The silver car screeches past a thin metal gate, pulling up to the manor, skidding to a halt in its gravel driveway. Unlike earlier that night, dozens of cars sit parked throughout the yard. The hail has died down, now bearing itself as a light drizzle, lashing at the vehicles in the middle of the storm.

  While Deagon rests in the passenger seat of the car, Avery leans into the back. Flynt leans forward in his seat and grabs the bottom of his sweatshirt, pulling it over his head. Avery and Jack stare at Flynt as his pocket jangles. He lifts his sweatshirt, turns to his side, and hands it over to Jack, who glances around before holding out his arms.

  “What? What does this mean?”

  Jack grabs the sweatshirt from out of his hands.

  “Umm... I think he wants you to wear it. If there’s a crowd here, maybe they’ll recognize you.”

  Flynt nods. Jack swipes the sweatshirt over his head, and he glances about the car.

  “This feels strange.”

  Avery shrugs, throwing open the car door, and she saunters out of the vehicle. Flynt and Jack follow suit, Jack clanging the items in his front pocket as he ambles down the footpath of cobblestones. Flynt pauses outside the car, struggling to haul the register and pole from out of the back seat. Avery glances back at Flynt.

  “Dude. Just leave it.”

  Flynt glances between Avery and the machination. He steps away from the car, slamming its side door shut, and he paces just behind the two down the path. The group steps out from that night-veiled ground, brushing past blades of tall grass. Avery peers around at the cars parked in the driveway. The group steps foot inside the manor, while a vocal clamor echoes through its halls.

  “Hey... Jack. Now would be a good time to tell me about your soul shit.”

  Jack presses his hand up to his chin.

  “Well, let me think for a minute.”

  Avery looks up at Jack while he paces back and forth between the base of the stairs and the front doorway.

  “Literally anything useful.”

  “I... I do not really know much about souls.”

  “What?”

  “I know mine can reset things; although I do not know why, nor do I understand it.”

  “Reset things?!”

  “But, of that, I understand little about the specifics.”

  “Fuck, that’s specific enough for me. Let’s figure out how to do that reset shit!”

  “Oh, okay.”

  Flynt sighs. In a flowing white robe, a lanky man steps into the room amid voices coming from beyond the door. He stares at the group as they flow in, his eyebrows rising. He throws off his hood, revealing his shaved head.

  “I’m so glad you guys could make it!”

  Flynt and Avery exchange glances, while Jack takes a deep breath.

  “Jack! You’re here! We expected you to be here sooner.”

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  Jack looks down at his feet as the man cackles. The door flies open once more. The two gas station attendants walk through, the lanky attendant guiding the bird-like woman through the door.

  The man puts his arm behind Flynt and Jack. He nods, and he motions for them to walk up the stairs. Avery leads the way, followed by Flynt and Jack. Jack leans in toward Flynt and Avery. The man waits at the base of the staircase, greeting the two women at the front door, motioning them toward the back of the hall. At the top of the stairway, far behind the group, Braellyn and the pale attendant make their way onto the landing.

  “I believe that something is very wrong.”

  “Damn… You don’t say?!”

  “I can not imagine a Harley of any integrity would let this happen.”

  “Yeah, whatever the fuck you’re saying.”

  They make their way up the stairway and stride down the landing, staying close to the railing at the edge of the interior balcony. At the end of the walkway, they face Jack’s bedroom hallway. A man taps Avery on the shoulder. He waves to the group as he emerges from the shadows, pulling open the door to the pristine hallway. They amble down the hall, exchanging nervous glances while the robed man leads the group out in the front.

  “My name is Cervantes, by the way. It’s nice to meet you guys.”

  The doorway lining the side of the hallway creeps open. Water leaks from beneath it. Avery backpedals for a moment, and she creaks the door open further, and the closet door spews open. A pile of bodies, crumpled together, searing, lines the wall of the closet, all dressed in those Harley uniforms. They spill out of the closet, bringing with them a bloody tide that covers the floor. Avery steps backwards, jumping away from the spill. A pistol flows out of that closet, settling in a shallow puddle on the other side of the hall. Avery snatches up the pistol, shoves it into her pocket, and looks back toward Cervantes. He turns around, eyeing the group.

