A Shipwreck ~ A Aphmau Ship-Based book!

Chapter 10

3rd Person POV

When Zane and Kawaii~Chan arrived in the physical realm, Aaron and Aph were sitting with Jess in the living room. Zane almost felt relieved when he saw that Jess didn't look as frightened as before. She was clearly still on edge, but not nearly to the debilitating degree that she was before.

"There you are," Jess said with a smile. Kawaii~Chan rushed over and stopped short but Zane could tell that she really wanted to give Jess a hug. "Kawaii~Chan, are you okay? You look like you've been crying."

Kawaii~Chan smiled but it looked forced. "Kawaii~Chan is okay Jess~Senpai! Things were just scary, that's all. But Zane made things better." She slowly sat down on the ottoman. "How about Jess~Senpai? How is she feeling?"

"I'm still nervous and upset, but I'm doing better. I'm just glad you all are safe." Jess sat back on the couch and ran a hand through her hair. "So now that you're all here, can you please explain what's going on?"

Zane looked at Aaron. "You two didn't tell her?"

"I thought it would be best if we were all present to explain the story," said Aaron. He shifted uneasily on his feet. "Since we only know half of the story."

Oh. They only knew about trapping Gene. They didn't know what happened inside.

"So, let's start at the beginning," Aaron said, crossing his legs. "You have a fifth side: Fear. His name is Gene."

"Fear?" Jess repeated with a frown. "But I already have Anxiety."

"We're different," Zane explained. He took a seat beside Kawaii~Chan. "I'm nervous energy and anxiety and jitters you get before something you find important. He's large scale, immobile fear, like being afraid of the dark or the supernatural or the inevitability of death."

Jess still didn't look completely convinced. "But... that's what you do."

"Gene has been trapped for a long time. I've ended up taking on his jobs."

"Trapped?" She tilted her head like a misunderstanding corgi.

"When Jess~Senpai was young," Kawaii~Chan continued, "Gene~Kun began to change. He could always cause fear, but he was usually the one to help Jess~Senpai overcome fear, like talking to new people or not being afraid of monsters under your bed. But as you grew older and learned about more scary things, he began to become consumed by the idea of fear. Instead of protecting you from danger, he ended up putting you in danger."

Aph picked up the story from there. "Because of that, we decided that it wasn't safe for him to be out in the open where he could affect you that badly. We were still little kids. We didn't know how to deal with things like this, so we went to the extreme."

"We decided that we would isolate him in the back of your mind," Aaron said. "That way he would have the least influence, and you would be able to operate correctly. We all agreed this was the best course of action."

"Almost all of us," Zane muttered.

"Yes... almost all. Zane was... sensible. He understood that this kind of idea was only a temporary solution and that it couldn't help anyone in the long run, but we couldn't understand that; we were panicked. In the end, we trapped Zane with Gene because we didn't want to risk him trying to release Gene himself."

Jess looked at all of her Emotions before she settled on Zane. "How long were you in there?"

"Five years. You were eight when we were put in there, and I was let out when you were thirteen. Gene was left in there, though."