Start the song. It's Blood-letting by Mothers.
***Trigger warnings for mentions of vomit and past horrors within the cult.***

Josh could barely breathe as he followed Pete into the rundown house he'd spent so much time in as a kid. Tears gathered in his eyes as he watched the people inside of it in stunned silence. The majority of them were people he'd loved his entire life, only two simply being acquaintances. It didn't matter who they were though. They were his family.

A girl with familiar blue eyes was stitching up a wound on a curly-headed boy's arm from where they sat close together on a torn and faded couch. Patrick sat on the floor in front of the couch despite the extra seating in the room. He was holding the wounded boy's free hand softly, talking calmly to him to distract him from the carnage of his forearm. The other couch in the room was occupied by a sleeping boy that Josh knew very well. None of them seemed to realize he was there, however, until a red-headed girl came down the stairs with a familiar bottle of healing salve in her hand.

The kids all flinched and looked over in fear when it slipped from her fingers and crashed against the wooden floor. Before any of them could say anything, she was running to Josh and wrapping her arms around his neck. He hugged her back instantly, burying his face against her shoulder.

"Joshua," Debby whispered breathlessly, her voice breaking almost instantly. "You're alive."

He nodded, unable to speak. The other kids were staring at him in awe. Patrick smiled as he stood up and went straight to Pete.

"And you brought a baby," he said quietly as he observed the cooing baby in his husband's arms.

"He's Joshua's," Pete informed his husband with a smile.

JJ reached out for Patrick instantly, babbling cheerfully at him. Patrick chuckled as Pete transferred the infant carefully into his arms before pushing his strawberry blond hair back and kissing his forehead protectively.

The boy who was getting stitches smiled slightly at Josh despite how shocked he still was. "You had a baby?"

Josh nodded again, his face still buried against Debby's shoulder. The boy's smile was sad, and then Josh remembered. He knew who this kid was. He'd known him since they were kids, even if they weren't close. He was Jordan's best friend growing up. They'd thought they were twins because they both had a head of unruly dark curls that their mothers could never tame. Josh had known this boy. He'd known them all.

Debby allowed Josh to detangle himself from her despite how hard they were both shaking. They were all shaking though. This didn't feel real. After living in the same isolated community for sixteen years, they'd all been separated for over a year. Josh felt like there was some sort of invisible barrier blocking him off from fully reaching them. He'd lived outside the fence. He was tainted. They were all still pure.

Ashley and Brendon may as well have not even come inside with how unaware of them Josh suddenly was. His family was here. They were hurting. They'd been alone. They'd been scared. So many of them weren't here anymore. These people were his family, and they understood. They'd seen the same horrors he had, and here they were. He wasn't alone anymore.

The girl with blue eyes scrambled out of Josh's way when he sat down shakily on the couch, picking up the needle she'd abandoned and taking up her post of sewing the wound shut.

"Taylor, where's your baby?" Josh asked quietly of the boy in front of him.

Tears instantly filled the other boy's dark eyes. Josh knew him. Of course he did. Taylor York had been given his wife a year before Ashley had been taken. They had a little girl named Poppy. Taylor used to talk about her all the time. Jordan had been so angry with their father for not letting him get married at the same time Taylor did. He'd been so happy when he'd met Poppy. Where was Poppy?

"I froze," Taylor whispered weakly to Josh, and suddenly it wasn't just Ashley and Brendon who were gone from Josh's mind. Only he and Taylor were in that room. "I realized what was happening when the wine came out, but I froze. I watched my wife pour that wine down our baby's throat, and I was too scared to stop her. I didn't save her, and I didn't save my wife. I didn't save anyone. I just...."

Taylor stared blankly at the stitches Josh was tying off with trembling hands. Josh knew the feeling. He had run that night too, leaving everyone else to die. He carried that weight every day.

"But you saved yourself," Patrick said softly, breaking Josh free from his tunnel vision. "You saved yourself, and you made Colin throw up what little he'd swallowed. You saved Colin."

The boy who had been sleeping on the couch, Colin Rigsby, was listening now. He nodded, smiling sadly when Taylor looked at him.

"You saved me," he whispered to Taylor from across the room. "That's one."

Taylor looked over at JJ, who was still babbling happily in Patrick's arms. He closed his eyes, sitting forward and burying his face against Josh's chest. Josh hugged him tight.

"I knew my dad was full of shit, Taylor. I knew he was going to kill everyone so he wouldn't get caught, but I was so focused on getting out of there that I didn't save anyone either. It's not your fault. We may have dark blood, but we weren't built for shit like that," Josh admitted.

"You saved me and Patrick," Pete pointed out to Josh. "You saved my baby."

Brendon looked around the room as if he was expecting another baby to toddle out of some dark corner, but he seemed to understand when Pete wrapped his arms around Patrick's waist.

