---

---

“Look, Kimberly gains nothing from pitting the Dollhouse against the Coven except for a shitload of enemies and loses her best chance at finding a cure for Annabelle. Unless she’s completely batshit insane, which she isn’t, then it had to be someone else trying to fuck us all over. Someone who either wants Annabelle to keep raging or wants you, girls, to get screwed over. Now, I’d find it hard to imagine with the oh-so-cordial treatment I’ve been given but has your little Coven made any enemies that’d benefit from this? That one gold bitch who joined late seemed to have a bone to pick with the lot of you.”

The Jaws retracted on command from Madison and she kept her hands in her pockets. She could almost crack a smile if it wasn't for the fact that Claud was dead... and suddenly, Madison felt a familiar feeling of loss. Similar to Izzy but worse, because Claud died here while she was busy. If only Madison helped her... and she held her tongue as Madison couldn't help but take in a deep breath and then exhale. All Madison felt was a failure for being unable to save yet another sister, she dug into her shirt and pulled out the keychain that contained the Jaws. Then the Jaw's voice echoed through her head.

"This is a sign, Madison Brown. You need our true power."

She sighed. Madison turned towards Penny as she said, "... Golden bitch would be Babylon."

"Wait, fucking Babylon was there?!" Emily shouted as she heard that bitch's name. "Why didn't you tell me?! Why didn't..." Emily stopped herself there because she realized that she was going to be going in circles.

Emily pouted as she crossed her arms, admittedly she didn't consider that possibility that it wasn't Kimberly. However, unlike Madison or Penny, she has no clue who Kimberly was and wasn't really convinced by Madison and Penny's "it wasn't her" rhetoric. Not yet, but she was willing to believe it if she was presented with the truth. For now, she would focus on, well, the now.

"Well, nobody really comes to mind other than Babylon..." Emily trailed off as she put a hand on her chin. "The Greenwood Vampire Coven was wiped out by Annabelle, and I doubt Blake has anything to gain from Annabelle rampaging. Babylon's the only person who would be completely apathetic to."

"Could there be somebody else?" Madison theorized as she shook her head.

However, Madison's ears perked up when she heard a huge amount of buzzing... like somebody kicked a giant hornet's nest. She turned her head and saw a swarm of insects floating on top of the nearest lamp post. That was definitely not normal, and Madison immediately shouted, "The Jaws!"

"... Wait, don't shoot! I come in peace!" The Swarm of insects said as they condensed and formed one of the newcomers, the white girl with the dreads. She sat on top of the light pole as she shook her hands back and forth.

"... Matter fact," They heard the voice as another Dollhouse walked up... the very tall Spanish-looking guy that Madison only caught glimpses of but she definitely knew was him. In his hands he had a deck of poker cards and in his mouth, he had a burning cigar. "We do."

"Who the fuck are you!?" Madison shouted as the Jaw's three heads manifested and Emily activated her own abstraction and grabbed some rocks.

"Johnny J. Valos, muchacha," Johnny took a puff of his cigar and then placed both of his hands up. "I've come to make an offer... an alliance."

Madison narrowed her eyes.

"Why the fuck do you think we want to be allied with Dollhouse!?" Emily shouted.

"Not with Dollhouse, but an... interested party that wants them outta the picture, see?" Johnny kept his hands up as his eyes were racing around the group. "I think we can both walk away with what we want here if you hear me out."

As Isla placed her hand on Mariah's shoulder, there wasn't much reaction to it. As the yelling and bickering continued, Mariah wiped her tears, and focused on the DENS members in front of them. Most of the bickering went to the background as she stood up. Between the physical and emotional pain, it was definitely hard for her to focus, and she wasn't about to even try to understand what they were fighting about. Didn't the DENS say they were going to handle it? Weren't they specialists or something? Surely that was good news-- why was everyone yelling about it? Slowly she then walked toward whichever DENS member looked at her first. Claudette's death had seemed to take the back-burner, swapped for whatever argument the others wanted to have, but there was something more important to be handled.

"ENOUGH!"

Mariah glanced back at the group before asking the nearest DENS member, "How did Claudette die? I seen people get shot before and ain't nobody die that quick from somethin' like that. And I do wanna know where her body at." A very grim look crossed Mariah's face then, "Let me see she really dead. And then make sure y'all handle it right and sooner than later. Cause I don't wanna see nobody puppeting her body around-- that's what they do in there, right? Need to make sure she in the ground or somethin'," she sniffed, "Did she have any family? Who's gonna talk to them?" Madison shouting caused her to look over her shoulder once more--

"The Jaws!"

A swarm of fucking bees replied "Wait, don't shoot! I come in peace!"

And then a grimy woman appeared out of the swarm, followed by a slimy man that looked kind of familiar. Did that guy just say 'muchacha' like every stereotypical Mexican gangster in a 90's cop show? Mariah sneered. He was in the same room as them when Luis started shooting, wasn't he? He'd even tried to attack Lyss! There was a bit too much going on, right? Those two coming out of the shadows, during a very emotionally charged moment, would no doubt result in more yelling.

"I think we can both walk away with what we want here if you hear me out."

"No! Fuck that guy! They wasn't exactly halpin' us out when they boss started shootin'-- that woulda beena time to make some kinda move, fuck--" Mariah let out an exasperated sigh as the world spun slightly. She unleashed a pain filled Latin Rage Rant, "Muderfucker-- we thouh' Kimberly was legit and she wasn'-- now we godda non-legit fuck standin'ere offerin' a deal?! No. Fuck that guy!"

Slowly she turned her attention back to the DENS agents, while grasping her aching head in one hand. Her questions needed answering before she paid those two clowns anymore attention. "Excuse me for that-- Y'all got answers," Mariah asked through grit teeth, "Or nah?"

---

---

Maya hissed, trying to hold in the anger inside her that threatened to boil over. Helena’s answer just riled her up more, and Trevor’s had very little effect on calming her down when she was in this state. With no one to go for she spun around and kicked her car again, just to try and take the edge off it.

It fucking hurt.

She was slightly less close to straight out attacking someone when Madison shouted for their attention.

And force once she forced herself to listen.

"Besides, it's not like ya'll haven't seen the weirdest shit already. Who's to say that somebody doesn't have like a disguise abstraction or something?"

Maybe Madison was right. Maybe it wasn’t Kimberley, but someone disguising themselves as her.

“Whoever it is, they still tried to kill me,” Maya hissed under her breath, fists clenched. She honestly couldn’t give less of a flying fuck about the identity of the attacker.

“Now, I’d find it hard to imagine with the oh-so-cordial treatment I’ve been given. But has your little Coven made any enemies that’d benefit from this? That one gold bitch who joined late seemed to have a bone to pick with the lot of you.”

Maya flipped Penny off before frowning at what she’d said. “Babylon was there? Hah, things would have gone to shit anyway.” Though she could have done without having a gun held to her head.

Her first thought when a loud amount of buzzing ended with two strangers turning up was, thank fuck, someone to take her anger out on. But of course, that wasn’t the way things went at all. Some bullshit about coming in piece. Right, cause that was so easy to trust.

Isla was shocked out of her stupor by the two newcomers, blinking back on instinct and letting out a quiet yelp as she slammed into a car. Fuck she didn’t need more of a headache. She narrowed her eyes at them, vaguely recognising the girl as one of the people at the meeting. The guy too if the little she understood from what Mariah said was to go by. “Hey, why should we trust ya if you’re with them… or like, were with them?”

Maya was also regarding both of them suspiciously. She didn’t like the sound of this one bit, and honestly wanted to tell them to fuck off… but what choice did they have right now? She also really, really, didn’t like their chances going back empty handed. Fuck. She just really wanted to punch someone.

“Say what you have to say,” she gritted out, arms folded. “And why we shouldn’t just force you to leave.”

As much as she really, really liked that option.

---

---

The very second that Mariah opened her mouth, pretty everything she said went in one year and out the other. Johnny heard bits and pieces but it was really irrelevant to the guy. Except for one part, one tinsy little thing.

"Muderfucker-- we thouh' Kimberly was legit and she wasn'-"

"... That's because you dumb asses fell for the oldest trick in the book," Johnny didn't even face Mariah and it seemed like, even though he was directly responding to her, he was speaking to the entire Coven at once. "You let a little white girl with a smile play you all. Simple as that. But it's okay: I for one believe in honor among thieves. It's obvious none of ya'll are upstanding citizens, and I could tell that without watching that video of ya'll beating the brakes off those hillbillies."

Then his eyes drifted over to the DENS before he commented, "... But ya'll really need to learn what omertà is."

He shrugged for a second before he glanced at Mariah for just a second before he focused on the rest of the Coven. "Though, something don't seem right about that whole thing with Kimberly..." He trailed off for a second as the cards in his hand slid down into his sleeve, and then he rubbed his chin. "... How can ya'll lead her to the club if she already knows where it is...?" He started chuckling.

"But, that's not importa-"

"Oh, but it is,"

Madison chimed in as she crossed her arms and faced down Johnny. While Mariah was currently on her own planet (as always), Madison couldn't help but agree with her. Johnny was probably shadier than she was, but he agreed with Madison's own sentiments - just that he was being vague on purpose and playing games and she was about to break her foot off in his ass.

"Alright, Johnny, start talkin' and no bullshit," Madison spoke and there was a demonic element added to her speech when the Jaws activated and began growling. "What does Kim have to do with Dollhouse?"

"Oh? She didn't tell ya...?" Johnny chuckled, "Well..."

He cracked a grin.

"... She was one of our biggest suppliers, in fact. "

Madison raised an eyebrow as Johnny dropped that bomb. "... Biggest supplier of what?"

"Oh my lord," Johnny rolled his eyes. "Did that bitch tell you nothinhg? And you took at face value just because? No wonder you got played so hard. Ha!" He started laughing.

"Look here, stop this bullshit and get to the point!" Emily shouted at Johnny as she dropped the tethers as she said. "All she told us was that Dollhouse sold cures for curses!"

"... That's not all of what Dollhouse does," The grin on Johnny's face disappeared as he spoke dead seriously. "The best way to explain Dollhouse is that they're a human traffickin' group! Except... for whatever reason, they've been kidnapping people kicking out their souls and putting their Apparitions in 'im. Every people in there except for me, Luis, and Cowboy-bitch was an Abscised... and I know for a fact ya'll know what that is. They may sell cures, but that's not what they do."

Johnny leaned up against the same lamp post that Sharon was on top of. "So, while Kim didn't lie - she sure as fuck didn't tell ya'll the whole truth!"

