Cassie is too overwhelmed and maybe concussed to make decisions, and I’m too disturbed. Rox clings to her legs, not mine. Part of me is still me, but I’m on the periphery. Like I’m on the outside of my life looking in. My own Peeping Tom. I can feel my companion settling in, unpacking its stuff, testing out the utilities, moving furniture around. There is no dialogue between us, although I try to get one started. Talking tough and offering a peace treaty at the same time. I hope I’m just going mad, although that may be even worse. Or maybe it’s the same thing.

The town has been evacuated, although I doubt the residents have strayed far. Some underground bunker where they all live and eat and spread the resistance. There’s probably someone new at the Purge Palace now, reading Priscilla’s journal and realizing they’ve been abandoned by someone they thought they could trust, preparing for their trip here. A heroine with her invisible following. Her own ripple effect.

They’re out there now, I know they are. You will join them soon.

My mind blanks like during a blackout. I suffer the worst parts of binge drinking without any of the benefits. The looks Cassie gives me during my brief periods of lucidity, I can’t tell if it’s concern over my well-being or hers.

“Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?” is the repeating chorus line on a scratched record. I’m not sure I’ve answered her yet. My limbs are rigid – movements stiff – eyes open so wide they hurt. Fucker doesn’t know how to blink.

Yes, in my strobe-light memory I see, that’s no look of concern. Cassie’s scared. She’s keeping Rox away from me, and he’s not resisting. He’s scared, too.

Elder-Malia is gone, hopefully to the infirmary, if not hell. So is the younger one, and I think I know why. She’s either afraid of my companion, or the one in her is hopelessly attracted to it. I wonder if I’ll ever see her again. I hope not, but will never stop looking. When does this end? How? With an exorcist, or a return visit to Doctor O?

I vaguely remember being in Cassie’s hospital room following the procedure. Then Cassie, Rox, and I are being escorted by a group of six or more identical men, always traveling in sets of two. They keep their distance from me now. Like I’m some abomination to them. Up the elevator, back to the surface. Back to planet earth. It’s dusk again, or dawn.

The street lamp statues are all gone so the road is dark and the stars are blinking softly overhead. The view you can’t get from the city. Dead lights that we fill with false meaning. Ransacked stars snuffed by the scourge heading our way.