The walls surrounding the boys were lined with bookshelves that held all kinds of works. Whether thick or thin, tall or short, antique or modern, the books stood unified side to side on shelves that extended from floor to ceiling, masking the lights and dimming the room altogether.

Evaughn awed at the home library. His basement was nothing like this. "Should we be down here?"

Luka pushed the wooden doors closed. "Yeah, I come here all the time to read and study." He led the way to a far corner where two computers sat. "We'll use these to research."

Each boy took a computer and sat in its respective seat. When the screens lit up, Luka mentioned, "I've already searched up every one in Dimitri's family. Nothing comes up except their social media accounts which they barely post on. So, we'll have to think of something else."

"Leroux, huh." Evaughn mumbled. "Isn't that French?"

Luka let his head fall over the headrest. "Yeah."

"What does it mean?"

"It means red."

Evaughn raised an eyebrow. He had taken some French classes before. "Wasn't there another word for that? It's... rouge, right?"

As if he had a sudden revelation, Luka slowly sat up. "You're right. Do you think there's a connection?"

"I don't know," the long haired boy shook his head. "They might be related if they mean the same thing. See if anything shows up for 'LeRouge'."

The search results loaded, providing similar recurring headlines to which the boys gawked at. "No way..."

They spoke of the fact that it was made illegal to have the surname LeRouge in France after devastating receipts were found of countless deaths by members of the family.

Luka used the mouse to click on the article for more information. What appeared was none other than:

404: Error

For every single news article on the LeRouge, they received the same message. "They're all like that." Luka groaned. "And just when we had a lead."

"They must've done really messed up things for their name to get banned." Evaughn reckoned. Suddenly, his eyes widened as if a light bulb appeared over his head. "So messed up that it's only on the dark web."

"You're a genius!" The boy with green eyes beamed. "Evaughn, I could kiss you right now."

"...Too far."

Luka laughed. "But how do we get on the dark web?"

Evaughn cracked his fingers, smirking. "Watch and learn."

As he went through the series of steps required to access the illegal search engine, Luka leaned over to watch with amazement. "How do you know about this, anyway?"

"I was just curious one day." He shifted and clicked on the mouse for the final time. "It's not hard."

A short while after, the screen was significantly darker than before, giving off an ominous vibe to the already dim basement they were in. Evaughn typed in the banned name into the search bar. They read the first heading that showed up.

"Why the LeRouge family was executed by the government..."

After exchanging a look with Luka, Evaughn skimmed through the lengthy article on the infamous family, and they read out anything that stood out.

"They were a family of twenty..." Luka read the phrase slowly.

"Does Dimitri have a big family?"

"Seven sisters." He answered, then quickly added. "But that's not big compared to twenty, so let's keep reading."

"If you say so," Evaughn said. "For three generations, the LeRouge were skilled assassins trained at young ages to carry out orders on... child trafficking, contracted murder, and... sexual assault."

Swallowing his saliva, Evaughn scrolled further until he arrived at a line of pictures that elicited gasps from the two. Four eyes grew wide at the gory sights. Their respective faces contorted with each shot taken —possibly by a member of the family— of innocent victims dismantled, being sexually exploited, or dead with bullet wounds in their bodies.

Each picture was worse than the last.

And the pictures were many.

Luka's heartbeat sped up. He looked at his friend, whose hand was pressed against his mouth, and then shook his head. "This doesn't... this doesn't mean anything. We don't know if they have anything to do with the Leroux."

Evaughn slowly lowered his hand, his eyelids still glued apart. "L-Look..."

"What are you...?"

Luka's jaw fell. The photo on the screen was every bit of evidence they needed to make the connection. It captured a brick wall covered with graffiti. Bolded and capitalized, 'LEROUGE' was scribbled on in black ink. However, the final two letters were covered with an 'X' made of liquid that dripped red. If rewritten, the new word was 'LEROUX.'

The last portion of the graffiti was the same symbol displayed in Dimitri's house, and tattooed on the triplets' necks.

Luka was frozen, but his mind was in motion, busy replaying a scene from his childhood that he understood clearly now.

The memory took place at Dimitri's previous house.

***

-10 Years Ago-

Luka sat on his cousin's bed, his little legs swinging since they couldn't reach the floor.

