When they had traveled with Marvin, they traveled slow. Taking every stop available. Spending weeks in diffenrent places. Enjoying the adventure. But now it was real. Now there was no stopping. No breathing. No enjoying life. Now, there was only running.

Within less than 48 hours, they were in the middle of texas. They had never been there, never even thought about it. But they were there. Sam had decided that the best way to get away from Alonzo was to leave the country. So he was going to Mexico. The farthest place away from Ohio that he could drive too. Lilly had taken care of the money situation for them. She gathered up a group of inecent people by knocking out random pedestraians with a rock while nobody was looking, then she tied them all up in an abandoned barn in the middle of the countryside and stole their wallets. Then she simply burned the barn down with everyone tied up inside. Sam had told her that that may have been more steps than necisary, but Lilly really needed the fix.

As for Sam, he didn't participate besides driving the victims from one place to another. He wasn't super sure about it. He wasn't against it, but he just wasn't ready to do something that extreme. He heard there screams though. Every single one of them. Those would never leave his brain. Ever.

Now he sat alone in Marvin's taxi with an orange soda in his hand, watching Lilly murder a motel manager with an axe. They needed a place to sleep and she wasn't willing to spend the money they desperatly needed for gas. So Sam watched her cut up an innocent man with an axe in the middle of a gravel parking lot. It wasn't like anyone would find out before tomorrow. The hotel thay had chosen was in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere where crack dealers did their buisness and prostitutes pleased their customers. So, even if someone saw it, they wouldn't say anything. The biggest rule of a criminal was to never squeel about another criminal. At least, Sam assumed that was a rule. He had only seen this kind of thing on television. He wished it would have stayed on television.

Sam opened his door and got out of the car. He walked into the main hotel lobby and went behind the desk for a key. He grabbed the first one he saw and walked back out. He felt the gravel crunch under his heavy black shoes, and tried to focus on that noise over the sound of the axe going through human bones. He unlocked room number 4 and opened the door. He went in and closed it behind him, without a word to Lilly. He wasn't really sure what he'd say to her anyways.

She didn't notice at first, but after a moment, she looked up from her play thing to see if Sam was still watching. She loved to share her art with him because he was always so happy to see her having fun. She felt like a kid showing a drawing to a parent whe she saw his face, but this time, when she looked up and didn't see him anywhere, that childish joy disapeasred quickly. She looked around, but Sam was nowhere to be seen. She crossed her eyebrows and examined the motel rooms, until she noticed the lights through the window of room number 4. She frowned, dropped her axe and walked over to the room. She knocked on the door.

After a moment of time passed, Sam opened the door and looked at her with a blank expression. "It wasn't locked." He said nonchalantly, then walked back over to the motel bed and laid down on it.

Lilly closed the door behind her as she entered the room. She cautiously walked over to Sam and stood by the side of the bed.

Sam looked up at her and scooted over for her to lay next to him.

She did and cuddled onto his shoulder. She didn't know what was wrong, but she desperatly wanted to fix it. She didn't like it when Sam was upset. She didn't really get upset herself because she was pretty cool with whatever, but Sam had an affect on her that no one else could. He made her feel.

Sam didn't recipricate the cuddle. He didn't really feel like it. He didn't really know what he felt, but it definantly wasn't positive. He felt... used. Like a tissue. He felt dirty and unconfortable.

Lilly felt him. Not physically, although that aswell, but she also felt his feelings. She didn't understand what they meant or why they were there, but she felt them deep inside her. She reached up to his face and kissed his cheek delicatly to try and ease some of his stress, but he pulled his face away quickly and looked away from her. She did not like that. She sat up on her knees and prodded his arm delicatly. She needed to know what was up with him.

"What..?" He responded sharply. He didn't know why he felt this way towards her, but he did. He just didn't want her around right now. She poked his arm again and he whipped his arm back knocking her hand away, gentily. He got out of bed and stood up then sighed. He looked at her from the cornor of his eye. "I'm gonna sleep in the bathroom tonight... I knida wanna be alone for a bit." He said softly and walked away from the bed and into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and locked it.

Lilly persisted onward and ran up to the door and knocked on it, but Sam didn't respond. So, frustraitedly, Lilly grabbed a pillow and blanket and laid them infront of the bathroom door. She curled up on the floor and watched through the slit under the door. If she couldn't make Sam feel better than she would protect him. No matter what that meant. She loved Sam... and she would prove that to him, no matter what that meant.

---

Trevor started crying as soon as he walked into the room. He didn't know he was going to, but he did. After thinking that he had lost her to Alonzo, he knew he couldn't lose her again. "Oh my gosh... I thought you were gone." He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. "I thought I was never gonna see you again.

