The next day Levi went to school feeling more frustrated than he had in a while. On examining the book yesterday he'd found absolutely nothing. Nothing at all to indicate what he was supposed to do next. Even worse, the water heater had quit the night before and his shower had chilled him to the core. He shivered as he fought against the icy wind, pulling his hood low as he made his way to the school.

He thought of going back to Connolly's office to demand some answers but, the way the professor was, he figured just showing up again might be pushing his luck. So he trudged along, protecting himself as best he could from the cold.

After a miserable couple of classes, well, no more miserable than usual. He headed to the food court. He was just sitting down to an overpriced rice bowl, hoping it might finally warm him, when he heard his name.

"Levi, hey Levi."

Paul was making his way between the tables, and resolutely dropping his own tray down across from Levi's. "Hey, you're just the person I wanted to see. I've wanted to call you for like a week now but I lost everyone’s numbers when I dropped my phone in an open keg of... well that doesn't matter. Dude, I still can't believe you don't even check Facebook. How've you been?"

"Hey Paul, it's good to see you too. I've been... well you can see." He lifted his backpack, letting it thud heavily on the table. "You'd think the school could put everything online, what with how much tuition costs, but no, I'm stuck hauling this around."

"Yeah, yeah, back to the student thing then. But, I don’t care about that, what about, you know," Paul lowered his voice, leaning in close enough for Levi to smell the wintergreen mint he was sucking. "How you doing after the trip?"

Levi was sorely tempted to tell Paul everything. He'd wanted to talk with someone since he’d gotten back, but since he'd signed all that stuff... In fact, now that he was feeling less depressed, it was the biggest reason he'd avoided contacting Paul, Cara, and the rest. How could he talk about Kansas while leaving out everything that happened after?

Instead he just said, "yeah, I'm still trying to work through it, hard to believe it was real you know?"

Paul was shoveling his food down as he talked. "You and me both. I've been going crazy not being able to talk to anyone else. I talked to Phil a time or two when we first got back --that kid responds when you FB message him by the way-- but he was really shaken up. Then, like a week ago, his phone started going straight to voicemail. His Facebook, twitter, instagram, and even his Linkedin accounts all got deleted too. After that, well, I still couldn’t get ahold of you, I'd rather poke myself in the eye than talk with Cara and, like you, Alice gets an F on tech savvy. I thought you were supposed to be part of the millennial generation. I've been wandering the halls the last few days hoping to bump into one of you guys, and finally, here you are."

Levi felt a little insulted. ‘An F on tech savvy?’ "Well, I don't know, I've got a school email and I check that for class stuff, and I check Facebook… sometimes."

"Seriously? You're totally unbelievable. Even my grandpa’s at least on twitter. I really wish he wasn't, but he is."

"So," Levi said, choosing his words carefully. "You seen anything since?"

Paul looked at him with a queer look.

"You okay Paul?"

"Yeah, so, okay, I'm looking into something but I can't talk about it and that's all I can say right now alright."

"Seriously, you've been looking for someone to talk to for a week but you can't talk about it? Wait, hold on, did someone tell you you couldn't?" His breath caught, as he considered the possibility; was Paul talking with the hunters too? But if Connolly had talked to him, then wouldn’t the old man have said something? No, it was probably just wishful thinking.

Paul sat back, scratching the patchy stubble on his chin, "Look, I just can't say anything, not yet. I’d sound crazy if I was wrong. Still, There's more to talk about than that. I've been thinking, what if there's more to all of this than some monster sighting in a little town?" He said, gesturing vaguely toward the window. "And what about the road disappearing like that? Phil sounded all area 51 crazy, but maybe he's right."

"Wait, right about what?"

"Well, last time we talked, he said he'd been looking into something. Going on about something happening, he was sure of it, but he wouldn't say what. I mean, he was rambling about planes crashing, and the ice caps melting, and terrorist attacks. I don't know, it was all over the place; conspiracy theory stuff." He laughed. "More likely it's all nothing and he just snapped. He's a good kid, but not the brightest."

