When I arrived home, I collapsed on the couch, trying to get my limited hours of oblivion, but they had already been spent on the back of Guppy. So I just booted up Stallaris on my brother's laptop to pass the time and let my mind go numb. But I didn’t get much time before somebody woke up, Barbra walking out of her room with a yawn.

  When she saw me, she waved and half whispered, “Hello.”

  I waved back, keeping my eyes on my game.

  “What are you doing up so early?” she said, not getting the hint.

  I looked at the clock on the laptop, “It's 9 am, I think that’s a reasonable time.”

  “On a Saturday, nah.”

  “...Sorry if my eyes deceive me, but I do believe you are what most people call ‘awake’ as well.”

  “I was planning on making pancakes to bribe you and Boe to go somewhere since we haven’t seen each other in a while. On an unrelated note, how do you like your pancakes?”

  “Subtle, but I like chocolate chips in mine, so does Boe. By the way, where were you planning to go, and when?”

  “I was thinking of going to that new Salt and Straw ice cream in Eugene. There’s a couple of exclusive limited time flavors, and I don’t wanna miss out.”

  “Eugene? Sorry, I don’t want to get shot.”

  Barbra snorted while pouring a cup of coffee, “It’s in one of the nicer parts.”

  “So, not in Eugene.”

  “We can always go somewhere else.”

  “I’m just pulling your leg, it’s fine.”

  “What about the time?”

  “Any time is good. I’m unemployed and don’t have anything else to do.”

  “Ok,” then I saw an unfamiliar expression cross her face when she said, “By the way, are you doing well? You seem a bit… under the weather.”

  I shrugged, “Two months in a hospital and being kicked out of your apartment will do that to you.”

  There was a pause before she said, “Guess it would.”

  Then she started pulling out bowls, ingredients, and a pan as quietly as she could while I focused on my game. But I couldn’t keep my attention on it anymore as my thoughts about Urg and Second kept on squirming in the back of my head.

  Finally coming to the front by a word from Bug Jacob, “I think I have an idea about why that happened.”

  “What is it, my dear exposition Moth?”

  “Those aren’t their bodies back in The Great Debate, that’s why they separated.”

  “I think they are…”

  “No, those were bodies created by the gods that they were placed into. And when you took their souls out of their monster bodies, you destroyed whatever the gods did to make the bodies accept them.”

  “So, how do we redo it?”

  Bug Jacob laughed, “I don’t think we can, there’s a reason they’re called gods.”

  “Physics effects Elephants and an Ants the same way, we just gotta be smart about this.”

  “That is rather implausible for you.”

  “Implausible isn’t impossible. Plus, by the rules of chance, if I hit my head against the wall enough times, something's gotta go right.”

  “That sounds more like you.”

  I smiled at the jab, then heard Barbra say the pancakes were done, and my grumbling stomach demanded I turn my attention. I got a stack of two, drowning them in maple syrup, and covering them with enough powdered sugar that I felt like I was in the cartel. My brother did the same as me, but to a lesser extent, the two of us getting a weird look for it from Samantha, who, weirdly enough, came out of Barbra's room.

  “How do you eat that? It’s like, 20% pancake at most,” Barbra said, taking a sip of coffee.

  “With my mouth,” Boe and I said in unison.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  After we stopped giggling, Boe said, “You know, when I was checking some of Jacob's medical stuff while he was unconscious, I thought I was going insane when his blood sugar levels were normal.”

  “What can I say,” I shrugged, “Only chumps die from Diabetes.”

  Boe shook his head, then there was a lull in the conversation before Barbra said, “Anywho, Boe, how have you been? Haven’t heard much since you moved to New York with your uncle.”

  He shrugged, “Nothing much, I moved there because,” I saw Boe glance at me, “My uncle wanted to go back to his home before kicking the bucket. Then I got caught in a round of layoffs, and I felt like coming back.”

  “So,” Samantha said, “How was Manhattan and all the other Boroughs? I’ve been thinking of going.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t in the big city; I only went there a handful of times for work. I was actually living in a place called Buffalo.”

