Elaine Trudeau tugged on Tommy’s wrist, dragging him away from the weeping boys.

Okay, so Tommy is possessed by a demon, no big deal. We’ll just get him a ride to the big city and find a sorcerer to perform an exorcism. Then he’ll be back to himself, right as rain.

“That seems disrespectful to your friend’s wishes,” Tommy said, unresisting as he stumbled away from the massacre, a bright smile stretching from ear to ear. “He’s had more fun the last fifteen minutes than the last fifteen years. You think he wants to go back to pissing himself and struggling to say what he’s thinking, then being mocked for it? I mean, he did let me in.”

“Shut up, demon.” Elaine said, tightening her grip as she dragged the poor soul along with her. Ever since the succubus had visited the entire land on the same night, people knew demons existed. Elaine didn’t know that they could possess people, but the behavior was the same.

The demon chuckled, but he didn’t resist.

“I’m actually a girl. Just a tiny correction there.”

Elaine brushed the comment off. You can’t let a demon get under your skin.

“Good instincts.”

She came to a stop in front of old man Bhernsvik’s house, refusing to let Tommy’s wrist go as she began pounding on the door with the other hand.

“Mr. Bhernsvik! Mr. Bhernsvik! Open up!”

There was a clatter and some groaning from behind the door, followed by some shuffling.

“This guy’s got it together,” Tommy said with a grin.

“Shut up.”

“The Abyss is going on?” Mr. Bhernsvik’s voice unmuffled as he tore the door open, peering at the two of them sourly.

“Elaine?” The old cobbler asked, scratching his thinning hair. “What are you doing on my doorstep girl?”

“I need to borrow your cart and Lucienne.”

“What? No. Use your dad’s.”

“You know as well as I do that Janie’s hugely pregnant and the cart’s being used as a godsdamned planter.” Elaine said with a scowl. “We need your two seater.”

“Wha – Why? It’s after ten. Nothing doing around this time of night anyway. There a fire or something?” He scanned the horizon curiously.

“Tommy’s possessed by a lust demon.” Elaine said, tugging Tommy into view. “He forced Will and the others make out with each other until they cried.”

“I know for a fact at least one of them was into it.” Tommy said, then glanced at Mr. Bhernsvik. “I mean…” Tommy wrapped his arms around himself and rocked back and forth, whimpering.

“Can it wait until morning?” The scraggly old man asked, blinking his gummy eyelids.

“He used some weird Bent ability to force Will do something he called ‘twerking’, then tried to steal Errol Flint’s Guar and ride it to the south to ‘save the world’.

Tommy chuckled.

“I’ll get my hat.” Mr. Bhernsvik said with a sigh.

“What? You’re not coming!” Elaine said.

“My cart, my rules!” Bhernsvik shouted over his shoulder. “You think I’m gonna leave something like this to a teen girl? And don’t you dare bring up that old dirt, We are square!”

A sudden pain in her butt cheek elicited a squeak out of Elaine, who jumped before she got a hold of herself.

“Hands to yourself!” She said, heart hammering as she shoved Tommy backwards.

“You’re the one who won’t let me just go south.” Tommy said with a raised brow. “And that’s not a euphemism. I’m on –“

“Yes, yes, you’re on an important mission to trek halfway across the world~” Elaine waggled her fingers. “You’ve got to warn everyone before they get taken over by the mind-consuming drug and shafted by the giant metal penises being constructed by an undead pervert across the ocean.”

Elaine rolled her eyes.

“I may be a country girl, but I ain’t dumb. I never even heard of this drug you’re talking about, and giant metal cocks?” Elaine rolled her eyes. If the creature was trying to convince her to let it go, it was doing a piss-poor job.

Tommy clapped his hands together.

“So you have been listening!” He threw his arms around her shoulder, causing the hairs on her neck to stand up. “Listen, after this war is over, assuming you’re still alive, I might have a job opening for you in the capital as an advisor slash girlfriend. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a person as pure of heart as you?”

“No thanks,” Elaine said, shrugging Tommy off her shoulders.

“It’s nothing supernatural. I can’t steal your soul or anything, it’s just my hobby to collect nice things, and you are a nice thing.”

“Hard pass.”

“We’ll see about that.” Tommy said with a smile.

Behind the closed door was a fair amount of clomping followed by the wood being yanked open again. This time the potbellied old man was dressed to travel, wearing a faded jerkin, a traveller’s cloak, and some spiffy new boots.

The boots were about the only thing the old man had that weren’t second-hand, and that was because he’d made them himself.

Elaine was fairly suspicious that they added a couple inches of height to the old man, as he appeared just a bit more intimidating than before.

“Three.” Tommy said, glancing at her. “It’s actually three.”

It’s not reading your mind, it’s just trying to get under your skin.

