It was eleven at night when Oliver broke into the house through the back door, everything was dark inside, and the familiar scene from before had long vanished, leaving only an obscure silence, marked by the scent of a monster inside the place.

Locking the door at his back, knowing the place like the palm of his hand, Oliver advanced in the darkness, silently sneaking through the hallway, passing by his old door, where Him should be laid, all the way into the kitchen. Once there, through the windows, Oliver briefly switched the light on and off. That was the sign.

— Oliver, I think we had a problem —

Said Park through the phone, open as a communication line.

— I… think I know what you mean —

Oliver answered quickly, hanging out in the process.

— Hey, Oliver! —

Said Park before watching through the window to see Oliver in the Kitchen, next to a thinner figure.

— Hey buddy, I thought you were sleeping —

It was Corin, Oliver’s younger brother, half-sleep and already suited on his sleepers, carving mindlessly one of his eyes with the back of his hand.

— I was thirsty —

Answered Corin walking through Oliver, into the fridge.

It had been almost a month since the last time Olive had seen him, and for one moment, everything came back to him. The months before moving out, the journey and having to leave everything, their D&D unfinished campaign, and even the discussion they had the morning before he had to leave. It had been a couple of messed up weeks, in which everything had turned into something he couldn’t even describe. It was hard to realize, that even when both had shared almost everything till that moment, Corin probably wouldn’t be able to understand what was happening even if he tried to explain it. At that moment Oliver decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea either.

When Corin closed the fridge door having served himself, Oliver saw a strangely familiar dreamcatcher attached to it and remembered Specter.

— Hey, Corin, do you still remember our Empire Rises DnD quest? —

Already on his way to bed, the boy turned around and watched him with bold eyes.

— I had this idea about a magic book we can use to solve Alveda’s Maze, and… —

Then Oliver felt his body shook, carried aside by Corin’s weight, who had mindlessly run to hug him.

— You’re back! —

He said thrilled

— Wh… yeah, I… wait, how do you know? —

Corin answered then, words that Oliver would never hear, as his face went from a golden joy to a pale angst. Eyes fixed in the dark hallway, holding Corin's arm, he squatted enough to have him on his height, resembling in the act a prey animal. He felt it, almost like a scent in the air, way before it was readable by the eye. When the silhouette emerged from the dark, he knew the whole deal was about to start.

— Oh, hi Oliver, I didn’t know you were coming tonight —

Said Him calmly, with a pleased expression.

— I’m sorry, I was just around the neighborhood, and thought about stopping by to say hello —

Turning himself in front of Coring, shielding him with his body, Oliver squared himself up. He laughed in his place.

— That’s a good one, but you should seriously think about calling before —

He said, right before throwing his arm upfront, unleashing a terrible wave of invisible force that advanced like a heavy truck, crashing the whole hallroom, rumbling, splintering, and chipping all in its way, right before fading in front of Oliver’s bare hand.

— … —

— What?—

— I think… I don’t have a comeback for that one… —

Said Oliver, right before pushing Corin away, then, jumping in the opposite direction.

— Run! —

— You fool, you think I don’t know what you’re trying to do? —

Aiming Corin in the middle of his run, Him said, provoking Oliver’s reaction.

There, Oliver waved his other hand over Him, in a split second, a thought crossed his mind, the house, his brother, everything was too tight, too close, too dangerous, so he held and pushed at the same time, the very same force that had went through the sealing Hex on his other hand, the expelling Hex shone, activating the link between the Hexes and a much weaker wave came to life, reaching Him with barely enough strength to throw him over his knees.

— What the… —

He said, turning his attention to Oliver, while Corin sneaked behind the hallroom’s coach. Oliver remained shocked for a moment, remembering Park's words about dual links, it was a matter of practice. Now he understood what he had meant with it.

