[OP: "Dare You to Move"-- Switchfoot]

Abby couldn't hear everything that was going on in the room, but he heard enough to know that they were in trouble if the other girls didn't hurry up.

"Abby?" Jinu suddenly appeared in the hallway. "What's going on?"

"Are you real?" Abby said.

"Am I real?" Jinu said. "Oh... yeah, I'm real."

"Prove it."

"Prove it? How?" 

"If you don't prove it, I'm going to clock you right now," Abby wasn't taking any chances after before.

"I...uh... Sorry about not letting you have a chair..." Jinu held up his hands.

Pause.

"Okay fine," Abby accepted it. "The door is jammed shut and I think I hear Gwi-ma."

"Is Mira still okay?"

"She's alive. Where are the others?"

"Checking the tower" Jinu said. 

"But I said Mira's room, " Abby said.

"There were red ripples along the floor and demons running down the hall," Jinu said. "They thought you were wrong. But I came over here just in case. "

Derpy was in the hallway.

"You're all idiots," Abby was in no mood to be nice about it. "That's just a distraction!"

"Oh..." Jinu said.

"Are you all stupid?" Abby was in disbelief.

"They thought the demons were attacking the lower level, do you want me to explain this to you step by step?"

"Whatever. Can Derpy break through this door? I don't think I can do it."

Mira's door was much stronger than an average ones, since she'd have broken it herself several times otherwise.

"I don't think Derpy can do something like that..." Jinu glared at her too. "I have an idea though."

He turned to Depry. "Can you get Mira out of there?"

Derpy grinned and disappeared into the floor.

"Oh...great..." Abby said. "That helped."

"Just give him a second," Jinu inspected the door. "Maybe we can both do it? Or get the lock off...or... Is there something blocking it from opening?"

"I dunno..." Abby rattled the handle uselessly.

"Actually, I think it is damaged," Jinu said. "Looks like claws... a demon. Don't these things work with electricity? Maybe it slashed a wire so the lock won't open."

"Great thought, now what?"

"Sussy could open it," Jinu said. "He can de-materialize too, I think it's worth a shot. Where is he?"

* * *

The answer to that was simple.

Mira was standing close to the winos facing the demons when Sussy flew in the hole and swooped at them.

Some of them backed up a little, but they weren't that afraid of a small bird.

Sussy squawked more and gave side eye.

"Oh great... the attack bird," Mira said flatly.

"Nuisance..." Gwi-ma's voice didn't sound pleased. "Get out of here, inferior spirit."

Sussy ignored Giw-ma, as he and Derpy seemed to be the only things that could do so, and flew toward the door and pecked at the lock.

Mira had taken her eyes off the hole, when she looked back, some of the faceless demons had crawled out of it.

They were faster than the others.

She jumped anyway to avoid them, but landed not that far away.

Then she had to back up.

But this put her right at the window.

They crawled up the wall and down at her. [Pause to note how disturbing it would be to see that in your bedroom. Yugh.]

She slashed through some of them finally, but then one grabbed at her bad arm, yanking it so that it through her of balance.

"Hey don't!" she tried to pull back, but her muscles didn't cooperate with her on that one.

One of the others yanked the gok do out of her hands and screeched at her .

Their goal was to make her lose her footing, and finally it worked, one of them latched onto her leg and she tripped.

She hit the window and the glass broke more and she almost fell out of it it--

Mira saw straight down the tower for a split second.

She gasped.

But suddenly, Depry was there, and he pushed her back into the room. The demons retreated from Derpy a little, he didn't look like his happy self right now.

He growled kind of.

Mira numbly managed to hang on to the giant tiger with her good hand.

Derpy managed to jump across the room while the demons were distracted.

Somehow, the door was open now.

"Mira," Jinu was looking in. "What...what is going on in this room? Look at it."

Mira hadn't had time to notice how bad her room was till then, but there were scratches on the wall, and the demons were moving around the hole, Gwi-ma's voice only egging them on whenever he spoke.

