Not long after Jav had brought Sarah home, he had placed her in bed, with Ardiente worriedly looking over her. Afterwards, the two of us had walked down to the dining room, where we both sat at the table, myself slightly on edge, and Jav with a very tired appearance.

“Well,” he said suddenly after a few minutes of silence, sitting forward and looking at me over his glasses, “I suppose I should go ahead and tell you what I was talking about earlier.”

“Alright...” I said, slowly nodding, “whenever you’re ready....”

“Right, one moment.” He took his cloak off from his shoulders, as well as his hat from his head, and walked to the living room, hanging the two on the coat rack in the corner. On his way back to the table, he removed his vest and tie as well, draping them over the back of the couch along the way.

He slumped back into his seat across from me, running a hand through his grayed hair as he did so, and he said, “Sorry, just had to loosen up a bit before I tell you all of this. hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s fine.” I rubbed the back of my neck, looking away from him, then back, “Like I said, whenever you’re ready.” I really need to work on my interaction skills, I’m horrible at talking to people. I sighed to myself, I guess twenty years avoiding others in Purgatory will do that.

“Might as well get it out of the way then....” He made a few nonsense gestures with his hands, and managed, “Well... simply put...” he sighed, “simply put, I was sent here by Death to watch Sarah and make sure she didn’t...” he made air quotes, ““lose it” I suppose would be the right wording.”

“O...kay? So you were sent here to watch after her?” In all honesty that didn’t seem so bad, so I asked him in confusion, “How is that particularly bad enough to keep secret?”

He waved his hand in response, “No no, it’s not that that’s the bad part, it’s....” He leaned back, arching his head back and covering his face with his hands, “Well, first off I kept the whole “watching” thing a secret because I didn’t feel the need to bother anyone with it. The bad part, however, is how utterly rubbish I did at the bloody job. I hardly ever did anything to help, just carried her around when she went unconscious, and that was only twice.”

“So you were anxious about telling me this... because you felt you did the job badly... and weren’t sure how I’d react...?”

“Yeah....”

“Oh....” That makes sense, I suppose.

“Honestly,” he said as he threw his hands up in exasperation, “I don’t even know why Death tasked me with it. I’ll just go ahead and guess it was because I was either the only one rightly available at short notice, or because I had done pretty efficiently on my past jobs, and he made a judgement based on that.” He shrugged, “Really though, all I’m good for in terms of Wraith work is hitting things really hard with a sword, and that usually works on the jobs I’m sent on. This one though... that would be a bad idea to try.”

“Yes, I suppose it would....” I’m worried about Sarah, really worried. She was talking about the voices being gone.... Could she have meant those four? What could have caused them to leave? I know they were repressed, but with the knowledge I have from being part of a personality, just their presence in her mind was enough to keep it occupied from all the issues it dealt with.

“Anyway,” Jav said as he leaned forward and asked, “any idea as to what might have happened to her? That was... completely unexpected, and didn’t really fit in with what I’d known about her, psychologically. She had traumas and mental scars, but nothing about those “voices” she mentioned, er....” He looked at me, the turned away awkwardly and said, “Aside from the uh, obvious, I guess.”

I shook my head, “It’s fine, Jav, you don’t have to worry about upsetting me by talking about it. But....” I scratched the back of my head, looking down in thought, “I guess you just hadn’t known about them, but she had four other personalities that she created as a way of escape while in the facility, before mine that is. They were sort of...” I made a few vague hand gestures, “personifications of her different emotions I guess, aside from the the odd one out, the one representing her knowledge.

“Of course...” I looked off to the side, “when my personality was created, the fact that it was another soul, and was affected by the Croatoan, it was able to elbow the others out and into  the back of her mind, forcibly repressing them for the entire time my personality was there. Since it was destroyed, or released, or whatever happened to it, the others had a chance to come back. I’d assume their coming back was recent, because Sarah never acted like they were there, or said anything about them.”

“Alright,” he slowly nodded, “but what’s that play in her previous breakdown? Was it the personalities resurfacing?”

I shrugged half-heartedly, “I don’t know, honestly, but I have a sort of guess, if you want to hear it....”

He shrugged, “Well I have nothing, so even speculation is more than what we already have to go off of, so shoot.”

“Well... from what I heard, she was starting to get scared over the “voices” being gone. I don’t really know what that mean exactly, but I’m willing to guess that, just as the personalities, or “voices” as she called them, returned, they were taken from her mind completely.”

“But how would that affect her so badly?” He asked, “Didn’t you say they were repressed for most of her life?”

