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Ah parked the car in front of the grocery store, the three of them stepping out.

“They said it was behind here?” Ah confirmed and Matrix nodded. “Okay, Beta and I will go around the left and you go around right.” Before Matrix could suggest that they all just stick together, Ah was already pulling Beta away. Matrix muttered incoherently to himself as he went off in the other direction, pausing to check cars that looked similar to the one Hershey was taken into.

Beta felt scared. He hadn’t been alone with Ah since they had met, and especially not since Richard had “died.”

Beta took a breath in, and another out. It was that reminder of his presence that got Ah talking. “So why’d you do it?”

Beta turned to her, but she didn’t turn back, still facing forward. Beta clenched his jaw, not sure what to say. “Ah, I didn’t mean to kill him.” He could see Ah tense at that, and she snapped her head toward him. “I’m so sorry—”

Ah cut in front of Beta, making them both halt. They knew how important getting to Hershey was, but at the time having their moment just seemed so much more crucial. “I’m not talking about that,” Ah said. “I know it was an accident.”

“Okay,” Beta said awkwardly. “Then what—?”

“I’m talking about the massacre you pulled on the Syncs.” Her tone was stern. “Why’d you do it?”

Beta’s whole body tensed when she said it. When he didn’t say anything right away, Ah just kept talking. “Matrix and Hershey told me that you were done with this Elias stuff.”

Beta sighed, glad that he understood now what she was trying to say but upset that she didn’t get it already. “That’s the problem Ah, it’s not ‘Elias stuff’ it’s ’Sync stuff’, and are you really just going to stand there and tell me that the Syncs are innocent in all of this—?”

“They are!” she exclaimed. “Walker is the only Sync with a problem here!” She stepped closer to Beta. “None of my neighbors had to die that day.”

“They weren’t going to let us pass—”

“Then you could have gone the humane choice, Beta!” Ah said. “I’m not saying my people are innocent in all of this but god damn it they aren’t all guilty either.”

“They’re not even your people Ah. You’re human and it seems you like to forget that.” Beta sighed, avoiding eye contact with her. “We need to go.”

He brushed past Ah and kept walking down the alley of the store without her.

“Wake up.”

Hershey was drowning, or it felt that way. He sneezed the water out of his nose and parted his lips to breathe. Eyes opened wide, Hansel and Gretel, or what assumingly was them, stood there before him.

The walls were covered in liquid and grime. Even the ceiling and floor were covered in the rough-looking substances. He was in a sort of underground cave, except it looked like a giant, metal sewer and reeked of onions and old milk.

Hershey was strapped to a metal chair, leather buckles around his wrists and legs. What concerned him the most was that the straps felt worn out and used. “You know I have powers, right? I could…burn you,” Hershey said, confident in his ability to kill.

“Mm, sure,” Gretel said. “If you could, then you would have done it already.”

“That…” Hershey sighed, realizing his powers had no effect in the dark. “…is painfully true.”

“So here’s how it’s gonna go then,” Hansel said, his voice so deep it seemed more like grunts than speech. The Cider held up a knife in the light of Gretel’s oil lamp. Hershey tried to ignite, but he was realizing that it was much harder than he thought. “You tell me everything…and I don’t slit your wrists and send you to your inevitable doom.”

The door to the storage room was busted open and Matrix, Beta, and Ah ran inside the small room to see nothing but boxes on shelves and rust.

“Dammit! Where’d they take him!?” Beta exclaimed.

“Beta.”

“We should’ve been more careful!”

“Beta?”

“How could I have been so stupid, I mean splitting up—”

“Beta!”

“What!?”

“This is the storage unit!” Matrix said. “This is where that text told me to go.”

Beta sighed, processing. “See, I told you it wasn’t real.”

“Yeah, yeah well—”

“Look.” Ah pointed to the corner of the room, revealing the door in the ground.

Hershey hissed as they cut him across the cheek. His lips bit themselves.

