It wasn't the hospital he woke up at, but instead his own bed. It was dark in his room, but light seeped in through the window. He could see the wind and rain swaying the trees outside, with dark clouds covering the sky. Big, white streaks of electrifying light kept jolting down and striking the ground.

Xisuma looked around a moment- He knew something happened, he just couldn't remember what it was exactly. Xisuma listened quietly before sneaking out of bed and into the kitchen. It was still dark, and everyone else was asleep. Not wanting to wake everyone else, he carefully opened the fridge and looked up at the wide selection of food.

He grabbed a milk box and shut the fridge door, before opening it again only to close it. After a few failing minutes of trying to shut the door with the light on, Xisuma also grabbed a bag of muffins and sat on the couch, pressing the TV buttons until an entertaining show with a purple dinosaur came on.

He stayed like this for a while, living out the calmness of the house in television and milk.

It was about three boxes in when he felt the need to pee. Badly. But it was the mirror that kept him from doing so.

Barely two steps into the bathroom, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. The room was barely being lit with moonlight, but it was a full moon and he could see enough.

There were red marks on his face, some with pale streaks in the middle. One was swollen, and there were a few black stitches right above his eyebrow. He looked a moment, before leaning in much, much closer.

He gently tapped a red space, then pulled his finger back, wincing. Small snippets slowly reentered his mind- Ex saying something, a white room with no doors, and people rushing in.

He had no idea what the marks were for though..

He leaned even closer to the mirror, before seeing a person staring back, their face littered with ugly scars of all sizes. The person even had one above their eyebrow!

"Boo," Ex said. Xisuma just smiled and turned around, looking at the other individual. "Why are you awake?"

Ex shrugged. "You're up I'm up."

Xisuma nodded, pointing to Ex's scars. "Where'd you get those?" He asked. Ex just smiled, sitting up onto the counter. "Can't remember?"

Xisuma nodded as Ex pointed to his marks too. "These. Remember these?"

Xisuma also shook his head, telling him that in fact, he didn't. All he remembered was Ex saying something, a white room with no doors, and people rushing in.

Ex sighed. "Turn the lights on."

Xisuma did as told before going along with his further instructions to look at his own face too. Ex motioned between both of their faces. "Notice any difference between yours and mine?" He asked.

Xisuma nodded. "Mines red but you have a lot of scars.." He trailed off a moment and added, just to be nice, "We do have the black string above our eyes though!"

Ex nodded again, leaning over and pressing his elbows on the countertop. "Wrong. There is no difference."

"But-"

"Tut-tut." Ex wagged a finger, cutting him off. "Who's the adult here?"

"You.." Xisuma mumbled, casting an ashamed gaze downwards.

"Exactly. Now turn the lights off and on. Then look again. Ok?" He leant close to Xisuma and added on in a lower voice; "There won't be a difference. Got it? We'll look exactly the same." He looked at Xisuma a moment before leaning back with an expectant look.

Xisuma quickly turned the lights off, and back on again. He looked in the mirror a moment.

"Well?" Ex asked, standing upright and crossing his arms.

Xisuma shrugged and nodded, too scared to say the truth- Too scared of losing Ex. "They look the sa-"

"Don't lie to me!" He snapped. Xisuma shrunk back and whimpered. "They don't look the same.."

"Do it again." Ex said in a scary, stone-cold tone. Xisuma did as told. And then he did it again. And again. And a couple more times.

The process kept repeating over and over, each time one of the persons' tones getting angrier and louder, and the other staying half a step closer to the lights. It was becoming a bit lighter outside- Not daytime quite yet, but it may have been the badly brewing rain. Xisuma shrunk into himself and he flicked the lights even more, until..

"Look!" He said all too happy and pointing to his face, "There's a white part in the red part!" He pointed to his cheek, which, depending on who you were, either proved his statement correct or incorrect. To the people in the bathroom, it was proving it correct.

Ex nodded gruffly. "Again. You have scars on your face, you just don't see them yet. Do it again until you do."

But before any more progress could be made, there was a light tap on the door. "Xisuma?" His mom asked, "Is that you?"

Ex shook his head. "Don't answer-"

Xisuma opened the door and hugged his mom, who quickly returned the pleasantry. "There you are! Are you ok? How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? How long have you been awake? Did you sleep ok? Why didn't you wake me- Do you remember anything? Have you talked to Ex?" She said in a single breath, looking slightly more concerned about the last question.

