Chapter 5: Sleepwalking

Ally Miller. Agent Miller within Shield. Recently promoted due to her work in the highly classified Fox Case, and her continued work on it. She is on break. As she sits in her small apartment, eating... she can't help but remember. That a shadow fox is in her shadow. She can't sense it. Its been under her shadow for 4 weeks now. Yet nothing... no signs of Mr. Fox's so called gift. Not even a weird dream. That shadows name was Karlen if she remembers right. That shadow nodded, oddly excitedly when it was given to her. Ally worries... as she eats her dinner, its late at night. She sighs, "Whatever." As she heads to her bed, and sleeps.

When she sleeps... she dreams. Normal dreams. Then... wakes? She finds herself in a black void. Nothing is around her, she is walking in ancle deep water. She says "Where am i?" Confused, yet unable to think clearly. As she walks... she looks at her hands confused... animated? She looks around, and sees a fox sitting there. Black siloweat, with glowing purple eyes. It looks at her. It looks at her curious, and a bit excited, anxious even. She is confused. Then... she wakes up. Its morning... as she wakes up... with a headache, and her legs, and arms hurt. She opens her eyes, groaning. She then frowns... she is... on the couch? She gets up suddenly. She looks around confused. She is on her couch, when she went to sleep in her bed? She gets up, and walks around confused. Her back hurts. She gets up shakily... and finds a open plastic contain or of spaghetti opened, and eaten out of from the ground. She remembers packaging that last night, putting it in the fridge. A hand print is in spaghetti sauce, it looks as if... someone was crouching, and eating, like a human on all 4's unnaturally. She frowns deeper. She is shaken... that dream... then this? She walks to her bathroom for cleaning supplies, and then freezes... on her face... red... spaghetti. Her Left hand... red sauce. She realizes... she ate from the ground... and that container... and... "Oh fuck..." she backs away slowly. "W-What? How..." She is greatly... scared. Had... had the shadow controlled her last... night. She looked at her knees... they were bruised. Her hands were oddly firm. As if they were walked... on... all 4's... foxes are quadrupeds.

She gets angry slowly. The... the shadows were once humans? Why... why had it walked on all 4's! Why... why did it take control last night! Then she realized she ate off the ground like a animal... and felt sick. Why crawl on all fours in her body like that, without dignity or context? Karlen was once a person! The image of herself—crouched, hand in a plastic tray, sauce smeared on her face—made her want to vomit. It wasn't just animalistic. It was intimate, a violation of self-image, of identity. She splashed cold water on her face, staring at the mirror, as if her reflection could answer the questions clawing at her gut. Was Karlen trying to connect—or simply indulging a fragment of who he used to be? She decided to not report it. She said out loud... feeling silly "Karlen. Can... can you hear me? Why... Don't... stop... don't do that! Uh..." Silence... she sighs deeply. Bends down, as her back achs, and grabs cleaning supplies.

Eventually, she moves to take a shower... then realizes... she has a shadow watching her. Or not. She does not know... is Karlen a guy, or girl? She sighs... they already watched her take showers several times over these last few weeks if they are watching. She shakes her head, and takes a shower, wanting to stop her back from aching, and have nice warm water over her skin. As she took a shower... she thought of what she could do... then said "Cameras. I'm installing cameras." She decided.

The next few days, nothing. Thou she is tempted to take some meditation classes. She installs the cameras, and gets them all working. Eventually, it occurs once more. She wakes up in the dream, the water place, animated. She becomes lucid... it does not feel like a dream. She gets up, in the dark void, with water at her feet. Begins to walk. Before, a shadow fox stands nearby. Its a little less excited, and more quite. She walks over to it, as it looks at her. Glowing purple eyes. Its hard... to think, but she says slowly "What's wrong?" Quite... she somehow knows what's wrong. She is not sure how. But she knows Karlen is sorry about angering her. Then... Karlen asks with no voice to have some time. She is quite, but says "Sure, just don't make a mess, don't... don't hurt me." She is not sure why she says that... instinct. Then... Ally Miller wakes up suddenly. She is on her bed... but... backwards. The blankets are messed up, but she is holding them close. Her head hurts... but... she feels ok. Her back hurts, as she moves, and gets up. She sees nothing too crazy. Then she frowns once more, seeing food pulled from the fridge once more. A pizza, but its clear, it was more carefully eaten.

She sighs, and goes and cleans up, and looks at the footage. She sees it... her laying in bed... when... shadows around her shift. As a shadowy figure of fox ears cover her head. Then her eyes open. Glowing with a purple glow. The same glow of the shadow foxes. As her hands move up, and grasp in, and out, unfamiliar. As if new to this. As the hands hold close, as she smiles wide, and dumb. As she rolls in her bed. A nearly animalistic sound of joy comes out of her human mouth. Before her body rolls, and tries to get out of bed. It tries to walk upwrite, but falls over. It keeps trying to stand up, using the wall for leverage, and falls over, and over. Fails. Until it gives up... after 18 minutes. It cries, sobbing for a second on the ground. Then just walks on its knees, and hands. Her knees and hands. It speaks... Chinese, a short... angry, sad, depressed phrase. She frowns, watching the footage. Is the shadow Chinese? The body walks around her home. Finding it hard to stand like a human, or move like one.

Before it finds the fridge, and smiles widely. As it opens and pushes it open with her hand, done badly. Before she grabs the bag of pizza with her mouth. Lifts it, puts it on the floor, as the door closes. It looks unsure how to open it. Before, it spends 8 minutes trying to open a baggy. She fast-forwards, until it manages, and eats it with bliss. Laying there for a while, just feeling hands, and things. Enjoying being... human? In a body? She is unsure. Before it walks to her bedroom, and climbs up, not knowing how to walk. Laying there. Grasping the blanket. A shadowy tail, fox-ears, and glowing purple eyes on her face. Before after 2 hours, it falls asleep, and they stay asleep for the rest of the night.

Ally Miller closes her computer. She... is quite. Unsure what to think... "You don't know how to be human... do you?" She opens it, and works to translate that Chinese, when her body was cursing that it could not walk. It translated too "Why can't remember how to move! Curse Fox." Ally worked to translate any other speech. After eating pizza he said "Forget taste... taste amazing! Taste amazing!" While laying in the bed, later. He said "Lady... thank you... sorry can't walk... Hope watch with care... but... me like body... body nice... thou... i was male... but... shadow fox... have no gender... so me say nothing... girl body weird but soft... Fox... he want me here to watch world closer... to be prepare for threats... and give you strength... protection... and give others help... Fox is... nice... but... strict..." She feels... unsure. Exposed, and yet... empathetic... yet... she blushes as she realized a guy just used her body... was in her body... and could feel everything. She sighs, and holds her head... trying not to think of the fact, he could theoretically masturbate... as her. Curse her thoughts. She says "Please... just... don't do anything weird Karlen." But she feels a pang of deep empathy... he does not know how to be human... she sighs. "How long have you been a fox. Next time you do this, answer me."She sighs deeply. Holding her head. This is fucking weird as hell. He watches her 24/7, he shares her body, and can feel everything in it. She feels weird. "Mr. Fox has no concept of privacy... fucker..." She gets up, and goes to do live her life, as usual. Just because she shares a body with a ghost boy fox shadow, does not mean she does not have work. She has some files to process.