"I..." Madison trailed off for a moment as she realized that it was her that got the Coven into this. It was Herik's idea but was she really free from blame? She sighed as she decided to hold her tongue yet again and let this blowhard keep talking... and while she hated to say it; she kinda believed him.

"And if you're wondering what her part in this is; well, she supplied Dollhouse with bodies. See, that bitch was runnin' one helluva hustle! A ghost or whatever possesses a chick in her show and she can't find the right soul?" Johnny shrugged, "She sold them to us in exchange for a cure... hell, even Sharon's body here was gotten by Kim!" Johnny pointed up at Sharon.

"... Hi, Penny." She awkwardly waved at Penny.

"However, I guess the bitch had a change of heart... she wanted the bodies back from Dollhouse and as you may have guessed; they didn't want to lose their brand new bodies. So..." Johnny bared his teeth as he looked down for a second. "... Me and Kim devised a plan to take out the head of Dollhouse, and right when we were about to enact it: the retard thought that it'd be more beneficial to take out some of the grunts instead of taking out the big three when we had 'im right where we wanted 'im."

Johnny shook his head.

"If it wasn't for her boy toy, Natalie would have killed her." Johnny shrugged as he looked at Isla. "As for why you should trust me; well, I'll be blunt here; you don't. But you guys clearly have no problem trusting any dollface that comes your way, but let me tell you something..."

He raised his hand as he raised a finger and wagged it with a coy smile on his face and he spoke in a very condescending tone, "... Luis isn't going to let this go. Natalie isn't going to let this go. The Mannequin isn't going to let this go. They're going to come for you all, and trust me; it's gonna be ugly. They don't give a shit about whatever the hell is going on up there, it's about perception, sweetheart. And letting some bitches cross you like that is bad for appearance."

He sighed.

"Now, as for what I can do for you, it's simple: Dollhouse still has the potions you want. One of their little bitches named Faust can make these potions and she keeps a bunch in her workshop. I can lead you there, but I want the big three out of the picture. And trust me..."

He chuckled again.

"... You want them gone, too."

---

Lyss was… lost.

Even though she’d desperately wanted to sleep off the pain in her shoulder, she stayed with the group. Only because she wasn’t sure if she could make it to the hotel room by herself. She didn’t want to go to the hospital with the DENs and Claudette. Not in Miami. Not where the Dollhouse or her old partners could look her up. So, she let Herik put a makeshift bandage over the wound until Helena would be able to patch her up nicely. She was just about to ask about Claudette when they delivered the news.

Claudette was… gone.

The world blurred around her. She could only hear her heart beat and feel the pain in her shoulder and now in her chest. Claudette… didn’t make it? Lyss could have helped her too. They all could have. Instead, she’d reacted in defense. She’d still done the Coven right. No one else was killed. And yet their leader was dead. Lyss could hear the others’ muffled voices. Even though she couldn’t understand them she knew they felt the same. The devastation. The weight of the guilt on their chests. None of them were to blame except for the Dollhouse and Kimberly. Lyss wanted to tell them that, but she could barely breathe. Was it the loss of blood, or the loss of her closest sister?

When the initial shock wore off, the others’ voices became coherent. Who was going to take care of Kimberly? Were Penny or Isla in on this? They knew her well. Was Kimberly really capable of this when she also wanted the cure for Annabelle? It wasn’t adding up. This entire day… it didn’t make sense. Lyss should have never come back to Miami.

Madison. She didn’t believe it was really Walton. Lyss still trusted Madison. Madison and Claudette were close to. Lyss slowly raised her eyes to look at Madison for reasoning, but she saw her activate the Jaws. Her head turned towards the source of panic. It was the girl that was with Babylon, and then the man that was about to attack when Herik stepped in.

Lyss gripped her shoulder tighter and moved to stand, but she found her legs were too wobbly to hold her weight. She narrowed her eyes at the two Dollhouse members. What the fuck did they want? She looked around, but there was no sign of Babylon. Her presence wasn’t in her range, either.

She wasn’t in any state to demand answers, but she was thankful that Emily and Madison stepped up for her. Demands were made, explanatory monologues were given, and-

Lyss froze. Kimberly Walton sold empty bodies to the Dollhouse? Her blood began to boil. Of all the times she hadn’t heard about the Dollhouse, she had heard of those who sold the soulless to apparitions. It was much harder to capture and sell apparitions if they were finding meat suits to hide in. The bodies made them harder to seal inside of an object. So, Lyss always kept tabs on that part of the market.

To hear that Kimberly Walton, famed ghost hunter, had been a major player either during Lyss’s time in the market or before shocked her. Walton was much more dangerous than she let on. Hell, at least Lyss never sold a soulless for her own greed. She’d never stoop that low. Even if Walton had a “change of heart” she was still capable of the worst kind of evil.

“They’re going to come for you all…”

Lyss frowned. This wasn’t good. The Coven was supposed to stay far away from the black market. They were her safe haven, and now they were mixed up in the market’s business. The only one who understood her was gone. Would the others treat her with the same respect as Claudette if she spoke up now? She couldn’t explain her history with the market with two members of the Dollhouse -especially not with the DENS- around. And now this Johnny Bravo dickwad wanted them to assassinate three of the markets top potion kingpins?

No. Hell no.

“If you want three of the markets top dealers to disappear, you’ll want to work with the DENs for that. Not us.” She hissed suddenly. Her eyes were staring at Johnny with the anger and grief that was mixing around inside of her. “We’ve already lost one of our own because of the market. I will not stand to lose another.”

She turned her head to look at the others. “If we go back and “remove” those dealers from the market, we’ll have a target on our back for the rest of our lives.” She already had one of her own targets from the market. Why make hers bigger? Why give the other girls one of their own? “We shouldn’t get any more involved with the market. I know we need those potions, but we’ll have to find another way.”

She looked at the members of the DENs now, and then to Johnny. “The DENs should arrest the three leaders of the Dollhouse, confiscate the potions as evidence, and then slip us what we need to fight Annabelle and cure our own as a contract of silence. You, Johnny, and your friend there, should be there to assist them with this and then deliver us what we need. This will be your way of gaining immunity, because the DENs could arrest you right here and now for affiliating with the market.”

“At least, that’s how I’m seeing things right now. I think I got it all down correctly.”

---

---

"Omerta, dumbass." Johnny rolled his eyes at Lyss' naivete. "I don't work with the feds, period. Ya'll shouldn't either, but hey, it's your funeral." He shrugged as he scanned the room and realized that the situation was changing.

The Jaws manifested again as one of the Jaw's skulls looked at her and the two nodded at each other. Before they looked at Johnny, "Sorry, hun, but I don't buy a word that's comin' outta' your mouth." Madison said, "Nothing about Dollhouse, nothing about Kimberly, nothing about your little scheme. For all we know, the shit that went down in the club was all your idea."

"You still assisted," The Jaws spoke,

"Babylon the Great," Another head spoke.

"For that,"

"We will kill you,"

"Perhaps your death,"

"Will be less agonizing,"

"If you lead us to Babylon,"

"We will rip her form to shreds,"

"Give her no escape,"

"Then we will consume her soul,"

"Then we will consume yours."

"... I wonder what he thinks about me," Emily crossed her arms as she wondered out loud.

However, Helena wiped out her taser and immediately shot Johnny with it... he violently convulsed as he fell to his knees and then facefirst onto the ground. "Cuff him!" Helena ordered Trevor as she looked up at Sharon...

... Who jumped down and transformed into her insect swarm form. However, she didn't flee, she just transformed back to normal and raised her hands. "Don't shoot! I'll come with you!" She said.

"Honestly," Leon said as he pushed his katana up a bit with his thumb. "You all need to get back to Tampa, ASAP. We'll handle things from here."

"Might as well..." Madison said with a sigh. "Everyone, let's pack up our shit and go... and no fuckin' gas station stops."

Today was... shitty, to say the least. Hopefully, the DENS will make sure that they don't leave empty-handed. As Madison got into her car, one thing was for certain; Kimberly was going to have a lot to answer for when they got back.

If she was still there.

---

To say the least,

Meifeng was not happy.

She was standing on the beach with the phone to her ear, listening to Leon tell her how the whole operation got fucked ten ways to Sunday. Thank God her agents were there, but... Ms. Walton. She apparently crashed the meeting and began blasting away at the Dollhouse. That... Didn't add up to Meifeng. From Leon's accounts, she just showed up, caused the situation to go tits up, and then left. Meifeng thought that sounded a bit strange.

"Okay, I'll sort this out," Meifeng said as she ended the call.

"What happened?" Cindy said as she walked up to Meifeng's side.

"Ms. Walton appeared and pretty much became an active shooter in the Dollhouse club...."

"Something doesn't feel right about that,"

"That's what I was thinking," Meifeng said, "Let's find their sister, and then we'll check what the bugs picked up."

The two Agents began walking back into the house and went into the living room... they saw the TV was on and saw the lights. Meifeng knew that it was likely Vashti, but maybe she'd get lucky and see Kimberly here. All she saw was Ancient Aliens playing and the girl in the hijab was in there watching TV. Meifeng tilted her head as she made sure to open the door loudly enough for Vashti to tell that she was there - the last thing she wanted to do was give this jitterbug a heart attack. She sauntered in with her hands in her pockets and walked up to where Vashti was sitting on the couch. Cindy slowly got up behind her in case this got ugly.

"Ms... why I forgot your name," Meifeng shrugged. "Do you know where Ms. Walton might be?"

Vashti gave Meifeng a wide-eyed and confused look as the agent caught her stress eating out of a buttery bowl of popcorn mixed with M&Ms. Slowly, she shoved the food into her mouth as the undeniably credible man dressed like a professor explained how Alexander the Great used alien technology to conquer the known world. She doubted that Meifeng had actually forgotten her name. The government spook probably had files the size of a dictionary on every member of the Coven, from birth records to text chains. She probably knew that Vashti would be in the living room watching television before Vashti even had decided to do it. However, the DENS had agreed to watch after the Coven, so she'd play along with Meifeng's apparent forgetfulness.

"Ms. Nour. Um, Vashti," she said, her eyes darting over to the TV. Dang it, why'd she have to get interrupted just when it was getting good? "And I don't. Did you try asking her cameraman?"

"We don't know where either of them they are," Meifeng said as she put a hand on her chin and walked around. She looked at Vashti and realized that her attention was more on the TV - maybe it was a diversion? With a wave of her hand, the television turned off. "Focus, Ms. Nour. Something really serious happened and we need to find Ms. Walton. ASAP."

Cindy merely shook her head, "Do you know where she might be in the house? Or anywhere else she might hang out?"

