Everything was loose, uprooted and thrown around. Arthur's thoughts spun in opposite directions, careening off the inside of his head with the accuracy of a loose cannon. He had questioned if Lewis could ever be angry with him and dismissed it repeatedly until today, but it had never even entered the realm of possibility that Lewis could ever be angry with Kay.

Why? How? Kay had done nothing, nothing at all to deserve this treatment. It didn't make sense. Lewis only ever spoke of his sisters with tender affection, and Arthur had never seen him act otherwise either. Every expression of grief from the Pepper sisters, even Aji's rage, spoke of how much they loved him. Why would he turn on Kay?

The top of his shirt was plastered to his chest, wet and wrinkled. Mystery had dropped a tissue box within reach, and Arthur supplied them to Kay a handful at a time.

He was still missing information. That had to be it. He needed more information, but where was he going to get it? Lewis certainly wasn't going to give it to him, and he doubted even Vivi would be able to extract everything from Lewis, if she managed to break through to him at all.

Arthur signaled to Mystery, who sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yes, Arthur?"

Translate me to Kay please.

Mystery peered over his spectacles to Kay. "Kay, Arthur is asking me to translate his sign to you. It seems he has something to say. Ah, to ask. He wants to know if you know why Lewis did that to you."

Kay hid her face in Arthur's chest, her shoulders shaking with fresh tears. "He… I… it has to be… he knows dating me is a death sentence."

Arthur frowned, signing.

"That doesn't make sense," Mystery translated. "He wants me dead, so why would he be angry at you for that?"

"I don't-I don't know, Arthur, but why else would he tell you not to date me?" She lifted her head, grabbing a crumpled wad of soggy tissues to blow her nose with. "W-we talked. He knew I was afraid of this ha-happening. He told me it w-would be fine. Said the guy, whoev-ever he was would love me for who I w-was, not because of my voice. Th-then what? You finally tell him, and he s-says no. Why, Arthur?" She crushed the tissue in her hand. "It h-had to be because I'm a s-siren. A monster. Even he thinks s-so. Of anyb-body, I would have thought he wouldn't."

"Arthur is refusing to accept that as a possibility, but I tend to side with Kay on this." Mystery pushed his spectacles up. "To clarify, I do not think a relationship with you need necessarily end in death, but there is a high chance that Lewis came to this conclusion. If he encouraged you, it might have been because he didn't care as much if it was someone he didn't know. But suddenly it was Arthur."

Arthur's hands froze mid-denial, his eyes widening. He always had Lewis' back, and Lewis always had his back, at least before he died. Was Lewis watching his back by telling him no?

You don't know what you're getting into. That's what he said. He wasn't wrong…

Arthur's head sank, doubt seeping into his thoughts. What would have happened if I just accepted what Lewis said? Trusted him and broke it off with Kay? I was going to, but I was so angry. I was so focused on him not having the right to tell me that. And then I pushed him off a cliff after he told me no… the logical conclusion… being…

That I betrayed him.

Arthur shook his head hard, signing again.

"That accounts for why he's angry at me-meaning Arthur," Mystery continued, "But not why he's angry with you. He never got home to tell you that you couldn't date me."

"Maybe he as-sumes I should know better." Kay wiped her face on the tissues again, before giving up on the soggy mess. "I m-mean look at me, Arthur. Look at this. Feathers ev-verywhere, and these." She lifted her hands, staring at the talons at the end of every finger. Up close, Arthur could see they extended straight from the tip of each finger. Each claw, thick around as a finger-bone, extended out and curved down to wickedly sharp points. He winced, vividly recalling the tips of those sinking into his face.

"And maybe I sh-should have," she continued, "but mayb-be I just wasn't ready to resign myself to being al-lone."

Arthur frowned. Gingerly, he lifted one of Kay's arms, trailing a hand down to where red stained the gold plumes. Mystery. Wet towels, please.

Mystery vanished into the bathroom, returning with damp towels. Accepting one, Arthur gently scrubbed at the dried blood. This close, he could see that where her hand ended, an extra finger-like appendage extended to support the rest of her wingspan. The punctures on her skin were already scabbed over. He checked her feathers and the skin below until he was sure the blood was cleaned away before turning his attention to her other arm.

She watched him in silence, sniffing occasionally. Once satisfied, he set her arms down and signed to Mystery.

"He says you don't have to be alone. He wishes he could prove it's not just your voice, but he doesn't know how. You'd have to be able to trust him in that. He says the only way you'd be alone is if he doesn't come out of this situation alive, but even then he might still be able to stick around." Mystery's eyes widened. "He says you and your sisters are his unfinished business, and he's not going anywhere until he knows you'll be alright, even if he doesn't make it."