"Huh," said Levi, leaning back, no longer interested in his food, wondering if Phil really had found something. With some of what he’d been learning, who knows. "I dunno, with everything we saw, he could be right. At least it's hard to know what's real or not anymore."

Paul laughed again, louder this time, "I know, right? Ever since then I've been jumping at everything. Every now and then I’ll be at the coffee shop, or walking down the street and I’ll see someone and be like, are they even human? Just last week I thought an old lady was stalking me. Turns out she was just headed to the bus stop. If anyone knew what I was thinking they’d send me to a shrink or something."

Levi nodded. "Yeah, I don't even go out at night if I don't have to."

As they sat and talked, Levi got the feeling Paul was as edgy as he felt. Everything felt forced, the smiles, the talk. It was like when you smell a fart in an elevator, but everyone's too embarrassed to say anything.

Just then Liz dropped into the seat next to him, like an exploding grenade. “Hey, mind if I join you?” He and Paul both jumped.

"Hey Levi, hey Levi's friend, you okay? You both look kinda funny."

"Hey Liz, uh yeah we're fine. This is Paul, I carpooled home with him over Christmas. Paul this is Liz, she's a friend." He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt defensive and guilty, like he’d been caught talking about something he shouldn’t. He never felt quite right around this girl.

"Nice to meet you Liz," said Paul, flashing his best smile. He didn't get thrown off, Levi thought, feeling jealous, not a bit, and he doesn't even know her.

"Hey," said Liz, "what's that on your shoulder?"

Paul's hand went to his collar, pulling it up. "What do you mean?" His easy smile had frozen. So much for not getting thrown off.

"Here, right here," she said, reaching across the table to yank his collar down. He tried to dodge, but she was fast, and strong judging by the way she kept Paul from pulling back. "Yep, that's what I thought. You know, I've never known Conny to take more than one student at a time. You guys must really be something." Levi looked at Paul’s shoulder, which Liz was baring to the world, despite Paul’s best efforts to hide it. There on his left shoulder, winding up to his neck, was a deep purple-black tattoo of a bat sort of thing. Levi's heart leaped. The tattoo was new, metallic, and looked remarkably lifelike.

"I knew it! You know Connolly, don't you?" Levi said.

"I don't know what you mean," said Paul, shaking Liz off and pulling up his collar. "I don’t know any. Wait, how do you know Connolly?"

"Uh, I can't say," said Levi, remembering his promise a little late.

"Really?” said Liz, shaking her head. “Did he have you guys sign one of those I won't talk to anyone on pain of death things he likes so much? That man likes his theatrics. It's all magic and mystery with him. And don't say you don't know Levi, I know what you've been hiding under that sleeve." She grabbed his arm, pulling back his sleeve to expose the serpent, glittering in the fluorescent light. Somehow it look even more outlandish here in this dull looking cafeteria.

"No way," said Paul, forgetting his collar. "You have one too? So Connolly hooked you in too huh?"

"Yeah," Levi said, rolling his sleeve back up, fast as he could. It still felt wrong to have it exposed like that, even just as a tattoo. He was dreading having to explain it to his mom.

"Well that's that," said Paul, looking relieved, "I guess there's no reason to hide a secret when everyone knows it." Then he paused. "Wait, Liz, how'd you know about Connolly and us?"

She sat there munching on her sandwich. "Well Conny was my dad's best friend, so I've known him my whole life. He's kind of a godfather or something. He's really got the two of you worked up, what on earth did he tell you?"

"Uh, basically the pain of death thing you said earlier,” said Paul. “So, if you know the professor, then do you know why we've got these things?"

"The adjutors, oh yeah, he's teaching you to be hunters right?"

They both winced. "Well," Levi began, "I don't know about that."

"Yeah," said Paul, his voice barely above a whisper. "I just wanted to know more about the monsters and stuff. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a hunter. I mean, can you imagine me hunting monsters. My mom would freak." he ended with a nervous laugh.

