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Her words seemed to barely penetrate the blackness

"Just fix it! You’re the one who did this Fix it!"

Silence

Cigar started in again, ood candy tasted

She had a vision of herself back at the lake, lying in the bunk with Sa, juvenile thing Like the girls she despised, always uy with hard abs and yet, and yet, hadn’t that been her all along?

She recalled with inti her hand on his biceps when he flexed to pick her up and the way the muscle had just doubled in size and become hard as if it were carved out of oak He’d lifted her up like she weighed nothing And set her down again, so gently, with her hands sliding to his chest to balance and…

And now, she was here With a ghost and a lunatic In the dark

Why?

Risk your sanity andBut maybe not Maybe just be destroyed And ould she know then, if Petey scrambled her mind?

Scras she needed to know, but wouldn’t really know if her brain isted in the learning

"Fix it! Fix it!" she screa; it’s a stick, a stick with nails poking through," Cigar un around and end Cigar’sher jaw No No, she’d already played Abrahaain She would not allow herself to take an innocent life, not ever again

Innocent, a derisive voice in her head taunted Innocent? Astrid Ellison, prosecutor and jury and executioner

There’s nothing innocent about Petey, the voice teased He built this All of it He made this universe He’s the creator and it is all his fault

"Let’s go," Astrid said "Give un She felt around in the dark until she found Cigar, and then fuot up

"Which way?" Cigar asked

Astrid laughed "I have a joke for you, Cigar Reason andfor an exit"