Chris didn't talk to Kaia for the rest of that day. She decided to just let him be angry, as any attempt she made to talk to him was met with indifference or short verbal cues letting her know she needed to shut up. When he finally did speak, it was as they approached a miraculously intact house.

"We can sleep here for the night," Chris said plainly.

He stepped up and walked inside without fear, and Kaia almost cursed him. He may have been afraid of

Skin-Walker's, but everything else he viewed with an uncomfortable nonchalance. She walked into the house after him, pulling her gun out of her sweatshirt. It wouldn't be able to do anything, she was sure, but having the weight of it in her hand gave her comfort nonetheless. The house was old and dusty, and some of the furniture had been stolen. Otherwise, it looked almost normal. It had a thick air inside of it, however, one that Kaia could practically feel against her skin. Chris didn't seem to be getting the same vibe, however. He walked over to the couch, pulling one of the cushions off of it and beating it against the wall in order to remove the dust on it.

"Where should I sleep?" She asked.

"Anywhere you want," Chris shrugged. "It's up to you, honeydew."

The playful rhyming relaxed her a bit. Maybe he was finally starting to get over what had happened earlier. He had to at least understand she didn't mean to screw him over. She just wanted to help someone. She went up the narrow, creaking flight of stairs. The rooms on the second floor were small in a way that was more claustrophobic than cozy. She wondered how anyone could have ever lived there. Regardless, she sucked it up, looking for a bed. The only thing she ended up finding was a bed frame, the mattress having been stolen from off of it. She sighed softly, deciding she would just curl up in the huge tub in the bathroom attached to that room. She didn't exactly feel like sleeping on the floor. She placed a blanket she had found inside of it to make it more comfortable, then curled up in her makeshift bed, using her sweatshirt as a pillow.

She didn't know how she had managed to fall asleep in the first place, but she was roused regardless. She felt a hand touching her hair, slowly picking up her loose, long curls and letting them fall back down on her body. Her eyes snapped open, and she could feel her heart become lodged in her throat. She thought for a moment it was Chris, but that made no sense. For one, he was pissed at her. And for two, she kind of had an inkling that he was gay. However, she at least hoped she was right. Not even close. She would have liked it better if the arm caressing her had been withered, as what typically came with the odd entities that could occasionally be spotted in certain places. Instead, it was a normal, healthy looking human arm. She screamed loudly, and the arm she back. She sat up, looking for a source, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Chris popped up in the bathroom, his eyebrows raised. "What's the matter?"

"S-Something touched my hair!"

"This house is haunted? Great. Cool. Fantastic. Come on, sleep downstairs with me."

"Okay..." Kaia said.

She grabbed her blanket, following Chris back down to the living room. He laid back down on the couch, andas much as she didn't want to, Kaia laid out her blanket on the floor. She got on top of it, once again using her sweatshirt as a pillow. She closed her eyes, but couldn't get herself to fall back asleep. All she could think about was the arm appearing again from under the couch and grabbing her. Chris didn't seem to have the same problem. Behind her, she could hear his breathing slow down and deepen. She envied him, in a way. She wanted to be in the place where she could treat the Outlands and all that came with it casually, combine that with her training and become an unadulterated badass. Instead, shed nearly shit herself over a disembodied arm.

Boredom got to her after a while, so she reached into Chris's bag, taking his music pod. She figured that his music taste wouldn't be bad. She placed the earbuds in, putting it on shuffle. Immediately, a dark and foreboding song started to play. Great. She could feel a paranoia building in her gut. She shut her eyes tightly, curling up into a ball. As much as she wanted to change the song, she couldn't make herself. She was almost stiff, frozen in place. She swallowed hard, knowing that another one of the things inhabiting the house was likely close by. As if her thoughts alone had summoned it, she felt the air around her grow cold. She willed herself to move her head. Between her and Chris was a tall, humanoid figure, but it was featureless. A black shadow. She would have called it out as a shadow person, except the vibe it gave her. It seemed to be on a completely different level.

Even without eyes, she could tell it was looking in her direction. Her paranoia grew stronger, and she felt like she couldn't move or do anything. Chris laid completely still on the couch, asleep and unphased by the presence close by. After what seemed like an eternity, she blinked, and suddenly it had disappeared. She untensed, immediately sitting up, her breathing heavy. The song had changed to something more lighthearted. The pounding in her chest eased. She scooted closer to the couch, leaning against it and wrapping the blanket around her. She rested her head against the cushion, closing her heavy eyelids.

The rest of the night passed by without disturbance. Kaia woke up, realizing she herself was now on the couch. She sat up, the blanket falling off her chest. She pulled the rest of it off, standing up. On the table nearby, Chris's music pod sat, her sweatshirt folded neatly beside it with her gun on top. She slipped the garment on, sticking the gun back into the pocket.

"Chris?" She called out.

There was no reply. Concerned, Kaia searched around the house, before finally glimpsing him through a window. He was standing in the backyard, completely still, as if he was entranced. Frowning, Kaia went outside and around the back, the rusty metal gate squeaking loudly in protest as she pushed it further open. Stepping into the yard, she could see Chris, his black jacket slung over his shoulder and sleeves rolled halfway up, but his hands were dangling at his sides. She stepped up beside him.

"Chris...?"

