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Sothe shot up from his bed, sweating and terrified. He felt the wet comforter drenched in his sweat and stared into the darkness of his bedroom. He couldn't comprehend the dream he just had. His heart felt heavy, as if there something was dragging it down. He sat there, gasping, for about ten minutes before putting any thoughts into his disturbed head. As soon as he did, however, all memories of his dream scattered. He couldn't remember anything. His fear was replaced with confusion as he tried to remember what his dream was about. He eventually dismissed the dream and decided to go back to sleep.

"Hey Sothe!"
Sothe looked past the counter and in line was his friend Yuuki. Yuuki smiled politely as he waited for Sothe to say his line.
Sothe sighed and prepared for the onslaught of teasing to come. "Welcome to McHappy's where everything is happy. If you're not happy, we're not happy. May I take your order?" Sothe said in the most dreaded voice possible.
"Did I ever tell you I love the fact that you work here?" Yuuki said between giggles.
"Are you going to order something or just stand there and make fun of me?" Sothe said not amused.
"Oh, yeah. I'll have a double cheeseburger and a Dr. Pepper please." Yuuki said after he stopped giggling.
"That'll be $6.35."
"Aww, can't you give me a discount?" Yuuki pleaded.
"Sorry but that would come straight out of my paycheck and I need all the money I can get to pay rent."
"Just a little one?" Yuuki pleaded some more.
"No." Sothe said flatly. Sothe reached back and pulled out a burger from the rack and filled a cup with Dr. Pepper while Yuuki layed down his $6.35.
"Hmph. Stingy. Oh, hey, I was wondering if after you got off you wanted to hang out at my place?"
"Why?" Sothe wondered. "I mean, I suppose I would. I got nothing better to do. But why?"
"Oh I just got a new game that I thought you might like so I figured I should invite you over to watch me start it or even play it yourself." Said Yuuki, his past anticipation for the game bubbling back up.
"Sure, that'd be fun. I'll see you at around 3:30 then."
"K. Later."
"Later."

Yuuki let Sothe in his house and led him to his room. The house was a huge, three-story-tall mansion painted a dull white that reflected the sunlight brilliantly but just dim enough to not blind anyone, allowing the viewers to stare as it's brilliance. The carpet was pure white. You could see every piece of lint and speck of dust, and thus the footprints left in Sothe and Yuuki's wake. The furniture was a gorgeous dark brown with a glassy look to it, as if there were a barrier around it, protecting it from anything that didn't match its beauty. As they walked up the stairs to the second story, where Yuuki's bedroom was located, Sothe noticed the vase that held an assortment of flowers that he'd never seen before. Each flower was a different color with a splash of colors that flowed seamlessly from one color to the next, showing each flower's individuality but also showing how well they work together to form a wonderful treat for the eyes. Sothe had been in this house more times than he can count but every time he walks in something new and even more expensive than the last new addition was put in. Yuuki had a lot of money and his house was his best example. Yuuki didn't like to show it all that much, though. He thought it dumb that most people tried to be friends with him because of his money and never mentions it to strangers until he knows they like him for him and not his money.
Yuuki opened the door to his large, white -similar to the rest of the house- room, big enough to be Sothe's living room. He had a bed against the corner that rose high above the ground, so high that Sothe wondered how his rather short friend was able to get out of bed every morning and not twist his ankle or something from the fall. Next to the head of the bed was a nightstand with a single drawer and a shelf at the bottom. The nightstand had a picture of him in his elementary school years with his parents. They always beamed with happiness, their smiles saying that their  family was perfect. A large window that gave a wonderful view of their back garden and the swimming pool on the opposite side of the flower beds took up almost the whole wall, beginning just a foot or two from the corner and stopping a few inches from the foot of his bed. On the left connecting wall from the window was a series of tall shelves that seemed like Yuuki couldn't even reach the top of that held all of his music, movies and video games among other things. In between the series of shelves was a 50 in. flatscreen t.v. with every major gaming console, and some lesser known ones, every made on a surprisingly sturdy glass shelf underneath, all being supported by two very large black beams that connected to a platform that made the base of the entertainment center. His closet was closed at the moment, but it was a walk-in closet that looked like the clothing section of a supermarket, of course filled with too many clothes that Yuuki didn't wear. Yuuki immediately turned to the PS3 under the flatscreen and turned it on with the game disc already inside.
"I've been waiting months for this game!" Yuuki said with excitement. "It's supposed to be the best horror game ever!"
That was another thing. Yuuki loved to get scared. Not that Sothe minded as he enjoyed a good scare now and again.
"Ooh, a horror game. You know what the best way to play those is?" Sothe hinted.
"Of course!" Yuuki quickly got up and changed the atmosphere as the game booted up with the unskippable logos of the company who had anything to do with this game. He closed the blinds so that not a single ray of light shined through the individual blinds. He turned the lights all the way off and was about to shut the door when he heard a knock. "Huh? Who could....Oh!" he snapped his finger after realizing something. "I forgot! I made plans for Tofu to come over as well!"