Arthur pulled Kay's hand to his mouth, kissing it gently.

Kay wrapped her wings around him. Her feathers were soft and smelled of the sea, like her hair.

"I trust you," she whispered. "And you're going to make it through this alive if I have any say in it."

Turning her face with one hand, he kissed her softly on the lips. With a sigh and a small eye-roll, he turned away from her to sign to Mystery.

"I trust you too. Both of you. And I need your help." Mystery raised an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind, exactly?"

Arthur's hands flashed the signs rapidly. He had to tell them what he needed before he changed his mind.

Mystery chewed his lip, a low whine escaping him. "It appears he's ready to let me into his mind to gather information from the Shiker's memories. Kay, he'll need you to guide him back. It's easy to lose oneself to these fragments, but he insists he needs more information."

…...

Vivi settled herself cross-legged in the back of the van. Lewis hovered about an inch above the van floor, his knees folded up to his chest and his arms crossed defensively. The small gray box lay on the floor between them.

"So. I'm going first. Since you've attacked Arthur twice now I think that entitles me to start. Then you can ask me something. Let's start with where the fried fishmonger my memories went, if you even know the answer."

Lewis' hand crept up to the cracked blue heart on his suit. "I needed them."

Vivi's eyes widened. "You? It was you, not the Shiker? What the flipping-"

"My turn." Lewis' eyes re-ignited. "You said Aji was in prison. Why is she in prison?"

"She tried to burn Squire's house down. She's been assaulting him almost every time they meet, from what he says, but this is the first time she pulled something like this. Lance pressed charges."

Something like a satisfied smirk tugged at the edges of Lewis' eyes, and Vivi snarled, "Don't look so smug you self righteous son of a turkey baster. Did you forget your sister broke the law? Or are you so set on Arthur's death you don't give a flying saucebowl who else suffers anymore? Your whole family is falling apart!"

Lewis shifted. "Who else-"

"Nope, my turn." Vivi's eyes narrowed. "Why do you need my memories and when can I get them back?"

"That's two questions." He sighed. "You can't have them back. The second I died, He was there, challenging who I was, asking me my name, pulling on my memories." His eyes burned. "My best friend betrayed me. Arthur wasn't what he said he was. He didn't have my back, he was planted there just so this could happen. I couldn't answer that monster's question. I didn't know who I was in that moment. Then I saw you, and you knew who I was. I needed that knowledge. I still do. You can't ever have them back, Vivi."

Vivi turned her head, growling, "Fine. Keep them. I don't want to know anything about you anymore. Good riddance."

Lewis' fingers clutched at the heart, but he said nothing.

"Your turn," she prompted.

His skull drifted forward, then back. He seemed to be re-collecting himself. "Dulcie. How is Dulcie?"

"She doesn't talk. I don't know why, but she hasn't talked since you died. She was dressing in your clothes for weeks afterward. Seems to have connected to Arthur. Who knows, maybe he even knows why she won't talk." She glowered at him. "You gonna punish her, too?"

His hair flickered. "Of course not! Why would you think that?"

"Gee, I don't know, maybe because I walked in on you using Kay as a murder weapon, then escorted them back to the hotel room where Kay is probably still crying. I have no idea why I would suspect your motives about your sisters, Lewis."

"That's different. Kay knew what she was doing, dating Arthur behind my back. And then, after all that happened, she's still in love with my murderer!" His hair flared, licking at the side of the van. "She was probably planted too. He always plays the long game."

"There you go again, saying someone was planted. Who planted them? The Shiker?"

His skull whipped around. "Wait, that's the second time you've said-you know about the Shiker?"

"We know some things. He left a bunch of memory fragments behind in Arthur-after he possessed him to murder you, I might add. It costs Squire a lot to dredge them up, he can't even talk anymore because it triggers visions."

Lewis's skull tilted sideways, thoughtfully. "That's why he tried to sign. I haven't heard him speak once." He shook his head, reassuming an angry glare. "Continue."

Vivi took a deep breath, counting to ten before resuming. "All we know is that this Shiker had you. We still don't know why he had you, just that he did pretty terrible things."

Lewis' eyes faded out again, his arms folded tighter around his middle.

"We know he sucks out something from human souls, whatever makes them individual, and that's where the little pink ghosts come from." She paused. "Speaking of which, how come you have them? Aren't they owned by the Shiker? Are you working for him?"

"Hell no." Lewis' tone could have frozen boiling water. "But nobody's ever gotten free of the Shiker by brute force before. With your memories helping, I was the first. Those things are just shells that follow power. Some left him and followed me when I fled the cave. Now they do what I tell them. Why are you looking for the Shiker?"

