Adon wasn't sure what was going on as his vision slowly returned. He could only see out of one eye, and as time ticked by, he remembered what had happened. He tried to shake the cloudiness from his head, but the action felt sluggish, as if he didn't really have control. 

"That's enough of that," a slightly familiar voice chided. 

This is my body, Nikolai. Give it back. 

Adon put as much determination as he could into his words as he tried to move himself from where he was now sitting. 

Wait. Where am I? 

Refocusing his attention on what was around him, Adoni used his one good eye to quickly figure out that they were in the basement, but considering where he was seated... There was no need to try and force Nikolai to let him turn his head. He didn't want to see the skeleton beside him. 

"What's wrong, banshee? Don't like seeing my true self?" Nikolai said as he turned so that Adon had no choice but to watch his hand reach forward and pick up a piece of fractured bone. 

He's better at talking now... and I can actually sense some sarcasm in his words. Is he getting emotions back? 

He expected Nikolai to speak again, but when the man just stared at the broken bone, Adon looked at it closer. There were no bite marks from rats gnawing on it. It had been broken before Nikolai had died. 

Who killed you two? 

There was a tense silence as Nikolai turned the piece of bone over in his hand several times. When he stopped moving it, it was sitting in his palm as faint glowing lines of light elongated from his fingernails, creating claws. 

"Caleb's mother." 

He'd expected it, but to hear Nikolai say it... 

"I would hunt her down and kill her if I could get out of this house, but I can't go beyond the door with you here." 

I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to die for your revenge. There are other ways to bring her to justice. 

A quiet, cynicle chuckle slipped from his lips as Nikolai let the shard of bone slip from his fingers, then raised his hand above his head, stretching his translucent claws toward the worn ceiling. 

"I care not for justice. Her and my father..." a deep growl rumbled from his chest as Nikolai began to lose control of himself. 

Adon's instincts told him to shrink back into Nikolai's mind until he was more stable, but he knew that he couldn't do that. He needed to get the guy to trust him, and in turn, stop trying to kill him. 

Focusing with his one good eye, Adon extended his own arm up through Nikolai's. He felt the man's flesh blocking his fingertips as his hand internally reached Nikolai's outstretched one. 

Nikolai gave a warning growl, but Adon ignored it as he managed to slip his translucent fingers through Nikolai's skin and gently grasp his clawed hand. 

Calm down. We need to work together to fix this situation. 

"Fix." 

The word was snarled as Nikolai withdrew his hand, the abrupt action forcing Adon's to return to his body. The man was suddenly on his feet, and before Adon could stop him, he had kicked his own skull. It slammed against the concrete wall, fracturing part of the back portion, then tumbled to the left before stopping near the tiny nightstand that had Caleb's dusty, empty fish bowl on it. 

"What can be fixed!" 

Nikolai turned back toward his skeleton, clearly intent on displacing more bones out of anger, but he abruptly stopped when they both noticed Caleb sitting on the edge of the bed with his head down, eyes half-lidded as they stared down at Nikolai's newly-damaged skull between his hands. 

A thick silence took over the area and Adon could feel Nikolai's frustration draining. 

Caleb really is the key to handling Nikolai. 

He got an internal growl in response to his thought, but Adon ignored it, his attention focused on their current situation. Nikolai was slowly beginning to reach forward, clearly intent on taking his skull back. However, right as his fingers were going to touch it, Caleb hunched over and hugged it tightly to his chest. 

Adon felt Nikolai's confusion as the man hesitantly straightened back up, unable to figure out what his reaction should be. When Caleb realized that Nikolai had withdrawn his intention to take his skull back, he peaked up from beneath his bangs. His lips were squeezed together tightly and his brow was scrunched. 

"Not hurt Niko," he rasped out as he looked back down and softly caressed the newly-damaged part of the skull. 

Unexpectedly, Adon felt Nikolai completely retreat, retracting his control of his body so abruptly that he made Adon drop to his knees before he could even think to catch himself. Thankfully, he managed to avoid landing on the remaining skeleton and quickly returned to his feet seconds later. It was odd, though, because he might have been given full control again, but the outer body was still Nikolai's. 

"Hey Caleb..." he whispered, getting used to being able to talk again. 

When Caleb just spared him a brief glance, Adon felt the edge of his lips tilt up. He carefully stepped over Nikolai's skeleton and took a seat beside the wraith. Caleb immediately shrank closer to the skull, but when Adon made no move to try and touch it, he eventually turned his worried gaze up to him again. 

"I'm not going to hurt him," Adon said with a careful smile. 

