I woke up gasping for air as I fell down out of some kind of ball. As I tried to land, I learned I only had one arm, where did my left arm go? Then memories flooded back from another life. As I looked around me, I saw Lory had landed on the ground as well. I crawled over to her, “Lory!?”
She panted and looked at me, “Steve?” I grabbed and hugged her as I crashed. She fell down on her back. “Why are we not dead?”
“I don’t know, where is Haley?”
Lory immediately started looking around, “Or the others?”
We looked at some kind of egg sack, maybe more of a womb, moving on the purple wall. It started bulging and slowly cracked open. I knew who was coming out of that. I got up and walked over, ignoring the fact I am missing my left arm. As the womb popped open, all kinds of fluids flew out of it, of course, I got hit. Then Haley, who sat in a fetal position, fell out as if she had just been born, I caught her with my right arm. Then I carried her to Lory. As I put her down, I grabbed a blanket for her, and Lory.
Haley is knocked out completely. Some kind of woman appeared out of the void. I immediately put myself in front of Haley and Lory. While I am trying to process what the fuck is going on, as well as sorting my old memories with the new memories. I would halt that process to protect the loved ones I have left. “Who are you?”
“You may simply call me the void.”
I grunted at her, “You abducted me and Lory! You cut off my arm! That dream world, it must have been you.”
The Void woman sighed, “Yes, I needed to subdue you, you were swinging that sharp thing around like a crazy person. I have to admire your fervor for Lorraine. I needed information from your brain, which is why I started digging in it while you were in that dream world.”
I waved my only arm at her, “I don’t give a fuck, give me back our friends.”
The void woman walked closer, “Don’t you understand, Steve? They were never real.”
I screamed at her, “They were goddamn real to us! Bring back Valentine, Riley, Bob, and Megan!”
The void woman shook her head, “I cannot bring living matter from your dreams into the real world. They were figments of your imaginations that started living their life when you fought back and pushed me out of the dream world. You somehow took over and made it your dream world, not allowing me to dig too deep into your brain.”
I just kept shouting, “Where is Frank?”
“What happened to him?”
The void woman just sighed again, “He was never real to begin with, not even a figment of your memories, you made him up to protect Lorraine.”
I looked at Lory, she barely spoke, she seemed to be quite shocked. I walked over to the void woman, “I might have one fucking arm, but I swear to god, I will not hold back this time. This is your last chance, give me my friends back.”
The void woman walked closer, she held up her hands and made orbs appear in her hand. They had names engraved on them. One for each of my friends. The void woman looked at me, “if you can find them in the real world, give them these orbs, they will then remember the dream world. Valentine is dead, she is most likely in Purgatory, it is a good place to look for Riley and Megan as well. As for Bob, I have no clue where he is, but you might just find him, when the need is most dire, they might even remember on their own if they are stubborn enough.”
I took the orbs and looked at them, “Thank you. You need to do me one more favor.”
The void woman looked at me, “Need?”
I looked at her, “Actually, two things, one, I want one of my guns, Infinity, with some bullets. Secondly, you are going to explain more to me about Haley. You cut off my arm, drugged us, and dug into our brains, you owe us this. For if you don’t do so,” my nose started to bleed.
The void woman smirked, “It seems you don’t do empty threats. You are no match for me, even if you went all out. Then again, I am not at full power either. Best not to risk it.” Fine, she spawned my gun in her hand with some ammunition. I gladly took it. She let out a sigh of relief, “As for other ammo, find it, or use your energy to make it.”
The void woman looked at Haley, “As for her. You made her a reality in your dream world. She did not have a body in the real world. Thus, the void provided for you, as you took over my systems when you were sleeping. Her body has been grown in the void’s womb. She has not yet walked or done any other things in the real world. Her mind might know perfectly how to do things, but, her body is going to take some time to adjust. See it like this, Haley is a freshly born eighteen-year-old. The gut feeling that things will come to an end is because when she turned eighteen, the void womb cannot hold a body for longer than eighteen years. She needed to be born, and the void would happily take you down, as you were the one in charge, killing you would fulfil its purpose.”
I looked at Haley, “But, we are her parents?”
The void woman spoke up, “Yes, you are her parents, Lorraine gave birth to her, however Haley’s body in the real world needed to be created by a third party, me. While she grew in Lorraine’s womb for the dream world, for the real world, she grew in my womb, she has two moms, and one dad. Now leave, you are no more use to me, not only did you not give me the answer I sought for, I had to save you to stop my system from self-destructing.” She made a portal, “Please leave.”
I helped Lory up, then I grabbed Haley and put her over my right shoulder. We walked through the portal. Then we found ourselves in front of the familiar cave entrance. The moon shone upon us. I put down the tent. “We are going to set up camp.” Gently I put Haley down. “Lory?” She did not respond. “Lory!?”
“Huh?”
“Camp, please help with making a fire.”
“Yes, of course.” She made a fire, then we sat down. Lory stared at me, “We have lived two lives.”
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I sighed, “Yes, I need some time to process that. How are you doing, Lory?”
She held up her right hand, “I got my wedding ring.” I looked at my wedding ring. Lory shed tears, “Our friends are dead.”
“Yes, I know. Your sister.”
She nodded while gulping, “At least I had some more time with her like I,” she stopped talking.
