Therapy

Everyone knew that a time of great adjustment was on the horizon for all of them.

When the laundry was done and stuffed into the trunk area of the car, everybody had a difficult time of trying to squeeze into the small KIA Soul together; Xena sat in the driver seat, and Amory was on the passenger side with Mikey sitting on his knee. In the back, Aravali, Raven, Iggy, and Crowe were forced to sit like sardines, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the entire drive back home.

During the drive, Aravali proposed the idea of resuming patient treatment, both individual sessions and group therapy. Since he had initially planned to admit Amory to Moonvale, and since Crowe, Iggy, and Raven were still patients as well, he planned to remain their psychiatrist and continue doing his job for all of them, even on this side of the door. Everyone else seemed to agree to this, and Mikey asked a few curious questions about the 80s, which everyone else had a fun time answering, Amory reminding the boy not to ever explore beyond the doorway. Xena started talking about how she would go furniture shopping with them, and Crowe chimed in as well, offering to pay for whatever was needed.

“You’re gonna regret that,” Xena laughed, pulling up to the side of the driveway and parking in front of the manor. “Furniture costs a lot, y’know.”

“What… is the Goodwill not in the shopping center anymore?” Crowe snickered. “Because we could go there. I’m not against second-hand stuff if nobody else is.”

“The prices aren’t gonna be what you expect, buddy. Not even there,” Xena knew.

“All right… before everyone spills out and runs off again, I need to say this,” Aravali said, adjusting in his uncomfortable position by the side door. “I think we need a group session.”

Crowe and Raven both stared over at him, Amory blinking and turning back to him.

“Ahmm… can we do that… not in the car?” Iggy mumbled, his entire body lying against the other side door, Crowe’s arm practically pinning him there.

“I don’t necessarily mean you , Iggy,” Aravali clarified. “I’m talking about the trio, here. I believe that’s needed to happen between them for a while now.”

“Ughk… do we have to do that today? ” Crowe griped. “We’ve got pizza coming, and I wanna go pick out a bedroom…”

“I wanted to go out back and get a better look at the backyard and the garden,” Amory mumbled, glancing over at Mikey. “We could make a little amusement park out there if we really wanted to. It looks huge.”

“No… now… listen to me,” Aravali said to them calmly. “You’ve both had your ‘distraction’ time, and Amory finally got a nap in… so I think this is a good time. I’m not going to bar you from eating your pizza during, I just think it’s time that this little talk actually happens. When was the last time all three of you were in the same place, just sharing a normal, healthy conversation with one another? Hm?”

Crowe and Amory groaned in unison. Raven seemed to be the only one of the three who didn’t seem interested in arguing with the idea.

Xena glimpsed over at Amory, then at Crowe and Raven through the rearview.

“Yeah… I kinda think you might need to clear the air, too,” she remarked. “Not my business… that’s just my opinion. Me and Mikey have things to do right now, anyway. We have to unpack our stuff, and pick rooms, and figure out where the kitchen is… and see if there’re any dishes in there. If there are, then I’m gonna have to wash them before the food gets here.”

“Ohhh… I can do the dishes part,” Iggy offered, sliding his hand over the door handle and pulling it, nearly falling out of the car when the door swung open.

As everyone climbed out of the vehicle, Amory smirked at Mikey before leaping out and attempting to sprint into the house alongside him.

“Don’t run off and disappear!” Aravali yelled after him, watching as Amory and Mikey laughed and ran up the stone stairs. “You’d better be inside that checkerboard room in five minutes!”

The others snickered, Xena moving to the back and collecting one of the laundry baskets, Iggy working to grab the other and throwing Mikey’s school bag on top of it. When they walked off to take the items inside, Crowe, Raven, and Aravali approached the open trunk, planning to carry the rest inside for them.

Raven took one of the travel bags and walked away with it rolling wobbly on the gravel behind her, pulling the wheeled bag up to the stoop. Crowe pulled the last bag out, then swung the trunk shut, meeting Aravali’s eyes.

“Why today?” he asked.

Aravali paused and gave him an odd look. “What?”

“Why today? ” Crowe reiterated, wearing a strangely stony visage. “I really don’t wanna talk today. Not now.”

“Why not?” Aravali asked. “I understand that we all went through something rather traumatic this morning, but that’s exactly why I think we shouldn’t put this off any longer. Letting it all continue to bottle up isn’t healthy. Whatever pains and frustrations are inside need to be allowed to come out somehow. And we need to work through it together.”

“But it’s too much right now,” Crowe grumbled, looking away and shaking his head.

Aravali stared, now perplexed by his unwillingness to speak. Crowe sometimes deflected with jokes or snide remarks, but he’d never been outright opposed to talking during sessions.

“What else happened today?” the doctor thought to ask, remembering when he’d mentioned John, and recalling the grave, mournful look on Elaine’s face.

Crowe continued to glare off to the side. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Everything matters,” Aravali insisted. “What else happened when I wasn’t around?”

“Well… the second Zyon walked into the cafeteria this morning, John and Donna both had a problem with their mental demon parade acting up just at the sight of him,” Crowe told him grimly. “And then… they had to be… dealt with. Zyon went to go lay his hands on them, trying to get rid of the demons… and he said they wouldn’t die from it… if they chose to let the demons go. I reckon Donna did choose to let hers go, because she ended up perfectly fine after her little angel treatment… but John… didn’t.”

Aravali’s expression became disturbed, feeling a sense of nausea deep inside. “Did John… die… right there in the cafeteria? In Moonvale?”

“Yeah.” Crowe still stared to the side, avoiding his eyes. “Zyon told me he got rid of the body, too… but that al… that almost makes it worse…”

He paused, pressing a fist to his mouth for a second.

“Could’ve at least buried him,” Crowe rumbled painfully.

Aravali merely stared, frowning and saying nothing.

“And y’know—don’t get me wrong—it can be pretty easy to write off death sometimes,” Crowe suddenly began to rant, turning to him and swatting the air. “When it’s some demon-run shadow government wankers—and when they walk up and open fire on us, or open fire on you—then yeah, I can kill ‘em without a single second thought. I can beat their bloody bodies into the ground until they’re a mess of fuckin’ body parts. But see—they’re not people, and they’re not victims. They’re just assholes who chose to work for Valek. They didn’t just end up strapped to a table with demons forced down their throat like John was. It’s not fair.”

He glared at the doctor, chest rising and falling with every frustrated breath.

Aravali gave him a long, somber stare, gently shaking his head.

“I didn’t know you’d been… killing people,” he murmured.

