Greg and Sam had never met prior to the day they accidentally collided with each other. There had been no malice, intent, or even any real force in the collision but for something which had been so accidental, it had been enough to knock both men off their feet.

Sam felt quite woozy, but he did, however, manage to get up quite quickly while quite oddly there was absolutely no movement at all from Greg. It took a moment or two for Sam to be able to tell that there was something more going on than him just being woozy. Something is very wrong, or at least quite different. Seemingly and all of a sudden, he knew just exactly who that man who lay before him was or is.

Yeah, strangers one moment and something else the next. Not only that, but Sam somehow was becoming that other man while remaining himself at the same time too.

Sam had somehow acquired all of Greg's memories, but it was more than just having his memories. It was as if Greg's essence, his soul had left his own body and had joined Sam in Sam’s body. This essence being felt or sensed as a small ball at first, stuck deep down somewhere within Sam, it grows quickly until it becomes an equal. Two entities coming together in one body, one belongs here, the other doesn’t, then there is a mergence.

Wait, wait, this can’t be, oh but it is. This, whatever it is, certainly is real.

A mergence of two into one to create a new soul, a new entity inside Sam, it being neither Sam nor Greg yet at the same time, both. So, this is why Greg had not moved at all since the collision and certainly, this is not something that happens every day, if it is something that ever happens at all.

The two souls or essences are by no means separated. They may have been for a moment or so and now they have become one. It is not two minds working together or separately within one person. It is an amalgamation. There are two personas or were two personas that now work together as one within Sam's body. It may indeed be Sam's body, but he is now neither Sam nor even Greg for that matter but rather both Sam and Greg at the same time.

Even feeling it himself, this new entity knew he is not one nor the other and both together too. Oddly enough, before questioning anything, the who, why or how, or even checking on he who is lying still on the ground, this new dual singularity knew it would need a new reference name or title and this came quickly.

Again, it is not two minds feeling a need to come together to make a decision, it is one combined mind finding it extremely easy to make a decision. Sam's middle name is David, so the combination of Greg and Sam inside of Sam makes Dave.

Greg or at least Greg's body still remained motionless on the ground; next port of call is to address that. He was wearing a gold-plated chain with a small red crystal at its center and this crystal was glowing, intermittently. Greg had come across it earlier that day in a store while out wandering through the Chinatown area of his home city. The storekeeper had told him that it was one of only two such chains in existence. It had been believed and told that these chains held mystical properties, but this is surely just a myth, a story passed down through generations. Sometimes myth-like stories come from truths.

This mystical property tale certainly intrigued Greg as he loves hearing stories of such items holding unique and somewhat strange properties to them. He likes the thoughts and ideas that buildings could be haunted, or that certain items could bring luck and the likes of the story attached to that chain he had come across. At the same time, he didn't believe in such things but liked the idea behind them, so he felt that he just had to get that chain.

The storekeeper had been reluctant to sell the chain, but Greg felt that this was just all part of the mystery being pushed onto the item, part of something that is a legend and only legend, so Greg remained persistent, and he eventually acquired the chain.

Dave of course knowing all this was reluctant to remove that chain. It must be responsible somehow for what has happened so for now it must remain where it is. With Greg having joined with Sam to become Dave all former beliefs either man had, has now surely gone right out the window. Dave being all that he now is, can be free to make decisions based on all Sam’s and Greg’s combined knowledge, in a way free to bypass one opinion if seen fit to do so.

If a story of a gem, legend or not, has done this to two strangers then it may be needed for whatever lays straight ahead, whatever that might be. That intermittent glow of the crystal, does it mean anything in particular? If it does, then what could that be? Is there a time limit or something similar on what is currently occurring?

Before he could do anything about this whole situation Dave needed to get Greg's body to a hospital. Sure, if things were to revert back to how they were, then Greg's body will need to be cared for. Can things even revert back to what they were? That question will have to wait for another time.

After indeed having moved Greg's body to a hospital, Dave would start at the one place he knew of, the only place he could think of, to try and hopefully get some answers.

Unfortunately for Dave, it was early evening when he arrived back at that store in Chinatown. The store was closed. Dave hoped to use some of Greg's persuasiveness to get himself into the store, or even into a position where he could try to get at least some of the answers he seeks. He knocked three times on the door while looking through its glass pane panels and on into the darkness within the store. Dave could see no movement, so he gave a further three knocks.

