Jones was in bed when Madison yelled for everyone to get out of bed. He was immediately awake, jumping out of his bed with only his underwear, going to the door and standing in the doorway to see what was going on.

  In the rooms, other people moved as well, Zoi getting into the hallway while Angelica got into the doorway as well, heavily leaning against the post as she seemed rather weak and tired. “What… what is happening!”

  She even sounded weak, going against everything Jones had seen of her so far. Theories went through his head about her powers, feeling as if he was missing something about her. Out of everyone here, the only one to not show his face was David.

  While suspicious, for now Madison was much more important. As he walked to her door, it already flew open with Madison coming out, having a big smile on her face.

  “We have another one!” She grabbed Jones and hopped up and down, letting go and going to Zoi instead, starting to torture him with her happiness.

  Jones wasn’t going to wait for her explanation, going to her room and diary to read it. The first thing he saw was a human skeleton drawn there. It didn’t look like anything special, starting to read through the dream that had appeared in the book.

  As Jones was reading, Madison moved around, going from person to person before opening the door to David to tell him the good news.

  As he started to read through the pages, he was doing a quick scan through the dream, seeing that it was about a bullied guy in a world where if people die, they return once more as a skeleton to live a second life. “Oh, this might be good. Someone like that might have some compassion and could be reasoned with.”

  He got up, went outside and leaned against the door, watching Madison trying to get everyone to get dressed in order to get them moving towards their next member.

  Though she was too busy being happy, David was being rather distant, looking at everyone one by one before focusing back on Angelica.

  It was almost as if she knew it as her eyes darted towards him even while Madison was hugging her. Something had happened when they tried to summon their masters and both seemed to be in on it.

  For some reason, both didn’t act on their needs of killing each other, as if something told them not to as before they just acted on it. Madison demanded everyone to get dressed as they were going to get going, not wanting to miss her next addition to her collection.

  Just like last time, everyone was packed in the car in order to get this next person with her diary being passed around for them to read in. Most notably of this character was that right before he woke up, his skeleton was falling into a volcano.

  While Madison wasn’t too smart at certain moments, she had decided to put David next to her and the rest in the back so that she could keep an eye out for him. It was also obvious that David and Angelica both had it difficult physically after what had happened with their powers weaker than before.

  During the trip, not a lot of talking was being done, except by Jones who tried to explain his ideas to Angelica of the cloud grenade and perhaps a suit to prevent him from getting wet when flying on his cloud.

  Just as with the other three, it took a lot longer to drive for them all to find the new dreamer and by the time that they got there, it was already noon of the next day that he got the dream.

  Madison had driven for more than a day, not needing to sleep just so that they would arrive as soon as possible. Though when they finally arrived, it was clear that something was wrong as the front door was open.

  “Oh no…” She got out of the car, running towards the house and letting the rest behind. She disappeared into the house, leaving the rest to figure things out on their own.

  Angelica and Zoi got out first with Angelica having to hold onto the car. She seemed to be a bit white and sick. After a couple of seconds, she let out a deep sigh, trying to regain some balance.

  Jones got out as well, seeing that David didn’t get out, focusing on the diary in order to get to know more about this new guy. From the looks of it, the guy had ran off which wasn’t too surprising if you wake up with different memories and no parents, let alone remembering your impending doom.

  With Madison looking around in the house and the other three just looking around and not really knowing what to do, Jones walked to the back of the car and opened it up, taking out the rubber bottom before looking at the sky.

  It was a nice day with a bright sun and multiple clouds floating around. He ordered one down towards him, making it dense again and throwing the rubber bottom on it before getting on.

  As he started to fly and let the other two behind, he wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. A skeleton guy wasn’t hard to find but if a skeleton was walking around, people would have already made a scene about it.

  For now, he just flew around, trying to remember where he came from as getting lost wasn’t on his wish list. Unfortunately, with how long the guy had to walk around and wander, there were just too many places to look for him.

  Unfortunately, after flying around for a long time, nothing came up. While flying back to the car, he tried to figure out some way to get him quickly before something bad could happen.

  Though when landing, he saw that there was someone extra at the car. While he had been flying up there, this guy had walked back home or maybe had never even left. He looked at the skeleton, nodding towards him. “Guess that I should’ve waited huh?”

  He dismissed his clouds, dropping the rubber plate on the ground before holding out his hand for the new person to shake. When his hand was grabbed, it was very cold, making him shiver as the bones didn’t make it any better. “I’m Jones if nobody else told you that.”

  “Joey.” Said the skeleton. He had a jacket on, hood pulled far down over his face so that his skull was hidden in shadows. It seemed like he didn’t want to talk a lot.

  Madison clapped in her hands, pushing Joey towards the car, stopping when she noticed that there weren’t enough seats. Not only that, by this moment, the other children also are considered missing and she couldn’t just have a skeleton in the front seat.

