The memory had been Snag’s, and Snag was the first to really move. Snag wasn’t as big as he had once been. Still tall, but he had lost a lot of weight. The beard he’d had before was longer now, shaggier. So was his hair. There were streaks of paler hair at the corners of his mouth. The hood of a sweatshirt and the lack of clear lighting masked much of the man’s face, so only the beard was visible. Snag’s area was a store without things. Empty display cabinets, cracked glass, metal shelves, a lacquered floor, and more diffuse light than the other spaces.

Snag reached the table, and slammed one hand down on the surface. He gripped the edges, hunched over.

Someone else spoke, quiet enough he was almost inaudible. It was how he usually talked. “You two should know I’m looking into our situation here. I’ll be experimenting soon, so you should know things might get weird.”

A young man. Nondescript. Boring. Blond hair, average weight, clothes without labels, a bit older than Rain at eighteen or so. The slabs of concrete and tile made his space look like a hall of mirrors after an earthquake, if the glass was opaque concrete instead. Shattered, dark, claustrophobic, devoid of the human touch. The only thing about him that stood out was that his glasses were scratched up, to the point where it wasn’t possible to see his eyes. He held his head at funny angles to see through the less scratched part, chin high, looking down, or head bent, looking up and out.

Rain had taken to thinking of him as the recluse. The guy had talked before about not spending much time around people. He was quiet, weird, and his dreams weirder still.

He hadn’t been including Rain in the ‘you two’.

“What experiment?” Snag asked, his voice hoarse enough to be a growl.

“I’m reaching out to someone. They do interesting things with people and sleep. I have no clue what’s going to happen, but it’s possible I won’t show up, or I’ll have a guest. Tomorrow.”

The woman approached, standing from a sitting position in a squat, small armchair. She stepped over stuffed animals and broken toys.

She was elegant, wearing an ankle-length dress with a slit up one side. Her hair was styled into waves and curls. She wore earrings and a necklace, heels, and her nails were painted. None of her tinker gear was present.

Her lower face was covered in the mask that could have been described as a muzzle, it clung so tightly to her face, covering nose and mouth. It was black leather, and it had real teeth set into it. Fangs.