"Great, now what are we gonna do?" Rosegold's voice comes whispering out from the disembodied head she's formed just next to me. Floating over my shoulder like I’ve suddenly grown a second, making a pair. 

 

"What do you mean?" 

 

"You gave away all our money! What are we gonna get a coffee with nowww? We should have kept it!" She whines. 

 

I wave my hands. "No no, I'm not going to go around and let you think that giving to the poor is a bad thing. It's better to have lost it for a good cause than to keep it just for some coffee." I say back to her, rolling my eyes before quickly checking over my shoulders for a moment to make sure there's no one around to see us talking. There isn't yet, but we're nearing the front doors of the coffee shop. "Plus I still have a few dollars left. It's enough for a small one."

 

"Yeah, suuuure it is." She tones.

 

"It is!" I whine right back at her. "Now shoo! There's people in there!" 

 

Rosegold huffs in my ear but goes away at my command. Good doll. You better keep listening to me. 

 

But I can tell, she's starting to act out more and more because she truly is restless. I won't keep her waiting much longer. I just need something sweet to drink to help with my nerves and then I'll be fine! I can at least afford a small one here, right?

 

The door chimes as I come in, little silver bells hanging above the door in a bundle. 

 

"Welcome!" Someone calls from the front of the line.

 

Line. Oh no.

 

I grumble. There's at least ten people here. When there's usually no more than five! Why do I have such bad luck today, huh? The world's just not going my way. This line’s gonna take like twenty minutes!!!

 

Just as I say so, someone else comes walking through the door and stands up behind me. My heart starts pumping a little bit faster, and my eyes jump around to look at my clothes, making sure I'm as presentable as can be. 

 

I still look like shit but at least I'm not dirty or something. I'll be fine.

 

"No you won't!" Someone shouts loudly into their phone nearer to the front of the line. Maybe just two or three people ahead of me. "I'm sick of hearing it! I don't care how many times they ask us, we are not giving them weekends off! They get enough time off already!" The man pauses, seemingly hearing something on the other end of the line that makes him even angrier. "Yes I know it's only one day a week but it's enough! Don't they know we're crunching in the numbers this quarter? If they don't make the yearly quota, I'm not gonna get my raise! And that's on them, not me!" 

 

Oh god… this guy sounds like a real piece of work. Go figure I have to be stuck in line behind the most obnoxious businessman in the world. If only I could get that damn phone out of his hands. But leaning forward to see him better reveals that he's not holding a phone at all. There's nothing in his hands. He looks as though he's totally talking to himself! But then, with just a bit of a closer look, I see that there's a light on in his back pocket. 

 

He's got a Bluetooth in. He's far too rich to even hold a phone like a normal person. I can even see the associated little device in his right ear just beneath his fedora style hat. No wonder he's got such an entitled attitude.

 

"And if only the drinks would be made faster here, I could finally get out of this place and make my way over!" He shouts and I almost start to agree with him. But then he just keeps going on and on and on, more and more about 'kids these days not wanting to work hard enough' and that 'if his coffee isn't made by this low life eighteen year old soon enough, he's gonna blow a gasket.'  And honestly, I'm feeling close to the same thing as well.

 

And then, he goes and does the single most annoying thing he could possibly do in a time like this. He finally gets to the front of the line and proceeds to order some god forsaken drink with like thirty additions to it. He lists them off item after item back to back to back to the poor guy at the front end that I'm so positively sure he's gonna yell at, when it takes him more than twenty seconds to make it. 

 

My finger twitches in frustration, and I feel the telltale crackling lightning of rage just beneath my skin. It takes everything I have inside of me to not lean over and snatch that damn phone poking out of his pocket just to smash it on the floor. This guy could really  use a bit of bad luck to ruin his day. But I'm too far away. He’s two people in front of me and just out of reach. Even if I leaned as far as I could, I would never make it, and people would see me if I tried to step any closer. But it doesn't matter.

 

Because in that very same moment, the moment my finger twitched, someone else was born from my frustration. Someone without the social paranoia holding her back. 

 

『Rosegold』falls forward out of me like her head was made of a bowling ball, pulling through my body like she's just lost a tug-of-war. She goes shooting forward and reaching for the man's back pocket in one fell slump. But she freezes halfway out of shock or fear and instead just goes rolling out into the center of the room as I watch her in terror, freezing in my own horrified pose as well.

