You just finished fighting off a panic attack long enough to run from the cops.

You have no phone, no car, and your only place to sleep is a nightmare simulator trying to kill you over and over.

You have almost no money and you don't know when you'll be paid next, or if it'll even be worth it when it gets here.

The mayor is, at worst, an actual vampire.

Fuck it.

You take the pills from Kate's hand.

You shove them in your mouth.

You swallow them dry.

"Hohshit," exclaims Kate. "Plaire, you are hardcore. Bus--take us to the mayor's office, please."

"What are... uh... the side effects of these pills...?"

Kate looks at you with zero answers ready.

The bus speaks up. "Common side effects include dizziness, sweating, and an upset stomach. Taking the medication on a full stomach is strongly recommended."

You blink. "Any withdrawal symptoms...?"

"According to the internet..." the bus begins, "you shouldn't experience any noticeable withdrawal symptoms from a single dose."

"And..." Deep breath. "I took a single dose? Right?"

"Plaire," the bus replies, a little slower,

"It'll be okay."

It takes a little while to reach the mayor's office. The drive there is mostly quiet, with Kate checking her phone to see if the rest of Biggest Shrug made it out okay. By the time you arrive, you do feel... less frantic.

You still feel the gravity of the situation, but it isn't fighting for attention with every other single god damn problem in your life. You can just... focus

on confronting the undead (?) mayor who has all the dark secrets to your magic dream house.

You have been in this town for three whole fucking days.

As the bus pulls to a stop, Kate shoots a fingergun at the main screen. "Keep a bus nearby, please. I don't think this'll end in a chase, but... uh, fuck me if I know how this is really going down."

You and Kate step off the bus.

The bus drives on down the street, turning the corner at the stop sign.

The mayor's office is, indeed, fully lit--even this late at night. It appears to still be open.

Kate drops what's left of her level on the sidewalk, and stomps it out with her boot.

"You gonna be alright...?," you ask. You're still a little concerned about the whole ... heart exploding thing.

"Yeah," Kate replies, before adding a more confident "Hell yeah."

She inhales sharply. She starts to walk up to the front door, and you walk beside her.

She turns to you. "I mean... it's not like we're going in there to fight her, right? We just want whatever she grabbed from the library."

"Yeah," you reply.

Definitely.

Definitely not expecting this to turn into a fight somehow.

Maybe it's the fact that you're entering a bureaucratic structure at what must be approaching midnight. Maybe it's that you're running on pure adrenaline with some wild rocker babe you just met. Maybe it's the fact that your own stupid house where you have weird monster nightmares is the center of some seriously shady shit. Maybe it's an unforeseen side effect of your first time doing ... back alley anxiety meds.

But you are fucking spooked

and not the way you're used to.

This isn't panic. This isn't the usual rushing torrent of a billion things assaulting you at once.

This feels like reaching the top of the slope on the roller coaster and looking down at what's to come any second now.

This feels like accidentally sequence breaking and walking into the final boss with zero context or preparation.

The fact that you are completely focused helps you realize how visceral, how primal a fear this building gives you. You feel like if you walked in by yourself, you wouldn't be walking back out--that the looming architecture would simply swallow you whole and no one would ever know.

Never before have you experienced such a palpable case of the heebie jeebies.

Kate pushes through the door first, holding it open as you enter.

It is a long way to the front desk.

"Alright," Kate huffs. "Do you want me to lead, or--?"

"No," you shake your head. "It's my house, my claim to the... the documents or whatever. I got this."

Maybe.

Yes.

You can do this.

You--

"Hello there ♥," says the mayor's secretary. "Can I help you young ladies?" Her tone is so sickly sweet it almost sounds passive aggressive. ...She has to be a different secretary, right? ...Than the one that brawled with MondolGroup security?

You look at Kate.

Kate looks at you.

You both begin marching across the room to the secretary's desk. You suck in a lot of air... and you start talking.

"We're here to see the mayor."

"Oh! I see ♥ Well, I can certainly make you an appointment~" The secretary opens a small schedule book and begins to flip through it. "And what do you need to see Ms. Parsons about?"

