Laying in a small bed, a girl wakes up with a start. As she opens her eyes, she is greeted with an unfamiliar ceiling. It is bare of any kind of paint and even though it is not in a bad shape, you can see that it has been worn down by time. Soon, her attention leaves the unknown ceiling and turns to her body.

It feels like I haven’t moved in ages, like the worst hangover minus the splitting headache. No, actually it’s not that bad, it’s similar to the drowsiness of an early morning. However, it feels like something inside of my body has actually moved for the first time in years.

As she continued to examine herself, a groan echoed in the room.

It came from… me?

Before she could ask any more questions, her hands came to her head as the groans rang stronger than before. And with it, the feeling of suffocating, as if stuck in a room smaller than it should be.

What the-

Get out!

Who-

“GET OUT!”

Unable to control her body, she could only look at her hands that were now pressed against the floor of the room as she had fallen from her bed at some point.

Why are my hands so small?

“LEAVE ME ALONE! Please…”

Oh, that’s right, I died and then… Does this mean I woke up? Then we’re back to being too many.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the door of the room being flung open and a man appearing in a doorway. He was a middle-aged man, with a slightly tanned skin that you knew came from spending the day underneath the sun. He had a well-toned body. His hair were short and dark with streaks of silver peppered throughout. He had deep-set brown eyes and a strong jawline as well as some small scars on his face. His eyes were a deep and dark brown and they were currently darting around the room before settling on her. You could see anger in them but most of all fear. A fear that was quickly being drowned by relief.

As another groan came from her throat and the relief quickly disappeared. He kneeled down to her and started talking to her.

“------- --- --------?”

However, none of the words he said made sense. It felt like listening to a foreign language. No, it was even more alien than that. Even if she had listened to all the languages from Earth, she still wouldn’t be able to compare this one to any of them. Which is why she thought that this language wasn’t from Earth. The best she could do was infer from the intonation what kind of phrase it was.

I guess that another world isn’t that strange after learning that souls and reincarnation exist.

“It’s in my head!”

In my- her- our head? Wait, is she talking about me?

“------ -------- -- -- -----?

Why can I understand her but not him?

At some point during the events, Thea, or more accurately her body and the other soul in it had started crying and was now bawling her eyes out.

“I don’t know, but I can hear it! And I think that I can almost understand it but it’s not -------… Dad, I’m scared”

However, this time, even some of the words of the other soul didn’t make sense. Her body was now looking towards the person that was supposed to be her dad and Thea could see all the emotions that were swirling in his eyes. There was fear again, this time of the unknown, helplessness because he was unable to help his daughter, and anger at himself for being unable to do anything.

“----- ----- -- ------------ - ----------- - ----.”

“Why does this happen to me?”

That question, in particular, seemed to disarm the already more than lost father.

“-… --- ------- ------."

I’m obviously causing her pain, however, it doesn’t look like it’s the first time. Did I unconsciously wake up before today?

As she asked herself more questions, another groan escaped the mouth of her body. So, she tried to make herself smaller again however not enough to make herself fall unconscious. She already knew it didn’t really work and she needed to find a real solution.

As she made herself smaller the body’s condition seemed to get a little bit better. The other soul didn’t groan anymore and the muscles she didn’t even know she had been contracting finally relaxed. A few seconds later she fell asleep, visibly tired. Even though the body fell asleep, Thea was still completely conscious, only without any means to look at the world. Which wasn’t to say that she had no sense. She could still hear the sound around her and after a few seconds, the arm of her father, or maybe this body’s father, wrap around her and pick her up. After a few more seconds, she was back into the bed she had woken up in. She could still feel the man on the edge of the bed and from time to time, she could even feel his hand as he brushed a hair off of her face.