"Pete saved me," Debby said quietly. "He didn't let me drink. You saved him, so you saved me by extension."

The blue eyes girl who'd been stitching Taylor up nodded. "Yeah, and Colin made me throw up too, so you saved me by extension too."

It took Josh a second to place her. He knew he'd seen her around, but he couldn't recall a name. She must have been married into The Family. He would have known her name off the top of his head otherwise.

Surprisingly, it was Ashley who jogged his memory. "Are you okay now, Sarah? Throwing up poison like that can make things worse. Did it...?" She trailed off fearfully.

Before Josh could even think to ask how Ashley knew a girl he didn't know, Debby and Sarah were tripping over themselves to get to her as if they were just now noticing she was in the room. They hugged her tightly, and all three girls started fussing over each other. Brendon seemed absolutely stunned by this turn of events, remaining frozen in the doorway beside Pete.

"It did its damage," Colin whispered distantly, reminding Josh of his niece.

Josh held a hand out to Colin, who smiled slightly from where he was spread out on the couch before standing up and walking tiredly over to Josh before sinking into his lap and hugging him tightly. Josh held Taylor's hand too, feeling like he'd fall apart if he lost contact with any of them now.

It made Josh laugh when Colin curled into him like a cat. This was always his favourite thing about Colin. Colin had never once seen him as being the prophet's son. He would argue with Josh and get too close and do all the things friends were supposed to do. Even Pete didn't feel comfortable seeing Josh as an equal until Colin had started being this way. It made Josh feel safer, even now.

"Why are you whispering?" Josh asked Colin curiously.

He felt Colin sigh against his collar bone as he saw Ashley be practically pulled to the ground by the other two girls as they excitedly asked her about JJ and Josh and Tyler, holding her hands and combing through her hair with their fingers lovingly as they did so. When had Ashley become so close with these girls?

"The cyanide wrecked my throat. I didn't drink enough to kill me, but I drank enough and puked up enough to burn the shit out of my throat. I haven't been able to talk normally or sing since. It's shit," Colin told Josh in the same uneven whisper.

Josh sighed and hugged Colin tighter. "I'm sorry," he told him sincerely.

"It wasn't your fault," Colin replied simply.

Taylor stiffened beside Josh suddenly. Josh looked up at him before following his fearful gaze to find Brendon, who was still frozen. It took Josh a second to understand Taylor's fear before he realized that Taylor wasn't used to being around outsiders. He thought he'd revealed too much. He thought he'd betrayed The Family.

"That's Brendon," Josh explained carefully, making all of the kids around him look over at the intruder. Brendon was watching Josh fearfully. Josh hesitated before adding, "He's a friend of mine. You don't have to be afraid of him."

The corner of Brendon's lip twitched up toward a smile, but it fell when he felt all of their eyes burning through his flesh and into his pale blood. He stumbled backwards instinctually, only for Pete to reach out and grip his shoulder to keep him from falling off of the rickety porch. Brendon flinched at the touch, making the kids with dark blood smirk.

"He's jumpy," Taylor commented amusedly.

"And colourful," Debby added offhandedly as she eyed his navy blue coat and dark purple shirt underneath.

"And cute," Sarah decided, making the colour drain from Brendon's face.

Taylor snorted. "You'll have to forgive her. Her last husband died of old age when she was fourteen," he told Brendon through a smirk.

Brendon swallowed hard, looking desperately at Ashley for help. She just grinned and rested her head on Sarah's shoulder before looking to Josh.

"Honey, Tyler's game is in an hour. If you need me to text him and tell him you can't come, I will," she told Josh gently, making sure he knew he had the option of staying here if he wanted to. She'd understand. Tyler would understand. He had a choice.

Josh shook his head. "I promised I'd help him. He needs me to protect him."

"From who?" Pete demanded protectively. "Who's trying to hurt Tyler?"

Josh smiled slightly. "No ones trying to hurt him. He's just-Okay. Fuck. Have you guys heard of basketball yet?"

They all shook their heads, making Brendon's eyes widen in disbelief. Patrick and Sarah smiled at each other knowingly before Patrick spoke up.

"I remember basketball. It's a sport. Does Tyler have a basketball game?" He asked Josh as kindly as ever, still cradling JJ in his arms. The baby was sound asleep now, snuggled against Patrick's chest.

"Yeah. It's against some Christian school that always gives him shit for his scars. They always tell him they're gonna 'pray for him,'" Josh explained irritably.

The Family roared with disapproval, but Pete's voice cut through the noise. "Fuck them. How can we help?"

Josh smiled slightly before looking to the girls. "Do you remember how to draw Devil's Eyes?"

