Except he walked right past me.

"Max?" I followed him, not bothering to check behind me for any details. I saw his hands were dripping with...something. It became too dark in the woods to see what it was. I'd managed to get a glimpse of his face before he so rudely cut ahead, and he was pissed.

"Max, what's going on? Are you..."

I was interrupted by him stopping in his tracks, like he wanted to tell me, but as quick as he stopped he started up again. I'd never seen him walk this fast in my life. He seemed mechanic, almost. I struggled to keep up, constantly tripping over roots and fallen branches that he'd simply kick aside and leave in his wake.

"Okay. I won't lie, it's kind of funny seeing you this mad. But what the actual hell happened back there." I furrowed my eyebrows as I came to a not-so-good-for-us conclusion. "You didn't get caught, did you? Because that would make this the second time we've been forced to leave here, specifically, and I swear to go—"

"Brian? Brian? And he didn't even keep his own name. They fucking killed—"

He was cut off as I yanked both of us to a stop and gripped his shoulders. "Max. What happened."

I expected him to calm down, or shrink, but there was some kind of black fire in his eyes. His face was contorted in fury, and I almost stepped back in surprise. But instead, I glared and held him tighter.

"Tell me. Now."

He wasted no time.

"He didn't remember. He didn't believe me. He looked at me like I was crazy, they killed him, I know it. They brainwashed him again. It took me five fucking years to find him and now he's dead. I can't do this anymore. I won't do this anymore. I have nobody. They killed my—"

I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a last-resort kiss. God, he finally shut up. I found myself wrapping my arms around him in a close embrace, rendering him nearly immobile. You'd better not do anything stupid right now. I almost started digging my nails into his back when he angrily pushed me away.

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow. If that won't shut you up, you must be pretty mad."

"You don't understand, Hodek," he said, breathing heavily. The color was fading from his face, and his mouth slowly formed a pained grin. "I don't even know if I understand. But I feel something. It—I don't know why, but...I feel like I'm going to stab myself in the chest. Do you know what that's like? Have you felt this pain before in your entire, glorious fucking life?" He let out a hiccup of a laugh, making me take a step back. This is new.

"I sure know I haven't. Not like this."

I glared at him and sighed. And this is not how things should go. "Okay. First of all, do you even know anything about me, or was that a rhetorical question. Second, I'm the only one who gets to do the insane grin thing." I sharply gestured to my mouth as if to prove my point.

"So take a breath and tell me again: what the fuck happened back there. Who did you kill." I paused and furrowed my eyebrows as I remembered something he said. "And who's Brian? You'd better have a good explanation, or I might have to rethink this whole 'partner' thing."

I looked him directly in the eyes after that pretty much empty threat. They were glazed over, like he was looking at something in front of me. Or looking through me. His grin started to fade, like he was just now processing my words. I could almost hear the gears in his brain at work. I could hear everything said within the past 5 minutes muffled in his head. I felt like if I concentrated enough, I could see through his eyes exactly what happened to make him like this.

I shook myself of that thought. Nope. Not today.

"My brother," he finally muttered.

My eyes snapped up to meet his again. "Your brother is named Brian? I thought—"

"He's not named that," Max growled, clenching his fists tightly. I could hear his nails digging into the fabric of his sleeves, threads snapping under the pressure.

Of course. More cultists. Can I ever catch a break?

"They turned him again. They made him forget who he was, he forgot who I was. He must have. Otherwise he would've listened to me. He..." his voice broke slightly, and his gaze started to lose its fogginess.

"He had to be set free."

"...you killed him."

I heard him hold back a laugh. "And you have a problem with that? What happened to the infamous Jeff Hodek, who didn't give a fuck who lives and who dies?"

"Yeah, normally I wouldn't care, but you were seen." I glared right back at him, grabbing his shoulders. "And right now, I'm not sure you understand what that means."

Surprisingly, he didn't flinch. "Oh, I know exactly what it means. And I took care of the witnesses. They were the ones who ruined Birthday, after all."

For some reason, I felt something shake me at those words, and my mouth began to twitch. So this guy's other name was Birthday? Explains a lot.

"Max, I don't think you're right in the head."

"You're saying that like it's news."

I let him finish that thought before knocking his lights out and carrying him back to our old home.

—

As I came across the trapdoor for what I hoped would be the last time, I noticed he wasn't breathing. At least, not normally. His breath was short, sporadic. It might have just been tiredness from the walking and...well, murder. But something in me, for whatever reason, was almost afraid of it. Like it was a sign of something worse coming down the line.

A thin layer of dust coating the floor flew into the air when I jumped down, making me cough and hold my nose. It was a wonder that nobody had moved in while we were away from this place. Nobody was there now, at least. Max still lay limp, showing no life. It was to be expected. But everything suddenly seemed more silent, more calm than before. It felt isolating. It felt like the way things were before he showed up.

I got some cold water, still foggy from whatever shit it was contaminated with, and downed a whole glass before placing some more by his side. There was a burning sensation in my throat, and I realized exactly what was in it.

You bitch.

I dumped Max's glass out and decided that hydration could wait.

In the silence of everything, I thought it might be a good time to get Liu's address to somewhere more secure than a sweater pocket. Sure, it was just in case, but...

It wasn't there.

I'd dropped it somewhere while we were walking back here.

I felt tears well up in my eyes, and my heart began to race as I frantically checked myself up and down for any sign of the piece of paper. I couldn't find it anywhere.

My last shot to contact my brother. And it's lost somewhere, buried in dirt and leaves on the forest floor.

