---

---

It had been by some miracle that Isla managed to get herself and Mariah into Madison's car. Fishing the much taller girl out of the swimming pool had been a feat in and of itself. And of course no one had helped her as she dragged her out of the beach house. Because why would they care about leaving behind the two newbies? In the end she'd teleported them both right into Madison's car, before promptly passing out too.

She woke with a start as the car came to a stop, blearily opening her eyes and rubbing the sleep out of them.

"Mm, we there already?" she slurred out, accent thick in her half awake state. She lifted her head off the person in the middle seat (whose name she couldn't remember right now) to look out the window. Nope, just a petrol station. Definitely not there. But this was good. She could get out, get some fresh air, a shit ton of snacks and some coffee.

As she half fell out of the car, realisation hit her. She didn't have any money.

She groaned while looking around at the milling about coven members. The chances were pretty slim that any one of them would spare her even a cent. Maybe Mariah, but she was still dead asleep. She wasn't beyond stealing but she'd rather not with so many people around. What a predicament! Then she caught sight of a familiar blonde going round the corner with a cigarette in hand. Penny had come with them? Penny had come with them! She must have missed the memo while dragging her new friend into the car.

Her relief was twofold. First, someone she could probably convince to lend her a little bit to buy some coffee. Second, someone who she actually trusted to not let her die. Aside from Mariah, who seemed even newer to this whole supernatural thing, she really didn't believe any if the other girls would help her. Not that she was the trusting sort in the first place, anyway. Between Penny, who was pretty powerful (from what Isla saw in Paradise), and Mariah, who seemed pretty willing to throw Isla over her shoulder and run, she had a pretty good survival game plan.

Isla half blinked, half walked, towards Penny while completely ignoring her surroundings. She was still groggy from sleep and all she could think about was getting coffee. Was blinking around a public place smart? Probably not. But the faster she got around that corner the better.

“Heyyyy Penny,” she mumbled out, clearly only half awake as she practically slammed against the wall beside her in an attempt to lean on it. “You wouldn’t happen to have spare change I can use for coffee or like coffee itself that would be really great, I am exhausted but also broke thanks to the whole stepping through a portal to a random country thing and I really don’t have the energy to steal.”

Her words grew more mumbled and nonsensical as she went on, oblivious to any bad mood Penny (or others) might be in.

---

---

Maya had the politeness (for once in her life) to call a thank you at Penny's back, before turning to glare at Emily.

“You know, I can very easily kick you to the curb,” she retorted. Her irritation didn’t come from being offended, because she couldn’t give a shit what Emily thought (and was very open about her sex life). She was actually incredibly better that she was yet to get anywhere with Trevor and Emily’s little comment reminded her of that. And it was also Emily, so everything she said was fucking dumb and made her want to punch her. “So shut the fuck up before I do.”

Though, Maya wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to mess with either. She nonchalantly added, “oh, I’d be careful where you sit in the back, I can tell you it wouldn’t be a pretty sight if you took a black light to it.”

And then she turned to the knock on her door, actually pleased to see Quinn for the first time in her life. Not because she liked the girl, she was fucking weird, but anything beat a moment longer with Emily. And a nicotine hit would be pretty nice right now.

“Sure, I’ll take one,” she said as she got out of her car (reluctantly turning the music off). “I could really do with it.”

And stretching her legs would be good, for all her basically telling the two in her car to get her coffee. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and nodded for Quinn to lead the way over to a spot away from the cars.

She slept in the dark and dreamless manner that was reserved for those in comas or the recently deceased. So it was that when Mariah woke up, it was less of a waking and more of a regaining consciousness. Disoriented, sweaty, and a little bit uncomfortably moist, her immediate first instinct was to get out of the car. As the bottom of her bare foot met the hot ass Florida asphalt, her delay in registering the pain, was only overshadowed by her gratitude, for having not stepped on a used meth needle. After sliding her tennis shoes on, which were in a heap along with the rest of her poolside items, Mariah adjusted her hat, slid her oversized fan between the top of her sweatpant-shorts and her hip, then practically shambled into the gas station store.

As salmon know instinctively to go back their spawning grounds, so does Mariah know how to find Takis in a gas station Market. Her half asleep walking lead her with homing precision the chips isle, over to the beverages where she quickly located a cream soda, and finally to the miscellaneous isle where she snagged a single hot mama-- a well aged cucumber, floating in a vinegary salty brine, within its innocent plastic containment unit. Surely this would be a tasty treat for such a long drive.

Which come to think of it, Mariah only figured they were driving because she happened to be in a car, in some random point in Florida's unknown midline, at some random gas station. Who was even driving? Had she happened to wake in the middle of a kidnapping? As she approached the check out counter, the dark skinned extremely Indian attendant stared at her in confusion, squinted at her selection of items, and met her apathetically exhausted gaze as she just shrugged at him. He smirked, shook his head at her, then eyed the security camera footage on a small tube TV, mumbling something about, "So many cowboy hats here at the same time today," as he rang up her items.

Mariah yawned and seeing as nobody else was in the line behind her, she eyed the large selection of lottery tickets, which could be scratched off with a coin to reveal cash prizes. "WIN BIG" insisted a sign on the plastic reel bin, which hosted several varieties of scratch-off tickets--costing anywhere from 10 cents to 5 dollars a piece.

"The fast 5 has been selling like crazy today," the attendant advised her smoothly. Pursing her lips for a moment Mariah eventually told him, "Yeah I'll get like twelve then." What a smile, the attendant went over to the lottery tickets, then began to pull a chain of FAST 555's out of their reel, counting them off under his breath.

She passed him two twenties, he passed her back a five and a bunch of coins, then leaned onto the counter, indicating with a tilt of his head, a small wooden podium next to the register, which was covered in the discarded remains of scratch-off lottery tickets.

With another shrug, Mariah went over to the little podium, opened up her cream soda, then began to scratch off her tickets, with a nickel, as the gas station attendant not so-subtly began making flirty small talk. The gas station door-bell clanged as someone else walked in, but nobody really paid any attention to it.

The ride to Miami wasn't the most plenty experience. Any other day he'd hold a conversation, see how Quinn and Claudette have been and if there was anything new in their lives, but he wasn't in the mood for that. It seemed like no one else was either. The car was uncomfortable to say the least. He couldn't stretch out like he needed to for his leg. He was lucky that he had the backseat to himself, so he made do with what he had. That included not having his seat belt on and leaning against the door. He slouched down, so he didn't hit his head on the roof. His only saving grace was that he'd lost some weight in the last week. It wasn't as tight of a fit as it could've been.

"I'm doing okay, Sin. Thank you. I'm content to stay back here. Being in the front would be worse for my leg."

They pulled into a gas station and parked. He hoped this meant they were almost there. A four ride in the back of a small car was hell on his joints. Before Claudette got out the car he handed her five dollars.

"Could you get me two bags of gummy worms, please?"

It took him a minute to get out the car. He leaned forward to the opposite door, opened it, grabbed his crutches, and scooted out the car legs first. He didn't need anything from the store, but he did want to stretch out. He hobbled to the hood of Quinn's car and sat on it, legs stretched out in front of him. He did arm stretches, bent his back, he felt it pop, and shook out his normal leg. He hoped they stayed for at least fifteen minutes. He didn't want to get back on the road too soon.

---

While Lyss had made the drive from Miami to Tampa only months before, she wasn’t eager to make a round trip on her speedster to Miami and back so soon. Especially because her speedster would stick out like a sore thumb in the city she’d fled. She didn’t mind carpooling with one of the girls who had a car, but she wasn’t excited to be stuck in a vehicle with some of her sisters for four to five hours. Hell, she wasn’t even comfortable with going to Miami in the first place. She’d have to be extra careful where she showed her face in the city, and she’d need to be prepared to dip out if she was spotted by anyone from her past.

These thoughts only made the already uncomfortable car ride even worse. Lyss sat in the passenger seat next to Madison, with her sunglasses on and her eyes on the Florida scenery the entire ride. If anyone was paying attention, they may have noticed that she was on edge. She’d never admit the truth. Not unless she knew she was in danger. Instead would blame it on something like claustrophobia, car sickness, or just the white lie that she didn’t want to carpool in the first place but didn’t feel like driving herself. Thankfully none of them seemed to be in a chatty mood. She’d picked the perfect car to ride in.

If anyone had actually said anything during the ride she probably wouldn’t have noticed anyways. She was too busy thinking about how this could play out, and what they would expect from the Dollhouse anyways. She didn’t expect the transaction to be as simple as trading money for a cure. There had to be a catch. There was always something shady in any black market deal. She already wanted to warn the group about her worries, but she was also prepared to help with the deal and watch the girls backs in case it went to shit. She had no idea if any of them had ever experienced the black market before, but she was assuming that they hadn’t. Surely they had their own concerns about this. Then again, how would she explain how she knew all of this? Could she tell them her history in Miami without losing their trust completely? She wasn’t sure.

As Madison spoke up to break the silence, Lyss was torn from her thoughts. She looked around at the group as if she’d just woken from a nap and shifted in her spot. Her ass was starting to hurt from sitting in the car for so long, but it beat riding a speedster for hours. Fortunately the answer to her prayers happened after she listened to Madison and Grace talk. Lyss was more than relieved that they were stopping for a break. She needed to walk around a bit and grab something to drink.

While everyone else got out and either headed inside, talked to the others, or kept sleeping like Mariah, Lyss stepped out and stretched her arms above her head. She looked around the station’s parking lot. It was just an average town, but she was on edge enough to ensure that there were no suspicious eyes nearby.

