No Sleep for a Dead Man

Alright Finn you want to bargain with those who control the universe. They denied me and my friends who were the only line of defense against these bastards and all we wanted them to do was to admit they made a mistake. You want them to not only admit their mistake but they should also revert their verdict and reincarnate you." Said Arin.

"Not just reincarnate me, send me back to the moment before I died so that I can keep on living my life." Said Finn.

"Please tell me you are joking." Said Arin.

"Why would I joke?" Asked Finn.

"You not only want them to admit their faults but to undo the flow of time to take you back to before you were killed thus breaking all fundamental laws of time. Even as we are now it will be incredibly difficult to fulfill such a task." Said Arin.

"Why? I've just been dead for a few hours." Said Finn.

"No, as of now you've been dead for three days to us, it's just been a few hours." Said Arin.

"Wait what?" Asked Finn.

"We stand within the barrier of reality itself. Here time and space bend and contort in strange and mysterious ways. There is almost nothing valuable to the higher ups that they would make them mess with the very fabric of reality to appease on mortal they Banished here for allegedly committing suicide." Said Arin.

"You just said almost nothing, that implies that there is still something that something would be." Said Finn.

"You have no idea the magnitude of what your goal is. It is not something but someone, His name is Casper. He, Raymond and I where the first individuals to successfully bond with a Flage after we were wrongfully accused of a massive genocide. We took our proposal to the higher ups and they approved our project but refused to admit they made a mistake. Raymond and I just accepted the Job of basically ghost hunting but Casper refused to let go of the fact that they refused to admit they were wrong so he decided to make them pay. After a thousand years of planning he successfully managed to form a Vire with a Flage we called EVERSOR, a massive Flage that nested within the biggest blackhole in the entire universe. Not knowing his motives we went to meet the higher ups to detail our victory where Casper unleashed the full potential of the Eversor, with a sadistic level of ease Casper nearly broke reality as a whole. Raymond was ejected out of both the unreal and the real. His essence essentially faded away from the universe." Arin said.

"So if I defeat Casper the higher ups will send me back." Said Finn.

"Are you unable to gauge the impossibility of this endeavor? You are saying you want to fight against a person that is a danger to the controller of the universe with that katana of yours." Arin said.

"Well I have been fencing since I was 13, so I'm quite capable with a sword." Said Finn. Arin first stood in place frozen in shock before bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"Master, what is the matter?" Asked Mikey.

"Nothing Mikey. Anyway Finn followed me back to HQ, I want you to meet some people." Said Arin.

Finn and Arin arrive at the front door of the building they had jumped out of. Within the building was a chaotic labyrinth ten times bigger in its insides than the outside.

"Hello Arin, I see you took the spy for a walk." Said A tall, well dressed muscular African man with straight hair.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Finn.

"Don't play dumb. I bet you work for that bastard casper." Said The man.

"Calm down Gus, he isn't a spy." Said Arin.

"What are you two even talking about?" Asked Finn.

"There was some debate within headquarters about you being a spy sent by Casper." Said Arin.

"What? Why?" Asked Finn.

"Because there has never been a person that had bonded with a Flage before dying!" Gus Exclaimed.

"Augustus, that's enough. We went over this we reviewed his memories and saw he had encountered the Flage before death." Arin said.

"Yo, I heard Gus yell, is the Spy back." Said A short latino woman dressed in proper office attire that matched her dark orange hair.

"It's Finn by the way." Said Finn.

"Hi Finn, I'm dory. When you eventually turn I will be the one to kill you." She said.

"Dory, that is not how you welcome a new member of the team." Said Arin.

"Why not? Set fear in him so he spills all he knows about Casper." Said Gus.

"Thank you, Gus." Said Dory as her and His shared a high five.

"Wait, Arin, did you just say I'm a new member of the team?" Asked Finn.

"I am unable to fully explain what this place is exactly, why don't you get some rest and then you would attend the morning briefing." Said Arin.

"Wait, ghost sleep?" Said Finn as everyone paused in silence glaring at him with disgust in their eyes.

"Finn my boy, ghost is kind of a hurtful slur here so I would avoid that if I were you. Unless your spying ass knows it is a slur and you are just using the innocent newly dead person card to use it." Said Dory.

"No, definitely not that." Said Finn.

"That's what a dirty slur sayer would say." Said Dory.

"Anyway, yes the Spirited do sleep. As we go through the day we slowly use up energy that allows us to stay in existence but when we sleep we draw that energy back to us." Said Arin.

"So if I don't sleep for a few days I would literally disintegrate." Said Finn.

"Basically yeah. Anyway you would be sharing residence with Kyle. Dory, can you call him for me?" Asked Arin.

"Ok, Kyle! We finally found drugs you can consume." Dory exclaimed.

