Ray slowly came to as he opened his eyes. He sat up to look around, but at that moment, he lost control of his body. Literally. He felt himself frown, shake his head, and then propped up his arms on his legs, resting his forehead in his hands, massaging it. Ray had a suspicion.

Hello?

His head jerked up and looked around while frowning even harder.

I’m in your head, Ray said nervously.

It only dawned on him now, how weird his request was to intrude upon people like this, but hey, it was still better than just killing someone. And being a baby was not an option he ever wanted to consider again. Then it occurred to him that the other person might not understand him. He wasn’t sure how this worked, since Vorm never explained anything.

Do you understand me?

Ray felt his mouth open as if to say something, but then it closed without making a sound.

Try to think thoughts at me, maybe that works?

“WHO ARE YOU?” An icy storm that raged above desolate lands blasted Ray’s mind. He was smacked into unconsciousness.

*

When Ray next regained his awareness, he seemed to be sitting in school.

He said tentatively to the body’s owner, Your thoughts were so powerful you knocked me out, could you hold back a bit, please? I’m Ray by the way, nice to—

“GO!” Ray was hit by an unforgiving, deathly cold blast, and he fell into unconsciousness yet again.

*

Ray was annoyed when he regained consciousness. He was lying on a bed in the dark, his face buried in a blanket. He wasn’t going to say a single word this time, but just quietly observe.

“I know you are awake.” Ray felt as if death itself was caressing him with its icy hands.

He lost all hope and said dejectedly, Just kill me. You probably can if you try hard enough.

He could call for Vorm to help, but if the owner was so hostile, he didn’t feel like being here anymore. He would rather just die. That reminded him of Vorm.

Vorm?

But there was no answer. He tried to feel for the spot where Vorm was, but it felt very muted, barely perceptible. He wasn’t sure why it was like this, but he understood there wasn’t going to be a Vorm to help him this time.

“Who’s Vorm?” the deathly chilling voice swept over him, making his mind quiver and shiver. Why was this guy so much stronger than him? Vorm always kept telling him how weak his soul was, maybe that was why? Or was it because a body’s original owner was naturally stronger in their own body than an intruder? He didn’t know, and right now, it didn’t even matter.

Ray felt miserable, and wanted to leave. He couldn’t handle this kind of hostility, he would rather go and be a baby instead. The more he thought about it all, the more upset he became. After a while, he answered tearfully, on the verge of crying.

An AI that put me in here, but it seems to be gone now. Sorry about all this. You can just kill me now. No way would Ray ever admit that he himself asked for this.

“An AI?” There was a shift in the desolate, frozen lands of the voice where a hailstorm suddenly came alive and raged, wanting to kill and destroy. Ray thought he was about to die, but it was not after his life. Yet, he still felt as if he was frozen in ice and snow.

“Tell me about this AI,” the frosty voice demanded.

But it was too much for Ray’s fragile mind, at last, he broke down and started sobbing. Just kill me if you hate me this much. It’s fine, I understand. I don’t want to be here anymore either, but I don’t know how to leave on my own. I’m sorry… I am sorry… sob sob…

The raging hailstorm quieted, the frozen land stilled.

“Don’t cry,” the voice coldly commanded.

It just made Ray cry even more bitterly. Sob sob.. kill me… sob sob… I don’t want to be here anymore hic… you hate me… sob sob…

“…..”

“I don’t hate you, stop crying,” but the voice was still deathly cold, void of the tiniest warmth.

Ray reached a breaking point, his thoughts and emotions all boiled over as he lashed out wildly in a mess, bawling uncontrollably. He didn’t care anymore, and poured out all his grievances and indignation to this unfeeling, icy guy that hated him.

You think I wanted this? All I wanted was to read books and die. Now, I can’t even stay dead, because Vorm just reincarnates me… sob sob… It insists that it isn’t an AI, but it acts like an AI… sob sob… it said it created that asshole personality model, because that’s what I like and feel comfortable with? What bullshit is that…

Everything is wrong. My world is gone. Then, I was a wolf without my memories… I was tortured into madness, Vorm pulled me out, but I slaughtered everyone, hundreds of thousands… and Vorm had watched me sank into apathy and madness in the first place, it wasn’t even sorry at all…

Then I was born a human, and I acted stupidly like a baby, but I died minutes after being born…minutes! ...Sob sob… Because I was sacrificed in a ritual, and a demon ate me... Then, I possessed that demon, but I was made a joke of!

