POV: Henry.

  “Krutar will not sit around and be caged like a small piglet!” The fierce man dressed in furs said. “Krutar is a hero! Krutar accompanied Reggie when he fought against the tyranny of Halkon! Krutar will not allow evil to prosper!”

  The light shining down from the nearby candles combined with the illumination given off by the [Photon Wall] made his blue warpaint shimmer slightly. Whatever chemicals the lines contained making the man’s face light up as if he were drenched in azure fire.

  It made for a brave showing, to say the least.

  Though the man’s shaking knees didn’t help with the image he was trying to portray.

  Indeed, his thick, musclebound legs looked like they were vibrating with how quickly and ferociously they were trembling. His bare feet looking as if they would wear out the wooden floorboards sooner rather than later.

  “Krutar will take the role of tribe chief this time! Krutar does swear he will lead us to victory against the vile witch known as…”

  He gulped. Struggling to say the words.

  “Mittens.”

  As soon as the name left his lips, the man’s eyes started darting all around the room. Left, right, up, down….

  As if he were half-expecting the referenced witch to leap out from the shadows.

  I for one, couldn’t understand his confusion.

  Sure, Luigi had filled me in. As had Sully. But the latter had made it clear that Mittens, the revived ghost of a once-lovely kitten, wasn’t the kind of guy to go around disobeying orders.

  Therefore, Mittens should have been well-behaved the last time he and this guy met. Luigi had sworn up and down that he was evil incarnate but even he had admitted that no one on their side had been harmed.

  “Interesting. Interesting.” Lalo spoke. His voice as melodious as always. “When was the last time you saw this, Mittens? I haven’t…”

  My vision blurred suddenly. Before coming back as normal. My mind sort of… resetting until I couldn’t recall what had happened.

  “Solomon Carter hasn’t been able to summon him or any other Intruders since coming here. Do you know why?”

  The painted man scoffed.

  “Krutar does not begrudge you your ignorance. So listen here to Krutar’s tale. A few days ago, Krutar and his brave companions were about to be killed by a vile villain named Halkon. When suddenly, the sky split apart and winged children took him and his brave friends away! At the same time, the bonfire spat out a witch from the most fetid swamps!”

  The rest of his body shuddered as he recalled the events.

  “Mittens! That was her name! Mittens!”

  His voice dropped to a hush.

  “She had horns on her head! Long, pointy horns and silver hair and many tongues and many arms! Her hand carried a sword made of bones and her touch turned Halkon into screaming leather! Then the sky cried out in rage! Boiling blood falling like the tears of the divine mother herself! The monsters, all those terrible beasts of the Islands, they ran into the sea!”

  His voice dropped another octave.

  “So great was the witch’s evil, that all the monsters drowned. Rather than face her in open battle. Krutar does not know what she did to Halkon’s vile men, but we could hear their screams. All the way over from our own island. Like whispers in the wind.”

  He almost whistled and spoke some more words that were halfway intelligible.

  “Hel… Help me…. Help me… Please… I don’t deserve this… please…”

  He clapped all of the sudden.

  “And that was how it happened. This evil witch must be near. Krutar feels the same kind of dread now, as Krutar did then. Krutar knows she must be near. Nothing else could be this vile. This evil. We must chase down the Mittens woman and kill her! Once and for all! Only then may we call ourselves, true heroes!”

  Lalo’s grin deepened.

  “Oh? And how do you plan to kill her, friend?”

  “Krutar is glad you asked!” The painted man spoke out. “As it happens, Krutar has other friends. Ones from a lesser difficulty. Apprentice. A thin, tall man.”

  Lalo leaned in closer. His smile never faltering.

  “Tell me more.”

  “With pleasure. His name is Lincoln. He calls himself a president and Reggie was very surprised he did not have a hole in his head for some reason. Then Reggie went to see his father and Krutar has not seen him since. But this Lincoln man. Yes. I have spoken with him on many occasions. He is very smart.”