Once she was satisfied with the conditions, Lyss grabbed her wallet from the front seat. She made her way into the store, sunglasses still on, taking a glance at those inside before she headed straight to the coffee ymachine. As she grabbed a paper cup from the stack, she heard Mariah talking with the clerk. They were flirting. Lyss smirked softly as she filled the coffee to the brim. She popped a lid on it. It didn’t matter if it had cream and sugar in it or not. Lyss just wanted the bitter taste and the caffeine. On her way up to the front, she also grabbed a bag of powdered donuts.

“What are you gonna do if you win big?” She asked Mariah as she walked up to the counter.

The clerk, a little offput that someone had interrupted his attempt to get a number, set to ringing up Lyss’s coffee and snack. Lyss offered Mariah a smile, and she would have winked if she wasn’t wearing sunglasses. “Are you going to treat us to drinks in Miami if you do?”

---

"What is blowing a tree? That's a sex thing right?"

Immediately, Madison broke out laughing. Probably in a way that Grace, and the rest of the occupants of the Madison-Mobile, found obnoxious. She didn't give one shit, because, with one sentence, Grace proved how green she was... Madison stopped laughing as she looked back at Grace. That's not a bad thing by all means.

"Weed, weed, Grace! Smoking weed!" Madison started, "You never smoked weed before, but don't worry, we're gonna fix that..."

Around this time Grace left and Penny walked up, and Madison was still stretching her legs. From the look that Penny gave Madison she just knew that Emily and Maya were giving her hell. Well, it was Emily and Maya put together, the two fight like cat and fuckin' dog. Madison tried hard not to crack a smile, since Penny pulled the short straw here. It wasn't long until the weird girl (Isla) came up and started begging for stuff. Madison rolled her eyes while she was talking. For someone who insisted that she stick around, she probably would make herself a bit more useful. Though, she was pretty quiet during the car ride so that was worth something.

Right when Madison was about to comment on Isla's insanity, a peculiar sight just strolled in. She heard the clopping of... a horse. A man strolled in on a big brown horse, wearing a huge ass tan cowboy hat, with brown cowboy boots (with fuckin spurs), assless chaps, and two revolver holsters at his hips. Madison just raised her eyebrow as she watched the man hop off, tie his horse to a bollard, and stroll on in.

"... Tha' fuck?" Madison asked nobody in particular before she heard some shouting inside. She was hoping that, for once, it didn't involve the Coven.

---

---

---

“oh, I’d be careful where you sit in the back, I can tell you it wouldn’t be a pretty sight if you took a black light to it.”

"Oh, trust me," Emily started, "I already accepted the fact that I'm sitting on the DNA of you, and every man with no standards within 80 kilometers."

Was it dumb to start shit with Maya when she was the one offering them a ride? Probably, but maybe Emily could take this chance to switch cars while everyone was out. The Coven specialized in many things, the organization was not one of them. However, that Penny girl, who insisted that she comes along, seemed like she wasn't the only person trying to jump ship. Like hell, she was going to a better car before Emily! She walked over to Madison's car and started brownnosing... however, she couldn't help but go into the gas station. At least the smell would be a bit more pleasant than the smell of dried up ass and cum. Emily started browsing candy and other snacks and stocked up on them until she saw Grace so graciously offering to buy Claudette's water...

"Hey, let me pay, I'm in dire need of change if Miami is happening."

Claudette eyed the money and realized that maybe it wasn't the best place to flash that kind of cash around. "It's okay, I'm-"

The doors were thrown open and walking in was a large man wearing a cowboy hat with two Smith & Wesson 500's on each hip. He wore brown leather cowboy boots with the spurs and assless chaps, as he looked to the left, and then looked to the right in a very dramatic and narrow-eyed fashion. His hands were resting over his revolvers as he walked over to the front cashier. The cowboy immediately pulled out his revolver and aimed it at the cashier as he said,

"Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye," The Cowboy said, "Unhand thy funds at once."

Before he pulled out his other revolver and aimed it at Grace and Claudette as he said, "And that goes for you, my fine oriental friend. Not one soul better move a muscle!"

Claudette immediately flinched backward when the Florida man aimed a gigantic revolver at her. She couldn't help but loudly yelp as she hit the shelf and lost her footing and fell backward. She loudly screamed as the whole shelf came crashing down.

"Well, this is interesting..." Emily saw the Florida man rob the store and she narrowed her eyes as the bastard aimed the weapon at her Coven sisters. This seemed like the perfect time to flex her new abstraction and save them! Instead, Emily started grabbing as much candy as she could and shoving it into her pockets and purse.

---

---

Penny’s eyebrows jumped as she witnessed Isla use her Abstraction in public. She quickly whipped her head back and forth, but if anybody had witnessed it they weren’t freaking out. She exhaled a cloud of smoke and gave Isla the old side-eye as the sleepy Scot joined her. The brief annoyance Penny felt was soon snuffed out as Isla practically collided against the wall, the corner of her lip twitching upwards into the hint of a smile.

“You wouldn’t happen to have spare change I can use for coffee or like coffee itself that would be really great, I am exhausted but also broke thanks to the whole stepping through a portal to a random country thing and I really don’t have the energy to steal.”

“You’re in luck,” said Penny, setting her own drink down to pull out one for Isla. She held it out for the girl, but then quickly jerked it back. “You get this on two conditions. Number one: no blinking in public unless it’s an emergency. Number two: if you ever actually do steal something, keep me in the dark about it.” With the stipulations in play, she relinquished the frappuccino to Isla. “Hey, do you know what the deal is with the two girls I’m riding with? That was like the most uncomfortable, awkward, absolutely fucking terrible car ride I’ve ever...nevermind.”

Penny shut her mouth because Quinn was coming round their little smoking corner with Maya in tow. It was bad enough just being a bystander in the hostile environment that was Maya’s car; Penny couldn’t imagine how terrible it would be if she said something to direct the hostility towards her. As one of the girls from Madison’s car came bounding over to gossip, Penny called out to Maya and tossed the ice cold coffee towards her with a soft underhand used only by grandma’s playing basketball and people who didn’t want to deck their ride in the face with a bottle. Maybe the drink would make the girl open up to her when they hit the road. Maybe the girl was the kind who looked at the name Starbucks and sneered. Either way, mission accomplished.

"Don't tell me you thought that too?" asked Quinn.

Penny was about to intercept the question and say how even she, despite not knowing the girls, thought that too when the distinct sound of clopping hooves distracted her. Confused, she walked around the corner to see a cowboy tying his horse up outside of the convenience store. Her jaw went slack, causing her cigarette to plummet to the ground. It might’ve not been such a crazy sight in Montana, but it was fucking asinine to see that thing in Florida. She quickly decided it was none of her business and turned to rejoin Isla around the corner when she heard shouting, followed by a loud crash, coming from inside the store. She turned and through the window saw the cowboy holding up the place.

“Oh goddamnit,” said Penny, knowing that it had just now become her business.

She could easily stop one of the bullets if it headed her way, but with Yosemite Floridaman going akimbo she couldn’t risk him firing on someone else. Plus, there was no guarantee that she’d be able to even step through the door before he started firing hot lead. If only there was some other way inside...Penny’s eyes fell on Isla as she smiled. If the girl blinked Penny directly in front of the cowboy she could be within reach to repulse both of his bullets out of harm’s way before blowing him away with a blast of air. She activated her abstraction, the sigil on her collarbone glowing as her vision buzzed and allowed her to see even the slightest of movements with pinpoint accuracy. The millisecond he pulled the trigger she’d be ready to handle it.

“Isla, put me right in front of that dickhead. Just make sure you’re behind me when you do,” commanded Penny.

God, she really hoped that Isla was listening and not nodding off against the wall.

---

---

“I agree, I agree,” Isla nodded somewhat violently, knowing that Penny was definitely right about the not blinking in private but being too tired to have considered the safety when she did it. She let out a content groan as she practically knocked back the entire frappuccino. It was kind of shit, but it was the exact caffeine hit she’d needed. “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

She had half zoned out what Penny was asking, and didn’t get an opportunity to answer when one of the girls mentioned walked up nearby. Her answer would have been that she didn’t have a clue, aside from the fact they full on grappled during their little capture the flag. Maybe they just hated each other.

She properly zoned out after the conversation left her, leaning against the wall while waiting for the coffee to kick in. She was looking forward to being able to actually pay attention the rest of the drive. She’d hardly seen any of America! Might as well make the most of it. Ah shit she couldn’t wait. Now that the caffeine was beginning to flow around her body she was feeling a bit of a buzz, verging on knowing she would have far too much energy soon.

“Isla, put me right in front of that dickhead. Just make sure you’re behind me when you do.”

“Huh- Shit!” she was jerked out of her half out of it state, noticing that there was some kind of cowboy hold up going on inside the shop. Fuck, America really was scary with it’s loose gun laws. “On it!”

Isla pushed herself off the wall and jumped behind Penny. She grabbed onto her shoulders, looked into the shop with narrowed eyes, and blinked them right in front of the cowboy. Maybe a little too close, she’d ended up a little off and put them within arm’s reach of him.

Thank god for the coffee, or she’d be right back asleep after blinking them both.

---

---

Maya nodded her thanks when Quinn handed her a cigarette and lit it, before leaning back against the wall to take a long drag of it. Instantly she felt less agitated, less like she was going to blast everyone around her. She let out a blow of smoke before talking to Quinn.

“Distaste? But yeah, lessening that,” she offered up, raising an eyebrow as Quinn’s little (not) girlfriend jogged up. Her attention was distracted by Penny throwing a frappuccino at her, which she awkwardly caught with her good hand. “Thanks.”

She awkwardly opened it and took turns drinking it and smoking (not a great combo, but she didn’t really give a fuck right now) while listening into Quinn and Grace’s conversation. She snorted when it ended. Her laugh wasn’t entirely unkind as she answered Quinn’s question. “Uh, yeah, everyone thought that. You guys are practically joined at the hip. But you know what, I get it, everyone seems to think me and Trevor are dating when we’re not.”