She reciprecated the hug, even if it did hurt her ribs a bit to do so. Betty had missed Trevor more than she thought she had. With everyone in her life gone, Trevor was really all that she had left. "I thought so, too." She buried her face into his shoulder and breathed in his cologne. A smell she had deffinantly missed. A smell that smelled like home.

Trevor pulled away and met her eyes. "Betty, you're all over the news. People are calling you a hero."

"I heard about that. I'm not really sure how that transpired, but it's kinda cool, I guess." She smiled.

"Yeah, and really dangerouse. When Alonzo finds out that you're the person that put his name into the lime light, you're gonna be his main focus." Trevor continued. "He's gonna kill you worse than anyone else."

"He already knows." She put her hand on his. "He's known for a while now."

"Well, we have to keep you safe. We have no idea where he could be right now." Trevor stood up and grabbed a bag. "I'm gonna start packing your things. We need to get you out of here."

"Actually, I think I might know exactly where he is." Betty sat herself up. "They found me in the basement of the Zackery Corperation Skyscraper. That's where his layer is."

"The Zackery Corp.?" Trevor looked back at her. "Well, shit. That's not good."

"Why not!? We know where we can find him now! We can kill him!"

"You think Zachery, the rishest man in the world, is gonna want his name attached to a cult of cerial killers? He'd die before he had his name tarnished to that level!" Trevor exclaimed.

"So what? It's a fact that they're down there. We have to stop them."

"Sure, but Zachery is a man with a lot of power. He'd kill that story before it even started."

"We don't know that for sure."

"He's done it before." Zachery sat down. "A few months ago, someone actually jumped to there death from his building. He paid off the news to not say what building the guy jumped from. Even the police kept their mouth shut about it. And a few years before that, there was a workplace shooting there and again, he paid the right people and no one knew about it. Like it never happened."

"Well shit." Betty shook her head. "What the hell do we do now?" She slumped back down into her bed.

"There's not much we can do. I suggest we keep this quiet for now. Maybe we should just tell the FBI and no one else. That way the right people have the right information. If this goes public, we're dead on arrival."

Pause.

"Do you think he knows about it?"

"Who?"

"Zachery. Do you think he knows the cult is down there?"

" I don't know... Maybe. I mean Alonzo is bound to make a lot of money. Pornography is a big buisiness. Torture porn shouldn't be that much different. Hell, maybe he's..." Trevor paused and lowered his eyebrows.

"What?"

"Maybe he's funding it. I mean, there's no way he hasn't been down in the basement of his own buisness. Maybe Alonzo's just like... a pon."

Betty sat back up. "I mean... that would make since. That place is massive down there. How else would it have gotten there without funding. And letting Alonzo take the fall would make the most since, because everyone knows Alonzo is nuts. If he tried to throw Zachery under the bus, people would imediatly disregard that."

"So... Zachery is the circus master..."

"That's why Alonzo's only a magician. He's only one of the acts." Betty's jaw dropped. This was much bigger then they had previously thought. They were onto something huge and they both knew it. "Holy shit..."

"Holy shit. We have to tell the Feds." Trevor stood up.

"What are we supposed to tell them? That the most powerful man in the world is actually a criminal who runs an underground torture dungeon? That's not gonna do anything." Lilly responded.

"Maybe not, but... I mean, we can't just do nothing."

"Let's blow it up." Betty interupted.

"Blow it up..." Trevor scoughed. "Blow up a New York Skyscraper."

"No, dummy. Just the Carnival."

"How would we even do that?"

"Well, I was rescued by one of Alonzo's enemies, right? And the way he got in there was just, wearing one of the Performer outfits."

"Performer outfits?"

"Yeah, they wear, like black body suits and these creepy white masks from party city or some shit." Betty smiled as she got into it. "Yeah yeah. We descuise ourselves as one of the preformers and then just put C4 everywhere and blow that shit up!" She nearly jumped out of her bed as she finished the idea. Shivers of excitment ran down her back.

"And... where are we getting the C4 from exactly." Trevor chuckled.

"The FBI." She smiled.

"The FBI... Why would they just give us C4?"

"Because we know where the Circus is. And we could blow it up with everyone inside it. We could take out the whole mothership in one go!"

"I... I don't think they're gonna agree to that."

"It doesn't hurt to try, Trevor. We have a real chance here." She frowned. She really just needed her friends support. It didn't matter if her idea wasn't completely flushed out. She just needed a win. Just one win.

