In Search of Mother

Chapters

Chapter 0: Prologue
Chapter I: Answers
Chapter II: Departure
Chapter III: Setbacks
Chapter IV: Strangers
Chapter V: Tension
Chapter VI: Questions

Chapter 0: Prologue

Anonymous cracked open his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He had slept all night and all morning. The fact that the alarm was the first thing to wake him up was a miracle by itself. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a full night of sleep. Before he could recall why that was, he felt a reminder climb up the side of the bed and underneath the covers.

A little lump made its way from the bedside to his chest, forging a path towards Anon’s face. Massive eyes sparkled into his own from under the covers, a pair of massive sky blue orbs. Anon reached his hands down and pulled the creature out from under the sheets, pushing back the covers and dropping the thing down on his stomach.

The little abomination smiled wide as Anon continued to blink at him a few times, still trying to gather his thoughts as he woke up. Anon ignored it for the moment and switched off his alarm clock before turning back to face it.

“Hey dad! I made sure no one woke you up this morning.”

Anon mumbled some form of thankful response and started to sit up. The half-child slid down into his lap and sat down on his insectoid haunches.

“So, do I get a hug today? Do I?”

Anon sighed and opened up his arms, much to the little bug-human’s delight. With a leap, he wrapped his arms around Anon’s neck and nuzzled his face into his chest, his swiss cheese legs scrambling to gain footing against the surface of Anon’s shirt. Anon returned the hug for a few moments before ushering him back down to the bed, swinging his own legs over the side and getting up.

The moment he opened his bedroom door, he was greeted by the sounds of chaos. Pretty much like every morning, in fact. A pair of changeling satyr-children ran around wrestling with each other, tackling each other to the ground and a kicking with their exoskeleton legs. First one and then the other, they saw Anon coming and stood up on their holed hooves, pressed against the wall to let him pass with their arms folded behind their backs.

Anon rolled his eyes and ignored them, moving on towards the living room. They gave each other a glare when they thought he wasn’t looking and fell in step behind him . As he entered the living room, he noticed half a dozen more abominations running around the couch and crashing over the end table. He let them be for the time being and headed for the kitchen. Ignoring the sounds of crashing dishes and roughhousing children, he poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the kitchen table.

A large group of children gathered around the table, pushing and shoving each other to get closer to their father. He ignored them, like he always did, and kept eating. After a few moments of silently enjoying his breakfast, he put down his spoon in his empty bowl and pushed it away, turning his attention to the horde before him. They all smiled at Anon like they had done absolutely nothing wrong, as if that was even a remote possibility.

Anon sighed and leaned on his elbow. “Alright, someone go first. I don’t care who.”

They all started shouting at once, jumping over one another and trying to climb up in his lap. “ALRIGHT, EVERYONE, PARK IT AND COOL IT. SIT THE FUCK DOWN.” Anon raised a hand, and his voice, bringing the room back down to a calmed state as the childlings returned to the floor.

“Fine. Guess I have to choose. You, closest one. What’s happening?”

One of the children, a little girl, smiled and came up to his feet. She wrapped an arm around his leg and looked up at him with pleading eyes, her smile immediately disappearing into a pout as she got his attention.

“Daddy, Church was being mean to me.”

Anon’s expression remained entirely unmoved. “Did you hit him?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

“Did he stop?”

“No.”

“Well, obviously you have to hit him harder. But if that still doesn’t work, follow him around and find out what he likes. Then take it away from him and make him promise to leave you alone. It’s easy.”

The little girl pouted for real and crossed her arms. “But why don’t you just spank him?”

“Because if I were to spank every one of you, I’d be here all day. And your asses are made of bug bone or something. Shit hurts. Next!”

Chrysalis had been a fine enough woman, when she was in her human form, Anon thought. He’d grown to love her, but whether or not he had actually fallen in love with her or the image she was projecting still wasn’t quite clear in his mind. That night was one of the best he had in his life. The years that followed it, however, were less than satisfactory.

Seven years ago, Anon had awoken to find his house filled with somewhere between seventy a hundred eggs. He never did actually get an accurate count, and there was no way he could get one now that they hatched.

On his fridge, there was a simple note:
“I had a great night. Unfortunately, I can’t stick around. Love loses its taste if you keep feeding from one person. Please watch after my little ones, because Celestia as my witness, I sure can’t. <3”

That was the day Anon had become father to about a hundred little bug people.
The next child, a little boy, came up and smiled. Anon patted him on the head.

“What’s up?”

“Nothin’, I just wanted a hug.” The kid held out his arms in anticipation.

Anon sighed and bent over, giving him what he asked for. “I still don’t get what’s up with you guys and hugs.”

“We just like ‘em, is all.”

Anon placed him back down on the ground. “What’s your name?”

“Crispy.”

Anon smiled. When the majority of them had grown old enough to read single words out loud to themselves, he had let them go through a dictionary and choose their own names. There was no way in hell he was going to name them all himself. Since they didn’t really have the ability to read whole sentences at that point, most have them had chosen their names without knowing the meaning behind them.

“Nice name, kid. Next.”

Anon spent the rest of his morning dealing with the issues of the day and rubbing his temples. Eventually, all of the kids who wanted to see him did so, and Anon did pretty much all he could to solve their problems.

He placed his bowl in the sink and looked at the time. Great, I’m going to be late again, he thought. Of course, there wasn’t much consequence for being late anymore. One night Anon had discovered that his children had the ability to disguise themselves as... well, real children. The next morning, he had brought five of them to work, in an attempt to explain why he was so late every day. Apparently five was enough to get him off the hook, so his schedule had been a lot more malleable in recent times.

Anon threw on some new clothes and headed for the door, waving goodbye to all of the childlings inside.

“I’m leaving. If you need anything, I’ll be back at the usual time. I still don’t know how you guys are alive considering you won’t eat anything I feed you, but, you know, do what you always do for lunch, if you even eat it. Don’t destroy the house any more than you already have.”

A chorus of goodbyes blasted at him from within, nearly shattering his eardrums as he stepped outside. A few more changeling creatures played in the front yard, following Anon’s rule and disguising themselves as humans while outside. One of them spotted him and beamed, flying toward him with invisible wings. She landed on his back and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

Anon nearly tripped from the surprise attack. “Hey, no flying outside, we’ve been over this! We don’t want the neighbors freaking out.” He glanced around to make sure no one noticed. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to ask if you had a good night’s sleep! It was my idea to leave you alone until you were awake.” She tilts her head to the side and keeps her smile up, as if waiting to be showered in praise.

“The kid who was waiting for me to wake up said it was his idea.”

“Aw, man! I bet it was Jet. He’s such a lying butt head. I bet he got a hug for it, too?”

Anon nodded. “Yep. I still don’t understand the hugging thing, but hey, if its all you guys want from me, I can do it. What’s your name, anyways?”

“Mistake!” She dropped from his shoulders and stood in front of him, eyes squinted and smile wide.

Anon can’t help but smirk. “Such a fitting name. And to think, you came up with it all on your own.”

She reached out her arms and Anon obliged, picking her up for a quick hug. “I have to leave now, but I guess I have time for one more hug. Especially in return for a good night of sleep.”

He set her down on the ground and stepped over her, leaving the house behind on his way to the sidewalk. “Bye, Mistake. Tell your brothers and sisters... well, I don’t know. Tell them I like them when they aren’t breaking things. Or fighting. Or blamin-” Anon sighed. “Well, tell them I like them on rare occasion.”

She nodded as Anon walked away. She watched from a distance as Anon left for work, leaving the children alone to their own devices. One of her sisters, Breeze, came up beside her.

“I’m hungry. Let’s go get some food.”

Mistake nodded and licked her lips, looking off down the row of houses. The sisters nodded at each other and headed down the street, still in their human forms. They approached the front door of a house they haven’t visited before. Breeze reached up and rang the doorbell, quickly jumping to Mistake’s side as footsteps approached the door. An old lady answered, taken back by the height of her unexpected visitors.

“Hello, miss! We just wanted to know, would you like a hug?”

Author's Note

The children are "satyrs". In case there is any confusion, let me explain this.

In ancient Greek mythology, satyrs were a race of bipedal beings that had goat legs and a human torso, kind of like a centaur but if they only had two legs instead of the whole horse.
Recently /mlp/ has taken to bastardizing the term and using it to refer to pony/human offspring that through [magic] have pony half on the bottom and human half on the top.
Example: http://derpibooru.org/337410?scope=scpea81a2f376055fdb3edaffe65a0c1eb5d64bb40c9
Now you know.

Chapter I: Answers

Misery watched her siblings run around the house, too busy with themselves to notice her. She sat on the edge of the living room coffee table, swinging her chitinous legs over the side. A little boy, by the name of Church, ran across the crimson carpet with another brother close behind him. She suppressed a smile as he tripped, causing both boys to start tumbling across the room.

Misery’s sister, and the person she spent the most time around, Whistle, fluttered up on the table beside her. Misery nodded silently to acknowledge her presence and went back to watching her siblings destroy the house. Something crashed in the kitchen behind them as Whistle nudged her sister and started up a conversation.

“Whach’ya up to, Misery?”

Misery sighed and swept her hand in front of her. “Watching.”

“Watching what?”

“Our wonderful brothers and sisters.”

“Why?” Whistle tilted her head and gazed out over her siblings.

Misery kicked at the air in thought before answering. “It’s funny.”

Whistle giggled as a pair of boys wrestled all out on the floor, complete with biting and scratching. With a sly grin, she grabbed the TV remote next to her and tossed it at them, clocking one of them in the head.

“I guess it is kinda funny.” Whistle glanced back over at Misery. “Why don’t you wear your hair in pigtails like everyone else? I think it’d look really pretty with your blue hair.”

Whistle reached out a hand to stroke through Misery’s hair. Before it even made contact, Misery’s hand was there to block it. Whistle sighed and let her hand drop back down to the table in defeat.

“I’m just saying, Misery, you have the prettiest hair. The rest of us just have boring ol’ black. I think yours would look nice if you did it up. It’s just so... plain, when you let it hang like that, like a mop!”

“The hair stays.” Misery gave her sister a cold look that told her to drop the subject. She did. Instead, Whistle roamed her mind for another topic. She found one that had been eating at her mind for a while, though she had never had the courage to talk about it with someone else.

“Misery, what do you think... our mom is like?”

Misery didn’t even skip a beat. “We don’t have a mom.”

“Well, I know she’s not here, but someone has to be our mom. Everyone has a mom and a dad.”

Misery blinked and tilted her head up, gazing through the living room window. Whistle was not alone, of course. Misery had been thinking about the same thing. Every time she let her thoughts wander too far, they always returned to that ghostly, invisible figure, the one missing piece from her life. It wasn’t because she wanted a mother, though, but rather what only her true mother could give her: answers.

But Misery didn’t like thinking about that for too long. Most of the time she just pushed those thoughts out of the way and thought about more relevant things, like where to find her next meal. Once more, she shrugged away the thoughts and turned back to Whistle.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”

But whistle was already focused on something else. The little girl pursed her lips and made true to her namesake, whistling to herself as she zoned out on the wall ahead of her. Misery rolled her eyes and went back to her own musings.

“So what are they like?”

Anon looked up from his empty coffee cup and met eyes with the woman who sat across from him. Shit. The recent lack of sleep was draining his focus. This was the first date he had been on in two years, and he still couldn’t pay attention to what she was saying. He pushed his empty cup to the side and rested on his elbows, putting on his best apologetic smile.

“Sorry, I, uh... what are who like?”

Katie didn’t seem too offended. “Your kids. You brought a few of them to work, I heard, but I never saw them. Are they cute?”

Anon’s eyes flashed for a moment, as if reliving hundreds of past events at once. His left eye twitched as he tried to take a drink from his empty coffee cup before answering.

“They’re, uh... yeah, I guess they can be cute. When they want to be.”

She smiles wistfully. “I always wanted a few kids. How many do you have? What are their names?”

Anon opened his mouth to say something, but no words came to his lips. How was he supposed to answer that? Obviously he planned to tell her about the horde eventually, but he always figured it would happen later, for some reason. He glanced out the window as if in search of some answer, and to his surprise, he found one.

Mistake, one of the children that had approached him on the lawn a few mornings ago, was walking down the street next to a little boy that looked just a bit older than her. She was in her disguise, thankfully, and she held a little yellow balloon on a string in her left hand. Her right hand was locked with the boy’s as they strolled down the street together, smiles on their faces.

“Well, funny you mention it! One of my daughters is just over there. The one in the light blue shirt and the balloon.”

“Oh, how precious!” Katie pressed up against the window to get a look at her. “And I guess that’s her boyfriend? Nothing wrong with getting experience a bit early, I guess.” She watched until they rounded the corner, going out of sight. “She is adorable. I love that little cute pigtail. I’m guessing she got the black hair from her mom?” She reached across the table and ruffled Anon’s brown hair, causing him to chuckle awkwardly.

“Yeah. The black hair is hers.” He paused and stared out the window. “They take quite a lot from their mother.”

Katie respected the silence that followed and took the pause to take a sip of her own drink. She looked over Anon with a curious gaze. His eyes had bags the size of her own purse, and his eyes were glazed over so far he never looked like he was even aware of his surroundings. She waved a hand in front of him to get his attention before continuing.

“What was she like? The mother, that is.”

“She was...” Anon struggled for the words. “She was very authoritative. She just had this air around her, this aura, where you couldn’t tell her no. She wasn’t overbearing, or even overly-commanding, just...” He scratched at the table as his mind fumbled over the correct terminology. “It was like you were talking to royalty, if that makes sense.”

Katie sipped her drink again. “And she left? Leaving you with the kids?”

Anon nodded slowly. “Yeah. Left behind her kids, and a whole lot of questions.”

The coffee shop slowly began to empty as the sun fell further down in the sky, business crawling to a halt as the day closed to an end. Anon and Katie both said goodbye and began their walks home, leaving the coffee shop and its empty booths behind.

The streets of Bakersfield, California weren’t lively after dark. The city was one of many that contrasted the stereotype, in that it actually enjoys its sleep. Despite its size, it managed to retain just a bit of that small town feel. As Anon rounded the street corner on his way home, he spotted Mistake again, this time enjoying an ice cream cone on a bench near the street. Anon took a seat next to her, causing her to turn to him in surprise.

“Oh! Hi daddy.” She turned her attention back to her ice cream cone.

Anon squinted at the cone in confusion. “You guys never eat anything I give you. What’s with the ice cream?”

“It tastes good.” She smiled and tried to wipe the ice cream off of her face with her sleeve, missing a little bit on her upper lip.

He shrugged. “Well, guess I can’t argue with that. Who gave that to you?”

“Bobby bought it for me.”

“I saw you walking with a boy earlier. Was that him? You two were holding hands.”

She nodded. “He bought me a balloon, too. That flew away though.” She looked up at the sky mournfully.

“Right. And how old is he?”

“Twelve.”

“A bit old, isn’t he? Shouldn’t you be breaking the hearts of boys your age instead?”

She shrugged. Anon looked up at the sky for a few moments, as if in search of the balloon. His eyes eventually settled on the dim glow of the sun peeking out from behind the building in front of him, warning him of its eventual departure from the sky. He nudged Mistake and pointed the way home.

“We should probably be heading home. The sun is going to go down soon.”

Mistake gnawed on the edges of her ice cream cone, the ice cream itself already consumed. “Can you carry me? My legs hurt.”

“No.” Anon stood up and started walking. He heard the little taps on the concrete as Mistake ran over to his side.

“But daddies always carry their kids around. I saw it!”

“Yeah, well.” Anon shrugged. “You’re heavy.”

“You’re heavy,” Mistake retorted with a grin, “And you smell like cheese.”

“Yeah, well, your face looks like someone dropkicked you into a minefield.”

Mistake stuck out her tongue and grabbed on to Anon’s hand. “Yeah, well, your face looks like a butt.”

“Truly, I have been bested.” Anon looked down at her with a smirk. “You have quite the dirty mouth, you know that?”

“Not as dirty as yours.”

“Come on, I don’t even swear around you guys.” Anon racked his memories. “... that often.”

Mistake scoffed. “Yeah, right. You say bad words all the time, daddy.”

Anon stopped and let go of her hand, crossing his arms and looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. She smiled up at him, her face still plastered with bits of dried ice cream.

“Name once. Name once when I have cussed in front of you.”

Mistake coughed into her hand and puffed out her chest. She adopted a stern expression, like that of a drill sergeant or a police officer. She pointed at a row of invisible bug-children as if they had disgraced the holy motherland. Mustering up the deepest voice possible, she tried to mimic her father.

“I can’t believe you guys broke my fucking TV! That thing was fucking expensive! Do you even understand how money works? Do you, you little pieces of-”

Anon hushed Mistake and looked around quickly around the deserted street, making sure no one was around to hear. “At-at-at-at-tah! Shh! Alright, I get it.” He sighed and continued his walk, Mistake falling in step behind him. “Shit. I never really noticed I talked like that in front of you guys. Suppose there’s not really any use in changing it now. You know not to use those words, right?”

Mistake grinned. “Yeah, I know. Only when I get hurt or someone else says them to me first.”

“Well, close enough.” Anon flicked her ponytail. “You’re too much like me for your own good, you know that?”

Anon sank into the couch, finally in the relative comfort of his home. He tried to ignore the sounds of crashing furniture behind him as he bent over and picked up the remote from the floor, flipping on the television to whatever happened to be on. He settled for the news and let it blare in the background, using it solely for the purpose of white noise as he closed his eyes and retreated to his happy place.

It wasn’t long before he was drawn back out of it. Anon felt a poke on his arm, trying to get his attention. He cracked open an eye and turned his head to face a satyr child, one with long blue hair and sparkling green eyes. Anon sighed and opened the other eye, giving her his full attention.

“Did you break something?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to get someone in trouble?”

“No.”

“Do you want to watch the TV?”

“No.”

Anon stared at her for a few moments. “Which one are you again?”

“Misery.”

“Right. What do you want, Misery?”

Misery looked off to the side in thought. Her brain tumbled over phrases and words, trying to find the right question to ask. She decided that simplicity and straightforwardness would work the best.

“What was our mom like?”

Anon frowned slightly. “You’ve been thinking about her?”

“A little.”

“Well, this is the second time I’ve had to answer this question today. I guess it’s a bit easier this time, now that I don’t really have to hold back any details.”

Anon looked up toward the ceiling, as if trying to get better reception for his thoughts. “Her name was Chrysalis. Always a bit of an odd name, you know, but she was an odd woman. Well, not really a woman, but... you know. It suited her. She was about my height, maybe a little taller. Green eyes and blue hair. I thought it was dyed, but seeing it on you, I guess it’s natural.” Anon stared at her for a moment. “You do look a lot like your mother.”

