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Hershey grabbed the flashlight under his bed and laid there, looking at it. Gingerly, he turned it on, shining it at the wall. It was morning, but the barred window’s light had been blocked by a screen he couldn’t take off. He hadn’t left the room all night.

As he played with the light, an idea popped into his head. Hershey pointed the light directly on his hand and waited…

It caught fire.

Hershey gasped out of surprise, about to put himself out when he realized that it didn’t burn. He poked his burning hand and felt no pain at all. Hershey waved his hand back and forth like a beacon, allowing himself to smile. Caught up in the moment, he shot the fire up into the air, and it went out before hitting the ceiling with a sizzle.

But there was still fire on his hand.

Hershey laughed out loud and then covered his mouth instantly, not having heard his own voice in so long. He turned off the flashlight, but once it was off, so was the flame.

Loving it, Hershey turned it back on right when his door began to make noises. Hershey quickly turned off the light and looked ahead as the door to his room opened and faint daylight came in.

It was Arthur, of course.

“Come on,” he said, opening the door wider. “We have a guest.”

Hershey knew his knees hadn’t broken when they slammed him down on the marble floor, but he did suspect bruising.

The Nat squinted at the light coming out from the six windows in the back room of the repair shop. Light was a blessing, but he had recently learned it was also a curse. Hershey could already feel the ropes around his ankles and arms tingle. They weren’t directly in the sun, so he was safe for now…

Or rather they were safe.

The downside to being lined up for what he could only assume was an auction was that his humanity was lost. But, the upside was that he was finally meeting people in his same predicament.

They were all in a row, so Hershey couldn’t see very far down the line. He turned to his left to see a teenage girl younger than him crying so hard she was shivering. Hershey turned to his right and saw another teenage girl with the same exact face crying the same way. Twins, Hershey realized, and decided that was enough looking.

“Hey!” one of the gentlemen in charge screamed. “Shut up!” he said to the two girls.

The twins couldn’t, but they tried to be quieter as the heel-clicking got louder. Hershey looked up at the woman entering the room. Her 1-inch grey heels clanked tauntingly, and Hershey had to applaud her for matching her loose grey blouse and tight yellow skirt with her grey shoes and golden hoop earrings so well.

She held no purse, which Hershey for some reason found comforting. At least she’s not a total cliché, he thought. But there was something off about her, something only Hershey noticed.

“Is this all of them?” she asked Arthur. The woman paced, looking at the ten or so.

She had no neck jewelry.

“Just the ones who wouldn’t cooperate,” Arthur said.

She was white with her brunette hair in a braid over her shoulder.

“We prefer to keep the cooperating ones away from our little deals. It would make it too hard for them to agree, not to mention they’d be moved.”

Her nose was surprisingly small.

“Yes, I understand,” she responded. “An inconvenience is an inconvenience.”

Her eyes were—

Hershey gasped abruptly, his own eyes widening once he saw the black and white eyes masquerading behind the sweet, baby blue ones.

Her eyes whipped on him faster than he could look away, and she stalked over. Hershey’s face was jerked up by her long fingernails digging into his cheeks, and she saw right through his peculiar gold eyes.

She smiled. “Hello Nat,” she greeted. Hershey could hear the twins beside him whimpering as they avoided eye contact.

“Arthur, I’ll take this one,” she announced, letting his face go.

Arthur looked worried as he approached her. “A-Are you sure you don’t want to pick someone else? The twins maybe? They’ll be half off. He’s just really good for…” Arthur glanced down at Hershey. “…business.”

“I believe our deal was that I pay you, and then I get to pick. What’s the point of paying if I don’t get the one I want, hm?” She tilted her head at him, belittling him.

Hershey’s breathing was irregular. But even still, he spoke. “Are you really going to let her take me?” Hershey said to Arthur.

Shut up!” the snake snarled down at him.

Hershey ignored her. “I’ll make you much more money than she’s paying you—”

“You’re not that special,” Arthur said back.

“I doubt that.” Arthur’s nostrils flared, realizing it was true. “Foreigners aren’t as stupid as you think, huh?” Hershey snapped.

Arthur stuttered before launching back. “You won’t cooperate.”

“I’ll do anything.”

Hershey felt a pain in his heart saying it, and he knew that it showed through his eyes. He kept himself together. “Just please…don’t let her take me.”

Arthur couldn’t help the smug smile taking over his expression. The woman stepped closer to him, getting into Arthur’s face. “Are you really negotiating with the merchandise?” she hissed.

