Start the song. It's Werewolf by Cat Power.

Carrying JJ through the gates of the community was a dizzying and overwhelming feeling, but Josh needed to get some things from the community if he was going to help Tyler. Ashley and Brendon were with him, but he needed to be the one holding JJ if he was going to make it through this alive.It felt like he was betraying his son to bring him here. He kept finding himself holding the infant a little too tightly, needing Ashley to soothe him quietly before he could relax again.

The last time Josh had passed through these gates, he'd been unconscious from blood loss. He'd been scooped up by people in uniforms and loaded into a big scary vehicle before being dumped into the world of modern medicine. He didn't feel any safer now than he did then as he led Ashley and Brendon through the decimated remains of what had once been his community, walking up the front steps of his house and leading them through the door.

Brendon's eyes fearfully went straight to the broken pentagram Josh had left on the floor the last time he was here. Ashley's eyes scanned the graffiti on the walls morosely. Josh didn't look around at all, picking up the bowl sitting on the floor that still contained the caked and dry remains of what had been his blood.

"This was your house?" Brendon asked quietly, looking around with a mixture of abject horror and some sort of reverence.

"Yeah," Josh replied, standing back up and balancing JJ more carefully on his hip as he headed for the basement. "If you see anymore bowls like this one, grab them."

Ashley set about searching the kitchen, but Brendon seemed nervous. He trailed behind Josh as if that would somehow ensure his safety in a place like this.

"That bowl has blood in it," he said quietly.

"It's mine. Don't worry about it," Josh replied distractedly, feeling a sick sensation rise in his stomach as he descended the same stairs he'd ran down when he'd found out Tyler had been kidnapped. "And stop acting like that. No one's here. They're all dead."

Brendon didn't argue, looking around the basement in the same state of shock. "Those are human bones," he whispered, not seeming to have heard anything Josh said. "Josh, are those real?"

"Why would we have fake bones?" Josh asked simply, earning a horrified look from Brendon when he set the bowl down on the floor and started digging through the bones with the hand not holding his cooing baby. "You can go check upstairs if you want."

"Is that blood on the floor?" Brendon's voice kept getting smaller.

"It's probably Tyler's. Just go upstairs, Brendon," Josh replied, not looking up from the bones he was digging through.

His finger brushed metal, and he pulled another bowl out from beneath the bones. His dad had hidden these all over. They probably didn't need very many to paint basketball player's faces, but part of Josh just wanted them back so he could keep them. He'd lost almost everything. Couldn't he keep a few bowls?

When Josh stood up, he was startled by Brendon hugging him. He didn't hug back, having one arm full with JJ and the other frozen out at his side. Brendon didn't let go for a minute, but he looked like he was going to cry when he did.

"I'm sorry I've been a jerk," he told Josh quietly. "I didn't-I was so mad about what happened to Ashley and Tyler that I forgot you had to go through all of this every day. I heard about everything they went through in a few months and I was scared and angry. I didn't even think about the fact that you'd spent your whole life here. You-The amount of shit you had to live through just-I'm sorry, okay? I'm done being a pissy asshole just because Ashley loves you. You deserve to have someone like her, okay? And she's lucky to have someone like you."

Josh had no idea what to say to that. "Thanks," he managed to get out, holding JJ closer.

Brendon nodded, looking at the bowl full of Josh's blood with tired eyes before picking it up. "You're not gonna be like your dad. You know that right?"

This was overstepping Josh's comfort zone immensely. While the words meant a lot to him, he wasn't used to people he wasn't close with saying nice things to him. It made him uncomfortable and afraid of what he'd owe them in return for their words.

"I need to go find something for my sister," Josh said before going back up the stairs a little too quickly.

Brendon trailed behind uncertainly, not seeming to understand why Josh was icing him out after he'd said something nice for once. There was a small pile of three bowls on the kitchen table, and Ashley was standing on the counter as she searched for more.

"I can't believe how much stuff has been stolen," she said sadly.

Josh didn't respond. He couldn't. Even just being back here was heavy on his heart. Talking about how heavy it was wasn't taking any weight off for him. He just needed to get what he came for and leave.

He hesitated for a moment outside of Ash's bedroom. She'd asked him for one thing, the only part of the community she'd even considered keeping, apart from her daughter. She'd been embarrassed to ask Josh to get it for her, avoiding his eyes and hiding her shaking hands behind her back. It wasn't conventional, but it may as well have been her equivalent for the statue Tyler had taken. It was something that hurt and scared her, but it also gave her some hope. Josh had promised his little sister that he'd get it for her, so he would.

