Author’s note- So its 8:30 Friday after work, and I haven’t started on the chapter yet. I get an email saying, “You have three new comment notifications on a chapter you posted, would you like to read them?” So of course, I click yes. And then I’m reading messages like ‘nice to see you back,’ ‘enjoying your novel,’ and ‘please write more!’ I completely pause in like the middle of the streets (I walk home), and then I start to guilty walk faster, cursing under my breath. Why u guys have to make me feel guilty like this?

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Sinking…

After making that resignation, it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. But as soon as Chloe came back in, another weight fell right back down to take its place. Where had she been?

She looked absolutely exhausted, something you wouldn’t expect from someone who had basically skipped gym. Drained, even. And she just plopped right down in the chair next to me without even a word.

Me- “What happened?”

She stayed silent, not even reacting to my question. I spoke a little louder, worry evident in my voice,

Me- “Chloe?”

She slowly turned to me with dead eyes, and looked at me with a deadpan expression.

Chloe- “Whaat…”

Me- “Chloe, are you ok???”

She just stood up, and motioned for me to come closer. I leaned my head in, and she whimpered quietly,

Chloe- “I need… to recharge…”

I whispered back to her, not clearly understanding what she meant.

Me- “Recharge?”

Instead of answering my question, she pulled me out of my seat with surprising strength and walked me out of the classroom. The teacher gave us a glance, so I embarrassedly said,

Me- “I’m sorry, just give us a secon-.”

She suddenly pulled me around the corner, so my sentence was cut off. Normally I would be kind of irritated after receiving this kind of treatment from anyone, including Chloe, much less allowing her to pull me around. But my worry was preventing me from getting angry over such a trivial thing; I just hoped she was ok.

We ended up walking all the way to the end of the hallway before she turned around and spoke,

Chloe- “Nathaniel. Your ability. I need it.”

Her face was as deadpan as ever, but I could feel the urgency in her voice. And since she had already mentioned the need to ‘recharge,’ I knew what to do. Looking around for any cameras or people, I refocused on Chloe. This might take a bit of time, and although nobody was in our immediate vicinity, our position was still too open.

I whispered quietly to Chloe, saying,

Me- “Don’t move, I need a second before we can start.”

With a thought, I summoned my golden aura. At its current form it was more apt to call the golden aura a liquid, due to the fact that it had condensed greatly since I first named it. And at the moment, it was flowing around my skin and clothing freely. I kept the teachings from my other self in mind, as I decided to voice my desire within my head. ‘Don’t let anyone notice us.’

As if responding to my thought, the golden aura moved to envelop Chloe, turning gaseous in the process. But once it barely managed to cover the both of us, I touched the shield tattoo on Chloe’s arm.

Suddenly, the black lines moved to pervade every inch of her skin. But instead of glowing faintly like embers, they were all dark black, like ashes flaked across her skin. I asked quietly,

Me- “Did you try using the ability while I wasn’t there?”

I had started to fill her up with my abilities while I asked this, and the lines began slowly light up from her wrist. She answered back with a voice as small as a mosquito; apparently she hadn’t recovered from her weakness yet.

Chloe- “Yeah. I only used it for 5 minutes though~, cough-cough.”

She had a voice crack at the end of her sentence, and I doubt it was because of puberty. It seems that grandma wasn’t exaggerating about losing life-force from using the power too long. Otherwise, how could Chloe be in such a weak state?

Me- “Chloe. Don’t push the limits when using my ability; it will use up your lifespan! What were you doing with it anyway?”

Chloe was silent for a little while, but after a second or two, she said,

Chloe- “Practicing.”

Me- “Chloe, if you were practicing, we need to set a limit on how long you will practice, so I’m not bringing you back from the brink of death every time. And you weren’t seen, right? If someone sees me using my ability, I might get a fine or something. But for you, the punishment is death!”

Chloe looked at me weirdly, as if saying, ‘Where is this coming from; aren’t you overreacting?’

Me- “Chloe, I’m serious! Were you seen?”

Chloe shook her head no, which allowed me to let off a slight sigh of relief. I continued, my tone being a little less tense,

Me- “Good. But still, by practicing like this… You could die. Can you at least always keep a minute or two in reserve? It would not just be to avoid the risk of exhaustion, but to also keep in reserve for emergencies. And…”

Chloe- “Yeah, ok.”

Me- “…”

I could tell she was getting kind of irritated, and I didn’t want to antagonize her. So I just continued recharging her while keeping an eye out for people who may be passing by. Thankfully, my luck held out; nobody came during the process. And once the recharging was done, I retracted the golden aura.

(Author’s musings: Due to stupid pop culture references, I had to use golden aura instead of golden liquid, even though it is really a ‘liquid’ now…)

Without a word, I turned and walked back to the classroom with Chloe.

When we got back inside, nothing seemed to have changed in the classroom. Everybody was sitting around, doing their own thing.

Director- “We haven’t started on the new play yet, so today you just have a study hall. Do whatever you feel like doing, as long as it’s school appropriate.”

He sat back in his chair after he was finished, leaving us to do whatever. And my first instinct was to continue talking with Chloe about what happened, but I didn’t want to make her upset. And I had nothing else to talk about.

