Three weeks later.

Sam sat alone at a desk he didn't own in an antique store he didn't remember entering. Sweet classical music played throughout the building. He felt his fingers tap on the desk causing the only other noise present. The only other thing on the desk that wasn't Sam's hands was a decapitated head. Just the head, no remnants of the body was visible in any area around Sam. Though, a keen eye would notice the dripping of blood that leaked from the bottom of an antique dresser that sat unmoved for years, in the middle of the store. One could only assume the gruesome sight that would be seen if said dresser was opened. One could also assume, from the evidence presented, who created said gruesome sight. The trouble started when Sam looked down at the head and realized he didn't recognize the face, nor new how such a disgraceful visual appeared in his vicinity. He studied the head, taking in every detail of its presents. It appeared to be one of an old woman. Grey hair, now soaked with blood near where the separation had occurred. The imprint of the rims of glasses were present on both, the bridge of the nose and the sides of the face, just above the ears. The glasses were no longer present on the face, but after some further investigation, Sam located the missing opticals, carfully placed on the colar of his shirt. The left lens, cracked and falling from the rim. Sam could guess that one more knock of its body would send its left lens cureaning to its death upon the floor where it would very likely meet its end, just like the person who was now in desperate need of the head that had been gently placed in front of Sam.

Sam then turned his observation to his hands. If he really was at fault for the violent crime in which it looked like he was at fault for, surely there would be blood graced on the rough pale skin of his palms. Yet a quick survey of said palms showed the opposite. He was clean of this crime. At least it appeared so, but that did not explain the glasses that somehow found there way to his shirt colar.

As he reached for them and his hand made contact with the implaments, the left lens jolted just slightly from there home, sending them careening to the floor, just as Sam hed suspected. The lens shattered into an aray of tiny and sharp peices as they shot all accross the hardwood floor.

Suddenly, the classical music stopped, with the scratching of a record. Silence filled the room Sam resided him, leaving only the residual sound of ringing in his ears that made Sam extremely unconfortable.

He felt unsafe, and rightly so, as he was not alone at this moment. The sound of footsetps making there way in his direction sent chills down Sam's spine, but Sam found that he could not move at that moment. His body was tied to the chair. A detail that he had previously overlooked in his moment of panic in seeing the head sitting on the surface in front of him.

Suddenly the stepping sound was accompanied by a voice that Sam knew very well, but seemed completely unlikely to be heard at this moment. "Hi Sam." It spoke as it made it's way to Sam, not at any speed, mind you. It's steps took there time and made every second feel like a year of life ticking away.

"L-Lilly..? What's happening? Why am I tied up in here?"

The foot steps stopped, and Sam heard nothing again, then suddenly they continued, but they were walking back where they came. Then after several seconds, they stopped again. Sam heard a shard clack and then after a moment, the sound of a record starting up, but this time the record wasn't playing sweet classical music. This time the record was playing what sounded like screeching and then faintly in the background of the screeching was the quiet sound of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The sound of the trumpet starting the peice rose with such vigore that it seemed to raise the tension that filled the room. The screeching scared Sam more than he could explain. It sounded unnaturaly and truely disturbing, like the curuption of a beautiful thing. It didn't feel right.

"You know," Lilly's voice spoke again over the curropted noise, like a construction worker talking over the noise of a building sight. "Me and Lilly listened to this album throughout our childhood. It was her favorite thing to listen too. She said she liked the disconfort it filled people with. How it was disturbing yet still beautiful. Rhapsody was always her favorite song back then. Could you guess why?" Her voice lowered in volume as she made her way to Sam.

Sam felt more confused than normal, but he decided that it was Lilly and he could trust her, so he'd go along with it. "I assume because it's a pretty song."

Finally Lilly's face came into sight as she made her way around a shelf full of old nic nacs from arounf the world. "Well, of course that's true, but no, that was never her main focus." She walked up to Sam and rested her hand on the head of the old lady. "It was actually the complexity of it. She loved it because it made her feel more complex than she actually was. You see, Lilly only feels one thing. Need. She needs things and that's about it. She does what she needs too, kills when she needs too, kills what she needs too, kills who... she needs too."

