Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

3 - Sights, Hearings, and Awkward Meetings

Impulse stayed where he was, still as a stool.  He thought that maybe if he tried focusing hard enough, he would wake up from whatever sort of dream he was having, but of course that wasn't working out very well for him.  It was like he was seeing in night vision, everything being a greenish tint and fuzzy looking at best.  What finally got him to sit up from the shared bed was a clicking noise from downstairs.

When he looked down from where he was, he realized he was not only transparent, but he wasn't even in his own body.  He looked down at a bed filled with him laying next to his soulbound, but clearly he was standing up, so what was going on?  This had to be a really weird dream, right?

He heard the clicking once again and finally left to investigate.  Carefully making his way down the stairs, he quickly found the source of the noise.  The walls of their living room were covered in the black dust of coal and red powder of redstone, the floor holding some sort of automated contraption.  In the middle of it stood a new stranger, one that was not with them in the crowds of the 14 subjects.  He had on a black suit that matched his black hair, fancy coattails accompanied by equally fancy black pants and pointed-toed shoes.  He was just as transparent as Impulse was, but he still didn't get a good look at the person's face for a reason he didn't find until later.

"Um, hello?" Impulse called out, his voice echoing as if the room were larger and more empty than it actually was.  The figure kept turned away.

"Hi," he responded.  "I don't recognize your voice.  Did you just get here?"

"...yeah?" Impulse answered, though he was more confused than anything.

"Ah, well that's a shame.  At least it was rather quick," the stranger said.  "Do you want to sit by the minecart I just powered?  The furnace is making it a little warmer to be around."

"Wait wait wait," Impulse said, "what do you mean 'at least it was quick?'"

"Well, you... you died,"  The stranger said.  "Nobody just shows up here while they're still alive, pal."

"No!  No, I'm not-... just no!"  Impulse said, suddenly very afraid of where he was.  "Why would I be dead, I'm perfectly healthy!  And if I'm dead, then where's my soulbound?"

"...your soulbound?"  The stranger suddenly went stiff, as if those words were a curse.  "You have a soulbound?"

"Um, yeah, that's kinda why I'm here," Impulse said. 

The figure finally turned to him.  What he saw made him take a step back in shock.

This person's face, or more lack thereof, terrified him.  It was like the layer of his head that held all of his facial features, nose, eyes, mouth, all of it, were chopped off altogether.  The stranger's personality shifted as quickly as the tone of their presence changed, their calm demeanor transforming into a crazed sort of fear.

"He knew it!  He really did know it!"  The person cried, only causing Impulse to back up even more as he stepped forward.  "Please, you have to help us!  Find-"

The world suddenly went blurry, and then-

"IMPULSE!"

Impulse's vision went black for a split second before he was abruptly back in his bed.  Bdubs was on top of him, grabbing him by his shoulders but now seemingly relieved that he opened his eyes.

"Thank goodness!  Don't scare me like that honey, I thought you were dead!"  Bdubs exclaimed.  Impulse had to work hard to hold back a laugh.

"Bdubs, if I were dead, you'd be dead,"  Impulse said, rubbing his face in the palms of his hands.  Bdubs took a second to process this information.