When Angelica woke up there were shadows painting the kitchen and an eerie silence around her that made her feel heavy. Or that might have been the head injury.

Her head, itself, was pounding, but the pain seemed to be radiating down to the rest of her.

Her mouth was dry, she felt both cold and warm at the same time. It took all of her strength to push herself up into a sitting position and when she did there came this sudden trill right in her ear.

Right, so the pinch in her shoulder was Babs.

That trill was followed by a gurgle and when she focused she found Chad in front of her in the shadows of the kitchen table. He reached out a tentacle to wrap around her wrist as he gurgled at her.

"She's awake!" Kevin cried his voice sounding small and far away. She'd guess that he was in the living room, but she was honestly a little panicked that the blow to her head and messed with her hearing in some sort of way. There was some latent ringing.

However, the second he made that announcement, she was surrounded and despite all the pain and the panic she immediately felt a bit better.

Kyle's presence blanketed over her, Kevin was leaning against her shoulder, and Chad's grip on her wrist never once faltered. There was that reassuring pressure on her shoulder, she could see Teddy standing beside Kyle, both of them peering down at her carefully, worry etched on all of their features. Even Kyle was managing to look worried and he barely had a face.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You got hit, miss'us," Teddy said to her.

Well no shit. She remembered that part.

We had a breach in security, the smart home speaker called from the hallway. Now that they had the speaker, Kyle didn't have to search the TV channels to cobble together sentences. Meant he sounded normal when he talked now.

It was great not having to wait for him to put his words together, but now, even without the pause, Angelica found she just couldn't comprehend what was happening. Firstly, why was he talking like that? She had to stop letting him watch spy movies. Secondly... someone broke into her house? Really?

She was living in the fucking house of death. Aptly named by its own fucking town because of all the damn death in and around the place. And someone just... broke in?

Why the hell did this shit keep happening to her?

"What does that mean?" Angelica asked, trying to sit up.

Her legs felt funny, heavy, damp even. She didn't know how to describe it, and when she turned down to look at them, she found them soaked with blood. The jeans she had been wearing were saturated with it.

She almost found herself gagging at the sight of it at the realization that the heavy, slick, coldness that was coating her was blood. Not even fresh blood.

"Ugh... oh my god... what... what..."

She wildly found herself looking around the kitchen to find the source of the bleeding. Unless... unless it was coming from her.

Except it wasn't.

Just by her feet was a body.

She didn't recognize who this man was, but it was clear he was dead. He was bent in one hell of an awkward position and it looked like his chest had been deflated. The horrified look on his face seemed frozen there, his lifeless eyes staring at her like it was her fault this happened.

And to be fair... it probably was.

"What the hell happened?!" The monsters all exchanged glances but none of them moved to explain. "Tell me what happened, right now, or so help me..."

"We got robbed!" Kevin screamed. Okay yeah, she knew people got in, but... did they actually take stuff? "Yeah! Three men, they broke through the door and started LOOTING!"

"They took Babs," came out of the smart speaker and Angelica put a hand to her shoulder.

"Is that Bryan?" she found herself asking. The little boogie hopped into her palm and she found that it was Bryan she was looking at. He stared up at her with those mournful beady black eyes, clearly distressed.

Yeah well she understood that feeling.

She stared at him for a second before putting him back on her shoulder.

"Someone help me up," she said putting her hands out. Obviously she meant Kyle, and he moved right away to grab a hold of her and tug her to her feet.

She got up and then wobbled, practically falling into Kyle to stay upright. She put a hand to the back of her pounding head and when her hand came back there was blood on her finger tips.

She brandished her red fingers to Kyle. "Is this my blood or his?" she asked, because she couldn't remember if there had been blood on her hands before she touched her head.

"Yours," Kyle said. "They hit you hard."

Ah.

Right.

So that was why that had gone down the way it had. She got knocked out, had gotten badly hurt by the look of things, and her monsters had gotten violent.

"Okay. So they took Babs," she said. "And... and... god my head hurts." Her eyes focused in on that dead body by her kitchen sink. "And we have one dead guy."

"Technically two," Kevin said.

"There's a second body in the house?" Angelica cried. "Really?"

"No. Chad ate him."

Angelica took some time to digest what she had just heard. Her under-monster had... eaten someone?

Chad had let go of her wrist when she had stood up, he had then grabbed her ankle as a substitute. He did not let go of her as she looked down at him, instead his yellow eyes looked up at her and he gurgled at her.

She waited for him to finish and then turned to Kevin who simply cleared his throat and said: "They had it coming."

Angelica put her head into her hands. "God, I... this is so fucked up!"

"What do you mean?" Kevin cried. "This is the way of the world!"

Angelica turned her stricken face to him. "What world? What world is this the way of?" Kevin opened his mouth to answer and she cut him off. "And don't say yours. Because you're monsters, and I'm not. Which means if someone is going to go to jail for killing two people in their own home it's gonna BE ME!"

The monsters all took that in and she glared at them.

"That means no more deliveries, or playing, or music. This house is gonna be empty again and all of you are going to be alone!"

"We could always hide the body," the smart speaker said and Angelica sighed heavily.

"It's true, miss'us," Teddy said. "If you put the body in the maze it'll never been seen again."

But she couldn't do that.

Cause she was hurt. Badly hurt. Which meant having to go to a hospital. They were going to ask questions and her head hurt too much to think of lies.

"You said there were three men?"

"Yes," Kevin said carefully.

"Where's the third? I'm guessing he got away with Babs?"

"Yes," he said again with a sigh.

"And... did he get her... or did he get the clock and she went with it."

"The second one," Kevin said.

So there was someone who witnessed what happened here. Yes he saw monsters, but he saw what happened. Which meant someone knew that these men had come here. Not only that, but he had taken one of her monsters home with him, and Babs was not nice when she was throwing a tantrum. She needed to get her back before she hurt someone.

But to do that she would have to report that the clock was stolen and if she filled out a police report for a burglary and they found the guy, well... he'd tell them everything that happened at the house.

No hiding a body then. Well, she could, she was sure the monsters could help her get rid of it, but it would be suspicious, and with everything else on her file she wasn't sure she could handle being any more suspicious then she already was.

"Ugh, we're gonna have to call the cops."

"Should we put the body in the maze?" Teddy asked and she shook her head.

"No, cause if they come here to investigate they might find it. Or evidence of them getting hurt here, it'll be harder to explain... just... it's fine, we'll figure it out. I just... someone get my phone, I need an ambulance and the cops and... I'll figure out a way to get Babs back... again... and... I think I'm going to throw up."

Kyle pressed her a little more closely to himself as he waved an arm around at the other monsters, no doubt directing them.

It was a bit of a blur for Angelica. Kevin getting her phone and putting it into her hands. Kyle putting her back down on the ground once the call had been made then opening the door so the paramedics wouldn't have to break the door down to get to her.

Shewasn't sure how she was going to explain all of this, she just needed thepounding in her head to stop.