“Shhh. Keep it down,” she snapped. Mosh hadn’t realized he’d raised the volume. “Voices carry down here. I may not know you well, but I know a lot of people like you. I volunteer at an insane asylum full of them. Specifically, I know what happened to you with the Condition. Yes, it sucked. Yes, it ruined all your plans. You got screwed over. So what? At least you’re still alive. You’re a survivor. Every single minute you have after that is a gift, but you’ve forgotten that.”

That stung. “You don’t understand how bad—”

Holly turned around. They were cloaked in shadow, but he could still tell that she was giving him an angry glare. Her voice was hard. “You want to compare notes about how hard life has been? I’ll win. I’ll win handily, and that was before I had to kill my best friend with a bone I sharpened on a rock. So shut the fuck up and listen. I’m telling you things that your brother should have said to you a long time ago. Evil can kill you, break your body, and sometimes it can even break your mind, but only you can break your spirit. You know what I see at Appleton? That’s the insane asylum for monster attack survivors. I see people where their sanity just shattered, and I see quitters. I feel sorry for the first bunch, and the second group just pisses me off. So quit pissing me off.”

“I’m not a quitter,” Mosh protested. “I lost my fingers. I was the best and they took that from me. I lost all my money—”

“Did you lose your life?”

Mosh paused. “No…”

“Then quit your crying and shut up.” Holly checked her watch. “It’s time to go. We’ll continue this therapy session later.”

“So you’re my therapist now?”

“Apparently, I’m a life coach for idiots.” Holly opened the door. She shined her flashlight up the stairs. When she didn’t see anything, she climbed the stairs quickly and quietly to the next door. When she tested the handle, it was also unlocked. “Archer, you are the man…” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Follow my lead.” She reached under her jacket and pulled out her pistol. It was a 1911 of some kind, like the sort of old-fashioned pistol that his father preferred.

“But the guards are just people. They’re Hunters like you, just from a different company. You can’t just shoot them!”

“Sure I can. Point and click.” Holly glanced down at the pistol. “Okay, fine. I don’t want to and I’ll try not to, but if I have to choose between saving my friends’ lives or their lives?” She shrugged. “Easy call.”

Mosh had done a lot of stupid things in his life, but murder wasn’t one of them. “Promise me you won’t kill anybody.”