Ridley dragged Grayson to the kitchen where they saw Emilio and Aoife loitering by the kitchen island, devouring tiny starfishes.

A lanky man suddenly stood up in between the two from behind the island. His dirty-blonde hair was a sea of spikes around his ivory skin. He instantly noticed Grayson and Ridley hand in hand and strode over to them, his smile as wide as an ocean.

"My, my, my," he sang, glancing down towards their joined hands. The two then noticed themselves, and blushed as they released from each other.

The man grinned. "Silas Mitchell. And you must be the newest addition to our chaotic, but creative town." He threw an arm around Grayson and smiled warmly at him. "Grayson Prior. I've heard many things about you since my twenty minutes of being back in town. All of them good, so no worries. And I've heard many more things about your son, Alex. Again, all of them good, and all from my menacing niece, Carsyn. Truth be told, I was the one that introduced her to that 'BeFriendMe' site and the realm of pen-pals. I used to have a pen-pal of my own when I was younger."

Grayson scooped up Silas' free hand and gripped it tight. "Thank you for doing that. Carsyn is already doing so much for my boy. I already know he'll be much happier here in Moonhaven. So thank you, again."

"Ah, ah, ah. Quite the earnest shade of Gray. Come here! Have some poached starfish!" Silas took a fork and used it to stab a a few miniature starfishes, then fed it to Grayson who's eyes widened at its succulent taste.

Martin finally entered the kitchen. "Silas-a-cheese!"

"Martini!" Silas screamed back.

"Shut up!" Emilio and Aoife shouted.

Ridley giggled at them all through a mouthful of starfish, and Grayson beamed at her giggling.

Silas and Martin ignored all of them, running up to hug each other.

The walls in Ziro's room were a dull silver, except for a patch in a corner by his bed that was bone-white in a triangular shape. Framed sketches of weapons took up space all over the walls, and on the ceiling were abstract patterns in the same shade as the triangular patch.

The group sat in an uneven circle on Ziro's bed while chowing down on poached starfish from a large metal tray.

Alex swallowed three starfishes, then used his fork to take up more as he chewed the first three. "So, your mom really drew all of these?" He glanced around at all the sketches on the walls.

"Yeah, because I wouldn't decorate the walls with anything else," Ziro replied.

"Well your sense of decoration always was bland," Nyne revealed. Ziro narrowed his eyes at her and cleared his throat, prompting Carsyn to throw a small stack of napkins at Nyne. "Hey!"

"What?" Carsyn said innocently. Nyne scoffed.

"Hey, not that we all don't enjoy your company, but how long are you gonna be here, Nyne?" Tate asked.

"Well pardon me. Ever since meeting Alexy this morning, I've been feeling these overwhelming sensations of mystery, danger, and love of various kinds. You know how I crave to know the details of those very things, especially when they concern us."

"How can we forget. You're such a diva," Evan muttered as she laid her head on Nyne's shoulder.

"Alexy?" Jeremi chuckled.

Nyne reached over and flicked him on his ear. "Yes. It sounds quite sophisticated, no?"

Alex nodded and gave her a full-hearted smile. "Sophisticated."

Nyne smiled back. "Good. Then that shall be my nickname for you. The rest of you think of your own. I'm getting tired of always being the creative brain in the group."

"You seriously call that a nickname?" Tate mocked.

"I call it something, which is better than nothing, you Tikbalang. And it's certainly more out-of-this-world than plain old, 'Lexy'."

Nyne flinched as more napkins flew into her face. She glared at Carsyn, who pretended not to notice. Alex chuckled at the exchange, which caught the attention of Ziro.

He eyes Alex curiously for a few seconds, then shrugged to himself. "Alex." All eyes turned to look at Ziro. Alex gulped down three more starfish, and waited. "How did it go with him today?"

Alex knew exactly who and what Ziro was talking about, and for the first time since meeting the frightening teen, he managed to feel somewhat calm.

