Chapter Text
“You ghouls have to see this!”
Webbed feet slabbed against the stone floor as Nixie ran into the Monster’s Anonymous clubroom. The meeting had barely started and everyone in the room turned to look at her. Her gills shuddered as she gasped for air.
“I found a book! It’s about…” She took a moment to breathe. “About magic!”
She was met with skeptical looks of various kinds, yet Gespensta floated over to her to peek at the cover.
“Oooooh, please do share,” she moaned.
Nixie’s fins flared excitedly. “I looked through my sister’s stuff and found this. She studied the occult in college, but I didn’t know she had actual materials. It’s a book on the psychology of the occult and it has a real empathy spell! I thought we could use it as a group exercise.”
Gespensta’s ghostly form phased through the tome and skimmed a page. Theeere’s a diagram and everything.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re called magic circles, but I’m not sure,” Nixie said.
Reese looked back at them from their chair. “Isn’t magic, like, incredibly rare? How’d your sister get her hands on that?”
Reggie couldn’t resist the urge to butt in. “Surely the circle is just an example of one that might’ve been used during occult rituals throughout history. Magic isn’t real.”
Vinnie just raised an eyebrow in silence.
“Urgh, Reggie. You’re such a drab.” She raised the book like it was a holy artifact. “Imagine the things we could do! It says here: ‘participants were able to experience the thoughts and feelings of one another, as if they shared a body or had swapped places.’”
Reese stood up and looked over Nixie’s shoulder at the text. “It also says: ‘However, modern research shows that the effect of these rituals were most likely caused by something akin to a collective religious psychosis, as hallucinogenic substances were also ingested as part of the preparations.’”
“So they were on drugs? That’s cool,” Vinnie said.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Reggie added.
Nixie pouted. “Can we at least try? I wanna see if it’s real.”
No one objected. Nixie took a piece of chalk from one of the boards and began dragging it across the floor. She studied the diagram and drew each symbol carefully. Gespensta floated to the ceiling to confirm that everything looked correct. The rest of the group moved chairs and other furniture out of the way. With the magic circle complete, Nixie went to stand inside it. She waved for Gespensta to join her, and she descended, transparent shoes landing without a sound.
“There’s not really much to work with here. I guess we just have to say what we want to know about each other.”
“Can’t you just ask each other?” Vinnie asked.
“That isn’t the point, Vinnie,” she rebutted.
“There’s no instructions at all?” Reese asked.
“Nope! Just a description of the ritual.”
Reggie tried to get a word in. “Nixie, perhaps you’ve misunderstood—“
“Maaaaaybe there’s a trigger of sorts. A magic word?” Gespensta continued.
“Let’s try. I wanna go through walls,” Nixie stated out loud, as if the magic was together with them in the room and perhaps hard of hearing.
“I waaaaaant to breathe under water…and have shiny scales and sharp teeth.”
They gave it a couple of seconds. Nothing happened.
“Maybe it’s because Gespensta doesn’t have a body. Let me try,” Reese said. They went into the circle and took Gespensta’s place.
“Okay, I want to know what it’s like to have creaky joints.”
“Oof, that stings,” Reese said in mock-hurt. “I guess I wanna take a swim without fish picking at my scabs.”
Nothing.
“Dang it!” Nixie ground her teeth.
“Maybe it’s because I’m undead. Most occultists were human, right? Maybe the spell’s designed for them. Reggie, get in here.”
Reggie had not anticipated being a part of the experiment at all, and had been quite happy to just observe. He pointed at himself. “Wait, me?”
“Yes, you. You’re the only other person in the room with a heartbeat.”
Vinnie leaned back in his chair. “This is gonna be interesting.”
“I want to try howling! You guys have wicked vocal cords,” Nixie said.
“Oh! Um, thank you.” Reggie rubbed at the fur on his arm. “I guess it would be an interesting research opportunity to have scales instead of fur.”
Nobody said anything. The pipes groaned as someone flushed in the upstairs bathroom.
“Argh! Why doesn’t it work?!” Nixie clawed at her hair with both hands.
“Maybe it is just a history book,” Gespensta said.
Vinnie snickered. “It was funny watchin’ you spooks mess around for 20 minutes, I’ll give you that.”
“I’m sorry, Nixie. Maybe the book only serves as a historical account of certain human practices, not objective reality.” Reggie remembered that not everyone appreciated his logical approach and tried to play a bit nice as a result. “I’m sure the subject is plenty interesting on its own, though!”
Nixie looked down and sniffled loudly. “It doesn’t make sense. There’s even a potion recipe on another page.”
Reese eyed her warily. “Yeah…maybe don’t try any of those, now that it mentioned drugs and all.”
She sighed loudly, closed the book, and set it on one of the tables. “I think I’m done for today. Sorry for ruining the mood.”
She took her backpack and left the roam, leaving the others to look at each other in sympathy.
“I’ll take her hoooooome. We pass the swamp on the way to my mausoleum.” Gespensta said, quickly floating after Nixie.
