I closed my eyes, and found a few moments of bliss before remembering the nightmare I had just woken up from. My eyes opened, preferring the aching tiredness which gripped every inch of me instead of returning to such unnerving thoughts.
"So who are you, then?" said Clang.
He had asked this question in a tone that was both blunt, but without much of an accusation behind it either.
"I told you," said Marbelle in her thickly posh voice, "You can call me Marbelle. But I suppose you mean to ask where I hail from?"
"Yeah," said Clang, "Where'd you hail from, then?"
Marbelle smiled a toothy smile that was at once gorgeous and typically aristocratic. She seemed both amused by Clang and a little perplexed.
"As you can probably tell I'm from a family of substantial fortune," said Marbelle, "But I shan't go into much greater detail pertaining to whom or where, because, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, I must keep such things secret as to keep those nearest and dearest to me safe."
"Did you run away from home?" said Snap.
Somehow Snap was able to make this question sound like an accusation.
Marbelle considered the question, and seemed to become self-conscious.
"I'm nineteen years old," said Marbelle, "So I shouldn't think of it as 'running away' per-say, but, yes, I am currently on my own, with no intention of contacting my friends, family, and so on, any time soon."
Marbelle's all-white eyes glistened. It was quite something to observe, because every part of her face, skin, teeth, eyes, and more were made out of different layers of pseudo-marble. It really was like looking at a statue come to life and, more than that, a statue which had its own thoughts and feelings and insecurities.
"If it would please you three, I could leave? I'm terribly grateful for your help regarding Sweet-Face and his men. But I would be remiss to overstay my welcome-"
"-huh?" said Clang, "You want to go?"
Marbelle seemed to be at a loss for words. Her gaze settled on Snap, to me, and then to Clang, before finally landing on the Mousetrap by her left knee.
"I want to know what this toy is," said Marbelle, "And, though I would prefer to stay and become better acquainted with you all, I must admit this Mousetrap is no longer, technically, mine."
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And, as if to answer the obvious question which would follow, Marbelle added, "Because it was you two brave men who fended off Sweet-Face, and it is only fair for this Mousetrap-trinkett to be yours instead of mine."
"Yeah," said Clang, "But you stole it from them first, so it's yours too."
Marbelle picked up the Mousetrap.
"I already checked it over for any tracking devices," said Snap.
"Good thinking," said Marbelle, as she examined the Mousetrap as if it were a Rubix cube.
Throughout all this my Intuition was flooding my mind with the burgeoning weight which typically came before a breakthrough in understanding. For some reason, I found myself not wanting to come to whatever conclusion the Intuition ability was guiding me towards.
A pale blue light glimmered out from the Mousetrap device, and, kept in place with three distinct lengths of what looked like metal, was a fist-sized lump of meat-tissue.
"That thing in the middle has a pulse," said Snap, not disguising her disgust.
"Yes," said Marbelle softly, "But what is it?"
"Break it open," said Clang.
The rest of us shot Clang discouraging looks.
"How else are we gonna know?" said Clang.
"What if it's diseased?" said Marbelle.
A smudge appeared in my field of vision, just like when it had done so back at the abandoned mansion before the Sub-Divisioners arrived.
I did, it seemed, have a choice for whether I wanted to cross the threshold to know whatever it was my Intuition was trying to tell me.
It was becoming harder to catch my breath, and my heart was thumping hard in my chest, and a fresh sweat was breaking out across my face, neck, and the rest of my body.
What if I ignore what the Intuition ability is trying to tell me? I thought, What if it's better not to know?
But it was a fruitless thought, because the Intuition ability had helped save mine, Clang's, and Snap's bacon back at the abandoned mansion with the Sub-Divisioners. What if another threat like that was on its way, and we had less than a handful of minutes to prepare?
Do it, I thought, willing for the power nodes within my mind to lean into the smudge.
And, like before, the smudge broke apart, with each new part forming what appeared to be the pieces of a puzzle. These new pieces the power had a much easier time reshaping into a new, coherent whole.
And then true understanding followed.
If I had fists with which to strike the ground I would have used them. Because I didn't, the only outlet I could manage for the nightmarish thoughts twisting inside my head was a single, gut-wrenching scream.
Even after the scream I found my whole body trembling uncontrollably.
"Good heavens," said Marbelle in shock, "What on earth is the matter?"
"It's his Intuition ability," said Snap.
I felt her hand gently squeezing my shoulder in support. I tried to speak, but the shock to my system was enough that beads of sweat were dripping from my temples and onto the soft-soiled ground.
"What is it, Slip?" said Clang, "Is someone coming for us?"
Hearing that word – Slip – wasn't helping matters.
Where are you, Slip? I thought. Because ever since my fight with Sweet-Face I hadn't felt any of Slip's usual presence within my mind.
Is Slip gone for good? Or hiding? I wondered.
But these thoughts were also just my own way of distracting myself from what I couldn't unthink, and couldn't unknow.
But it might not be true, I tried to tell myself, the Intuition ability might be wrong.
Finally, I raised my head and look at the Mousetrap, and the meat-tissue pulsing within.
"Come on, Slip," said Snap, uneasily, "You're scaring the crap out of us."
"Stowchester," I managed to stammer out, "They're going to destroy Stowchester."
