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It was Geoffrey’s turn to blink. “Where I come from?”

‘Oh, Heavens, child! Don’t tell me you think you’re human!’

“No, I know I’m not. But I can’t say I know what I am, exactly, either.”

“You, my delightful friend, are what is known as an aberration. You are the offspring of the Void.”

“The Void? What are you talking about?”

“It’s a place,” Desmond explained. “The Void is what we call the space between this life and the next. It straddles the line between realities. Ezmortig here, he always has one foot in the Void, so to speak.”

‘But it’s also a consciousness,’ said Ezmortig. ‘People might tell you otherwise, but don’t you believe them. The Void has a silent will of its own, and it spawned you and all your kin. With a little help from Abolish, of course.’

“There are others like me?”

“Of course. You thought you were alone this whole time?”

Geoffrey just shrugged, making his balloon-hat bob.

“If you’d been born into Abolish’s care, that never would’ve happened.”

‘Interesting. I didn’t think aberrations could be born in the wild. Perhaps you were simply separated from Abolish by way of some mix up.’

Geoffrey cocked an eyebrow and chuckled. “Are you saying I was switched at birth?”

‘That’s possible, too, but not quite what I meant. While I don’t understand the finer details of the birthing process, I do know that aberrations are created after the fetus has already started growing in the womb. Maybe your mother received the treatment without her knowledge.’

Desmond smirked. “You think the research divisions have taken their work to public hospitals?”

The reaper paused. ‘Actually, now that you say that, I don’t think so. I doubt R&D would have been deployed to this country without a combat division for protection. There must be some other explanation for this boy’s presence here.’