Ash's bedroom was just as destroyed as his had been. Her walls said awful things that made his stomach hurt. It was different from seeing them on his own walls. His little sister who had endured so much had now been verbally degraded on the walls of the room she'd slept in since she was JJ's age. Her clothes had been torn and were caked with mud, piss, blood, and far too many other foul substances. Shattered glass covered the floor, both from beer bottles and the lamp that had sat on the table beside her bed.

Silently, Josh walked across the floor, keeping JJ close against his chest as he looked under the bed. By some miracle, the box remained untouched. He slid it out from under the bed, opening the music box carefully. A tinny song filled the room as a ballerina spun around. Ash had painted the dancer's clothes black when they were kids. Scattered around the dancer's feet were the teeth of Ash's husband, dried blood still clinging to them stubbornly as time wore their rusty stains into the yellow enamel.

JJ cooed happily at the sound of the song, babbling cheerfully to his father. Josh sat down on the ground carefully, watching the dancer spin. Her hair was red like Ash's. Josh used to tell Ash that she was adopted because her hair was different from everyone else in their family's. He'd told her she'd been an outsider that their dad had felt bad for because she was so ugly. That lie had worked until Abigail was born with even redder hair than Ash's.

Seeing the teeth of the man who'd hurt his sister and forced him to hurt Ashley next to one of the few childhood toys Ash had been allowed to have made tears burn at Josh's eyes. How had they lived so long seeing these kinds of moral clashes as normal? The very man who'd ripped the innocence out of Ash was now being immortalized in the box she'd hidden stones from the river in when they were little.

Josh wiped at the tears on his cheeks before closing the music box. This part of their life was over. Ash was safe now. Titus was dead. All that remained of him was a set of teeth-teeth that had bit into Ash's flesh when she was just barely old enough to go to the sanctuary. Josh clenched his jaw and carried the music box downstairs, hiding his emotions just as he'd been taught to.

"I want to do one more thing before we leave," he told Ashley. His voice sounded weird, detached, like it had never really belonged to him.

"Okay?" She looked worried.

Josh nodded as he handed their son to her and shrugged off his backpack. He stuffed the bowls and music box in with his chemistry book, not having it in him to care that dried blood was flaking off inside of his bag. It seemed fitting somehow.

Ashley and Brendon both followed Josh uncertainly as he slung his bag over his shoulder and left the house. His steps were quick and purposeful, determined to get this done as quickly as possible. It should've been done a long time ago anyways.

Josh climbed over the fence that used to keep goats from escaping the barn area, knowing just where to do so in order to keep from ripping his pants on the barbed wire. He and Pete had done this since they first learned to walk. It was instinct now.

It wasn't until Josh emerged from the barn with a gallon of gasoline that Ashley and Brendon started to try and diffuse whatever tension Josh was feeling before it could explode inside of him. He couldn't hear their words though as he climbed back over the fence and kept walking.

Try as they might to keep begging him not to do something stupid, Ashley fell silent when she realized where he'd led them, and Brendon fell silent when he realized she had.

No one tried to stop Josh when he slowly entered the sanctuary, feeling like there was cement solidifying in his lungs when his eyes immediately went to the stained section of wood in the far back corner with handcuffs hanging from the wall above it. Every spot where the girls had been bound looked the same, but Josh knew why that one was different.

"What's going on?" Brendon asked nervously, but Ashely wasn't listening now either.

She held JJ tighter as Josh poured gasoline all over that corner of the sanctuary. She cradled his head against her chest as she started to cry, making Josh look at her worriedly. Brendon didn't exist anymore. It was just Ashley, Josh, JJ, and whatever remnants of Titus were tucked inside of these walls.

Ashley's tear-filled eyes met Josh's, studying him for a second before nodding. "I want you to do it," she whispered to him.

He nodded. All it took was that confirmation from his wife, and he was using the gasoline to cover as much of the room as possible. This building didn't deserve to remain standing. Josh couldn't even look at it without hearing the screams of the girls that had been inside and feeling Titus's beady eyes watching him expectantly.

Ashley pulled a lighter out of Brendon's pocket, making him protest anxiously. "Guys, this isn't a good idea. We could get hurt or arrested or-"

"Wait outside, okay?" Josh told Ashley when she handed him the lighter. "Don't let him breathe in any smoke." He kissed the top of JJ's head before kissing Ashley softly.