"Ok..." He smirked, finally deciding to humor her. "Fine, we'll ask. I don't think it's a bad idea. But it'll take a LOT of convincing. It's not gonna just be a yes or no answer. I mean, this whole thing is right under New York city. An explosion like what you are talking about could cause a ton of structural damage and maybe even kill innocent civilians. It would need a ton of planning and equipment and-"

"I know, Trevor. I know. I just... I just want to do everything I can to kill this guy. To keep people safe from him. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what Collin did... He deserved better."

"I know he did. Alonzo will get what he deserves, believe me. He won't get through this unscathed. I'll make sure of it. But something at this level will take time and planning."

"If we take too long, he could already be gone."

"He doesn't know anyone knows yet, and we're gonna keep it that way untill there is no other choice. We have the upper hand, Betty. We can win right now."

"I want to do more than win... I want to see him suffer. I want to see the light leave his eyes. I want him to suffer and I want to watch. And when I do, I'm going to laugh." She looked out the window.

Trevor didn't like how she said that.

---

Lilly laid on the gravel pavement, outside an old Motel in the middle of Texas, looking up at the stars next to the splatters of what remained of a human beeing. The warm smell of the blood tickled her nostrils, sending feelings of delight trickling down her spine. But besides that sensation, the night was quiet, and very uneventful. She felt as the gravel dug into the skin of her back. The disconfort kept her awake, but that was ok, because she wanted to be. She wasn't in the mood for sleep as it were, she was in the mood for thought. Lilly didn't talk much as it was, so most things she wanted to stay stayed inside her mind for only her to hear. It was only a few months ago that Lilly found that she didn't have a single thought on her mind at all, but it seemed life had gotten very complicated for her as of late. Love, friendship, enemys, morality. All on the table. But Lilly didn't enjoy such things. She was so much more a fan of silence and nothing else. But Sam made that so difficult for her.

She shot up from the earth as she groaned in frustraition.

Why did Sam have to be so much more difficult? She should have just killed him like she had planned to begin with! That thought suddenly made her feel very bad. Nowadays, she would never hurt Sam. The fact that the thought even vrossed her mind made her feel guilty beyond beliefe. Lilly wasn't a woman of morals or right doings, but the one thing that she stood by with vigor was-

"You'll never hurt Sam." A voice spoke from next to Lilly, scarying her and sending her jumping to her feet. But it was only Benny. "Why are you so sure about that, Woman in Blue? You've killed countless people. Men, women, children. You have no stigma." He didn't look as he normally did. "I mean, he's just some boy you met at college!" Benny yelled. "He's nothing special!" He was angry, but Lilly didn't know why. Benny deffinantly didn't look normal. The back of his head had been blown off as if he had put a shotgun in his mouth. His normal button up shirt had rips and tears all along it and his pants were muddy and dirty. In fact, as Lilly examined him, he was completely filthy. "He wasn't there when I was! He didn't go through what I watched you go through! He never saw your brother blow his own brains out in front of you! He wasn't there during Mom's beatings! He doesn't deserve you!"

Lilly was shocked at Benny's tone. He had never screamed at her like that. He had never even raised his voice. He was ALWAYS the nice boy from next door. This was different.

"You're just like your father. An FSS! You don't stand for anything! You think you do. You think you've got life figured out. You think you just live like you want to. But you don't, do you! You hide what you really wanna say. Like the little baby by the pool. You just cry for mommy!" Then his voice changed. It was Mom's voice. A voice she hadn't heard in years. "WELL MOMMY'S BUSY!" That wasn't Benny. That was knew. The thing that looked like Benny stood up and smiled. "We're all busy!" And that voice scared her the most... It was her brother. "Too, busy for you." And that one was Sam... Lilly didn't like this creature. It was stronger than her. It scared her. She was never scared. She had never been scared. "So why don't you shut up."

"I AM!" Lilly screamed.

The creature seemed to grow into a greyish mass as heads of everyone she even knew formed out of its moist sludgy body. Like a slug, it lurched forward with a tantilizing speed, leaving a bloody reddish liquid, that could only be described as blood, in its wake. It grew to the size of a tree and bent over as its top mass was heavier than it's bottom. Gravity seemed to pull the mass to the ground but with whatever strength the creature had, it held itself up, as if a puppet master was dangiling its grotesch body over Lilly with strings. Every face swirled around the creature, obviously swept away in its tornado body, swirling around the creature at a quick speed. Lilly looked up at the thing in horror as she tried her best to scoot her way away from it with no use. The creature seemed to speed up ever so slighty after every inch it traveled. She could not escape her past. It was catching up."WHY DON'T YOU DO WHAT YOU DO BEST!" Deven. "YOU'RE ONLY HERE FOR PEOPLE TO PUT THEIR PENIS IN!" Mom. "SORRY WE COULDN'T BE YOUR HANDSOME HERO!" Jack.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" She screamed, but the sound of the monsters storm buried her voice as the high speed winds pounded her ear drums.