Misery made the motion to continue and Anon sucked in a deep breath, thinking hard. “Let’s see... well, she wasn’t human. I think that much should be obvious. You... things, you aren’t human either. Not entirely. Your mother had the decency to tell me before we-” Anon paused and glanced down at the girl. “Do you even know what sex is?”

She shook her head.

“I should probably talk to you guys about that sometime. Anyways, she let me know she wasn’t human before we went all the way. At the time, I just thought, you know, she was crazy, because she definitely did LOOK like a woman. And I was alright with that, because I was madly in love with her. Next morning, only trace I found of her was a note on the fridge and a hundred-something of you guys. That was seven years ago.”

Misery didn’t look satisfied. “You don’t know where she is?”

Anon let out a short laugh. “Sweetie, if I knew where she was, you would not be under my dysfunctional custody anymore. Do you think I enjoy depriving you of your childhoods?”

Misery sighed and curled up on the couch, bringing her arms in front of her and her lips to a pout. Anon tussled her hair and stood up.

“I’m going to bed. I’d suggest you guys all do the same. Goodnight.”

Misery watched him go, the only figure she had that resembled a parent. He wasn’t really a father, of course, and they both knew it. Every single one of the children knew it. Misery didn’t blame him, of course; she had sense enough to know that he couldn’t possibly spare the time and effort for over a hundred children. He never asked for them, and he refused to take responsibility for them. That’s why Misery needed to find their mother. If not for justice, then simply for some answers.

She sighed and dropped off the side of the couch, rubbing her weary eyes as she trudged along the living room floor. Her only lead, her father, knew nothing. She had no idea where to find her mother, much less how to get there. She was stuck in this town, in the middle of nowhere, with no clues, no leads, and no hope.

As she dragged her hooves through the hall, she noticed a blue glow coming from underneath the door of the computer room. She pushed it open out of curiosity. Huddled on the floor of the room was at least a dozen or so childlings, all staring up at the screen of the computer on the desk above them. Some movie, a western of some kind, was playing on the monitor for the rest of them to watch. Misery took a seat in the crowd next to a younger boy, a male offspring named Star.

Star turned to face Misery and smiled, pointing up at the screen. “I found a cowboy movie on the internet. It’s about a guy who has to ride across the whole desert to find his wife.”

Misery stared up at the screen. As she watched, something gnawed at her thoughts... something Star had just said. Something in his words had triggered an idea.

“You said you found it?”

Star nodded. “Yeah. Jet over there wanted to see a cowboy movie, so I searched one up. None of these guys know how to use the computer like I -”

Misery cut him off. “You FOUND it? On the internet?”

“I... yes? I did.” Star looked at her, confused.

Misery’s eyes sparkled. “Movie’s over. Come up to the computer, Star.”

Star shrugged and followed Misery, the pair of them fluttering up to the computer chair and taking a seat. The other children groaned as Star closed the movie, turning to Misery for further directions.

“Go to the... the place where you go to find things. Like you found the movie. We need to find something.”

Anon awoke with a start, nearly hitting his head on the wall behind him. A pair of huge, cyan eyes peered at him from the darkness beside the bed, watching him closely. With a sigh, Anon reached over and switched on the bedside lamp, revealing Mistake. She shivered in her shirt and shorts, clutching herself tightly to try and hold back the night air. She was in her natural form, black many-holed legs and unblinking solid cyan eyes making their appearance. Anon blinked a few times and then sighed in defeat, knowing this was something he couldn’t ignore.

“What is it, Mistake? It’s...” Anon glanced at his alarm clock. “... almost midnight. You scared the crap out of me.”

“I-I had a scary dream. Can I sleep with you tonight?”

“No.” Anon reached over and switched the lamp back off, covering the room in darkness once more. As he tried to fall back into sleep, he could feel her gaze digging into his sleeping form. He popped one eye open again and stared into those deep cyan orbs once more. Anon switched the light back on. Mistake stood in the exact same position as she had been before.

“Do you mind closing your eyes? Or like, disguising them so they look normal? Because they glow in the dark when they’re like that. It’s very bothersome.”

Mistake just stared back, her lip beginning to quiver. Anon sighed and lifted up the covers. “Alright. Fine. Get in here. Just... be quiet and don’t wiggle around. I’m trying to sleep too.”

Without a word, Mistake climbed into the bed, crawling underneath the covers and burying her head in Anon’s chest. He rolled his eyes and lowered the blanket, wrapping one arm around her and nodding off to sleep.

As Anon dreamt, he could swear he heard the sounds of scuttering bug-children around him, quick whispers between one another as they moved about. His sleeping mind told him to pay them no attention, to just keep sleeping and ignore it. The steady heartbeat of Mistake made him drowsier and drowsier as he drifted further and further from consciousness, leaving the waking world behind...

Anon let his eyes open as slowly as they wanted to. He felt good this morning. REALLY good. An entire night of sleep, as rare as it was, was exactly what his body needed to get back in shape. Strangely enough, no children had ran through his room at four in the morning, no furniture came crashing down in the hallway, and no rabbid dog was let in through the front door while he was asleep. He felt a slight movement on his chest and looked down, finding that Mistake was still nestled up against him. A thin line of drool came out of the corner of her mouth and settled into a dark spot on his shirt.

Anon sighed and pulled his arm out from under her, causing her to begin to wake with a short series of mumbles. As Anon glanced around the room he found something... off. Something was very wrong this morning, and he couldn’t place it. Glancing down at the clock, he found part of the problem: it wasn’t morning at all. It was just past noon. He stared at the clock in disbelief as Mistake yawned, stretching her arms to the sky. She smacked her lips a few times and stared at the wall, obviously still in the process of waking up.

The second uncanny thing hit Anon like a train. The entire house was quiet. He sat up and listened, trying to find some sound, some screaming child, some pitter patter of hooves in the hallway, any noise at all. But there was nothing. Nothing except except Mistake’s soft yawn. Anon slid out of bed and threw open the bedroom door to find the hallway completely empty. No bug children in sight. A quick check around the house confirmed his suspicions, discovering that every single one of the children, aside from Mistake, was missing. Anon sat down at the kitchen table with his head rested on his elbows, thoughts rushing at a million miles an hour.

Mistake entered the kitchen, slowly sauntering over to the fridge. She flung open the door and pulled out a juice box, sitting down next to Anon at the kitchen table, oblivious to the situation around her. He stared at her for a few moments as she sat there quietly sipping on her juice, still drowsy from so much sleep in one night.

“... Mistake.”

She jumped slightly, as if woken up from a trance. “Hmmhm?”

“Mistake... where are... where...” He gestured around the house, juggling words on his tongue. “Where are the rest of your brothers and sisters?”

Mistake looked around with surprise, just then noticing the unusual absence. “Oh. I dunno.”

Anon sucked in a breath and stood up, already heading for the front door. “Oh nooo, nononono. We have to go find them. We have to find them. What if they get into trouble? What if they don’t put their disguises on?” He paled even more as worse thoughts came to him. “What if they tell the police where they came from? What if they come back here? What if they want answers and I don’t have them and they take me in for questioning and-” Anon threw open the front door and headed out. “Mistake! Come on, we’re going on a walk.”

“Coming, coming.” Mistake finished the last of her juice box with a smack of her lips, tossing it in the trash can and running for the door. Just before she crossed the threshold out to the yard, her old form was replaced with the one of an ordinary little girl in a flash of green flame. She joined her father on the sidewalk and kept an eye out.

Chapter II: Departure

Misery peeked around the corner of the house, taking care not to be seen. About a hundred of her siblings sat and roughhoused with one another behind her, making her wince at every noise. She turned around and hissed at them to be quiet, not really expecting it to help. It didn’t.

She turned her attention back to the scene ahead of her. In front of the house was the local elementary school. On a normal saturday, it wouldn’t be worth noting, but lucky for Misery, that day was not a normal Saturday. A large charter bus was parked in the drop-off zone, with a few teachers and students standing outside going through roll call. Misery needed that bus, and she had a plan.

Her inner musings were interrupted as she heard a startled gasp from the porch. Misery turned around to behold a woman, looking to be in her thirties, coming out of the house behind them. She seemed shocked to find a hundred eerily similar children parked on her lawn. At the sound of the gasp, they all turned to face her at once, definitely not helping the situation. Misery sighed and waved a hand, turning her attention back to the bus.

“Get her. Things are about to get messy anyways.”

Two changeling boys, Jet and Pocket, looked at one another with the same mischievous grin. They stood up and walked to both sides of the shocked woman, carefully skulking along the ground to remain unnoticed in the horde of their brothers and sisters. Synchronized, they each dug deep down within themselves, finding that one organ that humans lacked that allowed them to do what they were about to do. With no effort to suppress the noise, similar to that of making a spitball in the back of one’s throat, they simultaneously released globs of thick, green fluid over their target. The woman didn’t even have time to scream as it blanketed her, pinning her to the ground and preventing her from making any more noise.

The boys beamed and stepped away from the green mess, taking pride in their work. Misery rolled her eyes and looked back to the bus.

“I’m going to lure them over here in a minute. Everyone, get ready.”

Misery cringed as a deafening chorus of affirmation rang out from the horde of children, likely drawing attention the attention of the entire block. Eager to start her plan before her siblings had a chance to ruin it, she started across the street towards the parked bus. As she approached, several children turned their heads to watch her. Misery stopped in the middle of the street and waved her hands, attempting to get all of them to look in her direction. Through the use of jumping up and down and several loud noises, she finally had the eyes of every child and teacher upon her.

“Hey! The ice cream man is giving away free ice cream over there!” She pointed to the row of houses where she had just emerged from.

In a collective agreement to disregard any rules the teachers had set in place, several children immediately ran away from the group and ran for the houses. Misery smiled as the teachers cried out in anguish, chasing after them. Soon, most of the other children figured they would join in, and the entire group had left the sidewalk and ran out into the street. She didn’t even turn around to see if her trap succeeded, pushing through the panicked crowd and and towards the vehicle. She heard shrieks of surprise as she rounded the side of the bus and entered through the door on the side.

The bus driver was an older man, around fifty years of age. He turned at the sound of someone entering the bus, confusion clear on his face.

“What’s going on out there? Where did everyone run off to?”

Misery stepped forward and pulled out a slip of paper, handing it to the bus driver. “This is a map. Follow it.”

The bus driver unfolded the slip of paper and scanned his eyes over it. “But... the field trip is going to San Francisco, isn’t it?”

“Just take us there.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, little girl.”

“Then get out. I’ll drive.”

“I don’t think you know how to drive this bus, sweetie.” The driver frowned and tucked the map into his pocket, grabbing Misery by the arm and leading her out of the bus. Misery kicked at his legs and struggled to pull her arm free, to no avail.

“Look, missy, we’re going to find a teacher and-” The driver gasped in pain as a kick dug into his knee.

Misery was too close to give up now. She had found a lead, a clue to where her mother was. She had a bus to take her, and all of her siblings, to it. She had a goal, and she had a means, and the only thing standing in her way was an old man. Misery hissed and kicked off of the ground, climbing up the front of the man’s shirt. She pinned him to the bus and stared into his dull, brown eyes, gazing into them with such fury and intensity that he was left speechless. Her eyes flashed, glowing a fiery green for a split second before fading back to their normal emerald hue. The man’s eyelids drooped from a surprised upright position to a relaxed slouch. His once brown eyes now shone a dull green.

Misery pulled her arm back, and the man released, his grip now eased. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, the moment of fear and instinct passed. Her chest rose and fell with the breaths, leaving her standing there on the sidewalk as confused as the bus driver had been moments ago. Now, he just stood there, like a pole, staring off into the distance.

A cough broke the morning silence. Misery turned to see Whistle, standing in front of the horde of changeling children. A few of them had green slime still dripping from their mouths, eliciting the occasional wipe of the sleeve. They all stared at the scene in front of them, first at the docile old man, and then to Misery. The changeling girl stared back, at a loss for words. Finding it too hard to speak, she simply raised a hand and pointed at the bus’s open door. The changelings filed in, one by one, without a word. Whistle stood behind, letting the others go first, before taking a stance next to her sister.

“... what did you do to him, Misery?”

Misery looked up at the old man in silence for a few moments. “I don’t know. Get in the bus.”

“Did you hurt him? Why isn’t he-”

“Get in. The bus.” Misery ended the word with a sharp hiss, letting it be known that the conversation was over. Whistle frowned and climbed inside.

Misery stepped before the old man, waving to get his attention. The bus driver’s empty green eyes slowly fell down to look at her, without a single spark of thought. The changeling girl pointed into his pocket, where he had stored the slip of paper.

“The map. Drive there.”

The driver slowly dipped a hand into the pocket, pulling out the map. He unfolded it with his bony hands and scanned over it, the spark of life returning to his eyes for a moment as his thoughts returned to him long enough to fulfill his mission. When finished, he nodded, folding the slip back up and stepping into the bus without a word. Misery followed behind him.

“Daaaaad, my feet hurt.”

Anon ignored her and kept walking, knowing she’d keep following behind anyways. He didn’t have the time or the patience to stop for a rest. Not while they were still out there, his... unholy spawn, probably destroying the lives of innocents virgins or something. He had walked through half of the city with his daughter, now, and had found no trace of the insectoid children. He would have found it delightfully ironic that the things he had wished away for the past seven years would suddenly be the most sought after thing in his life, were it not so infuriating.

He glanced behind him to check on Mistake, who trudged forward in an over-dramatic limp, complete with agonizingly slow speed. He sighed and scooped her up under his arm, throwing her over his shoulder like a viking warrior bringing home a kidnapped villager. Mistake giggled and went limp, enjoying the free ride.

“Dad, why are you so scared?”

“Because all of your brothers and sisters are gone.”

“But I thought you didn’t like us?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why do you care?”

Anon sighed. “Because if they get into trouble, or get captured by the government, or open some interdimensional portal to wherever the hell they came from, then it’s on MY ass. And I don’t like things riding on my ass.”

Mistake wriggled out of her father’s grasp and fluttered down to the ground, now walking beside him without any of the previous melodramatics. “You never really cared before, though.”

“I always tried to keep you close by, at least. And disguised when you were outside. Those were my only two rules.” He threw his arms in the air in exasperation. “With so many of you, it was the only thing I could do to keep you guys out of trouble, and you all went ahead and broke the rules anyways.”

Anon rounded the street corner, coming to face a small park. Several children ran around in the shade of the trees, throwing a frisbee between each other. None of the kids with half-bug. Anon groaned in frustration and headed further south, Mistake in tow.

It just didn’t make sense to him. Bakersfield wasn’t that big. With a hundred or so children on the loose, each with magical abilities and a knack for causing issues, he was expecting the scene when he walked out of his house to resemble something out of Gremlins. But to the contrary, he had seen absolutely no sign of any of them. No screams of terror, no crashing vehicles, no strange insect hives spawning out of the ground. Eventually Anon came to the conclusion that with such large numbers in such a small space, the only way he wouldn’t run into any of them was if they were traveling together in a group. But why would over a hundred bug children who were constantly at each other’s throats travel together?

Anon’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard a soft squishing noise underneath his left shoe. He grunted and tried to pull his foot off the ground, finding it cemented to the concrete. Try as he might, the shoe refused to separate from the ground. He sighed and undid the strings, leaving the shoe behind. He glanced around, trying to find out what he had just stepped in.

In front of him was a scene he wasn’t prepared for. The entire stretch of sidewalk before him was covered in splotches of some sort of green slime, extending all the way out to the end of the street where it turned. Giant mounds of it seemed to be more present near the center, where it was in higher concentration. As he looked into the mounds, he noticed something inside of them: living people, suspended in the gel and looking terrified.

One of the nearby mounds contained an adult. Anon leaned in, careful not to touch the mess. His eyes darted around, a terrified expression glued on his face. He was obviously aware, and still alive, but incapable of moving.

Careful not to step in any more of the stuff, he made his way into the center of the mass. This shit was NOT natural, he knew that much. Anon tiptoed through the patches of clear ground, careful not to step in even a single spec of the green trap. He made his way from the sidewalk onto the nearby house’s lawn, where the concentration of the stuff was higher. Mistake watched from a distance with an interested look in her eye, slightly amused by her father’s ballet act among the slime.

Anon cursed under his breath and gestured around him. “I’m guessing this stuff is from you guys?”

Mistake nodded. “That’s sticky goo. Jet showed us all how to do it a long time ago. He caught a bird with it.”

“Where does it come from?”

“We just spit it out.” Mistake shrugged.

“Well, that’s... something.” Anon stepped around a particularly large mound, with two adults trapped inside together. “How do you get rid of it?”

“If you get water on it, it goes away.”

Anon nodded and glanced around the yard, eyes landing on a hose left unraveled in the middle of the grass. He took it and made aim at a nearby mound of slime, showing it in water. As soon as the water made contact, the strange material began to mix with it, losing its solidity and becoming liquid again. Soon it began to wash away and shrink down, receding from the mound and flooding down into the grass, revealing what was kept inside: a very scared looking child. The kid shuddered on the lawn, gazing up at the sky as if paralyzed with the thought that he was finally free.

Anon waved a hand in front of his eyes and got his attention. “Hey. Kid. You alright?”

The child nodded slowly, still out of shape. “Y-you can b-breathe in t-there... but it’s s-so cold...”

“Hey, kid, stay with me.” Anon snapped in front of him to get his attention once more. “Where are the things that did this to you?”

The kid sat up and pointed down the street, towards the elementary school. “B-bus. They took the bus.”

“I can’t believe we took the bus.”

Whistle gazed out the window, Misery sitting next to her. While most of the changeling children behind them had already forgotten about the scene with the bus driver, including Whistle, Misery was still trying to wrap her head around it. The old man seemed healthy, physically, but mentally, he was gone. She had tried speaking with him, with no amount of success, finding that he would follow orders if she gave them, but was not able to speak his own mind. At this point, Misery questioned whether or not he still had a mind.

A smaller changeling, named Faith, tugged on Misery’s shirt, pulling her out of her thoughts. She smiled up at her in a way that made her suspect she was about to ask for something. “Misery, can we stop and get a snack? We’re hungry.”

Misery scowled at her. “Star says we’ll be with Mom before the sun is even down. We’ll get something to eat there.”

Faith pouted and retreated to the back of the bus with the rest of her brothers and sisters. They were all in their disguises still, a hundred little girls and boys with a rainbow of eye colors and clothes. The bus was well past it’s capacity, many of the children sitting on the floor and on top of each other, some places with four to a single seat. Misery guessed the bus only held about fifty or so passengers, but they were making do with the space provided. She sighed as a couple of brothers scratched at each other over a tiny spot of space, knocking over another small group that sat on the ground next to them. With a loud whistle, she grabbed their attention, and motioned for them to cut it out. They gave each other death glares, but obeyed.