"Hey, the more the scarier!" Sothe chuckled, knowing full well that wasn't true, especially with Tofu.
"You know he hates being scared!" Yuuki says frowning.
"He doesn't have to know its a horror game." Sothe smiled devilishly.
"You know he's going to hate us for weeks after this right?" Yuuki said, trying to convince his friend that it wasn't a good idea despite the fact that he liked where Sothe's mind was going.
"Just bring him up here. He won't catch on until you've locked the door."
"Alright. Just wait here and try not to give it away by laughing or something like you always do."
Sothe was about to retort but Yuuki was already racing down the stairs to the door when it knocked again. Sothe heard them talking clearly through the echoing house and waited for them to walk into the room. He looked at the t.v. screen and saw the title complete with dripping blood and eerie music. Sothe panicked  as he quieted the volume for the moment and clicked on "New Game" so the title wasn't there either. Just as he was done putting on the pathetic disguise Yuuki walked in with Tofu closely behind. Tofu was dressed in his usual attire of a plain-colored T-shirt, this time green, and jeans. The light from the t.v. reflected off his glasses, hiding his eyes. Tofu turned his head at the game and was already unsure at what he was about to witness, not realizing that his one way of escape was already locked.
"What is this?" Tofu said as coolly as possible, not hiding the hint of fear already in him very well.
"I told you its the new game I got!" Yuuki said excitedly. He sat down on his legs in front of the controller Sothe had just held to set up the screen and made a new file. The opening cinematic started but when the voice finally piped up no one could hear it. "Why is the volume down so low?" Yuuki turned it up using the remote, glad that he didn't miss anything with the subtitles following what the person off-screen was saying. Tofu knew exactly what kind of game this was after hearing how the actor was talking and the way the camera was panning the scene and became irritated.
"This is a horror game isn't it?!" He screamed.
"Shush!" Yuuki whispered. "I don't want to miss anything."
"You know I don't like this kind of stuff!" Tofu continued to yell.
"C'mon Tofu," Sothe said reassuringly, "it's not that bad. If you want you can sit next to me so you're not alone all the way over there."
"Could you at least make the room not so dark?" Tofu begged.
"No. Now Siddown!" Yuuki said, a little irritated.
Tofu did as he was told and sat next to Sothe. All throughout the play session Tofu fidgeted and held tightly onto Sothe as a defense. Everytime a monster came up he screamed and held onto Sothe even tighter, almost tearing Sothe's shirt and digging into his skin. Sothe just stared off annoyed, regretting his idea of a prank.
"Wow," Yuuki said impressed, "this place is freaking creepy!"
Sothe turned back to the t.v. and saw a town covered in a thick fog. The character on screen moved slowly through the fog, not knowing what will appear next. Sothe felt his head throb painfully and put his hand up to his head for comfort, trying not to hold back any sound of pain he it might have caused. Sothe continued to watch as if nothing was wrong. Suddenly a monster with no face appeared from the fog, slowly, even slower than the character, advancing onto Yuuki's character. It's long, muscle-less body, it's skin drooping off of the bones you could see underneath in bags. It looked dirty, the kind of state that only rotting skin could get. Sothe starred at it and felt his head throb even harder, feeling like it could explode from the pain. He saw images that looked familiar at a glance, but he barely had time to register them as the disappeared as fast as they appeared and was replaced with a different image, which also disappeared. He couldn't stand it anymore and fell backwards, hands clenching his head like it was about to actually explode. Sothe let out a terrified scream and tossed his body from one side to the other. Eventually he stopped, his head no longer hurting and the images no longer replacing his vision. He was gasping for air as his friends looked at him with concern and shock.
"S-Sothe...?" Yuuki asked, not so much a question, but hoping that nothing happened to his friend.
Sothe sat up again, noticing that the creature on the screen was gone. His head throbbed again, forcing him to look down with his eyes closed, but it quickly passed. Sothe was still out of breath when Tofu helped him up.
"Are you OK?" Tofu asked concerningly, ready to listen to what Sothe had to say.
"I.....I think so." Sothe starred at the ground confused. "I have no idea what all of that was about."
"You must have seen something that didn't agree with you." Tofu said in full analysis mode. "There was nothing else that could have caused such a reaction. Unless you were suffering from the mother of all migraines."
Yuuki turned off the game and took Sothe's other side to support him. They waited for Sothe to say something, anything that might hint at what made him react like that, but Sothe just stood there, still breathing hard, staring at the floor, silent. Finally Sothe spoke up, but very quietly.
"I........I think I should go home." Sothe said, almost in a trance. "I......Want to be alone right now."
"You sure?" Yuuki asked. "You could always stay here. That way if that happens again I can be here to make sure you get well."
"No......My school stuff is at home. If I stay here I'll just be late. And maybe make you late." Sothe was still pausing to breath in-between sentences.
"Don't worry about that. Your health comes first. If you still want to be alone you can have the guest room next to this room. I'll let you have any privacy you wish." Yuuki wouldn't take no for an answer.
