“I kill Friar today for you,” Flamingo announced, the skeletal grin of his mask seemingly wider than usual. “I string him in Tartarus for all to see!”

He had others with him. A pair of surviving Hunters from El Dorado with their Día de los Muertos masks. From what Leah had been hearing, they’d been acting as the heaviest resistance against Abraham’s takeover.

Good shit, Leah scribbled onto a pad of paper. Make sure to spread their patrols thin. Thankfully, now that her fingers were strong enough, she could write without issue, which became her preferred method of communication. No more easy wins for Dwayne.

It couldn’t be helped either. Another complication had occurred with her lungs during the last surgery, and there was no telling when the tube would be removed for good. Stein seemed of the mind that he would keep it in place until her stomach acidity reached normal levels.

Flamingo raised a fist. “Tomorrow, I kill two Friar! They will be weak for when you retake your city.”

My city, she mused. Was it just for her?

Or did it belong to someone else?

* * *

“All things considered, could be worse up there,” Charon said, his face locked in its perpetual neutrality. “Beholders are letting me keep track of the Styx. Only difference is that they want my guys controlling who goes out instead of in. Oh well, Hades used to give me weirder orders.”

Of course, Charon would adapt to this new world order. He’d never given a shit who made the calls so long as he was the one who managed his coveted Styx. That he’d even made the hike over felt more like a courtesy call than anything.

Leah scribbled onto her paper. What are their numbers?

“Tough to say,” he said. “Been busy on the border, especially with those hollows still bearing down on us. Tried to let Abraham know, but he’s none too bothered. More concerned with getting everyone to show up to their daily sermons. It’s gonna be a real shitshow when they get here.”

Just give me your guess, please.

“Hmm… I’d say there are four or five thousand wearing the cloak now. Could be more, but I don’t think less. They’re doing a lot of those baptism things these days.”

Four or five thousand? That was practically one-in-ten of Pandemonium’s total population… One-in-ten rezzers, all converted into them!?

“I should get going,” Charon said before standing. “Wouldn’t want the new boss asking questions.”

Leah hadn’t expected Charon to lead a coup by himself, but knowing that he’d rolled over with barely a fight stung more than anything else.

Then the impossible unfolded.

Charon turned at the edge of the door, some fluid running down his cheeks. “Get well soon, Leah. This city needs you.”

He left without another word while Leah lay still, bewildered. Hell had truly frozen over just now. In all her years knowing Charon, he’d never so much as shed a single tear.

* * *

These moments were the worst.

Leah lay in place while some old world romantic comedy played on the screen across her room. Stein had convinced Fran to install it. The extra stimulation would help stave off hollowing, he’d said.

And yet, Leah couldn’t concentrate on this. What did she care about the trials and tribulations of some dead, fictitious humans? Not with the shit that weighed her down.

She couldn’t remember the old guard of Pandemonium. The names “Mother” and “Hades” rang a bell, but she couldn’t place faces to them. Not anymore. Only moments half-composed, like one of these movies played back, with many scenes cut out, and the others without sound.

Her crews of days were gone, the Hunts she’d accomplished, the journeys she’d taken around this continent. The more this crisis dragged on, the more she lost. For fuck’s sake, she couldn’t even remember what Liam looked like or how they’d managed to cross the country together. Didn’t we get in a truck at some point?

Just like Stein said, despite all the amenities to slow down the process, nothing could stop this sustained hollowing. Until her body became strong enough to repair itself, all she could do was lay there, conscious of every second as her mind slowly degraded.

But Leah couldn’t surrender. Not after what everyone had done to save her.

They had all come through. The Council, the Hunters, the workers. Leah had been so certain that everyone else existed as little more than her pawns to be kept beneath her so they couldn’t rise above. That was the life she’d cultivated as Head Huntress. It had become the lens through which she viewed her world.

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Not to them though. To Dwayne and Fran and Chantelle and Flamingo and so many more, Leah wasn’t some despot who’d squandered power for herself. She was just a friend in need who did what she could to protect their flawed, decomposing race.

Oh, how she wanted to cry. What did she do to earn such generosity? The Last Scotsmen had been wiped out during the landslide. Only Leah survived. Body shattered, reservoir slowly draining out, but somehow still alive. Still herself. Why did she deserve this second chance?

She stared into the flickering light above and knew the truth. God, the Lord – whatever He called Himself. He wanted to use this moment to finish what He’d started. Rezzers were a blip against His grand design. An error of free thought in an otherwise dead world. If Abraham succeeded in snuffing out the last of his defectors, no one could contest Him in wiping the slate clean.

That was why Leah had to fight. She could never allow that to happen to her friends.

* * *

Evelyn gasped. “How the hell are you alive?”

Leah tilted her head in thought. How had she, really?

She began marching around the basement, made awkward by the cane she’d been forced to use. Even with her body regenerated enough to move, most of the muscles were still recovering, and there was no telling how long it would take or if it could be done at all. The weight of her palm pressed against the cane as she limped about.

