--==Chapter 18: I swear to a god I don't believe in--==

My surprise delayed my reaction, but eventually, I woke up and kicked one off. It went rolling away like a flat kickball. I peeled the other off with the grip of the baseball bat. The Gremlins had looked bigger from a distance, but they barely reached my knees. Then again, I had two feet on my pre-apocalypse self; my perspective would probably take time to adjust.

I hadn't expected them to be able to talk. Given my circumstances, it seemed particularly unfair. It was also inexplicable that they would call me Oberon. My only guess was that they had memories of previous loops, and at some point, I'd met them with someone else speaking for me.

The Gremlin with the rounder ears bit me on the leg before letting go and bounding back a few feet, gesturing and chittering angrily between its friend and me. It felt like a pinch, and I massaged the spot looking for injury, but the thing hadn't broken the skin. I stood there, bat-readied, and waited as they chittered back and forth before one of them turned and ran back into their urban hut. A second later, the Gremlin came outside holding three glowing polished stones. It ran up to me, expectantly raising its treasures as it got close. Hesitantly, I reached down and plucked up the shining gems.

They were memory crystals, rounded and polished.

Though only about a third the size of the Slender Hopper memory crystal, they had the same coloring and brightness. Actually, with the polished surface, they might be even brighter than memory crystals. Why had they polished them? How? Would they still work the same way? For that matter, maybe they weren't the same at all. I'd been lumped in with Slender Hopper and Tickles—heck, I'd lumped these creatures in with them too, but the Gremlins were clearly smarter. Maybe these were just another glowing phenomenon of the apocalypse.

I looked between the stones and the two Gremlins. They'd gotten close again and looked up at me with eager puppy-dog expectation. They wanted something. Why had they given me these?

Oh shit, is this supposed to be a trade?

I checked my new pockets; they were sadly empty. I'd left the nurse's bag back a ways too. Well, I wasn't going to give them my clothes or bat, so they were out of luck. I cautiously patted the Gremlin that handed me the crystals on the head and examined what I'd been given. It wasn't much of a trade, but they were the ones who could speak, so they'd have to tell me if they wanted something specific. I also wasn't entirely convinced these were the same type of crystal, so I didn't know their value to me.

I could try to store a visualization inside one. It might be better to try to use a stone to create a spawn point trap. It should give me an idea if the objects were memory crystals without wasting a use. Unless I wanted to change my spawn point, I'd only be able to check for the allure of trapped crystal. Still, between falling for Hands' trap and trapping crystals for Nia and Maebe, I was familiar with that particular draw.

Pocketing two gems—and appreciating having pockets again—I considered what I'd include in a visualization.

The most important things to share were the various dangers and the time loop, but Alice and company already knew most of that. A visualization of Alice using her crystal shard trick to leave herself notes could be helpful, but it was probably unnecessary as well.

Really, there were two things I wanted to use the memory crystals for. The first was getting people to understand who I was, that I was just a regular person in an irregular position. The second was gathering information about Jon and gaining allies in my search for him. First things first, though, I needed to test it. I focused on the memory crystal, connecting to it. I didn't try to form a visualization; instead, I just imagined imprinting my will onto it.

It felt something like taking a test and trying to remember something you knew you'd studied but couldn't recall. There was resistance, almost an anxiousness, as I continued. My head started to feel full, almost reminiscent of a head cold, but without the aching part. Soon the stone was drawing all my attention and became harder and harder to ignore. Glancing at the Gremlins, they were transfixed as well.

That answers that, I thought.

These were either memory crystals or something similar. I could try to put a visualization in there, but I wasn't sure if it was something I could test on myself. It would be a bit of a waste to do so, since using the crystals like that seemed to cause them to crack and eventually disintegrate. Still, the stone Hands had given me had stored two visualizations, and it already had cracks when I got it. Hopefully, these could be used more than once as well.

I brought the crystal to my brow and began to press the visualizations into the stone. I didn't know if there was a limit to how much I could put into my mental projections—or how many unique scenes I'd be able to instill into the crystals—so I decided to start with my search for Jon. He should still be wearing his police uniform, so he'd be easier to recognize than just a random white guy. Even Nia might not recognize his face, considering she'd only seen his face for like a minute while everything was going to shit.

I also had to make it clear I wasn't looking for just any cop, but Jon specifically.

At first, I tried to picture his name tag, but the letters were all nonsense and indistinguishable. Have you ever had a dream where you realized you forgot how to read? It felt like that. Considering my other communication problems, I'd half expected it, so I didn't let it slow me down. I included as much detail as I could think of. "Lean brown-eyed white guy with a flop of sandy blond hair wearing cop's uniform" wasn't as vague to my inner eye, but there was a reason I drew cartoons. I wasn't one for the fine details.

