Saint James Infirmary #924: “In Dark and Empty Skies”

If today is Saturday in the story then Cherry unleashed her blood monster on Monday.

We know that Vik met the monster on Tuesday night.

The last time we saw Zenon alive (and the first time we saw his face) was in 247 on Sunday, when he realised the pendant had been stolen. As early as Monday Claudia said he'd stopped returning her calls - but that was before the monster was unleashed. His disappearance didn't start to be investigated until Wednesday, and in any case Kanti figured he'd disappeared of his own volition. So the timing of his disappearance doesn't tell us when he met the monster.

But the key question remains: why did the monster target Vik, and why Zenon?

Three women came out of The Cloud in 859: Patricia, someone else, and the cop.

As far as I can see the two women left at the hospital in 710 were the female security guard and the nurse (Beth) who was in the room with the cop when the monster approached. It's not clear where those women's minds are at, but it seems that they were never physically in The Cloud.

Vik used Pink Clouds on Patricia (when he attempted to use her to shoot Julian in 435). After that failed, Vik used Pink Clouds on the cop, partly in order to get another gun (438). So Vik had used Pink Clouds on two of the women who came out.

But Vik also used Pink Clouds on Laura, Alex, Katie, Amy, and Kanti (anyone else?). None of these appear to be the other woman who came out of The Cloud. Alex and Katie may or may not have been at the hospital when the monster visited, but it doesn't appear to have taken them.

The one thing that I think distinguishes these women from Patricia and the cop is that they had all had the antidote used on them. Kanti did end up in The Cloud, but only after Cherry brought her to it.

So, I've no idea who the third woman was, although I don't think we've seen her since, so maybe she was a mistake. And it seems possible that these two particular women were targeted because they were still under the influence of Pink Clouds - although that seems a little too fanciful an idea. Regardless, it does seem that the monster was targeting women connected to Vik, so yes, maybe Vik was somehow in charge.

Zenon is part of the Watch thread, but there are connections between the Pink Clouds thread and the Watch thread. Vik's ring for Amy had links to Jakob's experiments in mind control. And Vik has tried to kill Julian, as well as selling him Kanti, Alex, and Katie. And of course, Julian has continued to stay at the motel, which may have been the reason the monster came back there, rather than simply because Vik had been staying there, or because Patricia was there. After all, it's likely that Julian's injury and the appearance of The Cloud are connected.