I mean ... at first?

You stand at the nearest sidewalk near Andy’s house, wind whipping your coat’s tails viciously. While you can’t really tell the difference, you get why Andy wanted to stay back at the house. And why you suggested Eva do the same. You’re entirely sure she would have come out here with you if you hadn’t, and there was no sense in her being uncomfortable. ‘Plus, maybe I’ll have time to scream before he kills me,’ you think morbidly, not entirely sure this isn’t a trap. A way to get you and everyone with you in one spot so you’d be easier to kill. ‘I mean, you were doing pretty well getting away until that weird spirit-kid trick. Maybe he just doesn’t want to have to chase all of you.’

“Homey.” Well, you had time to scream. A high-pitched yelp springs out of you at the sudden arrival of another voice. “I grew up in a place like this.” Turning, you are simultaneously surprised and relieved to see Kenneth standing behind you, wearing a faded, brown coat.

“Fuck me, do you HAVE to do that?” you ask him. “I mean, you’re not Bat-Man, where the hell did you even come from?”

“Between spaces,” he says simply, and you can’t be entirely sure that’s sarcasm. “You got your people?”

“… you’re not going to hurt them, right?” He rolls his eyes and raises his right hand.

“Do so solemnly swear, I will not hurt your team, as a group or individuals. And freebie, I also won’t kill them so fast it doesn’t hurt, either.” He puts his arm down, and it’s a little strange to see the creature who effortlessly outpaced you on foot and was exuding such a savage, primal energy sag like, well, a normal old man. You can’t be sure how much of it is misdirection, but remain fairly certain it’s a smaller percent than “all of it.”

“Kind of thought you might also just go do it yourself, honestly,” you grumble as you walk with him back towards the house. “I mean, you said you could, so what, scared to go in without me backing you up?”

“Research’s never a bad idea, no matter what Lovecraft tries to tell ya’,” he answers, eyes still fixed on the house. You hadn’t noticed before, but he has kind of an accent. Boston? It sounds a little Boston, but hardly “pahk the cah in the Hahvahd yahd,” Boston. “Besides, if you thought it was as easy as killing it, you would have.”

“Unless you mean because I’m a bloodthirsty sociopath, that’s dangerously close to a compliment,” you taunt a little.

“I never said you aren’t brave. Size of the fire I showed you, thought you’d lose it. Didn’t. I don’t trust you, but I know you’re in this. You had first eyes on it, let’s hear what you gotta’ say.”

Opening the door, you immediately realize a possible oversight by the look Eva gives Kenneth. While he seems totally unfazed, part of you is worried that the blank-eyed anger she’s throwing at him is going to evolve into, say, jumping across the room and trying to put her fingers through his eyes before he can transform. As much as you love her, it still seems like a bad idea to give any of you (even all of you) favorable odds in these tight quarters with him, though.

“Guys, this is Kenneth. Kenneth, this is Eva and Andy,” you tell them slowly, trying to do your best to signal to Eva to hold it together. Being who she is, of course, she can tell … but still grips one of the couch’s armrests tighter than she probably needs to.

“What’s up, wolfman?” Andy answers, raising her hand in a short wave.

“Hi,” Eva says, obviously not happy to be in the same room as him.

“That’s your ghoul, then,” he comments, gesturing briefly to Eva. “Loyal. Good trait. Not uncommon, but I don’t know what else I’d expect.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eva asks with a distinct edge to her voice.

“Whoa, not productive!” Andy interjects, standing between them. “Not. Productive. We’re all here to stop a full-on monster, right?” You’re grateful for the intercession, both so you can continue with your plan and for avoiding having a curmudgeonly werewolf tell Eva how the whole blood thing works. You can’t imagine, given what Andy said, it’d go over well. You keep thinking of all the ways she might hurt herself or even die trying to “prove,” she’s not under your sway, and it’s hard to close them out even now with so much on the line.

“We are, thank you.” You walk over to the couch and sit with Eva, who scoots closer to you, leaning slightly in front of you to get between you and Kenneth. “Atlee’s got pretty much all of Kappa brainwashed. I don’t think it’s going to take her long to decide that’s not enough. We have to stop her. Ken, you sounded like you know what she is?”

