want to drag me on the route to happiness no matter where that path might be, right?"

He shrugged, "Sounds about right to me, though I find it cute how you think my only reason for existing is you. Kind of arrogant too. I told you I'm my own person."

"Did you ever wonder why I had that sense of longing?" I asked, bluntly.

"Well, yeah. You're a lonely helpless blob of unwanted trash who has no meaningful relationships with anyone, no purpose in life and deep down you don't even know why you were born and often wish you never were just so you wouldn't have to wallow in the pain of an uncertain existance with no direction or advice to steer you."

The way he said that, so matter of factly. Painting my deepest sorrows on the canvas with a gleeful smirk. That was quite possibly the worst thing he'd ever done to me.

"Yeah." I sighed. "That."

He slapped my shoulder and pulled himself to his feet, "Quit the self-pity parade, Craig. You're surrounded by beautiful women in a house with no rent. Sure, you're kind of zombie walking from day to day, but I'd say you hit the jackpot there, and if you want to start talking about reasons to be upset, then just look at your creation, I'm smart, strong, resourceful and motivated and yet trapped inside the conciousness of someone who is everything I'm not. That is torture, Craig."

I leaned up and starred at the grass for a few seconds, "If I had any idea how to make things easier for you, you know that I would." I said plainly, "I don't really gain anything by trapping you in my head."

"I know, Craig. And that's I think that's the only reason why I've not tried to force you out. I want to, and I doubt it would be difficult, but it would just seem cruel. You know?" he spun on his heels, "Oh, hold up. We have company. it's the gentle giant."

"Hey there, Cari." I said outloud, keeping my eyes locked on the water.

A gentle voice rang out behind me, "You must have eyes in the back of your head." It was of course Cari, she shuffled down and sat next to me, watching the water.

"Stressed let me know you were coming." I said, looking over to her, "We were just talking a bit about where we're going to go from here."

"So his name is Stressed?" Cari asked, waving right infront of her, "Hello there, Stressed." a wide grin plastered upon her face.

He glared back, "We're really doing this? The whole Stressed thing?"

"He's over there," I told Cari, realigning her pointing finger, "and yes, we're doing this, you refused to tell me your name, so I gave you one."

Cari giggled "I really wish we could see him too." she said sincerely, "He sounds fun."

"You have no idea." I sighed, lying back. "So what brings you out here?"

"I was tending to the garden," she stated, indicating the tiny garden behind the lodge, "and I saw you out here talking with him, so I wanted to see if everything was okay."

"Yeah, it's been really good actually. Since we moved out here I've not been so worked up and strung out, so the two of us have been co-existing pretty peacefully, except that incident on the first night. I think things are bound to get better from here."

"Here's hoping!" she smiled happilly, "So what did you decide you two were going to do next?"

"Wait and see seemed the best option." I shrugged.

"Oh, that's no fun!" Cari protested, "You have to have something to shoot for or you'll end up like Tamara."

I pictured the bitter girl with issues who curled in a fortress of blankets and kept a book infront of her face like a shield, it was not an appealing destiny, "True, but what do you do, then? You've had more than enough time to chase out several lifetime's worth of destiny."

She just gave me the sweetest look before leaning back and starring at the dark clouds above, "Experiencing life, of course. Getting close to people, raising young ones and watching them grow. When I was told to go back, I knew those were the things I wanted to do, and so I chose to fight for the chance to experience life."

"Experience is a little different from living, though?" I asked, not quite confident enough with my assertion to make it a full out statement.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her ears flicking in genuine confusion.

"Well, I mean, it sounds like your way of life is just to exist in other people's lives? That doesn't sound very... purposeful."

"Oh." she shook her head, amused by lack of coherancy, "Well let's say you can live life without experience but you can't have experiences without living."

Stressed nodded solemnly, apparently taking the words at full gravity. I was just kind of confused by them, but I nodded and offered a smile. "I see."

Cari reached over and grabbed my shoulder, giving me a gentle shake, "So don't worry about planning things, okay? You found a new home, take some time to settle in and see what you're feeling then, alright?"

It made sense. Mystified I nodded and said, "Alright.", even Stressed didn't argue with it. Just the sort of wisdom I'd expect from two centuries of experience.

"Well, I'm going back to the garden now." she said, waving, "You two play nice." and she hopped up and left.

I pulled myself to my feet and looked over at Stressed, "She has a point, you know?"

"I know." he resigned, "I'll stop rushing you to form up a detailed life plan."

"Good." I stated, walking back towards the lodge, "Right now my only solid plan is to see Rush with Tricia and enjoy the ever loving heck out of it."

Things were far calmer after the walk. Tamara did not come up to breathe from her book and Cari was able to keep herself fully occupied for the rest of the day. Kim eventually came home and right away began pouring through all her extra duties. I watched her curiously. She was an average college student, in comparison to the two immortals and had been sharing the lodge with them for a good few years. It would have been a good idea to have a longer and more in-depth conversation with her when she had the time.

"Hey, Kim?" I asked, sliding off the arm-chair to her level, "I know you're busy, but I was wondering if we could talk later?"

She put her pen down and looked at me, just like all the other times I'd seen her she was dressed up in her conservative attire and her eyes were obscured by the red tint glasses. "I need to talk to you, too." she said. "That research I said I'd do. I think I found something that will work for everyone. After dinner, we'll go to my room."

"Oh, sure." I said, not having expected any of that. I slid back into my chair slowly and starred at the back of her head where all her green hair was bunned up.

"What is she planning?" Stressed asked cautiously. He seemed to be scared of Kim and with good reason. I hoped that she wasn't planning to remove him like we'd briefly discussed. If nothing else, I was scared of how Stressed would react.

"As you should be." he warned, icily.

The rest of the day moved at a very uneven pace. Stressed was agitated and it was having some effect on my soul, my heartbeat was very hard and heavy, I could feel a very subtle sensation which felt the same way my body did when he was about to possess me. It was uncomfortable and I knew no matter how bad I felt, he felt worse.

When dinner was finally made, I ate in silence. Stressed starring at me the entire time, judging me, daring me to try anything stupid when I went upstairs afterwards. It was scary.

After finishing our meal, I approached Kim cautiously. "Okay, so what is it you wanted to talk about?" I asked.

She tilted her head a little bit, she seemed to think I would know. "Come on, follow me." and she walked up and lead the way to her room. It certainly was a lot more personalized than mine was. Books all over the place, neat and tidy, the sheets were replaced with a richer fabric, some flowers sat at the window ledge. The room layout was the same as my own, but Kim's take on it was far more prim and proper than anything I was used to.

"Take a seat." she offered, indicating her bed. I sat just as I was told, and as I looked up I saw a part of her facade slip as she got more comfortable. I wondered if her bedroom was the only place she allowed such a slip in her otherwise rigid personality, "Anyway, I did some study on the psychology and I wanted to try talk to him." she said plucking off her glasses and looking at them, "Until you asked me for this favor, I really didn't think there was anything I could do with this ability that wasn't entirely selfish... now you're starting to make me understand I can do good things, and I wanted to make sure one of those things was helping you."

My head snapped to look at Stressed, he shrugged "Sure, go for it, I wouldn't mind having a chat without having to steal your body first." he said, sitting next to me.

Kim saw the signs of me communicating with my other and seemingly not meeting resistance and nodded with satisfaction, "Okay then, are you both ready?" she asked, looking to me and the space I'd looked at a moment ago, where Stressed was no longer standing.

I took in a heavy breath and nodded. My heart was beating fast again, at this rate she wouldn't need her ability to coax Stressed out. She knelt down and her fingers brushed against the side of my face, tilting my head down to look into those soft pink angelic eyes which drew the entire world into them, already I could feel my heart slowing down, my blood cooling, a gentle buzz in my head.

"There you go." she cooed, watching my features slack and empty out. For me, the only world that existed in that moment was her eyes, and yet I could catch something held in those eyes, a spark of enthusiasm. Perhaps for the first time in her life, Kimberley Turner was enjoying her ability. "Craig, are you looking into my eyes?"

"Yes, Kim." my lips whispered of their own volition. Just like last time I was entirely lost in those eyes and it seemed the rest of my brain could function quite well without the part called "me".

She smiled in satisfaction and leaned in a little closer, "That's good, now Craig. I want to speak to the other you, okay? Is he there?"

"Yeah." I breathed, "Sitting right there."

"Okay then. Now, Craig. I really want to speak with him. Can you let him come out so I can do that?"

My lips had barely managed to move out to mouth the word "yes" before I felt a wave across my already fuzzy mind, and judging from her subtle reaction, I could imagine my eyes and hair had shifted as they do when he takes control.

"There you are." she said with a satisfied smile, "Just keep looking at my eyes, okay? It feels good to, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." a voice sighed, it was not my voice. It was Stressed. I was detatched from the moment, and somehow being at the back of my own mind made me more resilliant to the compelling power of Kim's eyes. I could think a lot clearer now.

"So, what would you like me to call you?" Kim asked, gently stroking Stressed's cheek.

"Stressed." he whispered, "Don't want Craig knowing my real name."

"Then that will be our little secret." she said softly, and I felt my body relieve a lot of tension as Stressed relaxed. She took in a breath before continuing her little ritual, "Stressed? How long have you been inside of Craig's soul?"

My lips parted and I heaved a long restful sigh, more tension melting from my muscles with every second, it was quite the serene and tranquil sensation, soon afterwards my lips parted and Stressed's voice whispered out in responce, "Ten years."

Kim's eyes almost left my field of vision as she reacted in surprise, "That long?" my head nodded, "My goodness... Stressed. Tell me about when you first came to the world. How much do you remember?"

Another wave of euphoric relaxation before he responded in brief fragments, "He was young. Alone. Unloved. Needed a friend." somehow I felt uncomfortable listening to this, "I came to him. We hid in the attic of the orphanage. Passed time together. I wanted to make him stronger. Prouder. Make him believe in himself."

Kim gave a small nod, "Do you believe in him, Stressed?"

"Yeah." he sighed, "Always had potential. Didn't have drive. No one wanted to encourage him. So I tried to. Was going okay."

"So what happened?" she asked, tilting my chin up so my slumping head would still align with her eyes, "Why did you disappear if everything was going well?"

"He sent me away." Stressed responded honestly, "Some punks found our hiding spot. Tried beating on him. I protected him and he got punished, so he sent me away."

It was of course true. I may not have remembered Stressed's real name, but I did remember what happened, a few kids found our hiding spot in the attic and invaded, they threatened to get me in trouble and then went about beating on me. Even back then I knew Stressed was only trying to protect me, but the end result was one of the attackers in the hospital and a very angry and disappointed staff. I'm not selfish enough to blame a single event on my unadoptable upbringing. But I sometimes wonder if my life would have been better if I had never been forced to hurt that kid.

"You took over his body to defend against the bullies?" Kim asked, for clarification.

"I used a length of wood." Stressed confirmed in his disombodied relaxed tones. I saw Kim shudder at that revelation, the idea of a young child hospitalizing another with a plank of dusty wood can have that effect on people.

"Do you feel bad about what you did?" she asked, slowly. Her voice had a low tremble about it, she was no longer comfortable with this little summoning session.

"No." he responded dreamily, "They deserved it. Wanted to protect Craig."

She swallowed, she wasn't sure if she wanted to continue this line of questioning, and yet there were many things she still needed to know. "How did you feel towards Craig when he banished you?"

"Betrayed. Upset. Angry." he effortlessly responded, no emotion in his voice and yet the words carried plenty of weight on their own.

Kim's fingers were shaking on my cheek. I never wanted to give her such a terrifying experience as her first true exploration of her ability. Guilt gripped what parts of my soul were not mesmerized by her eyes. Somehow, despite this, she soldiered on. "And how do you feel towards him now?".

"Pity." was the only word that poured out of his mouth this time, and it was quite unfortunate to hear.

Kim seemed to calm down a little to hear that, but was far from being entirely calm, "Okay then... and Stressed, how did you come back? If Craig banished you. Did he call you back?"

"Unconciously." he sighed, "Was stressed out. Alone again. No love. No friendship. Only stress. Sadness. Needed me again. And I've helped him."

Even I couldn't argue with that. Without him I'd be struggling to make rent at that little shoebox in the city with no friends spare perhaps Tricia. I was much better this way. "You have." she said, relieved, "Anyone can see that." my lips curled into a smile, "And, I have another question... do you want to take over his body?" and her gaze intensified. It was like being hit by a tranquilizer, even at the back of my mind I could feel myself growing more drowsey, numb and blissful.

"...want to..." whispered Stressed in a barely audible breath, "but wont..."

And Kim was satisfied with that, "Very good." she said and I could feel a happy skip in my heart, "Now I have a question for Craig. If I could, would you want me to get rid of Stressed?"

What an odd question, and out of nowhere, too. Did I want to be rid of Stressed? He has helped me out and dedicated himself to making our combined existance more pleasant. He represented my potential. Everything I could be if I tried harder. He was critical, he was jerky but he was also always there. A soul mate in the most literal manner. Sure he had done bad things to me. Made fun of me constantly, freaked me out and made life more difficult by simply existing, but there were undoubtly benefits to his existance too. I couldn't deny that even after being fired because of him.

"Yes." my lips responded.

At that moment the entire world seemed to shift focus. Like the glass on the lens that granted the focus to begin with had shattered into a million pieces. My voice had responded, no doubt about it. Kim's smile evapourated. In my periphral vision I could just about make out the blur of motion which indicated Stressed had returned to his ghostly form. The vibe was easy enough to read. He was not happy at all.

Kim took a breath in, a hesitation, a conflict of interests, a glimmer of hope. But after shifting her hair she pressed another focused glare of her power towards me. My thoughts become soft, my senses numb. It was like the world had become part of a dream where I was disconnected and unsure of where reality began and imagination ended.

"Then just breathe for me, Craig. And I want you to push him back. Don't look at him, just look at my eyes. Don't listen to him, just listen to my voice." easy enough instructions. I was aware he was still out there. Aware of what was going on.

