Intermission #1: Mysterious Visitors

I groaned as I sat up, opening my eyes and wincing at the light pouring through the ceiling. I looked around and saw Gwen over by the door, she waved. “Glad to see you’re awake.”

I groaned again, “I wish I was still sleeping.”

Gwen chuckled, “Well you’re not the only one.”

I heard some clanging and grumbling before Sarah spoke up, “God fucking dammit all to Hell, I am too fucking tired right now to even break anything....” Strange... Her voice is deeper. Eh. She yawned, “Mornin’ fucksticks.”

I sighed, “Morning.”

She cracked her neck, “Not going to question the completely different person who took Sarah’s place overnight? That’s fuckin’ solid friendship and care right there.” ‘What?’

“What?” I stood up and looked at her before stepping back, she was completely different! Her hair had turned blood red while her arm was completely healed! “The fuck!?”

She rolled her eye, “Finally fuckin’ noticed dipshit? For fucks sake it’s only been a good solid few minutes of conversation and me standing here. Are you that fucking dense?”

“What a charming little bucket of fun you are. And to answer your question, I’m too fucking tired to deal with this.”

She grunted, “I am too. Short fuckin’ version.... Me and the rest of Sarah’s split personalities are back now that Mary’s soul was knocked out of the fuckin’ picture. I’m Ira, her rage and anger. Nice to meet your fucking undead ass.”

“Oh great... Anger and rage? I’m having fun already.”

She glared and snarled, “Don’t fuckin’ tempt me. Almost all of my being may be focused on Sarah herself, but I’m not fuckin’ against kicking your sorry ass if you piss me off. I’ve had a lot of anger building up inside me with no release thanks to that hungry bitch taking control, and I’d just fucking hate to let it out right here, on you.” She ended sarcastically.

I raised my hands, “Sorry. Sarah’s normally angry and I don’t exactly want to deal with a being representing all of her anger before having coffee.” I sighed. “Anyways... How long do you think it will be until Sarah gets back in control?”

She shrugged, “I’m actually leaving right now, I’m too fucking tired to deal with anything right now. Don’t think Sarah’s coming back just yet though. The other three want a bit of time outside, so they’ll be meeting you first before Sarah.”

“Okay... And they represent?” ‘I really, really want to know....’

Before she could answer she slumped forward as her hair turned blonde and her clothes were replaced with a yellow dress.... ‘The hell!?’ She shook her head and looked around a bit before stared at me with a gold eye. “Hi! I’m Cordia!” She waved.

I nodded, “A pleasure.” 'Seems nice enough...'

“I saw you had Ira to deal with first.... She can be kind of mean, I know....” She said sheepishly before grinning. “But don’t worry, because I’m the opposite! I represent Sarah’s.... Whatever remaining kindness she shows anymore!”

I smiled, “Oh. It’s nice to know she’s not always angry.” I waved my hands, “No offence to her of course.”

She nodded, “Yeah, she’s mean a lot.... But that’s not really on purpose, she just doesn’t know how to act with kindness on a regular basis, thanks to her upbringing. We’re trying to help with that though, so don’t worry about it!”

“Ah... Well I take it that you’re going to fade soon so could you tell me who the others are?”

She perked up, “Oh, sure! There’s-” She froze and slumped forward as her hair turned brunette and become partly braided. While her clothes turned into dark brown dress shoes, pants, and a shirt.

This one pulled out some glasses from her shirt pocket and put them on before looking at me and nodding. “Good to meet you, Michael Fritz. I am Tia, Sarah’s knowledge.” ‘Oh boy... Here we go!’

“A pleasure.”

She hummed to herself, “I will be honest with you, I do not care much for staying out too long. I do not derive as much enjoyment as the others, and I suspect your last visitor will not either.” ‘Perfect... Fucking perfect, haven’t met them and they’re not going to like this....’

I sighed, “Understandable... Well, not really. It’s technically impossible for me to imagine being a separate personality on account that most believe they’re the real one. Leading to problems arising if one were to emerge.... No offence.”

