One in a Million Ch. 10

I felt the icepack work its magic as I held it to my abused crotch. After Jo had unmercifully kicked me in in the balls (And probably destroyed any chance I had of having kids, ever) I had woken up in the school nurse’s office where I could do little but moan in pain and do the occasional whimper.

“That’s it, just apply the ice gently and you’ll be able to walk again in about, oh I don’t know, a month maybe.” The school nurse, Ms. Cassandra joked as she came back to check on how I was doing. Ms. Cassandra has been at this school for the past six years and has seen almost everything there was to see and no longer sees anything that fazes her in the slightest.

She has short, choppy auburn hair the curls up by her ears which accentuate her vivid green eyes. Her face is short and elfish which gives her a mischievous air, which is further heightened by her ever-present sly smile. I had the pleasure of meeting her a while back when Derrick still bullied me.

“So you mean to tell me that your sister, who played on the varsity girls soccer team for two years, kicked you where it counts?” She asked her ever present smirk widening. “Remind me to never make that girl angry.” I nodded solemnly and rolled over on my back.

It was that moment that a great struck me, if I can control things my body does, who’s to say that I can’t turn off pain?

I sucked in a quick breath and let myself shift into my spectral form. Thankfully, my pain was physical and stayed with my body, leaving my mind to explore this new idea.

As I phased into my head, I saw the familiarly blazing fast thoughts and signals speeding through my head and made my way into the command center.

As I looked through the area that contained nerves directly related to my pain and pleasure section, I happened to notice a shiny bright purple button. Curious, I walked,(floated?) over to where it stood out from the rest of the console.

I looked to find if their was an inscription or something, but nothing could be found. I decided to look through my notification filter to see if it can identify it for me, but that only brought up an onslaught of question marks in my field of vision. Disgusted I closed my RPG filter and looked hard at the button.

As I looked closer,  realized that there were  words on the button, but were hidden by the intense violet light it was emitting. The words were white in color but that was all that I could tell from this distance, well that and the fact that they were almost moving as fast as the thoughts zooming around my head.

I stood in front of the button wondering what the actual hell was going on here, when the words on the buttons suddenly stilled and began to form a sentence.

I looked at the moving words with growing uncertainty and apprehension. Wasn’t this my head? I should know what going on, even on a subconscious level! But this…it literally appeared out of nowhere and looks like it was waiting for me to find it…my thoughts were interrupted as the words suddenly stilled again. I looked and read the somewhat cryptic code that was residing on the button.

The code read:

Light is Dark and Dark is Light,

Right is Wrong and Wrong is Right,

Blue is Red and Red is Blue,

Choose ‘The One’ or both you’ll lose.

I stared at the riddle with a stupefied expression for a long minute before my brain restarted. “What the actual hell? What is this?” I said aloud. I began pacing the floor (space?) in deep thought as I tried to figure out just what the hell was going here.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, but continued walking in circles. Okay, so the riddle is obviously insinuating that there is some….thing that’s inside of me, and it’s either very colorful in appearance or the colors symbolize something mysterious.

What is it though? And why is it just surfacing? Is it dangerous?
My thoughts (and my progress of wearing a ring into the floor) was interrupted by the sound of Mrs. Cassandra’s voice coming from outside of my body.

“J.P, are you okay? If you want, I can write you a pass to head home.” She asked sounding slightly concerned.

I quickly created and turned on a pain filter that would keep me from feeling pain until I took off the filter and exited my mind returning to my body in order to open my eyes wearily at the tall nurse and nod softly.

As she turned around to fill out and excused form, I was still thinking hard at work with that damned riddle. Soon it became apparent that I couldn’t concentrate completely and soon had to face the facts; In order to solve this mystery, I needed to answer some questions that already floating in my head.

I needed Jo.

I sighed and ran a hand through my short yellowish hair, wishing that for once in my life, things can relax and be normal for once.

“Here you go tiger, hope you get well soon.” Mrs.Cassandra said handing me my slip of paper that excused me from the rest of my classes today, leaving me to go home and figure things out.

I took the paper and mumbled a word of thanks, and shuffled out of the nurse’s office. I waited until I rounded the corner of the hallway before straightening out of my hunched position and walking down the hallways with purpose.