"I.......I guess I'll have to then. Excuse me." Sothe slipped from over Yuuki and Tofu's shoulders and walked, at first sluggishly but eventually normally, to the next room and lied on the perfect white sheets of the bed face-first. He lied there, not doing anything, not moving, save for his breathing, until his friend called him for dinner that night. Sothe thanked Yuuki's parents after the meal for letting him stay here for the night despite it being a school night. They simply smiled back and replied with welcoming gestures. Sothe excused himself from the table, lied back down on the perfect white sheets, and slept.
Tofu was still with his parents at the table when Sothe left despite his plate being covered by mere scraps. His parents had asked him what caused Sothe to react the way he did.
"I don't know." Yuuki pondered. "Come to think of it, the game I was  playing at the time did revolve around the main character who's parents had died when he was young. Maybe it brought back memories of when he lost his. I should have been more careful when I invited him over."
"You said that he lived alone in his parents' house right?" Yuuki's dad asked.
"Poor kid." Sympathized Yuuki's mother. "No wonder he reacted the way he did. It must be awful having no other family and having to survive on your own."
"Hey," Yuuki started, "can you promise  not to mention any of that to him? He doesn't know I told you guys and now may not be a good time to bring it up."
"Of course." Yuuki's mother said, still worried over Yuuki's friend.
"I understand." Replied Yuuki's father.
"Thank you. I should be getting to bed, too. Gotta get up a little earlier so we can swing by his house and get his stuff in the morning." Yuuki got up from the table and put his plate and silverware on the counter next to the sink.
"Good night, dear." Whispered his mother, trying to keep the atmosphere quiet so her son could get sleepy.

A cloudy, shadowy figure was looking from the alley between two buildings, searching for something on the outside. It found it's target on the other side of the street, just getting out of the bank. The shadow quickly dashed from the alleyway and stalked his target. As soon as it was close enough it felt a force bring it to breathing distance from it's target. The shadow disappeared with a poof when he impacted with this target. The shadow suddenly felt the sensation of feeling as he reached down to the side of his pants and grinned, ecstatic over the money he had just earned.

Sothe woke up again in a sweat. He felt the same as he did the night before at his own house, confused and, somehow terrified. As soon as he tried to think of his dream it disappeared from his mind, almost as if it was never there. Sothe continued to try to remember the dream. When he admitted that it was a lost cause he lied back down and closed his eyes.

"Hey, did you get your homework finished?" Asked Yuuki as he just realized there was such a thing.
"Yeah. I made sure to do it before I went to work." Sothe said tiredly. He didn't get much sleep after waking up so suddenly.
"Oh man! I totally forgot when I got my new game! My teacher's gunna kill me!" Yuuki was stressing over his lack of completed homework as he pulled into the school's parking lot. They had just made the warning bell after stopping by Sothe's house to grab his backpack and books. They had to part ways and raced to their classrooms. Sothe ran through the door just as the tardy bell rang, saving him from a detention. He stood over his desk for a while to catch his breath and sat down next to Tofu. Tofu inched closer to Sothe and whispered so the teacher couldn't hear him over her lecture.
"Do you feel any better?" Tofu said quietly.
"A little.......But I had a weird dream last night." Sothe paused a second to try to remember the dream again. "Or, at least, I think it was weird. It made me wake up......But I couldn't remember what it was about."
"I have psychology next. I'll take that time to look through my textbook for anything about dreams." Tofu suggested.
"Thank you." Sothe knew that if anyone could help him out with information, it was Tofu. Tofu had straight As and would have a 4.0 if he didn't have the bad luck of running into that one teacher every year that gave him an A- and never offered extra credit.
"Tofu!" The teacher yelled from the white board. "If you can talk in my class then obviously you don't need to learn from me. Since you're so smart tell me what this chemical bond means!"
"Of course Ms. When!" Tofu was caught off-guard at first but quickly gathered his bearings and answered the question with 100% accuracy. Ms. When turned around, bitter from her defeat, and continued her lecture. Tofu and Sothe looked at each other and laughed at her expense.

"So," Tofu slammed his psychology book on the lunch table on a page so Sothe and Yuuki could see, "according to this section here dreams can be created from anything. They can be as small as something you saw that day or as large as a trauma from some part of your life." Tofu paused to let that information sink in.
"We already know that Tofu." Yuuki said, bored. "It's kinda common knowledge."
"However," Tofu continued, annoyed by Yuuki's comment, "it doesn't go into detail about suddenly forgetting your dream the moment you wake up, even dreams that cause you to wake up like Sothe has been. It says here that normally dreams of that degree or higher stay within the dreamer's memory until it's realized or resolved and then the dreamer can no longer fear that dream. The book also fails to mention why someone would react the way Sothe did yesterday at your house Yuuki."
"Well, it is a school's textbook." Yuuki pointed out, still bored.
"Thank you for trying Tofu." Sothe said disappointed.