"Maybe she's filming an episode of her show? I mean, they could be anywhere. Look, I'm sorry, but I wasn't her babysitter," said Vashti. If anything, Kimberly had been babysitting Vashti. She sat up, alarmed, and cradled the snack bowl in her lap. "Wait, what happened?"

She jumped at the sound of her phone buzzing from the coffee table. She glanced at it, saw the caller ID was from Herik and moved to pick it up.

The two exchanged looks, Meifeng was more than certain that Vashti had nothing to do with Kimberly's plan - though the question of why she was here. Meifeng nodded her head at Cindy before she slowly began to walk off, looking for Ms. Walton in the house.

That left Meifeng with Vashti, she noticed that her phone was buzzing and let her pick it up, "Ms. Walton... she shot up the Dollhouse club and got one of your sisters killed. That's probably them calling you to tell you what happened."

"What?"

It took a moment for the full implication of what Meifeng had said to truly hit Vashti. For a second, she just stared blankly at the DENS agent while a muted voice chimed through the speaker on her phone. Then everything smacked her like a tidal wave, forcing her under the water where she couldn't breathe and dragging her away from the shore with the undertow. Her worst fears about the Coven seeing the Dollhouse had come true and then some. Kimberly had betrayed them, somebody was dead, and the odds that anybody had gotten their hands on a cure was close to zero.

She choked on her words. Her eyes welled up. The voice on the phone became static as she scooted backward, burying herself in the couch, the bowl clattering to the floor and sending popcorn and candies bouncing every which way. Vashti knew she should reply to Herik, should let him know that she was okay and make sure that the same was true of him, should ask him about who had died, should give him some kind of comforting words to ease the pain he was likely feeling. She didn't, because she didn't care. A cure had been right there and the Coven, DENS, and, most of all, Kimberly Fucking Walton had screwed her out of it. The phone dropped from her hand and bounced harmlessly onto a cushion, the call still going. Vashti's whole body shook as pulled her knees.

"I'm going to..." Vashti stammered and began to cry. She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and started forward. At that moment, Meifeng might as well not have existed. She felt her stomach turn. Her voice was no more than a faint whisper as she finished her thought, "I'm going to kill her."

"What you're going to do is nothing," Meifeng sharply answered. As she looked down the hallway towards Cindy, who threw her a hand signal and she nodded. "We have this handled, just go back to watching television." She walked down the hallway as she saw Cindy right by the door. Vashti ignored Meifeng's command and slowly followed behind the agent. She stopped behind the corner to the hall and poked her head around to watch, her finger rolling over the grooves in Herik's coin.

Cindy was on one side of the door and had brandished her pistol, and Meifeng did the same. The latter pressed her ear up against the door and heard some music playing on the other side. The two looked each other dead in the eyes as Meifeng raised three fingers...

Two...

... One.

Meifeng jumped in front of the door and then kicked it down and brandished her gun. The first thing that she saw was Kimberly in her underwear lying stomach-down on the bed. She was typing on the laptop... before the glass on it exploded. "Wha-"

"... DON'T MOVE! " Meifeng shouted as the two older women aimed their pistols at her. "DO NOT MOVE A MUSCLE OR I WILL SHOOT!"

"O-okay!" Kimberly stammered as Cindy moved over towards her. She grabbed Kimberly by her arm and then put her down on her knees. "Wh-what's going on?! What did I do?!"

Meifeng narrowed her eyes.

Vashti had crept to the edge of the door now, one hand on the threshold as she peered into the room. She tried being quiet to avoid giving her presence away, but her breathing grew hot and angry as she saw Kimberly on her knees in nothing more than underwear. Good, she deserved to be embarrassed. Vashti could only think about how Kimberly made her feel like a total asshole the other day because Vashti didn't believe in the Coven, only for the bitch to go and ruin things herself. She scrapped the doorframe with her nails.

"Cut the shit, Kimberly," growled Vashti, stepping into the doorframe but not yet entering the room. A hint of yellow flicked across her slitted pupils as she took in the scene, her eyes jumping from the guns to the shattered laptop screen. Kimberly might have been restrained, but she was still a danger for other reasons. Vashti found what she was looking for on the nightstand: Kimberly's instant print camera. She smiled cruelly as she took a step forward into the room.

"I believed in you, and you fucking betrayed us. Did the Dollhouse even have cures in the first place?"

"What the hell are you talking about?! I was here the whole time!" Kimberly said, which only served to help Meifeng believe her stance. However, the girl could be a sociopath, so better safe than sorry... Cindy clicked the handcuffs on. "Can somebody tell me what's going on?! I didn't betray anybody! I was here the whole time!"

"Ms. Nour...." Meifeng looked at Vashti and hoped that she got the hint to get lost.

However, Ms. Nour was no longer in control. The Leviathan seized control of Vashti's body as it slinked around the edge of the room, halting only as Meifeng called out to it's pathetic and weak vessel. Although she had yet to transform, the eyes that met Meifeng were feral and reptilian. The Leviathan straightened itself up and let Herik's coin drop from her hand as it fixed Meifeng with a stare. She had a gun, but it had yet to be trained on the Leviathan—as if the stupid, inferior primates could use their basic, simple tools to harm something as magnificent as herself.

With a huff, the Leviathan turned and snatched Kimberly's camera from the table. The Leviathan continued to turn, using its momentum to smash the camera against the wall as it assumed its true form. Vashti's face widened into a snout, the tail split out from under the jacket wrapped around her waist, and her arms bulked up as the scales spread throughout the rest of her body. She roared and ripped the cast-off of her arm with her razor-sharp claws. However, the Leviathan did not immediately lash out at Meifeng.

"Leave us," hissed the Leviathan, its yellow, bloodshot eyes turning down towards its handcuffed, hopeless prey. Now that her vessel knew how treacherous her weak species truly was nothing was holding the Leviathan back. Kimberly had bested the Leviathan twice, but the Lizard Queen would see to it that there would be no third time. With a snarl, the Leviathan took the first step forward to kill the ghost hunter.

... And that step was interrupted by several green jagged glass spears getting in between Vashti and Kimberly. It formed a wall between the two of them. Cindy's eyes were wide open as she lifted Kimberly to her feet while fixing the gun on Leviathan through the glass. Knowing that it was unlikely to stop the Leviathan.

"Ms. Nour!" Meifeng shouted as she fixed the gun on Vashti and prepared to open fire. "Stop immediately!" Now, she knows what the fuck tore her fucking truck apart, and she was not happy.

"Shit!" Kimberly shouted as her hands were behind her back and Vashti utterly destroyed her camera. Fortunately, she has a backup, her cellphone - unfortunately, that's on the bed and out of reach. And there was a lizard monster about to attack her. "You gotta let me grab my phone!"

Strangely enough, the Leviathan that was trapped behind the cage of glass raised its claws over its head as if it were surrendering—but not before it took a glance over at the bed. Another primate tool was designed to cage the Queen. She would not let Kimberly get her hands on it. The snarling stopped as a familiar, panicked voice spoke, perfect mimicry of Vashti. "P-please don't shoot me! I didn't do anything wrong!"

It likely wouldn't fool Meifeng, but it might make her hesitate. A hesitation was all the Leviathan needed. She whipped her tail around and effortlessly shattered through the glass spears, sending chunks of shrapnel throughout the room. Then, almost immediately it leaped towards the bed, claws out, ready to destroy the phone like it had Kimberly's camera. The Leviathan would not be caged again.

Meifeng unfortunately for Leviathan didn't hesitate at this point - and the second that Vashti or this creature moved the wrong way, she immediately pulled the trigger. All she heard was the ringing from the aftermath of her round. All she smelled was the smoking gun. And all she saw was the creature at the end of her barrel. She was ready to pull the trigger again.

However, as Vashti leaped for the phone, Cindy had her eyes on the bed and several glass pillars came out of the bed launching themselves directly at Vashti. While the glass made tiny lacerations against her scales, the bullets had done little more than a bruise. Still, the Leviathan fell short of their target as the glass and the bullets smashed into her. She smacked against the frame of the bed with a thud and went limp. The bed couldn't support all of this however and fell forward... knocking Kimberly's phone onto the floor in the process as Cindy tried to move Kimberly more towards the door. They had to keep this fight indoors.

The Leviathan saw the phone on the ground a few feet in front of her. Kimberly getting her hands on it was more dangerous than anything these two pieces of shit could do to her. She scrambled across the floor towards the phone, the room echoing with the sound of gunshots as she barreled as quickly as she could towards the phone. Instinctually, her tail whipped out at Meifeng in an attempt to knock her against the wall and stop her pesky gunfire as the Leviathan opened up its jaw to devour the phone. Meifeng was hit by the tail and went flying until she hit the wall, dropping her pistol in the process. She loudly hissed as she hit the wall and she felt the impact through her old bones. She grit her teeth as she slid down... but composed herself and reached out and willed the pistol into her hand.

Cindy seemingly did nothing as she went towards the door, holding her prisoner. However, she was focused on the phone, which was obviously her target (Walton needs a lesson on subtlety), and when the Leviathan opened her mouth: Cindy enacted her plan. She covered the phone in jagged razor-sharp and brutal glass growths.

The Leviathan, either not noticing or not caring, snapped her jaws down on the phone. The crunching of Kimberly's phone was drowned out by the pained howl unleashed by the Leviathan as her mouth was lacerated by the broken glass. She coughed and sputtered as blood begin to fill her mouth and drip down her face, but she did not stop. She began to stumble towards Kimberly, slashing wildly in front of her and roaring in rage, flecks of blood splattering around the room as she continued to rampage.

Cindy noticed that the Leviathan was stumbling, so the plan worked. Kind of. The creature was after Kimberly(?) and Meifeng was out of commission. So there was one thing that came to mind - she let Kimberly go, she gave her a shove right out the door. Kimberly yelped as she fell to the ground and Cindy quickly dodged the claws. Starting from Kimberly, various poles made out of a green glass came out of the ground until it formed a barrier between the two.

Meanwhile, Meifeng grabbed her gun and began blasting away at the Leviathan, hoping that they'd do something. However, they seemed to have almost no effect, doing little more than causing the Leviathan to recoil. The Leviathan stood to her full, unimpressive height of five foot something and whipped her tail around to smash through the glass barrier, sending the shards that didn't embed in her tail flying throughout the room. With a bubbling hiss, the Leviathan continued pressing forward towards Kimberly, her tunneled vision seeing nothing but her quarry. Claws flashed as she reached out towards the handcuffed girl, eager for the easy kill.

"Son of a bitch!" Kimberly shouted as she immediately turned and cut and run. This was not the ideal situation but what were the DENS thinking when they not only cuffed her but let the Leviathan out. When the Leviathan reached for her, Kimberly tried to run but ended up tripping, and then she screamed when she braced for the inevitable...