  She didn’t really have a choice though, putting David back in the front and the rest in the backseat, having to deal with Joey last. “Joey, I didn’t really think this through but can you sit in the trunk? I know that there aren’t any chairs but… I mean…”

  He just nodded, waving her words away and hopping in the car and lying down, turning his back toward Madison. He didn’t like it but with his body transformed and no parents, he didn’t really have much choice but to go along with it.

  On the way back, Jones couldn't help himself but feel bad for the skeleton, giving him the diary from over the backseat so he could read up on them as well. Maybe that way if he knew them better, he’d actually feel more part of the group.

  He did read on the way home, seeing the mistakes of everyone and the events they went through. What he didn’t find in the story, was what he was looking for, putting it away in the end and continuing to lie there. His body was permanently cold as he had lost the ability to cry.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Back when home and everyone was let out, David and Angelica seemed to be doing quite a lot better, although something still seemed off about them, but for now, Jones just went inside, wanting to sleep in an actual bed, followed closely by Zoi and Angelica.

  Angelica yawned as she went to her bed, quite surprising to Jones as she normally shouldn’t need to sleep with her powers. As she went to bed, David and Joey weren't to be seen anywhere. Madison was probably with them. That thought was good enough for him, going in his room and locking the door, not wanting anyone to come in.

  Outside, David and Joey were together, David looking at Joey as his empty eye sockets stared back at him. David held the diary with his story inside, before casually tossing it to the side in the dirt. “So, you’ve read about me, anything to say?”

  Joey knew what David could do, taking a single step back and pulling the hood of his jacket back, exposing part of his scorched skull to David. “You’ve read mine as well haven’t you. I almost killed someone for bullying me. You also read how I died twice by the hands of the same person?”

  He sounded mad and upset, clenching his boney hands, staring into David's soul, wondering why this demon child was talking to him as if he was a normal person. Nobody ever liked him, why would this kid be any different. Just because he got some powers? Ridiculous.

  “Well, I know that you’re hurting and I can’t say that I can relate the feelings. I’ve been created and know very little and unlike you, I’m not as connected to my human part as you are. I might look human but be assured, deep down I’m just a demon, hated by everyone in the house. If you ever need me, don’t hesitate to talk to me, I’ll be there.” He chuckled, turning around to go to his own room. “How about you come along? I can show you your room.”

  There wasn’t much that Joey could say against that, immediately liking the kid, maybe having misjudged him. He followed David into the house, leaving the diary on the ground. Maybe this life was going to be different after all.

  The next morning after everyone had woken up and was sitting at the table, they expected to have a talk about Joey, maybe a deep look into what makes him tick and perhaps even to give him something to do with his new life. In matter of fact, everyone was expecting Madison for an idea on how to get started with the grand plan of whatever being made them.

  Zoi was mostly confused at that. Asking the questions that Jones hadn't thought of. “If that being is able to force other lives into these bodies, merge two beings into one, why doesn't he just force fantasy into everyone? And why only children, because unless I'm wrong, Joey over here is as old as us. Am I wrong?” He said that last part a bit calmer, looking at Joey.

  “Not wrong, I am seventeen. Fifteen as a human and two as a skeleton.” To him, that was a normal answer, but they never had to identify a second body age like he had to do in his world with living skeletons. It didn't matter much at this point as the eyes were mostly aimed at Madison for answers.

  “Well, normally everyone should eventually have gotten information of that being themselves. To me, it was something like: “children have more fantasy and therefore are more corruptible to the wonders”. Or something like that, I don't remember.”

  That's when David got up. He wasn't smiling and he didn't look as weak as the day before. “I think I've heard enough. Sitting here is not going to satisfy my lord.” His eyes glowed red before disappearing into nothingness.

  “What was that?!” Joey jumped up, his chair falling onto the ground as he pointed at where David had disappeared. “You guys saw that right? Right…?” He sounded a bit panicked, grabbing his head with both his hands.

  Zoi put a hand on his arm, quickly pulling back when the bones felt rather unpleasant. “Easy there, I have a feeling like Angelica can tell us more about his actions.”

  “Hah!” Jones leaned back in his chair, shaking his head as he threw his hand up in the air. “I think everyone here knows what's up, everyone but Joey. Both Angelica and David managed to summon their masters here and David has gone rogue to try and satisfy his master. What I want to know is why you two have been so silent about it and so weak.”

  Angelica nodded, wondering if her choice of staying quiet had been a good one or not. “We were weak because apparently, having our masters here cost a lot of power. And I guess that we also now know if we have a limit or not. Everything I do right now actually costs energy, makes me tired.

  “So that also counts for David. And since you can't manipulate people, you also can't invade his mind to see where he is right now or what he is planning.” Jones was hoping for some good news but the way he saw it, he should've killed David when he had the chance.

