It took longer than I thought to reach the house where Birthday supposedly was. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would pop right out of my chest. Jeff almost seemed like he knew what was going on, but not as much as he could bother to. Every time I remembered he was there, walking just behind me, he looked bored. It didn't upset me. After all, with how he talked about him I assumed he hated his brother. So how could he even come close to understanding how I felt right now?

We finally reached the door he recognized, and I realized that I'd rather talk to Birthday alone than with another serial killer in tow. The last time doing that didn't work out that much, so I told Hodek to just hang back in the shallower part of the forest while I assessed the situation. He obliged with a slightly confused look. Once I was sure he'd gone out of sight, I knocked on the door once.

Twice.

Three times, and I got no response for almost a minute. Something sunk in my stomach. I frantically knocked five more times, my brain buzzing with doubt and anxiety.

"Yup."

I heard a muffled voice behind the door, and it took me a good second to realize it was asking me what I wanted. I sighed and fiddled with the collar of my shirt.

"I-I'm here to see someone...? Someone who lives here," I said with the little confidence I could gather. The person behind the door laughed.

"Okay, I should've guessed that. Who is it?"

"...Max." The name sounded almost foreign coming from my mouth.

"Huh. Uh, sorry, but I don't think we know any Maxes. You sure you have the right—"

"Can you please just open the door?"

They paused. I heard an even quieter voice, piping up from some other room inside the house.

"Some Jehovah's Witness crap, I'm guessing. Leave it alone, Bri."

"No, he sounds familiar. I just don't know if—"

"Well, then open the door! Do something. You're killing me here."

The person sighed and I heard the sound of a latch being undone. The door opened to reveal a tall, muscular man with a patchy blond beard and a tiny rectangular scar on the side of his neck. His eyes widened.

"Masquerade."

I felt two streams of tears collect at my chin, and I didn't bother wiping them away. I almost smiled, but for some reason I just couldn't.

"You remember," I breathed. Birthday looked more shocked than happy, which I could forgive. I raised a hand to touch him, just to make sure he was really there, but I didn't even know where to place it. I only stared while he awkwardly looked away. He opened his mouth multiple times to talk, and every time seemed to be at a loss for words. Eventually, he slowly pushed down my hand like he was afraid of what I might do next.

"Uh. Hi, buddy," he started with. "I...hope you don't have any weapons on you." He laughed nervously, and I tilted my head.

"Why wouldn't I?"

His face fell. "...don't tell me you're still with them. Are there more here? Were you followed?"

"Our family, you mean? No. Everyone else is at some new base, and I'm not going back until I can make the Elder leave us alone. I have so many questions, I..." I stopped at the heartbroken look on his face. "Are you okay, Birthday?"

His hand started to shake at that name. "Oh. Oh, no, they...Masquerade, I'm sorry."

"What could you be sorry for? I've been looking for you for such a long time, and now we're finally—"

"My name isn't Birthday, man."

He said that like it pained him to even hear the word. Something inside me froze. I felt really bad. I couldn't tell what it was, but somehow I knew things would only go downhill from here.

"What...what do you mean?" I almost laughed. "Of course it is. You remember me, right? You knew my name, you know that we're brothers—"

"No."

Birthday was starting to look angry now. Not at me, but at something else. His eyes read horror, it seemed that this was the last thing he expected or wanted at his door. I took a step forward.

"No? How can you just...what, do you think I'm some sort of imposter?"

"Your name is not Masquerade, and those people are not our family. I know that much. I..." He looked back and scratched his chin. "I know it's hard to take in, but just listen to me. That crazy woman, she tricked us. All of us. She sent people out to drag us away from our real families, slapped some other name onto each new person and she used us for her sick little game. I don't even know why she did it. Maybe she's just completely insane. But Masquie..." he looked back to me with curiosity. "No. I never even learned your real name, did I. What is it, Matthew? Mark? Something like that. She always made it close to—"

"Then what's your real name."

He paused. "What?"

"What's your real name, huh? If you're so sure." I reached for my belt instinctively, not even asking myself why. He furrowed his eyebrows, almost pitifully.

"My name is Brian Sampson. I'm not Birthday, and I never was. The Elder toys with everyone she comes into contact with. She used her weird eyes on us, made us wear those mind-controlling bow ties...just think about it for a second, it'll all start to make sense." He reached out as if to pat my shoulder, but hesitated and then let his arm fall. I felt my throat contract and my breaths getting shallower by the second. "Brian" wove his fingers together nervously.

"H-hey. Listen, it's going to be okay. You're not with them anymore, it can't..." He trailed off and narrowed his eyes. "You're not with them anymore, right? Can you at least tell me that?"

