11. Try Not To Panic
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Egg Hunter: Cluster Headache

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Chapter 11: Try Not To Panic

 

“Hunter… would you rather step out of your body and walk around the library for a bit, or would you prefer for me to knock you unconscious like I had done to them?” Those were the options that his mentor had offered him.

 

Naturally, he chose to astral project and left his body in her ‘care’. She hadn’t even waited for him to leave before puppeting his body to do god knows what. He didn’t think that she would do anything inappropriate to it, considering the fact that they were family, but still… it made him uncomfortable. Much more uncomfortable than the strange rippling energy that he felt as he stepped through her doorway into the rest of the library.

 

It was such an odd feeling, that energy. He could feel it almost like a vague staticy feeling every other time he passed through that door. This time though, it was a much stronger, unsettling feeling.

 

Well… what was he gonna do now then?

 

He didn’t have to walk in his astral form, so he let his body glide between bookshelves towards the children’s section of the library. He felt slightly silly to be doing that, like some kind of ghost haunting the library, but it was still kinda fun. He could have easily done the same thing in his headspace at any time, but reality had a different feel to it that headspace just couldn’t recreate.

 

As he floated closer, he could see Mark, presumably still under Karen’s control, sitting at one of the tables, keeping an eye on the kid, Robbie. He also noticed a certain woman walk between a couple of bookshelves just a bit further away, a pushcart full of books in hand.

 

At first Hunter had figured that he would just dive into Mark’s head again to say hello and kill time until his mentor had finished talking to his own new headmates. This librarian had stolen his attention away though. It was the same one that he had asked to tell Gráinne that he had arrived, and the one that a brief glance at psychically had revealed a surprisingly deep amount of dysphoria within.

 

What was her deal? At first glance, Doris appeared to be the same as any cis woman. She had a thick head of long hair, not a hint of beard shadow or Adam’s apple, a well developed chest and wide hips… what did she have to feel so dysphoric about? She had looks that any trans woman would kill for… he assumed…

 

The mystery of why she would have such strong dysphoria was too much for Hunter to just ignore, so he decided that he was going to figure out what it was so he could finally put his mind at ease. He pushed himself to glide faster, past Mark and Robbie, into the further row of bookshelves.

 

There she was! There were only a few books left on her hand-cart, which meant that she would probably be heading back to the front desk soon. While she was distracted with figuring out where the next book went…

 

Hunter launched himself at her, expecting himself to easily slip past her mental defenses and into her mind. Instead, he found himself glancing off the aura of mental energy that naturally surrounded her, and ricocheting off through the nearest bookshelf. 

 

His arms flailed wildly for just a moment before realizing that he wasn’t losing his balance. Out of habit, he had pushed against himself with a small bit of telekinesis which was usually helpful in preventing a trip, but with how weak he was at telekinesis, didn’t actually achieve anything more than to slightly ruffle some of the books on the shelf that he fell through.

 

“What the…!?” An almost irritatingly soft voice called out in surprise. She was better at doing a girl voice than even Mamata was. Seriously… what did she have to be dysphoric about!?

 

Hunter floated back through the bookshelf to get a good look at her. Her mental defenses were stronger than the average person so like with Mark, he would need to wait for a moment of extreme distraction if he wanted a chance to dive into her mind. Since that wasn’t really an option, he would need to settle for other methods.

 

At worst, he could just wait until after Gráinne was done talking with Mamata and Eternity to try doing a proper mind reading on her. Something more thorough than the half-assed scan that he had done earlier. It would have been convenient if he could just read her mind now, but for some reason, certain psychic powers didn’t like playing well when activated simultaneously. Astral projection was just one of those abilities that limited his options severely. There was very little that he could actually do outside of a body like this…

 

For now, he settled on starting with a thorough visual inspection. Luckily, people couldn’t object to you violating their personal space when they couldn’t see, hear, or touch you. Slowly, Hunter circled her, his face only inches away from her body. At this distance, any of the flaws in her transition should have been noticeable… but they just weren’t. If he didn’t know any better, he would have to assume that she was just a cisgender woman… one that he was just starting to notice had a severe case of resting bitch face.

 

He did know better though! He had felt the depths of Doris’s dysphoria and stuff like that didn't come from nowhere. He wasn’t even confusing some kind of body dysmorphia for this either. Those feelings clearly came from her gender!

 

His eyes scanned her body up and down as he briefly wondered if perhaps she was intersex and the source of her dysphoria was hidden in her pants…

 

“Can I help you with something!?” Doris suddenly said with annoyance clear in her voice as she stared right at Hunter.

