It was dark. The blackness was only illuminated by my the light from my eyes, all soft orange hues dancing off of the eternal nothingness. I was back to walking, wandering in eternal purgatory as I searched for the end I would never find. I could hear nothing but the echoes of my own footsteps. Looking at my hands, I confirmed that yes, I was still wearing my gloves, and yes, I was still green, and thus more likely than not, a zombie.

"So what is it you will demand of me?"

The saccharine sweet voice rung throughout the entire place I was in. Bouncing off each non-existent wall, it finally settled in my ears. I closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, the dybbuk was floating in front of me, black nothingness only accented by the orange glow and beady red depths that served as its eyes.

"So you have brought me here," I began slowly, thinking about the choice I had made. "Where are we?"

"Currently, we are inside you, dearie," the dybbuk commented nonchalantly. "Inside your mind, more specifically. It is here that I will be able to most easily give you your memories back. Just tell me that is what you desire from our deal."

I contemplated the thought of retrieving my memories, how much I longed to know who I was in the past and how I ended up a member of the undead, but then I remembered the things I did remember, like Hanna, and how he lit up when we listened to Queen or how he had smiled at me the day he decided to order new business cards and changed the "Hanna Falk Cross Paranormal Investigator" to "Hanna Falk Cross and Partner". Remembering these things reminded me of why I'd chosen to accept the dybbuk's offer and of what I still had to do.

"I want your real name."

"My name? Well isn't that kind of pointless?" The dybbuk laughed at me, swirling up and down once again before getting closer and whispering as I had not heard it do before.

"My name is Danjal, Algernon, but it's a shame that was your demand. Now, seeing as our deal was one request for your body, you are now mine."

"Ah, Danjal, but that is where you are wrong," I replied, closing my eyes on the dybbuk. "You agreed with me for one demand in exchange for Algernon's body. My name is not Algernon, you see. Hanna knew you were watching us, and I as well picked up on his repetition. You may have been able to read him, but seeing as I have very limited memory of this world or who I am, you could not do so to me. Unlike Hanna and Conrad, I have no name. I am merely called whatever Hanna desires me to be in any moment. We have found none have stuck and thus none of the name he has used are mine. And now that I know your name, Danjal, it is time you released me and returned to your box."

The dybbuk roared in fury, quite obviously not taken to being tricked. "No, mortal! You are wrong, you have no power here! I am the powerful one! I will haunt you and take possession of your soul!"

"Another flaw; my soul belongs only to whomever I give it to. Currently, that person is Hanna, not you."

The dybbuk growled again, feral and ready for attack. Its tar-like body was melting away, leaving dark shadowy angles and points, but I wasn't waiting to watch it fully transform.

"Let me go, Danjal. And return to the box where you belong"

By using its real name, the spirit was forced to let me free. It shrank away screeching and wailing.

I opened my eyes slowly at first, gazing up to a ceiling that I vaguely recognized but was not familiar with as the way that one might be with their own ceiling. Then again, ceilings aren't something I commonly took intense interest in. My thoughts were soon interrupted anyway.

"You're awake, Rip! God, I thought you'd actually agreed to the dybbuk's deal!"

My sight was suddenly obscured by a head of orange hair as two warm arms wrapped around my sides in a strong embrace. Hanna then.

"Hanna?" I questioned, still slightly groggy from being in my own mind. "Where's the dybbuk?"

"You sealed it back in the wine box! I have no idea how, but you did it! I just put some more runes on it and tossed a bunch of sand in the box before we closed it, and now it's locked shut over there."

Hanna finally faced me, blue eyes shining. His face was covered in dried tears. I raised a hand to wipe at his cheek.

"Hanna…were you crying?"

"Haha, yeaaah," he smiled, looking away from my face. Up close I could see the freckles that dusted Hanna's cheeks and the way his hairline had absolutely no consistent pattern. It led me to realize I'd never stopped to take notice of how objectively attractive Hanna could be, in a messy sort of way. But who wouldn't be messy when they lived a life as exciting as his?

"Only manly tears," Hanna insisted, still leaning on my chest. "I thought I'd lost my best friend."

Best friend. The words Hanna had mentioned before suddenly not only felt good but also stung in a way I couldn't quite describe. I was happy to be Hanna's best friend, but I was also sad. I wasn't used to so many emotions in one day, let alone in such intensity, and I suddenly felt the weariness growing inside of me. Perhaps all I would ever be to Hanna was his friend, his partner in work. I couldn't even say if I wanted anything else, could be anything else, but I still wanted to know how far Hanna's love for his friends went and where he would make the transition into something more. I reached up and touched Hanna's cheek once more.

"You shouldn't cry, even if I am forced to leave you," I muttered, brushing his pale, human flesh with my dead green finger.

"I'll always cry, though," Hanna retorted. "You mean too much to me. More than anyone else has ever meant…" He trailed off, looking away in embarrassment and frustration at what I assumed to be lack of words to say what he wanted. Hanna rarely had nothing to say.

"You mean too much to me, Hanna."

And with that, I moved my head closer to Hanna's, pressing my dry lips against his slightly chapped ones in a light, chaste kiss in hopes of conveying all the feelings welling inside me at the time. I pulled back slowly when Hanna didn't immediately respond, and I watched him, fearful of what he may say or do. After the initial shock wore off, though, Hanna only opened his eyes and smiled up at me. Of all things, I hadn't expected that.

He climbed up onto the couch and I sat up wearily, trying to regain some of my previous strength. My lips tingled where Hanna's had been only moments before. That warm feeling returned.

"Gnee, Eros. Can we just stay like this for a bit? Conrad ran out to get Doc Worth after you were away, and since the dybbuk is locked away, I'm thinking I can call Lamont to dispose of it tomorrow. We better wait here for Doc and Connie to get here, or else things might end badly."

I nodded, and Hanna laughed leaning on my shoulder and sighing. We didn't speak about the kiss. We didn't need to. Both of us knew exactly what the other was feeling, and it was comforting having that companionship and dare I say, love. I stroked my hand through Hanna's untamed curls as he closed his eyes. I thought him half-asleep until he finally spoke through the silence.

"So how did you get that dybbuk back in the box?"

I thought for a moment before answering.

"You kept calling me Algernon, and the dybbuk thought that was my name. So I tricked it into agreeing to exchange a demand for my, Algernon's, body, but instead of demanding what it kept saying it knew I wanted, I asked for it's real name, and used that to lock it away."

Hanna was contemplatively quiet, his breathing a companionable background noise as I stroked his hair.

"Why didn't you ask for your memories back?"

"I didn't want them," I began. "I realized that without you, I really had no need for my memories. It didn't matter who I was or what I did if I wasn't going to be able to share them with you."

Hanna didn't respond. His breathing had evened out into low breaths, and I assumed he slept peacefully until Conrad and Worth stormed through the door a half-an-hour later. It occurred to me that I had wanted my memories back before I'd met Hanna, but I had grown tired of the aimless wandering without companionship. Once Hanna entered my life, I had no reason to walk alone. It was there in the quiet night with Hanna on my shoulder that I realized each day we walked together down the path of life created a memory I kept, and each of those were more precious than any memory I'd had before. Because now, Hanna helped me create new memories. Hanna was my reason, and for Hanna, I'd keep walking forever.