Nessy's eyes fluttered open, immediately squinting against the light filtering through the quilted walls of Jim's spare bedroom. She groaned, rolling onto her side and pressing her paws against her temples.

"Urgh... my head feels like it's being used as a drum kit for a death metal band," she whined, slowly pushing herself upright. Taking in the unfamiliar surroundings, she blinked in confusion. "Where the heck are we? Bed, Bath, Infinity and Beyond?"

Krysanthea, who had been sitting nearby, looked up from polishing her claws. "You're awake. Finally."

"How long was I out?" Nessy asked, rubbing her eyes.

"About eighteen hours," I answered, sitting down beside her on the mattress. "How do you feel?"

"Like someone hollowed out my skull and filled it with verrrry angry bees," she muttered, then perked up suddenly. "Got any coffee? I need my fix."

"Absolutely not," Krysanthea said firmly. "You're banned from coffee. Permanently."

"Whyyyyyyy?" Nessy whined.

"You know why," Kristi replied sharply.

"It was for the greater good of the pack vibes!" Nessy let out.

"I hope that you realize that I'm this close to chewing your face off, dog," Kristi growled, showing a tiny empty space between her black talons. "I'm already batshit terrified of this place and you handcuffed me to a cart for hours."

"Sorrykins Kristikins," Nessy bit her lower lip, nudging the raptor with her messy curly-haired head. "I didn't mean to… I was…"

"I get it," Kristi gave the husky-girl a pet with an eye roll. "But that doesn't make me any less angry at you. Don't do that again."

"Kay," Nessy said.

"No 'kay'," Kristi said sternly.

"I won't do it again," Nessy flopped into the raptor, blinking tears from her eyes. "I'm sorrriiiiiii…"

Krysanthea sighed, hugging the husky.

Nessy looked around again from the raptor-girl's embrace, squinting at the room constructed from bedding materials. "So where exactly are we?"

"Bedshire," I explained. "A town inside the bedding department. People who've escaped the store's influence and damaged their uniforms live here."

"Neat!" Nessy said. "So what's your plan now? Besides keeping me away from the devil's brew, apparently."

"Same as before," I shrugged. "Rescuing souls."

"There's someone called the Cartographer who might be able to help, but we have to wait for an appointment," Kristi said.

Nessy nodded rapidly, then immediately regretted the movement. "Ugh, this headache is killing me. Got any pain meds around here?"

"I don't think painkillers would work for magic caffeine withdrawal," Krysanthea pointed out.

"Nuuuu," Nessy whined, blinking more tears. "I cannot exist like this. My brain is bad soup."

"Maybe there's another… magical solution," I suggested, recalling our shared dream. "What about your music? Riffweld might help with the headache."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," Nessy perked up slightly. "I do feel more awesome when I'm singing." She looked around. "Is my bag… here?"

I handed her the black backpack. "Yes."

Nessy dug into the backpack and somehow pulled my grandfather's guitar out of it.

"Whatthefuck," Kristi sputtered. "How'd that fit in there?!"

"It's a backpack with extradimensional storage extension," Nessy explained. "After I got the zoomie-beads from Kale, I went back to the RV and grabbed all of the magic glass apples and this guitar. It's easier to Riffweld songs with a guitar."

"You think you can sing away a headache?" Kristi asked.

"Maybe," Nessy shrugged. "Let's see…"

She pulled out her phone, put it on a table, pressed the record button and began strumming.

"Oh, coffee, you jolt my weary soul, Ignite my heart, make my spirit whole. Your bitter fire, my morning blaze, Chased the fog from endless days.

But Kristi's banned you, cruel decree, Left my head to throb and plea. Yet my song's a brew, my voice a spark, It lifts me up through pain and dark,"

She sang, swaying.

We listened to her music. It somehow felt like a refreshing cup of coffee, without any actual drinking involved. I could even smell coffee beans.

By the time the husky-girl finished the song, the pained squint had disappeared from her eyes.

"Woo, that worked!" She clapped, pausing the recording and sliding her phone into the backpack. "Sorta. Head's still a bit fuzzy, but the stabbing pain is thankfully gone, yay."

"So you can get rid of a headache," I contemplated. "Could you use Riffweld for anything then? Could you heal a bruise, repair a cut, open a closed door, make someone faster or stronger?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Maybe," Nessy shrugged, sliding the guitar back into her backpack. "Physical things are harder to modify than magical effects."

"What was that banging noise?" Kristi asked.

"What banging noise?" the husky asked.

"Like metal grating and banging on metal," the raptor clarified. "Or a metal roar… I could have sworn there was something in the background of 'Oh, coffee, my pulse, my vibrant hum. My song's the buzz where you once sprung.'"

"Uhhhhh," Nessy said, sniffing herself, her ears drawing back. "Ughh. Something in the Astral… getting into the song vibe, messing with it. I think that it might be the Magnetic Lynx looking for me. She… she's in the store."

"She's in the store?!" Kristi snarled. "So that fucking thing can get into the store but we can't get out? How do we even stop something like that?!"

"I dunno," Nessy shrugged, suddenly looking very nervous. "Bedshire defenses won't be able to keep her away. She'll pull at the metal poles to tear right through the sheets with flying metal bits, kill everyone here."

"Sounds like we should go then," I said.

"Gotta keep moving, yes." Nessy nodded. "Bad idea to stay here. The Lynx can smell exactly where we are."

The Strand sisters and our pack filed into the main living area of Jim's apartment.

Katerina kept her distance, eyeing Nessy warily, while Kaledoniya bounced forward with her usual energy.

"The doggo is awake!" she declared. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious!"

"Thanks," Nessy replied.

I gave Nessy a quick summary of everything she'd missed—Bedshire, Jim, the Cartographer with her two-week-long waiting list, and our growing favor debt to the pillow city.

