They ate the puffcorns like horses, grabbing fistfuls from the bags and holding their open palms in front of their mouths, going "graaah hraaah nyaah raaagh raaahgh" and raining crumbs.

Garofița ate too fast and started coughing.

"Don't die." Vitalis said, holding a puffcorn like a cigarette. "Coffins are expensive as shit."

"If I die, bury me raw." Ștefan said.

"If?"

"You never know."

Garofița took a wheezing, strained breath and hacked out the obstruction, feeling her stomach turn concave.

"I got competition!" Gliga laughed himself into a similar coughing fit.

The man was pretty tall, slightly fat and middle aged. He looked utterly average and unassuming, except for a nervousness that made passersby look at him funny. His eyes were sore from lack of sleep, frantically rolling back and forth in their sockets as he scanned the streets.

Their get-away never came. Said he would arrive at 3 am sharp, then didn't. For an idiotic moment they thought they got the wrong location, so they searched the streets like fools.

It will be fine, Dorel said. In and out, Dorel said. But here they are, hours later, still in the damned town, with the worst of its people hunting them.

If it was just the police they would have accepted their faith. They would be sent to the prison in Lăutari, most likely, where their fellow brothers and sisters were locked up. It would have been amazing if that happened, actually. A win-win situation.

It would have been too good to be true, and Murphy's law was in full baseball homerun-worthy swing. He had heard there are werewolves and vampires in Ferești, but wasn't too perturbed about it. In his own home village there was a witch coven. What "Lord" Dorel didn't mention was just how powerful these werewolves and vampires are.

He should have let that bumbling idiot Grig shoot the Cernescus instead.

He should have done very many things.

He should have left the Seekers of the Forgotten Truth a long time ago, when Lady Olivia died and she was replaced by her incompetent, disorganised, pompous, arrogant, self-important, bull-headed, foul-smelling husband.

He should have left when the Seekers were busted a couple months ago. He almost did it, to his own disbelief. He almost let go of everything he believed in, let go of 7 years of love and devotion he poured out his broken heart. He tried to build himself a "normal" life after 7 years of bacchic isolation.

When Dorel Pitaru emerged, he thought it was a trap to catch the remaining members. Meek little Dorel, following Lady Olivia's every word like the perfect dog, then humiliated and shoo'd away by Lord Gherghe. Banished Dorel, who had not been a proper member for 5 whole years. He is giving orders now? He demands his ex wife to be eliminated? Grecu almost wanted to ask somebody to pinch him.

He should have turned them down when they showed up at his door. He should have shut the door right in their face.

But he didn't.

He quickly learned that Dorel was no better than Gheorghe. He had the ambition and the zealousness, the hysterical strength people develop on the brink of death, but that was it. He was too impulsive. His first order was the proof: he wanted Sabina gone. He wanted his past life gone, everything that was not the Seekers of the Forgotten Truth to be gone.

Grecu wanted that too. He wanted so desperately to go back to the best days of the Seekers' assembly, to the days of Lady Olivia, to the endless pleasures and laughter and parties and heresies and drinking and eating and fucking. He wanted things to go back to normal, their normal. He foolishly hoped Dorel could do that.

He marched down the winding streets of Ferești, constantly feeling the need to look over his shoulder. They were after him, he knew they were. Where were they?

"I don't want to eat anymore." Garofița said, holding the half-empty bag.

"You can go give some to that lady over there, next to Mariana." Vitalis said, pointing to Blondie. She sat next to another woman, a brunette. "Her name is Lucica. She's in hiding too, poor thing."

"She ran away too?" Garofița asked, looking at the young woman. She seemed nice.

"Yeah. She can't really get a home and put down her name on anything without her psychopath of an ex tracking her down and trying to kill her." Vitalis sighed. "She really likes puffcorns. Go cheer her up, alright?"

Garofița needn't be told twice.

Lucica and Blondie both looked like very nice women, with soft eyes and cropped hair. Like all the women in the encampment, like Vitalis, Bea and even Gigi, there was a tiredness in their features, etched in the lines around their eyes and mouths, in the texture of the skin itself. Lucica looked surprised to see Garofița approach them, then smiled when she saw the puffcorns.

"For me?"

"Yes!" Garofița presented the bag.

"Thank you, dearie!" She said and only picked up a couple. She searched in her pocket and gave Garofița a mint candy.

"No, no, it's fine!" She said.

"Take it!" Lucica said. "I'll feel bad otherwise!"

She had a big gap between her front teeth. It reminded Garofița about a story she read in elementary school, "Domnu Trandafir", about a very kind teacher. Garo hadn't thought about that book in years. She also wondered how could anybody want to hurt Lucica.

There were still some puffcorns left. Garofița looked around the courtyard and saw Adam sitting by himself in the shade of the buildings. He had chestnut brown hair and a blanket draped around himself.

As she got closer she saw he was sitting very tense and uncomfortable.

"Uhm, hello!" She said.

He too looked surprised. "Hello?"

"Do you, uhh, want puffcorn?"

"Oh, uh, no, thank you. Not right now."

"Okay..."

He was breathing heavily, rubbing his own arms rather hard.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah... it's just... really itchy."

"Your arms?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you, uhm, do you wanna wash your arms?" She suggested. They were covered by long sleeves and she wondered if he could hurt himself by scratching them too much. Vitalis said to keep him from hurting himself.

"No, I don't think it would help much." He said.

"Why not?"

"The itch, it's inside, on the inside."

"Inside your arms?"

"Yeah, my veins. They're crawling up them."

Garofița wasn't sure if she was more alarmed by that statement, or by how calmly he said it. Like it was nothing new.

"Wuh-w-washing your arms might still help, though! Cool you off, and uh, soothe. Maybe drown them."

Why in the FUCK did she say that?

Adam looked down, thought it over, then moved to stand up. "Good idea."

Garofița went to fetch her bag from Vitalis' tent, taking out a water bottle. She and Adam went to a corner of the encampment where there was a patch of grass, she took off the cap and he rolled up his sleeves. There were red streaks on his skin from rubbing through the fabric.

She poured water along each arm as Adam held them out. He did seem more at ease. The cold liquid felt nice on Garofița's fingers too as it splashed around.

A long time ago she watched a documentary on TV about hauntings and exorcisms. One of the first things they do before deploying an exorcist is calling a psychologist, to make sure the source of the horror is not something else, and a gas company, to make sure it isn't a gas leak. The brain is a sensitive organ that's easily messed up, supernatural influence or not. The supernatural doesn't help, but neither does a thousand other things that can traumatize a person.

Garofița felt mad several times in her short life, but was pretty sure she never hallucinated. Oh, if she did, dealing with her spider would have messed her up big time!

As soon as she thought about her spider, her own skin tickled. Her whole body tensed in realization of what she did. Like clockwork, Cat the spider crawled out of her sleeve, inches from Adam's arm.

Garofița twisted her arm to the back of her head, shaking her wrist against her hair.

"...What are you doing?" He asked.

"Uhh, I felt something on my hair and my hand is wet, so uh, yeah." Garofița smiled awkwardly.

Grecu passed two teen girls giggling and cackling, an elderly couple with shopping bags, a lone old woman (had he passed her before?), and a mother with her baby in a stroller. She side-eyed him and moved deliberately out of his way.

