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My stoer that it nearly doubled me over Oh, that hy I went to the table where Newer It wasn’t a great burger, but it was protein and the first food I’d had since breakfast, which was about seven hours ago

“Blake, behind you!” Newman called

I turned with the burger still in my hand Barry the bartender was behindover a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than e or no badge, we don’t serve monsters in here!”

Had he seen low fro, and everyone I could see was still watching the show I ht—it was like a double feature So as Barry saying monster?

Phoenix called out behind o to her! Please, please!”

“Let’s all cal his voice above her pleading

I looked at Barry through h the darkness of the lenses He recognized the symptoms of someone who had been mind-fucked by a va to the point of if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duckwell, you know the rest I sed er and tried to think of what to say to de-escalate things If he swung on us with a baseball bat, then we could shoot hiood hit to the side of the head with a baseball bat can kill you just as dead as a bullet I didn’t want Barry to die today because I’d lost control of my metaphysical extras

“Put the bat down, Barry,” New woun out by now, but he literally had his hands full

“You sed that,” Barry said, “but you can’t eat solid food”

Barry had been around vah to know that some of them pretended to eat They were like people with anorexia who could cut their food up and move it around their plates so that it looked like they’d eaten, but it was another illusion

I sed again and then opened s I even used a finger to draw s,” I said

“What are you?”

“Would you believe I’m not sure anymore?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Barry sounded angry now instead of just scared, but he was starting to point the baseball bat toward the floor rather than hold it in a batter-up position

“Put the bat on the ground, Barry No one needs to get hurt,” Newman called out behind me He still had to project over Phoenix’s voice