SpookyErind, who was also my clone, stood across from me, smirking. Her red glowing eyes looked like they could pierce right through my body. Well, they didn’t actually do that, because I could still see my normal cute self from her eyes. Talking about normal, it seemed that SpookyErind didn’t retain her clothes or the cool gauntlet. She was still wearing the same clothes as me - a simple white shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes.

Was this my power then - to create a clone for SpookyErind to inhabit? I wonder if she could help me when I fought Myra eventually.

But then, a worrying thought came to my mind. If she was controlling my clone, did that mean she had the ability to take over my body?

Not even a hi? SpookyErind pouted.

“What are you doing?” I asked, ignoring her question.

I’m just being you. Playing the face of a helpful friend for Deen.

“Being me?” I asked. “So you are taking over my body?”

Myself can be really silly sometimes. SpookyErind said as she stepped close to me.

Come on you’re smarter than that. Mainly, because if you aren’t smart, then I’m not smart. And I’m very smart. As I said before, I’m you and you’re me. We are in full control of our bodies.

I didn’t have the brainpower to parse through this nonsense. SpookyErind was probably just messing with me. Am I really going to lose my body to an Adumbrae so quickly? I thought I’d have more time.

Suddenly, SpookyErind raised my shirt. I was about to pull it down, but I got afraid that I might rip it. Instead, I grabbed Spooky Erind’s wrists and tried to push them away, but she didn’t budge.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked while trying to overpower her. Seriously, how much stronger was she than me? SpookyErind giggled and tapped the Artificial Core on my chest.

If I’m an Adumbrae, how come you’re a Corebring? SpookyErind asked with a smirk.

I wasn’t too sure about that honestly. But surely I had to be an Adumbrae before getting the Core. Otherwise, how else did I get superpowers?

Because we’re so amazing! SpookyErind replied.

“Hey, stop reading my thoughts,” I instinctually replied.

But I am you, so your thoughts are my thoughts. That was kind of annoying though. I guess to make up for it, I could at least sense what SpookyErind sensed.

That’s right. SpookyErind said as she hugged me. I tried moving her arms but they stayed glued to me. Surprisingly, she felt warm to the touch even though she looked like a demon lord. I also didn’t get the same sensation of disgust when other people touch me. It was even more weird because I could also feel her hugging me and my skin touching her skin at the same time.

You can feel what I feel because I am you.

“Just like how I can see what you see?” I asked, deciding to play along with her.

Yeah! See I’m so smart because you’re so smart! We’re the smartest in the world.

“Also, the cutest in the world,” I said. We both giggled at that. And we were indeed cute. Our perfect bunny-like teeth were shown off when we smiled.

“So, I had a question,” I said. “Well actually first off, this is the real world right, and not in my head like how we first met?”

Well, if we were in your head, then I would have definitely worn that cool outfit and had that cool gauntlet. Sadly, the real world isn’t always as fun.

“Sure…”

But you’re going to make it fun right? SpookyErind stared into my eyes. Her red glowing eyes were mesmerizing. Also what did she mean by that?

“Well, I don’t want to be bored,” I replied. “Besides that, since you’re me, you want to punish Myra too, right?”

Yeah, of course I know Rule #4. I’m you. Meyoumeyou.

If SpookyErind was going to be in the real world, then the least she could do was actually help me out. Even more so, she was stronger than me. I wondered if she could beat up Myra all by herself. That would be pretty hilarious. I still had lingering thoughts from my transformed self. I had wanted to eat Myra.

Actually, could SpookyErind do the same transformation as me? Yep!

“Hey! Stop that!” I said. SpookyErind being able to read my thoughts was so jarring.

But your mind is my mind. SpookyErind smiled.

“Then why can’t I read your thoughts?” I asked. If we were truly the same, then I should be able to read her thoughts since she could read mine. But that wasn’t happening.

Silly me. My thoughts are already part of your thoughts.

