The floor is hard and full of dirt, but it will have to do for now.


    "Okay, first, please put on something Ben, although I appreciate the eye candy I can''t talk to you while you''re naked."


    Another gust of wind, and now Ben has an exact copy of my clothes, right down to the bullet hole in the jacket.


    "Is this okay, mortal?"


    No, it''s not. I really wanted to see more but I need to focus.


    "Yes, thank you. First, you said something about my soul and then a mission. The magic ball wasn''t able to brief me on any of those topics, so please, explain."


    She seems to mull over something for a couple of minutes, but I wait patiently.


    "I will explain first your mission, mortal."


    I stop her before she can continue.


    "Please stop calling me mortal, I have a name you know?"


    "Okay."


    Uh, she/he? is surprisingly agreeable.


    "Then continue please."


    "Understood. As I was saying, you have a mission, Martin. My master is an incredibly powerful being, his battle prowess is unmatched, yet he is not perfect, for there are things that even he will struggle with."


    "And I guess that''s where I come in, right?"


    She blinks.


    "Yes, like I said, your soul is something truly special. Don''t you wonder how you were able to see me while I was invisible to everyone else?"


    I thought that I was crazy, that I was losing my mind, that she was just the byproduct of my fears.


    "It''s because you can see beyond your own reality, Martin, you are a medium to what others can not see or feel."


    "Oh, so I can see ghosts? Neat."


    She glares at me with anger.


    "Don''t interrupt me, mortal."


    "Sorry, please continue."


    She huffs with exasperation while shaking her head.


    "It''s not just that, humans with those abilities, although rare, are a dime a dozen across the multiverse."


    "Then why me?"


    "Because of how similar the structure of your soul is to ours, mortal. My species lives beyond the veil of reality, we exist in chaos, we live in the thin gap between each universe."


    Oh shit. Am I really dealing with Cthulhu and his lackey?


    "We live in a higher dimension, yet we cannot get out of there, we are forever trapped, we can''t cross the veil of reality that separates us."


    Thank God for that.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "And although most of us don''t mind, others seem suffer because of it, my master is a being of incredible powers, able to dominate many and govern a good part of my home."


    I don''t like where this is going.


    "But he wants more, he isn''t content with the situation at hand."


    She stops and looks at me. Oh fuck, really?


    "I''m not helping Cthulhu and you invade other realities if that''s what you want from me."


    She blinks and looks at me with incomprehension.


    "Who is this Cthulhu, and why would we invade other realities?"


    Now I look at her with incomprehension.


    "Because... because that''s your thing? You corrupt people into insanity and that sort of stuff?"


    Maybe I shouldn''t have said that?.


    "That''s very racist of you, mortal."


    She gets up and then disappears.


    Fuck, what just happened?.


    ----


    She really disappeared, fuck, did I just insult an eldritch horror? Wasn''t my soul healed? I can''t believe that I still can''t control my own mouth.


    "I hope she doesn''t kills me...again."


    I shake my head, at least I''m aware of it now, unlike before, baby steps.


    "Ben? I''m sorry my dude! It wasn''t my intention to insult you, can you please come out?"


    But no one answers me. Now that I think about it, what''s up with this place? It''s like someone abandoned the place in a hurry, I can see some empty buckets with paintbrushes in the corner and the walls are halfway painted.


    "Ben! C''mon man, it wasn''t with malicious intent."


    Nothing happens...what do I do now? If Ben was telling the truth, then I''m on the other side of America with no ID and no cash on me, this doesn''t look good, I stand up and try to walk to the entrance.


    "Ouch."


    And my feet hurts, almost forgot about that. Fuck, I was vaccinated right? Wait, this is a new body, was tetanus lethal?


    "What a mess..."


    I limp out of the building. Man this place looks horrible, this doesn''t look like Manhattan at all. Hopefully no one will mug me...


    "Bennifer, where the fuck did you bring me?"


    I look around, I should probably go to the hospital first.


    "I told you, this is Manhattan."


    Ben suddenly appears at my side.


    "Jesus fuck! Ben! What the fuck! Please don''t do that."


    My heart almost leaped out of throat.


    Ben grins at me.


    "Do what? I don''t understand."