Though that was a totally different scenario where she very much wanted in his pants and would get in there, eventually.

She shrugged and went back to smoking, not too bothered by the silence. It was honestly better that way. She was hardly in the mood to talk right now.

"So… How's your finger?”

“About how you’d expect a broken finger to be,” Maya responded, about to go on to say something similar about the small talk when a man on a fucking horse turned up. She gaped at the sight, dropping her basically burnt out cigarette to reach up and rub her eyes. Nope, he was really.

She turned away from the shop when he went inside. Not her problem. “Do cowboys normally roam around the streets here?”

She asked it to no one in particular, noticing quickly that the strange Scottish girl and their tag along had disappeared inside the shop. She sighed but still didn’t move. She really didn’t want to destroy an entire shop to try and get rid of some hillbilly. Everyone else could handle themselves. If he came outside, though? Fair game.

“Why does shit always happen when we’re around…”

The noise of some serious Canadian crashing erupted behind her. Mariah had to admit then, that she had been pretty into her scratch off tickets, and wasn't paying attention to much else. As she looked over her shoulder, she not only saw a guy in a large-- A naked butt.

Why was his ass out?

Generally when you wear assless chaps you wear pants underneath them right?
Or something? Did it really matter?

That was all she needed to see as, quietly as she could, Mariah began gathering her things up. Luckily the teleportation of Penny and Isla happened at the right moment. Good. Surely that would be enough distraction for her to make her way out of the door, as this lunatic was a few paces away from her but she was definitely out of his sight, somehow. How had he managed to walk all the way past her?

--Isla and Penny? Was she having a weird dream again? Mariah blinked heavily, shook her head, and-- nope. That man's vaguely concave ass was still there.

Nightmare, then?

She gave one final glance to the gas station attendant, noticed that he was very subtly moving his hands underneath whatever gas station attendant desk thingy he stood behind, and he had the nerve to wink at her. Whatever weapon he was about to use to defeat double assless-man over there, she wasn't gonna stick around to find out. Mariah would have laughed if she wasn't already moving toward the door. That's right she just walked out. Of course, the door cling-y clang'd, but she took a very sharp turn out of it and began sprinting.

Here's precisely the order in which she saw things: First the horse, second Madison's car, next a spiral of asphalt and sky and asphalt, then finally all of her stuff strewn all over the ground. As she stared at the sky, she started to wonder if she should just start wearing a helmet around, whenever the coven was involved. And when she heard the hoarse snorting triumphantly, she suddenly understood why they were made into glue. An acute need to turn this beautiful majestic animal into a fine paste was burning within her.

"Motherfucker kicked me," Mariah admitted allowed to make the event more tangible.

Shocked, in pain, and dazed, Mariah was thankful that at least she'd thrown her items far enough away from the stupid thing, that she could gather them in relative peace. So there she was in a gas station parking lot, having been kicked by a horse, scrambling for scratch off tickets, a pickle, an open bottle of soda, and a very distressed bag of Takis.

Wait why was Madison's car here?
Oh yeah-- she still had no idea what was going on.

---

“Isla, put me right in front of that dickhead. Just make sure you’re behind me when you do,” commanded Penny.

"Sis," Madison said, not having a single fuckin' clue what this crazy broad was even planning. She saw everything that Penny did in Farmer Hill and figured that she had some idea, but teleporting in front of a gun-toting dickhead was a quite honestly retarded idea. Honestly, despite Madison being thrust into this whole magic thing she was still uncomfortable with a lot of stuff. Like leaping into action like she's a damn superhero, maybe that was that white-girl shit but Madison was never going to be comfortable with it. "Just what-"

“Huh- Shit! On it!”

... and of course, tweedle-dum goes along with it without a second thought and disappeared in the blink of an eye in front of the cowboy. Madison's heart started racing when she looked inside and heard the enormous boom of the magnum that he had. She just knew that Penny or Isla would get shot - as much as she found the latter annoying and weird, Madison didn't think that she deserved to die. Thankfully, she was distracted from the possible death of Penny and/or Isla by...

... Mariah getting the shit kicked out of her by a horse.

Poor Mariah.

It seems that nut never had the best luck ever since she joined the Coven, but shit happens in the Coven, unfortunately. Like getting the fire kicked out of you by a horse. Well, it looked like they had the situation in the gas station handled... well, as far as she could stretch the definition of "handled". Madison shook her head as she muttered to herself, "... The Jaws." The Jaws manifested in his barrier form around Madison and suddenly the horse started freaking out.

Madison didn't know why, nor did she care as she quickly moved over to Mariah and grabbed her by the scuff of her shirt... looking at the disgusting gas station pickle in abstract horror as she pulled her away. Mariah was not bringing that thing on board. She was tanking a few hits from the horse rather effortlessly, but with everyone running around screaming not a soul would notice. However, the Jaw's manifested a single snake-like neck and floated over to the tether that was holding the horse to the bollard and chomped down on it. Snapping it in half in a single bite... and then spoke,

"... Flee."

The horse took off running, getting the hell away from the Jaws as fast as he (from the horse penis) could. Madison looked down at the pickle as she looked at the Jaws.

"Jaws, I know I ask a lot from you..." Madison started, "... but please get rid of that god damn pickle."

"Gladly," The Jaws said before he lunged at the disgusting gas station pickle with open jaws (geddit?) ready to send that thing to the other fucking side.

---

---

"Thank you for your fine donation, madam," The Cowboy said, "Place that on the floor, I'll handle-" Suddenly two madams appeared right in front of him and his eyes shot open as he pulled the trigger, shouting,

"... What in tarnation?!"

The bullet was repulsed away from Penny and Isla and went... right past Emily's head. Like it missed it by about a foot, but a near miss is still a near miss. Emily stopped in her tracks as the bullet absolutely wrecked the refrigerator and put a gigantic hole in it. Emily paused in her tracks as she had lifted the hem of her shirt... to load with as much candy as it could hold. She screamed as she jolted and dropped a large sum of the candy.

The Florida Man dropped his revolvers almost immediately after firing the colossal round. He dropped to his knees soon after and grabbed his wrist as he screamed, "God damn it! My God damn wrists! Oh heavens me!"

Claudette had fallen over and by the time the first round had been fired, she feared the worst. That one of the sisters had been hit, but she got up and looked around. Fortunately, no one was blasted in half by a comically oversized pistol... that thing looked like it could kill an elephant. Claudette had to think fast and be a leader! She saw Grace and immediately ran over to her and grabbed her wrist... and adrenaline and fear were preventing her from thinking straight and noticing that Grace's hand was covered in lighting.

Claudette violently convulsed as she grit her teeth and her eyes went up into her head as her poofy afro... got even poofier. When she released her grip, Claudette fell backward unconscious.

---

When the decision had been made to exclude Vashti from the trip to Miami she had been too self-absorbed to even notice. Logically, it made perfect sense, but as the Coven packed up and shipped off she couldn’t help but feel like they were abandoning her. The quiet of the near-empty beach house should’ve provided her with some much-needed peace where she could’ve meditated on the fact that she had been nothing more than a little shit since Kayla had recruited her back at the Dairy Queen.

Instead, the opposite was happening.

Her discontent only grew as Vashti sat curled up on the couch and stared listlessly at the television as a documentary proving the Earth was hollow played, the bottle of wine she’d discovered left behind by Madison’s raid cradled between her legs. She’d hoped to find some comfort in her private pity party, but it was being crushed by the deep, vibrato growls of her lizard brain. The Leviathan prodded her, egging her on to wild out and thrash the beach house. Break the television, smash the mirrors, fuck up Madison’s bedroom, and wait triumphantly for their return. Turn their little sanctuary into a breeding ground of chaos and let the destruction unfurl. Teach them a lesson, only it was the kind of lesson that had no meaning beyond spite, like assigning a class extra homework on a three-day weekend.

Vashti clicked the volume of the TV up to the max to try and drown out the Leviathan, except the Leviathan wasn’t whispering to her anyway. The ideas were coming from her brain, not the pea-sized brain of a primordial alligator of mass destruction. Well, her brain, plus alcohol. Vashti looked down at the bottle, then up at the TV, and then back to the bottle. The two of them should meet. Vashti paused. Was proving Madison right about the whole scared Bambi who wanted nothing more than attention truly be the best course of action?

Yup!

Madison had asked for Vashti to be real, so Madison would be to blame for when things got real. Hah! She could use logic to be an asshole, too. Vashti hefted the half-full wine bottle and cocked it back, ready to go full-on ham in the Coven’s shared space like a burnout rockstar in the luxury suite of a Marriott Hotel.

---

More or less being a babysitter was not how Kimberly thought she would be spending the day.

She sighed, as she was hunched over the bed mindlessly pressing away at her laptop. If she wasn't used to the pounding of keyboard keys this sound would have long become obnoxious. Kim was hoping that this wasn't someone's bed that she was planting her ass on, but the Coven wasn't very clear about which rooms were vacant. In her head, she was desperately trying to justify her decision not to tell the Coven about the true nature of the Dollhouse.

It was for the greater good!

Kimberly told herself, but she couldn't help but feel like it would be on her if the Dollhouse abscised one of them. Or their reactions to the fact that she worked with a bunch of human traffickers. She planned to just... tell them she didn't know, but ignorance is hardly an excuse, and as dumb as they were, she doubted they'd buy into a supernatural expert like her not knowing about them. Kimberly pushed her glasses up her nose. Even if one of them got abscised, maybe it'd be worth it if they came back with the cure?

Holy fuck, what am I becoming?!?

