I surveyed the room, making sure to meet eyes with everyone present—even the mascot. I glanced down at Bethany, offering her a helping hand while keeping a firm grip on the bed frame. I sat down at the edge of the bed.

“That’s why I’m here,” I answered, addressing everyone. I tried my best not to avert my eyes. “There are things you need to know.” I sighed. “You’ve all been identified as manifesting Type Two cases of NFP-20. But that’s only the nominal reason for why you’ve been placed here, away from other patients. I’ll be blunt: something is happening to you, something that current medical science can’t explain. We’re all in uncharted waters.”

I paused. My tanks of resolve were running on empty. If I was an engine, I would have stalled. Inside, I deflated like a sad balloon. What had seemed so simple and straightforward a moment ago now seemed anything but.

Which would be worse? Leaving Bethany and the others in the dark? Or giving them the whole kit and caboodle? My intimations of knowledge about their condition had dug me into a hole. I had to tell them something. I needed to warn them about ghosts. But, despite my intentions, there was still a chance that something I shared with them would whip them into a psychokinetic frenzy and repeat what happened with Letty or with Merritt and her MRI—or worse.

With Kurt and Bethany, I got the impression that I was in a ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ situation, with a fifty-fifty chance of a nasty blow-up. Letty was a mystery; Werumed-san was a transformee wrapped mystery wrapped inside an enigma. As for Merritt, I knew she’d hang on my every word. Lopé/Paul probably wouldn’t feel one way or the other—he was too high on the Godhead to care.

I decided to err on the side of caution.

“Before I say anything else,” I said, “I want you all to understand that I’m on your side, and in more ways than one. I’m not just trying to help you. I’m as fraught, and frightened, and flustered by this as any of you are.”

I made sure to lock eyes with every one of my patients. That was what they were. Patients. No matter what they looked like, no matter what they did, no matter who they were, they were my patients.

“We’re all in this together. I need your coöperation, and I hope you’ll be willing to accept mine.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Letty said, with a scoff, looking up from the VOL News broadcast. She dismissed my sentiment with a derisive wave of her hand.

Ignoring her, I exhaled and closed my eyes. Even though my bow-tie was buried beneath my PPE, I imagined fidgeting with it.

“From what we have seen,” I said, “it looks like you are all in the process of… metamorphosis. I can’t explain it; all I can do is tell you what I know. And what I know is that the fungus is interacting with your bodies and minds in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend.”

Here we go…

“You are going to develop psychokinesis. That’s the power to move objects at a distance just by willing it.” I met eyes with Merritt, then Bethany, then Letty. “Merritt, Bethany, and Letty have already begun to display these powers.”

“You got that right, chump!” Letty said, cackling in approval. Crumbs from the doughnut in her mouth drizzled onto her bed.

I thought back to when Kurt had been gorging himself in his room. He’d made the light fixtures swing.

I locked eyes with him. “You too, Kurt.”

He responded with a five-mile stare.

“We don’t know how these powers work,” I explained, “though I’ve got a couple of theories. While there’s a chance they might be entirely under your conscious control, it’s also pretty clear that at least part of these powers are tied to you at a subconscious level.”

I turned to Letty. “Letty, you told me you’ve been practicing your powers. Could you explain what you’ve learned? I can’t begin to tell you how useful that information would be.”

The old woman nodded. “Sure.”

That one word was the best news I’d heard all day. It felt like a two-ton weight had just slipped off my shoulders.

“Thank you, Letty,” I said, “you have no idea how—”

Letty smacked her lips. “—I could tell you.” She licked the sugar off her darkening fingers one by one. “But I won’t.” She grinned, flashing her yellowed teeth.

Kurt spun around in bed. He sputtered with indignation. “How dare—”

“—Kurt!” I reached out for him. I threw nervous glances at Werumed-san. “Please, don’t.” I pitched forward a little, panting anxiously. “I need… I need you—all of you…” I shook my head. “I don’t know the full extent of these powers, but from what I’ve seen, they can kill people.” I stared at Letty warily. “They’re strong enough to lift several hundred pounds, at least.” The more I talked, the more easily the words came to me. “But it gets more complicated. Your memories are going to change. They’re going to be much, much more accurate, much more comprehensive. You’ll also experience incredibly realistic hallucinations. You might even be able to make them happen just by picturing whatever it is that you want to remember.”

That last bit was a guess, but it comported with what I’d experienced so far.