“Lory?”
“Yes?”
“We have these orbs, their memories, we must find them, they might even remember us, that's what the void said, but we have to find them first.”
She nodded. While rubbing my hand over the wound where my left arm got cut off, I spoke up, “Did you get what the void told us?”
She nodded, “Haley is voidborn, born in the womb of the thing we seek to eradicate.”
We heard yawning, Lory crawled over to me and put her hand on my wound. “Are you alright? Your arm got cut off while protecting me?”
“Yes.”
Haley crawled out of the tent, wobbly. She tried getting up but fell down on her buttocks. Lory walked over to her, “Munchkin?”
Haley blinked a couple of times after speaking up, a bit slurred, “We are not dead? Wow, I feel woozy.”
Lory sighed, “We are on the other side.”
Haley nodded, “And the others?”
I shook my head. Haley tried getting up, unsuccessfully. “Take it easy there, Munchkin. Do you want to know what happened to you?”
She nodded. “You have just been born, I guess.”
She looked at me, “What?”
Lory leaned back, “you did not have a body in the real world, we are your parents, but your body has been grown in the void’s womb.”
Haley nodded, “I know that. Then my dreams about being in there must have been the reality.”
I had to chuckle, despite the shitty situation we found ourselves in. “You were in a dream world and dreamt about reality.”
Haley chuckled with me, soon Lory joined. Haley spoke up, “Fuck, I have been in a womb for eighteen years.”
I grabbed her hand, that is when she noticed I was missing my left arm. She pointed at it, “What happened to your arm?”
“I lost it while protecting your mom.”
Haley smiled at me, “I would not expect anything less from you.” Haley stretched her arms, and her wings, “What is our plan?”
“First, we are going to rest a while. Oh, and you, and your mom, need some clothes.” Lory spawned a few clothes for herself and Haley. I got up and grabbed a bullet for my gun. I let a miniscule amount of energy flow over it. Then, I did what the void told me. She used energy to create this bullet, I did the same. Then I walked away from camp and put down a table and some cans I had picked up.
I walked away one-hundred feet. Then I barely aimed and fired six times in a row. All of them hit without much problem. Haley walked over, still a bit wobbly. “You have your gun?”
“Yes, a gift from the void.” I tucked it away in my pants after reloading. “How are you doing, Haley?”
She sighed, “I miss auntie Valentine.”
I nodded, “We will find her, and give her this orb, then she will remember you.”
Lory walked over, “How much time has passed while we were gone?”
I shook my head, “Not eighteen years, that I am sure off. It might have been a couple of weeks. Once we have rested, we need to make our way to Goldia. From there we can travel to Brickton, to our old friends.”
Lory nodded, “Yes, I almost forgot about them, to be honest. Compared to, Valentine, Riley, and the others, they barely mean anything.”
I sighed, “I know it feels that way, but we spent over eighteen years with Riley. Valentine lived with us for a very long time. Even Megan started coming by every day. And Bob, he has a special place in our heart.”
Haley started to cry. I hugged her, and Lory joined me.
I had to get used to having only my right arm. Haley soon went to sleep in her tent. I sat down near the campfire. “I failed Lory, but we ended up with Haley. The next time, it might cost our life.”
Lory sat down and leaned on my left shoulder. “She is asleep.”
“What is on your mind, Steve?”
I let out a deep sigh. “Losing my arm, getting abducted like that, I failed. I have to find out who I am, or what I am. If I can control it, then I can save you and Haley the next time.”
Lory started sniffling. I put my head against her head, “What is it?”
“I miss Valentine.”
At hearing her name, I shed a tear, “I miss them too. Sorting out these memories will be hard. We will find them. We have too.”
Lory wrapped her tail around me. “Lory?”
“Yes?”
“It does explain why Haley has a purple tail, and purple ears. She is a void wolf person.”
Lory nodded, “What about her wings?”
I sighed, “I know she has those, they might be purple because she grew inside the void. She still needs flying lessons. Maybe Alice can help her with that.”
Lory looked at me, “Oh yeah, Alice. Let me think for a moment, that is like, over forty years ago I last saw her.”
I looked at Lory, “Damn, you are right. I almost turned 48, I have memories of all those years, over twenty of them with you.”
Lory smiled at that mention. Lory looked at the tent, “It will be easier for her. She has not met them yet. However, I don’t recall Alice having wings.”
“She has wings alright, she used them to escape from the zombies.”
Lory nodded, “Alright.”
I sighed, “Man, it will be awkward seeing Abby again after almost fifty years. I have to admit, aside from missing my arm, having this young body feels good.”
Lory smiled at me, “Yes, we are younger again. That is indeed a facet to factor in how much time has passed.”
I yawned, “We should go to sleep.” Lory put a barrier over the fire to keep it going all night, while not letting it grow bigger. I crawled into the tent and lay down next to Haley.
I wrapped my arm around her. She snuggled her body against mine and took my hand. “Hello dad.”
“I thought you were asleep?”
“Almost.”
Lory lay down beside me and threw her tail over me. Haley did the same, as I glanced down, their tails touched each other. It is something they did in the dream world, their tails touching each other meant a special kind of affection. I did not mind being surrounded and squashed by the woman I love, and my beautiful munchkin. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep slumber, not really wanting to dream, but I was tired as fuck.