Kimberly shook her head as she hated even thinking about it... though, her thinking was being drowned out by the TV is turned up to the max by Vashti... and it had to be Vashti since Rowan was out at the pool. Some heroes they were. At first, Kimberly was going to ignore the TV, but it was honestly getting obnoxious.

Getting up, Kimberly didn't even bother to lock her laptop because she was just going into the other room - Nobody could possibly get into the room that fast. She quickly moved into the big room with the TV, about to kindly request that Vashti turns it down. However, she saw Vashti, with a wine bottle in her hand, arm cocked back. Kimberly didn't know what it was, but she got the feeling that Vashti wanted to throw it at the TV screen.

"Vashti, nooooooooo!" Kimberly shouted, almost like she was dealing with a fucking child or a dog that about to piss on the carpet.

Because it really started to feel like it.

Vashti craned her neck back and gave Kimberly a withering stare as if she was being the obnoxious one for shouting. When she had first seen Kimberly again alongside the others, Vashti felt the same kind of fear from the Leviathan that she felt when she was around Lyss. However, now that the two of them were alone that fear was now gone, replaced by a surge of anger fueled by the half-empty bottle of wine. Kimberly was to blame for all of this. This pathetic fucking shaved primate was the reason for every humiliation Vashti had suffered at the hands of the Coven. Everything, everything, everything was Kim's fault. Thus, in turn, this goddamn asshole was the reason why the Leviathan wasn't ruling the Coven as she should be.

Vashti didn't throw the bottle at the TV screen, because Vashti was gone. The wine bottle exploded into a shower of glass as it popped in the Leviathan's hands. Undeniably, the couch would be ruined by a horrible wine stain, just like the rest of the living room would be ruined by a horrible red Kimberly-supplied bloodstain if the Leviathan had her way. With a guttural screech, the Leviathan flipped around on the couch and lunged over it, claws jutting out at Kimberly's face.

... and the Leviathan disappeared with the merest flick of her finger.

Kimberly had pulled out her camera and immediately sealed the mighty Leviathan inside of yet another photograph. It wouldn't take, as Kimberly realized that the way Vashti's curse works...maybe she creates a new Levithan each time she transforms? She didn't know. Kimberly just sighed.

Just a fancy babysitter.

The gut-wrenching warcry shifted into a startled shout as Vashti tripped over the top of the sofa. Unable to catch her balance, she instead caught the floor with her face. Splayed out at Kimberly's feet, dazed both by the flash of the camera and the betrayal of gravity, she let out a low groan. Slowly, she pulled herself up to her knees and looked at her red hand. Thankfully, it was only wine; the glass had managed not to cut her. She felt equal parts embarrassed and relieved for transforming. Vashti raised her head and met Kimberly's eyes.

"Um, I saw another bottle by the front door. Do you want some wine?" asked Vashti tentatively.

Kimberly crossed her arms and looked at Vashti. She picked up on how Vashti felt, but that didn't exactly explain or justify why she was about to ruin a great TV.

"... Vashti, what is the problem?" Kimberly asked, before remembering that she said that she wasn't their therapist... and then she was taking the role of a therapist. A shitty one. "You've been acting... like what the fuck happened?"

"What happened?" asked Vashti, steadying herself against the couch as she climbed to her feet. The Coven happened. She chuckled, shook her head, and trudged over to Madison's second abandoned bottle of wine."Oh my god, it's like you don't know them at all."

"Oh my god!" she shouted from the other room. Vashti tore back into the living room, almost skidding across the floor to a stop against the back of the sofa, her hand fiddling with the cork on the new bottle. Her voice was heavy with accusation as the revelation hit her in full force. "You don't know them at all!?"

"I don't," Kimberly flatly answered as she seemed unphased by the theatrics. Maybe she didn't do the right thing there, but she did it in good faith at the very least. From what she saw from Agatha and the other chick, they seemed nice and level-headed. Good people even. Especially since she heard that Madison was among them. Kimberly sighed.

"... But, you need to calm down and answer my question." Kimberly felt like there was a lot that Vashti didn't tell her either. Of course, there were two sides to every coin and while Kimberly was not taking sides here, she was naturally a bit more inclined to side with Madison on this matter. Only out of guilt.

"Calm down? Because of these girls, I nearly had my heart ripped out," barked Vashti with a slight slur, tugging down her collar to show her scar from the Outsider. She continued by pointing with the wine bottle to her injured right arm in the sling, "Because your friend Madison sicced her dinosaur on me I nearly lost my arm. And all of this only happened because you sent me here. Fine, fine. I'm calm. I'm cool."

To show how calm and cool she was, Vashti continued to fight her losing battle against the wine cork. She shoved the bottle at Kimberly in frustration.

"Wait, what was the question?"

Once again, Vashti was giving the smallest amount of information possible while of course trying to maximize blame. She couldn't help but roll her eyes when Vashti asked her what happened. That didn't seem like Madison to just... attack Vashti like that. However, if she had to be honest, she didn't know Madison that well. Plus, if it was how it seemed, then it was Kimberly's fault.

"Explain to me - slowly - what happened. Why did Madison attack you? What prompted this?"

"Okay," said Vashti. "Claudette thought it would be a good idea for us to all practice our abilities by playing a game of capture the flag. I was going to sit out, but Madison made me play by mocking me. When I got the flag, she used the Jaws to tackle me and it made the Leviathan come out. There was a fight, but Lyss was able to drive it away. Even though I was me again, I still felt like they were trying to kill me so I was...on the ground panicking.

Vashti frowned. Why'd she felt like she was talking to her mom? More importantly, why hadn't Kimberly helped her with the wine bottle yet?

"I saw Madison walk over to me, she pretended to offer her hand to help me up, and then she summoned the Jaws and it attacked me while I was defenseless," said Vashti, trying her best to stay calm as she spoke. "She put me in the fucking hospital, dude."

A thousand different justifications, excuses, and ways to dance around the problem went through Kimberly's head. Did Madison really attack Vashti like this? Or more likely, did Kimberly's shitty, stupid, and ill-advised actions lead to this conclusion? She didn't want to admit that, not just yet.

"... I didn't know she would do this," Kimberly looked off to the side before her gaze landed on Vashti again. "... Either way, you don't have to act like this."

She just flatly answered. Vashti grimaced but kept silent.

"They're going to get your cure, then you can leave and pretend none of this ever happened. It's over."

"Oh, yeah, totally, I can just go back to a normal life," snipped Vashti, rolling her eyes. "If you knew there was a place I could've gotten cured, why didn't you just send me there?"

"... By yourself?" There was a very good reason why Kimberly wouldn't send Vashti to meet a shady Black Market organization. Even if they didn't steal people's bodies. Vashti was probably not the most popular with the Coven (because she wasn't). "If I sent you into the black market by yourself, who knows what would have happened."

"The Dollhouse is dangerous ?" asked Vashti, her eyes narrowed with skepticism.

"... They are Black Market." Kimberly flatly replied.

"Do you ever consider your actions?" hissed Vashti, an ironic statement coming from her. "The Coven can't go get ice cream without starting shit, and you sent them to go see a bunch of mobsters?"

Vashti's holier than thou attitude was really starting to get on Kimberly's nerves. However, she was still willing to justify her actions - regardless of how shady they sound. "They have people like Lyss and Penny watching out for them," Kimberly answered. "All they have to do is go there, get the cure, and then come back. That's it." Kimberly leaned up against the wall and then crossed her arms.

"It wasn't like I didn't tell them they weren't a black market organization. Like I lied to them about something," Kimberly stated, "They knew what they were getting into. No ambiguity about it."

"But you don't know the Coven like I do! It's not gonna be as easy as you say it will. Chaos and destruction follow them wherever they go," snapped Vashti, no longer able to maintain a cool head. She began to imagine the worst-case scenario where the Coven got in a fight with the Dollhouse. They could handle themselves well, but could they come away from something like that unscathed? She didn't know the answer, and that was terrifying.

"What if somebody gets hurt, or worse? Don't you care?" Vashti thought of Herik and Emily. Even if they didn't (justifiably) like her anymore because of her own damned selfishness, she still cared about them. "A cure that might not even work isn't worth that!"

It wasn't long before Kimberly reached her breaking point. Maybe Vashti wasn't wrong about what she was saying, but Vashti was starting to get under her skin. Especially since all Kimberly did was try to help her. Try to do the right thing, and Vashti's acting like she was the only holy soul here!

"... But, you don't know the situation like I do!" Kimberly spat back as she stood up. "It will work! I've been going to them for months, no problem! Do you think that I worked with those bastards because I had another better option?! Like I got some hard-on for sick fucks?!"

Kimberly was shouting and realized that she was being as emotional as Vashti. Vashti was surprised by Kimberly's outburst and took a step back, bumping into the back of the sofa. With nowhere to go, she could only stare in shock as someone she had once regarded as a personal hero unloaded on her.

"Annabelle Heart is killing people by the boatload. I don't know how many people are dead... I don't know how many people she's even killed. I don't know how many people she will kill, but we gotta stop her because who knows what the ceiling for her power is!"

Tears almost ran down her eyes as she wiped them away. "I'm sorry to say it, but I've been crossed the threshold where anything's an option! We have to try because there aren't any other options. It's the easiest job! If they hurt because they did something stupid..."

Kimberly sighed as she calmed herself down.

"... Then that's on them. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be," said Vashti, the fight gone from her voice as she lowered her eyes. Madison's accusations from earlier still rung in her ears. They felt more truthful than ever. "I should be apologizing. If I didn't freak out during the game then they wouldn't have even called you here. Shit, it's just that ever since I joined the Coven I've been nothing but a burden and...and that sucks to admit."

"I'm sorry. I'm such an asshole," said Vashti. She wiped her eyes. She wasn't just an asshole; she was a useless asshole."I'm just so frustrated that I took it out on you." And now she was making things about herself again. Vashti sighed. "I should clean this mess up. Uh, but if you need anything just let me know, okay?"

