1

Quint Costello stared at the opposite end of the table. I wondered if something like this might happen, he thought as he clicked his tongue. “Putnam, get Pip. They are in the waterfall room bathing. I don’t care if the sesnickie is wet; I need them now.”

“Yes, Master Quint,” Putnam said with a slight bow, then hurried from the room. Quint walked to the opposite side of the table. Yes, this was a strong vibration; there would be traces left where it had warped the air. With any luck, Pip would get here before those traces were gone.

2

Phildrious Putnam phase-shifted into his original form as he exited the dining room, becoming an oily black humanoid shape that slid across the floor.

He reached for a phase warp, collapsed into a puddle, and went underneath the kitchen door into the hallway on the other side. He could feel the pull of the other potential he had accessed by touching the phase-warp; the pull to be the puddle completely and stay that way. He naturally resisted this tug as he did any time he phase-shifted.

Assuming his original black and oily form—which did not tug at him—Putnam slid down this hallway which was lined by doors on either side and did not appear to have an end. Above each door, there was a golden sign with engraved writing on it. ‘Theatre,’ ‘Sly Grass Den,’ ‘Spider Milk Bar,’ ‘Peep Show,’ and oddly enough ‘19’ were just a few of the labeled rooms’ names. Putnam passed all these and stopped in front of ‘Waterfall Room.’ He reached for a phase warp in front of the door handle, shifting himself back into the expected manservant form he usually wore with his friends, then twisted the handle.

The door opened to a roaring waterfall that fell over a rocky ledge into a plunge pool below. The water sparkled in places with the reflection of sunlight, the river’s response of gratitude for the sun letting it be seen. The river flowed toward the doorway and then veered to the right of where Putnam stood. Putnam stepped into a wooded area that clung to the water’s edge like facial hair. The trees were very tall and slightly red in color, and the door Putnam had come through sat open in the trunk of one of these behemoths.

“Master PIP!” Putnam yelled. He stepped forward onto a rock the size of a human head.

“MASTER PIP!” Putnam yelled again, louder this time, and then the sesnickie jumped out of the water near the edge, causing water to come crashing down on Putnam’s head.

“Master Pip, something has happened, and …“ Pip shook the water out of their fur, ensuring that Putnam’s manservant livery was entirely soaked. Putnam shook the water off, then continued. He would dry when he shifted back to his original form. “Pip, Leslie has vanished with the Eraser. I think he may be in trouble. Master Quint said he needs you now.” At this, the sesnickie immediately Moved. Putnam turned around and became oily black again, the wet livery disappearing. He went through the door and made his way back.

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3

Leslie drifted. This place was similar to Dandelion In that it appeared to breathe with the vibrations. They sang and strummed his nerves with chaos fingers that seemed to belong to THE LOW SELF Himself. He could hear—everything LOW.

EMPTY YOURSELF.

BE A VESSEL.

YOU CAN ONLY BE TRUE IF YOU ARE TRULY EMPTY.

I.

SEE.

YOU.

White light began to eat away at Leslie’s mind. He screamed. Blank—everything blank, stretching into eternity. A flash of red.

I CAN MAKE IT STOP.

White, acid light.

Now red—it was a red cloak—a tall form. Horns peaked out from beneath a hood—brown, twisting horns. The face was primarily obscured, but for the bottom where it swirled in a black and white Void.

I CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY.

Images flashed in Leslie’s mind. But was it his mind? Was he here? He seemed more ‘it’ now. He appeared to … be THE LOW SELF and himself at the same time—which was all time—every time—both selves—all selves.

THE LOW SELF.

He saw himself suspended above a pool of static fuzz. Then he was dipped in.

He was …

A virus infecting a newborn baby’s heart, eating a hole right through the center.

A hand shooting an entire class of students with phase dust, separating their atoms.

A woman smacking her child across the face and breaking wooden spoons across their backside.

The Hate, poisoning the water supply of the farmers that didn’t embrace Emptiness.

Rakshasas coming to Dandelion from their previous planet and enslaving the tall Drake people for one hundred years.

Leslie, with the mantra scramble bug walking toward his brother Carter and then putting it into his ear. The bug crawled through Carter’s ear canal and smooshed its way through Carter’s brain up to the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, where it sat and made its home. The bug extended its one-hundred legs into specific spots of the brain to infiltrate communication, then stuck its pincers into the middle of the prefrontal cortex—mantra scramble. Carter began to babble.

“I AM NOT THESE THINGS! I DIDN’T DO THIS TO CARTER!” Leslie screamed from somewhere.

YOU ARE THESE THINGS.

YOU ARE BUT A SMALL PIECE OF THE ALL.

YOU DENY THESE THINGS BUT THEY ARE YOU.

ALL THAT YOU SAW IS SO.

I CAN MAKE IT STOP.

White light threatened to consume him.

EMPTY.

A vision of a doctor taking a spike and putting it up to a woman’s tear duct, then hammering the spike home. One red tear fell down the cheek of the now-vacant woman.

EMPTY.

“STOP!” Leslie cried.

I CAN MAKE IT STOP

“NO! You will not have me willingly LOBOTOMIZE myself!”

I CANNOT MAKE YOU, THIS IS TRUE. I CAN TAKE THAT WHICH IS AND MANIPULATE IT.

Leslie felt a hole tearing. He felt it in his stomach, though he knew it was in his mind. The hole was there before, but now it was gaping. It was like the mind grooves that Quint talked about sesnickies traveling when they did a Fishing. It felt like THE LOW SELF was riding back and forth in these grooves in a rocking chair, turning divots into chasms.

Fiona.

Fiona was all. Everything he’d ever wanted.

4

Pip vomited. The sesnickie was sickened by the feel of this place. Leslie hung suspended in air, his stomach to the sky, his arms, legs and head hanging down toward what would be the ground somewhere else.

WHAT IS THIS?

ANOTHER HAS COME?

IS THIS … YES … I CAN USE THIS.

There was a very strange feeling that came over Pip and they couldn’t quite place it. No time, they thought. Pip jumped for Leslie, coiled their body around him and sent a very invasive set of feelings and thoughts to him.

5

The meditaz.

Escaping the Hate.

Carter babbling next to Fiona.

Fiona …

The feeling, thoughts and colors swirling translated to something like, “We need to Move you fuck. The mantrum! Let’s get back. This place makes me sick!”

Fiona was all.

Leslie began the mantrum for Moving.