-Mike-

Mike opened his eyes, finding himself somewhere familiar. He was bound to a crucifix once again; back in the cell they started in. However, the door was opened this time and he could see footsteps leading outward, the same footsteps left by him and Michael when they first exited the cell. Beneath his dangling feet and dripping from the crucifix, Mike spotted that orange, ooze-like blood from when they'd broken free the first time around.

"This place again?" he whispered. To say the least, he was completely dumbfounded. It was as if the previous events had still occurred, yet his body was thrown back in time to the moment he'd first regained consciousness. He thought about how the situation was flipped this time around as he was the one in control of the body upon waking up. He realized then that he hadn't heard Michael's voice, and for a moment, he felt joy.

“Please tell me you’re dead at least.”

There was nothing but silence for a moment, silence that Mike had been craving for so long. The ends of his lips curled upward and he let out a sigh of relief, "Thank God." he whispered as his body fell into a relaxed state.

AAAAAAH!

Michael yelled from the inside of their collective mind, startling Mike so hard that he tugged on the nails pinning him to the crucifix, drawing blood.

-Michael-

Michael, who was then in control of the body, started laughing as he hung from the cross. “Gotcha!”

You think this is funny? YOU got us killed.

Michael continued to laugh until an unfamiliar, feminine voice could be heard beside him. “Um… Excuse me.”

His eyes searched the room, then locked onto a young woman who looked to be around the age of a college student. She was wearing business attire, a white suit jacket with a white skirt and matching high heels. Her hair was brown, reaching halfway down her back, and she wore rectangular glasses that were nearly slipping off of her nose before she pressed them upward. By the way she was standing, she seemed shy or perhaps even guilty about something. She avoided eye contact with Michael, looking down at her two fingers that she pressed together nervously.

Hello.

“Hello.”

Both Michael and Mike were instantly entranced. For once, the two of them were on the same page without saying a word. This mysterious woman was otherworldly and her skin had an almost ethereal glow to it. They both agreed silently that she was the most beautiful woman they'd ever seen.

“Are you Michael Ray Thompson?” she asked nervously.

“Why, yes I am.” Michael said with a smile before speaking in a more flirtatious tone. “And just who might you be?”

You really are shameless, you know that?

“Have you possibly met the other Michael Ray Thompson by any chance?” She began pressing her fingers together even faster as she spoke and the guilt on her face was made all the more obvious as her skin began turning pink.

“Yes… How do you know about that?”

The young woman buried her face into her hands. “Oh dear… It’s just as I feared!” She shook her head left and right while she ran in place. "I'm so gonna get fired. I'm ruined!"

What's this chick's deal?

“Uhm... Miss... Are you okay?" Michael asked. The woman immediately remembered where she was and hid her hands behind her back.

“I’M SO SORRY!” The young woman apologized, bowing her head and staring straight down at her feet. She couldn't even look at Michael, not after what she'd done to him.

“I’m so confused. Who exactly are you and why are you sorry?”

The woman stood up straight, moved the hair away from her eyes, and pressed up her glasses. “My name is Petronilla…I’m the daughter of Saint Peter. You can refer to me as Petra if you'd like, Petronilla is a bit of a tongue twister. You see, I’m in charge of making sure souls go where they’re supposed to when they die…”

As Petra spoke, she reimagined the events that took place, leading to the conundrum that the two Michaels found themselves in. “I was sitting at my desk, clicking and dragging souls toward their respective destinations. However, as I was working, I noticed something odd. I thought it was a glitch at first. 'Michael Ray Thompson, time of death: Three o’clock Pacific Standard Time.' That on its own isn’t weird, but there was a duplicate one right beneath it. So… I highlighted both and dragged them to Hell thinking it was the same person.

Later that day, as I was taking attendance for the tour for new entrants to Heaven. I noticed that name again on the roster. 'Michael Ray Thompson.' I did some digging and I found out that two people with the exact same name died at the exact same time. It wasn’t a glitch at all, it was a crazy coincidence. I told God, my boss, and he said until I get the right Michael Ray Thompson back where he belongs, I will remain on leave! Today was my first day and I’m already practically fired!"

“Wait… You’re telling me… You guys have computers in Heaven? And jobs?” Michael wasn't sure exactly how heaven worked. He pictured it as a garden where angels held hands and frolicked around. However, the way she described it, it just sounded like Earth 2.0.

That’s your first question!?

“Well… yes. Every member of Heaven has their own role in the community. When it comes to technology, once humans invent something, Heaven is allowed to access it. The iPhone is especially popular. Oh! And the Design Team really appreciates the digital art equipment that you guys invented.”

