All I could do was sit and wait.

  But I was beginning to grow impatient. Pendragon had said he would send someone out to meet me about my monster problem, but he didn't give me a time frame. And I knew texting him for an update was out of the question.

  In the weeks that had passed, Nadia had come by a few times to check on me. She managed to fix my door before there was too much complaining from my landlord.

  I had tucked all my research away into my desk and kept my mouth closed about what I had recently learned. She had called me out about it.

  "Where's all your Mothman notes?" She chuckled, looking around the room. I sipped my beer and made like I didn't hear her. When she stared at me, I shurgged.

  "You were right. It was all bullshit that I was getting obesessed with. Wasn't healthy." I told her. She eyed me curiously, still looking around the apartment.

  "Just like that?" She said, her hands on her hips.

  "Just like that." I said, turning my attention back to the hockey game on the television. I watched as she slowly made her way back to the couch, but her expert eyes surveyed around still. When she sat down next to me, her demeanor changed. She crossed her legs under her and grabbed her beer.

  "So, I heard they're gonna bring you back in soon. Desk work to start, of course." She told me, cheerfully. I raised an eyebrow at her.

  "I haven't heard anything yet. I was expecting more time off." I told her.

  "To do what? You're just getting stir crazy sitting in this musty apartment. It's starting to smell like a frat house in here." She said, giving me a sarcastic look.

  "Its not that bad. I use Febreeze." I said, with a guilty look. Nadia shook her head and turned to the hockey game. We both booed as Boston scored on Toronto.

  "You sure everything is okay, John?" She asked, after moments of long silence.

  "Yea, never better actually. Why?" I replied, shocked. She seemed to be looking for something, digging. I thought it had been passing interest in my strange research project, but it seemed she was saying and asking things, just to gauge my response.

  "You seem off. Like you're in too much of a good mood. Did something happen?" She asked, resting a hand on my shoulder as she usually did.

  "Nothing out of the usual. I'm taking my pills regularly." I told her, hoping she would back off. Her brown eyes stared into mine for a long moment, unblinking. But her smile returned quickly.

  "Well that's good news." She said, her tone lifting as she shifted herself fully to watch the tv.

  We spent the rest of the hockey game only making small talk, but I would watch her as she sat there, almost vacantly staring at the screen, only casually responding to my questions. When the game was over, she popped up from the couch.

  "Well, guess I'll be off. Take care of yourself Callum." She said, almost bounding for the door.

  "You too Sanchez." I mumbled, feeling the effects of all the alcohol. Normally when Nadia came over, we only drank a bit, but if there was a hockey game on, we'd usually get plastered. I stared at the multitude of empty bottles on my table as the door closed behind her.

  I looked down at my watch and sighed at how late it was. I used my cane to prop myself up off the couch and hobbled my way to the bedroom. I ran my other hand along the wall to keep my balance. As I made my way to the bedroom, I thought I saw something, blurry, shifting around in the darkness of the room. Like something was jumping just out of sight. I slapped the wall, looking for the light switch, but couldn't find it. The longer I stared into the darkness of my bedroom before me, the more my vision seemed to blur.

  I lifted my cane and swung it against the wall, hoping the light switch was just out of arms reach, but I couldn't find it. I looked back down the hall to the living room, but it was also shroud in darkness, shades of grey dancing just out of view.

  Panic set in as I put my back against the wall. It wasn't safe to go either way. The light switch had vanished from the hall. I slowly crept closer to the bedroom, holding my breath. The closer I got, the more blurry my vision became. I hadn't even noticed the ringing in my ears, until I tried to listen for it. The Guilt had come back for me.

  I slowly poked my head around the corner of the door frame, not daring to fully enter the room. I could see vague grey shapes writhing in the darkness, like it was standing there, just waiting for me. It made a chittering sound, like its millions of teeth were chattering from the cold.

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  I leaned heavily against the door way and the hall. I found it hard to stand. My breath was catching as I tried to exhale quietly. I sank to the floor, my knee throbbing with the movement. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on if I could hear it moving; only the chattering teeth.

  I peeked around again and it was gone. My vision was still blurry, and I could still here the ringing in my ears, but the figure standing in the darkness was gone. I reached up for the light switch in my bedroom, sliding my hand slowly up the wall. When my hand found it, I desperately slapped at it.

  The lights flicked on and I fell forward into the room.

  "Hello John." I heard a voice say. It was deep, but surprisingly feminine. I looked up from the floor to see a woman sitting in my chair, across the room.

  "Who are you? How did you get in here? What are you doing in my house?" I said, trying to get to my feet. She sat there watching me. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I could begin to make out her features. She was tall, even seated. Her bare arms were muscular, like a training athlete. She wore an assortment of new age tactical clothing, with harnesses and pouches, but they all seemed to be filled with medieval weaponary and accessories. She held a medium sized, gothic looking crossbow in her lap, lazily tapping it across her legs.

