Jake's POV
I was two people at once, and both of us were stuck.
The Jake part of me remembered being Kira's friend, remembered the cosmic test, remembered choosing kindness over cosmic hunger. The Thomas part remembered being a woodsman who lived alone, remembered trees that had never existed until Kira accidentally made them.
Both sets of memories felt equally real. Both people wanted different things.
"We have to help Kira," Jake-me said to Thomas-me inside our shared head.
"We have to tend the forest," Thomas-me answered. "It's our duty as guardian."
Meanwhile, the trees around us were reaching for Kira with limbs that looked more like claws every second.
"This is wrong," I said out loud, not sure which version of me was talking. "The Void Forest isn't supposed to be alive."