"Ok, Lilly... I don't understand what you're saying." Sam felt the need to back up, but was unable to do so.

"I'm not Lilly, Sam. I mean, I'm in her body. But no, I'm not her." Lilly smirked.

"What do you mean?" Sam crossed his eyebrows.

"My name is Benny Gradshaw. I don't exsist." He held out his hand to shake Sam's. "It's nice to finally meet you, Sam. I've heard a lot about you."

"What the hell... what?" Sam looked around to find some sort of escape. "Is this some thing Alonzo did? Did he brainwash you Lilly? Are you gonna kill me now?"

Benny laughed and continued. "No Sam. Alonzo has nothing to do with this. I just thought you should about this part of your girlfriend before things got more serious. So I set up something that would be more calming."

Sam's jaw dropped. "Holy shit. If you seriously thought this was gonna calm me, you're sorly mistaken."

"What do you mean?" Benny looked around. "You've got violence, classical music, a sweet little antique shop. Thoes are things pshycopaths like." Benny smiled. "Lilly would love this little place!"

"Well, I hate it." Sam stated bluntly. "This place is absolutly terrifying. Especially with this horrifying record you chose to play."

"Like I said, this is Lilly's favorite. She took it before she burned her house down."

"Lilly, are you screwing with my head or something, this really isn't funny." Sam felt a wetness to build in his eyes, but he refused to let it form tears because he felt a need to look strong in front of his odd girlfriend.

"It's no joke, Sam. I promise. This is real." He pulled up an old kitchen chair and sat down at the desk next to Sam. "Here, I'll explain how it happened and maybe that will help."

"I guess it's worth a shot." Sam shrugged. "Can you untie me first?"

"No, anyway." Benny cleared his throat. "Benny did exsist at one point. But he wasn't me."

---

"When Lilly was a little girl, she lived in an apartment in the bottoms of columbus with her mother, Donna Edwards and her big brother Joseph Edwards. Her father had been shot before she was born, so it was just Donna, Joseph and Lilly in there little 1000 square foot apartment. Well, down the hallway, and born around the same time as Lilly, Was a little boy named Benny Gradshaw. One day Benny and Lilly were both in the hallway between their apartments at the same time. This wasn't a planned event, but it happened non the less. You see, Lilly had found a dead rat in the hallway and decided that she was going to keep it, and Benny had saw her standing out in the hallway, blankingly stairing at something on the floor and decided to get involved and do something about it. So he walked up to her and made sure she knew that people weren't supposed to be loydering in the hallway, but Lilly stopped him mid sentence and pointed down at the rat.

Benny knew what to do at that moment and told Lilly that she knew how to take care of animals. Especially small ones. Benny informed her that he had had a spider since last week and he hadn't even escaped his jar yet. So Lilly, obviously knowing that she was in the right hands, took Benny up on his offer.

Here's the thing about dead rodents though. They carry diseases. Lilly wasn't aware of this at the time.

It was about this time that Joseph killed himself in front of Lilly. She was four when it happened and wasn't exactly sure how to handle death like that. And Donna was not the right person to try to teach her. Donna acted like she had never had a son. She never talked about it and kept the whole thing quiet. Lilly stopped talking after that and she pretty much never left her room... except to visit Benny and the rat.

But one day, Benny got really sick. So sick in fact, that he could no longer leave his room. His parents had no idea what was wrong with him. They didn't even know about the dead rat in the box in his closet. And they didn't have the health insurace to figure it out.

But Benny couldn't breath very well on his own anymore. And he coughed all the time.

One day Lilly knocked on his apartment door, but no one answered.

After that, Lilly heard a lot of screaming behind the door whenever she came by, and she wouldn't knock.

Then finally she came out and Benny's mom was already outside of the apartment, smoking a cigarette. Lilly walked up to her with a smile, but then Benny's mom started screaming at her. She told her to go away and that Benny didn't want to play today. That he never wanted to play again. That he hated Lilly and he never wanted to see her again.

That was the last time she saw the Gradshaw family. They were never in their apartment again.