 

“Eh!? Me?” Hunter asked dumbly as he looked around. There wasn’t anyone else in that stretch of shelving unless… he turned backwards to see Robbie waddling her way towards him, staring right at him.

 

No wait… she wasn’t staring at him and neither was Doris. That would just be silly! They must have been looking at each other; Hunter was just coincidentally between them.

 

Robbie stared wide-eyed through Hunter and said, “Bunny!”

 

It felt like a cold sweat was breaking out down Hunter’s back, but another look back at Doris was enough to convince him that this again was just another coincidence. She had just been in the process of removing a certain book that probably didn’t belong in this section of the library, despite featuring a large brown rabbit on the cover.

 

“Sorry, lil guy.” Doris said with a sweet tone that heavily contrasted with her previous words. “You’re just a bit too young to be reading Watership Down. Why don’t you go back to your daddy and have him help you find a book?”

 

Robbie just stared up at them, seemingly in awe.

 

“Shoo! Go back over to Mark…” Hunter quietly urged. Despite her current sweet tone, Hunter got serious vibes that this woman probably hated children. He didn’t want to risk her mask slipping and her snapping at the girl. Robbie was hesitating though

 

“That’s right… er… I mean, go on! Back to your daddy!” Doris said, almost as if she was in agreement with Hunter.

 

Slowly, Robbie turned and waddled back over to where she had been at earlier with Mark, but she gave one last look of longing back before disappearing around the corner.

 

“I swear to god…” Doris suddenly whispered with a low and dangerous edge to her voice as she shoved the book in her hand onto the hand-cart to be reshelved. “If I catch you staring at my crotch one more time… I will find some way to drag you out to the back alley and beat the everloving shit out of you!”

 

Seriously!? What the hell was wrong with this woman? Practically admitting to some secret desire to commit child abuse. Robbie couldn’t help being only five years old! Her head was just naturally at that height. 

 

The idea of bothering with this librarian suddenly seemed like a much less productive use of his time. Whatever was causing her dysphoria, she could just figure it out herself!

 

Hunter turned and left, following Robbie. He’d spend the rest of his time with Mark… and he’d make sure to warn Karen to keep an eye out for that librarian while she was fronting.

 

But first, there was the question of how to actually enter Mark’s mind? There was already a hole in their mental defenses, so it would be pretty easy to actually crawl in there… but Hunter couldn’t help but remember how upset Mark was when they found out that he had snuck into their head without permission. 

 

He still hadn’t talked to them about it. It wasn’t that he had been trying to avoid Mark and that very awkward conversation, but he had been all too ready to just let Mamata do whatever she wanted with their body when Mark was fronting… okay, he might have been avoiding Mark a bit.

 

“Karen… Zoey… Mark…? Anyone there that can hear me?” Hunter asked softly a foot away from their face. To no surprise, they didn’t acknowledge his words. They probably couldn’t even perceive his existence when he was astrally projecting. Few psychics even had that ability…

 

“Kawen?” a toddler’s voice behind him parroted. Chills went down Hunter’s back at the realization that Zoey probably wasn’t the only new psychic that he’d come across recently. He’d need to let his mentor know about this one as well… or maybe not. There were probably other people he could tell about her instead?  

 

“What was that, Robbie?” Mark suddenly asked. 

 

Robbie rushed over to Mark and started tugging on their sleeve as she pointed at Hunter and said, “Thuh bunny guwl is cawwing out fuh Kawen and Zowey and yew!”

 

Mark’s face scrunched up as they stared at where Robbie was pointing. “Is the bunny girl saying anything else? Is she trying to pass on some kind of message or something?” The question was clearly directed at the child but with the way they were staring right at him, it made it feel like it was directed at Hunter instead.

 

“Can I come inside and hang out?” He answered awkwardly as he looked to Robbie to translate.

 

“Yesh!”

 

“Yes?” Mark asked.

 

“Yesh!”

 

“The bunny girl is saying something else?”

 

“Ask them if I can come inside! They’ll know what it means!”

 

“Yesh!”

 

“What is she saying?” Mark asked Robbie patiently.

 

“She wants tah come inside yew!”

 

Mark couldn’t help but snicker and mutter under their breath, “Didn’t think she was a top…”

 

Hunter let out a sigh. “Thank you, Robbie…”

 

“Yew welcome!”