He drew in a shaky breath, the roof of his mouth feeling dry, and continued his pacing. Where was Grig? He didn't cross paths with him once. Did they get him?

He ducked into a narrow street between houses, tree branches hanging over old brick walls like terrace umbrellas. Only one person walked past him in the opposite direction, a kid heading home from school. Then he was all alone.

The growl of cars was muted, as was the murmur of people in the distance. From one of the houses there was an iphone ringtone, but it stopped quickly. The only sounds left were his tired feet dragging on the pavement and his heartbeat in his ears.

Grecu allowed himself to slow down, shutting his eyelids. Could he sneak back to the motel and fetch his phone? Or Grig's? They left in such a panic, all he had were the clothes on his body and the gun. The stupid fucking gun. What could he do to get rid of it? They didn't think through every possibility. Stupid, stupid.

He took a deep breath and kept walking. He was so tired. The kind where he couldn't see properly anymore, his visions fading in and out of focus. He listened to the rhythmic scratch of his shoes on the ground, left, right, left, right.

Grecu's heart seized and he spun around. There was nobody behind him, but he could have sworn he heard another pair of footsteps.

The alley between houses twisted ever so slightly to the right, so the end where he came from was no longer visible. He kept expecting to see somebody appear from around the corner. They didn't. He turned back around and kept walking.

His head hurt from how much he strained his ears. In tandem with his own footsteps there was another pair, carefully following. He tried to glance back, more subtly this time, until the corner of his eye ached. Nobody was there.

Grecu hurried his pace and that's how he caught it. The pursuer's footsteps were slow to react, taking a few steps to increase their speed to match. Grecu sped up to a light jog and, to his dread, whoever was behind him broke into a sprint, the distinct sound of gravel crunching underfoot.

He ran as fast as he could, not daring to look back. The houses rushing by his vision had dark windows, the town was silent as if abandoned, not a single sound around him but their mad chase. They were running fast, getting closer and closer and Grecu bit back the urge to scream for help. How long is this alley?!

Finally, at last, he saw the end, a street with people walking back and forth, a street lamp marking the end. He clung to it, almost falling down. A passerby cursed him out for startling her. Grecu panted, throat burning, and looked behind himself.

The alley was empty.

Jean Bisclavu watched one of his nephews fall face-first on the grass. He shot up like nothing happened, his dirty blonde hair stained green. As he looked at his hair, Jean got an idea for how to punish the cultists.

He grinned as he pulled out his phone and dialed Josef Ozsvar.

On the opposite side of town, Mihai was eating takeout in the driver's seat of the car. He saw Mr Marius and Mr Eduard come down the small street and chewed faster to clear out his mouth.

"We're back." Marius said, groaning as he sat down.

"Are Garo's dogs alright?" Mihai asked.

"Yes, they are!" Eduard smiled in a conspiratory way.

Marius didn't comment, looking at Mihai's reaction, which was none. He probably didn't know about the cryptids.

"Does she have any other pets?" He asked.

"A baby cat." Mihai replied. "And a spider."

"A spider?"

"Like, a forest spirit by the looks of it."

Marius pinched the bridge of his nose. "What in the Disney princess..."

His phone started ringing. Marius stared at the screen with furrowed brows (he should get glasses), then raised them in curiosity and answered.

"Hello?"

A long pause.

"Bit of an overkill if you ask me, but sure."

He passed the phone to Mihai. "For you."

Mihai took it. "Hello?" He asked, surprised that Mr Ozsvar was calling.

There was a very long pause, Mihai's face unreadable. For a moment he looked carved out of stone.

He wordlessly handed the phone back to Marius and the takeout to Eduard, then exited the car, heading towards the town center.

"Talk to you later." Marius told Mr Ozsvar before ending the call, moving into the driver's seat.

Gabriel chose a ground floor apartment in one of the empty buildings as his makeshift study room. He was told to stay with Roxi in the encampment and to help her watch over the people there, keep everyone calm. Since Roxi used to live there, people were more likely to listen to her than to him, so Gabi continued working on his research of the cult. And wouldn't you know, they were at fault for the murders!

Garofița and the other kids found him sitting down directly on the ground, most of the wooden boards having been scrapped off and used for fire a long time ago. It looked like there was a wide hole in the middle of the room. On the walls there were pretty teal squares, the ghosts of frames that used to decorate them.

Gabriel was surrounded by chunky textbooks, papers arranged in family trees and fractals only he understood, his geriatric laptop and a bag of chips. It looked like he himself was performing a ritual!

"Go, Gabi, go!" Roxi cheered as she crossed the room, looking out the window to the camp. She could just climb out of it and be outside again.

Gabriel mumbled something inaudible. Since Garofița last saw him at the market he seemed to have developed heavy eyebags and a scowl.

"Remember to take breaks too!" Roxi added.

"I'm fine." He furiously typed.

"You look like shit." Ștefan bluntly said.

"Thanks."

"Are you refusing to sleep again?" Laura asked, crouching down and picking up a book he wasn't using.

"I don't need sleep, I need a passing grade."

"I thought you were gonna say 'I need answers'."

"I gave up on those."

The Seekers of the Forgotten Truth were an infuriating bunch, and not just because of Gabi's personal incident with them. Their belief system was all over the place. On the surface it was a bastardization of christianity, the idea that in order to be a "real" child of God you must do the opposite of the teachings of the Bible, go back to the OGs, to Adam and Eve before their blissful ignorance was shattered by worldly hardship. A bucolic, idyllic type of life, prehistoric in its simplicity and dyonisian in its indulgence of primal urges. You couldn't sin if you didn't know what sin was. That's how they envisioned Heaven, the final reward after a lifetime of christly abstinence. Why not make Heaven right here, right now?

The part that interested Gabi the most for his paper was the part he had the most trouble tracking down. Through all the ramblings of the imprisoned cultists' testimonies and their confiscated home videos, he could not find any concrete information on that stupid goat.

It was always mentioned in passing, like it was common knowledge. Oh, you know, the goat.

What was that goat? Where is it now? Was it a demon? An intelligent cryptid? Was it just a regular goat? Gabi was tempted to think there was no goat at all, that those fuckers collectively hallucinated it. A goat in a pseudo-christian cult was like a drop of water in the ocean, and so damn cliche the Seekers would have definitely had one too.

With his first paper on Jersey Devil-type spawns, those guys at least had the decency to tell him directly what he needed to know.

"Gabi, is it true that the cult was a sex cult?" Laura asked. Garofița was mortified on his behalf.

"Partially, yeah." He casually said, the screen reflecting in his pupils. "They did a bit of everything."

"If I had a cult," Filip began to say, nodding slowly with narrowed eyes, "I'd go full Jim Jones."

"Really?" Roxi asked, amused.

"Yeah, go big or go home. I'm taking everybody to a tropical destination, I'm taking everybody's money, and when things go bad, I'm first to kill myself."

"I'd do Heaven's Gate." Denisa giggled. "Get everybody matching pyjamas."

"I'd redo the maenads." Laura said, flaring out her shawl-veil. "We'd all run around the woods, get stupid drunk, and beat the shit out of men."

"Can I join?" Iulian asked. "For the booze part, not the beating part."

"No, you're staying clean."