First things first, I need to get Jo to calm down and act rationally….which should be just as easy as trying to castrate a tiger with a pair of rusty scicors and no sedatives handy. I should probably go and find Ava as well, just to see if any of this has affected her as well.

As I rounded another corner I slammed into something fast and small. Without thinking, I snapped out my hand and caught whoever I ran into but the wrist. To my surprise, it was Ava who looked just as surprised to see me.

“J.P? What are you doing out here?” She asked as I released her wrist and steadied her on the ground. “I was just on my way to come see you.”

“Funny, that literally what I was coming to do.” I said with a wry grin, which she returned with a heart-stopping smile. God this little Gothic geek girl was gorgeous.

“Uh, Anyway, have you seen this? It’s been floating all  over the school.” Ava said, holding up a copy of the newspaper that I had seen before blacking out in the lunchroom and we both lost our smiles as we gauged each other’s expressions.

Ava didn’t seem overly upset about this, only concerned and maybe a little curious. She wanted to find out who did this as well. That obviously means that she had know idea about the photo actually taken, and that left me with only one other option…

“Yes, I have.” I said, sighing as I realized what needed to happen…and how badly it would suck if anything went wrong. “And I think I can figure out who took the picture as well, but first, I need your help with something.” I said looking into her warm brown eyes.

“Huh? Uh….Sure, what do you need me to do?” She asked, confused by my sudden change of conversation.

“When the end of the day bell rings, I need you to go and wait for me under the bleachers by the football field.” I explained as I watched her expression cautiously. Other than the obvious confusion that was written all over her face with a big, pink, permanent marker, but her questions would have to wait until later. “And make sure to keep an open mind about what might happen,okay?” I added tensely

“And what, exactly, might happen?” Ava asked, suspicion tinting her voice.

“I can’t tell you that.” I replied hoping that simple statement would be enough to deter her, but I could tell that I was horribly mistaken.

“You can’t or you won’t?” She asked her eyes narrowing slightly.

I sighed; she was not making this easy in the least. “I literally cannot, because one; I don’t want to scare you away and two….” I turned around and started walking in the direction of the front doors.

“Because I have know idea what exactly is going to happen either.” I said over my shoulder as I walked out of the school.

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Sitting on my bed, watching the minute hand on my alarm clock slowly go around in circles proved to be the most boring thing I have ever done in my life, not to mention slightly dizzying as well. I had already gone over my plan countless times and when I was sure that it was foolproof, I went to relax on my bed, waiting to put it into full effect.

I sighed as I read the clock that said that there was another four hours until school ended for Jo and Ava. I let my mind wander about the things that have recently. Will I really be able to beat that Jerald guy? Am I going to pull off this plan of mine after school? Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen soon? And what the FUCK is the answer to that DAMNED RIDDLE!?!?! That last question rung in my head until for a while until sleep came and took me into sweet oblivion.

Unfortunately, it seemed that even sleep could not help me escape my problems of the real world.

I found myself floating in a completely white room. I lifted up my head and saw an endless expanse of blankness going in all directions. I sat up and righted myself, feeling a bit unnerved, as if something, or someone was watching me.

“Hello?” I called out into the empty room. My voice echoed for a little while before fading away into the silence. “If anyone’s there you had better show yourself right now!” I yelled, trying my best to sound menacing even though I felt like crapping myself. If one of the Immortal’s children came at me in a dream, would I be able to fend them off? Can my powers even work in this dream world?

My thoughts were interrupted as a I noticed something glowing in front of me about 12 yards in front of me. I couldn’t make it out from this distance so I started walking towards the strange light.

The closer that I got to the source of the light, the brighter it seemed to become, until I stood in front of what looked like two miniature suns. They were obviously no ordinary orbs, because the both shone with intense colors that varied from the two of them and gave off no heat.

The one on the left had a light blue color that was so clear, it seemed to resemble a crystal and issued a calming effect that made me feel both safe and confident. I stood a little closer to the orb of light and it seemed to grow brighter, I also caught a whiff of fresh rain, one of my favorite scents.

Grinning with elation I strode over to the right hand orb, but stopped cold at the sudden abandonment of my instant happiness.

This orb had a dark, almost fire-like red that caused my heart to race as a feeling of invincibility and recklessness overtook me. I could tell that this sphere was trouble, but I couldn’t seem to pull myself away. Instead, I took a few steps closer and my nose was assaulted by the smell of…..

