Returning home the familiar comfort Alice and Braedon expected vanished the moment they stepped through the threshold. The kitchen, a lived-in clutter they had left earlier had transformed into an alien landscape. Grass pushed through cracks in the floor, their roots snaking across it like pale grasping tendrils. The air hung heavy with the damp scent of soil and decay, every surface was coated in a thick layer of dust and organic mess. The room was not merely messy; it was consumed by nature and time.
Braedon, seemingly unfazed by the botanical invasion instead strode directly to a cupboard. He yanked it open with a sharp crack, the door breaking off its hinges before breaking apart due to aged rot only to find the cupboard itself utterly empty. "Well, that's not good," he mused he said shaking his head. "Someone's taken all of John's ramen. He's really going to be pissed about this." He then calmly pulled out a chair from the nature-reclaimed table and settled in well taking out his rapidly buzzing phone, a uneasy feeling settling in his gut.
Alice stared, aghast, waving her arms dramatically at the scene. "Wait, that's what you're worried about?" Her voice rose, bordering on a shout. "Shouldn't this be more worrying? I mean, we were gone for like an hour and yet this place is practically overgrown!"
Braedon met her gaze, a hint of weariness in his eyes. "And what the hell do you expect me to say or do? I am more than a little aware we were gone a short time, but it's like months or more have passed here. Let me finish checking these messages to see if Fae may have given some clues to what the heck is going on and then we can go find Elena for more answers, she should be able tell us what's been happening and even be able to keep this guy for us." He gestured subtly to the unmoving former manager.
Alice moved quickly though, her hand shooting out and clamping onto his shoulder as she rushed at him, surprising him with the amount of strength in her grip as she forced him to look at her. Her knife previously sheathed now glinted dangerously at his throat. "Oh no, you still have things to tell me and answers to give, mister! You told me you would explain who and what you were when we got back and what happened to John, along with who these others you mentioned are! I'm not going to let you worm your way out of this or stall now that were back here!" Her voice was hard, firm, a stark contrast to Braedon's amused expression.
"Aren't there more important matters right now like trying to figure out what's happened and how long we were gone?" he ventured, earning a low growl from her. "I'll take that as a no," he sighed. "Alright, take the knife away first though and I'll answer whatever you want to know to the best of my ability, as long as it isn't too personal and digs into what John would find to personal."
Alice stared at him for a long moment, seemingly judging if she could trust his words before giving a sharp nod she lowered the knife slowly before finding her own still semi decent chair and settling directly in front of him. "Who and what are you, really?" she began, her tone stern as she cut straight to the point.
"As I said before, I am John, or a part of him," Braedon explained calmly, his gaze steady as he locked eyes with her. "John's always been a happy-go-lucky type of guy, doing all he can to help and be there when needed, a good boy through and through. He would always do as he was told and giving his all if it meant it could help someone. Even when he would make money it would almost all go to his family, even when he wanted something for himself, he would still put them first well hardly ever asking for anything in return, never actually asking for things in general. That isn't normal in the least or healthy unless a person is conditioned that way but he wasn't."
He paused, letting his words sink in. "Add in the fact he can feel and see things most people don't along with dreaming of various worlds and realities – some good, some not so good. Beings beyond normal that would leave visible marks on him after waking up: sometimes light red marks, other times bruises and one time he woke up bleeding from various cut marks. All that added onto his already broken mind leaves you with the guy you met; his mind broke entirely at a young age since no one really believed his words or that he had been through the experiences he described. He learnt to be good at pretending to be normal to blend in, to act like everything was fine even when he wasn't. The lack of friends and anyone to understand him just added to it all, meaning he began to to trust only himself, so by turning into himself for trust and understanding he developed me and over time the others. We helped a bit to keep him from truly breaking or doing anything… regrettable, we even helped with him crossing over in his sleep to other places to escape reality." Alice listened, a somewhat confused look slowly morphing onto her face.
"So, he's got a split personality? But you said there was someone older than you that was there before you." she said getting a slow nod as she tried to grasp the complex explanation. "So, John's all sunshine and good and you're this dark side of him or something? How many of you even are there? How did it even happen though since I figured there needs to be some kind of extreme trauma to cause a person to lock themselves up, or was he born that way?" She couldn't help but press, a sudden hunger for knowledge about the companion she planned to spend far more time with consuming her.