He shushed her, still staring across the yard. Kaia tried to find what he was looking at, and her heart nearly stopped when she did. Halfway underneath a bush was a small, hairy creature. It was almost ape-like, but with much more hair than a normal ape would reasonably have. It was staring back at Chris, as if they were having some sort of contest. She didn't want to find out what would happen when one of them lost.

"What is that...?" She whispered.

"You mean you don't know?" Chris mumbled back.

"Well, I couldn't tell you what it's called... but I know it's a being."

"Barely," Chris said. "It's an enigma, like the thing that touched you. It lives halfway between our world and another, pulled in by the presence of magic and staying to feed on negative energy. That house was already full of it. It's still intact, so there had to have been someone taking care of it. But something happened to them. Now it's a feeding ground for these things. Hell, the whole world is. I've always been on the level where I can see them regardless, but I started to see way more of them after the war. Before then, they would just be in places like hospitals, graveyards, and even my school. Just generally spots where there's a lot of negativity to leech off of. I'm sad and angry, you're frustrated and afraid. These fuckers were having a feast last night."

He finally broke eye contact with the thing, which bounded off, the bushes trembling as it dashed through them. It was strong enough to have a physical presence. She shivered. Chris walked back into the house, retrieving the rest of his belongings before setting off. Kaia followed him. The day was much cooler than the one previous, and eventually Chris had to put his jacket back on. Kaia stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

"Where are we going now?"

"We're just going back to my home. Forget the compound, we're not going back there."

"Hold up," Kaia said. "Who says we're not going back?"

"I don't know. Reality, common sense, logic. Things like that."

Kaia narrowed her eyes. "It was your idea to gather troops up in the first place! I didn't know any better, okay!?"

Chris sighed. "Look, what happened doesn't matter anymore. William was my only option, and now he thinks I was trying to steal his food."

"So you're just going to give up?"

"Well, yeah! Listen to me, girlie. This idea of gathering up an army and fighting your government tooth and nail like we're in some kind of dystopian novel is fucking ludicrous, you know that right? That's what I was thinking about yesterday, anyway. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the world is shit and sometimes you just can't do anything to help it. The humans in your compound are gonna keep tearing both our kinds apart until they make their impossible, magic hybrid. Shit like this happens all the time, especially during war. Okay? We're not gonna be able to stop it."

"But we can!" Kaia insisted, stepping in front of him. "We need to! Those are my people, that's where I grew up! I can't just run off then leave them to die! We need to fight back, Christian."

"No, you need to fight back," Chris said. "Face it girlie, you're the one who feels the need to help everyone and stop all the atrocities you encounter. It admirable, but once again, stupid. For the last time, you can't fucking help everyone. You just need to help yourself and do good where you actually can. So yes, we're not going back and I am giving up. But that doesn't mean you can't make the most of your new life out here."

He pushed past her, and Kaia stared after him, her mouth agape.

"You can't tell me that you dragged me from everything that I know and aren't even going to help me go back!"

"You can't go back, that's the fucking thing!" Chris said. "You know too much, and you committed treason! It's a double whammy, they would kill you twice if they could! Or, maybe if that lady is particularly insane in the membrane, she'll make you part of those experiments and replace your brain with a monster's! Face It, Kaia, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. So which way is it gonna be? Back to certain death, or forward to possible death?"

Kaia stared at him. "I can't believe you! Is this world really so horrible that it's sucked every ounce of hope and optimism from your body?"

"I never had those traits in the first place," Chris replied bluntly. "Now follow me. Of go back, I don't care. Either way I'll have wasted my time. I just want to go the fuck home. You're welcome to join me, by all means. I don't hate you at all. I don't dislike you, either. It just that you're naive. And while I'm not looking forward to watching this world kick the cap out of you, I will get a sick enjoyment from watching it do so."

Kaia sighed. "... I can't go back there, even if they weren't going to kill me. Not after what happened."

Chris nodded. "Look, If I could help you, I would. At the very least, I tried for you. But now I know for a fact that I can't. There's nothing you, nor I, nor a pack of insatiable vampires hellbent on revenge against humanity can do. Now come on, chin up. Maybe when we go back to get my car we can stop at William's house and get you to personally apologize. That's all polite and Victorian and all that jazz, he'll eat that shit up. At least then I'll get my gasoline, money, and internet back."

"You don't need to keep rubbing that in, you know."

"Oh, but I will. I'm known to hold a grudge."

The sound of motorcycles in the distance startled them both. Chris's head whipped in the direction of the sound, tilting his head so he could hear it better.

"Ah, fuck me with a Bad Dragon dildo, it's your guard friends."

"They followed us into the Outlands!?"

"Of course they did!" Chris said. "They want you dead! Shit, I should have expected this. I'm off my game. You're starting to rub off on me, numbnuts. Come on, we need to hide."

He lead her into one of the buildings, and they crouched down behind a crumbling brick wall. Kaia peered over it. The motorcycles grew louder, and she watched as they flew down the street, branching off in different directions in order to search alongside the roads. Chris stood up once they were out of earshot for him, brushing the dust and debris off his pants.

"Well, looks like we're gonna be making one last pit stop before we get to Raymour and Flanigan."

"Where?" Kaia asked.

"Back to where it all began for people like me," Chris said. "We're going to a witch brothel."