“What the hell?!” I yelped as I smelled what was obviously Jo after a steamy session of lovemaking. I felt a blush spread around my cheeks as I realized that I was painfully erect in my jeans.

After some quick adjusting, I stood staring at the two orbs thinking about what this means. Obviously, this was a physical manifestation of the riddle I had encountered in my Mindspace. I sighed with irritation, whatever force was orchestrating this whole thing was not going to let up until I chose one color over the other.

“ARRRGGGHH!!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLAYING AT HERE?! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT ABOUT CHOOSING FUCKING COLORS?!” I screamed out in frustration, hoping whoever had set up this little game could hear me.

“I mean really! What is this supposed to affect? Neither one of these are something I would rather have over the other because neither are something that’s important!” I said continuing my rant, not really expecting an answer, just wanting to vent out my frustrations of the past few hours.

Imagine my surprise when something actually answered.
A pure black notification screen appeared in front of me scaring me half to death. After I had managed to get my heartbeat back into normal rhythm, I looked at the notif.
There was not but a simple question and nothing more:

‘So, what you’re saying is , if they were something that you deemed important to you, would you chose then?’ Signed Admin

I stared at the screen before sighing and pinching the bridge of my nose. Well at least I know whoever is behind this is calling themselves Admin, but it still left a lot of unanswered questions rattling around my head.

“What do you mean by something that I deemed important?” I said pushing my burning questions to the back of my mind for now and focusing on the anonymous stranger.

The Notif box didn’t reply at first, but then another screen popped in front of the other one with another message:

‘Answer this and I promise that all of your burning questions that you have shoved away in the back of  your mind shall be answered soon. And then some.’

I gaped at the screen for a minute (not in that way you pervs) as I read the message. It was obvious that whoever this person was, they could easily see into my head without my knowledge.

Okay…so there was no way that I could see out of this without either being stuck  in here permanently, or killing myself and since neither was really an option right now…..

A deep sigh came unbidden to my lips as I answered the screen’s question. “I guess so…..”

As soon as the last word came out of my mouth, the Notification boxes disappeared  and there was an almighty crash and flashes of light behind me.

I spun around and was greeted by alarm and confusion. The twin spheres that were apparently suspended over the floor, suddenly dropped and had shattered instantly, but that’s not what the source of my alarm was, no, it was the fact that there was something inside of the spheres.

I carefully walked over the glass, as I was barefoot, but I had no need to worry, cause the glass soon started turning into colored smoke and being blown away by some invisible wind. Shaking my head in amazement, I continued onwards.

What laid before me, however, had stopped me cold. Laying in a position that reminded me suspiciously of the Yin Yang symbol, was two naked girls that looked like the feel from the inside if the spheres. The girl that looked like she came from the blue sphere had midnight black hair that was long enough to lay flat around her waist. Even from where she lay, I could tell that we were the same height, and I had the sense that she was my age, if not older.

The other girl was lying in the same position, but that was where the similarities ended. Where the girl from the blue sphere had long hair, this one had short neck-length Blonde hair that curled slightly around the edges. One side of her face was hidden behind her hair, but you could still see the angular, almost statue-like beauty. Not to mention that she was a slightly smaller than both of us.

Both had fair skin and were very beautiful. Plus they were somehow similar enough that they could be related. It took me a few minutes to stop ogling at them and another minute to calm my raging boner that had returned with a vengeance and was straining against my shorts.

Ten minutes of so of struggling with the rebellious organ, I finally just gave up on it and refocused on the girls.

As I continued to study them, I faintly recalled a piece of the riddle that I saw in my Mindspace: Blue is red and Red is blue… I shook myself out of my shock and went to see if either of the girls were breathing.

I felt the neck of the Black-haired girl and was relieved to find a strong, steady pulse. I repeated the action on the blonde girl and had similar results.

Now, I just need to figure out who they are, what they are doing in my head, do they know that Admin guy and if so, who is he and what’s his agenda and how to get out of here in time to finish my elaborate plan! No biggie!

I felt the headache come on as soon as I realized that I still was left with a lot of unanswered questions. Fortunately, it was at that exact moment that the Black-haired girl groaned.