“Whaddo you think happened at The King’s Place when you and Raven both hit the deck?” Crowe asked. “Whaddo you think happened right after they walked up to your flat and gunned you down for no reason? Of course I’ve been killing them—they damn well deserve it!”

“Crowe… that takes a serious toll on your mind,” Aravali told him intensely.

“Well—then they’d better just stop coming after us, huh?” Crowe snapped. “Because as long as they are—I’m just gonna have to kill ‘em, because I don’t want Raven to have to do it again, and Amory hasn’t got the stomach for it. That all falls onto me.”

“That doesn’t all fall on—wait, wait a second— again? ” Aravali stammered. “When did Raven ever kill anyone before? ”

Crowe gave him a deep, severe look. “They shot you—to death—in front of us. Yeah—sue us—but we both lost our fuckin’ temper.”

Aravali fell totally silent, sighing deeply and feeling a painful wave of both empathy and regret. Suddenly, he wished he’d never impulsively decided to walk home after the shootout at the club and the fight in front of Moonvale. Him storming away like that was a reckless move, practically forcing Crowe and Raven to follow him and act as bodyguards. If not for him marching off in frustration after everything else unfolded, the second shootout of the day would have never happened, and Crowe and Raven never would have witnessed something so traumatizing.

“I’m sorry… I never should’ve gone home,” Aravali said remorsefully.

“Yeah—we said that,” Crowe griped.

“I’m agreeing with you,” Aravali reiterated. “Yes—I should’ve listened to you—but I was frustrated. I will certainly know better than to act on impulse again the next time danger comes around—but I’m not exactly worried about that happening here, and you shouldn’t be, either. This place and this time period aren’t accessible to those people.”

“Yeah… okay… fine,” Crowe mumbled.

Aravali paused and sighed.

“Y’know what, though… I really don’t wanna talk about dead friends in group therapy,” Crowe added, meeting his gaze again. “Can we not? All that shit is gonna be really fuckin’ hard to talk to him about with you and Raven both staring at me.”

Aravali remained silent for a second, pondering on this. Crowe spoke as if he planned to talk directly to Amory during this conversation—and, the longer the doctor thought about it, the more sense this seemed to make. Crowe and Amory hadn’t yet made proper amends since their fight, and the two of them had both lost a close friend today. Perhaps Crowe no longer wanted to avoid Amory, and he was finally ready to talk openly with him.

Maybe the two of them needed to talk to one another in private before a group session should be set into motion.

“All right… I’ll tell you what,” Aravali proposed. “Just go hunt him down and talk to him yourself. Group can wait until later.”

Crowe’s eyes flickered back to him, narrowing at him astutely. “Why?”

“Because that needs to happen, and then the other thing needs to happen,” Aravali determined. “Group will be easier if you’re not busting at the seams with all this other unresolved stuff regarding Amory. Go and hash that out first… and then, when you’re done… drag him down to the checkerboard room.”

Crowe stared for a moment longer, then nodded mildly, turning on his heel and walking toward the manor with the travel bag. Aravali followed him a moment later, and they each went different directions when they walked inside, Crowe leaving the bag at the foot of the stairs where the other bag was before marching up to the second floor, Aravali striding directly toward the open doorway of the checkerboard room.

When he walked inside, he noticed several things at once; there were a few boxes beside the blue door, one of them open and seeming to contain paperwork as well as a few random items atop the stack of papers, and the lopsided couch was cluttered with belongings as well, a few of which he recognized. There was also a large bucket next to the other couch, and Elaine was hunched in front of it, scrubbing the cushions vigorously and removing the stains from the cushions with incredibly success.

Aravali glanced around at everything, then eyed her. “Ah… hello. What have you been doing?”

Elaine sighed and straightened up, hunched on her knees and wiping sweat from her brow.

“Cleaning, organizing our things, general maintenance, et cetera,” she informed.

Aravali made a face, glimpsing down at the lopsided couch again. He spotted his dark blue button-up there, lying separately from everything else, as it was still heavily stained with blood. His black belt and his wallet were also there, as well as two of Iggy’s old jean jackets, Crowe’s smaller leather jacket, and a few other articles of clothing belonging to the Moonvalers.

“How is Donna?” Aravali asked, scratching his cheek.

“Perfectly well and recovered,” Elaine replied, resuming her scrubbing. “Her sister Amelia arrived to pick her up today. She’s home now, safe and sound.”

Aravali blinked once and shot her a double-take. “You went… you went back into Moonvale and arranged that? Already…?”

“Yes… and I gathered several other things we need here,” Elaine said without stopping her cleaning. “Although, if Iggy is staying with us, then I’d recommend we do something to fix this old TV… because he has a hard time keeping himself occupied if he doesn’t have anything to watch or to read.”

Aravali hesitated, glimpsing over at the TV, then up at the rounded light in the ceiling of this room. The light was still turned off, but he knew the power in the manor should be working now.

“Well… there’s nothing wrong with the TV that I know of. The place just needed the electric turned back on,” Aravali remarked. “And we’ve had a small fortune fall out of the sky today, anyway, so I imagine we can get another television if this one actually is busted beyond use.”

Elaine nodded down at the cushions, leaning deeper into them and scrubbing harder, seeming to have trouble with a particularly dark spot of what remained of the stain.

Aravali observed her for a moment, sliding his hands into his jean pockets and feeling troubled.

“You didn’t have to go back into Moonvale,” he said. “Especially not on your own.”

Elaine fought with the stain for a second longer, then straightened up again, huffing out a breath and staring at him.

“Well… I did happen to think that through , you know,” she replied curtly. “And, considering the great big spanking that our holy friend gave to the Canterbury crew… I imagined that they’d be hunkering down in their little hideout with their tails between their legs right about now, struggling to recover and laying low for a brief amount of time. Seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get Donna home and gather up our things.”

“Yeah… well,” Aravali mumbled gravely, sauntering over to the edge of the couch and snatching up his dark, bloodied shirt, the fabric stiff with dried, course crimson. “I did the same thing… and this is what happened right after.”

He opened the stiffened bloody shirt best he could, dark flakes breaking off of it and sprinkling onto the floor, and he held it up for her to fully see.

Elaine grimaced up at it, remaining silent.

“You wouldn’t think that they’d act so boldly and carelessly right after another bold and careless action of theirs… but they would, and they did,” Aravali told her, tossing the shirt aside again. “And if not for a miracle from God and some very quick thinking from our patients, then I definitely would not be here right now. Crossing that doorway and exposing ourselves to them is the very last thing any of us need to do now.”

Elaine continued to frown, setting the mound of steel wool aside and reaching her feet.

“Well… how was I supposed to know all that happened?” she said softly. “You never told me.”