"My house," you say simply. You glance down at the nameplate on the secretary's desk. Temperance Walsh. ...So it is her. Temperance looks... thin. Pretty, but in a very... deliberate way. Her stare is vacant, her smile flawless and perpetual. It's like someone animated a magazine cover, or gave life to a toothpaste commercial. You're leaning toward Mondol having shitty cops, though there's always a chance Temperance has mastered some kind of pumpkin spice latte flavored martial arts.

You narrow your gaze. "I just moved here and the mayor has my house's history checked out from the library. I was told she's had it for a while, and it didn't look like she'd be bringing it back any time soon. I just need to take a look at it."

You catch it.

The hesitant finger.

The momentary near lapse of the smile.

The slightly straighter shoulders.

"Oh~ if it's only for a quick lookie-loo, it wouldn't hurt for me to ask! One moment ♥"

You make eye contact with Kate as the secretary retrieves her phone.

She saw it, too.

Something's going on and Temperance knows about it.

"Yes, your Mayorness ♥ ... I know... well, there's two young ladies at my desk, and one of them just moved here! ... Yes! She'd like to inquire about her house. ... Yes, that one~ ... thank you, your Mayorship ♥"

The secretary hangs up her phone and sets it down on the desk.

The smile doesn't waver for even a second. Rock solid pokerface.

"It'll be a few minutes, buuut~ Mayor Parsons will see you. I'll inform you when she's ready ♥"

Kate throws a glance back to the rest of the room. "Do you guys have, uh... like, benches? Seats? Anything...?"

"Nope~!," replies Ms. Walsh. "We can't fit them in ♥ it would constitute a fire hazard~! Whoever designed the building didn't ♪ think ♪ about it ♫"

And thus, you and Kate are left to idly stand around and pace the room while you wait for... whatever the mayor's doing to be over.

Kate checks her texts again.

"Harv's fine," she says quietly. "He said it looked like the cops almost confiscated his drums but then gave up."

She scrolls through a couple screens.

"Oh, and Rip made it out."

"Is..." You almost stop yourself, but then you don't. "Is his name seriously Rip?"

"What?" Kate gives a wide shrug. She tries, hard, not to smirk. "It's a totally normal name. A lot of actors and shit have been named Rip? But also no." She shoves her phone back into her pocket. "It's his ~stage name~."

While waiting, you start to formulate a plan--mulling over how the conversation will likely go, and what you're going to say.

Kate seems to have enough restraint, so you don't expect her to come out swinging... but you don't anticipate she'll be respectful of the office of the mayor, either. She's brash, blunt, a little foul mouthed--which means if you stay nice and keep it professional, you'll have a solid good cop/bad cop routine going. You're the easy way, Kate's the hard way. One way or another, you're going to get answers.

You consider asking Temperance about her altercation with MondolGroup--but you want to avoid antagonizing her or the mayor as much as possible. Plans aside, there's still a very strong chance one or both of them could just straight up kick your ass, or have you magically disappear.

"Hey," Kate says under her breath, "I let the guys know where we're at. If anything happens, they'll know the mayor was involved."

You nod.

Alright.

You're pretty sure you can do this.

The secretary's phone buzzes. She lifts it, checks the screen... and smiles up at you and Kate.

The secretary is always smiling.

"Mayor Parsons will see you now~"

Temperance leads you down a long hallway, past numerous other doors

and takes you to one at the end.

You and Kate step into the office of Rill Parsons, mayor of Ninelives, Misuschaqua.

She's young, much younger than you expected. At least in the face, she looks like she might be your age if not a bit younger. Her attire, though, is beyond old lady clothes--you understand the vampire comment immediately. Between the scarlet tinted lenses indoors, her dusty attic outfit and what you hope is a glass of wine clutched gently in her hand--

hmm. You don't see the bottle anywhere.

Not a big fan of that.

"Plaire Stevens, correct?," the mayor begins as you and Kate cross yet another uncomfortably long room. "And... Kate? Halford, I believe?"