"You did?" Said a drunken looking Kyle, an Italian man with messy hair and a crooked voice and back, who was also wearing a proper suit.

"Kyle for goodness sake, use a damn door." Said Gus.

"I could but most of them lead to the state of Ohio. Anyway, where are the drugs you were talking about?", Asked Kyle.

"Firstly I told you that those doors on the fifth wing are the doors of desire, meaning you want to go to Ohio." Said Arin.

"What? No, the last time I was in Ohio a rat nearly bit my dick off because I was sleeping in a dumpster." Said Kyle.

"I will ask no further questions. Secondly, this man here is Finn, your new roommate. Show him his new accommodation." Said Arin.

"I get to be roomies with the spy, sweet. Sup I'm Kyle." Said Kyle as he raised his hand for a shake.

"Finn, pleasure to meet you." Said Finn as he accepted the handshake.

"Huh, you have a very untrustworthy handshake." Said Kyle.

"Umm? Thanks." Said Finn.

"Huh you are good, I was sure that would have made you confess to being a spy. Anyway, let's go to where you will kill me in my sleep." Said Kyle.

"Alright Finn, I will see you in the morning." Said Arin.

"Oh any Finn just a bit of information, if you love Kyle now you would love his three other personalities." Said Dory as her, Arin and Gus walked away.

A short while later Finn and Kyle arrive at their shared room. On the outside it looked as if it was a small dorm room but on the inside the room was as big as a luxury duplex.

"This bigger on the inside thing is really trippy." Said Finn.

"Yeah this entire building is a massive Narnia type shit. Can I go to the bathroom? I don't have to, even when I consume food it just vaporizes inside of me but I like to look at toilet water flush." Said Kyle as he stepped into a small toilet stall in the front of the room.

About an hour later, Kyle emerged from the bathroom with an overall less crooked demeanor.

"Kyle, you were there for an hour, I thought you said you don't poop?" Asked Finn.

"Well my good friend I don't but the swirls of a toilet are just so captivating and it is not because I'm nervous that you could be a spy. Oh heavens did I say that out loud, that was just a silly goof I don't think you are a spy." Said Kyle as he nervously sweats.

"I take it that you are one of Kyle's other personalities." Said Finn.

"My Name is Derek, and Kyle is one of my other personalities. I accidentally consumed some toxic drugs when I was nineteen which affected my mental stabilities causing the creation of three personalities I struggle with for control over my no longer alive body." He said.

"Finn, pleased to meet you." Said Finn.

"Oh so you are the obvious spy Dory informed me about this morning, great that I would get to share a room with you, can I show you to our sleeping quarters?" Asked Derek.

"Umm, I would like that." Said Finn.

Derek led Finn to a room with two beds placed adjacent to one another.

"Wait, we don't get separate rooms?"  Asked Finn.

"Sorry there is a small portion of our residence where you can draw universal energy and recharge while you sleep." Said Derek.

"Ok sleeping with a roommate for a very long and indefinite amount of time doesn't seem that bad." Said Finn.

"Great. Just keep in mind my other personalities and I do fight internally between one another on a frequent basis and you will be able to hear the fighting. Anyway goodnight  probably spy, see you tomorrow." Said Derek as he dived into his bed.

"Wait, what do you mean by fighting internally? And he is asleep already, I didn't even think that was possible." Said Finn as he crawled into the adjacent bed.

He stared blankly at the ceiling which was just a live coverage of the stars in the night sky. As he looked up at the starry ceiling the position he was in began to truly dawn on him. Only now had he begun to process the magnitude of him actually being dead. He questioned whether he would see his daughter again and how those in his life would remember me. His existential realization made its way to his dreams as he dreamt that he was on a train with his daughter. In the dream his daughter was distant and unreactive to Finn, almost like she couldn't see him. As he tried and failed to get the attention of his daughter a band of creatures similar to the flage Finn had defeated an earlier rush in and began chasing after his daughter. Finn tried to defend against the flages as his daughter ran for dear life but as attempted to strike one of the flages his hand phased through its body. With no way of protecting her against the band of savage flages his daughter was eventually caught and mangled by these flages. The extreme horror of watching his daughter eating by demonic creatures as he stood unable to do anything was enough to jerk him back to reality, a reality almost as bizarre.

He woke up not to the large residence he and Derek but a collapsed building. A

The air was filled with fog and debris as he could hear distant fighting.

" Finn, where the hell are you?!" Yelled Derek with a much deeper voice.

"Derek is that you?" Asked Finn as he Derek stretched his hand fort to lift up Finn. But as Finn grabbed hold of his hands, Derek proceeded to tackle him before pointing a  knife at his throat.

"Alright the gig is up you fucking spy, call of your buddies!" Derek Exclaimed.

"My buddies? I have no fucking clue what is happening." Said Finn.

"Seth is that you?" Yelled Gus from a short distance.