"He's not really there, and so it's easy to ignore him." she told me, and I parrotted back to her, it was easy to ignore him. If he was not real, he did not exist. He could not harm me or antagonize me. He wasn't there to do anything to me."

There was a loud screaming from outside my field of hearing. Vague, but present.

"You can push him back. Push him away. Push him out." she continued, and I knew she was telling the truth. Those eyes could not lie. Everything that they said were the absoloute Truth.

"-der!" a sharp voice cried out before being silenced again. It wasn't my voice. It wasn't my lips.

"And when we break eye contact, he will no longer be in your head, do you understand, Craig?" she continued, and I nodded dreamily, absoloutely lost in the power of her vision. Then she closed her eyes, and the lens was repaired, as focus suddenly came back to the world.

"MURDER! THIS IS MURDER!" a voice screamed, shocking me back to awareness. It was Stressed, standing next to the door, looking enraged, about ready to kill me, "YOU WONT GET AWAY WITH THIS! YO-" and he stopped. I followed his gaze and felt my own heart freeze in it's chest.

Kim was starring right at him, terrified. "But... but...?" she whimpered weakly. She could see him. For a brief moment I feared my existential security and quickly called out. Both heads turned to me.

Stressed noticed this right away, starred at his hands for a moment, breaking into a giant grin, before darting straight through the solid wood door.

It took a few seconds for Kim and I to recover from the shock of that moment. "You saw him?" I asked, "We're both awake and you saw him?" I felt like extra clarification was important.

Kim nodded weakly. The poor dear, she'd never signed on for this kind of mental trauma. I wanted to make it up to her, but I had pressing matters at hand. Somehow Stressed, my imaginary friend, had leaked out into the real world... and I doubt after the stunt I accidentally pulled, he was very happy with me.

This one is a weird one. Get used to weird. I'm adapting more and more of the original RPs which created the world which Trish and I RP in. It's a lot more abridged and therefore rushes a lot of things, ignores others and in some cases condences into something a lot more palletable. My job for this portion of the story was create the monster version of Kim who will get her arse kicked by Cari in book 2 (spoilz) and adapt the canonical reason Stressed and Tamara fell in love. Yes, that part actually happened.

So, without further ado. It's all over the place. It makes no sense and it's dumb, but it's my story so who cares.

Also without Stressed, Craig's monologue is starting to be more fun to write.

-

"Kim. Don't go anywhere, okay? I'll be back... and thank you for helping me." I said hurriedly, giving her as brief a hug as I felt our three day friendship warranted. She seemed really put off by the unexpected shift of events and I could hardly blame her. Every part of my soul wanted her to accept her gift, and yet I feared I'd set her back for years. "I promise I'll be back." I asserted, heading to the door.

My feet rushed as fast as they could down the stairs.

Cari was standing there and she looked shocked to see me, this was a good sign. "Craig?! But I thought I just..." she trailed off, looking at the door. He'd already left, it would seem.

I ran as fast as I could for the door, "I'll explain later!" I called, as I opened the door and dashed out into the open evening air. He was there, standing where we had been talking earlier. "Stressed!" I yelled out to him. He spun and looked back at me. As I approached, I saw his face, it was a lot more intense than I was used to it.

"Craig..." he slowly mused with a voice ripe with dangerous implications, "What. The. Hell?!" he stepped forward and took a swing at me. I did not have time to react in any way but a terrified wince. His hand passed right through me. It caught us both by surprise, and I backed off, breathing heavily. "How the hell could you say it was okay to KILL me?!" he swung again, though I knew there was no danger this time.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know that was going to happen!" I protested, trying to quell his rage somehow.

"You think that makes things better?!" he demanded, going for a futile kick this time. "You gave her the execution order and simply say that you didn't want to?!" he spat at the ground, "Your true self hidden behind your %!#%%*!% wanted it."

The truth hurts, especially when someone who has seen the inside of your soul throws it at you, "But Cari and Kim saw you. I know it's not the best way for it to happen, but you're not inside of me anymore. You're your own man."

He snorted and turned his back to me, "It's certainly is nice to be able to be in a different room than you." he started slowly, "But this isn't what I wanted or how I wanted it. I'm just a figment! I can't touch anything, it's not like I can build a life as a ghost."

"But you can interact, and as I said before, sometimes you can build a life out of interaction." I said, hoping it would be reassuring.

"Don't spew your %!#%%*!% coping methods at me!" he yelled, I backed off a step, even if he was a non-tangible ghost, he still scared me, "Don't get me wrong, Craig. I'm thankful to be my own man, but I don't think our little fued ends here."

"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

"What I mean, brother, is this. You kicked me out, you all but killed me with intent. I told you what would happen if you even thought about doing that." he paced quickly and shoved his hand into my chest, where my heart lay beating. Fortunately there was no sensation at all, not even a cool awareness of his form.

"I will take from you what you tried to take from me, Craig. Your life. I don't know how, just yet. But I am no longer a friend to you." he pulled his arm back and showed me his clenched fist as if he had somehow plucked my heart out, "Sleep on that!"

I was paralized with fear, he was walking away and there was little I could do to stop him. As much as he couldn't touch or harm me, I could do even less to him. He was unlimited now and I was chained down to the lodge. I watched him slowly walk into the early evening darkness, his back taunted me, commanded me to understand how powerless I was and how badly I'd messed up. Within a minute he was gone. I had no idea where he was or where he was going and yet he knew where I slept. I felt unfairly outclassed.

I wanted to throw up.

It was no use sitting out in the cold hoping to form a defense plan against a vengeful ghost, and in all the excitement I had not even questioned how or why he had somehow became such a spirit. Perhaps I was wrong to think of him as an imaginary friend, perhaps he was something more, something a lot more real.

When I got back into the lodge, Cari was still there waiting for me. I didn't even know where to start explaining and I knew I would need the only witness who was lucid and concious during the excorcism. "Hey there, Cari. I know I said I'd explain, and I will. But I have to talk to Kim first, alright?"

Cari seemed to understand, she simply said "I'll make sure there's a pot of coffee ready, then." which was her way of kindly giving me permission to take my time and she would be ready when we were.

I returned upstairs, still unnerved by the threats that he had given me.

The walk back to Kim's room may have only taken about five seconds, but in my mind I had played out an infinite number of scenarios. I never intended to hurt her with my ideas of opening her up to the potential of her ability, so despite the fear and hurt that the encounter with Stressed had given me, I was more compelled to make sure Kim was okay.

I opened the door and looked at her, sitting on the bed, looking entirely shaken up. My heart wept for her, and I knew deep down that her pain was my fault, regardless of intent. I lightly knocked on the door and smiled at her. Her head turned to me and I caught her in the eyes, causing me to fall for her spell once again. A sharp head shake knocked me out of that moment, I had to keep focus.

"Are you doing okay?" I asked gently, approaching slowly, watching her cardigan and nothing above it.

"I'm doing fine." she said evenly, "What about you? Was everything okay?" with a concern in her voice which was far too expressive for someone she barely knew. Either I was leaving an impression, or she was guilt-tripping harder than even I was capable of. And I had to deal with hospitalizing a child.

"Everything's fine." I lied, "He's got his freedom now and I don't think he'll bother me again. I don't really understand what happened, but we agreed you did us a really big favor. You're a miracle worker Kim." I pushed every bit of bravado in my soul to sell the act, I wanted her to think good of her deed, not bad. If the truth ever came to darken our door, I would find an appropriate lie. I just didn't want to make a habit of it.

"That's good." she said hopefully, I could tell she was looking at me and quite probably smiling, I did not want to look up incase I got another lethal dose of her eyes, and those eyes are ones I was incapable of lying to. "I have to admit, I was a little worried there."

"With good cause." I assured, stepping in and sitting next to her on the bed, which gave me a good excuse to stop starring at her chest to avoid her eyes, "I wanted to make sure you knew what a good thing your abilities did. Thank you so much for helping."

"You're welcome." she said, shifting her weight a little, "It felt really good working with my ability, helping you out." she paused a moment, "Do you think it's okay for me to indulge in it? I've spent such a long time trying to not ever slip and I'm not sure if this is accepting something I should have accepted long ago or falling off the wagon in a moment of weakness."

"It's a good thing." I said plainly, "I'm certain of it. Why would you be born with something amazing like that if you weren't supposed to use it, and if that includes enjoying yourself every now and again, then all the better for it."

"Thanks, Craig."

"Want to go back downstairs and get some work done now?" I asked, and for some reason the light and bright tone of the conversation certainly made me feel a whole lot better than I was before it.

"Okay."

We made our way downstairs, I was feeling rather proud of myself, but I still had to explain to Cari that there was some kind of incident while we were upstairs. I shrugged, it couldn't be too difficult to explain.

Cari was still in the living room and seemed calm enough for having had two Bayfield's run downstairs and my less than calm self practically freak out with the promise of future explinations. "So what's going on?" she asked, flicking her ears slightly.

"Well, Kim here was helping me with my problem." I began casually, wearing my nicest smile to disguise any bad tastes the situation may have left me with.

"Uh-huh?" she asked, seeming to devote all her concentration on listening.

"And so she used her ability to talk with Stressed, and find out how much of a maneveloant spirit he was."

"Uh-huh...?" she nodded vaguely, insighting me to continue.

"And in the process, she was able to seperate him from me, made him his own person." I paused for a second and actually gave that some in-depth thought. There was no real reason for that to have happened, it just kind of did. "And I guess he used his freedom to run away, which is where you saw us both."

"Uh-huh..." Cari all but sighed, entirely distracted.

I tilted my head and looked at Cari, "Cari, are you listening to me?" I asked.

"Yeah..." she sighed softly.

I finally followed her gaze, she was not looking at me, she was looking at Kim, who had still neglected to put her tinted glasses back on. I was about to voice my findings when I noticed my lips were no longer reacting to my brain's stimulus, infact no part of me was reacting. Damn it all, I'd lost myself in those eyes again. It was far too easy when she left them unshielded like that.

"Oh." Kim all but chuckled, at realizing her mistake, "Are you guys okay?" she asked, taking a step back so we were both entirely in her field of vision.

Both Cari and I simultaneously chirped out a quick and quiet "Yes."

Had I have known the damage I would have caused by giving this repressed conservative girl such an irresponsible outlet, I may have had second guesses about cheering her up, but the damage was done.

She spoke.

Words flowed out of her lips and both Cari and I let them seep in, I wasn't aware of what was happening, the eyes had taken me now and all I could percieve was a beautiful foggy feeling of tranquility and peace. Every now and again my head felt inclined to nod in agreement to The Voice and I could feel Cari doing the same to my side.

Then as suddenly as she had started her words stopped and she closed her eyes. A surge of thoughts washed on me and almost knocked me right off my feet. Everything was flowing again. Cari lifted her head and shook out her hair.

Kim pulled her glasses out of her pocket and put them back on. She looked different now, normally she was so rigid and upright, but something in this moment was different. Perhaps it was the broad and playful smile her face was proudly bearing or the fact her hair was all loose about her shoulders. It was like her formal act was a tightly bundled package and in my actions I had pulled the ribbon and she was now open and, well, different. I doubt she'd ever allowed herself to have fun before

"Where's Tamara?" She asked, in a kind voice, one of those leading voices which implied more than the question was designed to. It didn't ask for her location, it asked for her to be there right there and then so she could join the fun.

Cari, who I took to be a master of social skills, took the inference at it's full value and grinned mischieviously, "I'll go get her!" I kind of felt like an intruder at a slumber party, there really wasn't a place for me in all of this, and with Stressed gone I had little way of detaching myself from the moment.

Cari returned with her sister after a moment, she looked as down and grumpy as I was used to seeing her. "What is it?" she asked sounding a little upset to have been dragged downstairs.

Kim said nothing, she simply took a step forward, and removed her glasses. Her gaze slammed Tamara hard, from behind Kim I got to see the effect from an outside perspective, her frowning face leveled out and her jaw lowered until her lips parted. She heaved in a large breath, which on Tamara was a noticable thing.

"Kim, what are you doing?" I asked, finally remembering I could actually interact with the world rather than provide backseat commentary on it.

"I'm helping." she said simply, "You were right, Craig, it feels wonderful to help people and I want to make sure that I don't waste my ability."

I looked at Cari, who was more or less Tamara's caretaker, and found an empty smile on her lips. Whatever Kim had been saying to us, it looks like Cari's cooperation was part of the package. I felt vastly uncomfortable, but she was trying to help and Tamara certainly needed the help.

"That's okay, Tamara, you can keep looking." Kim hushed, moving in and starring more intently into the tan skinned woman's eyes, "I imagine it feels really nice to calm down and let go of all that grumpy energy you're always dragging around."

Tamara's parted lips moved a little just to breathe out "Yeah...", I was starting to notice a pattern.

"I once asked you why you were such a grouch and you just glared at me." Kim said, mostly to herself I suppose, "Tamara, you'll tell me now, wont you? Why are you such a grouch?"

Tamara shrunk up a little. It was a very subtle moment, but she was tense, and I felt bad for watching Kim pry the answer from her, if she reacted so strongly while still under the influence of Kim's power.

"...bad experiences..." she managed to choke out after a few moments. Kim backed off a little, she wasn't a heartless enough person to press a person who seemed to be in the pain of recollection.

"It's okay." she quickly said, "Just let those thoughts go for now, they can drift away, because they're not needed right now." and Tamara levelled out again, softening her features and returning to the pure tranquility that she had embodied moments ago.

"But you know what it's like to be happy, right?" she asked in a tone of voice which suggested she may not be fully aware, but wanted to to hope the answer was yes anyway.

"Yeah." Tamara whispered.

"And it's so nice to be happy, to be overjoyed." Tamara's empty expression was slowly ballooning into an empty smile like her sister's. "That's right. Just like that. So very happy and open and ready to enjoy life with your friends. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Yeah." she said again, sighing with happiness.

"Oh, and tonight we're going to have a game of truth or dare, doesn't that sound fun?" she announced merrily.

"Wait, what?!" I accidentally blurted out in shock, when was that agreed? While Cari and I were looking at her eyes? My kind intentioned actions once again had come back to haunt me.