'Alright, alright, hold your horses…' speaks the husky voice of the storekeeper as he made his way to the door where Dave stood impatiently.

It was only at this point that Dave noticed an eeriness to this storekeeper that Greg did not take much notice of earlier, Sam’s influence, this may take some time to get used to. The aging man within the store looked like something out of an old movie which would have a storyline akin to the situation Dave finds himself in.

'… We are closed, if you want to look around or buy something then you will have to come back tomorrow' the storekeeper continues to speak.

This is a glint in his eye as if he knows exactly what is happening. If he does know then he is not putting such knowledge on display. This glint is not the storekeeper's only feature. He was and is a short man, wearing a cotton cap and thin circular rimmed glasses while also wearing a long silvery grey beard hanging straight from his chin.

'I am sorry sir. I just need to ask you a few questions if that is alright with you? A couple of friends of mine are depending on what you can tell me.'

The old man, sensing he may not be left alone for some time, let Dave in. Maybe he does know what is happening and does not need to be told anything. Dave has the knowledge of being here before. How odd that is, wearing Sam’s skin so to speak, and having been here as Greg.

'Do you remember a young man who came into your store earlier today? He is about my height, curly blonde hair, in his late twenties. I do believe he bought a chain from you, a chain with a red crystal.'

'Ah yes, that young man was quite persuasive. I did not want to sell that item, but I was talked into it. You do know that there are two of those chains in existence?'

'Yes.'

'I see,' spoke the old man, 'you need to be at your friend's side right now.'

That statement surprised Dave. Despite half anticipating that there is something there, it has caught him off-guard.

'You see he is not quite himself right at this moment. I am not quite myself either.'

'All the more reason you should go be with yourself, your other self.'

'What? What did you just say?' asked Dave. There was a pause before he would continue. 'You knew this would happen or maybe something like this didn't you?'

'Go be with your friend' says the old man turning Dave around and leading him back towards the door.

'He is not my friend and you know it.'

‘No, he is you and you are he…’

Fairly soon Dave had been led outside of the store. The old man closed and locked the door.

'How do I fix this?'

The old man began to move away.

'How do I fix this?' Dave asked again through the glass pane of the door, but the old man moved on vanishing from view and into the darkness of the store.

Dave did head back to the hospital only to find more conflict. An on-duty nurse informed Dave that visiting hours had passed hours ago and told him that he should come back the next day. Dave was not about to go anywhere. Before his debate with the nurse about this fact could get too heated, an alarm went off close to where Greg's resting body lay.

Dave followed the crash cart partially the way towards its destination. The man in the bed next to Greg had crashed. Each time the defibrillator was used it had a strange effect on Dave. It was as if he was receiving a jolt of electricity each time it was used on Greg, so much so that it knocked him to the ground of the hallway a little way down from the room where things were kicking off.

After a short period of time, the attempts to revive the man next to Greg were stopped and of course, his family members who had been waiting out in the hallway were devastated upon receiving the news. The man who had passed was wearing a chain with a red crystal which glowed intermittently for a moment or two after his death, a chain and crystal not unlike what Greg wore.

At the moment when Dave managed to get back to his feet, he also woke in Greg's body. With the oddness of this, he soon made his way out to the hallway. There had been a brief moment of wonder as to if Sam’s body had been vacated, it hadn’t. Such a strange sensation awaking to notice he was next to the goings-on and not out in the hallway where he had felt overcome until he fell. After having fallen the realization hit and out, he went, only he didn’t go anywhere either for he was already there but not at the same time.

The amalgamation of Greg and Sam which, makes Dave split to embody both Greg and Sam separately. And it had not reverted to what was before, rather it has divided right in two or it would initially appear. Now, how is this happening? Why is this happening? Confusion does not last too long.

Looking at each other and basically being two versions of the same person, the two Dave’s or the individuals Greg and Sam both now inhabited by Dave, whatever way you look at it, both come to the same realization in the exact same moment. The man who crashed, the separation which has just occurred must have something to do with him.

Indeed, it does, and that chain and crystal is soon noticed. Should they take it or leave it be? It could be easy to imagine that all of what is going on is some kind of dream or some sort of trip to the Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, it was neither and is neither.

