He didn’t so much as turn when he walked down the patio and back to his chauffeured car. It wasn’t because he didn’t care about what was happening with her right now, it was because he believed she could handle it.

If not on her own, then maybe with the help of the boy who owns those green trainers. Though that was still an unfounded speculation.

Honestly, he would have prefered to stay with her.

He noticed a dark spot on his cuffs, and hoped it wasn’t from the cleaning. That kitchen was filthy. Beyond that, he prayed it wasn’t blood. But thinking back to the state he found himself in at the end of June…

Well, at least he had a phone, and even more conveniently, a driver.

As he stopped to give the stain a rub, the driver got out, and bowed at the door. Well, to say he was being chauffeured was a bit of an overstatement, it was a taxi van, built wide and sturdy to occupy six passengers at once. Not exactly a luxury.

The driver contrasted this. Not greatly, but the young man was wearing a sort of bell hop outfit.

“Are you alright, your majesty?”

His majesty gave a smile, “No, honestly. But I’m just glad to have a good man like you. It would have taken me far longer getting here if you weren’t by my side.”

The unlikely companion gave an uneasy smile. Really, it was a strange way to meet. He’d woken up at about four in the morning in the back of the van. After searching his surroundings slowly, methodically, the driver peaked through the van door.

The chap seemed to recognise him, not as a passenger, but as the leader of the Mountain, Bastard Tudor. The chap had claimed to be a second worlder that had served via a small paramilitary in the area.

The odds that he would just so happen to wake up there, in Clover’s country, was unlikely. There was no doubt in his mind that there was a reason, at least two, that he had awoken from June under these conditions.

“Would you like me to- Uhm… Take your bag, sir?”

Bastard checked the wrapped contents of his plastic shopping bag.

“I don’t think that’s necessary, really,” he said with a smile.

He entered the strangely scented vehicle once more, buckling himself in the middle seat at the back of the converted van.

There was a slight stall as the driver got the car started.

Honestly, he’d prefer a little more professionalism, where ever they were going next, he’d like them to get there quickly.

After years of experience, he’d learnt that people will always have more than an alternative reason for doing anything. Taking this driver for an example; he needs money, that was obvious, he’d need it to live in this environment. That was reason number one for working this job.

Reason number two, he was afraid. He was both right to fear Bastard, and wrong to. It’s true, if the King wanted to, he could erase this man. He’d face no consequences, no evidence would be left, and if Bastard desired it, there wouldn’t even be an investigation.

Every record would be deleted, all family and friends would be silenced.

“W-Where would you like to go next, your majesty? Anywhere in town? For some proper food?”

“No, thank you. I’ll make do with the snack food you had.”

Well, why would he want to do that to this man?

Not until he learned the driver’s other reasons for working this job.

Bastard grabbed a banana from the rucksack that was lying by his feet. There was water and junk food in the bag, but he wasn’t particularly thirsty, nor did he have a taste for crisps.

As he was eating, he glanced over to the plastic bag he’d taken from Clover.

“Have you worked closely with Clover?” the king asked.

The driver twitched his ears behind the black screen.

“Uhm, no sir, no. I’m more of a support role. I’d… drive people around, deliver product to the other counties.”

The Mountain held the peel in his hand, searching for a place to put it.

“That’s quite a low role for a second worlder. I’d have expected such a job to be relegated to a first.”

“Haha,” The driver laughed, “I don’t think I have to tell you this, sir, but I’m not very well suited for extortionist or strike rolls. I’m not exactly intimidating or combative.”

“Hmm.”

There wasn’t much Bastard could say to that.

“Are you happy with this job then?”

The driver paused.

“I mean- it pays well, sir, but the hours are long…”

“That sounds like most jobs. I asked if you’re happy with this.”

“S-sorry sir, I’m really just a driver.”

Bastard tilted his head away from the black screen, finally deciding to fling the banana into the bag.

It wouldn’t do him any harm to give the current situation some thought. What were his reasons for coming here?

Reason number one, was obvious. He wanted to check on Clover.

Though she was both an important person to him and living in a rather lucrative area at the moment, he felt that wasn’t a decisive reason for him to finish the Blind Moon in this country when there was more happening around the world.

Possible reason one was that he was checking in on the situation that made this country so lucrative. That young man in Belfast. He’d grown quiet over the last year. A cause for concern, told Bastard’s best judgement.

Possible reason two, was inside the plastic bag alongside his rubbish.

