So I have been approached by an interesting man to do some interesting things. While I was on my break at the hospital, a man in sunglasses who introduced himself as Midas entered the work room and decided to start talking to me. I imagine the name was intentional saying that he brought a body from the morgue and turned it to gold. Speaking of the morgue, this man seemed interested in my very particular skill set. He promised me power as long as I did some kind of work for him. Honestly, I'm not too fond of the idea of growing this accursed gift but I did agree to his contract in the hopes that doing whatever it entails will help me in blending in better to normal society. That may not sound like it makes logical sense but what I mean is that I want to stop accidentally causing complications of bodies in the morgue returning to the living.

So, after agreeing to whatever he's signed me up for, I headed to Ohio to do something related to finding a magician. Not only was I not told who the magician was or what to do with them but I had to go to Ohio of all places. Beyond that, there's not a lot to say about the job itself  because we didn't end up doing it. I guess we gave up after seeing a circus full of 'magicians'.

When being told of this, I was also told that I would be meeting new people when taking these jobs. While I was there, it took me a little bit of time to find them but it wasn't extremely hard to do saying that I just had to look for the weirdest people in the crowd. And I did find them. What looked to be an electrician and a man dressed in Victorian era clothes holding a can of soup. I ended up being right that they were the people that I would be working with. And yes, that includes the can of soup. They were called Charles Wimpernickle, Louis E and Frazier O'Neil. The first is a werewolf, the second is telekinetic and the third seems to be able to turn into a can of soup. Unless Charles Wimpernickle's attire is just for show, I imagine he's also quite old. Most likely older than me, in fact.

After our introductions, we decided to go to a cafe and get something to drink. This is pretty much where we spent the rest of our time. While we were there I saw Louis using his telekinetic powers to grab a can and Frazier turning back to a human again. I'd be interested to work with these people again in the future, they seem to have very intriguing abilities.

Upon finishing the contract, I went back home to Massachussets. Work has kept me busy since then though. Although not busy enough to stop me from wondering about the world that I've stumbled onto. I guess pop culture and media has taken away the shock of werewolves and telekenisis but there are really people who can turn into cans of soup? I don't think a single person in this hospital would believe that in a billion years.

Speaking of, I still haven't really gotten all that close to my coworkers even after all this time. It's not only difficult to try but it would also probably be better to just keep them at an arms length anyway. It's a little sad because it would probably make work a hell of a lot less dull. Currently the only work I've been put on is minor things like check ups. Old people with coughs and such. I guess work has just been incredibly slow recently and they have enough people working on the emergencies and serious cases.

In terms of a personal life, there's still not much to say. I don't know anyone or do anything really. I've tried doing regular stuff like watching and listening to movies, tv and music. I've also tried going out but only really at night since the daylight ends up doing more worse than good. 

Back on topic of this contract, I heard from someone that another contractor was hired to take a child from an orphanage. I feel like that has to be exaggeration or just a lie, I know the government isn't great but there's no way they would do something that downright insidious.

I'm very not excited for next going to sleep. I guess I'll have to put it off by taking an exorbitant amount of shifts so I don't have the time to sleep. God I might even have to work during the day.

For background into the shitshow that caused this, we have to go back to when I got approached by some guy who knew about my unsavoury... abilities, so to speak. He offered me some kind of contract and it seemed like the reward was something to do with helping me understand and develop these powers more. As much as I hate to say it with how much grief this has caused me in my life (and un-life I guess), it would be nice to be able to control my powers better if I'm stuck with them. So with all that said, I hesitantly accepted.

He gave me some kind of contract that I had to do the inconvenience of travelling all the way to Ohio. I met some others with similar powers. Charles Wimpernickle, a lycan; Louis E, some sort of telekenetic electrician and Frazier O'Neal who can turn into a can of soup?? We were supposed to find some magician but we did get slightly sidetracked and didn't complete the task that occasion. I guess it was an overall waste of time.

And that brings us to the event in question. Me and Louis were called back to Ohio to finish the job and we ended up meeting some traditional Chinese looking man called Lord Wei Fu. He seemed surprised by everything and had to use a dictionary or something to conversate in English. Because of this, I decided to try speaking to him in Taiwanese Mandarin in the hopes that may help him. I tried my best saying that I was exhausted from work and travel and there was a bit of a difference in how he was speaking (which was traditional Mandarin, I believe). If he is actually a man out of his time, I suppose we have some sort of common ground we could possibly build an alright acqaintanceship.