"What do you mean by 'not with them.' Are you saying that I should just leave everyone behind, and forget about them?" I took a step forward, and he grabbed my shoulders and held me at arms' length.

"Yes. That is exactly what you need to do. I-I don't even think I should be talking to you right now, it brings too much back." He sighed and wiped an eye, though I couldn't see anything there. "I love you, man, and I want you to be safe. So you need to stay as far away from me as possible. That includes Anni, and Event, and...oh, and especially the Elder. Though I'm not sure how you'd even get to her, she's rotting in jail right now. What was that you said about getting her to leave...?" He trailed off, seeing the outraged look on my face.

"That's exactly what he told me to do," I said through my teeth. "I don't understand, you were supposed to be different, you—"

"Who's 'he'? Are you feeling alri—"

"You're supposed to remember!"

"I do! And it's hurting me, it's hurting both of us. Please, just do it. For me. At least get therapy, start over. You're still, what, in your early twenties?"

"You're wrong."

"Mas—ugh. Don't make me keep calling you that, what's your actual name?"

"I won't tell you," I said, my voice shaking. "I thought I could count on you, and now—y-you really think—they caught you in their little trap again. Those imposters, they made you think these things, they're no better than her—"

"They didn't make me think anything, they helped me! Helped me recover from all the shit I went through, living underground, having a tracker implanted in me for a third of my life, being hypnotized into thinking I was part of some weird, misfit family. I've been trying to be happy for years now, and you're telling me it was all for nothing?"

"I'm—"

"Masquerade, or whatever your name is, you don't know half of what you're talking about. Do you think I wanted to accept that I was being fed lies? Of course not! But I had to, in order to get better. Maybe when every single person you come across tells you the same thing, it might just be true. You have to leave." He looked me dead in the eyes with a mixture of anger and distress and pointed down the street.

"If you won't listen to reason, at least admit to yourself that standing here and arguing with me isn't doing a whole lot of good for you."

"Sweetie, who are you talking to? Why are..."

A short, old lady shuffled to the doorway, much to both of our dismay. She took one look at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, hello there, young man. You know Brian?"

Something in me snapped at seeing who I assumed to be Birthday's mother standing beside him right now. I adjusted my mask and looked past them both.

"How many other people are in this house?"

Birthday leaned forward like he was prepared to fight me off. "Why would you wa—"

"Only his sister. Would you like to meet her?" the lady replied, oblivious to the situation. I smiled politely and unclipped my pliers from my belt.

"Of course. In fact, I'd like to meet all of you, right here and right now."

[JEFF]

While Max was off doing something, I was waiting at the edge of the woods because he told me so. It was one of the stupidest ideas I'd ever heard, but I figured I owed it to him. I sat behind a tree, facing the path that led to our old hideout. It had been too long since we visited here and for the sake of our lives I needed it to stay that way.

After what must have been ten minutes, I heard a soft buzzing sound in my ear. It eventually grew louder, and I stood up, groaning. What the hell?

Hey. It took a little bit, but I found him.

I jumped at Ben's voice in my head, looked around, and walked just a little bit deeper into the forest.

Why do you say that?

"I had to do something else first. I must have gone all the way across the state if I can't even get to...nevermind. What's important now is that I've got it."

He was floating right across from me, thankfully not in sight of anybody that could pass by. He had a tiny slip of paper between his fingers and was holding it just out of my reach. I folded my arms, now realizing that I should have expected this.

"Fine. What do you want."

"It's not about me this time. It's your boyfriend."

"He's not my—" I protested, but stopped at the look in Ben's eye. He raised an eyebrow and tapped his head, in an annoyingly are you sure about that manner. My face grew warm, and I wondered exactly which memories he was able to see right now. Finally, I gave in.

"...whatever. My boyfriend. Go on."

"He's really not okay, is he? I saw what happened to him all those years ago. You know, I had the chance to protect the person I loved practically thrown at me, and I never took it. So you need to promise that you'll take care of him if and when he freaks out."

"Wait, if and when? What do you mean, what's going to happen? And can I please have that?" I swiped at his hand, trying to grab the piece of paper, but he just held it even higher.

"Promise?"

I reluctantly held my hand out. "Fine. I promise."

He quickly gave me the slip and folded my fingers over it, like it was sacred. It might as well have been, anyway. "The guy Max is talking to right now...whatever you hear, I want you to know that he does remember. He's just changed. I have to go."

"Uh, okay? I'm not sure—"

"You'll find out soon enough. Bye, Jeff."

"...so long."

Ben was out in a flash.

I heard brisk footsteps coming my way, and stuffed the home address of Liu Hodek into my pocket as I made my way over to meet Max.