“Design Team?” Michael repeated.

“Yeah, the ones who design the life forms placed on Earth. They don’t do much work these days since God is really picky when it comes to introducing new animals, but they do make a lot of new designs for fun. My favorite one was a type of shark that could walk on land, reaching speeds of up to fifty miles per hour. God rejected it..."

Michael stared at Petra blankly, his mouth slightly ajar. “Why would anyone come up with that?"

“It was cute.” Realizing she was getting off track, Petra stiffened her body. “Oh! Sorry, I got distracted. Uhm… I’m on the Judgement Team. The Data Team sends us the files of those who’ve died and decide whether or not they’re allowed to go to Heaven or not. When I saw the other Michael’s file, I immediately sent that guy to Hell. Did you know he’s killed twenty-seven people?”

“What! I thought you said eleven!?” Michael asked Mike, compelling Petra to tilt her head curiously.

Sixteen of those were while I served in the Marines. I didn't even know those types of kills counted against you in Heaven.

"You were a Marine? No wonder you’re such a dickhead.”

Petra placed her hand on her chin, studying Michael as he talked to himself before raising her own question. “Excuse me, are you talking to the other Michael? You said he was here, but where exactly is he?”

“He and I share the same body now." Michael pointed to his head. "Only one of us can control it at a time while the other is a loud, annoying voice inside the body’s head.”

Petra covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, dear...this is worse than I could’ve imagined. This complicates things.”

“Well, now that you’re here, you can sort this all out, right?” Michael's fanged smile was beaming. He figured, since she was close with God, she could simply take him back to Heaven just like that.

“Mmm… Not quite. This is Lucifer’s realm. I have no power here; therefore, it's impossible for me to separate your souls from your shared form. I’m not even supposed to be here! But I do know how I can bring you back!”

Michael immediately had a bad feeling about where she was going with all of this. He remembered what Harut mentioned earlier about the top of Tartarus and immediately figured that it was the key to his freedom. “Is it Tartarus?”

“Yes! So you’ve heard of it?”

“Yeah, but we died trying to climb it.”

“Died? That can’t be right. You would’ve been sent down to the Inferno if that was the case.”

Michael's eyebrows furrowed. “The Inferno?”

Petra blinked a few times before tilting her head. She thought the Inferno was common knowledge. “Yes, the Inferno. Every single soul sent to Hell is given one chance to climb their way to the top of Tartarus to speak with the front desk and apply for an appeal. Most of the time, appeals are rejected but there are some cases where an appeal is accepted and they are sent back to Earth or Heaven instead. For those who fail to climb Tartarus, they suffer eternal damnation in the Inferno, where they will burn for all of eternity!”

Michael frowned ever so slightly; none of this was making any sort of sense considering he and Mike were looped back to the start. “Then why have we been sent back?”

Petra placed her hand on her chin and hummed cutely. “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you're sorta like a glitch in the system. Well, I guess this means you were given a second chance! How far did you get through Tartarus the first time? I'm sure you can use what you've learned the first time to make it toward the top!” Petra smiled, showing her pearly whites for the first time. For a moment, she believed that she could save her career; however, what Michael would say next would crush those dreams instantaneously.

“About five… steps in. Yeah, Mike is a total coward. Dude got us killed.”

What!? You're the one who curled into a ball and cried like a baby on the floor!

Petra's smile faded and her shoulders lowered. “Oh… That’s really sad.”

Something began to chime from inside of Petra's pocket. She reached inside and revealed her smartphone. "Oh, shoot! I don’t have much time before our connection is severed. May we meet again at the top of Tartarus.”

“Wait!" Michael called out. "Can you get us out of this? It really hurts.”

“I'm sorry... I wish I could but I cannot physically interact with anything in Hell. I have to go now. See ya!" Petra's body enveloped itself in a yellowish light before fading away into nothingness.

"And there she goes..." Michael hung his head low. "The last beautiful thing I'll ever see. Gone. Forever. Just kill me."

Christ, you're pathetic. While you were making googly eyes at God's assistant, I think I figured out how to switch bodies on command.

"Really? How?"

I'm not sure of the extent of it, but I think when we draw blood, we switch places. Think about it. When you screamed earlier, my hand jolted and our wound started bleeding. See.

Michael looked over at his right hand and sure enough, there was blood oozing out of it like an egg yolk. "Hmm... You know, you might be right... Awe, man, so that means I have to hurt myself?" Michael whined. He could hear Mike sighing from the inside of their collective consciousness.

For once, can you stop being a pussy. Just once.

"No. I can't. Sorry Mister Marine, I'm not a hardened, psycho killer like you."

