After re-veiling my aura, I made my way back through the hall. I tried my best to ignore the bloodstains.

I felt bile try to rise again, but fought it down. I couldn't afford to waste time processing.

For all I knew, Cheryl could be trying to find a way in here right now. And who knew how many other spooks this Trenton was sending after me.

Blondie had said some disturbing things. I passed the ladder I had climbed earlier. Its rungs still wet with blood.

What the hell was the rule of three, was it related to why Mr. Ward's, or Randy, had been killed? I had no idea, but it didn't make any sense.

I passed by tank after tank, each one filled with giant sea life. Mainly just variations on the three I had already seen.

That raised more questions, like what exactly they were doing with the giant sea life. I didn't have the faintest clue how or why they were making them.

Wait a minute.

I had broken one of these tanks a minute ago.

They were certainly thicker than your average windowpane, they had to be to withstand the water pressure. But they certainly shouldn't have been thick enough to stop a car-sized crab from hurtling through them.

I turned to face one of the tanks. Inside it, a dark red crab the size of a Chevy stared back at me.

As I walked closer to the glass, the crab waved its claws at me and stepped closer. Only to immediately skitter back once I got within a foot of the glass.

Interesting.

I stretched my hand out, and hesitantly laid it against the glass. Even with my veiled senses, I could tell the glass was magical.

I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling the glass was giving off.

It was unsettling, like a predator's attention. Like standing in an open field and turning only to find a bear staring at you, tensed and ready to charge.

I stepped back from the tank. The crab clicked at me. That was a damned clever way to keep control of the animals. You didn't have to buy extra thick glass. You just had to stick a ward on it. Normally that wasn't cost-effective, but if you had someone on staff who was skilled in their creation, it was feasible.

Especially if the ward didn't need to be particularly powerful, after all, it didn't do anything directly. It just gave off a feeling.

I was betting that's how people got past the crab pit, they just needed a warded medallion that gave off this feeling, and the crabs would leave them be.

Could my aura counteract that?

I started walking again. I certainly wasn't going to test that out right now. But it might work.

The bullet shrimp had responded to my aura with immediate ferocity. Those wards were relatively weak. If I laid enough power over them, I might be able to black them out.

My mind turned back to the question of how exactly these things were being made. Well, that wasn't as big of a question, it was likely a mix of questionable magic combined with mad science.

What I wanted to know more than how was the why? What were they gaining by creating giant sea life?

I doubted they were trying to make them for weapons. They were dangerous, sure. But aside from the bullet shrimp they weren't really any more dangerous than a well-armed human, I paused mid-step.

They might not be much more destructive, but they were a lot harder to kill.

A mage had a million different ways to deal with a crook with a gun or even someone armed with explosives.

But the average mage would have a lot more trouble dealing with a lobster the size of a moving van.

But I still didn't think the weapon angle was the right one. From what I had put together, it seemed that Cheryl was their attempt at creating a pet monster.

I stopped, the hallway was turning right again, and I was walking somewhat aimlessly. That was dangerous, especially while lost in my head.

I firmly reminded myself what my goal was, the soul cage, and the boss. Trenton.

Speculating on these things wasn't going to help me right now.

Think, Alder. What can you do to find the soul cage?

I thought about it for a minute. I had a couple of options, some of them more effective than others, but with greater drawbacks.

The quickest method would be to simply lift the veil on my sight and look around for the soul cage. Potent soul magic like that would leave a scar on the ambient magic here. Scars that I could quickly pick up on.

That method would definitely be the fastest, but those drawbacks... I wasn't ready to take the kind of potential trauma unveiling my site again would give me.

I was already at the end of my rope.

I could unveil my aura instead. And just shove it around the building, hoping to find a hit.

Or I might be able to cover a large portion of the building in one go.

Due to how dangerous it was, I had never tested the limits of my auras range.

Of course, that plan had the small issue of being like tying stakes to my chest and sleeping in the woods.