I instantly froze as she sat up slowly and looked around slowly taking in the blank white space surrounding us before locking gazes with me. The very first thing that I noticed were that her eyes were a sharp, piercing, crystal clear blue color that reminded me of the shell that had encased her only moment before. Her face was soft, almost child-like and definitely beautiful.

After what seemed like forever, she finally broke her gaze to look at the other girl who was still curled up on the floor. She gently laid her arm on the girl’s shoulder before vigorously shaking her.

“Wake up….” She said, her voice little more than a hoarse whisper. She licked her lips in an attempt to wet her parched lips, which inadvertently drew my gaze to her deliciously full lips. I wished I could have given her a cool drink of water, but I couldn’t see any source of water ne-

With the sound of a blanket being snapped, A medium sized glass of water appeared in my hand, nearly causing me to drop it in outright surprise. I stared at the precipitating glass for a moment wondering how it had gotten there when the realization suddenly struck me: I just wished for something and it appeared!
I tested my theory but wishing that I had a double cheeseburger with extra mayonnaise and bacon and was delighted to see my wish promptly fulfilled with another soft snap.

Was this some type of new power that I manifested somehow? I shook my head as my advanced reason kicked into gear. I can’t be a new move because all of my new moves had be picked up on by my RPG filter and reported to me. No, I suspect that the ability resides solely in this room.

I was brought out of my thought when I caught the intense gaze of the Black-haired girl once again. She seemed just as mystified by my power as I was. She stared at me warily, her gaze occasionally flickering between me and the meal that I had ordered from thin air.

I held out my hand towards her, and was surprised when a bolt of fear ran through her eyes as she quickly backed away.

“Wait!” I said trying to make my voice sound as calming as possible, cause the poor girl looked like she was about to jump up and start running as far away from me as she could!

To my relief, she paused for a moment as she continued to eye me warily. I thought quickly. What is a good way to show an obviously frightened girl that she has nothing to fear?

I remembered her looking at the food and saw how thin she was. The poor creature must’ve been starving!  I grabbed the glass and the plate of food and slowly made my way towards the middle of  the room. I stopped when she started trembling again. I gently laid the plate and drink as close as possible towards her and backed away from her.

She stared at me for a full minute before cautiously approaching the food. She sniffed it once, then, faster than my eye could catch, she snatched up the burger and was back in her original place.

She gave the burger a tentative lick, then the most amazing thing happened. She took a small bite of the burger savoring the taste of the delicious sandwich….and smiled warmly. My breath caught in my throat as I witnessed her angelic beauty. I quickly took a mental image of her smile and was glad I did cause not even a full two seconds after I did, she began devouring the sandwich like a starved wolf.

As I watched this strange girl tear into the sandwich, I honestly felt bad for the food. She made quick work of the burger and began drinking the water like a man lost in the desert. When she finished with a sigh, she returned her attention on the other girl who I assumed must’ve been her sister.

Now with renewed strength, she began shaking her sister with more intensity.

“C’mon It’s time to wake up now….” She said her voice still having a bit of a waver. She cleared her throat and leaned close to the sleeping girl, so close in fact, that I leaned forward thinking that she was either going to whisper something in her ear, or kiss her (The latter which I woefully hoped would happen. I’m a guy, sue me.)

“WAKE UP!!!!!” She yelled suddenly, her loud voice seeming to echo around the room, destroying the peace and quiet that resided here only a few minutes ago.

The blonde haired girl began stirring and sat up slowly, blinking at the bright light and yawing. She looked around the room, her bright, golden brown eyes (which closely bordered on orange by the way) taking in me, the black haired girl and the last, shattered remains of the blue and red pod which soon disappeared into colored smoke and blew away.

She calmly stretched her back like she was some kind of cat, and looked at me.

“Hey, you just gonna give her something to eat and forget about little ole me? That’s kinda hurtful y’know?” She said a pout suddenly adorning her adorable face.

My confusion must’ve shown on my face because the little blonde started giggling slightly.

“Oh come on, you can’t really expect me not to be able to smell all of that food that you had earlier. What did you do with it though? Wait! Lemme guess!” She said as I opened my mouth, putting both of her hands up.

She sat on the ground Indian style, her face screwed up in concentration. I looked at the black haired girl in concern and she looked back at me with a mask of exasperation.

