“Ugh..” I groaned. My body still felt tired from all those sleeping darts. But, I had to get up and get out of this van. Wait, this isn’t a van. It was too smooth and leathery to be a van.

“Erind,” I heard a voice say. “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”

I jolted awake and sat up. Turning my body around, I saw Deen.

“Erind!” Deen said. “You’re awake!”

“Umm… Yes I am?” I said. I was too tired to deal with this enthusiasm.

She wrapped her arms around me. Bitch.

“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Deen said. “I was afraid you’d never wake up. Even after removing all the darts, you were asleep for hours.”

“Hours?” I asked. “Wait, what time is it?” Fuck. Have I really been knocked out for that long?

“It’s almost midnight,” Deen replied.

“I’m so sorry Deen!” I said. “I need to head back to my Condo.” And away from your touchy feelingness too!

“Wait, you shouldn’t leave,” Deen said, still hugging me. “The police are now out there…”

The police? Were they investigating what happened back at that abandoned clubhouse? There was a lot of violence there, mostly done by me. And then, if I remembered correctly, there was also a car crash. That probably alerted some people.

Wait, what about my fingerprints? If the police could trace that back to me, fuck. Did Deen just carry me away from the car crash? I wished we could go back and burn everything. Maybe we could? Nah, that’d be too risky with the police still there.

Although, why are all the police out here? Maybe they were trying to search for whoever beat up all those thug guys. If that was the case, then it’d be probably best that I’d stay with Deen. Furthermore, now that I thought about it, I didn’t have any of the darts stuck in me, and the blood on my hands had been wiped away. I guess I should thank Deen for that.

“Alright, I guess I’ll stay,” I said. “Also, thanks for rescuing me. And cleaning me up too.”

“I’m just glad you’re fine,” she replied. “I tried my best to wipe most of the blood away. To clean the rest of the blood, I’d have to take your clothes off, and I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. I figured if you’d wake up, you could use the shower here at my house.”

“Sure,” I replied. Finally, an excuse for some privacy.

“Although, I noticed the crystal on your hand when I was cleaning it,” Deen said.

I instantly shuddered. Fuck.

“It’s not ugly at all!” Deen cried out. “It’s actually really beautiful. If you want, I could give you more pimple patches to cover it up. I threw away the one you had because it became bloody.”

At least she didn’t assume I was an Adumbrae. But why would she assume that anyway? Thankfully, I became a Corebring. I could blame any non-human traits on my Artificial Core.

“Thanks, Deen,” I replied.

Suddenly, a new flurry of sensations entered me. SpookyErind must have been waking up.

She opened her eyes and turned behind her. Apparently Deen laid both of us on opposite sides of the couch. Then, SpookyErind went and hugged Deen as she smirked at me.

She knew that I hated skin contact, and here she was hugging Deem. It would be fine if we didn’t share senses, but I now feel Deen touching me twice as much. Ewwww.

“Also, thanks for carrying both of my bodies,” SpookyErind said. “I hope we both weren’t too heavy for you.”

“It was nothing,” Deen said. “Especially since I have super strength now. I wasn’t sure which one was your main body, so I decided to bring both back.”

“Wait, so you would have abandoned my clone if you knew it wasn’t real?” SpookyErind asked. I actually would have been fine with that, given what SpookyErind was doing right now.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Deen said. “I just wanted to make sure your main body was safe.”

At least Deen was becoming flustered now. That made things a bit more enjoyable. Maybe I could guilt-trip her some more.

“What if the police found that body?” I asked. “Then they would have tried me as Adumbrae.”

“I’m sorry for being careless Erind,” she sobbed. “I’ll make sure to do better next time. I’m also sorry for not protecting you. I was just too stunned.”

And just like that, Deen could be easily manipulated. Unfortunately, she was now sobbing into me, which was extremely bad. Time to dial it back a bit.

“It’s alright,” I said. “I’m sorry for overreacting. I was just a bit stressed.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me Erind,” Deen said. “I’ll make sure to protect you in the future.”

She stopped sobbing, which was what was important right now. I guess in the future, Deen could be useful. That power seemed like it had a lot of versatility. Unfortunately, with Deen being a wuss, it was absolutely useless to me.

“Umm Deen,” I started.