Possible reason three… a previously unknown threat. Maybe the green shoes, though he was starting to doubt it. It was most likely something that had been sleeping just under the surface of these rolling hills.

“Sir.”

The voice took his focus away from the thought.

“Yes-” He stopped himself, “You haven’t told me your name yet, have you?”

“Sir, that can wait. There’s a suspicious person in road ahead of us.”

He crossed his arms, glancing out the window to the side.

“Turn right here, I’ve memorised the town map. That’ll let us loop around and onto the next main street. It’s just one person? And suspicious how?”

“Yes, one girl, a teenager. She’s wearing a mask of some kind.”

Bastard’s eyes shot to his rubbish bag. “Ornamental?”

“Grey fabric; it’s a bandana coving her eyes.”

Reason four then…?

The driver eventually turned down the street as ordered, not wanting to risk involving himself in a serious conflict.

Bastard rose from his seat, staring out the rear window.

“I don’t see anyone following. I suppose that SUV has been on our tail for a while…”

The driver began to sweat.

“Give me a description of this girl,” he ordered, returning to his seat.

“I can’t say much- She was standing in the middle of the road in the distance, at quite a distance from us. She had a baggy outfit. Pale hair, like it’d been dyed some time ago, rinsing out the colour. And like I said, a mask, covering only her eyes.”

Bastard nodded along, “Right. However, it’s quite unlikely that she was a Unit, or even a second-worlder. There would be no feasible way, short of telepathy or some other extrasensory ability, for her to know who we are.”

The driver nodded along, “Yes sir, but-” he was more afraid that he might offend the King, “-but isn’t there a chance that they followed us from Clover’s?”

Bastard gave a near unseen shrug, “Yes, she would have had to see us there, but then travel ahead. I was only visible for a few seconds. There is no way that an enemy could find us in this time.”

“Right…”

With the driver half satisfied, Bastard could delve into his true thoughts.

If he were being completely honest, Bastard would have told the man that this girl was most likely a Unit, he just didn’t want the one driving to be placed under any more pressure.

It wasn’t a lie per say.

“Occam’s razor,” Bastard started, “the most obvious answer is most likely to be the correct one.”

The driver nodded along, the calming voice serving to reassure him. “Right. Yes, you’re right, sorry.”

Bastard shook his head, “Please, don’t apologise like that. You’re doing a great job. Caution is an attribute.”

The thing about Occam’s razor is that in a world where a little girl can perfectly alter probability in her favour, there were no obvious answers, and the ones that seemed obvious were often too good to be true.

For the time being, he suspected that this girl, if she appeared again, would prove the ancient line of thinking wrong.

The car got caught in a line of traffic.

“Sir!”

And there it was.

Bastard crossed his legs, giving his hair a little brush. He’d like to be half presentable

“She seems to be out of breath, it’s definitely the same girl, your majesty! She’s approaching and I have no way of backing out!”

Bastard frowned a little, “Sorry, I could have been more honest with you. This next bit is an order. Calm yourself. When you told me she had her eyes covered, I coupled that with the fact that she needed a way to figure out who we are. In other words, it’s more than likely that she is using that clothe to hamper her average senses to get a better grasp on her paranormal ones, especially if she’s new to this- Which she is.”

The driver went wide eyed, “Sir?”

“Calm yourself,” he repeated, detecting the tremble on the unnamed driver’s voice. “If she wants anything, it’s me. You will be fine. Even if she doesn’t know it herself.”

He undid his seatbelt for a second time, and exited the van.

The girl, who was actually pale all over upon closer inspection, froze at a few metres away from the dusted man.

“Good morning,” He said with a smile in his eyes, “Would you like to chat?”

The girl was mousy, thin, her hair a morning mess.

There was a slight tremble in her lip, Bastard noticed.

…

She sat opposite him, her hands switching between her tracksuit pockets and her lap.

“I did invite you in to talk, young lady,” in another voice it might have come off as demeaning, but in this man’s…

“I-I’m going to be your boss.”

There was a surprised smile on Bastard’s face, “Oh?”

She steeled herself, “I know what type of work you do.”

The smile slipped, “You’d have to be a little more specific. I do a lot of work.”

Finally she gathered the courage to move.

She took a box cutter out of her pocket, and slit open the seat beside her.

Bastard watched patiently as she dug her small hand into the crevice.

“I think now you know what type of business I’m talking about.”

She pulled a see-through bag out of the hole, the contents of which was a fine white powder.