Tommy scoffed.

“Alright, follow me.” Mr Bhernsvik said, motioning for them to follow as he led the way with his lantern, following the side of his house until they came to an extended eave where the old man’s two-seater cart rested. It was full of leather scraps and the occasional failed product.

“Damnit,” The old man muttered, setting down his lantern and grabbing a rake, before swabbing out the dirty cart enough to take passengers, dumping the leather on the ground. They would need space in the back with all three of them.

“That’s a lot of shoes.” Tommy said, brow raised. “I’ve always wondered about cobblers. You like feet, right? Is that a cobbler thing, or just a pervert thing. Is it like rectangles and square? Are all cobblers foot fetishists that use the work to get off, or only some of them? Do you have to be a foot guy before you even start? Does it turn you into a foot guy? The world may never know.”

“I hate feet,” Mr. Bhernsvik growled, shoving the last of the leather scraps out of the cart and grabbing the yoke, lifting the empty cart up and heading for the little shed where his Guar rested. “They’re smelly and gross, and don’t do shit for me.”

“Seems like you picked the wrong job, then, huh?” Tommy asked.

“That really isn’t Tommy, is it?”

Elaine shook her head.

“We’ve got to get him to Brennoth, see if the duke can draw the demon out.”

“Brennoth?” Tommy asked, tensing. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Brennoth is a bit of a…hotspot right now. You guys would probably have better luck if you steered around Brennoth and went straight for Ilestar.”

“That’s nearly a week longer.” Elaine shot back.

“Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.”

“No chance in the Abyss I’ll let some demon slut set our destination.” Elaine said.

“Nope, we’re going to Ilestar.” Tommy said, shaking his head. “Sorry to do this to you, but…” He raised his hand in the same way he had before Will started caressing David’s shoulders, and…

Nothing. Tommy looked down at his own hand and jostled it a few times with his palm.

“Oh come on, Tommy, it’s for her own safety! How are you a stickler now? I said you could hang around because I felt bad for you, but this? This is just dumb. You’re gonna get your imaginary girlfriend killed.”

Sensing an opportunity, Elaine grabbed Tommy’s hands and wrenched them around behind his back, taking off her work scarf and tying it around the teen boy’s wrists.

“Wow, clearly you’ve got some experience with this. Get a little late night studying in?” Tommy asked with a wink as she shoved him toward the cart.

“Pigs.”

“Not quite as exciting as I thought, but you can’t argue with resul – Mmph!”

Tommy gagged a bit as Mr. Bernvic shoved a bit of stiff shoe leather in Tommy’s mouth before strapping it on so he couldn’t spit it out.

“Get his legs,” Elaine said, hoisting Tommy’s wriggling form into the cart before tying his legs together with some nearby rope.

“What are we gonna tell his father?” Mr. Bhernsvik asked with a sigh.

“Hopefully, that we fixed the problem.” Elaine said, looking down at the wiggling form of Tommy, still trying to speak through the gag, glaring at her.

“You’re a stout girl,” Mr. Bhernsvik said, shaking his head as he led Lucienne over to the cart, where he hooked the sleepy Guar up to the yoke before putting her in motion.

In a matter of minutes, they were rattling down the road, the way rather bumpy at fifteen miles per hour.

In the back of the cart, Tommy was getting violently jostled around, groaning as the road basically took a turn beating on him.

I’m sorry Tommy, but we’ve got to get whatever that thing is out of you.

“I hope you know that after this, we’re square,” Mr. Bhernsvik said, staring out at the dark-drenched road.

After what you did? Elaine thought, anger swirling.

“Not even close,” Elaine said, leaning back to check on Tommy. The demon seemed to be laughing uproariously into the gag between bounces.

For the first few hours of the night, everything went fine, as Soscath rose and bathed the paltry dirt road with enough light to see by, even without the lamp. The pinkish moonlight filtered down through the grass and gave the brush surrounding them an otherworldly feel to it.

The only sound was the rattling of the cart as the wheels ate ground and the hushed whisper of the wind playing through the grass.

“So how’s your dad?” Mr. Bhernsvik said, awkwardly trying to fill the void.

“Still drinking,” Elaine said, not looking away from the dirt road in front of her.

“You know, you can let him know it’s okay to move on. What happened to your mom wasn’t his fault.”

Elaine glanced pointedly at the potbellied cobbler beside her.

“I know.”

She let the words hang in the air, and Mr. Bhernsvik didn’t pick them up.

The man coughed nervously, then dug into his jacket and pulled out a canteen and started taking sips.

“The Abyss is that?” Elaine asked.

“It’s a special potion that makes time go faster. Wanna sip?” He asked, offering it to her. Elaine took a whiff and felt her nose hairs curl up in protest before shaking her head.

