Ash’s heart was still galloping. That had been so intense, his mouth was dry, and inside his gamesuit was soaked with cold sweat. But they had done it. They had fought a monster and lived, but he wasn’t sure its death scream would ever stop reverberating in his ears. Meanwhile, he pressed the RELOAD button in his HUD and the sound of cartridges being loaded into his Mauser clicked in his ears. He took deep breaths to bring his heart under control.

James was right. This wasn’t the same monster that had attacked Ash. And the fact that it had a name now somehow made it less triumphant and more tragic.

“What happened to her? How did she get that way?” James asked. “Some kind of magic?”

“A mutation?” Ivy said.

“A curse?” Ash said.

“And worse, how many of them are there?” Elwood asked.

Ash rubbed his chin. “My guess is that there’s one of these for every name I saw erased in the family tree.”

“Something is wrong with the Delacroix bloodline,” Ivy said. “Maybe its a dominant gene, maybe recessive. Maybe a transformation isn’t guaranteed. Or maybe Renard’s research is about figuring it out.”

Ash turned everything he had seen and experienced over and over in his head. The twins, Delphine’s advanced age, and Jean-Paul’s for that matter. Renard’s research. The strange, convoluted family tree, almost as if were intended to obscure the truth, rather than provide a clear genealogy. A throng of missing children and truncated relationships, like Jacqueline Delacroix and Zacharias Richard.

They had no proof that the creature they had just slain was Jacqueline, but all his instincts told him it was. And if it wasn’t Jacqueline, why on earth would a creature like this be wearing a wedding ring? They didn’t have proof, but it fit. He started thinking aloud. “Jackie and Richie fall in love, get secretly married, against the wishes of her family.”

“But then she begins to change,” Ivy said.

“And she disappears before her husband finds out,” Elwood says.

Ivy continued, “So he pines for her for twenty years, secretly blaming her family.”

James said, “Planning to get back at them the whole time, cooking up the plan to steal the diamond, as revenge for thinking they did something to Jackie.”

Suddenly the interior of the mausoleum blazed with light and orchestral fanfare.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed Level 2 of your mission: Discover the motive behind the jewel’s disappearance.

The four of them fist-pumped and high-fived. Elwood cabbage-patched.

Ash and Ivy joyfully threw their arms around each other. Ash tried to contain his surprise. Her body felt so good against his, molding to him. He could feel her corset and dress brushing him, even though they didn’t exist, and she was warm against him, soft in all the right ways, her warm cheek against his. He felt the metal of her arm around his neck, the soft buzz of the mechanical joint embracing him, the metal fingers brushing his neck. He took her metal wrist and squeezed her prosthetic hand, cupping it like it was make of flesh, and their eyes met. Neither of them looked away.

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Her face was so close to his.

Then a wall of text appeared in his vision, dissipating the moment like smoke in a gust of wind. Her lips became, in that moment, infinitely distant.

You have succeeded at these skill checks and gained points in each. Handgun +4 Intimidate +2 Investigate +4 Mechanical Repair +3

Ash sighed that the moment was over, but at least he had hope there would be more, and that was enough.

James stood watching all this and looking awkward, but at least he was grinning.

You also succeeded in a Perception check, resulting in 3 skill points you can apply to whatever skills you wish.

Ash debated for a moment whether to put them into Athletics or Dodge, but he settled on Dodge, which was only his base, so it went up to 31%. He had a feeling he might be using that soon. He didn’t get as many skill points as last time they’d leveled up because he’d made fewer skill checks.

You may now allocate two points to increase your character traits.

Now that he had faced a couple of monsters with their prodigious strength, he was feeling a little puny with only an average human Strength of 11, so he put both points into Strength. His derived Life Points and Physical Skills bonus went up commensurately. A shudder went through his gamesuit as if it were recalibrating itself to Ash’s new physical reality.

Eventually the light and music faded, leaving them in storm-tossed darkness inside a mausoleum full of cobwebs and death.

He waited for the other three to finish allocating their points. Elwood’s health bar was back to full. Apparently leveling up healed all wounds.

“We managed that level pretty fast. Now we just have to find the diamond,” Ash said, looking around at the shadows of the other three. Without James’s flames the only light came through the door, just flickers of lightning and faint illumination from the distant house.

“I have a feeling,” Ivy said, “that recovering the diamond is going to be a lot harder.”

Then Ash had an uncomfortable thought. “How do you suppose they’re going to react when they learn we just killed one of their family?”

“She wasn’t human, though,” James said.

“But she used to be,” Ash said. “Just like Leo, the one that attacked me. They know these creatures.”

“Are they pets? Crazy cousins?” James asked.

Elwood said, “Insane relatives locked in the attic?”

“If Gilbert and Delphine were watching from the dining room window,” Ash said, “they would have seen James’s flamethrower. They’ll know we encountered something.”

“Do we fess up? Will they have us arrested by the local constables?” Ivy asked.

“I say we tell them,” James said. “Let the chips fall where they may. If they attack us, we’re allowed to defend ourselves.”

“And say what?” Ash said. “‘Sorry, we just flame-broiled your cousin’?”

“We could tell them we were attacked by something but we scared it off,” Elwood said. “We just have to get to the truth before they discover this death.”

Ivy sighed. “Why are we worried about this? They’re all monsters. They’re all in on it. We go back in there, and as far as I’m concerned, they all have the potential to turn on us at any moment.”

“Annie is not a monster,” James said, frowning.

“But she might become one, just like Jacqueline,” Ivy said.

James cursed under his breath,

As this conversation went on, Ash felt a thrill of pleasure go up his spine, and he chuckled.

“What are you laughing at?” James said. “My would-be girlfriend is probably some kind of cursed mutation.”

“I just want to say this. I’m having the time of my life, and I’m grateful as hell that all of you are here,” Ash said, and he meant it. He wished he could see their faces here in the dark, surrounded by an unreal storm.

“Me, too,” Ivy said.

Elwood said, “Indeed.”

James said, “I can throw fire, people. Why the hell would I want to go home?”