Story and characters written and created by JustSomeNumbers

  Pieces of information started to come together to create the foundations of the most life changing aspect of the collective consciousnesses that Liam, Karla and Richard would have to use as a fact of reality. In the advent of the discovery of their little morse code trick, Richard explained to Karla and Liam what had transpired the moments prior to being…consumed by the horrifying beast. Karla was immediately suspicious.

  “Why…exist in… Shouldn’t… be dead?”

  Liam chimed in with attempted doodles of renditions of the beast, but it just made Richard laugh at how cute it looked in comparison to what he was attempting to draw.

  “I don’t know why I’m still conscious and alive. But the fact I’m still talking to you two without any biological restrictions is not normal. Hell this entire situation isn’t normal! I was supposed to die four months ago when I…died. I woke up in this body and I saw an unfamiliar place- weird biology and this body. The next thing I knew I blinked and I was inside this room!”

  Liam’s note got pressed against the mirror, and this time he made sure to get everyone’s attention. His note had little hearts and smiley faces, which distracted from the actual message.

  “Guuuuyyyysss! Looook! We’ve been… another…. Plus that means we all…. So it makes sense us three control the… body!”

  Richard pulled his shirt a bit away from his chest and started to massage his head. The idea that three people were co-controlling a body sent his medical mind in shock. The sheer fact he somehow cheated death twice was convincing enough that he may as well have changed careers to some sort of conspiracy theorist or fortune teller. He wrote his medical opinion followed by the information he really wanted to convey.

  “It shouldn’t medically be possible to “co-control” a human body. What the most likely probability is, as actually shocking as it may be-, is that each of us are just a figment of someone else's dissociative episode. I mean, we can’t die. That’s a huge reason to say none of this is real. I- I don’t even think I might be real. At this point everything I knew has been either flipped or turned inside out. We should figure something out about what we are- or if I’m wrong and some sort of supernatural thing is happening…. Or something-”

  Karla and Liam went over the note Richard pressed against the mirror's edge. Liam let out a frustrated pout and hurriedly wrote a note, which he pressed adamantly against Karla’s side of whatever weird fracture in the mirror’s reflection Richard could see. Karla visibly exhaled and had an annoyed facial expression, seemingly reluctant to write whatever it is Liam just showed him. With an annoyed expression, Karla wrote out a long winded note apparently translating for the both of them. His notation was clean, and organized with colored writing indicating who said what. It was very well written, which Richard really appreciated.

  “Liam keeps talking about something …. Anime “iseakai” …. Powers or… Either way, he wanted you to know…. You're still “Richard”, but you did die. He says we got… transported…into this body.

  My interpretation for both of your arguments is that for … reason or another, … into another world. Your diagnosis isn’t …. However, there is …. To treat it like it would be true. I am interested in your “immortal” theory however. How did …. Conclusion?”

  After explaining the difference between brain death, which apparently each one of them experienced prior to waking to this situation, and biological death, which this new body just experienced- they seemed to grasp the idea Richard was trying to explain.

  “Liam, you said you got killed in an accident- which would imply you both died in the sense of brain death, meaning your neural activity was essentially un-recoverable and your body was replaced with this one after you ‘died’. Therefore, you died in both medical terms yet came back to life. Seeing as you recovered both your brain activity and physical biological function you could say you reverted to a functional state of biological function. You can’t have one aspect of ‘life’ to be considered alive. The fact we all came from similar background and constantly switch in and out of that body means either our conscious brain activity is no longer tied to biological function or-”

  Richard looked up as he was writing this note, and noticed Karla patiently tapping his foot while staring at his pocket watch. Liam on the other hand was smiling ear to ear while he worked on some kind of doodle.

  Ah… nevermind…

  Nervously letting out an apologetic smile and exhaling slightly, Richard crumpled the piece of paper and began re-writing his theoretical proposal in a much more…readable… format. Pushing the new note across to the two of them it read as follows:

  “If we can’t physically harm our body, and our neural function is ‘safe’ in this weird room- we can’t biologically or clinically die. We’ll just return to whatever this weird… state is.”