It was like looking at a nest of cockroaches under an infrared beam...ugly and grotesque.

"My...gosh..." Abby was thinking the same as well.

Then the demons decided to attack them as well.

They rushed at them.

Derpy suddenly tossed Mira off with the air of a great dog, and then turned to face them, barin his teeth.

His eyes glowed.

"Derpy..." Jinu said.

Derpy growled some more.

Sussy cawed at Jinu, then flew down the hallway.

"They want us to run," Jinu translated.

Abby had half caught Mira when she was thrown off and mow she stood up.

"Mira, are you okay?" Jinu asked her. "Can you run?"

"I... don't know..." Mira didn't know her own last name right now.

"Jinu, we can't wait," Abby said.

"But I don't want ot leave Derpy alone," Jinu said.

"I think he has a better chance than we do," Abby said. "No time to be stupid, we have to get out of this area."

Jinu swallowed but nodded.

Abby took Mira by her good arm and started running down the hall, and Jinu came right behind them, looking back to to make sure the demons were not following them.

For now, they weren't getting past Derpy, but that didn't seem like long term solution.

Mira's feet were barely moving with her will anyway, she didn't summon her gok do back.

"How they get in there?" Jinu asked, after they'd gotten around the corner and back to the living room area.

"I... there was this... thing..." Mira tried and couldn't make herself coherent.

"I saw this thing that looked like Zoey," Abby supplied. "It said something about getting in..."

"Wait, that thing?" Jinu said. "Oh no... this is my fault." He looked horrified. "I forgot all about that one still being around. Mira... I'm sorry."

Mira glared him and then she got a very different expression.

She suddenly burst in tears.

Jinu felt 9000% more guilty as soon as she did.

"Oh...I'm so stupid," he put his hands to his head. "Mira, please don't cry, it's not... it's..."

"Jinu, what about the other demons?" Abby asked impatiently.

"I don't... can Derpy stop them?" Jinu wondered.

They heard a howling sound.

"Derpy...is he like... immortal or something?" Abby said nervously. "Or can he die."

"I don't know!" Jinu said. "It's not like he came with a manual! He's a guardian spirit!"

"We really need weapons or something," Abby said. "This just isn't fair. Where is everyone else?"

"If they're not back by now that has to more demons downstairs," Jinu said. "But why would they bother? There's nothing on the next couple levels but the guest room, the gym, and--"

"Our music studio..." Mira said in a faint voice.

"Oh..." Jinu said slowly.

"So they want the song we just wrote..." Abby muttered. "We can't just stand here, we have to go."

"They could trap us in," Jinu said. "Is there some other way out of this tower?"

"No..." Mira said. "We can't leave anyway," she dried her face off frantically. "I have to get to Rumi and Zoey.

"You couldn't win fight with a sheep right now," Jinu said. "No way you can help them. Raven and Morph are with them, they're probably okay now...why does this keep happening? It's like Gwi-ma is trying to get you especially. I think we were right...What did he say to you? Abby, I'm tired of you hiding it from us. Whatever it was, it can't be worse than what he told us."

"I don't think this is the time..." Abby hesitated.

"We have to help them," Mira insisted, starting to run.

They both grabbed her and held her back. That they could at all was a bad sign, regular Mira could have thrown both of them to the floor in one motion.

"Hey, let go of me!" She struggled.

"You can't even fight us off?" Jinu said. " You think you can fight the demon? Mira, don't do something crazy. I don't care how much you hate them, you can't just go and get yourself killed!"

"You don't get it! This is all my fault, you moron!" Mira said frantically. "I have to help them before they both get killed because of me!"

"What?" Jinu said blankly. "How is it your fault?"

"Because I'm the weak link!" Mira was almost shouting at him. "Gwi-ma is trying to get to them through me, isn't that what you all think anyway? I know what you said...I can't let him do it... I'll never... forgive myself..." Then she gave up and sank to the floor.