And then I started showing up. I guess she needed Benny around still, even though he wasn't there anymore, she needed him. So she made me. Her best friend. Her only friend.

She just acted like everything was fine and that nothing bad was happening. She came up with my own backstory. Aparently my parents were gonna get divorced but stayed together so that I wouldn't be hurt. That way she wasn't the only one with problems. And then she decided that she just didn't want to feel her pain anymore and she shut it all off. She became a blank slate. And I was the only human peice of her left. The only thing that could fix the things she broke. I became her other half. The yin to her yang.

She still thinks I'm alive. That I'm the same Benny as the kid she met in that hallway with the dead rat... But he died. I'm simply a coping mechanism."

---

"So you're, like, her alternate personality. Like she has multiple personality disorder." Sam was still confused.

"I don't know. Maybe. I don't think she would ever want to know if that was true or not." Benny sighed and paused. "You should never tell her any of this though. It was break her more than she already is... I mean, to find out you've always been alone. To find out that no one has ever truely loved you, that in your lonliest moments, the only person there for you... was you..." A tear streamed down Benny's face. Benny quickly wiped it away and turned back to Sam. "She can never know, ok? I just thought I should tell you so you were aware."

Sam looked down and shook his head. "That's horrible..."

"It is. I mean, monsters don't just happen. Something has to create them." Benny nodded his head. "And pain is probably the thing that does the most ground work."

"I promise you, Benny." Sam looked back up. "She will never be alone again. I will always be there, no matter what. She means more than life to me. I'd walk through Hell for her, man. I'm serious."

"I know. I think she would do the same. But I don't know for sure." He shrugged.

"I don't care." Sam smiled. "I'll love her enough for both of us."

"I'm glad someone does." Benny smiled back. "Because no one ever has before."

---

A few minutes passed and Marvin finally saw Lilly and Sam exit the old antique store, hand in hand. He unlocked the car to let them both in and sat up to get the ride started. As soon as the car door opened, Marvin started talking. "Heyo kiddos, you all done having sex in there?"

Sam looked over at Lilly, puzzled. But she just shrugged, she didn't know what Marvin was talking about either.

"Or whatever you were doing. Come on, get in. We're moments from Las Vegas."

Sam hopped into the car excitedly and Lilly followed suit.

"Man, last night was crazy! I haven't seen anybody party like that since '89." he continued. "I mean, purposefully drinking the drinks I roofied, like holy shit! You two are bad ass!"

So yeah, Marvin had roofied his two companions for one reason or the other, and Sam and Lilly had been out of it ever since. The pieces of the night before started to come together in Sam's mind and he wasn't too happy about it. But for now, he wouldn't hurt Marvin. Although he was slowly making his way on Sam's shit list.

---

"I don't want to live alone anymore..." Betty said as she held her phone to her ear and rocked back and forth on the floor of her hotel room while looking at the horror of a mess that Alonzo had left. He had been continuing his patern and of psychological horror, each time becoming a little more disturbing than the last. After the lips, it was Angellas ear with her earring still in her lobe, then her foot with the matching toe ring that Betty also had. Every time it came with a note. Each threatening and disgusting. But this time, he had finally out done himself. All over Betty's room was hair. Angella's hear stuck to furniture, walls counters, tables... everything. And it was stuck down with dry blood that Betty couold only assume came from her beloved sister. And stuck to the mirror... Angella's lipless face... slowly being pulled by gravity down the mirror and leaving a trail of red liquid in its place. The hole of a outh had been stitched to look like a frown and the eyes, that were still in there place, had sewing needles penitraiting them, four in each eye. And the most disturbing part? The bite mark in the side of the face leaving an outline of Alonzo's teeth.

"I'm on my way, Betty. And I'm bringing the whole police force with me. This has gone too far... I'm so sorry that you had to see all of that." Trevor responded reassuringly.

It didn't make her feel any better. She just kept her eyes closed, but no matter how hard she closed them, she could still see her sisters disfigured face in her mind. "I'm gonna kill myself... I can't do this Trevor... I'm gonna kill myself."

