“This looks like some occult ritual,” Bluebell said as he brought a case of beer over.

“It’s not a real party if it doesn’t,” Julia answered. “Wait, is that coffee?”

Bluebell held up his mug. “Yup!”

“Man, you’ve gotta stop drinking that stuff so late.”

“I just don’t wanna fall asleep on the train ride home. Besides, Cat said he bought more syrup for me.”

“Cat no!” Julia laughed, “Don’t enable him.”

Cat’s frown softened, “Alex gives me these pitiful looks sometimes. I can’t help it.”

“You know how I feel about coffee and maple syrup. When I was in re-” Bluebell abruptly corrected himself, “most places just have sugar packets.”

Phoebe stood on the other side of the fire, barely listening to their conversation. After she and Julia had returned from their fishing trip, she’d spent the rest of her time trying to figure out what to do. Even though she hadn’t felt any stirring from the monster, it still wouldn’t leave her alone. Grappling with it, and her newfound ability, led her to scroll through pages of search results on her phone’s browser. She scanned articles and forum threads about situations that could never match hers. She stumbled upon unsavory fetish websites, which reminded her that she needed to solve her problem as quickly as possible. But her eyes had lingered on them.

The monster’s paws were tangled up inside her. Its claws, his claws. In her deliberation she had even given him a name: Silver. The name came to her unprompted, and her brain latched onto it before she had a chance to regret it. ‘Silver’ was short and copper-sweet. It rolled off her tongue better than she wanted to admit.

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07.31.21
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Yay he finally has a name