"Shit, shit, shit-shit-shit!" I thought while trying to keep my face impassive and my demeanor calm. Then again, my audience had finally had enough and began to panic rather than be impressed with me.

Screams and the sound of chairs scraping against the tile floor had accompanied the entrance of the furless rabbit-monster that now glared up at me with too much intelligence in its pitch-black eye. Some patrons were running out the back door, others were just backing away. Luke had reproduced his pistol and was pointing it at the downed monster. All of which was fair; things had not exactly gone according to Plan.

"Jesuh Fuck!" Craig said, belatedly recognizing the cause of the ruckus. He clumsily stumbled from his stool to the floor and began to backpedal.

The monster was not supposed to break through the entrance, just smash into it and create a disturbance that I could go out and address with the help of some hidden allies. The Gremlins had been nurturing the rabbit-monster. Having the Gremlins around to help me when the creature showed up meant I didn't end up covered in gore, looking even scarier.

I wasn't sure if they saw it as a pet or a peer, but they seemed to recognize some sameness in it or something. More than once, I'd seen their son riding on its back. What I hadn't noticed was how large the creature was getting.

I flashed a doggy grin at the bar's remaining patrons, most of whom looked ready to flee at a moment's notice.

"keep it still; I'll make it quick," Luke said.

I opened my mouth, looking for the right decision. I wasn't sure if the Gremlins would understand why we killed their friend. They killed monsters all the time and seemed to realize that death wasn't permanent. What I didn't know is if this creature's intelligence and increased size would remain if we killed it. It was squirming beneath my grip, though, and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it down for long.

I resigned myself to the creature's death, telling myself that it would give Craig another try at facing his trauma and becoming a Rememberer, which would give him the chance to save the child he'd watched die.

From behind me, I heard Craig scrabbling along the floor. "Wait!" he shouted, reversing his backpedal and stumbling to interpose himself between the rabbit and me.

Distracted, I lost my grip on the rabbit's ear, and it pulled free.

"Shit," Luke said, trying to get a clear shot before the rabbit monster could take a chunk out of his Patron. Craig pushed Luke's arm up and away as the giant naked rabbit rolled back onto all fours.

I tried to keep myself between Craig and his monster in case it snapped at him again. Their eyes locked, and the bunny stilled apart from a twitching nose. I stood between the unmoving pair, knees bent, and arms extended out like a wrestler waiting for a chance to grapple. Then the rabbit shivered—sending shards of wood and glass raining to the ground— turned, and half-hopped, half-walked out the shattered entrance.

Craig fell on his butt with a sigh of relief.

I followed the beast as far as the patio. "What the shit?" I asked no one in particular. This wasn't something I'd seen before, at least not apart from the Gremlins.

"Sorry, Oberon," I heard a voice rumble from the shadows. I had a terrible time telling the Gremlins apart when I could see them. In the dark, with just a basso thrum of a voice to go off of, I had no idea if it was Husband or Wife. Either way, the Gremlins had arrived to take control of the rabbit, so I could be pretty sure it wasn't coming back. I waved a hand in acknowledgment as I tried to understand what had happened.

Monsters like that were created from traumatic memories that were purged across time loops. For people like Craig, it should almost seem to have a fear aura. In fact, when the bunny monster was smaller, I'd killed it and tried to give Craig his memories back, but it had been too much for him.

Stepping between Luke and a literal manifestation of his fear wasn't bravery; it was bizarre. And also oddly inspiring.

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Over and over, I'd seen too many people respond to fear by lashing out, often at me. I wasn't exactly innocent of that myself. Craig's fear had to still be there, but for some reason, he'd stepped in to protect it anyway.

Almost as confusing was the fact that the bunny creature had also chosen not to continue the violence. With the Gremlins, I'd seen that not all monsters were mindless killing machines. But I'd fought the rabbit before and never seen anything to suggest it was smart enough to choose anything other than senseless violence.

I heard glass and debris crunching on the floor behind me as Luke approached. "Dammit, people are going to die because we failed to kill that thing," Luke said resignedly.

I shook my head and reveled at how easy the basic gesture came. I'd spent most of a week unable to communicate consistently, and the shine hadn't worn off in the weeks since I'd regained my ability to communicate. In my defense, the first week of an apocalypse is a rough time to be voiceless.

"I have friends out there," I said to Luke. "They took the creature in hand and will make sure it doesn't hurt anyone."

"Anyone else," Luke corrected. "There was blood on its whiskers."

I winced. I hadn't noticed that, but it didn't surprise me. The trauma monsters usually had a special hatred for their progenitors, but I knew from experience that they wouldn't hesitate to attack the nearest thing that moved.

Not everyone had run from the bar. Apart from Luke and Craig, Alejandra, Satoshi, and a handful of others had stayed behind as well. It wasn't as large of a crowd as I'd have liked, but I had to work with what I had.

I crouched in front of Craig, who had tears streaming down his face. I wasn't sure if I should try to look him in the eye or not. While I described myself as a werewolf, unlike a wolf, I still had eyebrows. Turns out that's pretty important for communication. "Can I ask you why?" I said gently, deciding to hold his gaze if he looked up.

"It was just a big ol' bunny and... I dunno know, it sounds crazy but, it felt familiar, like someone I forgot I knew." Craig said, sounding dazed if slightly more sober than before. He glanced up at me as he spoke but only looked me in the eye briefly. Still, he didn't seem bothered by my closeness.

"As someone who has been on the receiving end of a lot of fear and vitriol, that was beautiful," I said softly, the light tones of Nia's voice conveying as much warmth as I could ask for. "That said. It was also incredibly risky. Most of the monsters like that are raw nerves of pain and wrath that lash out at everyone and everything around them. Just be careful, and, thanks."

Luke reached down, offering Craig a hand, and we both stood up.

"I knew you'd bring danger with you," Satoshi grumbled softly from where he still sat at a booth, his eyes down and hands clenched into fists on the table. Soft or not, his voice carried across the largely silent bar.

"I do," I said. After all, Alejandra had already said it: I'd come here for a reason, and it wasn't to make friends. "Because I need help. 'That,'" I said, gesturing through the broken entrance, "isn't the biggest danger. The worst it can do is kill and create more monsters like itself."

"That sounds pretty bad."

"But ultimately, it isn't anything new. Most of history has been rife with that kind of danger. And I think you all know that today is repeating. The pain and death are hard, but ultimately not the biggest threat or the priority."

"The Kaiju," Murmured a patron whose name I didn't know. "I'd hoped that was a dream—a nightmare. How can we stop that?"

"I remember it too," Luke said. "Sort of anyway. I've got to say, I'm not a huge fan of the memory games this time loop plays. I don't like the idea that my mind isn't my own, that someone can just reach in and erase half or more of my memories."

"Which is why I really need your help," I said sadly. "The Kaiju isn't the priority either. It kills a lot of people, but then the day resets. Even if we stopped it, the day will still loop, so we'd have to find a way to stop it for good, and that's easier said than done. Plus, it's a fucking Kaiju, and we don't have an army."

"What then?" a scrawny kid in glasses and a hoodie asked. "Stop the time loops? Bring down the vortex?"

"If you know how to do any of that, I'm all ears," I said. "I have a way out of town, I just need help spreading the word."