... And a yellow-aura wrapped around her that constantly pulsed and flowed so fast that it was almost nauseating. She felt a hand - no, his hand on her and his abstraction activated. No harm would come to Kimberly long as he had the barrier active. It didn't stop the Leviathan from trying, though. The Leviathan crashed against the barrier like a rabid dog, claws, and teeth harmlessly deflecting off of the yellow light. She kept attacking. She kept attacking even as the claws on her hands started to crack and chip. She kept attacking even as the barrier around Kimberly was slowly coated with a fresh paint of the Leviathan's dark-red blood that splattered out from its mouth as it bit and roared on repeat.

The barrier around Kimberly wasn't going to last forever, Rowan knew that. Just what the hell happened here?! He lifted Kimberly by the cuffs as he took steps back as the Leviathan was literally hurting herself attacking Kimberly. However, he noticed the two DENS agents coming out of the room aiming their weapons at the two, which wasn't going to help... but then Meifeng raised her hand and the cuffs came off of Kimberly's hand, melting into a liquid as it formed a long and sharp blade. The blade jetted directly at Vashti at high speeds.

The Leviathan didn't even know the blade was coming her way until it pierced her just beneath the shoulder. With an ear-shattering roar, the Leviathan pulled the blade out of her chest and used it to strike at the barrier. She didn't care that the wound was now bleeding out, or that the blade was beginning to cut into her fingers, or that nothing she fucking did kill this goddamn bitch. She just continued her frenzy, even as her strikes grew slower and slower. Deep within the pits of the Leviathan, her vessel tried to wrestle some kind of control. Vashti tried to project the fear she felt knowing that the raging Leviathan was going to get her killed to the Apparition controlling her body, but the Leviathan just kept swinging.

The blade gave Kimberly all the opportunity she needed to reach into Rowan's pocket and pull out his cellphone. Fortunately for her, Rowan used a shitty android phone, and thus she didn't have to unlock it. She quickly pointed the phone at the flailing Leviathan and pressed the big O in the middle. A second later there was a flash, and the Leviathan was gone, replaced by a stunned, bloodied, wide-eyed Vashti.

The injured girl looked down at the stained blade in her lacerated hand and then slowly stared up at Kimberly. The Leviathan was gone, but the hatred in her eyes told the photographer that Vashti's anger had not subsided. Kimberly had dangled the hope of a cure in front of Vashti's face, and then she'd snatched it away from her. Vashti tightened her grip on the blade and jammed it as hard as she could against the barrier. All it did was slide back in her hand, deepening the cuts to the point where she could no longer hold the blade. Vashti's shoulders shook as her face darkened and twisted in pain. The blade couldn't pierce the barrier, but the withering look she cast towards Kimberly was nearly as fatal.

"Fuck you," she said, or rather, she attempted to say. What came out was a gurgle as the pooling blood in her closed mouth was released, cascaded over her lips like a waterfall, and splashed onto the ground that Vashti barely realized she was hitting as the world around her went black.

Meifeng sighed as she tried to fight off the pain... her chest was on fire right now and she could taste a little blood. She should definitely head to the hospital after this... but for now, her hands slid into her pockets as she walked up to Rowan and Kimberly.

"... That was not the way I was hoping that would go." Meifeng sighed with her hands in her pockets. Cindy walked over to Vashti and handcuffed her for when she woke up.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Wendy asked.

Meifeng sighed again. "People think that you have a lot to answer for, Ms. Walton." She ran a bloodied hand through her hair as she looked down at Vashti. Part of her wanted to give this bitch a good kick but she refrained from such childish impulses.

---

A few days later; Meifeng had requested a special meeting with Lyss... the same place as before, the CoffeeHouse. This time, it had no ambiguity (but maybe not no surprises) Meifeng and Cindy were sitting on one of the booths. Wearing civilian clothes... Meifeng was wearing a white tank top and jeans that showed off her figure. While Cindy was wearing an Adidas track jacket and shorts and sneakers. Next to Cindy, she had a brown bag with something in it, that was faintly glowing.

Lyss stepped into the building decked in all black. Her boots almost dragged their way over to the table. As she sat down, she removed her sunglasses and nodded to the two women before her. "Agents." She said as a greeting. Something about her seemed disheveled, but she hid it well. Maybe it was in her posture. Maybe it was the dark shade of lipstick she wore too.

"Lyss," Meifeng said, "Should we skip the formalities and get to the point?"

Lyss nodded once and rested her hands together on the table. "So, how did it go?"

"Well... we raided their headquarters a few days ago, however, they were well organized and prepared for such an event..." Meifeng trailed off as she crossed her legs and leaned back in the both. "... The leadership got away, and so did a big chunk of their membership and we don't have any clue where they could be or the resources to find them."

Meifeng sighed yet again. "However, we recovered some of their potions, but there's one problem... we only recovered three cures."

Lyss's hands tightened together, but then she took a deep breath and relaxed them once more. "Are you going to give one of them to Agent Cornell?" Her tone had no emotion to it, but she was assuming that Max's well-being was essential if the DENs were going to take on Annabelle.

However, somebody walked up to the table, and quickly and dramatically slamming a hand down on the table was none other than...

... Maximilian Cornell. All healthy.

"... I think that speaks for itself."

Lyss looked up at Maximillian, stunned. Her hands separated as if she was startled, but in reality, it was a relief.

"Max, I- ... I'm glad you're okay." She almost wanted to say more, but she thought against it.

"Heh, we all are," Maximilian joked, "But, for now, I think we should talk business." He said as he sat down... so he looks less weird. That was when Meifeng continued.

"Now, we have recovered three cures, Director Alcott ordered us to keep all three of them but..." Meifeng trailed off as he bit her lip as she glanced over at Cindy.

"... We decided to give you two," Cindy finished. "It's the least we can do."

Lyss nodded in agreement, although inside she was thinking they could do a lot more than that. Damn right it is.

"So the third goes to Annabelle, then."

Cindy nodded.

"You know this means that there is zero room for error, right?" Meifeng just had to say. "Your girls have to understand that."

Lyss pressed her lips together for a moment before deciding to just let it go. "I expect them to. We'll be training until the day comes."

"That reminds me," Maximilian said, "... Annabelle hasn't been sighted for a few days now, not even a report of a murder. Part of me is hoping this means that she died or stopped but..."

"... This is just the tip of the iceberg," Meifeng said, "... The upcoming conflict is gonna be bloody, I can feel it."

Lyss looked between Max and Meifeng. She had come to that conclusion long before Meifeng even mentioned it. "I'm sure it will. If we work together on this as one team, we have the highest chance of getting her." She glanced between the three agents. "That means my girls will look after your agents, and your agents will return the same care. We'll need a strong force if we're to stand against her."

"She may not be killing, but her hunger grows every day. And so does her power with it."

Meifeng nodded her head.

With that discussion over with, for now, Lyss had one more topic of concern. "Where is Kimberly Walton? How was that handled while we made our way home from Miami?"

"Ms. Walton and Mr. Campbell are currently under our custody..." Meifeng trailed off before she looked around at the TV screen. It had a newscast talking about the shooting at the Dollhouse club. "... But, I don't think she was the one that did that."

Meifeng shrugged as she said, "I... I got a feel for the kid and it just doesn't feel like something she would do."

Lyss sighed softly. "I can agree with that. Despite Kimberly's history with the Dollhouse, I don't think she'd show her face there again. Whoever that was, they wanted our deal to go south. They want us to work against Walton."

"A few of the Coven believe it was an outside force as well."

"That's what they want: they want you all to take things at face value," Maximilian answered.

"I discussed matters with Director Alcott and..." Meifeng looked at Maximilian and Cindy for a second before she said, "... We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"We might have to let her out to help," Cindy softly said. "We need everyone if we're gonna stop Annabelle."

Lyss clenched her jaw. On one hand, she took every word Maximillian said seriously. On the other, she hated the secrecy that the DENs kept. It was understandable, but in the long run, it did nothing but cause the Coven more trouble and pain.

"There will be some tension if Walton is around, but I think it's best in the end to release her... I want an eye on her at all times, though. If the imposter shows their face again, I want to know that it isn't actually Kimberly."

If the imposter reappeared to cause more trouble, she wanted to know which Kimberly to kill.

"But, you should tell your friend Vashti that she owes me a new truck..." Meifeng trailed off, "And that she needs some anger management classes, heh."

Lyss shook her head. She had to admit it was a little funny, but she wasn't in a humorous mood. "I might just give her a potion to get her to shut up, but I'm going to let the entire Coven vote for their claim to the cures. Vashti's condition is erratic, but I think she just needs to accept it before she can control it."

"Again, I have no idea what your situations are..." Meifeng flatly stated. "But, I know you will make the best choices in the end."

"There isn't much I can do about the truck, though." She shrugged and sat back in her seat. It was her way of indirectly apologizing.

"We'll be standing by. Hopefully with our problems sorted by then. Stay on your toes. Annabelle could reappear at any moment."

"Of course," Meifeng said, "You do the same." She nodded as the three DENS agents got up... but Maximilian hanged back for a minute...

The very next morning, Saul was in his office enjoying a glass of whiskey. He was sitting on the edge of his desk, and he took a sip of whiskey as his doors opened. Walking into were the two people that he was hoping to see, Dean and Savannah Farrow. He narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms and looked at the two.

"How did the plan go?"

"It went well, Saul," Savannah said, "However, it didn't go the way we planned."

Saul raised an eyebrow as Savannah continued.

"Opposed to one faction destroying the other," Savanannah started and Dean, strangely, finished.

"The Dollhouse fled Miami, possibly Florida,"

"The Coven however has lost their leader," Savannah added on.

"But, they returned to Tampa," Dean said.

Saul shook his head as he answered, "Nevertheless, we still can make our plan work with just the Coven..." Saul trailed off for a little bit. However, an orange portal opened made out of sparks and embers and the Messiah walked out. Immediately everyone dropped to their knees as the Messiah walked over to Saul, and raised their hand. Saul was slammed onto the ground and was pinned there by an outside influence.

"Mother is displeased," The Messiah said. "She has sent me to punish you."

"Wh-why?! Messiah?!" Saul started as he tried to resist the influence. "We eliminated the leader of the Coven."

"Your actions are brash and overly violent... has it ever occurred to you once that they could have gotten the cure for Annabelle from the Coven? As much as I would love all those fools out of the picture, the time was not right for your plan."