He lowered an eye brow, “Why would you want to run a business with that? You can’t be much older than… sixteen?”

“Eighteen.” she said, tossing the bag to the ground.

“It honestly doesn’t matter. That’s a particularly hard job to fill. Wouldn’t you rather… Be a surgeon? A politician? Those make money, hours just as long as ‘organised criminal’,”

She clicked the cutter down, “I’m not just any criminal.”

She finally conveyed a show of emotion, of character, “I’m a super villain.”

Bastard broke eye contact while she said it.

‘Americana’, he thought to himself.

“And why would you want to be that?”

Her sharp smile faded.

She had expected him to laugh. Who wouldn’t if a crazy girl walked up them claiming to be a super-villain? The plan was, that after proving her powers, she’d be able to, at the very least, get a job from him.

“What?”

“Well, wouldn’t it be easier to be a ‘hero’? Or at least, wouldn’t it be easier to call yourself that? Anti-hero is the word, I think. Typically, people see their actions as justified, for you to call yourself a villain, you must actually believe it. And it would appear you’ve put very little thought into the idea, it was probably the first thing that sprang to mind. And what with you only having powers for the last… Eleven hours, however long it’s been, you haven’t even considered the logistics.”

She was visibly shaking now, not that she hadn’t already been, it was just that this particular tremor seemed like she was in a panic.

“What?”

She lifted her palm up for a second.

“What are your powers anyway? You have at least one extra sensory power. And where do you know me from? Do you even know who I am?”

She pushed her back against the seat, “W-who the hell are you?” She wasn’t even listening to his questions now, it was strange how she played into the conversation.

He nodded.

“Please, just call me Bastard.”

She let out a hysterical laugh, “Right, what else would I call you, Asshole?”

He didn’t flinch, this had happened so many times, he was beyond the point of laughing politely.

She clamped her mouth.

“Well, to be quite frank with you, I’m not saying this to toot my own horn, but I am the most powerful man in the world.”

Not knowing what that meant, she kept quiet.

“There are hundreds of people around the world, arguably millions, that have powers comparable to your own. The only reason you haven’t heard of them so far is because you’ve been a part of the ignorant masses.”

He hated to phrase it like that, but it was true. Ignorance was in mass. He didn’t think less of them, if anything he pitied them.

His wording had the slightly unwanted effect of scaring this gloomy girl.

“Again, I’ll ask that you tell me your powers.”

He would have asked her how she got them, that was what he actually wanted to know, but what with June being not long passed, there was almost no way for her to know, she probably woke up this morning with a startled scream.

The number of people who died during June was equal to the number of people who ascended to becoming Unitary, perhaps less.

“I-” She tried to start, but the world was spinning around her.

She’d developed a horrible case of nausea. What was she thinking? She really thought she could just waltz up to a random criminal on the street, and after she kicked their ass, she’d be the boss?

This was a bad, bad idea. And it’d probably get her killed by this guy.

“I can see through things…”

Bastard nodded politely, his hands at rest on his lap.

“And… I can z-zoom in. Like a telescope…”

“Hmm.” He hadn’t really heard of an ability like that- well, he could count his own, but that would be cheating, wouldn’t it.

“Well, I can tell you right now, apart from recognisance and finding lost change, that’s quite a useless ability.”

He could hear her teeth chatter, and thought about saying something a little kinder.

“Now, that’s not to say that you can’t think of a way to use it to do something useful, like surgery… I’m beginning to sound like my father, he wanted me to become a doc-”

As the blade snapped out at full-length the girl lunged forward, swinging at him widely.

He sat still with his hands on his lap, catching the glint of the razor in his eye.

The driver had no clue what was happening in the back, but the sudden scuffle alarmed him. He halted the brakes just after the girl had landed a hit on The Mountain’s neck.

She was flung back, coughing up bile as she slammed back into her seat. They hadn’t stopped at a very high speed, but it was enough to knock the wind out of her.

“You should have done your seat belt, if you’ll pardon my lecturing. It really is dangerous.”

She didn’t need to open her eyes wide to see him, but she did anyway.

She focused on the part she’d stabbed for.

And there was nothing.

Not a gash, not a scratch, not a red mark, and not a single cell on his skin had been ruptured.

“Uwhu-” She started, but began to cough.

“Oh,” Bastard remembered.

“Here drink this,” he handed out a bottle of water, but she didn’t take it.