You wanna get to heaven, right? You wanna see Petra and whoever else is up there waiting for you? Well, I want to get separated from you so it's a win-win if we get out of this shit.

Michael thought of his brother and figured that Mike was right. If he wanted to see his brother, he'd have to endure the pain. He also may or may not have thought about taking Petra out on a celebratory date once this was all over. "Fine. Let's test your theory. All I have to do is draw blood, right?" Michael started pulling his right hand forward, wincing as the pain began building up. Blood spurted from his wound, and Michael suddenly found himself watching through Mike's eyes.

-Mike-

Holy shit, you were right!

"Damn, right I was right." Mike's fangs poked out from his small grin. "Now that we know how it works, we can actually work as a team. As much as I despise you, we need each other."

Unfortunately, you're probably right about this one. Let's put our differences aside and climb this stupid tower.

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

The two of them once again went through the excruciating pain of freeing themselves from the crucifix, spilling so much blood that they could've filled a bucket with it. The pain was just as bad as it was before, but Michael's bitching was around four percent less this time around. Mike took control of the body and began the long walk toward Tartarus. After some time, the two of them found themselves approaching the tower once again. However, before they could enter, they saw a familiar face emerge from behind the fog door with his bicycle and Christmas sack attached.

“Oh. It’s you.” Harut was confused, to say the least. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost. “That’s strange, I could’ve sworn I came across your body right next to the entrance. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, what a total weakling, dying before even making it past a single skeleton. That’s a new low.’ No, but seriously, I've never seen anyone die so fast. But now, here you are right in front of me… Peculiar.”

"It's taking everything within me not to shove your little punk ass into that sack of yours." Mike told the demon child.

Harut's eyes widened. "My apologies. I must have mistaken you for someone else. You look similar but your eyes are different. And that voice... Anyway, allow me to introduce myself then."

Mike wasn't trying to hear Harut's entire introduction again, so he interrupted him. "I know who you are. Listen, kid. It's complicated but there's two of us inside this body and you happened to meet the bitch variant the first time around."

Hey, fuck you!

“Interesting… Two souls in the same body. This sounds familiar..." Harut rubbed his nonexistent chin hairs for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Hey! I found something on the fifth floor. It seems pretty useless, but you can have it." Harut reached into his bag and pulled out a fitness-tracking watch that someone who failed to climb Tartarus left behind upon their death. "Try it on. Perhaps it will help with your journey."

Mike was reluctant at first. "I'll pass. I'm not some hipster."

Wait. Put it on real quick.

"Why? It looks stupid."

Watches like these have GPS and stuff in them. It might help us ascend the tower more easily.

Mike sighed. "Fine." Reluctantly, he started putting the watch on his wrist. It looked just as stupid as he predicted.

Meanwhile, Harut was staring at him with his chin resting on his hand. "Just there, were you talking to the supposed 'bitch variant'?" Mike was caught off guard for a moment after hearing the child curse.

WHAT!?

"Yeah. I can hear him inside my head. My name's Mike Thompson, by the way." Mike then placed a finger against his temple. "The kid up here is named Hugh Jaynus."

HUH!?

"Oh... I see. Mike Thompson and Hugh Jaynus. Strange names." Harut didn't catch the joke. "Well, I have some business that I need to attend to. I hope to see you soon, Mr. Mike Thompson. You as well, Mr. Hugh Jaynus."

Mike kept a straight face as Harut rode away on his bicycle only to burst out in laughter after the kid disappeared around the corner.

Seriously, dude. Hugh Jaynus?

"I didn't think the kid was dumb enough to fall for it." Mike said through his laughter.

He's like ten. He probably wouldn't even get the joke if you explained it to him.

Still chuckling, Mike looked down at the watch on his wrist. On the display, he could see two meters; one of which was green and labeled as Health, while the other was blue and labeled as Mana. Beneath both of these meters, there was an EXP counter, however, it was marked at 0.

"The hell is a Mana and EXP?"

Have you never played an RPG in your life, old man?

"I shot one at a tank once."

Jesus Christ. RPG stands for Role Playing Game. Whenever you beat an enemy in an RPG, you get EXP and level up. If this watch is anything to go by, I think you and I will get stronger every time we kill enemies. Go kill a skeleton and see what happens.

"You don't have to tell me twice. I'm itching to get my revenge on that asshole from before." Mike stepped toward the tower, stopping over the corpse of a poor soul that failed to ascend Tartarus. He only had a single weapon, a medieval flail. Mike hadn't a clue how to use such a weapon, but he figured it was better than going in unarmed. Itching to get his hands dirty, Mike stepped through the fog, ready to attempt to climb Tartarus once more.