I expected that Deen was just spouting random nonsense when she claimed she knew an Adumbrae. Maybe she'd suggest we approach Bianca for help or something? Though that scheming, silver-haired bitch wasn't an Adumbrae—that reminds me, I should find a way to check up on her, my supposed lifestyle mentee.

But it turned out I was wrong. Deen had indeed met a true Adumbrae, not those fake ones made by the 2Ms.

She told us that last Saturday, on her way to EFU Medical Center to answer Everett's and Reo's call for help, she spotted a suspicious person. Her explanation of why this random man caught her attention was sort of jumbly and vague, making me think she was hiding something—I filed it away in my mind. She narrated that as she followed this man, he surprisingly transformed into two children.

“Two kids?” Myra asked with incredulity.

“Yep,” Deen confirmed. “There was a flash of purple light, and then there was a boy and a girl.”

Those pesky shits! I clenched my fist under the table. Those kids she had seen, I knew them.

When Deen, Dario, and the rest of the hero wannabes had their fun little mission investigating EFU Medical Center, I had waited at a dingy pub. PCM assholes, accusing me to be part of Reginus' stupid SVS group, chased me away from my comfy resting spot. Wandering the streets with nothing to do, I decided to make good use of my time and followed another PCM member to investigate what was their beef with the SVS.

The PCM guy I picked to tail turned a corner and there was a burst of purple light. Two children walked out onto the street, a boy and a girl just as Deen had described. Nothing too suspicious. Except that when I checked that corner, I found that what I thought was an alley was actually a dead-end.

Later that same night, while I was busy saving Ramello and the SVS from murderous PCM people, the boy appeared again, that time holding Penemue. The girl might’ve gone somewhere else. The boy threw the giant lollipop-shaped axe at me, leading to my first encounter with that annoying mind-reading object-person thingy. And after our fight, the boy picked up Penemue and left.

"Hedley Kow is his name," Deen told us. "His, her…they? Apparently, his body was split into two children when he became an Adumbrae.”

“I don’t get it,” Myra said, scratching her head. “He’s one person, but with two bodies? Does that mean his mind is shared between the bodies?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. And I didn’t ask—”

“Deen,” I interrupted her in a steely tone. The information about this friend of Penemue was interesting and all, but an opportunity for drama arose, sweetly calling my name. “Why didn’t you tell me about this? You left out something this important?” Not that I was one to talk with all the bullshit I was hiding from her. Just wanted to make a deposit to my guilt-tripping Deen bank account for the day I might be required to withdraw from it.

“I…I’m sorry,” she whispered, trying to lock eyes with me to show her sincerity.

“It’s not like you have to tell me everything. But this sounds like something I should hear.”

“I didn’t tell you about it because I thought it was better if you didn’t know.”

“And why not?” I demanded, folding my arms across my chest.

“I wasn’t sure what you’ll do if you knew about them.”

“Like you’re concerned I was going to join them?”

“Yes,” she admitted with a deep sigh.

“Okay, so what’s the big deal with that? It’s not like I have many options to turn to.”

“Hedley Kow is an Adumbrae who has progressed far into his infection. He already lost his original body. I thought that if you’d go with them, it might, uh, it might speed things up. And I don’t want that to happen to you.” She expectantly stared at me, waiting for words of forgiveness and reconciliation. Instead, I kept silent because I wanted her to stew for just a bit more. After a few seconds of not getting a response from me, she said, “I wasn’t going to lie to you, promise. It’s just that…”

“I understand,” I icily said. I truly did, but I wouldn’t let this possible emotional manipulation ammunition—cool term, I should copyright it—go to waste. Deen looked a bit conflicted, her eyes down. It made me feel happy to bully her, and also a bit regretful since she had fed me ice cream. I should tone it down because this wasn’t the time to create a rift between us.

In a vacuum, going with my fellow Adumbrae was probably the best option in terms of long-term survival. But I didn’t like change; I wanted to continue with my normal life as much as possible. I even left Deen’s house and returned to my condo, and look how that turned out. So maybe I wasn’t the best person to ask for survival tips.

With the threat of my Adumbrae nature getting exposed by the secret organization behind Dario, I was starting to think I should’ve made friends with Penemue. Or probably not. I had a hunch they wouldn’t accept me in their exclusive club with SpookyErind in my head for some reason—Penemue giving his best to kill me was proof of that.

Deen’s original decision to keep me away from them was the correct call, and she didn’t know it.

“So why do you want to ask help from this cow guy now?” said Myra, asking a sensible question. “I thought you didn’t want Erind to be with them?”