The Messiah placed both of their hands together underneath the robe and released Saul from their grip. "However, you still acted in the best interests of Mother, so I cannot fault you for that."

Saul sighed as he climbed to his feet.

"Mother believes that there is a storm coming," The Messiah spoke.

"What does that mean?"

"Annabelle hasn't been massacring people for several days now," The Messiah spoke, "While this may seem like a godsend, all it means is that abomination will make for lost time."

Saul was silent.

"However, in these trying times, long as you place your faith in Mother, your diligence will be repaid," A portal opened behind the Messiah as they turned around and stepped inside. "Whatever you need..."

The Speaker put one hand on the edge of the portal.

"... Mother provides."

---

The sting of betrayal forced Annabelle into seclusion. The morning light hit her through the boarded-up house in the middle of nowhere... this house hasn't been touched in decades, perhaps. It was her protection from the elements... primarily the outside world. Annabelle sighed as she got up off the ground and walked over to the window... where she saw cars driving by and yet she remained in here like a freak. She knew she was a monster but Saul was a bigger one and she was going to kill him... she just needed to wait until the right time.

Saul will die.

---

---

---

There was a... a chilling feeling in the air. It followed Madison everywhere it seemed, even as she went back to her apartment. She found herself staring at Claud's things and couldn't help but crack a tear. That her friend was gone. Killed because... why? Madison was from the worst part of Philadelphia and it still hurt knowing that a friend was killed because of something stupid. Madison didn't touch Claudette's things as she found herself staying home and mooching off of Blake's little donations.

She didn't want to go back to the Coven's little hangout - in fact, there wasn't a meeting for weeks. It was probably because nobody wanted to get together unless it was strictly necessary. Madison sighed again as she got the message from Lyss in the Snapchat group.

It's time we meet. We need to discuss the potions the DENs recovered and what we're going to do about the Annabelle Heart situation. Meet me at the beach house at 2:00 pm.

To be honest, Madison didn't want to go meet the Coven. Not today, and not ever. Officially (or as official as the Coven went) she never came back and she didn't really want to come back. The issue was that the matter of the potions (and the Annabelle situation) had nothing to do with her - however, she definitely wanted payback for Izzy. If it wasn't for Lyss, she wouldn't even be considering it but... she was with the Coven from the start, she didn't want to turn her back from the Coven now. She sighed as she grabbed her keys and headed to her car.

---

The Coven assembled in the pool area, as always. Madison kept her distance from Vashti and Herik, only affording them one glance and then pretending as if they didn't exist. She slid her hands into her pockets and waited to see what Lyss had to say.

Emily was front and center wearing black tights and a black shirt with the New Balance logo on the front. Finally! The DENS got the cures for her sisters and she had the dumbest smile on her face as she didn't have a care in the world. The Coven was finally starting to pay off after several months of dicking around! It didn't matter. Bickering with those bitches didn't matter. Getting betrayed by Babylon didn't matter.

Lyss was among the last to arrive. She didn't say a word as she walked over to the group. Her sunglasses hid her eyes. She carried a black satchel with her and as she approached the table on the patio she set it down in the middle. Before she said anything at all, she sat down in the nearest chair and crossed her arms and legs. She cleared her throat before speaking.

"So... I'm sure we're all still grieving for our loss... Claudette was... well, she didn't deserve an end like that." To think that a necromancer would be shit at discussing the death of a friend.

"But... We have to think about what we're going to do next."

She nodded towards the bag. "To put it plainly, there are only two potions to give today. I understand we needed many more, but this is all we've got. So instead of arguing, which I will not stand for today, I want the ones who wanted a potion to make their claim before we all take a vote. I honestly think you all deserve to get what you wanted, but that's just not how it worked out. ... Please think of Claudette as we do this. She would have liked it if we did this nicely."

Madison and Emily looked at the bag... In all honestness, Madison didn't have a dog in this fight. She didn't know any of their situations other than the fact Vashti transformed into a scaly bitch (well, she had to say her regular form was less of a bitch). They probably didn't want her vote anyway. She just sighed.

I-Is this really a vote? Emily just had to hold her tongue as she had to try resisting breaking out into laughter - but she couldn't. She just starting laughing like a madwoman (perhaps like Babylon). Emily wiped the tear from her eye as she finally stopped laughing.

"... Okay, that's rich," Emily said, still smiling like a fool. "I'm gonna be nice here and inform people of a few things; my sister is dying. Herik's mother is also dying. The other person with a curse just throws a magical temper tantrum."

Emily glanced at Vashti, just knowing that she's going to make things about herself. Just a fucking strong feeling. "I'm sorry Vashti, but it's the truth. We can get you another cure."

---

---

Penny smirked as Emily began to freak out over this Babylon person, although admittedly Penny was in the dark on who the hell was Babylon and why they deserved any sort of excited response. Madison floated the idea of it potentially being someone else. Penny tilted her head. The only other person she knew of with any sort of borderline interest would have been Saul, and that man, despite his denial, would want Annabelle dealt with more than anybody else in the world. At least that was what Penny had originally thought, but the dude did lead a cult and any good cult needed a doomsday prophecy. Annabelle was that for the Forgiven—end of the world type shit.

“Fuck,”” said Penny, throwing her head back. She’d assumed Saul played dumb about Annabelle because he didn’t want to admit her existence. What if he’d wanted to protect her? She couldn’t decide if her theory was completely stupid or just stupid enough that it might be the truth. She didn’t have a chance to voice it as a swarm of insects buzzed overhead. Penny snapped her head over to the lamppost and spiraled a ring of coins around her hand, in the process shouting out one loud, “Fuck!” as a Dollhouse croney appeared.

Penny’s eyes narrowed as Johnny appeared as well, but she held her hand and heard them out—clamping a hand tightly over her mouth as she snorted at his suggestion of them making an alliance. Fucking christ, the dude sees one deal go south and he’s ready to stab the entire organization in the back? Yeah, no way teaming up with a creep like that could ever possibly backfire. Fortunately, she wasn’t in the Coven. She didn’t have to go along with their choice, whichever one they picked—but it seemed like the girls were leaning towards the sensible option.

Penny shook her head in denial as Johnny listed off Kimberly’s sins. It had to be utter bullshit. He revealed to them that the girl with shitty dreads was none other than Sharon. Penny bite back her lip as the idiot girl she’d executed had the gull to wave at her. She returned Sharon’s greeting with a disgusted huff but resisted the urge to strike. However, the look of malice softened as Penny recalled her conversations with Odessa. A look of guilt crossed her face as Penny lowered her head.

She fell deaf to the rest of the conversation, tuning back in as it seemed like the Coven had made its decision to not work with the Dollhouse rejects to stage a coup. Penny watched as the DENS booked Johnny and Sharon before she turned to join Madison in her car, taking the spot that once would’ve belonged to Claudette. Penny paused before entering the vehicle, told Madison to hold on, and marched over to Sharon as she was being escorted by the agents into the back of their black car. Penny called out to the agents to stop and held her hands up, showing that she meant no harm, and gave Sharon a soft smile.

“Hey, I want you to know that I forgive you. Don’t fuck up your second chance more than you already have. I’m pretty sure this is the last one you get,” she said, with a hint of genuine concern lingering at the back of her strained voice. Penny quickly turned, not wanting to hear what Sharon had to say, and walked away. However, she stopped after a few feet, looked over her shoulder, and with a wrinkle of her nose added, “You should really do something about your hair.”

With that, Penny hopped into Madison’s car.

---

---

Vashti was lucky. She was lucky because Cindy didn’t lock her up alongside Kimberly. She was lucky because Meifeng didn’t let her grudge about the truck stop her from taking the girl to the hospital, although a part of her felt like the only reason she’d been kept alive was so she could cash in on that debt at some point. She was lucky that her wounds had healed quicker than anticipated. She was lucky because despite Kimberly fucking things up (and it was Kimberly, probably), the DENS agents in Miami had managed to get their hands on a few cures when they had hunted down the Dollhouse.

Actually, that last part hadn’t just been pure luck: if not for Vashti, DENS wouldn’t have known that the Coven was dealing with the Dollhouse. Claudette was dead, which Vashti felt more of a weird tinge of guilty relief about than anything else, but nobody else had died thanks to the girl narcing the group out. Vashti hoped the Coven would recognize that she’d tried helping them, as little as she could do, but as she kicked water at the edge of the pool she couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Her jacket and her headscarf sat folded on a deckchair, holding a seat as far away from Madison as possible. Vashti lifted her head as Lyss joined the group.

"To put it plainly, there are only two potions to give today…”

“Huh?”

Vashti felt her heartbeat quicken. She closed her eyes and gripped her chipped nails against the siding of the pool. Slowly, she counted backwards from ten. It’d be okay. They’d recognize that she deserved one for sending backup their way in Miami and then she’d be cured and then she’d no longer have to deal with this merry band of jerkasses. She opened her eyes and heard Emily start roaring with laughter. Vashti shot her a look. This was not funny. Okay, maybe it was a little funny. Of course this is the way things would be. Soon, Vashti heard her own laugh. The sound was almost foreign. She stopped laughing as Emily started to talk.

"I'm gonna be nice here and inform people of a few things; my sister is dying. Herik's mother is also dying. The other person with a curse just throws a magical temper tantrum," said Emily.

“Wait…” Magical temper tantrums? Every time the Leviathan attacked she nearly got herself killed. Every time the Leviathan attacked it nearly killed somebody else, too. Son of a bitch, Vashti was pretty sure she’d eaten a motherfucker. She needed it more than the others. She deserved it more than the others. The only reason they had any cures was because of her. The Coven would’ve came back empty handed if at all otherwise. “Emily!”

"I'm sorry Vashti, but it's the truth. We can get you another cure."

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. This was some sick fucking joke. Vashti scrambled up from her poolside seat and turned towards Emily, a verbal beatdown held fast on the tip of her tongue, ready to unleash a flurry of blows. Vashti sharply inhaled and said, “Okay.”

Okay? No, no, no, not okay. The word had come out in Vashti’s voice, but it hadn’t been what she wanted to say. She wanted to call Emily out for being the world’s biggest fucking bitch. Vashti wanted to let her know that being dead would’ve be better than being related to Emily. She wanted to let Herik know that his mom was old and had a good run and might not even really be cursed in the first place so why waste a potion on her when Vashti clearly deserved it more? She wanted to yell at them for failing to have her back, as if promises made at a Red Lobster meant nothing. No, no, no, this was unfair. This was so unfair.

“It’s okay, Emily. You’re right. They need it more than me. I’ll manage,” said Vashti.

