Chapter Text
Paul stared mindlessly at his computer. He was supposed to be working, but his brain couldn't seem to turn on. He turned his head slightly causing a wave of pain to go through his head. Once the pain lessened he saw that the time was 4:57.
‘Just 3 more minutes’ he thought. Paul leaned back in his chair, he didn't know what was wrong. He felt fine this morning. He was good, but after he got coffee and ran into that strange man- another wave of pain came crashing down on Paul's head before he could finish the thought.
“Hey Paul, are you ready to head out?” Bill asked, popping up from his cubicle. Paul looked up at him and gave a thumbs up.
Once Paul got all his stuff together he and bill walked out together.
“You ok paul? You don’t look to good” Bill said as the walked out of the CCPR building.
“I'm good, probably just a cold.” Paul responded, he didn't think it was too bad.
“ok , well rest up. If you don’t feel up for work tomorrow ill hand in you weekly reports”
“Thanks Bill, your the best”
“Anything for my buddy”
And with that the friends parted way. Paul was thankful to finally get home, but first he needed some black coffee.
As Paul entered beanies he regretted it as the noise hit his ears causing even more pain in his head. He was about to leave when Emma called out to him.
“Hey Paul, i have your black coffee already”
Paul walked over to the counter handing Emma the money along with adding an extra 5$ just for her.
“Thanks your the best em”
“Its really no trouble, its just some shitty coffee”
“Well that's true, but it's the thought that counts”
They both smile at each other, a comfortable silence filling the air. But like all good things the silence is broken when the one kid always asking for hot chocolate comes running forward.
“Well I will see you tomorrow,” Paul said, waving goodbye.
“I'll be in the same place” Emma said while waving back.
Paul felt good about what happened. He truly hoped to ask Emma out one day. Definitely on a day where he didnt feel like he was getting ripped apart limb by limb.
The door to Paul's apartment shutting behind him was like music to his ears. He hummed an unfamiliar song as he changed into a more comfortable cloths. After that paul collapsed on his bed happy to finally have some rest.
But the rest did not come. Instead Paul felt like he was hearing music from somewhere. It was getting louder, swelling to a crescendo. Paul felt like his ear drums would explode. He tried to cover his ears but the music just kept on getting louder, more pounding.
Paul finally rushed into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. There he saw the horrible sight of what looked like blue goo running out of his ears. His skin looked like it was too tight, as if it would break at any moment.
Paul started to scratch at his arms to relive some of the pain. All that did was tear open his skin.instead of blood coming out it was just more of the blue goo.
He tried to scream but the blue goo was clogging up his throth. Paul finally fell to the floor in agony, while the song kept on tormenting him. So he resorted to banging his head on the side of the bathtub. The banging got to the same rythme of the song. He couldent stop he was dying.
It all came to a head when he felt his eyes burst. The pain it was just to much and he fell to the ground unconscious.
Paul felt like he was falling. Everything around him was dark. He wondered how long he was falling and where he was. All paul knew was that he was thankful the pain was finally over, but that feeling didint last long.
Paul hit the ground with a loud thud. He laid there a moment debating on whether to get up or not. The decision was taken away from him when an invisible force picked him up off the ground.
He looked up to see he was face to face with an odd being. The being had on a cracked stone mask with blue goo dripping down it. The rest of its body looked unreal; he couldn't quite understand how it looked.
“You will do” the being said
“What do you me-” as Paul said he was cut off. His throat felt like it was tightening. He started coughing and soon the same blue goo started pouring out of his mouth.
“What do you want paul?” the being asked as he caressed paul’s face.
“I-don’t_know” paul choked out.
“You have to want something”
Paul couldn't think through the pain. He guessed he wanted Emma, that would be nice. A house behind a white picket fence, some kids maybe. Paul dreamed of having kids and giving them the good childhood he never had. Is that what he wants?
As if the being could hear his thoughts he said “you definitely want that and i can give it to you”
“Rea-lly?” paul said it seemed unbelievable, then again this whole situation seemed unbelievable. Maybe it was some fever dream?
“This is not a fever dream” so the being could defintaly hear his thoughts “just give in to the music and all your dreams can come true”
Paul closed his eyes and started to hear thourgh the pain a soft and sweet melody. It was enchanting. He felt himself slipping away, but no this wasent real. He eyes shot open to look at the being again.
The beginning was starting to look different. Its body was forming; it was almost starting to look like Paul's body.
“Who_are you?” The goo was starting to overpower him so he could barely speak.
The being just looked at him with pity. “Don’t worry about that, you don’t have to worry about anything any more”
Paul finally closed his eyes and gave into the music. He felt the pain finally stop, it gets replaced by pure bliss. He felt like he was floating. A warmth started in his chest and spread to his entire body. He felt happy memories come to his mind. A girl performing for the first time on stage, two lovers dancing together before sharing a kiss, a family singing christmas carols in the car, and teammates before a big game hyping up with music.
None of them were Paul’s memories but he still felt all of the happiness. Happiness he would feel soon if he listened to Pokotho. He didn't know when he learned pokotho’s name, but he was too blissed out to care.
Paul finally faded away. Giving in to the being. He had no reason to fight back anymore.
—-
When Paul's body finally woke up, it wasn't Paul in control. Pokotho had finally found a form to take control of.
Pokey stands up and walks to the mirror. He stretches his limbs. Then he leans in to examine his face. A slight smile crosses his face when he notices the blue eyes. This was the perfect host for his experiment.
“What are you doing?” A voice sounded from behind him.
Pokey whipped around ‘stupid human nerves, I will have to fix that’ he thought. Pokey looked up to see a man leaning on the door way. He was tall with dark greasy hair and wearing denim on denim. “Well, hello Wilbur what brings you here”
“Wiggly sent me to see what you where up to”
“Oh nothing much, just having some fun” at that Wilbur have him a skeptical look.
“Are you sure that’s all?”
“Well what do you think i'm up to?” Pokey didn’t particularly like where this conversation was going.
“Well considering you can do everything from the black and white I don’t know why you would want to be human”
Pokey got a great idea. Wilbur was human before, he could help him blend in. “Well if you must know the truth, I’ve become uninspired”
“Uninspired? You’ve taken over this random guys body because you were bored?” Wilbur was giving him a blank stare.
“No boredom is the wrong word, I couldn’t think of anything new to do. It’s like apocalypse overused, max ghost been there done that, and now I’m just left not knowing what makes these humans so scared”
“So this is more of an experiment”
“Yes, I will find what makes these humans tick, and to do that I must become human”
“Do you even know how to act human?”
“Well I was wondering if maybe you could help me on that front?” Pokey batted his eyes at Wiley.
After a long moment Wiley finally concedes “fine, if only to avoid Wigglys rage”
“Great, now for bed” Pokey announced.
“But we don’t need to sleep”
“I would like to get fully immersed in this experience”
“Fine, just get in bed,” Wiley said while pinching the bridge of his nose. Wiley was starting to get annoyed and wasn’t afraid to show it. Pokey respected that.
Wiley and Pokey laid down in the bed after turning off all the lights. Wiley turned away from Pokey. So he went close to Wiley’s ear and whispered “good night”
“Go to sleep,” Wiley replied irritatedly. Even though Pokey hates taking orders from others he did it so Wiley wouldn’t suspect a single thing.