Kate's pace slows.

Uh oh.

"...You know me?," Kate asks. She mentioned on the bus that she's never met the mayor in person.

"Your mother invited me in for tea one evening," Parsons replies. "Pure chance. I was out and about looking into the power shortage."

Oh shit.

Shit shit shit

"Sweet woman," the mayor continues. "Quite proud of you. She had photographs all over the house--it'd be difficult to forget that particular shade of pink."

You look at Kate.

Her expression says everything; she is deflated, all of her fire snuffed out in a matter of seconds. You're not sure what her brain is doing right now. You're not sure Kate knows what Kate's brain is doing right now.

You turn back to the mayor.

It's hard to read her expression through her stupid glasses. Leaning back against her desk, she takes a small sip of her drink. She doesn't sit and neither do you.

Her accent is... also not what you were anticipating. It's not some ridiculous Dracula impression, but it's definitely not from this country--and it sounds much older than she looks.

"How has the house been treating you?," Parsons asks.

"Excuse me...?"

"Sorry," she begins with a smile, "your new house. How are you finding it? Has everything been satisfactory thus far?"

God, she talks like an old queen in a twenty-something-year-old's voice.

"Why?," you reply. "Should it not be...?"

Kate looks like a deer in the headlights and now you're on edge and the overwhelming sense of dread seems to be laser focused on this big oool fucking office

The mayor has a small laugh.

Almost a giggle.

"Oh, no, there's just been a great deal of difficulty keeping someone at that residence. Its property history reads like a game of Hot Potato--but the soil, air, and water have all been tested and their conditions were found quite standard. None of the surrounding neighborhood has had any problems worth noting. No one moving out of the house has complained, nor have any reports been filed."

She takes another drink.

"It is quite the mystery. My hope was that perhaps you'd solved it, or that maybe the issue had simply... well, solved itself. It could just be one of those homes, I really can't claim to know."

She knows. You know she knows. She knows she knows. She knows that you know she knows.

She has to know, right...?

You know what you're trying to learn from her. You're not yet entirely sure what Rill Parsons is trying to learn from you.

You try to keep it simple. "You still have that property history here... right?"

Keep it together.

Stay calm.

"I do," responds Mayor Parsons. "Why do you ask?"

"I just wanna see it. That's all."

"Why?"

"Who-..." Kate almost gets it out. It takes her a second try, but she puts a little more sizzle on it this time. "Who gives a shit why? It's Plaire's house. Let her see the thing."

The mayor smiles again.

She straightens her posture a little.

"I'd like to know why first. If something is amiss with the residence, as mayor of Ninelives I believe--"

She better not

Shebetternotfuckingsayit

"--I have a right to know."

ohGODDAMMIT

Your hands are cold.

Numb.

Heart's pounding.

Could be a coincidence.

A lot of self entitled FUCKERS seem to throw that line around an AWFUL lot

she might not be in on it

she might not be fucking with you but it's starting to feel like she's fucking with you

You take a deep breath.

Whatever semblance of a plan you had has been turned upside down. Kate's terrified and you're about to lose your shit and throw a chair out the window.

You try to focus.

Simple. Professional. Orderly--

"You can't--" Kate begins quietly

she clenches her fist.

She narrows her gaze.

She takes a deep breath of her own.

"You can't just NOT let her see it," Kate says to the mayor.

"I can," the mayor replies easily. "I can and I absolutely will. Convince me you didn't barge into this building in search of information that could be used to endanger others or yourselves."

"Endanger...?" Kate's tone softens, but she hasn't given up yet. "The fuck are you on about?"

Maybe Rill Parsons doesn't know what the house is doing.

"I could ask the same," the mayor retorts. "This isn't a matter of curiosity or principle and you won't convince me that it ever was. Why are you so determined to procure the property's history? What are you planning to do with it?"

The mayor leans forward.

You're not sure if the lighting in the room has actually dimmed but it sure as hell feel like it has.

"What are you hiding?," the mayor asks.

"What am I hiding...?"

