"I think I understand now."

She looks at him blankly.

"You were there weren't you?"

She looks away.

"Why? Didn't you say I would die?"

"I was not the one to say it."

He stares at her with an understanding sadness.

The rest of the week pretty much stayed the same. Johnathan would spend a couple hours talking and play games with the others, stay in his room for the rest of the day until dinner, cook and pretend to eat, spend the night watching the stars, cook breakfast, pretend to eat and the cycle repeats. The others had also started to notice Johnathan's lack of eating and isolation. It's so unlike him. However, things with Johnathan have taken a turn for the worse. His height is still growing, he's now up to Davids jaw, and he still can't eat or sleep. Two nights ago, he started hearing these voices, one sounded intelligent and the other didn't have much of vocabulary but he still got his point across. Johnathan has been trying to ignore them but this morning something happened to change his mind.

Flashback

The sun had again snapped him out of his trance this morning. Johnathan stands up and heads to the small bathroom attached to his room. Locking the door, he takes his mask off and washes his face.

"Johnathan."

Johnathan is startled and drops the towel he was using to dry his face. He looks around the bathroom for a sign of who spoke to him.

"Johnathan!"

His head snaps to the mirror and his eyes widen. Like transparent ghosts, two forms stand behind him in the mirror. He turns to see if they are actually there but there's nothing behind him. Turning back to the mirror, they stood there again.

"So we finally meet." He looked exactly like Johnathan, just paler with slightly longer hair and he wore a blue sweater, black slacks and a white lab coat.

"Impossible." Johnathan whispers.

The Doctor snorts, "Not impossible, improbable. We may have merged our bodies, memories and experiences but our consciousness' are still each our own."

"You are you because of you." His form is massive and monstrous, bulging muscles and black eyes behind his mask. He wore the usual mask, blue hoodie and black jeans. However, the iconic weapons are no where to be seen.

"What he means to say is that while we are each our own person, this body is yours, you are the original from this world. For example, had we'd merged in my world, I would have been in charge because it was originally my body." The doctor explains, "However, I guess you could say we are aware separate personalities at this point, because we share a body."

"If you are separate personalities, wouldn't that suggest you could gain control with proper conditions or with a certain suggestion of words?" Johnathan asks.

The Doctor sighs, "It feels incredibly weird when you draw on my intelligence. However, I can't deny that finally having an intelligent conversation after spending so much time with this brute," He point at the behemoth next to him,"is quite relaxing. To answer your question, yes, however, you must give us permission or at least stop blocking us. You are subconsciously blocking any attempt to gain access to your body. I suppose its a natural defense mechanism your mind has produced, thinking we are intruders when, in fact, we are one in the same."

"We all can't be Johnathan. What do I call you?" Johnathan honestly can't keep calling them Johnathan or he would get incredibly confused.

"I suppose you just keep calling me what you have been, Doctor shall be my name." Doctor says.

"Delirious." The newly dubbed Delirious grumbles out.

"Delirious?" A knock sounded on the bathroom door. "You in there?"

Both Johnathan and Delirious look at the door while the Doctor sighs in frustration.

"I suppose we shall talk later, then."

Then they disappeared.

Flashback Ends

Johnathan can still feel them around, they are like a buzz just behind his eyes and while they seem content to stay where they are, Johnathan has been having sporadic bursts of each personality. While talking with his friends, he would speak of things they could not understand such as theories of the mind or the connections of medicine with games. Whenever he lost a game he really should have won, well, Johnathan is glad that they brought extra controllers. It was nearing dinner time when Craig came to his room.

"Delirious?" He knocks on the door, "Can I come in?"

Johnathan closes the book he was reading and shouts, "Yeah!"

Craig opens the door with a grin, "Hey, just came by to tell you that you don't have to cook tonight."

"Why is that?"

"Well, everyone thought you could use a break and so, we all pitched in and tonight we are roasting hot dogs and smores over a fire pit out front." Craig snickers, "We had a group vote and once we are all done eating, we are going to attempt to tell scary stories."

"Ah." Johnathan couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Are you coming? We've got everything already set up. We are just waiting for you."

Johnathan nods and stands up from his seat. After putting his book back on the shelf, he and Craig head on outside where everyone was sitting around a large fire pit. After eating, or pretending to eat in Johnathan's case, everyone started telling cheesy and horrible horror stories. Everyone kept laughing at each teller and not one of them could actually tell a straight story.

"And she was never heard from again." Brian laughed.

Johnathan couldn't help but snort.

Brian turns to Johnathan, "You think you could do better?"

"Yeah! We've all gone, it's your turn now, Delirious." Evan grins.