 

“Why don’t you go find another book for me to read to you Robbie, while I help the nice bunny girl?” Mark offered the child, to which Robbie nodded and rushed over to one of the shelves of picture books. Once she was out of earshot, Mark spoke up again, “I already told you that you’re welcome in here, Hunter… even if we still do need to have a conversation about boundaries. Are you just asking for permission or do you need me to do something to make it easier on you?”

 

"Just uh, asking permission.." Hunter responded, shifting awkwardly before realizing they still couldn't hear him. He’d need to try a different method to actually make them hear him. 

 

Telepathy wasn’t a strong suit of his even though he was pretty good at projecting an image into people’s minds… but words and pictures were different things. More importantly, they were both the kinds of things that didn’t play well with his astral projection. Basically anything that needed him to reach out with his perception tended to fail since that part of his mind was occupied with maintaining and sensing things with his astral body. That put things like telepathy and mind reading off the table.

 

Hunter was too preoccupied with bemoaning his current limitations to notice as Mark’s body suddenly went glassy eyed for a moment. It wasn’t until a sudden yelp, and a shush from elsewhere in the library, drew his attention back to Mark.

 

“Wh- wh- Hunter!?” Mark suddenly blurted out in an almost hushed tone. They were looking right at Hunter and letting their eyes drift up and down him. “Is that you, or are you a different bunny girl?” They asked cautiously.

 

“You can see me now!?” Hunter asked back incredulously. How did they suddenly manage to do that out of nowhere? Did another psychic ability just manifest for them out of nowhere?

 

“Yeah… It’s Zoey now Bee Tee Dubs.” Mark responded. “When Karen was fronting we couldn’t see you at all, but now… you’re just there!”

 

They paused for a moment before adding, “And now Karen says I’m just talking to thin air like a crazy woman… I’m not suddenly crazy, am I?”

 

“You’re not… but it’s weird how your extra sensory perception doesn’t get passed along to the others…” This might actually be a really interesting discovery! Hunter was starting to wonder if there were other plural psychics with similar limitations. Was this happening like that because Zoey was the only person in their system that had discovered their psychic powers? If there were multiple headmates with psychic powers would that still happen? What if there was another headmate who was talented in the same kind of ESP? Since Hunter and Zoey could both see things on the astral plane, it was possible to get some sort of answer when he entered their head and went to their fronting room…

 

“Okay, you’re definitely Hunter! That look you get on your face from spacing out in the middle of the conversation is unmistakable. Even if it is… basically human instead now.” Zoey said, “What’s up with that? You’re still kinda rabbity-y but a brown rabbit instead of a white rabbit… and you don’t even look that much like your real body.” She was examining Hunter’s face closely, so it was no surprise that she started picking up on all the ways that he had changed it from how his real face or Mamata’s looked.

 

“Maybe you should just come in here already so we can talk without me looking like I’m talking to myself in public?” Zoey finally said.

 

Hunter agreed with that. Robbie was still looking for a book with the most interesting picture on it, but he didn’t want the kid to overhear them when she finally found something she liked.

 

“I have permission to come in?” He asked.

 

“Yeah! Karen already told you that you’re welcome in here…”

 

“Oh, uh… right!” Hunter nodded before darting forward towards where the hole was. As he got close, the plug that he had made faded slightly to let his consciousness through. As he passed through, he noticed that the hole was significantly smaller than he expected. It should have taken at least a couple of weeks to heal but in only two days it was already a third of the size that it had started out at…

 

Entering Mark’s mind this time felt more disorienting than before. A wave of fatigue washed over Hunter as he appeared once more somewhere in the fog that pervaded everything beyond the neighborhood. Even now, he could feel his energy leeching away from him slowly. It reminded him of when he tried setting up that psychic beacon in the fog last time, only for it to dissipate away. The energy drain that he was feeling wasn’t that strong. It wouldn’t exhaust him completely for quite a while, but the fact that it was happening at all was really strange.

 

There wasn’t any kind of light source around so Hunter wasn’t sure if he was close to where he had appeared last time, but unlike the super dense fog that kept him from being able to see his own feet, the fog this time was much thinner. He could see at least a few meters around him.

 

The first thing that he noticed was that the ground underneath him was bright blue and felt a bit springy under his feet. As he leaned down to take a closer look, he realized that it appeared to be some kind of large foam mat. The kind that gymnasts used.

 

Hunter should probably just teleport ahead back to the neighborhood, Zoey was waiting for him after all, but still… he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of secrets he could find out here. The parts of someone’s mindscape that were dictated by their subconscious were rife with hidden symbolism that could give you all sorts of insights into them.