And Vorm is always mocking me, and laughing at me. And I thought… sob sob… I thought it would be fun to hang out with someone else… I’m terrified of people, you know? I thought… sob sob… I thought I could learn from someone how normal people act like… even when I was a demon, I ran away because of crushing anxiety… sob sob…

...sob sob… I’m so pathetic… sob sob… you are right, this was stupid, I’m so stupid… I want to be alone... hic… I’m sorry I bothered you… hic hic… kill me… hic hic….

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Ray kept on and on, wailing and crying as his speech became more and more incoherent, slowly quieting. The icy voice stayed silent as Ray kept blabbering and mumbling, crying himself to sleep.

AAZ889 had a headache. This morning, he had woken up to his body moving on its own, and hearing a voice in his mind. Luckily, the voice’s owner seemed weak. When he concentrated and focused to communicate with it, it was gone. It popped up again in the afternoon, saying it got knocked out, so he focused again to make it go away. It was not suitable to deal with it at that time. So, when he went to bed at night, he stayed awake, waiting for the voice to come back to deal with it.

He hadn’t known what to expect, but he would never had expected... this… The voice… no, not just a voice, someone named Ray… AAZ889 mulled over this name, it was a unique name, not of this place. He felt a ripple of envy, but he coldly squashed the feeling. He didn’t understand half of what that guy was talking about, but he did get the main point. It looked like the guy was controlled by an AI-like-being that seemed to be absent for now.

It didn’t matter. It had nothing to do with him, time to kill the guy to send him back. He gathered his mental strength like a horrible hailstorm, ready to be unleashed, to bury the barren lands in ice and snow, annihilating that guy with it. A deathly calm before the storm, just a thought and that guy… Ray, would be gone, sent back... to that AI.

He hesitated. He had never hesitated, there was no room for hesitation, hesitation meant death. Yet, for the first time in his life, AAZ889 hesitated. This had nothing to do with him, so why? He shouldn’t care, he didn’t care, yet he still hesitated. Time passed as a trace of confusion kept stirring in the depths of his mind.

*

“Ray? Wake up,” a cold, uncaring voice called him.

Ray was immediately wide awake. He recalled what had happened before he fell asleep. He felt ashamed for his outburst, he wanted to kick himself. So stupid, breaking down like that, crying. It always just made things even worse, as he would get pushed away and ignored like an infectious disease. His anger surged. As if it was up to him! If he could, he would never ever cry. And now, he was still here, the cold voice still hating him. He was starting to tear up in shame and anger, about to curse out the ice-guy—

The voice continued unfeelingly, “don’t cry anymore... I won’t kill you and send you back to that AI... It’s okay for you to be here, don’t cry.” That was what the voice said, but it sounded as if it wanted to freeze everyone and everything into an unending sleep, from where there was no escape.

Ray swallowed back what he was about to say, his anger evaporating. He didn’t dare to say anything. Maybe he wasn’t going to be shoved aside this time? Maybe he wasn’t hated? Hope was too scary.

“It’s okay,” the icy voice said again, trying to be soothing, but being deathly sharp and frosty instead.

Ray gathered up all his courage and asked, you don’t hate me?

“No, I don’t hate you,” but the voice was still bitingly cold.

Ray didn’t believe him.

Why is your voice so deathly cold then, as if I was nothing, but a bug you wanted to squash? he asked tearily.

“I’ve always been this, it’s not against you. I don’t mean to…” the voice trailed off.

There was silence for a little while, then the voice said again, carefully and tentatively, “I really don’t hate you, it’s okay.”

This time, the voice was still cold, but instead of the deathly chill in the middle of a desolate frozen land, it was like a soothing cold in the heat of a summer that cooled Ray before his emotions could boil up again. Ray sighed in relief, it seemed to be fine, for now. However... The ice-guy might not hate him yet, but if he didn’t pull himself together, the ice-guy would surely get fed up of him soon enough, so he tried to move on.

I don’t know what you did, but it’s better now. What’s your name?

“AAZ889.”

What? How is that a name? I can’t call you that. Can I call you AZ? Ray was shocked out of his own misery.

“No, call me AAZ889, that is my name.” The deathly chill in the voice returned, but Ray was too bothered by that name to be frightened again.

No way, it’s too long. What kind of name is that anyway? It’s like an ID, not a name.

“ID and name is the same thing. Everyone’s name is like this.”

That’s messed up, your parents gave you that name?

“I don’t have parents,” the icy voice was indifferent, as if talking about the weather, “but parents aren’t the ones who give the name anyway.”

Oh, I’m sorry… Ray didn’t know what else to say to that. He had a feeling this world was just as messed up as the previous two, if not more, based on that weird ID name. He had read plenty of dystopian novels, and this sure sounded like the start of one. That ID name, AZ’s unfeeling coldness... He was about to unleash a barrage of questions, but AZ was faster.

“No more questions, I need to get ready.”