At the point in which we get in, I can't go into major detail as my memory is slightly hazy. It may be something to do with the fact that it wasn't exactly my greatest moment. As we get in there were some mannequins (I think?) that didn't seem to affect me because, for the most part, I just wanted it to be over so much that I was focused on our goal. Then we got to what would probably be considered the 'main event'. This man that we were chasing, the Spectacular Spud, was hosting a show for some dreadful laughing mannequins in which he took dead people and made them perform horrible, dreadful tricks involving mutilation and pain. I couldn't just sit there and watch this happen. I tried shooting the spud and later tried more that I'll mention after the context of why this was so traumatic for me.

Not only did the mannequins act like laughing zombies and these dead that seemed to feel pain were being made to perform these tricks but I inadvertently ended up raising more dead (which may have been a blessing in the end so they didn't have to experience this). After all this I decided to reanimate an old man that was about to be used for the show because I couldn't bear to see it happen again. That's where my memory goes but I assume we managed to succeed.

I hope maybe I can see Louis and Lord Wei Fu again on better terms.

-Edward

This time the contract was slightly less traumatic, although it did include fire which is a... touchy subject to say the least.

It started off with me getting a text to investigate some forest fires in a park in New York. I headed there and met up with someone who was not Louis E but looked like him and was coicidentally called Louis G along with Lord Wei Fu and Charles Wimpernickle. Even as soon as they met, it did not seem like Charles and Wei Fu got along well. I was trying to intercept whatever was going there so the group was more functional since that would get us done faster but that ended up not working.

We headed into the forest and Charles could apparently pick up a smell of cinammon (not that I could smell it with my circumstances). As it turns out, apparently Louis G seems unable to smell too. We followed Charles as he tracked the source of the smell and I couldn't believe what we came across. A real goblin camp! Say what you will about these contracts, they have introduced me to people and ideas I never thought possible, even with the outlandishness of my own powers. We questioned the goblins on the forest fires and they pointed us towards an apparent fire spirit in the area. The interaction may have been easier than it was supposed to be because apparently Louis and Charles are good friends with a goblin called Grebber which gave them favour with this group.

In the middle of trying to track down this spirit, after Charles and Lord Wei Fu had a little pissing contest or whatever stupid shit that they were doing, we found a woman who ended up being inhabited by the fire spirit although we didn't know that at first. We sparked a conversation with her to find out if she knew what we were looking for and Louis started a running theme of lying to her about what we were about and why we were there and I tried to help but after a while I gave up and just started telling the truth. 

So for some reason this woman was flirting with Louis heavily and Lord Wei Fu used his powers to make to conjure up a large california raisin then make her more horny (I think??). I think this only helped the fire spirit because she started burning up and so Charles and Louis started running away before she exploded. In hopes of stopping this, I tried to reanimate the corpse and then put it in the water. After this, I seemed to be the only one to think of the idea of contacting Midas to pick up the body.

I don't know how to feel about anything anymore. Not only have i lost trust in this organisation that I've signed a contract for and been hired by and I've lost trust in myself. I told myself that I'd be careful with my power while also not choosing to kill unless necessary and I failed.

I was hired for a contract in Georgia and told that the person I'd be working with would be special. At first, I just expected it to be someone of note or someone with an exemplary skillset. What I wasn't expecting was a child. This agency, funded by the government, hired a child to do their dirty work. I didn't think they'd be this scummy. So this child, Lucius Johannson, is hard to gauge because I can't tell if he has his own skillset apart from being incredibly strong for a child. Although, he does have some creature beyond my understanding that he calls Michael.

In the town, we spent a long time investigating but everyone kept telling us the same things about kidnappings years ago and crops. It was only once we entered one hotel that we started to get somewhere. At first, it was pretty normal there until we decided to eat the food. When Lucius was talking to Michael about the lamb he and I ate, it seems as if Michael was trying to explain that it wasn't actually lamb (since I assume they have some sort of telepathic link). This made me decide to inspect the meat further and it appeared to be cadaver. I confronted the person at the desk about this and he took me to his kitchen with his wife. I stopped Lucius from entering too because I could not, in a normal state of mind, put Lucius in danger.

