It took Jenny a second to recognize she was watching herself emerge into the world. She'd nearly gotten lost in Iblis’ memories – his astonishment at seeing someone of material form, it became her astonishment as well. The ages spent frozen, without feeling, without change, and suddenly here was a human with tentacles retracting into her back and an exoskeleton bubbling back inside her.

  The heat of it. The heat emanating off her body, off the rippling light behind her. Warmth radiated, awakening the demons, bringing them back to life, inviting them to the source. More and more bodies tumbled out of the light to colpse on the snow, each new body burning with life.

  She felt Iblis’ surprise as the ghouls froze in pce, at the intense heat radiating off the Deaths. He recognized them. There were fshes of memories, of people trapped in pilrs of salt, screaming and crying – of the ghouls marching across a desote nd. Jenny slipped deeper into the demon’s psyche almost by accident as more memories tumbled out-

  It wasn’t war. Iblis hadn’t led the demons in rebellion. He’d led them in servitude. The angel Sat’en had convinced him to join their cause. To conquer the worlds. To spread true freedom. They’d served under Him.

  Fear shook the mind scape so violently, that Jenny lost her grip. Her hold on the demon’s mind loosened, and Iblis tore to the surface in this strange mental space they shared. The demon was shocked. Furious. Ashamed.

  You are not human, he said accusingly, his static echoing around her as though countless echoes were cshing inside a cave. But you are not properly desecrated! Your mind is still intact. What are you? How can this be?

  I DON’T KNOW, she screamed back, and all the horrible twisted feelings surfaced all at once. The mind scape vibrated violently, shattering like a mirror, ugly cracks running along every edge of this invisible space. But get the fuck out of my body if you want to talk.

  The demon didn’t respond right away. It floated aimlessly inside her, watching. Observing. I cannot fail my people again. And with that, it struck again.

  Radio static pierced through her anger, forced her from the demon’s memories and back into her own. Iblis burrowed inside, and Jenny’s body shook. Fire streamed from her eyes. Cold air stung the back of her throat.

  Internally, she was trying to kick, trying to struggle and resist, but her body would not respond. Iblis was in control, trying to take control, and her body hunched over. Warmth spread through her limbs. Her fingers twitched.

  The demon had tricked her. He’d wanted her to see all those things, just as Eve had once shown her so many things – it was all a distraction. To rile up her emotions. To make her understand the demon’s plight.

  But she could do the same.

  You wanna see hurt? You think you’re the only one who knows what it feels like to get away from something so desperately? Spittle dribbled down her chin as her body convulsed. Then here!

  Her memories bubbled to the forefront of her mind. Visions of Yeshua, how Jenny had found him on the cross begging for death. She brought up the ghouls, watching them bite and chew through Yeshua and the Deaths. She showed the demon what it was like to even have a body. To hunger, to feel disgust, to bleed. To never feel comfortable even just having a body. The awkwardness of it all – to love someone, or think you love someone. To feel alone and miserable. To never having clothes that fit perfectly. To questioning how you look everywhere you go. To questioning how everyone looks at you. And how silly it all feels because in the grand scheme of things, who gives a fuck?

  She showed Iblis her life in high school, rifling through csses and homework and crushes. Gaming te into the night with Susan. Wanting to tell her how she felt. Wanting to say so many things that she never could. Crying. Sobbing. Feeling empty on the train. Hiding grades and things from her mother. Dealing with her expanding family. It felt so stupid that she’d cried over these things, but they hurt. They were her hurt. And she wanted the demon to see, even as the memories shifted into the Survival Challenge, even as nightmares tried to eat her.

  She showed the demon all the tarnished and wretched angels she’d fought. She showed the demon what she’d become. Severed Spirit. How she’d fought and eaten angels. How angry she felt. Then she showed Iblis the thing she feared the most: what she’d done to Susan. Susan’s final moment. How the light that the demons wanted so badly belonged to Susan.

  How she’d killed Susan.

  I HATE THEM TOO! she screamed silently from the imprisonment of her worst memories. She wasn’t even sure what she hated. Just them. The idea of them. The things that had taken everything from her, that never really let her have anything. Even if that was her fault. There was something beyond the world that had always kept the world miserable. She was sure of it. And she was sure it had to do with the angels and demons and deaths and all these stupid horrible things that kept happening.

  Her memories went on, from Susan’s lifeless corpse on the cafeteria floor to the sunlight streaming in through broken windows. To the moment Jenny’s stomach rippled and stretched, and that glowing thing squeezed out of her and grew into a copy of her – and feeling that, feeling the pain of giving birth, and feeling the pain and regret and anguish of what she’d done to Susan, and watching Eve take shape – that made the demon finally relent.

  Everything went quiet inside Jenny’s head, like a storm ending abruptly. The winds stopped. The battering chaos eased. The assault on her body faded away as Iblis retreated.

  Her body convulsed. Her back arched. And then with a scream. she wasn’t sure if she was screaming inside her head or out loud, blue fire rose up from her body, spilling out of her face, from her eyes and nose and lips, billowing and bubbling as though something inside of her was boiling away.

  It took a while for the steam to clear up. Cold air enveloped her again, and the water turned to ice again beneath her. A cough racked her lungs, and she spit bloody phlegm before wiping hair out of her face. She’d been sweating profusely, and now all that sweat was freezing. The cold sank deep into her bones with a horrible ache.

  A shimmering form hovered in front of her as she shivered. Tears had frozen on her cheeks. She couldn’t tell who’d cried them. Iblis shrank, the humanoid form fading away until all that remained was a small group of sparkling blue lights.

  I apologize, he said.

  Jenny swallowed hard, forcing out a breath that clouded away from her lips. Her fingers curled in the snow. “You’re only sorry cause you didn’t get what you wanted.”

