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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/fainting–goat on 2024-09-19 02:51:18+00:00.

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“So we’re fighting a god.  That’s just… lovely.”

Cassie’s dire assessment of our situation was how the emergency house meeting started.  For a brief moment I almost corrected her in that Grayson wasn’t really a god and we probably shouldn’t ascribe that status to him and also we weren’t trying to fight him, really, just convince him to not go ahead with his whole ‘find a permanent body and that body is Ashley’ plan but then I decided to wisely keep my mouth shut.  Semantics didn’t matter.  We had bigger problems to argue about.

It was just myself, Cassie, and Josh.  I’d wanted to invite Professor Monotone, but we’d all come to the realization that it just wasn’t safe to involve him further.  We thought he’d be fine since the flickering man was gone and he didn’t have something inhuman watching over his shoulder, but we were wrong.

So very wrong.

I spent a good ten minutes or so freaking out over the thought that I’d gotten Professor Monotone killed by involving him in what little he’d been present for, until Cassie told me that what’s done was done and we couldn’t do anything to change it so, please calm down and stop pacing through the kitchen.

We’d taken our own precautions to ensure that Grayson couldn’t listen in on our conversations.  The kitchen was the best place to talk, as it was the most interior room of the apartment.  We covered the windows in the adjacent living room with blankets and then gathered around the small table for a hushed planning session.  I explained as best as I could the difference between inhuman things and ancient things, reminding them that all of this is just speculation on the part of my hometown and that the rules aren’t consistently followed.  However, we agreed that we’d treat Grayson as an ancient being now, because we surely couldn’t go wrong by overestimating his abilities.

Here’s what we understand so far.

Grayson is the rain.  He was likely an ancient thing before the college was established.  

The first president was seeking a path to immortality and decided to trap the rain in a human body.  What he planned to do with Grayson after that is unknown and we’re not sure how we’d find out, because no one wants me talking directly to Grayson anymore.  However, we do know that it started a cycle of souls being stuffed into the president’s body to keep it going and Grayson’s essence being stuffed into new bodies to keep him corporeal.

Makes me wonder if the president inadvertently created a trap for himself, one of those ‘wish gone horribly wrong’ situations where his soul was allowed to perish but his body was given immortality.  Serves him right, if so.

The tree was likely created by someone that assisted the president.  One of Professor Monotone’s ancestors, who then became the groundskeeper.  We suspect that this person regretted what they did and was trying to undo their mistake, but again, no way to know because they’re dead and didn’t write anything down.

(the moral of this story is if you’re going to do evil rituals please take copious notes because someone might have to undo your bullshit a few generations down the line)

We think the tree reduced the rain’s influence.  It was an alder tree.  Grayson talked about it trying to consume him, which I assumed was a figure of speech but now, I think he was speaking literally.  The devil wanted me to destroy the tree because then Grayson could escape campus and he wouldn’t have to compete with an ancient that seems very possessive of his turf.

Grayson wants to break the cycle of finding new hosts by merging??? with me.  Which I’m sure would be great for the college because it’d get rid of a body-stealing ancient, but I’m not keen on it.  And interestingly, I’m only tempted by the offer when I’m around Grayson.

Oh yeah and the pool of water in the basement sucks souls out.  I proposed a bet on the pool being where the original ritual was conducted and even though I only bet a bag of ramen, no one would take me up on it.

So there we go.  That’s everything.  Those are actually just a copy/paste of the notes I took during the house meeting, which is now my job forever or until we resolve the situation.  Because somehow I’m now the fastest typist of the group, can’t imagine how that happened, it’s not like I’ve been getting a ton of practice or anything.

“I’ve been talking to James,” Josh said.  “I think he feels more comfortable with me because I’m not as close to Maria as you two are.  He’s been trying to remember things from when he was a ghost.”

