Experimenting

Kai began his Tuesday in the way his days typically began - phasing out of his body.

However, there was one thing he wanted to try differently today. Instead of making an effort to recenter himself, wouldn't it be better to try and understand what was going on?

As he fell out of bed towards his morning alarm, Kai spared the presence of mind to observe what was going on with his 'body.'

It was almost as if he were an after-image, with his body lagging behind.

His first hand phased through the alarm, but his second slammed down, ending the accursed beeping.

However, instead of attempting to sync his 'ghost' hand with his body, Kai wanted to experiment.

With a little concentration, he was able to bring the ethereal hand up to his face, yet leave the physical one in place.

'How curious…'

Kai then tried to pull the rest of his arm out of his body. After a minute of mental strain, he succeeded. His spirit shivered, not expecting the icy-cold sensation.

The de-synced shiver proved one last thing to Kai. He could separate from his body.

And so he did.

Bracing himself for the cold, he stepped forwards, leaving his body behind.

It felt like plunging into an ice bath.

However, the cold was not Kai's focus for long.

His focus was instead on his terrible hunger.

Although it was not as pressing as it had been when he had been expelled from the endless black, it was still painfully gnawing away at his very core.

And yet, Kyle did not seem as tasty as before.

Instead, he could practically smell a meal walking down the street below.

Leaving Kyle behind for now, he phased through the wall with a thought. Down below, he saw a woman unlocking her car.

He zipped towards her, studying her with an almost childlike curiosity. He watched her apply her lipstick using the mirror of her car, before capping it with a slight smile.

She started her car, and leaned over to turn up the heat. The radio had started playing a pop song Kai could tell she enjoyed.

All in all, she seemed incredibly content, enjoying the moment.

Unfortunately for her, Kai wanted her satisfaction, even if he didn't know it yet.

He swooped behind her and noticed she was about ready to drive away. Unwilling to let such a delicious meal escape him, Kai centered himself, attempting to listen to his instincts.

Suddenly the woman froze, her eyes glazing over. Kai had placed his hand on the back of her neck, siphoning some sort of energy from her.

A minute later, she slumped over the steering wheel and Kai floated away, filled with warmth.

He assumed a sitting position on the outside ledge of Kyle's window, and watched the woman's car drive away a few minutes later.

Done with his experimenting, he returned to his room only to see his body had disappeared.

Kai felt a tinge of panic, but suppressed it and instead chose to let the world around him sink in.

He felt his range of awareness expand, from the bedroom to the bathroom to the rooms of his family members down the hallway. And then he saw him.

Kyle was taking a shower.

Kai zeroed in on Kyle, and suddenly materialized next to him. He stepped forwards to take control of the body once again, but then stopped.

Would it not be better to let Kyle deal with all the emotional nonsense his friends had insisted on pushing upon him?

Instead of re-entering Kyle's body, Kai chose to follow closely behind.

~~~~

An hour into the experiment, Kai noticed a problem. He was shivering. The warmth from the woman had faded away quite quickly, and he had been doing his best since to tune out the terrible chill.

Apparently, that was a terrible life choice.

Kyle was currently sitting in front of him, writing down some foreign equation while the teacher droned on about triangles.

Kai steadied himself before taking a step forward.

Interestingly enough, Kyle only flinched slightly before continuing his scribbling.

Kai decided that whatever happened next would have to be good enough, or at least better than this bitter cold, before diving the rest of the way into Kyle's body.

Suddenly, Kyle's voice surrounded him, reciting jumbles of numbers and letters and even more numbers.

The overwhelming sensation distracted Kai. It was a solid few seconds before he realized he hadn't yet opened his eyes.

Kai let his eyes slide open, seeing little but mist and clouds about him until he turned around.

Projected onto a wall of cloud was Kyle's vision. Looking closer, Kai realized some of the numbers booming through Kyle's head matched up with the ones being written on paper.

Content with his current situation, Kai curled up onto the bed of clouds and silently observed.

~~~~

As math ended, Kyle headed out to the football field. He checked the date on his phone once again.

'It really is tuesday… yet I can't remember anything after the game.'

With a furrowed brow, Kyle arrived at the football field.

With a sigh, he headed out to stretch.

'Why is nobody asking where I was? Am I the only one who doesn't know what I've been doing these past few days?'

Kyle's left arm made a satisfying popping sound.

'Do I even really care?'

Resigned to apathy, Kyle found a partner and began to toss around a ball.