In the kitchen, him and his wife confessed to their cannibalism and went through a monologue about deer (especially me being a deer?), something to do with the curse relating to the natives kicked out of the land and so on. At the end of this, instead of trying to kill me they offered me to 'join their hunt'. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do here and I'm still not.

After the wife made me this offer, I immedately reached for my gun and blew her brains out. I don't even think it's what I should have done, it just felt right at the time. And after that, I reanimated her corpse to eat her husband alive. Words cannot describe how complex my feelings towards this are but I'm worried it may reveal something about me. At the very least we managed to save one of their victims, but not without damages. 

So it has been a week since going to Georgia. I think I've been doing well maybe? I haven't had any strong adverse reactions so far. I have been smoking a lot which I guess could maybe be used as a reason why I could possibly not be doing so well. Again, I've tried taking more shifts to take my mind off of it and I guess that has probably worked a slight amount. Although, I'm starting to feel like some of my coworkers are starting to catch on to my secrets. My physical appearance has changed a slight amount and it's still a little hard to conceal the dead in the morgue coming back. Maybe if people find out and I have a better control of my powers, I should work as a coroner. The last place people would expect a necromancer to go is a coroner's office with it being the exact first place you'd think of. Plus I've always wanted to say "Dr. Graves, I'm with the coroner's office".

But for now, I'm stuck working in this hospital. on the plus side, no one has died while I was on shift. I guess there's something to be celebrated there. I just have to keep it that way until I move on to somewhere else. Speaking of, I should probably get hold of ego when I move somewhere else, I don't want my age on my identification to become too unbelievable.

One last thing, I hope that, when I am most likely called back to finish the cult business and just future contracts in general, Midas is more careful with hiring children. I don't want a child's blood on my hands.

Today's contract involved going back to Colgarac and finishing business. Although last contract we did what Midas asked and found out what was happening ('what was happening' being the town sacrificing people to the Wendigo) and put a stop to it in the short term, he asked us to come back and finish the job. I called him to see what he wants us to do, even offering to sweep the whole hiring children thing under the rug, and he still decided to tell us nothing. Whatever, I'll just try not to care.

Upon entering the town I immediately see Lucius again. Of course. And I know I make it sound like I hate children but I'm actually growing slightly fond of him, It's just that these are not the situations I would want to encounter him in. But he got in my car (through my open window for some reason?) and we drove around to see what was there. We found a field full of dead birds and decided to investigate further. After walking past this field we saw a group of townsfolk building something. One of them noticed and started approaching us with an axe until I threatened him with my gun. He tried to pin the blame of his town's downfall on me and Lucius and, although that is true by technicality, they were killing and feeding people to the Wendigo so I don't have to pretend this is moral quandry.

When I made this clear and as I asked Lucius to punch this man, he called all the townsfolk to come to our location. Luckily for us, there were a lot less townsfolk than usual because of the droughts and such but we still had a struggle defending ourselves. We very much could have died but we just managed to survive. I ended up killing a lot of people but in the end it didn't affect me too much because it wasn't difficult to justify doing it. On the other hand, it feels like Lucius was heavily affected, especially by the entrapment caused by nets. This is exactly one of the reasons why I didn't want him, or any other children, here. There's no knowing what experiences like that could do to a developing brain.

Once we'd dealt with them all, a large eye appeared and made a hole in the earth that took all of the bodies. I think this is the Wendigo that these people have been feeding. It didn't seem too happy they were trying to feed me and Lucius to it. I don't suppose it enjoys old rotting flesh and children connected to unearthly entities too much. That also seems to be why it let us go in the end.

I do hope Lucius is coping alright after the ordeal.

I've been practicing with my powers recently. I kind've need it if I'm planning on not getting caught on the next job I'm at. I've done the simple reanimating stuff and even found out that I can now speak with the spirits of the dead. Slowly I think I've been starting to get to grips with using my powers. I'm certainly more proficient with them than I was when I died. I don't know how long it will take to not hate this curse with every fibre of my being.

Also, I went to see ego today. It's apparently been four years since the last time we met so that he could help me out. It's hard to keep track nowadays. I caught up with him and he got me a job at the NYPD as a 28 year old coroner from Belfast. Also my 'birthday' has been legally changed to the 2nd of December. I was offered a smoke by him and I nearly passed it up so maybe I'm getting better.