“Hershey, I’m gonna tell you this now so you don’t have to go through the pain of finding out later,” Gretel said, getting close to his face. “You are not as strong as you think you are.”

Hershey spat in her face and she shut her eyes, wiping it off. “Try me.”

As Gretel was ready to strike him again, Hansel stepped out of the shadows and stopped her with a simple touch. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, but Hershey couldn’t make out what it was the Cider was saying. All he saw was Gretel hand the blade over to Hansel and step away, watching observantly as Hansel faced Hershey full on. Hershey didn’t like the way he was being looked at by Hansel, it was like he wasn’t a person, but an object.

Hansel leaned down to Hershey’s height, his face oddly close to the Nat’s. His expression was unreadable, and it was unsettling. “Tell us where Elias is…and we’ll make sure your 2nd death is swift and painless.”

“God I hope not,” Hershey breathed out. “What kind of ending would that be?” And at his words, all the emotions one human could feel came together on Hansel’s face and sent him into a fit of anger. He tore into Hershey’s hair, digging his fingers in his scalp and jerking it backward. All Hershey could make out from that angle was his wings, which just made him shiver the way they dominated. And suddenly, a light as bright as fire shined in his left eye…

And that’s because it was fire.

As Hershey tried to shut his eyes, Hansel tore them back open violently, moving the flame closer. “Don’t you dare use King Lucienne’s name in vain again you mutt!”

Before the flame could reach his eye, something went off. It was like a not-to-silent alarm telling Hershey and the couple that there was an unspoken presence there.

Hansel let go of Hershey abruptly, sweat running down his neck. Gretel chuckled. “Never mind that Hansel, it doesn’t matter. We have two women around the entrance guarding it with their li—”

Then the screaming came.

The women screamed and pleaded like death itself was on them. “Oh God,” Gretel said, her heart rate quickening as she turned around. Hansel backed away, dropping his knife from nerves.

The three ran to the door and pulled up the latch quickly. Beta went first and put his feet through the hole. He thought there would be a ladder, but there was not.

It was too late once he realized. He lost his grip and fell through the hole a few feet down before hitting the hard cement. Ah fell after Beta, but with a bit more of a plan to land. “Ow,” Beta muttered, his words echoing throughout the space.

Matrix went after that, the first to hear the commotion around the corner. “Hershey?!” he called out, and they started running.

“He’s here, it’s really him,” Gretel whispered, near tears.

“Don’t say that,” Hansel barked, grinding his teeth. “How would he even find us?”

“Hershey!” Beta called again, the three of them stopping at a crossroads. Beta turned to the left, hearing the screams echo. “That way.”

Hershey felt a presence in the confined space, and it wasn’t a good one. While he held that look, a lamp was flung over right next to Hershey’s chair with beautiful accuracy, providing a gentle light that fueled his body. He froze, fearing for his life. “Well that makes this easier,” Hershey said, igniting his fingers and burning through the leather.

Gretel turned back to Hershey burning his way through the bondage as Hansel looked around frantically, knowing the lamp came from somewhere. “Hey!” she cried.

That’s when Ah, Beta, and Matrix saw the shadow walking toward Hershey as they all rounded the corner. The shadow was dark, the body was slim, not precisely built. The hair was a mixture of mess and perfection as far as they could tell, twisting this way and that on the figure’s head. And on each side of it…

…were wings as white as snow, extended to their full glory.

Gretel tried to stab whatever was coming for her, but got knocked down instead. Hansel looked around, weaponless and fearful. He heard feet glide against the metal ground, but it felt like they were everywhere. Then everything fell silent. Hansel took a few seconds to gather his courage and he lunged for his knife. As he dived his hand was centimeters from it, but before he could grasp it a dagger came down on his hand. Hershey thought it was impressive that it even pierced the Cider’s skin, but found it horrifying that it came out the other side. Hansel screamed in pain as he bled out, metal embedded in his palm. The figure grabbed Hansel’s other hand and thrust a dagger through it. All of it happened mere feet from Hershey, stoned silent in his chair.

