“It’s time to wake up,” I hear my father say.

Ugh… I don’t wanna…

“I’ve already let you sleep in fifteen minutes. You need to get breakfast.”

I reluctantly tear my eyes open and start getting into a sitting position. “Okay. I’ll be out in a minute,” I tell him. He closes the door.

Bleh. As if Mondays weren’t already bad enough, having to go on a mini adventure in the middle of the night wasn’t good for my sleep cycle. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except I kept myself up later than I should’ve by thinking about this Metaverse stuff. Not like I was really able to conclude much.

Upon getting out of my bed, I find that my body is not happy with me for the events of the night… maybe I should stay home sick today. Anyways, either way I better go out and get some waffles.

As usual, Dad is sitting in the living room watching TV. As I’m heating up the waffles, I like to catch a couple of news stories.

Apparently there was a climate change demonstration in New York City yesterday. Cool.

Sierra Leone is on lockdown to stop the spread of Ebola. I’m glad I’m not there, that sounds horrible.

Wildfires in California are getting worse. I hope that gets resolved soon.

“So Anja… what were you doing in the middle of the night?” Dad asks me unexpectedly. “I heard your car start.”

Awh, shit! I’ve been caught! Well, I guess I better tell the truth- or part of it, at least.

“I… had to give one of my friends a ride home,” I answer, as I take my now finished waffles out.

“Really? At that hour?”

“Yeah. He, uh, went on a walk, and got lost.”

“It’s dangerous to be out walking around the town that late at night!”

I give a fake laugh. “Yeah, he, uh, makes pretty poor life decisions. But you know… I don’t have that many friends. So when one of them needs me… I want to be there for them.”

“Well, I certainly understand that. Just make sure that he knows to not put you in that situation again.”

“Oh trust me, I will,” I say while smothering my waffles with syrup. “I gave him an earful the whole way home…”

Ha! I did it! The powers of emotional manipulation pulled me through. I guess some of Mom’s politicking skills got passed down to me after all.

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I arrive at the library to see that the others didn’t sleep any better than I did. Ashley looks visibly grouchy, but is still keeping herself awake enough to furiously fumble through a set of flash cards. Zoe is leaning on her shoulder, her eyes only half open. Nova is asleep on the floor, using his backpack as a pillow.

I take my seat across from Ashley. “So, we all made it here, somehow,” I say conversationally.

Ashley puts her flashcards down. “Yeah, somehow. Did you have any nightmares?”

“Uh, me? No,” I reply.

“Interesting… why was it just me then?” She asks nobody in particular.

“Well, I did have this one weird dream a couple nights ago. I was standing at the front of a boat, like that one scene in Titanic. Then, in the distance I saw these flying fish, and…”

“Let me explain why I asked you that,” Ashley cuts me off sharply. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I have a feeling that the nightmare I had last night was actually a sort of parting message from Moloch.”

“Oh really? What was it like?”

“I barely remember it. But I do remember that it started in that football stadium area. The one we stumbled across in Pavia’s palace. My brain may have just been recycling the imagery… but somehow, I don’t think so. Someone was standing over me, rambling at me. They looked like my mom, but it wasn’t really her… this person was clearly someone evil. It was mostly just a bunch of nonsense, honestly. I can’t really remember anything specific from it. But then, I saw these three little girls… and the other person said something about how they were going to go ‘terrorize easier targets’ or something, and that they would ‘be back for us later.’”

“Huh… that’s interesting,” I say. “If you’re right, and this was some sort of weird message from Moloch… that would imply that we’re not the only ones. There may be another team out there also trying to work against him.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ashley says, shrugging. “I’ll have to ask Lucy about that when I get a chance. I would do it now, but...”

“Don’t want to end up back in Tentacle Rape Forest,” I finish for her.

At these words, Zoe’s eyes suddenly fly open. “Wh- what… did you say?” She asks, a look of utter horror on her face.

“We’ve discovered that there’s a palace right here at the school,” Ashley explains to her. “So obviously, we can’t enter the Metaverse here willy nilly.”

“That’s horrible… who could it belong to?” Zoe wonders.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“We have no idea,” Ashley tells her. “We really should go through it at some point, but I think it’d be a good idea to learn about who it belongs to first.”

“Yeah. We need to have an idea of how the cognition is distorted or whatever. Like Lucy said.”

“Indeed. And on that note… I have a theory.”

“Do tell!”

“I think that what happened to the Baptist church is a palace as well, just one of a different sort. It appears differently because it’s not just the palace of one person; it’s the palace of the whole community.”

“Wow, interesting theory. That would explain those weird pools we found.”

“Indeed. And thankfully, Zoe’s whole situation has given us some idea of how the church will act when it’s under pressure. They all seem intent on keeping the status quo, even when doing so defies all logic. In addition, they all seem to look after their own, until ‘their own’ challenges said status quo. Based on the testimony of my parents, the others in the church are overwhelmingly siding with Zoe’s parents on the issue, even though they’re literally having to make shit up to look better.”

“Ah, okay. So, bearing that in mind, what do you think the palace will be like?” I ask her.

She thinks about it for a moment. “Maybe like… zombies. You know, everyone just doing their thing mindlessly.”

“Yeah, maybe. I was thinking… it’s almost sort of like the military,” I suggest. “It’s all just about following orders… don’t ask any questions, just listen to your superiors. Any deviation from the norm will be harshly punished. After all… isn’t that just what religion is?”

Ashley gives me a stern look for this. “No, it is not! But it does unfortunately give power-hungry people an easy way of emotionally manipulating others, which is why it often turns out that way,” she admits begrudgingly.