  Karla seemed to notice the other piece of paper, and pointed it out- but Liam interrupted by repeatedly tapping on the separative barrier. He seemed a lot more distraught after reading the note Richard made. Did he say something? Pressing against the barrier, the most chilling revelation made its way to Richard. While he was still considering the possibilities this would have on the liveliness of both himself and this new body- there was an immediate item the three, or rather, He and Karla neglected to notice. And of all people, Richard didn’t really expect Liam to be the one to point it out first.

  “How do we…making…. Lasting connections…if it’s just their death?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Richard was shocked at this, because if they did go with the theory they were immortal it would make sense this question would come up at some point right?

  “I-...”

  Karla started tapping the mirror barrier in an attempt to get Richard’s attention, apparently he was confused as to what the problem was. In a note Richard responded as both Liam and he understood what this meant in terms of emotional connections to other people.

  “Karla, we can’t… If we’re immortal…”

  Richard started to shake the pen he was writing with, and crumple the paper to start anew. This time he’d be as direct as possible to avoid any communication errors. Unfortunately Karla saw this again and had a visible annoyance.

  “We, as Silas- will outlive and watch everything we possibly want to care for, die before us. Without the possibility of ever seeing them beyond. That’s what it means to be immortal. To be alone.”

  Liam started to leave to his bed, Richard saw him tuck himself in and cuddle the plushies he had in his room. Karla on the other hand seemed to sit for a moment in reflection before walking to go grab something. The feeling of outstretched loneliness for eternity felt like it would be bad, but after the experience Richard just went through he didn’t particularly see it as the worst for now. He went to write down some letters of encouragement, but when he looked back up- Liams room was no longer in view. The numb sensations of his body moving around without his actually doing so, which had stopped for everyone while they were…pre-occupied… suddenly started again.

  Guess….guess that proves it huh? Our body somehow came back… like some comic book regeneration…

  Tired from the 3 month torment, went to lie down on his somewhat bland couch. He didn’t want to mess up the bed, and he didn’t really care to continue on with conversation too much anyway. He was going to take a nap, and close his eyes. It was an exhausting experience.

  …

  Liam, or rather- Silas, moved at first a finger. Then his palm. As he focused on slowly waking up from the numbing sensation of immortality- or resurrection? Whatever it was- this sensation was the strangest he felt in a long, long time. He could move only sections of his body at a time, he was groggy and had a hard time concentrating on what he wanted to do. He moved specific parts of his body until more and more functionality was remembered. Eventually he fully recollected how to move his upper body muscles and legs in tandem. It was like trying to swim in a deep dream, moving while simultaneously not fully feeling in control. However, as this feeling slowly came to pass, Liam managed to gather his senses and became aware of his surroundings again. He was in some sort of ditch, buried under some amount of dirt.

  Forcing his arm through what felt like concrete sludge, straining his hand he pierced through the surface layer of what he estimated to be about an inch or two of dirt. His fingertips pierced through and felt a chilled draft of what felt like winter air. Using the newfound access to the surface, he squirmed and wiggled his arm to create enough breaks in the dirt to loosen around his body. Eventually the loosening was just enough to use his strength to break through his arm, then his other hand, until eventually he was able to raise his upper body out and see the landscape before him. Inhaling in a shocked way, he could basically feel the air enter his lungs. He didn’t quite realize it until he inhaled but he felt winded- as if someone punched him straight in his diaphragm. Rapidly taking in deep breaths and long pauses for air, Liam remarked at the beautiful winter landscape before him.

  “I…Can’t… believe its…winter!”

  After catching his breath fully he resolved to finish trying to uproot himself.

  “AaaaAAAAG. Man this fricken sucks!”

  Raising the rest of his body out from the earth’s tight grip, he felt pressure slowly release as more of his body mass was removed from the gravity of the surface pushing down on him. Looking around was a scenery he was unsurprisingly not familiar with (like the past few months, pretty much nothing changed)... When he was last in charge of the body, Liam recalled a large forested area and the river's winding sounds of rushing water. On the journey they pretty much never left the river bed. There wasn’t much else to do, seeing as there were no demarcated pathways or nature trails. This place however was a completely different ecosystem. Large coniferous trees with beautiful white patterned leaves towered sporadically throughout the landscape. Small patches of snow were scattered here and there, but clearly frost had already set in. Small heart shaped cones were scattered throughout the forest floor. It was quiet and largely peaceful. There were some small shrubbery, but most of the ground was open, barring the trees of course. Liam jolted and slapped his forehead as he remembered a critical detail-

  “WAIT- MY TOOLS AND STU-!”

