Hi! I'm back with the third chapter. This one is considerably lighter than the past two, mostly because time passes, and happy or silly moments happen.

Disclaimer: Beyond: Two Souls belongs to Quantic Dream.

"When you came in the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.
I don't know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you."

-Jace Everett, Bad Things.

3. Holmes and Watson

I did it! I fucking did it! I convinced Nathan to let me go to a normal high school!

Who's the boss now, huh?

Jodie was giggling at herself while writing in her diary. Aiden hovered over her desk, reading the words she had written and feeling the need to chuckle himself. Sweet little Jodie was less sweet with every passing day. Nathan and Cole blamed it on the t.v. shows she liked to watch. They would furrow their brows instantly whenever a rebellious teen showed up on the screen, and Cole would sometimes turn on the microphone just to tell her of a far more interesting show she could watch instead of that crap. Cole wouldn't say the word crap, but he clearly wanted.

My new school is not far from the base; that will make it easier for Nathan to keep breathing down my neck. Not that I'm complaining, I'm relieved I actually got into a school at all. Looking back, nobody would've guessed Aiden and I could overcome so many things to the point we can be social beings again. He promised to behave while I'm at school, maybe go pick some flowers nearby. Isn't it so, Aiden?

When Jodie finished writing that paragraph, she left the pencil on the table and looked around her, feeling his presence very close to her. She knew he was reading what she was writing; it was a new habit of his. The first time she noticed, she had been sitting on that very same desk, facing a mirror she used to have on top of it. That mirror got smashed against the floor in a tantrum she threw a few weeks later over being told she couldn't go on a date with somebody she met online. Aiden usually was on her side, but that time he agreed with Nathan. Jodie seemed to have lost her mind, screaming at the cameras like a banshee. Also, the idea of his protégée having a date irked him greatly. So when she made clear she wouldn't calm down with words, Aiden grabbed the mirror and sent it flying towards her, making it crash on the floor next to her, startling her. When she looked into the broken pieces of glass, she spotted two purple orbs floating amidst a ball of dark fog resembling a head on the reflection. Aiden was giving her again a scolding stare. "Alright, mom" She told him that day, obviously mocking him.

But going back to the days the mirror used to sit peacefully on Jodie's desk, she had taken a liking to alternate between writing a few poetry verses on her new diary, and watching her own face on the mirror. She took it like a concentration exercise; because searching for her facial imperfections kept her head clear enough to think of good verses. That poetry later turned into song lyrics, and then those turned into normal diary entries. And all along that evolutionary process, her mirror had been there to help her concentrate. One day, she noticed Aiden's purple eyes floating right on top of her head, fixed on the words she had written.

"When did you learn to read?" she said, making him look up and meet her gaze on the mirror's surface. Those unnatural purple eyes, purple like the color of the tether liking them.

She heard him answer, and she understood. Not only based on the feelings he projected through their bond, no, there were actual words now. Vague, lacking sentence structure, at first all his attempts to speak didn't even make sense. With time, he had improved significantly. He still talked weird, but now he could communicate. Aiden finally could transmit a full idea without having to smash something, even though breaking things sometimes was far more useful than words.

"With you" he answered simply. His was a voice that sounded somewhat masculine, but was ethereal, unisex like a whisper. She liked the way it sounded. It fit him perfectly.

From them on, she always made room for him around her desk. He would watch her, even when she wasn't writing: when she was drawing, when she was painting her nails, when she was putting make-up on, when she was doing boring homework. Aiden didn't have a clue about math and sciences, and he was fine that way. Science couldn't even explain what he was, so why bother taking an interest in such things? Jodie's make-up was far more likely to help him understand himself than science. For example, when he grabbed her eye concealer and flew all the way to the kitchen and dumped it in a soup she was trying to make just to piss her off, he was studying his characteristic of easily infuriating Jodie.

Aiden stared at the pencil she had left on the table. Did she want him to write? Such activity required enough skill to grab de pencil and move it the correct way. He was far too rough for that.

"Come on, you know you want to." Jodie said, smiling warmly. "At least give it a try."

She convinced him quite easily. Three seconds didn't pass between her saying those words and the moment the pencil started floating. Aiden concentrated intensely on tracing the shape of the 'yes' he was trying to write. When he was done, the font looked a lot like Nordic runes carved on stone, and their size was almost ten times the size of Jodie's. It was an accomplishment nonetheless, and he felt proud. Jodie looked at the deed with awe, and from the corner of the eye noticed a humanoid shadow had materialized by her right side, leaning over her. Since that night when she had first seen her friend's shape, two years ago, the full-body image of him had only appeared again once before that moment. It seemed like he preferred retaining his invisibility most of the time, except when he was trying to make an impression on her.

"Congrats, Aiden." She said, smiling up at his 'face'.

He looked at her, and even though there was no visible facial expression, the energy around him had a feeling of satisfaction. She perceived he would be smiling if he had a mouth. But almost instantly, he started fading in the air again.

When Aiden wasn't entertaining himself watching Jodie or tampering with random things around her, he was trying to figure out how to become visible, at least to people with abilities like hers. To have eyes was easy enough; to have a head was notably harder, and to have a full body was even harder. Maintaining visibility required a lot of energy, that's why he couldn't keep it working for more than a few seconds. However, it seemed to be easier when he was concentrated using his powers, especially the telekinesis.

