“Kush, what the hell?” I asked as he pulled me just behind him.

Leading me away, it was an odd experience. I watched in Cosmic Mode as Kush dragged me away and the scene transitioned to several more ‘stages’ of the world. I was, by now, used to being led forcefully by fate. By rarely was my forced marches so direct, so literal. Finally — thankfully — we arrived back at the Waystone. I could catch my breath.

“AND?!” I said in a raised voice.

“Sorry!” Kush said. “I got carried away. After you went outside, I did my own investigations in the store. Simple confirmation stuff, you know, just to make sure that you saw right. Man, you weren’t kidding. The store was COVERED in Siphons. Honestly, it was on the crazy side of ‘covered.’”

Thinking back to Felix and I’s conversation just a bit ago, I knew now would be a good time to try and convince Kush of bringing in those other Caretakers.

“So, about the investigation,” I began.

But Kush was already off doing something more.

I walked over to the Waystone. I would ask him but first, I wanted to see what his deal was with this stone.

“Where we first met. Lovely, right?” Kush asked.

“Yeah. Nothing like supernatural terror and Felix doing his flame breath act to get your blood pumping,” I said with only a hint of sarcasm.

“Oh yeah! It was a night to remember for me as well. Not everyday a Caretaker — especially a new one, like myself — sees a rando forge a pact with a member of Felix’s species. Yeesh. Caused some waves with that one, bud.”

I glanced toward Felix on my shoulder. I said to him telepathically, “Oh, yeah. You’re not a super-normie, right? Something more?”

He said back, Correct. Technically, I am a Super-Normie, but I am among the original tribe who first emerged from the unconscious ether. I am far removed from those blase donut men with spears or the typical vampire.

“Huh, interesting,” I replied. “I know you’ve talked about it before, but I was rather distraught about things. We should discuss it more, if you wanted. Your history sounds fascinating. Like the lore in a video game, not to sound disrespectful.”

Felix chuckled and said, I would like that.

A part of me thought it off for a moment Felix was so chill. Usually, he berated me non-stop for my ignorance. Now, he was relaxed. He wanted to talk about himself over a cup of coffee. Why? Maybe there wasn’t a reason. Maybe he just wanted a connection. Which made sense. We were, after all, connected via pact.

Maybe I am just lonely and sensitive? Or maybe I am looking for allies? Making the best out of a situation? Or maybe I am playing an elaborate trick on you? Felix mused to me.

Although Felix spoke as much, I doubted he was playing a trick on me.

“What is it that we are doing here?” I asked.

Kush replied by saying, “Making sure no one has tampered with it. I would tell you how to check, but that is a tad beyond your abilities at the moment. Give me a moment.”

I hung back and did nothing. I tried to extend my magical energies to poke and prod but I had nothing. Literally. My reserves of magical energy were depleted a while ago.

“Not good,” Kush said. “No. Not good at all!”

“Why is that and what is that?” I asked, curious.

“Well… the Waystone hasn’t been tampered with, that is good. Bad, bad things would be afoot if that were the case. But… it is not normal, either.”

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“Is it hard to tamper with a Waystone?”

“Yes and no?” Kush said. “Your pact-mate there, Felix, was intending on tampering with it on that fateful night, if you remember, and he is just a Creature of the Night. Not even a Caretaker. But what he was planning was more akin to functional vandalism than hacking, per se. Hacking is the stuff we are really looking out for.”

“Okay, so not literal hacking or like a computer, right?” I asked just for clarification, because knowing my luck, ‘hacking’ here meant something my mind was glazing over.

“Yup. Not like a machete or a computer. Metaphor. No. So, the stone is fine. It is un-hacked, but someone or something has vandalized it.”

I looked to Felix and asked him telepathically what that meant. He said, Many things, Marcus. Many things.

I asked the same question of Kush. He said the same thing as Felix, “many things.”

I crooked my eyebrows as I looked at Felix. I said to Felix, “You guys on the same wavelength or something?” with a wink. Felix purred.

