Chapter 11: First Stop (3)

The duo was sitting in Everlong’s car, in the parking lot of the same McDouglas fast food restaurant where Hiyori worked until a few days ago. It was just past dawn, the sun was starting to rise above the horizon but as it was obscured by the dark clouds it was still pretty dark, even as the rain already stopped falling. 

 

“Weird…” said Hiyori, munching on a cheeseburger. “I can still taste it. It does taste artificial… but damn it is good!” sighed, taking another bite with a surprisingly happy face. 

 

“My car, my Kingdom. It can’t influence you here~” replied Everlong, sipping on a bottle of coke. 

 

“That is why we went to the drive-through?”

 

“Yep!” 

 

“So… about that memory planting thing. How can I tell if my memories are fake or real? This sounds way too powerful and I don’t want to double guess everything in my head!” 

 

“There are always telling signs. No matter how powerful the entity you run into. Until it is not some greater demon, you could always tell if it's real or not!”

 

“Greater… demons… geez…” looked up at him at the driving seat while she stretched towards her own cup of coke.

 

“Let’s keep it simple for now!” continued, after gulping down his own bite of his hamburger “No matter if the entity alters your memories, dreams or if it is strong enough to create a local distortion of space and time, forming something that usually is called ‘haunting’.”

 

“You mean when in pictures there are silhouettes of other people?” 

 

“Not really. A true haunting is like when you go to a place that is under the complete influence of a demon, spirit or whatever it may be. You literally enter a different reality if you fall under its influence. Then nor space or time matters anymore. You are no longer in reality. Even if others come to the same place as you are in, they won’t see or hear you and vice versa! You have been separated into ITS reality.”

 

“Fuck…”

 

“You could be fucked. Yes.” nodded heavily “But only if your will is faltering and weak. Everything is decided here!” tapped his own head.

 

“And how can I tell if I am in… a different realm?”

 

“Same as you can tell if it's just a dream. A fake memory. Looking for inconsistencies. They are creating fake realities, no matter how hard they try, it is not reality, only a copy! There will be mistakes made! For example, what is the most common way to tell you are in a dream?”

 

“Dunno… um… pinch myself?”

 

“BZZT, Wrong!” laughed, “Try reading!”

 

“Reading?”

 

“Yep! The words won’t make sense, they are going to be jumbled up, backwards, etc. Same with numbers. They are going to be mirrored!”

 

“Oh! Good to know!”

 

“Of course be through! A strong entity could make you believe you ARE reading it right.”

 

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“Damn, now what?!” moaned.

 

“Read carefully!” explained to her, looking into her eyes “If you just glance at it, and say, ‘oh right, I could read that!’, you are going to be fucked. In many ways. You pick up a book, a newspaper, a sign at the side of a public restroom! Anything! And read it! Focusing on the letters like you are reading the winning lottery numbers!”

 

“Oh… okay, that is not as complicated as I thought. Logical even.”

 

“It is not rocket science!” said, slurping up his coke through the straw. “The other things are the interactions with other ‘humans’. The lower leveled entities can’t mimic human behavior very well. The way they talk would be weird, their expressions would be creepy, maybe the setting you find yourself in would be a mismatch of eras, depending on when the thing existed originally.”

 

“All demons were humans once? If they were, why can’t they mimic how a human would act?”

 

“Not all but yes, most of them were. The reason is simple, they are getting rid of their humanity in the process. How do you expect something that forgoes its own human side to know how to act as a human would? It simply can’t… and those who manage to do it…”

 

“Those?” asked, while she finished her hamburger, stopping herself from taking a sip from her cup, anxiously waiting for his next words, watching Everlong’s somber expression.

 

“Pray.” replied, stealing a glance at her.

 

“To whom?”

 

“Does not matter. God, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, the teddy bear from your childhood, it does not matter. Just pray that your luck holds out!”

 

“...” she could not help but only gulp loudly, feeling that it was a good choice to finish eating before listening to him as she would have no stomach for it anymore. 

 

“But don’t worry, those kinds of beings are not something you come across every corner!” smiled, lightening the mood as he started up the car. 

 

“It is still hard to believe things like these are real!” 

 

“That is why I told you before! After all of this is going to end,” explained, driving out from the parking lot, heading towards the old school of Hiyori. “You are going to have your eyes opened!”

 

“I’ll notice the unnaturalness of the world.” leaned back in her chair, watching the changing scenery, for a moment feeling like she was back in the car ride, with her parents, on that fateful day.

 

“Yes. The human mind is a wonderful thing, it learns to ignore it as it grows up! That is why kids can say and see things, having imaginary friends. Learning that it is ‘not real’, coming from their parents, their minds develop the ability to simply ignore it. It is a defensive mechanism that makes it, so 90% of the world’s population won’t face anything remotely close to what you have. Or just don’t know about it. Of course there are people whose defenses get cracked. They start seeing it and from then on, that crack is going to expand until it shatters the veil on their minds. There is no coming back from that!”

 

“Will I be susceptible to something similar then? Again? If you manage to help me, get rid of it… I could gain another… thing… attached to me?” 

 

“Yes.”

 

“Great!” buried her face into her palms, dragging her fingers across her face.

 

“If you are weak enough. Back then, you did not see it coming!” said after a bit of a silence, pulling up into her old high school’s parking lot. “After all of this, you would notice it before it has time to sink in its claws.” assured her with a small smile “You are going to have a chance to prevent it!”

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