"Is he okay?" Gordy asked.

I nodded. "Lucky for you, he'll be fine."

I sat at the head of a lane of the small bowling alley while Gordy positioned himself by the pins. We kept our flashlights on, but kept them out of each other's faces. Kimball lay at my feet and panted heavily. I gave him what water I had left, but it didn't seem to be enough. I radioed Lou and asked her to send Ajax down with strict instructions that she not come anywhere near the bowling alley. I couldn't look after Kimball and a;sp do whatever it was I needed to do to get us safely out of the mansion and on our way. It was up to my old gorilla friend now to look after both my dog and my... Lou.

"Don't think we're going to make it out of this one, boss," Gordy said. His voice echoed through the large room.

"Yes we are, and stop calling me boss," I answered chasing his echo.

"Feels different," he said.

"How so?"

There was a moment of silence. "I don't want to win this one so much."

"You don't mean that."

He laughed. "If you ain't the boss, you can't tell me how I feel."

"You want to go back home as much as any of us."

"Thought I did, but if you think about it, what am I going back to? My daddy's a mean old drunk. My mom works eighteen hours a day. I spend most of my time trying to avoid getting in trouble for something I didn't do or did without much of a cover up plan. I'm pretty much just as scared back in the real world as I am here, *cept at least here I get to fight what I'm scared of."

I laughed this time. Not because I thought he was being ridiculous, but because I found myself agreeing with him. We did get to fight back here, and in a lot of ways that made it less scary than it was in the real world. I could see why he didn't want to win.

"I'm telling you, Oz, the old man ain't so bad. You should give him a chance."

I thought about the man I had seen sitting at the Budds' dining room table. He was sinister. I thought about the man on the roof of the apartment building. He was brutal. Gordy didn't know the old man like I did. He knew a babbling old fool looking for his property. "Gordy, you need to stay away from the old man."

"Kind of hard to do when I'm hanging out in his part of the house."

I cringed. I had forgotten that we were in the basement, the place the old gray man called home. I turned to the door that led to the dressing rooms. "He's in there, isn't he?"

"There, here, the other side of the basement. He comes and goes."

I heard a noise to my left and jumped. Throwaway Stevie stepped out of the darkness and started walking towards Gordy. "Didn't know Stevie meant that much to you?"

"He doesn't. Hate the re..." He stopped himself from using the word I hated. "The clown. He started all this."

"We started it," I said. "You know that. Besides you just said you didn't mind it so much."

I could see him tilt his head from side to side. "What do you know? Maybe I don't hate him so much. Anyway, I don't know why my Throwaway came out like this. I was concentrating on a swimsuit model I seen in one of my dad's magazines once."

"Sounds about right," I laughed. "But I don't think it works that way. Somewhere in that empty head of yours, you feel something strong for Stevie."

He waved me off. "I feel nothing for that mush mouth. He did nothing but bug the snot out of me. No matter how bad I treated that idiot, he just kept on coming back for more. Treated me like I was his best friend."

"Me, too."

"He was just too stupid to get lost."

I shook my head. "That's not it."

"What then?"

"He saw the magic in us."

I heard a hoot-bark as Ajax entered from the Halloween room. I stood and turned to him. A silhouette of a girl stood in the doorway. A quick pan of my flashlight revealed Lou.

"I told you not to come," I said to her.

Ajax growled as if to let me know that he was just as annoyed as I was.

"You're not the boss of me," Lou snapped.

"But the pact..."

"I'll stay out of your way. Besides I don't think I have it as bad as the rest of you. I haven't felt like taking a bite out of anyone." She stepped into the room, followed by the Throwaway version of me.

"Him, too?" I groaned. How could she bring him?

Even in the darkness, I could she her cheeks turn rosy red with embarrassment. "I can't help it if he follows me around."

"You told me I could never leave you," the Throwaway said.

"Shut up!" Lou yelled. "I was... that was for you own safety."

Gordy chuckled. "She made her own Oz. How romantic."

"Gordy," I said, trying not raise my voice. "Mind your own business."

Lou saw Kimball lying on the ground and breathing heavily. She couldn't help herself. She ran to his side as quickly as she could. "What happened?"

As she ran by me, I noticed something very odd. I didn't want to eat her. I went over the events of the last few days in my head and tried to remember if I had ever wanted to eat her. I couldn't recall ever being alone with her once the infection started.

She knelt down beside Kimball and started stroking his head. "Oz, what happened?"

