You were dreaming again. This time, instead of the Coral reef you were in the open ocean. Deep midnight blue surrounded you to your sides. If you looked up you saw a lighter hue from the distant sunlight. If you looked down you saw blue so dark it turned black. Above you, the surface, below you the abyss. you made no move to swim up toward the surface. You didn't need too. You didn't need to breath, you weren't cold, there was no pressure. Just Blue calmness.

In the distance, you could hear singing. It was beautiful, Like a chorus. The voices beckoned you toward them but you still didn't move. You knew that to move towards the voices, was to move toward your death. You didn't remember who told you that. Was he a friend? a stranger? a family member? You didn't remember.

You heard something else then. Something that was really loud, but it didn't hurt your ears. It sounded like something enormously huge rumbling. You looked down into the gaping maw of black below you and saw huge, long tentacles rising up from the darkness. They swayed like seaweed in an undertow. They beckoned you to come to them.

This time you did swim. The further you got the darker it became, but no matter how long you swam the tentacles never got closer. Now you were so deep that there was no light around you at all, you were in the abyss now. There was nothing but black all around you, even if you looked up, there was no sunlight anymore. You could still see your hands and feet though. You could see them as clearly as if you were only a meter under the surface. How odd.

Then you heard it again, the beckoning sound, it was still calling to you. You looked all around you but you couldn't pinpoint where it was. It was too dark. The sound called again, this time a little more urgently. You wanted to find it and looked around more frantically, it sounded like it was right on top of you but you just could not see!

Suddenly, the air stopped coming to your lungs and you started to choke. You started to swim back up as fast as you could but there was still no sunlight. Heck, you didn't even know if you were swimming in the right direction. Everything was too dark. The abyss would not let you go.

It felt like you were swimming for an eternity. every second made your lungs ache more. Finally, up ahead of you saw sunlight. You swam faster. You looked down at the abyss again as you ascended, just in time to see the colossal gaping maw of the beast coming right at you from below. He wouldn't let you go. His tentacles reached up for you, the first one just barely brushing your leg-

Your eye's snapped open. You still couldn't breathe, but now you knew why. Hoolan was practically laying on you. his mop of wet hair covering your face, preventing airflow. Also what little airflow you got smelled horrible. Reeking of decay. You snorted and bolted up from your laying position.

lately in the middle of the night Hoolan would sneak up and lay down next to you. Giving you a start when you woke up the next morning, day? who the heck knew anymore.

It had been a couple of days since the little chat you had with Hoolan. Where you learned so much more than you ever thought you would. There seemed to be no end to surprises to him, there probably never would be. After that day you were waiting for the right moment to sprint off. You just didn't know when.

Hoolan would need to be gone for quite a while for you to make your move. Problem is you never know how long he's going to be out, and if you asked him for something you knew it would take a while to get, you had to ask it in a way he wouldn't be suspicious.

You looked back down at Hoolan to your left. there was a noticeably blue-gray tinge to his skin now. When his eyes were closed you didn't see Hoolan, You saw Hubert. It always hurt you to look at him. You hated seeing your friend used as a puppet. He started to stir then, and you closed your eyes and turned your head to the side.

A hard hand tenderly cupped your chin and turned your head. You opened your eyes again and looked up at him. Over the past few days, his look changed. mostly due to the decay of the body. Aside from his blue-grey skin, his hair was now thinner and his left eye now would not open all the way.

" Sleep well polyp?"

You hummed in response, rubbing your eye's to get the pull of sleep off. When you were done with that you looked back over to Hoolan who was less than a foot away from you. He was staring, eye's glued to your form as they always were. It didn't bother you as much as it used too since you've been living with it for about a month by now.

You noticed that he was still cupping your chin. Lightly rubbing his hard thumb against your jaw bone. It didn't feel like human skin anymore, it felt like rubber that had wrinkled, hardened and been covered with salt. The smell was starting to get to you as well. It took all of your will to make your face emotionless and not gag.

" Are you alright." He asked after a minute of silence. Tilting your chin up so he could look you intently in the eyes. You gave him a small smile, trying not to look into his eyes.

" Yeah I'm fine, I just... had the most confusing dream." You replied.

" Dreams are supposed to be confusing Polyp."