Johnathan turns his head to look at the full moon, "Very well but you must stay quiet for this story is sacred." His voice had turned soft but it was firm, demanding quiet attention.

"In the beginning, before science, before humanity, before the dinosaurs, this world held great beings. Our myths and legends of old hold some truth, after all. There were three types of beings: The Winged Ones, The Grounded Ones and The Magical Ones."

Johnathan didn't know what was going on. His vision was being covered by beautiful visions of a world he could not remember. He could no longer control his mouth but he was aware of everything happening.

"Each group held one person, the strongest of them all, to be their leader. For centuries, these leaders took their roles with pride but soon, they knew, the Call was coming. So, they each gained an heir, they trained them, got them ready for their roles in life. However, the leaders did not see something that was developing between the three heirs. They did not realize that they would fall in love with each other."

Every word he spoke was being absorbed by his audience, each one enchanted with the story.

"These creatures, unlike us humans, held no specific gender. They could breed with anyone they wished. While the old leaders focused on training and preparing for the call, the young ones love grew to enormous amounts. They wanted to be a family. When the old leaders sent them out on a journey to experience and refine what they taught them, they took this as an opportunity. While they adventured, the Magical one researched. Finally, she found a spell, an old spell, one with dark magic. But surely, she thought, having a child will be worth it. In order for all three of them to have ONE child, they must breed under a blood moon. A blood moon comes every fifty years, and luck would have it, the next one was scheduled to be within the next week. So excited they were, they prepared immediately. When the night came, they mated. The Winged one and the Grounded one shared their seed with the Magical one and with a flash they had a single child growing with her belly. However, unknown to them all, part of the spell was hidden from normal light. Had they looked in the book under the red light of the blood moon, they would have seen the dire warning and the consequences of such a spell. But it was too late to back out, even if they did know."

"What happened?" Craig whispers.

Johnathan glances at the man before staring into the fire.

"The child grew and grew and grew. Soon, the Magical one could no longer walk because of how big her belly was. All three grew more and more concern as time went by. The child grew so large in such a short time. Normally, these creatures gave birth within six months but this child was almost fully grown within her belly in two. On the day of what we would call the Friday the Thirteenth, the child was born. She was so frail looking, pale with thin limbs. As she grew, she showed none of the traits that her parents had. She did not grow wings like the Winged one, she did not show any sort of talent with magic and she did not hold any of the strength a Grounded one had. It was as if she were a new breed. It confounded her parents but they still cared for her and loved her with all their hearts. When she turned six, they all returned to the palace, where the leaders of each group stayed. They hid her from the old leaders, they did not know what their reaction would be. They did not want to risk their child any harm if they could prevent it. While they were busy, the child developed. Because of their stress on hiding, the child's hidden magic began to develop. Her magic was dark, black and held a feeling of nothingness. Her magic had evolved to gain control of shadows, a power never seen before. Whenever she explored the castle, she would cover herself in shadows to hide from the servants. When she turned seven, the Call came."

"What's the Call?" Evan asks.

Johnathan looks up briefly before looking at the woods.

"The Call... It was unknown to what exactly it was. The best way to describe it is the massive collection of souls and then erasing them into a never ending void. Only those who are old, ready to pass on or sick feel the Call. They would travel to the center of the realm where an enormous door sat and they would travel through, never to be seen or heard from again. The souls that entered didn't get erased as in as if it were never made but every memory, every experience, pleasure or sin is washed away from it, making it pure once again. Then these souls would travel through the white void and be placed within the ground were life giving trees, crops and water well could be found, giving life and food to the new generation. No one knew when a Call would happen, it just would. Never has a child ever heard the Call, but she did. She heard the whispers, the pull on her chest. With a foggy mind, she escaped from the palace at night and followed the others to the door. Leading the enormous pack are the old leaders, their eyes glazed and bodies automatically walking gracefully. They stood to the side as everyone else entered the door, making sure everyone that was there entered. The child was the last one when they stopped her. The placed a hand on her shoulder and gazed down at her with confused white eyes. The Call had taken their minds and it did not know why a child was there. It never called for children unless they were incredibly sick and this child was not sick. Why did she feel it? It looked into her soul and the ground rumbled in shock. It became curious and disgusted. The prophecy had begun."

"Prophecy?" David asks.