“Hedley Kow,” Deen corrected her. And to answer the question, she said, “Asking an Adumbrae for help—an iffy idea, I know. I’m not sure about this myself, but I’m just throwing this out there. Hedley Kow and his allies Adumbrae will surely accept Erind and are powerful enough to protect her. This might be hard to believe, and I didn’t back then, but Hedley Kow’s group isn’t pure evil like we’d assume Adumbrae are.” She nodded at me. “Erind isn’t evil.”

I faintly smiled but didn’t look at her, pretending I was still hurt. I’m such a melodramatic bitch. And what was that about not being ‘evil’? That was true. It wasn’t like I was intentionally malicious or anything like that.

Myra pressed, “That’s Erind though. We know her. What about this guy you’re talking about? What makes you so sure he won’t attack us? Hey, why didn’t he attack you?”

“He didn’t attack me because…” Deen deeply inhaled. “Because I pretended I’m an Adumbrae.”

“What?!” Both Myra and I exclaimed.

“That’s what my Guardian Angel told me to do to survive. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. Outwardly, besides the artificial Core on my chest that I obviously didn’t reveal, we’re the same as Adumrbae. Healing, regeneration, superstrength.”

“Don’t let Everett hear you say that,” Myra said.

I met Deen’s eyes, offering a reconciliatory smile. “The important thing is you’re safe. And thank the Mother Core you have your Guardian Angel to protect you.”

Deen beamed at me. “My lie calmed Hedley Kow down. And as we talked, he realized he had met me before.” She went on to explain his powers, something about absorbing dead bodies to gain the person’s appearance and memories, and then the two kids would fuse together and become an exact clone of the deceased. One of the persons Hedley Kow copied was—“Dr. Cornelio,” she revealed.

"That doctor at Johann's office is an Adumbrae?" I asked. The fuck was going on? "He's Professor Desly's husband, right?"

"Yeah, he is," said Myra. "Johann mentioned something about his boss disappearing off the face of the earth. And now, we got our explanation. He’s an Adumbrae."

"No, no, Dr. Cornelio isn’t an Adumbrae," Deen patiently clarified. "I'm not sure, but I think the real Dr. Cornelio is...is dead. The man who signed Erind’s test certificates was already Hedley Kow who had taken the doctor’s place."

"The coffee," I muttered. "The hot coffee.”

“You’re right,” said Deen. She told Myra how our meeting with Dr. Cornelio went.

“He didn’t flinch at the hot coffee,” I explained to Myra. “By the way, Deen, do you know why your Guardian Angel told you to do that?”

“I actually don’t. At that time, I wasn’t aware of your plans with Johann, but it was obvious to me something went wrong. Knowing the truth about Hedley Kow now, wouldn’t he have protected you even if your test results showed something abnormal?”

“Or not,” I said. That fucking kid! He owed me for stressing me the fuck out. “Why did your Guardian Angel tell you to do that if everything was going to be fine?”

“Hedley Kow told me he didn't react to the hot coffee to signal to you that he was an Adumbrae,” said Deen with a quizzical expression. “Maybe the coffee did change his mind about something? He also mentioned he left you a clue among your documents that'll help you find a safe haven for Adumbrae."

“Safe haven?”

“Those are his exact words. And that’s why I decided to bring him up now because he might help you against Dario. You don’t necessarily need to go with them. I don’t want that—er, I mean, do you know about the clue he mentioned?”

"I'm not sure," I said, racking my brains. Was it that stupid bookmark? "I'll have to check it later."

"Hang on," Myra said. "He may have helped Erind at that time, but we can’t say he's not dangerous. He is an Adumbrae. And what happened to the real Dr. Cornelio, huh? You mentioned his power was to absorb dead bodies.”

Good catch, Myra! “Did he kill—” I began to say.

Myra continued with her point. “He must’ve killed the real Dr. Cornelio to take his place!”

Deen's eyes narrowed and then widened like an umbrella opening as she realized she missed something important. She frantically stammered, "He di-didn't sa-say. Dr. Cornelio might've..." And she didn't finish her sentence because we all came to the same conclusion about what likely happened.

“We give him one point for helping Erind—if doing nothing is counted as help nowadays,” Myra grumbled. “But his single good guy point is canceled for doing in Dr. Cornelio. If you ask me, he’s still pretty much in the red in my book.”

“I admit that he might’ve…” Deen closed her eyes as she deliberately sighed. “…killed Dr. Cornelio. But I know they’re fighting the 2Ms, and he probably needed that disguise to do something important at the police station.” She held her hands up before Myra could speak. “I’m not defending him, okay? I’m saying they have the same goals as we do.”

“Fighting the 2Ms? What makes you say that?”

