As we walked toward the back entrance of the hospital, we were approaching the vortex barrier that surrounded the town. The Vortex split the hospital in two, including the parking lot and squad car that had been my original spawn point.

I had nearly escaped town in that car with Jon at the wheel and Nia and her dad in the back. Fate and bad luck had slowed us down, and in the end, we were seconds too slow.

I'd crashed the car to prevent Jon from driving us into the barrier in a desperate bid at freedom that would have killed us. Nia's dad had still died, leaving the 12-year-old clinging to his severed arm.

A monster had spawned from her pain, a tick-like creature with fingers for legs that I named Tickles. For more iterations than I could remember, Nia started the loop trapped in the back of the car, locked in with her monster. Eventually, we figured out how to change her spawn point. Later, she learned she could use the crystal in the monster's brain to recover her own memories and begin retaining memories across time loops.

Her mom, Pastor Kay, discovered the same thing. Unfortunately, Kay's trauma turned her into a bogey monster who relished causing pain and death "to those who deserve it," which included her own daughter. However, I had suspicions that it wasn't altogether new behavior. Alice, Nia's step-sister, also faced her traumatic memories. Like Nia, she was able to carry the weight of her trauma without losing herself and turning Bogey.

I peered inside the back window of the squad car to see Tickles was inside, but it was empty, so Nia was still "Titania." Taking the traumatic memories into herself had changed her appearance, giving her human-scale bat wings and horns, several inches of height, and nearly as much physical strength as me—which is to say, not enough to lift a car, but you wouldn't want to take her punch either.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked as I looked into the leg well of the patrol car. Nia had hidden there before, but it was also empty, as expected.

I only knew of one way, maybe two, to remove her traumatic memories and the supernatural transformation. Kay had somehow stolen my Shadow and used it to take memory crystals from people's brains without killing them.

Of course, she didn't do this to be helpful. Once Kay removed the memory crystals, she stored them in the Shadow so that her victims spawned in a catatonic state that left them vulnerable to being controlled by Kay as though they were puppets.

It wasn't worth taking out my notebook to write, 'I was just checking something,' so I shrugged instead.

My Shadow Alcove wasn't the only way to remove memory crystals without killing someone. Alice had accidentally been doing precisely that to a patient who had the bad luck of being in brain surgery when the Vortex dropped down to surround the town. It wouldn't be easy to recreate that situation, so I'd known it was unlikely I'd find Nia or her monster back in the patrol car, but that didn't preclude checking.

I waved for Luke to follow as I walked up the ramp to the familiar back lobby of the hospital.

In the past, Maebe had been behind the reception desk, sometimes freaking out at seeing me, sometimes catatonic, sometimes being devoured by Slender Hopper, the grasshopper-meets-slenderman monster whose origin was still a mystery. It was still around after Kay had turned Maebe into a puppet, which made me doubt it was hers, but I didn't have another suspect either.

It was mute at this point anyway, as Slender Hopper was also absent, not that I was surprised.

The Gremlins had more or less eaten it but claimed they were making a baby Gremlin. Mother did look pregnant, but she'd also swallowed whole a bug that was nearly her same size. Either way, I was glad I didn't have to fight it anymore. It probably wouldn't be a challenge anymore since it was incredibly predictable. Still, it was responsible for some of my more horrendous deaths, and I was as glad as anyone it was gone.

The lobby was empty, and there were no signs of gore or disarray to suggest any violence.

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"You said you had a doctor friend here?" Luke asked, "This place looks deserted."

They were probably in the break room; I was a little surprised that they weren't watching the entrances, though. Part of the reason they stayed at the hospital was to help anyone who came here looking for help. I shrugged again and pointed to the left hall. I wasn't sure what it was about not being able to talk that made people ask me questions, but it had happened enough that I suspected it was just a part of the human condition.

"I'd have guessed this place would be packed, but I bet most people go to Meadow Brook. This place is kind of out of the way, and half of it got cut off by the Vortex anyway. If you hadn't brought me out this way, I would have assumed it was on the outside." Luke said as he followed me down the hallway to the left.

I nodded in agreement. That would make sense. I knew at least some people had come to this hospital, but not as many as I would have expected. When we reached the door to the break room, I pulled out my notebook and wrote, "Will u go first? I'm scary."

"I thought you knew people here?"