He wasn’t entirely alone in the water (for we’re pretty sure at this point that’s where he was).  There were other shapes that passed him by, distant, indistinct, and when he’d first returned and was trying to make sense of what happened to him he’d assumed they were students in the corporeal world.  However, the more he dwelled on it, the more he realized that might not be the case.  Some of them were too big.  Most were oddly formed, close enough to human, but not quite correct.

“We think they are students, but they only intersect with the ocean when it’s raining,” Cassie said matter-of-factly.

We think.  They’d already discussed this without me.  My friends are scheming in my absence.

Also we’re calling it the ocean now, because it seems too big to be the traveling river.  Maybe the traveling river flows into it.  Into Grayson’s actual body.

“So we might be able to access the ocean when it’s raining?” I asked.

Convenient, considering it is still raining.

“That’s a theory.  But there’s something more important that James told me,” Josh said.

The ocean had currents.  He felt like it was trying to drag him down to the darkest depths, an ever-present pull and the more he resisted it, the more like himself he felt.  But there were areas where the current wasn’t as strong and he tried to stay there as much as possible.  It wasn’t that he was stuck in one building.  He stayed there because the current was weak.

“The roots,” I said, my eyes widening as I finally made the connection.  “The lecture hall was covered in roots!”

Josh and Cassie both swiveled to stare into the living room, where the piece of petrified wood sat on the coffee table.  Titanosaur, sprawled in the entryway, stared back.

“But he wasn’t able to leave with me,” I continued, frowning.  “I was stuck in the gray world - this in-between space that I think is connected to… everything.  I tried to escort him out of the building and he got pulled back.”

“Oh yeah, he mentioned that,” Josh said.  “Says it was the most lucid he ever was.  And when you were holding his hand, he saw more than just the ocean.  He saw the hallway and the doors of the geology building.  Then the current grabbed him and pulled him away from you.  He said he could think of nothing more than to find you again, after that.”

Great.  So that explains why James followed me to the power plant.

“Did he tell you why he tried to shove me in the water?” I asked.

“I don’t think he remembers that yet.”

“Or he’s lying,” Cassie said.

Awkward silence descended.  Grayson is obviously at the top of Cassie’s shit list, but I get the feeling that James might be second on account of what he did to Maria.

“Anyway,” Josh said, thankfully breaking the silence, “if the power plant pool is connected to the ocean, then it explains why we haven’t been able to fill it with concrete.”

“Or with dirt,” Cassie muttered.  “Or water beads.  Or that futon mattress.  Or anything else we’ve tried.”

Goddamn I wish they weren’t keeping me out of the loop, I would have loved to see them dumping all that crap in there.

They’d also come to the conclusion that maybe it shouldn’t be sealed, now that it was our ticket for getting Maria home and Grayson out of here.  Both of them seemed pretty intent on returning Grayson to the ocean, swapping in James, and bringing back Maria.  I got the feeling that they already had a plan on how to get us all in the same place and that was why Josh has been talking to James.  I also realized that they had no intention on sharing that plan with me.

“I don’t know if this changes much,” Cassie sighed.  “Other than we need to be more careful about where we talk and maybe we should start carrying silicon packets to throw at him.”

Maybe it was because I’d actually experienced Grayson’s terror about being returned to the ocean, but Cassie’s joke didn’t sit well with me.  I snapped at her that it wasn’t funny and then I just stalled, not sure what to say after that, unable to explain why it upset me so much.  Cassie looked uncomfortable for a moment and then mumbled an apology I didn’t quite believe.

“I know you want to help Grayson,” Josh said.  Bless his emotional intelligence.  “We can’t really give you a timeframe because he’s hooked into your mind, but let’s just say that if you want to do something before we do, do it fast.”

 “And we’ll help if you need it,” Cassie added.

For a moment I didn’t know what to say.  It was clear Cassie didn’t agree, but she was still going to help.  I stared at the table and tried not to cry.  But what did I want to do about Grayson?  

“I think I want to visit the library ghost,” I said.  “With the heart.”

They didn’t ask a lot of questions about that, which was good because I didn’t have answers.  After the encounter with the steam ghost, it jus…

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