“They have this machine,” she began. Apparently, the boy was tinkering with a metallic box and talked about a generator of some kind and a megaphone. Deen didn’t know I had encountered those blasted thingamajigs plenty of times that they were near the top of the list of objects I absolutely wanted to break apart, with probably Penemue at the top two.

“And this machine was supposed to stop those monsters the 2Ms made?” I asked after Deen finished her explanation.

“Did you actually see them use it?” said Myra.

“Erm, no,” Deen conceded, scrunching her nose. “It…it was broken. They weren’t able to fix it.” There was something with the way she spoke that made me think she was the reason it broke.

“That kid could’ve been lying about it then. Maybe they’re with the 2Ms?”

“No, they’re not. When the monsters of the 2Ms attacked, Hedley Kow transformed into a creature of shadow and fought them. Everett and Reo can attest to that. We didn’t actually see Hedley Kow fight, but the area around the hospital was cleared of monsters. I’m sure it was Hedley Kow’s work because there were traces of his shadow powers throughout Marshall Avenue.”

“Sounds sketchy, man,” Myra said. “Don’t really know what to think about that. But I won’t deny the possibility of real Adumbrae fighting the fake ones. That reminds me of something weird that happened during the fight at the police station that might be connected with your Hedley Kow guy.”

Deen leaned forward. “Something weird?”

Myra narrated about seeing Penemue at the police station while he was controlling Professor Deslys. I was surprised to learn that Penemue talked to Myra, using Professor Deslys, of course, and told her that he was an Adumbrae and they should work together. She said, “He must’ve thought I was an Adumbrae like him.”

I had never thought much about why that fucking prick of an axe was there at the precinct, but now I knew: Hedley Kow, taking on the form of Dr. Cornelio, hid Penemue there in anticipation of the PCM attack.

Wait a fucking minute. I sensed where this conversation was going to lead, and I may have made a mistake earlier. Maybe a few mistakes. Fuuu...

...udge cake, I finished my thought as my eye caught the colorful poster on Cindy's window about their new ice cream flavor—chocolate ice cream with fudge swirls and chocolate cake crumbles. What if I just left these two here, went inside the restaurant, and ordered that? The line at the cashier was long. That was fine though because I really, really preferred to be anywhere else than at this table.

It might've been a huge blunder that I had lied to Deen that only Myra went to the precinct to help Johann while I made my way to the hospital and got tangled with the men of the 2Ms.

During the chaotic battle at the police station, I had fought as Erind because of Auron's power-canceling abilities, even saving Myra from the stomach of Mammoth Buddy. I wouldn't be clueless and timid Erind in Deen's eyes if she knew all the shit I did there. And if she did snoop around for more information, Myra and Johann could alert me about it, and it could mean Deen wasn’t as trustworthy as she seemed.

Now, I was half-regretting that lie. Never had I expected Deen to meet Penemue’s friend. To make matters worse, I called her out for hiding shit from me just a while ago. If I hadn't done that, it would've been smooth sailing to admit I also hid stuff from her. I’d just look like a massive bitch if I admitted to lying now.

“I don’t know what to make of that axe,” Myra said. “Taking over Professor Deslys. That thing—Adumbrae?—was for sure connected with Hedley Kow who killed Dr. Cornelio. Sketchy bunch. And poor Professor Deslys. Johann told me she got carted off by the BID. Maybe Erind knows—?”

“So, an ally of Hedley Kow showed up at the police station,” I said

“Yeah, you were—”

“I could’ve met another Adumbrae like me if I went to the police station instead of getting into a fight with the 2Ms’ men.” I intently glared at Myra, almost hoping that I had telepathic powers. Her shifting expressions told me she got my message to shut the hell up. “But I really don’t know if we should contact them. Deen, I think your first decision to keep me away from them might be the correct one. I’m sorry I got angry.”

“Don’t be,” said Deen. “I understand where you’re coming from. And as for Hedley Kow’s group. I’m also not sure about them, but there may come a time we’d be up against our backs fighting strong enemies. I mean, we’re…just…” She gestured to us with an apologetic grin.

“Small fries?” Myra offered.

“Well, not exactly that.”

“We are though,” I said.

Deen cocked her head in subtle agreement. “And Hedley Kow and his group are the big fries. Is that the correct term?”

“It's true they'll be a huge help," Myra said, "But this is Erind’s call if we'll try to reach out to them. She’s the Adumbrae.”

Deen angrily whispered. “Myra!”

“It’s the truth Deen,” I said. “No one’s around to hear her.”

Myra grinned. “What do you think about these guys, Erind?”

“I don’t know…I don’t know what to think because I haven’t met them.”