Kim smiled serenely, "Don't worry, it's only for fun, and you like having fun don't you?" there was something about the way she said that last part, "you like having fun", that caused me to draw in a sharp breath and suddenly agree. Her smile still sweet and innocent, I knew she'd somehow set up her game before even bothering to run it by us. There was little I could do but to have fun.

I liked having fun, anyway.

I turned back to look at Tamara, who was all blissed out from Kim's brief stint of "helping", Kim did not appear to be done with her. "And it's okay to listen to me, isn't it, Tamara? If it makes you smile, right?"

Tamara all but gave out a babyish giggle from this which sent shudders down my spine. It was all far too strange.

"And you can listen just like this, if I clamp my hand around your shoulder like this, okay." she leant in and clutched the other woman's shoulder, keeping their eyes level. She smiled in satisfaction as it seemed to do nothing more than make Tamara look like she was about to pass out.

"Okay, then." the green haired woman sighed putting her glasses back on with a sense of satisfaction. It took a brief moment, but both Cari and Tamara squeezed their eyes shut and opened them with a new spark of life. Tamara's smile never dimmed.

"Hey, guys? I was thinking of making a sandwich. Would anyone else like one?" she asked in a terrifyingly chirpy voice. I almost burst out laughing from how absurd such a question sounded from Tamara's lips.

I shrugged, a temporarily nice Tamara was a good one to be around and I doubted I would recieve another offer of this kind, so I raised my hand and sheepishly said, "Ham and lettuce, no cheese?"

Cari had her own order and Kim did too, giving a full total of four sandwiches for the chirpy goddess of angst to prepare. She didn't seem to mind the extra work and began to skip off in way of the kitchen.

"Oh!" Kim chirped, running over and clutching her shoulder. Tamara froze up and let out a gasp which silenced itself as quickly as it had begun. I did not hear what Kim said, but she leant in to Tamara's pointed ear and whispered.

Tamara's responce, however, was audible. It was simply "Okay."

She left the room and as if her presence had been some kind of spell shielding Kim from us, both Cari and I leant in and demanded to know "What's going on?"

"Don't worry about that." Kim said with a shrug, and all of a sudden we didn't. I'd officially created a monster.

I quickly hurried over to Cari, "I think I may have done a bad thing convincing her that her ability is okay to use." I confessed quickly and quietly, hoping somehow that the head of the house would be able to stop this fire before it spread.

"Why is that bad?" Cari asked "I think it's a lot of fun, and it's nice to see her relaxing and being herself. She works so hard, I was starting to worry."

I'd not spent three years living in the same house as her, so maybe this drastic shift in character was a good thing, maybe she needed to let loose, indulge in things, at the absoloute worst case of scenarios she would have everyone forget about it and return to normal the next day, it really wasn't too bad.

There was a shrill scream from the kitchen, followed by a masculine voice shouting out "WHAT THE HELL!?". It was a male voice, a very familiar one.

Stressed.

I'd seen him leave, I watched him vanish. It was of course possible he could have decided that he had no better place to go, that was always a possibility. I had to check it out of course, from the sounds of things there was trouble.

"I'll go see what's happening." said a suddenly concerned Kim in a suspicious manner.

"No, if it's Stressed, I'm going first." I asserted to my own surprise. I guess I could be courageous when the mood calls for it.

"No." she grabbed my shoulder, "Wait here." and her words resonated in my soul, that Voice again. Absoloute Truth that I could neither ignore nor disobey. What had she been reading since I made my request anyway?

She disappeared into the kitchen and there were sounds of communication. Something was happening and I had no clue as to what. I looked cautiously at Cari who looked back at me as equally helpless and concerned.

Kim came back into the room shortly after looking quite proud of herself, "Okay, you two can come in now. I don't think Tamara will be making sandwiches, though, Cari dear, will you make them for us?"

"Of course!" Cari chirped, rushing in to take the chore.

I followed in and was shocked to what I saw. Stressed and Tamara hugging, or at the very least, Tamara's arms around Stressed's form and his arms around her. I rubbed my eyes to verify. "What on Earth is going on?" I asked, exasperated.

"I really don't know!" Tamara almost screamed, clearly more distressed with the current situation than I was, "I walked in to make sandwiches and he was here, and I just wanted to hug him... is that weird?" she asked it as if she really couldn't tell.

"It's not weird at all, dear." Kim assured, and Tamara seemed to relax.

"Of course it's weird!" I actually did scream. "He's not even a real person. What is this? Why is he hugging back?!"

Kim chuckled, "Tamara fell right through him onto the floor, when I got here he was trying to pick her up, so I just had him play along with our game."

Stressed looked like he wasn't paying attention to any world which didn't feature Tamara in it, I'm not sure what was more disturbing, seeing him happy like that or seeing a ghost and a elf-like Goddess avatar embracing. My life used to be so normal.

"So you asked Tamara to hug the first person she spotted?" I asked, wirily.

"You guessed it." Kim affirmed, nodding with satisfaction.

"Aww, how cute!" Cari squeed. I could think of many words for this particular display. Cute was not one of the first.

All of this madness was starting to give me a migraine. As I leant back against a counter, ready to just leave while I had the upper hand on matters, Kim clapped her hands together, "So, now we have an extra guy, shall we start our little game?".

I shuddered. There may have yet been time for me to run and escape and hide and pretend that the entire experience was a nightmare induced by Kim's therapy session. I may have even believed myself if it was what I told myself upon waking up the next day. But curiosity kept my feet rooted to the ground.

And then Kim said a word and the world faded away in a dreamy haze.

My goodness, as my story shifts into the third act, I can do the Rush concert set-piece I'd planned. This was based on a stupid RP Trish and I did in 2003. It was dumb then and it's dumb now. But it happened, and the villain is actually a major part of the Lodgeworld universe. Oh and all this Rush talk is just well. Me wasting word count on things I enjoy. I feel the majority of the book has been doing that.

-

When I next opened my eyes it was morning. My head was fogged up. I'd never been drunk before and thusly I've never been hung over, but I imagine this is what they both feel like. At the same time. That oncoming migraine must have hit during Kim's magic spell and was hurting worse than I could imagine. My thoughts seemed to have gathered a large amount of dust from not having been used the previous night. My body felt detatched, the most I could do for a full minute was blink and take in the low level light of the room.

Next came an awareness of my surroundings. I was sitting upright on what felt like a sofa, my head was still tilted up and there was a ceiling fan there. I must have been in the lodge's living room, as I know there was no ceiling fan in my room.

Next and most startling, was the presence of pressure on my stomach, heavy pressure, and something which hooked under my arm onto my back. It was warm. Heavy but not too thick and quite soft. There was a sound, like a hiss of air being expelled from someone's nostrils.

Okay, I was tricking myself by this point, but only to spare the horror that was slowly building. I was aware I was in the living room and something warm and arm shaped was wrapped around my torso with what I was fairly sure were fingers gripping onto my back, and very close by someone breathing heavily.

I dared to shift my weight enough to lower my head. Blue hair!

I quickly snapped it back and starred at the ceiling. I'd become aware of something else. She was holding on to bare skin. Cari's bare arm was wrapped around my pasty white body. I may very well have been naked. If this was a nightmare, I wanted it to end now. If it was a dream, I wanted it to end sometime before my eyes had opened.

A soft murmer, as Cari shuffled, her hair nuzzling into me and she put another arm around me. I was in full on panic mode now and wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Well if this isn't a gift worth coming back to..." it was Stressed, he stood above me with an arrogant sneer, "If it helps, she's fully clothed. I'm fairly sure nothing happened last night."

I tried to steer my eyes down, see if I was wearing anything. I could feel fabric but I wasn't sure if it was a blanket tightly wrapped around me or...

"Oh, it's a skirt, Craig." Stressed gleefully responded. "It goes well with the bra."

And then I became aware of the tight sensation around my shoulders. That son of a !%$+%, I was wearing a bra and skirt and Cari was still fast asleep clinging on to me. I doubt there were words in any language which fit just how angry I was at that moment.

"What the hell happened?" I hissed, trying not to wake Cari, of whom I assumed would be a ticking time bomb, ready to explode once she took stock of what was happening.

"Kim's eyes I imagine." Stressed shrugged, "It's a blur to me too."

"Why did you come back?" I demanded, in the quietest tone I could.

He shrugged again, "Why not? It's not like I had anywhere else to go. Plus I knew you'd get comfortable the moment I was out of the door, so I wanted to remind you that I come and go as I please."

I starred at him, tried to beam pure hate at his soul if it was possible.

"Anyway, I'm heading out. Let Tamara know I had fun." and with that he vanished. Actually disappeared. Apparently teleportation is one of his ghostly tricks, that did not bode well for me at all.

"Mmm? What time is it?" Cari mumbled, yanking me closer to her like a pillow or blanket. Every part of me wanted to eject my body and teleport away just as Stressed had somehow managed.

"It's morning?" I attempted to make this sound non-chalant so that I could explain my way out of the situation, but nerves got the better of me, I was frozen solid and had to slam my eyes shut to reject the harsh reality I'd awoken to.

"Oh... we must have had fun last night." Cari all but yawned, she was standing now, I dared to open my eyes and saw she was wearing a cheerleader's outfit. I didn't even know how a cheerleaders outfit managed to get to our house, but there it was. Cari looked down and noticed both my attire and her own before her eyes darted around the room in search of Kim. "Where is she?"

I pulled myself up, prepared to join Cari in the hunt for Kim's blood, but I felt far too open and exposed in the dress. "Why am I wearing this anyway?" I went to unhook the bra taking a good twenty seconds to accomplish the simple task due to my lack of knowledge on the subject.

Kim actually ended up sleeping on the floor next to the armchair where Tamara was still passed out. The two of them still in their clothes from the previous night. Something about the serene look on their faces and the fact that in searching we'd taken account of the entire lodge being undamaged, I didn't have the heart to wake her and yell. I could at least wait until later and talk.

"Say, Cari? Is this dress yours?" I asked, becoming bashfully aware of myself again.

"Yeah, but you can keep it if you'd like." Cari responded as joyously as I'd expect of her, bless her heart I don't even think it was a snide joke, though you could never tell.

"I think I'll just leave it in the laundry room." I sighed, "I'd better get changed."

Blushing bright red, I took another look at the green haired minx who had brought upon this horrid experience, and reconfirmed it. I felt no mallace towards her. Perhaps she'd gone too far, but she was happy and open. That's how people should be.

The rest of the day ran smoothly, I was able to speak with Kim, who apologized for getting out of hand and that she would try not to go too out of bounds with the fun she planned to have with her freedom. I couldn't fault her for wanting to explore her potential and for all I knew we probably had a really good night. I just wish I could remember it all.

Days began to pass by. I got used to my new living arrangement. Time began to ressemble itself as it had when I was working. Days bled into one another. I would sleep, I would eat, I would discuss things. There were even a few visits to the city to see Tricia. All of them important memories and yet all of them just drifting past, one thing into the next. I was getting used to the abnormalities of life. Cari's cheerful nature, Tamara's elusiveness and even Kim's bi-polar shift between rigid stuffy college girl and megalomaniac.

Stressed even made some appearances. Always brief, to remind me that I was to live in constant fear, he did not come bearing taunts or threats any longer. He only needed to imply them with a moment of presence. Perhaps he was learning that he is not as intimidating as a non-tangible ghost, or perhaps the psychological warfare was his go-to method of attack.

Sleeping became more difficult. I felt restless, anywhere between excitement for the coming Rush concert or fear of Stressed's ability to mess with my life. I just didn't feel content anymore, and with my contentment offered to the ether, so too was my happiness.

All of that would change the day of the Rush concert, the most bizarre day of my life.

I was prepared quite early in the day. Sleeping was difficult enough when I didn't have an epic rock concert to attend, but with the band possibly in the city, I did not want to waste a second. I awoke with the sun and pulled on my black Rush t-shirt and mixed it with some blue jeans. Two tickets lay in wait for me on the chest of drawers, I scooped them and placed them in my pocket with the satisfaction that could only come from knowing their intended purpose was coming to pass that night and that they would remain keepsakes of the occassion for the rest of time.

I ploughed downstairs with more energy than I'd displayed since I was a kid. My first destination, as always to acquire coffee. I entered the kitchen expectantly and discovered Kim sitting up working frantically.

Since her first night of fun, she'd been on pretty good behavior, but she had a way of reading a vibe in any given room now. If she was done with her work and everyone else was not doing anything, the moment anyone thought about the word bored she made it her mission to spice things up with her trickery. It would have been endeering if it wasn't so inconvinient.

"Got a project due today?" I asked, pouring my cup.

"Yeah, a big one. I had to pull an all nighter." she said. She was in her usual work-a-holic personality, I preferred her like that anyway.

"Well keep at it. You'll be a teacher in no time. I'm sure of it." I assured, I was getting good at the whole bright and cheer thing. Perhaps Cari was rubbing off on me.

"Thanks, Craig." she started working again before her pencil suddenly stopped, "You're going to that big concert tonight, aren't you?" of course she knew, I spoke of nothing else.

"Yeah, I'm heading out to the city soon to hang out with my friend before the show." I proudly announced.

Kim slid out of her chair and walked over to me, perhaps a little too close, she leant forward, glancing above her glasses, "Have a good time, okay?" and she winked.

I don't know if I got a dose of her powers or not, but my responce would have been the same either way, "I promise.".

She seemed satisfied with my responce and went about making her own cup of coffee. I took mine to the living room where I watched the often neglected television for a small while. Nothing important was on. I settled with the news, which told of the usual doom and gloom misery, bad weather which may or may not come in, crime rates, an entire expose of the tax payer cost that the recent Electrawoman versus Proffessor Bling battle had eaten up. I'd be more upset about it, but I was aware of the amount of tourist revenue that the sheer presence of a superhero culture attracted.

Cari awoke soon after and sat down next to me. "Are you ready for today?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah, I've been waiting quite a while for this. I mean, it's Rush. It's got to be amazing. It's a certainty." I am told I seem to glow when I speak of Rush.