 

My doll goes sprawling. Her arms stuck out like she forgot she could move them, all with a look of utter terror on her face for having just shown herself to a room full of people. "I'm sorry!!!" She shrieks in terror. "I'm sorry I'm sorry!!! I just- he was- I was- I couldn't hold myself back any longer and I-" she goes spluttering with her words in the very same way that I do when I'm scrambling to make someone not hate me anymore, but she trails off slowly in the end when she realizes one crucial detail.

 

Absolutely no one in the room seems to have noticed her. Not even her yell. Not a soul has moved, bar only my own.

 

"R-rosegold get back here!" I whisper-shout at her and reach my arm out for her, but I’m too far from her in my place in line. She’s all the way across the room from me by now.  So instead I just put my arm down after a moment, slowly. This causes the woman standing directly in front of me to turn around and look at me in confusion. But still, no one else has moved.

 

"Excuse me? Are you trying to get my attention?" She asks with a heavy southern accent and an even heavier eyebrow raise.

 

"Uh.. I wasn't talking to you." I say and she turns back after a moment of staring at me like a lunatic. Okay, well, rule number one of acting normal in public is act normal in public, I guess. 

 

Meanwhile my stand slowly unfreezes herself from her fearful and curled position into one more confused and relaxed. She floats up towards another patron, flipping herself upside down and right side up again while she flaps her arm in front of his face over and over again.  He doesn’t even blink. 

 

"They can't see me? she says, sounding confused. “They can’t see me….” now almost sorrowful. But this isn't the last one, she re-rolls again. “They can't see me!” She grins, spreading across her face wide and full of devious intent. This opens up so many new possibilities!

And then, suddenly

“Hey, you!!” There's a shout at the front of the store, and the both of us freeze again like deer in headlights. We expect someone to have turned, someone to have noticed us in our excitement. But lo-and-behold, it's the hat man again. He’s stood up at the front counter for all of thirty seconds before he- “Where's my damn drink? I’m on the clock, you know! I was supposed to be back ten minutes ago!”  That really sounds like his problem, yet he’s making it everyone's problem with how he’s displaying it. 

And what else could you expect to happen next? The very thing you could imagine plays out, scene for scene. I watch, without even attempting to stop her, as my 『Stand 』slowly floats over behind the man, sneaks a pale gray hand into his pocket, and pulls out several of his items with delicate precision. He doesn’t notice as his phone is snatched, his wallet is taken, and his car keys are twisted around themselves so thoroughly that each key is indistinguishable from the last. She just keeps taking things out one by one like it's not really happening. Like it shouldn’t be working at all, and yet it keeps doing exactly that. Flawlessly getting away with it.

『Rosegold』 backs away slowly, her hands still full of his things. Then she turns and looks at me with this unreadable expression on her lips. As if to almost ask me. ‘Did this really just happen?’

I stare back at her, not a word leaving my mouth.  I can’t believe it either.

Her right hand twitches, and it snaps the cellphone she’s holding clean in two. Effortlessly, like breaking a toothpick.

“Hello!? Are you even listening to me?” the rude man snarls at the service worker, peeved out of his mind. “I said!”

But he’s cut off by the very guy he’s screaming at, who's gone totally pale. “Sir, you may want to take a look at your stuff. It's uh… Floating.” He points behind the man.

The guy turns around just as 『Rosegold』 squeaks and bursts into the air into a shimmer of sparkles. She felt put on the spot, and not knowing exactly what to do given the strange situation, she chose to just dip out and leave. Which, same. But this causes the items she was holding to go clattering to the floor once there are no hands to hold them. The sound of crushed keys and somebody's phone hitting the floor from seven feet up makes several of the other patrons in the building gasp and all turn to search for the source of the noise.

“Hey, what the hell!?” The man in the hat turns around, looking startled to see all his stuff, now all broken and raided, suddenly appearing so far away from him. It makes him pause. He puts his angry raised fist down slowly. “Wh.. what?” And then his whole entire face goes red. And he just starts screaming. “Which one of you dirty fucks stole my stuff!?! I paid good money for that phone, and aaaaargh! My keys!!! What did you do to my keys!?!” He rushes over, trying to put together all his stuff. But he quickly realizes that it's fruitless. Hunched over, the man looks like he's gone totally into shock. Especially when he calmly stands, straightens out his shirt, and turns to the two people standing in line between me and him. His face is icy cold. “Tell me, right now, which one of you two messed with my stuff before I knock your fucking teeth out.” He growls.