"On a night of red, Three shall bed, The child born, Is a being torn. One half dark, Waiting to leave its mark, The other white, Shining pure and bright. This child will grow and feel the call, should it fight the call, the world will end, should it follow, the world will end. Both endings alike yet different. This prophecy was billions of years old and lost to time, but it still remembered. The child had followed the call, so the Call would allow her to enter. The hand left her shoulder and she walked towards the door. However, her parents had caught word of her leaving and had followed as well. They called out to her, begging her to stop. For a second, her mind broke from the fog the Call offered an turned to look at her parents with a small smile. The Call shuddered, causing the ground to shake. What does this mean? Did she fight or follow? The quaking allowed her mind enter the fog again, and she continued her way to the door. Her parents begged and screamed and cried but their pleas were no longer heard. With one hand forward, the child entered the door. The old leaders soon followed her and the doorway closed, leaving the grieving parents to morn the loss of their child."

"Well, that's sad." Anthony comments.

"It does not end there. The child was unable to be cleansed of her darkness. You see the taint comes from living and experiencing things as you grow old, hers was there from birth. Even a God can not tear a soul in half. Because of this, she could not move on, she was stuck. Time went by and her soul continued to grow and age. Her magic had evolved once again, allowing her to draw power from this white void. However, the darkness of her soul had spread out. Now the white void had spots of grey that continued to grow. The child, now woman, had developed but because of her mixed nature and absorbing the energy around her, her form was something entire unique. Her magic also grew and evolved and developed into something unique. She had learned that she could touch the souls coming through the door, she could interact with them. While she found no use to the power, every time she touched a soul, her darkness spread into it. So, when it was finally put into the ground, the people who ate its fruit, they became meaner, selfish, violent. Some children even became seriously sick. The souls who ate the tainted fruit that answers the Call, the taint cannot be cleansed naturally and in order for the souls to be cleansed, the Void needed to absorb the taint. After cleansing, the soul is brushed against the grey spots growing around the void and is tainted once more before it's finally put into the ground again. It's a cycle that grows and grows and grows until finally, nothing pure is left anymore."

"What happened to the woman?" Brian asks.

"She was around. She had noticed the growing taint as well and had tried to fix it by absorbing it into herself but because of her unconsciously absorbing the void around her, it didn't do anything. Soon enough, the white void became a void of darkness. The woman tried everything but because of the souls coming in tainted there was nothing she could do. Over time the woman's magic created a connection with the void because it became more and more infected with her energy, her darkness, her being. Because of this connection she could control the void around her. Allowing her to exit the void and created anything she wanted within it. When it became apparent to her that the taint had actually come from her, she had an idea. She waited for the next call and once the souls went through the now useless cleansing process, she grabbed three of them before they could leave for the ground. She concentrated and soon enough the souls began to lighten until they became white again. She had absorbed the darkness back into her self and allowed for her pureness to encase the souls so that the darkness can't hurt them again. The process exhausted her to the point of pain, after all she did just give these blank souls a part of her existence. The inky black of the void had started to try and attach itself to the souls, so the woman hurried out of the void and carefully took the souls to a patch of land still untouched and pure of tainted plants. She plants them and immediately, a tree grows from the ground. Three fruit appear, ripe and ready for picking. As soon as she plucked them from the tree, the tree withers. Now she had three pure fruit in her hands, waiting to be eaten. If given to a child, the pureness of the fruit will purify the taint from their soul, at least pure it enough so that the cleansing process will think it's from growing up and be able to purify the soul again."

Johnathan could see how much this story holds their attention. They were leaning from their seats with wide eyes filled with awe. Johnathan notices how Evan was doing the same but his eyes are filled with emotions unknown to him. Why?

"She took the fruit and looked for the perfect children. When she could find any, she decided to look in the castle. To her surprise, she found three siblings in what was her old room. Invisible to all eyes, she watched as her old parents came into the room, looking much older, and watched the children with soft smiles. It finally occurred to her that her parents had moved on and had more children. She looked over them and her eyes widened at the oldest. He was like her, born of all three but his soul lacked her unique split. So, he was born without a magic ritual being made. Perhaps leftover magic from her birth allowed such a thing without a blood moon? She didn't know. The middle child was a mix between a Winged on and a Magic one. The youngest was a mix between a Winged one and a Grounded one. They were the perfect choices, especially if they were to be the next leaders. When the parents left, she appeared in front of the children. The oldest yanks the others behind him to protect them.

'Who are you?' He demands.

'...' She couldn't remember her original name and she did not wish to lie.

'What do you want?' He stomps a foot, a signal to their parents down below that there was an intruder.

The woman pulls out the three fruit, 'These fruit are pure.'

'Impossible! The fruit stopped being pure a decade ago.' The middle child shouts.

'Believe what you will, but these fruit are pure. Let me ask you a question: Do you wish to be pure again?'

They gave her a look, as if it was the stupidest question they ever heard. It made her chuckle. rushing footsteps brought the conversation to a halt.

'Then eat.' Was all she said before she disappeared.