 

Like that for example… What even is that?

 

There was a large shape outlined in the fog not too far away that he had immediately noticed when he glanced around. He took a few steps closer trying to make out what it was. Part of his mind was telling him that it was obvious what that thing was but it couldn’t really be a… no, actually it really was a giant teddy bear…

 

“What does something like this even represent for Mark?” Hunter wondered aloud as he put a hand on the 10 foot tall plushie. Oh wow… that was soft. It was just about the softest plush fur that he had ever felt. He would have thought that it would be damp and a bit moldy from the fog, but no. An odd urge began rising within Hunter. For a trans girl like any of the ones in Mark’s system, there were bound to be some cute desires which explained why they might imagine such a large teddy bear, but Hunter was a cis man…

 

He glanced around, hesitating. There shouldn’t be anyone around to see him acting weird, right? He shuffled his feet for a few more moments before the urge overwhelmed any sense of awkwardness that he might have and he wrapped his arms around the teddy.

 

It was so soft and there was a warmth to it as if it had just been taken out of the dryer. Hunter was in fluffy bliss as he hugged the huge stuffed animal for a good minute before reluctantly letting go. Zoey was waiting for him after all. He should find her before she started wondering what the hold up was.

 

He turned around just in the off chance that there was anything else of interest nearby and his heart stopped. There in the fog, just slightly beyond the range where everything was visible, stood a gaunt, feral figure that stared at him with glowing yellow eyes. 

 

Hunter stood there, paralyzed, as the creature crept closer. His feet felt like they were rooted to the ground and his breath only came in short gasps as it approached, its skeletal face and clawed hands revealed themselves as the fog peeled off its form. It opened its jaws wide and a rough creaking sound came out before being broken by a hacking cough.

 

Nope! Fuck this!

 

Hunter bolted, running blindly into the misty landscape. As he ran, he could see giant multicolored building blocks the size of cars scattered around. His survival instincts screamed at him to flee towards cover, so weaving through the structures and loose blocks, he took every chance to slip through the smallest of gaps, taking advantage of his small size to flee through places the beast couldn’t follow.

 

What the hell even was that thing!? Some kind of SCP or something? Fuck, it probably was… Mark probably had gone on a wiki walk late at night at some point and dreamt up this… freaking werewolf.

 

Raspy growls and labored breathing still followed uncomfortably close behind him. He chanced a look over his shoulder and yelped, ducking away from the clawed hand reaching out to grab him.

 

“MalO’s supposed to just hang out in the corner of your vision! Not try to grab you!” Hunter yelled at it as he rolled on the ground and darted back the way he came, hoping this thing wasn’t as nimble as he was.

 

Hunter began zig zagging between blocks, sliding under an arch, and vaulting over a toppled cylinder until he found himself at open ground. His ears twitched, picking up the creature’s eerily quiet footsteps and rattled breathing. It seemed like he managed to gain a small bit of distance from it so rather than continuing to try to lose it between the blocks, he took off at full speed across the clearing.

 

As he ran, Hunter started focusing on the space immediately in front of him, trying to imagine an exact duplicate of himself and willing it into existence to serve as a distraction. All he needed to do was send it running off in a different direction and hope that would confuse the beast enough for him to escape. His stride was interrupted and he slid to the ground as he suddenly stepped onto a loose lego brick. He rolled and crashed into a multicolored wall that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It shattered into a shower of legos that briefly buried himself and his replica.

 

Dammit! He lost his sandals somewhere along the way as he ran and now he was practically standing in a minefield while that monster was catching up. Being a human was not the optimal form for running away from something! They had evolved to chase prey over long distances, not for being the prey. He knew something that had evolved to survive as prey though.

 

Hunter focused on his avatar and willed it to begin transforming into the less human, more rabbit-like form that he had used previously as he sprang into another run. The fur covered rabbit legs were just right to bound over the pile of plastic brick hazards and to not be too bothered by the occasional lego brick that he stepped on. 

 

The replica was a lost cause. His fall had taken too much of his time and it still needed a simple autopilot command to function as intended. It would take precious seconds that he didn’t have anymore. As a desperate final measure, he tried transforming the scent of his duplicate into something rich, meaty, and bloody. Hopefully, what looked like an easy meal would attract the interest of the beast more than a fleeing rabbit. The simple illusion wouldn’t stand up to physical contact, but if the thing was dumb enough, it might let its curiosity or hunger get the better of it.