“Been asking myself that question a lot lately,” Leah said. “Part of me wants to say that it was my own initiative that got me through. Part of me knows it was dumb luck. But the truth is something else altogether.

“Perhaps it’s better to start by explaining how that landslide happened in the first place. I had Dwayne and Flamingo look into it as soon as I had the inkling. Sure enough, they found scorch marks at the top of that cliff, the kind that only plastic explosives could make. Abraham knew we were coming and made the ultimate gamble to see it through. Sacrifice his camp and a sliver of his followers, but kill me in the process. All framed as divine intervention so everyone else would fall in line.” She exhaled. “No, the Lord didn’t strike me down that day. It was just Abraham pushing his agenda, and I don’t know if it’s ever been anything different.”

Evelyn furrowed her brow. “It hasn’t. He’s been splicing rezzer brains into his Holy Communion that his people drink once a week. They’ve never gotten by on pure faith alone.”

Leah raised an eyebrow. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Even those hollows migrating to Pandemonium were all summoned by his Beholder friends, wandering the wilderness and slaughtering animals in key places so the blood would lure them near.

Yet, now that the pieces were falling together, the world got a little colder and darker for it. Could the Lord’s power have been this illusory the whole time?

“Regardless,” Leah continued. “I was as good as hollowed the moment the rocks pinned me down. But there was always something that kept me through…” She reached into her sheepskin jacket and pulled out her bellflower. Even in the dim light of the basement, she could make out its vibrant colors against the plastic sheen that kept it immortalized. “Do you know what this is?”

“A flower?” Evelyn asked.

“More than that. Back in early Pandemonium, I once grabbed one of these to keep as a memory of my own. A form of mental proof of my unique existence. The years came and went, and the Hollowing did the shit it always does, and then one day, that memory was gone for good. Just like that, a token of my identity had disappeared, one almost as profound as this scarf. This was the last time my reservoir had been driven to the brink, back when Liam and I first made the journey to Cheyenne.

“And do you know what he did in that moment? When I was at my weakest and thought I’d hollow out for good? He gave me another bellflower and promised that we’d make more memories. Better ones. Together. I’ve been plucking new ones every so often since, all to remind myself that my life is worth living. Even when the Beholders stripped me of everything else… My clothes, my weapons, my scarf. I still had this. My own form of strength to keep my Rez as my own. It is the sole reason I was able to stave off their indoctrination.”

Leah took a step forth. “However, part of me has never seen this bellflower’s real power until now. Abraham thinks that blind faith is a substitute for worthwhile relationships. That we can all combat the Hollowing indefinitely if we just believe in one man’s vision. Strength in numbers is a truth in this world. It should follow that absolute numbers begets absolute strength. But his Beholder ideology is rooted in a set of lies. No more than a fever dream.

“True strength can never come under those terms. It has to be rooted in the authentic relationships that we cultivate. Just as I saved Liam and he saved me, we both became stronger through our friendship together. That is what makes my life worth living. I suppose I’d always known this, deep down. But I’d forgotten. We’ve all forgotten.”

She thought back to Socrates. Though the memory of that day had blurred through her hollowing, bits and pieces still held firm. His version of reality missed the point. No one was truly alone so long as they never stopped reaching out to those they loved.

Leah met her in the eyes. “I may be a cold-blooded bitch, but I’m sure as fuck not blind to your suffering, Evelyn. You were driven right to the Beholders because of my narcissism. Your family came to me for help, and I shoved you in a closet to be forgotten. Someone like you, tossed to the wayside while your safety was left in the hands of someone who wasn’t nearly as invested.

“It wasn’t like I didn’t know how you’d react either. Frankly, I just didn’t give a shit at the time. Instead of treating your family with the respect and dignity you deserve, I thought your presence in this city could only make me weaker.

“Abraham’s been exploiting that gap. For you, for me, for us all. By dangling the prospect of eternal love and companionship, we’ve all become victims. No more than prisoners forever trapped inside his fever dream. We cannot escape if we’re doing it by ourselves.”

Evelyn stared deep. “What are you trying to say?”

Leah rubbed the plastic petals. “This world’s sitting at the edge of ruin, but there’s only one way to bring it back.” She handed over her bellflower. “Fight with me, Evelyn. Not as my soldier but as my friend. No matter what comes next, we can beat the odds so long as we do it together.”

For a while, Evelyn said nothing, her dark eyes cold and blank, and lips locked in a tight, thin line. Leah watched on in calm patience. The two of them might have started from opposite ends of the Hollowing, but they were both forged through the same fires. If anything, Evelyn stood as the human version of Leah. A pragmatic killer who fought until the bitter end and then some. All to keep herself and those she loved intact. How had she not seen this truth until now?

Evelyn grabbed her hand, the bellflower between their fingers. “First things first, we need to find Liam and my daughter.”

“Deal.” They shook. “Let’s end this.”