PROLOGUE
PREVIOUSLY AT VERFALLEN: AS SEEN IN CUTE BUT CREEPY
Baz
I sat in the grass with my hands on my knees, watching Verfallen Asylum burn to the ground. Inmates ran from the wreckage, darting across the lawn in manic zigzags. Some laughed at the moon.
With a sigh, I fell on my back in the grass and looked at the sky. It’d been a while since I saw it. Can’t say I really gave a shit. Leaving the asylum wasn’t on my bucket list. Didn’t we have a nice thing going? Life there was easy. Life outside … not so much. At least it hadn’t been the last time I was out. It was always so much more dramatic when I killed people in the wild. Brush against someone in Verfallen? Meh, who cares. Plus, step daddy Stein could always bring them back if he really wanted to. Well, unless I demanded to keep the bodies.
“This couldn’t have worked out better,” Orson said with a wide smile. I rolled my eyes behind the mask. Remembering he couldn’t see that, I sighed very loudly to make sure he knew how I personally felt about it. I noticed Bree staring at thefire, looking conflicted. I guess we were retired from terrorizing Verfallen's inmates. The asylum had fallen.
Nemo tensed. I looked over, seeing Doctor Stein walking over.
“What do you want?” Nemo asked. Stein held something out to me. I reached out to grab the envelope with Hazel’s handwriting. I paused and looked up at him, then slowly slid my fingers across his palm as I grabbed the letter. He didn’t flinch; of course, he wouldn’t. The annoying bastard had been completely immune to me the entire time but couldn’t afford to toss a hug to me now and again? I ripped open the envelope.
“Nemo,” Stein said. I looked up from the letter to eavesdrop.
“What?” He grumbled.
“Biologically speaking…” Stein trailed off in thought. We all waited on bated breath.
“What?” Nemo grumbled again.
“I’m trying to find a way to put this delicately. Technically, I’m your biological parent… in a manner of speaking.” Our eyes all bugged.
“He fucked your momandmy sister,” I whispered in awe. Who knew he had it in him.
“I did not fuck his mother. However, I did inject her with my essence,” he said. I cackled. His eyes slid to Bree. “You too.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Bree asked. The orange cat seemed fine enough sitting in her arms. She rubbed its cheek.
“The serum that altered both of you. It wasn’t something I made in a lab. I was simply injecting my blood into both of you.” He made air quotes around blood. They both stared at him, speechless.
“What are you exactly?” I asked him, confused about the whole thing.
“I’m an interdimensional being.” His eyes shifted to Nemo again. “I’m going away, but if you ever need help, find me.”
“How?” Nemo asked.
“You can sense me, right?” We all shot looks at Nemo; he grimaced and nodded.
“That’s part of having me inside you.”
“Bro…” I whispered. Stein looked at me.
“One last thing. The people who ran the asylum will not let you go easily, Basil.” I stiffened.
“What do you mean?”
“They never let me leave those walls. Except once.”
“When you picked me up,” I responded.
“Yes. Your parents had set up a meeting and demanded I be present. Supra was willing to risk their own fates and the fate of the world to get you.”
“I’m a special snowflake,” I joked.
“You are a weapon they want to wield.” He eyed Nemo and Orson a moment before curling his fingers at me.