Dimitri stood before a small mirror in his room, dabbing a saline-saturated cotton ball over the fresh piercing in his ear. He winced when he pressed onto a sensitive part of his earlobe.

The look of pain made Luka wince as well. "Does it hurt?"

His cousin shook his head. "It only hurt when I got it pierced. Now it just stings sometimes."

Hopping onto the floor, Luka neared his cousin and squinted at the tiny earring. An intricate pattern circled around the more simplistic design in the center that featured two lines diagonally crossed.

"Is that an X?"

He nodded. "It's the last letter of my last name."

"Leroux... Man, that sounds so cool."

Dimitri finished his ear care routine and smiled at the comment. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Luka hopped back on the bed, taking a video game controller along. "Want to play Battlezone with me?"

Rather than the usual excitement he received when he asked the question, Dimitri's face dropped. Luka tipped his chin and smirked. "Don't tell me you're scared I'll beat you again."

Quiet, the boy's gaze pointed at the floor.

"Dimi, we can team up this time. I don't mind." Lips curling upwards, he held out the second controller.

Dimitri looked at the green in Luka eyes. "Okay."

In minutes, the controllers were in each boy's hands. However, the fast-paced video game on the screen displayed that they were losing.

Young Luka glanced sideways before returning his attention to the screen. His partner was barely moving his fingers.

"Why'd you stop?" Luka's eyes were glued to the TV when he asked.

"I don't want to play this game anymore."

"Huh? I can't hear you." He spoke loudly over the sounds of the game. It was in first-person, and each second, he was firing bullets at the enemy monsters, triggering loud gunshots.

Luka groaned when he saw that their levels were low. "Dimi, you gotta cover me."

Sighing, he flicked his eyes over, and gasped. Dimitri looked paralyzed, his eyes staring at his hands. "I don't want to play anymore."

When he noticed the tear on his cousin's cheek, Luka wasted no time in turning off the TV. He scooted closer on the bed towards him. "What's wrong, Dimi?"

He sniffled. "L-Luka, I don't think I'm a good person anymore."

"What? Why?"

He breathed hard before whispering the next sentence. "I killed someone yesterday."

Luka became wide-eyed. But then, he sighed relieved. "It's okay, Dimi. The game's not real. We're not actually killing the monsters. They're fake."

"I-I..." Dimitri's hands began to shake abnormally. The two pairs of eyes watched the tremors occur with scared expressions.

"I can't stop it," he cried. "I'm not doing it by myself."

"I-I don't know what to do." Luka was also tearing up at his own incompetence. "What do I do?"

"Make it stop, Luka," he sobbed harder, his nose getting runny. "Help me."

Luka did the only thing that came to mind. He set aside the controller and held down Dimitri's trembling hands with his own to stop the movement. Little by little, it calmed down.

They sat quietly for a while, with Luka's arm draped around Dimitri's shoulder. The latter wiped his tears. "B-By the way... I didn't really kill anyone." He said. "You were right. I was just thinking about the game."

Luka hugged him. "I know, Dimi. You would never do anything like that."

***

In the dimness of the basement, Luka was stiff.

He was so lost inside his memories that he didn't hear Evaughn call his name. He was brought back at a nudge on his shoulder.

"You knocked out for a while, so I shut off the computer. Are you okay?"

Luka snapped back to reality. It all made sense to him now. That day, Dimitri wasn't lying when he told him what he had done. He was telling the truth.

Dimitri really did kill someone.

What else has he done since then?

"No. Not really."

"Well, I get it. Even I'm surprised that it's this bad, and that means a lot coming from me." Evaughn curled his lips inwards. "What are you going to do?"

"I think I'll just talk to him."

"You really think that'll work? I mean, this is Dimitri."

"I just...," he exhaled. "I know him. He's like a brother to me. There's no way he actually wants to be involved with his family, or whatever."

"You seem... confident about that," Evaughn noted.

"He'll get it. Trust me," he nodded. "And, also... last one upstairs is a loser." With no further warning, Luka then dashed for the exit.

"Wha—?" Evaughn huffed, running behind. Aware he'd lose, he yelled, "First one up owes me a new bike!"

Luka couldn't help but laugh.

He laughed so hard that he almost forgot about what he had just learned about Dimitri, but somehow it just didn't matter.