He was right, but most of the people I knew were like those at his bar.

I wrote, "I know them, but they don't all remember well. Might panic."

Alice had all of her memories, or at least all of them from the last three weeks. Likely, she had told her friends about me so they wouldn't panic too much, but it would go easier if they at least got a heads up.

"Sure, nobody's ever panicked unnecessarily at the sight of a black man. I definitely won't get shot." Luke said dryly as he stepped up to the break room door.

Luke gave me a flat look and knocked on the door. "Hello, I'm looking for a Doctor...Alice?" he said through the door before whispering, "What's her last name?"

I could only shrug sheepishly. I'd probably been told at one point, but it hadn't stuck in my head.

Alice opened the door a little, more than a crack, but not wide enough to step through. "I'm Alice, what's—Oh! Sam! I mean Oberon!"

"Sam?" Luke mouthed at me in a question.

Alice swung the door open and stepped past Luke to give me a brief hug, which I found thoroughly awkward; I'd never been much of a hugger. At the same time, the casual physical contact made me feel more human and reminded me why that was important. I relaxed a little as I returned the hug, awkward or not.

"Who's your friend? and what happened to your face" She asked, inviting us into the break room."Guys, Oberon is here, the one I was telling you about. So, you know, be cool."

Luke offered Alice his hand, "Hi, the name's Luke."

Alice accepted his handshake. "I'm Alice, that's Anderson, Jessica, and Maebe over there."

Alice had taken in her trauma crystal and gained monstrous features, like her sister, but different. The last time I spoke to her, she had black feathers growing out of her skin down her arms and potentially other places as well, including a few that stuck out of her short black hair. It also turned her entire eye black, sclera and all. Like Nia, she also grew a few inches taller and got stronger.

None of that, save her height, was visible as she greeted Luke and inspected my bloody bandage. She'd never been short, but now she was at least 6 feet tall; sure, I had a good foot on her, but she was even in height with Luke. For the rest of her monster to be hidden, she had to be using illusions. I felt a twinge of envy. I was supposed to be learning to create illusions, but my teacher was a manipulative flake of an other worldly horror who had tricked me into promising it would be allowed to teach me. Then it had refused to teach me.

If Alice had figured it out, maybe she'd give me an unprompted hint.

I waved a greeting to Anderson, Jessica, and Maebe. Still, I wasn't surprised that none of them were coming over to say hi as Alice unwrapped the bandage from around my muzzle. I'd never interacted much with Maebe, and only Anderson was likely to have retained any memories of the week I spent around him. In truth, it was more like hours, and he did at least seem to know I was a friendly

"Are you sure you should be doing that in here? It's pretty bad." Luke said.

"Well, there's no real concern about infection, and in a few hours, there'll be nothing to clean up, so how about you worry about sports or something and leave the doctoring to doctors."

"Whoa, hostile," Luke said as he held up his hands in fo-surrender.

"Just be glad I'm not on my period," Alice replied flatly as she examined the pad stuck to the drying blood of my torn cheek.

"Oh my god, can you imagine? Groundhog Day, but every day with a heavy flow," Jessica said, making me snort in amusement. Jessica and I had shared a moment once. A moment she'd never remember. To save her from being haunted by a trauma monster, we'd erased even the partial memories she had. It has been a fleeting, impossible moment anyway. It had also been nice.

"Well," Alice said. "Not to state the obvious, but this will take stitches. "You on anything, Oberon?"

"Morphine," I said in Nia's voice while holding the bandage so it didn't flop around as I spoke. If I'd been using my own voice, the sounds would have been muffled or mangled, but whatever weird magic was being used to give me her voice apparently didn't need to consider such things.

"Alright. Come with me next door, and we'll get you stitched up. Luke, was it? You might as well hang out here and have a snack or something." Alice said as she walked toward the exit.

"Uh, hey, Oberon, what about Craig and the rest?"

I facepalmed; I'd gotten distracted and forgotten about them. In my defense, I'd only had magic powers for a couple weeks. I looked at Alice and said, "They're in my Shadow," my hand still holding the hole in my cheek. The morphine went a long way, but talking was beginning to irritate the spot and overcome the narcotic.

"Injured?" Alice asked, waiting in the doorway.

"One of them at least. Twisted ankle or something," I told her.

"Well, why don't we start by getting you stitched up, and we'll go from there."