I fought to keep my face from revealing its instinctual disgusted grimace.
We do our best to please him—a total predator? Yuuuuuck.
“My friends and I jump eagerly at every opportunity Uncle Magnum presents us with. We trust him implicitly to know what is best for us and to put our needs first. We trust him without question. Uncle Magnum is a wonderful genius of a man tasked with changing the future and saving humanity.”
Double yuck.
Maybe it was Magnum and not-Celia writing the script.
“My friends and I understand Uncle Magnum’s great value. He is more important than we are. He can better the lives of every creature on this planet, and for endless generations to come. We are willing to make any and all sacrifices for him. If it would help for us to die for him, it’s the least we can do.”
Though I was being careful not to betray my alertness, my already unnaturally still body stiffened at the blatant evidence of our disadvantage.
We had paranormal powers, that much was now indisputable. I was beginning to believe we might even have magic of some sort, or something very much like it, perhaps with another name. Regardless, despite our abilities, which Magnum so desperately desired, he still pulled every one of our strings.
We were marionettes dancing dim-wittedly in the shadow of our unseen puppeteer.
Celia continued elaborating on how much we admired Uncle Magnum, how much we liked him, how much weblah,blah,blah, all of it distilling into us wanting to kiss his royal ass, so much so that we’d think nothing ofdyingat his mere suggestion.
The ache in my throat and head spread to my stomach. Nausea and disgust churned deep in my gut. The vulnerability they’dforced on us, the overriding of our own free wills, the abuse of our bodies—injured, killed, hurt, drugged—all of it amounted to a violation so immense that tears pricked behind my closed eyelids. I clamped down on my will so they wouldn’t keep coming.
It wasn’t just me they were abusing. It was the people who mattered most. They even hurt my dog, dammit.
My previous discomfort with how violently we ended Fanny vanished. She was Magnum’s mouthpiece, his biggest supporter, his right-hand cunt. She deserved every single hit we landed.
Magnum deserved more—so much more.
“I have no interest in dreamwalking,” Celia’s voice told me.
I listened closely.
“I do not believe I have the ability to dreamwalk. I do not believe I ever had the skill. If anyone were to mention dreamwalking, or if I ever hear it spoken of, I have no interest in learning about it. Dreamwalking is nonsense, an unfounded legend of the Aquoian people, a baseless superstition.”
Even after all that, Celia added, “I cannot dreamwalk. I do not dreamwalk. I have no knowledge of dreamwalking. I have no desire to gain any. Dreamwalking is a myth and a lie. If any mention of it were to appear in media of any kind, be it books, movies, TV shows, an internet search, or anything else, I immediately find a reason to discontinue consuming that form of entertainment without voicing the reason to any of my friends.”
Celia was pounding the dreamwalking nail on the head with an overkill hammer. She might as well be using Thor’s Mjölnir.
“I amnota dreamwalker,” Celia insisted once more, before saying, “I have never before seen or heard of a skinsnatcher. If I think I’m remembering an incident where someone peeled their skin off their body to reveal another creature beneath it, I am mistaken. I must be recalling a scene from a book or a movie. Skinsnatchers donotexist. No one can remove their skin as if it were an article of clothing.”
So skinsnatchers, not skinwalkers…
“I have never seen an unfamiliar creature with gray skin and a great deal of teeth. There is no such thing as aliens, extraterrestrial creatures, or monsters. Anyone suggesting otherwise is stupid and ill-informed. There is no such thing as life on other planets. Humans are the only intelligent life in the universe. I have no thoughts or suspicions otherwise.
“There is no such thing as a person who can split into several copies of themselves. Any such notion is ludicrous. Skinsnatchers are not real, and neither are the rumors that they can steal another person’s body as well as replicate themselves. Those ideas are completely false.”
My heart thudded. My ears were perked so as not to miss a single word.
“There is no such thing as immortals. My friends and I are certainlynotimmortal. We die just like everyone else. No person can return from death.
“Sheriff Xander Jones is not trustworthy. I have no desire to speak with him or to answer any of his questions. If he approaches me or any of my friends, I will immediately notify Uncle Magnum. Sheriff Xander Jones is an idiot with insane ideas with no basis in truth.
“I can, however, trust the sheriff’s deputy, Kyle Carter. If Sheriff Xander Jones is being persistent and my friends and I cannot reach Uncle Magnum right away, we can confide in Kyle Carter about the sheriff’s unlawful behavior.”
The relatively mild ache of my head had transformed into a full-blown headache. I fought to cling to every morsel of information.
“My mother, Monica, has no interest in Xander Jones. She doesn’t even like him. There is no romantic past between them.
“My mother, Monica, and my father, Reece, are deeply in love. They are a happy couple in a happy marriage. I am so grateful tohave them both as my parents. I treat them with kindness and respect, as I do the parents of my friends.