"Hey now, I'm not beat yet!" Tofu said with determination. "I'll spend all night tonight, after homework of course, looking up different psychological behavior and why some people would react like you did. Something like that cannot be overlooked so I'm making it my mission to help you Sothe!" Tofu finished his speech with a promise.
"Don't leave me out!" Yuuki said, frustrated. "Just because I don't know as much psychology as you doesn't mean I can't help!" Yuuki turned to Sothe. "Sothe, you can always talk to me. It can be on the phone, Skype, anything. Just say you want to talk and I'll be there."
"Thank you you two." Sothe said, happy that he wasn't alone. "You don't know what that means to me..." Little tears of happiness appeared out of the corner of Sothe's eyes but he held them back, trying to be strong so his friends weren't doing all of the work.
Tofu looked at his watch. "Oh!" he said, suddenly feeling rushed. "I gotta head up to the college for my next class now or I'll be late. See you guys later!"
"Bye Tofu!" Yuuki waved goodbye as their friend packed his stuff and ran through the doors to the outside. Sothe waved as well, his eyes still a little wet from the tears he was holding back. Suddenly Sothe felt something strange come over him. He didn't know what was going on. It felt like he wanted to leave, too, like he would do anything to leave. There was something more, though. He didn't want to just leave. Sothe was shocked by this feeling and pushed it back to the very back of his mind. He stared at the doors to the parking lot and let that one remaining tear fall.

Yuuki brought Sothe back to his mansion, not allowing him to be alone at home until Sothe's issue was at least identified. They started on their homework, which was stumping both of them. After about an hour and a half Sothe put his books neatly away into his bag and went off to work at McHappy's. His mind was distracted his entire shift about that feeling he had at school. He couldn't understand what it meant, or why he felt that way. When his shift ended he was called into his boss's, Mr. McHappy's, office. When Sothe walked in, his boss was not impressed.
"Sothe," Mr. McHappy began, "you know our motto right?"
"Yes sir." Sothe said, dreading what was to come.
"Could you say it for me please?" Mr. McHappy looked at Sothe with anticipation, a sort of anticipation that scared him.
"Welcome to McHappy's," Sothe recited the motto for his boss, "where everything is happy. If you're not happy, we're not happy. May I take your order?"
Mr. McHappy just sat there, processing what Sothe said. When he finally spoke, his face had turned red with a visible vain popping out of the side of his forehead. "Then why were you depressed this whole time?! You drove away so many customers! You could have ruined my business!" Mr. McHappy paused, hearing his words echo in the ventilation shaft above him. "So, because I know how hard a worker you are, I'm going to give you another chance. If you come back tomorrow with that sorry expression then you're fired!"
Sothe's heart sunk. He stared at his boss in horror at the thought of being unemployed. Eventually Mr. McHappy finally asked, "Do I make myself clear?"
Sothe held back any tears he had and let out a quiet "Yes sir." before getting up and leaving for Yuuki's mansion. The rest of Sothe's night consisted of studying and trying to complete his homework. Before he knew it, Sothe was laying down on Yuuki's guest bed, having fallen asleep while studying.

Sothe was positioned on a rooftop, laying down so he could look through the scope on the mounted rifle. He adjusted the lens as he looked through each window of the school, searching for his target. When he noticed the identifiable feature of his victim in one of the windows, he rested his finger on the trigger, waiting. The target's head was too far past the window. He needed to wait for the next opportunity, the next time the target makes any movements towards the window, to shoot. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for his target to make the next move.
He saw it! Sothe pulled the trigger and the bullet came shooting out of the barrel, fire and black powder flowing in all directions. The bullet sailed through the air, swiftly closing on it's intended target. The bullet crashed through the window, leaving but a hole as evidence, and hit it's target square in the head. Sothe noticed the body limped and sighed relief. He closed his eyes and prepared for his reward.
Sothe suddenly found himself sitting at a desk, limbs loose. He repositioned himself into a comfortable sitting position and continued to take notes. He looked to his left and saw a window with a hole in it. Smiling a little, Sothe pushed up his glasses and proceeded to take notes.

Sothe woke up immediately, soaked and terrified. Sothe sat there a few minutes and tried to register what he saw. This time the dream didn't go away. He remembered it vividly, though he didn't want to. Tears had welled up in his eyes and he finally let them fall. He couldn't understand what happened in the dream. Sothe continued to sob and, without his realizing, repeated the word "No..." over and over again. His door opened and Yuuki poked his head in, apparently having heard Sothe yell. When Yuuki noticed Sothe sweating profusely he ran to his side and asked if he was OK.
"No......." Sothe said again. "No.........No........No, it's not OK." Tears welled up in Sothe's eyes. "It's not OK. Why............"
Yuuki waited for Sothe to say more, but he never did. Finally Yuuki piped up. "What happened?"