You feel a pulsing soreness in your lower back.

"What am I hiding?"

You step toward her. Your face feels like it's on fire.

You're fully aware that you should stick to the script--play defensively, act soft, hope that Kate can recover her will to go aggro while you look like the more diplomatic option.

You are also about to explode and take the whole office with you.

"About three days ago I fled from the town I grew up in. The girl that was supposed to come with me--the girl I've been dating since god damn elementary school, the girl who TOLD ME it would come to this someday, bailed on me. I'm stuck in this WEIRD town, with HORRENDOUS, undiagnosed anxiety and the worst nightmares I've ever had.

Whoever sold me the house lied about it having a washer and dryer, and also left out--oh, I dunno, the fact that it's known all over Ninelives as the spooky house. SOMEONE needs to be held accountable for this and I want names--someone's going to court, whether it's YOUR Nosferatu looking ass or the previous owner. That you're standing here, threatening MY friend and trying to tell ME, the dumb bitch that has to LIVE in that house, that YOU have a right to know ANYTHING--"

You lean in.

Real close.

"--It's fucking laughable, Mayor Parsons."

You have a lot of trouble reading the mayor's face.

There's a stern silence that feels like an eternity.

Her brow finally furrows hard enough that you can see it beyond her opaque glasses.

"...Are they different nightmares? Or have they been the same nightmare?"

"Oh, shit," Kate blurts out.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck she knows about the dream but she didn't know you were having the dream

"Well-- I mean--" Fuck quick think walk it back "...I've only slept there twice, I don't know--"

The mayor leans in closer to you, almost pressing her face to yours.

"Since we're being frank, Ms. Stevens, please--allow me.

Those nightmares will kill you."

Another silence ensues.

Your mind races.

You could try to change the narrative. They could be different dreams, she doesn't know. It could just be regular stress dreams. People have those! It's normal! It's believable! You lie all the time, you're pretty decent at it by now. You can salvage this.

On the other hand

you're so damn tired of lying.

Kate's shocked reaction said a lot, and you don't think the mayor is ready to buy whatever bullshit you want to try and spin about these being totally different, regular human dreams you just strongly felt the need to mention for some reason.

Whatever huge burst of adrenaline you had is very rapidly fading.

You're just

mad

and tired.

"Who cares. It's already killed me once," you mutter.

"No," the mayor replies, "I mean it will actually kill you. Regardless of what you believe that dream to be, it does not belong to you--and there are things within that are not yours. If you continue to have that dream, Ms. Stevens, it will kill you, in real life."

"Why is the house even THERE?," Kate asks. "Bulldoze it, man. Blow that shit up."

The mayor is...

quiet.

Hesitant?

"It's... not that simple," she finally says.

"I can't just stop dreaming," you state. "Maybe you're new to this but normal dreams don't even work like that."

"Find a way," replies the mayor bluntly, "or sell me the house. This is not a problem you can solve, Ms. Stevens. What you have become entangled in is a very complex, very precarious and very dangerous situation."

"A situation that you're going to keep being vague and mysterious about," you huff. "Right? Even though it's my life on the line apparently, you're still going to--"

"I will assist you however I can in getting you out of that house," the mayor interjects. "I will not help you further endanger yourself."

Another silence.

This time, it's Kate that breaks it. "Are you seriously worried about Plaire? Or are you worried she's gonna find what you're looking for?"

A much sterner silence.

Kate's voice is low. Calm.

She steps closer, but not quite in the mayor's face.

The mayor seems... caught off guard.

Kate continues. "You said there's things within that aren't Plaire's. You could have said there's monsters, that'd have been a lot scarier. ...But you were real vague, and I don't think that's just you and your Count Orlok routine, I think there's something you want in there. That's why you haven't wiped that house off the face of the earth, and that's why you want Plaire to sell it to you."

Fuuuck?

You can tell Kate's making a conscious effort not to curse--to sound more like a lawyer making a case.

Or a detective.

You realize that you've not only straight up switched roles, but that Kate realized it, too--and she's leaning into playing Good Cop.