    Oh this petty bastard, she definitely understands. Deep breaths.


    In and out.


    In and out.


    "I''m sorry about what I said earlier, Ben."


    She squints her eyes at me.


    "I don''t believe you but apology accepted."


    "And my name isn''t Ben, mortal."


    I deadpan at her.


    "My name isn''t mortal, Ben."


    She sighs.


    "Do you have to be so insufferable?"


    Mmmmm, yes. But I''m not going to say that out loud.


    "I said I''m sorry okay? So could we pleaseee continue that conversation from earlier?"


    She tilts her head to the side and nods.


    "Okay then, could we go back inside please? I already died once today and right now I don''t feel very safe here."


    She tilts his head to the other side and nods. Is it''s trying to be cute? Ugh, focus Martin.


    "Say Ben, you wouldn''t happen to have some healing powers or something like that?"


    I ask her as we head back inside.


    "Are you ill mortal? I just created this body."


    My eyebrow twitched, deep breaths. Martin, deep breaths.


    "My name is Martin, thank you very much. And I got hurt just now by stepping on a nail."


    "I see."


    She stares at me as if waiting for something.


    "Please?"


    I''m forced to close my eyes as another gust of wind appears.


    "Done, anything else mortal?"


    huh, I feel fine now. how bout that?


    "No, thank you for that, now you were saying something about the magic ball not being happy with the situation?"


    "Yes, you see...my master has always been captivated by the universe, with the stars and the many planets in it, and even more when those planets have life, he''s completely fascinated by everything that happens in them, no matter how insignificant."


    Oh, this is different from what I thought.


    "Sooo he doesn''t want to intervene with them?"


    "No, he only wishes to observe."


    She could be lying for all I know though. mmmmm what do I do.


    "There are some plot holes in your story Ben. I mean you are here right now and he is your master, he should be more powerful, right? How come he can''t do the same?"


    "The only reason I''m able to exist without being ejected into my dimension is because I''m anchored to you, Martin."


    She pauses as if considering how to continue.


    "Think of this, my dimension and the rest of the universe are separated by a piece of paper, but this piece of paper is near indestructible and impossible to cut through. that is unless someone like my master is involved. do you follow me Martin?"


    "Yeah, kinda? But I''m having a hard time trying to imagine all of this, to be honest."


    She nods at me.


    "Understandable, your mind may be too weak to process the sheer scale of the matter."


    My eyebrow is twitching again. Deep breaths Martin, deep breaths.


    "But the problem is that even when my master is able to tear through reality, the size of the tear is too small for him to break through, and to make it even more difficult, the tear will eventually repair itself."


    So the big eldritch god cannot traverse dimensions, nice to know.


    She continues.


    "And the final problem is that even in the hypothetical case that he is able to make a tear big enough? He won''t be here for long, the very universe rejects our presence, we cannot survive for long before we disintegrate."


    "Hold up, you said you were anchored to me, right?"


    She nods. "Correct."


    "Is that related to you not being killed by the universe?"


    "Also correct, Martin. Normally this would not be possible, but your soul shares enough similarities with mine that I can hide my presence by anchoring my soul to yours. Even though you see this body in front of you, in truth our souls are together, united to each other until the death of this universe."


    At that my brain stops functioning for a moment.


    "I got married? I got fucking married?"


    Fuuuuuuck, I''m barely 21! How on earth did this happen? No, no, no! Fuck no!


    "You forced yourself into me!?"


    Oh Lord, that sounds so wrong!


    "Yes Martin, As I told you before, what you saw earlier was nothing more than a projection of the body I created to survive in the depths of space."


    Wait, what?


    "That wasn''t your real body before? and why would you be


    in space?"


    "Martin I just told you, we live in a higher dimension and we can''t exist in this universe ,our true bodies are abstract to your perception. As for why I was in space? It was because I needed to be in a specific location during the planetary alignment for the plan to work."


    Ohhh so she wasn''t an eldritch horror, nice to know.


    "Okay, I think I''m following so far, your master is kinda like a birdwatcher and he wants to see more birbs, but he can''t because the universe rejects him and he is to big to pass through?"


    "This...yes."


    Huh, what do you know? There are weird guys like him even in other dimensions.