The fuck? There’s no way that was the case. Maybe she was messing with me again. But now that I thought about it, I wasn’t really sure if I would ever be able to distinguish SpookyErind’s thoughts from mine. I guess I would need to ask her a question.

“Pick a random country,” I told her. If her thoughts were my thoughts then surely I could guess what country she was thinking of.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Okay. Well, I definitely couldn’t pick up on any countries going through my head.

That’s because I didn’t think of one. See, our thoughts are linked!

I was getting tired of arguing about this. Okay, whatever. Fine, you win SpookyErind.

And you win too since you’re me! Meyoumeyou.

“You know what would also be a win?” I asked. “If you would stop hugging me.”

But I love myself, SpookyErind said in a sing-song-like voice. So I’m giving myself a hug.

“I love myself too but you should also know I don’t love physical contact,” I said.

But it’s different because we’re the same. Come on give me a hug and see how it is!

I groaned and rolled my eyes. I wasn’t going to hug her. We just met like a few hours ago. I’d report SpookyErind to the police if she was a separate person from me.

Hey! Don’t be like that! SpookyErind pouted. I’ll only release you if you give me a hug.

“Fine,” I said with zero enthusiasm. I wrapped my arms around SpookyErind. Like before, I didn’t feel that same disgust for physical contact with her. Doesn’t mean I like hugging though. Although, with our shared senses, it was definitely intriguing to feel both her skin touching mine and mine touching hers.

SpookyErind giggled.

“All right, can you release me?” I pleaded.

Sure thing, SpookyErind said. But instead of releasing me, she leaned forward and gave me a kiss. Instinctually, I tried backing my head away, but SpookyErind had already broken off the kiss. What in the absolute state of fuck was that?

SpookyErind simply giggled and broke off our hug.

Before I could respond, SpookyErind pointed at Deen.

All right, it’s time for our best friend to snap out of it.

“How are we going to do that?” I asked, still traumatized by that kiss. Unless SpookyErind had some extra superpowers I wasn’t aware of, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything we could do.

As if to challenge my last statement, SpookyErind raised her left hand and a bubble with a gold shiny sheen emerged. It floated towards Deen and expanded to surround her. I watched with curiosity as Deen started convulsing faster and faster until it seemed almost blurry.

What the hell? “How exactly is this making her snap out of it?” I asked. “Not that I really care - it’s actually pretty funny how Deen is convulsing even more.”

Just wait and see, SpookyErind replied. After a few seconds, Deen stopped convulsing and the bubble popped. I still have no idea what exactly SpookyErind just did to Deen. And it didn’t seem like she was keen on explaining the details of her real world powers to me. But given how she has acted so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was hiding more stuff from me.

“That hurt,” Deen groaned as she got up. All right, time to put on the Best Friend face.

“Deen are you alright?” I asked. “I was so worried. You just started convulsing on the floor.” And it was pretty funny too.

“I’m feeling a bit better now,” she replied. I stretched out my left hand. She grabbed my hand and stood back up. Thankfully, she let go of it once she stood straight, preventing the disgusting feeling of human contact from growing within me. “It felt like I was in pain for hours.”

So that’s what SpookyErind did. She sped up the time Deen was experiencing. Speaking of SpookyErind, I glanced over at her. She pulled on her face and her hair and eyes returned to normal. She was now back to being just a normal Erind clone.

“Really?” I asked. “It seemed you were only convulsing for about a minute.”

“Well, it definitely felt like hours,” Deen said.

“I’m so sorry Deen,” I said, deciding to console her. “I didn’t know that touching your summon would do that.” I’m such an empathetic friend.

“No, it’s fine,” said Deen. “It turns out I actually was able to figure out what my power was.” Oh? This sounded interesting. “Some of it was really blurry, but I got visions of the future I’m pretty sure. I actually saw you helping me stand back up after my body calmed down. Thanks for that by the way. This is like the second time you’ve helped me.”