Cheryl, whatever she was, was clearly drawn to my aura. She was strong enough to tear steel and smart enough to set ambushes, as well as retreat when they failed.

I didn't want to draw her attention any more than I already had.

That left me the third option, it was the least effective of the three, but it had few drawbacks.

I could simply use my magical senses, which even now crawled with a feeling of wrongness and unease, to play a strange game of hot and cold to find my way to the soul cage.

That had the downside of me wandering around somewhat randomly, increasing the chances that I would run into someone before reaching the soul cage.

There was still danger with that choice, but it was the most unlikely to get my mind, or body, ripped apart. With my course set, I started walking.

I took the corner, which led to an identical hallway, and kept going.

All the while, I paid close attention to the feeling of wrongness that clung to my body like a second skin.

The strength of the feeling stayed relatively consistent as I walked. In the end, I ended up back where I started, the hallways turning out to be one big block of tanks.

But I had noticed several doors as I walked. I had finished walking around the block to make sure the feeling wasn't stronger where I had started.

It wasn't.

I made my way to one of the doors, which were some type of dark gray metal, but thankfully unlocked.

Focusing on the sensation was somewhat odd. It really was like playing literal hot and cold, trying to find your way to something based on the sensation on your skin alone. The doorway led to another hallway, which led to an office, which led to more offices, which led to.

You get the idea.

I made my way through room after room, from office space to storage closets, and just about everything in between.

My route was slightly meandering since I was using sensations to guide me. There was enough office space for a few dozen people, but almost all of them were empty.

I guess having a monster loose in a building was a good excuse to not go to work.

However, I wasn't able to avoid everyone.

Just when I felt a spike in the uncomfortable sensations, I heard voices off to my right.

Panicked, I laid under a desk and curled up, trying to make myself as small and hidden as possible.

The group of voices, at least four, passed uncomfortably close to my hiding spot.

They didn't pause, as I had feared, and kept right on walking.

I counted to three hundred before letting out a breath of relief and resuming my search.

After a solid twenty minutes of walking, I ended up at a staircase. Looking up, I could tell that it led back to ground level.

I had the sick feeling that going to ground level would increase the risk of Cheryl finding me. But the sensation of wrongness had spiked as soon as I took a single step upward.

I sighed. Of course, it had to be higher up, what kind of evil mastermind wouldn't want an office overlooking their hideout. I grumbled to myself.

After taking enough stairs to make my legs begin to burn, I reached the top.

I was definitely going in the right direction. My skin tingled with the strength of the sensations. I felt like I was walking through filthy cobwebs.

I started forward only to stop as I saw the door. It was steel, like the one from earlier but even more extreme.

Where there had three wrist-thick bars before, this one had twelve. There was less than a foot of space anywhere on the door that wasn't covered by the deadbolts.

So, of course, I ignored the massive red flag that having a door this secure was and undid the locks.

I stepped through the door and then glanced back at it. On this side, a sign hung from its front with "employees only" printed in dark red letters.

I looked around for a second before my brain caught up with my eyes, and I realized where I was—the main room of the aquarium. Off to my left stretched the two tanks packed full of different exhibits.

Off to my right, a ways was the exit.

My stomach turned, and I felt a desire so strong it made me clench my teeth.

I wanted to leave this place. This madhouse was full of monsters and people who wanted me dead. I wanted to go home and lie down.

Those people would chase me home, though. They wouldn't let me rest. I closed my eyes and let out a slow, weary sigh. And if I did leave, I would have to look at John and know I was abandoning him.

Abandoning a man who had been killed and then tortured for so long that his very soul had started to come apart at the seams.

I opened my eyes and started to move, once again looking for the worst feeling direction.

My search ended up leading me through the tanks, which made me nervous. The last time I went walking here, Cheryl had tried to kill me.

I was tense, afraid that a giant crab corpse was going to hurtle my way any second. As I walked by one of the viewing platforms, un-molested, I relaxed slightly.

I guess Cheryl had other things to do. That or she couldn't move around the building as freely as I could.