 

It didn’t work! He didn’t even need to turn around to know it was still on his tail. The damn monster completely ignored the prime bait that was left for it and continued chasing after him! 

 

The growls were getting closer again and Hunter searched desperately through the fog for somewhere to run in vain. His bunny legs were faster than his human ones but the creature’s strides across open fields were even faster than his. It seemed like he was doomed to get caught before a shape emerged from the fog ahead of him. A house? It looked off somehow but that didn’t matter. He ran towards it, tearing the door open, then slamming it behind him moments before a heavy thud rattled the whole thing. Hunter hurried to turn the lock.

 

The entire door shook as the doorknob tried to turn, but it remained in place despite all the shaking. The growls began changing, becoming almost… desperate? It made Hunter hesitate. The beast sounded so sad as whimpers sounded between the growls and labored breathing.

 

“Li-” A raspy sound from the other side of the door sounded out before being interrupted by a fit of coughs.

 

An odd feeling of pain spread through Hunter’s chest. Not physical pain… more like heartbreak. It felt like the only way to alleviate the pain would be to open the door and give the person on the other side the strongest hug that he could…

 

As if! That was a freaking monster trying to eat him, not a person! With how gaunt the thing had been, it was probably just feeling sad because it missed out on a free meal of rabbit… something. He didn’t know any dishes actually made out of rabbit meat.

 

What was up with the monsters in Mark’s head garnering sympathy from people? First there was that… thing… in the hole that Karen had dropped him into back when she was still The Admin, he couldn’t believe that she had asked him to free it, and now this thing… Hunter quashed the sympathetic urge that had arisen, although the feeling wouldn’t go away completely no matter how hard he tried.

 

The beast started scratching at the wooden door again and Hunter snapped out of his daze. Ignoring that urge was definitely the right move.

 

“You’re not gonna get me like that MalO! I’ve fought off much stronger mind control than yours before!” Hunter wasn’t actually sure that there was any mind control going on, but voicing his defiance helped bolster his courage anyways.

 

There had to be some way out from here right? He turned away from the door only to jump in panic at the sight of people sitting motionless around a table. “Shit!” he yelled as he clutched his chest. So much for having bolstered courage…

 

The people didn’t react to his freak out though, and when he looked closer, he noticed they were… dolls? Was he in a dollhouse right now? He felt dumbfounded and unsure of what to do now. He planned to try leaving out the back door, but would a dollhouse even have one of those? He had no idea what options were left to him anymore.

 

He let himself slide down into one of the empty chairs around the table and clutched at his head. The soft fur of his ears was so soft and the feeling of his fingers on them tickled so pleasantly. He needed to do this more often. A bit of scratching on the back of them would be just the thing he needed to relax. He wondered if his rabbit legs were flexible enough to scratch his ears like a dog… 

 

His thoughts were interrupted by another wave of raspy, hacking coughs just outside. No! This was not the time to be stimming! There was a freaking skull-faced werewolf trying to break down the door still! Leaving through that door wasn’t even an option. It was just a guarantee to get caught. If only he had some other way to get back to the neighborhood, but it wasn’t like he could just… teleport…

 

Dammit Hunter, you’re an idiot!

 

He took a short moment to wonder if he really was that stupid. Kids at school had called him a… um, the R-word… plenty of times but this was the first time he considered that maybe they were right. He glanced over at one of the Barbie dolls seated at the table next to him. She was wearing a Hex Girls tank top and a poorly done undercut. The one next to her was in full flannel and the last doll, a Ken doll, was dressed in a trenchcoat. What an odd choice of doll clothes…

 

“What do you all think?” he asked the motionless figures at the table. “I’m a huge dumbass right? A freaking re-”

 

Another large coughing fit reminded him of the damn thing he’d been running from this whole time, yet here he was talking to inanimate objects. He really was a dumbass.

 

Time to get out of here! He mustered up his focus as much as he could to draw up a mental image of the neighborhood as he scrunched his eyes tight. All he needed to do was imagine himself standing there too and when he opened his eyes, it would be true.

 

The last thing he heard before opening his eyes was a low, rasping voice coming from behind the door “…ly … Li-lly?”. 

 

The voice, along with the dollhouse and the Barbies and Ken inside it were all gone the moment he opened his eyes. Once more he found himself on that same stretch of road that he had been on the first time he’d come into Mark’s mind.

 

The street was practically empty this time around save for a blonde woman in a sundress. She stared at Hunter with her jaw dropped from the moment he appeared. The stare was making Hunter uncomfortable but unfortunately she was standing between him and the office building that led to Mark’s fronting room.