Reese shrugged. “Bummer. I don’t really see the point in continuing if it’s only gonna be us. You mind?
Vinnie yawned and stretched theatrically, like he hadn’t been napping in class all day. “Ey yo, I ain’t complaining. What about you, Reg?”
Meanwhile, Reggie had picked up the book and was studying the back cover. ”Not at all,” he said absentmindedly.
“Well, I’m gonna scram. I’ll text the girls and check in them when I get home — see you guys next week.” They waved and left.
Vinnie stood up and motioned for Reggie to hurry up. “C’mon Reg, you heard the ghoul. Let’s get outta here.”
But Reggie was transfixed on the page containing the diagram. Although he preferred not to dwell on silly matters like superstition, very much preferring provable concepts, he couldn’t help but feel a Moonshroud instinct crawl to the surface: one unable to refuse a new puzzle at hand. He couldn’t help but feel like he’d seen something like it before.
“Wait a minute, Vin. This almost looks like math.”
Vinnie stopped mid-movement. “Looks like what now?”
Reggie crouched near the circle sketched on the floor and traced one of the symbols with a careful claw.
“I mean it’s not random. There’s a structure here.” He pointed to a group of symbols. “Look, these aren’t decorations. They repeat in symmetric patterns along the edges.” He flipped through the pages. “There’s even a legend here. They’re all numbers, not alchemical symbols like humans usually prefer.” He’d seen repeating structures before — music theory, celestial charts, geometric quilting patterns inherited from his great-grandmother. These symbols weren’t random. They couldn’t be.
“Reg.”
“It could depend on position only, or maybe like a system of conditions. A formula? Several philosophies and sciences propose that mathematics is essential to understanding everything in the world. Maybe if—“
“Reggie.”
He looked up at Vinnie. “What?”
“It ain’t workin’. Y’all tried.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s invalid.”
“So? It’s busted.”
“No, it means we’re missing something.” He gestured to the circle again. “You don’t write something this consistent for no reason.”
Vinnie scoffed loudly. “What, you believe in magic now? C’mon.”
“I don’t, but it could mean something else. Systems are systems, whether it’s physics or whatever this is. There are rules, and they’re clearly not mentioned anywhere in this book.”
“You really can’t help yourself,” Vinnie whispered under his breath.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Vinnie cursed inwardly at himself. Damn Reggie’s excellent hearing. “You see somethin’ weird, and then you take it apart until it fits inside your noggin’.”
“I’m simply trying to understand it.”
“I know. That’s your problem.”
Reggie stood now. “Why is that a problem?”
“Because not everythin’ needs to be taken apart — studied, y’know?”
“I’m not taking it apart,” Reggie air quoted with his claws. “I’m—“
“You are,” Vinnie cut in. “You do that with everythin’.”
Reggie’s mouth tensed to a thin line. “Give me one example.”
Vinnie crossed his arms, lip curled to reveal a fang. He seemed to heistate. “Well, me.”
Silence. Vinnie’s jaw tensed visibly before looking away.
Reggie rubbed at his face in frustration. “That’s not—“
“It kinda is,” Vinnie said. He pointed a black nailed finger at the circle. “You sometimes look at me like you’re doin’ with that right now. Like I’m a problem you need to figure out.”
“Vinnie. I care about you.”
“Didn’t say ya didn’t.”
Reggie felt a growl tickle in his throat. “Then what is the problem?”
“The problem is maybe I don’t like bein’ one of your little studyin’ subjects.”
“I don’t treat you like that,” Reggie said. “It’s just that there are reasons you act the way you do. Patterns, cause and effect.”
“Ya hear yourself?!”
“I’m not reducing you to data points,” Reggie snapped. “I’m saying there’s logic to it. There’s logic to everything. If you actually explained things to me instead of shutting down, I wouldn’t have to figure everything out myself.”
Vinnie’s eyes grew dark. “So that’s it? I’m just a problem to you? What are ya gonna do when you figure me out? Dump me?” He hissed at Reggie for the first time ever.
“Don’t be ridiculous! I would never do that.”
“How would I know that?”
“You know me!”
“Do I really? Do you know me?”
Reggie never got the chance to answer Vinnie, because the room was suddenly engulfed in a blinding light. He fell to the ground and shielded his stinging eyes. He heard Vinnie yell from the other side of the room. He had no idea how long he’d laid there, but he eventually scanned his body for any pain or sign of injury before peeking through his fingers. He’d almost expected the room to be black with soot or engulfed in flames. The light had burned like alchemical fire, and its absence made the stone much colder than usual. Reggie took off his classes and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t describe it, but something was…wrong. He looked to Vinnie and saw him kneeling on the floor, head in his hands. His hair must’ve gotten tousled by the blast, because a wild blackness sprouted from between Vinnie’s fingers and from his neckline. He groaned, but his voice was different, rough around the edges. Reggie scrambled to get up.
“Vinnie! Are you alri—“
Instead of Vinnie, a werewolf stared back at him instead.