While Cheryl didn't interrupt me, I guess the universe had it out for me today, because something else did.

A woman's voice, colored with malicious glee, called out from a few dozen feet behind me.

"Hello there, sweetie. I appreciate you saving me the trouble of finding you."

I stopped mid-step, cursing internally.

I had forgotten about the security cameras.

I had left the shotgun case tucked away in a room below, switching the strap from the case to the shotgun itself, which now hung from my front.

I considered simply turning and firing. She wasn't that close, but people underestimate just how far a shotgun can shoot. I might be able to catch her off guard.

I opted to turn around without firing, though I did raise my shotgun, and see just what I was up against.

The woman who had attacked me at Barry's stood a little more than 50 feet away. She looked mostly the same as before, but she was wearing more practical clothing.

A heavy black vest with plenty of pockets and a pair of heavy cargo pants. She wasn't what took up my attention, though. Those were just the details I had noticed as my eyes flicked over her.

No, my attention was fixed on the three giant crabs flanking the woman. One of them was the size of an SUV, and the other two each looked like they weighed more than a brown bear.

And, bafflingly, all of the crabs had bits of cloth tied around their legs, crab shoes?

No, those were to quiet their footsteps! To stop me from hearing them before they were ready.

"Shit." The woman laughed, and I winced. The sound was just as grating as it had been before.

"I'm sure you noticed my little stealth operatives," the woman said, patting one of the crabs next to her.

She had to reach up to do it.

"I'm not sure how you got in here, but boy am I glad you did." She started walking, and I started backing up.

"I got a mark because of you, boy. My impeccable record MARKED!" Her voice rose into a high-pitched shriek at the end, and the crabs flinched away from her slightly.

Wait a second; why were the crabs following her, obeying her?

Had they managed to train them that well? The woman started walking faster, and she continued talking as if she hadn't just screeched like a banshee.

"Of course, when I break your legs and capture you, Trenton will remove the mark, I will be perfect."

The woman took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her whole body shuddered. I wasn't sure what emotion that was, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to know.

She opened her eyes and reached into her pocket.

Suddenly, I came to a sick realization.

Something I had already known, something I had acted on when Blondie attacked me.

I didn't want to kill anyone. But if I didn't kill this woman, or incapacitate her at the very least, she was going to capture me. And I was going to die.

I dropped the shotgun, allowing the strap to catch it, then reached to my side and pulled out the nineteen eleven. It was less powerful, but I was a much better shot with the handgun.

I brought it up, sighted at the woman's chest, and pulled the trigger.

As crazy as she was, the woman wasn't slow. The second my gun came up, she hopped backward, and one of the crabs stepped up.

My gun rang, but the shots bounced harmlessly off the ridiculously thick shell.

The woman barked out an order, and the crab that had defended her came at me in a full charge.

Its legs, each one several feet long, carried it towards me at an unreasonable speed, and I knew I couldn't outrun it. As it charged, it was almost completely silent, the wrappings on its legs making a muffled thump instead of an echoing clack with every step.

Before I could decide just what to do, the creature was on me. I had expected it to swipe at me with a claw, maybe try to stab me with one of its legs. Instead, the creature just didn't slow.

It kept charging forward like a red shelled wrecking ball.

I dropped my gun and jumped, reaching for the viewing platform. My fingers closed on one of the steps, which thankfully didn't have backs.

I bent my body, using all the desperate strength I had to lift my legs up and out of the way.

The crab raced past me, my legs clearing its shell by a few scant inches. I dropped, turning as I did to

land facing the crab.

Who had just realized it hadn't felt any resistance and was beginning to slow.

As it stopped, I grabbed hold of my shotgun.

It started to charge back towards me, and I opened fire--pump, boom, pump, boom.

The first shot hit a little too high, and well it dug a small divot into the crab's thick shell, it didn't do any real damage.

The second shot shattered one of its legs in a spray of blue blood, the third hit it center mass. Crushing the chitin around its face as it tore into it.