Sothe just hiccuped and cried, trying not to see the dream he just had. No matter how hard he tried, however, it wouldn't leave his head. Yuuki tried to calm Sothe down, telling him that it would be OK, that nothing happened, but to no avail. Yuuki, at a loss for what to do, got up and got Sothe a drink of water from the bathroom to the left of Sothe's bed. When he returned Yuuki cleaned up Sothe's books from on top of him and set them next to his backpack before wishing Sothe goodnight and closing the door. Sothe sat there on the bed, crying, hiccuping, and remembering. Sothe couldn't figure out why he was crying so much, why this dream affected him so much. After about half an hour, when Sothe couldn't shed any more tears, he lied back down and went to sleep, still hiccuping and crying dry tears the rest of the night.

"C'mon Sothe!" Tofu was face-to-face with Sothe, who had been depressed all day. "Tell me what the dream was!" Yuuki and Tofu and been trying to get Sothe to share his dream all day so they could analyze it and maybe determine where it had come from. But Sothe didn't want to speak of the dream. He hardly spoke at all. Sothe finally looked up from the ground to his friend and as he was about to speak he started to cry. Sothe didn't understand himself what the dream was about. All he knew was that he had assassinated someone on a rooftop and suddenly was at his desk and studied as if it never happened.
"Sothe," Yuuki said worriedly, "it's OK. You can tell us. No matter what it is, we'll understand."
Sothe looked up again and finally said his first words that day. "I can't tell you guys."
Yuuki and Tofu looked at each other confused. They turned back to Sothe and spoke in unison. "Why?"
"I-I don't know." Sothe said between sobs. "I just know that I can't tell anyone. Especially you two."
Yuuki and Tofu looked at each other again, refusing to give up but knowing they were defeated, out of options. They didn't know where Sothe's nightmare had stemmed from and Sothe was unwilling to share it. Tofu finally suggested to Yuuki that he should be at Yuuki's mansion so that both him and Yuuki could keep an eye on Sothe. Yuuki agreed and informed his parents via text message. He shut his phone and sat there with Tofu, comforting his tormented friend.

After school Tofu and  Yuuki tried to pep up Sothe before his shift at McHappy's so Sothe wouldn't get fired. They first stopped for  ice cream, which Sothe barely ate. They then stopped at the store, where Sothe didn't want anything. They finally tried playing video games, knowing that Sothe could always be cured from depression with a game session. Sothe barely moved his fingers and watched as his character flew off-screen and caused a fountain of sparks and colors the erupt over the stage. His character came down on a glowing platform and continued the fight, only to be knocked out again. Sothe put down his controller and went to prepare for work. Tofu quickly grabbed Sothe's cell phone and called McHappy's
A gruff voice came in from the other line. "Hello?"
"Hi." Tofu said in his most professional voice. "This is Sothe's brother. Sothe isn't feeling very well. In fact he's been bedridden. I thought he looked kind of sick yesterday but it wasn't until today that it seemed to hit him hard. So, much to his dismay, Sothe won't be coming into work today."
The conversation was silent for a few short moments before the voice piped up again. "Is that so? Well, tell your brother to get well and be ready to get his final paycheck when he comes by next." The phone clicked, replacing the voice with the dial tone. Tofu stared off, eyes wide, heart heavy, and worry covering his face. Yuuki looked at Tofu, knowing what had happened just by looking at Tofu's face.
"What happened?" Yuuki said, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"Sothe..." Tofu said, guilt sinking in. "Sothe just got fired."
"Oh no..." Yuuki didn't know what to say and Tofu didn't know what to say to Sothe when he came back in, ready to say goodbye to his friends before departing. Tofu got up and walked over to Sothe, putting his hands on Sothe's shoulders. Sothe looked up, not ready for what Tofu had to say.
"Sothe..." Tofu started, having trouble getting the words out, "Sothe........You've been fired."
Sothe's face broke as he heard those awful words. Sothe stood there and stared, eyes glassy. Tofu looked at Sothe, worried about how he would react. He looked at his eyes and noticed they almost seemed to hold no life. Sothe, almost robot-like, shrugged off Tofu's hands and slowly walked off to his bed. He lied down and fell unconscious.

"Is Sothe doing OK?" Yuuki whispered to Tofu as he sat down next to him and across from Sothe, who had the same glassy stare from yesterday. Yuuki didn't think Sothe could hear them whispering over the loud school cafeteria and he was really concerned about his friend since he heard the news. He was already suffering from terrible dreams, which did seem to affect his health as it is, but now he gets fired? And all because of his recent depression.
"Not at all." Tofu said looking at the ground. "He didn't do anything today in his classes, or at least not the ones I had with him." Tofu glanced over at Sothe who just stared at the table. "He didn't even grab any lunch to eat."
"I didn't see him eat breakfast this morning either." Yuuki did not like where this path may lead for his friend. He wasn't eating, he wasn't getting good sleep, and he was suffering from a depression, the cause of which they knew nothing about.
"That's it." Tofu stood up, determined on whatever it was he just thought up. "We have to take him to see a therapist. Maybe there we can at least identify the cause for all of this. If not at least there Sothe can speak his mind without being judged by  people close to him." Tofu looked down at a hurt Yuuki. "At least, who he thinks may hold whatever it is against him."