"Well, why else would you have those adjutors? They only pick hunters, and I've never seen Conny teach anyone who wasn't going to be a hunter." She shrugged, "But, like I said, I've never seen him take on two students at once so anything's possible."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"So,” Paul said, “I hope It's okay me asking, but what happened to your dad?"

"What?" said Liz. "Nothing happened to him. That's a weird thing to ask." She was examining her bag to see if there was anything else in it.

"Oh, sorry," said Paul, "when you were talking about him and the professor, you mentioned him in the past tense so I figured he was dead."

"Oh, it's okay, I just said that cause they used to be friends. They aren't any more."

"Oh, why's that?"

"My dad tried to kill Conny. He's got a bit of a temper sometimes, but Conny shouldn't have tried to steal from him in the first place. Anyway, maybe they were both wrong but I don't see the big deal. They're both just way too stubborn. Hey Levi, you going to eat that rice bowl?"

He shook his head, pushing it over to her. He’d completely lost his appetite.

"Thanks, this looks good."

"Wow," said Paul. "Your dad and Connolly, that's intense. And you're still friends with him?"

"Well, yeah silly, he is basically family."

"And your dad's okay with you talking to him?"

"I don't know why he wouldn't be," she said, looking confused. "He never tried to steal from me. Of course I never talked to my dad about it, but I don't see why I should, it's not a big deal."

Paul shook his head. "You’re dad tried to kill him and you don't think that's a big deal huh? Alright, but that sounds like one crazy family you've got."

"Nah, they're pretty normal. Anyway, we should go talk to him, I'm sure he'd like to know that we're all friends."

"Talk to who?" said Paul, "Connolly, or your dad who tried to kill him?"

"Connolly of course, my dad doesn't like strangers too much. You really are stuck on the whole killing bit aren’t you?"

"Yeah, and I can’t believe you aren’t. Either way, I don't know," said Paul, rubbing the tattoo on his shoulder. Levi figured he was still thinking of the pain of death bit of the contract.

"Hey," said Levi. "We might as well talk to him, I've got a meeting time booked with him today. I wasn't planning on going since I saw him yesterday but we can go if you want. At least that way maybe we can get permission to talk to each other." He wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but he was desperate to get Connolly’s blessing. He’d give almost anything to be able to talk to the two of them openly.

"Alright, I'm in," said Paul, "I'm kinda terrified of that old guy but Liz, if you think it’s okay, then it can’t hurt right?"

"Alright," said Liz, hopping to her feet. "Conny will be so happy to see us."

###

Professor Connolly's door was closed when they got there, a ‘do not disturb’ sign prominently displayed. Voices could be heard faintly from inside.

"Hey, my appointments not for like a half hour," said Levi, his stomach feeling queasy. "Maybe we should come back then."

"Oh don't worry," said Liz, "let's just tell him we're here okay?" Before the others could stop her, she swung the door wide, walking in.

"That friend of yours is crazy, you know that right?" Said Paul in a half whisper.

Levi nodded.

The voices stopped abruptly when she entered the office.

"Hi Conny, I brought some friends to see you." She said, waving for the others to join her. Neither of them moved.

"I'm not going in there, how about you?" Paul whispered.

Levi shook his head, wondering if he should run.

"Liz," Connolly said. "What a surprise, I'm in a meeting now, can this wait?"

"Oh hi, Reggie, Beth, Miss Farr,"

"Hello Liz, what can we do for you?" said a male voice. Each syllable was articulate.

"Oh, I was just talking to my friends and they both know Conny, so I thought it would be fun to bring them by together."

"Really?" said a woman's voice." And where are these friends now?"

"Beth, we haven't finished our business yet," Connolly protested.

"Oh come off it Alastair," said another female voice, this one higher and sharpish sounding. "We've been done talking about anything really important for at least ten minutes now, do let her introduce her friends."

"Yes, I am curious to know who our Liz is spending her time with," said the male voice. "Please introduce us."

