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Matrix was pinned down on the ground by Tammy. By then, both sides had suffered from bruising in places that hadn’t been strained in a while.

Tammy growled as she aimed for Matrix’s neck. Matrix pushed her off and scrambled over to the lamp on the table, but his foot was snatched and all he could do was knock it off its platform before being dragged back down. Matrix turned on his back and raised his foot, slamming it into Tammy’s skull. He heard her neck snap. Tammy released Matrix and Matrix crawled away once more. He tried to will the kitchen knife on the other side of the room to come to him, but it wouldn’t budge.

Hershey was right, something was wrong with him and his abilities.

Before Matrix could figure out what, Tammy lunged back on top of him, blood dripping from her mouth and dropping onto the Stak’s face. Matrix’s wrists were pinned down by her hands and Tammy put her knee on his chest so that he couldn’t move. She started to laugh maniacally before putting on a serious face. “I never thought I’d be the Sync to kill a Stak, but I guess it’s my lucky day.” Tammy leaned in closer to Matrix, their noses almost touching. He built up as much saliva in his mouth and spat it in hers.

Tammy smacked her lips, tasting the saliva from the other man. “Mmm, salty. Is that bacon?”

“Oh, that’s disgusting,” Matrix whispered to himself. He glanced over at the knife and tried again to move it. It budged, but he could only do it a little at a time; he didn’t have that much time. The only chance he had was to make more. Matrix let his eyes drift back to Tammy, but this time with a different look, a newer look.

It was curiosity.

“Why are you doing this?” Matrix asked. Tammy tilted her head. “Why do you even hate us? We haven’t done anything to you.”

Tammy’s solemn look edged into a sneer. “You don’t know Elias, do you?” Matrix frowned, trying hard to get the knife closer by every inch possible. speaking as smooth as anyone could in this situation. “What do you mean?”

The knife was near his fingertips, but he was out of energy. He stretched as far as he could to reach it. Before Matrix could prepare for the hell before him, he flinched as Tammy pierced his wrists with her fingernails, barring her teeth. “How dumb you creatures have become.” Tammy took in a breath, a vein sticking out of her temple. “Any Sync, any dead, any Perna knows a friend of Elias, is no friend of ours.”

Matrix finally got a grip on the handle. “Well, that doesn’t make it a friend of ours either.” Matrix plunged the knife into Tammy’s neck, seeing it come out the other side. Tammy choked, but the screams didn’t last long as she fell with a thud on top of Matrix.

Immediately, Matrix pushed her off and crawled away. He tried to get up, hands shaky as he used the dresser for support. Matrix felt it coming before it came, and was able to get a few good steps toward the bathroom before vomiting all over the floor.

And then he saw the vomit, and he vomited again.

Hershey ran down the hallway, searching for his friends while trying to figure out where the blood trail had led to. While he was walking down the hallway he spotted Beta walking slowly out in front of him. They spotted each other and waved. Hershey ran over. “Hey, what happened?”

“Nothing important enough to share,” Beta decided. He gestured to Hershey’s back, which was still covered with the blood he had slipped on. “What’s with the blood?” He also gestured to his head. “And your horns are out.”

Hershey seemed surprised by the last part, completely unaware that they were showing. He left them still, head aching and knowing that if the Syncs could get away with murder, then he could get away with a little deformity. “Don’t worry about the horns. I think this is a tag team. I went into the kitchen and it was a bloodbath. But when I went out and walked back in it was spotless, given the few minutes between when I passed out but still. I think they’re attacking together, they take turns feeding and the other one stuck on janitor duty,” Hershey explained.

Beta followed the smudges of blood left behind with his eyes. “Well they’re not doing a great job,” he muttered.

“Yeah, I know. I’ll follow the smudges, check if anyone’s still lingering downstairs.” Beta nodded in agreement with Hershey.

“Be careful Hershey.”

Hershey turned back around just as Beta disappeared down the steps, his eyes widened. Be careful Hershey, he had said, and the thought made Hershey smile as he ran down the hallway.

He found the blood end at a busted-in door. Hershey rushed inside without thinking. First, he saw the girl Tammy—black-eyed and dead on the floor, then he saw the little girl torn apart and eaten, then he saw the blood everywhere, then the throw-up, and then Matrix. Hershey’s eyes widened and he walked over to his friend.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” Hershey asked.

