The first thing I heard after that was a click from upstairs; somebody must have locked the door again. That couldn't have been good, but I had other things to worry about. Ben placed an icy hand on my shoulder and I flinched, still unsure of whether Jason could see him.

"So you're the one who tried to use my Avery."

"Ben. It's okay. And don't say my Avery."

"It's not okay, though."

Jason looked far more confused, and pointed behind me with narrowed eyes.

"Who...wait, do I know you? Are you the guy that—"

"I knew something like this would happen. I don't know why I even bothered avoiding it. I need to put an end to all this."

I turned around as soon as he said that, and saw that Ben's fingertips were turning black and his eyes more red than before.

"What are you saying?"

He glanced at me with a twinge of regret. "I have to kill them. All of them. It's the only way to fix—"

"What? No, no, no, no. Now is not the time to get fixated on killing again. Not these people."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"It's the only way."

"Are you even listening to yourself? Didn't...didn't you say it yourself?! You've gotten even enough with them! If what your story says is true, you've already gotten rid of some of them! When are you going to be satisfied if you keep going?"

Ben hung his head, and I went to hug him when he looked up again, the corners of his mouth twitching and his eyes black.

"Never."

Fuck.

I stumbled, reaching back for Jason's arm so I could help him get away if I needed to. But when I turned around, unsuccessful, I found him hunched and shaking against the wall, still pointing at Ben but now like he was some monster. To his credit, he might as well have been at this point.

"No. Y-you...you're the kid that...Avery, that's your—?"

"Shut your mouth, Moon Child. I never want to hear your kind speak again."

"Ben! Don't you see what's happening?" I tried keeping his attention for as long as I could. "You're losing control again. You're...probably already gone, if I'm being honest. But you can't do this."

"I'm not sure how I could have tolerated it for this long. They've been this close to where I've been living for all this time...how didn't I see it?"

"Ben, I think it's time to go home. If you would just take a breath and look at me..."

"I don't want to go home. You really don't get it, do you, Avery? Do you think I can just leave this place, knowing it's still intact, that there's people still alive in here?!"

"Yes! I do! Look, I don't know who started this whole mess, but I do know that Jason's been tricked into joining it. I know that there's others who have all been cheated, and I know you're one of them, and I know that you're angry. But isn't this what you're afraid of? Being set back at square one? Because if there's one thing I've learned from all this, it's that."

Ben just floated, his outline growing fuzzy, his expression becoming more and more outraged.

"And killing isn't going to help you anymore. I don't think it's helped you in the first place. It just made you more angry and bloodthirsty, and I'm sick of this. You need to come back, Ben—"

"Are you done?"

I stopped. Excuse me?

"Because I feel like this is going to go on for some time, and I was really looking forward to destroying this building and everyone inside of it."

Without another word, Ben's entire being glowed and I felt the floor shaking underneath my feet. It was as if the entire structure was about to be undone; just deconstructed like that.

No, no. That's impossible. He can't just break down a whole building with his mind...can he?

I turned back to Jason, to make sure he hadn't ran away, and to my surprise he hadn't. He was still stuck there, still pointing, still in disbelief.

"You're the one they told me—"

He was cut off by a loud rumbling sound coming from inside the walls. When I looked at Ben again, he was holding his head and glitching violently, almost like he was about to die.

"Stop it! Get out! Get out of my head!"

He's trying to fight back.

I wanted more than anything to help him, but I couldn't think of anything that would. Instead, I stepped back, unable to do anything but watch as wooden planks started falling from the ceiling. Beams holding the place up began to shake, and I was certain the building would collapse soon. I could hear shuffling and yells from the upper level, as people started trying to escape.

But the door was locked.

It's going to come down with everyone inside.

I started breathing heavily, not sure what to do or where to go. I'd never be able to save everyone up there; even if I tried, Ben would probably find a way to stop me. The only thing I could do was grab Jason and get out of there. Somehow, right now Ben was distracted enough so that he couldn't hear the door to the church opening as I bolted outside with the Moon Child in tow, eventually letting go once we got far away enough.

I couldn't look as the base started to collapse with the rest of them stuck inside.

—

Jason shuffled along in dismay after me, searching desperately for something to cling to. It seemed to him that my arm would do, apparently. He was beyond shaken as he stared at the collapsing house. In a strange way, I understood why.

I should have listened.

"Oh, god. Oh, Luna, my everlasting queen!" He muttered, choking up. "What do we do? Where am I supposed to go every full moon at 2:00 sharp now?" I got the feeling he still wasn't exactly talking to me; "we" clearly wasn't referring to Avery and Jason. I sighed.

"We have to go. Who knows how long that'll keep him entertained for?"

When he didn't move, I groaned and pulled him along by the arm and started marching back home.

Home...

"Precisely how much do your parents know about this?"

"My parents co-founded the Children."

"Right," I sighed again, reaching my limit with all this cult shit for the fifth time this year. "Yeah. Okay, you're not going home tonight. Something tells me that wouldn't be the best idea. Follow me."

I really had no reason to say that, as I was already dragging him pretty abrasively to god-knows-where. I didn't even have a good idea of where I was supposed to take this poor guy. Everything he'd known for a solid chunk of his life was now in a wreck on the ground, Ben could find us no matter where we went, and he didn't even have a safe home.

Unless we didn't hide together.

"Alright," I whispered to myself, my brain working itself to the brink of insanity. "239...Flores residence...empty room...supervision..."

