As Izzy glanced over to Holden, she saw that his situation seemed to be vastly different from hers. Rather than reacting with skepticism, he stood wide-eyed and shivering, sweat running down his temples in rivulets. While he had lowered his head as well as Izzy, he did not seem to do it out of mere obligation. With the intensity that he was staring down at the floor, it seemed very much like he was trying desperately to avoid looking at something. Unless he had suddenly taken ill from something in the wine, it seemed as likely as anything else that the Crab God was perceptible to him. Izzy couldn't know what it was like to perceive a god, but she could imagine it was something like witness Cerasus at his full power. Humbling and overwhelming, to the point of dehumanizing you.

"Alright, Holden. Step up here, and we'll kneel and pray together." Riley beckoned Holden to join him in front of the strange altar.

As though in a trance, Holden stumbled forward and joined Riley, and the both of them settled into a kneeling position in front of the altar. They didn't clasp their hands together as one did in Christian prayer, but folded their hands in the laps. Well, Riley did at first, and Holden followed suit in imitation of him.

Though she could only just hear him, Izzy could hear Riley praying quietly. "May the Lord hear you in the day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob defend you. Send you help from His sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion. Remember all your offerings, and accept your sacrifices. Grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill your mind." Rather than cross himself, Riley bowed to lower his head to the floor before the altar. "Amen."

Unsure of what to do, Holden did likewise, bowing to the altar. As both sat back up into their kneeling position, Riley spoke to Holden softly, "Holden, when have you last taken communion?"

Waveringly, he answered, "N-never before tonight."

"Given confession?"

"Never."

Riley paused, thinking, before asking, "When was the last time that you called to God for help?"

"I... I don't remember."

"Think for me. Was there a test you need to pass? Did one of your friends get in a wreck? Was one of your parents very sick?"

"I..." He started, and then jolted as he sat, as though shocked with electricity. "When I was thirteen. My father was in Minneapolis on business, and my mother brought another man to our house. I thought she was having an affair, so I stayed away. But they... they came up to my room to speak to me. He was the leader of the cult that she had joined. I tried to be polite and introduce myself but..." Holden breathed in deeply, and exhaled what was almost a sob. "He started touching me. He tried to..." He choked, and began to truly cry. "That's when I called to God, and I remembered. There was a knife at my bedside. My father gave it to me for my birthday, and he tried to teach me to whittle. I missed him, so I had it with me. I took the knife, and I... I..." He began to stutter, his sobs overtaking his speech.

"What happened, Holden?" Riley spurred him on, his tone soft but neither comforting nor hostile.

"I stabbed him in the arm. His blood got all over me and my clothes. He shouted and cursed, at me and my mother. He left me alone, but he hit my mother before he stormed out. The way she looked at me then, it was like I hit her. The whole time she never tried to help me. She barely even spoke to me after that. She was... censured, by her cult. They punished her, and she blamed me. My... my mother..."

As Holden broke down into further hysterics, he seemed to be rising back to his feet. However, this very quickly proved not to be the case, as even as he stood fully up he continued to rise, levitating inches off of the ground. That was when Izzy noticed that Holden was clutching at his neck, choking and coughing. He wasn't floating, the Crab God was lifting him off his feet. Then with speed and force that blew Izzy's hair back, Holden flew to the back of the classroom and slammed against the wall with enough force to crack the drywall. He hung against the wall, as though nailed there, and continued to scrabble fruitlessly at his neck.

Riley cursed under his breath, and gave Izzy a brief, tired look, before rolling up the sleeves of his robe and stomping over to where Holden was pinned to the wall. He took hold of something unseen just in front of Holden, ostensibly the Crab, and with a motion that seemed much like a baseball swing, rotated his hips while pulling at the invisible Crab. Evidently this was enough to rip the Crab away from Holden, who then dropped to the floor, and Riley released his grip on the Crab, which seemed to fly to the opposite side of the room, destroying the altar and slamming into the far wall.

"Guess we're doing this the hard way," Riley grumbled as he stepped confidently to where it seemed that the Crab had landed.

"No!" Holden called out, coughing. His eyes were bloodshot and there was a bruise already forming on his neck, but from where he stood on his hands and knees he called out to Riley. "Wait! I understand now. You were right all along, I was being selfish. I didn't want my memories. I didn't want to be burdened and tainted by them. I wanted my life to be free of pain. But my memories are mine, to have and to bear." He dropped down from his hands, pressing his forehead to the floor. "Please, give me my memories back. I'll accept them, I'll accept everything. Please, give my mother back to me."

Moment after agonizing moment passed in the room. With Riley standing tensely in the middle of the room, next to Izzy, and Holden with his face to the floor in prostration. The pressure in the room was immense, and Izzy could scarcely tell if minutes or hours were passing as they stayed like that. Each unsure of what to do, or if they could move. A scene frozen in time. But at last, the tension broke. A sea-scented gale, like the wind over the ocean during a storm, blew through the room, fluttering Izzy's hair, and Riley's robes and talismans. The candle flames were whipped out by this, plunging the room into darkness, but only for the barest moment before the faintest light of dawn appeared over the horizon, and began to stream in through the dusty, broken window.

Holden began to cry again, his sobs interspersed with laughter. He sat back up, trying to wipe the tears and grime from the floor away from his face, but only succeeding in making dirty smears across his face. He sputtered from the tears running into his mouth as he laughed, and eventually stood unsteadily up from the floor.

"Kneeling like that hurts my knees," He said, eventually, "I just feel so awfully heavy."