  “Oh.” Lalo spoke with some disappointment. “Gnome Lincoln. That’s no fun.”

  My brain buzzed again, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with Lalo’s words. Not right then, anyway.

  “Krutar is glad your questions have answers. Krutar will also reveal that friend Lincoln found someone much, much stronger than all of us put together. Someone who will lead the battle against the witch from the front!”

  Lalo leaned in again.

  “Okay? What’s this gnome’s name?”

  “Stellio the boxer!”

  Gina spat out one of the black beers she had been drinking. Gasping as if suddenly drowning.

  “He fights with fists! Quick as lightning! He has three Types! Three! Two of them at level 50! Just last night, he saved me and Lincoln from one of Mittens’ mutated horrors! He will lead the fight against the witch! He will lead us to victory!”

  Gina collapsed. Laughing.

  “HA! HAHAHAHAHAHA! HAAAA!!!”

  She writhed so much that, for a second, I thought she might have been under attack by Sully.

  “Ya think that slob’s gonna do anything? HA! He can’t even tie his own shoes!”

  Krutar looked confused.

  “What are these, shoes you speak of, ugly woman?”

  Me and Cass drew a sharp breath. My right hand going to her left at once and dragging her backwards as I retreated quickly.

  Gina, for her part, stopped laughing.

  Then she disappeared through [Hide] again.

  Thankfully, she didn’t see the need to gut Krutar as she had the orc upstairs. That could have gotten ugly.

  Furthermore, the others saw the result of the fight and quickly retreated to the corners of the room as well. All except Lalo for some reason.

  He continued to smile throughout the whole ordeal. Only stopping to let out a few hearty chuckles here and then.

  He clapped when Gina stopped kicking Krutar. As if giving a standing ovation.

  “Bravo! Bravo! Good showing, little she-gnome! Oh I love seeing you guys fight amongst yourselves!”

  “Whaday a mean, you guys?” Gina asked.

  “Nothing.” Lalo said and I quickly forgot what she had asked in the first place.

  “Now then.” Gina turned to the others. “Enough about tall tales. I wanna get a head count and I wanna get it done now. You lot being here means that you’re under my protection. What that means is that I’m gonna be wanting a little gratitude from all of youse in the future.”

  She paused to straighten her skirt.

  “I’m gonna be gentle with youse all and let it sit at an even 20%. One fifth of whatever ya make in the coming hours, or if we’re lucky, days. Goes to me and mine. In return, not only will I keep yer heads attached to yer bodies fer as long as possible. I’ll also provide ya all some suicide pills to make yer eventual capture smoother. That and I’ll put in a good word with boss Sully. The real boss Sully. The one who calls the shots fer this Mittens kitten thing.”

  She eyed them all once more. Now seeming more like a shark than a person.

  “Does everyone agree?”

  The all nodded slowly.

  “Good. Now, I’m gonna start asking you lot a few questions. I expect answers. Ya get me?”

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  The others nodded once more. A little faster this time.

  “Good. We’ll start with you fatso.”

  “I beg your pardon?” The roman soldier asked.

  Gina bared her teeth. In the same manner as a dog.

  “I said, we’ll start with you. F-A-T-S-O.” She pulled out her knife. “Or else.”

  The roman soldier gulped.

  “What would you like to know?”

  “Yer name. For starters.”

  He harrumphed.

  “Very well. I will tell you. I am Gluteus Maximus Obesius Diabetus. Patrician and volunteer gladiator in the greatest city on earth. Rome. I have recently returned from my home city and before that, I had the pleasure of leading a town in the Novice difficulty.”

  Gina gave him a look.

  “Got any Sicilian blood in ya?”

  The man blinked in confusion.

  “No?”

  Gina sighed.

  “Then shaddup in the future fatso. I ain’t above taking some of them love handles off.”

  She pointed the knife at the half-naked tribal dude.