“I know. I’m not trying to scold you or anything,” Aravali assured. “I’m just telling you everything now… like I should have done already.”

Elaine surveyed him for a moment, and then, she sank down onto the lopsided couch, scooting the items over and staring at him expectantly.

Aravali sat snugly beside her, and—finally—the two of them talked about everything in the world that they needed to.

During the time when the doctor and the orderly talked—and when Xena and Iggy finally located the enormous kitchen, working to search for dishes and checking to see if the water was running—Crowe strolled about the huge mansion for a while, searching around for his friend and finding him nowhere.

Eventually, he reached the third floor, glancing at the glass door that led out to the stone balcony. Then, he looked the other way, spotting the large double-doors with the gold-plated AMORY posted overtop, and he peeked into this spacious, open room, seeing what was apparently meant to be his friend’s bedroom now.

He studied the bureau beside the bed, filled with music, then his eyes shifted over to the window—where Raven was standing, the curtains opened halfway, and she was gazing outside, seeming to be watching something.

“Well… this seems a bit unfair,” Crowe laughed, sauntering into the room and surveying everything around him, all the items from the closet still scattered sloppily across the floor in a mess of disarray. “They left him a giant master bedroom full of free stuff and music? Where does that leave you , then?”

Raven turned and spotted him, laughing before facing the window again. “I have a big room, too. It’s right down the hall from here… and it has a big fluffy bed with silky blue drapes hanging down all around it. It’s awesome.”

“Oooh. Gotcha.” Crowe nodded, stopping beside her and peeking out the window as well. “What’re we lookin’ at here…?”

Raven nodded at the glass—at the large, towering tree that was visible just across from the window, a thick, humongous tree with several large, craning branches spanning out in several directions, autumn leaves gently fluttering off of it, and Amory and Mikey were out there, climbing the tree together and working their way to the top.

Crowe narrowed his eyes at the scene outside, scoffing out a laugh. “He’s always just gonna be a kid inside, isn’t he?”

Raven giggled and nodded.

They both fell momentarily silent, simply watching their friend outside, Amory letting out a cackling, high-pitched laugh when Mikey yelled up at him, ordering him to slow down.

Crowe sighed, stealing a brief glimpse of Raven and hesitating before he spoke.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

Raven turned and raised her eyebrows at him.

Crowe fidgeted for a second, folding his arms and releasing another cloud of breath.

“Why do you…” he uttered with some difficulty. “Why do you keep… like… going out of your way to take charge of things?”

Raven stared, her brow hardening, looking confused. “Whaddo you mean?”

“Well… like leaving the lab before any of us did, for one,” Crowe replied. “The second you started learning to control your power better, you just disappeared into thin air. Feathers seemed to think you were fine, and that was good enough for Amory… but I couldn’t just trust that. At the time, I didn’t even know for sure if Zyon was a real person or just some recurring dream. I had to start going out and… y’know… looking for you.”

Raven was quiet, making a flattened sort of smile. “You didn’t have to do that…”

“Tch… yeah I did,” Crowe argued. “D’you know how fuckin’ worried I was? Get the hell outta here. I had to know where you were for my own peace of mind… and thank God you just popped off to Moonvale and used the place like a homeless shelter, or I probably never would’ve crossed your path again. I was already visiting Iggy and everyone else there sometimes, so… y’know… just worked out really well in that way, I s’pose.”

“Yeah,” Raven muttered.

“But you just… you disappeared without saying a thing,” Crowe added. “And I thought about it, and I figured you had to go out and find a life, and find yourself, and all that stuff… because I was feeling the same thing too. I had to get the hell outta there more and more, the more restless I felt… and the more I started piecing together what was actually going on there. But now… now, with everything else that’s been happening… it seems more… drastic. Like… you felt the need to tackle John when he attacked me. You jumped between me and Amory fighting. You actually snapped a guy’s neck… and you grabbed Donna and forced her towards Zyon, just to make sure she got them demons out of her. It took a lot of strength to do that, especially to a friend. I’m proud of you, y’know… but I can’t help but notice… you’re trying really hard to step into all them situations and just… deal with them… and… that’s not… how you ever were.”

Raven nodded silently, gazing outside at her brother with a distant expression.

“I needed to be stronger,” she said in a soft, simple voice. “You and Amory always did everything for me… and Amory always got hurt for me. I just don’t wanna be that person who constantly needs to be protected anymore.”

Crowe made a thoughtful face, nodding in response. “Huh. I guess I never really… thought of it that way. That makes sense.”

Raven stared out at her brother for a second longer, then turned to Crowe again.

“I went traveling up north in ’85, y’know,” she informed. “I went to the beaches up there, just wandering for a while… and I made some friends in New York and hung out there for a little bit. I was there when Hurricane Gloria hit the east coast.”

Crowe stared at her in surprise. “Yeah…?”

Raven nodded, flashing a smirk. “My friends were kinda like you. They were a band, and they were trying really hard to ‘make it’ in the big city… but… the hurricane was coming… and it was about to destroy their apartment. All of us lived there… and… all of us were stuck there.”

Crowe gazed into her with investment. “Well… what happened? How the hell’d you manage to get away from that?”

“I didn’t,” Raven replied, her smile growing. “I went to the roof and made it get away from me .”

Crowe ogled her incredulously, his mouth drifting agape. “You fought a bloody hurricane…?”

Raven grinned and nodded.

“And you won …?!” Crowe breathed.

Raven nodded again, snickering breathlessly.

“Oh my G—oh my Christ—Raven, I love you,” Crowe laughed, clasping her face and planting a kiss onto her forehead.

Raven giggled and took back, suddenly blushing.

Crowe wore a smooth half-smile now, reading the hint of embarrassment on her face and thinking she looked adorable. Then, he glanced outside again, seeing that Amory was steadily climbing higher than the view of this third-floor window now, Mikey crawling up the branches just beneath him.

“Ari wants me to goand  talk to him one-on-one before we all do group or whatever,” Crowe mentioned. “I s’pose I’d better get to that…”

“Yeah… you better do what Daddy says,” Raven snarked, swatting him away.

Crowe turned to leave, walking backward and flashing a middle finger at her before he wheeled around and strolled toward the door.

Raven stared after him for a second, her smile fading.

“Crowe,” she called.

Crowe stopped at the doorway and turned back to face her.

Raven sighed.

“Please no fighting,” she said sincerely. “He doesn’t need any more of that… and, honestly… neither do you.”

Crowe stared for a second, then nodded and turned away. “I know. I know…”

He strolled out of the room, and Raven returned her attention to her brother outside again, Amory finally spotting her, beaming and waving at her.

