The next morning at 9 a.m., Alex and Carsyn busied themselves around the Mitchell kitchen table with a mini breakfast feast. Alex poured honey on his pancakes, while Carsyn smeared plum jam on her toast. Then Alex handed the bottle to Carsyn, and she handed him the jar and knife in return, and they repeated each other's actions.

"So instead of an 'E', Ziro's mom made it an 'I' in some backwards attempt to throw people off about him. Let me warn you now that Ziro is top-notch in nearly everything he does," Carsyn explained.

Alex choked on his pancakes. "Noted... And hey, where's that uncle of yours you mentioned in the letters?" he asked.

Carsyn groaned. "Out of town. Meeting up with some weirdo high school friends or something. Don't ask me for details, 'cuz I didn't bother asking him."

"Aren't I weird?" Alex gestured to himself.

"Yeah, but you're a good kind of weird. The lot of us in this town are. Now eat up. Ziro texted me earlier, said to be at the café before ten. He will stare at you even harder if we're late."

Alex frowned, worried about another sour staring contest, but quickly went to work on clearing his plate. Carsyn watched him, somewhat amused as she dug into her own breakfast.

About half an hour later, the front door of Halcyon unlocked. In walked Ziro with a spare key, and he beelined towards the center of the café. Behind him were four other individuals.

First after Ziro, was a boy with tan skin and a black crew cut, leaped onto a pink hexagonal table and raised his feet onto a chair. He had a blue and grey-ish skateboard tucked under his arm, and then placed it over his lap. His left knuckles had 'EVIL' tattooed on it, while his right had a tattoo of 'LIVE'.

Not far behind him, was another boy with deep-wheat shaded skin and curly light-brown hair, who took a seat across from the tanned boy, by a red square. He had a ladybug tattoo on his left hand. In his other hand, he twirled a magnifying glass.

After him was a girl with olive skin and medium length, platinum blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, who stalked her way up to the front counter and leaned back against it with her arms crossed. In-between her lips was a cherry lollipop. Engulfed on her right hand, was a tattoo of a lion's face with piercing lavender eyes.

Last inside, was a girl with sandy skin and black Dutch braids with auburn ends and bangs. She ambled to a seat by an orange rectangle, avoiding everyone's eyes and fiddling with her ash-blue nails. Coiled on her back was a large tattoo of a cobra with probing red eyes.

The boy perched by the red square spoke up. "Is this a bad time to mention that I saw 'he-who-shall-not-be-named', earlier today going to Riviam point?"

Everyone glanced at Ziro, but Ziro didn't take his eyes off of the front door. "We'll deal with it later," he said, prompting an obedient nod from everyone.

The front door opened again, and in strolled Carsyn and Alex. Immediately, all eyes fell to Alex.

Carsyn glanced at him and then back at her friends. "Quit the staring contest, weirdos. This is Alex. I call him Lexy every now and then."

"Unacceptable!" shrieked the girl leaning against the counter. She puled the lollipop from her mouth and jabbed a finger at Carsyn from across the room. "He can't just walk around being addressed by some childish sobriquet. I won't allow it!"

"You got something better, Nyne?"

"Well give me a minute. I just met your pen-mate here."

"It's pen-pal, Nyne," corrected the boy by the red square.

Nyne waved him off. "Details, details. They're not always so important. Tell us something, Lexy. We're all here because of your unexpected presence. Won't you speak for us?"

Alex tilted his head as he looked at Nyne. "Your name...is also a number?"

Nyne plopped the lollipop back in between her lips as she replied, "spelled with a 'y' instead of an 'I' to be exact. Problem?"

It was a moment before Alex worked up the courage to speak again. "No. How...charming." Nyne studied him for a few seconds before grinning to herself.

"Before you start serenading her, you should know that 'Nyne' is just a dirty, double-life secret. An altered ego, to be clear. A voluntary change in personality. Her real name is Six," the boy by the red square intervened.

"This is why you would make a terrible partner, Tate."

"Details, details..." Tate mocked. Nyne snarled lowly.

"Alright, alright, children. Relax," spoke the boy petting the skateboard on his lap. He got up and walked straight up to Alex, offering a hand shake which Alex took.