And Misery had to admit, her brothers and sisters had been strangely obedient. Their usual off the wall, violent behavior had calmed down substantially when she started to give them orders, and they usually followed said orders to the letter. Still, they weren’t like the bus driver: the bus driver was mindless, she could tell that much. He was driven to do whatever she asked, with no thought of his own unless called upon. Her siblings that she ordered around, they still had working brains. They chose to follow her, either through determination to see their mother or a lack of anything better to do, but they could stop following her at any time. Misery had to wonder how long that control would last, and whether or not it was even worth it.

As the bus drove on, she even started to question whether or not it was a good idea to bring the hive with her in the first place. They were big, noisy, and hard to lose. She was almost sure that she could have snuck away by herself and made it to her destination without her siblings. She had thought, at the time, that more people meant more help, but now that she dwelled on it she realized they may just slow her down in the long run. Finding a bus that would fit them all had taken most of the afternoon anyways, longer than this entire trip was even supposed to take. Star had promised her that the map said they would be there in about four hours, and even that was four hours too long.

She turned to the bus driver, finding that she, too, was already getting impatient. “Driver. Where are we?”

The bus driver didn’t turn away from the road, but slowly lifted a finger to the map that was propped up against the dashboard. It landed on the eastern border of Bakersfield. They hadn’t even gone more than a few miles. She looked out the window to confirm it, finding that the houses of the city were beginning to fade behind them, slowly being replaced by more and more farmland. They had only just breached the city limits. It was going to be a long, long ride.

Misery felt a nudge on her arm and turned to face Whistle. “Why isn’t dad coming? We should have brought him. I’m sure he wants to see momma too.”

Misery waved a hand dismissively. “I’m sure he does. But he’s got a life to get to. He wouldn’t go out of the way to find her. And I didn’t want to ask him, because he’d probably try to stop us. He doesn’t like us going too far.”

“Do you think he’s going to try and come after us?”

Misery looked out the window once more at the city, retreating behind them. “No. Like I said, he’s got a life. He won’t follow us. Not like he even knows where we’re going.”

“Daddy, where are we going?”

Anon kept walking down the street, heart pounding and mind racing. He looked up from the sidewalk, trying to get his bearings. Somewhere downtown, it seemed. “I don’t know. Shut up, I’m thinking.”

Mistake waved through a window as they passed a cafe, apparently knowing some of the people inside. She sped up a bit to catch up to her father and looked up at him. “Well, shouldn’t we go find the bus they took?”

Anon sighed. “Yes, Mistake, that would be ideal.” He looked down toward her with a scowl. “Unfortunately, we have no idea where they’re going with that bus.”

Mistake glanced back in the direction they had come from. “Shouldn’t we have used the hose and got the rest of those people out of the goo?”

“They’ll be fine. The sprinklers will come on eventually.”

“I don’t know, some of them looked pretty scared, an-”

“Mistake.” Anon dropped to his knee and put his hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eye. “They will be fine. We have something more important to take care of right now. Do you have any idea where they would be heading? I mean, you’re one of them.”

The little girl bit her bottom lip in thought, looking off to the side. “... wellllllll...” she let out a breath, “... nope. If they made a plan, they did it last night, when I was sleeping with you.”

Anon groaned and leaned against a light post, resting his feet for a moment. He realized he had been walking around most of the day, now, doing nothing but panicked thinking. And he had dragged Mistake with him the entire way. Her face was red and her hair dripping with sweat. She sat on the sidewalk and heaved a sigh of exhaustion, happy to take a break from walking. Anon took a seat next to her and tussled her hair, getting her attention.

“Alright, let’s think about this. Obviously they can’t walk to where they’re going. They wouldn’t need the bus if they did. So, they aren’t going anywhere inside the city.”

“Right.” Mistake nodded.

“And since they’ve never been out of the city, they had to learn about this place from somewhere else. Right?”

“Mhm.”

“So, maybe they left clues behind. A trail to follow.” Anon pointed towards the direction of his house. “Something, anything that could be a hint, would probably be at the house.”

Anon pushed himself back up to his feet, making causing Mistake to groan in contempt. “Then why didn’t we just go there first? We’ve been walking for ages...”

The walk to their home took substantially less time than the walk they had spent their morning on. Anon threw open the door to the house and stepped inside, Mistake cradled in his arms. He dropped her on the living room couch unceremoniously and started poking around the house, looking for anything that could help. A thought suddenly occurred to him and he headed for the hallway.

“Mistake, see if there’s anything to go on in here. I’m going to check the computer.”

He didn’t even stay behind to hear her protest. The door to the computer room squeaked open with a slight push. Anon didn’t like the children touching his computer, but he found that one of them, Star, knew how to actually use it properly. About a month ago Anon had let him use it on the promise that he wouldn’t break anything, and he had done a pretty good job on keeping that promise so far.

He pulled out the chair and took a seat, wiggling the mouse to bring the computer to life. Whoever had used the computer last (and it wasn’t him, so it had better been Star or else he was going to have to slap a bug) had left it open on a few pages. The first was some kind of conspiracy website, like the kind that have “explanations” about vampires and ghosts. This one in particular was about aliens. Anon skimmed through the page. Apparently the alien under investigation here was some kind of shapeshifter. Anon sighed and sat back in the chair, realizing what had happened.

He had searched for answers himself, the first few years after she had disappeared. He spent hours, days, entire weekends glued to his computer screen, looking for some sign. He hadn’t found anything. A few conspiracy sites, like that one, but nothing substantial. As the abominations had gained a foothold in his life and entered a hatchling phase, he had given up on finding her ever again. But it was obvious that with the details he had given her, Misery had started her own search. And whatever she had found, she had taken all of her brothers and sisters to go see.

And her search had been much more successful. Maybe it was because the information just hadn’t been there when he searching for it, but Misery had gathered entire stores of information that he had never seen seven years ago. There were maps, essays, pictures, the whole lot. Anon was almost entirely convinced most of it was complete bullshit, but obviously something on this page had been enough for Misery to go off in confidence. As he reached the bottom of the page, he saw immediately what it was.

A very blurry picture sat at the bottom of the webpage, but what could be seen was definitely enough. A younger woman, somewhere in her twenties, was looking into the camera with glowing green eyes. Her flowing blue-green hair fell down almost to her waist. A glint of a shining white fang shone out from her mouth. The picture was cut off from her midsection down by a few trashcans. The picture was taken in an alley, and from the picture’s description, it was taken in Las Vegas. He didn’t even have to look at it twice to know that it was his “lover”, Chrysalis.

The paragraph of text below it went on to explain how the photographer had been chasing after the mysterious woman for months, after swearing he saw her in her “true form” one night in the back of a hotel parking lot. Her current whereabouts were unknown, but presumably she was still in Vegas somewhere, hiding from whoever knew about her existence. Anon scrolled back up and stared at the photograph for a moment longer. It was definitely her, he knew it. Misery must have known it too. That was reason enough for them to head for Vegas.

Anon tabbed to the next page, which was Google Maps. He didn’t have to stare at it long to know what it was: a map between Bakersfield and Las Vegas. 281 miles. The route traveled through the mountains and down South, through Barstow, and then back North to the shining city of sin itself. Las Vegas, the gem of the Mojave desert. It was almost like a beacon, beckoning from across the sea of sand, as if Chrysalis was calling back the children that she left behind. Like bringing moths to a flame.

Anon printed a map for himself and headed back out into the hall. Mistake hadn’t moved from the spot where he had dumped her on the couch. She began to speak, but Anon cut her off before she even had a chance to whine about her legs again.

“We’re going. Now. We need to find a car we can borrow.”

She groaned loudly. “Oh, come on! We’ve been walking all day!”

“We’ll rest when we have a car.” Anon went to the couch and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder once more, her legs dangling behind him. She was actually exhausted this time, he could tell, but they didn’t have time to rest. “Do you know anyone with a car we could borrow?”

Mistake scoffed. “Why are you asking me? You’re the grown-up.”

“Mistake, let me explain something to you.” Anon opened the door and started walking down the street, not even sure where he was headed. “I’ve lived about 20 years longer than you. Half of those years were spent in this city. And I can guarantee you, you still know more people than I do. That is how far out of the way I go not to associate myself with the hicks that live here.”

Mistake giggled lightly and poked her father in the cheek. “You need to get more friends. And I know lotsa people, but none of them would just give you a car because you asked.”

“Well, the only person I’m even on remotely good terms with is Katie. And she’s too sane to let me borrow her car for some crazy mission to Vegas.” He sighed. “Guess we have to ask though, don’t we?”

Katie’s house was on the other side of town. By the time Anon arrived, his own legs were beginning to ache and beg for the sweet release of sitting. He ignored their pleas and stepped up to her front door, setting Mistake down on the ground beside him. He knocked a few times and stepped back, waiting for a response. After a few moments the door opened and Katie came into view, wearing a pair of sweats and a loose t-shirt. They looked at each other for a few moments before her brain flared to life, registering who was standing before her.

“Oh! Anon! Uh, I didn’t think I’d see you today. I was going to call later tonight and ask you how you were doing. Say, you’re lookin’ pretty well rested. Did you get in a few hours of-” She stopped and gasped as her eyes fell on Mistake, who sat on the porch with a prize winning beam.

“Yeah, hi, Katie. This is my daughter-” His lips glued together, almost calling her by her true name. Doing so was probably unwise.

Before he could even finish, Mistake finished for him. “The name’s Lauren. Nice to meet you.”

Katie smiled. “You named her Lauren, after your mother? That’s so sweet.”

Anon had completely forgotten that was even his mother’s name, but he was thankful for Mistake’s save. “Listen, we, uh... we need to borrow your car. Just for today. Maybe also the first half of tomorrow, depending on how things go.”

Katie paused and leaned against the door frame, confusion etched across her face. “My car? Where are you headed, Fresno?”

“A bit further than Fresno, actually. But I can’t really tell you where, or why. You probably wouldn’t believe me anyways.”

Katie chuckled. “Come on, I’ve seen some weird things in my time. Try me.”

He sighed. “Well, to put it short, the rest of my kids are gone.”

Katie’s eyes widened as she turned around, heading back inside. She went to a small table off to the left of the entry hallway and picked up a phone before Anon could stop her.

“Oh god, we need to call the police. We can file a missing persons-”

“Katie, they aren’t missing. I know where they are. That’s why I need the car.”

Katie put down the phone and returned to the doorway, the look of confusion returned. “Where could they have possibly gone that you would need a car to get to? Lamont?”

Anon shook his head. “Further.”

“Arvin?”

“Farther than that, for sure.”

She scoffed loudly. “What, did they go to Vegas to play the tables?”

“Well, I highly doubt they’ll be doing any gambling there, but...”

She stared at him, no hint of amusement in her eyes. “Is this some kind of joke? Because it’s not funny.”

Anon shrugged. Katie stared at him in disbelief, her jaw hanging in the air. Her hand drifted to the door knob as she slowly backed away into the house, preparing to shut the door in their faces. Just before she did, Mistake stuck her foot in the doorway, blocking it open as it came to a sudden close. Normally that kind of thing would seriously injure the person involved, and probably break the leg of a normal seven year old, but the bug-child’s chitinous legs absorbed the blow without much more than a bump. She pulled it back quickly before Katie had a chance to see what had blocked the door, but it kept it open for the second that Mistake needed.

“Actually, Katie, my dad IS joking. But you and I both know he’s not very funny.” Mistake smiled apologetically up at the woman in the most charming way she could muster. “He wanted to drive me up to the Fresno water park! We’ve been planning this for months.”

Katie paused and looked back up at Anon, who took the hint and nodded vigorously. “Yes. Just messing with you, Katie, come on. How would someone even manage to lose their kids in Vegas?”

Katie sighed and turned around, taking her purse off of where it was hanging on the wall and retrieving her keys. She handed them to Anon. “Sorry, I’m not in high spirits today. Just make sure you fill it back up before you bring it back.” She smiled down at the little girl. “And you two have fun at the water park, ok?”

The door closed and the pair headed for the driveway, heading for the car. It wasn’t a fancy one, by any definition. In fact, it was a Dodge Neon from 1995, and it didn’t look a day younger than the twenty or so years it had riding on its back. Anon unlocked the front door and climbed in gingerly, as if worried that he might send it to a pile of junk before they even started it. Mistake waited for him to unlock the passenger door before climbing into the seat beside him.

“You’re a pretty quick liar. Thanks for that save. Well, both saves, including the name.” Anon brought the car to life with a turn of the key, the car almost sounding like it was whining to be in use.

“You are terrible with people. You should just let me talk from now on.” Mistake glaced at a label on the dashboard. “It says that children under ten should sit in the back.”

Anon pulled the car out of the driveway, his phone leading them on the same route Misery was taking. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Star poked at the fuel gauge with a finger, worry etched across his face. “No, I’m pretty sure we should worry about it.”

Misery sighed and pulled Star away from the dashboard by the shirt. “I’m telling you, don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine.”

“Misery, the fuel gauge is almost empty. That means the bus is going to stop moving any second now.” Star scrunched his face and pointed up at the map. “And we aren’t even halfway there yet. Nearest place that isn’t just a load of sand is Barstow, a few miles ahead. Vegas is way past that. And I don’t think our friend here is in any condition to fuel us back up.” Star gestured up towards the bus driver, still completely focused on the road with his dull green eyes.

Misery took a look at the map. As Star had pointed out, the only thing even visible for the next hundred miles was Nipton. Either they stopped here and didn’t get caught in the middle of the desert, or they took their chances and just crossed their fingers. Misery didn’t like those chances.

“Driver. Get off the highway, we’re stopping in Barstow.”

Star breathed a sigh of relief and went back to the seats in the bus, forcing one of his sisters to squish against the wall to get himself a seat.

Whistle frowned. “So, we’re taking a stop?”

Misery nodded. “Hopefully this won’t be any longer than it has to be.”

Chapter III: Setbacks

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

Anon honked at the cars in front of them, impatience growing. The traffic was strangely active, especially at this time of day, which both worked as a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, Anon hoped that the traffic was slowing down the children in their path to Vegas. On the down side, it was also slowing him down. Though he was capable of keeping his impatience on a leash, the same could not be said for Mistake.

“When are we going to be there?”

Anon glanced down in his lap. “The phone says we’ll be there in five hours. Which is ridiculous, because we’ve already been driving for an hour and it said it would take four before we even left.”

“Is it broken?”

“No, it’s just 2013.” Anon sighed and honked the horn again. “Jesus, come on! My kids have probably eaten a homeless guy by now!” He sighed and sat back in his seat, arms crossed. He turned to Mistake and raised an eyebrow. “I have been meaning to ask, what exactly do you guys eat?”

“What do we... eat?” She looked puzzled. “Food?”

“Well, obviously you CAN eat food, but unless you’ve got some kind of hidden basement full of hot pockets that you went to for the first five years of your life, food isn’t what keeps you alive.” Anon shrugged. “When you guys first hatched, I tried to feed you. You wouldn’t eat anything. But you kept going, kept growing. Eventually I just gave up and let you guys do whatever, as long as you weren’t getting hurt. You all got old enough and learned to walk and talk all on your own. You’ve been more or less living on an extended leash since then.”

Anon looked down at Mistake to check if she was even still listening. She looked up at him with wide, shining eyes.

He glanced away in discomfort. “What, so you don’t know what you eat? Do you just not eat at all?”

“Hm? Oh. Uh...” She looked down at the floor in thought. “Well, what happens when you don’t eat?”

“Well, normally when a human doesn’t eat, they get hungry. Like, this feeling in the pit of your stomach that doesn’t go away until you get some food. A really nasty feeling. And your body starts making weird noises.”

“Oh!” Mistake beamed. “That happens sometimes when we go too long without a hug. Well, I’ve never heard my tummy making noises, but the nasty feeling thing happens. And then when you do get a hug, or sometimes a pat on the head, or a kiss on the cheek...” Mistake rolled her eyes to the ceiling as if remembering eating the best chocolate cake ever made.

Anon took his eyes away from the road for a moment to lock eyes with his daughter. “You’re shitting me. You’re telling me that you feed off of hugs? Because if so, that explains some things.”

“I don’t know, I’m just answering your question.”

Anon just shook his head in disbelief. “So... how long can you go without a hug before you start feeling bad?”

“I dunno. Usually it’s about a day.” She frowned. “Star tried to test something. He made us all go a few days without hugging to get us real hungry, and then he told us to hug each other. It didn’t work.”

“Well, I suppose even unnatural bug children can’t discover the source of infinite renewable energy.” Anon scoffed and took his eyes back to the road.

Mistake continued to stare at him, as she had earlier. Any memories she had of him were definitely not pleasant fatherly ones, but apparently when she was too young to remember anything, he had watched over her and her siblings with loving care. From what he told her, anyways. It almost didn’t register in her mind.

“You used to be a good daddy?”

Anon glanced in her direction, a bit taken back by the statement. “What, are you implying I’m not a good daddy now? That hurts my feelings.”

“No, but, earlier. You said you used to watch over us. And tried to feed us. And made sure we weren’t getting hurt. Why did you stop?”

“I haven’t...” Anon let his words trail off as he thought about it. “I haven’t stopped. Well, alright, maybe I did. But it’s because I don’t need to anymore. You’re all grown up now. You don’t need my help, or my attention.”

Mistake silenced herself as Anon went back to focusing on the road. The cars ahead budged forward another few inches, giving him a small window of opportunity to drive up. As they pulled forward, Anon noticed why the traffic was so heavy: an incident was visible in the middle of the highway ahead. A few police officers circled around the scene, directing cars around and further down the highway.

“Shit.” Anon pointed into the back seats. “Mistake, go sit back there. And put your seatbelt on. And... like, try to grow a few inches so you don’t look like you need a car seat.”

Mistake did as she was told, climbing into the back seat and buckling up. She tried to sit up as tall as she could, craning her neck towards the roof of the car. Anon pulled up beside the police officers a few minutes later. He looked over the crash site, finding nothing better to do with his time. He called the attention of a nearby officer and pointed to the wreckage.

“Hey, chief. What happened here?”

The officer looked over the scene. “Well, apparently one of them armored trucks with the money in ‘em got jacked here. Few fellas drove up next to it, pushed it off the road, kicked the driver out and took off with it down thataways.” He pointed further down the freeway. “All that ruckus caused quite a few collisions, as you can see here.”

Anon nodded and rolled the window back up. He had suspected that his children were involved in some way, but he realized now that it probably wasn’t rational to go blaming every unusual occurrence on his unnatural spawn. Sometimes things just happened on their own, and crime was no different. In a few minutes, the traffic moved on past the accident, opening up the road once more. As soon as Anon was clear, he stepped on the gas pedal, happy to be free of the hold up once more.

Mistake looked out the back window at the scene disappearing behind her. “You’re really nervous around cops. Did you do something bad?”

