Chapter 4

“Oh, it’s you.” the voice said flatly, seemingly irritated by this newcomer. It’s cool composure finally showing the smallest of cracks. “This makes so much more sense now.” the voice sighed.

“Wait, what does that mean?” He asked, beginning to feel anxiety creep in along the edges of his mind. His voice trembled ever so slightly.

“What he mea.” the newcomer began, before being quickly interrupted by the first voice.

“What I mean is that I know why you are having these desires, and it’s worse than I thought” the voice stated tersely before seeming to take a breath to regain its composure. “Luckily, we seemed to have caught her early, and if you listen to me and do exactly as I instruct you, we will be just fine.” the voice told him.

There was something he could feel about the voice though. It sounded sure on what needed to be done, but barely there, tinged on the end of its voice, was that hesitancy or even doubt? he thought to himself.

“No, I am perfectly sure of myself, and in what direction we must take.” the voice stated assuredly. And yet he definitely sounded unsure, anxious? No, he decided, the 1st voice was worried. But why would this newcomer cause so much worry?

Rather than speculate, he decided that he needed direct answers. He was unsure of how to really reach out so he simply said aloud “Um…hello?...Are you still there?”

“Well of course I .” replied the voice almost right away, but this wasn’t who he wanted, and so he cut him off.

“No, not you the Other one.”

“You really shouldn’t talk to her, you know, she is dangerous.”

“I am no.”

“YES! Yes. You. Are.” exclaimed the voice “I will not have you speak with him anymore. Can’t you see you’ve made him miserable?”

“Look, you are me, right?” he asked, raising his voice slightly to reinforce his point. “Well I want to talk to her, and so she’s going to talk for a while and You will NOT interrupt her. You’re warning me off of her, but you aren’t giving me any answers as to why, so I am going to go to the source.”

“This is a terrible idea.” stated the voice. “But if this is what you want, then I won’t stop you…for now at least. You may speak to her.”

“Ok,” he said, readying himself “Hello? I’m sorry about well…him ...me? I’m not really sure how all this works. Can you tell me are…are...you the one causing me to have these desires?”

His question was greeted with silence for longer than he would have liked, and just when he began to question if she was gone forever, like a newly formed spring, that light, new voice bubbled up and responded.

“Weeeeeeell,.no? I don’t think I did that? Or did I? I don’t remember, Hey! Lemme ask you somethin! Why don’t you have any stuffies???”

“Stuffies? What are you talking about?” he replied, confused both by the question, and her almost nonsensical response to his inquiry.

“You know! Stuffies! They come in alllll shapes and sizes and they’re so snuggly, and they help you sleep, and they’ll play with you, and the.”

“Wait,” he interrupted, “Do you mean stuffed animals?” he asked questioningly.

“Yeah! Those! Why don’t you have any!?”

“So, this is your doing then …. why are you making me want stuffed animals.”

“Well, I just think that having them would make you feel better! Why would it be so bad to have one??”

He took a moment to think and he thought long and hard. He finally replied “Well, I’m a grown man right? I shouldn’t have something a child would…it’s not…I don’t know…allowed?”

“Well…why not?” the voice drawled out, “Who is telling you that you can’t have any?”

Well, now that was a good point, and an excellent question. Who was telling him no, was it simply himself? He thought surely he couldn’t just go and buy one, but he couldn’t come up with a reason why not.

“Because, as he said, he is a grown man and has no reason to buy or even have a child’s toy.” stated the other voice, seemingly done staying out of the way.

“Ok, I hear you, but why?” he asked the first voice before continuing. “You’re very good at telling me what I should be doing, but you don’t really tell me why. What would be so bad if I did?”

“Yeah, what would be so bad if he did have a stuffie, hmmmmmm?” the second voice questioned.

“OK, Now that’s quite enough of that!” the voice bellowed “I knew he shouldn’t have spoken to you, now look what you’ve done! You’ve got him questioning me, me! I know what’s best for him and you are not it. You need to leave immediately!”

“Now hang on one fucking second.” he replied aloud, his annoyance plain as day “I have so many more questions and I am going to ask them.”

“Oh, fine, if you’re going to be difficult here, I’ll Allow you one more question for her, but then she’s got to go!”

He thought for a while, he would need to make this count. He needed answers and while one voice was being obstructive, one seemed to want him to question. He needed to talk to her more, so he came up with a question that would, he hoped, throw the voice off enough to allow him to keep talking to her.

“Who are you?”

“Well, now that’s an easy one to answer silly. I’m you.”