She rolled her eyes. "What didn't he say? It's hard to get him to shut up once you get him started."

"About Fish's Storyteller? Did you get anything from him about that?"

She smiled. "Connie Robbins. She was the youngest in the group."

"Did Bobby know her?"

She crossed her fingers and held them up. "They were like this. Bobby couldn't really cross his fingers, but I'm pretty sure that's what he meant."

I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't.

"And?"

She shook her head and rubbed her brow. "Oh, sorry. It's just a little confusing. I talked about it with... you know... you early this morning," she pointed up.

"Me?

"Not you," she said sounding frustrated. "The other you. The Throwaway you. He and I talked. I'm all turned around." She thumped her head with her index finger.

I was disturbed to hear that she had confused me with the Throwaway version of me. I got angry that he was having my conversations with her.

"Connie was only the second girl in the group," Lou said. "One of Dr. Bashir's favorites. Took her longer to master the Hyper Mental Imaging. She didn't like to draw, so she kept a journal."

"A journal?"

"Well, an HMI journal. She didn't write what really happened. She wrote what she wanted to happen. Same principle as the comic books, but without pictures."

"Why Fish?"

"That's a little unclear. Bobby didn't think it was her idea. She didn't like making up monsters. Didn't have it in her."

"Who gave her the idea?"

"Well," Lou said. "That's what we... Throwaway you and I were talking about this morning. It's got to be Bashir. Like you said, what are the chances she'd know about this creep? He had to plant this stuff in her head, which kind of confirms what I already thought about Bashir."

I wanted to cringe at the notion that she talked to Throwaway me about this already, but I didn't. "Which is?"

"He's not a nice guy. I mean Bobby already told us he hit some of the members in the group, but this takes things to a whole new level. He planted a real life monster in Connie's head. What kind of sick freak would do that?"

"One we need to find out more about," I said. I told her about the Nathan Bashir who used to work at the mansion in the *30s. It was too much of a coincidence. There had to be a connection.

"Can't be the same guy," she said.

"Maybe not the same guy, but it might be the same family." I told her about Fish's time at the mansion, the termination form, and the notes written by a man named Bashir.

"So, what do you think?" she asked. "This is all because Fish did something to a relative of Dr. Bashir?"

"I don't know what to think. I'm just trying to talk it out." I smiled. "It actually feels good to have someone to talk to that I don't want to... you know, eat."

She bowed her head. "I'm honored."

"Not sure why you didn't get infected by Fish, but I'm glad you didn't."

She nodded but her brow furrowed, and she tried to hide it from me.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said.

"No, come on. Something's bothering you."

She rolled her eyes as if to warn me she was about to say something really crazy. "Why wasn't I infected?"

Not knowing what to say, I just blurted out, "Because you're stronger than the rest of us."

"Stronger?"

"Inside," I said. "You've got will power or faith or conviction or something like that."

She considered my theory and then said, "That explains why I don't want to eat you guys, but how come you guys don't want to eat me?"

"Who cares?" I asked. "Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth."

She cleared her throat. "I just know nothing's free around here."

"Don't worry," I said. "I'll make sure nothing happens to you."

"You will?"

"Well, all of us," I said nervously. "The others, too."

There was a second of uncomfortable silence between us. She broke it by asking, "What next?"

"We still need to know more from Bobby. Tarek said the Flish consumed the Creyshaw, but we still don't know anything about the Keeper. And, what does Fish's package have to do with this?"

"Package?"

"His property. It's a metal box wrapped in a canvas cloth."

"What's in it?"

I hesitated. "Knives, bone saw. Run of the mill tools of torture."

"Nice," she groaned and took a step back towards the Halloween room.

"Hey," I said.

She stopped and looked at me. "Yeah?"

"If day nine comes around, and we're no closer to solving this thing, you need to leave with Archie and Bobby. Take the gorillas and Kimball, too."

She stared at me stone-faced.

"I need to hear you say you'll leave."

"It won't come to that."

"It might," I said. "And Bobby is the priority. Tarek will put up a fight, but you can wear him down. He'll take Bobby and stand in for his Keeper."

