Max awoke. He was lying on a bed in a small room, and no one was saying "Poke him again," which was a good sign.
He glanced around his room; the window was open and he could hear the sound of the city beyond it.
His first thought that he was somewhere European, maybe a bed & breakfast kind of establishment.
He swung his legs from the bed and touched the wooden floor, and as his feet moved he could feel a tingling sensation shoot up them.
Outside his window he heard Frank arguing with a man, though it sounded French.
I don't know French.
And yet he could make out the gist of the conversation. Frank was asking the man about a tall slender fellow that was rumored to appear in a blinding flash of light, naked as a jaybird.
Max leaned out the window and saw Frank standing below, and off to one side he could see Angst leaning up against a car painting her nails. He was going to say something but the door to his room opened.
Max turned to see who entered. He instinctively reached for his guns but they weren't there. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Are you Max?" she asked back. "Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Karen."
Max could still hear Frank outside. He was feeling pretty confused and vulnerable, and he thought about calling out to Frank and Angst.
"Wait," Karen said. "This is probably going to sound strange..."
Max smirked. "I'm okay with strange..."
Karen continued. "Have you ever heard of keeping a dream journal? I keep one, but every night I've been on this vacation I haven't been able to remember my dreams..."
Max was very aware that Karen was blocking the only exit to the room, except the window. He couldn't hear Frank anymore; it made him nervous. He slowly edged his way towards the windowsill, glanced outside. Frank still down there, talking to Angst.
"Until last night," she said. "Last night I had a very specific dream, very vivid. A young girl, I think she was Japanese, told me an address - this address - and said... Well, I wrote it down..."
She reached into the pocket of her coat. Max tensed. Frank and Angst looked up to the window and saw him. Karen pulled out a piece of paper and read from it:
"She said, 'Max, that's not Frank and Angst. They are LEGACY shape-changers.'"
Max saw Frank and Angst start towards the front door of the building.
"What does it mean? What does all of this mean?" the woman asked.
Max held out his hand. "It means, Karen, that we have to get out of here."
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