“Only you can see your own hallucinations, and they can’t directly hurt you or anyone else.”

“But… indirectly?” Kurt asked.

I nodded solemnly. “Some of them will take on the appearances of people who have died. If they appear normal, you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve found that closing your eyes as tight as you can and willing them to go away tends to work,” I shook my head again, “but not always.”

Darn it. Of all the times and places I could have used Andalon’s help, when I actually needed her, she was angry with me. Of course, that was no one’s fault except my own.

“The real problem is that if these ghosts look corrupted or deformed, they seem to have the power to use your powers.” I lowered my gaze in shame. “There was an… incident just a couple of minutes ago, and I freaked out and I knew I had to come here to warn you.”

“What are we supposed to do, Genneth?” Merritt asked. It was an earnest question.

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And it hit me like an anvil from the sky.

What could I tell them? What advice could I give them, other than ‘run, and hope no one dies’?

I guess I really was doing it just to save my own hide. To paper over my own guilt.

Forgive me, Holy Angel. I have been selfish.

I could have worked more to earn Andalon’s trust and maybe get to the bottom of this, one remembered memory of hers at a time. But I didn’t. I’d lost my temper and yelled at her. She was just a child.

Even if she meant well, I didn’t approve of what Andalon was doing—and that was putting it mildly. She didn’t have the right to take peoples’ humanity from them to help her in her war against the fungus. She could have asked. And yet… despite all that, there was no denying that she’d made Aicken’s ghost disappear.

I didn’t know if Andalon and I would ever see eye-to-eye, but… I needed to apologize to her. I had to get her to listen.

Otherwise, everything would fall apart.

“Genneth?” Merritt said.

I sighed. My head drooped between my shoulders. “I don’t know. That’s part of the reason why West Elpeck Medical has decided to sequester Type Two cases like yours away from everyone else. We’re concerned for others’ safety, but we’re also just as concerned about your own.”

“Bullshit!” Letty said. She spat a hulking loogie onto the floor. It seemed to glow pale green as it glistened in the light.

I glared at her. “We’re also concerned about causing panic. What’s happening to you is—”

“—What the hell is happening to Merritt?” Bethany asked.

I nodded. “That’s the other part. It’s not just powers. It’s…” my voice trailed off.

There was no escaping it now.

“Your bodies are changing,” I explained. “These changes are driven by your diet. The more you eat, the more you change, and—”

“—What kind of changes?” Lopé asked.

I looked over my audience. “Do you really want to know?”

The old room echoed with their silence. It made me shiver.

“I have reason to believe that you are in the process of changing into something other than human.”

At that moment, I didn’t feel like a doctor. A madman, perhaps. Or maybe a sick joke. This wasn’t how medicine was supposed to work!

“But the details are still sketchy,” I added, hastily. “We’re hoping to find some way to stop it, or undo it.”

That was a lie. What could medicine do against the apocalypse? Against the coming of the Last Days?

I guess I was lying to myself as much as I was to my patients.

Fudge.

The young woman blinked. Her jaw went slack.

“What…?” Bethany let out a heartbreaking sound halfway between a laugh and choking gasp. It would have made steel weep. Not even Letty could escape it.

Looking up from her console’s screen, Letty glowered at Bethany.

The young woman shook her head. “No… this is…” She rose to her feet. “Why are you doing this?” She began to weep. “Why would you joke about—”

“—It’s no joke.” I sniffled; I fought the urge to wipe my tears on my sleeve.

Fabric rustled.

As I turned toward the sound, before I could say anything, Kurt pulled himself out from his covers and stood up beside his bed, threading his tail through one of the gaps in between the knots on the back of his hospital gown, to make sure that everyone saw it. He flicked the inhuman appendage around his side and curled it upward, and then grabbed its ample length in his hand.

Everyone stared.

“Get away from me,” Bethany muttered. She rolled off her bed. The whites of her eyes seemed to bulge against her dark, sweat-streaked skin. Clenching her fists, she drew her arms in and yelled. “Get away from me!”

The lightbulbs flickered in the fixtures suspended from the metal rods overhead. Blue and gold rings whirled around the cords, and then grew out like speeding weeds over Bethany’s bed. The bed groaned as psychokinetic force shoved it away from her; its metal feet screeched on the floor.

The lightbulbs quickened in their flickerings.