I kept firing until the gun clicked empty, and my shoulder felt numb.

The crab had several sections of its shell cracked and dented, but the most damage was from the shot to the face. The crab hadn't gone down immediately, staggering and thrashing in random directions, but I probably could've quit firing after that shot.

Then again, better safe than sorry.

I turned to face the woman, fearing that the other two crabs were already rushing me.

They weren't, at least not yet.

I reached in my pocket and started loading slugs into the gun.

I wasn't a world-class empath, if I had my aura unveiled or my sight, I could see strong emotions from someone, but it was more of a byproduct from my other powers.

But I had a feeling that someone without an ounce of magic in them could still feel the sheer amount of hate rolling off the woman, like heat rippling off a summer road.

She reached into her pocket again, and something clicked in my head. The wards on the tanks, she must be carrying something similar.

That was how she was controlling the crabs. For a split second, I weighed my options, if I unveiled my aura to try and cancel out her ward, it would no doubt alert Cheryl to my presence here, if she didn't already know.

But it might end this fight immediately.

I snarled and took the risk.

My aura whipped out from me, rushing forward to cover the woman and the crabs.

I swore and tried to narrow my aura as much as I could, hoping to avoid getting the crabs to come after me.

All of us froze, the woman looked down at her hand and pulled from her pocket a circular stone roughly the size of her fist.

Now that my aura was covering it, I could feel the magic rolling off the stone--the sensation of a furious and powerful predator's attention boiling off the small rock.

The crabs weren't sure what to think, scuttling closer to the woman, then closer to me.

I grinned, satisfaction burning in my chest. It worked!

The woman's face shifted into that cold, cold mask she had taken up at Barry's. I was amazed that she could still make that drastic of a shift.

I didn't think she was faking it. I could sense the change in emotion through my aura.

But that very aura that was covering her should've made it challenging to make such a drastic emotional swing.

I was considering taking another shot at the woman when she did the last thing I had expected. She reared back her arm and shattered the ward against the floor.

Everyone in the room stared at the woman in shock, the crabs included.

I was certain that the two remaining crustaceans were going to turn on the woman and tear her apart. Instead, the larger one took a single step towards her, then froze as the woman began to scream.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? I don't need a stone to command you, get him!"

The woman's voice held such absolute confidence that she would be obeyed, total certainty like it was a foregone conclusion, it terrified me.

Evidently, it terrified the crabs as well, because they turned after only a few seconds of hesitation and charged towards me.

Seriously!?

I didn't want to think of what the woman must've done already to make two giant tanks, with the power to tear either of us limb from limb, afraid of her.

Whatever it was, she had done it and done it convincingly enough that the two crabs would rather attack me than risk her wrath.

I had enough time to get a single shot off on the smaller of the two crabs before I was forced to dodge. My gun roared, and the crab's frontmost leg splintered at the first joint.

It caused the animal to falter, but it kept coming.

The larger of the two didn't slow down, though it did flinch slightly from the loud gunshot.

I repeated my trick of jumping for the viewing platform, tucking my body up with the motion.

Unfortunately, I had miscalculated just how much bigger this crab was then the other.

My feet were still moving upward when it reached me, and the top of its shell slammed into the soles of my feet. I tried to go with the motion, to lift my legs with it and let it slide past me.

The crab, however, wasn't inclined to work with me. As it passed under me, and I tried my best to keep my grip, the crab swung its claw, crashing it against the viewing platform with all its strength.

The viewing platforms weren't totally flimsy. They couldn't be if the aquarium didn't want a lawsuit on their hands.

But it was still held up by cables and a few pillars. The entire platform shook as the crab's car door-sized claw struck the steps with the force of a sledgehammer.

The steps vibrated straight out of my grip, and the next thing I knew, I was moving through the air.

For a brief moment, I tried to balance on the top of the crab shell, which was a good five or 6 feet off the ground, but since I had been trying to slide over the crab, I didn't have a good perch.