She shook her head, “None taken. And I assure you, we know Sarah is the real and original being, we are all far too into our set personalities to be a whole being.” She suddenly tensed. “Speaking of which, our impromptu leader of us four personalities wishes to speak now. I will let her take over.” She slumped over as her hair turned midnight black with a ponytail and her clothes turned into a black suit with a black dress shirt underneath.

She straightened up and tidied up her tie. “I would say “good day”, but I find nothing particularly good about it. I am Sarah’s most powerful personality.” ‘Oh goody!’

I nodded, “Nice to meet you. I must admit, you’re colleagues are rather interesting. And you would happen to represent?”

“I am Tristi, Sarah’s sadness and depression, and the emotion she displays more than any other.” 'Sadness...'

I sighed, “Huh... She seems fine most of the time. But then again, I don’t exactly know what she’s doing all of the time.”

She nodded, “Yes, she may appear fine, but she just hides her true feelings. And I would advise you not to spread the nature of her true feelings around, nor should you question her about them. She will come to terms with them in time.”

I nodded, “I won’t say a word.”

“Thank you.” She tensed up, “I will be returning control to Sarah in a minute, have a.... Bad day, Michael Fritz.” ‘Damn it!’ She slumped forward again as her hair returned to it’s normally white color as her eye became red.

She shook her head and stumbled a bit. “Jesus Christ, warn me next time people....”

I smiled, “Welcome back.... Um... Deal with them commonly?”

“No, not for the past... Almost ten years, I think...”

“Oh.... So... they’re, interesting I must admit.”

She grumbled, “One’s too cheerful, one’s an asshole, one’s a smartass, and the other tells me to kill myself on a regular basis.... Really interesting, yeah....”

“That’s what I mean. They’re basically so different from you that it makes it rather strange when I see you act cheerful.”

She stared blankly, “Do I really come off as such a downer that acting cheerful is strange to you? Well fuck.....”

I shook my head, “No. It’s strange seeing you not use dark humor every five minutes or yelling at people for what A.N.G.E.L. did.”

She sighed, “I don’t yell at people for what they did, I just use that as a reason for why I act the way I do. There’s a difference.”

I rolled my eyes, “Eh true, but whenever you use it as a reason you yell it out.”

“Well excuse me for getting heated an emotional over that shit. Do you expect me not to? That’s like shooting someone in the leg and telling them not to scream about it.”

I sighed, “Trust me I don’t judge you for getting emotional. Just... Do you have to yell every time? I understand that A.N.G.E.L. basically destroyed your life, but... Actually I’m not going to finish that, otherwise I’m going to piss you off.”

She stared at me, “Exactly.” she shrugged. “Besides, swearing and yelling are the only ways I can express myself without breaking and or killing things, so which would you rather have?”

“I would rather have you swear and yell then kill and maim everyone.” It’s true, and I don’t fucking doubt for a second that she couldn’t.

“Same here, unless everyone deserved it.” She reached up and started scraping the inside of her empty eye socket. ‘Oh. Oh god.... I think I’m gonna hurl....’ “Anyway, we should probably head back to town, I don’t really feel like staying in this shit hole anymore.”

I nodded slowly, “Yeah.... Let’s get the others up.” I walked over and started shaking Paige, “Hey... Wake up, we need to go.”

She yawned and rolled over, “Go away.... Sleeping.”

Sarah spoke from behind me, “I’m heading back on my own, I feel like getting out of this place as soon as possible.”

I turned and waved, blinking at the sight of her carrying everyone she brought. “Alright, see ya!” I sighed and turned back to Paige, “Come on Paige, wake up we need to go.”

She swatted her hand in the air, “No.... Go away.”

I sighed and shook her again, “Get. Up. We need to go.”

She grumbled, “Fine... Jus- just give me a few minutes.” She kept laying there and started snoring as I groaned.

Gwen was laughing, “Oh god... I’ll get her up. Just get Kondraki.”