Her words came out slow and strained, the Leviathan forcing her will over Vashti to deny the girl of a cure. Perhaps the Coven would think that Vashti had taken Madison’s words about her selfishness to heart, unaware that she was internally screaming herself ragged. The Leviathan forced Vashti to smile an unnatural smile at Emily, as if two spectral fingers had pushed the corner of her lips up for her. She turned and walked towards her deckchair in a near catatonic state, sat down on the edge of it, and stared at the ground in horror.

A lot of stuff can happen in two weeks. When the rest of the Coven fled back to Tampa, Mariah hadn't went with them, regardless of the danger. Sure. Maybe they'd murder her then steal her body, but then it wouldnt exactly be her problem, right? She'd be dead. On top of that, she didnt want Max to waste his gas money chasing her to Tampa, just so he could bring her back to Miami. That man had made it pretty clear that he didn't want her going nowhere until she saw a doctor.

Turns out, his fears were justified, and her doctor put her on bed rest for a week. As it turns out, bonking ones head on cement really didnt do the soft squishy noodles inside the skull any favors. For whatever reason, this was the same time Hector decided to go on an adventure, leaving her and Max alone to pay the damn rent.

So yeah, sure, Mariah was here at this Coven meeting but, this was the first time in a while that she could think clearly-- well enough to dig into her damn budgeting app. As she held her phone in one hand, crunching the numbers between her income and Max's, divided by food and fashion, she very dramaticaly fanned herself with the other, holding that huge fan of hers like a gentle southern damsel. Sweat was beading on her brow but Mariah refused to take off her bedazzled football helmet, for she was with the Coven, and they always managed to get her into a concussion causing situation.

Every slight tilt or movement of Mariah's head caused the stupid, plastic rhinestone covered, insult to sports equipment, to catch the light and surely send it BRIGHTLY beaming into someone's eyes, but she kept the football helmet on-- faceguard up and included. Her neon colored tie die crop top and black skirt contrasted wholly with the helmet, because who the hell wore something like this? She was seated on a deck chair, as discussion went on, and only barely registered the topic at hand.

After an odd linguistic display from Vashti, which kinda made her sound like she needed to shit, Mariah immediately cast her vote. "Whoever dyin' should have it unless they dyin' of the cancer-- unless the curse is the cancer. Whateva'," she contributed.

Herik almost dropped his phone when Madison burst out Jaws the exact moment the call connected to Vashti.

"What?” Her voice sounded vacant like she wasn't paying attention, but he answered anyway.

"Claudette's dead and Kimberly has something to do with it." He couldn't specify her role, since Madison and Penny didn't believe she would betray them. He only caught half that conversation, since he was also trying to listen on the phone. He didn't get an answer. The news was shocking and he's sure she needs time to process, but when the silence dragged on too long he called out her name, hoping he'd get an answer. When he heard the phone drop, he pulled it back from his ear, the clatter on the floor pierced his eardrum.

"Vashti!" He called again, but nothing. He hung up, worried that something bad happened to her, yet there was nothing he could do for her in Miami when she's four hours away. Two members of the Dollhouse showed up claiming the plan was to take out the big three in the organization, but they got in the way and that the Kimberly that attacked them was probably an extra-normal human that could copy someone's appearance. That made sense, but what didn't make sense was Kimberly not telling them her involvement with them before. He never trusted her, but he didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Her old dealing with them was disgusting. He hopes she rots wherever DENS puts her when they find her.



Two weeks passed and he hadn't heard anything from the Coven. That was fine. It gave him time to heal, process another sister's death, and check on his mother every day like he should have. He should've never gone to Miami in the first place, not when she's here getting worse every by the week. She's bluer than the last time he saw her. Her heart's still strong, but she looked like she would die any day. DENS was supposed to get them the potions needed to break the curse, but how long that would take worried him. He'd gotten his cast off finally and has physical therapy twice a week. It looks weird to walk on his leg again. The muscles are weak from being off of it for so long, but the therapy helps little by little. He doesn't see himself running or swimming any time soon, but he's better than he was.

He sat beside his mother when he received a message from Lyss to meet up. Hopefully she has good news. He kissed his mother on her forehead, her skin too cool, the blue lines on her face darker. She doesn't have a lot of time left he knows, and he doesn't want to go but he could leave and come back with the thing that'll help her. He had to go.

Herik arrived at the house and took a seat next to Vashti on the pool side. The water was freezing on his legs, but it helped with the burning sun above. Lyss said there was only two potions, instead of the three they needed. One of them would be without. His face fell. He decided along time ago that he'd do whatever he needed to help his mother and between the three of them Vashti didn't need it as much as he and Emily's sister did. He was sorry it came to this. Emily vouched for both of them and wasn't so kind in letting Vashti down.

He turned to Vashti to apologize that he couldn't back down from this only for her to beat him to it.

“It’s okay, Emily. You’re right. They need it more than me. I’ll manage.” From the way she said it to the way she smiled didn't sit right with him. Something was wrong, but he needed this potion and he was willing to feign ignorance just this once.

"Thank you, Vashti. You're so kind." He didn't attempt to put any heart in his words or to follow her to the deckchair. Mariah immediately voted in favor of him and Emily, but he still hadn't said his piece.

"I don't think my mother will make it to the end of the week. She could die tomorrow or today. She doesn't look well." He said the last part softly, holding onto his tears cause when he sees her face in his mind, her sallow, pale, blue face it brings him to tears. "I don't know what condition your sister is in, Emily, but I don't want you to wait five years like I have and see her waste away every day." He dabbed at his eyes with his t-shirt, some of his tears stained his shirt, he sniffed and got himself together. There's a potion for his mother here, he'll get it and she'll recover. Everything's fine. He should be happy, so he smiled. Not his brightest, but it helped him not feel so sad.

---

---

"Whoever dyin' should have it unless they dyin' of cancer-- unless the curse is the cancer. Whateva',"

Of course, Mariah was on her own god damn planet as usual... but Madison couldn't help but agree. Not out of spite for Vashti - if anything Madison would be doing anything in her power to get rid of her - but because there were lives on the line here. Lyss put it up to a vote and Madison was going to place her two cents. "I think Emily and Herik should get the potions," Madison voted. She knew how it felt to lose somebody and didn't want that to happen to anyone. Not even someone like Herik.

Thank the lord Vashti was seeing reason and not being overdramatic! Maybe Vashti saw this as a betrayal of some kind but Emily saw this as... well, doing what she needed to get done. Honestly, Vashti wasn't dying as far as she could tell - but Vashti didn't tell them much of anything so that's really on her. Emily just kept smiling as everyone pretty much agreed that she and Herik should be the ones to get the cure. Speaking of which, Herik seemed pretty appreciative to finally get the cure for his mother. Emily was so happy to finally get her cure that she couldn't hold it anymore and finally cried.

"Thank you, everyone!" Emily started, "I know I was a real bitch sometimes but thank you. You don't know what seeing my sister like that did to me." Emily started walking over towards Lyss as Madison narrowed her eyes.

"Not that's settled, how are we going to deal with Annabelle?" Madison asked, not that she was thrilled to be thrown into another conflict - but she wanted to avenge Izzy if nothing else. "Because I feel like that's something we should talk about, girl."

Emily on the other hand didn't give a shit, she was going to give her sister this cure ASAP and then worry about the rest.



After the incident with Vashti in the beach house, Kimberly and Rowan willingly went with the DENS to their little headquarters in Tampa. After all, Kimberly knew that she was innocent and that she was willing to help sort this out. What she didn't know was that the Dollhouse told the Coven... some things. She honestly didn't know what they lied to those girls about, but Kimberly knew that they, most likely, believed it. Especially since she was stuck here in a jail cell for the last few weeks... she was just sitting on the bench, kicking her feet back and forth. Thinking about how badly it went for her, it was just the simplest thing. It wasn't that bad, they gave her a change of clothes, put Rowan across from her, and sometimes they got her Chick-Fil-A!

Other than that, no contact with the outside world. So she was doing a whole lot of staring at the floor.

"Rowan," Kimberly spoke out to Rowan as she stopped. "Do you think we did the right thing?"

Rowan was quiet for a second as she was lounging on his bed, throwing a ball up and down out of boredom. However, he caught it one last time before he said, "Let me ask you,"

He began,

"Do you think you did the right thing?"

Kimberly paused for a moment as she replied, "... I don't know anymore, Rowan."

However, they heard a group of footsteps walking up and Kimberly quickly shut herself up as she saw the DENS walking up... it was Cindy, Meifeng, Maximilian, and Leon. Which was strange because normally it was just Trevor or Helena stopping by to give them some food. Meifeng in particular was carrying a fold-up chair underneath her shoulder which she unfurled and placed on the ground. She sat on it and crossed one leg over the other as she stared at Kimberly, completely wordlessly (and awkwardly).

"... Hi," Kimberly said with an awkward wave.

"... You have a lot to answer for, Ms. Walton," Meifeng said. "I think by now you should have an idea of what I am talking about..."

Kimberly loudly gulped as she watched the glowing red eyes appear around Leon... all staring at her as Meifeng continued.

"Because I just got off the phone with Director Alcott... and we have full permission to put you away and throw away the key."

"Well, what do you want?" Kimberly asked.

"I want to know the truth, I know you screamed and hollered over and over again about what happened, but I get the feeling that it's not entirely truthful," Meifeng began as she gently placed her hands on her lap and then looked up at Maximilian. "Not only that, but we did some digging and... what do you know? That little Dollhouse lady appeared in one of your videos."

Kimberly gulped as she looked over at Rowan.

"So, start talking, even if you do deny it, we still can get you for your black market dealings."

"I... fine," Kimberly sighed as she looked down at her feet. "Okay, first I bought cures from them with money to help people. I thought that they were cool but eventually, they started pressuring me for a body, charging more and more. Until they said that they wouldn't accept anything less for one of their cures. I thought it was fucked up but they were my only source for relieable cures. Then there was her... a girl I met that was suffering from a curse that was killing her."

Kimberly pleaded yet again. "I looked everywhere to try to find a way to help her, but nothing I tried worked. She was on her death bed and... I couldn't let it live on my conscience to let her die like that. So, one Apparition abscised that girl and I couldn't find her soul... I just gave in. I gave them the body and she got her cure... and she thanked me so much but I felt so... dirty for doing that." Tears started streaming down her eyes as she said.

"I tried to get the body back to her family at the least, but they wouldn't let me! So, I just tried to do it the hard way but that dumbass Johnny only wanted to take over the Dollhouse! He tried to use me and when that didn't work, he ratted me out. Then that was when Annabelle's rampage began and I... blew it."

"You really jumped down that slippery slope," Meifeng commented with a roll of her eyes. "You do know that we can arrest you right now for a long, long, time, regardless of intentions."

