“You’re serious?” I asked.

“As a coronary,” Eren answered.

The disheveled young man wearing a black apron over a red shirt behind the burger counter looked utterly bored. “May I take your order?”

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. “One French fry, please.” I tried sounding enthusiastic.

“Small, medium, or large?”

“No, just a single fry. One.”

He actually winced. “Um, we don’t sell them like that…”

“You may charge me the full price, but I only want one fry. A good one.”

Chin perched on folded hands over the counter and swaying like an eager child, Eren gazed up fondly at the menu before elbowing me when the cashier hadn’t moved.

“As fresh as possible with a dusting of salt,” I added. “Served in the large container.” I handed a payment card to him.

He pushed some buttons on his register. “Okay, anything else? What about your kid?”

Looking down suspiciously at Eren, words were being mouthed up at me in silence. Not a fig-ment.

I flashed a reassuring smile back to the cashier. “Just the fry, thank you.”

Seated at a table with our order, Eren fussed with the French fry, gazing happily at it but still waiting for… something.

“It’s getting cold,” I said. “Eat it.”

“Perfection takes time.” Eren blew slightly on the potato stick. “You have to wait until the oil dries up just enough to achieve maximum crispness.” Satisfied at last, the fry was consumed in a single bite, followed by an eternity of euphoric chewing.

I took the moment to press. “You never did tell me what you are.”

“A scamp is as good as anything else you might call me,” came the answer with a wink. “You’ll understand better once you come into your own. Trust the process. This isn’t the first time you’ve been reborn. And thank you.”

“For the French fry?”

“For the distraction.” The snack was swallowed at last. “Scavenger squirrels bore quite easily, even more than fry cooks.”

Secrets were not something one kept from scamps, apparently.

“Honesty is the best policy.” Eren grinned. “Ready for that aforementioned help, Professor Cultro?”

“It’s not going to hurt, is it?”

Faster than I could blink, a single finger was touched to my forehead.

It felt like being pushed off a cliff… and everything that comes after.

After the falling sensation ceased, I found myself in a reclined position. It felt comfortable at first, with panic setting it when I noticed the leather straps binding me in place. A room came into focus, followed by voices. The lights above me were blinding.

“He’s coming out of it… how did it wear off so quickly?” A man’s voice.

“We’re not ready yet. It isn’t taking. We’re losing him…” A different man, sounding less assured.

The voices originated from two men with faces out of focus, but the cut of their matching shirts and embroidered vests suggested what Eren had call The Roar. Next to me was an apparatus, glass tubing and metalwork of some kind, and my bound arm was pierced by a wire connected to this device. My sleeve was rolled up, and I could see I was dressed similarly to them, like part of a gentlemen’s club. Did we know each other? It all seemed familiar…

“Who is that? No one is supposed to be in here!”

One of the lights was knocked aside. I couldn’t make out the face, but the silhouette of a top hat and distinctive outline of a frock coat were visible. I felt cold metal pressed to my forehead, right where Eren had touched me.

“This will speed you on your way,” spoke a new voice, not near enough to my ear to sound like the gravelly whisper it was. “Until the next time around…”

A metallic click preceded the explosion that shattered my consciousness and cast me into watery darkness.

“Sir? Sir, can you hear me?”

My eyes snapped open, but for an instant I couldn’t move.

Slumped in the chair, many of the same people Eren had stolen food from were all looking at me.

The big man, the one I warned Eren away from, was speaking. “Are you hurt?”

“Why would I be hurt?” I replied.

“You screamed.”

I glanced about as I tried to sit up. Eren and the fry container were gone. I looked toward the burger counter, but it wasn’t the same cashier as earlier. Had it ever been?

“I must have fallen asleep,” I said. “I had a nightmare, I think.”

“So, you’re good?”

I nodded, and people started to drift back to whatever they were doing before.

Sitting in quiet contemplation waiting for everyone to forget about me, I pondered my situation. When had I fallen asleep? Did I dream Eren up? A nightmare sounded preferable to a hallucination, but it had all seemed real, both the scamp and the memory. I couldn’t leave it alone without some sort of verification.

Hobbling back over to the burger counter, I never got the chance to ask my question.

“Hey, it’s one-fry guy!” the cashier’s familiar voice echoed from the kitchen area as he emerged. “Where’s your weird kid?”

Or start from the Beginning

. . .