Arthur looked her in the eye and smiled. “What can I say, money talks.” The smile dropped. “Now pick someone else, or take your money and get out.”

The woman snarled, and now even Arthur could see some of her true nature. “Fine,” she snarled. “I’ll take the twins.”

Arthur clapped. “Wonderful!” He turned to the two giant men. “Take the twins and put them in the truck for Ms. Schumer,” he instructed.

The two twins screamed as the men grabbed them and gagged them. Hershey stared down at the floor as they went, suddenly feeling naked on both sides. The woman followed the two men and the twins toward the back of the shop, stopping suddenly before exiting the shop. She turned around and spoke, but not to Arthur.

Her eyes burned into the top of Hershey’s bowed head. “I know what you are…and I will get you one way or another.”

And with that, she left.

Arthur sighed, walking over slowly to Hershey. He squatted to his height, lifting up his chin. “You wanna tell me what the hell that was about?” Arthur asked; he looked threatening.

Hershey looked lazily into his eyes. “Not really,” he whispered back.

Arthur nodded, letting his chin go. But the second that cocky smile landed on his face, Hershey knew what was coming.

The slap burned, leaving a pink mark on his face. Hershey bore it with pride, knowing all pain meant was that he had gained an upper hand.

So when he went back to his room, and he threw up, he knew he must have gained a lot.

Time.

That night, Beta and Hershey planned to look around the home and try to find something to help. Beta was in the room, getting ready to head out and meet Matrix in the laundry room. There was an unexpected knock on the door.

Beta watched the door carefully, making his way over with caution. Expecting Matrix in a frenzy, his muscles tightened even more when he saw who it was.

Leo.

The strange boy cleared his throat, leaning against the doorframe nonchalantly. “Could I…talk to you in the hall maybe?”

Against all his better judgement, Beta couldn’t help but nod, not sure what else he could possibly do as it was dark, everyone was asleep, and Leo was dangerously close.

As Beta shut the door to his room behind him, he felt like he was shutting the lid on his own coffin. Beta turned around and Leo let out a giant breath, taking a step closer. “You are Beta, right?” Beta swallowed the bile in his throat, staring heavily at the young boy as he clutched his bag tightly. “I don’t want to…you know…have the wrong person. Wouldn’t that be awkward.”

Beta took a while before answering, Leo’s words stimulating him in a positive way. He wasn’t sure what it was about Leo that just made him smile so fearlessly. “Why does it matter who I am?”

Leo ignored the question and went on to say, “And your friends. Hershey and Matrix, right?”

Beta’s head tilted, but he never broke away from Leo’s psychotic gaze. Leo knew Hershey, and that meant he knew where he was. Still, Beta grinned. “Sounds like a question you should ask them.”

“Mmm, valid.” Leo put a hand against the wall beside Beta, getting even closer to his face. Beta chuckled. “I’ve always wondered what zombie tastes like.”

A shiver went down Beta’s spine as Leo’s other hand rerouted to the other side of Beta, creating a sort of cage. It was a good shiver, an excited shiver, a shiver that said I dare you. “…For your sake, I hope we never find out.”

Beta’s thought process faltered momentarily to take in what he had said. “Who’s we?”

Before he could respond, the shelf next to them toppled over, startling the two boys. They turned to look at it and in this time, Beta turned to his left and saw a small glimpse of a door shutting beside him.

It wasn’t long before their focus was back on each other. Leo rolled up his sleeves, trying to make his stance even more threatening. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a kitchen knife.

“Oh you really don’t want to do that mate,” Beta breathed, his cheeks rising once more.

“Actually, I think I do,” Leo said. “So…I’m gonna kill you now, carve you up real good and save you for Thanksgiving.”

Beta’s eyes shifted. “It’s July.”

“I don’t care.” Beta just nodded. “And it’ll be nice…and slow. I promise.” As he was about to go to work on Beta, Beta decided to give the kid some leeway. Instead of unleashing hell on him,

He screamed.

“Where is this kid?” Matrix paced back and forth in the laundry room, unable to stay still with his overactive imagination. He had been waiting for Beta for a good two minutes, and to Matrix that was simply too long a wait.

At his breaking point, he tore the door open to go look for his friend. But, when he saw the scene playing out in the hallway, he swung the door back gently. It wasn’t closed all the way, afraid it would make too much noise. At that moment, he thanked the Lord for house renovations. Matrix’s mouth hung open as he paced again, unsure of what to do.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind.