 

He looked down at the ground as he tried to walk past her, but was surprised when a hand unexpectedly landed on his head.

 

Hunter recoiled away from her touch as he stammered, “D- don’t just touch someone without permission!”

 

He chanced a look at the woman’s face but regretted it instantly. There was something odd about it that he just couldn’t place his finger on. She ignored his protests and reached out once more and grabbed at his ears. She didn’t grab them hard, but her touch still sent chills down Hunter’s spine.

 

“Oh, don’t be that way! Such a cute little bunny… I ought to take you home with me and keep you as a pet…”

 

“STOP!” Hunter cried out as he tried to bolt away. On reflex, the woman had grabbed his ear just a bit too tight when he moved and he stopped in his tracks. It felt like the ear was going to be ripped off. The moment she lightened her grip just a bit, Hunter bolted once more.

 

He dived through the office door and tried to hold it closed from the inside as he fought to catch his breath again. That was almost worse than the damn fog monster… at least that thing wasn’t trying to make unwanted eye contact with him.

 

It was probably the damn rabbit form that he was using. He knew that it was super cute, he had designed it to be that way, but that didn’t mean people could just touch him like that! Who the hell did that woman think she was!?

 

Hunter took a moment to calm down and catch his breath. At least she didn’t seem like she was trying to break the door down. Well… it wasn’t like he needed to be a rabbit still. He wasn’t hiding his identity anymore and he wasn’t running from monsters at the moment so he started shifting back to the androgynous human form he had been in all morning. At least in this body people should treat him like an actual person instead of a… did she call him a pet!?

 

The thought of her treating him like a pet gave him chills, but his thoughts started drifting and he imagined Mark treating him the same way. The idea of being collared and on a leash with Mark looking down on him affectionately was just… damn that was hot! He played around in the fantasy just a bit longer… being sat on Mark’s lap and gently brushed as beneath him he could feel them get…

 

Stop! Stop! Stop! For Christ’s sake, this was not the time to be having those kinds of fantasies. It wasn’t at all because his body was now physically reacting to his lust in a way that he’s never experienced before! Maybe when he had built this avatar off of Mamata’s as a template, he should have changed it to male instead of just leaving that part downstairs unchanged…For the second time, Hunter tried quashing thoughts that would remain lingering just in the corner of his mind, despite his best efforts.

 

His second time walking through the office building to get to the roof felt so strange now that he was doing it alone. There was nobody else here which gave everything an unsettling vibe. Even the wall of shattered CRT monitors on the second floor was eerie without Karen sitting in front of it wrapped in a blanket cocoon and bawling her eyes out. It had only been a day since he was last here, but Hunter was still surprised that they hadn’t been fixed. Maybe now that she had accepted that she was a woman, she had better things to do with her time than spy on the rest of her headmates?

 

Out of morbid curiosity, Hunter moved over to the VHS player that was stuck in the middle of the wall of monitors. He peeked through the flap that the tapes went through and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was empty. The last thing that he wanted was for someone to rewatch the memory of his mother… well, he actually wasn’t sure what the memory on the tape had been, but he was sure it was something that should be kept private.

 

A bit more walking, and Hunter once more found himself at the cloud staircase on the office building’s roof. The staircase that led up to Mark’s fronting room. At least this time he wouldn’t need to worry about Eternity knocking him off it. Stepping onto the first stair was enough for Hunter to be teleported to the top of the clouds once again.

 

He looked around and found that both Zoey and Mark were here waiting for him. The place mostly looked the same as before, but one of the couches had been transformed into a pull-out bed and the sound of the outside world was audible for everyone to hear. Karen was seated in the armchair and he could hear her currently reading a book in Mark’s voice but with her own unique cadence.

 

“Hunter…!” Zoey called as she ran up to him with her arms outstretched. He couldn’t help but flinch slightly as she approached. To his surprise, she stopped about a foot away and dropped her arms to her side, “Is everything okay?”

 

Hunter glanced over at Mark, unsure about what to say. There was something different about them this time. Yesterday, Mark’s mind form had almost appeared identical to their real body, but this time, their form was blurred, almost like looking at them on an old TV.The shape was roughly the same but the details were impossible to make out.

 

“What…”

 

“Can I hug you!?” Zoey cut off his question suddenly.

 

“Sure?”

