I told Marie everything. It took the rest of the evening and part of the night, to explain to her what I could remember. I only omitted the part about our strange feelings as wolf Gray. No reason to freak her out, and I had no idea what it was anyway.

Marie had listened, mostly in silence, only to ask some precisions one some part.

“So, you can transform in this Igris?”

“Yes.”

“Could you show me?”

That question bothered me slightly.

“I…don’t know actually, I never switched shapes from one human to another, only through the wolf.”

“Could be a good opportunity.”

I thought about it.

“Not now, I think you’ve had enough, and I’d rather try outside.”

She pouted but acquiesced nonetheless.

“To summarize, you have an alter ego from the past, like way back, that slept the whole way through time as a wolf pelt until it found you. And you just happened by that magical artifact while it was being guarded by a crazy vampire? Seems unlikely, to say the least.”

“Well unlikely things happen. But it’s not unlikely, it’s almost impossible. Sometimes those happen too.”

“Still, the theory that you just gave me a strange sickness and that we’re both hallucinating the same thing through our common fever is more likely.”

“Really?”

“I’m being pragmatic.”

“Doesn’t suit you, go back to summoning Satan.”

She gave me an angry look. “I do not summon Satan; I kick its ass back on Mars.”

“Is that a reference to something?”

She sighed: “You should play more video games.”

“I’m good, I only like to play them with friends.”

“We could play together sometimes!”

“You only like to kill things.”

“Or fuck things.” She added.

“We’re talking about inside a game.”

“Oh, sorry, forgot.”

At this, our conversation on the paranormal stopped, albeit for a moment. The clock showed two in the morning. We were sitting next to each other on the flat’s couch, the small television was showing pictures of some new terrible thing on the news, but the sound was muted.

“You still feel like you, that’s a relief.”

“We are one.”

She looked at me funny.

“That felt a bit weird.”

“My other side was more responsible for that one.”

She looked at the news anchor showing a beached whale, so large and heavy it could not be moved anywhere.

“What’s it like?”

“Mh?”

“Your alter-ego, what’s he like?”

“Oh it’s not a h…”

Suddenly, the dead whale on the screen exploded, enormous chunks of flesh flew everywhere, some directly on the news anchor, that barely dodged the mass of muscle and bones.

“What the…?” I exclaimed.

“I’ve seen that ages ago.” Noted Marie.

The news scene was shrunk down, and another image took place; multiple people laughing too ostensibly for it to be genuine. It wasn’t the late news, but a bad gag reel show.

“Why are they laughing? It was horrible!”

Marie did not seem surprised by my reaction. “Maybe the sound effects would have helped.”

I gave her an accusatory look.

She sighed. “It was rotting and polluting the whole beach, they didn’t know what to do, so USA, I guess? What were you saying?” She didn’t try to hide that she was changing the subject.

Fine. What was I saying?

I was trying to say that Igris, my alter-ego, was a woman’s name, I had not specified it before, feeling it was obvious, but probably influenced by Igris now Gray’s knowledge of old forgotten names. I tried to correct her mistake once again, but I heard Stan outside the flat, fiddling with his keys.

“Stan’s back.”

“What? How can you? Ooooh, were-wo…”

“Shut up.” I didn’t like her saying that so casually, especially as it was not the truth.

“Worrywart.”

“Coming from you, that’s truly insulting.”

“Soft-skinned.”

“I’m gonna bite you.”

“I’m sooo scared.”

Stan had entered the flat and was watching our oral joust with eyes up in the air.

“Seems you guys have made up.”

“And you are alone.” Noted Marie.

“Hey, I don’t need to bring her home every night.”

“Thank god. Your room may be the more isolated of the three, but we can still hear your manly cries.” I commented.

“Praise to that!” Added Marie.

Stan gave us both his signature ‘gonna kill you both in your sleep’ hand gesture, before taking the door to the corridor on his left, where the shower, toilet, and his room, was.

“G’night Stan!” I shouted.

“If you wake up at five and wake me up, I will burn your house down.” He answered loudly.

“It’s also technically your house you know?” Teased Marie.

But Stan had closed his door and seemingly didn’t hear.

“Well I’m going to sleep too, some of us are going to our classes.” Marie got up and went towards the corridor opposite to Stan’s.

“G’night Marie!”