“Please, Mistake. Do I look like the kind of person who would be caught doing something illegal?” Anon looked out over the horizon that stretched ahead, the sun about to begin its descent off of the edge of the world. “I can’t believe we got held up like that. The rascals are probably already in Vegas by now.”

“We should already be in Vegas by now.”

“Well maybe you should think about checking the gas gauge on the buses you hijack next time. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Star kicked a few pebbles across the asphalt in frustration.

Misery flashed a glare in his direction, but otherwise ignored him. Getting stuck in a desert town literally in the middle of nowhere was definitely not her intention. Vegas was still 150 miles away, if Star was reading the map right, and unless they magically found something that could bridge that distance within the next ten minutes it seemed as though they were going to have to spend the night in Barstow.

At the moment, they were in the middle of a large parking lot. A “Food4Less” grocery store displayed it’s bright sign proudly, bathing the immediate area with a soft yellow glow as the sun began to resign over the horizon. It was now occurring to Misery that she didn’t even know WHERE in Barstow they were going to stay. There had to be somewhere in the city where her group of misfits could spend the night, but she had no idea where to look. She realized she would probably have to consult Star again, as much as she hated going to him for ideas. She sighed and walked over to him nudging him in the side to get his attention.

“Star. Any ideas where we should stay tonight?”

“What, you think I’m not working on it?” Star frowned and scratched his chin in thought. “Let me give it to you straight, then. Unless Mr. Zombie in there happens to have a wallet that weighs more than I do, I don’t think we have enough money to rent a few hotel rooms. The map we have doesn’t show much about this town, but Barstow isn’t that big. We could probably find an abandoned building or something to crash in, but it would have to be soon, before it gets too cold. Deserts get cold at night.” Star gestured to the bus behind him. “We could probably spend the night in there, if we had to, but I wouldn’t count on much warmth besides what we can provide by huddling together. Which isn’t much.”

Misery nodded silently and waved him away, having heard his advice. She didn’t like going to Star for solutions, but she wasn’t even going to pretend that she was as intelligent as him. Everyone had their strengths, but Misery’s strength didn’t lie in her knowledge of the world: that’s why she needed people like Star around.

She glanced around the nearly empty parking lot. Many of the childlings had stepped out of the bus to stretch their legs. A few of the hungrier ones were harassing people coming in and out of the store, trying to exchange favors for hugs. She cringed as one of her siblings nearly toppled a man trying to put groceries in his car, clinging on to his leg like a cat on a tree branch. She needed to get them out of sight, and soon, before they started drawing unwanted attention.

Misery whistled, something she didn’t do often, to summon her second in command. Whistle was by her side in moments, breaking away from a conversation she was having with one of her brothers. “Whistle. Round everyone back into the bus, and keep them there. I’m going to take Star and a few others around town and look for somewhere we can call home for the night. Make sure no one gets in or off the bus, unless it’s an emergency. We’ll come back for everyone later. You’re in charge until I get back.”

Whistle saluted. “Yes ma’am.” She turned around and put her fingers to her lips, belting out a whistle loud enough to be heard throughout the entire parking lot. The children stopped and turned their attention. “All’ya boneheads, get back here! Everyone in the bus!”

Misery nodded curtly in approval. Before the bus crowded with the obnoxious horde, Misery peeked inside to check on the bus driver. Much as he had since the incident at Bakersfield, he sat still without a trace of emotion on his face, still sitting in the driver’s seat and staring out the front window. Misery’s frown deepened, but she let him be for the moment. There wasn’t much she could do anyhow.

She exited the bus. Star and a few of his brothers and sisters sat on the ground near one of the nearby wheels. Misery nodded to them and gestured with her hand, pointing the way deeper into town. They followed in step behind her, heading out of the parking lot and into the unexplored territory. The sky became as black as the asphalt they walked on, the sun now completely vanished from the sky. Not that it mattered much to the children. With nothing but a simple blink, their cyan eyes lit up in bright spectacle. The streets lit up before them as if the sun was still shining bright overhead, only instead of the normal array of colors, everything was an overwhelming shade of cyan. Nightvision came at a price.

In turn, Misery’s eyes shone green. She led the way through the winding streets of the medium-sized town, peeking around alleyways and climbing to high places for better views. Though they had wings, they were not very functional aside from short bursts in order to make large leaps, or possibly keep them hovered in the air for a few moments. Anything more than that was subject to failure, and was only a good idea if the child in question wished to get hurt. Due to this, Misery often relied on her followers to boost her to high places, sometimes requiring the wings to give her the tiny boost she needed to reach a ledge. As she climbed to the top of a local drug store, she scanned the area around them, ignoring the chatter of her siblings on the ground below. She realized she didn’t exactly know what she was looking for, and leaned over the edge and called Star’s attention.

“Star. What are we looking for?”

He sighed. “Something big. Preferably with no lights on. That’ll usually mean there’s no one in it.”

She nodded and went back on the roof, scanning once more with newfound knowledge. She darted her eyes across the landscape for several minutes, finding nothing of interest. Just as she was prepared to give up, however, her eyes fell over something exactly as Star had described. She marked it in her memory and dropped down off the side of the roof, falling into the arms of a few of the children waiting on her. She dusted herself off and nodded to Star.

“There’s something big to the East, near a park of some kind. Not a single light on. We should be heading there.”

“Sounds like a plan. Lead the way, we’ll scout it out.”

The group headed away from the drugstore and further East, making sure to stay out of the sight of any passersby. There weren’t many people out in the town, especially as the sun had just gone down, but every once in awhile they ducked out of sight to avoid the gaze of a lone man or woman enjoying a late night stroll down the street. They were in their human disguises, of course, but Misery didn’t want to take chances with the people here. The way she figured, the less people that knew they were here, the better. She had been treated like a child long enough to know that children generally weren’t encouraged to go on road trips to Vegas by themselves, and the law would no doubt attempt to stop them if they were discovered, human children or inhuman abominations alike.

They arrived at the sought-after building in short order. They stood outside its front entrance, gazing over it for any signs of movement. Finding none, Misery took the first steps towards the doors, glancing around at the lawn around them. The grass was old and dry, having died long ago. Patches of weeds stuck up from the dead earth. The place had definitely seen better days. As she approached, she noticed a sign on the wall and stopped to read it. She had trouble understanding what it said, so she read it out loud to herself.

“Fi st... Fi st C rist an Chur?”

Star came up behind her and glanced up at the sign, also curious. “See the spaces there, in between the letters? Some of the letters are missing, I think.” He gazed at the decayed sign for a few moments in silence. “I think it supposed to say ‘First Christian Church’. Keep your manners, Misery, we’re on holy ground. Wouldn’t want God to smite us as the abominations we are, now we?” He grinned to himself and walked inside, leaving Misery to stare at the sign for a few more seconds.

The inside of the church was even darker than the night outside, with no moonlight to help. Misery had seen a few churches around Bakersfield, and had even been inside one once while following an elderly woman for a snack, but she had never liked the atmosphere they gave off. But this church, with its dilapidated, aged walls and destroyed furniture, almost felt more homely than any lively and living church ever did. Star poked around the place, checking for any stray animals or structural weaknesses. The other escorts found something less useful to do with their time and went back outside, drawing things in the patches of dirt with a stick.

Star prodded at a pew’s cushion before sitting in it, making sure there were no nasty surprises hidden inside. He looked around the congregation area slowly, taking it all in. “Well, I guess this will work. Not exactly the Taj Mahal, but beggars can’t be choosers. No holes in the roof, got at least four walls, and it’s probably big enough. Only thing we’ll have to worry about is fighting each other over who gets to sleep in the pews.” He laid back with a yawn. “Dibs, by the way.”

Misery walked through the lines of pews, making her way to the stage in the front. A podium stood like a monolith, font and center, a few rays of moonlight falling directly on it from a small window in the ceiling. She spotted a stool sitting in the little space in the back of the podium, where the preacher would stand, tucked away from sight. She dragged it out and stood on it, barely tall enough to look over the top of the podium at the pews below. Star stared at her with an expectant gaze, one eyebrow raised.

“Get the others and go back. Tell Whistle to lead everyone here. We’re staying here tonight.”

“Are we staying here tonight?”

Anonymous ignored her and stared at the far wall of the mechanic’s office, brain entirely devoted to preventing an anxiety attack. They hadn’t been free of the traffic for all of twenty minutes before their car broke down. Between the time it took to get a tow truck out to the freeway and the time it took to actually get to the nearest town, Tehachapi, the sun had already fallen out of the sky. Mistake was definitely faring with the situation better than her father was, kicking her legs through the air in boredom and poking at various trinkets on the mechanic's desk.

Anon turned to her and smacked a pencil out of her hands and back onto the table. “Stop touching stuff.”

“Daaad, I want to go. This is boring.”

“We have to wait for the guy to come back. He’s looking at our car.”

“He’s so slow...”

“Well I don’t know if you noticed, but I can’t do jack shit about that.”

Mistake dashed her hand out when her father turned his head and took the pencil back, fiddling with it out of his sight this time. “So are we going to stay here tonight?”

Anon sighed and put his head in his hands, fighting off a stress-induced headache. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s not like we can go anywhere without a car.”

“Where are we, anyways?”

Anon pulled out his phone and took a look at the map. “Little town called Tehachapi. Right in between the Mojave Desert and the mountains we just went through. One of THOSE towns with nothing of interest and loads of creepy people that smile way too much. Went through here, once, on my way to Arizona.”

“Where are we gonna sleep?”

“Eh, we can probably find a hotel.” He shrugged and pocketed his phone. “Or, worst case scenario, an inn. Which is like a hotel, except everyone tries to be friends with you.”

Anon was interrupted as the mechanic returned from the door behind them, walking past them and sitting behind his desk. He put on his best customer-friendly as if in hope to make them forget their car wasn’t working. Mistake smiled back, while Anon simply stared at him expectantly.

“Well, friends, seems like your car is pretty old! Almost too old. Driving it out in the summer heat all day, especially near the desert, is not good for its aged bones. We got to make lots of repairs to get it running again, not including the secondary ones that you probably didn’t even know you needed.” He wiped his brow and let out a breath. “Right, first off, your transmission is busted. Aside from that, we’re probably going to have to take a closer look at your radiator and your hubcaps could-”

Anon leaned on his elbows and stared into the man’s eyes with a glare. The mechanic stopped dead in the middle of his sentence, confused and slightly nervous.

Anon didn’t move an inch. “I will give you two hundred dollars plus whatever the price is to shut the fuck up and get the car fixed by the end of tonight. No bullshit, no extra repairs. You keep the money for yourself, and none of your co-workers need to know you got it. Deal?”

The mechanic stared at Anon for a few seconds, processing what was just said. Suddenly, a smile flashed across his face, and he reached across the desk to shake hands with Anon. “We have a deal, brother. Nice doing business with you.”

Anon ignored the handshake and stood up, grabbing Mistake’s hand and leading her out. She waved goodbye behind her as Anon turned for his final words. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning for my car. It’ll be ready by then, and no later.”

The mechanic winked and waved goodbye with a sly smile. Anon rolled his eyes and pushed Mistake out the door in front of him, letting a draft into the auto shop as he left it behind. He stepped around a pile of tires and let go of his daughter’s hand, letting her walk beside him unrestrained. They walked down the barely lit streets, moving from one pool of light to the next underneath the street lights that dotted the sidewalk.

Mistake glanced between the repair shop and her father. “I take it back. Maybe you ARE good with people.”

Anon scoffed. “No. Not good with people. I’m good at dealing with bullshit. It’s a skill you acquire through years of being surrounded by it.

“Two hundred dollars, though? Isn’t that a lot?”

Anon shrugged. “If I didn’t give it to him up front, he would have weaseled it out of my anyways. That’s what mechanics do. They make you notice repairs you ‘didn’t even know you needed’ and then charge more money from it. All I did was promise him the same amount of cash, but for him to keep to himself instead of splitting it with his co-workers. It’s business.”

Mistake mulled over his words as Anon pulled out his phone and started tinkering with the map, looking for places where they could get some dinner and a place to sleep. The cold desert air blew through the empty streets, causing Mistake to shiver slightly and press up against her dad’s leg for warmth. As they walked, she experimented with her night vision, blinking her eyes open and shut as she turned it on and off. Anon was distracted by the flashing light in her eyes as she did so, causing him to groan and put his phone away in annoyance.

“Cut it out, Mistake. Someone’s going to see you doing that. Not to mention it’s freaking ME out.”

Mistake grinned mischievously and looked up at Anon’s face, flashing her eyes back and forth as fast as she could. Anon slapped the back of her head playfully and smiled, shielding his eyes.

“Gah- fuck, stop it! You’re going to give me an epilepsy attack!”

Mistake giggled and returned her eyes to normal. Anon shook his head and swore a few more times before recovering. He turned to face her and eventually broke out into his own chuckle, flicking her ponytail. “Really, you are too much like me for my own good. I’m pretty sure you gave me a headache.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby.” Mistake stuck her tongue out. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a diner around this corner. We’ll find someplace to sleep, soon, but I want some dinner first. And roadside diners have the better burgers than anywhere else, usually, just as a rule.”

The walk to the diner only took a few more minutes. Anon pushed the glass door open and stepped inside, greeted by a very welcome blast of warm air. The floor sported a black and white tile pattern, matching with the black and white stools that lined the counter in the center of the restaurant. To the side, next to the windows, several big red booths sat in a line. The place was mostly empty aside from a few patrons at the counter, drinking coffee and chatting with one another. Adding to the whole old-timey feel of the place, a few classics that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1940’s played from a genuine jukebox in the corner. A few of the customers turned to look at the newcomers, but didn’t find much interest and went back to whatever they were doing.

“Jesus Christ...” Anon shook his head. “It’s like my grandmother took her house and turned it into a restaurant.”

“Did you like your grandma's house?” Mistake glanced around and scrunched up her nose at the distinct smell of... age.

“No.”

Anon nodded to a nearby booth and pushed Mistake towards it, letting her slide in first before taking a seat across from her. Despite the diner being nearly empty, they still had to wait a few minutes before a waiter came to serve them. When she did arrive, Anon had to suppress a sigh. He could tell her type from across the restaurant, by her wide, all-too-sincere smile. He frowned and leaned on his elbow, hoping it was enough to express disinterest. As soon as she arrived, it was evident that it wasn’t.

“Heya, welcome to Kelcy’s! How can I serve you today? Can I start you off with some drinks?”

“Coffee.” He glanced at Mistake. “Water for her.”

Mistake frowned. “I don’t want water. Can I have a milkshake?”

“No. You can have water.”

“But I don’t want water. Water tastes boring.”

Anon raised an eyebrow. “Well then, you can have nothing.”

“But I’m thirsty!” Mistake whined.

“Then you can have water.”

“But you aren’t getting water water!”

“You’re right. I’m having coffee. Because I’m an adult, and I need it to function properly.”

Mistake crossed her arms defiantly and sat back in her booth. “I want coffee too.”

Anon sat back and crossed his own arms, raising his eyebrows in amusement. “One coffee, one water.”

“Alrighty!” The waiter nodded and smiled wider, dropping a kids menu on the table and deciding to end it before it got any uglier. “I’ll let you two order then.” She walked off towards the kitchen.

Mistake huffed and turned away, deciding to look around the diner instead of at her dad, who decided to pull out his phone and tune everything else out. The place was nearly empty, as she had noticed when she walked in, but now she was really starting to get a look at the few people that were present. A group of men, supposedly friends, sat on the stools lined up against the counter, exchanging hushed small talk and sipping on their drinks. A couple, most likely locals, sat a few booths further away from them, discussing local events at such a volume they were definitely the most obnoxious things in the room. Mistake cringed from the noise and turned to face the door, which had just opened to a new guest.

She watched as he looked around the room cautiously, taking count of everyone in the room as if in suspicion. He paused as his eyes fell on Mistake, and her father, and stared at them for a few moments. Mistake stared back. He was wearing a heavy brown trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat, with his head ducked down so that few of his facial features were visible. He reminded Mistake of some of the cartoon spies she had seen on TV, and it made her giggle as she imagined a safe falling from the ceiling on his head. Eventually the awkward staring contest ended and the man took a seat at the far end of the counter, alone, leaving everyone else in the diner to their own devices.

Eventually, Mistake’s surroundings began to bore her, and she turned to her kids menu for entertainment. She pulled out a few of the crayons and started coloring in the shapes on the back, glancing at the food choices every so often. Anon lost interest in his phone and put it back in his pocket, turning to his daughter.

“So, how much do you really know about yourself?” Anon put a hand out before she could speak. “And I mean, like, as far as the weird supernatural shit goes. I don’t want to hear about your girl problems. I mean what can you do that a normal little human girl can’t? I feel like I should know this stuff if we’re going to be hunting your brothers and sisters down.”

Mistake didn’t look up from her drawing, green crayon in her hand sprawling out over her paper. “Well, you obviously know that we look weird. And there’s the spitting goo, and the night eyes.”

“Right.” The waiter returned with a pot of coffee and a mug, and a glass of water. She sat them down on the table, saying she would return to take their order shortly. Anon poured himself a mug of coffee and took a sip before continuing. “And, of course, you can cover up your alien bits to look human, just like your mom. If that is what you are, anyways.”

Mistake nodded and put down her green crayon, taking a sip of water. “Yep. Well, that’s part of it. We can disguise into whoever we want.”

Anon stopped with his mug halfway to his lips, raising an eyebrow of surprise. He set his coffee down. “Hold up. You can do what?”

“When we do the green fire thingy, we can turn into whoever we want. Sorta. We can’t turn into some things.”

“What have you turned into?”

“Well...” Mistake stroked her chin, trying to remember past disguises. “I like to copy a lot of the little girls around town. Some of them have nice dresses. And this one time I copied a little girl I saw on TV. And one time I tried to copy Bobby, but that was yucky.”

Anon stared at her in disbelief. “And... you can all do this? You can all magically transform yourselves into other people for seven years, and I never knew?” He leaned on his elbow and thought about it for a moment. “... well, actually that sort of makes sense. If you were all disguised as other children, I’d have no way of telling.”

Mistake nodded. “Misery said it was probably a good idea not to tell you about it. Because you aren’t one of us. She wanted it to be our secret.” Mistake brought her hands up to her mouth in realization. “Don’t tell Misery I told you.”

“Don’t worry.” Anon shook his head, still trying to make sense of things. “You said you can’t turn into anything, right? Just some things? How does that work?”

“Well... the more we change from how we really are, the more icky we feel.” Mistake stuck her tongue out in mock discomfort. “When I’m like this, with just my legs and eyes fixed, it doesn’t feel that bad. It still feels better when I’m normal, but I could stay like this for a long time. When I try and copy other girls, though, it’s...” She shivered. “It’s really bad. I can only do it for a little bit.” She frowned. “When I tried growing bigger, once, it didn’t even bother feeling weird, it just hurt.”