"YOU'VE KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE, LILLY! YOU ARE A MONSTER! YOU MAKE ME WANT TO... WELL, THIS!" The hellscape licked at her feet, slowly sucking her into the vortex. Sh clawed at the gravel, but the small pebbles refused to keep her grasp. Her fingernails ripped from the flesh of her fingers as she reached for any safty left, but it was no use. She could not escape her reality. Tears lept from her face and fell into nowhere. She felt snot poor from her nose as her confident facade disapeared into the void of lies in which it had originated. The world seemed to dem into darkness. She gasped for breath, but none came. She fought, but no movement was made. She screamed but only a whisper emerged. "Sam..." And then everything went black...

Until.

"LILLY!"

---

Lilly shot awake with a gasp for breath as air once again filled her lungs. She looked around, desperatly trying to find Sam's face in the darkend room, but he was nowhere to be seen. She tried to talk, but her words fell silent. She couldn't speak. She had already known that, but somehow this time made her feel more sad than usual. This time she had really needed to speak.

It didn't matter anyway. She was alone.

---

"THAT PAIN IN MY ASS, BASTARD! I CAN"T BELIEVE HE STABBED ME WITH A SHITTY POCKET KNIFE!" Allonzo laid in bed talking to himself as a black figure with a white mask attended to the wound on his back. "How does it look, Alaina!"

"Nothing impossible to fix, sir. Just nearly nicked the bone, but all in all you'll be ok." A british voice replied.

"Damn right, nearly nicked the bone. If I find Francis, I'm going to shove my magic wand RIGHT UP HIS ASS!" Alonzo pushed off of the bed and got to his feet.

"Sir, You're going to need stitches." Alaina pressed.

"I need a hit first. I'M GOING TO GO INSANE WITHOUT A HIT!" He turned to Alaina as he screamed. "FIND ME A TOY! NOW!

Alaina ran out of the room in fear.

"I need a hit..." Alonzo held his right hand up for himself to observe it. He couldn't keep it steady. It only shook. "I neeeeeeed a hit." He hissed. "I need it." He took his middle finger in his left hand. "I NEED IT!" He bit down on his lip until he felt blood trickle down his chin. He bent his finger back from the middle knuckle. He moaned as he heard the bone snap. He felt himself soil his clothes as he did so. "MORE!" He rubbed the naked wound on his back against the cornor of his torture table, letting it spread the wound open, presenting itself to the world. He brought his right hand behind his back and shoved what he could reach of his broken middle finger into the gaping stab wound. Spit dribbled from his lip, mixing with the blood, causing a pubble to form between his legs. He moaned again as he forced his finger deeper into the wound. His eyes twitched as the pain took over his body. His lips angled at the cornors of his face as he reached a climax throughout his person. But sadly for him, it was interupted,

"Mr. Alonzo! HOLY SHIT!" A baldin man in a three peice suit walked in on the nightmarish seen and quickly covered his eyes with the sleve of his shirt. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Alonzo smiled at the well dressed man as more spit and blood dripped from his lips. "Feeling myself out, Mr. Canberry. As I always do."

"YOU'RE A FREAK! PULL YOUR DAMN FINGER OUT OF YOUR BACK SO I CAN TALK TO YOU!" The dapper man demanded.

"Why don't a handsome man like you, join me. It'll only hurt a little. Once you start to feel what the pain REALLY is, you'll love it." Allonzo laughed and shoved the finger further into his back. Until he could feel the surface of his shouldre bone. He ran his finger nail olange it, scratching into it, hooking the flesh and ripping it from its connections. Every yank sent shivers throughout his spine.

"YOU'RE GONNA KILL YOURSELF!" Mr. Canberry screamed in horror.

"You'll come to find that I have a very apt medical team here in the Carnival, Mr. Canberry. And I've done much worse." Alonzo sucked on his bursted lip, drinking in the metalic flavor. He took his other hand and slammed his fist into his crotch.

Mr. Canberry caught vomit as it nearly left his body. He quickly took an envelope from his pocket and through it into the room. After he was done, he walked away from the room as quickly as he had come.

After an hour had passed and Alonzo had finished his needs. He stood up and walked to the envelope. He calmly picked up the envelope, with his one currently working arm, And opened it with his teeth. He pulled out a check that was hidden in its casing and smiled. "Daddy's keeping us fed, it seems."

Alaina ran back into the room, huffing. "We have a new customer lined up for tonight."

"Good. Should be fun. Please get the medical team together. I need to get myself ready for tonight."