The flat had one too many magicians in its wood paneled walls. James was preparing a kettle of water, three mugs and tea sachets in each. Noah was in the shower, and James was trying to ignore his quiet little sobs. Uma was sitting on the futon, observing their surroundings with cool indifference. They still wore their uniform. James couldn't decide if they looked like a priest or a hot topic ad. Just like the rodent and the cat that James had encountered before, this woman was dead. It should have been impossible, monsters had a hard time manifesting without an energy source to attach themselves to. Traditional monsters had to attach themselves to a living thing with a soul that would serve as a battery pack. James didn't know what kind of dark magic it was that allowed these monsters to crawl into a corpse suit and cause trouble.

"I've told Director Jan that you will be returning with me." Uma said, their voice without inflection.

James didn't flinch at their words, just stared at the spout of his kettle.

"How long has this been happening?" He asked, "Are there monsters like this in Austria, too?"

"All over Europe." Uma confirmed, "We haven't heard anything about America yet, but magic in America has always been backwards."

The kettle whistled and James lifted it off the burner, holding the lid down as he divided equal portions in each cup. James brought Uma's mug to them, along with a tin of sugar and a small pitcher of cream. Uma wouldn't use any of the additives, but these were more for James anyways. He returned to the living room with his own mug of tea and proceeded to turn it into something too sweet for the average persons palette. Uma watched him do this with a look of disapproval but didn't make any comments on James' addiction to sugar.

"Does the Director have any theories on what's causing it? Surely there has to be some sort of power source for these monsters to be manifesting, right? How can they exist without a soul?"

Uma blew the steam over the lip of their mug and James tried not to zero in on the way their lips pursed together. It was easier to look when Noah wasn't in the same vicinity as him. He was starting to think that things between him and Noah really might not work out and that he should just rip the bandage off now. If he was going back to the convent, anyways, he didn't need to worry about any weird feelings between him like he would if he were staying at the flat. James heard the shower turn off, gaze flicking towards the hall. Uma did not follow his gaze, their eyes remained fixed on James.

"We're not sure what's going on." Uma said, "There has been an unusually large number of monsters popping up, recently. So much so that they're no longer just affecting living things, but dead things too. It's almost like this volatile magic has figured out how to renew itself endlessly."

"But there aren't as many magicians as there used to be either, right?" James said, "You said earlier that that's why you were looking for me in the first place. I thought monsters only showed up around magicians."

Uma shook their head slightly, "Maybe that was true before, but something as changed. Everything has started to fall apart. Have you been practicing your magic since we met at the gin palace?"

"No." James said honestly, "I meant what I said back there. I didn't want anything to do with this anymore."

"Anything to do with what? Dead people attacking you in the streets?" This was Noah, stood in the hallway and dressed in a pair of checkered pajama pants.

Anyone who didn't know Uma would have missed the way they tensed.

"That's not how magic usually works." James said carefully. They discovered that Noah hadn't actually perceived the magic happening right before his eyes. He could only see the woman's dead body moving of its own accord. The bloated sack of flesh, the lightshow, that had not registered to him.

"Not that you could possibly understand." Uma said icily.

Noah set their eyes on Uma, face twisting into a scowl, "I'm sorry, whose sofa are you sitting on right now?"

In response to this, Uma stood up, continuing to sip from their cup. Noah's lip twitched and James added another teaspoon of sugar to his tea, stirring it slowly.

"I would appreciate it if you two didn't fight." James said.

"We're not fighting." Uma said, "You should tell your flat mate--"

"Boyfriend." Noah said sharply, "James, be honest with me right now, is this some kind of joke?"

James worked his mouth for a moment, taking a sip of his tea to stall for a little more time before he responded, "What do you mean? Of course this isn't a joke?"

"Right." Noah laughed, still sounding somewhat hysterical, "Because dead people can just get up and walk around. Are you in some kind of voodoo cult? Do you talk to the dead?"

Uma's lip curled back and James felt something like anger in the core of his chest.

"First of all," James said, rising from his seat, "You don't get to talk to my friend that way." He set his cup down on the counter harder than he probably should have, "Second, fine. You think this is a joke? It is a joke! An elaborate prank to scare you shitless, make you want to pee yourself and cry."

James didn't know how he ended up standing chest to chest with Noah, but there he was. He was surprised when Noah didn't back down, his expression was unlike anything James had ever seen from him before. There was that wrongness that James had grown so accustomed to and he was finally able to place why he felt this otherness about Noah. It was that Noah had somehow turned that otherness around on him. Now it was James that was strange and bizarre. It was strange that James wasn't vegan, it was strange that James didn't have a stick up his ass about academics or that he didn't have "cultured" takes on topics like the fur industry. Noah was unlike anyone James had dated before because he was his opposite in every way.