  “You're right, I can't find him just like that. We're just going to have to wait and find out what he is going to do.” Angelica didn't seem too upset or guilty about her keeping this quiet.

  “Why did you keep it quiet? What did you have to gain from keeping the existence of your god from us?” At this point, he was just looking for reasons that he could justify his distrust.

  “He told me not to. He couldn't see whether he succeeded or not so if I told you that my god was here, then perhaps he’d try again to summon his.”

  “Yeah well, now we have a rogue evil guy with huge powers loose on this planet.” He was clearly mad about this all, shaking his head and being a bit too over the top.

  Madison held up her hand, silencing everyone. “Alright Jones, we understand that you're upset, perhaps we should think about what might happen now. Angelica, do you have any idea?”

  She gave Madison her attention, ignoring Lucas’ dirty looks. “Well, our masters can't live here without us unlike in our dreams. So the conditions have changed as well. I think that… David might try to bring suffering to this world. The harder the people suffer, the stronger his master gets.”

  Zoi leaned back in his chair, his mind calm as he was able to make the most sense out of this. “So if he gets stronger from suffering, how do you get stronger?”

  “I don't. We don't feed on people's emotions.” She sounded calm now as well, giving Zoi a warm smile, almost too warm. “My god wants to give you a gift.”

  That immediately caused Zoi to sit up straight, shaking his head quickly. “Oh no thanks, I'm fine. You should keep your strength.”

  “No, he insists.” She waved with her hand through the air, causing candles to appear in front of Zoi. “There, one for each of the dreamers. You can removed them by waving your hand in front of you through the air.”

  Seeing the candles made Zoi grit his teeth, nodding slowly as his eyes went from name to name on the candles. “Thank you, I really missed these.” It sounded so forced, but he couldn't help it. “Oh hey, Madison is here as well. And a candle from someone called Demmie.”

  His voice had changed to normal again as he was genuinely confused, making everyone else lean closer to look at the numerous candles. There were a lot more than just them, the first generation dreamers also being included. All but one candle was lit. When he read the name, he didn't recognize it. “Amanda?”

  Madison shook her head when he looked at her. She didn't recognize the name. “I don't know everyone from the original dreamers so I don't know who that might be. She's at least not from this generation.”

  They were getting distracted and he knew it, waving the candles away without looking at the other candles as he looked back at Angelica. “Well, thanks but perhaps keep your powers for other things. We can't have you go weak on us and if things keep going like this, we'll need you strong in case stuff goes down with David.”

  “Yeah, I understand.” She slunk back in her seat, closing her eyes as she seemed to concentrate, letting the others discuss the events.

  Joey didn’t really talk a lot if anything. He turned to look at people talking, but he was mostly lost thinking to himself. He hadn’t been long enough with them to know what he should be doing, but he knew that even here he was an outcast. His thoughts were disrupted as Jones waved his hand in front of him.

  “Hey bonehead, anything to add?” He seemed to be rather irritated right now, his face showing emotions that Joey hadn’t had for a long time.

  “No, I’m going to my room. Call me if there are any developments.” He got up, leaving them behind with no other explanation. That David guy didn’t seem to be that bad, just different ideologies.

  “Great, he’s no help at all.” Jones grumbled and crossed his arms over each other, leaning back in his chair and looking at the roof.

  “Maybe don’t go too hard on the guy.” Said Zoi, looking a bit concerned at the back of Joey’s skull as he left them. “He has been through a lot.”

  “So have I! I lost my family to the government and I can’t help them while my other family got deleted in order to fulfill some kind of holy mission I don’t even want!” He was panting now, squinting his eyes at Zoi as he seemed to stay rather calm. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve served a god so why would you care now.”

  That seemed to trigger something in Zoi. He leaned over the table while standing up. “You’re an asshole Jones. You read my story. I’ve been trapped in a prison of his making, taking care of death candles. It’s eternity in there.”

  Madison quickly held her hands in between them, trying to get them to calm down. “Okayyy. Maybe we should take a break for today.” She moved her chair back once she got their attention. “Maybe we should go to our rooms and cool down for a bit hmmm? With David disappearing and a bit of tension, peace and quiet would do us well.

  Jones calmed down quickly, still panting but looking from her to Zoi, nodding slowly. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. I’m sorry Zoi, things are difficult for everyone. I should remember that.”

  Zoi nodded as well, falling back down in his chair, rubbing his forehead with his hand. “It’s fine, I don’t even remember my parents so I guess that you hold two miserable events in you.”

  Not wanting to make Zoi feel bad, he extended his hand over the table in order to make peace. “And you spend over two thousand years stuck in some kind of labor prison, those can’t be compared right?”

  He smiled, grabbing the hand and shaking it, accepting the peace offering. “I guess not.”