Jinu looked at Abby like he didn't know what to do here.

Abby didn't know either, but finally he said. "Maybe we should just let her go."

"What?" Jinu said.

"The one thing I know about Mira is that she doesn't sit out of a fight," Abby said. "Making her do it...it not going to help anything. It's her choice, right?"

Mira glanced up strangely.

"But she can't even walk..." Jinu said like Abby was crazy.

"Might as well just face it," Abby said. "The demons are going to catch up with us any second anyway."

"And how are we going to get down there?" Jinu asked.

Then they heard a breaking sound.

Then a little down the hall, a demon was thrown through the actual floor.

"Huh..." Jinu said.

"I guess that solves that problem..." Abby said. "Sort of."

Derpy suddenly appeared behind them,

"Derpy!" Jinu hugged him. "You're okay."

Derpy put his head down.

"Let's go then," Mira got her feet unsteadily, but she felt just a little stronger now. "That had to be made by Rumi if I had to guess... they're right below us, we can still help them."

She held out her hand and the gok do finally reappeared in it.

"I still think this is a bad idea, but... I can't stop you from going down there," Jinu said. "At least let Derpy give us all a lift."

"I'm not sure I want to ride on a floating tiger--" Abby began.

Mira just ran towards the gap instead of waiting for them.

"Rumi will murder us for letting her do that," Jinu said.

"Mira would murder us if we didn't," Abby said. "It was nice knowing you."

Sussy cawed at them.

They rushed to catch up.

* * *

Mira jumped down the hole in time to see several demons still on this level.

Rumi and Zoey were handling them pretty well, with support from Raven and Morph, but the floor was trashed already.

Mira threw her gok do through a demon just before it grabbed Zoey.

"Mira!" Zoey cried. 

"You're okay!" Rumi said. "We tried to get to you...they just kept coming..."

Raven shot one away from them.

"There are way too many of them for a normal attack," she said. "What is going on?"

"I think it might be because of me..." Mira said. "I'm sorry."

"Why? What did you do?" Morph asked.

"I don't know," Mira looked down.

Jinu and Abby were by the edge of the gap now.

But before they could get down, they saw someone else in the hallway.

It was Bobby!

"Oh hey guys," Bobby said. "Are the girls here? I...we need to talk."

"Oh this can't be real," Abby said. "Tell me that's just a demon that looks like him."

"That's better?" Jinu said.

"Was that Bobby's voice I just heard?" Rumi was alarmed. "No, Bobby run! Save yourself!"

"Save myself from what?" Bobby said.

At hits unfortunate moment, the demons that Derpy had held off before all came loping scrambling down the hallway.

They barely even slowed when they saw a new person there, they opened their mouths,

"Get down!" Abby threw himself at Bobby and knocked him further down the hallway before the demon could get him.

It tried to bite Abby but then pulled back.

"Oh no..." Mira was staring in horror.

"Better get up there," Zoey used Rumi's sword to launch herself through the hole.

She through knives through several of the demons that were closing in on Jinu and the other two guys.

"Zoey!" Bobby nearly had a heart attack seeing that.

"Bobby, don't let any of them eat your soul!" Zoey yelled at him. "Just stay behind me!" 

She stabbed another one.

Jinu ducked one and then he tripped another one so that it fell kind of forward.

Zoey stabbed it. "Wow... nice," she said.

Derpy knocked another one over with his paw.

"I'm going up there," Rumi was struggling to get through the hole but was too tired to use the Honmoon boost to fly and Mira couldn't' launch her right now.

"Move," Raven pushed Mira aside than grew bird wings and flew up herself.

That had to be hard for Bobby to take in also.

Resuming human form, she shot at least 6 demons.

"That better be all fo them," she said.

"The hold was in Mira's room," Jinu said.

"We have to go close the hole right now, then," Rumi said. "Come on Zoey."

"What about Bobby?" Zoey asked.

