It has been a long time since Janus was in a body of his own. Perhaps it's not his-- he's borrowing the body of some punk asshole with a brown leather jacket. It's better than nothing, though. At least they're linked by a thread of loneliness and desperation, which makes everything easier.

There are two roads laid out before him. He could try to find Despina-- his darling Despina, his kickass girlfriend, though he regrets what that damn wizard made him do-- or he could do something else.

He could get his revenge.

He shouldn't. He should try to resist the urge to rip the life from everyone who ever hurt the two of them. Giving in to the rage isn't going to help anyone.

But maybe he doesn't want to resist any longer. Maybe he wants to burn it all down again.

Lake Wonder has changed a lot over the years. He tries not to stare too much at the renamed shops, the closed-down and newly-opened businesses, or the place where the Burger King used to be. Even the library, an institution of the town itself, has changed. It has a dome now.

Janus has to pretend to be Jacob Kezele, though, and this is the version of Lake Wonder that Jacob Kezele is familiar with. It's 2022, not 2009. Jacob Kezele should be unfazed, even if Janus Hauer isn't.

Janus isn't sure why he's alive again. He thought it was over when the wizard killed him and stuffed his body in a closet. He can't remember how it happened-- just that the last thing he saw before waking up by the edge of the lake was that of an older man in deep blue robes hovering over him with magic crackling at his fingertips. It was clean, clear electricity-- or maybe it was something worse.

And then there was Despina on the shore next to him.

She died at Janus's hands.

It wasn't his fault.

It wasn't. He was the one who did it, but it wasn't him. It was the damn wizard, and Janus doesn't know how but he knows it. He knows it as well as the sun knows the dew dropped grass and as thoroughly as Jacob Kezele loves pilk. When he tries to find the reason, all he can hear is the sound of water on rocks.

He can hear the other boy in the back of his new head, the one with the weird fauxhawk. He wants pilk. Janus is willing to compromise.

There's no point in resisting either of their instincts. Jacob wants milk with Pepsi in it. Janus wants revenge. They can both have what they want.

Who cares if a few people die along the way?