Matrix pulled the door open, acting quickly. His hand twitched, but that twitch brought the entire shelf standing to the left of Beta and Leo crashing down. As they turned, startled, Matrix leaped over to the room beside his; Leo’s room. The Stak barely saw Beta’s head turn his way before he shut the door behind him. He entered the other room on cat feet, and Beta and Leo turned back to face each other in the darkness.

Matrix cursed himself for not bringing a flashlight. The light from the window did little to help. He looked around the bedroom blindly, seeing only large objects like the bed and the dresser, but nothing of raging importance. Although he did notice that there was something quite pungent in the room. Matrix scrunched his face, disgusted by the scent…

At first.

But then, after fully taking it in, his senses were numbed with joy and eagerness to find the source of such a sweet, sweet scent. Being in the room with so much shadow made it exceptionally hard for him as he stumbled around searching for its origin.

Finally, walking beside the bed, his foot connected with an object. The object was unmistakable.

He knew what a corpse felt like at the bottom of his shoe’s sole.

“—And save you for Thanksgiving.”

Before Matrix could get any ideas of what to do with the body, he heard the awakening scream. He looked around panicked, cursed, and stepped out into the hallway.

The two boys and Leo came together in the hallway, glaring at one another.

Leo looked over as Matrix exited the room. “What the hell were you doing in my room?” the kid barked, stepping closer to the dazed man. Suddenly lights turned on and the other boys, along with Frankie, came out of their rooms. Leo got into Matrix’s face, his eyes threatening as Matrix just laughed in response. “Well I wasn’t having a tea party.”

“Who screamed?” Frankie asked sternly.

Beta spoke up. “Sorry Frankie. I thought I saw someone…it was just the dresser.” He pointed to the tipped over piece of furniture.

It took Frankie a few seconds, but eventually she nodded. “Okay, everyone back to your rooms,” she ordered.

Leo pushed past Matrix and went into his own room without a second glance at Beta. Matrix turned back to Leo quickly, a comment brewing. “Oh and Leo, buddy, take a shower sometime. It smells like somebody died in there—!” The door shut violently.

Matrix turned to Beta excitedly. “Spoiler alert, somebody did die in there!” the Stak hissed.

“What?” Beta replied.

“There’s a dead guy in his room!” He spoke louder as the hallway cleared. “Pretty sure it’s fresh, it smelled fresh.”

“Huh,” Beta pondered. “I don’t think I saw the big kid when the hallway filled. You think it was him?”

“Now that I think about it…” Matrix tried to remember its shape. “Could be. He probably killed him because…” Matrix’s face settled. “Oh man.”

“What?” Beta asked.

“I think I know what’s going on,” His fingers ran over his lip repeatedly, thinking. “The dead body, Leo, the foster home…I think Leo’s somehow making these kids give up their lives for him.”

Beta blinked, answering with the same uniform, “What?”

“I’ve seen it before. Another kid who’s stuck in this ‘business’ tries to get other kids in too. It’s routine…I think they saw Hershey and thought ‘Hm, teenage Asian? Sounds…’” Matrix couldn’t finish. He took a deep breath in. “I think the Syncs could be in on this too.”

“How so?”

“Willing kids or slaves. Either way I don’t think they care. Easier food, right? I don’t really know, but something tells me buff guy hear didn’t exactly cooperate. We should follow him tomorrow, see where that leads—”

“Why didn’t you come?”

Matrix’s mouth shut and his eyes shifted. “Come…for what?”

“Me, when Leo was about to kill me,” Beta clarified. “Why didn’t you do anything?” Matrix didn’t respond, not sure what to say. “Did you tell me the Syncs were in on this so I’d work harder to find Hershey?” Beta didn’t need a response, he could tell by Matrix’s gaze. “Matrix…if this is about your ridiculous notion that I don’t care about Hershey then—”

“I never said that,” Matrix interrupted. “I don’t doubt that you care about him…just not nearly as much as I do.” Matrix’s nostrils flared. “Look, I didn’t do anything because I know the power you have sitting pretty inside you. Even though you like to pretend you’re normal, you’re not. You don’t need me as badly as you think you do, Beta.” Matrix bit his lip and looked around the now vacant hallway. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Beta sighed, pretending he didn’t just hear what he heard. “Fine, we’ll head out in the morning and follow Leo, but Matrix—”

“Fine, then goodnight Beta,” he said, walking to their room and climbing back into bed.

Beta sighed as he looked past him. “…I’m sorry,” he whispered, before following suit.