Shane was waiting for us at the Piggly Wiggly, just like he said. He was sitting on a checkout counter and helping himself to an entire birthday cake when we walked in. He eyed Caleb suspiciously and put the cake down.

  “Who’s the child?” he asked.

  “My brother, and the only non-marked motherfucker I know to kill a marked man,” I replied. Shane raised his eyebrows. Caleb didn’t bother to clarify that the man was distracted and taken off guard. He just smiled and said “Yep.” and got one of his little buddies to come out of his pocket and sit on his shoulder. Shane was intrigued. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but shook his head and stopped.

  “We can’t stay here long,” he said. “Kim will report back to the Reverend, and they’ll find us. But I need to get you guys up to speed first. The Reverend is not the same man you once fought.” He looked at me.

  “Yeah, I’ll fuckin’ say,” I said and took out Anita’s picture. “Tell me this is Photoshop.”

  Shane looked at the picture and laughed. “I really wish I could, but it’s true. The Reverend has gained a lot of power in the last few months. He’s been holding the army back without assistance since we arrived here. All of his men are out here, culling everyone they can, and then reporting back to be slaughtered, absorbed into him.”

  “Fuck, why would anyone do that?” I asked.

  “Some do it willingly, some don’t. A lot of them genuinely want to be absorbed, to become part of the Reverend and a part of the singularity of souls. They gravitate towards his power and are happy to die. The ones who don’t agree to it are brought to him by the loyal followers, and they’re given a brutal, humiliating death instead of a quick, honorable beheading.” Shane appeared more gaunt, like talking about this was sucking the life out of him. “A friend of mine tried to leave. It didn’t end well for her. But she didn’t have help. She didn’t have you guys.”

  “A singularity of souls?” I said. The phrase sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “So that’s Alec’s plan? Absorb everyone on Earth until he’s a god, and then rule over the dirt?”

  “It wasn’t his plan at first. At least, he said it wasn’t. He never mentioned anything about exterminating the entire human race until fairly recently — the last month or so. Lately, he’s looked angry, hungry, like a starved animal. I think he’s lost his damn mind, to tell you the truth.”

  I thought about the look Mickey had in his eyes when he was drunk and Caleb stepped to him. The marks made us hungry, starved us like tapeworms, and Alec was more tapeworm than man now. It made perfect sense to me. Looking at Mickey, I saw it made sense to him too.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  “The son of a bitch has gone too far,” Mickey said. There was a tinge of fear in his voice. Genuine fear. “How the Hell are we gonna stop him?”

  “There’s only one thing we can do,” Shane said. “We need to get to the marked men before they get to the Reverend. You two need to absorb their power to have a chance of stopping him. And I can tell you exactly where to go.”

  Mickey and I looked at each other. I think he finally saw what these marks really were, and what might happen if we follow through with Shane’s plan.

  “That’s why it needs to be both of you,” Shane said, reading the expressions on our faces. “Neither of you will end up as strong as the Reverend, but together, maybe you could take him on while still preserving your sanity.”

  I wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t sure there was much sanity left to preserve, even now. But if Alec was that strong, we had no choice but to feed our marks, to get stronger. I couldn’t let Mickey do it alone, even if I wanted to. There’s no way he would be able to keep himself together, and even if he did, he’d be strong enough to flatten my ass at the end of it. No — we had to do it, the both of us.

  I turned to Caleb.

  “You should get out of here,” I said. “This is going to be more dangerous than I thought. Go meet up with Mother Dora, or Clodagh. They can’t have gotten too far yet. Mickey can hotwire a car for you in the parking lot.”

  “I certainly can,” said Mickey.

  “What?” Caleb said like I just asked him to shit in my hand. “No way. Sounds like you guys need as much help as you can get. And I’m not gonna waste my time disrupting freakin’ supply chains while you guys go fight superheroes.”

  “When are you going to realize that this isn’t a fucking game, Caleb!?” I snapped. “There are no superheroes here. Just a bunch of fucked up people with too much power — a lot of them with more power than you, with your little pets.”

  Caleb just smiled. “Who you callin’ little?”

  The creature on his shoulder jumped onto the ground and Caleb drew a circle around him. Then, he started putting pieces of himself into the circle: he bit off some of his fingernails and spat them in; he pulled out a lock of hair and tossed it; and finally, he pricked his finger with a pocket knife and squeezed drops of blood onto the creature’s head. When that disgusting process was over, he knelt onto the ground and hummed, his eyes closed. His body relaxed, then started to sway from side to side. The creature swayed with him, perfectly mirroring his movements. He put his palms against the white tile floor and took big, heaving breaths. With each breath, the creature grew in size, until it was as tall as a man. The heavy breathing stopped, and he slowly rose to his feet, and looked the creature in the eyes. Then he looked back at me, and the creature looked at me too.

  “Like I said, who you callin’ little?” he said. “You saw what they could do when they were small. Imagine what they can do now that I’ve figured this out.”

  He touched the creature on its head and exhaled slowly. The creature shrank back down to its original size in time with his breath, and it crawled back into his pocket.

  “Alright, alright, you can come,” I said. I was honestly curious to see that monstrosity in action.

  Mickey clapped his hands together. “Guess that settles that little family squabble. Ok Shane, where to?”