Whatever you heard about Southern hospitality, they were right. Only they would make me a snack before delivering an ultimatum that involved death as the failsafe.

See, this is why I don't make friends. I only knew Ash for a couple of days, and already he was trying to get me killed.

Auntie joined us as Ash wheeled me outside the tattoo parlor and into the open rotunda that had multiple shops. In the center were various benches and chairs scattered around sculptures of artwork made from trash (I guess they get an A+ for recycling). One showed a swarm of Locusts feasting upon a grim reaper. That was very comforting.

We sat down and two members attended us with piping hot meatball marinara sandwiches, plates of chips, and sodas. The balls of flesh looked like it was dosed with thick hot blood. I shuddered at the sight of it. Meanwhile, Ash went right in consuming the food like a savage.

"They don't make it this good downtown," he said with a mouth full of food. He looked over to me and saw that the plate in front of me laid untouched.

"Oh, that's right," Ash remembered. He reached into his bag and pulled out a needle that was the size of a paperclip. "This should be enough to restore movement to the areas above your waist. Think about that before you try anything funny Zay."

I didn't want to try anything funny. I wanted to murder him, which was far from funny.

He pricked my neck with that little needle and I slowly felt my tongue again, followed by my nose, my neck, and my hands. I could move them. I could grab Ash's neck and choke him until he apologized. Then I could finish him off like the autumn twig he was.

But considering there were armed LSD people all around us, and not to mention the looming figure of Auntie before me, I had to reign myself in. Talk your way out of this now Zay, then kill Ash later.

"Oh honey," Auntie pointed at the sandwich. "Your food's getting cold. And I don't know how you in the uppity class do things, but down here we don't waste food."

Ash stuffed a mouthful of barbecue chips in his mouth. "Trust me Zay, you'll love it."

"I don't eat meat," I scolded him. "Why are you here anyway?"

He chuckled and displayed the mushed food in his mouth. Some spittle spilled forth onto the table. "Isn't it obvious?"

Then I saw Auntie strike like a pit viper. Soon, Ash's brown face was blushing red from a second slap. "Your mamma raised you better Ashton. Close your mouth when you chew. We might be in the sewers, but we aren't rats."

Ash rubbed his face. "Sorry Auntie."

Ash was suddenly not in the mood for smiles and talks, considering he had just been slapped twice in front of his classmate, and everyone knows if you get slapped by a parent or family member in front of your schoolmates, you might as well prepare yourself for months of verbal abuse.

"So, little miss Zay ain't it?" Auntie turned her attention towards me. "Ashton is taking a mighty leap of faith trying to bring you into the fold."

Auntie stared down at my sandwich and gave me a stank-eye that said she would possibly make me into a sandwich and feed me to the sewer rats if I don't start eating my food. I stared at the bloody mess on my plate and almost gagged. Of course, the thing was poisoned. I could die from this. Plus, there's the personal motto that I swore off all kinds of flesh since I've slaughtered so much of it. But, if I had to choose from being made into a rat meal or being sick to my stomach mentally or physically from poison, I guess I'm forced to opt for the latter.

Once I took a bite, however, I found the sandwich gone within seconds. I saw why Ash devoured his food. This simple sandwich beat all the salads I forced myself to consume on the daily. Even the soda was tasty. It tasted like an explosion of carbonated fruits that had tropical parties on my taste buds. However, I knew I'd come to regret it later.

Auntie sat back mildly satisfied. "I need to confirm this. You are Zaslay Mata, the youngest child in the Reaper Core?"

If my father were here, he would advise strongly against answering that question. People were not supposed to connect my name with the Reapers let alone the RC. That had to be kept secret, because few people knew who the leaders of the Reapers were. That's what made the gang so mysterious and dangerous.

But leave it to the leader of a cell in our rival gang to know the first reaper family as if they were her own.

"You're taking a mighty long to answer that," Auntie huffed. "Ash, you either brought in a bomb that will get us killed..."