This particularly enormous and leafy autumn-colored tree stood in the heart and center of the garden area, with the curvy winding pathways down below spanning in many different directions between the expanses of tall grass, one leading to a greenhouse with murky glass walls in the distance, another leading toward a pool house on the other side of the endless backyard, near a swimming pool that had been empty for a very long time. Amory was growing increasingly excited the higher he climbed, seeing more and more of this incredible backyard from up high—but Mikey seemed to be anything but thrilled, hugging tightly onto a large branch and daring to glance downward.

Amory snickered at the window of his master bedroom, making faces at his sister before he looked down, only just noticing that Mikey had stopped climbing a few feet below him.

“Awww, come on! Don’t stop!” he hollered down at the boy. “We’re basically at the top now!”

“I’m gonna die if I fall,” Mikey complained.

“What’re you worried about falling for?!” Amory laughed. “Hellooo? I can catch you! I can catch you with my mind! Just come on!”

Mikey sighed disdainfully, levering himself fully onto the large branch in his grasp and sitting on it, then peering up at him, Amory’s knee only inches away now, as he sat on a thicker segment of the tree slightly above him.

“Why’re we up here…?” Mikey grumped.

“To be here,” Amory smiled. “Climbing trees was one of my favorite things to do when I was your age. I tried to keep doing it at Canterbury, but they only had that one tree in the courtyard, and it wasn’t anywhere near big enough to be fun. Besides… this monster tree would be a perfect place for a treehouse, and I always wanted one of those. Now we can make one for you.”

Mikey paused, glancing over at the manor, then back. “That could be pretty cool. I could set up some Home Alone traps if anybody ever broke in and came after us… and I’d have a getaway safehouse to run to right out here.”

Amory nodded, then squinted questioningly at him.

“Okay, yeah… you don’t know what Home Alone is,” Mikey understood. “We need to have a week where we just catch you up on movies and stuff…”

Amory opened his mouth to reply—then stopped, hearing the distant sound of his Bob Segar record playing. He gazed across the way, examining the window again—seeing that the window was now wide open, and Raven was playing music for them to listen to from his bedroom, giving them a smirk and a two-fingered salute.

“Yaaaaay, music!” Amory beamed, applauding at her. “Wooo! Thank you!”

Raven replied with a thumbs-up, and then, she glanced over at the branches nearest the window, one of them pressed against the outer wall of the manor, just beside the open window of the master bedroom. An impulsive idea struck her, and she grinned, raising her knee and beginning to lever herself out onto the window frame.

Amory saw her starting to climb out the window, and his smile vanished. “Whoa whoa whoa—what’re you doing?!”

Raven maintained her ear-to-ear grin, gripping the branch with both hands and swinging swiftly out of the window.

Amory inhaled sharply, watching her very closely as she climbed over toward the tree.

Raven shimmied over to them, feeling delighted to act like a child again. She knew Crowe would approach Amory for a private conversation soon, but she simply wanted to indulge in her fun little idea beforehand.

She swung her leg over, caught a big branch beside Mikey’s branch, and sat cozily on top of it, facing her brother and still smiling.

Amory stared at her, breathing out a laugh. “Wow… you’re still just as good as I am.”

Mikey glanced between the Evervales. “You guys both climb like monkeys.”

“Well… it’s something we used to do a lot,” Raven shrugged at the boy. “Don’t you ever climb trees with your friends?”

Mikey thought about this for a second. “Um… yeah, we did a few times… but I don’t live around my old friends anymore, so… I haven’t climbed trees or anything for a while.”

“We haven’t done it in years and years,” Amory said, trading smirks with his sister. “But it still comes naturally, apparently.”

“Like riding a bike,” Raven agreed.

“Ooo—Raven, you remember the big tree in our old backyard?!” Amory said excitedly. “Dad was gonna make us a treehouse if he could ever get anybody to help him work on it.”

“Oh yeah,” Raven nodded. “And they never got around to it…”

“We could have one here,” Amory beamed. “We should make one for Mikey!”

Raven almost replied, then paused, glancing back at his bedroom window, then giving him a caustic sort of look.

“Make one for Mikey …?” she asked skeptically. “Or… make one that you could just sneak off to from your own bedroom window whenever you want?”

Amory opened his mouth, stopping and choking out another laugh. “Why can’t it be both?”

Raven made a sudden gasp of excitement, pointing at another large window further down from where Amory’s was.

“Awww, look!” she squealed. “There’s a branch that reaches to my window too! Yesss!”

“Hey—no sneaking into the clubhouse when I’m sneaking into the clubhouse,” Amory barked jokingly at her. “I call forever dibbs on the clubhouse!”

“You can’t call forever dibbs , you cheater,” Raven snarked.

“Oh really—cuz I think I just did ,” Amory quipped in response.

“Okay… so I guess this isn’t gonna be my clubhouse,” Mikey uttered tonelessly, making both of them laugh.

“It’ll be everyone’s,” Amory said. “But… mainly yours, because you’re a kid.”

“Hey… check it out,” Raven said to the boy, gathering his attention and gesturing down to the windows on the second floor. “If you pick one of those rooms… then we could make you a zip-line straight from the treehouse to your bedroom.”

“Ohhhhh,” Amory muttered with fascination at the idea, gazing down at the windows, eyes shining with childlike wonder. “That’d be awesome…! I wanna ride it!”

“You’re too tall to ride it,” Raven sniggered. “A kid could just slip right into the window—but you’d end up smashing your leg on it or something.”

“Nuh-uh! I am really flexible and aerodynamic! I could so do that!” Amory declared.

“Yeah freaking right,” Mikey chuckled, adjusting his glasses. “You’d just end up bashing through the wall like the freaking Kool-Aid man.”

Amory and Raven simultaneously exploded with laughter.

Mikey raised his brows at them, somewhat surprised. “Wow… I didn’t think you guys would even get that joke.”

“Hah… h’oh my God… are you kidding?” Amory wheezed between chortles. “That was like our favorite commercial when we were little kids…!”

“He was so weird …!” Raven breathed. “The Kool-Aid guy was so stupid and weird-looking, I couldn’t get over it…!”

“Holy crap. I didn’t think Kool-Aid man commercials were that old,” Mikey said, reaching into his hoodie and pulling out his Samsung. “Hang on…”

He opened his YouTube app and searched for old Kool-Aid commercials from the 70s, and he began to play one, turning the phone sideways and watching the video intently.

Raven peered over at the phone, which appeared like a tiny television to her, then looked to her brother in befuddlement.