 

“Good girl!” Zoey said as she pulled him into a bear hug. In his mind, he could hear her voice talk directly to him, “M is in the process of defining what she wants to look like still. Try not to comment on it or you’ll scare her back into defaulting to our body’s appearance. More importantly, what happened to you? You look so anxious…”

 

Hunter didn’t comment on being called a good girl. It sent a small flutter through him, but he knew he wasn’t trans already. He didn’t need to reflect on why it had felt good. He also didn’t comment on the hugging, nor the head patting and ear scritching that Zoey slowly transitioned to as he tried to gather his thoughts.

 

Hunter just tried to organize his thoughts as Zoey led him over to one of the couches and continued caressing him. God, that felt so good… he was practically melting all over her as he responded to her telepathically and told her everything that happened between the monster and the blonde on the street. It was so much easier to communicate wordlessly like this when someone else bridged the gap between minds first…

 

Zoey, for her part, didn’t respond or interrupt him as he explained what had happened. She just continued to gently stroke him and scratch behind his ears and occasionally tighten her hug around him as he explained the more intense parts. His eyes were closed throughout the entire thing, but he could feel a pair of eyes on him the entire time which kept him from relaxing into Zoey completely.

 

I am so- so sorry about Caitlyn,” she apologized when Hunter finally finished his story. “She hatched just this morning and was really interested when I mentioned that you were coming in. I didn’t think she would be waiting out there to ambush you.”

 

It’s fine…” Hunter said despite what Caitlyn did to him not being alright.

 

Hunter…” Zoey started but then stopped. Returning to normal speech, she turned to Mark and asked, “Do you mind switching with Karen for a bit? There’s something we need to ask her.”

 

“Sure…” Mark responded. There was something off about their voice which prompted Hunter to finally open his eyes but due to the blurriness over their form, it was impossible to make out their expression. “I don’t need to be here when the two of you finally begin making out…”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Thanks M!”

 

They didn’t even need to shake Karen awake. As Mark approached, Karen just naturally got up from the fronting chair to give them room to sit in her place. The entire process was so fluid that Mark appeared to have only taken a short breath before continuing with the story that Karen had been in the middle of reading to Robbie. If they hadn’t known about their plurality for only a day, Hunter would have been convinced that the two of them had practiced switching so smoothly.

 

“What is up?” Karen asked with one eyebrow raised as she looked at the two of them. Zoey still hadn’t stopped cuddling against Hunter, and the ear scritches were too good for him to even care, he was experiencing pure bliss at the moment. Unfortunately, Zoey had taken that as a cue to stop the scritches, leaving Hunter still wanting more.

 

“H, tell Karen about what you saw out in the fog…” Zoey prompted after giving him a brief side hug. 

 

So Hunter told his story about the monster once again to Karen this time. She nodded along mostly, but kept wanting more details about the thing’s appearance. When he mentioned that it looked a lot like an SCP, neither Karen or Zoey seemed to recognize what he was even referencing, nor was Karen interested when he tried to go off into a tangent to explain about SCP-1471, MalO. Instead, she seemed most interested in the words that it had said at the end.

 

“I really don’t know exactly what it was trying to say. It might have been Lilith or Lily…”

 

“Are you sure it never made any kind of J sound?” Karen pressed. He was sure.

 

“Do you think it was…” Zoey started.

 

“It might be?” Karen responded. “Hunter… do you remember when I dropped you into that hole the first time you were here?”

 

Of course he remembered…

 

“There was someone else down there with you right?”

 

He remembered…

 

“You can get out anytime you want to, right?”

 

He could… 

 

“Perfect!” Karen said. Her voice was betraying guilt on multiple levels as she asked, “Could I send you down there right now? To check on if Jolene is still down there or not?”

 

“Who is Jolene?” He finally asked, looking between the two girls for an answer.

 

Karen paused before explaining, “I don’t know… She was locked away down there long before I became The Admin. All I know is that she was an imaginary friend who was suppressed and locked away there before I even existed…”

 

“EmoBoy might know, but…” Zoey undid her arm from around Hunter and nervously played with her hands, “He’s been missing… since last night…”

 

“After Zoey told us about discovering being able to do telepathy, he suddenly ran off into the fog saying that he needed to find ‘Lil’...” Karen added.

 

“Okay… can’t you just wait until he comes back?” Hunter asked. Karen and Zoey both groaned at that.

 

“People don’t go into the fog here… we just don’t.” Zoey told him. She pulled him into a faint hug and Hunter could feel that she was shivering slightly. “People come out of the fog, but they don’t go back in. No one except Eternity at least…”

 

“Because of the monster?” 

 

“Because we just don’t!” Karen snapped at him.