  She had icy blue eyes that stood out against her pale skin and silver hair. They stared at me, disinterested and unamused.

  "My name is Kas, I got in through the window behind me, and I'm here because unfortunately, I owe Anders Pendragon a favor." She said coldly.

  "Did you kill it? It was in here with you." I asked, still rattled. I heard her clutch her crossbow a little tighter.

  "Kill what?" She asked, looking around and behind me.

  "The Guilt. It was in here. I saw it." I whispered, more to myself.

  "Ah, your monster." Kas half-nodded. "Anders told me you were experiencing some kind of sensory scrambling eldritch horror. You saw it in this room before you entered?" She asked.

  "You didn't?" I shot back. She raised an eyebrow at me.

  "I only heard you talking to yourself and stumbling through the halls, apparently drunk." She said, eyeing me up and down as I used the dresser to pull myself fully upright.

  "How long have you been sitting in here?" I asked, looking around, suddenly alarmed that something might have gone missing.

  "Long enough. Maybe too long." She stood, and that was when I noticed her knee high boots made of black leather, covered in belts, with a massive heel. A long, black, sleeveless duster unfolded from behind her as she stood. She looked like something out of one of those Underworld movies with Kate Beckinsale. As she moved toward me, her eyes changed from disgust, to something different. Maybe pity?

  "When does your monster usually strike? Has it ever hurt you?" She asked, slinging her crossbow over her shoulder.

  "It...comes when I'm alone now. But it killed my squad at Partridge Island. It killed my wife and son, and took my daughter." I told her. "It hasn't hurt me yet, but it gets close. My vision goes blurry and my ears ring. It makes awful noises."

  Kas walked around me a few times, looking me over. I felt like some kind of specimen.

  "What was on Partridge Island that the military wanted?" She asked.

  "Human experimentation. There was some kind of post-war Nazi base hidden there. They were making abominations. Horrid things that looked like animals mixed with people." I told her, shivering as I remembered. Her eyes widened for a brief moment before her stoicisim returned.

  "Was that the first time you encountered this Guilt of yours?" Her voice was almost accusatory.

  "Netaga?sit." I said. "That's what the shaman I met called it. It means 'ashamed'."

  "Did your shaman see this thing?" Kas said staring at me, leaning against the dresser, inches from my face. I suddenly felt very small. I felt vulnerable and weak in front of this woman and I didn't like it.

  "No. No one else has seen it." I said quietly. She smiled, and it felt condescending.

  "I'm not crazy." I added. She chuckled to herself and turned away from me, sitting on the edge of my bed, crossing her legs.

  "I've seen and killed a lot of weird shit John. I've never heard of anything like that before. And I've murdered cultists trying to summon Elder Gods." She said, like it was all some joke.

  But it wasn't a joke. This thing, whatever the fuck it was, had ruined my life. It had taken everything from.

  "God damn it! Why does no one believe me?" I shouted suddenly. Kas didn't flinch, but I did see her hand on her crossbow twitch slightly.

  "It's not that I don't believe you John. I just don't know what you're dealing with. You said it was in the room here, but I was sitting here the whole time, waiting for you." She said, flipping her hand out, motioning around the room.

  I shook my head, clutching my temple. I grabbed the pill bottle from my pocket and popped one of them. I swallowed it dry, cringing. Kas followed my movements carefully.

  "I think what you need, is a change of scenery. And I'm gonna need more information on your beastie before I can help you get rid of it." She said, laying back across my bed.

  "A change in scenery? Nadia said I was supposed to go back to the precinct soon. I can't just get up and go." I told her.

  "You can do whatever you like, but I don't have a lot of resources here in Toronto. The Cathedral doesn't have the personnel or the knowledge for me to diagnose your issue. I need to go back to London, to the Citadel, and so do you, if you want your answers." She was firm, but not quite as cold as before.

  I was unsure if the change in how she was treating me was based on the fact that she now thought I was a lunatic, or if she actually did believe that this mysterious creature was plaguing my life. I frowned at her.

  "London? Like London, England?" I asked. She nodded and I swallowed hard. I hadn't left the city in ages, never mind Canada. I looked around the room, at the memories from this place. The pictures of my family, the pictures of my platoon, the pictures of Nadia and I and some of the other guys on the force.

  Aside from Nadia, all of these things were lost to me. Gone. Nothing but tiny memories crammed into glass tiles and strewn across the room of an old man, losing his mind. Maybe Kas was right; a change of scenery could do me some good.

  "Okay, I'll go." I said, determined. She nodded.

  "Pack light." She said, standing and moving out the doorway of my bedroom.

  I grabbed a duffel from my closet and packed up some clothes, my meds, some other toiletries and essentials and then moved to the night stand. I slipped the bone dagger in the bag and then moved for my sidearm. I hesitated, wondering how I was going to get through airport security, and then I remembered how armed and armored Kas had been. We likely weren't taking an airplane.