She looked to her weapon; every square blade gone.

She gave her ability a thought, and everything but the ‘blades of a box cutter’ became invisible to her.

The bottled water, the van, the Bastard, they were all gone. But nowhere in that void were her blades.

He forced the bottle to her mouth.

“You know, don’t tell her this if you see her, or I guess, when you see her, but- This reminds me of a time when I had to nurse Clover back to health. She was sick from a flu she’d caught at school.”

She was hardly listening now, the only thing on her mind was a great fear.

“Come on, you can hold it yourself.” She did as she was told, though she’d already had enough to set her straight.

Bastard returned to his seat again, “Still, it’s quite clever of you to wear that cloth, so people can’t tell where you’re looking? I’d thought it was to drain information, but I guess I was wrong.”

It had actually calmed her down, getting thrown against the wall, him offering her water was what terrified her. It was like one of those sick scenes from a mafia movie, right before the calm boss killed someone viciously.

And now he was sitting here with a waiting smile.

“Well?”

She blinked. What did he want now?

“What?”

He looked a little cross, “Please, I don’t know how you expect me to have a conversation with somebody who only says ‘what’.”

“Sorry.” She was looking down now.

“I’ve told you my name, so you should tell me yours.”

She could feel despair wraping around her; coiling around, trying to squeeze the life out of her.

But she resisted, with all of her might, “There’s another reason I wear this mask.”

“Right.” He turned to a neutral face. “Super hero.”

“Super villain,” she corrected.

“But don’t you have a… villain name?”

“Sea-Threw Gurl. That’s sea as in the ocean, threw as in the past tense of throw, and girl with a ‘u’.”

He stifled a laugh.

“You’re definitely a Unit.”

She didn’t ask what that meant.

“I should have said this earlier, but I’m not going to hurt you. You have my word. You seem like a fairly reasonable young woman.”

She had laboured breath, “Then what are you going to do to me? Sell me?”

He gave a laugh, “I’m not going to do anything to you! You’re the one who wanted to talk. As a sign of good faith, you can keep that product you found buried in that seat.”

Gurl frowned, “I don’t do stuff like that.”

He raised an eyebrow, “I thought you were a villain.”

“I-I’ll join you!” She spat the words out.

He raised a hand at the sudden statement, “You most certainly will not.”

“I- I can use this power for more than finding loose change.”

She glared at him. “You fractured your knee some time ago.”

He tilted his head, “Well, I already knew that, and if I’d forgotten, an x-ray could remind me.”

She gritted her teeth.

Bastard confessed, “I’d really prefer to keep children out of my work. I’ve done enough fostering to last me a life time. Multiple, now that I think about it.”

“Eighteen,” she reminded

“A child,” he reaffirmed.

“Before you even think about joining the Mountain, I want you to survive on your own for a while. There’s a girl your age living in this town, you’ll cross paths. I hope you can be good friends eventually. Though, she’ll probably be away for a while.”

She was utterly dumbfounded.

“What do you want from me,” she asked.

With a few blinks, he answered, “What do I want from you? I don’t want anything.”

Something he said… resonated with her.

“This girl… is… is she a fish?”

It was his turn to be confused. “Sorry?”

“Is she- like a fish?”

“No, she’s… like a girl- you really are a Unit.”

He gave it more than a confused moments thought, “Did you see a girl like that?”

If this one was wandering around, then there was always a chance that more were.

Sea-Threw looked as if she was on the verge of tears now, “N-no, it was a stupid question… I was just thinking of some street performers I saw around here a while ago.”

No, he thought. There was a subconscious itch to all of this. The way she was describing it, she made it sound like this was a fact of the area, before June. She probably saw them when she was a first worlder, ignored them, and now that she’s ascended to this point, she’s probably noticed an underlying mental link between these ‘performers’ and ‘powers’.

“Please, tell me more.”

Clover has been spending a large amount of money since moving here, he’d expected it after that American terrorist cell attacked, but there was more, before and after that, shipments for guns, and a Vortech portal for Seoung-Soo and her helper.

The latter wasn’t too strange, but he’s told her that if she wanted to visit her friend, she should get a flight. Slower, but cheaper, and not tracked by a mysterious organisation with ties to the Internationals.

He had told her to only use it in emergencies. What kind of emergency would she refuse to tell him about?

Lechoslaw’s report had been mostly empty, though he was secretive in his own right. If he didn’t resolve so many conflicts before they became larger issues, Bastard might not have even allowed him into the Mountain.