  “Yer name pretty boy. And yer difficulty. Snap to it.”

  The man gulped.

  “I am Lark. I am the son and heir to the mighty king Ron. Ruler of Miami.” He stood up straighter as he said that. “I was present when the great Shepherd, Solomon Carter, announced his presence to the world. I saw the corpses of two Great Devourers as they washed upon our shores. Before that, I was in the Apprentice Difficulty.”

  Gina paused. Suddenly looking scared.

  “Do ya know Dusty?”

  “Not directly. But we have had teleporters from Ireland recently. The Great Shepherd gave his bride’s people new powers and many of them reached out to…”

  “Well why didn’t ya say so?” Gina stepped forward. All smiles.

  “I’m Gina. I know boss Sully really well and anyone who’s a friend o’ his is a friend o’ mine! Nice to meet ya!”

  Lark smiled then. Though I suspected he was more relieved than anything.

  “It is my pleasure. Lady Gina. I know we shall get along famousl….”

  “Hold on.” Lalo spoke. His words cutting though the air like a knife.

  “I didn’t hear any of that.” He seemed half perplexed. Half angry. “How did you do that?”

  “How did we do what?” Lark asked. “Are you speaking of our conversation?”

  “Yes that. I’ve been hearing bleeps for a while now. Here and there. None of you notice. What are you talking about?”

  “The Shepherd? Solomon Carter.”

  Lalo narrowed his own eyes. His smile briefly faltering.

  Then my eyes closed by themselves. My mind becoming disoriented as if someone had struck me upside the head.

  I could see nothing. Smell nothing. Hear nothing.

  Until a sound broke through the din.

  A song, accompanied by a gurgle.

  “Making my way downtown! Walking fast! Faces Pass and I’m homebound! pew! Pew! Duh! Duh! Pew! Pew! Tururu!”

  “Oh! (Cherub)! It’s Sully! That’s his favourite song!”

  The words had come out of my mouth before I realized I had formed them. Though I couldn’t hear myself saying them over the darkness.

  I expected a blow to come.

  A punch, or a kick or the feeling of big hands wrapping themselves around my throat.

  None of that happened.

  “But I need you! Tururu! And I miss you! Tururu! And now I wooondeeeer! If I could fall! Into the sky! Do you think time!? Would pass me by!?”

  I couldn’t be sure, but I started to imagine things then. The actual music that played along with the lyrics.

  The gurling petered out.

  “Did you know I walked a thousand miles to just. Seeeee youuuuu!”

  The gurgling stopped.

  “TONIGHT!!”

  The song stopped and my vision returned.

  When I came to, the entire room was bursting with the sound of screaming.

  I soon found out why.

  The woman in the business suit was dead. Her body leaning lifelessly against a nearby wall.

  There were strangulation marks around her neck and her eyes were wide open. Frozen forever in a caricature of terror.

  Krutar was screaming the loudest. Pressing himself against the opposite wall with all the strength he could muster.

  “Mittens! Mittens is here! She did this! She’s going to kill us all!!!”

  “Shaddup!” Gina howled. “Eevrybody shaddup and grab a pill!”

  She opened her hand. Revealing nothing.

  Her own eyes went wide.

  “OH!! (Gnome)!!!” She exclaimed. “Run!! Everybody out fer yerselves!!”

  She bolted towards the point where the stairs had been. Only to meet an empty wall.

  “The stairs are gone!” Lark yelled.

  “We’re trapped! Mittens trapped us!” Krutar followed up. “She’s here with us!”

  I looked around just in case. Finding Cas trembling at my arm, but nothing else out of order.

  “Calm down!” I called out. “I don’t see anything wrong here. We’re fine.”

  “Are ya blind as well as dumb!?” Cowgirl hollered. “That woman’s dead!”

  “Yes. But we’re not.” I spoke. Purposely softening my voice.

  “So we all need to calm down and think. Why would Sully kill her and not the rest of us if he thought we were all gnomes?”