I should be moving within a week and starting work on the Friday. Apparently I will most likely be working under a man called Captain Jackson and with a detective who I didn't quite catch the name of. At least, this time, I won't immediately blow my cover by accidentally raising a corpse during an autopsy. Plus, my newfound gift will most likely help a lot with detective work by skipping the step of finding the truth and going straight to finding evidence of said truth.

I've moved to my new job in New York as a coroner and pretty instantly I had been roped into a case. I came into the office to meet with Captain Jackson to start on work and, to my surprise, I saw a fellow contractor lying on the autopsy table. One Frazier O'Neil. Luckily not dead though. I suppose from now on he will be my partner.

We were informed that we would be taking on a case of an assumed animal attack near Rowan Apartments. Knowing that we were a pair of, for a lack of better way of putting it, supernatural detectives I doubt that it would be that simple.

To start off with, I conjured the spirit of the victim, Alexander Scott, to tell me more about the situation and enlighten me on details most other people may otherwise miss if they did not have a power like this. I also gave Frazier the ability to understand our conversation which, before trying it out, was not something I knew I could do. We found out that the victim saw a large beast which seems to be what attacked him. That part is standard but we also had found that it had piercing blue eyes. This and an autopsy I had conducted after Frazier had left to check the site of the murder had led me to suspect that maybe the perpetrator was some sort of lycanthrope.

After I had conducted the autopsy, I headed to Frazier after he told me there was a hidden club known as the Siren that can only be seen by the supernatural situated in the car park next to Rowan apartments. In this club we had found a lead on our case, as well as just learning a lot more about the supernatural. The bartender named Frank told us about another man named Toby who takes care of the werewolves who come to the Siren seeking refuge. We asked Toby about any possible regulars who did not show up on the night of the murder and he led us to a man named Robert who lived on a farm just outside the city.

Upon arriving, Robert seemed apprehensive he had pulled a shotgun on us and he seemed to let his guard down almost immediately which had surprised me greatly. From there we had just decided to ask him a few questions about his alibi during the night of the murder and it had seemed to be weak to non existent. He had claimed to have been locked up for most of the night and when he had gotten out he had only roamed the woods but the surveillance camera could not back this up. What was worse is that the time that he had broken out, the fact that he was running into the woods which was in the direction of the city and his possibilities in terms of speed and movement made him a prime suspect as it meant he was physically able to be at the crime scene at the time of the murder. All we needed now was more concrete evidence and a motive.

I left Frazier to watch over Robert while I went back to the lab to further inspect the body and see if I had missed anything. This seemingly isn't the first time I've put someone's life in danger unecessarily. Although, this time, Frazier is a grown man who can make his own decisions and protect himself. Not that Lucius couldn't protect himself though. Anyway, I got back to the lab and some unforseen hairs started growing on the body and it slowly started breathing again. Before I knew it, the body had come back to life as a werewolf. For a while I believed I was one of the few that could do this but I guess I looked over the fact that werewolves can do so too. The first course of action that seemed rational in my mind was to leave, lock the door behind me and call Captain Jackson for backup. He brought weapons, including a tranquiliser gun (by my request) and we had knocked the victim unconscious. I tested his hair and the hair Frazier picked up from Robert and they ended up being very similar. Due to this, I rand Frazier and informed him that Robert is very likely to be our current suspect and headed there as soon as possible.

When I'd gotten there, I didn't make it apparent to Robert that I had brought the weapons we took down Alexander with as it could cause Robert to get violent which would have especially been a problem saying that Frazier was in a cage with him for some reason. Once Robert had transformed to his human form, we decided to take him back to the station for further questioning.

We decided to get Captain to question him after we filled him in on all the details and evidence we'd collected. During the interrogation, it didn't seem like Captain managed to get much out of Robert other than Robert vaguely mentioning things about the werewolf community. Because we had essentially hit a dead end, we asked Captain to review the security footage from the apartments and we had a chat with Alexander. From this talk, the main important info we gleamed is that Alexander has a keen sense of smell and would most likely be able to smell out if Robert was the same werewolf that attacked him. He also seemed to know Robert which is weird that he didn't acknowledge knowing this. 