"Good girl." Roxi said.

"Gabi," Garofița asked while holding an occultism manual, "did that Aleister Crowley guy really make a deal with the Devil?"

"Oh my God, don't ask me about that!" Gabi threw his head back in despair, making Garofița back away and regret speaking. "That guy was a fucking mess, his life was a mess, he perplexes me! He went to shitty little communes and let his kids see sex magic! One baby died from how fucking dirty those places were! FUCK that guy! I hate that I have to read about his religion!!"

"Let it out, let it out." Roxi came over and rubbed his back.

"I hate looking up old people, man! I hate it! Almost all of them did some bullshit! How am I supposed to focus on their enochian magic treaties when they were sleeping with minors on the side?! I should have become a doctor..." Gabi lamented.

"Creeps are everywhere, unfortunately." Roxi pet his hair.

"Garofița, you there?" Mr Gliga called from outside. They saw his curly white hair through the window.

"Y-Yes?" She stepped forward, book still in hand.

"You still got the ramen?"

"Yes, I brought some with me."

"Oh, perfect!" He grinned.

"Yeah, uh, they're in my backpack."

"I don't like ramen." Ștefan commented.

"You don't?" Garofița turned to him.

"I'm sick of it." He said as he read a book about paganism.

"Oh..."

"I'll eat it anyway, don't worry."

"I-I'm not worrying." She said and cringed at herself.

Roxi's phone started buzzing. "Yello'?" She answered it. "Hello, Mr Marius!"

There was a long pause.

"Alright, uh, we'll remain here. Sure. Yeah, sure! Bye-bye!"

Roxi turned to Gabi. "They're deploying Mihai."

"Is it that dire?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I guess they want to scare them." She shrugged.

Garofița, as well as the other kids, looked at the two of them questioningly.

"Mihai is with Mr Marius." Roxi quickly explained. "They're working together on the case."

"I like Mihai!" Denisa smiled. "He's cute!"

"Does he wear anything other than tank tops?" Iulian scoffed.

"I hope he doesn't."

They were fucking with him. They could have caught him a long time ago, but instead they are playing this sick game. They are revelling in the chase. Fucking freaks.

The sky was muted, thin clouds fixing into the blue like milk in coffee. He couldn't tell what time it was. A pharmacy said it was almost 2pm, then an ATM said it 3. Time flew and stood in place at the same time.

Grecu wiped his sweat bead-ridden forehead. His mind swam, trying to find any comfort in this hellish town, with grey buildings and laughing people. A woman cackled and he spun around thinking it was at him and his plight. She was showing her boyfriend something on the phone. He wanted to shoot them both.

His mind wandered to the cult in Călimari, the revelries back when Lady Olivia was among them.

It happened so fast. She had no idea she was sick until a routine check-up. As if triggered by the sight of those lab results, her body slowly wasted away, growing weaker and weaker every day. Her plump, athletic body that went on hikes every week became so frail she could not sit up in bed.

Waiting for somebody to die was a nightmare he would not wish on his worst enemy. What was he supposed to do without Olivia? She was his everything. Every member said that as they wept around her deathbed, but he meant it. She was his reason to keep living, why he joined the Seekers, why he put up with everyone's bullshit and depravity. It was all for Olivia, all for her to look at him with those beautiful eyes, to hold him in those soft arms, to tell him he was good, that for once in his grey life he was doing good.

He missed her so much, nothing else mattered. The Seekers were a beautiful, wonderful dream he was harshly woken up from, forced back to a reality where he was a nobody with nothing. All he had he gave to the Seekers, nay, to Olivia. He wanted to go back so badly, wanted her back, wanted to feel her under him again, be told by her warm voice what he must do again. Gheorghe sounded like a donkey and Dorel like a shivering dog. Olivia was springtime itself. He was willing to do anything to have her back, shoot a dozen more and then himself, anything, anything, anything-

"How lost are you?"

Grecu gasped, woken up from his spiraling. He looked behind himself, but nobody was there. It was a man's voice, but who...?

He turned back. The pair of legs he had been absentmindedly staring at were not Olivia's, but another woman's. She was blonde with pale skin, sitting at a cafe table set outside on the pavement. She sat together with a young man, blond, tanned and with brown eyes. Has he seen him before? They quickly flicked from behind him to his face. He was looking at him rather intensely, eyes crinkled, a hand covering his mouth.

The blonde woman turned to face him too. Her eyes were beautiful, like clear skies. She looked at him up and down and smiled. Grecu wished they were back in Călimari, that he could just walk over and touch her.

She stood up gracefully, searching through her purse. To his surprise, she walked up to him and handed him a piece of paper. Grecu started sweating again, suspicion bubbling through the lust, but her smile was so disarming he took the paper without thinking.

She turned around and left, crossing the street to a large yellow building. The town hall. He was in the town center again.

Grecu dumbly looked down at the paper.

Panait Istrati street nr 15.

"Rice is the easiest thing to make!" Gliga said as he rinsed out the grains, throwing the cloudy water in a corner by the walls. "Wash it, put it in the pan, and you're done."

"Do you have to wash it so much?" Garofița asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Bugs."

"Oh."

He made a big pot of rice with canned corn and bits of pork, and a big pot of noodles from several combined packs. Garofița and the children received a large plate of the former and a spoon for each. They ate at the same time while sitting in a circle, careful not to clash utensils.

Garofița tried to fish out the sweet corn. There were six of them and four pieces of pork. She preferred bird meat, but Mr Gliga used seasoning from the noodles, giving it an orange sheen. She tried to inconspicuously scoop one up in her spoon.

"Eyyy!" Ștefan scolded, making her freeze up.

He pushed the pork away, then he and the others scooped up rice and dumped it in Garofița's spoon, making a little mountain.

"Thank you, Gliga." Melinda P. brought back a half-empty plate.

"Already done?" He asked, then cleared his throat into his shoulder.

"I'm not hungry today." She said. As she turned to leave, she looked at the kids and nodded as a greeting. She didn't look as mean anymore. Garofița wondered if she remembered her.

She turned to look at Vitalis who sat at their side, who had been looking at Melinda too.

"You don't look that much alike, actually." She commented, eating a forkful of noodles.

"No?" Garofița asked.

"Garo is Melinda's kid?!" Filip gasped.

"No, dumbass." Iulian said. "Melinda has a boy."

"Oh, oops."

"Garofița has a common face, as they say." Vitalis said. "Robert told me as well that you reminded him of Simona when she was your age."

"Do I remind you of anybody?" Garofița smiled.

"My little sister, kind of."

"I do?" Garofița lit up.

"Her name is Carla. I haven't seen her in years, though. Dunno what she looks like right now." Vitalis continued eating in a strange silence.

"Don't take it to heart if Melinda says something." Gliga said, naturally hearing everything by being only a meter away. "She's going through a lot."

"She's nice if you get to know her!" Denisa's mom said. "She's originally from Lăutari and she's got the craaaziest stories."

"Oh, I'm sure of it." Gliga chuckled.

"That's where the big prison is, right?" Garofița asked.

"Yep."

"I heard of Lăutari before, but not of Ferești, to be honest." She said.

"Girl, Ferești is an Amish village compared to Lăutari!" Bea said.

"Lăutari is fucking Gotham." Ștefan added.