Still, the benefit of using a memory crystal was that it was a full sensory experience. 'What fresh hell is this then?' was a favorite saying of his. I could only imagine he'd come up with a dozen reasons to use it since the world ended, so I included a few in my projection. He also had a habit of using too much body spray—though I doubted that particular trait had survived the apocalypse. Then again, I'd been wrong before, so I decided to include it in the projection. Besides, if it led me to him, it'd be hilarious, and I'd never let him live it down.

I could feel the crystal filling up, and focusing on the details of my projection became increasingly difficult.

Finishing up with Jon, I pictured myself sitting in the patrol car. I didn't bother detailing my appearance since it wouldn't mean anything to anyone but Jon. I showed fear in my eyes, though, as I imagined blue fur growing from my arms as my body twisted and distorted into the werewolf form I now had.

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Then the crystal was full, and my awareness returned to my surroundings.

The Gremlins were staring at me expectantly as I lowered the memory crystal.

Did they want me to give them back the memory crystal? And it was a memory crystal, or at least it let me store a visualization like one. I got the same feeling of inflating mental lungs to capacity as I had with Hands' memory crystal—not that I was sure, even now, that either of those visualizations had worked. Either way, I didn't want to give it up to the staring gremlins.

No take-backsies, I thought to myself. It must not have come across in my body language because they kept staring.

Then both looked at the bare ground in front of them and back up and me expectantly. Their heads moved in unison from the ground to me and back. I took a tentative step forward, uncertain what they were after, but they just backed up and looked between a patch of dirt and me. Then they began to chirp and chitter at each other before one ran off and grabbed a long branch and brought it back to hand to me.

Confused, I took it, and they again stared intently at the ground, clearly expecting something.

I had never realized the multitudes you can convey with a simple "um" until I found myself unable to utter it. Taking a guess, I stabbed the stick into the ground like I was planting a little tree. It promptly fell over.

The gremlins chittered together for a few seconds before tearing the branches from the limb, leaving just a log semi-straight stick they then handed back to me. Then they stared down at the dirt again expectantly.

Finally, the pointy-eared Gremlin rumbled inquisitively, "Oberon draw?"

With a mental shrug of uncertainty, I drew a star. It must have been what the creatures wanted because they yipped and cheered and danced around the little doodle excitedly.

After galloping around in circles for a minute, they went to a new patch of dirt and looked back and forth between it and me. Another doodle or another pentagram?

I swear to a god I don't believe in, if these things end up being actual demons...

I decided to avoid any other potentially religious iconography and draw a simple smiley. It was just dirt, after all; I wouldn't be making any masterpieces.

This time they hopped up and down excitedly and spun in circles. They were simultaneously ugly, like splotchy naked mole rats, and adorable, like monstrously ugly children simply enjoying life. I was relieved and perplexed to verify that it was the doodles themselves that thrilled the Gremlins, not some arcane symbology.

Like children, they wanted to see the trick as many times as possible. "Again! Again!" the duo rumbled in bass voices, so unlike the chirping that they did between themselves.

They had given me three memory crystals; I could at least give them an equal number of pictures. Not to sound like a despot, but I was also giving them their lives. Though, I doubted I'd be able to make myself kill them at this point anyway, especially not by beating them with my bat. I was maybe not cut out for the ruthless apocalyptic lifestyle. Either way, I'd followed the Gremlin hoping to get a memory crystal, and now I had three.

I had no idea why the Gremlins liked my doodles, but I decided to draw a 3D cube, leaving out segments so it seemed like a solid cube.

One of the gremlins fainted before I even finished. I think they had forgotten to breathe. The other Gremlin's attention didn't so much as flicker, and the downed Gremlin was at least breathing, so I kept going.

I added a doorway and wavy lines to represent the tarp. The Gremlin that was still up suddenly stood up ramrod straight, looking back and forth between the crude drawing and their crude dwelling. It went stiff as a board, its eyes rolled back into its head, and it fell to the ground, a happy little grin forming on its mouth, a bubble of snot inflating and deflating as it snored happily.

Weird.

I couldn't just leave them lying there; dangerous creatures were running around. Then again, if they had polished memory crystals, they had to get them from somewhere, so they probably knew all about the dangers. Deciding to err on the side of interference, I picked them up, one in each arm, and placed them gently inside their hut and out of sight. Neither one showed any stirring, like children exhausted after a day of excitement.

Careful not to disturb the doodles I'd drawn for them, I walked back toward the hospital. I still needed to find Jon, but now I had better tools to make myself understood.

As I walked past the car I'd hid behind earlier, a voice froze me in my tracks.

"Hold it, Oberon," Jon said from behind me. Relief flooded through me, and I started to turn around without thinking.

"Eh! I said hold it. Don't move a muscle." Jon said, emphasizing his words by cocking his gun, causing me to freeze back up. My injured arm throbbed to remind me what getting shot was like.

"Alice said you understand English but can't speak. Poor Nia begged me to leave you alone, but I think we both know you're too dangerous to be allowed around here. I just winged you before, but I won't miss from this close."

--==