So I decided to start working on my homework for the day; I hadn’t done any of it for a while now. In fact, I knew I had a physics worksheet and an English paper due tomorrow, but I was going to do the physics one now.

I pulled the worksheet from my backpack, and placed it on the table. But even though the content was completely unfamiliar to me, it seemed… easy?

My hand started moving at breakneck speeds, and every answer seemed to come to my head as soon as I looked upon the problem. But right as I came to the final answer, I paused. The answer wasn’t coming to me.

I dismissed it as nothing, and moved on to my English work. Obviously, I wasn’t some sort of physics god; it was already a wonder that I was able to finish this much this fast. And searching up the answer would be cheating. I wasn’t some sort of saint either, but I still had a moral and honor code.

So thinking of that no longer, I took out my laptop and pulled up the document. I was currently working on this prompt on whether recess should be reinstated, but out of habit, I read what I had already wrote. And reading it now, I found so many issues.

Me- “No, wrong wording here. That’s too simplistic. How did I spell that wrong?”

I muttered to myself, while spamming the backspace key. Soon, I ended up with a blank document. And I began to type again.

It took me about 10 minutes until I was satisfied with it. And by that time, I had already written a page and a half. Then I shut my laptop and placed it back within my backpack. But… Now that I was done with my homework, I still had nothing to do.

Taking a glance over at Chloe, she was reclined back in her chair with her ear buds in, and her eyes were shut. Upon closer inspection, I could clearly hear the sound of her breath slowly softening. She was actually sleeping!

I looked over the time and confirmed that I still had about half an hour of class time remaining. I guess it wouldn’t be a problem if I went to sleep as well.

With that, I closed my eyes. And then a mysterious beckoning drew my consciousness into a deeper darkness than the one that would just result from closing my eyes. I didn’t resist.

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A blurry voice resounded out through the darkness,

Me?- “Well. You came earlier than expected.”

I tried to open my eyes, but my body wasn’t listening to me. And then I started to panic! What was going on!?

Me?- “You’re not fully asleep yet, so this isn’t working properly. Let me fix that for you.”

He drew me deeper and deeper into the darkness, until I reached the point where I could no longer feel any sensations from my body. And then a lurching feeling appeared in my stomach, like I was falling. Endlessly falling.

The process may have taken seconds, but it felt like hours passed in those long moments. But after this, I started to regain feeling within my body. The warmth of sunlight on my face, the wet coldness at my feet, the wind riffling through my hair all confirmed one thing. I had entered the space.

My consciousness blurred for a moment, and before I knew it he was standing before me. Pushing myself off the surface of the water, I stood before the other me. He was sitting in a throne of ice, fashioned from god knows where. But he still wore my school attire, creating a sense of discord. I don’t know why, but I had this unexplainable irritation that welled up within me upon seeing this. I commented sarcastically,

Me- “Why, you look so majestic on that throne my lord! Should I bring you your robes?”

He gave me a cheeky grin, something that caused my irritation to grow stronger.

Me?- “No. This is good enough.”

He surrounded himself with golden aura, then ignited a couple of flame points around his shirt, causing it to burn off. Surprisingly, his chest was well muscled with just the right amount of fat. And his abs even had the beginnings of a six-pack.

I smirked,

Me- “Are you trying to show off?”

He responded with a straight face.

Me?- “What you’re seeing is only a reflection of yourself. But I can go back to our previous appearance, if you so wish.”

Looking at him was like looking at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t impressed, but it was hard to say any insulting words about him. And even if he returned to my previous appearance, I would only hurt my self esteem by roasting him.

Me- “This way is fine. But what did you call me in here for? I wanted to sleep.”

His irritating smirk faded away, leaving a slight and solemn frown.

Me?- “It came to my attention that I might have a problem staying here doing nothing. We are having a disconnect between our thoughts and body, and this might be a serious problem. I called you here in order to fix this as soon as possible.”

He walked closer to me while talking, his footsteps creating ripples in the water.

Me- “How?”

Me?- “If the problem is subconscious habits, then one must fix these habits through their subconscious, right?”

Me- “I’m already asleep; is this world not my subconscious?”

He placed his finger onto my forehead, smiling gently.

Me?- “It’s further within here. But Nathaniel, promise me this. Stay on the golden path. There are darker forces within that world that you cannot hope to withstand.”

Even though usually, I would disregard his advice at the drop of the hat, something about him, or his expression made me feel an unnatural sense of trust. Unexpectedly, I nodded my head yes.

Me?- “Good. Just follow the golden path to the end, and then you’ll know what to do.”

Me- “Wait. What do you mean?”

Without responding to my question, he continued to smile. But instead of his gentle smile, this smile contained a trace of, excitement?

Me?- “See you later!”

He pushed forward with his finger, and my body fell back into the water. But instead of landing like I usually would, I started to sink. Further and further down…

As I was sinking, I saw my other self happily waving goodbye. A radiant cloud of light slowly surrounded him, while I sunk further into the darkness. Soon, the light from beyond the clouds of the space became indistinct, and my other self had become a sun that lit the waters of darkness around me.

Me?- “You may be in there for a while. But don’t worry; I’ll live in your place for the time being. And remember, don’t step off the golden path~!”

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Author’s note 2- I seemed to have writer’s block for a while, and I was unable to write romance as I had originally planned. So I decided I needed a change of pace, and this happened. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!