“I heard the word ‘bane?’” Andy adds quickly, helping you change the subject.

“Technically, the thing inside her is a bane,” he elaborates after an agonizing pause of wondering whether he and Eva are going to keep getting into it. “She’s a fomor.”

“Gonna’ need more to go on than that,” Andy cuts in.

“You know when you’re pissed off at the guy who cuts you off in traffic? Or you use someone to feel good about yourself? Any of those nasty, little human moments where, just for a second, you don’t care about anyone else and you focus like a laser on ONE THING that you want?” Kenneth carries on, voice a little harsher at the word “human,” you note. Who doesn’t he have issues with? “A bane’s that, but all the time. They’re your worst moments and impulses given life. Some are more literal than that, maybe a body for the toxic waste dump by the river or a living memorial to one of this country’s many, many atrocities, but the point is that they’re what happens when enough terrible energy festers somewhere to make them … coagulate. Once it does, they’re as alive as you or me, just out of sight in the Umbra.” He glances around at the confused stares. “Spirit world. This-world adjacent. My people can go there, yours usually can’t. And a big part of why we go there is to try to fix problems like banes before they eat up too much real estate there or even spill over here.”

“So … she’s basically a leak?” you ask.

“Yes and no. Fomori are what happens when someone with a **** soul gets the bane’s attention. It sniffs out some kind of weakness, something that hits its type of vile JUST right, and it starts trying to make it and the person one thing. If it succeeds, fomor,” he emphasizes while clapping his hands together. “It’s not fun for them. They usually die fast and miserable, then the bane drifts off to do something else. This one sounds strong, though. How big a piece of work was this girl?”

As you and Eva explain (with the occasional snipe from Andy at Atlee’s expense), Kenneth nods along, unsurprised, until you hit a certain point. Namely, Atlee’s claim that she doesn’t HAVE a soul.

“That would explain some things …” he mumbles, almost to himself as he looks down, losing himself in thought. “Jesus, that’s bad. If it’s just got its own meat suit, no contest, that means it’s going to grow fast. Would an exorcism even work on it? I could just kill it, but …”

“Hey, buddy,” Andy interrupts, snapping her fingers. “Group effort over here.”

“Right,” he responds to her, blinking a few times and regaining his world-weary stoicism about the topic. “If she’s uncontested, she can do what she wants to the body. She’s brainwashing people?” All of you nod. “We need to kill all of them, then. The bane’s going to dance along that line to the next one, and I’d bet my right hand this Atlee girl’s got them prepped so it’ll only take a minute or two.”

“We can’t just KILL all of them!” Eva yells. She stands as she speaks, which should draw attention to her diminutive height, but her passion translates shockingly well into her stance and tone. She could be talking to someone with a solid two feet on her, and you’re still sure they’d have to listen. “They didn’t do anything wrong, they just made a mistake and got tricked! Andy saw them, Jaq confirmed it, they don’t know how bad things are until they get in there. They’re just looking to belong. We can’t kill people because they were lonely enough to get in bed with a sweet-talking monster, what the hell does that makes us?”

“Good people die!” Kenneth’s tone hardly changes, but his volume sure does. “All the time! For no reason! Have you been outside lately, or do you just stay in that school of yours, building up walls so you don’t have to see it? If we don’t stop her, the only difference is that MORE people die because we hesitated. You try to take half-measures, try to save people past it, all you’re doing is killing the next poor son-of-bitch she gets to say yes to her!”

“God, thanks for the reality check!” she shoots back. “Is that kind of crystal fucking perspective why you have so many friends? Did they leave when they found out what kind of shit you’re willing to pull for the easy answer? Or were they acceptable losses?”

That does it. Kenneth doesn’t speak, gritting his teeth, but suddenly takes up about three times the space he was a second ago, full man-wolf shape filling Andy’s living room. His breathing is hard and savage, claws flexing as he stares down Eva. To her credit, she doesn’t even flinch … which is more than you can say for Andy and you. You glance at her, both silently panicking and trying to figure out how to defuse this.