“Yeah… that’s a phone , Raven,” Amory chuckled.

Raven shot him a bewildered double-take.

“I know,” Amory laughed.

“Oh my God,” Mikey mumbled to himself, watching the old 70s commercial, which featured a man in a goofy rounded Kool-Aid man costume busting through the wall of a bowling arena and making strange scooting baby steps toward a group of kids, as the unproportioned costume apparently didn’t allow for much leg movement. “ That’s what the Kool-Aid man looked like? That’s freaking nightmare fuel.”

“Oy!” someone yelled up at them.

They all looked down, peering between the branches and seeing Crowe standing far down below, just at the bottom of the tree, his hands pocketed as he stared back up at them.

“Oh… he wants to talk to you,” Raven told her brother.

Amory met her eyes. “Yeah…?”

“Yeah…” Raven turned to Mikey. “Hey, you wanna climb over to the window? We can go in and find your aunt… and maybe ask her when the pizza’s coming.”

Mikey stared, his mouth drifting open, and he turned to Amory, looking slightly mortified.

Amory sputtered out a laugh without meaning to. “You don’t have to be scared, Mikey. Me, and Raven, and Crowe can all move stuff with our minds. There’s no chance of you falling and hitting the ground with all three of us here.”

Mikey glimpsed between Raven and Amory uncertainly.

“You swear you’ll catch me if I fall…?” the boy asked.

Amory smiled and raised his eyebrows, holding out his hand and offering his pinky.

Mikey bit his lip, then reached out and coiled his own pinky finger around it. Then, he twisted around and faced the branch that Raven had climbed over on, sighing deeply.

“Hey… let me go first, and watch me,” Raven decided, springing off her branch and grabbing the other one, then draping her leg over it and climbing across it with ease.

Amory and Mikey both watched her attentively as she climbed back over to the window—Crowe doing the same from below.

Raven reached the building and swung her leg over, hooking her foot onto the window and jumping briskly inside—and she landed on her feet inside the bedroom, turning back around and waving the boy over.

Mikey grimaced, taking a bracing breath before he began to climb over the long branch as well, crawling across it much more carefully and slowly than Raven had.

Eventually, he reached the building and swung downward, dangling off the branch and trying to extend his foot out toward the window, but he couldn’t reach it.

So—Raven made a quick waving motion toward herself—and Mikey was suddenly launched toward her, hands ripped from the branch. He let out a yelp—and she snapped her arms around him and caught him, pulling him fully into the room.

“Heeey… see? There ya’ go,” Raven smiled, placing him down and offering him a comforting smile. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you. You did really good, though!”

Mikey appeared shaken, but he managed a smile and a nod.

Raven began to escort him out of the master bedroom.

Amory continued watching them alertly until they were both inside the manor and disappearing from his sight.

Then, he glanced down, straightened up from his seated position, and started to climb down the tree, working his way toward the ground.

Before long—he reached the bottom and stepped onto the slender wooden bench beneath the tree, leaping off it and landing swiftly on the concrete walkway.

“Hey,” Amory said.

“Oy,” Crowe uttered, glimpsing up and down the winding path, seeming hesitant.

It took him a moment to think of a way to break the ice.

“Y’know, before we get into anything else… I just have to ask,” Crowe began, waving a finger at him. “How is it you can teleport like that?”

Amory’s brows raised. “What…?”

“Last night… in front of Moonvale,” Crowe clarified. “You just blipped out of existence and zapped back over to this time without even using the doorway. How d’you do that?”

“Oh… um… I’m not sure?” Amory muttered. “I just really wanted to be here… so… I ended up coming here. Same thing happened with me and Ari, too…”

Crowe blinked, squinting at him quizzically.

“Um… yeah… the guys from Canterbury almost shot him at that club,” Amory explained. “But I just grabbed him and… and… we ended up on the road where Moonvale was.”

Crowe made a slow, thoughtful nod, glancing down at his boots. He remembered Aravali mentioning that Amory had saved his life somehow, but he hadn’t thought to ask about it, with everything else that had transpired that night…

“Christ… he had a lot of close calls yesterday,” Crowe mumbled grimly.

Amory quietly nodded.

There was a pause.

“Well… I only asked because I’ve got an idea of how to rack up some more money for this place,” Crowe continued. “But I’d need to do that zapping thing that you do, and I don’t think I can do that myself. You’d have to come with me. I’m thinking we zap our way into the vault of a bank, and we just make off with whatever riches are in there.”

Amory stared blankly at him.

Crowe merely smirked. “What? It’s a good idea.”

“It’s a risky idea… and it’s not right to go around stealing,” Amory told him.

“Oh… pfff… c’mon, this is a bank we’re talking about,” Crowe laughed. “Don’t you know anything about banks? Especially big ones? They’re bloody evil, mate, and they steal from people like us all the time. It’s not theft if that money should belong to the people already.”

Amory sighed and shook his head at the ground.

“Come ooon,” Crowe grinned, moving closer and nudging his arm into Amory’s. “It’s not like we can really get regular jobs here… and we’re not cut out for that anyway. Don’t you wanna spoil that lil’ future-time girlfriend of yours?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Amory replied defensively.

Crowe scoffed. “Sh’yeah, okay, I’ll give it a week…”

“Crowe.” Amory huffed out a breath and ran his hands down his face. “I don’t wanna talk about this… I really don’t…”

“Awww, come on now… you’re twenty-eight, and you’re not in Canterbury anymore,” Crowe said. “You’re allowed to actually date people now. All those authoritarian rules are finally fuckin’ gone from your life. You can tell me the truth. You’re all over her, arentcha…?”

“I didn’t mean that—I meant I don’t wanna talk about bank-robbing ,” Amory stated. “And no—I’m not all over her. Who do you think I am? The Fonz?”

“No… I think you’re a repressed little prude who’s gotta be ready to burst by now,” Crowe chuckled. “And that poor girl’s gonna get the brunt of it. Talk about blue balls .”

“ Ew …!” Amory winced and clasped his ears shut, wheeling around and facing away.

Crowe laughed heartily at his dramatic reaction. “Hahahahah… aww, come on… why’re you such a girl , Amory? Balls aren’t gross. You have balls. I have balls. Men have balls! ”

“Why’re you so nasty? ” Amory griped.

“Why’re you such a prude? ” Crowe snarked.

They both stared at each other, then simply laughed.

“Is that all you wanted to talk about?” Amory asked.

Crowe paused, his smile fading, and he sighed. “Ah… no… actually, no…”

He wandered over to the bench beneath the tree, sitting on it and releasing another stressed cloud of breath.

Amory sat beside him and waited for him to continue.