Anon nodded slowly, starting to understand. So she could transform, if she needed to, but any massive transformations made her extremely uncomfortable. Changing things like size or growing new body parts was probably out of the question entirely, at least until she got better at it. If that was even how that worked. Anon had to admit to himself that he didn’t have the slightest clue what kind of powers he was dealing with here.

“You need to show me that sometime. That sounds trippy as hell. So is that it? No more freaky powers I need to know about? Your blood isn’t acid? You don’t have a nuclear self-destruct device strapped to your arm?”

Mistake shrugged. “If there’s more, I don’t know how to use them yet. I don’t know how this stuff works either, dad.”

Their conversation was cut off as the waiter returned with her notepad, smiling wide as ever. “And what will you guys be having tonight?”

“The Kelcy’s Klassic. Side of garlic fries.” The ‘K’ in ‘Klassic’ came out of Anon’s mouth like a nail that had been digging into his gums. He handed the waitress his menu and went back to his coffee.

“And I’ll have the Kacy’s Kids Kombo, please!” Mistake smiled wide and went back to coloring in her menu, this time with a black crayon.

“Alright, I’ll have you two set up in no time!” The waitress winked at Mistake and went back to the kitchen, leaving them alone once more.

Anon looked up from his coffee with surprise. “You ordered something? I thought you ate hugs or some shit.”

“Well yeah, but I have to LOOK like I eat food, right?” Mistake shrugged.

“Oh. Well, good thinking, I guess.” Anon glanced down at her menu. “You’re coloring everything in green and black. Why don’t you use other colors?”

Mistake looked at her coloring as if coming to a realization. “Oh. I dunno, I just like these colors.”

“Just making sure you don’t think that fire hydrants are black.”

“I know.”

“And the sky isn’t green.”

“Yeah, I know, dad!” Mistake scrunched her face and put her crayon down. “I just like coloring things green and black.”

Before Anon could retaliate, the phone in his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out to look at the caller ID. Even though the screen was obstructed from her view, Mistake could tell who was calling by the terrified shade of white on her father’s face.

“Shit. It’s Katie. What am I going to tell her about the car?”

“Tell her the truth. It broke down.”

“Well I can hardly tell her it broke down about a hundred and fifty miles Southeast of where we’re SUPPOSED to be!”

“Well then, tell her we broke down in Fresno, doofus!”

“Ugh, I should take this outside, there’s probably going to be yelling...” Anon pushed himself out of his booth and headed for the door. “If my food shows up, don’t touch it.”

“Why would you even worry about that?” Mistake watched him go, the door swinging shut in his wake. She sighed and looked back down at her menu, coloring in an acorn with her green crayon.

Anon returned several minutes later, more calm than Mistake was expecting. He quietly filed back into the restaurant and took his seat across from his daughter, pocketing his phone as he did so.

“Well, that went better than I expected. She’s still a bit pissed though.”

“Well, I would be too.” Mistake giggled and took a sip of her water.

“She’s being pretty reasonable, despite everything. Knows it can’t possibly be my fault that the car broke down, especially considering what a piece of junk it is. Says she’ll even pay me for the repairs when we get back.”

“But?” Mistake put down her crayon and looked up at Anon, waiting for the bad news.

“But, she wants us to be back with her car before the end of tomorrow. Which doesn’t leave us a lot of time to get a hold of the rascals.”

Mistake nodded in understanding. The waiter arrived with their food quickly, seemingly appearing in front of them out of the blue as she put the food on their table. Anon’s mouth began to water as he eyed his burger, while Mistake poked at her food with a look of disgust. Anonymous dug right in, taking a few hefty bites out of his sandwich, spilling some of the toppings onto his plate. Mistake watched with half curiosity and half revulsion, keeping one eye open to watch and her tongue sticking out to the side to express her displeasure. She looked back down at her own food and picked up a french fry, twirling it around in her fingers experimentally. Cautiously, she brought it up to her mouth to take a bite. She immediately scrunched up her face and forced it down her throat with a grimace, going for a drink of water to wash away the taste. She groaned and pushed her food away.

“I’m hungry, dad.”

Anon wiped his mouth with a napkin and pointed at her plate. “That’s why you have food.”

“But it all tastes gross.”

“Well, I’m sorry, what do you want me to do about it?”

Without saying any words, Mistake opened up her arms as if gesturing for a hug.

“Ugh, no, not right now.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s weird.”

Mistake tilted her head to the side and stared at her father incredulously. “I am your DAUGHTER.”

“Yeah, but... I don’t know, I don’t like hugging people. Not in public.”

“Dad. Come on. I’m hungry.”

Anon put down his burger with a sigh. “Alright. Fine. A quick one. Come over here.”

Mistake grinned triumphantly and dove under the table, crawling through the posts supporting it. She clambered up between Anon’s legs and dragged herself up into his lap, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her head to his chest. She sighed contently and pressed her cheek up against him, pulling him as close as possible as if squeezing the love out of him. Anon slowly raised an arm around and rested it on her back lightly. He patted her a few times and then let go.

“Alright, you can get off now.”

“No.” Mistake grinned and nuzzled her head into his chest.

“Come on, I gave you a hug. Now let go. People are staring.”

“You might be done hugging me, but I’m not done hugging you.”

Anon sighed and gave up, letting her sit there. She was there for nearly a minute with her eyes shut, just hugging him, completely silent. After a while, she finally spoke up. “I love you, dad.”

“I...” Anon looked down at his daughter, pressed up against his chest. “... uh, yeah.”

Mistake giggled. “This is usually when a normal person says ‘I love you too’, you know.” Mistake pulled away and sat back in his lap, reluctant to return to her side of the table. “But you don’t have to. I know you love me anyways, even if it’s hard for you to say it. You pretend like you don’t care, but you’re still our daddy.”

Anon sat, at a complete loss for words. He let Mistake stay seated in his lap for several more minutes as they huddled together in silence. Eventually the diner became even more quiet as the few patrons that were present ended up filtering out of the restaurant, leaving the two alone. Anonymous pulled out his phone and took a look at the time.

“Hey, Mistake. It’s getting late. We should go find a place to sleep.”

Hearing no answer, he glanced down in his lap. Mistake’s eyes were shut, her head resting against his arm. Her chest rose slowly up and down with her soft breaths, signaling that she was fast asleep. He sighed and pocketed his phone, gently lifting her up underneath her legs and standing up. Finding it tricky to do with one arm, he took out his wallet and placed some money on the counter, heading for the door.

As he stepped into the cold night air, he looked up at the moon. It shone down on him from its perch in the sky, covering the streets in its soft blue glow. Somewhere out there, his children were probably looking up at the same moon, cold and alone with no one but themselves. They needed his help. Deep inside, Anon felt something he had not felt for years, a feeling that had only touched him once, when the eggs had first hatched. Mistake shivered, and Anon pulled her closer. There was an inn nearby. Anon wiped away a single tear and started heading for it.

Misery stared up through the window in the ceiling, straight through the glass and up at the moon above. The church was silent, aside from the occasional snore or shift in movement from any one of the hundred children in the pews below. She sat at the edge of the podium at the front of the stage, directly under the beams of moonlight. She turned her attention away from the moon to look over her brothers and sisters that lay sleeping below. She recognized a couple whose faces were in sight: Star and Faith sat in the front pew, nestled close to one another. Whistle had fallen asleep directly in front of the stage, trying to stay up as late as Misery. She had promised to help Misery watch over them that night. Misery hadn’t really expected her to live up to that promise, anyhow.

Seeing everything in order, she looked back up to the moon. She knew that, at home, her father was probably staring up at the same moon, wondering where they were. He would probably be worried, at first, but eventually it would dawn on him that they were finally out of his life, and that he was free. Misery was sure of it.

And the church finally slept, it’s last wake patron finally dozing off atop her podium. Snores and shuffles were the only sounds that filled the rest of the night, and the only thoughts were in the form of dreams.

Chapter IV: Strangers

“Dad, I can’t sleep.”

Anon scoffed and adjusted the pillow under his head. “Bullshit. You fell asleep in a crowded diner, and you didn’t wake up until I had to put you down in the lobby. You can definitely fall asleep in that bed.”

“But I can’t, I’m trying!”

“Well I don’t know if this has occurred to you or not, but I’m trying too. And neither of us are going to sleep if you keep whining about it.”

“But I caaaan’t!”

Anon glanced over at the bed from his spot on the couch. “You already have the bed, girl, what more do you want?”

Mistake sat in thought, thinking of some request. “Can I have a bedtime story?”

“No. When the fuck have I EVER given you a bedtime story?”

Mistake sighed. “Never. I just saw it happen on TV once and I thought it was cute.”

“Sleeping little girls are cute too. So roll over and shut up.”

Mistake stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms, but did as her father asked and remained silent. The pair sat in the dark motel room quietly as Mistake rolled around in the bed, trying to get comfortable. Anon scratched his leg uncomfortably as he shifted around on the couch, as well.

“Alright, fuck it, I can’t sleep either. What did you want to talk about?”

“I dunno.” Mistake sat up in her bed and turned to her father. “Want to know what I found in my sock yesterday?”

“... I think I’m going to provide the conversation starters, if that’s alright.”

Mistake grumbled and flopped back in the bed. “No one ever wants to hear about the sock.”

“Alright, here’s one I’ve been meaning to ask.” Anon swung his legs over the side of the couch and sat up. “Why the name ‘Mistake’? I mean, you probably weren’t old enough to know what it meant when you chose it, but why hold on to it?”

Mistake shrugged, and didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “I dunno. I like it.”

“Well, yeah, it got a chuckle out of me too when I first heard it. But you can’t really want to be called that for the rest of your life, right?

“Why not?”

“Well, I mean...” Anon scratched his head, looking for words to explain. “It’s not really a NAME.”

“What, and the rest of ours are? What about Star? And Jet? And Whistle? What kind of a silly name is WHISTLE?”

“Well, those are cute. They’re like those names that celebrities give their children after they drink one too many martinis the night before they go into labor.” Anon scratched his head again. “Mistake is more like... what a really poor woman with no job or husband names their child when she drinks one too many bottles of cheap wine the night before they go into labor.”

“Well, I chose it, and I like it.” Mistake huffed. “I think it adds character.”

Anon scoffed. “Yes, because you definitely need an extra dose of character.” He returned to his back, laying his head against the armrest. “Alright, here’s another one. This one will probably be harder to answer.”

“Go for it.”

“If you hadn’t been sleeping with me that night...” Anon turned and directed the end of the sentence towards her. “... would you have left with the other children?”

Mistake bit her bottom lip and pulled the covers up to her chin. She rolled the question around in her head before sighing and throwing the covers off, sitting up and embracing the cold desert air to answer.

“Right then, probably. You didn’t really seem to care about us all that much.” Mistake furrowed her brow. “And I’ve got a few choice words to say to mom.”

“You and me both, kid.” Anonymous nodded slowly. “But thanks for being honest. And you’re probably right. Maybe I don’t care.”

“Hold on, I wasn’t done yet.” Mistake scooted over to the edge of the bed. “I said THEN, I would’ve gone. Left you behind and fwoosh, off with everyone else. And I wouldn’t have cared. I didn’t think you loved us much anyways.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel good at any point or are you really just trying to give me a massive guilt trip right now?”

“Still not done, shut up.” Mistake smiled. “Anyways, that’s what I thought THEN. But now, I don’t think so. I think you loved us this whole time. From those stories you told me in the car, it sounds like you used to be more up-front with it.” Mistake’s smile began to fade. “But then over the years, you just kinda got tired. You forgot how to love people, because you spent it all on us. And deep inside, you still love us. You just forgot how to tell us. I don’t think you would be chasing the rest of them all this way if you didn’t care anymore.”

Anon stared at the ceiling in silence. Mistake couldn’t see his face in the dark room, even as she craned her neck in search of an expression. With a sudden cough, and a quick swipe with his hand underneath his eye, Anon seemed to return to the living world.

“Damn, girl, I haven’t heard something like that come from anyone but a therapist. Are you sure you’re seven?”

“Almost eight!” Mistake smiled and flopped back in her bed. “And I told you, I’m good with people. I know what to say to get them to feel how I want.”

“Wait.” Anon sat up slightly. “So was that all a lie? You don’t actually think any of that?”

“Night dad.~” Mistake rolled over and pulled up the covers.

“No, really, did you mean that?”

“Go to sleep.”

“Well I can’t go to bed if you leave me like that! Mistake? Mistake, I can’t sleep!”

“Hey, Misery. Misery. Misery! Look, I hate to wake you from your beauty sleep, but we have to get to work if you want to get out of here.”

Misery cracked open an eye. She had fallen asleep in a sitting position, holed legs dangling off the edge of the podium and her back hunched forward. Now awake, she was suddenly aware of the precarious stance, causing her to gasp and sit up straight. She regained her balance and turned to the source of the voice that had awoken her, Star, who stood on the floor below, looking up at her impatiently.

“Well? Come on. We have to find some way out of this town. The bus isn’t an option anymore.”

Misery rubbed her eyes and dropped the the floor with a quick burst from her wings, landing softly and without a sound. “I tried to stay awake for most of the night. Did anything happen while I was sleeping?”

“Yes. Our mom showed up, gave us all hugs, told us how to get to our home planet and flew off on a rocketship made of pure gold.” Star stared at her blankly. “Oh, wait, no, she’s still miles and miles away. And she’s not going to get any closer unless we find a way out of Barstow. So get up and come on, I’ve already got a group ready to scout with us.”

Misery blinked a few times and looked past him. A few of her brothers waved at her from the door, beckoning outside. Filling the pews, and the spaces between them, were a hundred-plus of her brothers and sisters, some wide awake, some waking up, and some still fast asleep. Whistle yawned from her spot on the floor next to the stage, raising her arms to the air and inviting the morning air into her lungs. Misery kicked her lightly to get her attention and jabbed her head in the direction of the exit.

“I’m heading out. No one leaves or enters the church. In fact, we should be taking a look around the place. Get everyone to gather anything useful they can find. If it’s light enough to carry and not nailed to the floor, I want it piled in the center of the room by the time I get back."

Whistle saluted lazily and rolled onto her side, trying to get out of the sunlight that was pouring in from the ceiling window. “I got it, Misery, I got it. Don’t worry about us.”

Misery nodded curtly and spun around on her heel, pushing past Star and towards the door. She motioned for the three children standing by the exit to fall in step behind her, and they did. Star caught up to her and joined her by her side as they left the church and stepped out into the dry, hot sun of Barstow’s streets.

“Alright, so here’s the deal, Misery. I figure we’re already on borrowed time and the longer we play this crazy game the higher the chances of everything falling apart. So we need to get to Vegas as soon as possible before that happens, yeah?”

Misery nodded. She knew that it was only a matter of time as well. Too many things could go wrong, and none of the cards were on their table. “I agree. But the question is, how do we get to Vegas?”

“I’ve been thinking about it.” Star gestured at the church behind him, just as they rounded a corner and put it out of sight. “If we plan on bringing all of them along, there aren’t many options. Unless we can get that bus up and running again, the only other way I see it happening is by train.”

“Train?”

“You’ll see in a second.” Star gestured ahead of him. “We took a slight detour on our way back to the bus last night, when we went to gather everyone else. Turns out Barstow has quite a few rails running through it, and a train station. Vegas is the only real settlement worth visiting to the East of here, and I can guarantee you one of these trains leads there.”

Just as Star finished his sentence, they turned the last corner. A wide stretch of train tracks sprawled out before Misery, with a few buildings on the other side marking the edge of the town. A bridge spanned out across it, apparently being the only way across. A few trains were already stopped beneath the bridge, either refueling or transferring cargo one way or the other. Misery stared at the scene before her in silent calculation before turning back to Star.

“So, the trains are an option. Though I suppose the hard part would be to tell which ones are going to Vegas, and then getting everyone on board without getting seen. It would be much easier to get the bus working again.” Misery turned to face him and raised a curious eyebrow. “You mentioned that before, actually. About getting the bus working again. Do you have an idea?”

Star nodded with a stoic expression. “Maybe. See, buses don’t run on normal gas like other cars. They refuel at special stations in bus garages, which you can only get into if your bus is from the same company. There’s a very slim chance, but a chance nonetheless, that there might be one of those stations here in Barstow. Like I said, slim, but enough of a chance to at the very least be considered.”

Misery nodded slowly. “I understand. Speaking of the bus, though... I want to go back, to check on the bus driver. We should have brought him with us last night. I want to make sure he’s not hurt, or worse, told someone about what happened.”

Star nodded and clapped his hands, getting the attention of their escorts. “Sounds good. We’ll keep an eye out for other options on our way, too. The sooner we get out of here, the better.”

The walk to the parking lot took a few minutes longer than either Star or Misery were expecting. The summer heat was unbearably sweltering, slowing down their progress significantly. When they finally arrived, Misery pointed out an area behind a nearby dentist’s office where they could spy upon the bus without being seen. A row of heads peaked from around the corner of the building, careful not to extend themselves too far in case of being spotted.

That early in the morning, business at the grocery store was rather slow. Almost no cars populated the parking lot, with only a few dotted across the asphalt sparsely. The charter bus sat in the middle of the lot, shimmering in the heat like a desert mirage. Misery spotted the bus driver immediately, standing off to the side of the bus and talking to a man. He seemed confused as he tried to explain the situation and why his bus was parked incorrectly, and why he couldn’t move it somewhere else. Misery felt relief as she noticed that he spoke with exaggerated arm movements, sighing happily as she heard his angry shouts drift across the parking lot to her ears. It meant that he was himself again, no longer burdened by the glowing green energy in his eyes.

Star noticed too. “He seems to be back to normal. If we can refuel the bus, can you take control again?”

Misery turned and glared at Star, who held up his hands as if accused of murder. “No. Not again. Not ever again.”

“Jeez, alright. I’m just saying.” He sighed. “Look, if you want to get to mother, you’re going to have to use everything at your disposal.” He poked at her forehead a few times. “Everything. Even the stuff that God would consider cheating.”

Misery grunted and took one last look at the bus driver before turning away. “Well, he’s alright. A bit shaken, probably confused, and stuck here like us, but alright. That’s good enough for me. Come on, let’s scout out the rest of the town before it gets too active.”

Whistle leaned back against the wall, picking at the peeling paint as she watched the pile of assorted items growing in the center of the assembly room. Children filed in and out of the room, dropping off pieces of clutter they found throughout the abandoned halls of the church. One of the boys, Pocket, entered, dragging an empty metal bucket behind him. With a grunt, he lobbed it on to the pile and spun around on his heel to find something else.

Whistle whistled. “Hey, Pocket. Over here.”

