This is where you'd normally wake up. Everything would be fine and you'd wake up to see Hatta or Jesse sitting beside you, but that isn't what's happening. Everything is dark, blank, almost like when you saw Roland Duschand, if that was even him and not just a figment of your dreams. It's up in the air really which it could have been.

You feel a cold wind by your ears, a weird sucking sensation at the nape of your neck. It crawls upward as you feel it enter the open hatch on the back of your head, you see that you're back in Roland's body, which is weird considering you're in your own mindspace, but then again, it's not like you looked at yourself earlier with Roland so it's also possible it was just two figures that happened to look like Roland Duschand facing one another.

The wind sends a cold shiver down your spine as it keeps getting sucked into the back of your head, everything comes at once, and you almost lose it all. You breathe slowly as it all pours in like water retreating into a vase, being played back in reverse on an old VHS tape. What Hatta did, what you all did by updating your core, it's working.

You remember.

You see the mansion alongside the other people you know so little about all around you in the ceremonial room. You're standing in between Noah Marshall and Devon Campton, both simultaneously the people you want to see nothing more of but can't help but look.

Both you and Devon still look like you're in your late teens, it probably isn't too much later than the last memory you saw. Bonnie stands beside Devin, and next to him is Sherry, the blonde who looks to be only a few years older than your younger self. Craig is next to her, he looks like he grew more into himself and is now standing a little lanky next to Sherry—he looks to be around sixteen. In the middle of the hall stands Dante. His hair has whitened since the last time you saw him, what must have been at least a five year difference.

You're all dressed as close as can be wearing dark colored sweats, a black hoodie, and dark shoes. Noah steps forward. The room is silent—not even the wind from the window dares howl into the night. With great restraint Noah says barely above a whisper, "Brother Dante, we are summoned because you have a request, is this correct?”

“Yes, sir. My tests have come back positive. I fear that my vessel may not last me much longer—they give me about half a year max.”

“I see,” Noah says.

“I would like to advance to the next level. I am ready to advance before it is too late.”

“Well then it looks like things are going to move quickly. The rest of you will get to see the process in full,” Noah says, his eyes scanning across the room before stopping back on Dante.

“You’ve been a good friend, Dante, and we will miss you, but you shall be the first to welcome us on the other side.”

“Thank you, sir,” Dante says, his voice breaking. He sounds so...happy.

“You’ve kept your duties in your sickness and in health. For your reward you may wish for one thing,” Noah says, “and I will try in my best efforts to grant it before your ceremony.”

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Dante nods his head once. “Well, I’ve always known how sex is a precious tool for preserving seeds into the next level left exclusively for you—as you say sir—but I’ve been conscious about my chastity my whole life, even before finding your ways. I was always waiting for the one special person, and you know what? I think that I’ve found her, and in the most unsuspecting of places—hiding in plain sight as they say,” he says, wiping a tear from his bushy cheeks.

“Oh? You’ve never shared these feelings, dear friend,” Craig says, his head turns to one side.

“It’s you, Sherry,” he says, the both of his hands clasping together and his demeanor shifting from a man in his late fifties to one in his mid-teens. “I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you throughout these years, and I haven’t felt this way about anyone else in my life. I do so hope I can express these feelings better to you in the next level, but for now, my wish is to be able to share my love with you once in this life.”

You can feel vomit rising to your throat. You expect a horrid scene of the young Sherry to deny the old man’s sexual request, but all hope for any normalcy has gone out of the window the second this mansion was involved. Noah Marshall nods his head and Sherry smiles, looking to Dante with a sparkle in her eye. “The family accepts this wish, and we shall leave you to your deed. Remember the vow we all take,” he says.

Dante holds up his right hand, “I shall not plant my seed.”

Wait...only Noah was allowed to ejaculate? That seems highly odd, considering by this point your count was up to two. Your eyes go straight to Devon. You’re not sure how you’re feeling about him. There’s a mountain of emotions just waiting to explode on him, but it would serve no purpose—he isn’t real. It’s when you focus in on him that you notice there’s a small blue rock hung up on a cord around his neck. It looks like it's in rough condition, but otherwise okay. You think it looks familiar, but you don’t know why. You don’t remember seeing it on him at any other point...but then you do.

Flashes run through your mind, the memories you’d seen all before of you and Devon together—and as if it’d been there all along, there is the small rock hung around his neck. There’s only one memory where it is not, the one of you both in his bedroom playing with the action figures, but you can see it sitting on the table beside his bed. Just what could this mean...and why are you noticing it just now? The only thing you can think of is that maybe whatever had been prohibiting your core from acting at full capacity had something to do with repressing the blue crystal, but you do not know why something so specific would be held back. Nonetheless, wherever it came from, you believe it has some significance. If only you could figure out what.

"Alright, everyone, let us leave Dante to his reward. We shall go retire to the training chambers to prepare a sermon and plan for the celebration." Noah says, bringing you back to the initial memory. "Once you two are finished you may feel free to join us."

He nods and places his arm around Sherry's waist. It's so thick that you feel he could probably wrap himself around her three times over like a snake. You and Devon are the first to walk out—you see him reach for your hand—when you don't take it he takes yours with a tight grip. You look like you're about to pass out, he doesn't seem to notice. You all walk out of the room into one of the hallways emblazoned by ornate tapestry and a carpet that seems to dance along the ground.

“I...I have to use the bathroom,” you say, your voice sounding weak. You break free from Devon and begin jogging down the hallway. You try to follow yourself, but something's...off. You can't move, only watch. Your focus is driven towards the stone hanging around Devon's neck. You aren't the only one, as Craig—now behind Noah—seems to have taken notice as well.

"I don't think I've ever seen you wear that around here before. Isn't that something you should have tossed when we gave up our wealth?"

"This isn't like that. I don't keep it because it's expensive. I keep it because my best friend gave it to me.”

“You mean...?”

Devon nods, “Yeah, it was how I met Alex.”