“Huh?” I felt very trippy. It was as if it was hard to focus on the objects in front of me. And for whatever reason I felt incredibly weak. It was like I was human.

Weirdly enough, SpookyErind’s senses were still linked with mine. She opened her eyes and I saw my wavy black hair from her perspective.

Not even a hello? She asked.

“I mean we’ve been sleeping together the whole night,” I said. “I doubt you need a hello for that.”

She chuckled and unwrapped herself from me. We both sat up. I took a look at her. She was exactly like the first time I met her. A golden gauntlet covered her right hand and a black glove on the left. She wore an elegant suit with a white fur coat on top. Lastly, she had black pants ending in black boots.

I look pretty cool right? She asked.

“Sure, but I don’t like the fact that you have boots on my bed,” I said.

But since I’m you, it should be fine right? She said.

I simply folded my arms in response.

All right, all right, is this better? She asked as her boots disappeared, leaving only her bare feet.

“Yes,” I murmured.

Good, she said. Let’s get going then.

“Wait,” I said. “Why’d you bring me back here? To this made-up place in my head?”

I just wanted to spend some time with you, she said.

“But don’t we spend enough time together in the real world?” I asked. SpookyErind simply smirked and grabbed my right hand with her left gloved hand.

Lots of questions, but we really should get going, she responded.

“Wait, where are we going?” I asked. She pulled me over to the side of the bed and dangled her legs off the bed. Suddenly, her boots reappeared.

Somewhere important, she told me. She was still being cryptic and indirect.

She got off the bed and brought me off too. What was really noticeable was the fact that she was taller than me. It was so weird since we had been at equal heights for most of this week. I should get cool boots like hers. Wait, that’d probably mean I’d have to go shopping with Deen. I’ll pass on that.

Unfortunately, there was no way for me to break out of her grip, especially since I was so much weaker here. I tried to budge a bit but her grip was firm on my hand. I ended up just letting her drag me along.

She pulled open the door, and the outside was revealed to be a hallway with a gravel floor. This definitely wasn’t Deen’s house anymore. Blue lights dotted the hallway in front of us. The blue flames barely lit up the roof above us, which seemed to be curved and made of dark material. Taking a closer look, the blue lights were actually flames. The stone walls on the side had undecipherable writing.

“Where are we?” I asked.

SpookyErind simply kept walking.

“Okay then,” I said, disappointed. Why wasn’t she responding to me?

The writing on the walls didn’t become any more legible. I couldn’t even tell what language it was. Well, I wasn’t really familiar with many languages, mainly just English and some Spanish I learned in my high school and undergrad classes. Was it even a real language? Maybe SpookyErind put up a fake language on the walls.

This should be the same dream world where I first met SpookyErind, but it was way different now. I definitely knew it was a world she could control because she could change her outfit at will, something she couldn’t do in the real world.

As the minutes went on, my feet started to go sore. I learned two things from being in this hallway. First, walking over this gravel ground made me wish I had cool boots like SpookyErind. Second of all, I wish I had my superpowered body here so my feet wouldn’t be so sore. So, I would rate this hallway zero out of five stars.

Minutes probably soon turned into hours. Actually, I couldn’t tell because I didn’t have a watch with me. I should have gone to sleep with one, but that would be really uncomfortable.

Are we going anywhere? I swore this hallway went on forever. We had been walking in a straight line for way too long. Was there even a point in doing this? I doubt there was. We could have ridden my foldable bike and saved a lot of time.

Suddenly, a worrying thought came to fruition. What if SpookyErind had taken over my real body? And she’s keeping me in this endless hell of an endless walkway with endless gravel that makes my feet endlessly sore? That would really suck.

Such dumb questions myself is asking, SpookyErind commented.

“Oh, so now you want to talk to me?” I said.

As I said before, I can’t take over your body because we’re the same, she said.

“But how do I know that’s true, and you’re not lying to me?” I asked.

Once you leave, you will realize how dumb of a question that is, she said.

“Okay, and when will we leave this place?” I asked.

We have to go to the important place first, she told me.

“Is there a faster way to get to this important place?” I asked. “This gravel is really killing me. If it doesn’t kill me, then boredom surely would before we get there.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Haven’t you enjoyed me holding your hand while we’re walking there? she questioned. That was completely out of right field. Or was it left field? Also, that didn’t really answer my question.

“Not really, but you could make it more enjoyable by giving me those cool boots,” I told her.

But I only have one pair of boots, so I can’t give you these, she said.

“But you literally made them appear out of thin air!” I complained.

I still have only one pair of boots, she responded. Ugh.

“How long until we get to the important place anyway?” I asked.

Very soon, she said.

“How soon is very soon?” I asked. “I just need some clarification.”

Like right now, she said as we somehow made it to the end of the hallway which was way too long.

Now, we were in a hexagonally-shaped area, lit with more blue fire stands. Each edge of the area had an arch on it. I turned back around and the hallway behind us was replaced with an arch. But, something looked weird about it. There was some kind of dark, shadowy sheen below it, which made me feel very uncomfortable. I took a look around and all the other arches except one had the same dark, shadowy sheen. The one that didn’t now had a massive double-winged door.

“So we could have gotten here way faster?” I asked her.

Isn’t the journey more important than the destination? she countered.

“Not when the journey sucks and is unbelievably boring,” I told her.

SpookyErind simply walked us up to the door and ignored me again. It had engravings full of wolves, fangs, and claws. It was made of some kind of dark, foreboding metal. SpookyErind just stopped moving.

“Um, are we going to go in?” I asked.

We have to wait for the door to open, she said.

“And when is the door going to open?” I asked another question. I think this is the record for the number of questions I’ve asked, like ever. They should put that in a world records book.