"I think Derpy can protect us for now," Jinu said. "Go, we need to stop this attack."

"It's fine," Morph called. "I think they're off this level anyway. Mira and I can handle it."

Rumi and Zoey ran down the hallway to Mira's room.

"But no! Gwi-ma is waiting there," Mira remember. "Don't go in there!"

But the other two girls didn't ffnd Gwi-ma or the tear at all...

There were still red lines around the room, but Gwi-ma must have seen that he'd lost his chance and retreated till he could find a better time.

However the state of Mira's room was horrified, the demons had trashed her furniture, broken one of her mirrors, and crushed some of her jewelry boxes.

Somehow, her plushies were untouched, but the cover had gash marks in it.

"This.... this is one of our rooms..." Zoey was horrified. "And they destroyed it? How did he even get in like that?"

"Something is very wrong," Rumi said.

She did her sonic attack and the red wave disappeared, finally.

"We need to talk to Mira.." Zoey said. "For real this time."

"Yeah, we... can't keep dancing around it after this," Rumi said.

They went back down the hallway.

Morph had found no more on his level, and the other Saja Boys, who'd been playing look out since they didn't fight, said they didn't see any more on the security cameras.

They returned to the top level, with Mira and Morph.

"That was so... scary," Bobby was saying. "Those are demons? I mean, I know the ones I've seen you fight before, but I didn't realize they were so ugly up close..."

"Yeah, it's weird the first time, huh?" Zoey said, breathlessly. "I'm sorry you had to see that Bobby..."

"We never thought you'd show up at this time." Rumi said.

"I know it's a bit late, but I thought we should talk," Bobby said. "And you're usually up this late anyway, right? But... Wait, I did message you about it, didn't you see it?"

Zoey looked at her phone. "I think the attack was going on by the time you sent this...sorry."

"Mira...why was it so serious?" Rumi asked.

Mira looked down.

"I think you know why it happened," Abby spoke, but he sounded angry. "You all did it."

"What do you mean by that?" Zoey asked.

"I know now what was bothering me the whole time," Abby was getting more angry. "You left her alone, even before the attack, what were you all thinking?!"

"It's...but..." Rumi sputtered. "We were trying to be considerate."

"No, you were trying to be safe," Abby said. "And to avoid the consequence, but you were--"

"Hey, stop it!" Mira had not been going to defend herself but this was getting a rise out of her. "Don't talk to them like that! I can speak for myself."

"You're not doing it," Abby said. "You're going to take the blame for this alright? But I think tsi a group effort."

"You think our failing was a group effort?" Zoey said.

"It usually is," Abby said.

"I said to leave them alone," Mira snapped.

She clenched her fist. "Don't talk to them that way, got it?"

"Mira..." Zoey said. "You're bleeding!"

Mira hadn't noticed because of the adrenaline but when she'd gone through the window earlier she'd cut her arms in a few places.

There was some blood visible.

"Oh..." she said, like it didn't matter.

"Oh, that does it," Romance covered his mouth. "I can't watch this again."

He raced for the restroom.

"I didn't think demons could throw up..." Zoey said.

"It's complicated," Baby said. "They can dry heave, but they don't have anything to throw up."

"That was more information than I needed," Zoey made a face.

"Mira..." Raven said slowly. "Your injury is worse now right?"

"I can't really...move it that much..." Mira looked at her arm.

Could have been the stress, or it could have been worse...

"Uh..." Abby turned pale.

Suddenly, he passed out.

"Oh no..." Jinu wasn't ready for that.

Morph managed to catch him before his head hit the floor.

"I feel faint also," Bobby said. "I think I need some  water."

"Maybe we should sit in the living room," Rumi said. "Come on..."

"Mira..." Raven looked at shoulders. "That could be a lot of blood loss. Even if they're small cuts, we need to fix that right away. Do you feel dizzy?"

"I..." Mira was going to deny it but then she did feel dizzy. "maybe..."

