I haven't got a single, smallest, barest wink of sleep last night. I just… kept laying face up on the bed, unable to even close my eyes, regardless of how exhausted I was. Still am, obviously.

I just can't help but continue thinking about everything. The time I spent here, in this place that I believed was far away from home… but it wasn't.

According to Aeon and Haddie, I am not some… dimensional parasite that took its place in this guy's head… but I am him. I… simply have someone else's memories in my head. I chuckle lowly go myself, much too tired to even consider panicking about that. Talk about existential dread…

Not even mentioning IT. TEC… The Entity's Conquest. In hindsight, it was plenty obvious, huh? That series of numbers was obviously a date, but it was still my first day, so I was pretty much flying by the seats of my pants. Not that particular nasty habit ever stopped…

Question is… how did Jason… no, how did I end up knowing that bit of information? Who told me? Probably the same person that also told me about Golden Souls originally… but you know the drill, I fucking forgot.

I clutch my head, desperately trying to recall something. Anything! But nothing… for these are my own memories. Something that I should already have. But I ended up… switching them for those of some other guy in the multiverse!

Somebody that was just like me… and also very much dead. And there's the sorrow… I guess him and I really were connected. But still, I must have somehow called upon his memories for… reasons. Then something went wrong during the process and… well, here I am.

The final proof that they were right? Sometime after the first day and during the second… I stopped acting. I was being 100% natural in everything, from mannerism, to speeches to simple responses. And nobody found anything that I did or said to be weird. Back when I was talking with Yui was when I reached the peak. Too much in character indeed…

Aeon said that this person had what we needed to avoid the impending doom. Because… he knew about everyone ahead of time? But that also doesn't add up, since there are obvious holes in his knowledge. People like Thalita, Vittorio or this wayward mother of mine. They all gave me the same feeling… I should know them, yet I do not.

On top of that, today is also sunday. The day where Elias will leave for his trip in Italy and I will have to make up with Julie once and for all. That, somehow, sounds even scarier than the prospect of being invaded by a living dimension bent on torturing people for amusement and feeding.

I groan, palming my face with both hands. What the fuck am I supposed to do now…? Just… go on with my life and wait? Wait for what?!

Aeon seems to believe that we have some time, that I should "enjoy my youth". Like… make bonds or something like that? Not like I haven't been doing that already…

Finally, with a booming sigh, I get up from the bed. I'm not even going to bother looking at myself in the mirror, I know that I look like shit. Good thing that I don't plan on going anywhere today.

Just like the first day, I stop at the top of the stairs, listening to what is happening underneath me. Just the voices of the rest of the family, having a jolly laugh at the expense of the lazy and sleepy youngest.

I give a low chuckle. Bunch of bullies… guess it's a Kostenko trait. I descend the stairs, not a single sound coming from me while I do.

"... then I come down and there he was, about to eat cereal like it was the most normal thing for him to wake up at a decent hour! The little shit even snapped a picture of me!"

The father laughs heartily.

"Were you in your cute onesie?"

"I was not! I outgrew that thing long ago!"

Well, about that…

"She has not. I have proof!"

I call for their attention, holding my phone up, where the fabled picture of "adorable first morning Julie Kostenko" has found its home.

The man of the house explodes in laughter, while the tyrant explodes in anger.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO DELETE THAT, YOU FUCK!"

"Technically, you didn't".

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! GET RID OF THAT MONSTROSITY, NOW!"

I pretend to think about it.

"Mhhh… nah. I like it!"

"Make sure to send it to me when you have a second".

"Don't you fucking dare…"

"Aaaaaand done".

"Appreciate it son! Vittorio is going to have a real kick out of this".

"I'm gonna go drink bleach now…"

Couple of seconds of silence.

Julie snickers. Then I follow. Then the older man.

Loud, obnoxious laughter resounds for a good three minutes after. Honestly, I'm surprised that our neighbors haven't called the cops on us yet.

When we finally manage to get back to normal (it took much more than three minutes), dad gets a good, long look at me.

"... say, Jules, do you mind going to the store a moment? We're still missing a couple of things for later".

"Whaaaa… really? I thought we got everything yesterday…"

"Really? What about the sauces?"

"... I'll be right back".

She quickly shrugs on a jacket and hurries out. What the hell…?

"Son? Come here for a moment, will you?"

Uh-huh. The "serious talk" senses are tingling…

"Dad? Something wrong?"

"I should be asking you that. Did you even sleep last night? Those dark bags are honestly scary to look at…"

He caught me. I should have known… not like there is anything I could have done to prevent that, apart from wearing a damn mask.

"No. I… did not sleep. At all. A lot of things happened this week and… I'm not sure how I'm supposed to juggle everything".

"Must be serious if they kept you of all people awake".

I introduce my elbow to his side.

"Dad! Aren't we supposed to be serious right now?!"

He chuckles.

