With his eyes closed, he was now once again in the dark. It took his body a few seconds to relax, but he was still scannning the room. The consciousness was now sure that they were alone. Focusing on his hearing, he was able to hear other breaths, but all of them were coming from the door on the other side. There was no other breathing in the same room as him.

With no immediate danger or any matter that was requiring his attention outside of his body, not that he could have been capable of doing anything about it. He focused back on his mind, where hundreds of souls fragments were reaping each others.

He spent time just observing them, he didn't know if he could stop them, nor if he should. Was it a battle to the last standing, was the last soul fragment standing to become this body's soul ?

As he wondered, he saw 2 fragment go at it more violently then the other ones. From his point of view, it just looked like 2 blob of light colliding and trying to fuse together.

With a terrifying screech, one of the 2 fragments shattered. The consciousness instantly shook as some of his newly aquired memories vanished. On the outside, the body hugged his head in pain, while opening his mouth wider then any human could. A terrifying screech resounded in the cell.

The sound was  reverbating inside cell. He could almost feel the wall behind him shook slightly.

He heard people rushing down the hallway screaming :

"God ! What was that ?"

"I don't know, that's the first time one of the Gift made any sound."

He heard a metallic sound, as if someone opened the door. His body must have thought the same thing as it rushed toward the light.

With a loud bang, his body hit the door at his full speed !

With another loud screeching noise, the body retreated at the back of his room. They hadn't opened the door, but a small trap to look inside the cell, and the body had injured itself on the door. Probably a broken shoulder or something.

The guards started screaming :

"It's hostile !"

"Close it"

"Back down !" Barked someone.

It was probably someone important as both of the guards stood back.

"What is happening here ?"

""16" started screaming and attacked the door when we arrived, sir."

"16" ? Was this his name ?

Wait, was it the body's name ? Was it him ?

No, they didn't seems aware that multiple peoples were inhabiting the same body...

He needed to clarify.

He, the main consciousness, was stuck with other souls fragment in the mind of a beast.

It was time to give himself a name. He was the "Consciousness" or "C" fro short. The body was "Beast". He didn't bother naming all the fragments individually as they was hundreds of them. They didn't do anything beside fighting each other, so it was probably useless to bother anyway. He just nicknamed the place in his mind where he could see them the "Sea of Souls".  This would allow him to think more precisely without confusing himself any further. They all formed a being called "16". His train of thought was interrupted by a massive pressure.

The door was slapped open and a man wearing a mix of cultist robes and armor came inside the room.

"Consciousness" was expecting "Beast" to rush him like he did last time, but "Beast" was trembling in his corner, not daring to move. He could feel that  "Beast" was terrified. "Consciousness" couldn't control "Beast", he was moving purely on instinct, and his instinct was screaming that this man was dangerous.

The man didn't approach too close to "16" and with his limited vision, "16" couldn't properly grasp the man's face or expression.

He stood there, watching "16" with interest before turning around and coming out of the room, slapping the door shut behind him.

"16" suddently realize that he had stopped breathing and start aspiring air to calm himself.

"Conscioussness" try getting a better look at his hand and to his surprise, his hand started moving as he wished it.

"Beast" was so terrified that it temporaly gave up control of their body.

A few second later, "Beast" calmed down and easily took back control of the body despite "Consciousness" best efforts.

He couldn't help but mock himself for his weakness.

"Consciousness" focused back on the matter of the soul fragments. They had stopped fighting because of the trouble outside.

"Consciousness" was now pretty sure that it wasn't a fight to last soul fragment as it seemed to injure their host. Plus, he was wise enought to know the power of his memories. Information is power. Losing more fragments and memories may prove itself detrimental to his growth.

Was there another option beside fighting ? He was feeling connected to them all with what felt like thin lines. He try pulling on one of them.

One of the smallest soul fragments was pulled toward him. He couldn't try and defend himself as "Consciousness" was way more powerful then the fragments. The fragment didn't blow up but was instead absorbed by "Conscioussness". He felt that instead of dissipating like when they fought, absorbing a fragments made some memories clearer.

The fragment he ate was one of the smallest, but absorbing him was still taking a lot of time. None of the memories were interesting at all. This man seemed to be a fisherman who died of old age in a medieval world. As a newborn monster, "Consciousness" doubted that this would be of any use to him. He still kept absorbing the fragment to see what would happen.

While "Consciousness" was absorbing the soul fragment. The "Beast" started exploring their cell.

It was a squared room. Almost no light was entering it, but it didn't really matter as their eyes weren't working properly. They had confirmed that their bad vision wasn't linked to the low light when the armored man had entered the room.

As he was walking around the room, the "Beast" walked through a large puddle, "Beast" tried laping the water.

No matter how much the "Beast" licked the water, it didn't seems to satiate his thrist. He took a big inspiration throught his nose for the first time, and the stench of dry blood assaulted him. Like his instinct dictated him, he rushed to the corner where the stench was originating from.

A headless female body was laying in the corner. The guards seemed to have correctly guessed "Beast" tastes as he jumped onto it and started to voraciously devour the body. His teeth stabbed the meat and he used his neck to tear mouthfuls of flesh and bones. "Beast" didn't intend to leave anything behind.