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— It won’t work anyway —

Then Him retrieved his body again, just as he had made during our Playground's encounter, stood his feet firmly on the carpet, and whipsawed himself with an unspeakable force through Oliver. He managed to avoid him once, getting to see Corin under the table, right in time to be tackled by Him through the kitchen’s wall.

— I got you —

He said strong-arming Oliver under his weight, Oliver, not even conscious that his body had gone through the wall on a single blast caught out blood, splattering all in between him and Him.

— Any last words? —

Oliver grasped with his convoluted throat

— Eh? —

Him asked, the Hex on Oliver’s hand shone, and the rest of the shockwave he had sealed before projected Him through the roof, into the night. The stars shone over their heads, and Oliver was able to see a dim light.

— Oliver! Are you ok? —

Screamed a voice from the other side of the mess in which the kitchen had become, when Oliver could stand up, he saw it. It was Park.

— Oliver! —

He said, switching his attention to the spot that the scrawled Oliver had indicated. It was Corin, under the table. Park got it ipso facto.

— Hold on, I’ll be back in a second —

Taking it by the arm, Park got Corin under the table, when the boy tried to resist, the slanted eyes student pocked his forehead, making him fall unconscious. When both went through the door, the roof fell over the hall.

— Shit —

Said Oliver, numbed by the pain.

— Mom’s going to blame me for this —

— Oh, you bet —

Said Him jumping over the hall, and grabbing Oliver by his clothes, which got raised with the same ease a snack bag does in the hands of a fatty.

While his body rolled over the grass of the backyard, Oliver thought carefully about what was happening.

Somehow, that was the second wall he had gone through in the last five minutes or less, it wasn’t like his ghostly condition excused him from pain nor the wounds a normal person would suffer in that same situation, he was sure enough bones had broken in that last exchange to unabling him from keep fighting, yet he still didn't feel like dying. If so, his mind was foggy enough to feel like if it kept moving in that direction, probably everything would be over soon.

“It must be something like the delay park explained before”

He thought, trying to make sense of his condition. It made sense in a way if he would exist first as an idea, then as a soul, and only after that as a physical body, then some properties could be lost in the interactions, much like in the way he didn’t have a shadow anymore, nor needed to sleep. Yet it was an uncertain science, to start, it could be that some elements were affected more than others in a relational dynamic, reflecting rule-guided transformations like in chemistry. Like Runes seemed to make with reality when inside a command, if everything existed first as an idea, and this idea translated all the way into the matter, then the very nature of everything could be altered by Sympathetic links. Incerce could be controlled at will, energy storage, and released without constraints and strength granted as any other property. The world would be like legos, you would just need to know the right combination of them to build whatever you wanted.

It was then that Oliver had a realization.

He had fallen unconscious.

So he woke up immediately.

— Oliver! —

Screamed Kiki on top of him, shaking him by the scrapped hoodie.

— Are you alive? —

— I… wish I wasn’t —

— You dumb ass! I went out cause you were taking too long! —

— Yeah, things went… south —

They heard a stumble and looked back to find Him stepping on the grass.

— I see you’ve found yourself a girlfriend, Oli —

Kiki helped Oliver to sit down, saw him, and quickly knew he was already out.

— Don’t worry, I’ll finish him —

— Wait! —

He screamed sore

— I have an idea —

Kiki doubted it.

— You better make it work before I kick this assholes ass —

— O-ok… —

Oliver conceded.

Then, she stood in the middle of the two and swayed her katana out of its sheath. There, taking form in the middle of the night, a thin mist took a stance on the grass, like dew on a winter night, or fog over seawater.

— I see, that’s not just a regular sword, isn't it? —

Said Him slowly walking towards her. She remained in silence.

— By its look, I would judge that if it touches me, to heal a wound would be the last of my concerns —

Her eyes, slanted like her brothers, shrunk in disgust.

— Am I right? Well… it doesn’t matter if you don’t answer, I’m not going to let you land even a scratch in me —

He said cocky

— Well, let’s see if that’s true —

Said Kiki, stepping forward.