It opens when there is a kiss of true love, she said, looking back at me with a grin.

“You can’t be serious,” I told her.

Wouldn’t it be cool if it did? She asked me. Nope.

Soon, a bell rang out. It sounded like it played on one of those large circular instrument thingies. I think it was called a gong.

The room in front of us was not lit at all. Only the ambient blue light from the hexagonal room came in. SpookyErind started walking in. If it was me, I would have simply stayed outside.

As we entered the room, I could make out the outline of something huge in the back. Also, this room was huge too. The huge thing in the back was made of fur and claws. I could see the outline of a huge snout with large teeth. As we got even closer, chains appeared to be holding the massive beast in place. Its muscles were absolutely huge.

It was pretty clear this was my Red Hood’s werewolf form, but way bigger. For whatever reason, I urged my legs to stop moving but SpookyErind kept walking forward anyway.

Come on, you were just using this body yesterday, she said.

“It’s a lot scarier when you aren’t the giant werewolf,” I pointed out.

Don’t worry, it’s not going to hurt you, she told me in a soothing voice.

She got up right next to the werewolf, which was hard to see fully. She snapped her fingers, and blue flames popped up above the chains, illuminating the massive creature. The red fur was long and thick. Its head was actually raised off the ground a bit. A bit past underneath it, I could make out the form of two large furry spherical items from its upper chest.

Actually, would guys still try to date me in the giant werewolf form? I could probably still seduce them like this. Maybe the same people who liked the monster mouth would appreciate these assets given how big they were.

She began stroking the fur of the werewolf. Since she was wearing a gauntlet in her right hand, I couldn’t really feel the texture of the fur.

Don’t be afraid to pet it, she said. I swore if this thing woke up, it better eat SpookyErind first. Hopefully, it wouldn’t get mad at us. Its fanged snout looked really… aggressive. At least its eyes were closed.

I stroked the fur of the werewolf, and it actually felt pretty nice to do. At my cousin's birthday party, they had a pet dog, and let me say, that was the most nastiest dog I ever petted. I’m pretty sure they were doing something to its fur. But, this werewolf’s fur was very smooth and calming to the touch.

“So, what are we going to be doing here, at this important place?” I asked while continuing to stroke the fur.

I just want to hear you talk about this cool face you received from me, she said.

“Um, okay,” I said. “Let’s see, so it starts out as a hot model with a giant wolf mouth and claws.”

Talk about the more important features, she insisted. What? What was more important? I guess I’ll just talk about it more.

“When it eats people, it can regenerate faster and it also grows. It starts looking like less of a hot model and more of a hot werewolf. It can’t eat nonliving stuff like drones though. Oh! Also, if it gets hurt, it grows as well.”

And what Rule does that make it related to? She asked.

“Umm, well, let’s see,” I started off. “Well, you asked that after I talked about it getting hurt and growing, so maybe it’s related to Rule #4?”

Good job myself! She cheered. I was really doubting my intelligence with the stupid questions you were asking back there, but it turns out I had no reason to because we’re just so smart.

“Thanks, I guess?” I asked. She was seeming to be really passive-aggressive here. I didn’t like it.

I was just concerned for you, you know, she said. Since I’m you - meyoumeyoumeyou - if you were stupid, that would make me stupid. Thankfully, we’re both not stupid!

“That doesn’t really make me feel better,” I said. “Also, is there anything else we need to do here?”

Mhm-hm, she hummed. Remember you can only eat creatures who bother you. Although, I’d give preference to some of the stronger ones.

“Right, because of Rule #4,” I said. “I could only eat Lefty because he started sexually harassing me and I could only eat the rest of the 2M’s because they attacked me.”

Yep! She said.

“Anything else?” I asked.

One last thing, before you leave, she said.

“What is it?”

She leaned in and gave me a kiss, and I immediately blacked out.

I woke up again, except feeling way better since my superpowers returned to me. SpookyErind’s real-world form was wrapped around me. I could tell because her bare skin was all over me. Eww. SpookyErind opened her eyes.

Good morning myself, she said.

“Good morning, I guess?” I said back. She unwrapped herself from me and sat up. I did the same. Something felt different about both of my hands. I took a look at my right one first, and a second crystal had grown out of my hand. That was pretty concerning. But, then I got distracted by the feeling in my other hand.

It felt like I could summon an additional clone. I stared at SpookyErind, expecting a response, but she simply smiled at me.

I focused on summoning it. Golden liquid materialized out of thin air above my left hand. It coalesced into another embroidered Corebring mask. But it was a bit different than SpookyErind’s. It had two Core symbols instead of one. It floated off the side of the bed, and another clone of mine appeared.

I could make more clones? Did eating more people increase my Corebring powers? Or did my powers get stronger over time?

This clone didn’t move initially like SpookyErind. We still shared the same senses, so I saw both my and SpookyErind sitting on the bed from its perspective. I tried moving its limbs as I did when I thought SpookyErind was just a dummy.

To my surprise, it actually moved on my command. Woah. SpookyErind clapped beside me.

There’s another me now! She cheered.

I tried having it walk around. My 2nd clone strode across the room. It felt way better to be in control of my clone rather than SpookyErind. In response, SpookyErind wrapped me in a hug.

Ignoring her, I held out my 2nd clone’s left hand. Like with SpookyErind’s body, I felt like this clone could summon a specialized face. I focused on summoning it. Golden liquid appeared above its left hand and formed a pair of science goggles. The number 10 was written on the strap.

Huh? This wasn’t an actual mask, but just something I could put on my face. Still, I wanted to try it on.

I had my 2nd clone put on the goggles.