"Flores? You mean that girl who your boyfriend—well, whatever—killed last month?"

I almost stopped dead in my tracks, but kept walking. We didn't have time to lose. "How do you know about that?"

"It was in the paper."

"No, I mean the part about Ben. How did you know he killed Meghan?"

"W-well, it was really obvious. Telling you now, you did kind of a shit job washing the blood off your hands next day. Knew it couldn't have been you who did it, so it must've been that ghost you hang around all the time. My family's filled me in on everything that went down in 2010. But I never expected him to..."

I struggled to take all this in. It was too much. Jason, former creepy, intrusive kid who sat next to me in 11th grade Chemistry, knew nearly everything about Ben and what he'd done in these past few months—apparently, not only because of his mentally deranged parents, but also because he payed a little too much attention to me and my situation. That kind of made me realize, he was forced into this even more than Ben, probably for an even longer amount of time. Were they going to kill him eventually? Was he too important? Would he be favored because he's the co-founders' son?

And would being favored, for him, mean life or death?

"...thank you for your feedback. Anyway, we're going to her house. It's not that far from mine. It'll be safer than the both of us hiding in the same place. I'm pretty sure her mom wouldn't object to stowing you away there."

Jason stayed silent for a moment. "Avery...I love you."

"Cool. Thanks. Tell me about it later," I responded through gritted teeth. I did not have the time to get hung up over that shit again.

We arrived at the Flores' house and I knocked rapidly on the door. Something about the silence that now hung in the air told me nothing good was coming our way soon. A frail-looking, confused man answered the door after a solid minute and looked expectantly at us, bags under his eyes and pajamas still on.

"...yes?"

I held Jason's arm up like he was some sort of prisoner, or thing for sale. "You know this kid, Jason? Goes to your daughter's school. In a little bit of trouble right now."

Mr. Flores faltered then squinted like he was trying to remember if he knew me or not. "Are...are you Avery? Meg told us a lot about some—"

"Sure. Yeah. I'm Avery. Can you just..." I hoisted a still emotionally damaged Jason up and nearly shoved him forward into the house. "Can you just take care of this for me? Can't take him back to my house, can't take him back to his own. Parents are kind of psycho. Just...watch over him for a couple days? It'll be your Meghan 2.0." Despite his shocked expression, I continued. "Taking that as an, 'I'll try my best.' If anything happens at all—I'm talking like if a vase moves by itself, your TV turns on, weird ringing in your ear—then do not call me."

"I don't even have your phone number," he pointed out, looking just a tad bit annoyed at the situation.

"Good! Then we should be fine. I'll be going now. If the neighborhood seems fine for at least a week after I'm dead, then you did your job. Bye."

I stalked away back to my house, trying to ignore the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. At least that's taken care of.

As I reached the front door, it started to rain the tiniest bit. Once I stepped inside, almost by magic or just insane luck it turned to a full-scale shower, and the back of my jacket just barely avoided getting soaked. I couldn't help but keep thinking about what would happen to Jason if Mr. Flores just gave him up to save his own life—or worse, actually tried to protect him from Ben should they be found. I shook the idea off. That'll just make things worse. I can't think about where he is; what if he's nearby and can hear my thoughts?

I quietly walked upstairs, somewhat comforted by the silence of the house. There was no static, no buzzing, no echoes except for my shoes on the staircase. I just heard the downpour outside and wood creaking as I searched my room as slowly and normally as I could.

I'm so freaked out, I've actually ran out of fucks to give.

What I neglected to check for a solid five minutes was my front coat pocket, where I'd placed the cartridge in the first place. I managed to laugh a little, then took it out to examine it before going down to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.

"What should I do about you...?" I muttered to myself, narrowing my eyes at the space on the game where the label would've been. After a while, I sighed.

There's no use. I keep just doing these awful things, and one way or another it just ends up hurting someone. I gave Ben away, and he killed. I dragged him to a place he should never have come back to, and now it's destroyed. Tons of would-be innocent people, people who were lied to and tricked...just gone.

I looked up and out the window, watching plants getting almost attacked by the rain.

"I've been horrible."

"That you have been, traitor."

I nearly fell out of my seat when I heard his voice behind me. Strangely, he wasn't floating. He was just standing, but he still loomed over me. His eyes were empty now, and the blood leaking from them was completely black.

"I'd stick around to chat, maybe break a few bones, you know the drill. But I've got something to catch. Specifically, that little Luna-tainted shit you've stowed away somewhere." Ben looked monstrous, to say the least. His hands were more like claws, with broken steel shackles hanging from his wrists. He had some horrible, twisted grin plastered onto his face, fangs in place of teeth and a face gone completely grey. He was the Ben Drowned I knew from videos, from descriptions and fanart, from my imagination before I knew better.

But now I was starting to question whether "knowing better" was even the case at this point.

In spite of how terrified I should have been, I sighed.

"Ben...should I even bother now? This has happened before. It's my fault, I know. But you need to try and come back—"

Before I could continue, he grabbed my throat and slowly lifted me off the ground. His entire forearm was etched in black like someone had scribbled on it with sharpie. I frantically reached for my water that was still on the table, and without thinking dumped the glass onto the cartridge.

"You—"

Ben froze as if he'd been put on pause. I pried his fingers from my neck and gasped for air, grabbing the cartridge off the table as well as a raincoat and making my way outside as quickly as possible.

Isn't there a creek somewhere around here?