Both of the girls sitting with his wife grinned, but it was Debby who answered. "I'm insulted you even have to ask, Joshua."

Josh grinned. "You think you can teach all of us then?"

"But boys don't-" Sarah began hesitantly.

Pete interrupted her. "Joshua's the prophet now. If he says it's okay, it's okay."

The words made Josh's breath catch in his throat. He was the prophet. They'd been waiting for him to come back and lead them. What would happen when he told them he no longer believed in what his father had? They'd understand, right? Surely they didn't believe either. Right?

Josh glanced at his wife, who gave him the tentative smile he needed for strength. He sighed.

"Look, guys. Things are going to be really different now. We aren't going to be...." He trailed off anxiously before taking a deep breath and continuing. "No more rape. No more sanctuary. No more hurting people. No more of anything harmful, okay? We're safe now. All of that shit died with my dad."

Heavy silence fell over the room, and Josh could tell from one glance at Pete that this wasn't something the older boy was ready to sign off on. Big changes were scary. Their cult had been living by the same rules for decades. Even if Pete would support whatever Josh said no matter what, he didn't agree.

"Where are we supposed to bleed then?"
Sarah asked nervously, squeezing Ashley's hand tighter.

Josh hesitated, knowing what he wanted to say but fearing Pete's response. He had to say it though. It felt right. "Ashley will teach you how girls outside of the fence handle bleeding. My sister can help too. The sanctuary is gone now though, and I don't know enough about your bleeding to tell you how to handle it. My wife can handle that." He looked to Ashley for approval, feeling relieved when she smiled at him before looking back to the girls.

"You're going to love pads and tampons and Midol," she told the girls with a wide smile.

They both smiled at her trustingly, and then it clicked in Josh's head. Ashley knew them from the sanctuary. She'd been locked up with them as she suffered every time she bled for several months. Of course they knew each other.

A darker thought trickled into his brain. Had they been there that day in the sanctuary? Had they seen what Titus had forced him to do? Had they looked the other way or accepted it because it had already happened to them? Only the memory of the sanctuary igniting into flames soothed his mind.

"Joshua-" Pete began in a warning tone, but Josh cut him off.

"Neither you nor your spouse bleed like they do. This doesn't concern you," he told Pete sharply, tense from the memory of Ashley sitting in a puddle of her own blood with only loose hay on the floor to absorb any of it.

Pete opened his mouth to argue, but Patrick took his hand softly and shook his head. "He's right, Pete. It's okay. You have to trust him. He knows what he's doing."

Pete's jaw clenched, but he remained silent for a moment. "Are we going to go help Tyler then or what?"

Josh waited for Colin to leave his lap to stand up, feeling angry at Pete for the first time in a long time. "Is it just the bleeding you have a problem with, or is there more?"

Pete didn't respond, glaring at Josh in silence.

Anger rose in Josh then. "If you had the chance to marry Patrick without hurting him, would you take it?" He demanded.

Pete glared at him. "Don't you fucking dare-"

"Answer me," Josh snapped.

Ashley detangled herself from the girls carefully before standing, wrapping her arms gently around Josh's waist and resting her forehead against the space between his shoulder blades in an attempt to calm him, but he was shaking.

"I'd do what Satan asked of me, Joshua. Does that not matter anymore?" Pete asked coldly.

"Not as much as the people I love do. I'll protect them before I ever protect the god that killed our families and made us suffer," Josh shot back. "Anyone who wants to be in the ground is allowed to follow their families down, but we're still living here. We exist for a reason. It's not to live in fear until we die. There's so much more."

Pete looked like he was about to snap, but Taylor spoke first, his thumb rubbing gently against the fresh stitches in him arm. "What about bloodletting?" He asked hesitantly. "Do we still have to do that?"

This time, Josh didn't hesitate. "No. Nothing you do is bad enough for you to deserve to bleed for it. That's done with too."

"Joshua-" Pete began in a warning tone, but Debby interrupted him.

"Shut up, Pete. You said it yourself. Joshua is the prophet now. He knows what's best for us. If he doesn't want us in pain, he's right. Stop being a little bitch about it and put your energy into helping Tyler or accept that The Family is moving on without you," she snapped at Pete, making Josh feel oddly calmer, especially when the rest of the kids murmured in agreement.

Patrick handed JJ back to Josh carefully before turning to look at his husband. "Trust him, Pete. You have to trust him."

Pete swallowed hard before nodding. "Fine."

Patrick smiled at him sweetly. "It's all going to be okay. I promise."

Pete nodded again, but the wall he'd built up between Josh and himself was still heavily guarded. For the first time in their lives, they weren't on the same side. They were separate, and Pete wasn't the one everyone else was going to side with. Maybe things would get better now, but they could never go back to the way they were before, and that terrified Josh.