We didn't end up taking the shotgun with us, for some reason. With Hodek's whole impression I'd have assumed he collected the things. But either he couldn't see it, or didn't care. So we only had the laptop in tow as we made our way to the next house. I had the opportunity to actually question the man living there. Fortunately, he was sleeping, so we could take our time.

Unfortunately, once he woke up, it was pretty clear he was going to put up a fight.

When his vision adjusted to the dark and he spied two men in his bedroom, with one of them holding a knife to his neck, his eyes widened and he instinctively elbowed me in the stomach. Hard. He hardly had to wind up, which made it even more difficult for me to react in time. I was knocked back a good couple of feet, and by the time he stood up I was ready to charge at him.

"What are you doing in my house," he half-yelled. I guessed he was trying to alert his neighbors by being purposefully loud, but it didn't last too long. I kicked him down so that he landed on the floor, but his head still hit the wall.

"Be quiet, or I'll just kill you faster," I said through clenched teeth. I had the knife position above his heart. He didn't flinch, only used an arm to support himself.

"Kill me faster? What would it matter? Who even are you?!"

"I'm nobody. Just work with me, sir. Please."

"Oh, 'sir.' Like that's going to keep me from—"

"Do you know anything," I interrupted, holding the knife closer to his chest, "about anyone named Birthday?"

The man's face nearly contorted. He paused. "...what?"

"Anniversary."

"What are—who would name someone that?"

"Iris. Jade. Carol, Laurel, Event, something?" My words became more rushed as his stare became more blank. Eventually, when I realized I had no luck here, I sighed.

"Alright. So you don't. I'm sorry it had to end like this."

And I drove the knife flat into his throat.

It was odd, to see another person die by my hand after that little break. I felt like something in me had sprung back to life at the expense of something else. His eyes rolled back, which I could definitely do without, and after an agonizing five seconds he finally stopped moving. Hodek looked like he wanted to get going, but I signaled him to wait. I slowly walked to the man's closet and rummaged through until I'd found a baseball cap. I folded his arms over his chest like he was already in a casket, and placed the hat on his face to cover it.

"Okay. I'm ready," I muttered after what felt like forever. It felt almost like Jeff was going to say something to comfort me, which would have been a surprise. Good thing he didn't.

I washed the blood off my hands and we headed home, with him throwing constant sympathetic looks my way.

"...you okay?"

My eyebrows knit in frustration. "Yeah. This happens all the time. I'm used to it. Why wouldn't I be okay."

"Alright, it's just that you seemed pretty upset that the guy had to die. I'm actually kind of jealous. You've wiped your entire existence off the map by now, haven't you?"

"Yeah, and you—" I started, but then I realized. "...oh. Right. The Killer."

"It's really that hard to just say my name, isn't it," Hodek muttered. He said it almost like a joke. After a moment, he shook his head.

"When we first met, and you didn't know who I was, I was a little put off. Not because I was mad, it's just that any other person would have recognized me. It was a nice change."

"So you don't like fame. Or, wait, you don't want to be caught."

"It's...kind of both? And kind of neither. People are going to know who I am, that's not the problem. The problem is when they see my face and immediately think of someone different. I didn't have to deal with that when I met you, but it's still messed me up after all this time."

"What do you mean? Is there someone even more famous who looks just like you?"

"Ugh. That's half of it, I guess. This Jeff Woods character. He's all over the place, everyone knows who he is. It's so annoying. He's basically a younger, more fucked-up me. The media's done something, I tell you. I wouldn't even be complaining if I actually knew the whole of what people think of me."

I thought about that for a little bit.

"Well," I said, tapping the computer he had in his hands, "I'd say you have the means to find out now. But at this point, why should you care? You can't show your face in public anyway. I think you're good just as you are, and I had zero expectations for you."

I saw his expression change as he processed what I said, and realized that I wasn't trying to make him feel bad. He turned to me and furrowed his eyebrows. "You know, Max...you're pretty okay." It seemed as though it pained him to say that, but I had a feeling he was just acting. I took his free hand, to which he didn't complain.

"That's nice to hear. And, uh, by the way..."

I nodded towards the building that we'd stopped at without even fully realizing it. Hodek looked up to the neon-lit sign that read "Bú Xìng: Authentic Chinese Cuisine" with apprehension.

"So this is the place. Why would it be open at this hour?"

"Who knows," I said, opening the door and dragging him inside regardless. "Come on, the food's actually really good."

—

"...and then I smashed the bottle and stabbed him in the leg with it."

"No way."

"Uh, yes way. This is me you're talking to, you think I wouldn't do that?"

We tried navigating the streets for the rest of the night, our hands full and conversation never dying. Hodek had seemingly endless stories about all the fights he started, the homes he broke into, the people that almost got away. It was a relief not having to fill the silence, because there was barely any. Once we found a shortcut to the forest, we almost walked slower. It was as if we could tell that neither of us really wanted this to be over, and that made me happy. He asked me a couple of times if I had anything interesting happen over the last five years, but every time I racked my brain for stories I came up empty. So I just listened for now. Besides, it was a good thing at least one of us wasn't talking, because that meant I was able to hear the commotion on the street before he did.

"I don't know if I told you this already, but there was that one night where I ran into this girl, Jane. Never met her in my life, but she went ballistic. It was like she thought I killed her family," Hodek said, apparently expecting a reaction. I tilted my head at a ringing in my ear before I realized the noise was coming from around the corner.

"Hey, do you hear something?"

"Very funny. Anyway, I was—"

"No, Hodek, seriously. I think there's..."

I trailed off as we turned onto the road and saw blinding lights that flashed red, white, and blue.

Shit.

"Shit." Hodek grabbed my hand and booking it to the other side of the street where, thankfully, the forest began. My heart pounded, and the thought of even being seen by the police sent my imagination running wild. We both ducked behind a pair of trees, not bothering to make it past that. I noticed none of the cops blocking the road a couple hundred feet ahead were even looking in our direction. They were all fixated on something happening ahead. I heard an officer trying to talk through his megaphone as the same woman yelled things of a similar nature over him.

"Alexandra Schröder. Please stay right where you are, the police—"

"Alex, don't just stand there, help me out, for Christ's sake!"

I couldn't see anything going on behind the cars besides somebody being restrained—not very effectively, at that—and several other people peeking through their windows but too scared to actually step out of their homes.

"Alex! How fucking dare you just—you're nothing without me! Nothing! You had nothing to lose when you came with me. Please..."

The woman's voice grew fainter and more muffled as she went on, desperately trying to convince this "Alex" person to help her. I slowly walked ahead of Hodek, who looked like he wanted to stop me but also didn't want to make any sort of scene. I got a better view of who was before us; some redheaded girl had a bloody cleaver in her grip, and was frozen with fear. Eventually, something in her seemed to change, and a familiar sensation manifested itself in the back of my mind. I could barely make it out, but it looked as if her eyes had turned yellow. She skipped up to one of the cops, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Mister Officer?"

When they turned around, she took that as a sign to hack their head clean off. I stepped back, shocked at how easily it had been done. I didn't see Jeff's face, but his hand in my shoulder told me all I needed to know.

"We should go," he whispered. I hesitantly nodded, my eyes still on the gory scene that was playing out. I took one step back, then another, and then followed Hodek back to the trapdoor.