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“Eat.”

“No.”

“Now.”

“Where’d you even find that thing?”

“I killed them.”

“Well that’s not true.”

“Look at it.” Matrix opened the paper bag and cowered, repulsed at the charred head. “You chopped it off Austin’s dead body?!” he hissed.

“His name was Arthur, first of all, and second of all no.” The Nat paused. “It just sort of fell off.”

“Hershey—”

“Matrix,” Hershey interrupted, grabbing his arm roughly. “I saw how you looked at those bodies…you were hungry.”

Matrix looked Hershey in the eye, obviously offended by what he had said. The boy pushed his glasses up, Matrix having grabbed them before leaving the library. The exchange was rather awkward, but both friends liked to not think about it. “That Sync who almost took you? Yeah, I’m sure she was hungry too.”

Hershey sighed. “You’re not like them—”

“How do you know?” Matrix countered. “Cannibalism is one label, and labels are used to group people together, are they not?” Matrix awaited a response.

Hershey’s initial response was going to point out that technically Syncs weren’t cannibals because they weren’t eating the same species, but he set that thought aside. “Labels are just…crap,” Hershey said lousily, unable to think of anything else to say comfort-wise.

“You’re a higher-up, Matrix.”

JuJu bit her nail as she held the phone to her ear. “You don’t exactly have to ask politely.”

Matrix sighed, turning around to see if Beta and Hershey were still in Hershey’s room talking. He stood in the mansion’s hallway, talking to JuJu in a hushed voice. “Yeah, whatever, just make sure your Tenties don’t go so hard on Beta and Hershey when we get close to ship, all right?”

“As long as you guys don’t go so hard on us.”

“All we’re doing is spraying you, you should be thanking me,” Matrix said, lowering his voice again once he realized it was rising.

JuJu chuckled. “We’ll be waiting.”

Matrix tilted his head and shook it. “No…labels are everything.” He looked away from Hershey and Hershey just sighed and continued scrolling through the computer they stole from the traffickers. The toilet flushed and not long after the sink ran. Beta walked out feeling refreshed and jumped right back into his laptop on his own bed.

“Find anything?” Beta asked Hershey.

Hershey looked up. “Nothing. Literally, nothing. There’s a gap between the two houses next to the ‘so-called address’ your creepy voice friend sent us. It just leads to woods, woods, and more woods,” he reported. “But, when I typed it into a search engine it was like the internet buzzed with familiarity. But, every time I try to figure out why the spot’s so popular, there’s some bug hijacking all of the websites. It’s like the Illuminati lives here.” Hershey sighed. “Something’s wrong.”

“Matrix, do you have anything?” Beta redirected.

Matrix smiled and looked up. “Glad you asked. I have actually found a lot on this ‘business’ Austin and the gang were running, not so much on the Syncs. All I can find is an email from an anonymous source saying, and I quote: ‘One piece of merchandise per week for a whole lot of money. Come if you’re interested.’ and then an address. The address is just some coffee shop and I still don’t know what the meeting was about. Whoever started the meet-up was very careful that no one else knew about it. I—” But Matrix stopped, seeing the sullen look cross Hershey’s face as he spoke about it. The two hadn’t had a real conversation about what happened since it happened, and neither really wanted to. Hershey wanted to forget it happened, and Matrix wanted to forget he let it happen. That was it. “Never mind,” Matrix finished off.

Beta scratched his head. “Alright, we’ll keep looking then.”

The three boys sat in their hotel room in silence now, trying to figure out why Elias had sent them to Aspen, Colorado. Once the foster home fiasco was over with, Elias didn’t skip a beat in instructing them on where to go next. Of course, this was to Hershey’s utter annoyance and to Matrix’s hesitation.

“Aha!” Beta exclaimed.

“What?” Matrix strained to say, his eyes dulling of color and energy.

“There’s a clip out there of a peeping Tom outside a foster home in the middle of Aspen. It was taken with someone’s cell phone in a parked car,” Beta announced.

“What’s with these creepy picture takers?” Hershey muttered, focusing on his own research.

“You think it’s the Syncs?” Matrix asked.

“Well even if it’s not, I don’t think we’re getting much else.” Beta turned back to his computer and immediately frowned. “Oh.”

“‘Oh’ what?”

“It’s looking a bit upscale, but I think we’ll be fine.”

Hershey’s eyes narrowed. “Are you okay Beta?”

