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“We can crash here for the night and visit the club tomorrow,” El said. Beta sat on the bed…or he tried. El, the regular version of him, sat on the bed before Beta got the chance. Matrix sat on the other bed and Hershey took the couch.

Beta groaned and set up camp on the ground. While he put a pillow down, another pillow hit him in the face, followed by a blanket. He struggled to get the blanket off of his head and Matrix laughed as he did. Once Beta accomplished his blanket goal he threw the extra pillow back at Matrix. Matrix froze the pillow in mid-air. He then proceeded to throw it back at Beta, hitting him square in the face again.

Matrix laughed harder, but the laughter stopped once Hershey grabbed his own pillow and jumped on top of Matrix, smothering him with it. Beta laughed at him this time. El rolled his eyes and checked the time, deciding he’d brush his teeth in the morning.

Beta’s laughter died down as he looked at El. He threw a pillow at him and El did nothing to stop it. He didn’t even flinch when it hit him in the shoulder. They all continued to laugh and throw pillows. El’s eyes drifted to Beta on the ground and, somehow, his one sentence sucked all the fun out of the room.

“Beta you can sleep up here with me if you want.”

One more pillow flew before the room fell silent and Beta looked up, his grin fading fast. “Wh-hat?” he stammered, baffled at the comment.

El rummaged through his bag as he repeated himself. “I said you can sleep up here if you want. I mean with me, without me, whatever makes you more comfortable. I’m fine sleeping on the floor.”

“Oh…no it’s…” Beta thought about this twist of events. Imagining himself, in essence, switching places with El. But then…what did that mean to him?

In fact, Beta started to think about how El’s presence here would change everything. Beta shook his head and loosened his muscles onto the comforter spread across the floor. “It’s fine,” he responded. El just nodded and let it go, telling everyone to get some sleep.

He wasn’t ready to give up his only position to the Cider…it was all he had.

They woke up in the morning feeling refreshed. El dropped off four gallons of gasoline for the motorcycle in their bathroom and shut the door. “Just in case,” he said. “We have to wait until 9 to hit the club. Once we’re inside we need to find someone to talk to, all of us,” El said.

The three boys nodded, lying down on their sleeping arrangements. “We should check around the area, maybe see if there are any other big spots that a lot of the victims go to,” Beta said, puting on some boots.

El nodded in agreement. Hershey spoke up. “You two go, me and Matrix will see what we can find on the internet.”

“Okay, we’ll be back soon.” Beta grabbed his leather jacket from the bed and walked out of the hotel room. “Oh, wait E—” Beta started but once he saw El has already changed into his feminine form, he stopped. “Never mind.” They continued to walk down the hallway.

As the door shut, Matrix turned to Hershey as he got his laptop out and said, “Don’t you find it a little weird that all of a sudden Beta’s making great outfit choices?” Matrix had taken note of his leather jacket. Hershey just shrugged and opened the computer, turning it on.

El and Beta exited the hotel and roamed the streets. “We should visit the police station,” female El said.

“Hershey can hack the files from the hotel. We should ask around instead,” Beta said back. “But from prior knowledge we know the people who went missing and turned up dead all loved going to this pizza place down the street.”

El shrugged. “Guess we’re getting pizza,” she muttered.

“Oh, and you need a name.” Beta turned to El suggestively.

Her hair bounced as she tilted her head. “What do you mean? I already have one.”

“Elias won’t suit you in that form. What about…Ellie?” Beta suggested.

El nodded, emotionless. “Okay, whatever.” Beta was silent for a few seconds, trying to keep up with Ellie’s fast pace. Another question popped into his head. “And another thing—”

“What?” Ellie groaned, turning a sharp eye to look at him. Beta cleared his throat, almost not wanting to ask the question anymore, but he knew it would just make her angrier if he didn’t, so he did. “Why do all your clothes turn back when you turn back to El?” he asked.

Ellie breathed out, thinking about it. “I mean I personally don’t know the science behind it, but whenever I shapeshift everything I’m in goes with me. That’s only for my real body. The first time I turn into…Ellie as you say from being El, I was naked. But, when I put clothes on her then the next time I turn into her, I have those same clothes on. So when I turn back into El, I have everything I had on when I turned into Ellie in the first place, get it?” Beta looked at her.

He didn’t get it at all.

But to save himself from a further annoyed El, he nodded. A few blocks later, they walked into the “Chilly’s Pizza” pizza place jammed between a Target and a chain restaurant. They were instantly seated. “What do we do now?” Ellie asked, completely foreign to social interactions.

“We wait until we can get some more information about the situation,” Beta explained. Ellie nodded and then stopped.