She paused and studied me as I picked at the leftover barbecue chips. She ran her green painted nails gently beneath my chin. "Or you brought us our key to ending this war."

Ash sat up with the sudden pat to his confidence. "Does that mean I passed the 7th stage?"

Auntie looked like she wanted to slap him again. Instead, she opted for a hush as she sat back and crossed her arms. "That all depends on if she bites."

The only thing I was biting next was Ash's ear off for dragging me into this. I was deep in enemy territory and surrounded by hostiles. My family embodied their resentment for the establishment. My family represented the cause for their subsurface living in abandoned train tunnels. My family invoked years of repression upon them.

I was screwed.

"How much do you know about us," Auntie sized me up. "Doubt it's nothing but filth coming from the Reaper propaganda machine."

I looked over to Ash with my face resembling a Rottweiler right before it sprang an attack. Ash rolled his eyes. "Come on Zay, you can't still be mad at me. You came here to kill my extended family. All I did was stop you from making a mistake."

I turned back towards Auntie. "I know you're no better than the Reapers."

Auntie smiled, and not an evil smirk that would normally be accompanied by a maniacal laugh, but a genuine expression of hope.

I should know that expression. It's an expression I dashed countless times.

"You hate your family," she deduced.

I didn't respond, although deep down I did hate my family. I hated that they raised me to be a killer machine.

Auntie pulled out her smart device and projected a holographic image in front of me. It showed the aftermath from the day before, where the brawl of initiates fought to the death and left me standing solo with the victor, whom I killed without hesitation.

"But you are good at what you do," Auntie put her phone away. Seeing that image made me have a flashback to the nightmare. Strength and weakness depended on the amount of bodies in the room; and according to my brother, I was terribly weak.

I looked away, fearful to meet Auntie's judgmental gaze. I knew I deserved it. My body should've been among those in the room.

Auntie's voice lured me towards her, "I can't condone the killing of fellow Locust members, but I can say the Washington Park Hive had it coming. They have long fallen from the path of our founder. They breed nothing but poor Reapers."

I guess the look on my face read confusion, so Auntie stood up. "Ash baby, let's take your friend here for a walk."

Chicago was a bustling city. Living close to downtown Chicago was unaffordable for a majority of people, and since the affluent had mostly claimed the northern suburbs along Lake Michigan (speaking from personal experience), the city's affordable spaces extended south. Eventually, the once proud small suburb of Royden was assumed by the greater municipality of Chicago and incorporated as one of its numerous neighborhoods. Chicago extended its subway as far south as Royden. Things were looking bright, until the economic calamity that was the Rout.

The south side of Chicago was abandoned by the city during this period. All focus was paid to the city center and the north, where money was used to bail out the rich at the expense of the poor. The minor suburb that had sacrificed its township status to join the city of Chicago was now being treated as an unwanted adopted child.

"And that's when the Locusts stepped in," Auntie added as we emerged back into the tunnel system below. "We provided the services the government was too corrupt or too scared to provide for the people that really needed them."

"Here," Ash added as he pointed to the food stands where kids lined up to receive fresh meals. "No one goes hungry. We pool our resources together and feed everyone, clothe everyone, provide doctors and even lawyers to everyone. Just like Newton envisioned."

I stared around at the underground life and wondered why they couldn't just refashion those abandoned houses on the surface for this purpose. Why did they live down in the tunnels like rats?

Auntie seemed to read my thoughts. "This hive has tried to move to the surface, but the banks still own those homes and routinely send out police officers to evict squatters. During the Police Wars, the Locusts tried to fight for the houses that were just left to rot since no one with money and a brain would move over here. The state called in the National Guard. It wasn't hard since we're already labeled as a domestic terrorist organization. We had to disappear. We used the abandoned subway stations and tunnels that the city shutdown permanently to keep us from accessing the city center and corrupting it so easily."