"Yeah and I got the fucking spy." Said Seth as Gus walks into the view holding a frail looking Dory as Arin follows.

"What happened to her?" Asked Finn.

"Oh don't you dare use the ignorance card, you know exactly what happened to her!" Gus exclaimed.

"Gus enough, Seth let him, that's an order." Said Arin.

"But Arin the day he enters the building terrible shit happens, it doesn't take a genius to deduce that he is the one behind this." Said Gus.

"He is not a spy and plus this was caused by a dream of some sort, but whose dream was it?" Asked Arin as Finn realized he might be involved in the catastrophe.

As they all talked a girl of around eight years ran past them into the fog as small snake-like flages with goat heads chased after her. Confirming his beliefs that he caused all of this Finn managed to glimpse at the child's face which was his daughter.

"Everyone, follow that child, she will lead us to the dreamer!" Arin yelled as they all rushed after the girl, Finn not wanting the group to realize he was at fault begrudgingly followed.

"Hey, can I ask what would happen if you found the dreamer?" Asked Finn.

"Dreaming in the realm of the spirited is impossible unless the individual goes through some spirit altering modifications only possible if you have connections with Casper." Said Arin.

"Interesting." Said Finn as he began to sweat bullets.

"Hey the fog seems to be clearing up." Said Dory.

The group reached an area with no fog in which they were immediately greeted by a large monument of Finn.

"Oh shit?" Finn said.

"Oh so you were the spy, I'm so going to rip your lungs out through your….." Seth exclaimed before being gulped whole by a large Goat snake. Before either of them could process what just occurred the ground below them gave way, sending them into free fall. Both Gus and Dory were devoured in the air by Goat-snake.

Eventually Arin and Finn stop their endless descent when they land on a broken part of the building's roof.

"Oh my god, what the hell is happen…." Said Finn as Arin grabbed him and looked him straight in the eye.

"I want you to answer this truthfully. Are you a spy for Casper?" Arin asked, never losing the discomforting eye contact he had established.

"No, I'm not a spy for Casper, I have no idea what is the fuck is going on." Said Finn.

"Good, I believe you. Now the rest of them have much likely vanished from existence or second death if you may but now that I can trust you just me and Mickey can send all these Flages to hell. Isn't that right Mickey?" Asked Arin to no response.

"Mickey, Mickey where the hell in the world are….." Arin said before the largest Goat-serpent of them all rushed straight at Arib, devouring him with a single gulp.

"Oh no, this is bad, really really bad, I'm fucked. I'm brutally and completely fucked." Said Finn as he scrambled around whilst the Goat serpent circled above him.

"No matter, I'll just use Oswald, Oswald Come." Said Finn to no response.

"Fuck he is also not here. Ok it's alright I would just improvise, yeah I'm great at that. I'm an improvising Kin…." Said Finn as the Large Goat serpent Flew down and gobbled him up. Immediately the Goat serpent descended for the kill Finn began to scream in the most ear scattering volume possibly made by human vocal cords. He kept that absurdly loud volume for a full 30 seconds until he opened his eyes to see that he was in the still intact building.

"That was something else." Said Dory as all the individuals in the office bundled in front of Finn.

"How the fuck are you here any of you alive. The fucking goat serpents got you!" Finn exclaimed.

"Oh you mean this goat serpent." Said Gus as a small goat serpent appeared on his shoulders.

"What the fuck is happening?" Asked Finn.

"Everytime someone new joins the squad we give them a little prank just for fun." Said Dory.

"Wait but I had dreams because of the goat serpent thing from yesterday." Said Finn.

"Yeah, Gus' Handy work." Said Arin.

"Well more of Michelle and her team of duplicates handy work." Said Gus as he stroked the Goat serpent.

"So everyone was just in on one elaborate joke." Said Finn.

"Everyone except for all the personalities of Seth?" Said Dory.

"Yeah it would have been better if they all actually believed you were a traitor." Said Gus.

"Wait The spy man isn't a Spy. Now I have to memorize his dumb name." Said Kyle.

"Oh and he is Kyle now." Said Dory.

"Alright everyone this was a great prank but it's 1am and we have a morning briefing so back to your sleeping quarters." Said Arin.

"Wait, one more thing. Me being roommates with Kyle and the gang was also part of the prank?" Asked Finn.

"No you are stuck with him either until one of you experiences a second death or you somehow get sent back to earth." Said Arin.

"Wait, I get to be roommates with the Spy, cool." Said Kyle.

"Have fun. And remember if he sleeps as Seth, protect yourself." Said Dory.

"Also even though the events of today didn't happen but they will if you actually dream so try not to do that." Said Gus as he left his room.

"See you tomorrow Finn, welcome to eternity." Said Arin as he left.

"Hey I don't want to be rude but are you a spy?" Asked Kyle.

"No!" Yelled Finn.