This wasn’t a fucking hallucination or a dream, it was real, visceral. Unless he had developed full-blown schizophrenia overnight, there was no logi...al explanation for what was happening to him.“Heavy metals in the water my ass,” he muttered to himself, “more like DMT.”Whatever the man in the newsboy cap was, he was trying to get a message out, he wanted something. No, ‘they’ wanted something, something that only Ethan could give them.Something was preventing them from ‘checking out’, as the. Kat never released the hold she had on his collar and the hold forced his head back as he fell, breaking both of her wrists and his neck, with a sickening snap.The last thing Kat remembered was a roar of sound and a feeling like someone had hit her in the head with a lead pipe. A burst of sound and pain followed by darkness.Kat was surprised to be alive, all things considered. She was lying flat on her back, strapped to a bed in the medical bay. Her head ached abominably and felt like it was. ‘But then your crepe will get soggy…’ Amazon sounded heartbroken over the very idea. ‘Oh, that’s okay, I’m not really that hungry anyways, and…’ And the door was just within arm’s reach… ‘Hold on, you’re the new girl, Empress, right? We have a costume you can use in the changing room.’ Strawberry helpfully chimed in. Right…a costume. Like the ridiculous outfits those two were wearing. Her old skintight costume was bad enough. Besides, she wasn’t even planning on wearing a costume ever again.. .. Too much so, 'you ask me." It's understandable, though," I said."I know you've taken a shine to the boy," Patrick said, "but you kinda like my daughter, too, don't you?"I felt my face turning what must have been bright red and hoped the fading light and the dim overhead porch bulb were enough to disguise some of it."Hell, I ain't trying to embarrass you, Todd," he said when it was clear I wasn't going to answer him. " ... Far from it! Shoot, I approve! I wish t' God you'd ask her out on a.