It sounds so pathetic, I can’t help but almost laugh. I choke back a giggle with all my effort, and it comes out as a little snort. But something gray slides out beside me, pointing and laughing with all her effort. “LOL, this guy’s a baby!” She cries, doubling over, then doubling over again. Quadrupling over. She’s so dramatic and I can’t help but love her for it

But unfortunately for me,  the angry man just so happened to hear my snicker under my breath even though I really tried to hide it! He whips in my direction after just a moment, meeting my eyes with unhidden fury. "You!!!!" He snarls and points a crooked finger in my direction. "What's got you laughing, huh? Did you do this!?" He starts to storm over to me in a rage.

 

Uh oh. My bones freeze in place. I have a hard time with real confrontation. What am I gonna do?

 

And just then,『Rosegold』unfurls from herself. Her arms unlock from around her knees, and she unwraps herself like a little piece of candy. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" She launches at him, far faster than I could expect. An instant reaction to protect the『User』. She flies forward at him in a flash, turning herself sideways and zipping between his legs. On her way through, she grabs a hold of his pant leg cuffs and yanks his feet right out from under him! 

 

He goes falling flat, teeth first, straight onto the polished floors. His chin hits the ground first, which snaps his jaw together and cracks his front two teeth from the impact. Ouch! That's gotta hurt! 

 

The man slowly looks up at me from his place on the floor. His eyes are watery and his face is bright red. It shocks me for a moment, I almost even start to feel bad. "I'll get you for this!!!" He shouts, trying and failing once to bring himself to his feet. "I'll fucking get you for this, god help me I get my hands on you!!! You’ll pay for laughing at me! I’m worth more than you’ll ever know!" He finally stands up, and everyone else that isn't me takes an automatic step back. I’m singled out. He looks like he’s do or die right now. 

 

But I don’t feel quite the same way, so I think it's time to leave.

The floor squeaks under my heel as I turn and leave, stiff arming the door with my head tucked low. It smacks open and I bust out onto the concrete sidewalk.

“Leeeeeets Goooooooo!!!!!!~” Rosegold howls, her arm spinning around like a helicopter! And then she catches, pointing towards the door!

The chime of the door signals my hasty escape, the only thing everyone else could hear. And the moment I start running, my laughter joins hers as she zips back and forth at my side! Forget the coffee, this is the best drug I've ever felt in my life! Pure euphoria and adrenalin course through my veins as my heart races! I run so hard and fast down the sidewalk, I must be going 60 miles an hour. Or at least it felt that way! 

“Hey! Wait right there!!” The man hollers out from a distance behind me. But he’s long gone now, I’ve clearly outpaced him by a wide margin. And plus, no one would blame me for running away from a situation like that! He came right at me, and it wasn’t myyyy fault he ate shit on the floor!

“Over here!” My 『stand』 calls out to me from between an alleyway, pointing me right towards the best way out of here. I grin from ear to ear and follow her straight down it. Right on through and the two of us end up spilling out into the bright sunlight of noon. Warmth, sunshine, and joy are everything I feel as the gravel turns to grass under my feet and we find ourselves at the edge of the large forest around the park. The world smells of pollen and bees and honey and flowers! I feel so alive!!!

“『User, User, User!』” A shiny gray blur circles me, like a fish darting through water, ascending around me in a tornado going from my feet to my head.

“Hahahaha!! 『Rosegold, Rosegold, Rosegold!』” I holler back to her, a smile bright on my face. “You’re amazing! I can’t believe that!” She makes me keep laughing and laughing until finally she grabs my wrists after one final circle, and pulls us spinning down to the wet grassy earth.

We lay side by side, her finally touching the ground for once as she has the biggest smile on her face! Way bigger than before. And it's infectious too. I can’t help but smile back. 

“I got us more!” My 『stand』 says giddily, throwing out her hands to show me that she stole a few dollars off the man. “Are you proud?”

I don’t have the heart in me to lecture her more about stealing. The man was a prick, anyway. He deserved it, right? No, really and honestly, I’m just impressed. If I were given the choice to do it over again, I would have commanded her to do it all the same. “More than anything, Rosegold.”

She beams! Shaking her arms up and down all fast like!

It makes me smile and lean back, looking up at the clouds. Today is nice. And I just think… Maybe everything really is gonna look up from here.

…

Gasp! A sharp intake of breath from just off to my right. I turn to look, and see that Rosegold is holding her arms up, still. “What?” I ask out to her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

She’s confused, and can only remedy it by showing me. “I felt something!” She says, and turns over her arms for me. It makes me gasp too.

Cross X stitches made of gray have suddenly appeared on her arms. Running from the wrists to just under the elbow. Flowing through the ‘flesh’ in and out almost seamlessly. Not a wound to be seen, just a decoration. They’re made of the same material she is, shiny and gray. Polished, perfect, porcelain. She has stitches in the skin of her arms.