"I'll set up the appointment. I know a good one that will see him right away." Yuuki was already dialing a number on his phone.
"I'll skip my college class to take him there." Tofu walked over to Sothe and smiled at him as he lifted his broken friend up from his seat. "Sothe, we're going to take you to someone who can help you with what you're going through."
"You sure you want to do that Tofu?" Yuuki paused, worried about what his friend may end up sacrificing even just this one day, "I can just call my parents to get us."
"You still have classes to take. I can just copy the notes from my classmates. A lot of them take very detailed notes so I won't miss anything. Besides this is more important. Just tell me where this therapist is."
"Its a house a few blocks away from my mansion. He doesn't advertise and he's expensive, thus why he's so free. But he's really good. I've seen patients worse off than Sothe walk out of there completely cured."
Tofu wondered how there can be someone worse off than Sothe at this point, but he didn't let that thought stick around too long as he brought Sothe to his car and drove off to the therapist. He and Sothe were let in by a balding old man with a white beard and cane. He was just shorter than Sothe and looked fairly happy aside from his job, like none of the cases he's dealt with so far affected him. The old man led them to a small room with a chair and a sofa of some sort. The room was covered in a scarlet red with gold lining on every corner and connecting wall. It was like a study straight out of a cliche mansion. Tofu laid Sothe down and told the old man what's been going on recently. The old man just stood there and nodded as he heard the symptoms and assured Tofu that everything would be fine while leading him back out of the room. He sat down on the chair next to Sothe and started the session.
"Sothe," He started in a gentle voice, "I hear you've been feeling depressed lately. How come?"
Sothe lied there, saying nothing. He wasn't sure what to say and the old man was unsure of what to make of the silence. Did he just not want to answer?
"Do you mind telling me when this might have all started?" He threw a line out, hoping to get some personal story out in the open.
"...I guess it started with the dreams I've been having." Sothe finally spoke after gathering his thoughts somewhat. His voice was weak and a little awkward, like it hadn't been used in a while. "Though for some reason I can't remember most of them. I forget them as soon as I wake up. They've been sticking stronger and stronger, though." Sothe began to sniffle a bit, but tried to make his voice clear so he didn't have to repeat it. "I can almost remember everything. And its the same two dreams." Sothe paused, trying to remember what the dreams were, but when he tried thinking on them the memories of them kept escaping little by little, even the one he most recently was able to remember.
"Can you remember them now?" The old man continued to pry. He knew that dreams were one of the best sources of information.
"Kind of." Sothe drew in a breath as he tried to remember the first one he had. "One of them happens near a bank. Then it feels like I move and all of a sudden I stand somewhere else."
The old man frowned. That wasn't much to go on. Nothing spectacular seemed to happen in that dream.
"And the second one I remember being on a rooftop, looking through the windows of another building." Sothe paused as he tried to remember more. "And that's about all I can remember."
"Is there anything else you remember from those dreams?" The old man wanted to hear these dreams. He had a feeling that the held all the answers. "ANYTHING at all?"
Sothe sat there, ready to respond with "No." when suddenly visions came to his head. He saw himself creep out from an alleyway and attack someone at the bank and suddenly acting like nothing happened. Then, he was on a rooftop, rifle equipped, and firing through a window of a building and hitting someone square in the head. Next thing he knew he was sitting at a desk and studying. The old man saw Sothe's face twist in horror as he realized Sothe was remembering something he didn't want to remember. He quickly ran to Sothe's side and calmed him down as much as he could. "What is it?"
"I remember now." Sothe said sweating. "I remember the dreams. Both of them. In one of them I creep out from an alleyway. Except I don't look like myself. I'm some black, cloudy figure. I walk up to someone holding a fat wallet outside the bank and I ram into him. I then feel like a person and notice the fat wallet in my hand and smile. I think I possessed that person." Sothe's head started to hurt, like it was about to explode. "Then, the second dream, I'm on a rooftop, using a sniper rifle to look through windows of a building. I notice my target and fire, a stream of black marking my bullet's trail. I hit someone in the head and my vision snaps to a desk, where I'm studying in a class. I think I possessed that person, too." Sothe's head continued to pound, aggravating his brain and eyes with each one. Sothe suddenly came to a realization and his head stopped hurting. The old man looked at Sothe, confused. He immediately knew what the dreams were saying. Dreams of possessing someone else normally meant-
Sothe stood up and stretched his arms as if he had been laying down for a while rather than just a few minutes. He walked to the door in a tall stride and opened the door as the old man tried to stop him. Sothe turned to him. "Thank you." He said with a smile, "I finally know why I'm having these dreams and I know what to do about them." Sothe walked out the door and let Tofu take him to Yuuki's mansion. Tofu drove off when Sothe entered through the large doors, happy and confused by his friend's fast recovery. He shrugged it off, though. Yuuki did say that that doctor cured a lot of worse-off patients in one sitting.