"Get out." Noah seethed suddenly, "Get the bloody fuck out of here!"

How had I lived like this, James thought, How had I been so okay with this?

"I was just going. Uma, could you help me grab some stuff?"

†††

They ended up spending the night at a hostel, James had all of his worldly possessions stuffed into three duffel bags and two backpacks. Since it was almost December, there weren't many other people in the hostel and so it was just James and Uma in their six person room. Uma was brushing their teeth in the bathroom while James sent a series of emails, first to his advisor, then to the dean of his college, and then to the students in his labs reminding them about the make up lab and study session. He was dressed down to his trackpants and a white t-shirt, the window to the hostel was cracked and an ash tray was stuck haphazardly on the window sill where James smoked.

Uma emerged from the bathroom. They too were dressed down to a pair of boxers and a shirt that was maybe two sizes too big. James' eyes flicked up to them and he frowned.

"That doesn't look like something you'd wear."

Uma made a rude noise that gurgled in the back of their throat. Their own suitcase had been torn apart on the bottom bunk of their bed. They were tearing through it again now in search of moisturizer.

"It's not. I borrowed it from one of the apprentices."

James raised his brow, surprised, "Apprentices? You mean the Convent has other magicians now?"

"No." Uma said, "It's still just the Director. We got two apprentices sent in from the sister convent in Wales. They're twins. Elsie and Seneca Morgan."

James nodded, that was an acceptable answer at least. There hadn't been any new magicians since Lady Goodfellow died. The Convent was barely a Convent anymore, too, currently under the leadership of someone who supposedly hadn't been baptized. When Lady Goodfellow died she had put the only sickly ward in charge of everything. It was her will that made it so and thus, Jan Eyvind became the Director of St. Mary's Convent and Nunnery.

To outside eyes, the decision was completely uncalled for and without precedent. If you were a nun or priest at St. Mary's then you knew that the Convent had never been just a place of worship. It was a safehouse for magicians since they started being burned on the stake. The magicians who worked for the church were promised protection and were rebranded as exorcists and clerics. That particular flavor of magic had never appealed to James, he wouldn't call himself an exorcist because he didn't recite Bible verses every time he tried to unravel the world around him.

"Has much changed? At the convent I mean?" James asked, closing his laptop and hugging the pillow that he'd put on his lap.

Uma had returned to the bathroom, their fringe having been pulled up into a tiny ponytail that looked a little bit like a unicorn horn sprouting from the top of their head.

"No," Uma said, slathering their face with moisturizer, "It's just been quiet, is all. It's been so quiet since everyone left."

By everyone, Uma meant James and one of the Convent's other magicians, a man who called himself Father Aristos Alabaster. Father Alabaster was not a priest, he had not studied religion or priesthood in any capacity, but everyone called him Father Alabaster regardless. He appeared at the Convent shortly after the Jan Eyvind, and had stuck around until the death of Lady Goodfellow. Supposedly he had gone overseas to America. James wondered if Jan would be able to get in touch with him and ask about the situation over there.

"I don't think it will be the same for much longer." Uma said, patting their face dry with a towel, tossing it on top of their luggage before ascending the ladder to the top bunk.

"You're probably right." James murmured, "Something's happening."

Uma nodded, crawling beneath their sheets and eying James from their thrown of pillows and blankets.

"Were you really dating that guy, James?"

"Who, Noah?" James asked.

Uma nodded minutely. James wanted to say he hadn't been dating Noah, but that had been his attention when he first invited Noah into his bed. He wondered if Noah would have convinced him to go vegan if they continued dating. He wondered if Noah would have made him some completely unlike himself that if he'd look in the mirror he wouldn't recognize the person that stared back at him. James side, taking out his packet of cigarettes and lighting up. He had gone through nearly have the pack since the run in with the dead women. Once he started he just couldn't stop until he closed his eyes to go to sleep.

"I tried it, obviously." James muttered, "I just thought, he wasn't what I usually went for, you know? Everyone else I messed around with had been short lived, no strings attached. He was the first person I wanted to try with since I left."

Both of Uma's brows were paying attention again, high up on their forehead.

"Have you been sleeping around since you left?"

James didn't respond and Uma gasped.

"I get it, I'm a whore!" James groaned, finishing up his cigarette and stubbing it out in the ash tray. He decided to keep the window open for the night, just in case he decided to have one more around 2 or 3 am, "I get tested regularly, don't worry about it."

Uma laughed and it was a beautiful sound.

James thought, on the verge of sleep, that it was the only beautiful thing in the world.