“What do you think it means?” She asks me, but I have little in the way of answers.

“I think, whatever we’re doing must be right.” 

 

She agrees, nodding before falling into me. I put my arms out to catch her, and she washes over my body like a wave. Crashing and coming to settle down only once she's fully back within me.

And with my arms still out, the ghostly remnants of her stitches stay overlaid over my arms in the same place hers were for a few moments longer. Staying around like a lingering afterimage that fades away into nothingness a few seconds later. Woah.
…

 

…

 

…

 

“Go!” I point, my arm outstretched in the middle of the field.

There are still people around in the park, and although they’ve thinned out since we’ve last been here, there's still a few enjoying the mid afternoon sun. Not that it matters much, though. As my coolest-ever stand isn’t only fast, she’s also totally unseeable to anyone else! She can touch and move stuff, it seems. But other people can’t seem to see or hear her at all! So now all we want to do is test her limits to see exactly what she’s capable of. Now, let's try for speed.

SNAP!

『Rosegold』flashes forwards, slicing through the air like a knife at my command, coming still in an instant about fifteen feet away from me. I can almost see the air parting around her in a blast before coming to rest. But then she goes completely still right there, and I’m only confused as to why she didn't go any further. But as I watch, she puts her hands out flat, palms out, and seemingly rubs slowly against a rigid wall.

“Rosegold?” I call out to her. She turns and faces me with a frown.

“I can’t go any further. Beyond this feels…” She trails off. It doesn't sound very good. “I can't go further. I’m stuck here.”

“Oh, no!” I step forward to come over to her, and then she flips over sideways. The wall she was holding onto moved away from her and she lost her balance, going spinning in the air like a pinwheel before righting herself with an ‘oopsie!’


She’s boxed in, fifteen feet with me at her center. Tied down, but a force to be reckoned with in that range. But no further.

“That's so strange.” I say, coming up to her. And scanning up and down like I'll be able to see the invisible boundary. "This is only like fifteen feet before I have to get closer. That's not a lot of room, it must feel pretty claustrophobic in here?" But my doll nods no.

“I don’t know…" she says, turning and looking out towards the distance with eyes that I cannot see. "I don’t think there's anywhere else I’d rather be than here, anyway.” 

 

I smile at her, warmth fills my chest. "Thank you." I tell her and she shakes her head as if to say 'no need.' 

 

And then an idea pops into my head. Something to make up for not getting a coffee. "Rosegold, I know what I want us to do next." 

…

 

…

“And here’s your- hey, what?” The icecream man asks confusedly as he notices his cone that he just packed with ice cream has suddenly gone empty.

It takes all my effort to act flawlessly and not break character. “Hey man, I paid for an ice cream and cone, not just a cone, you know.”

“I- yes. I must have dropped it. A moment, please.” He apologizes before leaning over his cart and going to scoop another roll of strawberry. He presses the formed little ball of pink onto the top of the cone, but as he’s lifting up to hand it to me, Rosegold’s hand flashes out and nabs the cream right off it! She throws her mouth open and tosses it in, in an instant. So fast the man doesn’t even realize. There's a feeling of cold that runs down my throat. It's exciting.

He goes to give me the cone again and it's empty once more. “I- Okay, what? Where is it going?” The man asks, looking all around and at his feet, seeing absolutely nothing. Meanwhile my stand makes a googly face at him, with her hands at the sides of her earless head and her tongue going “bleeeeehhhh”

Snorting under my breath and hiding it with my hand over my mouth is all I can manage without breaking into full blown laughter as I watch him pack a cone for the third time, just to see it vanish again like magic.

“I- god damnit, is this some kind of joke!?” The man shouts, spinning around again to see that there's no one behind him. What, was he looking for a string or something?

It breaks me, and I burst out laughing again, unable to control it anymore. The man looks furious, but his anger subsides when I place down three times the amount I paid for. He squints, looking still upset, but hands me the next full cone without it mysteriously vanishing. I smile and give him my thanks, telling him to keep the change as Rosegold and I float off to bother someone else. See, at least that money is going to a decent place, right? He looks like he could use it. Local vendors usually need it anyway. So it's really no matter if I stole it or not anyway. Not evil! And plus, a little bit of teasing never hurt anybody. I don't have to feel bad.

 

My ice cream flavor is strawberry.

 

…

 

For our next target, Rosegold excitedly points us in another direction for me to go in. "Here, this way!" She'll shout and giggle. I'll just smile and go wherever she's pointing me to. 

 

Next up seems to be some poor guy trying to tie his shoes. 