“Someone say my name?” We looked over and blinked at the sight of a fully awake Kondraki. He shrugged, “What? I’ve woken up at earlier times.”

Gwen sighed, “Never mind then.... Want to try and get her up?”

Kondraki nodded, “I’m a professional...” he walked over and stood over Paige. “CONTAINMENT BREACH! MOVE IT, MOVE IT!”

She jumped up and screamed a little, “AH! What!?”

He laughed, “Got her up.”

Paige glared at him, “Not. Funny.”

“It worked,” He started walking away. “Now let’s move. This forest creeps the fuck out of me.”

She grumbled and stood up, “I was dreaming of cake to...”

The walk back had been slightly uneventful and we had split up to do our own thing. I was currently on my way back to the house that Paige had brought into existence. I sighed and looked up at the rope, “We meet again....” I grabbed on to it and began my journey up. By the time I had reached the grass I was panting. ‘Wait.... How does that make sense!? I don’t breath, whatever.’

I was panting slightly by the time I opened the front door to the house. I walked in and closed the door behind me, looking around at the empty house. I have to say... It’s rather homey. There’s an upper balcony that happens to contain some crafting materials and a small fireplace. Right under it there’s a couch with a few chairs, and off to the left was a rounded out area with a bed and small dresser.

I walked over to one of the chairs and set my hammer down. I heard a chuckle from behind me, “Still out of shape, eh Michael?”

I grabbed the hammer and spun around, glaring at the person in the house. The person was a human man, relatively short and wearing a black, buttoned up long coat, black pants, black shoes, black fingerless gloves, and a black cap. He had a brown beard and moustache, and long brown hair that was tied into a loose ponytail. His eyes were covered by a pair of black sunglasses.

I straightened up as I kept my glare up, “I’m not out of shape. It’s just hard to climb a rope is all.”

He nodded, “I’m sure...” He spoke somewhat quietly, with an almost undetectable hint of sadness in his voice, “But that’s not why I’m here, Michael. To poke fun at you for getting out of breath when you don’t need to even breathe.”

“Then why are you here?” I looked closer, “And how the hell do you know my name...?”

He waved a hand, “Not important. I just came to tell you two things.”

“And? My friends will be here soon, and I take it you don’t want to meet them.”

He sighed and removed his glasses, revealing the one on the right to be a bright purple-ish color, while the one on the left seemed almost robotic, being all metallic gray with small red lines and circles crossing over it. He put a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes saying, “You’re right, I don’t want to meet them, not yet anyway. I have too much to do before I can face them again...”

“Again?” ‘How in the hell does he know them?’

He shook his head, “Not important. Look... What I came here to say is... I miss you, all of you guys. It’s been a long time, and I just wanted to get to see some of you again. I may not be able to face the others yet... But I’m taking a step in the right direction by getting enough courage to see you again.”

I looked closer and after a few seconds spoke again, “Who are you?”

His voice cracked when he answered, “Not im...” He cleared his throat, though his voice was shaky, “Not important. The other thing I wanted to say is... I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did, what I had to do to you in the past. I hope you’ll be able to forgive me someday.”

‘What?’

“Wait, what? What do you mean!?”

He placed his glasses back on and slowly, his body started to fade away. When just the upper half of his body remained, he looked me right in the eyes and said, “I... Well... You’re death... Wasn’t as much of an accident as Death had thought it to be...”

“What!? What are you even talking about!? Answer me damn it!”

The rest of his body had faded, and his voice echoed behind him, “I’m so, so sorry Michael... I wish I hadn’t needed to do it...”

I blinked and sat down holding my head, “What...?”

Where he stood, a small piece of paper was left behind. Looking at it, it read:

You should tell Sarah the truth, you know. Holding it off will only hurt the both of you.

-Ultimatum

I blinked in shock as the paper fell from my hands, “B-but... How?” I sat down. “How.... How does he.... No he’s right, I have to tell her that my father worked for A.N.G.E.L.” I sighed, “Just not now, not yet.”