Levi and Paul, who had been waiting awkwardly just outside the door, now came creeping into the office. Inside the room, the three wooden chairs were arrayed around the large desk. Connolly was standing behind the desk, covering a large map as they entered.

"Er, hello everyone," said Paul.

Levi just stood there trying to smile as sweat blossomed from his forehead. It was suddenly really warm. He was shocked to see the old lady from his adventure outside the antique shop. She still wore her gaudy hat, now with a thick purple shawl over a paisley dress. She winked at him.

To her right was another man, mid thirties he guessed, with sharp dark eyes. He was playing with his gold capped cane, smiling in a congenial way. The man nodded slightly as they entered.

The third member of their group was another lady, likely in her late twenties with delicate features. Her clothing was neat and businesslike, and her hair flawless. She eyed them as they came in, a frown on her pretty face.

"Hello boys," the young lady said, as she continued to eye the two of them. Hers had been the sharper voice Levi had heard. "I'm happy to see you found some good looking ones this time Connolly, I assume these are the strays you recently acquired?"

"They are indeed, though I put them both under strict order not to talk with anyone. That included Liz or each other if I am not mistaken." He gave them both a stern look from under his thick, peppered eyebrows.

"Oh, Conny, don't be like that, I had to drag it out of both of them," said Liz, placing herself between the "boys" and Connolly, squaring her shoulders and putting her hands on her hips. "They were barely even talking to each other when I showed up. You should be ashamed of yourself, scaring them with all your talk of death and torture."

"And yet you still did drag it out of them," Connolly said.

Why oh why, thought Levi, wouldn't he let it go?

The older lady shook her head. "Oh give it a rest Alastair, you really are too stuffy at times. Anyone would think you an old man the way you grumble," Then, with a warm smile, she turned to address Levi and Paul, "I am Beth Townsend. It's a pleasure to meet you Paul and to see you again Levi. The last time we met, I'm afraid I didn't have the chance to introduce myself properly. How did the quiz go?"

“Oh, uh, I did okay I guess.”

“Well, you did very well to even do okay after that little mishap.”

The younger lady cleared her throat, impatiently.

She raised a gloved hand to indicate the others. "Oh don’t rush me. Anna. Anyway, these are Mr. Reggie Walker and Miss Anna Farr. We are acquaintances of Alastair’s. We were in fact just speaking of you all."

"Us all?" said Paul, seemingly at ease. Levi wondered how he could act like that. His own heart was beating about a thousand beats a minute. Paul went on. "Then you must be hunters. Have you talked to the others too?"

"You mean Mr. Jensen, Miss Wynaught, and Miss Sorokovski? Yes, we have reached out to them, though Mr. Jensen has been difficult to reach. He has ah... taken the events of your trip very seriously.”

Miss Farr sniffed and Connolly interjected. “You mean he quit school and took off for somewhere in Montana. He didn't leave so much as a phone number or forwarding address.”

“Woah, seriously?” Paul’s calm look dropped. He looked surprised.

“Yes,” said Beth. “Tried to go completely off the grid that one did. Of course we found him easily enough, and will be reaching out to him all the same… when the time is right. Miss Wynaught on the other hand," here she shook her head, "she's as stubborn as a mule. Did you know she denies, straight out refuses to admit that anything out of the ordinary ever happened. I spoke with her myself and sadly it did not go well."

Her cross look lasted only a moment before she brightened up once more. "Miss Sorokovski however was quite eager to talk, more so than even you Mr Grant. I think you may want to reach out to her yourselves. She's made far more progress than either of you have in her studies. That girl is quite good with riddles.”

"That's all well and fine," said Connolly. "But these boys have still violated their contract."

"Professor Alastair Connolly," said Beth, "I will remind you of a certain young man who did far worse in his first week."

Connolly went very red and bit off whatever he had been about to say.

Reggie smiled, uncrossing his legs as he leaned forward on his cane. “I am sure the professor will agree that it is hard to say no to Liz. She is rather persistent.” He gave the two of them a wink.

“That’s to put it mildly.” Levi muttered.