Let’s get to work. I already made the choice of letting her live this life fully but the problem is that I don’t know how to do that. Letting myself fall asleep doesn’t work. I guess since the problem is that there isn’t enough place for both of our souls I could try to merge with her soul but there’s a risk that I will overpower her and smother her soul if that even is a thing. I lived far longer than her, the memories from my own life would probably drown hers. We would become me with a splash of her and that’s not accounting for any metaphysical problem.

In the middle of her search for a solution, she heard the distant sound of a door being open. She didn’t know what time it was, and she never took the time to look at any window that could have been in the room to guesstimate. However, as the father left the bed after a few seconds, she guessed that it was this body’s mom coming home.

It doesn’t matter… They are not my parents, they are this body’s parent and this body should belong to the other soul. Anyways, since I can’t merge with her, I guess I could leave?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Thinking it was her best bet, she immediately decided to try this idea. But even after making this decision, she had no real idea of how to do it. She started by simply trying to move but she was unable to control her body. When she gave her all to simply move her arm, she barely managed to get a twitch and she wasn’t even sure it was because of her.

She then tried to feel around her, not with her body but with her soul.

This sounds really stupid, feeling the world around me with my soul. I’m almost sure it’s written in front of a starry sky background on someone’s social media.

Trying to get rid of any stray thoughts, Thea tried even harder without success until finally, she managed to feel something. At least she thought she felt something as it was extremely brief and sensing it broke her concentration.

After a few more attempts, she finally managed to be sure it was really there. There was something like a film or a wall that prevented her soul from moving. As she tried moving against it, she felt it bend and give a little but no matter what, it stayed in one piece.

Well at least, I guess I’m on the right track. What will I do once I leave this body? Become ghost? Or maybe I’ll reincarnate again.

Shaking her metaphysical head, she went back to trying to rupture the membrane that prevented her from leaving. Although with its strength, it felt closer to a wall than a membrane, she still tried to be careful. After all, she didn’t know how this would affect the other soul. Her objective was to try and make a hole the size of a hair and see how it goes. If it was still too small then, she would slowly make it bigger but try to leave it as small as possible.

With renewed vigor, she continued her efforts to leave the original soul with the body that was hers, to begin with. However, even with determination, it seemed like this wasn’t something that could be done easily and after several hours worth of attempt, she had to accept that it was something that would take several weeks to achieve.

During the following days, the body and the soul stayed in a sort of comatose state. Although the tone of her new parents seemed worried they also acted like they knew what to do. They gave her water that had some unusual taste and stayed by her side while talking between themselves and the original soul. It seemed that her stopgap measure had still done a lot of damage. In the end, it only reinforced her conviction that she needed to leave.

While all of that happened, she learned more about that membrane that prevented her from leaving. It gave a little when you pushed against it but as soon as you stopped it went back in place, like an elastic. The problem was that even by giving her all, she wasn’t even close to reaching the equivalent of a rupture point. Although she had no proof it existed, seeing how it reacted like some elastic substance, she felt that there had to be one.

The other thing that she learned was that she could push against it more than once. If instead of pushing with all she had, she pushed with only half of it, she could then push a second time with half of it. This allowed her to push more than she would otherwise. It didn’t really make sense but when the membrane was stretched, it was easier to stretch it further.

At first, as she thought of it as pushing with two hands instead of one, it wasn’t that much of a discovery but since she was a soul, she could push with as many ‘hands’ as she wanted. The only difficulty was that she needed to keep track and control every individual ‘hand’ as she pushed with them. It was hard but she knew that this was the solution.

Even if all of her concentration wasn’t enough, she could sort of train and she would be able to keep more ‘hands’ active. And she had more time than she would probably ever need. It was probably because she wasn’t aware of her body most of the time and acted mainly as a soul but time seemed to pass far slower than it should. If the flavored water that her new parents gave her once in a while was the equivalent of a meal and that she had 2 or 3 ‘meal’ a day, then it had only been a few days. However, to her, it felt like she had been at it for weeks.