Caleb didn't seem like he processed his words, so Adon tried again. 

"He was just really stressed about everything. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt himself, either. He even went to hide somewhere in our mind because he was worried he'd upset you." 

Again, Caleb didn't respond. 

Confused that he might have needed to rest abruptly, Adoni leaned closer. 

Wait a minute. 

He hesitantly reached up and pressed his fingertips to Caleb's cheek, except... his fingers went right through the wraith. 

Umm, Nikolai? 

When he got no response, Adon furrowed his brows and looked toward the stairs. He hesitated for a moment, but after glancing back at Caleb's fading form, he yelled as loud as he could. 

"Taylor! Need you down here!" 

He hoped that the guy was awake. 

After a few quiet minutes Adon heard feet heading down the old stairs. Moments later, Taylor appeared at the bottom, limping slightly when he hopped down from the last step. 

He seemed to shrug off the pain when he saw Caleb and hurried over. 

"What happened? What's happening?" 

Of course, it was clear what was happening, but neither of them knew why. 

Nikolai, I really need you back here, bud. Your brother isn't looking too hot. 

It took him a few minutes before he felt the other man's presence returning. Nikolai seemed to look through his right eye before realizing that there definitely was an issue. 

Adon didn't hesitate to relinquish the body for Nikolai this time, knowing that his brother would be the best chance they had to help Caleb. 

"Kay?" Nikolai said as he leaned over and gently grasped either side of his brother's fading face. 

When he tilted his head, blank, half-lidded eyes stared into nothingness. 

Caleb's eyelids began to move in a blinking motion, but it was excruciatingly slow. When they finally lowered to the point of closing off his eyeballs, they suddenly jerked back open wide as his head swung backwards, then fell forward with a blood-curdling scream. 

Taylor took an unintentional step backwards, but Nikolai tried to grab his brother, only for his hands to slip straight through Caleb's translucent skin. 

He almost looks like... 

Taylor stepped forward again, his bare feet nearly touching Nikolai's skeleton. His eyes were hard see in the darkness of the basement, but there was no doubt that there was sadness in their depths. 

"He's a... banshee now?" 

That explained the sudden whaling scream. It had definitely not sounded like the other ones he had given before as a wraith. 

But how could he have degraded? Was that actually a thing? 

It definitely hadn't been in any kind of information he'd seen online. 

"Of course it is a thing, stupid human! Nothing remains forever... after all of these years, my little brother is starting to truly die." 

Taylor gasped and carefully stepped forward. He tried to touch Caleb, but his hands went straight through his form, just like Nikolai's had. 

"Caleb? Caleb, please calm down. We can figure this out," he said, unsure if he could really do anything to help the poor guy. 

A snarled laugh drew his eyes toward Nikolai. Even in the darkness he could see the hatred in their depths. 

"You don't need to figure anything out, human. Caleb would have been fine... more than fine, if he had j-just done what he should have. But no," Nikolai growled as he stood up and leaned over, crowding Taylor, forcing him to step back. 

Nikolai stalked forward and Taylor matched each of his advances with a retreating step of his own. Neither of them stopped until Taylor was pinned back against the far wall, dust greedily clinging to the back of his previously-clean shirt. 

"He couldn't do it. He has no conscious. No emotions. No heart!" Nikolai snarled out as he slammed his clawed hand into the dilapidated concrete beside Taylor's head, then began slowly digging into it with his translucent claws. 

"He couldn't possess you. Not even to keep himself from losing what miniscule grasp he had on reality." 

Adon tried to reign Nikolai in, but the man completely refused to relent. 

"If you c-care about him at all, you'll find a way to get him in here!" Nikolai yelled as he grabbed the front of Taylor's shirt and shook him back against the wall. 

With one final grunted growl Nikolai turned to stalk up the stairs as he panted, leaving Taylor to mull over what he'd said, and Adon to pace in his mind with worry for both his friend and the new banshee. 

He didn't want Caleb to truly disappear, but he also wasn't sure if Taylor could handle possession. Even he, himself, struggled with it, especially when he'd been repeatedly bitten. 

Not to mention being attacked in my own mind. 

Nikolai replied with a warning growl as he stepped onto the first floor of the home but Adoni rolled his good eye. He wanted to reply, but knew that Nikolai was already right on the edge of his sanity, so he let it go... for now. He wasn't done trying to get his body back, but he knew when to back away from a possible fight that he wasn't going to win. He'd bide his time and try to help Taylor with whatever decision he ended up choosing while trying to come up with a new path that both him and Nikolai could follow together, for now.