Hello there, and happy Friday! Quick reminder that I am reducing speed on updates for Mortified (combination of writer's block, other projects, and life events) and will only be guaranteeing an update once a week!

I encourage you to check out my phic phight phic, Collateral, phor your phandom phix.

Thank you all for your understanding and continued support. I really do thrive on your positive feedback. :)

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Chapter 128:

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Vlad didn't know what to make of the present situation.

Clearly, he had just entered a reality that was quite different from the 'true' one. What he remembered of events on the floor below this one tended to corroborate that. However, the memories this floor had given him, his memories from before entering the Bends, weren't at all enlightening.

He had come here alone.

Correction, he remembered coming to the Bends alone. Clearly, he had not.

He hoped that there was a very good explanation for why 1) he was carrying his seriously injured estranged godson in his arms, 2) he was with his godson (his very human godson) in the Bends, 3) his godson was calling him 'Dad,' and 4) why this second small child (who looked a lot like Daniel, but was a ghost) was calling him Dad.

He would also like to know why there were a bunch of other... assorted humans and ghosts with them. In Vlad's experience, people didn't typically travel through the Bends in such large groups. Vlad certainly wouldn't under ordinary circumstances. He didn't like most people. Most people were selfish, self-absorbed, intellectually-stunted gremlins.

"Children, please," he said, stopping the verbal argument between Daniel and his ghostly lookalike. "Clearly, we all know each other. There's no need to fight." He cast around the room. "There was a sitting room on this floor," he muttered.

"Er, shouldn't we be running?" asked one of the other human children.

"And who are you?" asked Vlad.

"Ricky," said the boy. "There were people trying to kill us before. Shouldn't we be trying to get to the next floor?"

Ah. That would explain why Daniel was injured. Or perhaps not. Daniel was almost certainly overlaid with a different universe than this boy.

"No one will break the truce," said Vlad.

"They already did," said a girl. "What's this floor supposed to do, anyway?" She hugged herself. "It feels weird."

"It changes a choice made by someone close to you," said Vlad. "If you are experiencing discomfort, it is likely because the 'you' resulting from the choices is too different from the real you."

"I think that the sitting room was over there," interjected Daniel before Vlad could say more. He pointed. "At least, I don't think that we should stand in front of the stairs like this. It's pretty exposed."

Vlad looked down at Daniel with some amazement. "You've been here before?"

"Yes, with you. Do you... Not remember me?" Daniel actually sounded somewhat concerned at that prospect. He glanced at the ghost girl. "Or her, either? Who are you, anyway?"

The girl scoffed and tilted her chin. "Danielle Masters," she said, proudly. "Who are you?"

"Daniel Masters," said Daniel slowly. His eyes were narrowed as he examined the girl. "Maybe... The person who chose differently for all three of us is Mom. That would make sense, wouldn't it? Dad?"

"Why, yes. Yes, that would make sense." Vlad couldn't imagine who the girl's mother could be if he really were her father, however, and he knew very well that Jack and Maddie were Daniel's parents. It followed that they were also this girl's parents, but that only made the fact that both of them insisted on calling him their father more confusing.

He would not, however, lie to himself and say that it wasn't gratifying. Vlad knew his Obsession with family, and being loved very well. He had wished for children many times.

Alas, his... condition made it difficult to get close to people. To this day, his only real friends were Jack and Maddie, and if they had been less insistent about coming to see him, less persistent in their harassment of the GIW agents and doctors assigned to monitor his case of ecto-acne after his accident, well, he wouldn't be surprised if he had no friends at all. Even so, Jack and Maddie still didn't know the full extent of the changes Vlad had suffered after the portal accident, of his need to fulfill his Obsessions, and the madness that threatened to consume him if he did not.

Being named godfather for Jasmine and Daniel had helped. It had helped a lot, actually.

Perhaps if he thought very hard about that, it would quell his growing fear concerning what might have happened to Jack and Maddie.

"I don't have a mom," said Danielle, breaking into Vlad's thoughts.

"Yeah, I know she's not around anymore," said Daniel (Vlad's heart seized at the idea of Maddie being 'not around'), "but-"

"No, I don't have a mother. Father made me all by himself."

"That's not possible. Everyone has a mother. Just because you don't know who yours is, doesn't mean you don't." Daniel paused. "Okay, that's only true for humans. You're a ghost, so I guess that doesn't really apply." Daniel put a very delicate emphasis on the words 'you're a ghost.'

Danielle apparently noticed this. She tilted her head very slightly to the left. "And you're a human. So what?" There was the same delicate emphasis in Danielle's words, albeit at different points. What could they be trying to communicate here? He'd had these children for all of ten minutes and already he didn't understand them.

"As human as anyone could be, anyway."

It suddenly struck Vlad that each of them were, subtly, trying to figure out whether or not the other one was a hybrid.

He felt his headache redouble. Yes, that would explain why Daniel was here in the first place. As for Danielle's resemblance to Daniel... Perhaps Danielle was Daniel's younger sister, and was experiencing a universe where Daniel had not been born, and they were both from universes where Jack and Maddie had suffered some disaster, necessitating that Vlad adopt them. Except that, if that were the case, there really wasn't any reason for her to insist that he, Vlad, had made her all by himself.

