Seth stared at the computer again. In half a year Olivia would help him find out what he was, but he wanted answers now. He wanted to know why he had gotten home and not had any trouble walking up two flights of stairs to his room after that workout. He wanted to know why he had survived life-threatening injury after life-threatening injury. Seth got an idea and searched the name of his hometown, adding ‘paranormal events 2019’.

The very first result was actually a news article about a recent wave of bear attacks. The comments section was triggering the result from ‘paranormal’, as people clamored that this many bear attacks in this short a time couldn’t be the result of anything natural. Seth looked over the death total. Twenty, and recent too. Just before Hunter-33 crashed David and Anthony’s party. Seth backed out and reviewed the search results. One caught his eye.

Cult responsible for kidnapping, no evidence, no justice.

Seth clicked into the site, a blog dedicated to logging paranormal events that looked like it was designed by someone who took an HTML class in the mid-2000s. It detailed that about twenty years ago, a cult that no one ever manged to prove was a cult kidnapped children in his hometown and spirited them away to a nearby forest. No one ever managed to prove it because the children returned home a month later and had no memory whatsoever of the time they were gone. The blog went on to say how the children had been brainwashed and were Satanic sleeper agents waiting to herald the arrival of the Antichrist. The only ‘evidence’ was a carving someone had found of some pagan symbol carved on a tree, a series of self-contained wheels with an orb at the center. Underneath it had been found the words ‘we await his arrival’.

The last bit elicited a big eye roll from Seth. On to the next. Seth scanned the articles, then amended his search, adding the tag ‘regeneration’ to his query and pressing enter.

First article. Northwest High Student Has Miraculous Recovery from Fatal Car Crash.

Seth blew air out his nose and clicked into the local news site. Good to know his business was out there. Seth’s eyebrows arched. A picture of EMTs loading him into an ambulance preceded the article. Seth leaned in close, squinting to try and make out the finer details of the photo. In the background he could see his truck on its side, a semi behind it. In the foreground, he spotted a short brunette. Nicole. Seth wasn’t interested in any of that though, he wanted to see exactly how bad his injuries had been. On the litter, he could see red all over him, but making out his face was impossible… No, it was impossible because of how much damage his head had sustained.

Seth’s jaw hung slack. That looked for all the world like a caved-in skull. For all the tests done on him, he’d never seen the pre-recovery x-rays. Seth snatched up his phone, took a minute to find the number for the administrative section of the hospital, and called. Some tired-sounding nurse on night duty answered.

“Records, how can I help?” The man sounded like he was clinging to the last bit of energy in him. Seth could hear a can of something open in the background.

“Hi, my name is Seth Blackwell. How are you?”

“Dandy. What do you need.”

“I’d like to see my X-rays from a recent visit to the hospital.”

“Date?”

“September. It was a car crash.”

“Oh, that Blackwell.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Got it, hold on. You going to be coming in or are we mailing these to you?”

“I can come in tomorrow.”

“Hold on.”

Seth heard the phone set down. While the nurse searched, another article caught Seth’s eye.

Miracle Student Missing During Mass Shooting at Country Estate.

Really? Seth clicked into it. Same damn news site. Oh, good. Same reporter, too. Seth bookmarked that article and wrote down the reporter’s name. Emily O’Donnelly.

“Hello, Mr. Blackwell?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry to inform you, your records have been moved to another hospital. Are you currently residing on Joint Base Lewis-McChord?”

Seth gripped a fistful of his hair and lied through his teeth. “Yes, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that… I didn’t realize they’d been transferred already. Can you get me the number of the records department they were transferred to?”

“Yes, are you ready? It’s 253-555-4321.”

Seth rolled his eyes to the back of his skull. That wasn’t even a hospital number, that was Hunter-33’s contact number. “Thank you,” he managed.

“You’re welcome, hope you’re recovering well.”

“I am, thank you. Bye.” Seth ended the call and massaged his temples with his elbows on his desk. He had half a mind to call Hunter-33 and start yelling. Right, because yelling at a military organization that had previously hunted him and nearly killed him on several occasions was a good idea. Seth looked at the article on his screen. Time to try something else. He clicked on the link within Emily O’Donnelly’s name.

A picture of a serious-looking girl with champagne-blond hair and intense green eyes stared back at him, along with a brief bio and contact information. Seth put the number in his phone and looked at the time. Just before ten. He hesitated for a moment and then dialed the number, holding his phone to his ear.

The phone rang for a long time, but after about ten rings, it picked up and the voice of a sleepy woman answered.

“Emily O’Donnelly speaking.”

“This is Seth Blackwell.”

The sleepiness vanished.

“Hang the hell up if you’re prank calling me, I have a meeting at four AM.”

“Not a prank.”

“Well, then. What a surprise. What do you want?”

“You wrote both articles about me.”

“Is this about to turn into a cease and desist?”

“No. I want to talk. Somewhere away from people.”

“I- Oh.” He could hear her voice perking up. “When?”

“I’m not sleeping.”

“Then neither am I. Can you get to 31 Richard Street?”

“That’s downtown?”

“Sure is.”

“Yeah, I’ll head out now.”

“Meet you there. And if you are some sick fuck, I pack heat and I know how to use it. You better actually be Seth Blackwell.”

“I am.”

“Yeah, we’ll see when we’re there.”

The call ended. Seth locked and closed his laptop, then threw on some jeans and a hoodie before hurrying out of the house and getting in his car. His dad had been rather hands off since Seth’s return and the signing of the non-disclosures. And even if his dad did make a big deal out of this, Seth didn’t care. He needed some answers. Seth pulled out of his parking lot and accelerated out of his neighborhood.