Xisuma noticed Ex shaking his head, and he also shook his head.

"No to being ok or Ex?"

"Ex. I'm ok.."

His mom nodded, about to say something else before her husband with terrible timing came over and hugged Xisuma, asking him the exact same things and receiving the same answer.

"Well," Said his dad, who was making coffee after being told by Xisuma about his morning- Ex excluded, of course. "Do you want us to tell you what happened?"

Xisuma nodded. "I know it was Ex saying something, a really white room that didn't have a door, and people who were rushing in."

"Well, the doctors put you in a room, and from what I understand it was to see how quickly Ex would come, and how you'd react and all that."

Xisuma nodded along, fuzzily remembering parts of that. His mom took over.

"And eventually the person said that you started talking to yourself, but that was Ex, right?"

Xisuma shrugged and nodded. "I think.."

She nodded. "So after that, the person watching the camera apparently needed to use the bathroom. That's when uh.."

"When what?"

"Do you remember anything else?"

Xisuma shook his head. "No.."

She nodded. "Okay.. Well uh.." Everything was quiet and tense for a moment as it became a visible struggle for his mom to create the words. Luckily, his father helped out.

"You started scratching your face, and you got yourself pretty good. So that's why your face is red-"

"-And you'll probably have a few marks for a bit, but the majority'll go away. Eventually." His mom finished. "You smeared a small bit of blood on the wall though,.. Do you remember why?"

Xisuma shook his head. By now he remembered what happened, and it wasn't what he was being told. "I was writing on the wall! It said 'Let me out'! I asked Ex what it meant and he said I already did that! And then the people rushed in because they used a door wrong! And there was a lot of blood! Not a little!"

It was quiet yet again, before his dad sighed. "That's not what happened sport..-"

"Yes it is!" He said, causing both his parents to sigh.

"That's not what happened! And it- Ex said there were long-time marks! They would be there forever! He told me in the potty room!"

Somewhere between this conversation, Ex had made himself comfortable on the coffee table. His parents were on the couch and Xisuma was in a chair right next to it. He looked at Ex, then back to his parents.

"Ex was with you this morning?" His mom asked. Xisuma nodded.

"How.. How long?"

Xisuma shrugged, looking back to Ex, who was laughing and pretending to eat popcorn. Xisuma gigged. "I don't know.." He looked back to his parents.

"Is he.. Is he here with us right now?" Asked his mom.

Xisuma looked at Ex, and to his parents. Then Ex again. Ex nodded and smiled a thin, chilly smile. Xisuma returned the smile and looked at his parents.

"He's always with us."

There was another one of those long silences as both of the parents shared a look. His mom sighed and looked at Xisuma.

"Xisuma?"

"Yeah?"

"Ex.." She sighed. "Ex isn't real Xisuma. He's made up and a bad influence-"

"Yes he is!"

"No, no he isn't." Said his dad. "Ex is not real."

Xisuma stood up, "Yes he is!"

"No, he-"

"Yes! He! IS!" He stomped his foot as he ran off the bathroom, ignoring his parents and whatever they were saying. Ex was real.

And he was honest. And a good person. And a friend.  His parents were lying to him! They were the not real ones!

"I hate both of you!" He screamed through the door. Nobody responded. He slowly sunk against the door, and began crying. Ex was real, why couldn't they see it? Why couldn't they believe it?! Stupid, dumb parents! Why couldn't they just-

"Hey," Said Ex, who was sitting down next to him, arms resting on knees all relaxed-like. "Good job out there."

Xisuma sniffed and looked up to Ex, weakly smiling. Ex smiled back, placing down his helmet and revealing his- Their. Their scars. He took off the helmet to reveal their scars. "I'll be with you, always."

Xisuma just tearfully smiled, happy to know that. Happy to have that little fact- Happy to have Ex.

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[Words: About: 1,785]

So a few things- I use my computer and phone, so the size of things (paragraphs) varies. Four lines on a phone show as two on a computer (when writing.) So, going off whatever you guys use to read, do things (paragraphs) need to be extended or shortened?

Also, pretty soon I'm going to be putting this on hold. I'm not quitting!! It's just (Kinda spoiler!) I need to catch up on some of the more recent Hermitcraft stuff for future chapters. Also, I'll be writing out a good chunk, if not the rest of the chapters, because I will confuse myself if I can't get my stuff straight.

Anyways, that's it! Apologies about how long it took, but hope ya enjoyed!

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