It also didn't bode well for the real Jack and Maddie.

Daniel snuggled closer to Vlad, and sighed heavily. "I'm tired," he said. His tone was entirely void of petulance, unlike what Vlad might have envisioned from a child Daniel's age. The statement was a simple observation. "I think I was hurt worse than we thought." He rubbed his chest as he leaned his head against Vlad's shoulder.

(Vlad suppressed a shiver as one of the wisps fluttering around Daniel took a path through him.)

"Or, no," continued Daniel, "wrong way to say that. Worse than you thought in my universe when we were both still outside."

"Hurt by what?" asked Danielle, tilting her head. Her frown had changed into something more concerned.

"Is he going to be alright, SeƱor Masters?" asked a Latina girl with a pronounced accent. Her braid had come half-undone.

"Who're all of you guys, anyway?" asked Daniel before Vlad could formulate a proper answer.

"We're your classmates," said the black girl.

"You don't go to St. Agatha's," said Daniel.

"Yeah, no way are you one of my classmates," agreed Danielle.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "What, because I'm black? My dad is the founder of a security company, you know."

"Uh, no. St. Agatha's has like, a hundred people in it. I'd recognize you if you went there," said Daniel, reasonably. "Even if I didn't know your name, I'd know your face."

"Same," said Danielle. "But you don't go there, either, and she's from a different universe. So. Do you go to St. Agatha's?"

"No," said the girl after a moment. "I go to Casper High. And so do you, Danny."

"It's Daniel."

That got some odd looks.

Vlad sighed.

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Daniel glared weakly across Vlad at the girl who had called herself Danielle. There wasn't much force behind the glare, or emotion for that matter. Despite the irritation he felt at her presence initially, she was starting to grow on him, and Daniel knew that she was probably his little sister. Also, Daniel was tired. He probably would have drifted off by now, except for what appeared to be an extreme difference between true reality and the one his memories came from, and how strangely his father was acting.

Vlad Masters was typically a sharp, decisive, confident, and above all, forceful man. Daniel had never, not once doubted that Vlad loved him, that Vlad would protect him, and keep him safe, but Vlad could be... hard, sometimes.

This version of Vlad was significantly softer, and also more distant. It scared Daniel. Vlad had always been the rock of stability in his life, the one constant as they moved around the country, the one person he was truly close to. Having him act like he barely knew Daniel unnerved Daniel greatly.

A second, but probably more immediately important, issue was the sheer number of people with them.

Daniel had always known that he and Vlad were special. Unique. At least, that's what Vlad had always taught Daniel, and once Daniel's hybrid nature had emerged over an exceptionally unsettling (and occasionally painful) August week, he had seen that it had been nothing but the truth. As special people, Vlad had taught Daniel, they would acquire followers, hangers-on, servants, vassals, minions.

Even so, Vlad had never attracted, or sought to attract, this kind of following. At least, not all at once. To Daniel, this looked like a small army.

Okay, a very small army. Still. He did have experiences (unpleasant ones) with armies. Particularly those of Pariah Dark and Fright Knight. He knew what he was talking about.

Danielle sighed, and leaned into Vlad. Daniel's eyes narrowed, and he, too, squirmed closer to his father. Vlad was becoming quite smushed in-between the two of them. Daniel knew that he was being petty, and that he should be more focused on why the Observants had ordered that he and Vlad be attacked, but... Well... He was a ghost, and between pain and exhaustion, he could think of little else.

He was very glad that it had been decided that they would take a rest in the sitting room after all. Being carried, even by his father, had a tendency to be uncomfortable and embarrassing.

At that point, a small green ghost dog jumped up onto the couch next to him. Danny regarded it with some curiosity. The other ghosts were giving him and Vlad a wide berth. Unless he counted Danielle and the wisps. He suspected Danielle, beyond possibly being his sister, was a hybrid, so she didn't count, and it was just like wisps to suck up to the most powerful ghost in the area, and Vlad definitely met that description.

The puppy was an outlier.

It licked his elbow and wagged its tail.

"Hello, puppy," he said. He patted its head, and traced down the back of the dog's head to get hold of the collar around its neck.

"Careful, Daniel," said Vlad. "You don't know where that's been."

"I know, but they're with us, so they can't be bad, right?" reasoned Daniel. He'd always wanted a dog, a cat, or some other pet, but Vlad had said that it wasn't practical, that it wouldn't be fair to the pet, considering the more unusual aspects of their life. The dog's tags jingled when he finally found them and brought them around into sight. "Cujo, huh? Your owner must have a wild sense of humor."

The dog wagged its tail enthusiastically, and curled up next to Daniel's hip. He petted it before settling down on Vlad's side again. Vlad sighed heavily, and put his arm around Daniel.

"I suppose it's unlikely to attack," said Vlad, with an air of resignation.

"Good puppy," murmured Daniel. His blinks were becoming longer. Ancients, he was tired.

His eyes slipped closed.