Jodie walked into a classroom filled with people. She was wearing her hair on a ponytail at the base of her neck, a purple long sleeved t-shirt and jeans, and clutched her plain green backpack's straps just under her shoulders. To say she was nervous would be an understatement. It was her first day at a normal school, and thankfully nobody was paying the least bit of attention to her. She sat at the back of the room, and didn't dare looking around in case she made awkward eye contact with anyone.

"I don't know how you expect to make friends if you don't see people" An ethereal voice whispered in her ear. Obviously, Aiden wouldn't leave her alone on a day like this.

Luckily for Jodie, the noise in the classroom died when an old woman entered and walked straight to the big desk at the front. "Great," Jodie thought, "no need for me to talk at all anymore", but she was sadly mistaken. The woman introduced herself as the teacher, and proceeded to make everyone stand up and talk about themselves. Jodie thought most of the people's speeches were really boring, since most of them didn't seem interested in the same things as her. In fact, most of them repeated the same line over and over again: "I like to party with my friends and watch sports" for the boys, "I like to party with my friends and go shopping" for the girls. Sheesh, there was no way human kind was so generic! Was this a rehearsed answer considered polite in this society or something like that? Not even the kids from Kristen's party were so repetitive. In any case, Jodie's turn came soon enough, for her dismay.

"Um, my name is Jodie Holmes." She started while standing up. "I'm a new student; I'm from DPA's Unit 4." Everyone was staring at her, some with awe, and some with rolled eyes. "I'm sixteen; I have an acoustic guitar I like to play, and I love classic literature. Uh, well, that's it." She finished, beginning to sit down again, but the teacher raised her hand to stop her.

"Wait, dear," the woman said, with a gentle smile. Her eyes were shining with curiosity. "I've never seen anyone from the DPA before; that I know of. Could you tell us what you do in there? Some sort of mystical work, I understand?"

"We, um, we do paranormal research, Mrs." Jodie answered, feeling even more nervous. Around half the people in the classroom were already looking at her like she was a freak. She knew very well how that kind of stare looked like. Even though the DPA's existence was widely accepted in town, people still couldn't grasp the concept of a bunch of scientist studying ghosts and stuff from horror movies.

"But aren't you too young to be working there?" the teacher asked, apparently not satisfied yet. "School kids can hardly be considered scientists, no offense."

"I've been there nearly all my life; I-I-I was born there." Jodie stuttered, and regretted speaking almost immediately.

"Why is that?" the teacher inquired again. Why couldn't this woman drop the topic already?

"I d-d-don't know." Jodie said, feeling her cheeks turn red with embarrassment. She already knew the people that had raised her were just adoptive parents, but they had no link with her actual origins. Thankfully, the teacher seemed to realize Jodie's discomfort, and decided to let other people talk.

"Very well. Okay, now's your turn." She said, pointing to a girl sitting at the back of the classroom, at the opposite corner from Jodie.

A tall, redheaded and green-eyed girl stood up. Jodie noticed she wasn't like the rest of the people there. She was wearing a short and tight black leather miniskirt, high heeled back boots, a loose red and grey striped shirt, and a black leather jacket. Heavy make-up adorned her face, and her hair curled all the way down to her mid-back. Jodie felt a strange vibration around her, signaling Aiden was tense. What was happening?

"My name is Helen Watson." The girl said, playing with her hair. "I'm sixteen, and I've been in this fucking boring old town since forever."

"Don't swear in class, young lady, unless you want to go to detention!" The teacher interrupted angrily.

"Yeah, whatever." Helen said, rolling her eyes. "I have a band with my friends, and I'm the singer. Music is my life, but sometimes I like to hit the road with my bike and take pictures of the exotic places I visit." Then, the girl turned to look at Jodie, and smiled at her. "We need a guitarist in our band, though. Anyone interested should come and talk to me after class." Then she proceeded to sit down, but just as she was starting to do so, a weird breeze ran against her, blowing her hair around in a dramatic fashion. Jodie, whose heart had stopped when Helen had turned to her, recognized Aiden's energy excitedly surrounding the girl.

He was, in fact, trying to get her attention. This girl was the most interesting human being he had ever laid eyes on, second only to Jodie. All he could think of was how beautiful she was, and how her long creamy legs seemed very smooth. Oh, and her eyes: those intense, mischievous and witty eyes. She was amazing. Unknown to him, his bright purple eyes had appeared, floating midair. If Jodie hadn't noticed and warned him through their link, he would have ended up materializing in front of the whole class.

"What the hell is wrong with Aiden?!" She thought angrily. "Is he in love with her or something?!" But her mind stopped working at the thought. Could it be? Could Aiden be in love with a girl? She felt an unknown tug at her heart, which was beating faster than usual. Yes, she had been excited when Helen had been friendly with her, but Aiden seemed to be on a completely different page from her. He had never acted so reckless before. She didn't know how to feel, if she should be happy for him or not. Somehow, she had imagined Aiden would always be hers: her sole companion on the whole world. A dark thought raised inside her: what if he left her for Helen, or any other girl he could fall in love with?

Aiden sensed Jodie was troubled, but he assumed she was just nervous. She had been nervous the whole day. Helen, on the other hand, seemed so confident, sitting with her legs crossed and looking around like she owned the classroom. Maybe he was human enough to like girls. He… He liked Helen, a lot.

End of Chapter 3!

I hope you liked it :) I introduced my OC, whose last name is Watson simply because Jodie's is Holmes. Also, because I'm a huge fan of Emma Watson.

By the way, if you found a language or grammar mistake, please tell me so I can fix it :)