What earned him the right to be marked, was that he had a true loyalty to the crown and its mission.

What could she be keeping from him? The girl he raised.

“N-no, no, it’s really just this guy and the fish-girl. She uhm, invades a beach, and he shows up to save the day…”

She was no longer clawing for the door, but this stuttering was making it hard to understand what she was really saying.

“Please, take a breath. Can you give me any descriptions?”

She nodded, “The fish girl had a plastic looking chest plate, and she was… She was covered in blue body paint from head to toe. She wore a ragged knee length skirt. And she had knight boots.”

He motioned his hand, “And the boy?”

She thought for a second, “He- uhm… he wore a mask, not like this, it was professionally made. He looked like a super hero.”

That wasn’t a very satisfying description, Bastard wore a disappointed expression.

Rattled, Sea-Threw Gurl pulled for something to appease this-

There was no way this guy was actually human; her eyes mustn’t be working.

“OH!” She shouted, startling even Bastard with her abrupt change in tone.

“I have a video!”

“Very good,” encouraged Bastard.

She opened her camera roll and gave it over to him.

He played the video, observing the jelly-fish like monster, as it tried and failed to latch onto a trailing green thing.

The thing weaved around and above the creature, avoiding its tendrils. Finally, it jumped into the air, sand kicking up with it.

Then it came crashing down, and the monster was gone.

The girl seemed more surprised by the video than him. This was definitely her first time seeing the footage after becoming a Unit.

Bastard rewound to just a second before the streak of green came crashing down.

He looked at it.

He handed the phone back.

He raised a hand to his face, and the girl was afraid.

“You can go now. Thank you. If we meet again, remind me to repay you somehow.”

She was abandoned on the side of the road.

“I’m an idiot, aren’t I driver?”

He didn’t know how to reply to that. Was he… supposed to say yes?

“You think I am, don’t you? Let me tell you something. When I was cleaning my kid’s bathroom, I found a pair of shoes too big to fit her. I didn’t say anything about them to her. I just watched how she acted. She practically shoed me out of the house. I've been ever so slightly aware that she was hiding something from me for quite some time...”

Bastard leaned into his seat, “But everyone’s allowed to have secrets, right? Take you for example, you’ve been trying to keep a secret from me all this time, haven’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what I mean. The speed at which you responded tells me that you have ulterior motives. Now tell me, really tell me, what sort of driver needs his passenger to inform him where to turn off to get off the main streets? I’d say one who doesn’t know the area himself.”

“I don’t really care who you’re working for, probably the man in Belfast, considering the northern accent. I’ll tell you right now, do not panic. And I mean it this time. I’ve had enough franticness on my plate already. I don’t need you leaking in any sleeping gas. And really, you need to fumigate after you kidnap people, the lingering smell gives it away immediately.”

“Oh, and I almost forgot, the most damning piece of evidence is that I’ve memorised every second-worlder under Clover. It isn’t a very long list, and you're not on it.

“You’ve fallen awfully silent, so I’ll tell you why I am an idiot. My kid, Clover, the one your boss brutalized, I’ve been especially worried about her since she moved back here. Moreso when those gun orders went through. My first thought was that she was paranoid after everything that she’s been through. That was too painful to believe. The second thought was that she’d lost faith in the Mountain after I refused to move against Belfast. The thought saddened me, but I didn't believe iit.”

“Finally, I thought that she must be in trouble. But because I already failed her, she had no reason to turn to me, that she was trying to make herself someone else. I honestly didn’t believe that they’d managed to fend of those terrorists, with Axel Right and Seoung-Soo Ae not having any physical abilities. Well, luck is a funny thing, isn’t it?”

The driver remained silent.

“So finally, that brings me back to those shoes. If whoever she found down here was on friendly enough terms to leave their absolutely filthy shoes lying on her floor, then she mustn’t have found an enemy down here. And she was keeping me away from him.”

“What is it? Why would she keep this from me? Why would Lechoslaw? It wasn’t anything in particular about that video that made the pieces click together, but now I understand.”

He took the hand away from his face, flopping it to his side tiredly.

“He’s her boy-friend.”

After a few seconds he laughed loud.

“I thought she was planning on betraying me! I’ve been too nosey for my own good, haven’t I driver? I think it was just looking at the boy, his blurred smile. He had a sort of… I don’t know, a desperation from his expression. It’s so obvious now. Of course she would focus on enjoying herself, why would she try and get revenge on Belfast, or lord, me? It’s a sort of… rebound. He’s fun, in comparison to everything else happening in her life, right?”

