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The room was empty. There was no sign of the phantom, and the bodies Sebastien saw around the altar last night were gone, too. He waved his hand and lit the torches with blue flames, lighting up the room, and that was when the ground rumbled.

          From the cracks in the concrete ceiling, the phantom's smoke crept into the room, and when the creature started forming, the hitchhiker whimpered and started freaking out.

          "M-monster!" he cried, trying to back off.

          Sebastien grabbed his arm before he could. "Stay right where you are, dude."

          "Evil! Terror!" the hitchhiker shrieked.

          "It's okay!" Caleb insisted, trying to get him to calm down. "This is what's gonna help you be free."

          "No! No free!" he panicked.

          Sebastien didn't have the energy to deal with this. With a deep sigh, he abruptly smacked the back of the guy's head with enough force to concuss him, and when he became dazed and groaned quietly, he fell back, and Caleb caught him in his arms before he hit the floor.

          "Did you really have to do that?" Caleb complained as he stood there with his arms around the hitchhiker's chest, holding him like he was some sort of overgrown baby.

          "It was either that or try to get him to stop running away while we get ready to do this."

          The phantom then snickered excitedly. "Feed...feed me!"

          "Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that," Sebastien said as he approached the smoky apparition. "First of all, I wanna make perfectly clear that this is a one-time thing. I won't be sticking around to feed you on a daily basis."

          It shook the part of its body that appeared to be its face. "No...no, only one feed. One feed is all it takes."

          "Right, right. I—" He stopped himself as he looked back at the hitchhiker. He frowned and looked at the phantom. "One feed for what?"

          "One feed...you get to ask questions."

          Sebastien pondered for a moment. The phantom residing at Aldergrove Academy had never been deceiving; he didn't know any phantom that had malicious intent. It just wasn't how their kind worked, so the sudden feeling of uncertainty he was struck with must be a result of his worry regarding Lord Caedis' contract. He couldn't let that interfere with this.

          He took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. So...you're not gonna get the show I promised. He was the only guy I could grab, so—"

          "I don't care! Feed!"

          "All right, damn. You ready?"

          The phantom grinned and snarled anxiously. "Yes," it drawled.

          Sebastien tensed up as a cold shiver ran down his spine, and then he adorned his kludde form. Once his paws hit the ground, he turned to face Caleb and the hitchhiker. "Bring him over here."

          Caleb struggled a little, but he dragged the concussed hitchhiker over to Sebastien and carefully laid him on the ground. "What do you have to do?"

          "You'll see," he grumbled. "Go back over there," he told him, nodding at the room's exit.

          "But—"

          "Just go!" he exclaimed.

          Caleb did as he was told and scurried over to the exit. Then, he stood there with his arms crossed like a stubborn child and waited.

          Sebastien rolled his eyes and looked up at the phantom. The grin on its face widened, and it seemed to tremble in trepidation. As nauseous as this was starting to make Sebastien feel, though, he had to do it, and the sooner it was done, the sooner this whole thing would be over.

          "Feed," the phantom urged.

          With a disgruntled huff, Sebastien widened his jaw...but he caught a glimpse of the hitchhiker's face. Despite his dazed expression, he looked afraid. Not too long ago, this guy was ready and willing to die, but now, he didn't appear so eager. Why? Was it because he was afraid of the phantom?

         Sebastien didn't care. He couldn't let himself care. So he snarled, closed his eyes, and sunk his teeth into the man's throat. The hitchhiker choked and gurgled as his blood spilt onto the floor and into Sebastien's mouth. He hated the taste of sacrificial blood; it always had this earthy taste to it, like he was swallowing a mouthful of dirt which had been pre-soaked in detergent. It was disgusting, but he had to get through it.

          He tore out the man's throat and swallowed it, and then he started gnawing and chewing as he ripped huge chunks of the man's flesh from his body. The phantom inhaled and hummed delightfully as its smoke-like limbs wrapped around Sebastien's body. It fed off the energy of the body he was consuming, and the more Sebastien devoured, the harder it became for him to ignore the increasing nausea.