“Repressed, not erased.” I shook my head, “I won’t lie, don’t really understand it, but I’m guessing the mere presence of those four in her head, even when repressed, were enough to keep her mind constantly occupied, and taken away from the rather... confused thoughts that her mind would likely create. Now, with my personality being removed, and them still being repressed, she was stable for the most part, a lot more than she had ever been since A.N.G.E.L., but then.... Like I said, I’m not entirely certain. They either came back and were erased, or were just erased from her mind, or she’s just having a small episode brought on by, well... you know.”

“Yeah....” He sighed, “Really, we have no idea what’s happening, and that’s just fucking great.”

I hung my head, sighing as well, “I know.... To make matters even worse, if it was the fact that her other personalities were erased, well.... How could that even happen? Sure years of psychological therapy could gradually reduce them, but such a sudden, unassisted change from five separate personalities to one? That would be nearly impossible, barring anything supernatural, and I’m sure she hasn’t had any recent encounters with supernatural, mind-altering... anything, recently.”

“Even greater,” Jav said tiredly, “because that just complicates things further. If it’s a psychotic episode? That’s hard enough to work with given the lack of expertise, and the possibly massive extent of the trauma. Suddenly erased personalities she’s had for years? Probably would cause the episode she’s having, and given what she said, it’s fairly likely to have happened, at least, but there is almost nothing we know that could have done that....”

He trailed off, and the two of us lapsed into silence, myself resting my arms on the table and my head in my arms, while Jav leaned back, staring up and leaving his arms hanging at his sides.

This went on for at least four or five minutes, when Death of all people suddenly appeared in the kitchen, in his human form, and sitting at the table with a frown on his face.

Seeing him, Jav leaned forward and put his arms on the table, sighing and saying, “Look, Death, I’m sorry, but I just can’t do this. I don’t know why you assigned this to me, but I just am not cut out for it, at all. I-”

Death interrupted him, raising a hand and saying, “I know, Jav, or at least I know now. I’ll admit that it was a bad choice to assign you to this mission, given where your specialties lie, but you were the only Wraith available. It’s not your fault, if anything, it’s mine.”

“Right....” Jav said dejectedly, leaning back again.

“That being said,” Death looked between us, “I have a new job, for the both of you. Well, not a job, technically speaking, just a small task.” I wonder what that could be?

Giving a bitter laugh, Jav asked, “As long as it’s not like the last one.”

“It’s not, trust me.” Death reached into his suit and removed a small handful of envelopes, saying as he set them on the table, “You probably didn't notice this, but Sarah awoke almost immediately after you set her in bed. I was worried, of course, and had decided to visit her as soon as she did, if only to make sure she was alright.”

“And the envelopes...?” I asked.

“She went about writing a few letters as soon as she woke up.” He paused, then said, “Well, really she asked Ardiente to write them for her. She doesn’t know how to write, it seems.”

“Oh....” I trailed off, then asked, “I suppose you want us to deliver the letters to whoever they’re for?”

Death nodded, “Yes, if you would.” He pulled the envelopes apart, handing two to me, and two to Jav. On mine were the names ‘Princess Celestia’, and ‘Michael’. Looking over, I saw the names ‘Dean’ on one, and ‘Beth’ on the other.

“Why to these four, specifically?” Jav asked, staring down at his envelopes.

Death shrugged, “I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. She just pressed them on me and asked... begged that I make sure they’re sent out. Normally I’m not one to do work for a Wraith, but she’s in a bad way right now, so I figured I should see to it that they’re delivered.”

“Ah....” Was all I really said. I honestly don’t know what to think of this. Really though, I’m just getting more and more worried.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Death said as he got up from his seat, making his way to the door, “there was something else Sarah needed to speak to me about, but only after I made sure the letters were sent. I will be returning to her for whatever it was she wanted to speak with me about, then I shall take my leave. Good day to you both.” He nodded to us once, then continued on his way. “Oh, and Mary....” He said, suddenly stopping, “Try to return as soon as possible. I think she needs her sister right now, just as much as she needs Ardiente.”

“Right...” I nodded, then waved and said, “Goodbye, Death, and... thanks.”

“You’re welcome, Mary.” He said, vanishing soon after.

The two of us stood in silence for a few minutes afterwards, not really knowing what to say. In the end, we just nodded silently to each other and parted ways, going off to deliver our respective letters.

Next Chapter: As the World Turns- Act I, Pt. I: These are the days of our lives Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 6 Minutes