  “Damn, that was fast.”

  He shrugs, and he grabs Flynt, chucking him down the hall, and Flynt skids down that hallway like a rag doll. Avery lunges at the man, who smashes her head against the side wall before throwing her down the hallway as well. Jack turns around and runs behind Cervantes, as the man sprints after Flynt and Avery. Avery lurches toward the man once more, while Flynt backs away, exiting the hall. In a flash of light, the man grabs onto Avery once more, slamming her against the ground, and throwing her through the doorway at the end of the hall. Jack approaches the man, stopping in his tracks, as the man lunges at Avery and Flynt time and time again, bashing them against the floors and walls, only for them to return to their feet, restarting the process anew. Jack grabs at his head for a second, taking heavy breaths, losing his balance, struggling against the floor to keep his composure. He fumbles his hands through his sweatshirt pocket for a moment, and he wades behind Cervantes, drawing the switchblade from his pocket, and stabbing it into Cervantes’ back. Cervantes grunts, swings around, and knocks Avery over the banister, where she plummets to the tiled floor below with a shallow crack.

  Braellyn stares down at her from over the banister, and she glances around the room, pacing back and forth over the landing for a moment while Avery pulls herself up to her feet. Avery creeps over toward the elevator at the base of the staircase, while Braellyn jumps down from the balcony, landing on the tiled floor. Avery hobbles into the elevator and presses the button inside.

  A short tune plays on repeat while the elevator drops and the doors open, spewing Avery out into a small concrete room. The room is almost entirely empty, aside from a fluorescent bulb hanging from the ceiling and the large metal doors at the back of the room. The elevator doors close shut behind her, and the elevator ascends back upstairs. Avery hobbles to the edge of the room, rubbing her hand against the silver doors at the end of the room, and she grabs onto the space in between them. The doors open briefly as she pulls against them, but they soon fall closed again.

  The elevator doors pop back open behind her, and Avery jerks around, facing toward them. Braellyn steps into the room, glancing about, and she stumbles toward Avery, grabbing her, and bashing her against the metal doors. Avery swipes at the woman for a moment, before reaching her arms to her side, into her pocket, and whipping out a pistol. She pulls the pistol up towards Braellyn’s face, as Braellyn slams her against the wall. Blood pours down her skin. In a loud series of bangs, she squeezes the trigger several times. The woman reels backward, bloody holes gathering through her flesh, and she limps toward Avery, her arms outstretched, reaching toward her. Avery unloads the entire clip against the side of the attendant’s head. The woman collapses to the floor just beside her, grabbing at her ankle. Avery pulls on the trigger once more, with a click. Braellyn crushes down on Avery’s ankle, leaving a scar against her, blood pouring out around her foot. Avery leans down, grabs the back of Braellyn’s head, and smashes Braellyn’s head against the floor, beak first.

  The elevator doors pop open. Avery glances upwards, staring at the empty elevator as the doors lay open. The woman lets up from Avery’s ankle, and Avery hobbles toward the empty elevator and steps inside. One tile of the elevator’s ceiling comes off. The pale attendant hangs down from the ceiling. She tilts her head around before fixing her gaze over Avery and Braellyn. Avery stops, slides her hands into her pockets for a second, and sits still.

  “What’s your name?”

  The woman does not respond. She drops from the ceiling tile, and she leaps toward Avery. The lights flicker, and the elevator bobs. Avery turns, in an instant, tearing her hands out of her pockets, adorned in a pair of brass knuckles, and she bludgeons the woman in the face as she falls, slamming her head against the elevator wall in a blood pulp. Avery’s vision becomes blurry as she stumbles back, brushing her finger against the upward button on the side of the elevator. Avery collapses onto the floor overtop the bloody attendant.