"... I know," Kimberly wiped the tears from her eyes.

She got up off the chair as she looked at the DENS agents and the eyes that were floating around Leon disappeared. "Let's have a quick word."

They walked out of earshot as Meifeng quickly turned on her heel and faced Leon. "... What did you get out of her?"

"It's what I said before..." Leon said. "... She was telling the truth."

"Hmph," Meifeng said. "We should have known better than to trust Johnny at face value."

Maximilian sighed as he crossed his arms. "While I think she ultimately had good intentions... the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

"Well," Cindy turned to Meifeng before she asked, "What do you suggest we do with her?"

"Hmmm... While this action is absolutely incorrigible," Meifeng started, "They're might be helpful... well, more helpful than the Coven would ever be."

"I bet if she just sent us to get the potion this would have gone way smoother," Cindy sighed, "But, I digress, shit happens sometimes."

"We should let her loose..." Meifeng said, "... We're keeping her on a very tight leash, however."

"Fine with me," Cindy said. "Director Alcott doesn't really care a whole lot about what she did in the past - long as she helps to stop Annabelle."

Meifeng nodded her head as she walked down the hallway back towards Kimberly. She pulled out her keys as she said, "Okay, we've decided that we will release you because you contribute towards taking Annabelle down... and you will be brought before Director Alcott and she will decide your fate, Ms. Walton."

"Fine," Kimberly said with a sigh. "At least we can-"

The door at the end of the hallway was launched open as Trevor came running through the doors and once he saw Meifeng he shouted.



"Oh dear God, what is it today?" Meifeng hissed.

"Annabelle... she's out in Port Richey going on a rampage!"

"Fuck!" Meifeng hissed.

"Wait, let me out!" Kimberly shouted. "I can get you all there in minutes."

Meifeng looked at Kimberly as she sighed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I just need a picture of Port Richey," Kimberly said. "It can be on your phone."

"You all go ahead," Meifeng said as she turned towards Trevor. "Trevor, with me! I'm going to get the Coven sisters!"

"Yeah, got it!"

Meifeng pulled out her phone and immediately dialed Lyss' number as Kimberly teleported them to New Port Richey... about thirty minutes away from Tampa.



The cloaked figure went from yard to yard wearing the all-black hood with the deer skull... freshly skinned of all meat. Annabelle Heart launched in one person's yard as a pitbull immediately charged her and quickly met its end with one swipe of her claws. Almost immediately an older gentleman came out with a shotgun and shouted,

"What did you do to bear!?" He pulled the trigger as Annabelle tanked the shot and charged him and rammed her claws into his skull. She yanked her claws out as she stepped over his body and walked through his house and kicked the door down. People came out to investigate... and Annabelle let out a bestial roar as she grabbed his aging muscle car and threw it into another house.

That was when she went on her rampage...

Watching the rampage from the top of a house was none other than the Messiah. They had their hands together as they smiled from underneath the robe.

"It's all coming together..."

The Messiah disappeared in a mess of sparks and embers...

---

"... Hello there, Annabelle,"

Annabelle was resting on the ground when she suddenly heard the voice... his voice. Her blood boiled as she immediately hopped up to her feet and faced him... Saul. Standing right before her and she smiled, "You! You bastard!" Annabelle shouted as she blindly charged him with her claws stretched out and rammed through the building. When the dust settled, Saul was not skewered on her claws, but instead, he had got inside of a car and was speeding off.

"Oh, no!" Annabelle shouted, "You're not getting away from me, Saul!"

Annabelle immediately ran off after Saul... as the Messiah slid from behind a tree with their hand up and fingered positioned as they were playing with a puppet on a string...

... Which wasn't all that wrong.

---

---

It had been an unfruitful couple of weeks for Penny. With Rowan and Kimberly spirited away to some government blacksite, it was left to her to continue the task of tracking Annabelle. Penny soon realized it was something for which she had no talent. Throw Annabelle at her face and she’d be ready to go for as long as her body would hold together, but actually finding her proved to be a mountain of a challenge. Penny imagined an unstoppable killing machine that turned people into flesh-eating monsters wouldn’t be so hard to find—just follow the piles of corpses and go—but there wasn’t even a drop of blood as far as she could tell. Either the attacks were kept from the news, perhaps buried beneath the exploits of Florida-Man, or Annabelle was in hiding. By the end of the two weeks, Penny had accomplished little more than clean up the room that the DENS had trashed and convince the Coven to let her use it for the time being.

At the very least, the DENS agents had taken care of the Dollhouse mess. The last thing Penny needed was a throng of angry apparitions hunting after her while she played detective. Still, it didn’t forgive them for booking Kimberly. A larger part of the reason why she even bothered to hang near the Coven was to hopefully get a lead on where they were keeping her friend. Orchestrating a full on jailbreak fell under the category of “even too stupid for Penny”, but if she could somehow get a picture to the girl? The exact plan never formulated, largely because she couldn’t find one that didn’t end up with her getting unpersoned also.

These frustrations stewed in the back of Penny’s mind as she leaned against the railing of the deck and observed the Coven meeting, wide-brim hat blocking out the beating sun while an ignored cigarette threatened to jump from her fingers. For a second the cigarette did free itself and began its free fall to the poolside below, but in a blink of an eye the sigil between Penny’s collarbones flashed and the cigarette’s attempt was thwarted as it reversed back into her hand.

She took a drag and glared at Emily as she spoke up when Lyss said there would only be two cures available. It was unsurprising that Emily would want one of them, although Penny’s stare softened and she felt a slight tinge of guilt as Emily explained why she needed one of them. Suddenly, Emily’s fuck-you attitude seemed, whle perhaps not necessarily justifiable, familiar. Penny knew the pains of losing a sibling. Meanwhile, the big guy, Herik, had nearly lost his mom. Penny sighed. She should probably call hers. When was the last time they had talked?

Nobody seemed to fight against the vote, which came to Penny as a surprise, although the girl who had given up her cure looked dejected. Penny didn’t know what her deal was, but it must’ve not been anything major. With all of that figured out, Madison brought up something that Penny was actually interested in: Annabelle. She smashed her cigarette out against the railing and straightened herself up, arms folded over her flowery sundress.

“Yeah, so about that: I’ve been trying to pick up her trail this entire time and there has just been nothing, like, literally nothing,” said Penny, a hint of exasperation at her failure to locate the abomination breaking through. As she spoke, a phone began to ring. “I don’t know if the Forgiven have managed to pull off some media blackout or if we got lucky and she bit it or if—” Penny interrupted her own thought with an annoyed groan as she shot a look towards Lyss. “Dude, just answer it!”

Although, she hadn’t expected Vashti to just go along with it so easily. Lyss frowned. Something was off about the tone of her voice. About her upturned lips as they grinned and her eyes as they looked right at Madison. It was… Had the Leviathan taken control there, for just a moment? Lyss watched Vashti sit down and stare at the ground. Anyone would feel dejected right now, but Vashti looked as if she’d just been told she was going to die in three days. They still had time to help Vashti. She just might have to wait a little longer.

So, Lyss kept the thought at the back of her head and turned her attention back to the other girls. Herik was relieved. Emily would help her sisters, so she was the happiest that Lyss had seen her in a long time. She even admitted she’d been a bitch! Lyss offered Emily and Herik a small smile as the winners walked over to the table. She reached for the bag and pushed it towards them. “I’m glad we were still able to do this for your families. I hope they recover well.”

Madison’s question made the smile on her face vanish once more. Lyss looked over at Madison and nodded to let the other woman know she agreed as well. “It’s…” Penny had already beaten her to the punchline. Lyss simply sat back in her seat as she let Penny explain Annabelle’s mysterious disappearance. Her phone began to ring, and as she pulled it out she saw Agent Liao’s name appear. It… it was time. Already? Were the girls prepared? She glanced up at them all, but before she could finish looking at them Penny told her to answer the phone.

Lyss, as if snapped out of a daydream, nodded and immediately put the phone to her ear. She stood up from her seat and stuck one hand in her back pocket.

“Liao. Has Annabelle been spotted?” Her voice was tense. She half hoped that it was just a false alarm. That they weren’t about to haul ass to some massacre and fight one of the strongest cursed beings she’s ever encountered. There’s no way, right?

“Not just that,” Meifeng answered. “She’s going on a rampage up in New Port Richey, Walton teleported Maximilian and the rest of the DENS agents there. They can hold her off until we get there, but are you ready?”

The window crashed on the other side of the house.

---

A bright light appeared in the parking lot of a cheap motel not too far away from where Annabelle was sighted. Of course, the Blind couldn’t see the flash of light but when the light faded, the DENS agents plus Kimberly and Rowan were there. There was screaming heard in the distance as Maximilian turned his head and saw people running away screaming. So that gave him a pretty good indication of where Annabelle Heart was located. He had on his body armor and sunglasses, with a pistol at his hip. He crossed his arms as he looked behind him and saw all the other DENS Agents holding Colt M4 rifles. However, on Cindy’s hip was a pouch that contained the cure and she walked up to Maximilian.

“Everyone clear on the plan?” Cindy asked.

“We disable her, and then Helena force-feeds her the cure,” Maximilian said.

“Too easy,” Cindy answered, as she locked the bolt forward on her M4 rifle. “Let’s finish this, for good.”

“I’ll um, teleport back!”

However, they weren’t the only people there in the parking lot… somebody was watching them while invisible… Savannah Farrow. In her right hand, she had a Glock 43, the same weapon that was used to shoot up the Dollhouse club. She eyed them, but she had one chance as she stood there in the middle of the parking lot. Spontaneously appearing behind Kimberly, Savannah aimed the pistol at her and let loose a barrage of pistol-fire directly at her. She was shot in the back five times and fell to the ground.

“Kim!” Rowan shouted as he ran over to her and applied his protection to not only her but himself.

“Behind us!” Leon shouted as the DENS agents tried to find cover, and Cindy focused on Savannah and made a glass spear to penetrate her through the chest. Savannah yelped as she grabbed onto the jagged glass weapon with her free hand and… smiled. She began laughing as the gun drifted over to her head.

“To mother...” Savannah started, “...I GIVE MY LIFE!”

Before anyone could stop her, Savannah pulled the trigger and blew her brains out all over the parking lot. Maximilian winced as he looked behind him and saw the DENS agents tending to Kimberly. Son of a bitch. He still heard the chaos in the distance.

