Everything in the older Ace’s story matched up with some of the information the insane man in a suit told Ronnie in the garden earlier, and now he had more problems.

It was impossible to walk away from the situation now.

And this was Ace. Not his Ace, but still him.

“Do you have a guess what happened to Levi,” Ronnie asked.

“Most likely that watch is torturing him. Or he’s stuck in that weird garden,” Ace replied.

“I know you’ve been through so much, but there’s someone I think you should meet.”

After finishing their late lunch, Ronnie took Ace to the guest room, and inside was his old friend, the sparkling white blanket that had been waiting for him to return home for years.

“He missed you so much and I think talking to him would stop his weird behavior. Come on out,” Ronnie told The Leech.

The Leech was oddly shy and didn’t appear in the room. He couldn’t be sensed anywhere, and the usual feeling of dread wasn’t in the room.

“He’s busy,” Ace grunted.

Ronnie and Ace left the room, and once they took a few steps away, Ace motioned for them to come to his room.

Older Ace was upset that his room had blue wallpaper instead of green, but tried to ignore it.

“Why is it here,” Ace asked.

“You don’t miss him,” Ronnie asked.

“Sometimes, but his jealousy is insane. No one could be my friend,” Ace complained. “Invictus went from a friend that protected me to a crazy bulldog!”

“What did you do with him where you come from?”

“Honestly…I think I might have accidentally killed him.”

Ronnie sat on the creaky bed and again vaped in desperation from more unsettling news. If gods could be killed, then no one was safe.

“It happened when I was twenty-two. He’s always jealous of whoever I’m dating, and now he couldn’t handle it because I was thinking of getting married,” Ace said.

Ronnie coughed up a storm and couldn’t believe that his Ace could be getting married at the same time the other one was having a quarter-life crisis.

“I told him that I didn’t want him around people because he was too dangerous. I said that I’m not friends with people who hurt the people I love, and that we are definitely not best friends.”

Ace looked bereft and a little guilty.

“I hated him, but I didn’t mean to kill him. He just…slowly faded away…”

“Why would he die if you two stopped being friends? That’s weirdly specific,” Ronnie replied.

“I was wondering the same thing for weeks,” Ace said. “And Levi, my actual best friend came up with the right answer.”

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Ronnie’s nostrils pushed out cloudy air, and he again was confused about this other world. Best friends? The two people that couldn’t decide between hating or fucking each other every day?

Things must truly be utterly horrible in this alternate reality.

“He reminded me that all the gods have a purpose. And Invictus was made to be my friend and protect me. I grew up and I didn’t need him to protect me. He got angry, and I didn’t want to be his friend.”

Ace walked around the room that was his and somehow wasn’t and relieved memories that were his and someone else’s at the same time. He didn’t want to see Invictus again. The guilt sometimes made it hard for him to sleep.

“You asked me what you can do earlier yeah,” Ronnie said. “Because you’re scared?”

“A little,” Ace admitted.

“We can find your Levi.”

“How?”

“I have a pretty good idea how we can find him,” Ronnie said. “You will hate it though.”

Ronnie and Ace went to the backyard. It was now late, and all that could be heard was the sound of crickets in the grass and cars driving through the neighborhood.

Ronnie took the shovel leaning on the outside of the shed and told himself that there was nothing to be afraid of.

“They can die, just like us,” Ronnie told himself. “I can do this.”

He could.

Ace’s job was to hold the flashlight and Ronnie’s was to dig near the treehouse. The treehouse was still switching through different phases of completion, but once Ronnie’s shovel hit something, the treehouse stopped changing, and now it was in it’s present, old condition.

“He’s here. You sure you want to see him again,” Ronnie asked.

“He’s taken everything from me. What else is there left to take?”

Ronnie used his hands to get the last bit of dirt out of the way. Late in the evening, they had finally found the object everyone had been scouring the seventh and eighth realm for.

Ace felt like a pair of eyes were staring at him, heavily, and the watch spoke.

“You don’t belong here,” it said.

“Then help me get Levi and Fenton,” Ace replied. “You don’t want me here? Give me what I want and I’ll go.”

“Why would I ever help you?”

“Because we know how to lock you up forever,” Ronnie announced. “Turns out the attic is a better spot than the tree.”

“Some prisoners can’t be reformed and need a life sentence. Shame,” Ace said. “Would really suck to spend the rest of eternity in a fucking attic.”

“That house will eventually fall, and I will break free. I have plenty of time!”

“You think that Ace won’t tell someone to make a new trap, the same way,” Ronnie asked. “You don’t think that someone can take the job of trapping you for centuries. I know a man that would love to do it, and you don’t want to go with him.”

The heavy feeling of being watched was now gone from Ace’s back, and Infiniti chuckled his deep, heavy, creepy laugh.

“You’ve come so far, you born liars,” he said incredulously. “How many people know of this trap?”

“There’s the attic, the organization that wants you, and then I can easily recreate it,” Ronnie lied.

Ronnie still hadn’t learned how to decode the book, but he understood that never playing all your good cards and deceiving the enemy was the only way to win.

“You’re so fucked,” Ace laughed. “You are going to pay for every fucking thing you’ve done to me.”

“As if I would let your filthy remaining hand touch me. No wonder you lost the other!”

“Shut up!”

“Don’t take the bait,” Ronnie groaned. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Ronnie took out a small cloth from the kitchen he kept in his back pocket, a pair of gloves, and wrapped it around the watch.

“You’re so gentle. I’d love for you to use me any way you want,” Infiniti said.

“I…I uh gotta mentally prepare myself for that level of commitment first,” Ronnie replied.

The watch cackled when they entered Ace’s house, causing all the clocks to change time. The digital ones switched to random numbers, and the analog clocks had their hands spin rapidly. They bounced up and down and Ronnie was now finally getting a taste of what they could do, as Ken had warned him.

“I hope we have a long, long, relationship, Ronnie,” Infiniti said.

Ronnie shuddered.

He never told it his name.