“What?” Pocket rolled his eyes and walked over, arms crossed impatiently.

“How close are you to finishing? How many rooms do you have to clear?”

“Well, we already emptied the kitchen and the foyer. The closet in the hall has a lot more stuff in it than we thought and we’re still trying to find people who’ll actually go in the bathroom.” He scrunched up his face in disgust as he recalled the stench. “None of that progress was made with help from you, I might add.”

“Hey, Misery put me in charge. I have to oversee everything.”

“Well, I still think you’re just being lazy.” He grunted and gestured towards the ever-growing pile of trinkets. “I don’t get why we’re doing this in the first place. All of this stuff is just junk.”

Whistle shrugged. “I don’t get it either. But, if Misery wants it, she gets it.”

Pocket furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to say something, but let the thought die in his throat. He shrugged. “I guess.”

“Someone is coming!” Pocket and Whistle were interrupted as Faith pointed out of the front window with urgency, he voice drifting in from the foyer.

“Who is it?” Whistle frowned worriedly.

“I dunno, some lady. She’s almost here!”

Whistle widened her eyes in panic and brought her fingers up to her mouth. Placing them between her lips and taking a deep breath, she delivered a whistle loud enough to wake the dead. Pocket covered his ears with a wince of pain as his sister smiled, proud of her best and loudest whistle yet. Now having the attention of every abomination in the church, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Alright, everyone, there’s a stranger coming! Crawl into whatever corner you can find and hide!”

Each child dropped what they were doing and dove into their respective hiding spots. The deteriorated pews filled quickly as the kids flung themselves behind them face-first, laying down on their stomachs and hoping that the mystery woman wouldn’t venture far into the building, and the backs were tall enough to keep them out of sight. As Whistle clambered behind the podium, Pocket realized that most if not all of the obvious hiding places were taken.

In a mad dash, Pocket ran out into the foyer. Faith hissed at him from underneath a nearby table, pointing away and frantically whispering at him to hide. He looked about, trying to find even the most basic place to conceal himself. A light fixture dangled from the ceiling above, presenting one of the only hiding spots left in the whole building.

With newfound determination, Pocket lept forward. Faith hissed louder as he jumped on top of her table. Using his wings to propel him and keep him balanced, he clambered up against the wall, climbing all the way to the ceiling with gusts from his wings. Pushing off with his legs in a risky leap, he launched himself across the room, ending his pseudo-flight by grabbing hold of the light in the center of the room. He swung from it for a few seconds before finally settling down, hanging in the air. Faith let out a relieved sigh just as the front door opened.

A woman, looking to be somewhere about 20 years of age, entered the room. She peeked her head through the doorway, her bright red hair glowing with the sunlight pouring in from behind her. She put her foot forward and came into full view. Pocket watched her carefully as she tiptoed around, glancing around the dark room with interest. She stopped directly underneath Pocket’s hiding place, eyes scanning her surroundings. As he stared down at her suspiciously, he didn’t notice the cracks forming in the ceiling, warnings of what was to come.

Running out of the little strength that it had left, the ceiling gave out. The light shuddered and dropped a few inches, only kept in the air by the wires that supported it. Pocket yelped and lost his grip in surprise, just as the woman looked up to investigate the commotion. She gasped and quickly brought her arms up to catch him. Pocket fell into her open arms, apparently as surprised to be caught as the woman was to catch him. Her blue eyes sparkled with curiosity as she looked the boy over, checking to make sure he was alright. Pocket stared up at her awkwardly, his eyes unblinking.

“... hey.”

“Hello.” The woman raised an eyebrow.

“... can you put me down?” Out of the corner of his eye, Pocket could see his brothers and sisters leaving their hiding spots, skulking out of their dark corners and creeping up on the intruders. The woman was still unaware.

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” The woman swung Pocket around and dropped him on his feet. “What are you doing in here, all alone? How did you even get up there...?” She glanced up towards the ceiling in confusion.

Pocket continued to stare at her with suspicion. He backed away from her without saying any words. The woman began to repeat her question, but stopped dead in the middle of her thoughts when she finally noticed the horde beginning to form around her. She slowly spun around, finding that she was now completely surrounded by the strange looking children. The door where she had came in was blocked.

“I’m not alone.” Pocket stepped backward into the crowd, disappearing from sight.

The woman chuckled nervously, pointing a thumb at the door behind her. “I can... just leave, if I’m interrupting something. It’s no trouble at all, really. I’ll just get going.”

The children glared at her and continued to stand around her, blocking any exits. An awkward silence ensued as neither human nor abomination knew what to say next. Finally, Whistle spoke from the back of the crowd.

“Get her. Misery doesn’t want any witnesses.”

Anon grunted as the sunlight poured through the window into his eyes. As he rolled over to try and get comfortable, he found himself falling out of the couch and on to the floor. Mistake was awoken by the thud and the following string of swears. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, sitting up in her bed. She smiled as she spotted her father, rubbing his forehead and kicking the couch before heading into the bathroom to get ready.

A few minutes later, Anonymous grabbed his room key and the pair headed out the door. They descended the stairs down to the lobby, Mistake trudging along slowly as she remained in the process of waking up. The motel owner, Mrs. Vasquez, stood behind the check-in counter, browsing through a magazine. She waved happily as she saw them come down the stairs.

“Oh, hello, you two! Good morning, Lauren, you look like you slept well.”

“Yeah, waking up’s the hard part.” Mistake yawned. “Dad, can I give the motel lady a hug?”

Anon sighed. “Yeah, make it quick. We have to hit the road soon.”

“Oh, well I’d be happy to give a hug to a sweet little girl like you!” The older woman stepped out from behind the counter and kneeled down, opening her arms. Mistake scurried forward and embraced her in a hug as Anon tapped his foot impatiently.

“Alright, that’s enough of that. Come on. I’m pretty sure if we don’t get our car now the mechanics are going to turn it into scrap.”

Mistake waved goodbye to Mrs. Vasquez as they left the motel behind, heading to the street. Anon glared at the tacky signs and early rising pedestrians around him as he strolled down the street, daughter beside him.

“I’ve seen too much of this damn town. The sooner we leave, the better.”

“Oh, it’s not so bad.” Mistake marched along the sidewalk with exaggerated strides, stomping along the concrete and swaying her arms with newfound energy. “The Mrs. Vasquez is really nice. She gives really tasty hugs.”

“Tasty hugs? What, some hugs taste better than others?”

“Mhm! I think it depends on how the person means it. You know, sometimes when you give a hug you’re doing it just because you know you’re supposed to, but sometimes you give a hug because you really love someone. Sometimes you give a hug because you know they need it. Sometimes you give a hug because you need it.” She shrugged. “And usually, everyone’s hugs just taste a little different no matter what.”

Anon raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What do my hugs taste like?”

Mistake rolled her eyes. “What does the color blue look like?”

“It looks... blue?”

“And your hugs taste like hugs.” Mistake smirked. “I can’t really explain it to you if you have no experience with it. It’s like trying to tell a blind person what it’s like to see. It isn’t like eating normal food.”

“Fair enough. Let’s talk about something else, then.”

“Ok! Wanna know what I found in my sock-”

Anon cut her off. “On second thought, the repair shop isn’t fair off. Let’s enjoy the morning silence.”

Mistake huffed, but let it go. The pair rounded the corner, bringing the mechanic’s shop into view. One of the sliding garage doors was open, letting the two of them watch as several men scurried around the cars inside. One of the cars, the broken down Neon that they had driven into the town, had several people working on it. Within a few moments, the mechanic they had spoken to in the office pushed himself out from underneath the car and immediately noticed the spectators. He waved with a smile, which Mistake returned, and made his way over to them.

“As you can see, the repairs are well underway.” He wiped oil from his hands on his pants with a proud beam.

“The only thing I can see is that the car isn’t fixed yet.” Anon scowled. “Our deal was tomorrow morning. It’s tomorrow morning.”

The mechanic’s smile didn’t even waver. “We had to call in for a part. But we have it now, and it’ll be installed in no time. The end of the hour, tops.”

Anon scowled deeper and leaned forward. “Make sure that’s right. Because if it’s not done by then you don’t get your bonus.”

The mechanic glanced behind him and nudged Anon with his elbow. “Let’s not talk about the bonus in front of the boys, eh?”

“You have an hour.” Anonymous took Mistake by the hand and led her away. “No longer than that. Get it done.”

Mistake groaned as they left the mechanic fade behind them. “Ugh, what are we going to do for an hour?”

“No idea. There’s really not anything to do in Tehachapi. But I just realized I left my wallet in the motel room. We’ll have to go get that back.”

As they walked back down the street to the motel, Mistake posed a question that had been on her mind. “How do you think they’re doing?”

“Your brothers and sisters?” Anon scoffed. “Probably better than we are. They’re a resourceful bunch, and there’s always been a couple of smart kids in the bunch that are probably keeping the group together.”

Mistake could tell her father was actually very worried by the way he bit the inside of his cheek as he finished his sentence, but she accepted the answer anyways, not wanting to keep pressing him and causing him stress. As they rounded the corner once more, the motel came in sight. Anon pushed open the door and stepped inside, daughter in tow. Mrs. Vasquez was still positioned behind the counter, smiling as ever.

“Oh, welcome back! I had a hunch you’d be here soon.”

“Well, it’s not by choice.” Anon rolled his eyes. “Mechanics being mechanics.”

“Oh, I know that story.” Mrs. Vasquez pointed up the stairs. “By the way, there was a visitor here looking for you. Like I said, I had a feeling you’d be back, so I sent him up to your room and told him you’d be here shortly. He should be waiting for you inside.”

“A visitor?” Anon frowned. “I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”

“Well, he said he knew you. He knew your name and he knew how you looked.”

“What about him? The man, what was his name?”

“Ummm... I believe he said he was a Jacob. Jacob Longfellow.”

“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” Anon smiled and headed for the stairs. “I’ll go up and see him. Mistake, you wait here with the nice lady, alright? I’ll be right back down.”

Mistake raised an eyebrow with confusion, but nodded and sat down on one of the waiting benches. Anon gave her a quick nod and started up the stairs. “I’ll be back in a second.”

Anon crept up the stairs as silently as possible, keeping close to the side of the stairwell to avoid creaking the old wooden steps. Carefully, he peeked around the top of the stairwell. The hallway was empty, and silent, with no sign of the mysterious visitor to be seen. The door to his room was closed shut, supposedly with the man inside of it.

The issue was, Anonymous didn’t know anyone named Jacob Longfellow. Which means he didn’t know the person who met Mrs. Vasquez, and he didn’t know the person now in his room. Any stranger that had his name and description was not someone that Anon trusted. Taking extra care not to make any noise, Anon walked down the hall and leaned up against his room door, pressing his ear against it to try and listen inside.

From within the room, Anon could hear someone moving around. He heard the sounds of drawers sliding open and shut, as if the stranger was looking around the room for something. Suddenly, the noises stopped, and Anon couldn’t hear anything no matter how hard he strained his ears. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Anon braced himself against the door. He counted to three in his head, and at the coming of the third number, he pushed the door open and barreled into the room with a charge.

The sudden attack startled and stunned the intruder, causing him to jump in surprise and stumble with the wallet he held in his hands: Anon’s wallet. His face was hidden by his wide-brimmed hat and high-collared trenchcoat. The only parts of his head that were visible were his brown eyes, which locked with Anon’s as they stared each other down. Anon cracked his neck and cleared his throat.

“I don’t know who you are, or what you want, so-”

The man recovered from his shock quickly, dropping the wallet and pulling a revolver out of his coat. The iridescent white handle of the weapon shimmered as he raised it from his pocket and pointed it at Anon in one smooth motion, his hand steady.

“Woah, there, Dirty Harry, no need for that.” Anon widened his eyes and slowly raised his arms in the air, taking a few steps back by instinct. “There’s some cash in the wallet. Don’t bother looking around the room for valuables, I scoped the place out and the most expensive thing here is probably the soap in the bathroom.”

“Where’s the creature?” The man spoke with a raspy voice, in some thick accent Anon didn’t recognize.

“Creature? What creature?”

“The little girl.” The mysterious man cocked the hammer on his revolver. “Tell me. Now.”

“Calm down.” Anon stepped to the side, by the nightstand, and jerked a thumb at the door. “She’s out there. In the hallway. What do you want with her?”

“Stand there and be silent.” The man kept his weapon pointed in Anon’s direction as he strode silently towards the door. As the man’s head peeked out into the hallway, Anon moved his hands behind his back. One of them clenched tightly around the neck of the lamp that sat on the bedstand.

“You’re lying. The girl isn’t there.” The man returned and stood a few feet away from Anon, gun pointed at his chest. “You will lead me to her. No games. If you lie to me again, or try and trick me, you get shot.”

“Look, I’m sure we can talk about this. Maybe we ca-” Anon interrupted his own sentence as he swung the lamp from behind him, yanking its cord out of the socket and slamming it against the man’s hand. The lamp shattered from the force, sending the gun flying out of the man’s grip and onto the bed. With an angry grunt, he followed it with a shove, pushing the man to the ground.

Anon followed the man to the ground and pinned him there, wrapping his hands around his throat. “Who are you? What do you want with us?”

Refusing to reply, the man shifted his weight and slammed Anon’s head against the wall. With a powerful knee to the gut, he escaped from Anon’s grasp, gasping for air. Anon desperately grabbed for a leg to bring the fight back down to the ground, only to gain a heavy kick to the face from the man’s boot. He swore and reeled back, giving the man time to make his escape. Anon heard the window shatter from the other side of the room, and he could see the man climbing out as he recovered from the blow. The room was empty by the time he pushed himself up.

Anon staggered to his feet and wiped the blood from his face, glancing around the room. His wallet, nothing missing from it, sat on the floor. Whoever it was hadn’t broken in to do an average robbery, if that wasn’t already blatantly obvious. The pearl-handled revolver still sat on the bed, glimmering. Anon grabbed it and ran for the window, looking for his target. As he was expecting, he saw nothing: the man was already long gone. He sighed and lifted up his shirt, sliding the revolver into his pants. Once lowered back down, the shirt obscured the revolver from view once more.

Anon ran down the stairs, speed now more important to him than caution. Walking into the lobby with a brisk pace, he took a very confused Mistake by the hand and led her towards the door. Mrs. Vasquez gasped as she saw the wound on his forehead.

“Is everything alright, Mr.-”

“We’re checking out, Mrs. Vasquez.”

“Oh, well, I need your signat-” The sound of the room key hitting her desk lifted her eyes from her paperwork. She glanced up to realize that she was speaking to an empty room.

Chapter V: Tension

“Who is she?” Misery stared into the green slime as Whistle shrugged.

“I dunno.”

“Well she has to have a NAME, doesn’t she?”

“Well, it’s not as if we can ask her right now. Not when she’s under all that slime.”

“Then get her out.” Misery poked at the mound, watching it jiggle. “Get some water, and give her some air. We need to have a chat.”

“Pocket!” Whistle turned and screamed over her shoulder. “Get the bucket you found earlier! Fill it with water!”

“Jeez, you don’t have to shout, I’m right here.” Pocket grumbled and rubbed his ears, departing from the group that surrounded the ensnared woman.

“And how long has she been like this, again?” Star stared into the slime, taking in the woman’s features.

“We got her right after she walked in, which was about thirty minutes ago. While you two were still out.” Whistle pointed to both Misery and Star. “I sent Jet out to find you and let you know, but by the time he got off his butt and was ready to go, you guys had already come back on your own.”

“But that still doesn’t tell us why she came here. And you-” Misery pointed an accusatory finger at Whistle, “why didn’t you make everyone hide? Didn’t you say you saw her coming?”

“We did hide!” Whistle raised her voice in her own defense. “Faith spotted her through the window and we all took a hiding spot. She only found us because Pocket decided he would practice his circus act.”

“Hey!” Pocket strolled through the foyer with an empty bucket in his arms, heading for the bathroom. “It’s not my fault the ceiling decided to fall apart when it did. And I didn’t WANT to hide up there in the first place. Maybe if Faith didn’t have such a giant butt I would have been able to squeeze under the table with her.”

“Yeah, well-” Before Whistle could finish, Misery cut off their bickering with a sharp hiss.

“Were you all wearing your disguises? She didn’t see any of us in our... normal form?”

“I... I’m pretty sure, yeah.” Whistle nodded slowly. “Everyone who was in sight was disguised, anyways. So everyone that mattered.”

“So she doesn’t know what we really are.”

“To be fair, we don’t really know what we are either.” Star shrugged. “You know, besides just weird.”

Misery rolled her eyes. “Even if she doesn’t know what we look like, she does know that we spit green slime that traps people. That should be enough to tip her off that we’re not normal children.”

“I need some help in here!” Pocket called out from the bathroom. “This thing is waaay too heavy when it’s full.”

Misery motioned for Star to help, and with a sigh, he left the group and headed for the bathroom. Protests of discomfort could be heard all throughout the church as Star discovered the smell inside, giving Whistle a fit of giggles. Misery watched anxiously as the two boys waddled out of the bathroom together, a bucket full of water between them. Both wore twisted, scrunched up faces as they tried to move as fast as possible away from the stench.

“Whoever was in that bathroom before we showed up, they left something of questionable origin in that toilet.” Star dropped his side of the bucket slightly before Pocket let go of his, causing the water to slosh over the sides as the bucket landed at an uneven angle. “I think, at one point, it was organic. Now, I’m fairly sure if it falls under the category of ‘unholy eldritch abomination’.”

“Shut up and get to work. I want to talk to our visitor.” Misery pointed at the woman frozen in time.

“Jeez, Mis, we were getting to it.” Pocket grunted and grabbed hold of his side of the bucket once more. “Sleep on a pea last night, your highness? You seem cranky.”

“Stop talking and lift, Pocket. This thing is heavy.” Star huffed and lifted his side of the bucket with all of his strength. “We dump on the count of three, right?”

“Right.”

“Right, then.” Star cleared his throat. “One. Two...” The pair swung their arms back to build momentum. “Three!” With a heave, the boys threw the bucket forward, emptying the contents on the waiting face of the woman.

As soon as the water made contact, several children stepped forward to help clear the slime out of the way. Their fingers clawed at the viscous green compound as it started to dissolve, pulling it away from the woman’s face. The layers started to fade away as the water washed them down to the floor, and with a few more tugs from Misery, the final membrane broke away. The woman sputtered, emptying her mouth of both slime and water as she struggled for breath.

Misery leaned towards Star to whisper. “I know the bathroom was disguisting, but was that water clean?”

“Clean enough.” Star shrugged.

As the woman spit out the remaining foreign material from her mouth, Misery folded her arms behind her back and leaned forward. “Name, lady?”

The woman blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the light. “W-what?”

“Name. Everyone’s got one. I want yours.”

