My whole body aches as I crawl out of bed. Having stayed cooped up inside his whole life, the kid's body is incredibly weak. I've been exercising by running laps around town but every muscle in our body burns from the overexertion.
I'm a bit concerned about the condition as it may slow down our growth but the kid assures me that it's not an issue. Normally working out too much can have adverse effects or even lead to injury but apparently that's not the case for those of us with a seal. By having this inscription tattooed onto our body we can access the system that envelopes this planet, a gift from the Great Sage to encourage the growth of humanity or some such nonsense.
You shouldn't say that about the Great Sage. He saved humanity from the Demons.
"Are you going to comment on every thought i have?" I deride the voice of the child in my head. I can feel him retreat into himself at my criticism. "Look, I didn't mean that. This is all still so weird to me. I'm sorry."
...
"Come on, seriously. I'm sorry."
"You think you're sorry? I'm sorry just having to look at you." Marie, our maid says as she bursts into the room.
"You couldn't knock?" I ask, unable to hide the frustration in my voice.
"Oh, yeah, I'm so sorry I interrupted you while you were talking to yourself. You were obviously very busy." Marie slams my breakfast down on the night stand by my bed and storms back out of the room.
"Man, she fucking hates me." I chuckle to myself as I pick up the bowl of soup still wavering from the violence it was placed with.
I don't understand, she was always so nice to me.
"Well, not anymore, i guess."
I wolf down the thin stew and make my way downstairs.
"I'm heading out for a bit." I say to the kid's parents as I walk past the kitchen. Vincent, the kid's dad merely grunts at my words while he focuses on the book he's reading but his mother's words make the hair on the back of my neck stand straight.
"Okay, you boys be careful out there." She says without even looking my direction.
"Right. I will." I reply nervously. Carroll's words make me think she knows about me, that her son isn't the only one inhabiting his body. Will she try to get rid of me to protect him? Am I in danger? I feel sweat building up on my palms as I close the door behind me. "What the hell is going on?"
Mom didn't seem upset so I wouldn't worry about it.
"If you say so." I'm sure she's noticed her son's behavior change after I showed up, but does she actually know what's happening? How could she know? Is this a common occurrence or just a mother's intuition?
These thoughts swirl around my mind as I walk unsteadily toward the gate. the cool air helps stem the flow of sweat threatening to fall from my head.
Stay calm. Calm people live, panicked people die.
I repeat this mantra to myself as I walk past the town square.
"Hey, loser." I look around to see who's talking to me but only see a group of boys in a small group looking away from me.
Why did you think someone was talking to you?
"I apparently have some self perception issues." I say as I walk towards the group of kids who were probably calling someone a loser.
"I'm talking to you, loser." The smallest of the group of boys is talking down to a brown-haired boy who is rocking back and forth on the ground while playing in the dirt. The bully seems to be getting annoyed that he's getting ignored.
"I'm not going to say it again!" He strikes the boy on the ground who only flinches but remains focused on the dirt.
"Hey, knock it off." I say without thinking. Having found a new target to vent his anger, the bully whirls around to me.
"What did you say?" The bully seems to be a well dressed noble boy with short black hair. He couldn't have looked more the part of the two bit villain if he tried.
"For someone always telling people what to do you don't hear good do you?"
"What?"
"Exactly." My quib elicits a couple of stifled laughs from the goons surrounding the bully and his face goes bright red in embarrassment.
"Shut up!" The bully winds back and clocks me square in the cheek. Having taken punches from my brother on my occasions I don't even bother dodging, although, perhaps due to this frail body, it actually hurts more than I expected.
An awkward silence fills the air as the kids wait for me to react in some way but I just stand there silently.
"Kyle, perhaps it's best if we continue with our itinerary for the day. We don't have time to waste on such people." An older kid comes in with the save and Kyle readily reaches for the lifeline.
"Y-yeah, I don't have time for these losers." He says as he leads his little gang off down the street.
I notice a pair of eyes on me and turn to see the boy on the ground looking up at me. He quickly looks away as soon as our eyes meet. Even while he's sitting down i can tell he's a pretty big kid, at least twice the size of his bully. Judging by the scrapes and callouses i can see on his hands it's safe to assume that he engages in some kind of physical labor and his baggy clothes likely hide a fair bit of muscle.
I sit down next to the kid and watch what he's doing. A neat line of rocks is laid out in front of the kid, all equally spaced apart. Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be any organization to the rocks themselves. Big, medium and small stones are scattered along the line in no real order.
"You could place the stones from largest to smallest." I offer. The boy looks at the stones for a moment before quickly sorting them by size. Although, now that they're lined up neatly, he again has to go through the pain staking process of making sure each stone is exactly the same distance from the ones next to it.
"What's your name?" I ask.
"..."
"I'm Nick."
"..."
I give him a few seconds to respond but it doesn't seem like he's going to so I stand up to leave.
"How did you do that?" The boy stops rocking back and forth as he asks me.
"You mean with the rocks? I didn't really do anything, you were the one who was moving them around."
"No, I mean with Kyle. How did you do that. He left you alone."
I think for a moment before responding.
"I guess I'm just not afraid of him is all."
"You're strong."
"I'm really not." I grin as I think about how weak this new body of mine is.
"I want to be strong like you." He looks into my eyes for the first time, determination in his eyes.
"Well, I don't know how much I can help you but I'm heading to the North gate to go running, why don't you join me?"
"Can't." He says as he looks back down at the ground.
"If not today, how about tomorrow?"
"Okay."
"Sounds good. By the way, what's your name?"
"Josh."
"Josh, it's nice to meet you." I reach for a handshake but Josh ignores me. "Well, anyway, see you tomorrow I guess."
"Okay." Josh says as he starts rocking back and forth again. I begin walking toward the North gate again while the kid's voice appears in my mind.
What a wierd person.
"Not really, he was probably just Autistic."
What's Autistic?
"From my understanding, it's a processing disorder where people have trouble dealing with sensory information, as if all lights are too bright and all sounds are too loud."
Oh.
"I'm probably not explaining that right but just know there's nothing wrong with him, he's just different."
...
I can feel the kid sink back into himself as he thinks over everything I just said. We both quietly sit with our own thoughts as I go about the exercise routine I've made for myself.