Without hesitation, I stepped in front of Bethany, placing myself directly in the line of fire. I bowed toward her, sticking out my hands in supplication. “Please, Bethany,” I begged, “just breathe; you need to breathe. Please, try to calm down. We need to take this one step at a time. I know it’s a lot, but—”

Bethany burst into ugly sobs. “—But nothing!” she shrieked. She dug her fingertips into the air, making rictuses of her hands. Her power raged. More beds scraped across the floor, swept along by the colors of golden scepters and metallic skies

“No. No. I’m not going to become a monster like him.” She jabbed her trembling finger at Kurt. “I’m not. I’m not.”

I rushed up to her. I reached out, desperate to calm her. I grabbed her hands in mine.

The young woman was a living tuning fork. Power thrummed in her body, whipping around her like a cloak of halos. The hairs on my arms stood on end.

“We need to stay under control,” I said, stumbling over my words. “You need to stay calm.”

Please don’t notice the flub. PLEASE don’t notice the flub.

“I know,” I said, “it’s crazy. It’s… terrifying. Angel’s truth, I’m scared out of my mind.”

My vision briefly darkened. Lightheadedness squeezed my head like a vise. I was fighting a losing battle against my fear.

She sobbed fat, ugly tears.

I fell to my knees, but I kept my eyes fixed at hers. I bowed my head in deep apology. “I didn’t want to put you in here,” I said. I meant every word of it. I raised my head. “If it had been up to me, I would have kept you in your rooms.” I looked out over the room. “All of you—I mean it.”

I turned back to face her.

Powerlessness weighed down on my shoulders. It was so heavy, it squeezed the air out of my throat, making me whimper. My own hot air bounced off the inside of my face mask. “But…” my voice broke, “there’s only so much that I can do.”

Could I do anything right?

I felt like their jailer. I was afraid for them. But I was also afraid of them, and I hated that. A good doctor shouldn’t be afraid of his patients.

My eyes turned to Letty. For a moment, I stared at her with searing intensity, enough to make me worry I’d spark a fire. Oh, the things I wanted to tell her. I wanted to yell at her for being selfish beyond belief. I wanted to yell at her for being so heartless and indifferent to other people, causing trouble when everyone else was already a hair’s breadth from their breaking point.

I gulped again. I swallowed my indignation. Letty Kathaldri’s conscience had rotted along with her body, yes, but… deep in that ruin of a person, there was a young woman. A daughter, a lover, an artist, a dreamer. The world chewed her into cud just like everyone else. Somewhere far, far away, down some untaken road, there was a Letty who had lived and found happiness, and cultivated it wherever she went. It was pointless to be angry with what she had become, just like it was pointless to be angry with her anger. Where she was at fault was how she’d channeled that anger; the destructive outlets she’d embraced.

Unclasping my hands, I sighed, letting my arms droop beside me. “There’s no telling what will happen if you can’t keep yourselves under control,” I said. I looked up at the camera in the corner of the room. “They’re watching. They’re always watching.”

Next came Merritt. It was difficult. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her for very long. My shame was too great. Sure, the exploratory surgery was in the works, but… at that very moment, that was insufficient. Terribly, awfully insufficient. I wanted to return her health to her. I wanted to return it to everyone. I wanted life to go back to normal.

Normal…

Unwanted vistas passed through my mind.

“They might ship you off to laboratories to be experimented on,” I said.

It was all too easy to picture Merritt trapped in that nightmare, and all because I hadn’t been able to make good on my promise to help her.

“Or… vivisected,” I added.

I flinched as I heard her screams in my mind. The floor beneath me transfigured into a surgeon’s view of Merritt’s naked torso, speckled in wyrm flesh. A giant scalpel plunged into her belly and slit her open. Black blood erupted from the room, spraying everywhere.

I shut my eyes.

Go away. Go away. I kept repeating the words in my head until the hallucination of Merritt’s screams finally left me in peace.

Opening my eyes, I looked at Bethany once more. Her lips quivered. She was about to break. Her whole body trembled.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Bethany,” I said, “you didn’t deserve this. Sometimes…” My voice cracked. “Sometimes bad things happen to good people. It’s not our fault.” I trembled too. “You’re only a monster if you let yourself become one. And if anyone tries to call you one, I’ll tell them they’re wrong.”

The power in Bethany stilled. The flashing rings flagged and vanished. Then, falling to her knees, she wrapped her arms around me and wept.