Ashton awoke once again, finding himself in a dark unknown place and it was wet, warm and sticky.

A strange slimy protective wall wrapped around him, preventing him from escape and Ashton could physically feel again as this time, he was once again residing in a body.

“So it wasn’t a dream,” Ashton thought to himself, figuratively sighing.

“Sure fucking wasn’t,” replied another voice, identical to his old one.

“Eh?” gawked Ashton as he twisted his head searching through the slimy place for anyone else before dismissing it, there wasn’t even any space for anyone else, there was barely enough for him.

“Ummm, I thought you knew about me?” questioned the voice.

“Who is that, how can you hear me?” called out Ashton in his mind, he’d discovered he couldn’t actually talk normally for some reason, nor did he seem to be breathing.

A loud sigh resonated in Ashton’s mind before, “I’m you… the other you. I would say I look forward to working with you, but that no longer seems to be the case… Anyway, we’re both stuck with each other for now so ya best be getting used to me.”

Ashton’s mind wandered for a bit as he tried to wrap his head around the idea that this person was him, or at least a part of who he had been.

One part of him was glad that he had somebody to rely on and to talk to, the other part was unsure of this other entity, could he be trusted, just because he had been him a lifetime ago, did that mean he’d just go along with everything he said?

Another thing was would he take control over his body, could he make him do things he didn’t want to and screw up his new life, perhaps his new family would mistake him as crazy and send him away, and all the books he’d read with crazy psychopathic alter egos in them didn’t help his mental state either.

“Nice to see you’re so accommodating, I can read ALL of your thoughts you know,” interjected Ashton’s other self, “and just so you know, I want to get the best out of this new life as much as you do. I am you after all and while we are in away polar opposites, two halves of our former self made up of contrasting emotions and feelings, together we do make a whole person you know. In a way, we’re just like a regular person, except instead of conflicting thoughts happening by one entity to make a decision or determine something and we can act out those conflicts like two separate entities, ultimately agreeing on one as a whole. I’ve had a lot of time to think about this you see… Well, that’s at least how I see it anyway.”

Guilt arose within Ashton, he’d only just met this person and yet he judged him, he wouldn’t have usually done that.

Perhaps that’s what he was talking about, he lacked conflict with his thoughts and simply did what he thought, no questions asked, he was lacking a entire half of himself and it was right there, just as another person inside of his head?

“Exactly, that is what I was talking about, at least you can recognise your own mistakes, I appreciate that. Anyway, while we’re off to a rocky start, I do want to make a good life for ourselves, so let’s put our heads together and work as one, no doubts,” proposed Ashton’s other self.

“S-Sorry about that, I, I didn’t mean to doubt you or anything, I certainly want to work well together with you too, I just wasn’t too prepared for any of this. I-I mean, I’m surprised you’re so accepting and calm about it yourself,” responded Ashton, stuttering along the way.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but that God-but-not-God guy seemed to take a liking to me and we talked for a while, I guess I got a bit more information out of him,” answered Ashton’s other self.

“I-I don’t think he seemed to like me very much… and I t-think he said my soul would collapse if I stayed a-any longer in that white place,” stammered Ashton.

“Well that sounds like a bunch of bullshit, how could you die if your God, or at least half of God, and the whole soul splitting in two crap sounds a bit fishy too,” suspected Ashton’s other self. “I mean what kind of God can be injured to that extent, reincarnated or not.”

“I-I’m not sure, but I think w-we should just try to work together, get to know each other, live our lives in peace and forget about th-that sort of thing, it’s not like we can do anything at the moment,” suggested Ashton.

“I don’t know about that, but I guess you’re right for now, we can worry about that when the time comes, for now I think we should have a good time in this next life,” agreed Ashton’s other self before muttering, “Hopefully I’ll be able to kill some people.”

“W-What was that!?” cried out Ashton.

“Hey, do think you could stop s-s-s-stuttering please? I’m not even a stranger, if you can’t talk normally to yourself like a normal psycho would, how will you manage with strangers? Why the heck did you have to get control of the body?” complained Ashton’s other self.

“W-What are you talking about? You d-don’t have control of our body and what did you say about killing people!?” yelled Ashton frantically?

“I-I-I-I was t-t-talking about you s-s-stutter…ing, also, yes, I do not have control over your body, instead I’m like your guardian angel, giving you advice from, well not above, rather from inside,” teased Ashton’s other self before muttering again, “I also may or may not be feeling bloodthirsty all the time for some reason.”

“I’m sorry about the stuttering, I-I don’t know why it’s happening it’s just coming naturally now, and what was that last bit you said, I swear it was something about you’re bloodthirsty,” accused Ashton.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, also, just thought I’d inform you, I believe we’re about to be birthed,” commented Ashton’s other self.

“Birthed?!” cried Ashton in shock.

“Well yeah, no need to be so surprised, I mean we’re obviously in a womb, what else would happen?” said Ashton’s other self as a matter of fact.

“Well I’m sorry! I didn’t seem to get the memo!” screamed Ashton.

“Wow, okay, calm down, you’re getting a little worked up there, just calm down, we’re about to enter our new life, we wouldn’t want you to scare our new parents away,” retorted Ashton’s other self.

“Ah… I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me, everything just feels so weird,” mumbled Ashton.

“Oh, I just realised something,” exclaimed Ashton’s other self as a strong force suddenly began to suck them downwards.

“What!?” yelled Ashton as he was dragged deeper downwards.

“I just realised it’s a bit awkward both being Ashton, so to differentiate between us you can call me Ash okay?” said Ashton as they were slowly sucked downward and a cold air stung their red, raw skin for the first time in their new lives.

Ashton’s heart beat erratically and his entire body pulsed and surged with waves of heat.

His lung’s cried for air and Ashton complied, taking in a huge breath of air before letting out a few cries of pain.

Bright light flooded his eyes, temporarily blinding him, blinking furiously he attempted to adjust to the light.

Slowly, his surrounding’s grew darker and clearer and he gained normal vision.

He searched the large room he was born into, looking for his brand new parents, hoping for a cheerful bunch, only to come face to face with two miserable looking humanoids, standing on the other side of the room as far away as possible from him.

Right next to him was a female humanoid, curled up into a ball, red-faced and shaking in fear on the bed he was born onto.

“What the hell’s their problem?” commented Ash.