“I won’t, I can assure you that.” She said, suddenly serious.

I frowned but didn’t know what to answer, and I waited for her door to close before going to the shower and going to bed myself.

My eyes were closed, I was breathing softly, my head was resting on my soft pillow.

I could finally focus on the events of the day.

Our friend was in danger. Because of me.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Why though? There is not supposed to be a third.

I realized I had access to the knowledge of two lives, and the memories linked to them.

I was apprehensive I would invoke new flashbacks in doing so, but I felt more in control, the events didn’t feel new, whether they were from Igris now Gray’s mind, or Ray now Gray’s.

Is that what I meant when I said we would fuse?

Yes, we can still talk like two different people inside our mind, but it becomes more of a conscious method of thought than two different people talking. I was never able to speak so fluently before, and I just need to try to be able to now.

Isn’t it scaring you?

A bit, as much as it scares you. But we are the same.

You would like something though? I have been Ray for a while, and I feel your side is disconnected.

Our physical self.

Maybe I could do like you did at the beginning, sleep a bit while Igris now Gray takes command.

I do not know. It would go against the essence of ourselves, to forcibly separate after finally having found each other.

It would only be temporary, and it may be the last chance we have in doing this.

True. Let us try. We still must understand what happened in the woods.

I stopped talking to myself and just focused on everything that happened. When alone in the woods, nothing…no we had blacked out. Both of us.

If both of us blacked out… Who controlled the wolf? Who had killed the moose?

I went back into Igris now Gray’s souvenirs.

With Ray now Gray’s objective view, something immediately popped up.

When they summoned thunder on our body, we did not transform into the pelt.

No, indeed, the pelt was already there. At our feet, waiting to absorb us.

But there is no wolf that big. I couldn’t strap my head around the thought.

Igris now Gray’s world had been fueled with magic, mysticism, old laws, chaos, and the roughness of human emotion in all its forms.

Igris had believed that homosexuality was a grave sin punishable by death, she had been spared by fate because she was a Conscient, an Oracle. The clan thought her desires were not coming from evil gods, but from her male alter-ego. But anyone found bedding her had to be ‘saved’. To repent in flames was not my definition of saving.

You like girls?

So do you. Well yeah, that was logical.

We found the problem though. The clan of magic and chaos had used something not really from this world to create its ritual for Gray.

I only had one clue for what was the god, but with Ray now Gray’s modern views, it wasn’t helpful.

Wolves had their god, symbol of Wrath and Vengeance. The clan was the one who had imprisoned him, fed him, and taught him forgiveness.

It was a nice story, but obviously just there to teach how to make dogs, not actually about a real wolf god.

Could be the truth.

If it is, then we’re fucked, so let’s assume not.

We wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Exactly, you’re so smart.

Don’t compliment yourself.

We had no way of knowing what had happened on the mountain, so we stopped thinking about it. We had to put into action our decision for Ray now Gray to sleep the next day.

How are we supposed to make it happen?

I find it amusing you ask yourself questions you can answer. Do we really need to flatter our ego that much?

Yeah, it would be a bad habit to have.

I closed my eyes, drifting to sleep naturally, part of me would just be sleeping in a bit more.

It was a strange feeling, I was in the limbo of my dreams, then I was not. I forced myself to stay there, but I could feel part of me conscious, just out of reach.

I was Ray again.

It felt terrible.

“Let’s not do that again.” I said to no one, in a space that did not exist.

But still, I was sleeping and didn’t know how to force myself awake. I instinctively knew that only Igris, from the outside, could. So, I slept-waited, half there half not, waiting for our experiment to end.

I felt no fear, as I knew Igris as she knew me, she felt the same way I did, broken in half, but with the desire to try to get through the day, nonetheless. Nothing bad would happen.

NAÏVE.

Shivers ran up my spine.

In the darkness of the clouds of my mind, eyes were watching me. They were moving in the mist, pupils of rust, cornea of fire.

I instinctively stopped looking.

SMART, BUT USELESS.

A monstrous wolf, very much like my own form, showed itself, displaying teeth each as big as my hand. It wasn’t the same as Wolf Gray though.

This one was bigger, its fur pitch black. Blood was dripping from its snout, falling on an inexistent floor with an eerie sound.

This was not a beautiful creature. I did not feel awe.

