The explanation is long and drawn-out, as you recount your memories of the incident, starting from after Caleb bailed; realizing your new form and the powers that come with it, and finally how you came to possess Fatima up to now. When you're finished, Caleb is rubbing his forehead.
"Alright, you've convinced me," he says, finally. "Just... let me see you. The real you. Not... Fanita, or whatever her name is."
"Fatima."
"Yeah. Look, dude, I'm your best friend. I feel like, out of anyone, I deserve to see who -or what- you've become." You sigh. He might be right.
"Alright, fine. Just... don't freak, alright?" Caleb nods, a tense expression on his face. You close your eyes and, like when you were inside the wolf, envision simply being free; being the goo. Something rises in your throat, and you force your jaw open. Suddenly, you're pouring from an opening, bit by bit. You're almost completely out when you sense something's wrong. Fatima's instincts over power your control and snap shut. A sense of disorientation consumes you, and you wobble before you feel a pair of arms around you: Caleb's.
You groan as you force your eyes open, only to find out that, inexplicably your vision has split in two. No, it's not just vision that's split in two, but your entire sense of being. You are inside Fatima with an uninterrupted sense of control, yet simultaneously outside of her; you are looking down at the translucent blue puddle that you've expelled while simultaneously looking up at Fatima and Caleb.
"David, you okay?" Caleb says, concerned as he firmly grasps your shoulders to steady you. Wordlessly you nod, and he follows your gaze down to the blue goo. "So... that's what you look like now. But how are you still inside her? You never told me you could split apart." You shrug helplessly, moving over to his bed. The goo shifts slightly as you follow yourself and Caleb. You take a deep, shuddering breath and look up at Caleb.
"I don't know," you say, and Fatima's voice comes out as a plaintive squeak. Apparently it's enough to wash away the suspicion on Caleb's face, and he awkwardly pats you on the back.
"In any case, I guess that's part of you, then?" you nod, and then feel yourself recoil at the large hand approaching you as Caleb reaches down to feel you. From inside Fatima you can see the goo struggling away. With a hand motion you stop Caleb, and ignore his questioning look as you reach down to the goo and, with deliberate thought, will the enormous worm onto your cupped hands. It takes only a little concentration to control it, because it feels like it is part of your body. In fact, it must be part of your body, even though it is separate from you.
It is only then that you allow Caleb to inspect it, and even as he pokes and prods you from one perspective, you can't help but look in fascination as you watch it react to his curious fingers.
Eventually you realize that time has flown away from you and you need to head home, so you make Caleb swear that he wouldn't tell a soul about what happened here, not even Dana, before bidding him and Mrs. Ryerson a goodbye and heading home with a tupperware container filled with your goo.
--------
Fatima need to sleep, but you don't, so you spend the entire night experimenting with your newfound power. As it turns out, you possess the ability to split your gooey body into smaller "worms" that you control. It's disorienting at first, and takes you well into the night before you feel comfortably in control of each individual one as an extension of you.
While you practice, you're able to think about what this means for you; through trial and error, you've determined the right amount of goo to fully control a person. If you're able to control a person with a small worm and still be able to manipulate your gooey body, then if more worms enter other people, would you be able to control them as well?
Of course, you've the perfect test subjects in Fatima's parents, who are sound asleep in their rooms. Sneaking out of your room, you tiptoe down the hall to your destination and let two worms slither in. You sneak back to your room and sit on the edge of your bed.
Thankfully, Mr. and Mrs. Zahedi are rather heavy sleepers, so they don't awake when your worms scuttle over their faces and into their noses. A strange feeling washes over you: numbness and warmth, as you'd felt when taking over the wolf and Fatima for the first time. But now it is coming from outside your current body. It's an unlocated sensation, but it gradually settles around two adult frames. And then you feel yourself in control of Fatima's parents.
It's even stranger than when it was just you and the worms. You have six arms and six legs and three heads, and in a kind of triple vision you are looking up at the dark ceiling while simultaneously looking up at the colored ceiling of Fatima's room. You're used to three perspectives, but not three human bodies, so to ease the effort you put Fatima to sleep and sink down into her mind. Once that's done, you keep Mr. Zahedi still while you wake Mrs. Zahedi and hop out of bed to turn the lights on before scurrying back to sit on the bed. Once your eyes have adjusted you blink Mr. Zahedi's eyes open and meet them with the eyes of your wife.
You almost faint: the vivid sense of three-dimensionality, of looking at the space between your bodies from two different directions, is shocking, but it is also intoxicating. You raise their arms, and touch fingertips. Working two bodies at the same time is difficult, but you sit Mr. and Mrs. Zahedi up on the bed, cross-legged, and rest their hands on the other's knees. It becomes easier when you close their eyes, so that you can concentrate solely on their bodies without the distraction of competing visual fields. Then you raise the man's hand and set it to tousling his wife's hair. Again, it feels a little odd: you feel as though you are stroking your own head, but you can also tell that the arm belongs to a different body, to the man's.
For the next little while you keep the two adults' eyes closed and continue practicing different tasks. You occasionally falter, but it's not long before the possession of two bodies feels as natural and organic as the possession of one; you find it helps if you actually do think of yourself as having one body, but a body that is discontiguous. After you've done this for good, long while you find you have no problem associating sensations (including a sense of location) with your different bodies.
Finally, you begin practicing conversation with yourself: It feels odd at first, but it also feels strangely refreshing.
"Well, this certainly is a strange turn of events," you say from your male body.
"Yes, well, now we're definitely closer as a family, wouldn't you say?" Your wife smiles at you.
"I suppose," your husband admits gruffly, running his hands along your body gently.
"You don't sound very happy, dear," you pout, running a hand over your man's chest, lightly tweaking a nipple.
"Our daughter has gotten herself mixed up in something," you reply, running a hand over your wife's chest. She moans.
"That David boy seems friendly enough. We'll have to talk about what he should do with that power at breakfast."
"In that case, I think it would do us good to get some sleep." With great reluctance, you separate the husband and wife and sink down into their minds after you've put them to sleep.
----------------------
"So what are you going to do now?" Mr. Zahedi asks, looking at you over the table. You shrug, taking another bite of toast.
"I haven't really figured that out yet. It's hard to decide; I could be anyone I want. I could be a bunch of people."
"You should keep us for the time being, I think," you interject, giving your daughter a supportive look. "There's nothing like having a family to rely on, even if its for a short period of time."
"I'm thinking of staying with Fatima for a few days," you reply through bites of eggs. "It'll be nice to get away from all that chaos, even if it's for a little bit. "I'll spread out into Andrea and the others to have a solid base before I decide anything else."
"I guess that settles it, then. I need to get going to work, and you need to get to school. Make sure to stop by the bakery on your way to school."
"Thank you both so much for your help," you say, giving your mother and father a kiss on the cheek before scurrying out the door. As you hop into Fatima's car, you glance over at the container carrying your goo body. There's only enough of you to take over twenty people, but that should be enough. You swing over to a bakery on the way to school, and purchase six cupcakes and six donuts. Surprisingly the blue worms seem to blend right in atop the frosting of the cupcake, and you take care to make sure it's impossible to notice the "jelly filling" you've put in your donuts.
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