Saki

  “Right,” I said out loud as I continued to think of ways to remove her from me. I did not care if she could see them. I now knew she could in fact control bodies, as she had with that goblin. I did not need another entity in my body vying for control.

  “I do not want control! I only did that because he was a threat to us!” Anna said indignantly. She sounded genuinely hurt, like the act of me trying to remove her for helping me was betrayal.

  I sighed and said, “Look, Anna, I already have one entity possessing me unwillingly. I want to be friends. But can we be friends with you outside my body?” I said, making a point of emphasizing the “outside” part. She did seem genuine, and maybe I could talk to her. It was worth a shot.

  There was a long moment of silence. Then Anna left my body, but she did not leave my person. She began shifting, and a moment later, she was shaped like the robe on the ground. She covered me as if she were in an outfit . I watched in surprise, and a smile crossed my face. “Not perfect, but at least you are not inside me anymore. Can you take any form?” I asked.

  In response, she shifted, and I was wearing a t-shirt and skirt. The clothing she became was almost ethereal, but the weirdest part was that they were colored. The shirt was red, and the skirt was yellowa terrible design choice, but the mere fact she could do that!

  “Is this better? Can we be best friends now?” She sounded hopeful, and I actually paused.

  “Not best friends, but we can be friends. If Tama accepts you, maybe best friends one day,” I said simply. Then I walked over to where my clothes were meshed into the wall. “Can you mimic those?” I asked.

  I felt a sense of joy coming from her, which felt very weird since she was my clothing, and feeling an emotion coming from clothes was very strange to me. Then she shifted, and I was wearing my same red dress. She even copied my panties and bra. It was both comforting and unnerving to be wearing a living being.

  “Do not be nervous! I was created for things like this!” Anna said cheerfully, her voice full of glee and happiness.

  “Created?” I asked curiously. She did not respond. Instead, after a moment, she said, “So, are we going to find Tama?”

  I heard a familiar tone in her voice, one I knew all too well. I took her topic change for what it was and said, “Yes, let us go find Tama. I am sure she is off killing everything again. I am sure she is fine.”

  My words were hollow, though. I did not know where Tama was, what she was doing, or if she was even alive. I was terrified for herI needed to find her quickly. The best place to start, I thought as I looked over at the dead goblins and smiled, would be to pay a visit to the Dredge Tribe. Anna giggled, and my outfit shimmered like a wave.

  I turned and walked back down the hallway the goblins had come from. Hopefully, I could get some answers and maybe find Tama. It was strange before I met Tama, the mere idea of negotiating with goblins would have been foreign to me. That Nekojin was something else.

  “You can say that again!” Anna said out loud with amusement.

  I rolled my eyes at her and responded, “All right, enough out of you, sentient clothing!” I snapped playfully. She giggled maniacally, then shifted into a pair of panties just a pair of panties.

  “Hey!” I snapped, but she only giggled and said, “Say sorry, or you are naked!” My face heated up as I looked around before remembering I was in a hallway in what appeared to be a deep underground temple.

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  After a moment, I grudgingly said, “I am sorry for calling you sentient clothing.”

  She shifted back to my dress and bra, and I sighed in relief. “Are you really going to hold that over me all the time?” I said indignantly.

  “Yes,” she said playfully, and she continued shifting over my body, causing the outfit to look like it was shimmering. “Also, why is there this voice in your head that just keeps saying ‘erase’?”

  “Oh, that is the void entity. Ignore it. It does not ever stop,” I said tiredly. I had almost zoned it out when she brought it up again.

  “Oh, sorry. Here, let me see if I can help!” she said, and there was a moment of silence. Then the sound of the void saying “erase” suddenly stopped. The silence was so shocking after hearing it my entire life that I actually paused, stunned.

  “What… what did you just do!” I said in genuine surprise, my eyes wide.

  “I made a barrier of water around that part of your mind, it is soundproof! It can say ‘erase’ all it wants; we do not have to hear it!” Anna said, giggling.

  I stood there in frozen shock for a long moment before finally speaking. “Anna, I stand corrected. We are best friends now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Tears filled my eyes as I spoke. Eight long years, and it was silenced just like that. I was so happy.

  I fell to my knees and just sat there in the middle of the hallway. The silence was glorious and wonderful and perfection itself. Creation could not have created a more perfect silence. After a moment, Anna spoke up, “So, uh, what about Tama?”

  I froze, and my eyes jerked open. “Right, I, um, we have to go,” I said, standing up, taking one last deep, calming breath, so happy it was gone. Then I continued down the hallway, still reveling in its silence .

  Anna

  My first memory was one of peace, followed by one of turmoil. I felt as if I was formed from the holy water, shaped into my shapeless form. I appeared, and my first sight was two creatures I would come to learn as humans: a young one and an older one. The older one seemed to be my creator.

  She spoke to me: “Your name is Anna. You share the name of your host.” I did not understand, but I accepted my new designation ‘Anna’. “Now, take her form and possess her as is your task.” My creator held the young human. The young human struggled in the older human’s grip and cried, begging her to stop. I was newly createdI did not know better. I did as I was told.

  The young human had no resistance, and moments later, I was looking through her eyes. I looked up at the older human, who looked down at me. “Good, now go through her memories and find her family. Pretend to be her and kill them silently,” she said. I nodded, turned in my new form, and left the temple.

  I walked down the road through a beautiful water city. I stopped next to a pool of water and looked into it. I saw the young human’s reflection in it. I found the body’s home easily enoughher parents welcomed me with open arms, never knowing what I was. That night, I slit their throats in their sleep. I felt terror and sadness from the entity I possessed. I felt hatred and agony. I did not understand then.

  I returned to my creator, my task complete. “Excellent, you may go now. You are of no more use to me. Speak of this, and you will be destroyed.” With that, my creator took a dagger and stabbed it into my body’s heart. I was ejected out of the corpse and left to fend for myself.

  Many years later, I learned what I had done. I learned what I was. Many years later, the high priestess would die by my hand, and the underwater metropolis of Muosil would fall, becoming nothing more than a memory. She paid for her sins, and as I was absorbed back into the holy water, I would too, for all eternity.

  All until I met her. She was scheming, conniving, and had a dark past. But she also had a heart, and she cared greatly for another. She reminded me of someone from long ago, someone I admired.