Beta looked up from his computer to Hershey. “Yeah, fine. Why?”

Hershey just shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve just never seen you so excited about, well, anything.”

“Let’s just say I’m ready to make some lives a whole lot better.” Beta went down to his computer again. “I’m sure this is part of my quest, to help people. I know foster kids, you say you know rich people.” Beta smirked, his eyes still set on the laptop. “No way they’d turn down an opportunity to make themselves look good.”

When Beta looked up he froze. He hadn’t seen Matrix look so beaten up before. His mouth was agape, and he didn’t even realize it. Matrix wasn’t paying attention, but once he realized how silent Beta was he looked up and met his gaze. “What?”

Beta shook off the feeling. “Um…nothing. Hopefully, we’ll be done in enough time before they go all public. We got the last one in what, two days?”

“We didn’t get anything. All that happened was a few more humans died and the one Sync we needed to die got away. We haven’t actually helped anyone yet, don’t jump the gun.” Hershey muttered all of that, seemingly unaware by the end that the others had actually heard it. He glanced up and met Beta’s fractured look, following up with, “Just saying.”

“Besides that,” Matrix jumped in. “We did have help.” He turned to Beta suggestively. Hershey and Matrix talked about what had happened to Beta, and there was one thing they agreed on: The voice in Beta’s head was dangerous. Beta, ignoring the comment, closed his laptop in a finalizing manner. “Sushi?”

“Again?” Matrix whined.

“If you don’t want it then get something else.”

“But then I have to order separately and it causes all these problems and I just—” Matrix got cut off when a knock hit the door. Beta got off the bed, crossed the room, and opened the door. His eyes narrowed at the unexpected guest. In hindsight, he should have been more cautious about opening doors to strangers. “Hello?”

There was a delivery woman there carrying three paper boxes with a logo printed on each. She wore her green company hat and company attire like a champ, smiling politely.

“Are you Beta?” She looked him up and down before continuing, not bothering to get his response. “This is your order?” Beta, again, opened his mouth to reply but she wouldn’t let him, handing the boxes over along with a clipboard and a pen. “Sign?” Beta, confused about what was happening, checked the boxes first.

“Ah,” he said, understanding once he looked inside. “Okay then.” Beta signed off and handed the clipboard back to her. And still, she stood there, waiting pleasantly. Beta pursed his lips and shook his head. “Uh, you’re not getting a tip. Bye!” and he let the door shut. Beta put the boxes on the bed and Hershey and Matrix waited in anticipation for him to open them. And he did, and inside was a fresh array of sushi.

“Aww! You already ordered it!?” Matrix grouched.

“Uh…no,” Beta responded, instinctively smelling the sushi to make sure it was the correct smell of raw fish.

“So…who sent it?” Hershey asked.

Beta gave Hershey a look. “Who do you think?” A grumble was heard from the other side of the room and Beta turned to Matrix as he looked up, his face covered with bitter knowledge. “Ugh, don’t tell me it’s Elias,” he said, his tone showing a hint of disgust.

Beta leaned back on his bed and shrugged, pulling a piece out of the box and chowing down. “It said it would reward us for all our ‘hard work,’” Beta said between chews. “I mean it’s not ideal, but it’s still bloody good sushi.” He took another piece.

“That’s kind of creepy,” Hershey commented as he stood up and walked over to Beta’s bed. He sat down and grabbed a piece, smelling it as Beta did. “Super creepy…” he repeated, eating the piece.

Matrix just watched his friend, dumbfounded. “I thought you hated the thing!?”

Hershey nodded. “I don’t trust it but…” Hershey shrugged. “It saved my life, Matrix. I can’t really blame it for that.” He ate more. “Actually, I kind of want to thank it.”

“See?” Beta gestured to Hershey who shook his head, not wanting to be his “example.” “Look, Matrix just eat.”

Matrix gave Beta a hard look. “I don’t want to eat anything that comes from that egotistical, bitchy, commanding, annoying, order giving, sushi buying douche bag.” Matrix took in a deep breath and continued typing away on the computer. “I still don’t forgive that bastard for taking over your body.”