“Uh... Molly.” Molly gulped, still barely able to see anything. “Molly McKenzie.”

“And who sent you here, Molly?”

“No one sent me.”

“Answer me truthfully, or we put you back in there.”

“I am! No one sent me.” Molly repeated herself, louder the second time. “I was just jogging by like I do every day and I thought I heard some weird noises. So I came in to check it out.”

Misery leaned closer and stared into Molly’s eyes. They locked stares as they studied each other’s faces, now that Molly’s vision was finally whole. Misery nodded ever so slightly and let out a sigh, spinning around on her heel and walking away.

“She’s free to go. Pocket, dig her out. Someone else help him.”

Pocket groaned and picked up the empty bucket, heading back to the bathroom with a grimace. Star gaped at Misery with a look of disbelief before grabbing Pocket by the arm and motioning for him to stay where he was. “You can’t be serious, Misery. We can’t let her walk away now, she’s seen way too much!”

“Yeah, and what is she going to do?” Misery spun around once more, giving Star a deadly glare. “Go home and talk about the bug people from Mars who trapped her in space-goo?” Misery motioned towards Molly, who was still snared chest-down in gel. “You’ll be quiet about all this, won’t you?”

“Girl, if you want privacy, you can have it. I’ll shut my mouth and you won’t see me ever again.” Molly struggled around in her prison, trying to get her arms free. “I would make the mouth-lock motion, throw away the key thing, but you know. Still stuck in here.”

“Even so.” Star shook his head. “What if she’s lying? She could be with the police. Or higher up in the government. Maybe she’s some kind of crazy UFO lady who thought she’d take a crack at alien hunting. Who’s to say she won’t lie about it now and come back with help later?”

“And are you suggesting we take her with us? You don’t think she’ll slow us down at all?”

“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with just leaving her here. Someone has to come by eventually, and they’ll take care of her.”

“Star, we specifically chose this place BECAUSE people wouldn’t come by on a regular basis.”

“For the record, I would like to cast a vote against the ‘staying here’ thing. I enjoy moving.” Molly spoke up. “And, uh, eating and drinking on a regular basis.”

“Well, regardless of what we do with her in the end, we can’t let her go now.” Star shook his head stubbornly. “It’s far too risky.”

“I don’t care.” Misery crossed her arms. “I’m in charge. I make the decisions. And my decision has been made. She goes.”

“I can’t follow through with your decision if it puts us in a position of danger.” Star crossed his own arms in return. “In fact, I say we take a vote for once. Who else here thinks letting her go is a bad idea?” Star turned around and held out his arms expectantly, trying to get a response from the small group of children.

Misery glared at everyone in the room. “No one raises their hand.”

Whistle rubbed the back of her neck and awkwardly glanced between Star and Misery. Pocket stared forward in silence for a few moments before slowly raising his hand up to the sky. Several other children behind him glanced at each other before nodding and doing the same, raising their hands as well.

Whistle took a sharp breath and nudged her brother. “Pocket! Misery said-”

“I’m tired of listening to what Misery says.” He tried his best to pretend like he didn’t notice the burning stare aimed at him from Misery’s direction. “It’s a bad idea, I don’t care how many times she tells us that it isn’t.”

“Well, I’d say that’s at least four or five votes against two, Misery.” Star nodded. “I’m sure we can find some kind of compromise that will-”

“No.” Misery growled. “There will be no compromise. There are no votes. There are no opinions.” Misery stomped her foot and jabbed her finger at Star. “There is only me, my word, and the expectation that it is followed to the very letter.” With each point she made, Misery drove her finger into his chest.

Star scowled and pushed her back, causing her to hiss in anger. “Well, I’m sorry I’m the one to tell you this, sis, but I think we’ve all pretty much had enough of your poor decisions. We followed you because you had a plan. Now, your plan has been wasted. And we’re going with Plan B.”

Misery leaned forward and stuck her face directly into Star’s, locking eyes with him in a mutual unwavering glare. The two opposing forces stood there in the center of the room in without a word as the seconds ticked by, each feeling like an hour. The other children, and one confused adult, watched with interest to see who would win the silent war. Molly coughed and cleared her throat from her position off to the side, trying to break apart the awkward encounter. Misery growled lightly and spun around on her heel, heading for the congregation room.

“If you want to be in charge, you’re in charge.” Misery stomped as she left the foyer behind her. “I expect a full route to Las Vegas by tomorrow morning, since you think you can handle it.”

Star’s expression softened. “Wait, Misery, hold on. That’s not what I-” He tried to speak to his sister, but she had already left the room. “Ugh. Goddamnit.”

Molly frowned slightly as she watched Misery leave. “You two need to have a talk. I used to fight with my brothers and sisters too. Talks solve everything.”

Star sighed and stared at Molly for a few seconds, measuring the advice of a stranger. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right. Pocket, keep an eye on... what was your name? Molly? Keep an eye on Molly while I talk with Misery.”

Pocket nodded silently as Star stormed into the congregation room after his sister.

“Alright... I think... no, I still don’t get it. Start over.” Mistake shook her head in confusion. “Someone tried to shoot you?”

“Jesus. This is the third time you’ve made me do this. You get the abridged version, this time.” Anon honked at the car in front of him, which was driving too slow for his liking. “No. No one tried to shoot me. The man wasn’t there to kill me. If he wanted to, he could have done it at any time. So, this is what happened: there was a man in the motel room wearing a trenchcoat and hat. He pointed a gun at me and asked me where you were. I lied and got in a fight with him, and he stunned me and escaped through the second story window. Then I came back downstairs and we left as soon as we could.”

Luckily, after their morning visit, the mechanic had kicked himself into gear. The car was in working condition by the time they arrived, and with a considerably lighter wallet, the duo had taken to the road as soon as possible. Now they drove towards the outskirts of Tehachapi, finally back on their way to Vegas, and Mistake wanted to know what the rush was about.

“You said a guy in a trenchcoat? What’s a trenchcoat?”

“It’s like, uh... a big goofy mix between a jacket and a suit. Commonly worn by cartoon spies, and sometimes black leather variants make their way onto badass 90’s movie anti-heroes.”

“Oh!” Mistake grinned with pride as she remembered something. “I saw a guy like that too! At the diner. He stared at me for a little while. It was creepy.”

“Yeah, I figured he had to have been following us for a while.” Anon spun the wheel and stepped on the gas, pulling ahead of the car ahead of him. “And I’m pretty sure he knows what you are. What you REALLY are. He wanted you, specifically, he wasn’t there just to steal my wallet.”

“You think he might be a spy? For the government, or whatever?”

“I’m not one for conspiracy theories, mind you.” Anon shrugged. “I did stick my dick into some kind of alien, though, so I figure there must be some level of truth to them.”

Mistake sighed deeply in thought. “So, you have nothing on this guy? No ID? No name? You said you were choking him, earlier, so you must have seen his face.”

“Yeah, of course I saw his face.” Anon nodded. “He... he had a...” Anon seemed disoriented as he tried to think of the man’s face. “A... a big... fuck, it’s gone. I can’t remember anything about his face.”

“So, what DO you remember about him?”

“Well, he had a really thick accent. I couldn’t tell where it was from, though. Maybe some nordic dialect? Danish or Swedish or something.Oh, and he left this behind.” Anon lifted his shirt slightly, putting the revolver in view. Mistake gasped and brought her hands up to her mouth as Anon let his shirt fall back down. “I know, I know. Guns can be scary. I promise, I’ll never shoot it at someone. It’s only there as a deterrent, to keep people from-”

“Can I shoot it? Please?” Mistake’s shocked face transitioned to a wide grin in under a second. “Just at like, a rock or something. Not a person. Well, maybe a person. Just in the leg. A foot. A toe.” Anon took his eyes off the road for a moment to give Mistake a troubled stare. “No? No shooting people? Not even if it’s a bad guy? Alright, I’ll still take the rock. But really, I want to shoot it.”

Anon turned back to the road and kept driving. “Well, I was worried that the gun was going to scare you. Now I’m scared that the gun is going to end up in your hands somehow.”

“That would be so awesome.” Mistake stuck her tongue out and pretended to draw a revolver from an invisible holster at her hip, taking aim at the windshield. She made a series of banging noises and pretended to blow the smoke rising from her barrel, spinning her weapon and returning it back to her holster.

Anon shook his head. “You can get a gun when you’re older. And living a few thousand miles away from me.”

Mistake grinned and tipped her imaginary cowgirl hat, chewing on a piece of nonexistent straw.

“Misery? Hey, Misery? Sis? You in here?”

Star called out through the crowd, looking for the girl. The ancient congregation room was falling apart from the sudden unexpected use, with a hundred new occupants to harbor and no one to repair it to its previous condition. Walls peeled and ceilings began to buckle, their weight starting to finally outdo the supports holding them up. As children milled about and wrestled with each other, Star stroked a hand through his short black hair and sighed.

“Misery? Hello?” Star paused to poke one of his brothers, Trip, on the shoulder. “Hey, have you seen Misery?

Trip frowned and pointed towards the stage. “Over by the podium, I think. She looked like something was wrong.”

“Thanks.” Star nodded and patted him on the back before heading for the podium he could see standing over the sea of his siblings.

With a short hop, he found his way on top of the stage, glancing around. Most of his siblings were down below in the pews, leaving the stage nearly clear. A couple girls sat off to the side, one dangling her legs over the side of the stage and braiding the hair of the other sister who sat on the floor in front of her. Star was still unable to spot Misery. He sighed once more and leaned around the side of the podium, finally spotting her squatting in its shadow with her knees brought up to her face.

“Misery?”

“Go away.”

Star crossed his arms and stood there for several moments. Misery didn’t budge from her position.

“I just want to talk.”

“And I said go away.”

Star winced as he heard one of his brothers scream from the back of the room. “Could you have chosen a quieter place to mope, at least?”

“There is no quiet place in this church.”

“Then give me a second to make one.” Star sucked in a deep breath and turned to face the crowd in rear of him. “Everyone! All’ya! Out! Go in the foyer or something. Meet our new guest.”

A wave of disgruntled moans rose up from the crowd as they began their arduous task of standing up to leave, some of them tripping over the clutter piled up in the center of the room. Jet gave Star a nasty glare before being pulled away by the collar by another one of his brothers. He was the last one out the door before it swung shut behind the crowd, leaving the two siblings alone together in the first moment of silence either had experienced in a while.

Star sat down in front of Misery and crossed his legs, dropping his disguise as he did so. His human legs flashed with green flame for a moment before being replaced with a pair of holed chitinous appendages. He stared at her for a few moments, not receiving any response. Misery stared down into her lap, knees brought up to her forehead.

“Misery. Please.”

A few more seconds passed. Suddenly, and without a word, Misery’s form flashed with green flame as well, her disguise fading away instantaneously. Slowly, she lowered her knees away from her face and looked up at Star with a furrowed brow.

“What do you want?”

Star smiled, almost too small to be noticeable. “I just want to talk. And we should do it while we still can, we don’t know how long this place is going to stay quiet.”

Misery scooted across the floor and joined her brother’s side, gazing out over the empty congregation room. The pile of collected trash blended in with the rest of the decayed interior, almost as if it were part of the same whole. Through years of abandonment and neglect, the junk in the church had formed a bond with the church itself. It didn’t make it any more useful, though, and Misery sighed as she took in the sight.

“I don’t know what I was expecting from all this… junk. I thought they might find something useful. But, again, guess it was just another one of my stupid ideas.”

“Well, that’s not entirely fair.” Star shrugged. “We did use the bucket. And besides, it’s not like they’re doing anything anyways. Might as well put them to work.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Misery leaned forward, planting her head in her hands and her elbows in her lap. “It was still a bad idea, though, just like stealing the bus and just like trying to let Molly go. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea from the start. You really should be in charge.”

“Well, if coming out here to find mom was a bad idea, then I guess I’m guilty of thinking of it too. So I can’t be in charge either.” Star shrugged.

Misery arched an eyebrow. “No, but coming out here was my idea. I was the one that found her online. You helped, I guess, but it was my idea.”

“Well, coming out to see mom, yeah. That was your idea. But I was thinking about running away long before you came up with this trip.” Star scratched the base of his neck, looking down at the floor to avoid eye contact with Misery. “I… never really did intend on coming back home at the end of this.”

“Really?” Misery sat up, starting to get interested. “Where were you going to go?”

“Anywhere.” Star stared up at the ceiling now, recalling past thoughts. “I just remember thinking to myself that anywhere was better than home. I was sick of being stuck in that house, in that town, with nothing to do. It was driving me mad.” Star smiled weakly. “This is, in a strange way, the most fun I’ve had in years.”

“What was your plan?”

“Get on a bus and go. Kinda like our plan now, but somehow even worse. I would have done it alone, though, I don’t think I could have rallied the others to come with me even if I wanted to.” Star eyed his sister before addressing her. “You’re good at that, you know. Rallying them. They listen to you. They don’t listen to me.”

“Well, they used to listen to me.” Misery grunted and flopped back onto the stage floor, staring up at the window in the ceiling as dim rays of sunlight poured in. “It seems they’ve decided they like your leadership more than mine.”

“They don’t like my leadership, they like my ideas.” Star corrected her. “There’s a big difference. A leader pulls people together and keeps them together. That doesn’t necessarily mean they know the right thing to do. Sometimes a leader needs advice from time to time so they stay on track. Sometimes someone with better ideas comes in and steals the audience, but then doesn’t know what to do with them.” Star shrugged. “People- and, whatever we are- are weird.”

Misery stared at her brother for a long while, taking in his words. Finally, she sat up and brushed her hair to the side. “You’re a smart one, Star. Smarter than me. I should have just brought you alone and left everyone else at home. You’re worth more than all of them combined.”

Star grinned. “Maybe we could still do that.”

Misery raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.

“Well, what if we just went to Vegas? Just us two? We could leave the rest of them here, and go off on our own.”

Misery dwelled on it for a few seconds. “Do you think we could do that? Just leave them here? What if they got into trouble?” Misery rolled her eyes and corrected herself. “Or, should I say, what will happen when they DO get into trouble?”

“We won’t be gone for long. Just long enough to get to Vegas, find mother, get some answers, and then get back. Hit and run. We can tell the rest they have to stay here and watch Molly or something. Faith or Jet could probably wrangle them if they get out of control.”

Misery nodded slowly. “That could work, actually. It’d make it much easier to use the trains, too. Two passengers are easier to sneak on than a hundred. And, it solves the Molly issue, or at least puts it on hold until after we already get back.”

“Everyone wins.”

“Everyone wins…”

Misery felt her mind begin to wander as she thought upon the option. She sat up and swept her eyes across the wreckage of what used to be a cheerful place of worship. She could almost see the ghosts of the past floating in between the pews as they talked amongst one another and waited for the service to start. She let her imagination run wild, bringing solidity to the shapes: soon she recognized them as people from home. Familiar faces sat in the front row, staring up at her as if she was the pastor on stage about to deliver her sermon. Her brothers and sisters, the old woman she had followed into church, even her father sat on the far end with a bored look on his face. And for the first time since they had left, Misery felt homesick.

But something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Misery darted her head to look towards the back of the room. Leaning against the back wall, next to the door, was a dark feminine shape. A horn, crooked and jagged in places, extended from her forehead, and her hair dropped down to her waist. The shadows on her face seemed to shift around, never quite settling into a coherent image. Through the blurred essence, Misery could only see two things: a pair of bright green eyes, staring right back at her. Suddenly the feeling of homesickness was gone, and she only had one thought on her mind.

“What are you?” The shadow whispered to her.

“Hey, Mis.” Star shook Misery by the shoulder, breaking her concentration and causing the ghostly imaginings to disappear into the air. The shadowy figure in the back was the last to go, fading away with a hiss.

Misery sighed in disappointment and turned to her brother. “Yeah?”

“Let’s go check the train schedules. We can probably get in and out of Vegas in a day, maybe two if we need the extra time to find mom.”

“Good idea.” Misery nodded. “I’d feel better if we brought Whistle along, too. She’s been helpful so far.”

“If you’re bringing Whistle, I’m bringing Pocket.”

“Fair enough.”

The siblings stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before nodding in unison. Star smiled, and Misery’s lip twitched upwards for a brief moment.

“Are we there yet?”

“I’m going to start starving you of hugs if you ask that question again. I swear.”

Mistake rolled her eyes and flopped back in her seat with an exaggerated sigh. “We’ve been driving forever. How far away is Vegas?”

Anon glanced at his phone. “Almost two hundred miles. Which is about two more hours, give or take. We left Mojave about a half hour ago.”

“Why didn’t we stop there?”

“Because we’re already a day behind, Mistake. I promise we’ll stop in Barstow, stretch our legs a bit and maybe get myself something to eat. Then it’s just a straight drive up to Vegas.”

Mistake scrunched up her face and crossed her arms. “Oh, alright. Fine. But that’s gonna take ages.”

“It’ll go faster if you stop talking.”

Mistake glanced at her father in disbelief. “Really?”

“No. But if you do manage to shut up for the rest of the drive you’ll make me a proud father.”

Mistake stuck her tongue out at him. “Well, you can be all anti-social like that if you want. But I know what DOES make time go faster! Games!”

“Oh, God, no.”

“Oh, my, yes!” Mistake clapped her hands together, her mood instantly changed. “So, what do you want to play? ‘I Spy’? ‘I’m thinking of an animal’? Oh, we can play the story game!”

“I think I’m going to opt out and try and listen to some music instead.” Anon reached forward and messed with the radio controls. After several minutes of cursing and fruitless fiddling, the only sound the radio would produce was a constant stream of static. Anon cursed one more time, for good measure, and shut it off again. “Fine. Whatever. What’s the story game?”

“Oh, yeees, that one’s fun.” Mistake grinned wide. “Right, so, I start, and then it’s your turn, and then it’s my turn again. I start with a single sentence, and then you write the next sentence. And we keep going back and forth and write the story together until we finish. Get it?” Anon nodded. “Alright, I’ll start.”

Mistake rubbed her chin, deep in thought, as she tumbled over her knowledge to find a suitable start for a story. Her foot tapped on the floor as she fell deep into her thoughts, leaving the real world behind as she delved into her imagination. Suddenly, she cried out in triumph and shot her hand in the air, startling Anon and causing the car to swerve slightly.

“Alright, I got it! Are you ready?”

“I’ve been ready.”

“OK.” Mistake cleared her throat. “Two cowboys sit across from each other in the dead of night, the only light coming from the stars above and the lively fire making waves of light on the sand between them.” She smiled, proud of her work, and gestured for Anon to continue.

Anon nodded and cleared his own throat. “Ahem… the end.”

Mistake’s smile instantly dissipated and became a disappointed glare. “You did it wrong.”