She started to walk away again, but I grabbed her by the arm. "Say it."

She hung her head. "I'll take care of it."

"You'll leave?"

"Yes, I'll leave. Happy?"

"No," I said letting her go. "But I'm satisfied."

Lou checked on Gordy one last time before she left the basement. I hated to see her go. Beyond being the only person I knew that I didn't want to eat, I just felt better around her. I had been away from her for a long time living in the facility. Now I was under the same roof with her, but the Flish was keeping us apart. It was almost too much to take.

I was in a crazy, twisted world, full of all kinds of bad guys and monsters fighting for my life, but if it wasn't for this world, I would never have met Lou. That made it hard to completely hate the way things had turned out. I suppose it's bad for me to say, but if I hadn't treated Stevie so badly, I wouldn't know Lou at all. I never would have known how good she smells or how her nose twitches like a rabbit when she laughs. I wouldn't have known that there was someone I could count on one hundred percent of the time.

"What are you thinking about, boss man?" Gordy asked from the other side of the room. He was propped up on one elbow, sipping from a bottle of water. With Ajax and Ariabod in close proximity, there was no danger of us trying to eat each other. Even if they weren't around, there was no chance he was coming after me. He couldn't move after what April did to him. His face was getting puffy. I had seen my aunt in the hospital after she had a car accident. Her face had the same kind of red and swollen look that Gordy's face had. I remember a nurse saying something about antibodies and infection. Whatever that meant, it looked like Gordy had the same thing.

"I thought I told you not to call me that?"

"Did you?" His eyes rolled to the left as he tried to remember that conversation. "I'll stop then. Don't know why you don't like it anyway?"

"Because I'm not your boss man."

He nodded. "You're right, you're not my boss man."

I half smiled to thank him for the confirmation.

"You're THE boss man. The big cheese. The man with the plan."

"Shut up or I'll let April out of the closet."

He chuckled. "Let her out. What do I care? Better yet, I'll give you the first bite. Come on over here. I hear the rump is the best part."

My stomach practically roared at the thought. I very much wanted to take him up on his offer. I envied April for getting to rip off a chunk of meat and eat it. "I'll pass," I struggled to say.

A few seconds passed before either one of us spoke again. The theme of the conversation had become too tempting, and both of us seemed to know not to push our luck.

"You never did tell me what you were thinking?"

"What?"

"You had what my dad used to call a Mars face. As in, you were on a different planet there for a second. What's up?"

"What's not up?" I asked with a yawn.

"True, but you looked like you had something specific on your mind."

"No..."

"It's Lou, ain't it?"

I went slack jawed. How did he know?

"You're wondering the same thing I am."

"Which is?"

"Why isn't she infected by the old man?"

"You're wondering that?" I asked perplexed.

"Sure. You're not?"

I shook my head. "She's immune."

"I got a theory," he said. "You want to hear it?"

"I don't know. Do I?"

"C'mon, I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with it."

I sighed. "Okay, go ahead."

"Well," he said "I figure she's dead."

The world slowed to a crawl. I could hear every breath I took. The vein in my neck began to throb. I felt the world dim like I was about to pass out, but I snapped myself back to the present. "You figured wrong," I said just above a whisper.

"Hear me out," he said. "The old guy, he ain't got much use for the dead. You should hear the way he talks about your dead friend and the other little buggers running around here. He hates them. Doesn't want anything to do with them. Lou must be dead. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Dead people don't..." I stopped myself before I said something I knew wasn't true, but he knew exactly what I was going to say.

"Dead people don't walk around, talk to you like nothing's wrong? You forget where we are, my friend. This is the end of the friggin' world. There's dead people all around us."

"Not Lou," my voice was louder. I could feel the ice moving through my veins. The Delon in me wanted out, but Gordy was clueless. He pushed the issue.

"Ten bucks says she's in one of them rooms upstairs, half the meat stripped from her bones. I can even guess who caught her and is eating her. Want to know who?"

"Stop," I growled.