“Huh?” She asked

“Won’t the police be investigating the crashed vans? They probably have my fingerprints and stuff over a lot of them.”

“Oh, no need to worry about that,” she replied. “The others came quickly and Emcee managed to burn down everything important before the police came. They stayed for a bit here, but then all left a couple of hours ago.”

“That’s good,” I said.

I went through the rest of the events in my mind. I killed everyone in the first three vans. Then, I killed that Adumbrae and everyone else in the fourth van. Oh wait, there was a fifth van! Crap. Did they get away?

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Wait, wasn’t there a fifth van Deen that got away?” I asked.

“Well, the van you were in crashed into it,” Deen said, in a somber tone. Hmmm. Something was up.

“Did something happen?” I asked. “You seem strangely upset about it.” I didn’t know why she was getting sad now. She should be glad they were dead. Unless she felt bad about it?

“Did you kill someone?” SpookyErind asked. Is that what happened?

“Wait? How did you guess?” she asked.

“I just had a feeling,” she responded. That did make sense though. What else could make Deen upset about that?

“It’s alright Deen,” I said. “You can tell me what happened. You’re my best friend - I trust you.” Not enough to tell you everything though.

“Well…” Deen continued. “There were still some guys left in the other crashed van.”

“Did they try to attack you?” I asked.

“Well, two of them did after they saw me,” she said. “I had to kill them - they said they were going to try and rob you. If they found you asleep, they probably would have tried to kill you. I couldn’t let that happen. But I still don’t feel good about it.”

Damn. I wished I wasn’t knocked out. I would have loved to see that. Maybe I could see that in the future. Just need to make Deen more open to it.

“It’s okay Deen,” I said, trying to comfort her. “I’m glad that you protected me.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. “It just feels very wrong now.”

“Well, they were attacking you,” I responded. “You had the right to self-defense.”

“But the last guy I killed was unarmed,” she said. “He didn’t even try to kill me. I know we had to kill him because he was working with the Adumbrae, but it feels wrong to just kill a normal person.”

Unlike Deen, I had no qualms killing a normal person who bothered me. The concept of guilt was foreign to me. Why would I ever feel guilt about killing someone who wronged me? Still, I guess I could see it interfering with Deen’s morals. But in that case, I’d just need to emphasize the importance of stopping the Adumbrae.

“I know it feels uncomfortable killing people,” I said. “But, we have a duty to stop the Adumbrae. Corebrings from the Hive probably have to deal with similar situations as us. It’d be no good if they just spared all the humans working with Adumbrae. They probably have to make the hard choices to kill them. We’re probably doing something similar to them.”

“Thanks Erind,” she said. “You know, you’re pretty brave Erind. At the mall, you defended me from the Adumbrae, and tonight, you were able to stop a lot of the bad guys.”

Wait a minute. Deen earlier said she was focused on protecting me. What if I emphasize how I seemingly protected her. I know I didn’t actually intend to save her - I was just following my face. But here was a good moment to develop my best friend face and make it so Deen can get over killing.

“I was just doing it to protect you,” I said. “I’d feel bad if my best friend died.” Wel not actually, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I know I had to kill to make sure you were safe.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine life without you.” I couldn’t imagine life without myself either. “I would be heartbroken if they killed you. So I guess I did what I had to do to protect you.”

“Oh, thank you so much for this conversation Erind,” she said. “I feel a lot better now. We should probably get to bed though, it is kind of getting late.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said.

Deen released her hug from me, and SpookyErind did the same for Deen. It was nice to not have the disgusting feeling of skin contact. Also, a shower! Enough of this icky blood and tainted clothing.

That was a good shower. I wished my condo had a shower with eight body massage shower jets and an overhead rainfall shower. There were even independent controls for pressure and temperature. Maybe I could get Deen to buy me one?

I had changed into the pajamas Deen gave me. They were kind of baggy given how small I was compared to her, but I did look cute in them. The shirt and pants were purple and had pink hearts spread across them. The room Deen gave me was also very luxurious. A queen-sized bed sat before me.

I slid into the bed and it was the most comfy thing imaginable. Where did Deen get the material for this kind of bed? The pillow was so fluffy - like out of this world type of fluffy. I rolled around the bed.