"We..." I pointed to Gordy. "We had a misunderstanding. Kimball tried to help, and he got grazed by a knife. It's not that serious, I just don't have time to look after him and, you know..."

She shook her head. "No, I don't know."

"That's the point," I said. "I don't know either, and I've only got five more days to find out."

"We've only got five more days to find out. You have to stop doing that," she said giving me a disapproving look.

"What?"

"Making it all about you," Gordy chimed in.

"Gordy..." I started, but was quickly cut off by Lou.

"He's right. You're not in this alone."

I growled. She was taking me all wrong. I wasn't saying I was in this by myself. I'm trying to save everyone. Didn't she get that? Besides I didn't see anyone else from our group when I took my little tours of The Land of the Dead. I thought about saying all that to her, but I didn't have the strength or the desire to start a whole thing with her, so I just nodded and apologized.

She smirked because she knew I didn't mean it.

"So, can you and Ajax take care of Kimball?"

Ajax hooted, which I was pretty sure was his way of saying yes.

Much to my dismay, Throwaway me reached down and picked Kimball up. Gordy let out a barrel laugh.

"Stole your girl and your dog, boss man! He takes your job and you got a country song all ready to be wrote!"

Lou stood up and was just inches away from me. I breathed in and got a whiff of her scent. I still didn't want to eat her. For some reason, I wanted to kiss her.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked.

Her question caught me by surprise. Did she know I wanted to kiss her? I didn't say it out loud, did I? "About what?"

"This place. The goon running around here trying to make us all eat each other. What are we going to do about it?"

I sighed. She didn't know I wanted to kiss her. She just wanted to know if I had a plan that was going to keep us all from becoming dinner. "I keep going back to the Land of the Dead until I understand what it is I'm supposed to see."

"You've been?"

"Three times."

"And?"

"And besides a lot of bad memories, I got nothing. The old man was a real bad guy in his time."

"What's it like?"

"It's strange. It's not that bad, except for when the old man shows up. It's like olden times. The cars are weird. Everyone's dressed funny. It's the 1920s."

"And you've seen the old man every time?"

I slowly shook my head. "No. Not this last time. I saw these two cops. One was a detective. The other one was in a uniform."

"How do you get there? I should go with you. I mean we don't appear to want to eat each other. You should use me."

I considered it and then said, "You can't go unless you're dead."

"What?"

"Something little Bobby told me. Only the dead and never-was, like the Throwaways, can go to the Land of the Dead."

"You're not dead," she said furrowing her brow.

"I was... it's a long story. Let's just leave it at that." I snapped my fingers. "You could do something else though. Since you don't seem to be... hungry. You can go up to the fourth floor and start grilling Bobby. Ask him everything he knows about the Storyteller who came up with this Destroyer. Why the old man? There's got to be a reason. Some kid with Down syndrome in the 21st century shouldn't even know about a creepy old dude in the 1920s who ate little kids. Something else has to be going on here."

"Okay." She smiled, and I felt better knowing I had her working with me. I pretty much felt like I could do anything with her on my side. I guess she had always been. I just forgot. "Still don't think you should keep going to the Land of the Dead by yourself."

"Not much I can do about that. I don't make the rules."

She motioned toward Throwaway Stevie. "Take him."

I looked him over. "A never was," I said to myself. "Of course." Turning back to her, "You're a genius."

She blushed. "You can have mine, too," she said pointing to Throwaway me.

I almost gasped at the thought. It was just too creepy. "I'll be okay with Stevie."

Her expression quickly changed to surprise. "Stevie? That's *The' Stevie?"

"Well... no, not really. It's Gordy's version."

She made her way to Throwaway Stevie and looked him over. It was several seconds before she said, "Hello."

Stevie avoided eye contact with her. He looked down and held back an uncomfortable chortle. "Hi."

"It's not really him," I reminded her.

She smiled. "I know, but it's the closest I'll ever come to meeting him.

"I'm glad you're here," Stevie said.

She was a little startled by this statement. Her only reaction was to blush again.

"Do you remember my room?" he asked.

I could feel the chill running up her spine from where I was standing. "Your room?"

"I like my room."

She turned to me, but all I could do was shrug.

"I was in your room once. With Oz. I met your mother. She made us breakfast. How did you know that?"

He squirmed and seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable. He chuckled nervously and pointed to his head. "I have Gordy here."

She stepped back and studied Throwaway Stevie from head to toe. "Gordy, huh?" She leaned in and whispered something in Stevie's ear and then walked back to me.

"What now?" she asked.