Cari giggled and shook her head, "I meant your friend." she gave one of those Cari smiles which I was starting to get acustomed to. They meant she was implying more than she was saying and she had a wild imagination, "Just make sure she's having fun and don't be afraid to hold hands."

I blushed a bit, I hadn't considered this a date. I mean, yes, it was two friends of opposite genders going out to see a concert, but that didn't mean it was a date. It was a pair of Rush fans going to a Rush concert. No holding hands at all. Unless they played Mission, in which hands would be held.

"You're so cute." Cari giggled, scruffing my hair up. I think I could melted ice with how red and warm I was with blush. "Anyway, I'm sure it'll be a great time. Just tell me everything after you get back. Okay?"

Once again, the only appropriate responce was "I promise."

I was at ease for a good half hour, forty-five minutes at the most, but those tickets were still burning a hole in me, their weight in my pocket ever present and chipping away at whatever patience I was able to preserve. Logic dictated that I would not need to actually leave the lodge until the early afternoon at the earliest, and yet a sheer lack of interesting stimulus caused me to head out, waving goodbye to Cari as I did.

The train ride to the city was not very noteworthy. People sat in their chairs rigidly. Some played with laptops and phones, some read papers, but everyone was in their own personal space. I looked down at my shirt. I was a walking advertizement for my destination and somehow the lingering idea that others were heading to the same place gave me an thrill of excitement which could only be described as fever pitch. I swelled with pride and glanced at everyone, taking notice of the entire world. Any person was a potential kindred spirit and could have stopped to ask if I was going to the concert, or even better, I would have spotted a fellow Rush t-shirt.

I didn't. But it was exciting to think about. My adreneline was pumping and it wasn't even 11am yet. The band had 8 hours before I would be able to see them.

Tricia and I had arranged to meet at the cafe after three, so that still gave me a lot of free time in the city. I'd been free on the city streets with hours to waste before, it was surprisingly pleasant and simple to let time flow around you. My theory was always that in a city time is consumed at a feverish pace by a mass of people, whereas in a cool quiet lodge it simply treakled by at it's own pace.

I ended up in a book shop. It seemed the easiest place to pass the minutes. There was a small cafe section in the corner (which didn't include former work colleuges) where I could browse through the Sega City Voice, just incase the televised news wasn't depressing enough for me.

All the while, the excitement still buzzing inside of me. Anyone could be a friend, I thought. Anyone could be going to the concert that night.

Time successfully wasted on absoloutely nothing, I made my way to the cafe. Tricia, thankfully, was standing outside, so I didn't have to go in again. I doubted I would have had the courage to face it without Stressed there. Imaginary or not, he was some form of back-up for harsh moments I didn't want to face alone.

"Hey there!" I exclaimed, Tricia was wearing a green blouse with blue jeans, she looked really adorable. An absent smile bubbled to my lips as I realized my thoughts and had the opportunity to savor them without Stressed's ridicule.

"Hey! You look like you're good and ready." she smiled, full of energy. "So, what are we eating before we head to the arena?"

I'd put a lot of thought into that question, and my final decision was something decidedly mid-range. Not fast food and certainly not Italian restaurant, my choices all centered around Asian cuisine, due to the fact there was nothing romantic about a Chinese restaurant, but there was nothing cheap about it either.

"I was thinking this pasta and spaghetti place, it's a few blocks away. Are you okay with that?" during my feverish thinking, I had neglected to take her tastes into consideration on account of me not knowing them.

"Oh, that's fine!" she exclaimed merrily, "I love pasta. Just make sure I get extra cheese, okay?"

I couldn't help but laugh, "Well, I don't like cheese, so I think you can get mine."

"What?! You don't like cheese?" Tricia all but screamed, her eyes wide saucers of complete disbelief. "How can you not like cheese?"

"I just don't." I shrugged, continuing on not realizing what crime I'd committed.

"No, no." she grabbed my arm and yanked it, "You can't not like cheese. What's wrong with you?"

"Well... I can try some today, if it'll make you happy." I carefully suggested.

Tricia just laughed outloud. I shuddered to think she may very well have been serious, and I was far too invested in our friendship to dodge that bullet if she was.

The place was designed to appeal to both the take-out and sit down extremes, it was genius in that respect. The menu split itself across the world, offering an assortment of noodle based treats from across the world.

We were sitting down soon enough and disappointingly enough she did grate some parmessan on the top of my spaghetti with meat sauce, I forced a smile. "So, are you ready for the concert?" I asked. It was a decent way to start any conversation.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed with a smile that would put Cari's to shame. "And I need some good times right now. Class has been driving me crazy."

"Oh no, what's happening?" I asked, surprising even myself with how much I seemed to care.

"Debates on the effect of superheroics on the city," she grumpily sighed, "the class was divided on wether it was a good thing or not."

"I think it's a good thing." I offered, "I mean, I'm not certain the police can handle an army of killer robots without assistance."

"Right!" Tricia exclaimed, "I know there's a special unit at the police station for powered citizen affairs and there's that facility for criminals who have been caught, but they were acting like saving people's was a sin because it cost money to fix the roads afterwards."

"Well, sometimes you just can't argue sense into people. They'll just have to wait until they get saved by someone and see how it feels."

She nodded, wiping her lip, "Yeah, well, it's just a shame there's nothing that could increase public opinion without having every naysayer saved from certain doom."

"Well, I suppose if Bling wanted to nuke the city then Watchdog or Electrawoman could save every life in town and that would be that." I chuckled to myself, before taking a hasty bite of pasta which was fine all save for the black hole of taste and icky texture that was cheese in my world.

"Oh, but danger is only real when it's felt on a personal level. I'm sure you've experienced the city not being blown up." she said, rolling her hands. She was passionate about this.

"Many times." I agreed.

"Well, there you have it. Danger only counts when you feel your own life flash before your eyes."

"I suppose the media has kind of put a monopoly on apocolypse, there's a new world threat every other weekend and yet we're all still here." I raised my shoulders and gave a whatchagonnado grin.

Tricia shrugged for herself and leant back in her chair, looking right at me, my mouth kind of ran out of ammunition from my brain and I just gawked passively.

"Oh come on, I'm not that boring, am I?" Tricia chuckled, leaning forward, "Loosen up."

"Sorry." I nervously chuckled looking around the restaurant for some subject to latch onto, "I've just never been on a date before, so this is all new to me."

"Oh?" she said, clearly amused, "You think this is a date?"

"It's not?" I asked cautiously.

"I didn't say it wasn't." she stated, an impish grin resting on her lips.

"Well it either is or it isn't. I can't be in the middle."

"Oh, I think it is." Tricia said, taking a devil's advocate tone to her voice, "After all, it's dinner and a show which counts as a date, but if we're on a date that means we're dating, and I don't think I agreed to date you."

"But this being a date, logically we must be dating. Otherwise we wouldn't be on a date." I suggested, carefully.

"This is true, but dinner and a show can not be a date, it could just be dinner and a show. If you brought your sibling with you would you be dating them?" her face was smug with victory, well deserved at that.

"Well, I guess, though bad example for me." I conceeded, bowing to her superior logic.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she quickly managed, "I forgot." and a brief pause, "How was it, growing up in an orphanage, anyway?"

I shuddered a little bit, but pressed a grin to my face, "I dunno. I suppose it was kind of difficult. I mean, kids seem to have this thing against ginger hair, so people bullied me and I suppose the meek and down-trodded ginger kid wasn't peoples first choice in an adoptee. So..." I heaved a sigh, "Well, let's just say I had strange coping mechanisms." I shrivelled up a little, feeling exposed. I was this close to telling her about Stressed, too.

Tricia didn't seem detterred by my akwardness and pressed on, bless her heart, "Well, I can kind of understand the isolation. I was really well adjusted back home and then I just got plucked and pulled into the city."

"Well, at least we have eachother." I suggested.

"Yeah... Thanks, Craig."

And then the beautiful ambience of the two of us watching one another over the table slowly grew uncomfortable. For three whole seconds our gazes flickered between one another and anywhere but eachother, I became intensely interested in a plant in the corner and she seemed to care more about what was happening out of the window.

Moments passed, and the conversation had to be salvaged somehow, "So, the concert, huh?"

Our unique brand of juvinile early relationship silliness resumed long into the day. After dinner the two of us made our way out towards the arena. Music halls were a strange affair. Much like theme parks, they were designed to attract the maximum amount of people from the city without actually bothering any of the residents. This was a difficult task as noise pollution wasn't the only bother that existed in the world. Routine crowds of many thousands counted as a bother and it would be difficult to find support for a large venue being built anywhere residential. Everyone wants to have their big music hall, just elsewhere, away from my bedroom where I was trying to sleep.

Thusly it was a good twenty minute train ride out to the area. The good news about such arenas in the city is that when they were built within the city limits, the entire area was eaten up into a village designed only for the heaping masses that would be attracted. Tonight it appeared the Rush concert was the only thing happening in the area, and so from the train station to the arena merchants had set up tents and stalls, selling knock off merchandise, greasy foods and over expensive beverages.

The area was designed for all sorts of events, ranging from sporting to convention. A giant expo-center loomed to the side and the area seemed to be literally gated in by giant hotels, creeping up into the sky as if to seal off the events from the world outside.

When I was coming in to the city, I had hoped to see Rush t-shirted people to spark up conversation with. Now that I was in what I could only call Rush Village, every shirt appeared to be from one of the tours. I envied all around me. I saw people carrying signs and suddenly my deadly obsession with the band seemed to be nothing more than a par where I was surrounded by anything ranging from birdies to albatrosses. There's nothing better at making you feel small and insignificant in the world than actively seeking out a gathering of likeminded people and realizing that there were so many people better at being you than you were.

I bet none of them had to deal with imaginary friends, though.

My wallet was draining after all my recent train rides, ticket purchases and the dinner I'd just purchased. I walked by all of the merchandise, deciding that to look at anything would be to doom myself to being trapped at the lodge with no transportation back to the city. Or worse yet. Doom me to get another job.

Tricia seemed to be anxious. Her eyes darted around the area in a mix of wonderment and apprehension. I could hear the cogs ticking in her brain as she wondered wether it was a good idea for her to be here or not.

We headed into the seats, ours weren't too bad all things considered. I'd ordered last minute, so I'd been anticipating something terrible. We were out on the stands, so fairly far away, but center isle gave us the best view of the stage and our elevated placement meant we would have no major obstacle. It was more or less the perfect place to have a seat, provided you were okay being away from all the fun and action that was bound to take place on the floor.

"Thank you again, Craig." Tricia said, sitting down and admiring the view. "I can't believe we're really here."

"Nor can I. A month ago this was all I could ever dream of, and now I'm just living it. Of course my life has changed a lot in a month."

"Yeah..." Tricia sighed, as she often did when the subject of the lodge came up. She was so excited about it's existance and asked me questions every time she could and yet the fact that I was there and she was not made it always feel bittersweet to impart even the smallest hints of knowledge.

The stage was a big wide open area. We could see that the band had laid a carpet down in the middle with the design of their latest album's cover. It was gaudy and few would notice it. Perhaps they just liked having a plush surface for their feet or wanted something to hide the wires underneath. The back of the stage had the amps and drums, but they were coated by thick black sheets. Above the drumset there were three giant screens which sat dormant and unused. The speaker system seemed to be playing music from a local rock station, otherwise the entire area looked like it was abandoned until the concert, spare for those of us who had already taken to our seats.

Comfortable, and with a few hours to burn before the show began, I felt it was time to try and keep up our banter from earlier. Foolishly I started where we'd left off, "So, what exactly made you move away from your parents anyway? I never quite got it."

Tricia kicked her feet and looked to the sky, which was wonderfully cloudless, "It's kind of a long story and I don't really want to get into it, least of all before the show." she squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, "Why tell sad stories when there's going to be an exciting show, right?"

"Right!"

People gathered in their seats. We made quick fast friends with the people surrounding us, who seemed shocked to see a young couple (as we appeared to other people) who enjoyed the band. The majority of the crowd were men over the age of forty. Silently I wished that I had the opportunity to watch a band for their entire career. Their best albums had been out and toured multiple times before my birth. I suppose I should just be thankful they were still playing for me to enjoy at all.

The horizon dimmed, it was soon now. My hand locked around Tricia's in sheer anticipation. Somehow it felt okay. It felt right.

The screens lit up at the back of the stage, the crowd went wild. I found myself being caught up in the surge of energy and before I could check my brain on the matter, both Tricia and I had our hands linked and held high in the air screaming at the top of our lungs. After all the waiting, it was finally starting. Rush were here!

The video depicted a communication tower in an ice filled wilderness, a giant satellite dish rotating and sending waves off into the universe. Music from some of their songs crackled in the waves, the camera zoomed in and showed the airwaves up close, the band playing Spirit of Radio as the signal transmitted. The NASA control dialogue from Countdown crackling underneath. The camera zoomed back out, showing space. First satellites, then a dog wearing a space helmet landed on the top and began sniffing an antenna. The soundwaves crackled out. The camera zoomed through space with 2112's intro playing in the background, before the camera settled on an asteroid. The soundwaves rebounded off of it, hurtling towards Earth. Then for no damn reason at all a giant dragon grabbed the asteroid and flew it towards Earth, releasing it and setting the rock on fire. The image became the cover art for Vapor Trails for a moment before the fireball crashed down towards Earth and the entire stage erupted in fire as the band began playing their latest single One Little Victory.

I'd been so distracted by the video I didn't notice the band members walk on stage, nor their equiptment unveiled. In a flurry of raw energy and emotion, the crowd in unison roared in approval of the band's music. Tricia and I not releasing one another's hands, our voices carrying in with the noises around us, lost to the world and yet worth every breath.

The energy continued for a full fifteen minute block of sheer elation, Neil Peart was as godly on the drums as I'd imagined, his giant 50 piece drum set taking the back portion of the stage with it's looming dominance. He wore a beanie cap which was being sold at the merchandise stands and a shirt with a simple Vapor Trails design.

Alex pranced about the stage as much a practical prankster who seemed to be overcome with the joy of performance, he stalked about with the spotlight following him, chasing a security member from the side of the stage and laughing in glee as he avoided the light, all while seamlessly working the song with the rest of the band.