"You're not going to do that, sweety. You know why? Cause I'm coming over there and I'm gonna hold you in my arms and never let you go. I will never let Alonzo hurt you again. I swear." Trevor felt panic build in his stumache.

"No no no no no... MY SISTER IS SPLATTERED ALL OVER THE PLACE!" Her body began to shake. "I saw her face... She's sad. She's so sad. She's got needles in her eyes and she's sad."

"No, your sister is at peace. She's not feeling any of this. I promise you that. She is feeling none of this." Trevor pressed hard on the gas. He had to get there. He needed to be with her. "I'm almost there, sweety. I'm almost there."

"I'm all alone... I've lost everyone! I'm alone. I'm alone" Tears poured down her face.

"You are not alone. I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm five minutes away and I'm gonna be there before you know it." Trevor could see the hotel. But the traffic would not let up. His fingers tapped rappidly on the steering wheel.

"Don't leave me, Trevor... Don't leave, please. Don't-"

Then everything went silent. Trevor listened intently, but he couldn't here anything. "Betty?"

Silence.

"Betty, are you still there?"

Silence.

Then... he heard was screaming. "BETTY!" Then more screaming and the sound of the phone being dropped. He was almost in the parking lot. "BETTY! WHAT'S GOING ON!" Then the screaming got further away from the phone. Then the sound of a door closing. He was in the turning lane.

"Hello." Spoke a voice that Trevor had only heard once before, but he knew it better than his own. "Betty can't take your call right now. She's a little," He paused. "Held up at the moment. Thank you for your time. Goodbye." Then a beep.

And Trevor was in the parking lot, but he knew it was too late. He was out of his car and running up the hotel stairs in meer moments. He was at her room faster than he thought possible. He pulled out his gun and slammed his body through the door. "POLICE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"

The room looked just like Betty had discribed. But no one was there. Then Trevor saw something that scared him more than anything. A fingernail that had been ripped from its place, stuff in the tiled floor of the bathroom and a smashed, pink cellphone.

Trevor ran through the entire hotel. But he found nothing. He was too late. Somehow... Somehow Alonzo had made Betty disapear.

---

"Trevor Martinez?" A 38 year old man with sunglasses and a full beird walked up to Trevor in the lobby of the hotel. He had a pair of sunglasses stashed in his shirt pocket, along with a tie and dress pants to complete the set. He sat down next to the physically and emotionally exsauhsted officer and put his hand on his back.

"What..." Trevor responded without looking up from the floor. Tears pooled under his lowered head on the marble floor.

"My name is Allon Fando. I'm a detective from the state of Ohio. Is it ok if I ask you a few questions about Mrs. Bowler." Allon pilled a note pad and a pen from his pants pocket and readied them.

"It's Miss... She's not married." Trevor snipped.

"You are correct, my apologies." Allon crossed out something and wrote something else.

Trevor looked up. "Why are you even taking notes..? Isn't obviouse what happened?"

"What's obviouse?" Allon turned his head to Trevor.

"She was taken by Alonzo! He had a personal vendetta against her and finished the job! Case closed!" Trevor stood up. "There's nothing more we can do... It's over."

"I don't know if that's true yet, son. She could still be alive." Allon followed the distraught officer.

"Impossible, he kills everyone. No one gets special treatment."

"How do you know that?" Allon pressed.

"Haven't you seen the video? He's a psycho." Trevor shook his head. "And I was too late." And with that, he walked away.

Allon adjusted his tie and put his notepad back in his pocket. He hoped what Trevor had said wasn't true. If it was, he had already lost Sam. And that couldn't happen. He needed to see the video.

---

Betty woke up in a black room. She couldn't feel much, but she could feel gravity pulling the top half of her body down from where she was hanging. She could feel the dirty gag that took up all of the space in her mouth, and worst of all, she could feel the cold metal of a pole against her ankles. She knew exactly where she was.

Then the lights came up and she saw the room that had been haunting her dreams... but this time, she was actually in it. She saw the giant camera with a black figure wearing a white mask controlling it. And then she saw...

"Hello ladies and gentilmen, It is I! Alonzo the Great! Welcome to the Circus!"

She was going to die.