On the fourth or fifth day, she felt that she was ready for a full attempt. Taking a few minutes to calm herself and find the optimum state of concentration, she started pushing against that wall. The first push was almost imperceptible, almost as if it did nothing but she knew that it was only the beginning. After the first push came the second one, and then the third, the fourth. One after the other, they added to each other and became more than just the sum of their part.

As she continued to push, she knew how many more pushes she had left since she needed to keep track of all of them. She was closing in on her best attempt and still had a third more in stock. It was great because as more and more push joined together, each new push stretched the membrane more than the precedent. Even if her previous best attempt was nowhere near enough to puncture through the membrane, she felt like she would get to it with what she had left.

When she had ten percent of her pushes left, she finally felt like the membrane was nearing its limits, however, she was too and every new push was a gargantuan task. Each time she added a new push, she needed to take a few minutes to make sure she had everything under control. And just like each new push stretched the membrane, even more, each new push needed even more time to be sent.

Sending a new push, she was ready to deal with the next few minutes where she needed to make sure she was still fully concentrated. However, that concentration almost crumbled to pieces under the weight of the task when she was slightly distracted by her body, or at least the other soul’s body when it groaned in what looked like discomfort.

Can she feel this?

Seeing no further reaction from the other soul, she decided to continue with her attempt. Bracing herself, she sent the next push, and just as it stretched the membrane further, she heard another groan, this one followed by a clear feeling of discomfort.

Sorry but unless I do this, you won’t be able to live normally. So please bear with me until I’m done.

Trying to ignore her body, she concentrated and once she felt she was ready, she sent the next push. This one brought a deep groan from the other soul as well as the feeling of pain. This stopped her in her track. Unable to deal with this information and the backlash of the new push at the same time, she decided to deal with the latter first. Once she had most of her mental capacity back, she thought about the situation.

Although I’m closer than I ever was, this is clearly causing her pain. But I’m so close! If what I have done until now was a journey across the world, then what is left is simply to go to the grocery store down the street. The problem is that with how quick the pain she is feeling is growing, I’m not sure she’ll even reach halfway there.

…

Do I really need to give up?

Trying to feel for the senses of the body that she had ignored while acting as a soul, she realized it was indeed feeling pain and that it was continuous. Fortunately, it wasn’t an extremely strong feeling of pain. She allowed herself a bit of time to think about whether or not she should give up.

If getting out and allowing her to have her body all to herself causes permanent damage, then it isn’t worth it.

Done with her decision, she closed in on the point where all her ‘hands’ were pushing. There, the membrane was stretched to the extreme but still had a bit to go.

I guess this means this wasn’t the solution…

Just as she was about to give up, she looked at the membrane again. Unlike everywhere else where the membrane was smooth and shiny, here, it felt rougher, almost…

Almost like an extremely fine mesh!

Rather than an elastic plastic-sheet, it seemed like the membrane was closer to cloth, woven from extremely tight elastic strands. And as she stretched it further and further, the lattice became less tight and she could finally see all the hair-thin holes.

There are so many, and this is only on a tiny piece that has been stretched again and again! Maybe, rather than puncturing a hole to go through, I can simply use these! And it won't damage this humongous mesh.

Deciding to gamble it on that chance, she steeled herself and prepared the next push.

This one will probably feel like a continuous big punch to you but think of it like a band-Aid that you rip off at once. Although since I’m not feeling it, it may be hypocritical. But in the end, I’m sacrificing myself for you so I guess you can just deal with it for a short while.

Finally sure of her decision, she took a metaphysical breath and sent the next push, however, this time, she followed the push. Closing in on the mesh, she tried to thin herself as much as possible. Ignoring the scream of pain from the main body, she pushed herself through the pinhole-like hole of the lattice and threw herself into the darkness beyond.

Looking back, she couldn’t see anything, not even the back of the membrane, however, she still went and sent a final farewell.

Although I guess this is the second ‘final farewell’, good luck…