Kimberly sighed. Did Vashti finally come around and realize that maybe the world didn't revolve around her? Maybe. Maybe not. Kimberly wasn't breaking her neck to find out. Also, she realized maybe she was being a bit harsh on her. "Look, Vashti, it's... okay," Kimberly answered. "Just... I'm going to go back into my room and... just please keep it down. I'm going to hope I can find an alternative to the Dollhouse."

She softly said as she moved back into her room and back into her safe space.

"Keep it down. Okay, sure," said Vashti.

She looked around at the living room. The Leviathan had only been there for a second, but the couch was ruined. On top of the wine stain and the flecks of glass everywhere, there were also shredded bits of fabric from its claws. Meanwhile, its tail had managed to knock over an expensive-looking vase, which shouldn't matter because it wasn't there's except for now there was dirt, flowers, and shards of ceramic all over the floor. At least the television was spared. Sighing, Vashti picked up the remote and clicked it off. She couldn't let herself be distracted from cleaning up the mess she made.

Only she had no idea where to even start.

"Okay, time to be useful I guess."

---

---

“Howdy pardner,” said Penny, finger guns drawn, phony accent dialed to Southern Fried, as Isla blinked the two of them into the store. Isla must’ve taken Penny literally when she said right in front, because she was now closer than she had ever wanted to in regards to someone wearing assless chaps. She couldn’t blame the Coven’s cowgirl from running. “Now how ‘bout you let these fine ladi—”

One thing happened just as planned: the outlaw fired his revolver at her, her eyes were able to see it, and her abstraction reacted fast enough to repulse the bullet out of harm’s way. Perfect fucking execution. She blew air over the top of her finger gun as if there was a puff of smoke and dropped the whole gimmick. Everything else? Well, that was a complete surprise, and not entirely unpleasant. Penny didn’t even have to bother with the blast of wind as the Florida Man silently cried out in pain and dropped his revolvers. She carefully shifted the guns out of his reach while the cowboy cradled his wrist and slowly transformed more and more into a Saturday morning cartoon. She threw a victorious wink and a smile over her shoulder at Isla.

The smile soon shifted into a look of horror as she turned forward again, finally noticing how close the bullet had been to absolutely demolishing Emily. Penny felt her stomach drop and her skin turn to ice. Holy shit. She hadn’t seen her at all. Holy shit. Had the girl been hiding during the hold up? Holy shit! Penny had been so certain in her own ability to be bulletproof that she had hardly considered the possibility of collateral damage. She was such an idiot. She owed Emily a massive apology, one that she instantly forgot about as Emily opened her mouth, screamed, and dropped a massive amount of candy on the ground.

Was that bitch looting?

Penny frowned as Emily’s scream got louder and louder. It wasn’t because the girl was increasing in hysteria, but rather Penny’s ears were no longer ringing from the deafening gunshot. The cowboy’s cry wasn’t silent, either, as he tossed out tarnations, conflabbits, and dagummits like he wasn’t in the presence of good company. Penny rolled her eyes in annoyance and turned to check on the other girls to make sure they were okay. They were.

And then they weren’t, as Claudette was (accidentally?) shocked by Grace like a fly buzzing a little too close to a bug zapper. Penny’s face fell flat, synchronizing perfectly with Claudette falling flat on her back as she was knocked out by the jolt. She made a mental note to never touch any of the girls in the Coven as she closed her eyes and released a heavy sigh. Penny was starting to feel like there would’ve been less damage done if she’d just smoked by the pumps and let a rogue ash spark a gas fire. Still, at least nobody was getting shot.

“I don’t know what y’all did, but hands up, lady,” she heard the attendant say in a shaky voice. It was coupled with the shit-inducing sound of a shotgun being racked.

It sucked how reality took all the fun out of playing the hero. The attendant had just witnessed two girls pop in out of nowhere, cause a gun to fire off backwards, snap the wrist of some dumbass, electrocute another, all while an accomplice was starting to loot the place. Penny slowly raised her hands as she caught the reflection off the mirrored dome of the shotgun-wielding attendant aiming at her and Isla. One bullet wasn’t a problem. A dozen or so bits of shot? Also probably not a problem, if she wasn’t worried about hitting anybody else. But that wasn’t even the biggest issue. Being caught on camera, at the scene of a crime, after paying with a card that had her name on it, while surrounded by a ridiculous amount of Extra-Normal activity? That shit could ripple out into some massive tidal waves.

She lowered her head to hide her face, positive that it was already too late, and used her peripheries to glare at the attendant. One hand was holding the shotgun, while the other was fumbling for a phone. Hopefully Isla or one of the other girls had an idea, because the one Penny had fucking sucked. She bared her teeth. She had to buy some time. At the very least, she had to distract the attendant from calling the cops while the Coven was still hanging around. Her sigil glew as the zipper on her fanny pack opened itself ever so slightly. There was no telling what the wounded cowboy would do during all of this, either. Best be prepared for the worst.

“Now hold up. Surely we can come to some kind of understanding, after all, I did just save your ass from getting robbed. So why don’t you just put that gun down and we can have a little chat or—”

"That was some weird shit, lady. That was some weird shit!" The attendant racked the shotgun again, wasting a perfectly good shell that pinged off of the counter, hit the floor, and rolled towards the door. Penny cursed under her breath. "I don't like weird shit. Never did, and don't you let nobody tell you otherwise. I'm calling the cops. Don't you move."

---

---

After Emily was done getting over the shock of almost getting her face blown off by... that cowboy, she realized that Penny was being held up by a different moron with a shotgun. Penny should have realized that this bullshit happens hourly in Florida and let things run their course. Was she really delusional enough to think that she can stop everything? Emily didn't know. What she did know was that she was gonna bite this dumb blonde bimbo's head off for almost getting her killed! She couldn't do that if the bitch's dead, now can she? Of course the Coven was standing around slack-jawed (as always). Claudette fell for Grace's joy buzzer and Emily made a note not to touch her (Heh, maybe Quinn's into getting electrocuted). Isla was oblivious, and everyone else was fucking around outside.

So it seems it's Captain Emily to the rescue!

Okay, so Emily had no clue how her brand new abstraction works... of course, she wasn't going to sit around being useless now that Babylon was gone. This was what people like Molly and Ellie were talking about when they said that she was worthless without her. She wasn't going to go out like the rest of the Coven, or their little deserters, however. She was going to prove to them that she was the queen bitch of the Coven and everyone here can kiss her ass!

She stuck all ten of her fingers out towards the cashier and the green tethers of magical power extended from them. Emily's plan was to snatch the shotgun from out of his hands or break the shotgun. All the tethers wrapped around the shotgun and it was perfect! Emily, without another thought, made the tethers clasp down on the shotgun...



Blood went everywhere as the shotgun was sliced to bits... as well as the poor cashier's fingers. Emily's eyes went wide open as the gun was sliced like a sausage and the cashier fell to his knees screaming all sorts of obscenities. Well, at the very least...

... Emily stopped him from shooting Penny. That has to account for something.

It was time to get the fuck out of here - it was just a thought. So, without another one, Emily grabbed as much M&M's as she could and hauled ass out of the door. The rest of these sluts can sit around if they want to, but Emily was definitely not going to be some prison slut's bottom! As much as she hated it, Emily went right back to Maya's car.

^{And someone grabbed Claudette off-screen and Madison cut and run.}

---

---

---

"Um..." Claudette said as she groggily returned to consciousness. She found herself slipping into her native French language as she spoke, "What happened?" She grabbed her head as she tried to recollect what happened.

"... Holy shit, Claud," Madison said as she looked in the backseat. "You're awake! I thought for a second you died on me there, sis."

"I'm alive it seems," Claudette answered as she attempted to fix her hair in vain. She was briefly startled by the fireworks exploding in the night sky and she realized that she was out for a while. The fireworks were beautiful, even if Claudette herself never got the idea of the fourth of July. "... We're in Miami."

"Yes, sis," Madison said, "Almost there, matter of fact."

"Excellent," Claudette said as she watched the fireworks and lost herself... and didn't realize quite a bit of time had passed and she had finally arrived at their hotel room. The Doubletree by Hilton... not a five-star hotel like some of the girls were expecting but it was nice and subtle at the same time! They could pass as a bunch of girls partying in Miami!

They got out, checked in, and realized that some of them will have to be sharing rooms.

---

Annabelle Heart marched her way through the woods... forgetting about the robe and deer skull and merely dragging her feet until she reached her destination. Her feet weren't the only thing that she was dragging and she was dragging the mutilated corpse of a Forgiven. It wasn't long until she just... fell apart in her hands and then she continued sauntering through the woods. She made it back to her lair, a ruined mansion in the woods that was normally infested with the other people that have been infected with the hunger. However, they were missing and Annabelle barely paid them any mind when they were here. They probably went off to eat somebody or something, but Annabelle had more than enough violence to sate her.

When she pushed open the gates, Sophia was right there waving at her with a smile.

"Annabelle!" Sophia cheerily said, "You're back! I got a new game to play!"

Annabelle shook her head as she continued walking until she was in arm's reach of Sophia - who quickly grabbed onto her clawed hand. "Let's go inside to our usual spot!"

The afflicted girl allowed her "little sister" to lead her back inside the mansion they've been inhabiting for a while now. The rampages have been slowing down considerably, as Annabelle's been stopped by Sophia. Maybe she was trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe...

"... Sit down," Sophia said but Annabelle's eyes landed on a particular sight right above her head. A strange device made out of blocks that were green with lots of wires...

C4 HIGH EXPLOSIVE

"I'm sorry big sis," Sophia said as she disappeared, "... It's better this way."