Sothe found the house empty except for Yuuki who must have been in his room upstairs. After stopping in the kitchen, He walked upstairs and found Yuuki where he thought he'd be. Yuuki immediately looked up from his homework to see his friend at the door. He smiled and ran to his smiling friend.
"How you feeling buddy?" Yuuki said with pride knowing he came up with the solution.
"Enlightened." Sothe smiled back. "I know exactly what's been wrong now."
"Can you tell me?" Yuuki said eagerly. "As long as you're willing to share, that is." He corrected himself.
"Of course." Sothe continued to smile. "You see, I've been missing out on a lot. Things like money and smarts, I've never really had that. All I can remember how sad and pathetic my life had been. So I was given a message in my dreams:" Sothe raised his arm up from behind his back and revealed a large cooking knife, "Become someone else!" Sothe swung the knife down, aiming for Yuuki's heart. Yuuki reacted and jumped back, the knife grazing his hair and cutting off some of the bangs. Yuuki stared at his friend in shock and horror. He couldn't register what his best friend had just told him or what he just did. Sothe started to advance on Yuuki, the light from Yuuki's window reflecting off the knife with each swing of his arm. Sothe swung at Yuuki again and again, eventually forcing Yuuki to a wall. Sothe brought the knife backwards this time and thrusted it forward, going for the kill once more. Yuuki lept to the left towards his bed, feeling too much shock to do much else. The knife grazed Yuuki's arm and caused blood to drip on the perfectly-white carpet, ruining its beauty. Yuuki saw his blood on the knife and felt a little sick, realizing that his best friend had purposely cut  him with a knife and, worse, had meant to kill him. Sothe took another swing and Yuuki jumped to the left again onto his bed.
"Why are you doing this?!" Yuuki cried, tears forming in his eyes.
"All I gotta do,"  Sothe started, arms dangling, eyes looking deranged. Yuuki was genuinely scared for his life, "is kill you. Once I kill you, I can become you. When I become you I can have your money! Then I'll kill Tofu and become him, gaining his smarts. It all makes sense now! There can't be two Yuuki's or two Tofu's, so I gotta kill you to become you!"
Yuuki was terrified that this sort of logic had just come out of his friend's mouth. He scrambled off the bed as Sothe missed with the knife and tore through Yuuki's bed. Sothe chased Yuuki all over the upstairs until Sothe finally had him cornered in the guest room. Yuuki's back touched the corner when Sothe took yet another swing, causing more blood to splatter on the white carpet. Sothe raised his knife high yet again, knowing that this would be it. He would finally become Yuuki! He could start his new happy life with this one last swing! Out of desperation, as Sothe brought down the knife, Yuuki grabbed the mirror from the nightstand next to Sothe's bed and used it as a shield. Sothe saw the mirror and stopped before hitting it. Sothe looked harder at the mirror, expecting to see himself. He finally realized that what he was looking at was not him. He saw something like a doll with no hair or face. Sothe starred longer at it and, after realizing what it was, began to feel terror sweeping him. His head started to pound even harder than it had earlier that day at the therapist's office.
Sothe's vision went black and when he could see again he was in a dark room. He looked at his hands to be sure that he was, in fact, seeing this empty void. He heard footsteps echo through the room and noticed a figure of a slender person walk towards him. When the figure was in full view Sothe realized that it was the doll he saw in the mirror. He felt terror sweep over him again as the doll drew closer with each echoing step. Sothe wanted to run, but his feet wouldn't respond. The doll finally stopped directly in front of Sothe and stood there for a while. Sothe still couldn't move, like his feet were nailed to the floor. The doll reached out it's hand to Sothe. Sothe looked at the hand in astonishment, confused by the meaning. The doll just stood there, hand outstretched, waiting for Sothe to take it. But Sothe was unsure. This being brought him fear and nightmares, and yet he wanted to shake hands? Sothe starred at its face, trying to read its lack of face. Just as Sothe could feel his feet ready to move, ready to run in the opposite direction as far as they could  carry him, a strange calm washed over him. His muscles relaxed from their tense state and he didn't feel afraid anymore. Sothe reached out his own hand and hesitantly held the doll's hand in his. Sothe's eyes began to see memories of him and his friends, laughing and having fun. They were friends since elementary school, only having fought over things like who their favorite video game character was. They laughed, played, and, even though they had their differences, accepted each other for who they were.
Then, Sothe's memories took a turn for the worst as he saw a car drive down the freeway, though he didn't remember ever being in that car in this vision. Sothe watched in horror as a red truck came swerving out of no where and slamming the car into the barrier. The driver of the truck stumbled out of his driver's seat and ran to the woods outside the barrier. Next thing Sothe knew the paramedics were on the scene, pulling out the passengers in the wrecked car. Sothe looked with tears stinging his eyes as he realized that the car that crashed was his parents, and that this was the scene of his parents' deaths when he was a freshman in high school. Sothe then saw himself in a dark room, crying. This was the day after the accident, when he heard that his parents had died on impact. He sat there crying for hours, never leaving. Suddenly the door opened, the light revealing a small closet barely big enough to fit a fifteen-year-old. On the other side of the door were his two best friends Yuuki and Tofu, having been looking for Sothe. Sothe looked up to see his friends and ran into their embrace, crying onto their shoulders. Since then Sothe took a job after school and payed all the bills each month, living by himself in his parents' house, having no other family. Sothe's vision came back to the doll who appeared to be smiling despite his lack of a face. Sothe fell to the floor, crying even more now.