The feeling was the same as with the vampire, worse even.

Wrath, Fear, Death.

I uncharacteristically swore: “Shit. We just refuted the wolf god theory.”

I could not move, not really, we were inside our mind after all. He was not really moving either, he hadn’t “shown” itself out of the shadows. Everything here was make-believe.

Though I had no doubts he was dangerous even in a lucid dream.

“YOU ARE OUR NEW HOST ARE YOU NOT? DELIGHTED. I AM THE BEAST, AND I AM NO GOD, I AM THE ONE WHO EATS THEM.”

Well, that wasn’t ominous at all.

“I’m Gray.” I said, terrified.

The beast came even closer, its teeth bared, its mouth opening then clenching shut just in front of my face, droplets of blood flying on my cheeks.

“ORACLE MADE PRISON OF FLESH. I HATE YOU LESS THAN THE OTHERS.”

I was not reassured.

A deep sound emerged from the monster, rough and guttural. It was laughing.

“I DID NOT COME TO EAT YOU, YOUNG ORACLE. LIKE ME, YOUR DEATH IS AS INESCAPABLE AS IT IS UNATTAINABLE.”

It was hearing my thoughts.

It laughed again.

“YOU SAID NOTHING BAD WOULD HAPPEN. I AM THE HARBINGER OF DISASTER.”

I had guessed as much. The disaster being you.

“NOT ALWAYS. NOT THIS TIME.”

“What?” I said out loud in my mind.

The terror personified that filled my incorporeal eyes vanished. Smoke replaced it in the clouds of my mind.

The beast was not gone, but its form had vanished.

“WE LIKE YOUR HUMAN, YOU FORCE YOUR FEELINGS UPON US ALL, RAY NOW GRAY.”

Immediately, my feelings boiled to unprecedented heights.

“You’re the one who thought of her as delicious? Who made us want to hunt her, even for a moment? You fuc…”

“I’M NOT THE ONE HUNTING HER, WE ARE.”

“What? You mean…? She’s into girls, how many times will I have to say it!?”

“PATHETIC. YOU WILL BE BETTER WHEN YOU FORGO THE BLINDNESS OF YOUR HUMANITY.”

Blind? What was I supposedly not seeing?

As I felt the beast truly retract in the depths of ourselves, a realization suddenly crept upon me.

Igris.

She was into girls, pushed by my feelings.

And I had given her free reign.

I felt sick.

I had to wake up, now.

A day was too long, she knew Marie as I knew her.

All her weaknesses, all her likes and dislikes.

She wasn’t going to, would she? We had some honor; we would not lie to our best friend.

We would not, and even then Marie would stop Igris.

I thought about the serial lover for a moment.

She wouldn't.

“Igris!” I shouted. “Igris!”

No answer came.

How much time had passed?

I felt the presence of the beast far within, laughing, watching my squirming with delight.

I was not able to wake up by myself, but I realized I could watch what was going on “outside”.

Igris could, so why shouldn't I be able to?

The beast had come, not to warn me, but to distract me. I did not need to wake, I just needed to talk to myself. It had brought disaster, as it prophesized.

“You…” I had no words.

It laughed, deep growls shaking my insides.

I called Igris, and then I felt whole again.

“What’s happening? Oh.”

“Tell me you didn’t.”

I did not have to wait for an answer, we had decided to stop questioning ourselves when we already knew.

I felt terrible. Angry at myself. Disappointed in my friend, too.

She was unable to say no to cute girls, always had been the case.

Igris now Gray’s body wasn’t just cute.

That part of myself was discovering the full extent of her mistake and understanding what had happened inside. That a monster had used us while she was sleeping for eons.

“This is why I could speak so many languages. When sleeping, without both of our selves, he was in control. I had his knowledge, but he hid the memories, so I would not wake.

Another part of myself had to assess the damage.

I opened my eyes, the room was reminiscent of my own, but it was not full of drawing equipment and paintings, only books and video game posters, dimly lit by a computer screen.

The bed I was in was bigger in size, but smaller in space.

Warm flesh was stuck to mine.

My body was soft, still partly novel to me.

Marie was not sleeping, but her eyes were closed.

Her lips were pursed in shame, I could feel the heat from her flushed cheeks, smell her sweat.

“Shit.”