He started to come to by then, groaning and weakly holding himself up with his hands. I put any other feelings of the moment aside and crouched down next to him. Taking a quick glance at his surroundings, he noticed that I was there, and collapsed straight into my arms. His face looked like it was being dragged down. His eyes were owlish, and his hands were shaking. Yeah, that's definitely blood. I carefully wiped my eyes and gripped the back of his shirt to keep him from doing anything stupid.

Take care of him.

"Max...I don't think that Birthday guy is your brother anymore," I said, only really believing half of it. Sure, they weren't ever his family. But I couldn't say that out loud now. Who knows what that would do to his head. "It's time to face that."

Max's entire body started trembling, and I almost heard sentences rattling around in his brain before he finally spoke.

"Just because the Elder is in prison doesn't mean I'll stop looking for answers. God, she...she was right, we never should have—"

I grabbed him by the arms and turned him toward me. "That's not what I said. I meant that he's not your family...Masquerade." I gulped, and narrowed my eyes as much as I could. "If he was...he'd still call himself that weird name. He'd still believe whatever that Elder woman told him. But he doesn't. And he's dead, so it doesn't even matter anymore." He tried turning his face away, but I forced him to look me in the eyes.

"You can't get hung up on any of those people anymore. Not after five years. It's time to let go."

Two seconds didn't even pass after I said that before Max fell onto my shoulder, motionless. No sobs. No noise. He just stayed there, his face buried. I took that as a sign of defeat and hugged him close, furrowing my eyebrows. So this is what it's like to really feel sorry for someone.

"Do you have anything you wanna keep from here? Anything you can carry with you?"

He seemed to think, and slowly shook his head.

"Good. We can't afford to take half this shit, anyway."

"I'm sorry, Jeff."

His voice was disarmingly weak. I paused. "...you called me...no. That doesn't matter. What are you sorry for?"

He lifted his head, settled with laying on my lap, and looked me in the eyes. "You called me Masquerade. Why shouldn't I pay you back?"

I processed this for a second, then slowly removed the mask from his face. He blinked a couple times, but didn't object, for some reason. Over the course of a good minute, we just kind of...looked at each other. I could have sworn I knew what he was thinking:

This is all I have left.

Strangely enough, I was thinking the same thing.

After a while I leaned down and kissed him. For real, this time. The bastard made my life so much harder and I loved him. He eventually sat up, holding my face with some kind of new gentleness and kissing me back. It felt almost like a thank you. Either way, I wasn't about to complain. For the first time in years, I felt like I could really live with this. Like I could enjoy being in the same space as Max, talking, holding each other, maybe even a little killing. Though I had a weird feeling my murder days were coming to a close.

He wouldn't just be my partner in crime. He'd be my partner for life. And for some reason, the thought of that gave me a strange sensation in my chest.

We pulled apart, and I was now leaning against the wall while Max lay on top of me, looking at me in what seemed to be a whole new light. I still wasn't close to accustomed with how he looked without his mask; he was almost like a real person. He had real eyes, and eyebrows, and freckles, and...

As my eyes trailed down his face, I came across the X-shaped scar I gave him that very first night.

For a second, every single time I'd yelled at him, took my anger out on him, and acted like I didn't feel anything towards him came flying back to me. I looked him in the eye again, feeling something in the pit of my stomach.

Guilt. Remorse.

"I—"

I was about to tell him that I was sorry for everything I ever did when I remembered how the very same night we met, he invaded my home and stabbed me in the chest. He tilted his head curiously, and I groaned.

"...I can't believe you dragged me all the way back here just to kill some guy who used to be your brother. What kind of partner are you?"

He gave me a tiny smile. "Yours."

I suddenly remembered the outcome of our fight in the parking lot, and felt a strange heat flood my face. He looked at me funnily and went in for another kiss. I allowed it; besides, what else could I do?

After what was probably a minute but felt like forever, I paused and held him at arm's length with a stern glare. "Don't think I've forgotten that you kept me inside with a stab wound for days."

"Aw, I was kind of hoping you would. I apologized, you know."

"Yeah, barely. I hadn't been that injured since..."

I suddenly remembered everything that had happened between Liu and I. All the playing when we were kids. The knowing looks when someone brought up pot in our teenage years. Inside jokes, and their origins which I couldn't remember for the life of me. And our last fight.

I'd been bleeding like crazy that night. Stung like a bitch. I was about to collapse on the ground by the time I reached his door. I wasn't sure if him slamming it shut in my face hurt more, or just numbed everything. I figured that was the moment I really became unhinged. But now I wasn't able to figure anything. I just wanted the Liu I knew back.

It doesn't matter. You lost his address, you don't have his phone number. You're a hundred miles away from him. There's no point in dwelling on the past; you saw what happened when Max got too attached.

Something in me wanted to rip my own heart out, right that second.

Is this even comparable to anything he's been through?

Before I could try anything stupid, he took me in his arms as if he was the one who'd been helping me all along. I came back to earth and realized I was shaking violently. I brushed it off, if not unconvincingly, scoffed and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Ha. Uh...not gonna lie. It does feel kind of nice to have a family again." I tried blinking back another tear, to no avail, and didn't pull away when Max softly placed a hand on the back of my neck, like he was trying to say: Stay right here. Trust me, you need it. And I couldn't argue with that. So I only shifted closer to him. I could almost feel him smiling.

"Come on. Let's get out of here. We'll run away and live like kings."

So that's exactly what we did.