  Looking around the small hole he had made to try and find the makeshift “toolbox of adventure” (named so by Liam)- he was shocked to find various objects scattered about in a haphazard way. Looking around various scalpels, forceps and jars containing what he assumed were cotton bars were mixed in with much of his old construction tools he thought were missing from the strange “room” he was in before waking up, in addition to scatterings of what seemed to be bullets and a couple things that looked fairly…pointy. Were they brought from his special “room” to the real world?

  Super fricken fascinating! I think all this stuff is from our little rooms! Hmmm…. I wonder what this stuff is- WAIT.

  Before Liam could be fully distracted by looking through various objects, Liam looked down to find that his scavenged clothing had been replaced with some random t-shirt and lab-coat. Instead of uncovered legs he instead found black jeans that somehow felt tailored to his specific measurements. Inspecting himself and ignoring the fact he lost his hand-made shoes, he inspected this mysterious attire. He could take it off and on again no problem, as he removed the belt and put it back on. It was just strange that this happened to appear on him while buried.

  Do these thingies- the little trinkets and doodads that pop up randomly- are they… are they only popping up after this body stays in an area for a bit?

  Looking around he lost the toolbox he had made prior, because he was too chilly to really care to look through inches of dirt and snow. Liam moved forward, trying to find some sort of shelter from the cold, crossing his arms and holding his hands in the pockets of his armpits to keep them from freezing. As he walked, he began to see something form in the horizon. Walking up a hill generally was a nice relaxation for Liam but seeing as he hadn’t really seen anything except for more nature- seeing something come into view was exciting.

  As he got further and further up the hill, as he was just cresting the tree tops of the forest, a greyish cloud started to come into his vision with a weird block underneath it. As he moved closer and closer, the greyish cloud turned into a stream of…smoke!? Liam re-adjusted his eyes to focus on the distance. Coming into view was a large fort or castle of some kind! It was people! He had finally found people!

  “YESSSSSSS! LETS FRICKENG GOOOO!!!!”

  Liam let out an ecstatic scream of thanks, owing to the fact he would finally see another human being after so long. He could explain his situation and ask for some help, or at the very least get some dang clean clothes or food that isn’t slimy. His walk pace quickened as he made sure to go in as straight a line as possible. Liam didn’t want to lose the only part of civilization he found in who knows how long. He could get a hug, cry with someone as he communicates the terrifying things he saw- get some hot coco while talking about where he’s been and for some assistance on how to live in this new body. If it was an iseakai, like he remembers from the shows he watched, maybe he’ll even find someone to take on an adventure or super awesome quest! As more and more thoughts of talking, interacting and just generally not being so alone again swirled Liam's distracted mind, his quick walking pace turned into a brisk jog, his brisk jog developed into a moderate run- when his excitement reached its peak Liam was full on sprinting as fast as he could with teary eyes as he was thankful he had been lucky enough to find some sort of sign of life. Being alone was too much for Liam, tears started to form down his warm cheeks- the redness from his tear ducts being overused was a sign his wide grin and desperate smile was genuine. He had found people again. People he thought he could help.

  Alrighty. It’s going to get really complicated real fast, so for simplicity's sake soon Silas's perspectives are going to be limited to the person in charge. This is going to be referred instead of the individual perspectives at play just for the sake of a consistently understandable and a bit lass of a drag on the speed of plot development. However, when it is important I will do my best to clarify either directly or subtly as to what happens with these other perspectives. Also, chapters may or may not get a bit lengthier as more dialogue will be happening. Additionally, since a decent 'chunk' of writing has been uploaded on here, we're going to start tapering down the chapter releases to about once or twice a week. Any comments or feedback would be incredibly appreciated! :D

  -JSN