Geddy Lee was just Geddy Lee, the man, the myth and the legend. He wore his trademark tinted shades, his hair long down to his shoulders, switching between bass and keyboard with no real effort exerted. Behind him, according to what he called "amp envy" he had stacked a row of tumbledryers with Rush bobbleheads bouncing up and down as the drums circled. Who said rock muscians didn't have a sense of humor.

As I took it all in and immersed myself in the song, every single part of me was overcome with glee just from having the privlidge to witness all of this and share all of it with Tricia made it all the more special.

After the end of the fourth song, Geddy took to the front of the stage. "Good evening Sega City!" he cried out in his inimitable voice. The crowd thundered in approval, "It's good to be back! We know we've been away for a while, so we thought we'd make it up to you by playing about a thousand songs." more cheers and some laughter sailed out into the night, "So for those who missed us, here's something off of our new album- This is Earthshine!"

Alex strummed menacingly on his guitar to begin the opening riff, but sound did not carry out. Neil banged his drums a couple times and Geddy tweaked his guitar. He took the microphone and presumably attempted to apologize for the technical difficulties, but his voice did not carry. Moments ago twelve thousand people were screaming in joy and excitement, but now it was just murmers of confusion and disapproval. Of all the nights for a technical glitch.

The lights shut off with an audible crack, the arena was drowned in darkness, spare for what little light the night sky and the surrounding hotels offered.

"Hey, Trish? What do you think happened, a power outage?" I asked cautiously. But my voice was swallowed up by the noise of twelve thousand all asking similar questions.

Tricia looked tense, she starred at the stage intensely.

I looked back to the stage, the band members were still pacing about akwardly. They were showmen to the bitter end, but with no light or sound, they didn't have much to work with.

"What a show!" a disturbingly familiar voice suddenly yelled in my ear. I turned to see him, of all people, the smug, arrogant, shaggy haired reflection of myself. Stressed.

"What are you doing here?!" I screamed. "Was this your doing?!"

Tricia looked over startled, she could see Stressed this time, but she had no idea who he was or more specifically who he was to me. "Craig, is everything alright?!" she screamed back.

Then the lights came back on. There was a surge of screams as the crowd celebrated the power returning, but almost as soon as the sound had started it was replaced with the same confused murmers. That light wasn't the stage lights. It was coming from a giant disco ball floating above the band.

Music began blasting out of the ball of lights, loud and obnoxious, a product of the 70's undoubtably, a catchy beat with ladies wailing in the back of it. Disco music.

"What a show!" Stressed shouted in amazement. "I guess I'll wait until this is over before I torment you."

The crowd seemed divided on what to think about this act. There were three distinct parties. Those who thought it was all part of the show who were nervously cheering, those who thought it was a hijacking of the show, who were booing quite confidentally and then there were the third kind of people. City saavy residents who knew damned well what was going on.

I was not one of the third kind. Tricia, however, was.

"Craig, we have to go! Now!" she yelled, yanking my arm. I had no idea what was going on, why a big ball of bad music and funky lights was so dangerous, but being a trusting person, I made the assumption it was somewhere on par with a bomb and ran with her.

Stressed stayed behind. He would be a problem, I was sure, but for the time being he was out of my hair. I could worry about him later. Tricia and I waded through the crowds for the exit, but the swarm of people was too much, by the time we inside the building section of the arena I had lost track of her entirely. I didn't want to leave her behind, so I searched. The crowds thinned quite quickly for such a large group. I shouted at the top of my lungs for Tricia, hoping she'd stick behind to find me.

I trusted her. More than I probably should have. I decided that if she was not in the hall looking for me, then she'd gone back into the arena to find me.

I climbed back up the stairs. A good number of people had kept their seats for the time being, though more were walking calmly to the exits, assuming the entire thing was a prank. The band still idled about the stage, kind of dejected that their performance was being cut short by something so strange and unusual.

Before I had the opportunity to locate Tricia, the music began to dim down and a deep voice spoke over it like a DJ, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AUDIENCE!" it boomed in a sassy manner, and right away I could feel a dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach, "ROCK'S DROPPED DEAD AND I'M AHEAD, SO GET STEADY, TEDDY AND STRAP YOUR DERRIERE DOWN TO THE CHAIRS CUZ THIS CONCERT IS GONNA GET FUNK-AH. PROFFESSOR BLING IS IN THE HIZZOUSE!!!"

I could only gape at the stupidity of what I'd just witnessed. Suddenly imaginary friends walking the Earth didn't seem so far-fetched.

So... yeah. ...I... I don't even...

-

The band dropped their equiptment and backed off, some battles just aren't worth fighting. Seats began draining even faster, if they couldn't infer that a disco themed intrusion was the work of Proffessor Bling, then seeing the man for himself sealed the deal and made even the most die-hard fan seek shelter.

The disco ball had opened it's top half and revealed itself to be a hovercraft of some variety with Bling inside. The man stood tall, as he'd been a constant supervillain of the city for a good 20 years, I imagined he was quite old, but he held himself well. He wore black shades, had a tall afro larger than his own head and donned a purple suit full of gold jewellery which caught every bit of light that was offered to it. The man was the definition of over the top and insane.

At that moment I was stuck in a moment. I had the cowardly survival instinct demanding I run away and hide for all of eternity so that the insanity of a super villain battle would not harm me, and then there was the kind hearted version of me who was determined to find and save Tricia, no matter the cost. That part is the one which made me yell out "TRICIA!", as if anything would be achieved by doing so.

"Great job, Craig." the sadistic arsehole portion of my soul commented, standing to my right, "Maybe you should just run away now. It's clear your lady friend did, you'd think after you went to all the trouble to bring her here she'd wait for you before taking off."

"She wouldn't have left me." I asserted with more certainty than I really should have. "Tricia's still here. I'm sure of it."

"Uh-huh." Stressed sighed, "Listen, your body is important to me, don't get it damaged by hanging around where-" and he was cut off, because Bling was speaking again.

"YO! ROCK FOOLS! BACK IN THE DAY WHEN DISCO WAS A-OKAY, YOUR CRAZY BEATS PUSHED DISCO OFF THE SCENE, WELL THAT'S ALL YESTERDAY BABAY, CUZ NOW I GOTS ME MY OWN ROCK BAND AND THEY'LL BLAST YOU OFF THE MAP!" as Bling screamed three more disco balls floated down into the stadium. They opened up to reveal metal skinned replicas of the band members. The Rush robot replicas leapt out of their pods and onto the stage, ready to attack.

The robots were modelled after Rush's 1970's looks. Long hair, kimonos and slim features, compared to the modern Rush who had bulked up a lot and grew a sense of style. The flesh and blood band starred down their counterparts and to my surprise they did not run. Neil grabbed a length of cord he seemed to have in his endless drumkit and tied his drumsticks together, ripped off the top portion of his beanie to reveal a bandana and leapt into a battle with his robotic past self.

"What the hell..." I breathed, watching ninja Neil Peart successfully locking horns with a deadly killer robot. The robotic Neil also had two sticks, but these were more like hammers than anything else, designed to seriously harm anyone who was hit by it. Neil flung his make-shift drumchucks around theatrically, dodging each of his opponent's strikes with relative ease.

Alex followed suit, swinging his guitar like a blunt weapon, mostly to keep distance between himself and the long wirehaired robot who's own guitar was a sharp edged axe that was cutting up pieces of the carpet each time it swung and missed.

Geddy on the other hand, simply raised an eyebrow to his imposter and it did not approach.

"Yeah, for once I'm going to agree with you, Craig." Stressed said, folding his arms and watching. Like myself, anyone left in the arena was too transfixed by just how ludicrious the scene was. This kind of thing didn't happen. Anywhere. Ever.

Bling hovered above the combatants chuckling at the top of his breath, "AIN'T NO WAY YOU'LL BE WINNING JIVE TURKIES! ROLL OVER THE CLEAR THE SCENE FOR THE DISCO DEMOLITIONER!"

"NOT SO FAST, BLING!" an equally hammy, but distinctively female voice screamed above the commotion. A great spark of light blasted down on the disco ball, causing it to fall to the stage. Neil somehow leapt right up and flipped over his counterpart, snagging and tripping the bot with the cord that connected his sticks. Alex threw his guitar at his double and after it had dug it's axe into the ground by chopping the guitar too hard, he laid a drop kick on it. Meanwhile Geddy was still starring at his, neither one making the first move.

The female figure, clad in blue spandex with a flowing yellow cape flickering behind her. I'd seen her in the newspapers, of course. Sega City's latest superheroine. Electrawoman. The hero with the ability to not only fly but shoot electricity out of her body. Bling's arch-nemesis, no less.

"We should probably leave." Stressed urged, grabbing my arm and yanking it. I firmly held my ground, this was quite possibly the most awesome thing I had experienced in my life and I did not want to miss a second of it. So much so that I foolishly snuck closer to the stage as stealthily as I could. I wanted to hear what was going down.

Stressed followed me, frowning all the while. I knew it was a good idea to leave, but I couldn't be convinced otherwise. I probably would have ran for the hills had I have conciously recognized the fact that Stressed had physically touched me a moment ago.

"ELECTRAWOMAN!" Bling all but screamed, "YOU'RE TOO LATE, THIS TIME DISCO WILL BE REVIVED! YOU CAN'T STOP ME NOW!" he leapt up and down on the stage like a cartoon character. Electrawoman floated down and grabbed the back of the head of the first robot she could find.

"What's wrong, Proffessor?" she snarkily quipped, "Don't you usually coat your robots with an insulative skin?" and the robot's eyes went bright before the body began spasaming, smoking and then it just fell to the ground. She quickly repeated this while Bling continued jumping up and down screaming at her.

"Hey, saved by a real life superhero!" Geddy exclaimed in a voice which didn't sound like it had endured a life threatening moment.

Alex Lifeson looked at his replica which sat on the carpet gently smoking out it's circuits, "Man, that happened to me the last time I tried to quit smoking."

"STOP IGNORING ME!" Bling screamed.

"Well, this was fun. But we have to get going." Neil said as calm as anything. Were they in on the joke or something, this was no way for people to act when their life was endangered.

"Oh, I have no intention of ignoring you, Bling!" Electrawoman heroically announced, "This time you're going to prison for good. This city has seen enough of your evil."

And then Proffessor Bling began laughing, cackling at the top of his lungs, Electrawoman cautiously approached him. Behind me I could tell the police were slowly starting to get involved in the scene. It'd be all over and safe now.

"FOOLISH JIVE TURKEY WHITEBREAD BI'ATCH! THAT THERE WAS JUST TO LURE YOU IN SO YOU COULD MEET UP WITH YOUR NEW THREAT. MECHA ELECTRA!" and he rose his hands to the sky. Above a small black dot in the sky rapidly hurtled towards the arena, before crashing down in a crouching position right infront of the superhero. It looked just like her, sort of. Being close to the stage I got a good view of both Electrawoman and the Mecha Electra. They wore the same uniform, blue with gold gloves, collar, cape and lightning symbol. Their hair was long and brown. Both faces obscured by a blue mask coating their eyes and surrounding areas. That was about the best I could tell from where I was standing.

But then you had the differences. Subtle though they were, they were glaring when the pair stood right next to one another. Firstly, the imposter's skin was clearly fake, doll like. The lips were abnormally large and glistened with whatever make-up Bling had allocated to it. The body was roughly the same size and yet everything was exaggerated. Mecha Electra was the Barbie doll version of the real superheroine and made by a depraved mind. I shuddered at the mere existance of it, and judging from Electrawoman's expression, I think she didn't approve of it either.

"I. Will. Destroy. You!" the robot announced, before launching into a clumsy punch which missed the experienced hero by an entire foot. Electrawoman quickly swept it and gave it a blast of her electricity. The robot stood up and went in for another attack. It's movements clunky and akward.

"HAHAHA! FIGHT ALL YOU WANT, LECKY WOOOMAN!" Bling shouted triumphantly, "YOU WONT BE BEATING THIS ONE!" and as he jumped up and down like the madman he was, the two Electrawomen battled, with the biological one clearly winning.

"Craig. I've had fun and all, but this is a step too far. Rush are gone, there's no reason for us to stay. Let's leave. Now. The police are here, we just stand behind them and we have safety guaranteed, okay?" Stressed pleaded, pulling on my arm again.

I shook my head defiantly, "Something's wrong here. She's winning too easily."

And every time Mecha took a hit, it got back up, it's movements becoming a little more fluid, it's ability to dodge and withstand assault just a bit more improved.

"YO, GIVE THE HECK UP, HONEYBUNCH, THIS BOT AIN'T LIKE THE REST! IT'S GOT THE FIRST BLINGBOT AI SYSTEM, MEANS IT WILL LEARN YOU AND BEAT YOU LIKE THE SKANK HO YOU ARE!" Bling taunted, quite unneccessarily. The papers always said that if Bling wasn't so theatrical and addicted to playing the role of a villain he might actually be dangerous.

Electrawoman was now on the defensive. The same attacks that she had used against Mecha were being thrown back at her and she had never had to fight through her own assault before. She flew up into the air and Mecha blasted up some lightning sparks of her own, which uselessly hit her suit. Mecha flew up and their battle took to the sky. I looked up to the sky and watched the battle as best I could. The police had kept spotlights on the pair and their electricity blasts occassionally illuminated the area, but they were moving too rapidly to keep a fix on.

"HOLD IT THERE, FIRE CROTCH!" a sassy voice all but screamed in my ear, and suddenly I was held in a tight lock hold, a very sharp sensation pressing against my neck. Proffessor Bling seemed to dial his volume down from 11 to speak with me, but his voice was no less hammy or insane, "One move little man and you become the first test subject for my nano machine mix. Guaranteed to turn any human being into a machine if the blood poisoning problems don't kill you first. Now you be good and call for help."

I gulped and felt the pressure of the needle against me, I think Stressed was right, I should have left when he told me to. "Okay, okay." and the pressure relieved as he backed the needle off to let me shout, "HELP! HEEELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"

Above me, Electrawoman looked down and made a dart to assist, Mecha pummelled her into the stadium seating. She once again got up and tried to reach me and was attacked. Just what Bling had wanted, undoubtably.

