“Can you move your heart around your body?”
There was silence.
“I’d never questioned whether I could, but now that it’s been brought up…” he said.
He made a face—parts of his body rearranging and moving, and then finally, he gasped.
“Oh God,” he said.“That was unpleasant, but it’s done.”
“So now you’re safe,” I said.“What about you, Vic?Can you… I don’t know.Restructure your flesh, or rebuild yourself?Some kind of necromantic flesh-crafting?”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Vic said.“Hold on.”
He pulsated up, his chest opening like a putrid flower, and his black heart beat in the open air like a rose had opened and exposed his weak point.
“That would make a radical tattoo,” Eddie said.
“Okay.Almost on the other side of this,” I said.“Now I’m going to pull Eddie off the table.Slowly.And then when the impaling mechanisms happen, it’s going to hurt, but you should survive it.”
“This better work, Stace,” Vic said.
“It probably will,” I said.“Alright.Three.Two.One.”
I pulled Eddie, who screamed as the metal implements fell from his body, and he gasped as he got to his feet.When the pressure was gone from his table, there was a series of metal thonks from the other side of the room.Eddie and I stared at one another, eyes wide, and then swiveled around.
“Safe again,” Vic said, his heart slithering back into his chest.
“Me as well,” Nagi said, somewhere near the ceiling.He’d grown, arching his back up and up and up to avoid the implements.
“Let’s go home,” I said.
“Yet again, you have avoided managing to pick one of us,” Vic said.
“What can I say?”I asked.“That’s what I’m good at.”
The Hag fellto her knees when she saw all four of us leave the compound.
“You passed!”she shrieked.“You are the chosen!You are the Moon-Kissed!”
“No,” I said.“I’m not.”
“Tend the flames,” the Hag said.“Tend them there, and I will tend them here.”
“Fuck off,” I said.“Come on, Clemenza.We’re going home!”
The exit to the Dragon Eye appeared before me.I could not help but look at the sky, briefly, before I entered.
Something was staring back down at me.I gulped, and then stepped into the Portal again…
10.
“Spontaneous Human Eruption: Fact or Fiction?”by Stacey Adams.
I hit the enter key one final time on this article, then put it to the side.It would sit for another day or two before I went over and cleaned it up.Then I’d send it to Gabe, who would put sarcastic quips in the sidebar, who would sometimes be more than a little insulting with his feedback.But it was fine.That was how we played, after all.Something constructive came from the process, at least.And then we’d upload it to the internet, and a thousand or more people would read it at 7 AM over their morning toast.
I stared out at the Chicago skyline from my office.The darkness had gone down over the city.Out there on the streets, weird things were stirring.It was my job to find them.To chronicle them, in some way or another.My job was to take what they were doing out there—to make it palatable for human consumption—and keep it compelling.
I started a new document and then centered the heading.