“Weee,” I said.

Back when I was a little kid, and I was supported by both of my parent's incomes, we used to have a pretty good upper-middle-class house. I really liked the bed we had and would often roll around in it. We also had a spinning chair that was fun to spin around in. I didn’t have either of those in my condo. I was still well-off since my Mom made a decent amount, but I didn’t want to leech too much off of her.

I stopped rolling around. It actually felt weird to be without SpookyErind. It’s only been one day, but I’ve gotten used to her presence. It was also pretty cool when she helped me beat up those thug guys. She unsummoned herself when I went to take a shower. Maybe I’ll just have a conversation with her right before I go to bed? I didn’t feel as tired as I was earlier.

I sat up and focused on summoning SpookyErind. The gold liquid materialized above my hand and formed a mask, which floated a bit away from me to the other side of the bed. In an instant, a clone of me appeared. SpookyErind. She was wearing the same clothes as me. I could also see myself in her eyes. It was such a weird thing to have so many sensations, but so cool at the same time.

SpookyErind focused on summoning a mask from her left hand. Putting on that strange drama mask, she transformed into something more otherworldly. It was like a mix of my mom and me. Her wispy, floaty white hair surrounded her face, and her glowing red eyes stared into me. My mom had her eyes replaced with augs and could change their color. I wondered if SpookyErind could change hers.

“Hello, SpookyErind,” I told her.

Hello myself, she replied. I’m so glad you said hello to me this time.

“I just really like these Corebring powers,” I said. “It was really cool when we beat up those thug guys earlier.”

I’m just glad you’re safe, she said as she hugged me.

“Do you really have to hug me?” I asked.

Yes! I do love myself, and you’re me.

“Then why’d you hug Deen?” I asked.

Because hugs are amazing! she cheered.

“But you know I don’t like physical contact.”

But she’s our best friend, so we should hug her.

Uggh. I guess she was just messing with me. We should move to another topic because my interest in this one was fading.

But before I could change the topic, she leaned in and kissed me. As she broke away from the kiss, I sat there shocked. Seriously, again?! What the fuck?

Here, how about a kiss since you are better than Deen? She asked.

“I don’t like kisses either,” I groaned.

You did a great job of manipulating Deen earlier. she said, ignoring me.

“Yeah, she’s very gullible,” I said.

It’ll be fun to see you manipulate the rest of the group, she said.

Oh right, there were the other Corebrings. We’d probably have to interact again. I’d have to keep up my face with them, which seemed really draining.

It’ll be fun in the end though! You’ll also be able to beat up more thug guys. Maybe you could even use that face I gave you.

Oh right, she did give me that face. It was pretty fun to use. Although, when would be a great time to use it? I would need to find a suitable time to be away from the group. Since the Adumbrae did exist, they'd probably want me to fight against them together. Hmmm.

I’m sure a moment of opportunity will present itself, she said.

“Actually, can you also transform using that face?” I asked.

She took her right hand and intertwined with my left hand. What? I tried to pull away, but she was too strong. Her right hand also had a crystal, and it pushed against my skin.

Well now you know the answer to that question, she replied. She could also summon that face from her crystal.

“Okay, it’s a yes, but can you please let go of my hand?” I asked, still struggling. “It’s uncomfortable.”

SpookyErind giggled.

“Alright, I’m going to bed,” I told her. I was getting annoyed by her antics. “You can turn back into that mask.”

Instead she pulled me down onto the bed while keeping me in a hug. She turned me over to the other side so I was no longer facing her.

“What the fuck was that?!” I cried out.

Actually, I want to sleep too. Also be quiet and watch your language, we don’t want to wake Deen up.

“I can’t sleep like this!” I told her in an aggressive whisper.

She simply giggled in return as I tried to pry her arms open. It was futile. I regretted summoning her. I wanted to be more aggressive, but that might damage Deen’s room.

“Do you really need to do this?” I asked her.

If you fall asleep, it’ll make things go by faster, she said. I grumbled as I relented. What would make things go by faster is if I could sleep by myself.

As my body got more and more tired, I started closing my eyes. SpookyErind had already closed hers and was smiling. At least the night would be shorter since I had to wake up early for class. Maybe I’d get a good dream tonight in return for all the craziness that happened today.