Braedon thought for a moment, a slight frown creasing his brow. "Hmm, I can't really talk of them, but a split personality is possibly the best way to describe it in a simplified way, but even though were part of him were still our own individuals. As for trauma It was after his grandfather's passing that we fully formed as something more than just quiet whispers in his mind, interacting through dreams and then when his grandmother passed, well that's when things truly got worse and we had to work far harder to try and hold him together. But no, I'm not his dark side; we keep that thing locked up tightly." He shivered subtly at the mention. "Its influence bleeds out from time to time unfortunately, part of why he has depression but also random stray thoughts of genocide and slaughter, including random blackouts before we figured out how to mostly stop those. If it were ever let loose though, well John would no doubt be a monster of absolute madness worse than a lucid berserker."
He continued, trying to regaining his composure after seemingly having some kind flashback. "Me and the others are random fragments of him that mixed with imagination and different spiritual places taken form in his mind. As for being born with it, he does have a lot of spirituality in his blood, but even so that just added to his abilities not their root. As for how many of us there are…" He trailed off, deep in thought. "I honestly have no idea. Including me there should be at least six, not counting his locked-up darkness, all of us have our own personalities and preferences. I'm the calmest out of the lot, personally preferring to read and study. We all have our own forms as well. No offense but John is a bit to robust for us. It feels like I'm wearing an overly large coat stuffed with pillows and too many layers, not really agile or mobile that my own form tends to be." He tapped his belly, causing a slight jiggle, making his point with a dry humor that brought a small laugh from Alice.
"To be fair," she countered, puffing up slightly, "I prefer it over some kind of stick man. It means he's soft and cuddly and he makes such a nice bed, his also really warm and it just means he has really good taste's." Her face then returned to a neutral, inquisitive expression. "What do you mean about the whole 'dreams' thing? How does that even happen and what's actually happened there?"
"That's a difficult thing to really answer," Braedon admitted calmly, choosing his words carefully. "We're not really sure ourselves. A normal person isn't supposed to be able to read in their dreams or track time, for example in a dream if you look at a clock, turn away and look again it should be a drastically different time yet even then he can keep track of it, another thing is how a person's mind isn't supposed to be able to make new faces, only those they have seen before and yet John's read books before in dreams and met strange people he has never seen before. He's also been too weird places including what could possibly be the biblical hell, but that's hard to actually verify though for obvious reasons."
He continued, "As for the places and beings, well there's been times where John felt like he wouldn't be able to wake up, other times he wakes up repeatedly from one dream into another distorting his sense of reality. Sometimes he feels he needs to fulfill a condition or he needs to escape from whatever place he finds himself in. Sometimes he doesn't want to leave and is forced out instead, waking up with a hollow or sad feeling; other times he wants out but is instead trapped and has to find a way out. He's also learned mild skills at times that bled over into his real world, nothing that would have been useful in everyday activities though." He paused allowing Alice a bit of time to process the staggering amount of information he had just given her. "Any other questions you want to ask?"
Alice stirred, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and a certain manic glee as she realized John may just be as mad as she was. "I'll think of something but I think I need some time to sort what you told me out. I mean, a lot is going on already and now I'm finding out my friend is some kind of mental sociopath with split personality and clearly things are wrong with him causing him to be madder than what I am. But that means he's even more special and perfect for me! Oh, one last question," her tone, steady for a moment, hitched upwards, a familiar madness seeping into it. "Does he have anyone he's interested in? Do you think I should I make a move? What's his type? Who's this ex of his that's been referred to!"
Braedon was rather surprised she had managed to remain stable and sane for so long only to now break and gave her an amused smile. "That's more than one question but if you must know, then no, there isn't anyone he's interested in or seeing, hasn't for a long time now but not from lack of trying, he has failed to find a decent spark with someone or be stirred by anyone, something that has very recently changed though. I don't think you should at the present time as he still has a lot he needs to deal with and work through but give It a little bit more time and it should be fine to make your move. I can't tell you his type; that's too personal for him but I'm sure you will figure it out. As for his Ex." He paused at this, an angry, almost snarl forming on his face. "I would very much prefer to avoid speaking of her currently as I worry id lose control of my own emotions. Just know she contributed to the growth of his darker side to the point we all had to work together to reseal it and restrain John from letting it loose to go on a murderous and bloody rampage in the waking world."