  “Maybe this Sully person enjoys a challenge.” Lalo offered. “Maybe they enjoy taking their time when it comes to gnomes. Cutting loose, as some young people say. Or maybe he’s trying to level up his Tolerance abilities. All those passives in the Shifter Board do look very tempting.”

  “How would killing us help!?” Cass demanded in a panic.

  Lalo shrugged.

  “Perhaps he is considering blasting some gnomes with his boosting power. Letting all the pests here get new powers and abilities. All so that they pose a greater challenge. Maybe he knows it would be more productive to do this from the get go, but he is struggling to contain his playfulness.”

  Lalo leaned closer to her.

  “Maybe he wants to see how gnomes will react. Before he boosts the most vicious ones. All so that their dying is slower. More drawn out. Maybe, just maybe, Solomon Carter has suffered so much at the hands of gnomes, that he wants them to know his own pain. Maybe he was once hunted and now wants to make gnomes feel hunted too.”

  He leaned even closer.

  “Maybe he just wants a challenge.” He smacked his lips with his tongue. “The thrill of the hunt.”

  “You’re talking crazy!” I blurted out. “Sully would never do that! He’s a good, decent, stand-up guy!”

  Lalo looked at me and gave me another warm smile.

  “I couldn’t catch what you were saying this time either, friend.”

  I sucked in a few more breaths. Trying to calm myself down before things got even more out of hand.

  “Sorry. I was just saying that this doesn’t seem like the MO of Solomon Carter. We have to try and keep calm.

  “Of course friend! I was merely discussing hypotheticals!” Lalo countered. Retreating as if placated.

  I was starting to wonder what that was about, when Gina pulled me to the side.

  “You are crazy.” She hissed. “This was so boss Sully’s doing! We need to find the stairs and get the (Gnome) out of here before he gets his hands on us!”

  She pointed at the dead woman.

  “She’s croaked, but she was lucky! She went by pretty fast! There’s no guarantee that he’ll be as kind to us! We have to go!”

  “I know that. I just don’t want all of us to lose our heads by panicking!”

  “Then what do ye propose lad?” One of the pirates asked. “Ye seem ta know this Sully scallywag plenty good. I got a good feeling in me remaining leg. How do we get out of here?”

  I turned to the mangled man. Thankful to have an out.

  “Okay. First of all. Sully is a Telepath and a Shifter. That means he can’t use Projector or Enhancer abilities. Whatever he did to make the stairs go away, was done Telepathically.”

  I paused to look at the spot where they had been once more.

  “They are probably still there. Somewhere. We just can’t see them.”

  The other pirate nodded. As did Gluteus.

  “So another kind of [Hide] then?”

  “No. It’s a combined ability.” I told them.

  “How do you know that?” Lalo asked. Seemingly surprised.

  “Because he told me.” I answered.

  Lalo’s brows furrowed for a moment. Donning the kind of confusion I and all the others were no doubt feeling.

  “I see.” Was all he said in return.

  Then he turned to the others.

  “How about each of you tell me about yourselves.” Lalo stated. “More specifically, your Types, levels and abilities.”

  “Are you deaf as well as stupid?” Gina bellowed. “We have got to figure out how to get away from here!”

  Lalo only spared her a glance.

  “All of you want to give me your information.” Lalo spoke.

  My brain buzzed a little. But I didn’t see anything wrong with what he was asking. I gave him my current status details.

  Lalo narrowed his eyes at the information I gave him.

  “How come you have that name?” He asked.

  “Because my parents gave it to me?” I responded.

  Lalo blinked a few times. Then the lights went out again.

  Until a sound broke through the din.

  A song, accompanied by a gurgle.

  “Making my way downtown! Walking fast! Faces Pass and I’m homebound! pew! Pew! Duh! Duh! Pew! Pew! Tururu!”

  “But I need you! Tururu!”

  “And I miss you! Tururu!”