"Uh, yes sir," said Paul, beginning to nudge Levi out of the door. He was talking pleasantly but backing quickly out into the hall. "She was quite persuasive, but still, sorry about that. It won't happen again." He pulled Levi and Liz with him as he went.

"Goodbye madame," said Reggie, standing as they left.

The others echoed the sentiment.

###

In the hall, Levi turned to Paul, pantomiming shooting himself in the head. Paul gave him an exaggerated sigh in return, as they fast walked down the hall. Liz had stopped to wave as they left and had to run to catch up with the others.

"That was awful," Levi said when they were far enough away.

"You got that right. I thought Connolly was going to turn us into frogs or something. I am not looking forward to our next meeting with him. Liz, how are you not terrified of that man?"

She stopped, cocking her head to the side, looking confused. "Connie? I told you, he's like family, he just grumbles a lot."

"Yeah," Paul said, "but didn’t he do something bad enough your dad tried to kill him?"

"Like I said, a misunderstanding. I don't know why you're still stuck on that."

"Yeah right. Sure." Paul shook his head laughing. "You're something else Liz, you know that. Levi's got good taste in friends."

"Thank you," she said, smiling.

“So, uh, that’s kinda an odd coincidence, you knowing Levi without knowing his connection to Connolly. How did you guys meet?”

“Oh, we have a class together. He was drawing pictures of one of those big hunter books, so I asked him about it. He ran away. He didn’t want to talk about it so I figured I’d let it be.”

“No kidding? You really ran away from a cute girl?” He was grinning now.

“Come on, you’re as scared of Connolly as I am. Besides, I almost got eaten a few weeks ago, I’ve still got some trust issues.”

“Hah, you got me there.”

As they were talking, Levi remembered something he’d seen when they’d first entered the office.. "Hey Liz, Paul, did you guys see what they were talking about? You know, the stuff on the desk. Connolly tried to hide it when we came in."

"Huh, not really, they always act like there’s something big and secretive. It’s usually just more monsters." said Liz. "I was just happy to see all of them together. It's fun to see so many friends at once. But now that you mention it, they did look more serious than usual, especially when I first came in. when I came in. you see something?"

"There was a lot I couldn't see," said Levi. "There were some newspaper clippings though. They were all animal attacks. I think some people died. Also, there was a map all marked up with red x's. What'd you think that was about?"

"Dunno," said Paul. "Whatever it is, let's leave it to them, I'm more worried about my English paper. It's due tomorrow."

"Yeah," said Liz. "They'll take care of whatever it is. We don't need to worry about that."

"So, then, what about us?" said Levi, still thinking about the map. He was pretty sure he'd seen an x over Kansas.

"What about us?" said Paul.

"We should talk to Alice and meet up, you know, like that Townsend lady said."

"Good idea You still got Alice's number right? like I said, phone problems."

"Yeah, I'll call her this evening, maybe see if we can meet up sometime."

"Oh that would be fun," said Liz, "is she nice?"

"Yeah," said Paul. "She's a bit intense, some crazy theories, but she's cool. But ah, one thing, I can't meet at my place. It's not really the place for study, or for anything but parties and sports really, well and some gaming. It's more of an unofficial frat house."

"We can meet at my place, I'm close and have a private room," said Levi. "Connolly set me up with a pretty good deal when I first joined up."

"He gave me that whole 'you should have more privacy so you don't jeopardize the secret' bit too. I turned him down. I totally thought he'd lose it, but a man's got to stand up for what's important.”

“How do you get any school done?” Asked Liz. “That sounds like a terrible place to study.”

“Let’s just say I spend a lot of time at the library now. By the way, what that old lady said about Phil, it sure explains a lot."

"Weird that he'd just pick up and leave like that,” agreed Levi. "But what we went through was pretty messed up.. It's not too surprising I guess. That's odd about Cara though, is she really acting like it never happened?

"Not sure, but send me their numbers and I’ll shoot her a text. Maybe she'll talk to us."

They exchanged numbers before parting ways, agreeing to meet up as soon as they could.