Snap. I was sober, awake, not part of an orgy across the street. Like a bucket of ice water in my face, followed by being struck by the empty bucket itself.

"Hi," I said.

"Thought you'd gotten me," she said. "Thought your unclean killed and ate me, didn't you."

"No," I said. "They weren't mine, and they didn't want to kill anyone, and they wouldn't eat you because you're gross and mean."

"Then why did they show up? Did you call them?"

"You'd been about to kill and eat one of them. They were very reasonable, if you think about it."

"We're going to save him, you know. There's only so far you can go."

"Who? Oh, Todd."

"Yes Todd!" she shouted. "Yes, Preston Covenant! You can't take the leader of an entire resistance movement and expect no consequences! You'll pay. You'll pay in a very visible way, in front of all my clients. You'll never be able to–"

"I keep telling him he's free to go back to you. He keeps hanging around."

"You and your unclean…what?" A long pause. "Hanging around?"

"No reason for me to lie. If you want I can let you talk to him. I'm sorry there's no more money in the world. I'd pay you to take him away, like a reverse ransom. Dude's a bummer."

"That's not what I'm getting."

"Oh, you have a soul connection, sure. What, are you trying to tell me he's not a bummer? You said you were a psychologist." What was she receiving from him, via the apparently long-distance connection between souls? "I'm thinking he's in love. Is that the telemetry he sends you?"

Silence. So, yes.

"You can tell he's being treated well, right? He's having fun, in a goth theater-kid way. Primo brooding and pining. I'm sorry I took your guy, okay? I was mad. And you know I deserved to be mad, Doctor Teeth."

"In love," she said. Calculating. "With you?"

"Nope. I beaned him with a chunk of metal in the back of his head. I abducted him, and the only person I know low enough to commit crimes like that is my dear friend Dr. Michelle. So no, not me."

I heard her breathing on the other end. These phones were really something; I wondered if video calls were common and I just didn't know how to set one up. Hologram calls, something futuristic like that.

"If he's betrayed the movement," she said, "Then he's no good to us. He's no better than you."

"Are you serious? Aw man, don't do this to me! Now I have to drag him around to protect him from you? I don't like him!"

"Then deliver him to us."

"Is there anyone there I can talk to besides you, Michelle?"

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"I'll be calling." She hung up.

God dammit.

I couldn't go to bed just yet. I went out on the narrow, rocking street, looking up at the night sky. The stars would gently rock to the left, then right, with each step of the Winnie beneath me. The trees swayed, both with the walking and the breeze. A half moon peeped over the rim of a roof, then hid again, then there it was yet again. The slow movement of the Winnie caused it.

STOP

The voice slapped my mind, leaping past the useless barrier of skull and setting the greasy stew of brain matter jiggling helplessly. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Then it was gone, instantly, leaving me to wonder if I'd dreamed it.

NOW

"Stop what!" I was clutching my head. "Don't answer!"

Too late: SAD

"Okay, I'll help! Just stop talking!"

The voice was silent. It was a blessing; my ears weren't ringing, but there was a similar feeling. My brain was buzzing?

Sad. Who was sad around here? I checked the buzz of souls that were linked to mine. Let's see, there was Lux, who had passed out after a spectacular culmination of events that had occurred during my phone call, I think. She was cuddly and warm and safe and a little sore. Good for her.

I found Adaobi, the Winnie mahout, whatever that happened to be. I'd just met her, but she and I had similar goals in some areas, mostly dealing with the welfare of one Lux Interior. Adaobi wasn't in pain. She was gloating to herself on being a fantastic lover. So who was I supposed to be dealing with, why pick on me specifically? Someone I knew was the problem?

Oh no.

I cast about for Todd; he was nearby. And he was in pain, all right. It was a melodramatic sort of ache, one with a tinge of pleasure at being felt. I'm actually feeling this, I'm so interesting, that was the vibe.

Had I said Goth Theater Kid? I hadn't known the half of it.

I was getting used to whatever a soul did. I used mine to sniff him out. I found myself strolling the streets of the Tourist Winnie looking for him.

There. Over by the tree, leaning against it, looking like Lord Byron in a t-shirt and jeans. EHF, said the boots. His face was noble, stoic, suffering. Lit by the intermittent moon.

The self-satisfied hurting was streaming off him. Whatever that voice had been, it had been feeling Todd's back-of-the-hand-glued-to-his-forehead misery. Poor me. I bet I look cool, came the feeling blaring from him; strong, almost vocal in its clarity.

That mental shout again, a thunderclap:

STOP!

"Stop!" I shouted at Todd.

He jolted himself out of it. The flow of emotion from him changed when he saw me, became much less intense. Guilt. Fear. Dislike. Remorse. Jealousy.

Great, now I was soul mates with this guy. I really wish I could have chosen more bandwidth, more content from Lux and her sex army. "Please cool it, Todd. You're waking up Cthulhu or someone, and it's giving me a migraine."

His eyes widened. "I thought you hadn't been drinking tonight."

"Yeah good, just get your mind off yourself. I can feel it and you're really sad, all right? I acknowledge that you're having a bad day. Now please tone it down! You're annoying the neighbors."

His mope had dispersed. He seemed to be trying to decide if I were drunk, crazy or pretending for some reason. "What do you want?"

"You're doing it. Better?" I waited. Shouted: "BETTER?"

BETTER

"Glad to hear it. Todd, your crush on Lux is leaking out to the locals. I want you to go to bed. Do you want to leave us yet?"

He looked mournfully at the hotel where Lux was sleeping.

"Whoa whoa, forget I asked. Come on, let's go back to the room and get you to stop broadcasting, Eeyore."

He'd been leaning against that tree to keep from falling. He was sloshed. I got under his arm; he was really quite tall. He made it to bed. I covered him up, and he said "Love her," before falling asleep.

Whose voice had that been, the one that had punched me in my poor overtaxed brain? It had been calling me for days: here, here. What now, man?

In the morning, I got a phone call from Lux. "Meet us at the Denny's. I'm fine, I'm safe. We have to talk to you. Adaobi is mad and I wanna watch her beat you up."

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