Auntie looked like she could go on about how that last statement was a fabrication, but she just sighed. "But that's all in the past." She looked at Ashton and smiled. "We have a bright future ahead of us."

Ash snapped his fingers and started to do a clumsy dance that made me want to hurl. "Because my dad's mayor now."

I guess he wasn't lying about that part.

"With a very important friend finally in a position to do justice," Auntie continued, "we can finally strike a blow to the Reapers and give the power back to the people."

Then Auntie looked at me. "And now we have a RC member right in the palm of our hands." She pulled me down to a seat on a bench made from old train tracks. It was about as comfortable to sit on as it was to get run over by a train.

"Here are your options since you're so keen on providing them to your victims. Option one, we kill you. With one less assassin out there to ruin our plans, it'd make our lives a lot easier."

And it'll get my family really pissed off at you, I thought to myself. I doubt my family would let Auntie live to see next week.

"Option two, we keep you hostage. We make demands to the RC to stop funding political campaigns, the pockets of public servants, and cease all assassinations attempts in Locusts' territory."

If I knew my family, they'd probably break me out, although I'll admit that the chances of one of us dying in the process was very high. This place was an underground fortress and I got paralyzed by a 12-year-old kid who was just trying to join the gang. I'm not sure how well-trained these LSD folks were, besides in how to choose acronyms that sounded like drugs, but in either case they mean business.

"Option three," Auntie smiled at this. "I believe option three is your best hope."

This girl is copying my method to a T. I'm so gonna sue her for plagiarism.

"You join our gang."

If I had been drinking something, I would've squirted it out of my nose. "Join your gang?" I finally spoke with my voice dripping in sarcasm. "Are you insane?"

Ashton jumped in. "Come on Zay, it'll be fun. You can be a secret double agent. And you can get all the meatball marinara subs you want."

The reminder that I had consumed flesh suddenly made me feel queasy. I wanted to vomit it back up, even if it did taste delicious.

Auntie studied my silence and said something that I never thought she would. "You're an RC assassin correct? Well, how about this. If you pass through all eight stages of the initiation into our family, I'll allow you to kill me."

My head instinctually perked up as if someone had called my name.

Ash meanwhile was stunned still. "Kill you? Auntie you can't be..."

Auntie held up her meaty arm to silence him. "You join our organization, see our way of life. I won't even ask for intel on your family or their operations. At the end of the program, if you find yourself in complete hatred of us, I'll let you kill me, the Queen of the most powerful hive in Chicago, without any resistance."

This was crazy. Why was she doing this? Why would she even trust me? What's stopping me from killing her whenever I come here for these initiation sessions or even now?

More importantly, why would she think I would not kill her at the end of this? The Locusts were just another gritty gang of murderers. Sure, they might have more of a Robin Hood, social justice cause, but the way they secured it was just as dirty as my family's gang.

My family, I thought. If they find out that I joined this gang, then I'm toast. My father has ways of uncovering secrets fast. He'd slice me across the face like he did Noa, or maybe even something much worse.

Then again, if I played this right, I could make it look like I was a double agent for him. I could provide intel from the inside that my family lacked. If I got close to the Queen of the Royden Hive, I could uncover flaws to destroy this gang once and for all. Then, maybe, with the destruction of my family's rivals, I could abandon this life of killing because there wouldn't be any competition to kill.

Auntie reached out her hand. "So Zaslay, do we have ourselves a deal?"

I just had to bid my time. Join the gang, uncover secrets, destroy them from within. Then this whole thing would finally be over. I extended my hand. "Deal."

Auntie smiled. "Perfect, however, option three comes with an add-on." She looked over to Ash. "My sweet Ashton here will be joined at your hip. If you try anything funny, he'll surely let me know. Avoid him and I'll find you." She tapped my neck, right where Ash had injected some solution to restore movement to most of my body. "We'll always know where you are."

Crap, I thought to myself. I'm marked.