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"Bear withnow, getting excited "I don’t suppose you heard about the time a normal actually did enter a loop?"

"No, because everyone knows that’s impossible," said Enoch

"It nearly is," said Millard "It isn’t easy and it isn’t pretty, but it has been done--once An illegal experirine’s own brother, I believe, in the years before he went hts"

"Then why haven’t I ever heard about this?" said Enoch

"Because it was extremely controversial and the results were immediately covered up, so no one would attempt to replicate the a norh, and only someone with an ymbryne’s power can do it But because normals do not have a second soul, they cannot handle a time loop’s inherent paradoxes, and their brains turn to etables from the moment they enter Not unlike these poor people before us"

There was a istered Then Emma’s hands went to her ht"

"Well, then," said the clown "In that case, things are even worse than we thought"

I felt the air go out of the room

"I’m not sure I follow," said Horace

"He said the monsters stole their souls!" Olive shouted, and then she ran crying to Bronwyn and buried her face in her coat

"These peculiars didn’t lose their abilities," said Millard "They were stolen fro with their souls, which were then fed to hollowgast This allowed the hollows to evolve sufficiently to enter loops, a development which enabled their recent assault on peculiardohts even more kidnapped peculiars whose souls they could extract, hich they evolved still more hollows, and so on, in a vicious cycle"

"Then it isn’t just the ymbrynes they want," said Eh stood at the foot of the whispering rily around him "All the peculiar children they kidnapped over the years … this is what they were doing to theast food But this … this is leagues more evil"

"Who’s to say they don’t mean to extract the ymbrynes’ souls, too?" said Enoch

That sent a special chill through us The clown turned to Horace and said, "How’s your best-case scenario looking now, fella?"

"Don’t tease me," Horace replied "I bite"

"Everyone out!" ordered the nurse "Souls or no souls, these people are ill This is no place to bicker"

We filed sullenly into the hall

"All right, you’ve given us the horror show," E man, "and we are duly horrified Now tell us what you want"

"Siht with us"