Hi. I'm Alex Walker. Ten years old, all elbows, and the strongest thing about me used to be my smell.

No parents. They left me a box and disappeared. Inside the box was a ring. The ring shook. I told myself I was tired.

I was not tired.

Now there's a girl living in my head who won't tell me her real name, a screen in front of my eyes with numbers that go up when I eat things I really shouldn't be eating, and a lot of monsters who'd like a word.

Is it gross? Yes.

Does it work? Also yes.

Go from walking lollipop to something the Hunters can't explain, one bad meal at a time.

...What do you mean, "what's the catch"?

"Ahh," it said, in a voice like a polite knife. "Much better."


It filled the whole doorway, bent down under the top of it like a grown man looking into a dollhouse. Broken chains hung off its wrists like bracelets. Its skin was the grey of old dishwater.


Its eyes kept moving. Left one, then right one, then left again, as if somebody new was sitting behind them and trying out the controls.


Target - Unknown (Race - Corrupted Human)


Inside: Overseer (mind only). Base of the skull.


'It moved house,' Alex thought. 'It just picked up and MOVED HOUSE.'


On the bed, Lena made a small sound. Selina stepped in front of her without looking, spear low, and the golden X came round to point at the thing's belly.


Chapter 146 - Chapter 146 - Overseer