“I’m so glad… I think I can get on with some real work now.”

The driver lifted a hand from the wheel, the other was holding it tighter.

“Don’t try to gas me now, I mean it. If you do, I’ll just flay your skin. You’ll be alive, but just long enough for me to wrench the wheel from you. What am I saying, we both know you won’t do that. Really,”

The drivers hand hovered over a bottle of water. As he lifted it, he struggled to steady his hands.

“You’re smart right? I have a better reason to keep you alive then I did that girl, if I killed you, how would I know where this Belfast man is? And frankly, I don’t want to kill.”

Bastard reached into his rubbish bag, unwrapping the thing he’d gotten from the pollutant’s house.

He felt its smooth gold face.

Without hesitation, without any fear, he placed it on his face.

.

.

.

A sea above and a sea below, it stretched the whole distance around him. Or maybe they were twin rivers? The glimmers of light from each surface followed a snake-like pattern in the water, bending through misty plumes of blue and purple, some broke free, and ran along the current, like shooting stars.

He stood ankle deep in the flow, but instead of feeling cold or wet, the stream was rather luke-warm, more like an oil than anything else.

He turned to a particularly eye-catching group of shooting stars, more and more adding to their number with every passing second.

Soon they were forming a shape, a sort of animation from the millions of water beads.

And soon, the manifestation began to blink to life.

“Fear, mortal. I am Nut, goddess of the stars. You are an aged specimen. Your mind old, storied. I have no use for you as a vessel, but as a serf you shall serve me well.”

He smiled.

“You accept your fate openly? Fair enough. You will bring me back to the girl, you will order her to wear my mask, and she will become me. “

The sea began to bubble, a near gaseous substance rising from it to swallow the man in all white.

“What a strange day. I had thought my luck spent, but you’re more foolish than the last man. You have a soul. You are completely susceptible to my attacks, my will. You, are now my slave.”

“I am susceptible," began the Bastard-King, "to knifes, spears, guns, tanks, bombs, fire, water, lightning, rabid animals, suffocation, starvation, dehydration, and soul manipulation. But here I am.”

He spread his arms out.

The God overlooked him, “Is that supposed to mean something? You aren’t standing in water, or air, or a monster. That is my undiluted power that surrounds you. And I am a God.”

“A self-proclaimed god. You absolutely pale in comparison to the 27.”

“Enough!”

The waters began to bubble up.

“Look to me mortal. I am no illusion! I am the very idea of the stars, the sky!”

“It’s a good thing that I’m greater than the sky, isn’t it?”

“Wh-”

He looked at his feet, then glanced up at the face.

And half of everything was gone.

There were no remnants; no void.

Only absolute obliteration.

“I am quite lucky you’ll find. That girl you’ve been trying to possess was raised by me. She loves me, and sadly for you, I love her.”

It screamed, only half alive, half of the spirit was gone.

“I couldn’t do this without putting on that little mask. I had a feeling that if I simply destroyed the item itself, it wouldn’t destroy you. And I like to be thurow.”

He turned his head, and the desolation was spread, the shimmering jewels of the rivers glowing brighter than ever in the instant his light passed over them.

“Good bye, spectre that thought it was enough to be my master. Forgive me, if I forget your name.”

As the last star in that sky went out, the human w

as mentally and spiritually returned to its plane.

He removed the mask from his face, looking it over.

“Can you roll down the window?”

The driver did as he was told, the tiny window by the door falling down with an electric bur.

“What an uneventful day… Hopefully I can do some good. Hopefully your employer is as reasonable as you. Maybe we can work something out. Well…”

He thought about it for a second.

It seemed all he was doing now a days was thinking about things. Maybe it was time he did something again. Poked a few bears.

Probably what that girl would refer to as, an ‘evil scheme’.

As he put the dead mask back in the rubbish, he knocked something by his feet. It was sitting under his seat. Ever curious, he dropped the bag and lent forward trying to find the package.

For some reason, it was nestled away behind a post, stuck on modded seating. Sliding it out from its crevasse, he turned the jar over with wonder.

It was full of the unmistakeable colouration of Internation-grade cleaning fluid.

He squinted his eyes, focusing in on the spinning dark mass.

He understood now; inside this jar was a man’s right foot.

“Another door, another question…”