Dad’s out somewhere when we get home from school, so I take this perfect opportunity to get some TV watching in… Hell yeah, Adventure Time is on.

I’ve only barely settled, when the phone starts ringing. I mute the TV and pick it up.

“Parker residence,” my Mom says, right as I’m opening my mouth to say hello. She must have already picked up the other phone in the master bedroom.

“Hey, honey. You somewhere private?” I hear Dad’s voice say.

“Yes I am,” Mom replies.

Oh wow… they didn’t hear me get on. I feel like I should hang up… but also, I’m kinda curious what they’re going to talk about…

“Well, just talked to Hurt again. Sounds like the police aren’t gonna be any help to us tomorrow,” Dad explains.

“Oh, that’s too bad to hear,” Mom says.

“Yep. Nobody’s buying it, Marie. This narrative we’re spreading that the Davis’s are bad people. Hurt went down to their house just yesterday. Talked with Zoe one on one. You know what she said? She said that she was there of her own accord, she wasn’t being forced to do anything, and she didn’t want to go home. Well, that makes our story look like a whole bunch of kablooey. And he totally bought it, too. Told us we were wastin’ the time of the police! He even asked what he had done to make her leave. If this keeps up, we may have a child neglect case on our hands.”

“Oh dear, Abram. That’s most disappointing to hear. Caught between a rock and a hard place, are we?”

“Quite so, dear. You’re quick on the uptake as usual. Now, our church believes the story, but the officials don’t. And if we just let her go, well, the church is gonna wonder why we got ‘em so riled up! So there’s only one thing to do. We gotta go get her back, and get her treated at that hospital Jared told us about. The issue is, that comes with its own challenges. Those folks are stubborn as bulls, and they made it clear they’re not gonna let us just walk in and take her. If we do try, it could be a huge incident. Possibly one that involves a lot of crying and screaming. That don’t make us look good either.”

“Well, maybe it’s the best option we got. Sounds like the other options are riskier. Unless…”

“Whatcha thinking, hon?”

“If we got Jared to vouch for us, he’d be able be able to smooth things over. People trust in him.”

“Oh, those Davis folks sure don’t trust in him anymore. After those big, bleedin’ heart speeches?”

“I ain’t talking about them, dear. I’m talking about the others at the church. Let’s face it. Those folks aren’t really bad people. And no matter how hard we try, nobody’s gonna believe that they’re bad.”

“Are you suggesting that we do just drop it, then?”

“Yeah. And Jared can help the others see that we had no choice.”

“Maybe that could work… but would he, Marie? I don’t think Jared would let us off the hook. Remember, he’s the one who came up with that idea for the conversion whatnot.”

“Awh, dang it. Maybe not.”

“I’m sorry Marie. We’re gonna have to stick to our guns. It’s the only way.”

“There’s another thing, honey…”

“What is it?”

There’s a pause, as Mom takes a few deep breathes before going on.

“This whole ordeal’s been real hard on Collin. You know that boy was always close with her. He took to her like he never took to either of his brothers. Always made me wonder if he’s not…”

“Oh honey, don’t say anything like that. I never want to have to go through this firestorm of events ever again.”

“I know, me neither. But that boy’s already been misbehaving’ worse than ever. What if we get Zoe off to that hospital and… He does something reckless?”

There’s a moment of silence, in which all I hear are both sides breathing.

“One child suddenly running off… we can spin that. Two children… well, that becomes a harder sell.”

“Exactly right, Abram. And I just can’t bring myself to tear apart my family even more.”

“Well, I certainly understand that. It would seem to go against the underlying idea of ‘family values’ if half of our kids are gone by the end of it. Hmm… Tell you what, let’s talk about this when I get home. I need to run a couple of other errands, and I’ll think it all over. We may just be able to win our way out of this one if we play our cards right… But you’re right. There’s a lot at stake here.”

“Okay, hon. Talk to you when you get home, then. Bye bye.”

Both of them hang up. I just sit there for a while, suddenly feeling very cold. I really wish I hadn’t chosen to eavesdrop… That was a look into my parents’ ways of thinking I really didn’t need.

I no longer have any desire to watch TV, so I turn it off and go into my room.

After school, I finally sit down and have a talk with Lucy about everything that happened yesterday, as well as what we’re planning coming up. I much prefer talking over the phone to writing, as the latter cramps my hand after a while, so I went on a short walk to the Methodist Church and entered from there. In the Metaverse, the church is still utterly demolished. I do this in part so that Ted can listen to our conversation, since the others I can just message about it later.

