Pocketwatch III

I was resting my head against my pillow when I felt something warm vibrate through it. I pushed the pillow aside, and in my mid-afternoon nap daze, I saw the watch open up and release a silver glow that permeated like an aurora throughout the room.

"Wait... what?"

At that point, I thought I was dreaming, or hallucinating, or anything else, but the watch vibrated in my hand and the beams of silver light grew brighter than ever before. I tried to close the watch, but it refused to cooperate. I tried to drop the watch, but its chain caught onto my fingers and it swung up against my arm. I screamed as the silver glow came in contact with my skin.

In that moment I felt all control I had over my body release, and I felt Grey awaken inside. My body fell back off the bed, and a scream echoed out of my mouth. Unfortunately, nobody was home except for me. I was alone with myself, Grey, and the mysterious pocketwatch.

Grey grabbed the watch and clutched it in his fist. He grinned and stared down at it, and I felt victory ring throughout his mind. He felt as if he had won somehow. And this newfound energy within the watch leaked out, and he began to soak it all in using my body.

I could barely comprehend what was happening, let alone fight against Grey. Every passing second, I felt my "self" become smaller and weaker compared to Grey's. He was rapidly taking over my body out of nowhere, and I could not fight back.

I heard someone running up the stairs. Grey froze up, and his hostile takeover paused for a moment. A man in a dark gray hoodie with light brown hair and a handgun, ready and aimed directly at my head, appeared at my doorway.

Grey panicked inside of me. He put his hands up in the air.

"S-sir, uh... what do you want? Ar-re you robbing me?"

The man squinted his eyes at us, and smirked.

"Why don't you grovel some more, huh? You're a cowardly little shard, you know that?"

Grey was shocked, and I was as well. This man knew of him, and then he knew... or maybe he would shoot anyway? Maybe that would be for the best... to end it here and now...

But, he didn't. He kept aiming the gun at us, but he did not shoot.

I felt Grey use my mouth to smirk, despite his fear causing my heart to race.

"So, you've figured it out. Who are you?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me his name."

Grey giggled.

"You don't want to know my name?"

"I could care less." Peter spat at the ground and stepped into the room. He kicked an empty crate my mom had set down earlier out of the way.

"Ha! I like you, human. Very well; my name is Grey, and his name is Owen."

"My name is Peter...," he said with uncertainty. He looked as if he had to think something over.

"Assuming you're this far along... he's probably dead..."

He gripped the gun harder. It appeared as if he was torn on shooting me in order to kill Grey.

Grey smiles.

"You wouldn't want to take that chance, now would you?"

Peter sighed.

"I can't let you go either, though, and.... wait, what's that?"

Peter noticed the pocketwatch, and I experienced extreme motion sickness as my body lurched forward at him. He almost pulled the trigger, but my body was already out of the way. Grey sweep-kicked into Peter's stomach, which pushed him into my dresser. My lamp fell over and crashed against the floor as Grey grabbed at Peter's arm. He attempted to break it, but Peter kneed us in the stomach and kicked our feet out from under us.

Grey kicked up and knocked the gun out of Peter's hand. We slammed against the ground and then rolled over. Peter attempted to double kick us but Grey guarded against the second blow with my shoulder; the first blow had smashed against my ear. Blood trickled down from it, and dotted the floor when Grey pushed up from the ground and tackled Peter to the ground.

He grabbed at Peter's throat, and then attempted to grab Peter's gun, but Peter kicked it away. He managed to push us off, and then he pulled out a sharp combat knife. The knife sliced my cheek wide open; Grey grinned and jumped up and back, away from Peter.

Peter charged and slashed at us with the knife. Amazingly, Grey somehow dodged each slice, and then tried to punch at Peter's windpipe. Peter jumped back, and judging by his facial expression, he expected that this would be finishing blow.

Except Grey had the pocketwatch.

He held it up quickly before the knife could stab into our stomach. There was a flash of light, and everything froze. Everything froze, just as the knife was only half an inch from stabbing into my kidney. Everything froze, and Grey cackled with delight.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful. Holy shit. This little clock is incredibly useful, who knew! Wow. Wowza. I can't even handle my happiness right now, I- wow. This is amazing. I love this. I love this a lot."

He punched Peter, with the watch clutched in his fist. There was a flash of light, and Peter was thrown back into my room and into a wall.

"Okay. We are in business. We are in business inde-"

He looked down, and noticed that Peter dropped his knife. Grey grabbed it, and inspected it.

"This is a handy-dandy little tool here! Now, okay, okay... I do honestly believe in the "you scratch my back, I scratch your back" mentality, so Owen- I will kill your mother for you. Don't worry, I know, I know, no need to thank me!~"

This was the moment I actually tried to fight back. I felt anger swell up from within me like nothing else. I no longer questioned wanting to protect my mother. We had gotten past that.

I could talk once again. I screamed.

"I don't need your help, and I don't need you, a-and... I'm sick of this, just fucking stop and let me die on my own own!!" 

I burst into tears in the middle of saying it. I wanted to sound imposing to Grey, but it didn't work; he could see every bit of emotion inside of me. Despite this, or maybe because of this, he became silent for a moment, unable to say a word.

"...Why do you keep fighting back against me? You admit defeat on your own, but when I threaten the lives of others, you suddenly jump back into the fray. I'd understand if these humans gave a damn about you, but they do not. They've beaten you and crushed you and you're one of the most unloved humans I've ever met. Why fight off your mother's demons? Don't you see how futile this all is!?"

Grey was genuinely confused by my decision. And angry as well.

I didn't bother answering him. I was sick of his lectures, and of our debates. I opened our right hand. The pocketwatch fell to the floor, and the watch's distortion of reality ceased.

Grey screamed and Peter tackled us and then everything faded away.