"It's not fair! I have to work my ass off just to live after losing everything and my friends have perfect lives and they don't even have to try! I hate it!" Sothe hiccuped inbetween sobs. Sothe looked up to see the doll that he had just met only to see him replaced with the black figure in his first dream. The figure looked down at Sothe, disappointed in what he was hearing. Sothe stood up, immediately recognizing this new thing before him. "You...You're my jealousy, aren't you?" The figure continued to stare at Sothe in disappointment. "You took over my friends." Rage started to build inside Sothe before a realization came to him. "...But only because I told you to." The figure looked more pleased with what Sothe was saying. Sothe turned and noticed the doll had appeared next to him. The figure floated next to the doll, both of them staring at Sothe.
Sothe nodded to himself, knowing what to do. He turned to the figure. "You need somethin to possess, don't you? More like, you need something to be." The figure nodded. Sothe turned to the doll. "And you can be anything I want." The doll nodded as well. Sothe turned back to the figure. I'll make you a fine person to be. In fact, it'll the the perfect one. Sothe returned his gaze to the doll and imagined in his mind what the doll should look like. The doll started to change shape, hair growing and features growing on the doll. Soon, the doll had turned into aa replica of Sothe. The two Sothes smiled at each other, the original satisfied with the product. The figure moved into the created Sothe and became him. Sothe held out his hand to the created Sothe and they shook hands.
His vision faded again and when he opened his eyes he was staring into the mirror in Yuuki's hands again, except seeing himself like he should. Sothe dropped the knife in his hands, letting it fall to the ground as he hugged his terrified friend. Sothe cried into Yuuki's shoulder, crying tears of apology.
"Sothe..." Was all Yuuki could manage, completely not expecting this sudden change in attitude. Sothe didn't let him try to finish as he repeated "I'm sorry" over and over again.
"I was jealous!" Sothe was almost shouting. "Increadibly jealous! I had lost everything while my friends still had everything and more! Not only did I have no family with no money and average grades my friends had their large families, one with money beyond my wildest dreams and the other smarter than anyone I'd ever met! I wanted their lives! I even threw away myself trying to become you!" Sothe finally let go of Yuuki and walked towards the door. Yuuki, still confused, managed to call out to Sothe.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
"I'm going away." Sothe said, having made up his mind. "I understand that you don't want me near you after I just tried to kill you. So I'm going to try to find a new life somewhere else."
"I didn't say I wanted you gone!" Yuuki was confused and hurt by his friend's assumptions.
"But, I just tried to kill you out of jealousy." Sothe said in shock.
"I understand." Yuuki began to approach Sothe, trying to reassure his tearing friend. "I can't imagine the pain you've had to deal with since your parents died, but it drove you to this. It's not fair for you to have to live like this, under the shadows of your friends. We should have tried to help you out more. We knew what you were going through  but we only listened. We should have acted more and for that I'm sorry. But I'm acting now!" Yuuki ran to the phone and dialed. Sothe, confused, just stood there as his friend talked away on the phone, though unable to register what was being said. When he was done, Yuuki walked over to Sothe and put his hands on Sothe's shoulders, beaming. "It's official! You're going to be my brother!"
Sothe almost stumbled to the ground in surprise. "W-w-w-what?!"
"I talked to my parents. I told them why you'd been feeling the way you have, though I left out the events of the past several minutes, and they completely understood. You have no family left. You barely have a house left. So, my parents are going to go to court and get you adopted! You'll have a new family and a whole new life now!"
Sothe processed what he had just heard. Tears started to well up again, but this time out of happiness. He hugged Yuuki without really thinking and cried on his already moist shoulder. "Thank you! Thank you so much! You're the best friend I could ask for!"
"And I'm sure you could have just asked Tofu to help you study. In fact I'm sure he'll help you study so much that you'll blow away any university with your intelligence! Maybe you'll get a full-ride through some contest or something!"
Sothe just stood there and cried, thankfull that he had such great friends. He felt extremely dumb and embarrased at his actions thist past week. Why didn't he just realize that his friends were there to help him? He had the answer in front of him this whole time, almost like they were meant to meet and become good friends. Sothe finally let go of Yuuki and walked towards his bed.
"What are you doing now?" Yuuki asked, curious by his friend's action. "It's not even six yet."
"I'm going to finally get a good night's sleep." Sothe crawled into bed and yawned. "I have a feeling that this one...will...be...happy." Sothe's voice trailed off as he slipped into peacefull slumber. Yuuki smiled and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.