“Does she do this often?” I asked glancing at the blonde

“Yeah, just let her figure it out or you’ll never hear the end of it.” She said with a sigh her voice sounding clipped and intellectual.

I was about to reply when the blonde’s head suddenly shot up, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

“You gave it to miss piggy over here!” She said pointing at the black haired girl whose eyebrows shot upwards immediately and sported a furious blush.

“Wh-what?” She stuttered looking back and forth between me and the blonde.

“I can still smell the food on your breath, so that means that it hasn’t been long since you probably devoured it like you’ve never eaten before, though I guess you kinda really haven’t eaten before, plus the grease spot you have on your lips and chin was kinda obvious needless to mention.” She took a desperately needed breath, then continued at the same rushed pace she had set before.

“That you look a little pudgier than I remember. Have you gained some weight eating all those high calorie snacks?” She added with a devious smile.

The black-haired girl face had steadily getting redder and redder but when the blonde had mentioned her weight, she just lost it.

“Excuse me?! I’ll have you know that I’m WAY lighter than you! And even if I do look a little pudgier, and I’m NOT saying that I am, I a certainly NOT A PIG! I am a LADY, and would never allow myself to devour anything unlike yourself!!” She yelled, her chest heaving.

I looked at the blonde and was surprised to see that she looked near tears. The Black-haired girl noticed as well and immediately began to tightly hug the slightly smaller girl, apologizing profusely. It was only when she looked into the blonde’s orangish eyes did she notice that the impish blonde was shaking with laughter.

“Oh my gosh!” She said wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes, “The looks on your faces was priceless!” she continued to laugh until she was holding her stomach and more tears were streaming from her eyes.

The black haired girl waited stoically until most of the giggles had subsided before asking her question. “Are you done yet?” When the blonde nodded, still reveling in her little joke.

The opposite girl nodded and, quick as a whip, slapped the back of the blonde’s head, much like Paleos had done to be earlier. I winced in sympathy as I heard the impact, even though it wasn’t my head that had been abused this time.

The blonde instantly covered the abused area as she yelled at the Black-haired girl. “What the heck was that for?!”
“I was worried that I had really hurt you, and here you are, just doing another one of your dumb pranks!” She said trying to hit her over her head again, but the blonde nimbly dodged out of the way and retaliated with a swift, but light swat on the black-haired girl’s naked bottom.

The taller girl yelped and jumped into the air, then began chasing the other around the room. I watched them for a while, a smile in my face, before I realized that I had a searing headache.

I also realized that both girl’s were naked as the day they were made. Wait…why did I say made? They’re people, people aren’t made, they’re born. My headache intensified as I continued on that train of thought. Normal people don’t come out of miniature suns butt naked.

But there was no way that they could be some figment of my imagination….right?

“Oh that’s basically what we are.” Said a familiarly happy voice. I quickly whirled around to see who was and groaned as the action caused my headache to make my head throb even worse. I could tell that it was slowly turning into a Migraine.

“Are you okay?” One of the girls asked, Probably the Black-haired girl. I simply shook my head and took a calming breath, trying my best to relax my obviously over-stressed nerves. I continued simply breathing for a minute and was rewarded by the disappearance of the agonizing pain. I took a few more breaths just to be sure, then reopened my eyes.

Both the blonde and Black-haired girl were sitting in a kneeling position in front of me, remorse written all over their faces. When the noticed that I was no longer curled up in pain, they both started talking at the same time. I just sat there confused as both girls started pleading for forgiveness and apologizing profusely. I finally had enough and raised both of my hands for them to stop. To my honest surprise, both girls stopped instantly.

I took another deep breath as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. This is going to be complicated, I thought, I can feel it in my bones.

“Okay,” I said finally with a sigh and a slight smile at both girls. “Since you two obviously know what is going on here and I don’t, would one of you mind explaining three things to me?” I held up three fingers to help illustrate my point. Both girl were listening intently and nodded when I paused.

“One, What were those two sphere-thingys that you guys fell out of?” I asked and the blonde immediately answered tentatively.

“Those were spheres of influence.” She said twisting her hair nervously, her easy-going smile replaced with a shy grin. “They represent two different core aspects of your personality.” She paused for a minute here before continuing. “Well they did represent two different core aspects of your personality until something separated us from you and gave us conscious thought and form.”

