Instead of listening, Ellie sat playing with Dr. Collins' Rubik's Cube. It was pointless to try and solve it, she had enough problems of her own to solve.
You're doing it wrong.
"Zero didn't quite make it to the rift, he basically missed it. You see, his poor soul, it was lost, dying even. All it could do was latch on to the nearest source of life-"
"Me," Ellie concluded.
"Yeah. So, I propose we try to separate your souls."
"Sounds painful."
"It is."
She gave him a look. "Oh good."
"If we could figure out how to do this, Zero's soul wouldn't be entwined with yours any longer. However Zero's soul will be lost forever in this process."
"You mean he'll die?" She asked, concerned.
"Well, no. He died. He's dead," Collins clarified. "Of course if you died he'd have the chance to die once and for all, but if we separate your souls then you won't have to die, and he'll just be stuck between rifts forever." He explained.
No.
"What, Zero?"
I'm not going back between the rifts.
"Why not?"
"We think Zero died when he was about 20 years of age, and he died the exact instant you were born."
You want me to be stuck there forever? That's miserable.
"You want me to die?"
You used to say you had no life, so why not?
"Things have changed," she smiled to herself.
If this is about Jack I swear-
"Jack's gone! He got scared! He's a wimp like all the others, okay?"
Dr. Collins cleared his throat. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He chuckled. "Yes I agree, he's a wimp, but can we focus on the task at hand?" While Ellie was occupied with Zero, a woman had walked into the room and sat beside her.
She was a stereotypical nerd. Big glasses, hair in a ponytail, and a briefcase with lots of weird stickers on it.
"This is Andrea. She's been doing work here and has a brilliant theory," Collins said. Usually when someone with a theory walked in, they were sent right back out.
"Between the rifts of life and death, many souls that haven't lived yet wander. Whenever a baby is born a portal opens up, allowing a soul to enter the child. When someone dies, their soul travels between the rifts and into the portal to death. Zero died the instant you were born, and as you two were racing to your destinations you became entwined, and well, here you are."
Ellie nodded. This one made the most sense of them all, and she didn't like it.
So if I'm dying, you're dying with me.
She continued to nod her head.