That was before all the explosives that were planted around the house exploded one by one, by one, creating a cacophony of destruction. In an instant, the house was in flames as Annabelle was blown to bits. She screamed at the top of her lungs.

---

From the distance, Meifeng Liao stared at the destruction through binoculars in one hand, and a detonator charge in her other hand. She couldn't believe that Apparition wasn't lying! Annabelle Heart was probably still alive but at least they had a chance to slow that bastard down. She lowered the binoculars as she dropped the detonator and pressed her earpiece.

"Helena," Meifeng said. "Get the nets ready."

"The Flock's moving!" Helena said as a swarm of glowing blue transparent birds came out of her body and nearly blotted out the sky with how numerous they were. They were carrying nets, cables, and other bindings, and stretched them wide.

"Sonya," Meifeng said, "You know what to do."

In the distance, Sonya was hopping from tree to tree in her half-frog form with Maria dashing from place to place as a blob of ink. She stopped as she finally reached the top of the hills and got a good view of the place. She quickly pulled out her Barrett M82A1 from her back and aimed it at the building as Maria pulled out her binoculars.

Annabelle's shriek could be heard as she charged out of the burning ruin in flames... her body was repairing itself to the best of her ability but that was a hit. Annabelle fell to her hands and knees as she was regenerating fast.

"Got visual on 'er!" Sonya whispered into the microphone as she aimed down the sights and put it on her center of mass.

"Take the shot."

"Roger," Sonya pulled the trigger and the bullet put a hole through her center of mass and Annabelle screamed in pain as the birds got the first net around Annabelle. They tightened it as Annabelle yanked at it, and she received yet another bullet from Sonya.

"It's going time," Meifeng looked at Trevor as she hopped into the DENS SUV with Cindy already inside of it. They drove fast they could through the gates and came to a swerving stop right at Annabelle. This was now or never as Trevor focused on Annabelle and right when she noticed them... she broke out into a laughter fit and couldn't do anything except for fall over. Cindy focused as jagged glass spikes erupted from the ground and impaled Annabelle... before she got another round. Meifeng, in this time, had opened the back of the truck and it revealed several jagged harpoons with long chains around them.

Using her abstraction she sent them flying at Annabelle and each of the five spears impaled Annabelle and the chains wrapped themselves around her limbs. Before they attached themselves to the nearby trees or solid fixtures. At this point, Helena's birds had returned and then dropped yet another net on the monster. Before she was completely immobilized...

"... Just what I thought," Meifeng said as she stood on top of the beast. "She can't regenerate if she has something obstructing her."

"What do we do now?" Trevor asked as he focused on her to cockblock any attempts to break free.

"Call Director Alcott and see what she advises next..." Meifeng said, "We can maybe toss her down into the Pit and make her their problem."

"Sophia..." Annabelle hissed to herself as the rage built up.

"... SOPHIA!"

And then it was followed by a hellish, ear-piercing scream that shattered the glass that was binding her and stunned the Flock. The three DENS agents covered their ears out of sheer pain before the hellish scream resided... honestly, they couldn't hear anything.

"What the fuck?!" Trevor shouted, "Bitch made me deaf!"

"You okay there?" Sonya asked over the comms, "That look like it... hurt."

"What?!" Trevor shouted into the comms.

However, little did they know... the other people that Annabelle infected with the Hunger came charging back from whatever they were doing in the woods. The infectees were running on all fours like animals and coming right back to defend their master. The first person to take notice of them was Sonya.

"Huh?" Sonya's superior hearing allowed her to pick up that something was coming. She quickly pressed her earpiece as she said, "Something is-"

She heard a roar over her shoulder as one of the chalk-white creatures lunged through the air at them. Sonya rolled off to the side as Maria turned into a puddle of ink and dodged. Sonya pulled out her pistol and began blasting at the creature but she didn't notice the second one. It lunged at her from behind and began tearing away at her neck and Sonya screamed as she was being ripped apart.

"Sonya!" Maria shouted as she charged at the creature, turning into a whip of ink... before one of those freaks charged at her and grabbed her organs in her ink form. Maria was shifted back into a humanoid form as she screamed as the creature ripped her apart.

"Meifeng!" Sonya screamed into the comms as she was ripped to screams. "I-"

The creature tore her head off and they went to feast on her remains.

"Sonya! Maria!" Meifeng shouted over the comms as she looked at their position and then she noticed that the horde of monsters was here. "Fuck." Meifeng pulled out her pistol before she began shooting at them. Helena had commanded the flock to begin ripping away at their bodies and keeping them off of her. While Cindy was using her glass summoning ability to impale them and cut them to pieces. Trevor was sticking to Meifeng and attempting to use his abstraction to stun one while he shoots another.

However, they went over to Annabelle and began ripping out the harpoons and untying her from the nets and chains. Annabelle managed to get free as she tore the rest of them out of her body on her own and the wounds that they left regenerated. She turned towards Meifeng's group with ravenous eyes.

She shrieked as she launched herself at them... before she broke out into a fit of laughter.

"What do we do?" Trevor asked.

"Helena!" Meifeng shouted, "Get us out of here."

"On it!" Helena said as the Flock went from attacking Annabelle's minions to grabbing onto them. They latched on and began lifting them off the ground high up from their control. They feared that Annabelle would go after them... however, she ran off into the treeline as they got away.

Meifeng sighed.

"Son of a bitch!" She hissed as she realized she's now down two Agents. Two Extra-Normal agents at that.

---

---

---

frommontrealwithloveNo1 - 2:21
So, we've arranged to meet with Dollhouse tomorrow night, so please find something to keep yourselves occupied. We're in Miami, there's always something to do. If you're going to do something stupid; make sure it can't be traced back to us at the very least.

And keep herself occupied Madison planned on doing.

The Doubletree by Hilton was attached to the Miami Merchandise Mall, which meant they didn't have to go far for entertainment. That entertainment was shopping. Now, Madison wasn't super big on meeting a shady black market organization... but Madison fully trusted Kimberly and her judgment. Even if there was that subtle suspicion of her playing both sides with the Vashti conflict. Even though she was trying her best not to worry about that bitch. Not like she was here or anything, but if all things go well, that little attention whore will get rid of her lizard STD and then she'll be on her way. Though, there was that creeping suspicion that Vashti, for whatever stupid reason, would stick around with the Coven...

... which was why Madison was never giving up the Jaws ever again.

However, the Merchandise Mall was everything that Madison could have wanted out of a Miami mall and more Stores, food, entertainment! And Madison was going to hang with the only member of the Coven that she fucked with: Grace. She was taking a liking to the gal ever since the yacht adventures and the CTF game. Maybe Grace talking her into staying had endeared her to Madison. Or maybe she just liked her. Either way, they were going to the clubs and like hell, Madison was gonna let Grace dress like a rich grandmother!

Madison came out of the dressing room wearing her proposed nightclub outfit a purple minidress. She walked out with a wide smile, presenting it to Grace as she struck a pose. Hands-on her hips and her head was turned and she had to resist breaking out into laughter at how goofy she probably looked.

"What do you think?" Madison said, "I'll have to wear this thing without a bra!"

She gestured at how visible and distracting the straps were.

It was a time and a half getting back into the car after he heard the first gun shot inside the gas station. He knew something was up with the man in the assless chaps, but it was Florida. He was raised here most of his life. Most things didn't surprise him anymore, human things. Extra-normals still got to him like nothing else did. He saw weird things on the beach all the time. A cowboy wasn't all that bizarre. When Madison came out with Jaws he knew the situation was going to get worse, so he hobbled as fast as he could back into Quinn's car, then dialed the police. Chances are none of them are going to see anything out of the ordinary. He'd just ended the call with the operator when everyone came out and they booked it out of there. He needed to sleep.

By the time they made it to the hotel he could barely keep himself together enough to get into his hotel room. He just took his pain pills, then gingerly laid down in his bed, and went to sleep. He woke the next day with a notification of Claudette about staying preoccupied until tomorrow. There was nothing he could do with a cast on his leg and he needed a break from the Coven, so he was content to stay in his room. He ordered room service for lunch and texted Vashti to see how she was doing. He meant to do it the night before, but he was out before his head hit the pillow. He imagines he's fairing better, since they left before the dust settled after the argument, and he doubts Leviathan won't take advantage of her mental state. On top of paying for this trip, Schmidt might have to get a new beach house too.

---

After the whole normal-for-Florida but horrifying-for-the-cashier standoff, Lyss hadn’t even gotten her coffee. In fact, she almost felt guilty for leaving without giving the poor clerk all of the cash she had in her pockets to help with his medical bills. At least she’d called 911 before getting back into the car.

For the next hour Lyss continued to stare out of the window, paying no attention to her sisters or anything for that matter. By the time the gas station scenario had left her mind, Lyss quickly fell into a road trip coma. She slept for so long that she woke up just in time to see the Miami skyline outside of the windshield. The fireworks lit up a familiar city, and Lyss was both filled with nostalgia and worry. She watched the city life pass by as they made their way to the hotel, searching for any faces she recognized. Fortunately, she saw none.

They checked into a hotel Lyss had never stayed in before. When she realized she’d need to room with someone, Lyss looked over at Claudette. “Hey, you wanna room together? We should talk about our plans tomorrow in the morning.”

Regardless of who she ended up staying with, Lyss made it into her room and immediately prepared for bed. She gave her roomie a quick goodnight before crawling into bed. She could still hear the fireworks outside. This city never slept. Yet somehow, being back in the city, she found herself lulled to sleep by the distant noise.

---

In the morning, Lyss awoke before sunrise. She quietly slipped out of bed and threw on some clothes before making her way down to the lobby. The breakfast bar wasn’t open yet, so Lyss took to grabbing a poptart from a vending machine and waiting on a chair while she snacked until the doors finally opened.

