Beast Soul

'I don't know, alright?' Doppelganger Noah replied in an instant. He sounded like he was mad and frustrated. 'I just became conscious, and I found myself getting my a** beaten by another monster! Suffice it to say, I'm not having a good day!'

"What did you think?" Noah asked doppelganger Noah, who replied, "What? About the guy who just beat you?" Noah nodded his head, and doppelganger Noah let out a long and heavy sigh before continuing, "..You should probably listen to his words and stay far away from him. At least for now."

"What?" Noah couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I'm not joking.." Doppelganger Noah continued, and his tone became serious. "He's not your average monster!"

"He's that dangerous?" Noah asked as he narrowed his eyes, and doppelganger Noah responded, "Very. You should be careful not to provoke him. I'm confident that you won't stand a chance against him if he really becomes serious."

"Well, f*ck me." Noah clicked his tongue and tried to get onto his feet, and his entire body wobbled as he got up, making him use the walls of the hallway to balance himself. 

"Hah…" Noah took a deep breath as he began concentrating on his form, placing both his hands on his knees and breathing in and out. 

'You should probably let me take control,' Doppelganger Noah said softly, and Noah snorted back in response. "Don't even think about it! I can take care of myself alright?"

'You know, it's about time that you started trusting me. I have been in your mind for a good amount of time, haven't I?' Doppelganger Noah responded with a hint of anger and pain hidden in his voice, as though he was hurt by Noah's words. "All the more reason to not trust you! You just want to take control of my body!" Noah replied back, right after which he began to cough loudly. "Maybe we could do the dual control like we did before, but that's it!"

'.... Fine. Dual control it is,' Doppelganger Noah replied, and silence reigned. Noah stayed silent for a few seconds before he opened his mouth and said, "You don't know how to take control, huh?"

'I was waiting for you to knock yourself out.' Doppelganger Noah responded quickly, almost in an instant, and Noah let out a long and heavy sigh. "...I'm not going to knock myself out." 

Ring! Ring!

Right then, Noah's phone began to ring, and he pulled it out from his pocket and stared at the screen with squinted eyes.

"Harold?" Noah whispered softly under his breath as he scratched his head, and he answered the call. "Harold! What's up?"

"Noah, I think that we're going to be needing your help on something!" Harold said with his out of breath voice as he ran through the park, taking a shortcut to get to Mr. Carrick's house. 

"Kind of had a busy day here, Harold. Can it wait?" Noah said and he planted his palm on his head, wiping the sweat away from his forehead. 

"I- I don't really know. Maybe we'll need you. Maybe we won't. I'm not sure, but I can feel that something's wrong, so we might need your help." Harold said quickly, and right after finishing his words, he took a deep breath and continued running. 

"You do know that I couldn't understand a single thing that you said just now, right?" Noah replied with a bitter smile on his face, and Harold let out a chuckle. "Yeah, well, I'm in the middle of running, and you probably wouldn't know this about me, but I'm not really a multitasker."

Whoosh!

Harold jumped over a trashcan as he continued running, and said, "Look, the point is that we might need your help because we might've identified the layer of a monster. Although we're not totally sure, so take it with a grain of salt. I've texted you the location already." Harold then said with a serious expression on his face. "I hope you can help us out."

".... F*ck, f*ck, f*ck," Noah clicked his tongue and slammed his hand on his forehead repeatedly as he began to slowly walk towards the entrance of the abandoned school building. "Fine. I'll be there. But I might take a while, so don't do anything stupid until I get there."

He then hung up his phone and took a deep breath. 

'Do you really think that you can take on another monster?' Doppelganger Noah asked, as Noah continued to take deep breaths, calming his mind. 'In the state that you're in?'

"Well, you can always take control of me when I'm knocked out, right?" Noah said with a smile as he walked through the opened front door and stepped outside, and Doppelganger Noah let out a sigh. 'Not really a great way to change controls when you're in a fight with a monster, but whatever. I'll take it.'

Harold stared at the blank screen of his phone for a few seconds before placing it back into his pocket and continued to run.

"Don't do anything stupid until I get there.."

Noah's words echoed loudly in Harold's mind, and he squinted his eyes.

"They wouldn't do anything stupid, would they?" He thought to himself, and couldn't help but worry.

--------------------------

Twack!

Alphonso ignored the two young boys' resistant faces and flipped on the switch, and all of a sudden, the walls of the bathroom began to shake violently. 

"Wha- Why'd you do that all of a sudden?!" Max asked with a look of anger on his face, and Alphonso rolled his eyes in response. "Come on! You two were obviously a bit hesitant about the whole process! The decision would've ended up the same anyways, so I thought, why bother wasting time?"

"Just because we could've ended up coming to the same conclusion doesn't mean you can just skip the whole process and flip the damn switch on without anyone's approval!" Gerald too had a furious expression on his face as the walls behind Alphonso separated into two sections, revealing a set of stairs that led down, and the whole pathway seemed to be covered in darkness, with the only source of light being short candlesticks that were stuck to the walls of the pathway. But even those candles were only making the pathway dimly lit, not really providing much visibility.

The trio stared at the dimly lit pathway for a few seconds before Alphonso walked up to the entrance of the path, knelt down and began to inspect it. 

"How on earth does this door even work?" He mumbled to himself as he pressed his fingers lightly on the bathroom walls, inspecting them. 

"F*ck! There really is a secret pathway!" Gerald cursed softly under his breath as he poked his head inside the dark and small path, scanning the environment as he did so. 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Alphonso said as he turned to look at Gerald and Max, who stared at him with confusion in their eyes. 

"We should probably go in, right?" Alphonso rolled his eyes once again as he explained his thoughts to his friends, who didn't seem to be in agreement with his plan. 

"It would be best if we called Noah to help us out, right?" Gerald said as he turned his gaze towards Max, who nodded his head, agreeing with Gerald's words. "I think that's the best thing to do. After all, he's more experienced than us when it comes to hunting monsters. He probably wouldn't mind helping us out!"

"You aren't seriously thinking of standing here and waiting for Noah to arrive while hoping that the creature doesn't come out first, right?!" Alphonso said with an annoyed tone as he lightly pushed Max's chest with his knuckles, making him squint his eyes in response.

"Do you think that we can take on this monster all by ourselves?" Max said as he pointed his finger at the dark opening. "We're total amateurs! And that monster can talk!"

"And you killed a f*cking bat-like monster within seconds!" Alphonso said as he pointed at Max, who clicked his tongue. 

GRRRR!

Right as they were about to get into an argument, a low but deadly roar came from deep within the dark pathway, and the three boys immediately turned silent, their gazes slowly shifting towards the opening.

"What the f*ck was that?" Gerald looked at Max, who couldn't answer his question.

"It sounded far away!" Alphonso whispered softly under his breath and he moved back a few steps, his eyes now turned alert.

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, a long slimy tentacle shot out from the darkness, catching everyone off guard, grabbing hold of Gerald's feet and dragging him through the stairway with such speed that it was impossible for anyone to react.

"AHHHH!" The loud scream of Gerald was heard as he was pulled into the darkness, leaving a shocked Max and Alphonso to stand in front of the stairway, unable to come to terms with what just happened.