“Your loss I gue-“ The sound of dry grass crunching brought them both up to high alert.

“The Abyss?” Mr. Bhernsvik muttered, peering out into the distance, his hand inching behind him.

“EE EEE OOO!” Tommy grunted from the back seat, his wiggling intensifying.

Elaine widened her eyes as she looked out into the dim grass, turned vaguely pink by the light of Soscath.

“We ain’t too far from town,” Mr Bhernsvik whispered, grabbing a hefty iron spear from the clips on the side of the cart. “If it’s a Kar or a Stoat, I’ll gladly have your help, but if it’s something big like a Widowmaker, you make a run for it.”

“This far north?” Elaine asked, rolling her eyes.

“Peace!” a voice called out from the woods as a man stepped into the light of the lantern, his arms raised to show them he had no weapons.

“What are you doing out here, traveler?” Mr. Bhernsvik said, glancing the fellow up and down. He looked fairly odd. The man was wearing a heavy coat, his arms were dirty up to the elbow, and he wore a large cloth sack over his shoulder.

The sack was loose and open, but Elaine couldn’t quite make it out because the light that entered it seemed to vanish into nothing, like the mundane cloth sack was a portal into nothingness.

All told, strange.

“Oh, I’m lost, I suppose,” The man said with a shrug. “I was looking for Brennoth, but I guess I got turned around. You people wouldn’t happen to be going somewhere near there, would’ya? I would give my firstborn for a ride outta here, my feet are practically burger.”

“We’re fixing to head up there, but we don’t have space.” Bhernsvik said, nodding. “Got a kid what’s ill.”

“She looks fine, though,” The man said, glancing at Elaine.

To that statement, Tommy began acting up again, flopping around in the cart and screaming through the gag.”

“You got someone tied up in there!?” the stranger said, taking a step closer.

“Hold off,” Mr. Bhernsvik said, putting the iron spike between the two of them, tip hovering near the man’s chest. “You’re a stranger. Anyone in these parts knows better than to let a stranger that shows up outta nowhere walk right up within spitting distance.”

“Anyone knows to take a second look at anyone carrying a restrained person in a cart in the middle of the night.” The stranger shot back.

“You’re on an isolated road between Brennoth and a little town called Gulier. Ain’t much else but rock and grass for fifty miles. The odds of you wandering onto this road are slim, and if you had,” Mr. Bhernsvik said, pointing at the man’s dirty bare feet. “Your feet would be bleeding. You’re obviously not lost.”

“What is that, some kind of magic bag?” Elaine felt the need to jump in as the cobbler picked apart the man’s alibi. “Who gets lost when they can afford something like that?”

The stranger sighed.

“Why do the hicks always have the best survival instincts?”

The man grabbed Mr. Bhernsvik’s spear and hauled it to the side as he lunged forward. The old man tried to pull it back, but the stranger was already to close.

“Shi-“ Mr. Bhernsvik grunted, turning the spear sideways and using it as a barrier between him and the madman, who tried to bite and scratch like an animal.

Elaine braced herself on the cart and kicked the man in the chest with everything she had, sending him tumbling backward.

The fall upset the man’s bag, and Elaine realized that the bag wasn’t magic. It was whatever was inside it. A sand of some kind, so black that each grain stood out in the night as a mote of pure black, flew out of the bag as the man tumbled.

“Go!” Elaine shouted, But Mr. Bhernsvik was already whipping Lucienne into action. The Guar started into a run, pulling the cart along the road at tooth-rattling speeds.

“M-M-M-M!” Tommy groaned as the cart began pitilessly thrashing him around the back.

Elaine was looking over her shoulder at the dark form they’d left behind, slowly getting to his feet, expecting the man to give chase, or perhaps drop onto all fours and break into an animalistic sprint. Marconen was riddled with horrors and living outside a city was dangerous living. It paid to be paranoid and see monsters everywhere you look.

Sometimes you’re right and it saves your life.

Sometimes it doesn’t make a difference.

A harsh gurgle grabbed Elaine’s attention, and she swiveled her head around to see Mr. struggling to hold off a horrific crablike creature, a little smaller than a Guar. It was perched on the side of the cart, attacking the driver with its manifold limbs.

He was pushing the massive mandibles away from his face, but the thing had many more limbs than he did, and one of the sharp talons had found its way into his neck while the others eviscerated the old man’s arms and torso.

Mr. Bhernsvik looked at her, and she could see the light fading from his eyes. The old man glanced behind her even as his arms began failing, allowing the gnashing mandibles to sink into his face.

Elaine turned her head and spotted another creature leaping out of the dim moonlight into the light of the lantern. Its talon-tipped arms were splayed wide, ready to catch her no matter what direction she tried to run in.

