I thought. I held that femur. My femur. “So can I eat it?”

She snorted a surprised laugh. “What? No!”

“But it’s mine. It’d be like…biting your fingernails. Not cannibalism at all.”

“That Owen Walsh wasn’t you. He started out just like you did, with all the memories you had from Earth. But his life here was different, and had different experiences.”

I turned the idea over in my head. “A different guy.”

“Definitely. I mean, I never met this one. But I can tell it’s yours. I’m starting to be able to see what Harrigan sees, there’s…a mark, kind of. This is the femur bone of an Owen Walsh, no doubt about it. Take it from Magic Monster Girl.”

“Did you know me before? I think…I think some people did.” I considered how Cassie had known my name. How Armand had seemed pretty familiar with me. And Sean, politely requesting that we avoid fires this time.

I thought about Doctor Jeff Harrigan, telling me how I’d feel, how he understood how I’d feel.

And he had, hadn’t he? Sure. He knew me. Do your thing, Owen. That’s what he’d said. He’s picked me out to do something, to fit here in some way.

“How many times has this happened?” I asked.

“A lot,” she said. “There are layers of bones. I can see several dead versions of people I know down here, people walking around up there right now. Versions of me, too.” She took hold of the bars again, I could feel it. “Trying again.”

Another grunt of effort from her. This time something shifted; was I imagining it?

No. The bars groaned, just a little, from her effort.

Then she stopped. “Dammit, dammit.” I heard her flapping her hands in the dark. “Really tough, the Conclave, those jerks and their craftsmanship. Anyway, I knew you before, a little. An earlier version that wasn’t brand new.”

“Was I nice to you, at least?”

“You could say that. I didn’t know you very well, you really weren’t talkative. But Harrigan announced I’d be taking his big dive and you got crazy mad. You set the camp on fire. You charged around causing serious damage. You had passages through the forest, and in the ruins, and the big guys couldn’t catch you.”

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I heard her sit on the steps, resting again. It sounded the same as her footsteps had. Like skin. I wondered what she was wearing but didn’t ask. “They’d try to get you to fight them, and then you’d just disappear, leaving something burning that they had to deal with.”

I thought about this. “Did I have any cool lines? Jokes, like Spider-Man?”

“No. It was pretty creepy; it was like you’d given up on everything. They were getting really scared. Then other people started following you, doing what you were doing. Making torches from the fires you’d started. It wasn’t something Sean or his dad were ready for.”

I could see that happening. Me flipping out, I mean. Mandy was…really great. She deserved to have people rioting for her. “Didn’t keep him from getting you, though.”

“No, but it was a good try. Doc ended up killing you and all the others who rioted. He can do that; you should know. I watched as you and your hooligans just … burned up as you charged Sean. Green fire. Only black bones left. Sean was coated in black ashes, and he started coughing. Then my turn, as the survivors watched me fall. I didn’t burn, I did something else.”

She was quiet for a while. “He made them sing my song.”

I didn’t know what song she meant. But anger, so much, filled me. Shaking the bars like an ape occurred to me; I rejected it as overly dramatic. I sat back against the cage.

This was not going to fly.

Cool wind blew from the dark. It calmed me, a little bit.

I thought about that raft up there, the one on the beach. I remembered the zigzag and the semicircle carved into it. It hadn’t been a semicircle. It had been a worn letter O. And the zigzag was a W. My initials. A message to myself. I’d built it that raft. An earlier version of myself had made it, and left it there for…

I’d get out. I’d get away. And I’d start some trouble, better believe it, Doctor Jeff Harrigan.

“I gotta hurry,” Mandy said, standing. I could tell by the position of her voice. She dusted her palms together. “Company’s coming, and it’s my job to stop it.”

“It is? Who?”

“The House of Fists. They’re noticing what Harrigan is doing, and they want in, or something. They suck.” She took hold of the cage again.

She strained mightily, silently. It went on and on. The bars groaned faintly, then loudly, then a screech of metal on metal–

“Dammit!” Mandy shouted. Cold water splashed me. A little flew into my mouth: salt. “Dammit dammit…”

“What happened?”

“I…I cut off some of my fingers,” she said. She sounded embarrassed. “The bars are too strong and they just sliced through.”

“Oh crap, oh no–” I panicked. She had been trying to help me. I started breathing too fast, I buried my face in my hands…

“Easy, easy. I’m not hurt. But this Mandy is done for. It’s bleeding out pretty bad.”

I could hear water pattering on the stone.

“I can’t get you out this way,” she said. Her voice was growing fainter. “I’m so sorry, Owen. If he comes down again–”

But then she stopped speaking. I called for her. Gone.