"Glady!" a male voice called out, before punching Bling right in the jaw. His grip on me relinquished and I was able to turn and see what was going on. Stressed had leapt ontop of Bling and was punching his lights out. I backed off, intimidated by just how savage he was being towards the crazed scientist.

When he was passified, Stressed grabbed him by the lapels of his purple suit and in the darkest voice I'd ever heard, growled "Call off your robot and leave!"

Bling starred back defiantly, his glasses cracked and allowing Stressed to gaze right in them and show the old scientist that he was in no way going to back down. Finally he yelled out, "EM! WE'RE TAKING OFF. COME GET ME!"

"Yes, proffessor!" Mecha's synthesized voice chirped, before it flew over and plucked Bling away, letting me sink back into a chair and catch my breath. As suddenly and insanely as it had all started, suddenly it was over.

"YOU STUPID SON OF A $*+*!!" Stressed screamed, pacing towards me, "You reckless idiotic waste of a human being. Who the hell do you think you are?! I told you to run. I told you to! But did you listen?!" I cringed back and watched him rant on and on, I was worried he'd strike me, specifically as I'd seen evidence that he was capable of doing so.

"Sir, are you okay?" Electrawoman said, landing next to the two of us. Stressed backed off and glared at the superhero for a few moments, and then back to me.

"We're fine." he spat, venomously, "Craig. I'll speak with you later. But this is going to end very soon. I've had enough with you." and then suddenly he was gone.

Electrawoman blinked in surprise and looked down to me, "Who was that?" she asked. By the sound of her voice, she was as exasperated with the sudden turns of insanity as a regular human being would have been. Sometimes it's difficult to imagine a superhero reacting in the same was a human would.

"My evil twin." I grumbled, starring down at the floor, "I don't know wether to be thankful he saved my life or terrified that he seems to want me dead."

I didn't see it, but Electrawoman seemed to lock herself up, sure she could rescue 50 hostages from a psycho with too many explosives, but comforting a terrified victim required a different kind of heroism.

"Thanks for saving us, by the way. You're a real hero." I said, looking up to her with a smile.

"It's what I do." she said, before scooping me up. I was too confused and tired to protest, so just allowed it to happen. She flew up into the air and above the stadium.

The sensation of flying was a strange one. It was like being on an elevator, there was like a unique bit of gravity which only seemed to exist for me in her arms, but she herself was defying gravity and simply flying where she pleased. From up here I could see the police barricade and the area set up for the journalists, which is exactly where the heroine began descending. "Hope you are photogenic, you might end up on the front page." she joked.

Adding this to the super villain battle and a portion of the Rush concert, I had to conceed, it was a pretty good day all in all. Not withstanding the mutliple threats to my life.

Okay. Done. Not particularly fond of the ending, but that's what editting is for. The epilogue flows directly into my first NaNo novel, Saygrem. Certainly deserves polishing, but for now, I'm done.

-

We landed infront of the crowd. Lights following the pair of us as we descended. Police swarmed in on us the moment that she touched down, I was released and pushed aside almost right away by the officers and reporters who wanted to hear the details from Electrawoman, first hand. It was like my moment in the spotlight was over before it had even begun. Totally unfair.

"Excuse me. A word?" a gruff voice asked me. I turned to see a noir 50's detective, the entire cliche from the grey overcoat to the worn down fedora. He held a notepad in his hand which he looked at with extreme intensity. "What happened inside?"

"Uh..." I heroically mumbled, quite confused by the zeal of the mysterious man. "Who are you?"

He pulled his arms back and indicated a lamenated card on his lapel, it had a giant symbol for the Sega City Voice and had the word PRESS emblazed on it, with a photograph of the man, "Ken Ellis, Sega City Voice." he announced.

"Oh, wow, well I'd be happy to tell you." I managed, trying to sound like I wasn't out of my depth, "A small way into the concert the power went out and this big disco ball appeared and started playing disco music. Then Bling came out and used his Rush robots to battle the band until Electrawoman came and saved them." I could hardly believe the words pouring out of my own lips, "Oh and then Bling had a robot version of Electrawoman fight with her, and she looked like she was getting beat until Bling took me hostage and a friend of mine knocked him down and the robot carried him away." yep, I would need to see a therapist about this one.

"Hmph." the man snorted, it was strange but he made the sound come out like a spoken word, "Electrawoman rescued by brave citizen. Interesting story. Your friend's name?"

I gulped, I'd not expected him to zero in on that particular part of my story. "Oh, it doesn't matter, does it?"

"Everyday citizen rescues hero. Does matter to many. Gives hope." the reporter said, I found his speaking mannerisms to be quite distracting. Like he was not giving me any room to manipulate, move or guide the flow of questioning. It was straight, short and direct. I'd either answer or dodge the question in an open manner which he could write hesitance into the story.

I rolled my eyes. I knew four people by name. If I was going to dodge this question, I may aswell do so in a way which the reporter couldn't follow me, "He's a dick, I'm not going to glorify his actions by getting him celebrated for it. You can find his name for yourself."

I felt like the world's biggest douchebag for even thinking that sentance, let alone saying it, but the reporter reluctantly nodded and pressed on, "Your name?"

"Craig Bayfield." I said trying to boast with pride, if only to sell the idea that I was a fame hunting idiot, "And sadly that's all I have to say on the subject. I think you should speak to Electrawoman for the rest."

Seemingly annoyed at losing the main story to a bad lead, the reporter huffed and walked away, leaving me relatively alone and disconnected from the moment.

My eyes looked across the crowd, I wanted to see Tricia. See if she was okay, see if she was waiting or searching for me. My heart sank in my chest when I noticed my dark red haired doppleganger pacing towards me with purpose.

"So, I'm a dick, huh?" he demanded, getting up close and personal, "You say this like I'm the one who intentionally blocked a man from doing his job and getting a unique perspective on a cut and dry story." his eyes were filled with an inner flame, but he was at least a little bit calmer than he was in the arena. "Listen to me, Craig, and listen to me well. You recklessly endangered our body. I gave you multiple warnings and you ignored each and every one of them. I gave you an opportunity to live your life and you have proven you do not deserve it. So I'm through. I'm handing down an ultimatum."

I raised an eyebrow. My chest was starting to hurt, the day was just piling on the stress in liberal doses and it was starting to burn at me, suddenly I didn't feel like being nice any more "Oh go screw yourself, you freaking ghost, you're all talk!" words sailed out of me fueled by my frustration and anger "I know damned well you have no clue on how to become me, and you're not going to kill me either, so what have you got? What can you hurt me with?!"

"My fists!" he yelled, whacking a nice right hook to my jaw. I was launched into the air by the power of the swing and crashed to the gravel. As my face skidded across the stones, I noticed several officers looking our way springing into action.

Stressed ran in and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, "We're going to end this, Craig. Tomorrow after dark, come to the place where we used to play. There we can settle this for good. Man on man. And don't think about ditching, if you don't show up, I will demonstrate how much influence I can have over your life. Don't you dare test me on this!"

The police quickly cuffed him and began pulling him off of me, he offered no resistance and allowed them to take him towards the cars. Another officer settled to my side, "Are you okay sir?"

"Just fine." I grumbled, glaring at Stressed as the police took him away for his aggrivated assault. I knew he was going to vanish, even if he was charged for decking someone in a parking lot. Either way, his message was clear and I felt the only thing I could do was prepare myself for our final encounter.

I looked up at the officer, before pulling myself to my feet, "Officer? I was with a woman called Tricia Greiner. I dunno if you guys keep a log of anyone taken to the hospital, but I'm worried about her. Would you be able to check and see if there was any sign of her being hurt or anything?"

The officer gave me a genuine look of sympathy and did not seem to begrudge the request, quite possibly because I'd just been knocked down onto the pebbles and quite possibly had some cuts on my face to prove it.

He returned a few moments later and gave a grave shake of the head. At the very least I could take sollace in the fact that she had not been hurt in the chaos, though I was unsure if it was nice to know she was safe and had abandoned me over her being hurt and needing me.

Given me resignation of defeat, I lingered aimlessly about the area for a while, finding a barrier to sit on, out of the way from all the police attention. All I could really do was ponder over Stressed's threat. He wanted the two of us to meet in the place where we used to play. That would be the attic of the orphanage, for sure. I couldn't help but feel he wanted me to teleport there in the same manner he did. Well, it'd be his precious body sitting in prison for breaking and enterring if I was caught.

I could have gone home. Nothing was stopping me at that point. Both Tricia and I lacked cell phones, so there was no way I could call her and check to see if she was okay, but a part of me didn't want to abandon hope. Every time I pulled myself up to leave I just pictured her looking in vein through all of the cars. There was a small posibility of her waiting at the train station, but I wanted to wait until the police had cleared out.

And they did, slowly but surely. Electrawoman flew off and the police entered the arena to do whatever stuff they had to do, perhaps take the broken Rush robots into an evidence locker. The crowds rapidly thinned out after that. Cars disappeared until I was sitting at the edge of an empty parking lot in a desserted portion of the city. It's funny how a place could practically become it's own village when there was an event, but afterwards it was as barren as the countryside near the lodge.

With the area now empty, I felt it was finally time to surrender to defeat and accept she was long gone. We could talk it over the next time that we saw one another. Heaving a heavy sigh I took to my lonely exodus back to the lodge, my feet heavy for all the exertion that they'd suffered the day.

"CRAIG!" a female voice called out behind me.

I spun around and saw Tricia running out towards me. She reached me in moments and doubled over, heaving for breath, "Oh, Craig. I was looking everywhere for you!" she huffed before grabbing me in a full on hug. As she backed off she examined my face and saw the red mark and scratches I'd gained from being punched into the gravel. "Your face, are you alright?"

"Trish! Don't worry about me, I'm just glad you're okay!" was the only responce I could manage. I wanted to ask where she was, but I was honestly too happy upon seeing her to say anything else.

She took my hand and lead me forward in the direction of the train station. I raised an eyebrow when I realized where we were heading, "Isn't it the gentleman's job to escort the lady back to her home?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It would be if we both lived in the city." Tricia joked, shoving me in the side, "But I think getting you back out to your lodge is more important. It can't be more dangerous for me to walk a few blocks alone than it was to enjoy the concert."

I shrugged, "Fair enough, you win" I laughed, my mood lightening right away, "After having Proffessor Bling press a gun needle to my neck, I don't think the universe has any more room for danger."

Tricia all but gasped out in shock, looking at me seriously, "Wait, what happened?!"

I rolled my hand, I had a feeling I'd be retelling this story for the next few days, "I hung around the arena looking for you and got drawn in to all of the fighting when Proffessor Bling took me hostage. I was fine, though, so that's all that matters, right?"

"Oh, Craig..." Tricia sighed, squeezing my hand, "Well everything's alright now, isn't it?"

I imagined Stressed grabbing my collar and screaming into my face like a rabid dog. All I could manage was a sly smirk, "Yeah. All in all it turned out to be an exciting evening, though I wish we got to see the full set."

"There'll always be other concerts, Craig." Tricia assured me, "I'm just glad that it's all behind us. How did you escape from Bling, by the way?"

I was about to simply state that Electrawoman had saved me, it would be the most believable lie, but after dodging the big issue for so long, I wanted to lay the cards on the table and let her know what was going on. If Stressed won our face off then I would prefer her to know what happened to me and why.

"That's a long story, Trish." I sighed, keeping my eyes on the city surrounding us, watching as they entered the populated portions of the night, anything to keep my eyes off of hers while I spoke.

"Well I've got time." she offered, patting my shoulder, "And I care."

"I suppose I'll start by mentioning the lodge." I began, because I had to kick this confession off somewhere, "The reason I was told about it is because they thought I might have some inate ability. See... when I was young, I had this imaginary friend."

"Awww! That's cute!" Tricia exclaimed, "I had one too, he was in a wheelchair."

"Yeah, but... it wasn't just a regular imaginary friend. This one was more..." I paused a moment to search for the right word to encompass it, "real, I suppose. He was always there, and when I was in danger he took over my body to protect me."

Tricia fell silent, she was listening intently. I felt such a fool to be saying any of this.

"Well, he went too far and hurt someone, so I sent him away, and all was normal and good until the day I met you." I shuddered, there was no way to say that part without it sounding bad.

"Me?" Tricia asked, seeming to get the impression that our meeting was a bad thing.

"Well, he showed up again, and hasn't left me alone since. He was talking to me, goading me, threatening me the entire time we were together. He also got me fired from my job for spewing off his anger at a customer."

Tricia's eyes widened, a sense of understanding mixed in perhaps. "Is he here now?" she asked, getting sucked into my story and perhaps forgetting where it had begun.

"No, no, he's gone now. But that's the problem." I shook my head and pinched my nose, it was so difficult to explain, "One of my lodge friends helped me get him out of my head, but he didn't disappear, he just turned into a ghost of sorts and now he's walking around the world trying to torment me until I give up my body to him." I ignored the double entandre, the conversation was serious.

"Oh." was all Tricia could think to say, and I could hardly blame her.

"He saved me from Bling, but then he punched me out in the parking lot." I added, almost as an after-thought. "He wants to have a showdown with me, so I'm oblidged to go there and let him kick my ass again."

"Craig, you don't have to do any of that alone. I could stay with you, your friends could help you too!" Tricia pleaded. We were getting close to the train station now.

"Thanks, Tricia. I really appreciate it, but I'm sure this is one of those things that I have to do alone. He's a ghost, more or less, the only way I can beat him is with my head. He may not be in there any more, but he's still my imaginary friend. If I brought you or anyone else, I think I'd just be giving him ammo to use against me." my eyes were suddenly fixated on the city again.

"I'm not going to pretend I get any of this." Tricia said bluntly, "But I trust you that you're telling the truth. You dropped it all out of nowhere and there's no reason for you to lie. But I don't want you to hurt yourself. So if you really do have to do this alone, then at least meet me at the cafe before hand so I can be sure you'll be okay?"