So now too, there is no way to completely separate Greg and Sam? Possibly not, for the moment however the two men can take back their individual names at this point for they both may just be exactly the same person when the separation or division occurred but from the moment Greg awoke, they would begin to become separate individuals, the same person gone into two bodies to go on and live separately.

Yeah, as mad as that is. They both have lived two lives; they’ve been joined together to soon be split apart, each has the exact same memories and experiences though upon Greg’s awakening a new perspective begins to separate them and both will move on apart.

Sam and Greg remained quiet for a couple of moments. They were thinking the exact same thing so neither sought the need to discuss it. The two men noticed a woman in her early sixties enters the ward. She obviously enough was the wife to the man who had just passed away. If how she looked didn't give that fact away, then her tears and trembling hands did. So, they move away and give her a moment.

A curtain was pulled to surround the bed which the dead man still lay in. she moves slowly for she doesn’t want her husband’s death to be real. The instant the dead man’s wife begins to pull back part of that curtain she screams. The man who was supposedly dead was not dead at all. In fact, he was sitting up just staring at his own hands.

Not only that but from what Greg and Sam could see through the gap in the curtain, the man in that bed definitely did not look like the man who had been there only a moment or so ago. This sitting man definitely does not look like a man in his sixties, rather if anything he looked like a man in his mid-twenties.

The woman, however, it took her a moment or two to realize it, but she knew, she knew that the man in the bed was still her husband. The married couple had known each other since they were both in their teens, so she most definitely knew what her husband looked like when he had been forty years younger. She soon dropped to the ground and passed out. This is what shock and disbelief can do. Expecting to see the lifeless body of her late husband and seeing him alive and well and looking as he would have done forty years prior proved to be a bit too much for her.

When the commotion of the woman fainting calmed a little; the apparently young living old dead guy approached Greg and Sam.

'Hello. My name is Stephen, or maybe I should introduce myself as Dave combined with Stephen for Stephen is who I was only a few moments ago.'

Sam and Greg looked at each other at exactly the same time. This cannot get any more odd, can it?

'You see Dave didn't just divide into two which would be both of you, Dave divided into three with the third division going into me combining also with the man who passed away, this also somehow revived and rejuvenated me… Made me… Younger.'

'Amaze...' Sam began to speak with Greg finishing the word. '... zing'.

‘From your reactions, I take it that the man you see before you has not divided three ways?’

Odd too how this other division seems to have a better handle on all that is going on. Maybe this Stephen person knows a thing or two about that chain and crystal and he is right in what he says. Sam and Greg are the division of Dave with no third party.

No time to further question things in this moment as further commotion soon erupted when a patient from a nearby ward took a nurse hostage. This patient is such as he has a substance dependency, and he is looking for a fix in return for the release of the nurse. He had a syringe and was threatening to inject its contents into his captive if he didn't get what he wanted.

This Stephen fellow doesn’t waste time and begins to slowly approach the addict.

'Stay back; I will inject her if you come any closer.'

'If you remain calm my friend, we can solve this situation,' spoke Stephen who is of course part Dave too and therefore is existing with all of Greg’s and Sam’s memories.

'I am not your friend, and back off, I will hurt her.'

All the lights in the vicinity begin to flicker. The drug seeking captor began looking all around him, very much with a feeling of panic. After a few seconds, the lights failed to leave only complete darkness where complete mayhem soon would follow. Another few seconds pass and the lighting is restored. Stephen had collapsed though appeared to still be conscious.

The nurse in question was safe and her attacker had mysteriously partly turned to ash as his remains were left in a heap by where he had been standing before the lights had gone out.

As time moved forward, Stephen recovered while keeping his rejuvenated look of a man in his twenties. He would become and remain friends with both Greg and Sam who also became and remained friends with one another. It had been determined that the drug seeking patient somehow aged approximately forty years in a space of only a few seconds. His body could not handle this, so it died and began to frantically decay while the lights were out – effects from the chain and gem quite possibly.

As for the chains and gems themselves… Well, they somehow seemed to vanish in the momentary darkness too. Where did they vanish to? Well, let's just say that there is a storekeeper in Chinatown who can once more smile knowing that recent confusion can be only debated from here on in someone, somewhere knows a lot more than what had been passed on.