The elevator door opened, and the hooded skeleton stumbled out while grunting in pain.

“Fuck…” His metal skull was covered in dents, one of his eyes had been kicked out of its socket, and his clothes were covered in IV fluid. “Natural selection made you guys way too strong...” he commented, with a hand on his knee and another against the wall.

Max stepped out of the elevator, carrying his bent IV pole in one hand and the punctured IV bag in the other.

“Next time you should just go ‘Oh yeah, I’m actually a metal skeleton using a skin suit’, before crawling into a dark elevator like a ghoul!” Max scolded “Didn’t your mind-reading pow-”

“My mind-reading powers only work when I’m less than two meters away from someone.” Daniel straightened his posture, making his back crack “Oh fuck… So no, I couldn’t have predicted the ass whooping you were about to give me.”

“Come on, my room is right around the corner,” Max said.

“I know… I think you scrambled my brains a little...” He tucked his eye away to put it back in place later.

“Ma-wha-pening? Who ar-ou talki-too? An-ha-bout th-eleton?”

“I still can’t understand you…” Max reminded.

“Tell it to talk slowly,” Daniel suggested, starting to walk away.

“Wait, you can hear Calvin?” Max asked, following behind him.

“No, but I can still read your mind so…”

“Oh, ok. Hey Calvin.” Max called.

“Ye-?”

“Try talking slowly.”

“Like this?”

“Wow, it actually worked.”

“You can under-end me n--?”

“Well, mostly worked… But yeah I can actually understand you now.”

“Ok. So what’s happening? Who are you talking to? The metal s-laton?”

“Oh ok, so it turns out the metal skeleton was my friend Daniel and… Wait, you can’t hear him?”

“Is not that I-an’t hear him. Is just that his voice his so muff-I can’t unders-what he’s saying.”

“His voice is muffled? Why?” Now that he thought about it, Calvin’s voice sounded a little muffled as well.

“He’s inside your guts.” Daniel reminded.

“Oh yeah…” Those were kinda soundproof, right? “But anyway, the skeleton turned out to be my friend Daniel, and he just wanted to talk with me,”

“Oh ok… So he’s a robot?”

“Ah…” He looked at Daniel.

“No, I’m just a god modeled after a human skeleton, and I’m made out of metal because… Well, my creator had their limitations and could only break so many rules of nature, so they had to improvise with my siblings and me.” Max just stared at him, and Daniel sighed “Long story short, there was this god that watched over Earth, and then the ice age came, and they created my siblings and me to help them protect life because the planet freezing made them realize that life was fragile and stuff. I was created to repopulate the planet in case of a mass extinction event that ends all life” he explained, reaching for the door of Max’s hospital room.

“So, God is real?” Max asked.

“I don’t know… Probably.” Cavil answered, thinking the question was for him.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking with you… But yeah, the metal skeleton is a god.” Max explained, sitting on his bed and letting go of the bent IV pole and punctured bag.

“He’s God?” Calvin asked, surprised.

“No, I’m a god, created by another god.” He clarified, closing the door “And no, God isn’t real, but there is a god… Or was… They kinda disappeared a few centuries ago.” He said bitterly.

“So God isn’t real… But then who was the god that created you?” Max asked.

Daniel rolled his eye and sighed, taking a folding chair from under his cape and sitting down.

“Look, I don’t have much time… If you want I can share the secrets of the universe later, but now we have a more time-sensitive matter in our hands.”

“Oh yeah, you wanted to tell me something important, right?” He grabbed his pillow and used it as a cushion so he could sit against the wall.

“Ok… So, for starters. This is real. Everything you’re seeing is real, ghosts are real, you can hear ghosts, and I’m real too, understood?” Daniel asked slowly.

“Max, what’s happening?”

“Daniel has something important to tell me.”

“Oh, I’ll keep quiet then.”

“Thank you.” He turned his attention back to Daniel “Ok, so this is real, understood.”

“Good, so I’m going to be quick. My little sib can predict the future and on the 21st of December of this year…” he said looking him in the eye and pointing down with both hands “Every single orphan and employee in the N12 orphanage will be declared dead.” He stared at Max and the orphan’s eyes widened in realization “Yeah… Now, I know dealing with David’s ‘sickness’ was hard for you, and you guys had a falling out over your mother’s death… But if you don’t want to have to put a pot of ashes with his name next to your mother’s… Yeah. You have to take him out there, Max.” He explained bluntly.

Max’s eyes drifted to his trembling hands. His brother was going to die? Good. One more item for his long list of fuck-ups... His nose stung, and his eyes started burning as guilt flooded his heart.

“If this is one of your jokes... it’s not funny...” he said with a trembling voice, clutching his hospital gown.

“I’m sorry, Max. I’m serious, your brother will be declared dead if you do nothing.” Daniel said calmly.

“Fuck!” He was filled with so much rage he could barely feel the pain in his chest.

“Ah... Max--”

“What?!” he yelled.

“I-I can’t move!” he yelled in panic “You muscles, they’re glo-ng, and they’re kinda crushing me!”

“What?” He noticed his hands were starting to look blurry “What the fuck?”

“You need to calm down,” Daniel explained, approaching him.

“Huh?”

“Max! I-on’t fee-od!” He sounded hurt and weak.

“What?”

“Hey, hey!” Daniel called, putting his hand on Max’s shoulder, attracting his attention “Look at me, Max!”

“What happening?” he asked, starting to panic, feeling like his organs were turning themselves inside out “Fuck!”

“Le-out!” Cavil screamed.

“Max, I need you to close your eyes and take deep breaths.”

“What... Fuck" Max laid down, grabbing his stomach. He felt a painful tingly sensation all over his body “Fuck fuck fuck!” He grunted in pain, hearing Calvin crying in panic.

“You have to tune that out, Max,” Daniel explained.

“What? How?” he felt like something was trying to burst out of his chest, and he was having trouble breathing.

“Just try to imagine going away.”

“Ok...” He had no idea how to do that, but he took a deep breath and tried his best.

The tingly sensation slowly disappeared, but he was still having difficulty breathing. He looked at his hands, they were back to normal. He noticed that Calvin went quiet... Oh god, did he make him disappear as well? Could he even do something like that? He was starting to feel slightly light-headed.

“Good... You did well. Calvin, are you still there?” Daniel asked loudly.

But the boys didn’t receive an answer.

“Calvin?” Max called, imagining the worse.

“I-ne! I ‘m-e!” Calvin answered “I’m fine” he repeated slowly.

“Oh thank god...” Max said. He turned to Daniel, still curled up in fetal position “What the fuck was that?”

“I’m not really an expert, but basically you got so nervous your powers went haywire.”

“Ok...” So besides hearing ghosts, he also had the power to make himself feel pain... Well, that was a shitty power. He closed his eyes and sighed. He felt so tired...

“Max? Max!” Daniel called, shaking him gently, but he was fast asleep.

“I think he’s sleeping,” said Calvin.

“Hmm...” Daniel pressed the nurse call button “I don’t know if you hear me, kid. But do me a favor and make sure he doesn’t brush this off as a dream, ok?”

“Ok.” Calvin complied, but Daniel didn’t answer. Calvin heard the faint sound of a window opening and a grunt followed by absolute silence. Did he jump out of the window?

Calvin noticed that Max’s organs weren’t glowing like they were before his body went haywire. Maybe he could get out of his body without hurting him now?

Before he could test his theory, he heard a door being swung open, and the room was filled with footsteps and muffled voices.

Calving decided to stay quiet and still as the doctors examined Max, he didn’t want to risk messing him up even more...