Everything And More

"Oh, hey Aaron," Allie said in an almost dreamy voice.

Aaron felt the cold grip of anxiety wash over him. "Hi Allie."

Allie smiled wanly. "Allie. That's right. I'm Allie. But I was you for a moment, wasn't I?"

Aaron nodded.

"You... ate me. Absorbed me. I lost... I became a part of you."

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"No, that's alright. She was trying to eat you too... Natalie. But she wasn't Natalie she... She wasn't lying when she said she had eaten her. And she was trying to do the same to you, and you needed my... my soul to fight back."

Aaron watched in silence as Allie carefully inspected herself.

"I'm back but I feel... you've kept a part of me, haven't you?"

Aaron grimaced. "Yeah. I kinda... there's a few reasons. I can't have you running off for one and... well, I might need it. So I kept it from you."

Allie listening to this with a vacant expression before nodding slowly. "Okay."

Aaron blinked. "Really?"

Allie nodded again. "I can see how that makes sense. I feel like I should be mad or scared but I don't really feel anything. Which is better than how I usually feel, so that's okay."

Aaron still had an inkling of her day to day experience, so it looked like things had worked out about as well as they could for both of them.

"Okay, Allie. You're going to stick with me for a bit while I figure out what to do next. Can you stand up?"

Allie looked thoughtful for a moment before carefully unfolding herself from the couch. It was like watching one of those prototype robots carefully walking with the grace of a stop motion video, but eventually Allie was back on her feet and she gave Aaron the slightest hint of a smile.

"Good job."

"Thanks."