Crowe glared directly forward, autumn leaves gently fluttering down from above them, and eventually, he spoke again.

“Okay, well… first of all, I just wanted to say, I don’t… I didn’t… I never actually… blamed you for anything,” he grumbled difficultly. “I think I just don’t take it well when people disappear out of my life… and I was just kinda mad at you for being gone so long…”

Amory nodded quietly.

“And… second… I oughta let you know that, um… John’s not… around anymore,” Crowe murmured grimly. “I mean… I know you weren’t as close to him as I was, but still… I didn’t want that to be a surprise to you if you ended up hearing it from someone else…”

Amory grimaced, feeling a sick sensation deep inside. “How did he die…?”

“Well… that’s… hard to explain,” Crowe muttered. “Zyon came through the doorway this morning to talk to us, and then John and Donna both went mad… because of the demons in their heads, y’know. Zyon tried to put hands on them to get rid of the demons, and he said… he said it wouldn’t kill them if they willingly chose to let the demons go. Donna did… and… John didn’t.”

Amory took a deep, grave breath. “Oh God…”

“Yeah… and I, um… well, I jus…” Crowe stuttered, pausing for a second and running a hand over his mouth. “I just lost my temper. He dove onto Raven, and tried to strangle her… and I just fuckin’ snapped, mate. I took him by a psychic chokehold, and I threw him straight at Zyon in a blind fuckin’ rage. Then… y’know… Zyon put his hands on him… and… he… died.”

He clasped his hand over his mouth again, now a bit tighter.

Amory watched him, feeling a dark sense of empathy as he continued to listen.

“I mean… I didn’t even think about it,” Crowe choked, tossing up his hand. “In that moment… it was hardly any different from fighting those blokes from Canterbury. He was just another enemy in the way… to get rid of… and just… write off.”

He shook his head again, still staring forward, his expression beginning to fracture.

“But he was my friend , and I feel like I killed him,” Crowe said hoarsely, his voice cracking.

He lowered his head, pressing his knuckles into his forehead and sealing his eyes shut.

Amory stared with a disturbed visage, his heart aching, reaching over and gently placing a hand on his back.

“You know that’s not your fault , though… right?” he said softly. “It’s really not.”

Crowe didn’t answer him, still keeping his head low, and Amory felt him take in a long, trembling breath.

“It’s really… tragic… and horrible,” Amory told him. “But… everyone in Canterbury had Zyon’s spirit offering them protection… and… not everyone accepted it. Some people rejected it… so… the other thing got inside them instead. It’s really horrible and Godawful that this happened to John… but… ultimately… he chose what he chose. I guess he held onto all the anger and unforgiveness and stuff that he felt… and… he couldn’t bring himself to let it all go. But you didn’t do that. It’s not something you made happen… it just happened .”

Crowe took a moment, inhaling again, and forcing himself composed. Then, he straightened up and looked over, his eyes slightly watery now.

“You know that’s true of you and Vincent too, right?” Crowe asked him seriously.

Amory stared at him.

“Vincent’s own choices landed him right where he was, too,” Crowe said in a firm tone. “And he dug his own grave with them choices… just like John did.”

Amory swallowed roughly, lowering his hand and feeling a pained knot forming in his chest.

“I know he was a half-decent father figure, at least when we were younger… and I guess I kinda get why you liked him… I just couldn’t stand the bastard,” Crowe mumbled, glancing forward again. “But… I do get it. I get why you were friends, and I hope you don’t go kicking yourself for him choosing his own death. He probably could’ve done better if he ever broke away from his father… but he never did choose to… so… y’know… here we are.”

Amory didn’t reply.

“And… now… I also get why you stayed there for Zyon,” Crowe added. “He turned out to be the real deal… and really fuckin’ worth the effort…”

“Yeah, he did,” Amory mumbled wispily.

The two fell momentarily silent again.

“Wait a minute,” Amory said, making a face and glancing around. “I just realized… why is it daytime here and daytime in 1988? I thought… I thought the doorway led to a time of day that was totally different on the other side…”

Crowe stared at him incredulously. “Are you… are you just now realizing that…?”

“Well… everything’s been so hectic, I just… didn’t think about it,” Amory replied.

Crowe paused, then choked out a laugh and shook his head. “Wow… nothing gets past you, Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, Zyon fixed your doorway for you so the daytimes matched up.”

“Ohhh,” Amory breathed. “Okay…”

They both stopped talking for a second.

“I know a lot of that was really hard to say,” Amory said sincerely, flashing a smile. “Thanks.”

Crowe glanced at him and shrugged, running a hand down his face. “Yeah… well… where’re we at on this bank thing? Are we gonna do that?”

Amory scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You really want me to take you bank-robbing? This is still our hometown, Crowe. We can’t go around breaking the law all the time, especially not here. We live here.”

“Nooo—I don’t mean here ,” Crowe grumped, swatting the air. “We can pop over to Asheville, or Bryson City, or something—or we can head over the mountain and rob something in Knoxville. I’m sure at least some of these cities are still there.”

“What if they trace it back to us?” Amory asked.

“And how could they possibly do that?” Crowe laughed. “We have no paper trail here. We don’t really exist here. We’re not gonna have any documentation that says otherwise until we go and get some new IDs made—and we’re gonna have to scare the bloody hell out of those people in order to do that, because God knows they’ll want to fight us on it—but we’re not gonna worry about doing that until you have to deal with the legal aspects of owning this place. Before then, we pretty much have free reign to do whatever we want.”

Amory sighed heavily, gazing straight ahead.

“C’mon… Ari, and Miss Morgan, and Iggy, and Raven… they’ve got no real way of having actual jobs here, and neither do we,” Crowe told him. “And don’t you want Xena and Mikey to have some comfort and live however they want to? Haven’t they been dirt poor and living in a motel up until now…?”

“Yeah,” Amory murmured faintly.

“I honestly think you were given this place for a reason. It’s a sanctuary… for a lot of people,” Crowe informed. “And didn’t you say that there’d be even more people to rescue sometime later on? More people lost in time, or whatever…?”

Amory nodded quietly.

“So… doesn’t it make sense to get everything we could possibly need to make this place accommodating?” Crowe pestered. “We’re making a brand new home for a lot of people, here… and there’ll be even more people later down the road. It’s really like we’re running a rescue service for everyone who came from Canterbury. We’re gonna need money to do that.”

Amory said nothing, looking down and fidgeting with his thumbs, thinking very deeply on this. He’d never considered doing something so drastic and illegal before, and the thought of it made his heart pound—but, he had to admit, Crowe was right. Amory had already brought a lot of people here who needed the place, and Zyon planned to save even more lost souls. If they were truly going to take on so much responsibility—then they’d have to get everything they could possibly ever need to do so, and the only sure way of doing that would be to have money.