Touching Ashley in this building somehow terrified him and made him feel stronger at the same time. They'd always feel that way when they touched each other if this building was still standing though. It needed to go away.

Ashley nodded, kissing Josh one more time before carrying JJ over to the door, pulling Brendon out by his hand despite his protests. Then it was just Josh and Titus. Mistletoe berries twisted knots in Josh's stomach as he looked around the room. He was ready.

Josh left the sanctuary, stopping just outside of the door as he ignited the lighter. He glanced at Ashley, who smiled slightly. He smiled back before tossing the lighter into the room. The fire took a moment to catch, but then the building that had tortured Josh for over a year was smouldering while he wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, guiding her to step further away from the flames that they both watched with hungry eyes. She leant back into him calmly, and for the first time in a very long time, her muscles remained completely relaxed when he pressed a soft kiss to her neck.

Things were going to be okay. Josh knew that now. Everything would be okay.

It scared Josh more than he thought possible when someone yanked him back by his backpack, knocking him to the ground. They climbed on top of him, pulling their arm back to punch him in the face.

"What's the fuck is wrong with you, you-"

Josh's eyes widened as he looked up at the person on top of him. Tears filled his eyes as the fist aimed at his face dropped instantly.

"Pete?" He asked quietly.

Fear that he was the only one seeing his best friend filled him instantly, even when the rage dropped off of Pete's face. Josh looked at Ashley as he started to cry, silently praying she could see him too. Her eyes were wide, and she was staring directly at Pete. Brendon looked like he was trying to decide if he needed to fight the person who'd just attacked Josh. Pete. Pete was here. He was real.

Pete scrambled off of Josh, pulling him up into a sitting position before hugging him so tightly that he couldn't breathe. Josh was shaking as a sob left his lips. He held on tightly to the back of Pete's shirt as he cried against his shoulder.

"Pete," he whispered again, feeling comforted just by the word.

"It's okay," Pete whispered to him gently, his voice shaky too. "I'm here, little brother. It's okay."

Josh nodded, holding onto Pete as tight as possible so he wouldn't disappear again. He couldn't stop sobbing, gasping in the scent of his best friend along with plumes of smoke.

"You're alive," Josh murmured.

"Not for long if we don't move. Come on, pyro. We didn't survive mass suicide just to burn to death because you're an idiot," Pete said as he detached himself from Josh and stood up before pulling Josh up with him. "Who the hell brings a baby to burn down a building?"

Josh held Pete's hand as he allowed the older man to lead them away from the flames. Ashley and Brendon followed in stunned silence.

"That's JJ," Josh told Pete, his brain still moving in slow motion from shock.

"JJ?" Pete asked, looking around the community before pulling Josh down a narrow alleyway that he knew led to Pete's childhood home.

Josh nodded, staring at Pete with wide eyes still. He had something of a beard now, and his hair was longer. His eyes were still rimmed with black, and he hadn't stopped wearing all black either. He looked too skinny, but he was alive. Breathing. Safe.

"My son," Josh explained shakily. "Joshua Junior."

Much to Josh's surprise, it seemed like that was new information to Pete. He released Josh's hand and whipped around, looking at JJ with wide eyes.

"You have a son?" He exclaimed.

Ashley smiled slightly, holding the baby out to Pete. Brendon looked at her like she was crazy before watching Pete take the baby from her. Instantly, JJ was babbling and cooing at Pete. Pete grinned.

"Hey, little guy," he said quietly to the baby. "You have no idea how lucky you got when you got this guy for a dad."

"He does actually," Ashley told Pete, smiling when JJ nearly poked the newcomer in the eye as he looked at him in fascination. "He already knows how to say 'Dada.' He started trying to talk as soon as he met Josh."

Pete grinned. "Patrick is going to freak out."

Josh's heart leapt in his chest. "Patrick's alive?"

Pete laughed loudly, making Brendon startle. "Of course he's alive, shithead. I'd die before I let anything hurt him."

"I should've known," Josh replied quietly, following Pete when he started walking again.

"Joshua, I'm so fucking glad you're finally here. Patrick and I have been praying for you. We all have really," Pete told Josh as he started up the front steps of his house.

"All?" Josh asked quietly, his heart beating so fast that he could hear the blood rushing in his ears. "Other people made it out?"

Pete grinned warmly, pulling the front door open. "Welcome home, Joshua. The Family has been waiting."