Usually, when using my demonic abilities, there was a part of me that felt… good. In the powerful sense rather than the heroic. It was something flowing through me, something greater than putting me above all others. An egotistical view, certainly. I had accepted it for what it was. But when the power of the eldritch rat god finally reared its ugly head, there was no elation… it was horrifying, not least because of the immediate damage it had wrought me.

“Eric Redd!”

The sound of my name being used in anger was the first sensory hit I took as soon as I was back in the basement.

“You want to tell me why you have no hand? Before I rip the other off and beat some sense into you?”

Pearl was standing at the bottom of the stairs, probably having arrived after Rodney started losing his cool. My eyes adjusted to the difference in lighting, and I stepped from the Portal area, nursing my stump.

“Uhhh.” In truth, I felt a little lightheaded - but she did deserve an explanation. “It’s kind of hard to explain…” I looked to Rodney, whose eyes were wide, and he had recoiled from both injury and the angered demon, almost standing on the chair in his attempts to escape the situation.

Wight appeared back in this reality and slowly tried to hide behind me after seeing Pearl already here.

Her face tensed up, shooting the most terrible of glares from those radiant eyes that I had ever witnessed. “You both better start - and quick.”

“I think I channeled some of that old god boon power - by accident.” I grimaced as I started to sweat. Despite her eyes rooting me in place, I shuffled over to the recliner to relax before I passed out.

“Well, don’t just sit there, Rodney, grab the meds.” She growled at the Blank, and he practically flew from the chair. With a deep sigh, she walked over to me. “Thank the Hells that you can at least slowly regenerate it, right?” Her head turned sharply to my patron.

[Yes! In time.]

He nervously twiddled his clawed fingers together. It was briefly amusing seeing him so awkward, before the pain started to radiate down my arm.

“I’m really sorry, Pearl.” I gave her a sad smile.

“You’re exhausting, Eric Redd.” She sighed and leaned against the arm of the recliner. “Did you at least kill the devil?”

I blinked and shot a glance towards Wight. “Possibly. There was a lot of collateral.”

[Also, Eric joined a gang.]

“Wight!” I whined as a sharp shock ran down my arm to halt my protest. Pearl still glared at me despite the pain. “I kind of vaporized the outside structure of the whole building. Everyone became pancakes.” I licked my lips like a good dog.

She removed my hat and put her palm on my head. “You feel… normal. In a sweaty and panicked way, but there’s no corruption or weird magic going on in your little brain.” She leaned away to look me in the eye. “What kind of gang?”

“Small group of croc-demons, I shot one, and they seemed to respect that.” I winced, hoping Rodney would hurry up.

“Idiot.” She shook her head. “All croc-demons are part of the same gang; it’s like a culture or religion to them. Do they teach you nothing at the Org?”

[I’m sorry too, the Pearl.]

She turned to my rather sad-looking patron, and it tugged at my heartstrings that he genuinely seemed to feel bad about the predicament.

“I expected injury, Wight. Hell would freeze over before Eric would return unharmed from one of your adventures. I suppose you couldn’t really do much to help with his apparent new powers.”

Wight shook his head.

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“But honestly, you were both gone for what? Ten minutes? I had hoped to get a little sleep in before you came back broken.” She gave me a glum smile and prodded me on the nose. “What am I going to do with you?”

Nothing I could say in present company, although the pain radiating along my arm was somewhat sobering. “Feeding me painkillers would be great.”

Rodney stumbled over, awkwardly carrying one of the medicine cases that had decided to fail to function as a container just when most needed. “Ah, you sure you want to take the Org meds, though?” He pulled a face as he passed the box to Pearl.

“What are the other options?” It was briefly surprising a wedge of doubt had fallen into the Blank’s mind when it came to the Org, but he had seen enough not to be a total shill.

“You have some human crap to take the edge off.” Pearl rifled through various packets and blister packs. “It will still hurt as you regenerate, but since you’re not corrupted, it’d be a safe option - if you’re avoiding Org stuff.”

“What we have is older stuff; it should be untainted.” Rodney shrugged.