"All three towns are pretty whack." Bea nodded as she ate. "Ferești, Văleni and Lăutari are like Hell, Super Hell and Mega Hell."

"I had a girlfriend from Lăutari once." Gigi said.

"Alina?" Vitalis asked, breaking her silence.

"No, she was from Topa. I'm talking about Adela."

"Oh, God..." She shook her head. Gigi side-eyed her rather hard.

"What happened?" Garofița shuffled closer to Gigi.

"I wanna know too!" Laura said, two rice grains on her lip.

"I lived in Lăutari for one year about...five or six years ago?" Gigi said, putting her plate on her lap. "No, six, it was before the pandemic. So I was living in Lăutari and I had a girlfriend named Adela for about 4 months. To make a long and humiliating story short, I broke her car's windows."

"Whaaat!" Laura said.

"Oh God!" Garofița said.

"What happened?" Denisa hopped in place.

"It's a long story..."

"What happened!" They all pressed. "Why did she do?"

"She put a restraining order against me..."

The girls, and everybody else close enough to hear the story for the first time, went very quiet. There was an internal battle with themselves, not wanting to be the first to speak up, not wanting to think Gigi was a bad person, they knew she wasn't, but also becoming very suspicious.

"Why...Why did she do that?" Laura eventually asked.

"Listen!" Gigi groaned, throwing her head back. "She ghosted me out of nowhere! When I finally got a hold of her I asked 'what's happening, why are you avoiding me?' and she was like 'I don't want to be with you anymore, get a hint'. And maybe I crashed out a little bit."

"Just maybe." Vitalis chuckled. Gigi glared at her again. The audience was still unsure.

"As if you're any better!" Gigi said. "Go on, tell them!"

Heads whipped towards Vitalis.

"What did she do?" Filip asked.

"What didn't I do?" Vitalis asked back.

"Tell us! Tell us!" Laura said, fists shaking in excitement.

Vitalis slowly chewed and swallowed her food before answering.

"I got married at 19 and got divorced at 21."

"WHAT?!" Garofița squaked, rice flying out.

"Yeah."

"You were married?!"

"Yup."

"At 19??"

"You heard me right." She kept eating. "Let's move on now."

"Wha- You can't just drop a bomb like that!!" Laura protested. Garofița agreed.

"It's not that interesting." Vitalis wiped her mouth with a tissue. "When I was 19 I was working in a sports bar and this regular guy took interest in me. Not sure why, I was an even bigger mess back then. He was 5 years older than me, but he was kind, polite. Never pressured anything. He was a sweet dude, working some corporate job, good lookin'. I tried to make it work, but I just couldn't. I didn't love him like that."

"Then why did you marry him?" Denisa furrowed her brows.

Vitalis sighed. "I was lonely. I was lonely and I wanted to get my life together. This guy, in many ways, was my goal. A proper adult with his shit sorted out, with a nice house, a good job, friends that actually like him... I thought he would fix all my problems. I thought that, over time, I would fall in love with him too. But I didn't, and you can't force yourself to fall in love. So we divorced. I tried to make it easy for him, let him keep everything and remove myself from his life causing as little commotion as possible. I mean, I already broke his heart."

"I don't know, asking a 19 year old to marry you when you're 24 is wild." Denisa's mom said.

"Yeah, I know. I thought about it when I turned 25. 19 year olds looked like toddlers to me. They still do."

"Yeah, yeah, that's all nice." Gigi said, arms crossed. "Tell them about the other guy."

Heads whipped towards Vitalis again, who brought a hand to her eyes.

"What other guy?!" Garofița asked.

"A married guy!" Gigi answered.

"We don't know if he was still married when he talked to me!" Vitalis said. "I am not and have never been a homewrecker!"

The kids were losing their minds.

"Okay, so, when I was 23 I met this man... who was in his 60s-"

"Oh no!" Garofița put a hand over her mouth.

"Let me finish!"

"You make fun of my love life, meanwhile your rebound after divorce was a grandpa." Gigi scoffed.

"LET ME FINISH! I was 23 and I met this man in his 60s, and he was all 'let me take care of you', 'I'm loaded', and he was, he had a lot of money, and I needed money. I still do. And he kept telling me all this stuff like, 'oh, you remind me so much of my kids'-"

"His kids?!" Laura put her hands on her head.

"Yes, his kids were in their 40s, so older than me as well-"

"What the fuck?!"

"There was a lot going on."

"Girl, you should have run for the hills!" Denisa's mom said. "You should have gotten out of there!"

"I did!" Vitalis said.

"Immediatly?"

"...after a little bit."

Horror and despair overcame the faces of the small group around her. Denisa's mom closed her eyes and let her head fall back. "Oh, Lord...!"

"I needed money, okay?!" Vitalis said, unable to hold back laughter.

"She likes them old, alright!" Gliga laughed too, and was promptly punched in the gut.

Grecu couldn't remember when the goat appeared in their commune.

It was just there one day, or it arrived a few days before and he just didn't notice. He didn't notice a lot of things, either to spare his nerves or by genuine accident. There were long periods of time, whole weeks, that blended together into blurs interrupted only by skull-splitting hangovers. He could not remember if he slept with A or B the day before, or if it happened that morning, or if he actually used the bathroom he was exiting. He blinked and half a year passed.

When he saw the goat roaming the grounds, he just sort of accepted it. Just as he accepted Gheorghe's teen recruits, younger and younger, or that Valentin's main girlfriend went missing after their 10th argument. We have a goat now, I guess.

He was pretty sure Gheorghe told them about it, or told them that he already told them, which was a thing he often took to doing. After Olivia's death, Grecu was too buzzed most days to argue anymore. Losing himself in alcohol, women and plant blends hit differently when his pain was harder to drown out, and by the time he successfully sank it he was nothing more than a ragdoll. Gheorghe could convince him the sky was pink and that left was right.

One thing he remembered clearly, even as he wandered Ferești sleep-deprived and panicking, was a late August night. He stepped outside, the air blessedly cold against his heated skin. He looked up at the inky dark sky and the moon as bright as a flashlight. It was a quiet night. Really quiet. Not even crickets or mosquitos. Even in his inebriated state he found it odd.

He looked down from the sky to the dark earth and saw the goat was there, looking at him. It was a strange creature. It reached about the height of his knee and it was brown. It did not have horns at all, and its ears were drawn so far back it looked earless from certain angles. Its eyes were brown too, bulging sideways out of their sockets.

Grecu noticed the pupils weren't rectangular, but rounded like his. They were so wide, so blown-out, the iris was only a faint line circling them.

He also realised he didn't really see it do "goat things". It never hopped around, belched, searched the grass with its nose, flicked its ears. It just kind of aimlessly wandered the compound all day, sauntering more like a cat than a goat.

He realised, too late, it was probably not a regular goat. He watched it step closer to him and for the first time in years he felt awkward about being naked.

"Are you a real goat?" He blurted out, unable to think of anything else.

"Does it matter?"

"...I don't know."

"I can be whatever you like."

"Who are you?"

"I'm not a who, I'm a what."

"Huh?"

"Is something wrong?"

"I don't... Why are you here?"

"I heard you. You all seem to have so much fun! I want to join!"