          The memories came flooding in. This taste...the smell, and the feeling; it all reminded him of the countless times he'd fed on the bodies of murdered students inside Aldergrove Academy's walls. All the times his father and his fucked-up pack of winged hounds forced him to indulge in their satanic practices. If they were feeding for Lord Caedis, he felt he'd understand—at least Lord Caedis would be doing something for them in return—but the sole reason they fed that phantom was because they felt it was their duty. They felt that kludde were born to serve phantoms, but that wasn't true. Not in Sebastien's case. He was free...and he wasn't going to be stuck serving an entity for the rest of his life.

          He snarled and burrowed his snout into the dead man's chest, and when he tore the human's heart out, he swallowed it with a disgusted grimace. His throat tightened and his body tried to reject it, but he pushed through and consumed the last thing the phantom wanted.

          It was done.

          As Sebastien backed away from the corpse, he pulled free from the phantom's grip, and gaped his jaw, letting the blood that was still in his mouth drip to the floor. He didn't want to consume another drop that he didn't have to.

          The phantom groaned in satisfaction. "Yes...."

          Sebastien morphed into his usual self and wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. "I fed you, now it's your turn."

          With an amused scoff, the phantom descended and rested on the altar. "Ask your questions, kludde."

          Caleb appeared at Sebastien's side. "Is this it?"

          Sebastien tutted at him. "I told you to stay over there."

          But Caleb didn't leave.

          "Tell me more about this creature responsible for the sickness. Is there a way to stop it? Cure the people who got infected?" Sebastien asked.

          "Hmm. Yes, the creature born of human greed. During the war that hasn't long passed, the humans searched for an ultimate weapon, something to turn the tide against the Caeleste and their warlords."

          Sebastien nodded. "What was it? What's it doing out here?"

          "Hmm...escape. The humans realized they could not control what they created. It grew beyond a physical form...and it became astral. It escaped the bounds the humans tried to keep it in, but it was cursed. It couldn't touch anything that lived. It would make them sick—it would make them rot!" the phantom growled. "Whatever the humans tried to turn this creature into, they cursed it to live an empty, lonely life."

          "Wow, I...kinda feel bad for it," Caleb mumbled. "People always do desperate things, and they don't give a shit about how it's gonna affect anyone else."

          "Desperate...yes," the phantom concurred.

          Sebastien frowned at it. "Is there a way to stop it?"

          "Stop it? No. It is...growing. It will be free."

          "Free?" Sebastien questioned, but then he shook his head. "I need to know what this sickness is. Is there a way to cure the people who this creature made sick?"

          The phantom groaned and shook its body like it was some sort of animal. "Cure...sickness?"

          "Yes," Caleb answered before Sebastien could.

          It grumbled and groaned again, and something flickered through its shimmering green eyes. "Creature...latched on to host, searching for the one who would free it. But creature...became bound to host. The only way to free the afflicted...was to kill host—kill creature!"

          Sebastien took a moment to take in what it was telling him. "So, to cure everyone, we need to kill the creature that started all of this? Like killing a count vampire?"

          "Yes...death...breaks the curse. Death...make creature free—" The phantom's eyes suddenly shifted from Sebastien to Caleb. "Creature must find a new host. Creature...must become physical. No deals, no host. Only physical!"

          Sebastien was too slow to understand what was happening. The phantom burst forward; the force of its movement shoved Sebastien aside, and when he hit the wall and fell to the floor with a thump, he watched the phantom's smoke pour into Caleb's body. It soaked into his skin, oozed into his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes, all while Caleb's distorted scream echoed around the room.

          It wasn't until then that Sebastien understood what he'd done. He fell into the creature's trap. It all came together. The hitchhiker, the damned spirit, and the rotting animals. The phantom. Everything.

          And he wondered if Lord Caedis had anything to do with this.

          It was all about this, wasn't it? This was why Lord Caedis asked him if he was kludde. He was the only one who could free the phantom that was struck here. He was the only one desperate enough to fall into this perfectly constructed plan, wasn't he?

          He was looking at the creature that started this. That had to be why the stag was trying to stop him from taking the hitchhiker to the phantom. The phantom was the damned spirit that possessed the hitchhiker to kill all those people, and it killed them in search of someone who could free it—someone who could give it its own physical form.

          When it first came to Alderon, it was weak; it possessed a desperate human and made them kill to make itself stronger. But before it could escape its astral form, it needed to destroy its first host, but astral Caeleste can't kill by themselves, and that was where Sebastien came in. That was where Caleb came in. Once the creature's original host was dead, it needed flesh and blood to craft itself a new body.