“Just the… human stuff, please.” I grimaced, both at the odd phrasing of my request, but also, I now no longer even trusted the potentially untainted Org meds. Potentially, there was something in them all that affected Hunters.

“No screaming when I’m asleep, then.” Pearl prodded my chest. “Sorry for all the name-calling today. I’m exhausted.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled as she leaned over to kiss my forehead.

She passed the case back to Rodney and moved away from the recliner. “You two can look after him for a bit - don’t let any more of him fall off, thank you.” Pearl shot them both a glare before smiling back at me.

I nodded and watched her leave for the stairs when she paused a couple up.

“No coming upstairs until you have two hands, Eric. That’s… I’m not being ableist - I just don’t want you dripping blood everywhere, okay?”

“Understood, Pearl. Sleep well.”

We all waited as we heard her footsteps exit the basement, closing the door behind her, and then leading up to the bedroom.

Rodney passed me over some pills. “Are we sure Pearl is actually a demon?”

“Huh?” I looked up at him with pained eyes.

“Just saying, I had an ex in high school, and his mom was ten times more evil than Pearl.”

I snorted as I watched him retreat to his chair and immediately melt into it with a long sigh. There was a bottle of water beside me in the recliner, although I don’t remember where from or how it got there. With difficulty, I opened it and took the painkillers with my one good hand.

[That went better than I had anticipated.]

“She wasn’t going to literally cook you, Wight.” I shook my head at the demon standing awkwardly in the middle of the room still. “You’re certainly more… sensitive lately?”

[I have been under a lot of stress, Eric.]

Undoubtedly. Even just the Saloon fight would have been enough to drive most crazy, let alone having to destroy and reform himself. Plus, with the Org fiddling about with his confinement. It was no wonder he had sought solace in attempted artwork and social connections. How very human, even.

Rodney shuffled in his seat. “You ever feel like your life has jumped the shark at some point?”

“Constantly.” I winced as the pain turned my smile into a grimace.

“Like, with Wight and Pearl, the fact that you’re just sitting there with your hand blown off like nothing’s different…”

“It’s quite painful. How much did you see?”

He scrunched his face up. “I saw you walk up to the building, and then the picture went fuzzy and unclear. When it came back, the building was collapsing.”

I nodded. “I did that.”

“How?”

[Eric used the boon that had been granted to him.]

That didn’t seem to be a totally rational explanation, and the Blank rubbed at his face with both hands. “Ah, you’re a piece of work, Eric.”

“I don’t think I’ll be doing that again anytime soon.” I waved my stump in the air. “The ability was called Entropy, though - if that helps your research.”

He blinked in slight disbelief, as he still hadn’t come to terms with my missing hand. “Yeah, I guess we have some time to kill.” From his bag, he withdrew a laptop and began to set himself up.

[If only.]

“Fair trade, right? Most of the demons at the club probably died or were heavily injured without knowing who did it or what happened. The only cost was my hand.” The glare of my patron told me he didn’t quite have the same worldview.

[I believe it foolish to trust this new power without knowing its desire or ramifications.]

“Or limits.” I nodded. “What if a building that large took my whole arm? What if I had struck the ground and destroyed a chunk of Hell itself at the cost of my life?”

“I can hear Pearl grinding her teeth from here,” Rodney murmured to himself, face illuminated by his laptop screen.

I watched as Wight found a box under one of the shelving racks and dragged it across the floor so he could sit in a triangle with the two of us. My two best friends. What a world this was.

My tongue found my teeth wanting, so I gave them a count. A habit that grounded me, even when I felt perfectly sane. Wight withdrew some paper and a marker from… somewhere. Rodney continued to tap away at his keyboard. All my teeth were there, no issues. The only thing missing really from this little triangle of my life was Pearl, who-

“Outside the triangle…” There was something behind those words that felt like condensation on a mirror. A blurred and obscured image was reflected there, but I couldn’t make it out.

“What was that, Eric?”

I turned to face Rodney, his eyebrow raised.

“I do not know.” It was the truth, despite the hint of its flavor tapping at my taste buds.

[Ah, that makes sense to me now.]

We turned to Wight as he drew a final line across the page. With his beak open impassively, he held it up to show us.