***********

Every time Void walked through a portal back to his realms, he noticed he was never dropped where he was before, but where he was needed now. His destinations never had direction, so the portals directed him themselves. 

When Void stepped through, before him stood a carbon copy of the house he’d just left. It looked abandoned, planks covering windows, and ripped caution tape littering the beams on the house and the ground around it. The door was broken in. It looked like it had been here forever.

“It came with him,” a quiet voice said beside Void and he hissed out a curse.

“I’m putting a bell on you when your body is done.” Void commented, turning to look at Whisper.

“When he landed, the entity in him was in full control. It never left him, by the way, it just retreated far enough to not be detected.”

“And you know this…how?”

“Shine’s Celestial System.” Another voice said. 

Walking away from the house was a Monster that almost passed for a human. If it wasn’t for the black sclera, abnormal shade of darker skin, and obviously not-human nose, Void would have had some questions. 

“Shine’s what now?”

Before anyone could explain, something came crashing into the planks on one of the house’s upstairs windows. The wood bent but didn’t fall.

“Do you have him trapped in there or something?” Void asked.

“He’s bound to the place, can’t escape it until he allows himself to.” The unknown Monster explained.

“My Void, this is Sola. They found me in my search through this Moon. I was visiting the structures that stood here, trying to find remnants of the Monsters attached to it, when I came across one emitting light.”

“Light? In The Abyss?” Void couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“That was my exact reaction. Upon entering the structure, I found this Monster, tapping away at what they called…er…what was it?”

Sola stepped up confidently, “It’s called a laptop! Shine was very intune with the humans and their advancements. She figured we could use it ourselves when she built our societies around Earth. She used the power from a cosmic body, human knowledge and advancements, and the energy produced by those of us living in the Moons to engineer technology unique to us. It acts just like the humans’ inventions, but it works a lot more precisely, and insanely fast. The Dark Realms don’t have much of her work left, most of it destroyed centuries ago, but I salvaged what I could since my discovery of it.”

A distressed roar came from inside the house.

“And this…laptop…showed you what exactly?”

“Ah, when your Assisting Shadow passed me, she noticed that I was tracking Monsters all around your realms. It asked me if I could find you and your demon. When she told me who you were I practically withered, but I complied. When I found you and the demon you brought with you, the shadow noticed that there was another Monster present. I focused on its qualities, and found a faint trace of an old beast called The Eris. That’s the Monster in the boy that came through.” Sola explained in haste.

“This…Eris…it’s as conscious as the boy. It’s possible it is fighting him for his body.” Whisper suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Void countered, “I do believe you, that The Eris and the boy are on the same level of intelligence. The Eris might surpass him, actually. However I don’t think it’s fighting him. I think it’s protecting him.”

“Protecting? With all due respect, The Eris is a beast of pure revenge. It’s unlikely that it wants the boy’s body for anything other than a physical vessel to settle very old grievances.” Sola informed.

“While that might be true, I don’t think it means to hurt Aaron.” Void insisted.

“Aaron…is that his name?” Whisper asked.

“Yes. The Eris came to him through a summoning. It helped him kill two minions of someone who was causing Aaron a lot of pain. There were three survivors plus the boy. I’ve seen two: a boy named Reece, who Lotus took with her, and a girl named Wendell. Reece was the one causing Aaron true pain.”

“Why not just kill Reece then?” Whisper thought out loud.

“Maybe it thought doing damage to the accomplices would be a greater punishment.” Sola offered.

“That was my exact theory,” Void agreed.

“Do you think they’ll be of significance? This Reece and Wendell? And the other survivor, can we locate them?”

“I’m not sure, Whisper. For their sake, let’s hope they can stay far away from this life.” 

“Unfortunately, the technology I have can only track Monsters. I’d need a better setup to find a human.” Sola sighed.

More crashes and cries.

“I don’t think The Eris likes being trapped.” Sola commented.

“The door is literally bashed in, how has it not gotten out?” Void questioned.

“The house is a mind game. It thinks that despite all the exits, it will never leave this hell. My guess is this house was the last place The Eris was before it was trapped in the mirror.” the Monster explained.

“So the building will cease to exist when The Eris overcomes this?”

“Not quite, but it won’t be bound to it. Best to go in now and deal with it, before it finds a way to escape. You won’t be seeing it again if it does.”

Void sighed. Whisper followed behind as he trekked toward the house.

“Oh, hey, Whisper,” Sola stopped her.

“Yes?” It turned to them with curious eyes.

“I used the piece of shadow you gave me, to find your old body’s last known location?” They held out their palm and a 3D image of unknown hills hovered between them, “It’s scattered, because you said it was torn apart, but I found this place holding the highest traces, like parts of you gathered back here. It’s very possible your original attacker, or your body, is sitting right there.” A white dot appeared on the hologram. 

A feeling Whisper hadn’t experienced in a long time overtook her now. A feeling of hope and simultaneous hatred.

“Thank you, Sola.” Whisper muttered, and then poofed to help Void in the house.