"The first aid kit is still in the kitchen, I think" Morph said. "We need to act fast... there's not glass left in there, I hope."

"I know how to take it out," Raven said. "I had to learn how to do that. Glass breaking is a problem for supervillains..."

"Good, because we'd never be able to explain this at the ER..." Rumi said strangely. "This is really bad guys..."

* * *

Thankful, the scrapes on Mira were not as bad as they feared. She'd had thick clothes on when it happened, which had saved her from getting hurt a lot worse.

The fact that her room was trashed was another problem.

"How are we going to get that fixed?" Zoey wondered.

But then she was more focused on Mira.

"I can't believe you almost died like...right in your room," she said. "That would have been so horrible.." She started sniffling.

"Zoey don't..." Mira was afraid she'd start crying again in front of everyone.

"I was trying to keep it together," Rumi started sniffling also. "That was so scary... I'm sorry we didn't come right away, we thought the other demons were just the distraction... Abby was right, after all."

"The whole thing was a mess." Morph said.

"More bad news," Romance walked in after having gone to the lower levels to assess the damage. "Some of them got to the music studio after all."

"Oh... how bad is it?" Rumi asked, still watery eyed.

"Well... the good news is that they didn't destroy everything," Romance said uneasily. "Just... the sound board...and some notebooks.and maybe a guitar."

"I liked that guitar!" Rumi cried. "Those monsters!"

"Just the sound board, or the computer as well?" Zoey asked.

"I don't know if the computer was broken..." Romance wasn't sure.

"The computer has more of our tracks saved on it," Zoey said. "The soundboard is important but we can't replace it, it's the stuff we can't get back that I'm worried about...my notebooks for one, but if they were old ones, it might be outdated...I...think I had the new ones in my room, actually. Hopefully, we can salvage the rest of it but sorry about your guitar, Rumi."

"I can replace it, it's just...you know...memories," Rumi said sadly.

"This attack wasn't just a distraction," Raven rubbed her chin pensively. "This was a deliberate attempt to slow us down. Gwi-ma is getting smarter...watching us all the time, it's making him more able to target what would really hurt. It's fortunate that Romance didn't use that studio or they would have known what to go for more specifically."

"Gee thanks," Romance said.

"It's realistic, whether you like it or not," Raven said. "Though, I hoped we were blocking him out more, but...not enough."

"Uh...sorry, Gwi-ma is that... devil thing?" Bobby said.

He was still shaking from what just happened, even after the glass of water.

He hadn't asked about Derpy and finally they remembered that he couldn't see him. No human ever saw Derpy or Sussy, even if they saw other demons. Unless they already knew about them.

"Yes," Morph said. "It's a lot, we know... it was kind a shock for us at first too. I believe in the devil, but, I never saw him till...now...and still not sure he's quite the same one as I believed in, but close enough. He looks like a fire with a face."

"Oh that thing...at the concert?" Bobby said vaguely. "I see...and all those monsters were from him?"

"Yep," Rumi said flatly. "And this time we know that they were after Mira for real... we know it wasn't a coincidence. It was her room..."

She looked at Mira. "Mira, did you...know he was doing it on purpose? Those other attacks, we kept putting it down to you just being alone instead of us, was there ever a sign it wasn't about just that?"

Mira was wan and she looked up at her slowly. "Until the restaurant, I didn't know for sure."

"That means that you did know for sure after that," Rumi said. "And... you didn't tell us?"

"Mira, how could you not tell us that!" Zoey aid. "We needed to know that Gwi-ma wanted to get to you specifically, so we could protect you!"

She then went back to crying. "Oh my gosh, you didn't tell us something so important..."

Mira felt her self control going pretty quickly.

"It...wasn't...that...I wanted to tell you, it just..." she stammered.

"Maybe you shouldn't push her right now," Morph spoke up. "That was a very traumatic experience... now isn't the time to cross examine her."