  The sparkles floated away, back to the ghoul body lying in the snow with an ugly crack in its skull. The lights shot down into its face, sinking beneath the frost, and a moment ter, the blue fmes roared back to life in its eye sockets. The body stood, its mouth opened and shut, and that gooey blue glow seeped out from the cracks again. I am apologizing for my rash actions.

  “Like I said, you’re only saying that cause you failed. You couldn’t take control and now you need me. You need this.” She held up her hand and used a little bit of Valescent Light.

  Immediately, the dizzying sensation of exhaustion struck her, but she clenched her chattering teeth and shook the light away, not wanting to show any weakness in front of the demons. What would happen if she passed out and couldn’t consciously fight the possession? Would they just wait till she colpsed from the cold and take over? What if she fell asleep?

  But the burning blue eyes brightened. The fmes grew rger. The other demons ccked their jaws and stepped closer, and Iblis turned to face them. She couldn’t see or hear anything, but she felt waves of warmth fluttering around the air, slight pressures and ripples, little pockets of warmth that faded into the freezing wind.

  Then Iblis turned back to Jenny, lowering his bulbous ghoul head, the two blue fmes curling over it. Very well. I felt that you had many questions. That you are lost in this grand drama. May I expin what you glimpsed? May I expin my actions? And may I offer a suggestion on how we can proceed?

  Jenny couldn’t stop shivering. Her eyes watered, and she blinked several times to keep from crying. To keep her eyes from freezing. She used a small burst of Ignite, letting the fmes flicker down her arms and legs. She gnced back at the deaths. Some of them had colpsed. Others stared helplessly. And she decided she didn’t care what the Demons had to say just yet. She turned her back on the demons.

  It was a risky move. But she knew they wouldn’t attack her. She’d felt Iblis’ desperation, and they’d pyed their one card. They tried to control her and couldn’t. Would they go after the deaths? They might, but the deaths didn’t have the ability they wanted. Deaths couldn’t open passageways between worlds. They needed her. And only her.

  Maybe she could use this to her advantage. She finally had the upper hand. She could finally get some answers. And maybe she could even help...

  Help them? WHY?

  They wanted to possess me! Why would I ever help them?

  It’s what Susan would do. It’s the right thing. They were just desperate. And maybe we need them on our side. We don’t know what’s even going on.

  Susan’s not here. She’s dead.

  YOU killed her.

  I fucking know!

  She approached the trembling deaths, trying to put on a brave smile. Trying to assure them everything would be okay. Then she focused on the system.

  A pile of wood will cost 100 Energy.

  Sufficient Energy.

  Jenny squatted down in front of the deaths, wary of the demons staring at her. Were they angry? Insulted? She didn’t care. They were the ones who’d attacked her when they could’ve talked this out from the get go. She held her hand out over the snow and felt that familiar shudder as the system responded.

  Golden light swirled around her fingers and her arm. The deaths stared with intense curiosity, and she inhaled deeply as the light slipped gently off her palm and onto the ground, glowing brighter and brighter, elongating as it turned solid.

  After a moment, a pile of crudely stacked wood y on top of the snow, just as she’d pictured it. It was nearly identically to the firewood she’d once chopped and gathered in front of her stepdad’s cabin. She made three more piles, spreading them out so that the deaths would have enough space, and, with three uses of Ignite, lit them up. Three bonfires on a frozen world flickered with orange warmth as the grateful deaths gathered around them, murmuring their appreciation and gratitude toward Jenny.

  She wondered if the demons longed to be near the fmes as well. Deciding to keep with the camping vibe, she created several rge logs. She’d always liked sitting on fallen trees; she didn’t know why. Something about being in the woods, away from the bustle of civilization.

  Jenny made several logs and dragged them into pce around the fires. This way the deaths could rest and wouldn’t have to sit on the frozen ground. Susan once told her that when making shelters for the alley cats behind her apartment building, they had to make sure the small structures were raised. If they were on the ground, all the body heat of the cat would seep into the cold ground, and they would never be able to get warm.

  Once that was prepared, she conjured a fire for herself. Then another log. Then, finally, she turned to face the demons, sitting down to rest her legs. Breathe. Inhale and exhale, rex your body and mind.

  She couldn’t handle any of this, deal with any of this if she responded out of fear, out of desperation. She was worried about Yeshua, terrified of having to look after the deaths and keep them safe from the demons. Terrified still of losing control of her body. She didn’t want anything controlling her like that ever again.

  But if she didn’t rex, she wouldn’t be able to figure out what to do. The demon had inadvertently taught her that; fear made an opening; fear allowed them to enter.

  She didn’t know what to do. But that was okay. Her pn had been to rest anyway. To regather her strength and open the passageway back to the world of the dead so she could retrieve Yeshua. That pn hadn’t changed.

  But maybe... maybe the demons could help her in return. Iblis had recognized something before he pulled away; she’d felt recognition. It was when she was pregnant, when she’d given birth. That had to be the key to this. Did they know Eve?

  No. It was deeper than that. They knew betrayal. That angel named Sat’en... why was that so familiar? Was that... Satan?

  And why was there such a deep sense of betrayal? A wound so deep that Iblis had rid himself of those memories?

  Love. There’d been such an intense love – but what did it all mean? What did it add up to?

  Once the tension in her body eased and her lungs stopped feeling like someone else’s and the heat radiating from the campfire had soothed her stinging nose and brought sensation back to her face, Iblis approached her.

  He could read her thoughts; she knew that. It wasn’t an exact read, but he knew that she would be willing to talk now. And she knew that the demon knew she would help, but that she had questions. She straightened her shoulders, trying to appear confident now that she had a fire going, now that she’d bested the demon in maintaining control of her body. “Go on then. Tell me why I should help you.”

  I believe we are on the same side of this war.