"Thanks for the summation," Nessy nodded, reaching for her backpack. "Let me see what I've got in here from my manager days."

She rapidly dug into the bag, pulling out and spilling out a chaotic assortment of items: her damaged G-Supercenter employee uniform, her "Maxima Pawsome" badge that I sliced, a small collection of sewing needles and colorful thread, duct tape, and a dark wallet with the white capital letter [G] embossed on it.

"First things first—gotta fix my badge and uniform." She declared.

"Why?" Krysanthea asked as Nessy laid the uniform on the table in front of her.

"Manager's uniform is important," Nessy explained, pulling a glass fruit from her pocket and chewing on it. "Thankfully Alec kept mine, as I expected him to. The damaged uniform is super handy outside of Bedshire, as it is still recognized by the store!"

"I see," Katerina admitted grudgingly. "I thought your insane plan for us to work here was useless."

"Uniform acquisition and some work had to happen," Nessy said. "The Store had to believe that we were gonna work for her, to put us on the employee list. Gonna sew this uniform back together. Pay close attention to what I'm doing, Alec!"

I nodded, watching her work.

"Perfect!" Nessy declared, holding up her handiwork in about five minutes. "Now this uniform can be worn without its bearer zombifying and the store will see its bearer as manager."

She quickly pulled her blue vest on me. "Here."

Then she duct taped her 'Department Manager: Maxima Pawsome' badge together and pinned it the blue uniform I was wearing. "You're the Manager now, Alec." She smiled but her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Stay Pawsome, for me. Work extra hard."

"Work? I thought we were trying to escape!" Katerina said.

"We are," Nessy nodded with a shudder, inhaling deep and glancing into the distance. "Alec needs to be a manager, that's all. Being a manager gives one access to more parts of the store. I know for a fact that managers can access dimensional gates, open doors that cross between departments."

"How do you know that?" Krysanthea asked.

"Was a manager," Nessy tapped her nose. "Was told such by the Human Resources office. Qualified personnel can use special doors to move to different sections of the store. I can smell our RV—it's several dimensions away, but it's still here, somewhere in the store's infinite sprawl."

"That's good to know," Kat said.

The G-wallet caught my attention. "What's in there?" I asked, pointing to it.

"Oh!" Nessy grabbed the wallet. "My five weeks of manager salary! I was really good at my job, despite the raptor-torment lunacy at the end. I got a ton of raises!"

She opened the wallet, revealing what looked like a gold credit card and a bunch of discount coupons.

"Let's get quick breakfast," she declared. "My treat. I'll pay off our favor debt too—no sense being indebted to the mattress people."

"Do we have time for such?" I asked.

"Yes," Nessy answered with a shifty look. "I can smell exactly how far the Lynx is."

Nessy stuffed all of the things from the table into the backpack.

We headed to the same diner from the previous night. The register-haired waitress recognized us, greeting us with a mechanical chime as we were seated.

"Coffee for—" Nessy began.

"NO!" Krysanthea and I barked in unison, making Nessy pout.

"Feh! Fine," the husky grumbled. "Orange juice for me. And whatever breakfast special is biggest."

After placing our orders, Nessy leaned in, pressing against my side, her hand finding mine. "So, here's what I learned. The store is infinite, but it's organized in sections. Each section is like its own infinite pocket dimension. The RV is in one of those pockets. You... need to get back to our RV," she whispered hastily into my ear.

"How do we find the RV?" I asked.

"You'll need to locate a staff access point," Nessy explained, staring at me unblinkingly as if she was trying to memorize every pore on my face. "They look like normal doors marked 'Employees Only,' but they can take you anywhere in the store if you have the right clearance."

"And do we have the right clearance?" Krysanthea asked.

"Alec will," Nessy grinned, pointing at her taped-together manager badge. "This manager badge will still work. The uniform too. The eye isn't dead, it's just injured."

"It's not dead?" Kat sputtered.

"Nah," Nessy shook her head. "If given enough work hours it'll heal back up or grow another eye on the uniform. Work gives life to the uniform and the uniform binds a person more to the store. Like a particular knot of rope that gradually chokes you. Alec, you will have to occasionally cut the eye and resew it like I did. Got it?"

I nodded, feeling somewhat confused by her choice of words.

Our food arrived—enormous plates of eggs, pancakes, bacon, and toast. Nessy tore into hers with gusto, ravenous after her extended sleep.

"That'll be 76.76 G-Store credits," the waitress announced coming to our table.

"Bill me for the meal and for what my pack leader owes to your town, yeah?" Nessy waved a hand at me, pulling out her wallet. "I want him to be in the plus for when he returns here."

"No problem," the waitress said. The total flashed on the cash register display on the woman's body and Nessy paid it, swiping her card through what looked like a plastic card reader growing from the woman's wrist.

"Here," Nessy stuffed her wallet into her backpack and handed it to me. "You wear it."

As we departed from Bedshire and crossed the moat, Nessy sniffed the air.

"Fuck," she let out. "Fuck, fuck, fuck...."

"What?" Kristi spun to the husky.

"The Lynx is here," Nessy let out with a shudder. "Damn it all, I thought that I had a bit more time. She's... changed her form, figured out how to quickly move between departments! We have to run!"

"Which way?" I asked.

"Forward," she replied, suddenly hugging me fiercely. "Always forward, Alec. Keep moving forward... I love you."

There was something in her voice as she made her declaration. A desperate edge. A sharp, unexpected finality, the meaning of which eluded me.

It was then that it hit me - Nessy's tail hasn't wagged once since she woke up.

She let me go, her entire body trembling. "Keep going forward, no matter what comes! Promise?"

"Promise," I said with a nod.

She let go of my hand. "Run!"

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