The conversation was really long, so I won’t bore you by making you read through the whole thing. Here is the SparkNotes of what we discussed:

Moloch does seem to have some sort of very limited ability to affect people in the regular world. However, doing so requires a huge amount of energy from him, so he does it very rarely. For the most part, it is limited to people who are asleep in the regular world, and his power is weakened over people with awakened Personas already. This how he was able to drag Zoe into the Metaverse, and why he couldn’t do the same to me, but could affect my dreams. Lucy has confirmed to me that there is another team of people out there opposing Moloch… or at least, there was. According to her testimony, they disbanded about a year ago. The operation that Moloch tried against Zoe actually succeeded against their team. He was able to capture one of the friends of the team members, who was named Suzy, and drag her into the Shadow Realm. They thought that she was dead… the truth was actually worse than that. She re-emerged in the middle of a nearby forest two weeks later, naked and completely deranged. Her mind had been totally broken, to the point where she had lost the capacity for language. She’s been in a psych ward ever since, with no sign of recovery so far. After this, the rest of the team got cold feet and called it quits. As for the dream I had, Lucy has said that she’s recently made headway into one of his other “seeds,” and so the reason why he’s leaving this part of the country for a while is actually to deal with her. He seems to mistakenly believe that her actions are the other team’s doing. This transitions into Moloch’s motives. His weirdly complicated plan from last night makes more sense when you consider that he has multiple agendas going on at once. Lucy thinks that Moloch draws his power from other people’s pain. So the reason why he didn’t just immediately kill Zoe as soon as he got her into the Metaverse is because being able to torture her first would’ve been able to boost his power temporarily. That said, his larger agenda is to cause a net increase in suffering throughout the country through seeds and palaces. It’s like the difference between eating a meal you like, and improving the quality of air where you live; the latter will be more beneficial to your health in the long term. So ultimately, when his plan with Zoe failed after she got away, he decided to wing it and try and see if he could take out at least a few of us so we couldn’t oppose him. As for why the Trooper gave us the tip about Zoe… That part is sort of unclear. Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue on her part, or maybe Moloch hoped that he could gather the rest of us up to finish us off or something after it was too late to save Zoe. Finally, Lucy told me that she thinks my theory about the “palace” at the church is solid. That said, she has never seen something like that happen before, as usually palaces based around churches just take the form of the palace being individually geared towards the pastor or some other high-ranking member. After listening to me explain all the bullshit with Zoe’s family, she said that it might have manifested itself this way because Palmer is taking his cues from the community and trying to pander to them, instead of the other way around like it usually is. She also said if this hypothesis is true, it’s a sign that the overall state of religion in the country is likely on the decline, which is sadly probably true.

Anyways, after we finally finish our discussion, I take Ted and I back into the regular world.

“Man, all of this supernatural bullshit makes my head spin,” I complain to him. “It’s like a rabbit hole that never ends.”

“Aye, there are things in this world that most humans weren’t meant to understand,” he comments sagely.

“Well, when you say it that way, that makes me feel kind of… elite,” I say. “Well, I guess I’ve always been one of the few who’s drawn to the more intellectual things in life. I get it from Dad. Well, both of my parents, honestly.”

“Excuse me, what are you doing out here?” A man’s voice asks from behind me.

I turn to see that it’s some middle aged balding dude, presumably someone working at the church who isn’t used to seeing people around at this time.

“Just hanging out,” I tell him. “I find this is a relaxing place to sit after school.”

“And just who are you talking to?” He asks.

“Nobody. I find that it helps me think to bounce ideas off of myself,” I say.

He gives me a slightly creeped-out look, like he’s under the impression I’ve lost my marbles. Actually, that’s kind of strange. Couldn’t he hear Ted talking? Ted wasn't speaking particularly quietly, so if he heard me, he should’ve heard him too. Ah well, it’s probably for the better if he didn’t hear Ted’s side of the conversation anyway.

“What is that on the table?” He asks me sternly. “Young miss, that’s a wild animal! You should not be playing with it.”

“Don’t worry, I’m great with animals,” I assure him. That said, I picked Ted up from the table and set him on the ground. “Better skedaddle, little buddy,” I tell him. He wisely heeds my advice and makes his way back to the forest.

I turn back towards the old man, who seemingly just had his worst fears that I’m a lunatic who talks to animals confirmed. “You better get on home,” he tells me.

“Yeah, fine, I will,” I say. I hurry and do so, since I feel like if I don’t he may call the police on me.