"Maybe. But I found out through experience that laughter always makes things better, one way or another. Now… I'm not going to ask you what's wrong. I know you, I wouldn't get a single word out of you. Prideful until the end, one of your mother's lessons that stuck to you like glue. What I can tell you is… you are no superhero, you know that?"

What is that supposed to mean?

"You've always done this… carrying other people's problems and worries on your shoulders, thinking that you can handle everything on your own… when it's not like that. You are only human… and as such, you can't save everyone. You just have to trust that the others will be able to solve their own issues by themselves".

"What am I supposed to do, then?"

He messes with my hair. Because of fucking course he messes with the hair.

"Only what you can. And one problem at the time. Start with your sister tonight. The rest can come tomorrow, alright?"

I… I suppose that's one way to look at it. Probably what Aeon was also trying to tell me. There is nothing that can be done at the moment about the Entity… and as such, losing sleep over it is not going to help. Do whatever you can, whenever you can.

Honestly… this also applies to my friends. I've been worrying myself to death about Susie's struggle with unrequited love, Kate's traumatic memories, Meg's dark future and everything else… without asking myself if I can even help in any way, shape or form. Or if I outright should.

Take a deep breath and face it all, one challenge at a time. Starting with Julie. Yeah, sounds like a plan.

"Thanks dad. I needed to hear that…"

He smiles and draws me into a warm hug. And finally, I manage to relax into my father's embrace.

"Now, there is still time before we have to cook our feast. Go get some shuteye, okay? I'm not gonna let you anywhere near the kitchen, if there's the risk of you falling asleep while holding a knife or something like that".

I yawn, suddenly feeling all the exhaustion of an entire night spent awake.

"Yeah… sounds like a plan. I'll see you later then…"

"Sweet dreams, Jason".

Wouldn't that be a nice change of pace, for once…


It did not take long for my grace period to end. Dad left a couple of minutes ago, after the almost ridiculously large lunch that he and I cooked. A meal fit for a king and his prince and princess, he said. We ate, joked and laughed until it was time for him to leave for his next trip.

Merely a couple of weeks, but it was a teary eyed goodbye all the same. Time seemed to have flown by ever since he came back… and now he's gone again.

Julie and I are sitting at the table now, eating the reminder of our previous meal for dinner. It dawns on me that this is the first time we've been alone together in days. I know what I've done… and she knows that I know. Meaning that, without our father's presence to act as a mediator…

We can barely look at each other. I gaze down at my half eaten plate and push it away, suddenly not hungry anymore. I have to breach the subject, somehow… but I have no idea in what way I'm supposed to accomplish that.

"Julie… I…"

"One year, Jason…"

I wince immediately, not expecting the instant rebuttal.

"It has been one year, to the clock, since she left. Twelve months ago, at this exact time, she likely was preparing her luggage, taking all the money she could and abandoning us to our fate. She betrayed dad, stealing what did not belong to her. She betrayed you… and she betrayed me".

Her voice is even. Calm, even. I suppose the shouting match already happened last week, so she had the time to digest everything.

It doesn't stop the pain though. I have firsthand experience with that. Or… he did, more like.

"Father was always a hero to both of us. He picked himself up faster than we could ever hope to do and started working to make up for it. He trusted us to do the same, he was confident that we could pull ourselves together… because we were not alone. Allegedly, we had each other to help us stand back up. I did everything I could for you… for us. I tried to be the rock that you needed, thinking that you were going to do the same for me…"

My heart is threatening to burst out if my chest. My stomach feels cold. All the lessons that the others tried to impart me on this very matter evade my mind. I am at a loss on what to do.

"How? How could you be so selfish? How could you shut down like that?! And why?! Why did you abandon me too?! Of all people, my own brother?!"

My mouth feels rough like sand. I don't know what to do, or what to say. Because she's right. I have been a selfish prick. I did leave her behind when she needed me the most. She trusted me to offer her a hand to pick herself up with… and I denied her that.

Finally, I understand it all. I hadn't managed to get over her disappearance until very recently, when I obtained different memories that allowed me to see things from a different perspective. She had nothing. Her boyfriend couldn't help, because he's an orphan. He never knew his parents, so he couldn't understand the pain of losing one. Susie has a perfectly normal and functioning family, so she also can't relate.

The only one that could help was me. And I was too busy wallowing in my own pain to notice. But not anymore.

"I will not try to make excuses. I know that I have none. The truth is… that I was weak. Mother made me dependent on her presence. All of my life was spent trying to please her, to make her proud of me. So, when she left, I… couldn't compute, basically. My purpose in life had just walked out of the door, not a single thought about who or what she was leaving behind. For all this time… I was not Jason Kostenko anymore".

She tilts her head towards me, judging me with her gaze.

"What changed then? And when?"

I smile without any humor.

"Do I even need to say it? Last week was when things started to move again around me. The fear of never being able to talk to you, laugh with you or just… being around you was like a cold bucket of water. I did not want to lose my older sister, no matter what. As for when I decided to start making a change… you actually have to thank Frank for that one".