It tilted its head up, wet nostrils flared out, bloodshot eyes looking at his. Grecu's chest burnt with rising bile and he felt the need to wipe his mouth.

Its hand touched his stomach with dainty fingers he had not felt in months, tracing up his chest and to his neck. It did not squeeze at all, but Grecu couldn't breathe.

"What are you...?!"

"It doesn't matter, does it?" It laughed and the sound made his skull ring like a punch to the temple. Through the blur of his tears he saw Olivia! Olivia! Sweet Olivia! Her eyes were wide and pupils blown-out, cheek round and soft like she used to be.

It kept changing, swimming in his eyes, Olivia's beauty, his late mother, Gheorghe's yellow teeth, the goat, the young girls, Angelina Jolie in Mr and Mrs Smith, Claudia's corpse they found in a ditch, Valentin's grin, Olivia's weak smile.

"N-No..."

"Is this better?"

Olivia's half-lidded eyes as she looked down at him, her chest and belly in the way, the hot skin of her thighs pressing his ears shut.

"Yes..."

She laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Okay, your turn." Bea said. "What's the craziest thing you did?"

"The last guy I was with before I met Peti..." Carmen 'Barbie' began to say. She was heavyset with box-dyed black hair, and she sat next to Petrică 'Ken', a bear of a man. They had matching tattoos on their necks. "...I started seeing him while I was with another guy. For almost a whole year."

"Jesus, woman!"

"Did he ever find out?" Laura giddily asked.

"Nope!" Carmen shook her head, her fringe bouncing along. "Though it bit me in the ass later, because the guy I cheated with tried to fist-fight my dad. Not cool. Then I found my boy!" She smirked, petting Petrică under his chin and scratching his beard. He closed his eyes like a cat.

"Is everybody here messy?" Garofița whispered, covering her mouth too for good measure.

"Not everybody." Vitalis said, rubbing the back of her neck. "When you're out here, depending on your luck or how desperate you are, you end up in some messy situations. Or you're too bored for your own good."

"You're cool with that, mister?" Laura asked Petrică.

"I'm exaaactly where I want to be." He said, leaning lower until his head was on Carmen's shoulder.

"Who's next!" Denisa looked around, snickering like a gossip gremlin.

"Hush, girl!" Carmen chuckled like a dove. "Your mom will get mad at me again."

"Lucica, do you have crazy stories?"

Garofița stared at Denisa for asking such a thing when Lucica had trouble because of a man, but Lucica just laughed heartily.

"When I was in college," Lucica said, "I was dating this guy-" she burst out laughing in advance "-I was dating this guy and I didn't know his name."

"Girl, what?"

Lucica snorted.

"Did he, like, never tell you?"

"He did, but I misheard it and I was too embarrassed to ask for clarification when we started dating, so I just called him by pet names the entire time."

"Okay, another question!" Iulian said, raising his index finger. "Did you ever figure out his name?"

Lucica hesitated a moment too long.

"Girl!" Laura wheezed.

"I did!!" She said. "But it was a long time ago, I forgot again."

"Garooo!" Gabriel called out through his window.

"Yes?" She asked, stretching her neck like a meerkat.

"Before I forget again, give me one of your spiders! To take to Mr Ozsvar!"

"One of your what?" Denisa asked.

"I, uh, I have a pet spider." Garofița panicked a little. "A forest spirit, I think, that I found in the woods."

"That's cooool!" Her eyes glittered.

Garofița grinned.

She walked alone to Gabi's room and found him hunched over the laptop.

"Why is everybody so obsessed with sex...?" Gabi muttered darkly under his breath. "Everybody stop fucking..."

"I've arrived!" She spoke up.

"Oh, uh, here!" He handed her a clear plastic bottle with a red cap, like the kind you put stool samples into. There were holes made into the cap with a needle.

Garofița held out her palm and thought of her spider, of Pickle working hard at weaving a window panel, of how pretty it looked in the light. Her skin itched and she turned her hand around, Pickle crawling along her knuckles.

"Go there, please." She whispered, holding the container close.

It stood still, looking rather confused. Garofița decided to just scoop it up inside. It didn't seem distressed when the cap was screwed back on, just curious.

"Thank you, Gabi!"

"Thank you too!"

She returned to the courtyard, where the next person to tell a story was Elena 'Hurrem'. Her loose curls were dyed orange, covering part of her face like a curtain, and her eyebrows were so thin they were invisible.

Prostitutes didn't look how Garofița expected. Elena was pretty, but not like the bombshell hookers in movies with perfect makeup and blowout hairdos. Elena looked like an average lady, just wearing a super short skirt and a dangerous cleavage.

"I hope they catch the murderers quickly." She said. "I need to go on the highway again tonight."

Garofița glanced at the sky, the blue gradually turning yellow.

"Did the dude last night tip a lot?" Vitalis asked.

"He did." Elena nodded. "Maybe I can catch him again, or another sod like that."

"Isn't it scary to walk on the highway at night?" Garo sheepishly asked.

"You get used to it. Most creatures know to avoid roads where a car can boom them."

"What about the drivers?"

"What is there to be scared of?" She scoffed, raising one side of her upper lip in a snarl. "Men? Don't piss me off."

Garofița liked Elena.

As she watched Vitalis light a new cigarette and Mrs Heredea stand up to make a phone call, she saw Adam from earlier walk towards them.

"Hey, sorry for freaking you out earlier!" He said as he sat next to Garo.

"Oh, don't worry!" She said. "It's fine! Are you, uhm, okay now?"

"Yeah, yeah... Even if I'm aware it's a hallucination, it still feels like it's real."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Yeah... it sucks."

"Does anything help?"

"Meds." He laughed a little.

"Do you see, like, bugs? And stuff?" Garofița asked, looking at his arms. The blanket was discarded somewhere.

"Ants!" He raised his brows. "It's always ants for some reason."

Garofița told herself she was stupid for even thinking of saying it.

"In the house I squat in there is a spider that seems supernatural." She said it anyway.

"Oh, my thing isn't supernatural." Adam said. "I used to pay a witch for protection spells. All it did was make me upset when they didn't work. Of course they didn't work if there was nothing to protect me from. My silly brain doesn't give a fuck about sage."

Garofița laughed.

"Poor woman didn't know what else to do with me." He laughed too.

Garofița sighed and looked down smiling at her hand, where Dog was trotting about.

"Garo!" Gabi called out again.

"W-What?" She turned around.

"The, uh, the spider died."

"What?"

"It just turned belly-up and it died... Can you, like, give me another one?"

It disappeared and less than a week later they were busted by the police. It must have known its fun was coming to an end and left to save its own shifting skin.

Grecu hated it so much for it. First Olivia, now the goat left him too. He was all alone again, in a world that considered him insane, a fool, a pervert, a criminal. Why couldn't it take him with it? He loved it the most out of everyone, just as he had done for Lady Olivia. He also wondered why he couldn't drop dead when Olivia died too.

He truly wondered if they would be able to bring it back. Entice it back with revelries and debauchery, resume their dreamlike commune. He doubted an idiot like Dorel would be able to do all that, but he, Grecu, had to try. His love and devotion were true, his dedication will finally be rewarded this time. Third time's the charm. No more pain, no more solitude, no more cold. If three randoms need to die to bring back his Heaven, so it be.