"I don't know about that, this was something we should have known about," Raven said. "We had suspected this for a while but I think she had confirmation about it already, and she hid it... and I have a suspicion that Abby knew it too."

Abby had been coming around, in the last  few minutes.

Just in time for Raven to hit him hard in the chest.

He gasped and sat up, looking startled.

"You moron!" Raven said. "Whatever you found out, you'd didn't tell us either. I'm holding you at least 50% responsible for this disaster."

"Uh, what are you talking about?" Abby was disoriented.

"Mira just admitted that someone happened in the kitchen attack that told her she was being targeted for a specific reason," Raven said. "And you heard it, didn't you? But you chose not to share that with us, and for what? Just because you don't want to get in trouble? Of all the stupid, idiotic--"

"Stop it!" Mira suddenly lost it.

Raven stopped and looked at her strangely.

So did everyone else, even Baby.

"I told him not to say anything," Mira sat up straighter since standing was a bit past her at this moment. "So stop it...If you want to get mad at me, fine. This was my fault."

"Oh was it?" Raven was not pleased. "At least you admit it."

"Now wait a minute, I think it was my choice," Abby argued. "Look, I was probably wrong to keep it to myself. I just didn't want to overstep too much but I didn't think anything like this would happen because of that."

"It's not like I didn't make it clear I wanted you to stay out of it," Mira said. "I'm taking responsibility for this."

"No, you're not," Abby said.

"Great, now they're acting like children," Romance sighed.

"Well, kind of more mature," Morph mused. "At least they're taking responsibility for it... Though blaming either of them for Gwi-Ma's actions is kind of stupid."

"Don't tell me what I--" Mira was still saying to Abby and getting more heated.

Raven snapped her fingers, and they both stopped suddenly to give her offended looks.

"Fine, both of you are to blame," she said. "That's what I said before. Compromise. Mind telling us precisely what Gwi-Ma said now?"

"I...I don't want to do that in front of everyone," Mira said.

"Still with the pride." Raven shook her head.

Abby frowned at her. "Anyone ever tell you you're too harsh sometimes?"

"I'm sorry, she's literally putting herself and everyone else in danger by keeping back crucial information, and I'm not supposed to be angry?" Raven said.

The look in Abby's eye suddenly changed.

"Oh no," Mystery muttered. "I know that look."

"You ever think," Abby said, in a tone that was very dark from his normal, easygoing one, "that if you acted like someone people would want to confide in, they might trust you more?"

There was a terrible pause.

That line wasn't clever so much as it was...too close to home for Raven.

Mira was so shocked that Abby of all people had been the one to say it that she had no words to protest.

In fact, it probably was true, so she couldn't have anyway.

Rumi and Zoey were also shocked.

Morph winced.

"In fact, did any of you act like that?" Abby was not done. "Maybe you should blame yourselves for this mess because--"

"Hey, wait, stop it." Mira finally found her voice. "That's too much. Raven deserved that, maybe, but Rumi and Zoey--"

"What?" Raven cut in. "I deserved it?"

"Oh, shut up." Mira had finally had it with her also. "He's right about one thing--why would I tell you anything that was bothering me? You'd be the first to say the worst possible thing--"

"Mira," Morph said. "Please."

Mira frowned and then looked down.

"Okay." Morph held up his hands. "It's clear there is some...resentment going on here. But we're all upset. We're all stressed. If we try to say our feelings right now, we're going to say too much and lose control. Let's wait till tomorrow."

"How can we sleep after that?" Zoey sniffled.

"We'll cover up Mira's broken window with something," Morph said. "And then all of you get your stuff and move it to the lower levels. Bobby, can we get someone to repair this tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but they're going to wonder how it happened," Bobby said.

"I guess we'll think of something," Morph said. "And we can't let Gwi-Ma stop the work here... That's what he wants."

"Yeah, he's right." Rumi wiped her face. "We have to recover from this..."

"Also, we broke Mira's door," Jinu said.

"How?" Morph asked.