She looks like someone slapped her with a fish.

"Frank?! What did he do?!"

"Nothing violent if that's what you're thinking".

She relaxes right away. I suppose that, even with all the therapy, fear of relapsing was a forefront in her mind.

"We sat down and… talked. I told him why I hated him and he told me why he hated me. Turns out, he's a lot more perceptive than we both give him credit for. He hammered home in my head the fact that I fucked up. That I failed as a son and a brother by… being the weak coward that I was".

She shuffles by my side.

"Frank…"

"He cares a lot about you. So… you better not mess that one up".

She smiles sweetly for a second, but goes back to normal right away.

"What now, then?"

Now for the hard part…

"First thing first, I… suppose that I owe you an apology. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there when you needed me the most. I'm sorry… for abandoning you. Hurting you was the last thing that I ever wanted to do…"

She gets up.

"Yeah, well. You failed. What are you going to do about it, huh?"

I follow her. Yeah… what can I do? Only one solution floats around in my head.

"I'll do what I was supposed to do a year ago, of course".

I step in and wrap my arms around her. Julie Kostenko, the tyrant, that annoying blonde that I'm forced to share a house with…

And my beloved big sister.

"Jason, you…!"

"It's okay now, sis. You've been so strong, all this time… you held yourself with everything that you had…"

I make her drop her forehead on my shoulder. It's somewhat awkward, since she's taller than me, but I make it work, somehow.

"I'm here for you. You can let go now…"

Silence. Then a hiccup. Finally, her arms wrap themselves around me. My shoulder starts feeling wet and sticky.

I hum away a melody that I briefly recall from my childhood, while gently rocking her back and forth. Our, childhood.

Because I am not that man that ended up eating dirt because of a truck in another dimension. I belong here, with all these people, in this house.

I am Jason Kostenko. And as such… she's my sister. Through the good and bad times,our bond is and will always be unbreakable.

Adriana Imai couldn't set us apart.

And not even The Entity will. That… I promise.

ARC I - STRANDED: THE END

Hello?! Is this thing on?! It is?! Noice.

Welcome, dudes and gentleladies, to the final episode of the first arc of AIOS, the show where there is nothing more important than family, as certain bald actor would say.

Yessir! Arc I, called "Stranded" has finally reached its conclusion, and with it the Jason and Julie sub-plot has been wrapped nicely, dare I say. Of course, this is far from the end, we still have a long way to go and much more shenanigans to get into. Which leads me to one of the tag of the story that has been left more or less unattended.

Romance.

Now, while I was writing, I was trying to decide who would have the (un)lucky girl that would end up taking the role of romantic partner. I thought about it a lot, coming up with scenarios and themes for each of them, most of them being somewhat hinted, until I would reach this point, where I would make the decision.

Then, I remembered something. Dead by Daylight is all about the Multiverse, isn't it. Meaning that this universe is only a possibility on what could be Jason's story. So, why not play into that and take a page out of Dating Sims, for once?

We have routes to choose from! At the same time as this chapter comes up, there should be a poll in my profile, if I understood how the thing works, where you, dear readers, will get to decide.

Of course, it goes without saying, we are eventually going to go through them all. The poll's purpose is to simply decide the order.

So, without further ado, the available routes are the following, in order of when the character first showed up in the story:

1)Susie Lavoie - (A Story Worth Remembering)

2)Feng Min - (The Lion's Pride)

3)Kate Denson - (Journey of a Rising Star)

4)Meg Thomas - (Running Towards the Future)

5)Yui Kimura - (Underneath the Sakura Tree)

6)Rin Yamaoka - (Rebellion of the Righteous)

7)Mikaela Reid - (Memories of a Shared Soul)

8)Thalita Lyra - (A Community of Here Own Making)

I'm gonna repeat it here, just to be safe, WE ARE GOING TO EXPLORE ALL THESE ROUTES. The poll simply exist to decide the order in which we'll go through them.

Review responses!

WhyareUsernamesTakenAlready: I really only play the bare minimum of survivor to get challenges done. Then I usually stick exclusively to killer. I used to play both, but not really anymore. Phew, I'm glad it makes sense. I was afraid that I ruined it all by trying to be too much ambitious. Glad to know that it worked. And yes, licensed characters got sent back home… with all the good and the bad of the case.

eseer: You know, it makes you wonder if it would have been less cruel to keep everyone in The Entity's Realm rather than force them to go through high school again. Food for thought, ahahahah. It wasn't the date that was meant to be the reveal, but what exactly TEC meant. The date was very much obvious. Thank you, I try.

The poll will stay open for one week, as of right now until next sunday at exactly 5 pm CET. Only votes in the poll will count, of course. You can send a review and tell me who you voted for, of course, but it won't count unless you actually go there and click on the option. This is to make everything as clean and fair as possible, so that people won't end up voting twice with the same account.

That's all folks! Ta-ta for now!