“Anything I can do to help?” I told Kush.

“Not yet. Just keep up with your training and…” but Kush was distracted and his thoughts trailed away.

Realizing that now would be the perfect time to ask him about bringing in the help of the other Caretakers, I said, “So, with issues abounding with the Waystone, think it is time to bring in the other Caretakers? If our Waystone is acting up, then the others — there are others, right? — they might be acting up as well. Yeah? Plus, I could learn from them. If they are teachers.”

Kush paced back and forth in front of the stone. It began to snow.

Wait.

Snow?

“You see that snow, Felix? It can’t be snowing, yet. It’s not winter. It’s barely fall. Is it?”

Felix did the cat-dragonfly version of shrug. He said, Waystones operate along different lines, Marcus. Things happen weirdly at them. We see a stone covered in spray-paint but its own truth is very different, if you have the power to see it. I see glimpses of it now that I am more autonomous than when we met — due to the pact, yes — but I can still only see fragments of its true self.

“Okay. Just curious,” I said.

“Yes. We will do that. In fact, I will contact them later today. Or tomorrow. As soon as I get my wits about me. Okay. You can head home, Marcus. I know you had a long couple of days. And Marcus? Thank you for everything you have done.”

I smiled and nodded back to him saying that it was no big deal.

Felix and I walked back to our crummy apartment. As we walked, though, Felix asked me a curious question.

You know, he said, I am not aware of how you became attuned to the Under-Reality; most people sort of, at a point, just become aware due to their frequency finally sharpening to a degree. Was that what happened to you? I only ask because, sometimes, a person can be awakened from their own force of will. Considering your own actions lately, maybe I have under-estimated you?

I chuckled, but said, “As much as I would like to claim sheer fucking willpower as the means of awakening, it was not. And I don’t think it was attunement, either. Something else.”

What do you mean, ‘something else’? There is no third way, Marcus.

“No, there is,” I replied to Felix. “I ingested something, and I was awakened.”

At hearing this, Felix sank his claws into my shoulders, though he did not mean it in a violent or retaliatory sort of way. More, confused, if anything.

What did you ingest? Felix asked, his tone of voice full with meaning as he carefully noted each syllable. I had no idea why he was being so serious. It was unlike him.

“Ah, well, that is the thing. It is hard for me to describe it. It was something described to me as ‘smoking’?” I said, thinking of that mysterious stranger from the gas station.

Smoking? But, people here do not smoke… people in your version of reality do not smoke. Smoking does not exist, here. It exists for the other Caretakers, but not here, by the fluke of fate. What do you MEAN you smoked?! By now, Felix was hectic, and even scaring me a little.

But I did not and could not understand his urgency, so I just shrugged. I told him the truth: “I met a very unusual man at the gas station while buying snacks. I don’t normally chat people up while browsing the lanes, but he seemed sociable and tame, which was considering something by the getup he wore. But to make a long story short, we chatted about life and existentialism, and then he handed me what he called a ‘joint.’ He said that if I wanted to really live and see what it was like on the other side, I should, and I quote, ‘let that blunt hang from my lips, light it up, and inhale, swallow, exhale.’ Strange comment for a strange product. But I did end up doing as he asked. Mostly out of boredom.”

Felix said nothing. “You okay, bud?” I asked.

We were nearly back at the apartment when Felix said, “I know nothing about what you encountered, Marcus. I have never heard of this man you encountered, never seen him for myself — and I have lived a long time. If you were a stranger, I would think you crazy. None of what you told me should be possible in this articulation of reality. Your words are very disturbing.”

I listened to the gravity of Felix, but I was not taken aback by his response. I told him, “Well, it is the truth, and it is what I know. I smoked the ‘blunt’ and bam, next thing I know, you are messing up my apartment and dragging me out into the night to help you. Haha, right?”

However, Felix remained silent.

He was not silent for long.

I unlocked my apartment door and there, standing in my living room, was the mysterious stranger himself.