"He has been doing it every year, he started almost from the beginning." He answers, shifting his hand to take the bloody handkerchief and ball it up so he could throw it away later.

"We will find out what they are really like soon, if Nine's machine works. The Protector hid Seven from us until now." He shakes his head, he wishes he could make the Microsoft Sam phone voice sound disappointed. Seven was always hidden until the moment they were released and started killing people. Usually, by that point, it was too late and there were too few monsters available to help stop them.

It was surprising that they hadn't needed to fight this year.

Nearby, footsteps start approaching from down the path. Who's that?