Ashley glances at Nova, who’s still fast asleep on the floor. “Well, we’ll probably have to re-explain all of that to these two, unfortunately,” she laments.

“Wha… No, I was paying attention,” Zoe says unconvincingly. But I know better… I saw her fall back asleep while we were talking about palaces.

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Time for a Human Geo quiz again. It couldn’t have possibly been on a worse day, but whatever. I don’t get to pick when I randomly get supernaturally assaulted.

Diana is now pretending that I don’t exist, which is perfectly fine with me. That said, my studying is still interrupted by someone who I wish didn’t exist…

“Hey Aaashley. Can I borrow your cards?” Mason says to me tauntingly. “I need your cards, Ashley.”

“I’m not in the mood today,” I tell him bluntly.

“You’re never in the mood,” he says, sneering at me.

I’m in the middle of thinking of some horrifyingly violent threat I can tell him, but before I can, he starts speaking again.

“Hey… like I told your friends, I didn’t know about you and Zoe when I asked her to the dance,” he told me. “Just wanted to make sure you knew that since you seem to be the possessive type.”

“Yeah, I really don’t care,” I tell him, trying to block him out so I can get back to reviewing.

“I just… hope there’s no bad blood between us,” he says. “I mean, between Zoe and I. I know there’s bad blood between us, because you’re a total bitch. It’s inevitable.”

And the quizzes are being handed out, which means that asshole cost me my last minute of studying time. What was that about? Was that his idea of an apology or something?

----------------------------------------

Dad’s out somewhere when we get home from school, so I take this perfect opportunity to get some TV watching in… Hell yeah, Adventure Time is on.

I’ve only barely gotten settled when the phone starts ringing. I mute the TV and pick it up.

“Parker residence,” my Mom says, right as I’m opening my mouth to say hello. She must have already picked up the other phone in the master bedroom.

“Hey, honey. You somewhere private?” I hear Dad’s voice say.

“Yes I am,” Mom replies.

Oh wow… they didn’t hear me get on. I feel like I should hang up… but also, I’m kinda curious what they’re going to talk about…

“Well, just talked to Hurt again. Sounds like the police aren’t gonna be any help to us tomorrow,” Dad explains.

“Oh, that’s too bad to hear,” Mom says.

“Yep. Nobody’s buying our version of events, Marie. Hurt went down to their house just yesterday and talked with Zoe one on one. You know what she said? She said that she was there of her own accord, she wasn’t being forced to do anything, and she didn’t want to go home. Well, that makes our story look like a whole bunch of kablooey. And he totally bought it, too. Told us we were wastin’ the time of the police! He even asked what he had done to make her leave. If this keeps up, we may have a child neglect case on our hands.”

“Oh dear, Abram. That’s most disappointing to hear. Caught between a rock and a hard place, are we?”

“Yep. You’re quick on the uptake as usual. Now, our church believes the story, but the officials don’t. And if we just let her go, well, the church is gonna wonder why we got ‘em so riled up, aren’t they? So there’s only one thing to do. We gotta go get her back and get her treated at that hospital Jared told us about. The issue is, that comes with its own challenges. Those folks are stubborn as bulls, and they made it clear they’re not gonna let us just walk in and take her. If we do try, it could be a huge incident. Possibly one that involves a lot of crying and screaming. That doesn’t make us look good either.”

“Well, maybe it’s the best option we got. Sounds like the other options are riskier. Unless…”

“Whatcha thinking, hon?”

“If we got Jared to vouch for us, he’d be able to smooth things over. People trust in him.”

“Oh, those Davis folks sure don’t trust in him anymore. After those big, bleedin’ heart speeches?”

“I ain’t talking about them, dear. I’m talking about the others at the church. Let’s face it. Those folks aren’t really bad people. And no matter how hard we try, nobody’s gonna believe that they’re bad.”

“Are you suggesting that we do just drop it, then?”

“Yeah. And Jared can help the others see that we had no choice.”

“Maybe that could work… but would he, Marie? I don’t think Jared would let us off the hook. Remember, he’s the one who came up with that idea for the conversion whatnot.”

“Awh, dang it. Maybe not.”

“I’m sorry Marie. We’re gonna have to stick to our guns. It’s the only way.”

“There’s another thing, honey…”

“What is it?”

There’s a pause, as Mom takes a few deep breathes before going on.

“This whole ordeal’s been real hard on Collin. You know that boy was always close with her. He took to her like he never took to either of his brothers. Always made me wonder if he’s not…”

“Oh honey, don’t say anything like that. I never want to have to go through this firestorm of events ever again.”

“I know, me neither. But that boy’s already been misbehaving’ worse than ever. What if we get Zoe off to that hospital and… he does something reckless?”

There’s a moment of silence, in which all I hear are both sides breathing.

“One child suddenly running off… we can spin that. Two children… well, that becomes a harder sell.”

“Exactly right, Abram. And I just can’t bring myself to tear apart my family even more.”

“Well, I certainly understand that. It would seem to go against the underlying idea of ‘family values’ if half of our kids are gone by the end of it. Hmm… tell you what, let’s talk about this when I get home. I need to run a couple of other errands, and I’ll think it all over. We may just be able to win our way out of this one if we play our cards right. But you’re right. There’s a lot at stake here.”

“Okay, hon. Talk to you when you get home, then. Bye bye.”

Both of them hang up. I just sit there for a while, suddenly feeling very cold. I really wish I hadn’t chosen to eavesdrop… that was a look into my parents’ ways of thinking I really didn’t need.

I no longer have any desire to watch TV, so I turn it off and go into my room.