After what felt like an eternity of thought, Amory turned his head and met his eyes.

“We can’t tell anyone,” he said softly.

Crowe smirked. “Nah, we can’t. Except maybe Raven.”

“No… she doesn’t need to know either,” Amory uttered.

Crowe stared. “Why not?”

“Because… she’ll either wanna stop us, or she’ll wanna get involved with it,” Amory sighed.

“She’s not gonna try and stop us if she understands the needs of the situation,” Crowe replied. “And as far as her getting involved…? Well… let her.”

Amory narrowed his eyes at him.

“You have no idea how amazing she is, mate,” Crowe laughed. “She could help. She could help a lot . All three of us holding up a bank? They wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“We’re not gonna hold up the bank,” Amory responded. “We’re just gonna zap in, take what we need, and zap out… just like you said. I don’t wanna hurt anyone.”

“Right,” Crowe nodded. “Easy-peasy.”

Amory glared down at the pavement, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

“I might have to tell Mikey,” he muttered.

Crowe shot him a look. “Why would you tell the kid…?”

“Because… that kid is the smartest one I’ve ever seen, and he knows how to find information in this time period that we’re gonna need,” Amory answered. “Like… where any big banks even are now, or where to find blueprints of the building’s layout. I can’t just zap us into a vault room if I don’t even know where that vault room is.”

“Oh… I’m probably gonna have to disable whatever security’s in there, too,” Crowe realized, stroking along his chin. “I saw a lot of cameras out in town today… and I imagine the banks in this time have even more. I’m gonna have to fry ‘em the moment we’re in there.”

Amory squinted at him. “Can you do that…?”

“S’pose so,” Crowe shrugged, reaching into his leather jacket. “I’ve been doing things like that with radios, and guns, and… y’know… ATMs.”

He pulled out a handful of his messy wads of cash.

Amory stared at it, then ogled him in surprise.

Crowe laughed and stuffed the money away. “Well… it’s not like I have my band here, is it? Gotta make money some how.”

“ Crowe …!” Amory gasped. “You haven’t even been here for a whole day yet, and you already robbed an ATM?!”

“A’course,” Crowe replied with a whimsical smile. “Dontcha know me by now?”

“Ughk…” Amory planted his face into his palms. “I knew… I knew you were gonna do something like that. The second Ari told me you went into town, I knew…”

“Of course you knew. You know me,” Crowe snickered. “And he knew, too. Dummy should’ve known better than to think I’d be good all day.”

“Okay… but please don’t do anything like that in Mapleview anymore,” Amory tried to compromise. “We need to be able to actually live here without getting in trouble.”

“I know,” Crowe understood. “Hence why we can rob a big bank in Bryson City.”

“Why Bryson City when you could rob Asheville?” someone else asked.

Amory and Crowe both whipped their heads around—spotting Raven and Mikey further down the walkway, having just wandered into the backyard after traveling through the manor.

“Nothing—I mean, no, we’re not, we’re not robbing anything,” Amory stammered. “We’re just joking around.”

“Sheesh… calm down, they’re not the cops,” Crowe chuckled, smacking him on the arm. “It’s Raven and the whizz kid… y’know, the two people you were gonna tell anyway?”

“If you’re gonna take money from a bank… then I’d recommend First Citizens Bank, particularly one of the branches in Asheville,” Mikey told them knowingly. “They’re the biggest banks there, and some of the basic services in that city still aren’t completely working right ever since Hurricane Helene last year. That would be the easiest place near here to get away with a crime right now. They’re still not fully recovered from a natural disaster there.”

“Oh… we have to take advantage of a natural disaster?” Amory sighed disdainfully, placing his head in his hands. “Man, that is so messed up…”

“It’s just necessary for the bigger-picture rescue operation here,” Crowe reminded him. “It ain’t gonna hurt anybody who matters, okay?”

Amory stared at him, then shook his head. “Mmm… no… no, that doesn’t make me feel better…”

“We’re robbing a bank,” Raven smirked.

Amory raised his head and eyed her. “Yeah… but you have to be careful, and don’t tell anybody. Nobody beyond us four need to know.”

“Well doy ,” Raven giggled.

Amory let out another breath, his eyes shifting over to Mikey.

“Hey… you wouldn’t happen to know how to find some detailed blueprints for one of those banks, would you?” he asked the boy.

Mikey paused, folding his arms and nodding. “Well… yeah, but the website for it is kind of… really illegal. I can find stuff like that on this deep web site, and I can download the blueprints on Xena’s laptop and use a VPN and a bunch of other protection programs. Then I can print it.”

“Okay… um… good,” Amory replied, managing a smile. “If you do that, we can build the most extravagant treehouse ever.”

“Awesome,” Mikey smirked. “Oh… and… Xena wanted me to tell you guys the pizza’s on its way here now.”

“Well’p. Nice talk. Time to go,” Crowe said instantly, smacking Amory’s leg and swiftly standing from the bench.

Amory laughed and stood as well, and the four of them walked off together.

In the checkerboard room—Aravali spent some time telling his side of everything to Elaine, both of them seated on the lopsided couch, the pile of clutter scooted off to the side.

Eventually, when he was done, there was a silence in the air, and he gave her a thoughtful look, now feeling curious himself.

“I never did ask,” Aravali said. “How is it you found out about all this in the first place? Because it seems like you’ve… known… all along.”

“Oh… Crowe told me,” Elaine replied. “He actually used to visit Moonvale periodically before he was ever admitted there, since he knew Raven, and Iggy, and everyone… and he eventually tried to pull me aside and warn me that ‘people were coming for them.’ I didn’t pay much mind to it, of course… but, then… Dr. Erickson suddenly resigned. The other orderlies quit or disappeared altogether. The other patients were signed out or transferred elsewhere, and even the janitor disappeared. Before long… Moonvale became fairly empty… and then… I learned why. Someone stopped me on my way into the grocery store in town, someone with a tan coat, and a pair of mismatched eyes… and he told me very straightly that he and his higher-ups have strict orders to apprehend some of the patients in Moonvale, and anyone who stands between him and them is an accessory of obstruction. He worded it nicely, but it was an obvious threat. I didn’t get a good feeling from him, so I politely suggested that he go fornicate himself with an iron stick.”

Aravali choked out a laugh, quickly silencing himself.