The brief grip from my shoes pulled my body in the direction the crab was moving, well, my center of gravity was leaning forward since I had been holding onto the platform, which resulted in me being flipped like a pancake.

The world spun in my vision, and I did my best to curl up, praying that I wouldn't smack my head into any of the metal support beams.

For once, luck was with me, and I landed almost on my feet.

My momentum caused me to roll forward more than once before I managed to stagger to my feet, incredibly dizzy.

The crabs had stopped, and I knew they would make another strange sideways charge any second.

I grabbed my shotgun, which ended up behind me somehow, and readied it. Then I heard footsteps approaching from behind me and sensed movement in my aura.

I fired at the crabs, pumping a few shots out in an attempt to slow them down, then I threw myself sideways into a role.

Crazy flew through the air where I had been, her flying tackle missing me completely thanks to my dodge.

My heart pounded in my ears, and my senses tried to take in everything at once. The lights overhead glinted off the massive crab shells, and they seemed to be blindingly bright.

The sounds of my own labored breathing mixed in with the women till I couldn't tell them apart in my head. She climbed to her feet, and I realized I probably should as well.

I got up, stumbling as I did.

The world spun in lazy circles, and I could hear voices trying to reach me, as if from a great distance.

With a snap, my dizziness faded, and I realized I had stumbled several feet to the side. The woman was staring at me with a slightly confused expression on her face.

Fair enough, I had just climbed to my feet and started stumbling around like a drunkard.

Getting flipped around had done more to my sense of balance than I'd thought.

I steadied my stance, noticing out of the corner of my vision that the crabs were staying back slightly.

The woman got into her ready stance of her own, it looked like some form of martial arts stance, but I wasn't an expert.

I stared at her for a second, then intentionally stumbled slightly. "I gotta warn you, if you come trying to grab me there is a very high chance I might puke all over you," I added a very slight slur to my words as I spoke, hoping to give off the right impression. The woman blinked, "what are you..." She stopped, shook her head, then charged towards me.

Wonderful. This situation could be safely classified as not good.

The woman tried to lead with a flying knee, and I jumped to one side, continuing in that direction for a couple of feet to create more distance instead of capitalizing.

The woman whirled and came at me again. If I got too far away from her, she might just send the crabs after me. If I tried to pull my gun on her, I wasn't certain I would be able to get the shot off before she closed the distance.

My balance was still off slightly, and it was taking all the focus I had to dodge. Since running wasn't feasible, the only other option should be to fight.

There was, however, a slight problem with that.

I tilted my head and crouched with one leg, lowering my body at an angle and letting her jab that had been aimed at my throat fly over me.

Crazy’s knee almost took me in the stomach.

If I had tried to punch her after my dodge, she would've buried it in me hard enough to make me throw up everything I had even thought about eating today.

I slipped past her, once again trying to gain just a foot of distance.

The problem was, she was better than me in a brawl.

From Barry's I already knew she was a better wrestler, she had barely had to do anything, and I had brained myself for her.

And the way she fought now told me that she was an experienced fighter.

I wasn't a complete novice, but in actually fighting someone mono e mono with my fists, I didn't have a ton of experience.

As she came in again, probably hoping to read my dodge, I was comforted by the fact that I was very good at one aspect of fighting.

I could dodge like it was going out of style.

She closed the distance, threw her right fist back, and stepped into the devastating punch.

I slipped to the right, which wouldn't save me from that punch.

It did put me out of range of her actual attack, though, the kick she had sent hurtling towards my right knee.

My movement, and extra step back with my right foot, had put me inches out of her reach.

The cold light in the woman's eyes ignited into fury, and she screamed. She started attacking a reckless speed, and it was everything I could do to dodge.

I was able to stay ahead. I wanted to go for my gun, but I didn't have time, each time I reached for the weapon, a hand or foot was whistling for my head or other vulnerable spots.

She was leaving opening after opening for me to counterattack, but I wasn't convinced they were real.

I had a feeling all of those reckless openings weren't openings. They were traps. And the second I went for one she would break my wrist or knee or find some other way to incapacitate me.

