"Relax kid," the image uttered.

"Relax?!" the boy yelled . "You just said it was killing me, for Christ's sake"

"I never said so. You reached that conclusion yourself. There's no such thing as death here, we're all dead already. Inverting you simply means we can co-exist," it said plainly.

The boy's face flushed slightly, as he grew annoyed with the image's condescending manner. Although the image did seem to know more about the place than him, perhaps this had all indeed happed to the image before.

"Oh we all have," it remarked, matter-of-factly. With that the boy through a glance at it, confused as to why it had said this. He didn't think it over very long before the image interrupted his thought stream.

"No use pretending you can keep your thoughts to yourself. I hear them just as loudly"
Again he adopted a face of confusion.

The gel continued to roll out over the boy's body. It created the kind of sensation on his skin that it was trying to resist the gel being absorbed, but the formula was just to strong to try to oppose the gels will. There was no use in rebelling; he was beginning to accept that he didn't have power over anything in this world.

The substance was drawn into the skin, changing the colour of each part of his skin as it moved across it. His arms and legs developed a numbing itch that wouldn't take itself off his mind. The unbearable discomfort was too strong to resist the urge to itch his skin. He dragged his fingernails over his bare arms, finding that the substance gave them the texture of a elastic rubber.

"No, no don't!" the image screamed suddenly.

It was a horrible sound, extremely high pitched, and with it, it gave horrible screeches and growls, like many suffering animal screams. Immediately the boy was taken aback by the sudden noises. His heart beat quickened to a rapid pace, and threw his hands over his ears. It didn't end omitting it's horrible cries for several minutes, then it stopped suddenly and stared at its arm. The boy gently lifted his hands, as though trying not to do anything to disturb this strange creature. He saw on its arms, thick layers of skin that appeared to have been severed from them. They stood on its arm, still attached, and bleeding profusely. The image was breathing heavily; its body shaking slightly from shock.

"I didn't mean..." the boy began, in a whisper.

"You didn't know," the image said, exhausted.

They sat still for a while, calming their nerves.
The boy had never seen the image in such a state. He'd never show a vulnerable side, just this overpowering state of a superiority that it forced upon him, speaking down to him like a child. He felt unsure whether to feel sorry for it, or to take advantage of the situation. The image overheard nothing at this time, to shaken to concentrate on the boy's thoughts.

The flow didn't cease, and the image stood up.

"We're going to have to leave," it commanded, part of it's former strength regained. "No questions"
The boy did what he was told and stood up. Bad company seemed better to him than no company at all.

They began to walk. Everywhere looked the same as they went on their journey, black and devoid of any specific details. After a while it became dizzying. He decided to focus on something else, what exactly happened back then. All he could remember now were those horrible screams. They echoed in his head like a call in an empty valley.

"Like I explained before," the image started. "All pain dealt to one, is transferred to that beings alternative version. When you hurt yourself, that pain is transferred to me and vice versa. But during inversion everything is magnified"

"Because..."

"The link between us hasn't been attached to your new form yet. It misinterprets all injuries as being much more severe then they should be," it explained with a sigh. With the reply, the boy glanced at him, with a look of menace in his eye, and tightly clenched his hand into a fist. Adrenalin flowed through his blood stream. This was the first time he felt in control.

"Don't dare!" the image shouted. On the boy's face grew an expression of merciless glee as he raised his fist to his head. The image adopted a stern look. Its eyes flashed red, the pupils dilated to a slit and he uttered severely,

"I know a way to make things very painful for you." It raised a hand to its chest, prepared itself, then drove his hand into his chest. The force was massive on the boy's body, like the image's hand and gone straight through the front of him, broken through the ribs and then initiated a vice-like grip on the boy's heart. He fell to the ground, his eyes darkening. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious, was the images great crimson eyes, and it's mouth uttering the words,

"You're in hell, my dear."

The third part of the story, after such a long break (which I'm sorry about by the way). For a while I thought I was going to abandon this story, cause I didn't want my mind to be always thinking all this wierd stuff. I was disturbing myseIf slightly when I was thinking all these things andI thought it was having a negative effect on me to write this story, but I've decided to keep going to the end now.

1. because lots of people have said they really like it and it's going really well

2. becuase I'm actually quite proud ofreason number one

3. perhaps through this story I'll be able to work out something. Perhaps underneath the surreal aspect of the story, my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

Sochapter three, I don't know about it. Is the story still working?