"Sussy de-materialized the lock out, and we knocked it off its hinges..." Jinu said sheepishly.

"Really?" Rumi raised an eyebrow.

"All we could think of," Jinu said.

"Seriously? That's awesome." Rumi was impressed. "And...thank you guys. If you hadn't gone to check...well, I hate to think about it."

"You could have listened to me when I said what's where the problem was." Abby was still angry.

This was strange for them to hear. He was always the most chill. Even when he'd been demonized, he'd never acted angry.

"And...we're sorry," Rumi didn't know what else to say right now. "You were right."

Zoey was still sniffling. "We're bad at our jobs..."

"No, you just had an off day," Morph said. "Don't cry, Zoey."

"I can cry if I want to," Zoey said tightly.

"Just let her," Raven said. "You know young girls have to be emotional."

She shot Mira an annoyed look but then sighed. "I'll start moving stuff."

"We'll help." Romance gestured to himself and Baby. He didn't want to be around the drama.

"What?" Baby wasn't eager to help.

But he was tugged away.

"Zoey, are you okay?" Mystery asked her.

"I...uh...no..." Zoey said. "I mean, it's just a lot..."

"I'm...sorry..." Mira said.

"I know," Zoey said. "I'm...not mad at you, not really. I just...don't understand why you didn't tell us about Gwi-Ma right away. Did you not trust us anymore? I mean, did we do something? I know we must have..."

"I..." Mira didn't know how to say it.

"Maybe Morph is right," Rumi said. "I don't want to regret talking because we got upset...again..." She tugged her braid a little. "Let's get our stuff out of our rooms. Mira, I'll get your things from the bathroom too..."

"Ugh, attacking our rooms is just diabolical." Zoey tried to sound lighthearted, but it wasn't really funny.

They left also.

Mystery followed them after a moment's hesitation.

Bobby glanced at Mira and then took out his phone. "I'm just going to call some people... I'll be a minute."

He stepped into the kitchen.

"I'll, uh...just go help Morph with stuff..." Jinu said, though he didn't know anything about fixing the kind of thing Morph was doing.

He left also.

The silence was even more awkward.

"So your arms...?" Abby said.

"Not that bad." Mira didn't make eye contact. "I was lucky."

"Sure...lucky..."

Another pause.

"I'm sorry I lashed out yesterday," Mira finally said. "I...didn't handle this well, and it led to a huge problem... You have the right to say 'I told you so.'"

"After what Raven said, I'm not sure I do." Abby was still not happy with her. "I guess she had a point, but she always says it in the worst possible way."

"I can't believe you said what you did to her. I thought she'd kill you." Mira was still reeling. 

"It wasn't a good thing to say," Abby reflected. "I lost control again."

"Again?" Mira noticed that word.

Nothing." Abby brushed it aside. "Apparently I have a temper... Didn't remember that before."

"No...really?" Mira said flatly.

Silence.

"Why did you come to my hallway anyway? After yesterday, I didn't think you would get that close..." Mira then asked.

"It was the demon's fault. I saw the one that copied Zoey, and it seemed off, and it said something," Abby explained. "That was really creepy... I hope they killed that one. I've had it with them imitating us."

"Yeah...it was...horrible. I let it into my room, not realizing it was a fake for a few minutes, and it was talking. It sounded like her, but then something was off, and finally I realized it was a demon... But then it started sounding like Gwi-Ma... The hole opened up, and everything went crazy. I couldn't get outta the room. I think it locked the door."

"Jinu said it messed with the wiring," Abby said. 

"Must have after it teleported out then," Mira realized, "once I was distracted... But usually,I could have broken the door down... My strength has been...waning. Not just the injury--my Honmoon power boost has been inconsistent lately. Sometimes it's still there, and other times it's Iike it's gone... I get caught off guard, and something happens..."

She hadn't planned to go into all this right now; she just couldn't stop herself anymore.