The streetlights lit up yellow and Grecu's head shot up. It was already dark. What time was it?

He heard a crinkle in his pocket as his fingers flexed. He took out the paper the beautiful woman handed him. As he looked up again he saw a post with street names.

STR. MIHAI EMINESCU

STR. MARIE CURIE

STR. PANAIT ISTRATI

He looked down at the paper again, feeling a bead of sweat roll down under his clothes, along his spine. The images of Olivia and the stranger at the cafe blended together in his tired eyes. They were both blonde, both curvy. Was this her address? She didn't speak to him, but he hoped her cries would sound like Olivia.

Panait Istrati nr 15 was the very last building on the street, a 4-floors tall apartment block. The street itself led to a dead end, with old garages, trash cans and parked cars.

Grecu slowed to a stop underneath a streetlight that weakly glowed orange. He stared up at the building, wondering what to do next. He wobbled. It was getting hard to stand upright. There was an incessant sound of car engines behind him, from the main street. They were too loud, growing louder and louder, making his head throb.

He looked down from the building to the orange pavement and saw his shadow. It grew longer and longer, darker and darker, the light whiter and whiter, and Grecu gasped when he realized.

By the time he turned around, his vision was flooded by a searing white. Then he saw the night sky spinning above him, then the pavement as he rolled on it. Every bone in his body felt crushed, lodged out of its place, and his brain bounced along the walls of his skull. He could not move or even cry out, equal parts pain and shock.

The car that rammed into him purred lowly, its headlights pointing to his broken figure. Two men stepped out from the driver and passenger's seats.

"Is he dead?" Emmanuel Bisclavu asked, fixing his glasses on his nose.

Grecu drew in a painful breath and blood sputtered out as he exhaled. His chest felt concave.

"Not yet!" Robert said.

He watched the figures stand around him, looking black from the light shining behind them.

"Well hello there, son!" Emmanuel said, voice far too jolly for Grecu in that moment, or any moment. "I've got to say, your cult is bolder than any of us expected! You've given us quite a scare! Good job!"

Grecu grit his teeth, his eyes bulging out.

"I can't say 'great job', because, well, look at you." Emmanuel continued. "You're the one who shot the little boy and his family, correct?"

He growled, his nose and throat stuffed with his own blood. "Fuck you...!!"

"Ooh! Still feisty! I know someone who would like you." Robert grinned. Grecu despised his teasing tone.

"So did you do it?" Emmanuel asked again.

"Fuck... fuck you all...!" Grecu forced his arm under his coat. He pulled out the gun, numb finger over the trigger, too out of it to see the barrel bent sideways. "I'll... kill you too... you sheep..."

"Says one of the goat fuckers." Emmanuel huffed out a laugh. "So you admit you killed people from our town."

"I did... I'll do it... again... ag...ain... It's your fault...!!" Blood dripped in a steady stream out of his mouth, hand shaking around the gun. "You took it... took her... from me... our Hea...ven..."

"I don't remember doing that." He pouted. "Are you confusing us for the police in Călimari, perhaps?"

"Shut it!" He managed to scream, blood-spit flying all the way to their shoes.

"Eugh." Emmanuel moved his foot away.

"Hey." Robert said. "Hey, look over here."

Grecu glared up at him.

Robert was holding a gun in one hand, and his other hand up in the air. Then he pointed to the side with his index finger.

Grecu twisted his brows in confusion and looked where the finger pointed.

Bang!

Grig wandered the streets of Ferești with bated breath. He had not crossed paths with Grecu once. Where was he? Did they kill him?

He clung close to the walls of buildings and dark alleys, and slipped into a bar with hunched shoulders. Like a rat, Mihai thought.

Grig thought that if he were around people, around a crowd, he would be more safe. He took a seat at a table in the far end and ordered one beer. He waited with his hands on the table, fighting back the panic, trying to will his body to relax. He couldn't, nor could he stop the feeling of doom that followed him ever since Grecu shot the Cernescus.

It happened exactly as Dorel hoped. Sabina, hearing for the first time in years from her ex-husband, believed in his plea for help to escape the cult and the authorities. Of course her husband wouldn't let her go alone, and they didn't have who to leave their child with. Three bangs and it was over.

As soon as the ringing in his years from the last shot ceased, Grig felt himself filled with dread of what they had just done. He had no qualms about murder in the name of the Seekers until they actually did it. He still didn't, in theory, but the fear of being caught increased a hundredfold. He didn't want to split up with Grecu, but wasn't someone he could argue with. He couldn't argue with anybody, hence why he agreed to accompany the newly-appointed hitman.

God, what a mess, what a mess... He just wanted to go home... to calm, to peace, to the chaos of the commune he knew how to deal with...

He raised his eyes when he heard someone approaching his table, expecting it to be the waitress with his glass.

It was not.

"Hello, Grigore!" Mihai smiled as he sat down in front of him.

Grig stared at him in bewilderment. The young man was beautiful, with sun-kissed skin and brown eyes lined with thick eyelashes. He wore a black tank top, far too little for the evening air outside. His eyes, their softness, clashed with the vicious intensity with which they bore into him. Grig felt naked.

"You..." He said, air halting in his throat.

"You don't know me, do you?" He kept smiling. "I wasn't there at the re-baptisms. My friends were, though! Was it you who tackled Gabi to the ground? Or was it Andrei Grecu? I don't remember."

At the mention of his name, Grig felt cold all over. He stifled the urge to ask where he was, what they did to him.

"Is something wrong?" Mihai asked. Grig flinched and saw the man across from him smile wider, full of sadistic satisfaction. It did not match his kind face.

He heard about the vampire of Ferești, the werewolf clan, that Gabriel kid who is a student of cryptozoology, but Grig had no idea what to expect. He never did. There were so many scary things in the world. He wanted to go home, to their commune, where it was safe, where the strangest things were other members and her.

Grig struggled to swallow saliva, then spoke. "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter." He shook his head.

"W-Why not?"

"You won't know me for long."

Grig wanted to back away, but the chair and the wall were in the way. The patrons of the bar went about their business, talking and laughing and clinking glasses. The world was unaware of the terror coursing through Grig, no one ever was.

"Are you wondering what is going to happen?" Mihai asked.

"Yes..."

"To be honest, I don't know either!" He shrugged. "I was told just to collect you."

"By who...?"

"By my bosses."

"Mirabela...?"

"One of them!" He smiled again.

The waitress was coming with the beer, recognised Mihai, and quickly turned around.

Grig took a deep breath.

"You don't have to do this."

"I don't."

"Then why...?"

"It's my job to bring you to my bosses."

"I-I will leave. The Seekers, I will leave them and you'll never see or hear from me again. I didn't do anything! Grecu shot them! H-He did everything! I promise, I vow I will never bother anybody again. Y-You could tell them you lost me, that you couldn't find me."

"I could."

"Please..."

"Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be, Grigore."

Grig's face twisted in despair and frustration. "I didn't do anything!!"

"Tell that to them, not to me, dude."

"You're a sheep!" He sobbed. "You're just like everyone else!"

"I am." He smiled.

"You're not human, are you?"

Mihai's smile lowered.

"You're... you're like her. I can feel it. You're like my-... o-our beloved. You are... you..."