Or at least, Less Angry Cop.

"The house might be dangerous," Kate concludes, "but there's something there and you want it. You weren't sure the house was still... uh, working until Plaire mentioned the dreams. I'll bet you've tried to buy it before--but when the mayor starts trying to buy the house where someone died, people ask questions, and you don't want that. ...So you had to play fast and loose. Wait and see if it still does what it does. Wait for someone to come to you about it."

"Or wait for someone else to fucking die," you add.

The mayor

for a moment

is silent.

"There is..." She adjusts her glasses. Her posture, demeanor, all of it has changed. Parsons has pulled herself out of your face, and is now back to leaning on her desk. "...There is a great deal more going on here than you could possibly understand. More than I could possibly explain. Regardless of my intentions, I haven't lied to you--if you continue the current course you will die in that house. Get rid of it. Stop having the dream. I will not take responsibility for more bodies and I will not help you dig deeper. Both of you will be leaving without the property history."

You take a slow, steady breath. "And if I go to the news about this?"

The mayor does not hesitate this time. "Then you run the risk of attention from forces in this world. I've already spoken with federal agents once about what went on in that home--and I'm sure Mondol has a brain trust all too eager to tear the place apart and see what makes it tick. I've told you all I should need to, to make you understand the very real danger you are in."

She drinks the remainder of the glass.

"You may have paid for that house, Ms. Stevens. You may see things in that nightmare world that are directly inspired by your own brain...

but you are not its master, and you are not in control.

There's no one left who can claim they ever were."

"...How much would you give me for it?," you ask Mayor Parsons.

"Offhand? I've no idea," the mayor replies. "I'll need to find out what would cover... let's say six months of rent and bills in a different house? I wouldn't put you out on the street in the name of saving your life."

You give a small nod. "I'll have to think about it, but... I'll get back to you."

You turn, and you head for the exit. Kate follows.

On your way out of the building, you turn to the secretary.

"You guys have any like... maps? Or..."

Temperance pulls open a drawer in her desk, and hands you a brochure.

"It's really old, though~ Hope you enjoyed your meeting ♥ Remember to stay ♪hydrated!♪"

You and Kate are both silent until several seconds after you reach the bus stop.

"...So she's totally a fucking vampire, right?"

"Thank you," you blurt out. "I thought I was losing my mind."

"The light thing," Kate says, halfway through pulling out her phone.

"That was real?" You run a hand through your hair, taking a breath. "Fuck I thought I imagined that, what is her deal?"

"Dude." Kate holds her phone up, facing it out to you. "Check this out. I had my phone on record in case the mayor said some incriminating shit, right?"

She presses the play button on the screen.

All that plays is the sound of static.

Not even silence, not even some kind of phone-has-fucked-up error sound like you'd expect, but a dead ringer for the noise of an old TV going to the wrong channel.

"What the fuck," you mouth

and you remember when you searched for the mayor online.

There were no pictures.

"What the fuuuck," you say a little louder, but not much.

The bus pulls up, and you both board.

"How'd it go?," asks the bus as they begin to roll out.

"The mayor's a vampire," you reply as you take your usual seat. "My house has killing intent and I have astoundingly shit luck. I think that covers it. I miss anything?"

Kate takes out a fresh stick of level and begins to light it, slowly pacing the bus. She stops to add, "We learned my mom would not do well in a horror movie. ...And that the mayor keeps the property history there, in that building somewhere."

You look at Kate. It takes you a second to piece together what's so important about that--

"Wait," you say as you lean back in your seat, "you think we can still get it?"

"Maybe," Kate says with a shrug. "Place has windows. It's old, might have some of those big ass ventilation systems." She takes a deep drag of her level. "We could totally heist the joint."

"I don't think heist is a verb," you reply, "and the mayor would murder us."

"Naaah," responds Kate with a wave of her free hand, "if she wanted to kill us I'm pretty sure she'd have done it when you started point-blank roasting her. That was fucking rad, by the way. Worst that could happen is some breaking and entering charges."

You give a small sigh.