Hershey swallowed before he spoke. “Again, I’m not saying that this thing is a saint. I do agree that we should be careful, your fake mother isn’t as trustworthy as she seems.” Matrix gestured to Hershey silently, showing with his eyes how much he agreed. “I still think we should head up to Illinois—”

“Yes, yes whatever. After this one I promise,” Beta said, ignoring them both. But as the silence fell, he felt a sensation rush over him and turned around, seeing his mother standing right there as if she had been summoned.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked. Hershey and Matrix tuned out, already used to the episodes, and just assumed he was talking to ‘someone else.’

It looked at him and smiled. “No,” it said.

“No what?”

“I’m not telling you what I really look like.”

“You know the whole ‘reading my mind’ thing is going to get really annoying really fast,” Beta added. “But since you brought it up, why not?”

“Because I don’t want you trying to find me.”

“Again, why not? Give me one good reason why we can’t work side-by-side.”

“I’ll give you one,” Matrix interjected, commenting without looking at Beta. “You’re literally the only one that wants it here.”

“It’s not you,” Elias said, ignoring Matrix. “Although, it’s not me either.”

“Then what?”

“You know what.” It walked off, staring now past Beta and at Hershey and Matrix head on.

Beta followed his line of sight to his friends, and Matrix was the first to look up, realizing he was being stared at. “Is he talkin’ about me?” Matrix asked, even though Beta’s mother stared even more heavily at Hershey, fearful of the Nat’s intelligence.

“Why is he a problem?” Beta asked.

“Excuse me. Problem?” Hershey chuckled in the corner at Matrix’s outburst, unaware that he was the one being talked about.

“He doesn’t matter!” Beta went on. “I mean, yes, Matrix might have called you an…uh—”

“—egotistical, bitchy, commanding, annoying, order giving, sushi buying douche bag?” Elias and Matrix repeated in unison. “And I meant it!” Matrix added, and if Beta hadn’t known better he would’ve guessed that his mother was smiling.

Beta smirked. “Yes, that. And Hershey might have agreed.” Hershey’s head popped up now. “But Hershey’s only mad because he doesn’t know who you are, not yet.”

“Well I’m mad for a lot more reasons but—”

“Doesn’t matter,” it said. “Anger is weakness, and weakness is trouble…I hope you remember that as you go into this foster home.” His mother’s head fell briefly before rising again, although not looking Beta in the eye. “Show no mercy…you show mercy and they see fear.” Finally, Elias looked Beta in the eye. “And you don’t want that.”

Before Beta could say anything else, his mom disappeared and the wave of reality flushed back like a clogged ear being popped. Beta sighed. He knew that he was becoming more attached to his own head than to his surroundings, and he knew that that was unsafe.

“Alright, I’m sick of this,” Matrix said, shutting his computer. “Let’s get down to business.”

“Derek! Get these kids to the spare bedroom, now! They’re freezing!” The lady pushed the three boys into Derek’s care and he took them, bringing them to the stairs.

“Up there,” Derek directed, but the three men didn’t know where ‘up there’ was. It was too dark in the midst of the night for them to see, but when one foot hit the first stair, the rest followed. They went down unlit hallways and ended up being pushed into one big, warm room. They were sat on the bed by Derek, being pushed down by his big hands.

“Are you three okay?” he asked once Beta, Hershey, and Matrix were down. “Do you need blankets, coffee—?”

Beta shook his head. “We’re fine. We were just…lost, is all.”

“Well where were you headed?”

“Nowhere in particular.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, our parents died,” Hershey stepped in. “We didn’t know what else to do so…” he shrugged, playing the innocent card extremely well.

“Okay, it’s okay.” The man gestured for them to stay in the room as he ran out.

The second he left, Matrix dropped his sad expression and explored the room. The blinds were closed, it was nighttime, and when Matrix checked the light he discovered it was broken. The walls seemed to be a light brown and there were four beds in total lined up against the wall opposite the door. It was a rather big space for a foster home’s “spare room.”

“I could live here,” said Hershey.

“We’re not living here. We’re just staying until we find the Sync. Which, by the way, I vote dealing with without Elias’ help,” Matrix said, giving Beta a glare, although Beta knew he was really glaring at the voice inside him. Before Beta could say anything, they heard the doorknob turning and rushed back to their spots on the bed.

Once Derek came in, the three boys looked up at him. There was a brief staring period, Beta reinstating the underaged charm. The man gave them all bottles of water, which they struggled to locate in the darkness.

“You’re safe here, I just want you to know that. Lord knows what you’ve experienced on your journey here. Where are you boys from?”