His smile returned. Grig's body felt drained of all strength, like a deflating balloon, his vision blurred. It felt horrible.

"Does it matter what I am?"

"No..."

"Then let's get go-"

"No, no, no, I was wrong... You're not like her, you're nothing like her... you're a monster... A monster working for monsters!"

"A monster?"

"Yes..."

"I'm a monster?"

"Yes...!"

Mihai took a deep breath and exhaled long through his nose, leaning back in his chair.

"Then I should act like a monster."

Grig stared at him, then a second later all he saw was the wood of the table. He squealed in shock and pain.

Mihai raised him back by the hair, then slammed him down again, then again, again, again. Grig saw the table become more and more red, a viscous line of blood connected to his face. He could not move, the hand was like a vice.

"Let's go." Mihai said, still smiling, brown eyes still beautiful and soft.

He dragged him towards the back of the bar, Grig's legs skidding against the wooden floor. People at the tables kept talking, avoiding eye-contact, pretending nothing was happening. Only one very drunk man said "Damn, he's fucking him up", and was quickly shushed by the waitress.

Grig, nose broken and lips split open, reached for Mihai's arm. He tried to break free, claw at the young man's wrist, pry his hand off, but it was like he was made out of steel. It was like Grig suddenly weighed nothing.

They were passing through the kitchen area. Grig pulled back until his hair was ripped off. It sounded like pulling a clump of grass. He fell gracelessly to the tiled floor and tried to scramble away. Mihai kicked him in the head, bashing him against the doorframe's corner.

He picked him up by the back of his shirt, apologised to the staff for all the blood, and carried him out like a sack of potatoes.

Mirabela's heels tapped against the dusty road behind the buildings. It was an ominous sound to hear in the dark, followed by her silhouette with large, wild hair. Her curls were a carefully planned storm.

"We should go shopping tomorrow." Mrs Heredea sighed in the encampment, illuminated by small lanterns dotted between the tents. "We're low on food."

"Where should we go?" Denisa asked.

"I'd say Lidl, but their prices have gone up like crazy."

"Girl!" Melinda P. groaned. "Don't get me started! The bakery I usually buy bread from now says bread is 6 lei! Six!! It used to be just 4! When it went up to 4,50 I was like okay, fine, whatever. Then it went to 5 and I thought okay, surely they won't go even higher, right? They'll lose clients, right? Then it jumped straight to six!!"

"Dude, I went to the hypermarket outside of Călimari with my buddy." Mircea the youtube guy said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Over 100 lei and I barely bought shit!!"

"I was at Palaghiu a few days ago," Elena said, "and even Mirabela was complaining about the prices, dawg! If even Mirabela is having a bad time, we are fucked!"

"It's the depression-" Iulian said.

"Depression my ass!" Melinda P. said. "We were already depressed, the rest of the world just caught up."

"What is Mirabela even complaining about?" Carmen asked. "Doesn't she already have a hundred outfits?"

"She can't repeat them, darling!" Mrs Heredea mocked.

Mirabela smiled as she approached the gate. "Thank you for looking after everyone, dear." She told the youngster from the Bisclavu family.

"My pleasure, ma'am!" He smiled back, bowing his head a little bit.

Mirabela looked at him up and down and he reflexively straightened his back.

"Do you like the nails I got for tonight?" She asked and presented his claws, burgundy red and cerulean blue.

"They're beautiful!" He said, gingerly taking hold of her fingers.

"Your nails are nice too."

"Are they?" He said, surprised.

"Yes! Few men keep their nails clean and tidy. Yours are very nice."

"Why, thank you!" He giggled.

"You've got nice hands too." She smirked as she looked into his eyes, lingering as she moved towards the door.

Marius rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached to the back of his skull.

"One time she refused to buy a designer dress for 800 euro," Elena retold, "the reduced price mind you, and made Ralouka find a dupe online."

"What a cheap ass bitch!" Carmen said. "I should have her money, I would know what to do with it-"

"Good evening, everyooone!" Mirabela said as she entered the encampment.

Carmen shut her mouth so quickly her teeth clattered.

Garofița was sitting on a bench, admiring how pretty the encampment was at night with the lanterns, each a slightly different shade of yellow in the blue darkness. She saw the whole encampment go silent when Mirabela arrived, the same tension she saw in town in the morning when the murders were first discovered.

"I come bearing good news!" Mirabela said, with Mr Marius and Mr Eduard behind her. "The murderers have been found and taken care of! Huzzah!"

Sighs of relief and murmurs of happiness spread throughout the camp. Tomorrow, life would return to normal.

Garofița was smiling too until she saw Mr Eduard walking towards her.

"Hello there, Garofița!" He said as he sat next to her.

"Hello...!" She said nervously.

"I checked your house, as you asked."

"T-Thank you...! Is everything alright?"

"Yes! Your buddies are there and seem to be doing fine."

"Thank you, Sir!..." She said.

"Does anyone know about them?" He asked, looking around the tents.

"No... just you. D-Did Mr Marius see them too?"

"Yes, but he won't say anything."

"Oh..."

"He's used to it thanks to me." Eduard laughed. "I dulled down his nerves."

"Ahahah..."

"Is your skin-walker a male or female?"

"I, uh, I don't know. I didn't, like, check..."

"Looks like a male by its size... I'm asking because my Toad gets terribly depressed in the spring. I'd let him out to find a mate, but he's been an indoor pet for so long he would get his ass kicked 5 seconds in."

Garofița laughed a little. "Are there many skin-walkers?"

"In our forest, no. In all my life I've seen only 6, Toad and yours included. They are very elusive creatures."

"Got it..."

"They're really smart and really dumb at the same time. Kind of like house cats."

"My Walker really is like a cat." She giggled.

"They're basically mountain lions!" Eduard explained. "Just long and weird."

"Thank you for checking on them, Sir." She said.

"You're welcome, dearie."

"I-I was worried about cops checking my house too and, uhm..."

"Hey! If you ask for help, of course I'll help you!" He smiled, placing a large and heavy hand on her shoulder.

Garofița glanced warily at it.

"We help each-other around here." He said.

"...uh-huh." Garofița intoned.

"Roxi, are you coming?" Mirabela asked.

"Yes, boss!" She said.

"Gabi?"

"Do I have to?" He frowned, eyes very red.

"You can rest." Mirabela said. "Or write more."

"Thank you, boss..."

"Elena, dear?"

"You already want to see me again?" She teased.

Mirabela smiled like a perv.

"By the way, the medicine will arrive in two days at the hospital." She continued. "Dr Nagy will have them."

"He still works?" Mrs Heredea asked.

"He's retirin' next year." Marius said.

"Goodness, 40 years already passed..." Mirabela sighed.

"You'll need a new doctor soon!" Bea said.

"Yeah..." She glanced around the camp. "What's her name again? The girl with the shawl?"

"Uh, Laura?"

"Laura!" Mirabela called out. "You're going to med school!"

Bea slapped a hand over her own mouth.

"I don't wanna!" Laura shouted.

"You're going and you're graduating valedictorian!"

Mirabela spun with a smile to her entourage. "Let's get going!"

"Well, I'm off!" Eduard said, groaning slightly as he stood to his feet.

Garofița remained seated, his hand still on her shoulder, cold dread all over her skin. Today had been such a good day, and here he comes right at the end to make her feel afraid again. It was not fair!