We got Alexander to talk to Robert and, in the end, Robert had admitted to turning him. I was unlikely to believe that it was premeditated based off of Robert's actions on the footage but his reasoning didn't allude to it being spontaneous. Upon, hearing this, Alexander seemed quite shocked but overall quite understanding and willing to forgive. I wasn't sure if there was any need to press charges and take Robert into the Law's hands as not only is it near impossible to know what the right charges would be to press but dealing with him would be a difficult situation and technically he did not attack Alexander with the intent to kill but either way he assaulted him and turned him without Alex's consent which could be a violation of Alex's choice. But I decided that due to all this I should let Alex choose what happens to Robert as he was the one affected by this whole situation and he decided to let him go (although it seems like he will be taking care of him to make sure such an act doesn't happen again. I'm just glad that he was so accepting of his chance at a second life and it didn't hit im too hard, as someone who knows all too much about that I would not wish it upon him.

I got hired for another contract. Surprisingly, this time, Midas rang me and told me some details of the contract. We talked about a few details that weren't significant to the current contract like my new job and such and he told me that we would be helping some metal band in an abandoned house in the area. I tried getting into black metal but I decided to not have a second 'midlife crisis', for lack of better terms.

When I arrived on location, I saw a man in a suit wearing bandages around his neck show up on a horse. It's a bit redundant to say due to my line of work but it wasn't exactly your average thoroughbred. I suppose it made it clear who I would be working with this time since it seemed to be another contract in which I'd be working with a singular other person. His name was Bryce Flannigan and he made it clear that he has very little to no knowledge of the supernatural which I mildly doubt with the contract that he had just signed up for, the horse that he came in on and the fact that he seems to know Frazier and I doubt many people around him aren't a little different in some way or another. I don't know, maybe he's just unaware of the oddity around him like Lucius.

We got told by one of the members of the band that we would be doing a job hunting ghosts. I suppose this is slightly suited well for me. We decided to take a look around and saw some strange happenings in the kitchen. The taps turned on and blood started pouring out, although it seemed that Mr Flannigan could not see this. The ghosts wrote on the wall to hold their hand so I tried to do so and cast my ritual to be able to speak to them. At the same time I had been suspended in the air with rope so I had to touch my new associate with my foot for him to also be able to interact with them. While speaking with them I found out that they were a pair of children that were hanged in the woods outside of the mansion. We never really found out the details but in the end we still put them to rest either way.

I don't like to think about the fact of life that the same thing may happen to me one day. While, on one hand, maybe I've spent too much time on this Earth and it's time to fully see the beyond for myself but also I don't know if I can fully accept death at this point. At least it will most likely be peaceful.

So I've had a somewhat interesting week or two since the last contract. To start with, someone in the police force had started to get suspicious of me so I needed to do something about that. Then, I had an especially interesting case of note.

Throughout my time in the NYPD, I've needed to watch out for people just in case. I need to know if people start to learn things about me or at least believe that they are doing so. And so far, one had seemed to catch my eye. He's called Felix Johnson and at first it started out with him just avoiding me whenever he came down to the morgue. That wasn't necessarily the problem. Most people and things avoid me, even people that I thought were close. I've come to terms with that. It's how it escalated from there that was the real problem. He started to steal my equipment, tamper with bodies and try to look through my personal belongings and information. Luckily, I had placed one of my wards from my new surveillance power in the morgue just in case. So I had told Captain about this since, as well as being a personal thing, It very much could hinder my work. He talked to him about it and Felix revealed that he thought I was a... "zombie". I despised being referred to as such as, not only does it just sound extremely derogatory, it makes it sound as if I'm a mindless, shambling creature that eats people as it can't help itself but act upon it's base instincts. Not that I've ever had the urge to eat anyone. In fact, I find the idea mildly disgusting. I suppose it explains why Mr Johnson had checked the heads of the corpses as he most likely believed I ate brains. Anyway, that's the last time I'll mention anything of the sort as it brings up bad memories. Anyway, I caught him sneaking into the morgue (later to learn it was to return the stolen scalpel) and had to convince him that I'm not undead by showing him my medical records. In the end, I suppose it worked out.

