Max cried out in frustration and rage. He took a step forward. There was a shot. He started to turn his head, but then the vision vanished. He was lying on the floor in the hotel, looking up at the ceiling. Beside him, Freakshow was standing up.

“Knock it off,” she said to him.

Behind her, Spike was rubbing his face.

“Why didn’t you stop her?” Freakshow said accusingly.

“She caught me by surprise,” Spike said. He looked at his fingers. Blood covered the tips, and more dribbled from his split lip. “And she kicked me in the mouth jumping over us. Should we go after her?”

Freakshow took a phone from her pocket. “Nah,” she said. “I’ll text Seamus and Boomer. Let them take care of her. It’s not like she can do much of anything. Her Legacy is useless here. We’ll wait here for Magdalena. That was the plan. Then Ghost can teleport us all out of this place.”

“I wish we could see what’s going on out there,” Spike said. “How’d we get stuck with babysitting anyway?”

“Just tie him up,” Freakshow said. She looked down at Max. “And don’t even think of trying to be a big hero again. Whatever it was you saw, I’ll make you see it over and over until your mind can’t take it anymore and it breaks.”

Spike bent down and roughly pulled Max to his feet. Pushing him over to a chair, he forced him into it. “Stay there,” he warned, then went and took the belt from a bathrobe hanging on the back of the door. He used it to tie Max’s hands behind his back.

“I don’t get it,” Max said. “What do you guys think the Mogs are going to give you for being their sidekicks?”

“I’m nobody’s sidekick,” Freakshow said.

Max snorted. “Whatever you say, sidekick.”

Freakshow stormed over, holding out her hands. “Sounds like you want to be back in nightmare land,” she said. “What’s your worst fear, anyway? Finding yourself in your underwear in front of the whole school?”

“What’s yours?” Max shot back. “Everyone finding out that without your Legacy you’re a scared little bully who’s pretty much afraid of everything?”

Freakshow’s face turned red, and she started to come towards Max. Spike grabbed her arm. “Let it go,” he said.

Freakshow shook Spike’s hand off. She pointed a finger at Max. “Once they tell me they don’t need you anymore, you’re dead. That is, if the operation to get that thing crawling around in your head out doesn’t kill you first.” She laughed meanly.

Max didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to give away the fact that the parasite was dead and couldn’t hurt him anymore. But Spike was looking at him with a peculiar expression. Max caught his eye for a moment, then looked down.

“How come you’re not sick?” Spike said. “Like Sam is. If you’ve got a parasite in you, you should be all messed up, and you’re not.”