“Wait, did you just suggest this place because you wanted pizza?” she asked.

Beta paused first, thinking it over, before answering. “Yeah maybe a little. Hi!”

Someone walked over to the table and Beta greeted them. Ellie took her time letting her eyes drift from Beta to the newcomer. A blonde woman with long curly hair and green eyes smiled brightly when she saw Beta smiling back at her. “Well hello there. And you are?” she said, turning to Beta.

Ellie rolled her eyes, leaning her elbow on the table.

“Um…Walter,” he said awkwardly.

“Well Walter, what can I do for you today?” the blonde girl cooed slightly, getting her pen and paper ready.

“Walk away,” Ellie said.

The blonde lady turned to Ellie, smiling in that way one does when one doesn’t truly mean it. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

“Walk away, or I break your neck,” Ellie asserted, dead serious. The girl cleared her throat rudely and did as she was told, giving Beta one last smile before leaving.

“What the hell was that for?” Beta hissed.

Ellie leaned in. “We’re here for a reason. We need a waitress that isn’t bias to us so we can get the experience the recently deceased customers got.”

“So what you’re saying is I am way too handsome,” Beta posed, nodding as if he understood the issue. Before Ellie could say ‘no,’ Beta’s earpiece made a sound and he said, “Answer!” aloud before Ellie could speak. It was Hershey.

“Hey Beta. So not only did they all go to that ‘cheesy’ pizza place…” Hershey paused, expecting a chuckle at the least. Beta stayed silent until he became irritated.

“Continue…” Beta ushered.

Hershey sighed and went on. “All the victims also had a record. Breaking and entering, violence, debt up to their ass, etc. They’ve seen some pretty awful stuff, live some pretty inadequate lives. No offense to them of course.”

“So…before they were targeting foster kids and now they’re targeting deadbeats in their twenties?” Beta uttered.

“Well I wouldn’t call them ‘deadbeats’…” Hershey muttered.

Ellie listened in and commented. “Not deadbeats…corrupted. Think about the foster homes you went to,” Ellie said.

Beta thought for a moment, then it clicked. “Foster homes are for people who are lonely…clubs are for people who want to hook up and get blasted,” Beta explained to Hershey.

Ellie sighed, eyes rolling back in her head before she pulled Beta’s face toward her own. “No,” she said slowly. “Clubs are for people who have problems to forget, and foster homes are for people with problems they can’t forget.”

Hershey had put his earpiece on speaker phone so Matrix could tune in. He also commented. “So, I guess they think they’re taking away the problematic humans to make room for the more useful ones…Is it evil if I say that’s sort of genius?”

“Yes, it is,” Beta said, now getting it. “They might not just be eating them, they might be using them like slaves or even just throwing them away like objects.”

“If that’s true, then they might go after the sick soon,” Hershey said, slightly horrified. “They’ll just…kill them off.”

Matrix sighed out loud, loud enough for Ellie to hear. “Of course they would, they know what happens after death, why would they care?”

An idea clicked in Beta’s head. “I have an idea. We’ll be back at the hotel in a few, wait for us there.” Beta hung up the phone and he was about to explain his idea to Ellie but she interrupted him. “No need, I think we’re on the same page.” Ellie waved her hand back and forth in the air. “Waiter!”

A male waiter walked over and smiled at the two. “Hello, and welcome to Chilly’s Pizza. What can I get you?”

“A large pepperoni pizza and two diet cokes,” Ellie said, and she couldn’t help the thought that she really was hungry.

“Awesome,” he said, scribbling it down.

Beta jumped in. “Since I have you, do you happen to know of any good clubs in the area?” A smile edged onto the waiter’s face as his pen stuck in place on the paper and he chuckled. But the smile wasn’t joyful, it was bordering on cynical.

“Oh well—” The man paused when he looked down at Ellie and Beta and inhaled, taking a second to breathe it in.

Suddenly his eyes landed straight on Ellie, and all of a sudden, she sensed him, the real him,

and held back the urge to kill him.

The man’s face dropped to neutral in an instant and he spoke no more about clubs. “Never mind, I’ll get your pizza.” His voice was strained, like he was holding something back. He then walked away without a word.

Ellie shot up as soon as he disappeared into the kitchen and grabbed Beta’s wrist. “We need to leave, now.” She dragged him out of the restaurant and onto the street, blinded by the morning light.

“What do you mean? Everything was going fine!” he said, yanking his arm away. “What’s wrong?”

Ellie turned around. “What’s wrong is I know the guy and he knows me.” She sighed, pushing her hair out of her face as she continued forward. “I tried to eat him.”