The other thing that happened is that I was given a case involving a man who had died of blunt force trauma in Central Park. I went through the usual procedures and found out that the cause was something involving trees. Seemingly sentient, moving trees. I decided to give this case to Frazier and go on my break. I imagined he'd do fine to handle it. probably. While I was on break, one Mr Bryce Flannigan from the last contract decided to come visit me. He even brought food. Because I already had something to eat, I would've imagined it to be mildly rude if I refused or didn't give him something in return so I gave him the other half of my chicken fillet roll. In mentioning that I had also passingly mentioned Ireland and he talked about having family heritage rooting in Ireland. During our conversation, in which I was voicing my suspicion about his seeming lack of knowledge or direct experience with the supernatural, the faulty light that had not been fixed yet fell on his head and took it clean off. I think that explains everything. It was too clean of a decapitation with too little blood to have just happened. After questioning he finally explained being a Dullahan. I suppose that explains the bandages on the neck. And the horse. Anyway, I asked him for help on the job after learning from Midas that these were Dryads. Luckily, after sending near 10 photos of getting donuts and burgers with some child that I later met and found to be called Cass (and seemingly related to Captain), Frazier had captured the Dryads. Me and Bryce went on our way to the park and took the perps to Fey Court. It was all weird and somehow both exactly and nothing like you'd expect. It turns out the Dryads were acting out of self defence and thus ended up getting a less harsh sentence than first expected.

After the ordeal, Bryce introduced me to this Cass who was with Frazier earlier. Speaking to her was an interesting moment as it seems like just being around me relieved some kind of stress caused by her power killing the living after he touches them, something I was told after a long and mildly awkward and confusing hug. We talked for a whille about ourselves and, at one point, Bryce decided to promise to be more direct to me (which I imagine is a very big deal for a Fey) and then, at Cass' suggestion, asked me to meet his family at some kind of family reunion so I imagine he trusts me a lot more than I would have expeccted. I'm not really sure why but he seemed shocked after finding out that I was undead even after supposedly knowing other undead. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing important. Anyway, I invited them over for food and gave Cass a checkup since the things she talks about made me mildly worried for his health. Other than that, nothing else especially interesting happened, I believe.

For this contract I decided to ask around who would be showing up and luckily it turned out that Bryce would also be there. So we travelled together to the contract which turned out to be in Scotland. I was wondering how we would travel between New York and Orkney on Water Cress but, as it turns out, they can travel on water.

As we arrived and slowly trotted onto shore, we caught a glimpse of a man wearing a cheap suit and a neck pillow and holding a packed bag. It was safe to assume this was who we would be working with. In fact, it seems as if he had been teleported here by Midas right before we got there. We went over and got introductions out the way before getting to work. The man we were working with called himself Larry Jr. and is a salesman.

As we looked around, we found a small town with the only places of note being a co-op and a pub called the wet lamb. Jesus, it's been a while since since I've been in a co-op. Speaking of, I should probably be careful with any Christianity related stuff around Bryce. I should've probably realised earlier but it seems as if his Fey lineage gives him an aversion to all that. I'll also ask him to maybe try to hold back with anything fire related around me because, if we're going to have any kind of functioning relationship moving forward, it would be best if we knew what not to do to make each other uncomfortable. anyways, when we went into the shop the first time, we mostly fucked around. For the most part we got picnic items like wine, cheese, salami and grapes (a meal truly made for a Roman aristocrat). It confused me mildly because it was a dreary Scottish day. Not that it bothers me, I wouldn't be affected by sitting in the cold.

Afterwards, we went to the farm and found out that sheep had been dying and crops wilting. The manner of death, circumstances and area we were in led to the idea that we were most likely facing the attack of a Nuckelavee. We went to the wet lamb to see if we could learn more and went back to the co-op to get freshwater to douse the creature with. After that we set up a trap for it at the farm involving burning seaweed.

Our battle with the Nuckelavee was possibly the closest fight I've had yet. Even the situation with Lucius does not compare. The creature let out a noxious gas that seemed to horribly effect my companions. Bryce was nearly killed in the process so I burned some seaweed and ran away so it would follow me instead of him. I don't know what I would have done if Bryce's blood was on my hands, I've grown quite fond of him in this short time I've known him. It's not often people don't go out of their way to avoid me. While this was happening, Larry ran back into the lighthouse and brought out a radiating girl that caused the creature to grow weaker and Larry took Bryce's injuries and transferred them between himself and then the Nuckelavee. Once it had fully weakened, we dumped it in freshwater so it couldn't come back out and terrorise more people. I'm just glad the combined efforts of me and Larry managed to save Bryce.