After a quiet breakfast, watching the sunrise through the nearby buildings through the closest window, Lyss slowly finished her second cup of coffee until it was an appropriate time in the morning to shower without waking her sister. Lyss came out feeling fresh, picked out an outfit that would withstand the heat without giving her a sunburn, and made her way to the balcony to sit and enjoy the Miami breeze while she watched the city slowly come to life.

It was past lunch by the time Lyss realized she’d been on the balcony for so long. She checked her phone in case any of the girls had messaged and saw the text from Claudette. Great. A whole extra night in Miami. She sighed softly and ran a hand through her hair. Most of the girls probably wanted to go clubbing tonight. She didn’t blame them. The clubs here were amazing, but she didn’t exactly feel comfortable leaving the hotel. Nonetheless going out tonight. What was she going to do if all of the girls wanted to go?

Maybe Claudette had something else in mind. Lyss still needed to talk to her about the Dollhouse.

So, Lyss stood up, stretched real big, and headed into the air conditioned room. The cool air was a blessing.

“Hey, Claud. Sleep well?” She smiled as she closed the balcony door behind her. “Do you think any of the girls would want to go to the beach?”

"Noooo, Jaaaaws," Mariah groaned in the spaced-out tone of someone with a concussion, "Not my pickle." An unmistakably apathetic edge was to her voice. There she was, in the parking lot of a gas station, handful of scratch off tickets, as a ghost dinosaur ate her pickle. So it went without saying that, for the rest of the trip, she went ahead and sulked about it, you know, a whole two seconds before she went to sleep again.

It was only when the vehicle rolled to a stop, after they arrived in Miami, that she actually woke up again. While of course, now would have been the time to actually asked what the fuck happened, Mariah instead exited the vehicle, immediately recognized her surroundings, then decided it was probably time to leave. She didn't even entertain the thought of going into the hotel. In fact, she made it clear that she was not going to stay in this particular hotel, with an off hand remark about finding days old condoms underneath the pillows on more than one occasion.

"I got a apartment near here anyway, sorta kinda," she finished, sounding very energetic, "So I'mma see yall in the mornin' or whateva." And of course, she barely waited for any sort of response before sauntering off into the night.

She took in a deep breath-- with it came the acrid scent of salt, sweet barbecue, and drunken piss on the humid Florida breeze-- Ah, Miami. MIAMI!

It felt good to be on familiar turf again. As she walked down the street, headed to a familiar Bodega, Mariah took her phone out, dialed a number, and immediately received an answer. "Baybeee," Mariah shouted into the phone excitedly, "I'm back in town, slide me on the strip tonight! The Mainline just pulled in, sis!" She snatched up a bagged pickle, went to the cash register to cash in a few of her lottery tickets, and practically fucking skipped out of the shop, continuing her conversation on the phone in RAPID Spanish.

Not only was she about to get into drag for the rest of the night, but she definitely was not going to sleep until probably seven am the next day. All that was left to do was round up her boys and hit the town. So all night she spent out, performing and socializing, running the streets as she usually did, and it was well past noon by the time she woke up the next day.

She awoke atop the heap of blankets and pillows and fluff, sprawled atop the mattress on the floor, that she called a bed. Sounds of of not so muffled voices drifted to her through her slightly ajar door-- which could only be kept closed by wedging a sock between the frame and the door itself. This sacred duty had been neglected by Drunk Mariah-- damn her. Any time that happened she always ended up waking to the sound of Tory's shouted conversation, because he simply didn't possess an inside voice, and Maxwell bordering on an argument with him-- thus was her current situation.

Groaning, Mariah grabbed one of her blankets and wrapped it around her shoulders, then proceeded toward the dining-room-kitchen-living-room-Max-bedroom-space-thing-- there was probably a word for it but who cares?

"--No, what I'm tellin' you's that's dumb. Real dumb. Dumber than ya usual brand of dumb," Maxwell was saying, "You gon' hunt a whole drug ring by yaself? Dumb."
"Ah, fuck you, ah yeah, ya, fucking you fuck no," Tory retorted, "No is not dumb you fuck."
"Where my--" but Mariah didn't have to finish the question, as Max slid her phone across their dining/card table. He went on bickering with Tory as Mariah scrolled through pictures and messages from last night silently. At the message from Claudette, which came twenty minutes ago, Mariah grunted, then put her phone down. As she turned away, Max piped up, "What's the plan today?"
Sucking his teeth loudly, Tory mumbled, "Changin' subject stupid fuck." Usually, that would at least get Max's attention, but he was instead staring at Mariah-- in a way that vaguely reminded her of suspicious cops.

Mariah pulled her blanket closer, mumbling, "Mall?"
"I'm comin'," Maxwell told her in a tone that was equal parts pleasant and insistent. She squinted at Max as Tory huffed a bunch of curses under his breath. With a shrug, Mariah turned to go get ready.
"--AYE! You goin to them stupid new friends you have?"
She halted, then stared over her shoulder at Tory with an arched brow.
"TELL THAT CROISSANT FUCK I SAY SHE A FUCK!"

---

---

“The fuck?” Maya gaped as Emily ran from the shop, arms full of M&Ms, right after someone screamed bloody murder inside. She didn’t want to know what had happened. She didn’t care, she wasn’t going to jail for something she didn’t do.

She dropped the end of the cigarette butt to the ground, stomping on it on her way back over to her car. She waited for Penny to get there, turned back on her awful korean rap music and hit the road again. She was silent for the rest of the drive, not in the mood to talk with the passengers she had (she doubted they wanted to talk to her either). By the time they reached Miami fireworks were going off everywhere which was great, because it contributed to the headache Maya was beginning to develop from the sheer tiredness of driving for so long.

She managed to get a room to herself, from a combination of glaring and nobody wanting to share a room with her in the first place. Which suited her just fine, and let her completely ignore them all as she headed to her room and went to sleep.

---

Maya woke up much earlier than she’d wanted to. She cursed her internal clock and didn’t bother getting out of bed, just lounging around scrolling through her various social media sites and checking a hookup app she had to see if she could get a quick lay while in Miami. She might as well, while she was here.

Eventually she dragged herself out of bed, dressing up in a loose white shirt tucked into a short lilac skirt. She’d get changed when she hit up a nightclub later, whether the other girls wanted to go or not (though going in a group was more fun).

She didn’t bother with any proper food, because like hell was she paying for overpriced hotel meals, and instead just munched on some crisps. There was a mall right next to the hotel… She was definitely going to go grab food there. She was already on her way out when the message from Claudette came through, which was basically telling them to not get caught breaking the law. Whatever. She was just going shop, what was the worst that could happen?

Maya made absolutely no effort to contact anyone else as she left the hotel and went right next door to Miami Merchandise Mall.

The first thing she did was find somewhere to eat… Even if there was a disappointing lack of options there. Like, five places and half of them looked far too classy for her to even try. She settled for the cafe, so she could get coffee along with some boring sandwich. She sat down in a corner to eat, looking like a complete asshole when she pushed down her shades and put in earbuds.

The more unapproachable she looked, the better. She didn’t want strangers (or most coven members) coming to talk to her anyway.

---

---

Unfortunately for everyone in the same car as Isla, the coffee kicked in right after she legged it out of the shop and the cashier who got his fingers sadly cut up. This meant she was practically bouncing around in her seat, staring out the window in awe and asking the dumbest questions possible.

It was wearing off by the time they actually reached Miami and the exhaustion hit her again. She was back to being lethargic when they got to the hotel, paying basically no attention and just going to the room she was directed to. If she ended up with a roommate, she had no idea, because she crashed on the bed fully clothed as soon as she reached it.

---

Isla was woken up by her phone loudly beeping, screen lighting up with a message from the snapchat group she’d been added to for the coven. She didn’t even realise snapchat was still used… she’d had to make an account just for this. And it was a pain because mobile data was way more expensive even with the stupid temporary sim card she’d gotten.

She groaned and checked the message. Then the time. Holy fuck, it was already the afternoon. She was wasting her only day in Miami! She didn’t even know where to go! Fuck, fuck… Wait, hadn’t Mariah said she had an apartment in the city? Did that mean she was a local? Perfect!

Still in bed, Isla messaged Mariah (finding her through the group chat they’d been added to).

from teleportingscot - 2:34
heyyyyyy it isla, wanna meet up at the mall next to the hotel the coven is at? 1st time in Miami pls keep me company or i will get lost. or arrested idk.

She nodded. Perfect! Now she just had to get ready. She jumped out of bed and threw herself into the shower, then spent far too long trying to dry her mane of her. Eventually she gave up and tied it up in a bun while still damp, sticking her beanie right over it. She changed into a different pair of shorts and baggy, bright yellow hoodie that meant she could be seen from a mile off.

Mostly cause she’d totally get lost, even in a mall. She had zero sense of direction.

Going to a mall was good, too, because she was beginning to run out of clothes that she’d totally not stolen when she first arrived. Her lack of money was also problematic, but she could probably blink by a cash register somewhere and nab some. It wasn’t like it was hard now that she could teleport everywhere.

Yeah, that was a good plan. Acquire some money then hopefully meet Mariah at the mall. And others, too, if they were around! The more the merrier.

---

---

---

While Maya was attempting to enjoy her nice day without the Coven.

The Coven came to her like a wrecking ball.

In the form of Madison Brown roughly planting her hand on her table wearing a particular shirt and black tight shorts on. In her free hand, she had a particular purple dress stuffed into her bag. She smiled.

"... What's wrong with you, girl?" Madison asked, chuckling. "You look like hot death."

---

---

To say the least, Claudette was a little on edge.