“Wait, so you’re saying that you both really did come from my head?” I said taken aback with the sudden realization that these girls were not real people. I obviously had my doubts, but to have them confirmed is still kinda surprising.

“Yes. I came from everything that your mind considered reckless, hot-headed and kinda childish as well as everything it perceived to be brave, loyal and loving.” The blonde said looking at me with a hint of her usual smile back in place. “The name’s Sienna!”

“And what exactly do you represent?” I asked curiously to the strangely silent Black-haired girl who looked startled, as if she didn’t expect me to say anything to her.

“I-I represent everything that your mind perceived to be apathetic, naive and cold as well as intelligent, nurturing and proud.” She said said her posture straightening up a little as she finished, her Blue eyes shining brightly. “I am called Shawnita.”

I nodded as if I really understood what the hell was going on here, but I was actually inside my head rocking in a fetal position, crying pitifully.

“Okay next question,” I said pushing away my small breakdown moment until later. “Why is it that you guys are just appearing now?” I asked leaning forward slightly. This time, the black-haired girl, I mean Shawnita, answered.

“It’s not so much that we just appeared, it’s just that now you’re able to hear us clearly. We’ve always been with you, helping you decide with tough decisions and hard choices, But up until a while ago, you just weren’t able to distinguish our voice from your own thoughts.” She carefully explained.

I nodded again. “So basically you guys are my conscience.” I said thinking about my choices of late.
“Kinda. I think we’re more like the little angel and devil that sits on your shoulder.” Sienna said with a slightly seductive wink.

I chuckled slightly as the image of both of the girls perched on my shoulder like a pair of weird exotic birds arguing with each other about what flavor Ice cream I should get floated through my head.

“Alrighty then, final question I said with a smile as I began feeling much more at ease with these two than I initially thought possible. “This message appeared a few moments before you two came out of your….things.” I said showing them the notification I pulled out from my memory. I let them both study it intently before pointing at the signature of the mysterious puppeteer. “Do either of you know who this is?” I asked.

I was disappointed as both girls shook their head. I sighed and dismissed the message, wondering for the hundredth time since I have been in this weird room, who is behind all of this and what exactly was their game plan?

I stood up to stretch and walk around the room, berating myself silently for staying so long in here when I have stuff back at home that I need to do. I turned around to ask one of the girls if they knew a way out of here, but I was surprised as to find that they were both right behind me, looking at me expectantly.

“What?” I asked looking at both of them. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you haven’t done anything wrong…” Shawnita said, rubbing the back if her head as she looked to the other girl for assistance.

“It’s just that we want to ask you something.” Sienna finished for her, nervously twisting her blonde hair.
I sighed in relief, glad I hadn’t done something to upset them, then frowned as I realized that whatever they wanted to ask, must’ve been bothering them pretty badly for them to be acting this nervously.

“Alright then, shoot.” I said with a smile, hoping to calm their nerves.

The two striking females looked at each other for a while, seemingly arguing with each other mentally.

I noticed that Shawnita rubbed the back of her head, A habit that I have when I’m nervous about something. Sienna also shared a nervous habit of mine: Fidgeting restlessly. Her fingers combed through her hair four times, then beat a rhythm on her thigh which set her foot a tapping. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve said that she was ADHD.

Both of them wanted to ask me something very important to the both of them, but they either don’t want to be the one to say it, or they don’t know how to phrase it so that it sounds right.

I had an inkling of what they wanted from me, but I wanted them to be able to express themselves freely. They just needed the right kinda of push….and I knew the perfect one….

I sighed heavily making sure to get both girls attention before rolling my eyes.

“Oh for the love of…would one of you just spit it out already? If not, I swear I am going to walk of this Dream-Zone right now!” I said, pretending to be angry and impatient.

I didn’t know where that name came from, but it felt sort of….right. I decided that this would be the name for this blank space from now on.

Returning to the conversation at hand, I notice both girls becoming increasingly red in the face. I watched with some amusement as they both reached their limit at the same time.

“WOULD YOU BE OUR FATHER?!” They shouted in sync, surprising me more with the intensity of the question, than the actual question itself.

All was silent for a few moments as I tried to think of a coherent thought and failed horribly, only coming up with one word:

“Que?”

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