“I had a brave face on… but I was starting to feel very… on edge,” Elaine admitted, looking down and sighing. “Not to mention overwhelmed… because Moonvale was practically completely unstaffed anymore. I felt I really needed to get another person there, at least a doctor for the patients… and… then… you came along.”

Aravali nodded, making another questioning face. “How long have you known that Crowe could… do what he does?”

“Oh… I’ve known that ever since the second time Vincent tried to have a little ‘talk’ with me out in town,” Elaine replied curtly. “I was doing some grocery shopping late at night, since I’d been working to death throughout the whole day… and when I came out of the store, Vincent and a few other men were standing by my car, waiting for me. I remembered sighing, feeling worried, but still walking toward them, getting ready to tell them where to go… just when they all went flying off to the side for no apparent reason.”

Aravali stared at her with intrigue. “Crowe…?”

“Yeah,” Elaine nodded. “He walked across that dark parking lot and just sent them all flying. That… was shortly before he came to Moonvale to stay as a patient. He’d been coming by more often around that time, keeping a very close eye on everything, and talking to Raven… and… I suppose he knew where Vincent planned to be that night. I guess it makes sense… since Crowe had been living in Canterbury, in the same place as Vincent…”

“Makes sense that Crowe had far less mercy for Vincent than Amory did, too,” Aravali uttered.

Elaine made a grave nod. “Crowe’s seen some of the nastier things Vincent’s done… and I suppose Amory saw an entirely different side of him in that lab… but, it hardly matters now.”

Aravali silently agreed with her, and the two of them were quiet for a second.

“All of that… is basically how… Crowe became my little hand of action in Moonvale,” Elaine explained. “He and I worked together to keep Canterbury away and take care of everyone. When you came into the picture, I felt the need to tell you… I really, really did… but… I just…”

“I understand,” Aravali said genuinely. “How could you tell a person something that sounds so unbelievable and insane?”

“Right,” Elaine affirmed.

There was another pause.

“And I knew the Canterbury patients all had interesting little abilities, like what they see in their visions, and in their dreams…” Elaine muttered, breathing out a laugh. “But I honestly had no idea that Raven could do everything Crowe does. I didn’t find that out until last night when she broke up that little fight in the driveway.”

Aravali chuckled. “The three of them are rather incredible.”

“Yes… in a lot of ways,” Elaine agreed wholeheartedly.

Another moment of silence fell, and then, the orderly made a thoughtful sort of look.

“But… that’s the really interesting thing about you,” Elaine remarked, narrowing her eyes at him astutely. “Because… even with hardly any explanation given to you, and even with sudden frantic danger popping up all around you… you still just… stuck around.”

Aravali nodded mildly, giving her a smirk. “Well… that’s exactly what you did.”

Elaine hesitated, gazing into him, her shiny hazel eyes sparkling with insistence.

“They… can do so many amazing things,” she said softly. “But they need help with so many other things… and they need someone looking after them. I couldn’t just… leave them.”

“Neither could I,” Aravali sighed with a smile. “I suppose we’re stuck playing parent for some overgrown kids with superpowers, aren’t we?”

Elaine snickered. “Yes, that seems to be our calling in life…”

Aravali paused, glancing over at the blue door.

“We still have a hell of a job to do,” he knew. “But we’ll have to do it without the proper facilities or medications now.”

“Well… we shouldn’t need medications now,” Elaine told him. “Donna and John were the only ones who… relied on it…”

Aravali nodded. “I suppose that makes it easier… although, I don’t exactly know how we’re going to be paid now…”

Elaine breathed out a laugh.

“Oy—why don’t ya’ just let me pay you for being my shrink?” Crowe asked, walking into the room with Raven and Amory behind him. “And I can cover everybody else, too.”

Aravali turned and squinted at him. “And exactly how do you plan to afford that?”

Crowe smirked and made a click of the tongue. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Aaaaahm… aaall right… coming through,” Iggy called out, entering the room rather slowly and balancing a stack of ceramic plates in his hands. “Nooo sudden movements now…”

He moved over to the crooked coffee table and carefully placed the plates down, Xena and Mikey walking into the room behind him with armfuls of fresh, hot pizzas in boxes and setting them across the table as well.

As everyone began peeling the boxes open, Mikey moved to Amory’s side, gently nudging his elbow into him. Amory looked at him and hunched down, letting him speak to him directly.

“I’m gonna narrow down the best First Citizens Bank for you guys to hit, and then I’m gonna download the PDF of the blueprints tonight and put it on a USB,” Mikey told him in a hushed tone. “I can take an Uber out to town tomorrow and print it out at Office Max.”

Amory made a slow, strange nod, not entirely understanding half of the things the boy said—but it sounded as if Mikey was going to get him the blueprints he needed tomorrow, and that was good enough for him.

Iggy plopped down on the couch by the wall, eating a slice of pizza without a plate. Aravali and Elaine remained on the lopsided couch with plates in their laps while they ate, and Xena, Mikey, Crowe, and Raven traded small talk about the large kitchen with the bar counter here in the mansion while they placed pizza slices on their plates and sat themselves down.

Amory watched them all from the doorway, his mind wandering, and he slowly turned around, gazing across the massive main room of the manor and its white floor with the black squares that spanned on and on in the huge, echoing space. His eyes wandered, moving between the old portraits, the double-armed sconces, the grandfather clock, and the gigantic, elegant chandelier in the center of the tall, high ceiling, which was finally now powered on.

Quite honestly, the longer his friends all remained here together, the less strange and mysterious this mansion and this time began to feel. Not to mention, this big, intriguing, and haunted-looking place had such amazing potential, potential to become a home to those who needed one, potential to be the perfect sanctuary for everyone who lived on the run from Canterbury—and potential to become the greatest Halloween haunted house in the entire world.

Amory smirked with an inspired little smile, folding his arms and surveying the main room once more before he strolled deeper into the checkerboard room to join the others.

It seemed the time of frantic urgency was over for now, and a time of peace could now take its place; they all sat together, eating, talking, laughing, and joking, and eventually—when only Aravali and Mapleview’s misfit three remained in the checkerboard room—the doctor began a simple group therapy session, which was now little more than trading small talk and catching one another up on life stories, as all the deeper issues between them had already been discussed a while earlier.

When nighttime arrived, and when the late hours crept closer—everyone in the manor spread out to claim their new bedrooms, and Amory vanished into the master room on the third floor, putting the Bob Segar record on and listening to the calming music as he lay on the huge bed, resting on the fluffy comforters and pillows, and gently drifting into his first peaceful sleep in Evervale Manor.

All of them felt a bit out of place, and yet, rather serene and safe, here in this new mansion home—and it was the first night of many that they would all spend together here.