For a large number of reasons... she was a bit skittish about meeting a shady black market organization. Especially at the behest of somebody who tried to use her tragedy for views. Claudette trusted Kimberly's judgment but she knew that she was painfully oblivious to the Coven and their antics. There were so many things that could go wrong, especially if the Coven acts like the Coven. They weren't just a bull in a china shop, they were a wrecking ball. There was that concern from Herik that resonated with Claudette, the response from Kimberly told Claudette that there really wasn't any other option.

The woman was relaxing in her room - or, well, trying to relax. It was difficult to do so when everything was on the brink of going wrong. She wished that she could go meet them tonight but her little contact informed her that they would be available tomorrow night. In all honestness, Claudette was long past the point of trying to constantly control the Coven and their destructive antics. Telling them to remain in their hotel rooms and not draw attention to themselves was a futile effort. So she was just going to let the Coven do what they do best; whatever they want, and pray to God that they can at least pretend they had nothing to do with them.

Even if this doesn't go well and they have to go back to Tampa empty-handed... will that even be an option with Annabelle? Claudette didn't know, but she was going to try her damnest not to go home emptyhanded.

The balcony door opened and Claudette was reminded that she was sharing the room with Lyss (thank the Heavens). Did she seem okay? Claudette had a hard time reading her, was that because she intentionally doesn't want to be read? Or was there a piece of the puzzle Claudette was missing? It was not something on her mind as Lyss asked a simple question.

“Hey, Claud. Sleep well? Do you think any of the girls would want to go to the beach?”

"I think the girls are tired of the beach," Claudette shrugged. "We pretty much ended our meetings for months with it, but I think everyone is staying in the mall?"

She couldn't help but shrug again.

"Hopefully, they'll stick close to here, but I wouldn't mind going to the beach."



She grabbed a book off the rack and opened it for a second before she put it away.

The texts here were so dull. Just books and pages about people she didn't care about. Maybe expanding her horizons to the other subjects would be helpful. She was the justification for all the evil in one world, and yet nothing said that was all she had to know. Maybe she could learn a great recipe or two. So, the woman drifted her way over to the cooking section and began glancing at some of the books over that way.

However, she noticed somebody standing over her shoulder, and she was about to say Hello. When she looked over her shoulder she caught a very familiar sight in her eyes. A very tall Spanish man, or black, or whatever, she barely saw color. She saw that he was cute... when he wasn't grandstanding.

"... Johnny," Babylon looked over her shoulder with a coy smile as she put the book away. "What do I owe the occasion to."

Johnny leaned up against the book rack without a care about the books as he twirled around his fancy walking cane. "... You're the only person in the world that claims she has people after her and yet still walks around in public... Babylon."

"Those people after me are too stupid to track me out here," Babylon answered... in Ellie's voice. "Besides I can handle myself without Hemorrhagia's little whipping boy following me around."

Babylon shrugged, "So, kindly go about your day."

"Sorry sis," Johnny answered. "Hemorrhagia says that you are dumb as fuck... well, she ain't use those words but that's what she meant. And she doesn't want you to draw any attention to yourself by killing someone or fuckin' 'em."

"No more attention than you accosting me is going to draw," Babylon snickered as she looked around and saw some... idle glances sent her way. Johnny noticed them, too.

"Nice try, bitch," Johnny said with a toothy grin. "Draw attention to me, you draw attention to yourself... and neither of us wants that."

"Why the hell do you even obey Hemorrhagia?" Babylon asked, "She'll drain you dry and then toss you aside. Like trash!"

There was a brief silence before Johnny answered.

"... Why the hell do you listen to Bloody-Spooky-Bitch?" Johnny chuckled. "I know for a fact somebody like you got nothing to gain from her little goons. Well, you ain't nothing to gain as it stands."

Babylon smirked,

"Just what are you getting at, boy?"

"I can tell from your face and these little acts of telling Hemmy to go fuck herself," Johnny slung his cane over his shoulder. "You have a... hidden agenda, yeah?" He smirked.

"So do you."

"My hidden agenda is that I want to survive," Johnny narrowed his eyes, "I don't want to get my fuckin' soul sucked out, I don't want to end up washed up on the bay, either."

"But that's the only way this will go for you," Babylon answered.

"Correct," Johnny said, "Normally I'm against working with spooky bitches like yourself but..."

"... But," Babylon said, "Let's not get hasty here."

"We gotta play our cards," Johnny answered. "Maybe we should talk terms somewhere else well..."

He looked around.

"... Less fuckin' corny, if you know what I mean."

"Maybe we can take it into the hotel?" Babylon purred as she took his hand... only for him to wince away.

"Sorry, I don't fuck spooky."

Johnny said as he and his new partner began walking.



The DENS agents were assembled in a room around an oval table... and they were all facing a massive flatscreen TV. Everyone wasn't in the best state ever since the loss of both of the Mayfields, but after their deaths, the director called for an emergency meeting. Meifeng herself wasn't exactly in the best of all moods afterward. She was sitting in her chair with her shoulders on the table, fingers interlocked. The leader of this faithful task force looked around at her other agents. Cindy had her hands on her lap as she faced the TV screen, Trevor was looking down with his shoulders down, Leon had his arms crossed and was also looking down, and Helena had one shoulder on the table as she was chewing on a pen. Anticipating the conference with the Director.

The TV screen activated as it showed the shadowy silhouette of their director... and it was impossible to make out his or her facial features. It was how they usually went about their meetings with Director Alcott as she insisted that she keeps her identity secret. If somebody was spying on them, they won't know her identity.

"Why, hello, hello," The Director's voice was digitally deepened. "How is everybody doing?"

"Bad," Leon answered.

"I am sorry to hear that," The Director started. "I heard the news about the Mayfields... I will do my best to inform their families of their loss after this."

"I take full responsibility for their deaths," Meifeng said as she placed her hand on the table and stood up. "I made a bad call, I didn't...." She shook her head.

"What exactly... happened?" The Director asked.

The DENS agents looked in between each other before Trevor finally spoke up.

"Well, you see..." Trevor cleared his throat as Meifeng shot him a death glare. "We ran into the ghost of Annabelle's sister and she told us where Annabelle's lair was. So we came up with this big old trap to rig the place with C4 and when she came back we blew her to high hell. And in the confusion, we shot her up, netted her up, and almost had her."

"... And?" The Director asked and Meifeng finished.

"... She screamed and called back her horde of monsters and they swarmed us. There were too many of them, and we had to leave... the Mayfields were lost." She sighed.

The Director leaned forward and put their hands together in front of their face.

"This is not good, not good at all," The Director said. "You were instructed not to engage Annabelle without Maximilian. At all."

"I know but-" Meifeng was about to come up with an excuse of some sort to justify just why she did what she did. However, she knew that it would fall on deaf ears and the Director was probably not in the mood to hear them. She sighed as she realized that silence will speak for her.

"As of now, Agent Liao," The Director said, "Agent Jean-Pierre is now in charge of the operation."

"... Very well, Director," Meifeng sighed.

"I might have a way to help Maximilian, but for now, standby," The Director reached forward and typed a few keys as she said, "Alcott out."

Meifeng loudly sighed again.

"... You know, Meifeng," Cindy said as she glanced over at her defeated leader, "Despite her orders, you're still the leader in my eyes."

"Yeah, boss-woman," Leon said as he put his hands behind his head.

"What do you suggest we do?"

Meifeng recollected something that Lyss said... The Coven was working on a way to stop Annabelle, but what was the question. She put a hand on her chin as she said.

"... We're going to visit the Coven."

---

---

Between getting held up, getting stuck in Maya’s car yet again, and having to sleep on the rollaway bed because Isla jacked the good bed and immediately passed out, Penny felt as if she had earned a break. She couldn’t recall the last time she did something relaxing. She couldn’t really recall if she ever knew how to relax in the first place. There was something nerve wracking about taking time to do absolutely nothing, especially when there was a somewhat decent chance that Armageddon wasn’t just an awful movie with a killer song. Perhaps she could scope out the meeting place with the Dollhouse, or make sure that the cops weren’t looking for them after the whole gas station fiasco, or check in with Kimberly, or—no. Today was a day off, and she deserved it.

Plus, what kind of idiot could possibly pass up a two for one sale, like, are you kidding?

Penny soon learned that the answer to that question was “not any”, as all of the idiots had seemed to show up to raid that particular mall boutique that day. Not a rack was spared as the frugal vultures picked the hangers bare, raiding the store like a pack of vikings if vikings were mostly middle-aged women desiring to appear as if they were and would always be twenty-one. The actual twenty-one year old slipped through the crowd. Even with all of the fucked up things she had seen, the mutilation of a gas station attendant’s fingers being one of the tamer things on that list, she was still horrified by the massacre of the store. Penny barely escaped with her life and the four cute little dresses she probably couldn’t really afford but she’d worry about having a good credit score if they all got through the next year.

Shopping trip successfully completed, Penny began the trek through the mall towards the food court in search of an iced latte. She dodged around the preteens in their miniskirts and the mall goths in their Tripp pants, sped past the booths hocking phone cases and airbrushed t-shirts, and avoided every perfume lady like they had the goddamn plague. Penny had almost made it to the food court when the sight of a tiki hut lumped with fake, oversized fruits stopped her dead in her tracks as the whirl of a high-speed blender pierced through the air. An iced latte lost to a fruit smoothie every day of the week, for drinking one allowed her to pretend to be healthy.

The line to the smoothie shack was long, twisted, and full of the same kind of monsters that had ransacked the boutique. Penny wanted to skip it but the inotixicating draw of a green smoothie full of whatever the fuck antioxidants were was too strong to resist. Penny found herself standing in the line before realizing that she had even made the decision to do so. The line inched forward, the stressed out teen and only employee of the drink stand frantically darting back and forth between blender, fridge, and register, as a hundred angry eyes stared at her and waited. Penny found herself staring too, just another lost soul stuck in line for an overpriced smoothie.