“I like to leave the rest of the story to the reader’s imagination. Call it an open ending, if you will.”

“It’s still lame.”

“You’re lame.”

“Your face is lame.”

“Good thing you’re my daughter and we have similar faces, then.”

Mistake let her final retort die, feeling that it had already been bested. She stared out the window and watched the desert sands pass by, imposing her own imagination over it. Desperados rode alongside the car on horseback, dodging and weaving through the desert brush as they fled from the mob of greedy bounty hunters behind them. Suddenly she had the thought of something else to share with her father.

“Hey, dad! Want to guess what I found in my sock now?”

Anon reached over and turned the radio on, filling the car with static. He winced and put his hands back on the wheel.

Mistake covered her ears as her right eye twitched compulsively. “Dad, we already figured out the radio is broken. It’s just static.”

Anon turned up the volume and continued driving.

Chapter VI: Questions

Molly glanced around the room, a little light-headed. She had skipped breakfast that morning, thinking she’d have a late one when she returned from her walk. She was starting to regret it as her stomach growled at her, hidden somewhere beneath the green slime that surrounded her body from her shoulders down. Lunch probably wasn’t coming any time soon, either. She ought to be prepared for things like this, she thought to herself, but as she continued to think she wasn’t so sure how well one could prepare to get kidnapped by a swarm of strangely similar children that spewed slime from their mouths.

Not much had happened since the little girl had stormed off into the other room, with her brother one step behind her. A few minutes after the two had entered, the doors opened and quite a few of the kids filtered out from the congregation room, obviously not pleased with their relocation. A few of them took interest in Molly, and stopped by to get a closer look, but none felt they were allowed to get within reaching distance. After a few seconds of thought the majority of the group either went to entertain themselves in the other rooms of the church or the lawn outside, though only the bravest ones dared to do the latter as they all knew it was against the rules and feared their leader’s wrath. From the short drama Molly had just witnessed, she wasn’t sure who exactly the leader of the group was, but it was either the little girl with green hair or the little boy with black. It seemed to her that the girl had been the leader for a while, but the boy had been leading it his own way behind the scenes. Molly’s thoughts of group politics were interrupted by a sudden silence as she realized that most of the children had either left to go entertain themselves elsewhere, or sat quietly in the corners curled up to be by themselves. Only one remained nearby, as he had for a while now: the one that had been assigned to watch her.

She took notice of the boy who had fallen into her arms earlier. After having some time to study the room, she had realized that he fell from the lighting fixture that now dangled above her head at an awkward angle, instead of her initial understanding that he simply materialized in the air above her. Every now and again a bit of dust drifted down from the ceiling as the lamp swayed from the breeze that blew in from the cracks in the walls, barely hanging on its thin cord. Molly noticed that the boy, too, was staring up at it, probably thinking the same thoughts as she was.

“Doesn’t look too safe up there, does it?”

The boy turned his attention to her, uncertainty obvious in the creases around his squinted eyes. Molly smiled, trying to disarm the situation. A smile wasn’t going to break her out, of course, but making friends was a good start.

“So what were you doing up there?”

The boy continued his distrustful frown, but let out a soft answer. “Hiding.”

“Ah. From me, I guess.” Molly nodded. “What did the girl say your name was? Pocket?”

Pocket nodded, the corners of his frown elevating ever so slightly. “Yeah. And you’re Molly?”

“Molly McKenzie. I’m a secretary, I work at the hospital right over there.” She pointed behind her and out the door, to the East.

“Well, Molly... thanks for catching me, I guess.” Pocket shrugged and glanced back up at the shaky light.

Molly followed his lead. “Does look a bit wobbly, doesn’t it? I hope it doesn’t fall while I’m stuck here.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He gave the lamp a troubled stare, however, the worried expression betraying his true thoughts.

Molly shrugged. “Well, if you think so. I’m sure you know that lamp better than I do, considering you were the one up there.” A few moments passed and they both sat in silence, staring at the swinging light. Suddenly, she looked back down and locked eyes with him, flashing a grin. “Want to play a game?”

“A game?” Pocket rose an eyebrow. “What kind of game? Guess Who?”

Molly raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You have Guess Who all the way out here?”

“No, it’s not a board game. Guess Who is a game where-” Pocket stopped himself mid-sentence. Guess Who was a game where he and his brother, Mimic, took turns trying to impersonate actors they saw on TV using their transformation abilities and have the other guess who they were trying to be. Pocket assumed Misery wouldn’t want him talking about that stuff, though. He waved his hand and dodged the question. “It’s just a game we play. But what game did you have?”

“Well, it depends. How old are you?”

“Seven.”

“Really?” Molly arched her brow. “And what about the other kids, how old are they?”

“My brothers and sisters? We’re all the same age.”

“Uh-huh.” Molly glanced around at the other kids, who all looked eerily similar and were apparently the same age. She felt grievously left out of some loop. “You’re all very mature for your age. Especially the one with the different greenish hair. What did you call her…”

“That’s Misery.”

“Yeah, her. She seemed like she had a bright mind behind those shining green eyes, and she didn’t have wrinkles to prove that she earned it.” Molly sighed. “That’s a volatile combination, right there. Can’t even tell you how many young people with shining eyes thought they could take the world, only to have it all collapse around them when they’re at their peak. I’m one of them.” Molly’s expression slowly wilted as she gazed up at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts as she finished her rant.

Pocket scratched his head. “Well, how old are you?”

“Twenty eight in…” she paused to count in her head. “Two weeks. I lose track sometimes, thanks for reminding me.”

Pocket nodded slowly. “You’re pretty old, then.”

“Oh, thanks for the compliment.” Molly rolled her eyes. “Not THAT old, kid. Just old enough to start seeing some of the realities in life, I think.”

Pocket stared at her for a few moments, trying to process what she said. Eventually he gave up and decided he’d get it when he was older. “Whatever. Did you say you have a game?”

“Oh, yeah.” Molly’s smile returned to her face. “Want to play Simon Says?”

“Yeah, sure. But I’m Simon.”

Molly dropped her voice low and adopted the tone of a valiant knight. “Then speak, little one, and it shall be done.”

“Simon says…” Pocket stared at the ground and thought of a good command. “Nod your head.”

Molly did as she was told.

“Now Simon says make a funny face.”

Molly stuck her tongue out to the side and crossed her eyes. Pocket suppressed a giggle.

“Now Simon says jump!”

Molly stared at him for a few moments before shrugging. “You’re just going to have to take my word on that one, kid, I’m pretty sure I’m not leaving the ground under all this slime.”

Pocket grunted. “Yeah, we can’t really play if you’re in there…” He glanced backwards at the door to the congregation room. “I don’t think Misery would let me do that, though.”

“Well, maybe we should play another game. How about Twenty Questions?”

Pocket nodded and glanced down at the floor in thought. “Give me a minute to think of something, then.”

Molly was about to respond when she noticed one of the children coming closer, behind Pocket. But he wasn’t a child, not really. Where his legs should have been, there were two black stumps, filled with holes. A long, black tail swept from behind him, dragging along the ground. A pair of insectoid wings sprouted from behind him, miniscule and almost hidden behind his back, while his eyes drew her attention with their empty pale blue stare. It walked toward them, and the only thing Molly could do was stare in awe. Pocket started to give her a strange look, not yet noticing the undisguised child behind him.

Molly blinked a few times and finally found her voice. “Pocket… I changed my mind. I have a lot more than 20 questions.”

“Oh thank the Lord, the torment is over.”

Anon threw open the car door and stepped out into the desert air, stretching out his arms to welcome the outdoors. Not that the parking lot of the Jack in the Box counted as the outdoors, but after spending the last few hours cooped inside a car, even stepping out onto the black asphalt under the gaze of the setting sun seemed like an expedition into nature. More important than getting out of the stuffy car, however, was the fact that he was no longer trapped in the stuffy car with Mistake. Or, rather, Mistake’s running mouth.

The girl hopped out of the passenger seat and slammed the door behind her, bringing a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun as she scanned over her surroundings. Even though the drive was over, she wasn’t anywhere near out of things to talk about.

“So, this is Barstow? Doesn’t look like much.”

“That’s because it’s not.” Anon twisted his body back and forth, trying to crack the joints in his spine. “It’s nowhere. Just like Tehachapi, just like Bakersfield, just like every other settlement between the West Coast and Vegas.”

“Well, I don’t really know anything about towns.” She frowned in thought for a brief moment before immediately transitioning back to a grin. “But I do know about cowboys! Did you know that f-” Mistake stopped mid-sentence as Anon slowly turned to face her. He kneeled down and planted both of his hands on her shoulders.

“No more talking.”

“What d-”

“No. No more. I’ve been with you for the past two days, and all you ever do is talk. And talk. And talk. And talk.”

“I ju-”

“We’re not in the car anymore. I don’t have to drive. I don’t have to keep my hands on the wheel. So now, I can tell you…” He shook her lightly as he whispered the final words, “Shuuut uuup.”

Mistake didn’t move, her face blank of all emotion. Several seconds passed as the two stood there in the parking lot, the sun just beginning to set over the desert horizon. A car drove by on the road next to them, kicking up a small gust of wind that disturbed the bangs of Mistake’s hair. Suddenly breaking the vow of silence, Mistake lept out from under her father’s hands and embraced him, wrapping her arms around his neck and snuggling her head against his.

Anon sat still with his arms still held out in the air as if he were a machine that wasn’t programmed to deal with the situation at hand. It took him a few seconds before he came back to his senses and brought his arms back, returning the hug.

“What’s this for?”

Mistake grinned. “I’m hungry, and you were whining.”

“Oh, so whining is bad now. But it was perfectly fine when you were doing it in the car for the last few hours.”

“Well… yeah. Because I’m a kid.”

“I’m starting to see how seven-year-old logic works. It’s eerily similar to adult logic, just more straightforward..” He brought his arms between them and pushed her back, starting to stand. “Well, that’s enough of that.”

Mistake whimpered quietly and kept her arms held tight around his neck as he rose. “I’m still hungry, though!” She continued to cling to his arm as he tried to walk away, dangling in the air with flailing legs.

Anon continued to shuffle towards the food joint, trying to act like she wasn’t there. “Well, I’m hungry too. And I can’t eat dinner if you’re hanging from my neck like the ugliest necktie ever made.”

“The only ugly thing here is you. I’ll have you know, I’m the best accessory you could ever wear! I’m not a necktie, I’m a dazzling necklace. Bug stuff is much better than gold or silver. It’s in style.”

“First, it’s not called ‘bug stuff’, it’s called chitin. Second, if I asked for a necklace and got one as full of holes as you are, I’d have the jeweler sued for all he’s worth. Third, I’m a man. Men don’t wear necklaces.” He frowned slightly. “I probably should have brought that one up first, in retrospect.”

“Probably.”

“Rat! What the hell is your problem?”

Misery paced back and forth in front of her brother, Rat, who sat in his natural alien form in the center of the foyer. Molly sat next to him, still trapped and a little dazed, while Pocket, Whistle and Star stood nearby as was beginning to be the pattern of the last few days. Rat shrugged and scratched his bald head, looking off to the side.

“Sorry, I forgot the lady was here… I thought it was ok to take it off, you know, j-just for a-.”

“No! I told you all, don’t take off your disguise for any reason! Not until we’re back home!” She started to pull her hair out and turned away, facing the back wall. “And even if I hadn’t, how the hell do you forget we kidnapped someone?”

“Well, I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking-”

“No. You weren’t.” Misery turned back and jabbed a finger into his chest. “You weren’t thinking. You never think. That’s your problem, Rat; you never think.”

Rat sulked and swayed side to side, embarrassed from being yelled at in front of all his brothers and sisters. Misery slowly simmered in her anger, each second that passed by making her face more red than the last. Star coughed awkwardly and stepped between them, resting an arm on Misery’s shoulder carefully. She shot him a look that tried to burn a few extra holes in his body, but after a moment’s flinch, he persisted.

“Misery. Please, calm down. This doesn’t really change anything. She’s not in a hurry to go tell everyone our secret, now is she?” He gestured towards the pile of green goo.

Misery shut her eyes and let out a sigh. “Star, for seven years, the only person that knew about us was dad. Now, the secret of our existence that could have been kept from the president himself is in the hands of Molly, the secretary from Barstow.” She finishes her sentence with a heavy dose of disdain. “We might as well print it in the newspapers if we’re handing it out like this.”

“What, are you afraid they’re going to pin us to the operating table and dissect us? I agree that being discovered right now wouldn’t be in our best interests, but why should we keep it a secret forever?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I know is that if we do end up in some lab somewhere, I’m going to make sure Rat is the first one on the table.”

“Misery!” Star sighed as Rat sulked further towards the ground. “Rat, maybe you should take a walk. Head around town, see if you can get a few hugs. Just like old times.”

Rat stood and nodded slowly, wiping away a tear and heading for the door. He made it halfway out the door before Star and Misery both shouted at him in unison.

“Rat! Disguise!”

He blinked a few times, sulked again, and turned back to normal in a flash of green light. He walked out the door and disappeared around the corner, another child coming and shutting the door behind him. Misery turned to Star and shook her head a few times. She went off, grabbed Whistle by the shirt, and dragged her along to a corner of the church where they could be alone.

Star sighed and sat down in front of Molly, giving her a slight awkward wave, which she returned with a slight nod. Her eyes still looked a bit out of place, as though they were staring through Star, not at him. She didn’t seem entirely… there. He waved a hand in front of her eyes a few times and tilted his head.

“Are you ok, Molly?”

She nodded again, slowly, and her eyes seemed to come back into focus. “Yeah, yeah… I’m uh, I’m together. Just a little bit confused, is all.” She gulped and looked around at all the kids nearby, and then turned back to Star. “At first I thought maybe I got attacked by escaped convicts or something. Then it was a few kids: nothing to worry about. And then it was a whole lot of kids. Really scary similar-looking kids. Who could spit goo.” She looks in the direction of the door where Rat just left. “And then the whole lot of really scary similar-looking kids who could spit goo turned out to be aliens. And now I’m just a little bit lost on the whole ordeal, you know.”

Star nodded in return. “I understand. Honestly, we don’t really know much more than you do. I’m sorry it had to be like this.” He paused for a few moments and tugged at the goo from the outer layer. “We’ll let you out in a day or two, though. That I can promise.”

“Well, I guess I have that to look forward to.” She grinned and stared up at the rickety lamp. “If this thing doesn’t fall and kill me first, anyhow.”

“You’ll be fine.” Star reassured her and stood up. He tapped Pocket on the arm and gestured to a nearby corner. “We need to talk about some things, Pocket. Misery and I had a talk, and we’re going to try a Plan B…”

Anon and his daughter exited the Jack in the Box, one of them content with food and the other still starving for attention.

“Do they have ice cream here? We should get some i…” Mistake trailed off as she continued to hang from her father’s neck. Her legs stopped kicking.

“What is it?” Anon adopted a worried frown and looked down at his daughter.

Mistake’s eyes were wide open, staring intently in the opposite direction of the restaurant entrance. She seemed entirely focused, with her mouth slightly agape, as if in disbelief of what she saw. Anon spun around to see what had thrown her off so severely.

He didn’t see anything at first. It took a few moments before he finally noticed the boy, catching the bit of movement dashing across the street out of the corner of his eye. He looked very young, certainly not past the years of grade school. He strode at a brisk pace, though his short legs didn’t bring him far, and his tuft of messy black hair bounced with each step. His walk wasn’t the confident stride of a dedicated businessman, but rather one of a discontent businessman who had lost his way to a very important meeting. He glanced around frantically, in search of something, as he sped across the street. For a brief moment, Anon thought he could imagine a quick flash of light blue in the boy’s eyes before he disappeared behind a gas station.

Anon stood agape as the boy disappeared. “Mistake… was that one of-”

“Yeah.” After a moment of thought, she added, “His name is Rat.”

“They didn’t even make it to Vegas.” Anon shook his head slowly. “We were about to pass them. They’re here, in Barstow, and we almost just drove right past them.” Anon raised his hands to his mouth and took in a deep breath, preparing to shout, but Mistake grabbed his arm and yanked it down to her level.

“Dad, no! They ran away, remember? If you call him now he’ll just book it. Let’s follow him, maybe he’ll take us to everyone else.”

Anon watched the empty space where the kid had been, anxious to start following. “Alright, Detective. Lead the way. You’re probably better at sneaking than I am.”

Mistake grinned and lept forward, skipping across the sidewalk with silent ease. Anon stumbled behind as loudly and noticeably as ever.

Whistle groaned and kicked a pebble a few steps away, watching it skid over the nearby train tracks. She leaned against a supporting the canopy above them and nudged Pocket, who stared blankly at the rising moon.

“I can’t believe Misery’s making us leave everyone else behind. You know, Mist really wanted to see mom, too! She wrote a poem and everything that she was going to give to her.”

Pocket just shrugged. “I don’t really care. And it’s not just Misery, you know, it was Star’s idea too. And we’re speaking to mom on behalf of everyone, so they’re still going to get answers.”

“Still.” Whistle pouted. “I feel like they all got cheated by coming with us.”

“I still think sometimes that we should have stayed home.” Pocket glanced over at Misery and Star, who stood nearby, reading over the train schedules.

They had made the walk North to the Amtrak station together, and it had cost them the remaining daylight they had. Now the two leaders argued once again, this time over which train route at which time would get them to Vegas and back faster. It wasn’t long before Star eventually won her over to his idea, and the pair started heading back to the church.

Only a fifteen minutes and a few pairs of sore legs later, the children saw the church ahead. Misery called everyone’s attention and began to walk backwards so she could address them and move at the same time.

“Alright, so here’s what’s happening. We’re going to go in and leave Jet and Faith in charge. They’re going to stay here, make sure no-one gets in trouble, and keep an eye on Mosey.”

“Molly,” Pocket corrected.

“Polly Pocket. Loverboy’s new girlfriend. Whatever.” Whistle rolled her eyes. “Misery, I still don’t think this is a good idea. We couldn’t even keep everyone under control when we were around! What makes you think they’re going to behave now?”

“It’s for their own good. Hopefully they’ll realize that.” Misery shrugged. “Anyhow, after people are put in charge and bases are covered, we leave tomorrow morning. Train leaves at 7:30, so let’s be there early. We’ll be in Vegas before noon.”

“But who knows how long it’ll take to find mother…” Star trailed off.

“We’ll wait and see.” The distance was closed, and the church doors now stood at Misery’s back. “We’ll improvise a plan when we get there, I guess.” She pushed open the doors and stepped inside. “At least there won’t be any more surp-” She paused dead in the middle of her sentence and looked up.

Anonymous leaned in the doorway, gesturing for the four of them to enter with a thin grin plastered across his face.. “Well, young lady, you sure are out late past your curfew. Why don’t you come in and tell your father where you’ve been?”