I nodded to her with an easy going smile and squeezed her hand back, "Thank you, Trish. Thank you."

As we parted ways and I boarded the train, waving back at her as she watched me from the platform, I couldn't help but feel guilty. Not only because I'd dragged her into all of this nonesense, but because I was so involved in my own drama I hadn't asked about her own escape from the bedlam at the arena.

The carriage I was sitting in was empty. It was late enough in the evening that not too many travellers were heading out, so I enjoyed the mild comfort of solitude. It allowed me more time to ponder on what Stressed wanted from me. He still had no way of snuffing out my spirit and replacing it with his own, I was certain of that. But he had the ability to ruin my life from the outside. He could have easily made me wallow so deep in despair that I would beg him to kill my soul so he could have his precious body.

I closed my eyes and sighed, we knew eachother well enough to guess the other's movements. It was his style of torture alright, there was no defense.

"Nice and alone..."

I didn't open my eyes. I didn't want to. I knew he would be sitting opposite me on the rocking carriage, quite possibly wearing the handcuffs he'd been given earlier. Starring intently at me. Daring me to challenge him.

"Weren't you waiting until tomorrow?" I asked, starring at the back of my eyelids, but there was no egotistical responce, no arrogant boast. I dared to open my eyes and saw an empty carriage. I couldn't help but shudder, I wasn't prepared for these kinds of mind games.

My sense of unease increased into full on paranoia in that moment, I felt uncomfortable in my skin. He could be anywhere, any time. He did not sleep. He could move miles in an instant. He could now interact with solid objects. I was doomed and he knew it.

The train eventually came to my station and I was ejected from the relative safety of a well lit enclosed space to a big dark and wide unknown. The trek back to the lodge was slow and careful, I dared not break into a run, incase I was chased. Stalking through the dimly lit forest path, I shuddered at every sound I heard. Tree branches snapping, leaves rustling, all of it was a potential sign of Stressed being there haunting me. It's not like he had anything better to do with his unlimited time.

It was then that I did break into a run, dashing all the way until I could see the inviting door of the lodge and burst through it.

On the other side of the door, Cari and Tamara were talking calmly in the living room area. Upon hearing my sudden entrance, the two turned in shock.

"Ah! You're home!" Cari welcomed kindly, seemingly oblivious to my terrified entry. "How was the concert?"

I had to give Cari props, she never seemed to be phased by anything. Tamara just lounged back and folded her arms, she seemed to be having a nice conversation until I'd come along and ruined, "Oh. Right. Concert... it was... yeah. Fine." my voice sounded as enthused as someone who'd suffered my night of insanity.

Cari's featured softened, undoubtly my expression betrayed me, "No, something happened. Come over here and tell me. You'll feel better, I'm sure."

Tamara gave me a glance over, she looked like she was ready to make a biting comment, but my expression must have been that of a man who was ready to have a heart attack any second, instead she nodded, "Yeah, you look like you need it."

I slowly walked over and sat down on the armchair, my features sullen. "Either of you checked the news this evening?" I asked, nodding at the television. "Let's just say it'll answer better than I can."

"Oh. Okay..." Cari said, bewildered. She fumbled for the remote and the screen sprang to life. It took a moment or two of channel flicking, but the super villain attack at the concert was being featured on one of the stations. An brief interview with Electrawoman, some footage of her landing with me in arms. Both sisters leaned forward enthralled by the story. Cari's eyes flickered over to me every few moments just to take in my expression.

After a few minutes she shut off the TV again.

"Yeah... I've had an interesting night." I sighed, sagging back.

Cari pulled herself over to me and embraced me, she seemed to like doing that. But this time I was just docile in her grip, there was a lot on my mind and a face full of Cari wasn't going to cheer me out of it. "You poor thing. I'm glad you're alright, though."

"And you got to be on the news with a superhero." Tamara added helpfully.

"Worst part is that me getting caught in all of that stuff has caused Stressed to decide I'm too reckless and don't deserve to live anymore." I grumbled, after Cari released me.

"You mean that imaginary friend guy?" Tamara asked, seeming like she was suddenly interested in the topic, "He didn't seem so bad the other night, maybe you're just getting worked up over nothing?"

"Not nothing, Tamara." I declared confidently, "He gave me some nice cuts on my face and told me he was going to finish our fued tomorrow."

"Well, you're both being over dramatic then." she grumbled in frustration, "Just calm down and stop being such a wimp."

Cari looked over to her sister before turning back to me. "Are you going to be okay? Is there anything we can do?"

"I guess I just need to sleep on it. Tamara's right, I'm getting stressed out over nothing. I should just take a night to relax and deal with tomorrow when it comes."

"Okay.Well, we're here if you need to talk to us, okay?" Cari said, patting my back as I got up. With a quick wave to the sisters, I proceeded up the stairs to my room.

The day had been long and taxing. It brought with it fresh experiences of both the good and the bad variety, I'd grown closer to Tricia and yet had set up an impassable barrier in the relationship between Stressed and myself. My mind churned over all the implications the day's events would leave for the future, but in the end is was futile. The sun will always rise the next day, not even my petty problems can prevent that fact.

I awoke late into the day, with no shadow to wake me up I was free to enjoy the comfort of a warm duvet for the entire morning segment of the day. Each time my sleep bubble threatened to pop I pushed myself a little longer, hoping that it would somehow reveal my circumstances to be a bad dream. But alas, I did awaken and reality was still waiting for my patiently.

I pulled on my clothes and marched downstairs. Nothing was clearer in my head, even after much restful sleep. There was no resolution in sight and the scheduled meeting was only hours away. Feeling nothing more than blind resignation to the facts of my situation, I entered the kitchen for my morning coffee, where Tamara was sitting.

"You said he wasn't all too bad, last night." I said, and I couldn't tell why I had said it, but the words came out undettered. "What did you mean by that?"

Tamara looked up from her sandwich lunch and gave me the biggest look of confused irritation I had ever witnessed on a person's face. "Who the hell are you talking about?"

I by-passed my coffee for the moment to sit across from her, "I mean Stressed. You told me he wasn't all too bad, that he was alright. What happened to make you think that?"

"We spoke." she said off-handedly, as if that didn't count for anything, "I guess when Kim was messing with us she had me hug the first person I saw and so I hugged him, and we spoke a little, he told me about his ambitions and how you hold him back," she shrugged her shoulders, "he seemed okay."

"Well that explains a little bit, for sure." I mumbled, "But he has ambitions? Since when? What are they?"

Tamara shook her head, "He actually said he was sure you didn't think he even counted as a real person, and there's the proof, but he's pretty insightful. He said he wasn't a fan of being some self-involved loser's daydream of what he could be. Turns out he just wants to be something for himself."

I narrowed my eyes, perhaps it was self-involved of myself to think that my imaginary friend had no purpose for existing outside of being my imaginary friend, but given that he technically had no right to exist, I didn't feel I was out of line for thinking so, still. It was odd being told off like that. "And he just happened to tell you about all of this?" I said a little more indignant than I wished it to sound, "Does he want to work those oh so productive jobs he kept getting me to apply for?"

Tamara had no patience for my irritation. If it were Cari or Kim, perhaps, but not Tamara. She glared over her lunch and slowly said, "Why not ask him. I'm just saying I respect him a lot more than you right now."

Stung by Tamara's harsh words and feeling a little guilty that I'd never considered Stressed's needs as a sentient being, I withdrew to the living room. No one was there, so I sank into the sofa and flicked on the television. The news was going over the aftermath of yesterday's attack at the arena. The damage appeared to be minimal, with only the stage area really effected by all the battling and a small section of seating where the lightning powered women melted a few chairs with their blasts. I leant in towards the television when they played some footage of an interview they'd secured with Electrawoman.

"All in a day's work, no need for thanks. Just play safe and if things get crazy again, I'll be there to save the day." the superheroine declared. It was surreal seeing her on TV after having been in her presence the previous night.

"Well there you have it, folks, words of comfort from one of Sega City's own costumed vigilantes. Let's hope that it's more than 2 weeks before Bling attacks again." the reporter more or less grumbled. It was clear they were no fan of the hero culture of the city.

I turned the television off, nothing noteworthy must have happened, or they wouldn't be covering last night's story.

Tricia hadn't specified a time for the two of us to meet up, but I assumed it would be early evening. It gave me some time to loiter about the premesis. I could at least say some goodbyes to Cari and Kim incase things went south.

I walked upstairs and found Cari's door, which announced itself quite proudly with a name sign decorated with floral designs. I gave a quick three tap knock and waited for the door to open.

Cari's face popped out with it's eternal grin firmly plastered on it, "Hi there!" she beamed, "What's up, Craig?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say hi to you before I went out. I'm a little worried about how it will all go down later, so I'm just making sure I talk to everyone before I vanish." I tried to keep my composure, but I was getting terrified from thinking of things about last conversations and just in-case.

"You'll be fine." Cari assured patting my shoulder, "So you don't have to talk to me or anyone else. Alright?"

I gave a bravado fueled smile and shrugged, "Can't play it too safe, though, I'm just a flesh and blood human kid and he's some kind of sinister ghost man."

Cari chuckled, "Don't worry so much, it'll be fine."

And then there was a brief silence as I stood in the doorway, not really having any more ammunition for further conversation. I gave a akward wave and walked along. Cari obviously didn't think there was any threat, but I wasn't quite convinced, my face still hurt from when he punched me.

I decided to head down to the city from there, it was already early afternoon and the journey would add another hour on for me, so Tricia would probably be there by the time I got to the cafe. I grabbed my coat and walked through the door to find Kim standing on the other side attempting to work the door knob without dropping her books.

"Oh! Hey there!" I said, not having expected the sudden conversation, "How was college?"

"Hard work as always." the conservative Kim sighed, I could see her breath in the air, it was pretty cold out there, "But I'm done for the night. Where are you going?"

"I have some evil twin showdown thing going on." I chuckled, remembering my conversation with her regarding Stressed being happier out of my mind. "Seriously, though, I'm going to meet my friend at the coffee shop."

"Well have a good time, okay?" she called after me, I was already halfway out of the front yard though. I waved back and vanished towards the train station.

The ride felt shorter than any of the previous trips. Perhaps it was the dagger of Damocles dangling above my head which made every instant zoom by, or perhaps it was early afternoon traffic. Either way, I was guiding myself to the World Cafe once again, ready to have a late lunch with Tricia and enjoy a couple hours of quiet before meeting up with Stressed for what would probably be the last time.

My eyes kept scanning the world around me with increasing paranoia, he could still be anywhere, watching me or Tricia undetectable. Looking for a ghost in a crowded city street was a wasteful idea, and yet I could not feel safe without at least trying.

I found the cafe fairly fast and pushed through the door, hearing the familiar jingle of the door's bell. The store was fairly busy, so I pulled myself to the back of the line. My eyes scanned the store for Tricia, but she didn't appear to be there.

WIth the extra moments to get lost in my thoughts, I took in the atmosphere. A few weeks ago it had been my life. Day in and day out I breathed this store, I knew every nook and cranny of the place, the feel of every canister and container in my hands, every smell and how the ambience switched when the sun was in different positions. The nostalgia overtook me, but nothing felt stronger than the creeping sensation that it may be the last time I got to stand there.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when the bell chimed again. I turned instinctively and was greeted with Tricia's face. She looked happy to see me and so I rushed in for a friendly hug. "Tricia! I'm glad you were able to make it."

Tricia smiled back at me and tilted her head, "Well I was worried about you, that stuff you told me yesterday sounded pretty serious and I want to be here for moral support."

I smiled and nudged her arm, "Thanks Tricia. Tell you what, you find us a booth and I'll get our drinks. Then I'll give you the full story, okay?"

She nodded resolutely and hurried off to set her bag down at the booth. I waited patiently until I could get our usual order of a coffee and hot chocolate. My former work colleuge barely glanced at me while prepping the drinks. Within fifteen minutes I was sitting opposite the high schooler and setting our drinks down.

"Okay, Craig. Now what's going on? Explain it to me from the very start." I had to give it to Tricia, she was straight to the point.

"Well, like I said yesterday, I have an imaginary friend who has managed to escape my mind and bleed out into the real world." I said, but Tricia held her hand up shaking it frantically.

"No, no, no. I mean the start, I get that you have an imaginary friend, but when did you make him, under what circumstances?" she was approaching this a lot more detective-like than I would have expected from her.

"Does it make a difference?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Well, if it's important to understanding why he wants to torment you, then maybe. Just tell me, so I know the whole story."

I nodded, "Okay, that sounds fair. I'll tell you everything I can remember, then. I was raised in Lost Hearts orphanage, a little ways away from here and I wasn't really popular. So one day this new kid just started hanging out with me."

Tricia leant over the table, listening intently.

"We used to sneak into the attic and play while the others were all together. I preferred to spend my time with him alone than with everyone else anyway. I can't remember when or how I worked it out, but yeah, he wasn't real. He was all in my head. Only I could see him and I just thought I'd dreamed him up."

"But you didn't really think him up?" Tricia asked, quizically.

"Well, I don't think I did. Why, does it matter?" I asked.

"Of course it matters!" Tricia exclaimed loud enough to turn some heads, "If you didn't make him up, then he really could be a ghost or he might be part of your subconcious or something."

I narrowed my eyes, having a hard time following, "So, all that means is that he's not under my control and he got to do whatever he wanted."

"Exactly!" Tricia said, seemingly pleased with herself, "But you weren't done with your story. How did you two split apart."

I had no idea why she seemed so enthused or like she'd worked out a big secret, but I continued on as best I could, "Well some other kids worked out where we were and broke in to the attic and started picking on me. I guess I must have had a reputation for talking to myself, and they thought I was some kind of freak."

"Kids are jerks like that." Tricia sighed in agreement, brushing a hand past her ears.

"Well, Stressed took over my body for the first time that day and protected me from the kids, but he went too far and had one of them hospitalized. Everyone treated me like some kind of monster after that day, and I was afraid of him so I asked never to see him again. And he kept the promise until the day we met."

