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A tall man walked down the dark halls of the statehouse with a phone that had a bright light turned on in one hand, a blanket over his shoulders, and a small stuffed animal in his other hand. The man’s face held dark circles under his eyes and a large scar over his lips. The man's hair was sat as a curly, unkempt mess under his pinched front cowboy hat.His pace was hurried, legs moving as fast as they could without sending Texas into a sprint. Once he finally reached the stairs a disheveled and scarred hand gripped the smooth wooden railing. Texas stared down the stairs, terrified of falling down them.Texas took a slow pace down the steps, one foot shakily pressed down on the small platform below after the other. His hand that gripped to the railing tightened as Texas made his slow descent to the floor under.The tall man took his time with the long set of stairs. He finally reached the bottom after what felt like forever and he looked around before remembering this floor belonged to the Midwest.Texas let out a stressed sigh, he just wanted to reach California’s room. Texas noticed a TV from the recreational section on the floor was turned on as he began to walk over and move his hand onto the next set of stair’s railing.A surge of panic shot up Texas’s spine and boiled in his gut when a loud shot rang throughout the floor. Texas knew it came from the tv but his fight or flight response said otherwise.Anxiety rumbled throughout Texas’s body as panic banged at his head and he ran down the stairs. Texas’s foot missed a step and he nearly tripped and fell but it only resulted in his foot reaching the next step.Texas reached the bottom in a matter of seconds as he ran through the halls to a familiar room. He didn’t care if he woke up other states. The tall man needed the comfort of his lover right now. Somebody to calm him down.When a painted door was reached Texas burst in only to find a room void of California’s presence. Texas couldn’t handle his boyfriend’s sudden disappearance right now, he needed him right now.Suddenly, memories came flooding back. Texas began to remember previously blocked out memories once hidden from thought. His eyes welled up and began to roll down his cheeks.Texas collapsed to the ground. This had to be a dream. This wasn’t reality. Texas gripped the weighted blanket that sat on his shoulders and abandoned his phone in front of him. Texas kept a beloved cow plushed trapped in his arms as he began to sob.The man’s throat started to hurt as he let out choked cries from a frown on his face. Tears ran from the pool in his eyes and onto the ground.Texas didn’t want to remember it, he shouldn’t remember it.More than half of The Statehouse was dead, the hallways now riddled with ghosts. They held the lives they once lived in their see through husks and that were getting more visible by the day.Everybody had been murdered or died in a specific order. Alphabetical order. Texas’s mind held a strong panic once he realized who was next on that list.Tears began to well up in his eyes once more when he realized he was next on the dreadful list. Texas didn’t want to die, he wanted to live out a long life. He wanted to live out his days with everybody else. Texas wanted to spend every waking moment with California but that was ripped away from him.Texas was angry and sad. His eyebrows furrowed as tears still poured onto the ground. He wanted revenge. He wanted to murder the person who took away his future and every other state’s lives.“Hey kid… Texas. Fuckin’ look at me.” Texas whipped his head around to find the ghost of New York leaning on the doorway.His ghost presented a gore filled open chest with his organs and ribcage on full display. “I give you this permission one fuckin’ time and one time only.” The Empire State pushed himself off the doorway to stare Texas down.“Follow me into my room and you can take a bat for protection, give yourself a chance at a fight.” New York paused to think for a few moments. “Wait, don’ ya have a shotgun up in ya room? Go grab that and blow the fucker’s brains out.”“And look at me dumbass, you can teleport, don’t go runnin’ up the damn stairs.” New York let out a silent but heavy sigh. “See yous soon.”As New York left Texas suddenly held confusion. There was only one person here, why did New York refer to multiple people? Texas looked around through his blurry eyes only to find an empty room, California’s burned ghost was nowhere to be found.Texas shakily stood up and grabbed his phone in the process of doing so. Texas held a wobbly hand up in the air with his middle finger set on his thumb and pushed it down with the image of his room in mind.A loud snap came from Texas’s hand as he warped up into his room. A white mist was left behind as Texas popped into his room. Texas noticed how his door was wide open, he never remembered leaving his door like that.Texas moved