She felt a jerk around her neck and felt her dress tear a little as something yanked her backwards, bruising her spine as she flipped over the back of the cart. Elaine got a brief flash of the creature’s legs whipping past her face, followed by dust covered wood, loose ropes, and Tommy’s pants.

“Stop.”

When she raised her head, she saw that she was directly below Tommy, staring up at his haughty face. The possessed boy held a hand up with a malicious grin as the creature twitched, claws inches away from sinking into the boy’s flesh.

“Kill your friend.”

He flicked his fingers toward the other crab-creature, and it tackled the one on Mr. Bhernsvik, claws sinking into the joints between the creature’s armor plating.

“We need to go.” Tommy said, hauling her to her feet and off the cart, avoiding the tangled mess of flailing claws.

“But Mr. Bhernsvik-“

“Look,” Tommy said, turning her to face him. “I understand you have a hero complex, and that dude’s got maybe a fifty-fifty chance of being your real dad, but he’s already dead, and more are going to be coming in the next couple minutes, because they called in the cavalry, so we gotta GO.”

Tommy grabbed Elaine by the hand and started running, turning off the road and heading straight south instead of southwest.

As they ran out into the grassy wilderness, Elaine nearly tripped over an X of pure black. When she stumbled and glanced over her shoulder she saw it was some kind of arm-sized trunk with four void leaves on the top of it.

As a matter of fact, these tiny things seemed to be everywhere at regular intervals, growing easily in Iletha’s poor soil.

“Godsdamnit, Elliot, you asshole.” Tommy muttered as they ran.

“Why did you help me?” Elaine asked.

“Eh, why not?”

“You’re a demon. Shouldn’t you not care? Revel in destruction? Are you actually trying to save the world?”

Tommy glanced over his shoulder at her as they ran, their breath sending up plumes of steam in the cold night air.

“I’m not that kind of demon. I like fucking with humans. I can’t exactly fuck with humans if they cease to exist can I?”

“How altruistic.”

“You asked.” Tommy tensed up a moment before grabbing Elaine and pushing her down into the grass.

They stayed there for a while, breathing as silently as possible, trying not to let the steam from their breath give away their position.

A minute later, Elaine heard the scuttling of legs as another of the creatures approached. Tommy threw a hand over her mouth as the thing approached, seemingly at ease with the untenable situation.

It’s going to find us! Can you not see that! It’s already found us! Its raising its claws, oh gods, it’s going to kill me, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.

Elaine’s adrenaline made the moment seem to last forever as the wickedly sharp talon raised up…then stepped over them, the monster continuing on its way, seemingly aiming for the direction they had come from.

“What was that?” Elaine whispered.

“I made it not register our presence.” Tommy whispered back. “Don’t take that as a license to do anything stupid though, I’m not made of Bent right now, and the instant you become more liability than amusement, I will absolutely leave you to die.”

Elaine’s stomach sank as she came to a horrifying realization.

“We’re only a few miles outside my home,” Elaine said, eyes widening. “These things are prowling around my home. I have to go back and save my brother.”

“You could go back, and die together with the rest of your family in a matter of days when they raid your village, or, you could try to warn the throne before that happens and direct the king’s attention to the problem, and maybe save your people before they even know there was a threat.”

“Maybe? I’m supposed to abandon them on a maybe?” Elaine demanded. “You can do it on your own, can’t you!?”

Tommy winced. “It’s a little more complicated than that. The people in the capital…they’re really good at manipulating memories, and Tommy’s mind has already got a me-shaped hole blown into it, and the king and I don’t really get along very well. So if I were to deliver the news by myself…”

Tommy shrugged. “The reaction definitely wouldn’t be fast enough to save your people. But you. Your mind is in mint condition. Absolutely no one’s been messing around in your head. Show your memories to the king, and he’ll be much more likely to believe that something funky is going on here, despite his many advisors actively covering it up.”

“Did you plan to take me with you from the beginning? That’s why you didn’t just run off?” Elaine’s eyes widened. “That’s why you waited until we were attacked! You let us be attacked!”

“Well, yeah, you wouldn’t have believed me otherwise-“

Elaine slapped Tommy, putting all of her Body into it.

Tommy’s eyes rolled back in his head and he shuddered, smiling.

“That was nice.”

Repulsed, Elaine aimed for another smack, but Tommy caught her hand.

“That’s enough of that. I’m weighing your lives against millions of my people. You do not have the right to be appalled. Now do you want to come with me and try to fix this, or do you wanna stay here and die?”

Elaine clenched her teeth together hard, pain shooting through her jaw as her teeth resisted each other.

“I’ll come with you.”

“Excellent.” Tommy climbed to his feet. “Coast is clear, let’s go.”

“Who are you?” Elaine asked, climbing to her feet.

“It’s probably better if you don’t know.” Tommy said, brushing off his clothes. “Just call me Tommy.”