“Well, saving you at the mall was way more helpful than simply helping you stand up,” I replied.

“Yeah, but you’ve helped me a lot regardless,” Deen said as she hugged me. “I haven’t really helped you at all today.” Well, you can start by releasing me from this hug. Ugghh.

“I couldn't be more glad to have a best friend like you,” she continued. Why was she being so sentimental right now? All I did was help her stand up. I didn’t know how to get out of this bear trap.

SpookyErind went behind Deen and hugged her as well. Oh that’s just great. Now the disgusting sense of human touch has doubled! I could feel both Deen hugging me and SpookyErind hugging Deen. Seriously, can’t a girl just have her personal space not be violated? What is wrong with the world?

Deen gasped. “Don’t worry, I’ll always protect you Deen,” SpookyErind said. It was jarring hearing her use my normal voice rather than just having her voice appear in my head. “Like they say, we’re best friends forever!” I wished we didn’t have to hug forever, or at all.

“Thanks Erind,” Deen said, choking up a bit. “I couldn’t have asked for a better friend in the world than you. Also, it’s pretty cool that you have a clone. You can give double the hugs.”

Yeah, no thanks. If I could control SpookyErind’s body I definitely would not be hugging you. Sadly, I bet this was SpookyErind messing with me. Additionally, it would be weird now if I said I didn’t want a hug because I was already hugging her. What was I going to do, tell her my clone shouldn’t be hugged? Maybe I should say my clone is an evil demon and you should stay 100 feet away from her. And me as well.

Eventually, my torture session came to an end as Deen unwrapped her arms. SpookyErind did the same.

“So, what future did you see?” I asked. Hopefully we were done with all the hugging.

“I can’t recall most of it, but I do remember seeing you help me back up.” Hmm. That still didn’t seem like a very helpful power. She can get a blurry vision of the future at the cost of getting a seizure. At least I had more useful powers. My transformed self looked to be very direct combat based with her claws and giant mouth. Meanwhile, on the Corebring side, I could summon a clone that’s controlled by SpookyErind. She’s way stronger than me, so she could definitely be useful in combat.

What is Deen going to do in combat? Get a seizure? She can’t even move her summon. It just floats off to the side. Maybe this just proves I’m better since I have the better powers. Makes sense since I’m the most important person in the world. Of course, I wasn’t going to tell any of this.

“Maybe there is another way for your power to work?” I asked. “Surely there’s got to be a way to see the future without getting a painful response.”

“Yeah,” Deen agreed. “But I think I’m done with testing powers today. I’m probably just going to head to bed early.”

“Well, thank you for inviting me over,” I said. “I’m going to head on out.”

“What about your clone?” Deen asked. Oh right, how am I going to get SpookyErind out of here? I don’t think I can unsummon her. She has to do that herself. “Actually which one is your real body?”

“This is the clone body,” SpookyErind said. “It turns out that I can transport this clone pretty easily. Watch this.” SpookyErind pulled at her face and she vanished into thin air. In her spot was the floating embroidered mask with the symbol of a Core on the forehead.

Oh, that solves that. But still, SpookyErind was messing with me. She just implied I could control her body when I couldn’t. Of course, I wasn't going to share Deen these details. In essence, she created a face for me, and I hated that. I hated not being in control.

Still, I couldn’t break my faces. So, I went over and picked up SpookyErind’s mask.

“See, now it’ll be easy to bring my clone with me,” I told Deen as I put her mask in my bag.

“That’s really useful,” she commented. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll figure out how to do something useful with my power.”

I didn’t want to stay any longer, so I simply said, “Well good luck with that. Bye Deen!”

We both waved each other goodbye.

On the bright side, I did at least get something out of coming here. I didn’t fight Myra and company, but I did get something way better. An artificial Core. That was Myra’s second mistake. She had made me way stronger now. And I was going to punish her for her first mistake - Bothering me.