"Is that what that was about...?" Abby was putting it together now. "Gwi-Ma was trying to shame you about that. That's pretty low."

"Hello, it's Gwi-Ma? Is he usually the high road type?" Mira said tightly.

"No, that's about right for him. Though it's more about shame, I thought. None of that was your fault."

"What if it was?" Mira shook her head. "I could have done something that made this happen... I don't know what, but there's something wrong. Rumi and Zoey and I haven't been able to connect properly for ages now... I try to, and nothing changes... No wonder the Honmoon is off."

"Did this start when you all started trying to help us?" Abby said warily. "Is it our fault?"

"It started then, but I don't think that was totally the reason." Mira was more lenient than she'd been before. "It just...we were in alignment with this... I can't make it more clear than that though... Communication has never been my strongest point. And I'm kinda a difficult person to deal with in general."

"I don't know if any of us ex-demons are the best judge of that, but I don't really see it," Abby remarked.

"What?" Mira gave him a weird look.

"I mean, you can be kind of spicy but not to where it would be that difficult to deal with." Abby shrugged. "I mean, compared to Baby...or even Raven, it's nothing."

"Oh, flattering... Are you serious?" Mira didn't see how she could be third in that line up.

Well, maybe she could see being lower than Baby.

"Well, granted, I'm not used to normal people," Abby said. "But I think you're bold about what you like and don't like. I just think that people don't pay attention to it."

"I have no idea what you mean by that."

Abby sat back like he was tired--which he was.

"I'm not as stupid as people think... This whole situation has been reminding me a lot of how the Stellae group started having their problems... I still don't remember exactly how things went wrong, but I'm sure that it started with us not listening to each other and not seeing what was happening right in front of us. Mystery's whole thing probably was only because we didn't have each others' backs... This isn't that different, is it? Gwi-Ma is involved, and it's for pretty similar reasons."

"Rumi and Zoey would never do something like that though."

"Not even to protect everything else?" Abby said. "Isn't that...kinda what Rumi did?"

"Yeah, but...I mean..." Mira didn't Iike to think of that. "But it's...okay. It can seem like the same thing on the surface, but..."

"But Huntrix is special, right?" Abby finished. "They're above that kind of thing?"

"No, that's not what..." Mira stopped as she realized that was what she'd been saying.

She sighed.

"Yeah, exactly." Abby sounded annoyed. "All of you, you think you're so perfect. You can't understand what that's like. You're still humans."

"We're not perfect."

"Then why is it so impossible to have the same issues?"

"I... 

maybe it isn't, but...what? Is that supposed to make me feel better? That just puts me on the same level as the guys who sold their souls to Gwi-Ma."

"Didn't Gwi-Ma almost take control of you also?" Abby shot back.

Mira flinched.

"Not that I have room to judge, but...doesn't everyone have shame? How can anyone be so perfect they can't be influenced by Gwi-Ma?" Abby pointed out. "It's just crazy to say that. But all three of you act like you can't admit it."

"Our worst enemy influencing us? That sounds like a nightmare," Mira said.

"It is."

Pause.

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Mira grumbled.

"Well, maybe it doesn't..." Abby sighed. "And the Saja Boys, if we'd been better people, we might not have ended up like this. And so many other people suffered because of our poorly thought out choices, but...that 's always how it goes, I guess."

"That's the pressure of being famous," Maris said. "And being involved in this Gwi-Ma stuff...  being responsible for influencing the entire world..."

"Only hunters and demons could say that," Abby said. "It's crazy to think you can become humanity's worst enemy, as a human, because of one stupid mistake. Talk about pressure."

"I mean, sure, that's what makes Gwi-Ma so terrifying," Mira agreed. "For all of us..."

"And it was so hard to admit that?"

Mira paused.

[I hope this means Mira finally starts letting go of some of the weight she's been carrying through most of this book.

Being the tough one is really difficult sometimes. You think you can handle more than you can, until you snap. Speaking from experience.]