Friend or Foe?

Chapter 5 - Haunted

Phoenix and DJ had just finished their game of Mario Kart, DJ won as usual, when they heard the door unlock and open.
It was Willow.

“Shit! I’m not supposed to be here!” Phoenix shot off the couch and to their room, locking the door behind them.
Willow somehow didn’t see this happen and spoke to DJ “Hey, I’m assuming that Phoenix text you saying why I was late.”
“Oh, uh, yeah… they text me about 40 mins ago. Said something about traffic.”
Willow checked their watch. “Yeah, their shift isn’t over yet so they hopefully wont be caught in it.”
“Hopefully,” DJ couldn’t wait any longer to ask.

“Did you bring the thing with you? The one for me that we were talking about on the phone?”
“Oh yeah I did, it’s in the car, I came in to order food first so… what do you want?”
DJ remembered the sushi place down the road, it was the opposite way from Phoenix’s work so they could sneak out so Willow wouldn’t get mad at them.
“That new sushi place seems good, lets get something from there. I haven’t seen the menu so get me whatever you’re getting.”
“Alright, I’ll go now so. Be back soon!” And Willow was gone again.

Once the door was shut, DJ called out to Phoenix,
“PHOE! Willow’s gone out to get food for us, go get your uniform, put it in a bag and walk down to work and back. You should be back way after they are.”
Phoenix’s voice could be heard quietly from behind the door, “Ugh, fine.” Phoenix sighed and as they put their uniform into their bag.
“Aren’t I such a great friend? Helping you keep your job.”

Phoenix walked up the hallway and up to the door, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll see you in a while.”
“Buh-bye!” DJ had a goofy grin on his face, realising he had just told Phoenix to walk for at least a half hour in the rain. He kicked his legs up on the ottoman and turned back on the games console while he waited for Willow to come back.

Twenty minutes later, Willow came back. They were carrying a huge cardboard box, with a little bag on top, labelled “Dancin’ Salmon Sushi”, What a strange name for a sushi place. Do salmon dance? Is it the salmon dance? DJ stopped questioning dancing salmon when he paid attention to the box, was that whole box full of stuff for him? What was in the box?
“That’s a lot of sushi.” DJ joked, pointing to the box.
“Nope, just books, and candles, and other random stuff. All for you.”
That explains it.
“Ah, so the bag is the sushi? Or is that lighters for the candles?” DJ tried to be funny again, it wasn’t.
“Nope, that’s actually the sushi.” Willow put the box on the table and picked up the bag off of it.
“Let’s eat first, then we’ll talk about that stuff.” They took one box out of the bag and handed it to DJ. He opened it and admired the handiwork of whoever made his sushi, before leaving the box without a trace that anything was ever in there.

A couple of minutes later, Phoenix swung open the door. They looked like a drowned dog.
Willow’s jaw dropped “Phoe, you could’ve called me, I would have collected you!”
Phoenix sighed, “Appreciate it but the traffic by the place was crazy, you’d have been hours.”
“Ah, fair enough.” Willow held their box of sushi in Phoenix’s direction, “Sushi?”
“Sure, thanks!” Phoenix took the box and went towards their room. “If you need me, give me a shout, I’ll be in my room doing something.”
“Will do!” DJ replied before Phoenix closed their door.

“Now,” DJ turned to Willow, “Want to explain this stuff?” He tapped the top of the box a few times.
“Sure, i’ve kept you waiting too long.” Willow slid the sushi boxes aside and started to open the box when DJ spoke.
“Willow, question for you.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“You seem to more know than you’re letting on. What do you know that I don’t?”

“I-“ Willow fell silent for a moment, trying to get their thoughts in order.
“Do you believe in a higher power, DJ?” Willow sounded as serious as a military interrogator with a captured soldier.

“Yes? No? I’m not religious but ghosts and stuff are plausible.”
DJ struggled to wrap his head around why Willow asked such an odd question out of nowhere. How did this relate at all?

Willow nodded, “Ghosts, spirits or whatever you want to say, they are real. Just, not in the way you’d think. I liked the thought of a higher power or ghosts and stuff so I got into this sort of thing!” Willow lifted a large book out of the box. It looked practically ancient, bound with real leather, a rarity in this age. It was dusty too, really dusty. On the cover, there was a picture, on the left there was a silhouette of a human, and on the right, there was another silhouette. However, this one was not human, it looked similar, but you could tell that it wasn’t. It looked familiar too, even though DJ hadn’t ever seem something like it.