On the way back, we all crossed the sea and got home on Water Cress. Despite his thick Northern English accent, it seems Larry lives in Florida. Maybe I should check up on Bryce and cook him some good meals just to be sure he's recovering properly.

Nikki: Please, take a seat. I’ll start off with a few introductory questions to get a good grasp on what we’re going to be talking about if we continue these and if we find a path that will be helpful for you, we can go down it and discuss whatever needs to be discussed to help you. Is that okay?

Edward: Yes, that is fine by me.

Nikki: Okay, well let’s get started Edward. Should I call you Edward or would you prefer something else?

Dr. Graves: I believe that in this room we should have a strictly professional relationship of therapist and patient which is free of a pre-existing relationship and, by extension, any sort of bias. So I believe that, during sessions, it would likely be beneficial for me to be referred to as Dr. Graves.

Nikki: I see. Well what is it that is making you want to come to these sessions, Dr. graves? Is there something you wish to deal with?

Dr. Graves: Yes actually, I have a complicated issue stemming from myself and being brought to light by the contracts.

Nikki: What’s the issue?

Dr. Graves: I have, for a long time, held contempt for my powers and my… current state of being for their relationship to death. And yet even when I start to learn to overcome this, I still feel its effects on me.

Nikki: How so?

Dr. Graves: This has caused me to be unsure of my own position on life and death. I’ve always considered all life as sacred because of what I lost, myself. I lost the chance of a normal life and so I believed everyone deserved their shot at life. But what if I was wrong? What if the crimes of some people are so heinous that not only does it feel as if you need to get rid of them for the safety of others, but also feels good to do?

Nikki: Are you suggesting there has been someone you have enjoyed killing?

Dr. Graves: I don’t know. Maybe. I hope not.

Nikki: Before we further explore this, it could be beneficial to explore the context of this. That is, if you consent obviously. I have a power, one which I believe you have seen me use on others during the contracts. If we have physical contact, I can learn many things about you, and you me. This includes the nature of any time we’ve killed, any trauma we have and what you are against as a person. For some people, that may be something like murder. For others, maybe sin or harm to animals.

Dr. Graves: If you believe it will help then we should do it.

…

Nikki: I see, that is a lot of people. Do you want to talk about it?

Dr. Graves: Which part?

Nikki: We can start with why and then move on to how it all made you feel.

Dr, graves: The why is simple. They were all pure evil. They all consistently toyed with innocent lives like they were nothing. And for how it made me feel, that one is harder to answer. Each time, there was a deep sense of shame and regret. But before that? I felt just. And then righteous. And then powerful. And that scares me.

Nikki: You felt powerful? What exactly about it was the part that made you feel powerful? Was it the act itself or the effect of that action? Or maybe the amount of lives you believe you may have saved with your action?

Dr. Graves: I… I think possibly the act of snuffing out the life of someone who has committed horrible, unspeakable acts, it… it feels as if you’re doing what is right. Bringing about poetic justice. It’s difficult to admit but there may be a sense of pleasure to come from it. A catharsis of sorts. And that’s precisely what I’m worried about.

Nikki: When I think about the concept of murder, I often think about why I don’t even though it would be so much simpler at times. At one point in my life I was somewhat of a delinquent and ended up getting into a fight with someone who was belligerent, with that ending with a punch and him dying from hitting his head on the pavement. I’m sure you knew that part from our contact but after that, I ended up talking to his sister. I realised the consequences and effects that these kinds of things could have on others. Someone who could be one thing to one person can be completely different to another. Someone that you kill could be a mother or a husband.

Dr. Graves: And what if that mother or that husband was a mass murderer? One without any sort of remorse? Is that still the same?

Nikki: That person is still capable of redemption. They can still see the error of their actions and choose to atone and do better. No one is beyond saving. It’s only a matter of if they accept it.

…

Dr. Graves: I apologise, I’m being called by my partner, Detective O’Neal. I will need to go but before we meet again, if we do so, I’ll give what we have discussed a thought.