  The conversation went on like that, surrounding me with familiar noise. I tried to find comfort in it, but every time I tried to grasp it, the feeling became more and more alien, like I was locked out of my own house. And I felt myself drifting away, watching through my eyes like a stranger. Then someone touched my shoulder, and I forced myself not to jump. Looking to the side, I saw Samantha.

  “We’re going to Salt and Straw, you coming?”

  I nodded and followed everyone as they got ready to leave.

  O O O

  I was inside the Salt and Straw, sitting at a table while the others talked around me, eating my Honey Lavender ice cream, and trying to ignore the ever present stench of cigarettes that seeped into Eugene. The other three had heckled me for not getting one of the limited time flavours, but I had taste tested them, and Brie Rose Petal ice cream just wasn’t my thing.

  The three conversed, but as always, I kept to myself, letting my mind wander, keeping my hand occupied with eating the ice cream, looking out the window to the park across the street. But I quickly finished my food and was left with nothing to do, so I stood up and said.

  “I’m going to explore the park.”

  “It’s forty degrees, and you don’t have a coat,” Boe chastised me

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. If you were really worried about that, we wouldn’t be eating ice cream.”

  And as I was leaving, Barbra said, “Don’t get mugged.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  Then I was gone, walking through the park, surprised I wasn’t getting cold.

  ‘Suppose it must be another weird half Moth thing.’

  My mind jumped all over the place, trying to find things to entertain it, grabbing onto and discarding them one after the other. Finally grabbing onto something for longer than a moment, allowing me to examine it, Urg and Second. Specifically, the problem of their bodies, I had been running this in the back of my mind the entire day, but I had only come up with something attention worthy now.

  I ran the idea past Bug Jacob, getting a few tweaks for it before I enacted it, then I sat on a bench so I wouldn't fall too hard if I lost focus on my body. Grabbing the souls of Urg and Second, then finding the bodies of my minions. Putting two in the inbetween place, they went just before I released them, where it wasn’t in the outside world, but not in the frozen space of Slip Away. Then I put Urg and Seconds souls into them, surrounding them with my Domain and squeezing to force them to stay inside.

  Then Second moved and said, “Wha… what is this?”

  “An… attempt,” I struggled to get out.

  “At what?” Urg said, “Did you figure out how to put us back in our bodies; Question?”

  “This is to… study how your souls interact with bodies… It’s only… temporary. So please… stop talking, I can’t concentrate-Gah! Damn it,”

  My control slip and I had to grab onto their souls, putting them back into Slip away. Loosening my control on my Domain so Bug Jacob could talk.

  Seeing my mood, they said, “Did it not work?”

  “It worked, I just need to get better at it.”

  “Something is better than nothing at least.”

  “Yeah,” I slumped over, not really feeling the words.

  “We should probably figure out the scientific method if we’re going to do this.”

  “Bleh, homework,” I grimaced.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I looked around the park, my mind wandering off again, eyes looking for something interesting. Watching the people as they went about their day, seeing a familiar man enter the park, a woman walking her dog.

  ‘Wait a minute, roll back.’

  I looked back at the man, realising I knew his face. Robert Jenkins. I went to stand up and run, but I saw him turn his attention towards me and froze, watching as he walked over and sat beside me.

  After a moment of silence, Jenkins said, “You’re Mr. Davidson, correct?”

  “Yes… Just call me Jacob.”

  “You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.”

  I didn’t answer.

  But they continued, “Watch this.”

  He showed a video on his phone after juggling his coffee cup, showing grainy security footage of me climbing over the fence keeping people away from a portal

  ‘Cameras, why didn’t I think of cameras. Stupid, stupid, stupid.’

  Jenkin continued, “You aren’t in trouble breaking in, I’m willing to sweep that under the rug. But I do have a requirement, I do have to provide something to guys higher up if I want that, you know.”

  They gave me an affable smile, expecting me to ask him what to do, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

  “Well, if you’re feeling enthusiastic, just call this number,” They pulled out a card, “You have three days to give consent, or they’ll have to do this a bit more roughly. Sorry about that, but the government doesn’t really like people breaking into their stuff, but I'll try my best to lessen that if you go through with it.”

  Then he stood up and was gone.