She reached her hand up, as if to hold his, then quickly put it back down.

"See you around!" He said.

"See you..."

"Good night, besties!" Mirabela loudly said.

As they walked away towards the gate, Eduard reached a hand up to the back of his neck and scratched. When he looked at it, he saw a spider, Gleep, a daddy-long-legs scurrying over his fingers at great speed.

"Urghh!" He yelped, shaking and slapping his own hand. The group was startled and stared at him.

"What's wrong with you?" Marius asked.

"There was a spider on me." He said, paranoically touching his neck again.

"You're as big as a fuckin' bull and you're scared of a tiny ass spider?"

"Leave me alone, man!"

"Garo!" Gabi called out from his window. "It happened again!"

Grig opened his eyes and saw the ceiling of a car. His face felt split in half, so much pain everywhere but through it, on the left side along his nose, there was a distinct line of fire-hot aching. His front teeth wobbled in his mouth.

His hand weakly felt around the backseat, trying to remember where he was and what happened. On the floor of the car his fingers felt clothes, a shirt soaked in blood.

With an effort that felt herculean, he turned his head to the side, enough to glance down. The darkness was illuminated periodically by the streetlights they passed, and during those flashes he saw Grecu's bloodied face, a wound on the side of his temple erupting like a crushed apple. His eyes were still open wide, the one on the side of the gunshot bulging half-way out its socket.

Grig panted faster and faster, hyperventilated, his head flaring with pain anew.

His eyes shot up to the driver's seat. All he saw was an elbow and an arm as it touched the gear shift. He strained to look higher and there he saw Mihai's eyes in the mirror, staring him down. The entire time he drove he stared at him, regardless of turns or red lights or crosswalks, which he navigated without a problem.

"Aaah... hahh..." Grig sobbed.

Mihai turned his head and looked at him over his shoulder, over the edge of the driver's seat, hands still driving perfectly.

"Almost there, Grigore." He said, voice so gentle, almost comforting.

"Help..." He choked on his own spit.

He laughed and laughed.

The car stopped in front of Amante and Mihai finally stopped staring, so he could step out of the car.

"Be good and tell Mr Eduard everything you know about your cult." He said as he opened the door by Grig's head. "He is nastier than I am."

The encampment settled for bed. Garofița went to sleep in Vitalis' tent. It took a bit to relocate Bezea, who was thoroughly adored by Filip. He said he would look for a cat of his own to adopt. Denisa reminded him of the cat distribution system, and that he must be patient.

"Don't let Eddy freak you out. Or anybody from Amante for that matter." Vitalis said as she lied down with a groan.

"Okay!" Garofița said. She was smiling as she watched Gleep tap its legs at her fingernails.

She'll give Gabi another spider in the morning.

"Is the encampment like a pool for Mirabela to pick employees from?" Garo asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." Vitalis raised her eyebrows and twisted her mouth to the side. "Back in the day, when Marius was a teen like you, she picked him and his friends off the street. Then she thought 'wait, can I just keep doing this?', and she did. You can score yourself a pretty good life."

She repositioned her legs with a grunt. "If she gets you a house, a job, all you want, you'll have no choice but to do what she wants. She can take it back whenever she feels like it, after all."

"I understand."

"You gotta learn to be tougher. You're a sensitive kid. There's nothing wrong with that, but in the position you are right now you can't let anybody mess with you."

"I'm not tough..."

"That's what I'm saying. You can learn to be. Fake it 'til you make it. You think I was born the bitch I am today?"

"Kind of..." She giggled.

"Nah! It takes time, gotta marinate."

Garofița eyes drifted down. "I wish time would pass faster."

"Why's that?"

"So I would be an adult already. Have everything figured out, like you said earlier. I can't do anything right now."

"You think so?"

"When I'll be an adult, I'll work and have money. I'll move on from everything... Maybe even forget a lot of stuff... Everywhere I looked, I, uh, I mean online, it said that things get better eventually, that time heals and stuff... I wish I could skip directly to that."

Vitalis stared at the ceiling of the tent for a long moment, then inhaled deeply while closing her eyes.

"Don't rush to grow up." She sighed, reaching over a hand to caress Garofița's arm. "If you ask me, stay a kid for as long as you can. You have plenty of time. And things will get better for you, I'm sure. You're a good kid, unlike me."

Garofița looked at Vitalis through the darkness. She couldn't see her expression.

"I doubt you can fuck up worse than me." Vitalis added with a short laugh.

"I don't think you're bad." Garofița said.

"Eh, debatable."

"You're nice to me."

"Only because I like you."

"That's fine."

Vitalis laughed again. "Is that all your criteria?"

"Pretty much." Garofița quietly said. "I want to be around people who are nice to me."

Vitalis exhaled through her nose. "Anybody can be nice to you. The problem is figuring out who is genuine."

"I know..."

"Once you do you, you're either good or you tell them to piss right off."

"Hehehe..."

"Hehehe... Good night, kid."

"Good night!"

She slept like a log. Morning came with a lot of noise, of people waking up, shuffling, talking, spitting, clinking cups and splashing water. Bezea pushed Garofița's cheek with her paw.

"Good morning...!" She smiled, eyelashes glued together.

Bezea made her way to Vitalis, climbing over her chest and stepping right on her neck.

"Wha..." Vitalis stirred awake, making a double chin that made Garofița struggle to muffle her laughter. "Oh, hi!" She pet Bezea’s back and tail.

They greeted everybody and ate grilled sandwiches made by Gliga. Her hair was oddly harder to detangle when clean.

"Well..." Laura said at one point. "If I'll be a doctor, at least I'll look after everybody."

Mihai came to the encampment and brought the sandwich bread. Garofița found him nudging Gabriel awake with his foot.

"Hello!" She said.

"Hi there!" Mihai turned to her, fresh as a daisy.

"Hiii!" Denisa appeared at Garofița's side, as did other kids soon after.

"Hey, girl! Hey, y'all!"

"Mornin'..." Gabi groggily pushed himself up.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Mihai asked Garofița. "The murderers have been caught, there's nothing to worry about anymore."

"No, it's fine then." She said.

"Garo, come around the camp more often!" Denisa told her.

"Yeah! Let's hang out again!" Filip said, still munching his sandwich.

Garofița's heart swelled with joy. "I will!"

She walked back to her house with a pep in her step, backpack on her shoulders and Bezea in her hands.

"I'm baaack!" She said, letting her kitten down.

Buddy nearly crashed into her, so glad to see her return.

"I'm back! I'm back!" She giggled, hugging and kissing his head. "Sorry for being away for so long!"

Buddy was overjoyed, then suddenly stopped, looking up at her.

"What is it?" She asked.

He kept sniffing the air.

She stepped into the house and found Walker in his usual spot. "Hellooo!"

"Hellooo" He copied, perking up.

He suddenly paused too.

"What?" She furrowed her brows.

Walker stood up and cautiously approached her. He sniffed her shoulder, then her hair.

"Do you smell Bea? Or Mr Eduard?" She asked.

Walker rubbed his chin against the top of her hair.

"Hey!! I just washed it!"

Bonus Photo:

taken today, a spider that appeared in my house a few days ago.

I'm turning into my ocs fr