“Physically, sort of, emotionally, not really,” Matrix panted, for some reason out of breath and sweating.

Hershey looked at Tammy; seeing her body shut down gave him an idea. Hershey turned to Matrix, his face serious. “Eat her.”

“I’ll eat her when you eat her.”

“I’m serious, Matrix. Your stomach acid could kill them for good. So, eat her.” Hershey’s face lit up with hope.

“But we don’t know that for a fact yet,” Matrix argued. “It could be like poison.”

“I don’t know that! We don’t know that! How is it any different than eating normal humans? Come on Matrix, we have to do this. You’re dying and she,” Hershey turned to Tammy’s body. “She deserves it.”

“Why? Because she wasn’t strong enough to say no?” Matrix asked. Hershey heard him, and he started to rethink everything he believed in. Although it was stupid, Matrix was making more sense than he usually did. But Matrix wasn’t thinking about anyone else but himself. He wasn’t sure what eating these creatures would do to him. He groaned, his inside’s feeling like they were turning to jelly. Matrix turned to Hershey, his expression conveying defeat. He sighed, shaking his head in dismay. “Pack it up and let’s go.”

At that moment Beta stormed into the room, flailing. He calmed himself as soon as he saw the body. “Oh, thank God,” he breathed. He trotted over to the two boys. As soon as Beta opened his mouth, Matrix covered it.

“Don’t ask.” He made it clear and Beta nodded in agreement. Matrix removed his hand and Beta took a shuddery breath. “Does this mean we can leave now?” Matrix asked.

Beta twitched a little bit but said nothing. Hershey stepped in. “No, not yet,” he said. “There’s someone else.”

Next thing they knew, they were back at the dining table eating dinner with the family.

This time, things were calmer. The brunette must’ve cleaned up the whole mess because by the time they were called down for dinner, everything was back in order and no one said a thing about blood. The chandelier had been replaced by nighttime, and no one spoke a word of breakfast.

While they ate, the three boys scoped the foster kids for brown haired females old enough to walk. In total, they found two. Before they could distinguish anything else, Ingrid started asking questions.

“So, boys. I hope you don’t mind me asking but how did your parents die?” Beta kept his head down, glancing upwards with his eyes at Hershey.

Who asks that over dinner? Beta thought to himself, but conveyed it to Hershey with his eyes.

“Um…” Hershey began and he looked at Matrix for help. Matrix sighed, putting his fork down. “From birth—” Hershey immediately jumped in, already seeing that the conversation wasn’t going to go down well.

“They overdosed, tragic event, truly traumatizing—Who wants broccoli?” Hershey lifted up the bowl generously, but everyone just remained silent. He put the bowl down and continued to eat, shoving food in his mouth to avoid speaking further.

One of the few girls with dark skin cleared her throat. “Penelope can you please pass the chicken?” she asked.

The girl, Penelope, snorted. “Why can’t you get it yourself?”

“I can’t reach it,” she said back, voice strained. “Why do you have to be so bitchy about it.”

Muttering didn’t stop the rest of the table, especially Ingrid, from hearing it.

“Alice,” Ingrid hissed at her language.

Penelope dropped her fork and glared at Alice. “At least I’m not a Dyke.”

The whole table fell silent, only breaking when Alice pushed away from the table and went to go hide in the living room.

“I’ll go check on her,” the “pregnant” girl from earlier said, pushing away from the table as well and jogging over to the archway. Her name was Olivia.

Beta and Hershey shared a look, realizing that Olivia’s hair matched the wooden table.

“Um…may I be excused?” Beta asked.

“Of course,” Derek said. Beta nodded in thanks and made his way over to the family room.

“I think I should go t—” Matrix began to stand up but Ingrid cut him off.

“No Matrix. I don’t want you two fiddling around somewhere,” the woman snapped, seeming generally displeased. Hershey tilted his head. “You know they’re all siblings, right? Like…like the law in Colorado on incest prohibits—” Hershey stopped himself from continuing, realizing no one cared. Matrix sucked his teeth and sat back down in a heap. He glanced over at Hershey and Hershey just shrugged. All they could do was wait.