Jules had never had an out-of-body experience before, but she figured the walk back to the secretary’s room was as close as she could expect to get in this life. Creeping through the Melted Palace’s eerie, dimly lit halls, darting out of the way at the first sign of a wyrm approaching, Jules felt like bits and pieces of herself were sloughing off with each passing minute. A kibble of her soul would dribble onto a staircase whenever she dashed up one to hide. Bits of her confidence decanted onto the arched ceilings overhead, leaving sass-flavored stains.

Well, at least that’s what it felt like.

Jules didn’t know what bothered her more, Jessica’s revelations, or the burden of conveying them to her mother.

Jessica’s words echoed in Jules’ head.

Either you die, or you become one of us. You can’t stop it. All you can do is prepare yourself.

She’d said it with such finality; two flavors of surrender. Jules herself could barely stomach it.

What the hell is Mom gonna think?

The carpet was like clouds beneath Jules’ feet as she arrived in the room. She felt an unbearable lightness, as if she was on the edge of letting go. She hesitated as she reached for the polished metal doorknob. She decided to knock, instead.

Her mother had never been a fan of surprises.

Jules heard a gasp, followed by rapid footsteps. The next thing she knew, the door swung inward and her mother wrapped her in her arms and pulled her inside so suddenly that Jules thought she’d be rent limb from limb.

Instead, her mother pressed her face against. Her cheeks were moist with tears. Jules cried as she returned the hug. They stayed like that for a while, with Rayph watching quietly from a distance, laying atop the dead secretary’s bed.

Eventually, Pel stepped back and looked Jules in the eyes, while keeping her grip on Jules’ hand. “I thought you were dead…”

“That probably would have made things easier,” Jules said.

“What?” Pel shook her head. “Why would you say such a thing?”

Jules sighed and wandered across the carpet to the bed. Rayph was still there.

“Out of the way,” she said, flat and tired.

Instead of responding, Rayph looked her in the eye. “Aren’t you gonna tell us what you f—”

“—Move!”

Spooked, Rayph moved out of the way. He sat up at the edge of the bed.

Jules spread her arms and let herself fall back onto the bed, whose soft, plush mattress and pillows gave little recoil. The bed jostled once, and then went still.

At that moment, Jules didn’t care that the bed belonged to a dead man. It could have had its former owner sprawled over it; that wouldn’t have stopped her. After all that time spent huddled up on the cold stone floor, the musty bed was the single greatest bed she’d ever known.

Her legs felt like jelly. Rotten jelly.

Gathering a bunch of pillows in her clenched fist, Jules stacked them up against the headboard and laid back onto the pile.

Support. Glorious support.

Jules looked up at her mother, and then glanced at one of the nearby chairs. “You’re gonna want to sit down for this.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The chair’s antique, lacquered wood creaked as Pel sat down. She didn’t take her eyes off Jules.

“Jules, you’re making me nervous.”

Jules smiled bitterly.

“So… what do you want to hear first?” Jules asked. “I’ve got three flavors of news for you: good, bad, and sad”

“Sad news?” Rayph asked.

“Bad news, first,” Pel said. “Then the sad news. Save the good news for last.”

Jules sighed. “The bad news isn’t really news at all: Verune’s completely off his rocker, as is everyone who’s working with him. Also—and, I told you so—I’m pretty sure the divine beast demon stuff is bullshit, just like I always thought.”

“What?” Pel asked.

Jules told her mother and brother about her encounter with Jessica Eigenhat and the revelation that, wittingly or not, Verune had been using the powers that came with his transformation to hypnotize the other changelings into seeing the world the way he saw it. Literally.

Pel was skeptical at first, but her skepticism took a nosedive once Jules brought up what Jessica had told her about the spirits of the dead.

She grabbed the icon of the Angel that hung around her neck and made the Bond-sign.

“My mother… she said she saw Lassedite Bishop’s dead secretary. Then, Angel… she said she turned him into a rat, and then made his head…” But Pel couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought.

“Mom, all this time, you’ve been worrying about us going to Hell. Well, guess what, apparently, hell is being inside a wyrm’s head. And if we die here, we’ll end up stuck in one of these psychopaths’ minds for all eternity. Or worse,” Jules added, “Grandma Margaret’s.”

Pel rose from her seat, her eyes widening with panic. “No, no. I won’t—” She looked at Jules. “There has to be something we can do.”

“We just need to find a nice wyrm to absorb us.” Jules looked at her mother and brother. “Assuming none of us becomes one ourselves.”

Pel pointed at the doorway. “Jules, even if Jessica was still herself, she won’t be once the changes finish. Demons or not, they’re turning into monsters. There are no ‘nice’ Norms.”

Now came the dreaded moment of truth Jules.

“You’re forgetting about Dad,” she said, softly.

Conflicting emotions crashed into one another on her mother’s face.

“Jules—”

“—Jessica’s head had already started to change. It was barely human anymore. She said she saw fully transformed wyrms digging graves for their loved ones. They even made the Bond-sign.”

“How can you be sure?” Pel countered. “If she’d already begun to lose her mind to a Demon Norm, it could have all been lies.”

“Mom,” Jules replied, gravely, “I saw Jessica make the Bond-sign. She was fucking praying. Right now, it’s more likely that I’m a demon than she is!”

Jules’ words struck her mother like lightning. Pel staggered in place, her arm bolting onto the top of the nearby desk to keep herself from falling.

“What…?” It was a quiet, broken croak of a word.

Pel nearly tripped as she stepped back, only to remember the chair behind her and unsteadily sit down once more.

She shook her head. “No. No no no no no no. That… Jules, you can’t have. This has to be… it—”

“—Grandma Margaret isn’t a demon, Mom, and she isn’t turning into one, either. She’s just a bitch, always has been, always will be. Verune isn’t a demon, he’s just nuts. Maybe time travel just makes you crazy. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened this week.” Jules cried. “But, one thing’s for sure, the transformation doesn’t change who the wyrms are on the inside.”

Pel was crying, too. “But, Jules, if…”

Then Rayph let out a little gasp, and it broke Jules’ heart. “Dad…”

Jules sobbed. “Dad’s still Dad, Mom. I let you scare me into thinking that he was turning into a demon. But he’s not! He never was. He’s just a fucking nerd!” She smiled as she cried. “He could have helped us. Everything you’re trying to do now, he could have done it for us. He’s probably geeked out over his new powers, too. He could have gotten us out, but you pushed him away.” She shook her head. “And…” Jules’ rage petered out. “I did, too.”

“I…”

Pel was devastated.

“Jessica said we should do everything we can to try to go to him,” Jules said. “He can—”

—Suddenly, Pel got up from the chair, ran over to her purse and, rummaging through it, pulled out her console.

“What are you doing?” Rayph asked.

“What I should have done days ago.”

The sound of a dial tone filled the room. It rang and rang. Every second without a reply ate away at all three of them.

They feared the worst.

Then, a voice replied, “We’re sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please leave a message, or hang up and try again.”

“What number did you call?” Jules asked.

“Your father’s console.”

“Try calling the hospital!” Rayph suggested.

She did, but to no avail.

“We’re sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please leave a message, or hang up and try again.”

“Try again!” Jules said.

Her mother kept trying to reach me, again and again. But each time, the response was the same.

I would have responded to them, if I could, but I was lost in darkness, on the far side of eternity.

All of them cried.

“I guess we’ll just have to leave a message,” Pel said.