You are very tired.

"...Well, if it happens it's definitely not happening tonight."

"Obviously," Kate says with a smile. ...A smile that steadily widens as she mulls it over more. "We'd have to do it in the daytime, when the mayor's weakened."

"I don't..." You pause.

You started the sentence and are faced with so many options for how to finish it.

"...I don't think I wanna sleep in my house tonight," you finally conclude. "I need to see if the dreams are isolated to the house, or if they'll follow me somehow. Because I'm the home owner I guess and we're operating on spooky house rules."

"You could stay at my place," Kate offers. "It's not exactly five stars, and I only have one bed. ...And I'm kind of rounding up. But hey, it won't try to murder you."

"Thanks," you reply with a faint smile. "I'd feel weird doing this when we just met, but--"

"--But your house is a confirmed fucked up death house," Kate fills in. "Yeah, no, I totally get it. Also confirmed fucked up death house is the title of my next album. Hey, bus--can you swing by a convenience store or something? I dunno when they stop selling alcohol, I just know it's way past beer o'clock."

"Sure," the bus replies. "It's slow tonight. I can make a quick stop."

The bus swings by a 24/7 MondolMart, and Kate begins to step out.

You smirk a little. "You just planning to walk in smoking level?"

Kate stops.

She considers the joint in her mouth.

She squints, and leans to peer through the window...

"Yeah, it looks like Marco's working tonight. He don't care. Be back in a sec."

She steps off the bus and disappears into the store.

"So," the bus begins, "what do you plan to do about the house?"

You give the best response you can come up with: "Fuck if I know." You stare out the window, still trying to process it all. "I need more information--I don't want to sell it without knowing what it is I'm selling, or I could be trading in a bad situation for something way, way worse. I'm afraid if I just straight up destroy the place, it'll unleash... uh... whatever the hell it is that makes it the murder house. The mayor may not be trying to kill us, but she's still playing her cards way too close to her chest for me to trust her. ...But also I have no idea what's going on or what I'm doing about it. I need...

I need to find out more."

Your attention is caught as you see Kate approach the counter, attempting to buy some beer and cigarettes. She has... a slightly longer conversation with the guy behind the counter than you really expected, and she appears to get a bit heated about it.

Well, as heated as she's going to get while smoking level.

She comes back to the bus with a beer in each hand and the level still clenched between her lips. "So uh, how're those anxiety meds doing?"

"Pretty good," you reply. "I feel... clear headed? Like, I'm calm, but I'm not out of it."

"Good," Kate says, "'cuz the ride's not over yet. Someone tried to burn down Maria's Grocery."

"What?!"

"Yeah," Kate continues. "Marco said it happened right after the concert--so guess what the cops think. He said whoever tried it failed to burn it down, but he hasn't been there himself so he doesn't know how bad the damage is."

"So if we stay at MY house," you begin, "we might die."

"We stay at my house, we might get a visit from Ninelives' finest," states Kate.

"Well..." You ponder it for a moment. "They can't arrest us, we were--"

"Accomplices?," asks Kate with a grin. "We're sure as hell not each others' convincing alibis."

"The bus knows where we went," you suggest, "right? We drove around for a while and then we went to the mayor's."

"My surveillance equipment has been turned off this entire time," replies the bus.

"And I dunno if they'll let a bus take the stand in court," adds Kate. "We could totally have done it before we went and shook down the mayor, and that's if the mayor doesn't deny seeing us. We're fucking ghosts between the end of the concert and the mayor visit that maybe didn't happen."

Fuck.

Fuuuck.

You rub at your forehead with the heel of your palm. "Okay. Okay okay okay. Okay... do the cops think you and I specifically did it?"

"They think it was someone from the concert," Kate says. "And I don't even buy that bullshit. I know most of those guys, and they're all cool people. Somebody might light up Mondol, but a fucking mom & pop grocery store? Come on man. But you're new and I'm Kate Halford and we were fucking gone when those cops showed up--we are sooo the most obvious suspects."

Ffffuck.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Kate holds one of her beers out to you.