They looked at the fruit in their hands, then at each other before shrugging. The door slams open when they dig their teeth into the juicy fruit. Instantly, their minds are filled with purity, pleasure and information. They looked at each other as they finish off their fruit. The three parents look cautiously around the room before deciding that the stomp was just a bump the boys did when rough housing. Years later, they grew into a group of fine young men. Instead of having three separate leaders, they each held a share of authority in each group. The youngest two were still as pure as ever but the oldest was a problem. His age when eating the fruit had kept some of that taint in his soul. He kept it hidden well but it private he was cold, calculating and cared for no one, not even his own brothers. He became greedy and he wanted sole control over everyone and the woman held the power he needed. Because the fruit held a part of her, they had gained all her memories, her information. It took many years but he managed to create something to capture the woman and capture her he did. It disappointed her incredibly, she had thought he would be the purest. He tried everything to get her to do what he told her to do, even tortured her but she refused.

"And then?" Craig asks.

"He tricked her. He used a recording spell and got her talking. With a bit of fine tuning, he managed to synthesize her voice over his and for twenty years sent fake messages to his brothers, pretending to be her. He sent lies, he framed events and he manipulated them to the best of his extent but he did not consider the emotions in his plan. The tenseness and stress between the two younger brothers grew and grew until it had finally reached a tipping point. Each had gathered an army and went to war. Million of beings were slaughtered every day, near the end of the war the oldest brother faked his death to escape their wrath. The final battle was something for the history books. It was a Lunar eclipse, making the sky black and the ground red. The last remaining beings fought with all they had but even they died. Until, finally, the two brothers were all that remained. They fought like beasts, blood and swat flinging everywhere, staining the already stained ground. Finally, the middle child got a good hit, slicing his throat and the youngest collapsed. The middle child landed on his back and ripped his wings off. The youngest had always cherished flight and the most horrifying thing you could do to a winged one is take his wings away. Of course, the youngest was screaming in pain the entire time. When it appeared that the youngest was not getting up, the middle child walked away thinking he had won."

"Thinking?" David makes a face.

"Usually, when a winged one loses his wings, they lose their will to live. However, the youngest is also part Grounded. When the middle child finally turned away, he was surprised when a fist goes through his chest. The youngest had just lost his wings and he wanted revenge. He wasn't the only with weaknesses, the middle child prided himself in keeping himself pure, even had a spell cast on himself to protect that spark of purity. The youngest yanks out the orb and breaks it open, revealing the spark. The middle child's eye widen in realization and he tries to take it back but and youngest takes both hands and squashes the spark into nothingness. The spark did not go quietly and burned the youngest's hands severely before it turn to dust and disappears into the wind. Both siblings finally collapse into unconsciousness. Because there is nothing left for the Call to have, it caused an imbalance and thus the world began to end. Cracks formed over the ground spreading for miles upon miles as explosions of lava escaped the Earth. That spark didn't just vanish. It was originally part of the woman from the Void, and so it went directly back to her, granting her a powerful boost that temporarily weakened the spell that imprisoned her. While the oldest attempted to recuperate, she uses this extra boost to her powers to teleport to the two brothers. In all intents and purposes they were her children because they held a part of her, or had in the middle child's case. They didn't deserve to be destroyed nor be swallowed by the void despite what had happened because it truly wasn't their fault. So, she opened a portal to another world, one thriving with life. Time went faster in this world than in her own. So, she spent a couple decades, with few time travel spells, looking for the perfect hosts for her children. She finally found them. She placed them in the bodies and suppressed them into a sort of sleep, blocking any memories or influence to the host in case they were to ever wake up."

"What happened to the oldest brother?" Anthony asks.

"No one knows but he still keeps track of the woman since her new found power allows to her travel with her chains. He still tries to control her. It is said she makes new children in this world from the souls of her world in an attempt to purify them all."

Evan this entire time had emotions swimming through his eyes, some Johnathan thought he recognized like fear, knowing, surprise and anger. Very unlike the others who were awed and very into the story.

"Not much a horror story but it was fantastic, none the less." Brian comments.

"I think it's time we all head to bed, it's almost midnight." Craig says as he looks at his watch.

"Ya'll go ahead, I'll stay and clean this up." Johnathan mutters as he stares at the dwindling fire.

They all pause before nodding and heading inside. Johnathan stares at the fire for some time.

"It appears the brute has more to say than we thought." Doctor comments.

"No, It felt more like a combination of all three of us and something else." Johnathan mumbles as his clasps a fist in front of where his mouth would be. "Delirious couldn't have known the ending because the story said everything but the brothers and the woman died, meaning he did too."

Johnathan glares up at the moon, "There is more to this story than we thought."