 

Rosegold has me walking over until she's just in enough range to quickly untie the shoe the poor man just tied, so when he looks back and gets ready to get up, he notices that his shoe is now untied. It seemingly locks him up for a moment, like he's just looking at his shoes now confusedly. Then, he just shrugs and stands up with his other shoe still untied.

 

Wow, this man does not give a fuck.

 

He starts to walk away seemingly unbothered by any strange events, which just causes my Stand to confusingly follow him all the way to the edge of her range. She places her hands flat against the invisible barrier, looking a little restless. Almost grumpy?

 

Out of habit, I take a step or two towards her, which puts us just into the range she needs to dart down in an instant and tie the random man's shoes together.

 

He goes to take another step and ends up going flat on his face. Just like the first one, but the sound he makes when he hits the ground is almost concerning. Out of reflex, I turn and start to walk away, pulling Rosegold away from him as she giggles and twirls in the air over her victim. "Shoulda paid attention to me! That's whatcha get!" I'm pulling her away from all of these people by walking quickly towards a direction where there are the least amount of them. But annoyingly, as I'm going, Rosegold floats up under someone and draws out a sharp pointer finger. She jabs a hole straight through the bottom of their paper coffee cup in an instant, causing dark hot coffee to go spilling over their white pants. This makes her giggle like a little girl, kicking her legs around before she's finally pulled out of distance from anyone else. 

 

I cross my arms. "What the hell is wrong with you, Rosegold?" Out of earshot now, I decide to confront her. 

 

She looks at me with confusion on her lips. "What? I was just playing. There's nothing wrong with that!"

 

"Yeah but- well you hurt somebody! It's not funny anymore!" I almost yell at her. She goes rigid and scared.

 

"But, I- we-..." she trails off. "It was okay when it was the guy in the coffee shop, why is it different now? You go back and forth on me so much, it's confusing!" She almost pleads.

 

"It was different because- we had to! We had to. It was different because then we had to." I am resolute.

 

This leaves her displeased. "Who's to say that I didn't have to do all that?"

 

"Me. I say it. And you listen to me." I tell her, anger building up under my skin. 

 

"Yeah. I do listen to you." She says, a mirror exactly of my angry tone. "The ice cream guy was your idea anyway. It's not like I can even taste it!" She shouts, curling around herself. 

 

A pang of guilt like an icy shard goes straight through me. It was my idea after all. I thought it would be funny.

 

My brows furrow. "Wait, you couldn't taste the ice cream?" I reach out for her but she snaps away from me. It makes me almost scared.

 

"No! I couldn't! Only when you ate it. It has to go through you first." She says, frustratedly. "You confuse me sometimes, you know! Half the time you’re proud of what I'm doing, excited to see me do more for you, the other half you’re lecturing me like I did something wrong! Pick one!" She shouts, her voice getting louder and louder to me until it shuts off completely. Dead silence. 

 

It leaves me feeling cold and almost empty, staring at the place that Rosegold once floated in. My anger feels directionless and silly now. She's right, too. I've been playing along with her almost or as much as she's been playing along with me. Maybe it's my job, then, to hold her back.

 

Stray sparkles stay jittering in the air after Rosegold finishes dissipating. They draw my eyes, dancing just out of view, in front of where the edge of the forest is. It's something to latch onto, less I float away in my own head too. But that's when I realize that one of the sparkles still stays. After seconds and more seconds, I realize that there's something shiny out there in the woods, and I decide, with nothing better to do with the energy underneath my skin, to go investigate it.

…

…

Leaves crunch beneath my shoes, the wet and shiny orange plant fractals that litter the grounds all over Oregon this time of year. Autumn is beautiful and the wind is cold. The real world can be amazing. Paying attention to it is always a good way to go.

If I’m frustrated, I focus on the world around me. It's what I do. Leave everything else behind.

The twinkling little object is half buried underneath a golden oak leaf. One that's slowly melting from decomposition into the squishy soil below. I’m a good hundred or two feet in from the forest's edge now, traipsing through the underbrush that smells wonderfully. So much life.

I arch down towards the little leaf, picking away at the wet and flimsy bits of leaf that stayed stuck, to reveal… A little silver ball?

My fingers snatch it up off the ground, rubbing away the last bits of grime. It's a little silver ball, or bell. And… What?

It looks like a perfectly detailed recreation of a human eye. Made of all silver, with the optic nerve still hanging freely at the very back. But all silver, all sculpted silver.

And as I look straight into it…


… The entire world goes pure white.

(End Of Chapter Four.) 

←To Be Continued.