Tricia nodded sagely, understanding a lot more than I seemed to have been. "Well it sounds to me like he was more than an imaginary friend. I don't know how or why, but he sounds like a completely different person."

"Well, he acts like one." I said with a shrug, still not getting where she was going with the line of thinking.

"Well, you sent him away and treated him like a figment of your imagination." she stated, "Maybe you shouldn't do that. Treat him like an individual and he might even respect you."

I took a sip of my coffee and thought it over for a moment, "So you think I should go to our meeting with an apology and sense of renewed understanding?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Would it really hurt?" she asked, reaching for my hand, "At least you stand a chance of reasoning with him. If he's as ghost like and untouchable as you say, then it's probably your only hope."

She was right, wether he was a product of my mind or some spirit who happened to possess me, he obviously wasn't a part of me any longer, and the only way I could battle him was with my mind. Wether that be through words or willpower, it was better to have an idea of what to do and a perspective of what he wanted.

"I think that helps." I said, feeling a weight lifted. "I'm ready for this."

"Good, because I have a bunch of homework and want you to help me out, plus you can listen to me talk for a while." Tricia all but chuckled, enjoying the easy going mood of the moment. I had to hand it to her, if it wasn't for her, I'd still be terrified of my encounter.

So, for the next few hours, we remained together. I wasn't too good with helping with the homework, but I doubt she wanted my brain, just my company. With the threat of oblivion looming over my head, it was nice to just enjoy the company of a friend and forget the world. Knowing that I'd wisely spent my last hours in happiness and comfort, I was ready for anything.

We exitted the cafe together, my hand clamped tightly around her own. "Tricia. I'll be back here by the end of the evening. I promise. Just go home and come back to the cafe in a few hours. I'll be there, I promise."

She stopped and looked at me, "I believe you, Craig. I really do. But I want to be with you when this happens, anyway."

I shook my head and put a hand to her shoulder, "Trish, at the very least, I do not want him to use you as a hostage if things come to that. He's guaranteed not to hurt me, but I don't know how far he'd go against someone I care about."

Tricia hung her head and heaved in a long sigh, weighing her options, before nodding, "I understand. Good luck, Craig."

"I wont need it." I said with a smile, "But thank you."

We parted ways and I found myself walking through the streets of the city, from my old haunt of the cafe to the older haunt of the orphanage. All spaces in between like a limbo between one life and another, but soon enough the buildings began to become familiar, my feet switched to auto-pilot and within a short number of minutes I found myself outside the grounds of a building that I'd spent my entire childhood in.

It looked like an old church building, converted for a purpose perhaps, it's historic design clashing vastly with the modern offices and apartments surrounding it. Being a few miles out of the city center, it wasn't the most upscale location in the world, but the building held up well over time. An ivy coated tower with a cone roof sat above the entrance and then the building spread out into a larger hall area.

Blanketted under darkness, I entered the building. It had only been a few months since I'd left, so I knew how to look like I fit in. The door yeilded to my push with no resistance and I found the reception area, barren and empty as it tended to be during the evening. To my left, the stairs going up to the offices and to my left the great hall where meals were eaten and where we would watch movies on rainy days. I pressed on through the back door to the lodging and active areas of the building.

Familiar sounds rang in my ears, the faint pitter patter of tiny shoes slamming on the floor as children ran about the place, the voices which all blended into one sound which could only be described as kids at play. It was certainly another world, one which I felt I had no place in any longer. It surprised me how much I'd grown in such a short period of time.

I found the stairs which lead to the attic and climbed them, thanking my lucky stars that I'd got this far without being noticed. Either it was fate or a haunting truth of the lax security that these places seemed to have. Either way, I opened the door and found the dust coated attic in the exact state it remained in my memory. Boxes stacked all over, beams of rotting wood hanging above with cobwebs tying them to the wall.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it Craig?" Stressed voiced echoed through the spacious room, "Back when things were easier, when the two of us didn't have so much baggage to haul. Back when we could have been friends."

"Good times..." I sighed, walking in to the room, keeping my guard up, watching every shadow and opening it would not jump out at me.

"I hope you put a lot of thought into what you were going to say to me when we reached this point." he continued. His voice bouncing off of every surface, impossible for me to locate the source, "You have a chance to justify your existance and be judged for it. Not many people get that opportunity."

"I suppose I should be grateful." I grumbled in responce.

"You really should." he continued, stepping out from behind a box at the end of the room, "Of course, I will play the role of judge, jury and executioner. I don't think there's a better person for the job than the man born from your soul."

"I sense a bias jury." I stated flatly, not willing to give him any satisfaction from tormenting me, "Maybe we should do a mis-trial."

He chuckled, folding his arms and standing his ground. "I'd hate to dash your hopes of running away from this one, Craig, but as the judge of this case, I am going to have to overrule your objections."

"You're such a pretentious arse, you know that?"

He smirked smugly, "I'm aware. But this isn't about me, it's about you. This is about what we talked about outside the lodge, what has been lurking in the back of your soul all these years. That one question you keep asking yourself and yet never have the courage to answer."

I clenched my fist, but remained wordless. I knew damned well what he was referring to.

He slowly paced towards me looking me up and down like an exhibit at an art show, "You, the one who was abandoned by his parents. You, the one who found himself unadopted for eighteen years. You, who clung so desperately for a minimum wage job and had no hope of aspiring any higher. You who contribute nothing to this world. Tell me now, why I shouldn't force you out and use your existance for something meaningful. Tell me why you don't deserve my wrath."

I breathed in, glaring at him the entire time, "I do contribute, Stressed." I asserted, "You're just too thick skulled to see how. You're stuck in the delusion that doing something with your life requires personal enrichment, career success and evidence to show others that you are a success."

His face was silent, he wasn't certain where I was going with my rant. I only had a vague idea, my intent until this point had been to apologize and beg for mercy. Spontaneously sprouting a backbone was not part of my plan, but I was flying now and my mouth was fighting for my soul. I was more than happy to let it.

"I think I know why I'm here and I'm at peace with it." I stated, stepping in towards him. My fear was melting away, he was all talk. A voice of doubt in my head which I could silence with the power of my own self-respect.

He didn't seem to be swayed by my speech, though, "And what pray-tell is that? Some sappy nonesense about experiencing life again? Living for the sake of enjoying reality?" I could hear it in his voice, he was losing his patience with me. His temper was hitting critical mass.

"No. It's to be there for other people. To be a good person and a helpful soul for the people I care about." this caught him off-guard, his frown flickered into surprise just for a moment. Just as I'd under-estimated his will being limited to my own, he had not considered my life in any terms but from my own perspective. "These past weeks I've grown really close to Tricia and we've helped one another out immensly, and in a single conversation I was able to make Kim open up in a way she'd never allowed herself to. You can't just shrug that off."

He frowned, "You call either of those things helping? You've made Kim become dangerously wreckless and given Tricia false hope for a care free future. You're nothing more than a menace with good intentions."

I shook my head defiantly, "No, I'm a good person. Certainly better than you." I would have continued, but his patience broke and he swung a fist at me, cracking me in the jaw as he had done the previous night. I collapsed on the dust coated ground and looked up at him. I have no idea why, but I started laughing.

He pounced upon me and threw another punch, grabbing the collar of my shirt, "I'm better than you in every way, Craig." he all but roared at me, "I'm stronger. Smarter. More capable. I'm the one who deserves to be walking around in the open, making a life!" his fist connected with my cheek once more.

Even with him punching me, my laughter fading with the pain. "I'm sorry." I whimpered, but not in defeat, no. In resolution. "I never took your feelings into consideration. I didn't realize how trapped you were." he paused his assault, I looked up at him, "But you're still just a selfish fool throwing his toys out of the pram because you can't get your own way."

He punched me again. I deserved it.

"You don't want to achieve anything. You just want to knock me down. This is all about revenge and getting at me." I sneered.

Another solid punch, I could my face burning, my nerves screaming at me, "You narcisist! Not everything is about you!" he punctuated his statement with another punch. I was getting dizzy.

I spat at him, it went right through him and onto my shirt, "Then why do you care?" I huffed, "You have total freedom. You can interact with the world just fine. You have more power than me, more freedom. You can do more as you are than you ever could if you consumed me, but you're too focused on squabbling with me. With beating me."

"I am better than you Craig and I want you to damn well respect it." he announced, halting further beatings for the moment.

"Why?" I spluttered, trying to look as defiant as my situation would allow, "Because you're not good enough to respect yourself?" my nerves screamed out as he once again punished me for my insolence. "You're nothing, Stressed. You keep saying I need you, but it's worse than that, you need me, and my indifference is what hurts you the most."

"Shut up!" he yelled, thrusting me to the ground and standing over my body, "I don't need you, Craig. You're worthless."

"Then why are you trying to prove yourself to me? Why do you care? This body isn't worth all this." I propped myself up on my elbows, "When Kim asked my hearts desire, I didn't realize I'd say I wanted you gone, but ask me now and I'd scream from the rooftops, I want you gone, Stressed. I want you out of my life."

He just walked around me, examining me again, I tried to keep my bravado. He was no longer in my head, he couldn't see the weakness that hid under my facade. "You really mean it, don't you?" I didn't waiver, "I don't have to like you, but I respect you. You're not the weak spineless wimp I remember anymore, are you?"

I shook my head, "Maybe you should make a life for yourself now, Stressed. Just forget about me, about our past and start building yourself a future. While you've been busy building this reunion in a building that should mean nothing to us now, I've been building a relationship with Tricia and making some good friends at the lodge. I have a future now, Stressed. You should get one too."

He looked pensieve. For a moment, I thought he was about to hit me again, "You're right." he conceeded not looking too pleased with the revelation. "Here I was hoping this would be a do or die battle for superiority. But you really did outgrow me, didn't you?"

"Would you have preferred I bring a gun and shoot you?" I offered, shrugging, "Just go and make a life for yourself, okay?"

He knelt down and picked up a block of wood, turning it in his hands a few times, admiring his control over it, "I have a lot to think about." he said slowly, "I guess I can leave you alone. You've proven yourself trust worthy." he tossed the wood aside and turned his back to me, "By the way. It's Tyler Dawn. Don't forget it this time." and then instantly he was gone.

I slumped back to the floor, after all of that build up, after all of that torment, he was the childish one who refused to grow up. It was enough to make me want to laugh again. I had no idea where he had gone, but I'd proven myself stronger than him, I'd lived up to his expectations. I was free now.

"Goodbye, Stressed." I whispered into the air. Just because he finally mentioned his name didn't mean I had to call him it.

With my anti-climactic showdown finally over, I snuck out of the orphanage, thankfully undetected. My face was on fire from all of the punching I had recieved and I was sure I was bleeding from my nose if nowhere else. I hated having to go back and see Tricia like this, but it was better to show her that I was alive and injured than not show up and imply I was dead or missing.

When I arrived at the cafe I ordered our usual drinks and asked for some ice to put in a bag for my face. The staff obliged and kindly did not ask any questions. As I sat in the booth I nursed my injuries and waited for a thankfully short time for her to come back in. She'd changed into her casual clothes, a green velvet shirt and a pair of jeans. She rushed over to our booth and wrapped her arms around me.

"Craig, I'm so glad your safe. But your face! You look awful!" she released me and sat back, allowing me to do the same. I pushed a drink over to her and sipped on my own.

"Turns out he was so fixated on me wasting my existance he didn't even consider that he had his own independant one. I sent him on the way to making something of it for himself. Here's hoping it goes well." I gave a soft shrug. I wanted the topic to drop dead and be able to move on with my life, free of the ghost of self-doubt.

Perking up a little, I raised my cup, "So, hey. You may not be able to live there, but if you have weekends free, maybe you should come up to our little lodge and visit us for a day? That way you'll know how it is when you have the chance to move up there."

She broke into a smile. "Sounds like a plan to me!" she exclaimed.

I felt a smile creep to my own lips. I'm sure Cari would love to see the girl I was falling for and weigh her up with a thousand up-beat questions. Tamara would probably enjoy speaking to someone normal and easy going and Kim may even feel inclined to show her what color her eyes were under those tinted glasses. I could imagine all of the fun that we could have and it just made me excited for life.

-

Epilogue:

It had been weeks since Tyler "Stressed Bayfield" Dawn had seperated from Craig Bayfield. It had taken him some time for him to work out what to do with the limitless freedom. He walked the streets of Sega City, through buildings, construction sites, forbidden areas. The world was an open playground for him and he had no barriers. No walls could keep him out, no time was too late or too early. His stamina did not fade, his will did not break. By the end of the second day he was able to map the majority of the central city area.

He wasn't sure what his goal was, but by viewing life in all forms, breaking through the norms, he was sure he would find something. He had finally found it. He didn't know how he knew, but standing there at the entrance, looking down into the dark and damp cavern, he knew this was it.

A single pillar of light sank from the world above. He'd found the hole leading into the cavern a few miles out of the city center, in a construction zone at the edge of a private estate. He was unsure how long it had sat dormant, but it was clear that the cave was unexplored. He sank into the darkness and landed ankle deep into cold water. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness as he waded forward. Flanking him were rows and rows of book shelves, each filled to the brim with large tomes of varying natures and history.

His hand ran along the edges of the books, his eyes scanning the spines, all kinds of languages, all manners of origin. An ancient sunken library full of forgotten words. The perfect place for his keen mind to absorb knowledge.

He picked off a book from the shelf and found it written from front to back in an entirely alien language, pages full of diagrams and symbols that seemed entirely unfamiliar. He flicked through the pages and switched to another book and another, each were the same. A lesser man would have been detterred, but the intrigue drove him and through the next few days he studied the books, he decyphered the meanings. Until eventually, he found a journal written in English.

"To the person who has discovered my library. I invite you to look upon my culture, the culture of a world I left behind. I was born Rahgool of Saygrem and died Lord Galish of Sega City. In the following pages I shall chronicle my journey from my world to yours and give you the tools to understand the history and magic of my world, a world filled with strife, war and anguish."

A smile crept to Tyler Dawn's lips. A life of purpose. A life of magic. A destiny in a world where there was no Craig Bayfield.

Sounded too good to be true.