          And it was using Caleb.

          Sebastien shook his head. "Wait," he breathed. But he knew there wasn't anything he could do. He couldn't stop or undo what he'd done. Once again, he'd been a blind, stupid, careless fucking idiot...and he'd got someone killed again. Someone who didn't deserve it. Someone he said he'd help. And once again...all he could do was sit there and watch.

          The phantom devoured Caleb from the inside. The human's body started rotting, just like the hitchhiker's did when Sebastien saw him on the way to Alderon. His skin went grey and seethed off his body; his bones turned black, any life force he possessed withered, and as the phantom ensnared what was left of Caleb, despair and guilt constricted Sebastien's trembling body.

          This was all his fault.

          Everything was always his fault.

          He carelessly ran head-first into everything. He didn't read terms, he didn't ask the right questions, and he never made the correct choice. And it was always the people around him who suffered. First his mother...then Clementine, and now Caleb. Caleb's mother was going to die, too, and so was everyone else this creature infected.

          The phantom's body suddenly combusted. It filled the room with black fog, and tiny green embers floated around inside it.

          Sebastien couldn't see Caleb. He couldn't see anything. He held his hand over his mouth as he coughed on the fog, and it sent a cold, haunting shiver down his spine. He had no idea what was going to happen next—he had no idea what he just unleashed. But his instincts were telling him that he'd done something terrible. Something that would affect more than the people of Alderon.

          The fog abruptly pooled in the centre of the room. It twisted and turned, and in a matter of seconds, the dark smoke formed the physical body of a green-eyed, black-furred wolf. But it wasn't just any wolf; it was the size of a wolf walker—six-foot on all fours—and a grin stretched across its face as it turned to face Sebastien.

          "Free..." it growled.

          Sebastien stared in horror as his heart raced in his chest. "We...made a deal."

          "No deals!" it yelled, its demonic voice shaking the room.

          He used the wall to help him climb to his feet. Then, he glared at the beast and demanded, "Tell me how to save the sick people!"

          But the black wolf laughed as it prowled around the altar, keeping its eyes on Sebastien. "My sickness will spread," it said slowly. "I will raise my army; I will afflict everything in the world the humans took away from me. They will suffer, and I...will grow."

          The black wolf darted for the exit.

          Sebastien shook his head as his dismay swiftly evolved into anger. He wasn't going to let it get away—he couldn't. He had to kill it. It told him that if he killed the source of the sickness, then everyone would be okay, so that's what he was going to do. He'd kill the wolf, and everyone would be cured, including Caleb's mother.

          He chased after it as it raced through the tunnels. But it laughed as it ran, mocking him, finding amusement in Sebastien's desperation. He wasn't going to let it get to him though. He wasn't going to let it leave the estate's grounds. He was going to make sure that it regretted using him.

          The beast hurried up the stairs. Sebastien followed, and as he reached the top of the stairs, he prepared to morph into his kludde form—

          Somebody grabbed him. They wrapped their arms around him and pulled him aside as the black wolf fled across the cemetery.

          "Let me go!" he yelled, trying to pull free, but in his struggle, he caught a glimpse of the face of the man restraining him.

          Lord Caedis?

          "Calm down," Caedis said calmly.

          But he wouldn't. Sebastien growled in frustration, flailing his arms around in an attempt to break free. "It's getting away! What the fuck are you doing?! That's it—that's the reason all of this is happening!"

          "I know."

          Sebastien stopped fighting. "What?"

          Lord Caedis didn't let go of him. "Ve knew zhere vas someving 'ere causing zhe 'umans to get sick."

          Sebastien panted, keeping his eyes on the black wolf as it leaped over the cemetery fence and got further and further away. "It's...getting away," he breathed weakly.

          "Ve vill deal vith zhe creature," Caedis told him. "Ve needed you to make it possible vor us to kill it. And you did your part."

          He huffed and puffed as a conflicting flurry of emotions raced around inside him. It really was all about freeing that phantom, wasn't it? That was the reason why Lord Caedis seemed so relieved that he was a kludde. He was the only one who could free the phantom.