to find his shotgun and opened his closet only to find it missing. Veiny panic surged through Texas’s chest as his eyes went wide.When the state turned around he found a familiar man standing in front of him with Texas’s favorite shotgun in hand. The gun was pressed against Texas’s forehead roughly and suddenly by the dead country.Texas threw a sudden punch square to his face and knocked the confederacy down to the ground. Texas stared down at the now angry thing. He had no idea what to think of the thing, he was an evil man but it helped Texas try to get what he wanted.It helped him at one point but that thing was still an evil, horrible thing. It was something Texas shouldn’t like.The dead rebellion took the shotgun in hand and before Texas could act, took a blow to his head. Texas heard his head hit the wall and his body slide to the ground but Texas didn’t go with it.The man remained standing with a sudden cold to his body. Was it really over like that? Texas looked down at the angry teenager as he abandoned Texas’s shotgun and teleported out with no attempt to clean up Texas’s body.Texas turned around to observe his own corpse. A hole smaller than a dime sat on Texas’s forehead bleeding out. He looked up to see deep red splatters on his white wall.Texas had no idea what to feel beyond that point. His emotions were empty as he stared at a body that once belonged to him.When the man looked around his room he found multiple other ghosts who were beginning to fade into existence. All of the ghosts felt familiar but he’s never met any of them before.One sat crying on Texas’s bed, his head in his arms. Another stood by Texas with the same dull look Texas had himself. A third sat by the crying one rubbing his back and trying to comfort them. The last was angry, beyond pissed and trying to punch out a wall.Texas had no idea how to react, who were these people? Why were they so familiar? Why are they here?He was almost afraid to ask and hesitated greatly before building up the courage to speak. “Who.. who are you people?”“We don’t know.” The man with a dull look stared at Texas. “But we know that when you died we also arrived here.”Texas didn't know how to respond but with silence. The silence was interrupted suddenly by California’s burned ghost running in. California’s head remained fine looking but his legs and lower torso had presented a different story.“Texas! I’m so sorry I didn’t find you later!” California barely noticed everybody else as he bolted Texas’s way and wrapped him in a tight and cold hug.Texas gave a shaky hug back to California as he began to cry again. “It’s fine.”“No it’s not! You fucking died!” California cried out as he rocked Texas back and forth.Texas didn’t respond to his partner as he rested his head on the other’s shoulder. Suddenly the angry ghost let out an irritated scream that grabbed California’s attention.California stared in shock as he began to notice the four other people in the room. “Wait.. wait. Texas? You were a system?” California stared up at Texas with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth.“A what now?” Texas was now just as confused as California seemed to be.“The.. y’know how… the states that were systems! When they died they split off into multiple people instead of staying in the same body.” California began to ramble as he frantically looked around. “They didn’t stay in the same body, they all got their own when they died, all the systems!”Texas had no idea how to process that information. For starters he was a system and secondly, there were states who were systems? Texas didn’t even know such a thing existed.California stared at everybody in a confused and shocked manner. He stared down at the carpet trying to calm his panic down.Texas on the other hand had no idea how to take it. There was more than one person in his body and it was confusing. Texas felt everything at once and it all hit him like a freight train.“Cal,” Texas paused as he grabbed the other’s attention. “What’s a system?”“Oh, uh, it’s when somebody has repeated trauma at an early age so their brain can split off into multiple personalities. That’s how I understand it at least.” California looked down at the carpet trying to think. “I think it’s so the brain isn’t damaged by psychological trauma.”“What? No, I had a good childhood, nothing bad happened. I wasn’t traumatized.” Texas’s eyes began to well up with tears again. “I don’t remember anything bad happening.”“Texas, then why are they here?” California left Texas in silence, he couldn’t come up with a good excuse for that.Texas looked around at them with a slight frown. “What do I do then? What do we do?” Texas didn’t know the next step for this at all, there were more people that have been living with him his whole life than he knew about.“Names would probably be a good start.” The man that stood near Texas spoke as he folded his arms across his chest.“Ya, we could start there.”