Borrow

"Where am I?" I spoke to myself, my eyes darting open. I was sitting back at the table. With faint round stains on the surface, and two empty chairs in front of me. It had been a while since I had seen or heard of Bad and Good. I don't know what happened to them. I stood up from the table, and placed the chair back underneath. I turned to face the other way, and started walking. I walked for fifteen minutes before I walked past a small tea shop. On the patio, was a ball of light, perched at the table.

"Seriously?" I asked as it turned around to look at me.

"What?" A female voice responded, offended by my comment.

"What happened to Good and Bad?"

"Do you not remember?"

"I do remember, I told them to shut their traps, essentially."

"You did plenty more than that." She replied, slowly hovering down the stairs towards me.

"It couldn't have been that bad."

"I don't think you're aware of the severity of what you've done." She started, but her voice shifted. At first she sounded familiar, like the voice of an old friend. But as she finished her sentence, her voice modulated and changed into that of an ex-partner.

"So who are you?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

"I am Soul." She replied simply, stopping at the base of the stairs.

"Okay?" I stammered. "So what gives with the voice changing?"

"It's nothing more than part of who I am."

"So based on the ambiguity," I started, "I'm guessing you're here on behalf of Good?"

"Funny."

"Well you're if you're not going to tell me who you are, I'm going to sit here and make smart-ass remarks."

"My name is Soul." She answered once again. "Basically, I'm nothing more than your own personal interpretation of common sense."

"Okay," I sighed, "so are Good and Bad, gone?"

"For a while." She responded. "What you did to them was not easy. It broke them. It didn't just break them up, but it broke them; it rattled them to the core. They're still around, but it will take a while for them to heal."

"So you're here as their replacement?"

"Like I said, for a while."

"So." I stuttered, trying to collect my words. "Okay?"

"I'll be Frank." She sounded. "What you did to Good and Bad was a completely stupid idea."

"It worked," I exclaimed, "didn't it?! I did it so that they would shut up and put me back in control! And look, they aren't here, and I'm the one in control."

"For now, until they come back."

"I can handle Good and Bad, I just need a break from the two of them."

"Not just them."

"What?" I stopped, collecting my breath.

"You broke Good and Bad up." She continued, her tone changed as her voice modified. "I'm not the only thing to have come out of Good. And there are plenty of things that came out of Bad."

"So I'm really not the one in control?"

"Why is it only about control to you?"

"Because one would think that being in control if the thoughts in his own head would be important?"

"Control is important, you're right." She spoke as her voice changed again. "But there's more to it than that."

"Well if you could elaborate on that, that would be great."

"You share a world with them. Yes, you may just see them as the voices in your head that may or may not get in the way of you doing what you want to do. But to them, you're pretty important."

"I don't follow."

"Everyone has these sorts of voices. Right?"

"I like to think so. Or at least something of the like." 

"So you could say that you share this 'alternate' world with everyone else, yes?"

"Sure?"

"You share your real life with real people. You really don't have a choice; it’s just a thing that you have to do. But this. This. All of this world that to you, is nothing more than a purgatory you fall into in your dreams, is so much more. Just like the real world, you share it with others."

"So everyone else comes here to talk to the voices in their own heads?"

"Yes."

"So," I started, "what does all of this have to do with power?"

"You would rather this all be gone; something that you don't have to deal with. Right?"

"Pretty much."

"Would you want that same fate to befall the real world?" She questioned, her voice continuing to change. "Where it all just ceases to exist because you don't want to deal with it?"

"No, but—."

"This is why you shouldn't be the one in charge. There shouldn't be anyone in charge. So what you did to Bad was a good thing; we don't need him to take charge. But we don't need Good to be in charge either. So the fact that you did that to both of them did nothing but bring ruin."

"I still don't know exactly what happened to the two of them." I proclaimed, shifting my feet. "Outside of the fact that I 'broke them up,' and now they're just a bunch of different emotions."

"There really isn't a whole lot else to know about." She said through what must have been a fake grin.

"So," I hesitated, "when do I get to meet them?"

"When you're ready." She replied. The wind began to pick up, and she started to drift off into the distance.

"What if I'm ready right now?" I shouted.

"You'll be ready later," she called back, "but I first recommend that you figure out how to share these worlds that you live in."

"What if I don't want to?!" I claimed, making her stop.

"If you're not willing to borrow this world as easily as you are the real one," she regained, continuing to drift away, "then you're not ready." 

I sighed audibly, and she stopped once again.

"This is no longer about just you and Good and Bad. There's more players now, because of your own accord as well. So I wouldn't be so ready to get rid of it."

"You know," I shouted once again, "for being the humanization of common sense, you really don't make a whole lot of God damned sense."

"There are more players in the game now my friend." She smiled. "And if common sense actually was as crystal clear as you want it to be, a lot more people would have it..."