Seeing Alice shiver and lean back he returned his focus to the phone. Surprisingly, there was two messages present yet it caused his stomach to drop, it confirmed that the time that had passed but beyond what he had expected, it wasn't a few months, it was two years.
The message, from Fae held undertones of urgency:
"Hey John, I hope you're okay. I'm not sure when I will be able to talk again as a lot happened these past few weeks, I know I should have been more consistent and you have no doubt been worried beyond words but I know it would have no doubt been just as rough for you, even though I wish it hadn't, we had a huge influx of people and needed to build up from a small camp to an actual small survival settlement, it's why I couldn't talk till now since I was needed to keep track of absolutely everything. You were right about the magus guys though; they convinced others to help them and tried something. I had Jay try to step in and help put a stop to it but we seemed to be a bit too slow. Something blew up and there was a bright flash; something is now circling in the sky and dome is slowly forming around our camp. I'll try to talk more when I can but I, I don't know if I will be able to or when the next time I can will be… Please keep safe my special friend. We will get through this somehow so don't you dare die or give up! If you do, I will drag your ass back to the living so I can kick it so hard you will wish to be dead again!"
"Hey John, I, If you get this then know we're safe, no clue where we ended up but we had to abandon the camp, we luckily managed to join another but this place is wrong, I cant describe it but there's so many different problems all over the place, an army of robots one side, zombies on the other and this weird forest that eats people recently decimated a camp. Jay's role also doesn't seem that good here compared to so many others and I don't like saying that, we also both got a warning that we've trespassed to where we shouldn't be? I didn't really understand it but I've been doing all I can to try and circumvent it using my class. John, I won't lie about this but I am really scared, I, I don't know if we will make it here but we sure as hell will be doing the best we can to keep going. But should the worst happen don't give up, okay? Keep going and pushing for the both of us, keep fighting for us… Please…. And thank you, for always being there and being my best friend through it all."
Braedon's fingers tightened around the phone before putting it away. A cold knot formed in his stomach, a familiar prelude to dread.
Fae. Her name was a silent prayer on his lips, intertwined with a mounting fear. He knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone that without her, the fragile lock restraining John's darkness would undoubtedly be shaken and possibly even shatter, her final message felt like a final goodbye. Yet in this strange, transformed world they now inhabited, he couldn't shake the unsettling thought that popped up: would that unleashed darkness be a hazard or a bizarre salvation?
Shaking his head he quickly pulled the phone back out and deleted the last message before finding his gaze drifting to Alice. She was their last hope now, a potential bulwark against John losing himself, the last hope they had to keep John grounded, to remind him of himself and to keep him who he is when he returned.
Rising from his seat, Braedon moved towards the back door, each step heavy with uncertainty. He needed answers and he needed them now. Elena was their only link to understanding the temporal rift that had swallowed them, to understand what they had missed and what changes the world had gone through.
It felt like a felt like a double-edged sword poised above their heads. On one side, the blade of disadvantage: precious time stolen, opportunities to prepare and grow obliterated. They were behind everyone else, fundamentally outmatched and would struggle to establish even a meager foothold in this evolved landscape. Their current strength would fail to match those of the people who had years to grow and prepare.
But on the other side of the blade there was dangerous promise. This future wasn't just older; it was changed compared to the start they had left. Systems might already be in place, built by those who had already faced and adapted to whatever cataclysm had occurred. There was potential to recruit people who knew how to use their classes, to lean on the experience of survivors and grow stronger by using them. And John... when he finally resurfaced, this new world with its stronger, more formidable inhabitants might paradoxically find that it held the potential to be a greater canvas for his own 'class' to truly flourish. The very power that threatened them could, for John, be the key to unlocking his full potential, he would be able to spend days or weeks to come just short of those who had spent years to hone their skills and professions.
Yet, this fragile silver lining was quickly overshadowed by the chilling reality he looped back to: no matter the opportunities, they were still at a massive disadvantage in terms of strength, skill and knowledge of everything that had happened in those two years.