If my shotgun wasn't behind me, I could just take a step back and fire, but there was no way she would give me enough time to pull it from behind my back.

She continued to push me back, the sheer speed of her movements making me wonder if she was actually a spook of some kind.

If I hadn't spent the majority of my life dodging crazed and violent ghosts who could attack from any angle, not to mention send furniture at me, I would have been beaten into a bloodied pulp within seconds.

Thankfully, I guess, I had, and when combined with my aura, which let me track her movements with an extra sense, it let me stay ahead.

It also let me know when the woman was leading me into a trap.

Since I was actively fighting and relying on my aura, I had allowed it to drift out and surround me in a ten-foot sphere.

So, I felt it as the woman backed me towards the crabs. I was good at dodging.

But I was outnumbered, exhausted, and just about every part of my body hurt in some way.

Hell, if the woman had brought the crabs in immediately, I doubt I could have lasted for more than a couple of seconds.

It seemed she had just wanted to get the catharsis that beating me herself would've given her.

Of course, I didn't think she would've done that if she thought I could escape.

Which, fair enough, I couldn't escape. At least, not easily.

The crabs wouldn't be able to climb after me; if I got to one of the viewing platforms, they were too big.

But I doubted I could get to it without a knee to the back.

As she pushed me back towards the crabs, we passed by where I had dropped my pistol. Seeing a chance, I took it.

Throwing myself forward onto my knees, I snatched the gun and tried to roll to the side immediately.

She slammed into me. She had moved faster than I had been expecting, and before I knew what was happening, she had my arm and head in a lock.

We were crouched on the floor, my head at an uncomfortable angle, and my arm painfully straight, pointed at the tank behind her.

"I'll admit," she panted. "That was more challenging than I expected."

My neck started to ache from the angle, but I did my best to chuckle. "I have been told before that I'm rather difficult."

The woman took a deep breath, and, like at Barry's, I felt it when she shuddered. "You haven't made this boring. I'll give you that."

Jesus Christ, I understood running into crazy ghosts, but why the hell did I have to deal with the living crazies as well? It was just unfair.

Her hold constricted around my arm, sending a bolt of pain lancing down my shoulder.

"Now, make this easy, drop the gun and give up. Otherwise, I will happily break your shoulder." Her words, once again filled with eager joy, pressed against the feeling I'd felt a minute ago.

The feeling that it made me raise that gun, willing to shoot her.

They had not given me any other choice; they had come after me and clearly intended to keep doing so until I was dead. Or they were.

If I gave up, I was going to die.

The sheer animal need to survive rushed through me, making my whole body feel as if it were bursting with energy.

How was I going to get out of this? What could I do?

I wouldn't be able to hit the woman, the hold she had me in limited my movement, but didn't remove it altogether. However, there was no way I could inflict enough pain or injury to make her let go before she broke my arm or choked me out.

I couldn't use my gun at this angle, the only thing it was in danger of hitting was the glass– I stared at the glass behind us.

It was thick, but it wasn't that thick. "I'm going to count from five. And by all means, let me get to zero. It will improve my night."

I ignored the psycho, thinking frantically.

That much water would come through and sweep us off our feet in an instant. I might have enough time to lock a leg or an arm through the viewing platform steps.

We had moved too far from them. They weren't in easy reach.

"Four."

The water could kill me surely as going with the woman.

"Three."

But that was the rub, wasn't it?

"Two."

The water might kill me.

"One."

Going with Crazy would kill me.

I snarled and pulled the trigger. The gunshot cracked, and the woman tensed.

The next three shots were just as loud. As creepy as the woman was, she didn't seem to be an idiot.

It only took her second to realize what I was doing and throw herself off me and into a role.

She jumped to her feet and started to sprint, only to stop after a few feet.

The glass had been too thick, and the bullets too small. There was no rushing water, no wave of fish and salt.

The woman turned and saw me halfway up the viewing platform steps, my shotgun in my hands. The woman screamed, and I fired. The slug had a much more satisfying impact on the glass.