“Please please please don’t hurt me,” Hansel begged as a painting of his blood took its shape on the hard floor. Hansel was lying on his stomach, his limbs too weak to fight and his hands nailed to the ground. The shadow climbed on top of Hansel’s lower back and sat on it, making sure he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’ve got a bone to pick with you,” the figure said.

The shadow grabbed one of Hansel’s wings and he winced. “Actually…I have fourteen bones to pick.”

“Please…please don’t do this,” Hansel pleaded, his once deep voice seemingly a squirrel’s pitch in this moment.

Hershey was soon free and he fell on the ground, scared and flustered.

“What happened to all that courage…Hansel?” The shadow grabbed Hansel’s wing tighter and started ripping it off. The Cider screamed so loud that it gave Hershey a headache by the time he was finished.

The shadow ripped the wing clean off and Hansel screamed louder eve after it was over. “Well now you just look uneven,” the shadow said, ripping off the other wing, making red blood cells fling from his flesh and splatter. Somehow, Hansel screamed louder, making everyone’s blood curdle. “PLEASE! STOP!” Hansel sobbed, feeling helpless and in pain.

The shadow smiled. “Okay.” It grabbed Hansel’s head and lifted it up, exposing his neck.

“No. No no no,” Hansel begged but it was pointless.

The shadow swooped down and tore out Hansel’s throat with his teeth. Once he was dead, the shadow got up, still chewing the flesh and finally swallowing it. Then it turned to Gretel who was huddled in a corner. The shadow walked over to her and smiled. “Luckily, I don’t have anything personally against you.” The shadow smiled, and so did Gretel, thinking she was getting a free pass.

The shadow’s smile lasted no longer than Gretel’s death. It grabbed her by the neck, raising her up onto her feet. Her eyes went wide and the veins in her neck were showing. “But then again…I don’t really like people in general.” The shadow took his other hand, holding a blade, and plunged it straight through Gretel’s chest. Her mouth hung agape and blood poured out like a river as the knife slid down. The shadow retracted the blade and stuck their hand in, attaching to something and yanking it out, letting Gretel fall with a thud.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion after that.

The oil lamp’s light started to flicker as the shadow walked towards Hershey. It wasn’t the easiest sight to gather and accept.

The person was scrawny yet strong, he was slim but had muscles pulsating in his arms and in his neck. His nose was slightly small and tended to twitch on high occasion. His lips were small, his hair was a mix of straight and curly and an overall mess all over his head. It was thick and dyed a pale orange like a hair project gone horribly wrong. The only piece of clothing he wore was a ten-foot wing span and pale blue puffy pants, the kind that only Aladdin would wear. A strap went across his bare chest, an unsheathed sword strapped to his back. His nails were painted teal, his left eye was black with a white pupil and his right eye was orange with a black pupil…the colors of a Sync and a Cider.

Oh, right.

And he held a slowly beating heart in his hand.

Matrix frowned as he looked at the blood-covered stranger. Beta stared in awe. Ah looked shocked, expecting to meet Elias in much better circumstances. And Hershey, Hershey was horrified.

“Elias,” Beta breathed out from a distance, and somehow Elias heard him.

His head turned slowly, and he smiled just enough for it to be disturbing. He let the heart slip through his fingers and it made a splat noise as it hit the ground. As it did, Elias’s smile dropped to a frown and he crushed the heart with his foot, smearing it on the floor. The blood splattered, hitting Hershey in the face.

“You’re welcome,” he said, and it was around that time that Ah couldn’t stand the sight and passed out.

Beta was nearly there, feeling woozy as Elias turned and walked closer to them.

Orange eyes. Black eyes—No, o-orange. Death by suicide. Suicide. Suicide. Suicide. Cider. Depressed. Sad. Angry? Flight. Shapeshifter. Eyes. Eyes. Black eyes.

“Sync,” Beta breathed out.

Having Elias here and in his head was making him feel sick, and it wasn’t long until he followed Ah’s example and fell into oblivion.