 

A pit started forming in Hunter’s stomach. “You’re not going to ask me to look for him too, are you?” he asked nervously, “Look for him out in the fog that’s so thick you can’t see anything until it’s right on top of you?”

 

“Please…” Zoey pleaded as she hugged him harder and gave his ear another euphoric scritch. At least it would have been euphoric if he ignored everything else going on…

 

“You guys are asking me to go into a hole of no escape that might have a monster in it AND out into the fog where there is definitely a monster!?”

 

“Please, Hunter! You’re the only person who has gone into both of those places and come back out.”

 

“Other than Eternity?”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“Maybe we can get Eternity back in here to look instead?”

 

“Hunter…”

 

Goddamn… they were both giving him puppy dog eyes… “Fine…” He finally relented and agreed.

 

It wasn’t long before everyone was standing again, having moved just a bit away from all the couches. Karen was holding the tablet again.

 

“It’ll be okay, Hunter,” Zoey said as she pulled him into yet another side hug. “You’ll just drop down there, confirm that she’s okay, then break open a hole to get out of there.”

 

“And let Jolene out of there too, preferably into the neighborhood!” Karen added.

 

“Right…”

 

“Are you ready?” Karen asked as her finger hovered over the tablet. Zoey had let him out of the hug and was now standing a few feet back.

 

“No… J-just do it and get it over with…” Hunter said as he braced himself to fall through the cloud flood and back into that void. 

 

Just don’t look up. Don’t look up! It seemed counterintuitive since most people were told not to look down when they were afraid of falling, but the fall wasn’t the part that gave Hunter the most anxiety about what was about to happen. The claustrophobic panic that happened when he saw the bars close above him, trapping him in the hole, was what he needed to avoid looking at. He couldn’t avoid looking at whatever had been down there with him since that was the entire point of going back down there, but he could make himself ignore everything else.

 

Hunter scrunched his eyes closed tight as he held the flashlight that he had created moments earlier in a deathgrip. “Do it!” He yelled out.

 

Do What?

 

The floor disappeared beneath him and he felt himself fall, but only for a moment. When he finally opened his eyes again, he wasn’t met with the pitch black void that he expected.

 

It was dark, sure, but among the darkness, there was a light that was practically blinding in comparison. A ragged hole in space through which light and fog poured.

 

Was this the hole that I made last time? It didn’t close back up?

 

He approached and looked through but found nothing but the densest fog possible. He glanced around the prison void but neither saw nor heard anything at all. Jolene must have escaped already…

 

Hunter crawled through that hole and walked into the fog slightly, but the fog here was far too dense. Forget not being able to see his feet, even with him holding a hand in front of his face, he still couldn't see anything but white.

 

He let out a sound that was practically a mix between a sigh and a growl. He wasn’t up for anymore fog exploration for today. He wondered if his mentor was done talking to Mamata and Eternity?

 

***

 

Hunter pulled himself out of Mark’s mind and while Robbie turned away from storytime to stare at him, Mark themself just continued reading as if they hadn’t noticed anything at all. He gave a brief wave to Robbie then dragged his tired feet over to Gráinne’s office. He was pretty burnt out at this point and only listened at her door for a moment before deciding to enter uninvited.

 

“Mr. Jones… How long do you intend to keep me waiting for you to occupy Hunter’s body?” his mentor’s voice from the other side said as Hunter walked through the door like a ghost.

 

***

 

When Hunter woke up, he found himself on the floor right in front of his mentor’s office. His entire body screamed at him in excruciating pain. It felt like he had just been electrocuted…

 

Maybe he’d just wait with Zoey in Mark’s head for a bit longer until Gráinne came to get him…  

 

Sorry about the delay on this chapter. Unfortunately, things happen and most of the team wasn't able to work on Egg Hunter much since our last chapter. As I mentioned in a status post a few days ago, being a plural author can be tough at times. For my system, I'm the only one of us that writes but I wasn't able to get too much time in at the front these last couple of months. We went through a population boom and our new headmates have a tendancy to get front stuck for about a week... each!

Things seem to have calmed down now and unlike what I expected in that status post, this did not need to be a short chapter! I got back in my writing groove and churned out over 4K words over the course of a day and a half! I probably won't be as productive in the immediate future as I'll be waiting on a first draft for Chapter 12 before my next writing binge, but here's hoping it won't be another month and a half until the next chapter post.

Thank you all for reading Egg Hunter! Your likes and comments help motivate me to fight my headmates for control to keep writing more!

~Rémi of the Feigningfox System

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