"I could be wrong, but I think he wanted to kill me. I'm glad he didn't though," Alex started. "And I don't know why, but I spilled some of my guts out to him. And he has a lot of piercings. I mean, like a lot. I didn't even know certain parts of the body could get pierced before meeting him. And he's kind of terrifying, but when he laughs that whole mood just disappears. I said 'and' a lot just now, didn't I? I hate that. Anyways, we made a deal for him to leave that place permanently, if we had a full day sleepover tomorrow... and I said yes."

Nyne, Jeremi, Tate and Evan, stared at Alex like he'd grown two heads. Carsyn stared at him as if a light-bulb had gone off in her head. And Ziro stared at him with great skepticism.

"A guy might've tried to kill you, and now you're going to sleep in his house?" Evan questioned.

"What if he tries to kill you while you're asleep?" Tate quickly asked.

"I'll take Aetherius," Alex said, and continued munching on starfish.

"What did he tell you...about us?" Ziro asked.

"Hm? Oh, well I told him it wasn't my business to know, so he didn't tell me anything."

"Ah, Lexy. So considerate and pure. That will all go to shit the longer you've lived here," Carsyn said.

"Can't wait," Alex said with his cheeks stuffed with starfishes.

Carsyn smiled. "But let he-who-shall-not-be-named know, if he kills you — I'll kill him." Ziro looked at Carsyn with stony, albeit indecipherable eyes. She stared at him back, "진짜 (Jinjja)."

Though a flash of nervousness crossed his face, Alex nodded with a small smile of his own.

"How is it that you seem closer to him in the last two days, than you do with us in the past ten years?" Evan said to Carsyn, jokingly.

"Maybe 'cuz you're all one urine test away from going to rehab," Carysn teased back.

"Excuse you? Who was it that was next to me, sucking up vampire dust from Ziro's desk last week?" Nyne accused.

Carsyn shrugged, "no idea what you're talking about."

Nyne and Evan scoffed, throwing napkins at her. Tate and Jeremi laughed, and even Ziro cracked a grin. Alex watched them all, confused about the conversation.

"Oh! That reminds me." Jeremi removed his left shoe and turned it over, revealing a small plastic bag filled with white dust that fell out of it.

Alex flimsily pointed at it. "Vampire...dust?"

Jeremi's grin was wide. "Yup! Just like vampires, V-Dust is pale and frail, but deadly as hell — in a pleasurable way of course. Best consumed through a straw." Alex stared at it with great wonder.

"Put it away, Remi. Rents are right downstairs. Another time," Ziro said.

"All right, all right." Jeremi stuffed the bag back into his shoe, then slipped his foot back in as well.

"So those are...drugs? Actual drugs..." Alex said. Everyone looked at him.

"What? Have you seriously never seen drugs in real life before? Meth? Gunja? Coke? Steroids? Anything?" Tate questioned. Alex shook his head, and everyone continued to stare at him, appalled.

Ziro's curious look returned. "Syn?"

"I thought he was joking when he told me that in the letters," Carsyn said.

Ziro shook his head, and from where Alex sat it almost looked liked Ziro had grinned. "Ever play with cards?" he suddenly asked Alex.

Alex smiled and opened his mouth, but quickly let it fall into a frown. "No."

Ziro gave a scathing smirk, then reached around Carsyn to open his nightstand drawer. He pulled out a deck of cards wrapped together by a black elastic band. "You'll start now."

Alex beamed, and even Carsyn spared a proud glance at Ziro. He shuffled and divided the cards among the group, and they were anything but silent as they all contributed to Alex's lesson in how to play with cards.

Hours passed as it was almost 10 p.m. Along with learning some of the basics of card playing, Alex had played a variety of card games with the group, and managed to win a few. He'd also somehow secured a win in a round of Go Fish, beating even Ziro.

When he had noticed the time, he decided to head home so that he could rest for the full-day sleepover tomorrow. He made a promise to the group that he would fill them in on all the details the day after, then bade them goodbye. When he got downstairs, he informed his father of the same thing, to which Grayson had told him that he was going to stick around a while longer t get to know the neighbors.

Outside, as he stepped off the last step of the porch, Alex gazed up at the moon. It no longer had any hints of lavender anywhere on its visible surface. The moon was back to its normal, illuminating yellow light.

Alex continued home through the quiet night, but couldn't help but glance at the moon every now and then on the way. "I wonder..."