“Salt Lake City, Utah,” Hershey blurted out, only taking a moment to think about what he had said after he had said it. Beta turned his head to glare at Hershey. The man was taken aback. “Oh wow. That’s the next state over. You traveled all the way here from Salt Lake on your own?”

Matrix put on a slightly agitated smile. “It does look that way, doesn’t it?”

“My brother actually lives there. Funny…he was bouncing around in my mind too.” Derek shook his head and got back on track. “You all must be famished. You can stay here while I figure out this situation.” The man walked out of the room again and Matrix stood up the minute he was gone.

When the door shut, Matrix turned to look down at Hershey. Hershey frowned, looking around, trying to avoid Matrix’s gaze. It didn’t prevent him from pushing Hershey off the bed and letting him fall to the hardwood floor, simply with his gaze.

Beta shot up off the bed and turned to Matrix. “Are you bloody serious? You’re doing this now?”

“It was justified,” Matrix argued. “Who says the next state over, why would you even say that?”

“We don’t have time to do this right n—Oh my God!” Beta stopped his lecture as a well-compact ball of fire passed by his head and exploded in Matrix’s face, causing him to stumble backward and singe. Matrix blinked and then there was light, light coming from the lamp bedside of Hershey. Hershey still had his fingers on the switch as he blew out the fingers of his right hand dramatically. “Wanna try me again?” he taunted.

“Seriously?” the Stak cried out.

“You started it!” Hershey retaliated, stepping forward. Matrix picked up the lamp on the other side of the room and launched it at Hershey’s head, hitting Beta’s head in the process. Hershey ducked and it shattered against the wall. “Dangerous!” Hershey yelled.

“You’re…dangerous,” Matrix countered, his hand falling when he realized his comeback was lacking.

“Okay!” Beta interjected, holding his head. “You’ve made your points. Now cut it out and sit down before the man comes back,” Beta argued, but neither were really listening. “Hey! Don’t make me call Elias.”

Matrix and Hershey became quiet, but not complacent, rather unified in joined disappointment. “Did you just threaten us with an entity conjured up from your mind…and one that’s only every bossed you around?” Matrix snickered as Hershey said it, both boys smiling at their agitated friend. Beta just sighed, gesturing for them to come back to him lousily.

“Like I said,” Matrix started as they walked back to him. “Egotistical, bitchy, commanding, annoying, order giving, sushi buying douche bag.” Matrix had just gotten through the “douche” when he noticed Derek had come back with towels, plates full of food, and blankets.

Matrix, Beta, and Hershey stood side by side as they tried to cover up their mess, although it didn’t help that the smashed lamp was right next to the only working light source.

The man didn’t notice any of it, but he did notice their facial expressions. All that came out was, “Why does it smell like you burned something?”

“Goodnight boys.”

Derek turned off the lamp and they all relaxed a tad bit. Beta crawled onto the bed in the center of the room. Hershey was already snuggled into the bed on the far right. The second Beta put his hand on the pillow, a hand landed on top of his. Beta looked up to see a smug looking Matrix.

“Sorry but, I think it’d be more comfortable for you and your little voice if you both slept on the bed in the corner.” Matrix pushed Beta’s hand away and laid down on the bed instead. Beta rolled his eyes and set up camp on the other bed, snuggling in like it was his only comfort.

Unfortunately, Elias visited Beta a few hours later in his bed, proving everything Matrix had insinuated about them.

“Can’t you just leave me alone for one night?”

“I thought I was helping you.”

“Yeah, well, now you’re annoying me.”

“…is this about Hershey?”

Beta looked at the mother that he called a friend and turned over in his bed to stare her down. “Why is it always about Hershey with you? Why is he so special? Why didn’t you go jump into his head instead of invading mine?”

Matrix laid awake on the bed, hearing every word of what Beta said. He was going to say something sarcastic, but decided not to. Apart of him wanted to know himself. Matrix half expected to hear a response, but once he realized that it was all in Beta’s head, he willed himself to fall back asleep and forget about it.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” it responded. “Yes, Hershey is a big deal to me but I jumped into your head because I know you’ll listen and I know you need this more than he does.” Elias sighed and leaned up, Beta following his motion as the covers slid off of them both. “Get ready, I reckon tomorrow you’ll have a case to solve.” And with that, Elias disappeared and Beta was left to sleep freely.

But that night, he didn’t get much sleep…not like he ever did.