DJ felt extremely cold all of a sudden. Why? “Hey, sorry I just need to get a drink, you want anything?” DJ stood up and walked towards the fridge.
“Sure no worries, I’ll take a Coke if there’s one there.”
“Coke it is.” DJ grabbed two cans from the fridge. DJ closed the fridge door and looked over at the table where Willow was.
It was back.
DJ stepped backward in discomfort, tripping over his feet and falling.
“OW! FUCK!” DJ yelled.
“Are you okay?” Willow tried not to laugh at DJ falling over his own feet.
“It’s back again, for fucks sake. Why now?” DJ sounded more bothered rather than scared this time, that was the only thing that’s changed since the first time this had happened.
Willow walked over to DJ, crouched down beside him and spoke,
“Close your eyes. And breathe, it will go away, you’re safe don’t worry.”
DJ did what Willow said. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes. It was gone.
“Wow, that actually worked! Thank you so much.” DJ slowly started to stand up and both of them walked back towards the table.
“Of course, I’m not just going to stand idly by. If you ever need help, let me know.”
“Thank you, now, let’s get back to this box you’ve brought home.”

“Right, get comfortable, this might take a bit.” Willow sat down again in front of the book.
They dusted off the book and placed their finger on the cover,
“This book has all, well, probably most of the answers to your questions on this situation you’re going through at the moment. There’s extra bits of information and whatnot in there too if you’re curious about-“

DJ interrupted, trying to figure out what Willow was even on about.
“Yeah that’s great and all but like, what is the book actually about?”
Willow replied with sort of a rushed tone to their voice, “Sorry, sorry I got a bit ahead of myself. I’ll try to properly explain it.”
Willow picked up the book and opened the cover, cleared their throat and began to read.

“Beings and Forms, this book, will teach you about the co-existence of ‘beings’ and ‘forms’ and the nature behind the two groups.”
DJ cut in again, “Right… that makes absolutely zero fucking sense to me. What does that even mean, what are those two things?”

Willow put down the book and looked up ad DJ.
“It’s explained more in depth in the book but from what I remember, ‘Beings’ is just the terminology for humans, you and I, and a ‘Form’, is… this is tricky to explain so bear with me here.
Every being, has a form. Usually, a for will match it’s being, the form will just become a subconcious. Forms are the authentic part the two and therefore it’s the being that doesn’t match, despite it not seeming this way, due to how forms act if the being does not match. Any questions so far?”

“Yeah, what happens if they don’t match?”

“Basically, the form will stay as either a series of horrendous thoughts and ideas in the beings head until the being complies with how the form wants to exist or until the being dies. Or the form will become so distressed that it will manifest itself as a hallucination to torment the being for the same reasons as the thoughts. This does not happen in a usual circumstance, it has to be awakened through an object or ritual of supernatural property.”
DJ looked at his hands, then he realised.
The ring, that was it. The ring had awoken his ‘form’ or whatever Willow called it. To him it was a monster, no matter what.
DJ asked, “So, let’s say that it was an object that awoke the ‘form’, if the person was to disband with the object, would the form disappear with it?”

“No, unfortunately.” Willow sounded disappointed with their own answer, they knew why DJ was asking. “You’re stuck with your form, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but that’s the truth.”

No, that can’t be, this thing was making his life miserable. It had to be gone, now. He needed it to be gone.
DJ just sighed and let Willow continue talking.

“This thing has been around since your birth, those horrible thoughts in the back of your head, always discouraging you for one reason or another. Think of it like a split in consciousness, you and, well, the other half of you, both have to share that body and one half of you completely despises that but has no active control over that and must force you on to the right path. It is the better path for you but your gut instincts will reject every single idea and thought proposed by your form, we still don’t know why that happens, and probably never will.”

“Right, well thanks I guess. Kinda bummed that I’m gonna be stuck with this, thing, whatever you called it, a Form?” DJ let out a sigh, he looked visibly upset.
“I know that’s nothing like what you wanted to hear, I’m sorry about that. There is stuff that’s explained better in there that will help you with dealing with it. I promise you that, it mightn’t necessarily be complete eradication, but you can get there. It will take a very long time but you can start now and it will be over sooner than doing nothing. I have no use for any of this stuff so it’s all yours.” Willow gestured at the box and book on the table, “If you need any help at all, me and Nyx are here to help you, so please, don’t hesitate to talk to either one of us.”

DJ, completely dejected at the outcome of this conversation, picked up the book and the box and started to walk towards his room, he started to tear up.
“Yeah, thanks, Willow. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No problem. Sleep well.”

DJ was gone into his room without another word.