"Hola, I'm Jeremi — Steele. Friends call me Remi. I have a feeling we'll get closer, so you can call me that too. Now you've already met Carsyn Mitchell, Nyne — a.k.a. Six Valis, and Ziro Acera. That over there, is Tate Morales, but we call him Tick a lot cuz of his obsession with bugs and spiders." Jeremi pointed to the boy by the red square who fluttered a hello with his fingers. "And last, but lovely, Evan Hale, Eva for short." He gestured to the girl sitting pretty in front of Ziro.

When Alex locked eyes with her, he realized almost instantly that it was the same girl lingering by the town's pond last night. His blank stare molded into concern for a moment, but no one noticed.

"Now that we're all acquainted, I do believe it is time for an extended story." Jeremi returned to his seat while Ziro went and finally sat down next to Evan.

Carsyn sashayed over to where Jeremi sat, and motioned for him to move over. She hopped onto the table, her legs hanging over the edge, and dragged a chair over to rest her feet on.

When the room was all silent, Alex began...

He told them about his uncle Wylliam and his teaching travels; how he introduced Alex to his love for archery. He told them about coming home to find Wylliam with his mother on the day of his first soccer game, and how it led to his parents deciding on a divorce the next day. He told them of the bow his uncle had given him, and very loosely, how he destroyed it the same day he had discovered his mother and uncle together. He told them of how his new bow, Aetherius, came into being. He told them briefly of the uninteresting people at his old school. And lastly, he told them of how he befriended Carsyn Mitchell.

When he was done talking, he inhaled and exhaled as much air as he could, and sat crossed legged on the floor.

"Mierda..." Jeremi said.

"Diabhal..." Tate said.

"O mijn God..." Nyne said.

"Caray..." Evan said.

Carsyn was the only one to grin at Alex.

Ziro got up and went straight to Alex. He crouched down and stared him dead in the eyes. Alex wanted to scoot back, but felt as if he were encased in ice.

In a disturbingly low tone, Ziro asked, "are you now feeling regret over meeting any person you've come across since coming to Moonhaven?"

The immediate silence was piercing. The question Ziro asked was like a terrifying riddle. No one dared to move, or even breathe Alex was sure. The only thing Alex could hear was his own heartbeat, but even that was sounding faint. He almost didn't hear the actual words Ziro spoke to him. He didn't think any teenager's voice could sound so menacing.

He quickly replayed the perplexing question over in his head, maintaining eye contact with the brooding teen before him. "No. None at all. I'm sure."

Ziro didn't blink. Instead he took a moment to stretch out his neck, but his eyes never left Alex's. Still, no one dared to make any movement, and Alex couldn't help but think that he might not leave the café alive that morning.

"Have you...ever felt an overwhelming desire to take someone's life?" Ziro finally asked.

Alex failed to restrain his furious blinking, but he knew, by the solemn atmosphere in the room, that this was an absolutely serious question despite its unnerving undertones. He wasn't totally sure why, but it felt as if Ziro was reading both his mind and his heart, the entire time Alex had been recounting his story.

Alex suddenly remembered what his father had once told him about honesty being the best policy, and decided to go from there. "Y-yes," he stammered out.

It felt like a prank and a murder confession at the same time. Although he desperately wanted to, he didn't break eye contact with Ziro. He'd read enough crime and mystery novels to know it was a bad idea to break eye contact when being interrogated.

"Alright," Ziro said, making Alex flinch. "He's in." He stood, taking a step back.

Alex then got a closer look at Ziro's arm tattoos, realizing what was written backwards: 'are you now' on the left arm, and 'have you ever' on the right.

Carsyn was the first to move. In a split second she was crouched down in front of Alex, squishing his face between her palms. "I didn't doubt your polite boyish charm for a second." Alex tried to smile through his imprisoned face. The rest of the group began to applaud.

"And then there were seven!" Tate cheered.

"Woot! Party incoming!" Jeremi cheered.

"Oh, glorious day it seems!" Nyne cheered.

"Congrats," Evan said as she sent Alex a tame smile.

Alex glanced at Ziro, spotting a vague look of approval on his face.

The welcome felt incredibly warm, and Alex felt genuinely happy for the first time in years. He survived what seemed like a life or death experience with the most fearsome person he had ever met, and he couldn't wait for whatever came next.