Page 36 of (Mostly) Human Resources

Zach exhaled.

He had a heart of gold, and Nic knew when he hired Zach that it would be a weakness as much as a strength. If the secret was about anyone else, he would have cut him some slack. But it was about Alexys, and she’d just ditched him, and he felt bitter about it, and even more bitter that Zach knew something about her that he didn’t—for reasons he couldn’t quite comprehend in that particular moment. “You can tell her I threatened you with unemployment.”

“What?” Zach squawked, eyes going wide and almost filling the screen. “You’d fire me?”

“Of course not. You’re my favorite purple-haired researcher.”

Zach scoffed. “I’m youronlypurple-haired researcher.”

“Regardless, you’re too important to the office ecosystem, but she doesn’t know that.” Nic gestured for him to hurry up. “Now, tell me.”

Zach fidgeted, glancing at the room behind him as if Alexys might materialize at the very idea of him spilling her secret.

He groaned and finally caved. “She has really vivid nightmares thatmightbe premonitions. She thinks they’re being caused by a monster, so she’s got me doing some under-the-table research for her.”

Nic blanched. The connection began to cut in and out, chopping up whatever Zach said next, but Nic barely noticed it. He was too caught up in the realization that Alexys might actually be in more danger than he had originally thought.

Immediate danger.

The list of creatures that created and fed on nightmares wasn’t long, but they were all deadly. Coupled with a trip into a place as wild as West Virginia and as haunted as the Appalachian Mountains, and the list of things trying to kill her easily doubled.

“Zachary.” Nic’s voice was calm, carefully masking the panic he could feel constricting his chest. Panic served no one and was best kept out of any decision-making or conclusion-drawing. “I want you to email me whatever file you’ve created on her case. I want it in my inbox by the time I arrive in Mercyhill. If it’s not, I’ll work out of your office for an entire week.”

The thought of Nic, the embodiment of disorganization, entering his office was enough of a threat to immediately cause Zach to end the call amid plenty of apologies and platitudes.

Nic tapped his phone against his palm, thoughts spinning. The creatures Entity specialized in had a tendency to be drawn to each other. If Alexys went into a monster-infested mountain range with an already unknown creature attached to her, the possibility of a fatal encounter with any of them was almost a guarantee. At best, Entity would send a Reaper after her, making her chance of survivalslim to none. Reapers were notorious for having little regard for bystanders, especially when it came to cleaning up a case. At worst, Entity would abandon her to the field, and they’d never see her again.

Firmly reminding himself that panic wouldn’t do him any good, Nic fixed his gaze out the window and prayed Alexys hadn’t made it too far.

If her driving was anything like her work ethic, she strictly obeyed speed limits.

Nic’s phone pinged a moment later, and he pulled up the email with Zach’s file. He was disappointed to see how small it was, but it was understandable given how covert Zach had to be. He doubted Zach could have made much progress no matter how long he’d worked at it without the help of the company’s full Archives, both digital and physical. Nic skimmed through the pages to pick up on the major details and then sat back in his seat.

Her case was an interesting one, there was no denying it. Nic immediately ruled out Kikimoras seeing as the nightmares happened in various places. A Wendigo wasn’t likely because of the varying themes and the lack of the creature’s presence within the dreams. Her insomnia felt like a distraction, like it could have come before the nightmares and was an unrelated symptom that was throwing off Nic’s direction of thinking. The premonitory nature of the nightmares was odd as well. When all of the information was put together, none of it added up. Like a puzzle that was either missing pieces or contained pieces that didn’t belong in the first place.

Nic dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

Leave it to Alexys to have an encounter with an undiscovered and possibly undocumented creature andrefuseto go through proper channels to deal with it. It was infuriatingly in character.

Nic didn’t have as much time for research as he would have liked. He tried to call Alexys again, to ask her more about thenightmares and to tell her to stay the hell away from Mercyhill, but the call went straight to voicemail.

No signal.

Without the ability to ask her relevant questions, his hands were tied. Nic didn’t know what region she was in when the nightmares started, he didn’t know if there were any common subjects or themes in the dreams themselves, he didn’t even know how often she had them. Research was stalled until he could ask her himself.

Another reason to find her quickly, Nic thought grimly.If she was still alive and able answer his questions.He groaned.

Nothing was going to ruin his chances of finding the Hollow Walker more than Alexys dying on the job.

The doomsday spiral was less than helpful, but he couldn’t seem to silence the cynical voice in his head. It kept churning out facts about the thousands of people who vanished from the Appalachian trail every year, horrible deaths caused by Haints and Not Deer, and the alarmingly large populations of Black Dogs and Jackalopes.

Nic’s palms wouldn’t stop sweating, and he was pretty sure his heart rate was edging toward tachycardia.

He was about to demand the driver floor it when a non-doomsday-spiral idea finally surfaced. Nic weighed the pros and cons before he relented and pulled out his cell phone.

Nic opened the chat thread and closed it several times before huffing in defeat. He pressed the tiny microphone icon and started recording himself.

“Hey, Lottie.” He paused, realizing that he was leaving a voice note for his ex-girlfriend, and he couldn’t even remember the last time they’d talked.