I moved over to the sofa and had a seat, patting my oversized tummy. Full again. I closed my eyes, and must have dozed, for when I woke up my belly had shrunk again, and I could feel Ligeia entering my mind. But it wasn’t like all my other dinners, where I just got their memories; this was an actual persona moving in—a complete person.

My, it’s dusty in here, Ligeia said in my mind.

“Hey…um…what are you doing in there?” I said out loud, not sure how to talk back.

Oh, don’t worry, I won’t break anything. I might even be able to fix something. Let me just see…your memories only go back sixty years or so. I could feel her…rummaging around. It felt like what dentists do, except in my head instead of my mouth. It was more than a little disturbing, but I didn’t know what to do about it.

Oh, so that’s why. Ugh. But I can work with this.

“What is it?”

You’ve blocked the memories off yourself. And I just found out why.

“Oh.” I thought for a moment. “Why?”

Trust me, you don’t want to know.