          "Why?" he asked, watching the black wolf disappear into the forest. "Why couldn't you just...tell me? Why did you send me out here and—"

          "Because zhe phantom couldn't know you vere 'ere to vree it. If zhe phantom knew, zhen none of zhis vould 'ave vorked."

          Sebastien scowled in dismay and pulled free from Lord Caedis' grip. He turned to face him, clenched his fists, and gritted his teeth. He wanted to lunge at him—he wanted to attack—but the part of him that knew Lord Caedis was right kept him where he was. If he'd come here knowing that his job was to free the phantom, then the phantom would have known, and it wouldn't have worked. Phantoms could detect someone's intentions, and it wouldn't have let him help it if it knew he was there to free it so that someone else could kill it.

          "You understand, no?" Lord Caedis asked him.

          He looked down at the grass, shaking his head as he tried to decide whether to act on his anger or his grief. Caleb didn't deserve to die for this—for nothing. "Why?" he asked again. "Why did you need me to come out here, make friends with some human, and then let that phantom use him to create a physical body? Why do you need to kill it?"

          "You know zhe answers, Sebastien. Zhat ving is spreading a deadly disease zhat ve need to get under control bevore is too late. Ve can't kill astral beings, so ve needed you to give it a physical body...a body zhat ve can destroy. My people are 'unting it vight now. All zhe sick people vill be vree, and you—" he held out his hand— "get vhat you asked vor."

          Sebastien's anger and grief disappeared in an instant. He stared at Lord Caedis' hand and watched as a small red crystal formed in his palm. Then, he looked up at Lord Caedis and frowned.

          "Take," he said.

          As he was told, Sebastien took the crystal.

          Lord Caedis tapped its tip with his claw. "Look, and vink of 'im."

          Sebastien gazed into the crystal, and as he did, he thought about the one thing he wanted the most in this world. The thing he'd bargained with the devil for.

          Clementine.

          The face of the boy he loved appeared inside the crimson crystal, and as he stared into Clementine's beautiful blue eyes, his heart filled with relief and joy. He thought he'd never see him again.

          But then he frowned and looked up at Lord Caedis again. "Now what do I do?"

          "You learn," Lord Caedis told him firmly. "You learn to ask zhe vight questions. You learn to vead zhe vine print. And you learn zhat you should never make deals vithout asking vor all zhe terms."

          Sebastien's heart dropped into his stomach. "Wait, you promised—"

          "I vill be seeing you again sometime, Sebastien. You did vell, and I am sure I vill 'ave more use vor you in zhe vuture."

          Before Sebastien could say another word, Lord Caedis disappeared into vermillion smoke...and he was gone.

          Sebastien's heart became so heavy with grief and dismay that it forced him onto his knees. He stared into the crystal, and as Clementine's blue eyes shimmered, a tear trickled down his face.

          He was never going to get Clementine back—not in the way he wanted. This was the best he was ever going to get, wasn't it? He shouldn't have let his desperation rule him. He should have been as specific as one could be. But he hadn't, and now he'd signed over his life for nothing.

          Nothing.

          But the crystal then shimmered. Something flickered through it, and Clementine's face disappeared.

          "No," Sebastien breathed, moving the crystal closer to his face. "No! This isn't what I asked for!" he yelled, looking up at the sky as it rumbled. "You can't do this!"

          Thunder groaned through the dark night sky, and as the grey clouds parted, rain started falling.

          "You can't...do this," he cried, looking down at the crystal again. "I was supposed to get him back."

          The crystal pulsed in his hand.

          Lightning lit up the cemetery.

          And as the crystal shifted in his hand, its pointed tip pointed to Sebastien's left.

          Sebastien frowned through his tears.

          Suddenly, the crystal flew out of his hands and shot towards the forest.

          "Wait!" he yelled as he scrambled to his feet and chased after it.

          The crystal moved through the air like a bullet; it cut through every tree in its way, and it quickly got too fast for Sebastien to follow like this.

          He morphed into his kludde form, and that was when the crystal swerved upwards. Sebastien stretched out his wings and took off, following the crystal through the rain.

          At first, he didn't know where it was going, but when he recognized the land below...his dismay-riddled heart beat a little faster, and he felt what might be hope.

          The ground beneath him was Aldergrove. He could see the academy in the far distance. And the crystal...was heading towards the graveyard where he'd lost the love of his life.

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