I've gotta get weirder

Simon was… trying to come to terms with everything.

Simon didn’t know what to believe. Ryland said that mass couldn’t disappear, but he’d never stared in the eye of the Light and the Blood Eel. He didn’t know about the Light. No one did. Simon couldn’t shake the feeling that he was supposed to die with that knowledge. Simon didn’t understand it even, and the more time he spent in this odd space station, the further it seemed. Was any of that real? Had it all been one big hallucination caused by his body breaking down under the agroglobin? Was this all a hallucination? It didn’t feel real. Sitting here in the dark, the universe spinning, spinning, spinning outside his window. The red was fading as they were pulled through Threeworld’s orbit, but Simon’s unease didn’t lessen.

They were still too close to it. The star-eaters. They needed to flee, not study it. Why didn’t anyone else see that? Some things weren’t meant to be discovered. Some things weren’t meant to be found.

Eyes up, Convict.

Simon gasped. Ava. Her voice rang through his mind as clear as day, as if she were right there in front of him, giving him his prison sentence. Her milky eye staring at him in judgment. His head snapped up, as if by some involuntary force, and locked onto Ryland, still slumped at his desk. It was dark, but Ryland was there, glowing a faint, hazy red. Immediately, something settled in him at seeing the man who saved his life. Ryland was here. Ava was not.

It's a trap.

“No, it’s not,” Simon muttered, voice nearly whispering in the quiet darkness. It echoed the same thing as it had days ago, stubbornly insisting Simon was not safe here. He wanted so badly for this clean, kind station to be safe.

“Simon?” Adrian trilled. Simon couldn’t bring himself to respond.

The voices seemed to think Ryland was setting a trap for him, but he couldn’t be. He couldn’t. Ryland wanted him to live. He liked having Simon around. He said that, out loud, to Simon’s face. Ryland needed Simon to live. He was useful. He had information. Information… that Simon wasn’t sharing right now, but he would. He wouldn’t stay quiet forever. He just needed to think.  

You should consider yourself lucky. Ava’s voice echoed. Well, you are lucky.

Guilt sank into Simon’s spine. His left shoulder itched under the wraps. He was still alive while Ava was dead at the bottom of the ocean, melded with the Blood Eel or digesting in its stomach. He got to live while she went down to get him and didn’t come back up.

It's still there.

“It’s not still there,” Simon hissed. There was no danger here. No blood ocean. The agroglobin was dead. “It’s dead, alright? It’s dead. So just shut up and be dead, already.”

Look at me.

Ryland shifted, letting out a low moan in the dark, and Simon’s eyes snapped back to him. The scientist’s back shuddered, and Simon’s heart hammered in his chest as he watched a cough wrack up to his shoulders. He was slumped over, shivering, and then something red and thick spilled out of Ryland's mouth with a pained noise, splattering onto the floor.

Simon’s heart dropped to his toes. He was up in an instant, eyes wide with horror as his gaze locked onto the pool of glowing red at Ryland’s feet. This couldn’t be happening. The blood couldn’t have gotten Ryland. The scientist said it was IR light, but agroglobin ran hot, so Ryland could be vomiting blood. Just like the researchers, just like he had in the SM-13. What else could it possibly be? Simon’s chest shook with the beginnings of a terrified noise, stifled, as he slowly took a step forward. He wobbled with each step, trying to keep his balance, but he had to wake Ryland up, get the UV light, do something.

It's right behind you.

Simon flinched, his head turned back behind him despite himself. He only saw the spinning red of the planet they were orbiting. The planet infected with astrophage. Was it astrophage that Ryland was infected with? Eating something nearly as bright as the stars?

It’s watching you.

He turned back to Ryland when he heard the telling sounds of him vomiting again, the splash of the liquid on the floor. The scientist let out a low moan of pain, not moving from where he was leaning against the desk. Chills pebbled over Simon’s skin as he took another step. He almost didn’t want to see. Didn’t want to approach, but he had to. Ryland saved his life, and now he was suffering for it.

You are the only one who can! Ava's voice started to shout, startling him in the eerie quiet. Simon flinched as Ava’s voice was overlaid with the whispering voice that had been taunting him for hours. They don't know the danger of this place. This isn’t helping. We have to warn them-! I don’t think that’s possible. We can't die down here!

“Shut up,” Simon growled to them, but they did not listen, incessant, insisting that he -survive, no matter what, do you understand me?! You can still redeem yourself.

“Ryland?” Simon croaked, voice hoarse as he gripped the table and staggered forward. He distantly heard some musical notes, another grating voice, but what was another voice? Add it to the cacophony in his mind.

None can be allowed to see the light again! The voice roared, overlapped with Ava’s shout, You have to go now! What are you waiting for?!

“Ryland!” Simon nearly pleaded as he pulled himself closer.

Simon’s hand closed around Ryland’s shoulder, and the man jolted under his touch.

Simon, please! Simon, please listen to me!

Ryland turned, and in the darkness, his eyes were hollow and gaunt, sunken in. Dark and gaping but red, red, red at the pupil. Blood leaked from his mouth in rivets of red. Simon flinched back, hand retreating as horror doused him.