"We're not looking for him. We're looking for Duet and Chloe." She crossed her arms. "At first we were looking at them because we thought they had ties to you but I couldn't care less about that now. Chloe's injured, and I'm pretty sure Duet is working with the Shiker. He said something about the Shiker over your casket at the funeral, and he attacked us with those ghosts."

Lewis' eyes narrowed. "I only ever knew Duet and Chloe from your work. I've never seen them before."

"You sure about that? Your journals are full of entries about memory holes you were suffering from."

"You read those?" He put his hands over his face, hunching. "Ugh."

Vivi blinked. Mortification looked kind of cute on someone as huge and hulking as him. She shook her head hard. He'd burned Arthur alive. That was the Lewis she knew now, and she would treat him accordingly. "So? Did you know them and you can't remember it?"

"Not possible anymore." His voice came out muffled, his hands still covering his face. "The soul remembers what the brain cannot. There are no more holes."

Vivi's eyes widened. " 'A human's soul can remain completely intact, but you'd never know it if the brain got diced six ways.' "

Lewis peered through his fingers. "What?"

"Something Duet said when I asked him about reversing a memory spell." She jabbed a finger at him excitedly. "It makes sense. Your brain doesn't remember because it was damaged by whatever you're talking about, but the essential you, the soul, it remembers everything no matter what happens. Wow, this takes ghost-knowledge to a whole new level! None of them ever told us anything like this when we laid them to rest. And think of the applications for amnesia patients if we figured out how to harness the…" she trailed off, glancing up. Lewis was staring at her with a stupid expression on his face.

"Wipe that off your face right now you kneepad-faced-box-head. This isn't a date, it's an interrogation, and I could still send your flaming skull gift-wrapped to Tartarus if I decided to!"

The stupid look just got worse. She ground her teeth, trying to remember who had the next question and if she had any more.

Oh, right. This one would get that stupid look off his face. "So what's it going to take to keep you off Squire's back?"

There it went. His skull flamed out, his eyesockets glowing like the pits of hell. "Why are you helping my murderer, Vivi?"

"Because this wasn't a murder case, you bonehead." She leaned forward, matching his expression. "Squire was only a few hours out of surgery when he walked himself to your family's house with a written confession. Wow, sounds like something a murderer would do. Told them that even though he was demon-possessed at the time, they should decide his fate and he was willing to go to jail if they said so. Gee, sounds like something a murderer would say. The non-Aji consensus was that he couldn't have wanted to do it, so since then he's been doing what he can to watch out for your sisters. He's uncovered something big about your family, Lewis. Something you had no idea about. And you're running around trying to set the guy who continued to back you up after death on fire!"

"What exactly did he uncover about my family? The fact that they're sirens? Wow, Vee. Breaking news. I could have told you that." Lewis leaned back, smoldering. "There's nothing about this family I don't know. It's everyone else who didn't know, who wasn't allowed. They trusted me with everything, and I kept that trust!"

"Oh I have had it up to here with your self-righteous bucket of cactus pringles-there's a curse, you moron!" Vivi shouted. "There's a curse, and you already fulfilled the first line of it!"

….

It is always delightful to break the new flesh in. Their dreams are so fresh, their curiosity so invigorating. It takes careful patience to break them, but the results are spectacular.

Lewis. The name I will take from him is Lewis. His parents brought him on cue. They held onto their names and were allowed to leave for a time, but they couldn't escape the conditioning. On his seventh birthday they brought their child to me, then walked themselves off a cliff hand in hand. Still strong-willed, though, even with deep conditioning. They only had one child, no more. Still, perhaps he will provide a good harvest.

He thinks I have left. He is curled up on a pile of gravel. I wonder what the pain is like. Fire is mine to command, so it does not harm me. What must it be to feel the scorching? What is it to have tiny little breaks in skin and bone? They scream so, all of them. Fascinating.

A lump on the far side of the room shifts. Lewis' moans have woken Harvey. Harvey has been with me for months and is near harvesting, I only need one more push for his mind to give. It seems he is initiating the push himself as he squats by Lewis with a handful of bread.

"Hey," I hear him whisper. "You're new, huh? My name's Harvey. What's yours?"

Lewis can only moan. Harvey breaks off a piece of bread and puts it in his mouth.

"It's ok. You can tell me later. Don't worry. After a few hours, Shiker'll take you out to the paddock to heal. He just wants it to hurt. I'll show the ropes. There's ways to survive around here. You watch my back and I'll watch yours, okay?"