It impacted like a stone plummeting onto a frozen lake, denting in a large section, and sending cracks spreading out from it.

The glass didn't hold up after the next three slugs punched into it.

Water rushed out in an explosion of glass and noise. Pouring into the walkway like a miniature tsunami.

I lost sight of the woman, of the crabs that had been closing in, of everything.

Icy water rushed over me, flattening me against the rails.

The tank had been huge. It probably held water somewhere in the thousands of gallons.

You don't fight back against that much water. You don't resist it.

You merely hope to survive it.

The force of it thrashed me, shifting me back and forth on the steps, but since they were so narrow, I was effectively wedged in.

After what felt like a lifetime but was likely seconds, the force stopped.

I blinked, looking around.

There was a solid foot of water on the ground, and I couldn't see the crabs or the woman.

I started to get up, then I froze. I leaned over the rails and proceeded to throw up.

A distressing amount of water came out of me, and my mouth tasted like I had just emptied a saltshaker into it.

The whole area smelled like salt and fish. I felt a pang of guilt as I looked around and saw the fish flopping around, but I hadn't exactly been spoiled for choice.

I got up, and though the movement caused my vision to swim with pain, I got moving.

All of me hurt, from my hands to my feet.

But especially my back, the bruised mess that it was turning into had been slammed against the railing a few times in the flood, adding extra lines of agony to the already throbbing area.

"Well," I choked out. "Can't expect pain meds to do all the work, can you?"

I pushed my dripping hair from my eyes and staggered down the steps. The water was cold, but I was already soaked to the bone, so it didn't make much difference.

I kept walking. When I passed the tanks, I saw that the water had spread out quite a ways. The water level was lowering, though, thanks to some grates in the ground.

I saw the two crabs a couple of hundred feet away from me. They had been swept away as if they weighed nothing more than an ordinary crab. If they charged me, I would... Shit, I needed to reload.

I patted my pockets and found the slugs. I didn't have very many left, only enough to reload the gun one, maybe two more times after this.

The crabs ignored me, and I returned the favor. I was tired and more than a little tipsy from getting smashed around in the water.

But by God, I was going to find the soul cage, and whoever this Trenton was.

My thoughts were filled with enough stubborn spite that it was easy to keep going.

I followed the sensation as I had before, looking for the most uncomfortable feeling area.

I ended up going through another employee's only door. Thankfully, this one wasn't barred to kingdom come. I walked through a medium-sized room that had a tank in the center of it.

I was amazed at how much extra space was in this building, or under it for the most part.

The aquarium held a holiday tour a few years back, and I had taken it. They showed us the employee areas and the areas where they worked on animals. None of it had included this place, or even mentioned that they had lower levels.

I still had plenty of questions, ones I intended to get from Trenton, or whoever else was in charge.

In one corner of the room, a staircase led up to a partial floor, I say partial, but the walls still had enough space for at least one large office and maybe a waiting room as well.

I walked over towards those steps, and the feeling of wrongness tripled.

It went from being an ambiguous, if intense, feeling to suddenly pressing down on me like a lead weight.

I constricted my aura tighter around my body, and only then realized that I had forgotten to veil it in the chaos that followed shooting the tank.

I considered putting up my veil, but having my aura out was helping me stand the ugly sensations. And it had been out long enough that Cheryl was going to be coming for me regardless.

I paused for a second, focusing on my aura. The inside of it was technically just ambient magic that had been keyed to me. I could slowly pull it in to refill my aura's power. It didn't do anything for my shroud; in fact, it was what my shroud contained.

But I could shift where the magic inside my aura was concentrated. And I chose to concentrate it close to my body, hoping to create a buffer from the sensations.

It worked, somewhat. The disgusting feeling became less overwhelming but still noticeable.

I had learned that technique as a defense from psychic attacks. Something that stronger ghosts were more than capable of.

With that done, I readied the shotgun and got ready to face the soul cage, and presumably— the man who had created it.