  Two distinc gurgles could be heard.

  “And now I wooondeeeer! If I could fall! Into the sky! Do you think time!? Would pass me by!?”

  “Did you know I walked a thousand miles to just. Seeeee youuuuu!”

  The gurgling stopped.

  “TONIGHT!!”

  My eyes began to catch the light again. In time to see the two pirates slumping down to the floor.

  “He’s here!!!” Gina screamed. Her own nails digging into her face.

  “He’s pretending to be one of us!!”

  “Oh no!” Lalo cried out. “What are we going to do?”

  Krutar was still trying desperately to bury his way into a nearby wall.

  Gluteus was swinging a gladius through the air. Almost as if he hoped to nick Sully by accident.

  Lark was doing something similar, only he was throwing around chairs.

  The woman with the waistcloth was on her knees. Saying something incomprehensible.

  The girl with the polka-dot dress was firing her gun wildly into the air.

  One of those rounds was loosened at my general direction. Then another.

  I felt one of the shells impacting my shoulder. Knocking the wind out of me.

  The man in the robes picked me up then. Dragging me away as I swung my arms out in confusion. He turned over a nearby table and set me down next to him. Chanting some nonsense about healing spirits under his breath while swinging that cane at my face.

  The pain did subside though and I kept my silence as the Shifter healed me.

  “Thank you.” I sputtered.

  “No need to thank me young man.” The robed one muttered. “It was a good thing you did. Trying to keep calm with all this madness surrounding us. I’ll weave a spell or two and we’ll be out of here in no time. You’ll see.”

  At that moment, the lights went out again. All sounds replaced my either more singing or more gurgling.

  The next time I came to, powerful hands were dragging me to my feet.

  “It’s you!” Krutar was screaming. ‘You’ve been the agent of Mittens this whole time! You killed these people!”

  “What!” I called out in confusion. “No! I didn’t kill anybody!”

  “Then how do you explain the dead wizard next to you?”

  I followed his gaze and found my would-be rescuer there. Laying down with a broken neck.

  Then I found Cass a few ways away. A bullet hole sticking out between her eyes.

  “Oh come on!”

  “I knew it!” Polka dot girl cried out. “He’s using his powers to make himself look prettier! The killings started when he and the girls came in! It must be him!”

  I didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended at that comment. Moreover, I didn’t have time to make up my mind.

  Krutar threw me against the wall opposite to where we were. Hard.

  The impact took the air right out of my lungs and I felt as if my spine were about to break.

  “I’ll kill you! Traitor! I’ll show you what happens when you try to bring Mittens here!”

  “Calm down!” I yelled out in pain. “Mittens isn’t here with us!”

  “Mittens begs to differ. Mittens will slither. Mittens is here.” A woman spoke from beside me. Her voice carrying over empty space.

  I turned to see a monster that fit Luigi’s description to a T.

  The woman then leaned in. Licking my face with three forked tongues.

  “Mittens recalls Henry. Mittens loved your belly rubs. Mittens will never ever leave. Mittens is here.”

  I leapt towards Krugar. My arms wrapping themselves around his neck as I strained my lungs.

  “Mittens will rake.” The monster stated while stepping forward. “Mittens will break.” The monster continued. “Mittens will shatter the fake.”

  The monster’s eyes swept over all the screaming people.

  Finally landing on Lalo.

  “Mittens calls you liar.”

  Lalo only stared back. As if someone had just walked all over his rug with muddy feet or spoken ill of their mama’s home recipes.

  “You believe that.” He spoke. His voice as calm as still water.

  “Mittens knows. Mittens grows. Mittens’ heart beats faster. Mittens will not call you master.”

  The misshapen, mutated woman brought high a sword made of bone.

  “Mittens foretells. Mittens does swear.” The sword was raised to Lalo’s eyes. “Your voice does not ring. You are no king.”

  Lalo blinked. Confusion evident on his face.