" Do you dream?" You asked, looking up into his eye's. He looked as if you just asked him if he breathed.

" Of course Polyp, everything dreams."

" Sorry, that was a stupid question." You said with a laugh.

" Not a stupid question." He corrected. " Just one that you were genuinely curious about. You gave him a small smile again, and he returned the smile with a big toothy one of his own. Your chest constricted with horror however as the flesh along his right cheek split open and bright green-yellow liquid oozed out. He noticed your expression immediately.

" What's wrong?" He asked. Could he not feel it anymore?

" Hoolan... this body is at its limits," you said quietly. He let go of your chin and reached up to feel his cheek. A shadow crossed over his eyes as he pulled back to look at the awful smelling fluid on his fingers.

" I'll need to require a new host soon." He said. You froze again. A new host? does that mean he had to go out and kill another person? You couldn't let that happen, but there was nothing you could do to stop it.

" Can't you just shape yourself to look like a human?" You asked, trying to get him to rethink his decision. Looking at him with an almost pleading look in your E/C eyes. He shook his head.

" It's not that simple polyp. I can change my shape into a humanoid form yes, However, It would look nothing like a human." Your eyes dropped to the floor, and you couldn't hold back the stream of tears that started to flow. He noticed your state and bent down to your level, nudging your cheek with his nose.

" Why do you cry polyp?" He asked, with a tender note in his voice. Your body started to shake now, mostly out of anger than sadness.

" Why do you just keep killing people." You said shakily. He looked taken back for a second before opening his mouth to reply.

" Death is a part of life Y/N you need to accept it."

You snapped

In a flash, you tore yourself away from him. Standing up and looking down at him while hot tears dripped from your eyes and onto your neck. He stood up as well, taking an almost menacing stance.

" I need to accept it!?" You practically screeched at him. " You killed all of my friends, and a dozen other people saying that the reason they had to die was that they weren't really my friends and that they were going to take me away! Now your planning to kill someone who probably does not even know I exist and you tell me that I just need to deal with it!?" Your body was shaking madly now, and the look in his eyes was getting dangerous, but you ignored it. " I just need to accept the fact that you killed innocent people, and his now wearing my best friends body, controlling him from his brain? I can't accept that Hoolan! That's not-."

" THAT'S ENOUGH!!" Hoolan roared at you, The cave almost shaking with how loud it was. He started to walk toward you but you sprang back again.

" Stay away from me!" You yelled at him, stepping away with each step he took.

" Y/N." He said dangerously. " Don't you dare walk away from me." Against your will, your legs froze in place. You didn't know what to do, there was nowhere you could go. So you hugged your arms around yourself and closed your eyes. wanting everything to be calm like in your dreams. You felt strong arms wrap around your smaller form and Hoolan resting his forehead on the top of your head.

" Why must we always fight Y/N?"

" I don't know Hoolan... I... I wish we didn't." you replied in all honesty. He placed a gentle kiss on the top of your head and you both knelt down on the ground. For long moments you both stayed there, you shaking in his arms and him holding you. Gently but also as if you'd be sucked into a whirlpool if he let go.

After a while, you relaxed a little bit. You rested your head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Hubert's heart, Hubert's blood, Hoolans soul.

After a while, you pulled your head back to stare up at him, and he lifted his head up so he could look at you as well. He reached up and wiped the tears off of your cheeks sliding his hand softly down your jaw to grip your chin with his fingertips. You closed your eyes at the touch. liking the love behind them, not so much the creature orchestrating them. After a moment, you felt the whisper of his kiss.

His lips were chapped and hard, but the meaning behind them was what you felt more. You didn't' move, you didn't push away, you just stayed there. You didn't know what to do. A minute later Hoolan pulled away and gave you another kiss on the head.

" I'm going to be back soon Polyp, you were right, this body is at its limits, it will fall apart soon." He stood up and looked down at you. " Everything I do is so we can be together, always and forever. I love you Y/N, please don't ever think otherwise." He gave you a heartbreaking look, then turned and was gone through the entrance pool.

What was happening to you? How did your life make such a turn for the worse? You didn't know. But you did know you were getting out, and you were getting out right now. You bolted to your feet, snatched your lighting jar from its position on the floor, took a long drink of water from the little waterfall, turned and walked into the wall of darkness.