“I’m going to engage Annabelle!” Maximilian shouted as he rocketed himself up into the air. He got a good look at the chaos and saw that Annabelle had impaled someone on her claws. He swallowed as he knew that there was no saving him, and then created a massive crystal spear as he charged Annabelle head-on. He went at breakneck speeds as she had not a clue that he was coming to her… but he impaled the mass-murdering creature. He carried her along until he had impaled her into a wall.

Maximilian launched himself back knowing that wouldn’t stop her in the slightest, however when he got a good look at her… that wasn’t Annabelle. It was Dean Farrow, Saul’s right-hand man, laughing.

“Wh-who are you?” Maximilian asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“Doesn’t matter...” Dean chuckled as his head went slack. “Mother wins in the end… she always does....” He expired and Maximilian pressed his earpiece.

“Agent Liao,” Maximilian spoke. “Agent Liao, do you copy?”

It was a few seconds of silence before he heard her voice.

“Maximilian! Annabelle’s in Tampa engaging the Coven! We need you there, now!”

“Shit,” Maximilian said as he realized that they were being duped by somebody.

---

The streets of Tampa were different than usual… the towering figure of Annabelle marching after Saul. Wherever she went, the curse followed and it wasn’t long until the streets of Tampa were littered with flesh-eating beasts. Killing each other and whoever they came across as Annabelle could never seem to catch up with Saul’s car. Regardless of how fast she went… eventually, the chase ended with her at a

beach house… she felt some presence there, but Saul got out of the car and ran inside. So, without a second thought, Annabelle charged through the window…

Lyss had turned when she heard the front door swing open, and as she watched Saul make his way into the house the crashing of the window made her jump. She gasped as she saw the grisly sight of Annabelle herself standing tall in the living room. She almost dropped her phone, but she gripped it tightly instead.

“She’s here.” She said through the phone, her voice tense as her body fought itself. Was this a fight or flight moment? She began to back towards her girls. Were they ready to take Annabelle on, alone, or should they keep their distance until the DENs arrived? They didn’t have the time to decide. Lyss immediately ended the call and shoved the phone into her pocket. “Looks like the fight came to us, girls.”

"The fuck you mean girl, she's here?" Madison raised an eyebrow as the Jaws subconsciously activated.

"Shit, Annabelle?" Emily asked. As she clutched the potion in hand… as much as she wanted to take Annabelle down a peg, she had to get this cure to her sister. "I… need to get this to my sister, sorry."

"... Madison Brown," The Jaws growled.

"Break the seal."

"We are begging you."

"I… I can't, not after what you did to Vashti."

Mariah looked up from her phone, over toward the door, and stated very plainly, “We bout to die.”

“We?” Madison said to Mariah with a tilt of her head.”Girl we ain’t boutta die here but you can go ahead, sis. Knock ya’ self out.”

” Sound like somethin’ somebody that’s boutta die would say,” Mariah replied with a chuckle and a shrug, as she fired her abstraction upon herself, ” I mean, cause if this a horror movie, the dark skin one always go first if there’s two black folks.” She then gestured, for Madison’s convenience, toward the incoming monstrosity, like a kindly gentleman holding the door open for the Lady, “Or is that too real?”

“Good thing this ain’t a horror movie, sis,” Madison crossed her arms before realizing that she was the darker one among the two… just like how Claud was the darkest one. Worst comes to worst, she can throw Mariah at the freak.



The backdoor was launched open as everyone jumped into a defensive position… a clawed hand stretched out of the darkness and appeared on the doorframe. She crushed the door frame as she growled from underneath the deer skull she wore as a mask. One would notice that the black robe that she has on is merely curtains that she wore.

“... Where is he?” Annabelle growled, “Where is Saul?”

Having caught her stench before anything else, Mariah cupped her mouth and nose-- awkwardly because of the football helmet, and practically froze with fear as Annabelle’s appearance settled into her mind. They’re… supposed to fight this? Thing?

Penny bit her lip back as she tried to mask the surprise at both rapid escalation and the mention of Saul. How the hell were any of them supposed to know where that cult leading douchebag was hiding? He’d probably burned the church’s money on a fleet of yachts and set to sailing around the world to escape Annabelle. However, Penny knew well enough that any freak who took to wearing a skull and smelled like a hundred festering corpses probably wouldn’t respond well to an unsatisfying answer. Penny glanced over at Madison and took a step forward, still giving herself hopefully enough room to vault away if Annabelle went wild.

“Funnily enough, I want to know the same thing. He isn’t out here,” said Penny as she stared down the skull mask with folded arms. Ideally, she could buy the girls’ time to either get out or get ready. She nodded towards the beach house, “I can help you look for him.”

“... Don’t fuck with me, bitch,” Annabelle hissed as she took a step forward and let her clawed hands swing down to her sides. “He’s here… I saw him come here!”

Each skull of the Jaws faced Annabelle,

“We have no affiliation with Saul,” The first skull started,

“Or his Cult,” Then the second continued,

“... We tryna’ talk some sense into the psycho-crazy bitch?” Madison said under her breath to Penny. However, the question of why she killed Izzy popped into her head and she was tempted to ask as Annabelle got closer.

“She can hear you,” muttered Penny, whose only plan was to stall until she came up with an actual plan.

Annabelle stopped herself… there was some level of restraint stopping her from attacking them on sight. That same restraint was the only thing allowing her to entertain a conversation with them. However, a mass of sparks and embers appeared on the roof of the beach house and the Messiah appeared… and they raised a hand into the air and applied the same illusion ability to Annabelle again.

All she saw was Saul and each member of the Coven was another version of him. Tall Saul, short Saul, they were all Saul.

And then she lost all composure, immediately shrieking in rage as she charged the Coven head-on. She had her claws out as Madison jumped in the way and managed to grab onto both of Annabelle’s arms as she growled like an animal… Most likely, she was one. Madison managed to hold Annabelle in place as the two struggled.
“... You’re gonna fuckin’ pay for what you did to Izzy!” Madison shouted as she managed to lift Annabelle Heart off her feet with the power of the Jaw and then she chucked her directly at the wall. Annabelle bounced off the wall, but that didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest. She got off the wall and rushed at Madison and swiped her claws at her.

The Jaws’ barrier took the brunt of the slash as Annabelle's claws sliced through his bones like it was nothing. However, with a hand-handed shove, Madison was sent flying into a wall. Annabelle screamed as she charged the Coven.

“I’ll kill you all!” Annabelle shouted. That amount of noise seemed enough to snap Mariah out of her frozen state. Almost immediately, it sent her into a panic instead, and she looked around frantically-- feeling helpless before all of the Annabelle happening. Slowly, she began to back further away from the fighting, sincerely contemplating some kind of escape route.

Penny cursed. She needed to stop being the one to do the talking. Penny manipulated the air around her to blast herself to the side, avoiding a certainly fatal strike and cushioned her blow against the other railing by sending off a smaller blast before impact. She gasped as she still hit it with a surprising amount of force, but she would take a small bruise over shredded internals any day of the week. Reflexively she flicked on her enhanced vision, shot off a volley of coins at Annabelle’s side, and flicked it off to conserve her mental energy as she repositioned to give herself some distance. She tried to recall what she knew from Kimberly’s fights with Annabelle and readied herself for whatever came next.

The coins dug into Annabelle like bullets… but they were pushed out as her healing factor on overdrive activated. Penny frowned and drew the coins back to her. Annabelle grabbed a lounge chair and chucked it at Penny. The floating coins clattered to the deck as blonde effortlessly blasted the chair away, flinging it off the deck where it harmlessly splashed in the pool.

Meanwhile, Lyss immediately ran for the bag on the table while Annabelle was distracted. She ripped the zipper open to the other pocket and pulled out her Glock as turned to face Annabelle. Bullets wouldn’t stop her. Lyss knew that. Lyss wasn’t sure that she could offer any help against a monster like this. Her spells wouldn’t do a thing, and Annabelle would easily tear through the few undead she could summon. With this realization, she decided to find the source of Annabelle’s rage. The very man she assumed was in their house. If she didn’t find him, she would go looking for the figure that seemed to manipulate Annabelle from the roof.

Lyss fired off a few shots into Annabelle’s back to distract her for a few moments and then immediately hauled ass into the house.

“Saul!!” She shouted into the empty halls. “Show yourself!”

” Is you tryna’ get killed? Why would you jus’ run off alone,” Mariah shouted as she came running through the door after Lyss, “I saw you goin’ for ya bag but I didn’ think you was gonna go on a dumbass solo mission, shit-- oh man-- I hate this shit.” Her glittery football helmet seemed to vibrate as she was, very obviously, shaking like a frightened deer, as she asked Lyss, “You want my blessin’ protection thing?” Mariah snapped her fan open at that, ready to toss some orange Fanta colored abstraction Lyss’ way.

Lyss looked back at Mariah and thought that Mariah looked about as scared as she was herself. She glanced at the football helmet. Mariah had something going there. That said, she looked into Mariah’s eyes and nodded. Her hands gripped the handgun tightly. “Cast it quickly.” Mariah nodded and raised her trembling fan, abstraction powering up--

“You’re not getting away from me, Saul!” Annabelle shouted at Lyss and Mariah as she noticed that they were getting away. She lunged at the two with her claws out, ready to impale Lyss.

Penny gave out a warning shout. Even if she blasted herself towards the house she would be too far away to get to Lyss to offer any protection. Instead, she unleashed a barrage of coins at Annabelle’s back in hopes that it might throw off her swing. Once they hit she’d attract the coins back to her before repulsing them again, hopefully hindering some of Annabelle’s healing factor or at the very least providing a useful distraction to keep Lyss from getting shredded.

Isla had been standing completely idly, after blinking out of range of Anabelle’s sight. But the warning shout from Penny, and the claws lunging at Lyss and Mariah, was enough to spur her into action. The purple glow around her beanie as she blinked multiple times until she was beside Mariah and Lyss. In a split section decision, she concentrated her abstraction on Anabelle, purple glow circling her as Isla tried to stop the movement of the claws coming towards them.

Annabelle came to a stop and the coins hit her in the back… which went through her malnourished frame. Mariah whimpered, frozen in place. This was when Madison finally got her bearings and decided to strike. She flew towards Annabelle with both of her fists out like she was a superwoman. She flew directly at Annabelle’s back at high speeds… and there was a sickening crack as Annabelle’s spine and any bones in her core were shattered as she fell forward. However, she managed to regenerate from that pretty fast as she turned around and swiped a claw at Madison but she put her hands up and blocked it - only for her to lose more of the Jaws barrier. This was the first time that she ever encountered this - no one has been able to break her barrier.

“Screw this!” Emily shouted as she hauled ass out of there with her cure and went straight for her moped.

“Dude!” hissed Vashti at Emily from her hiding spot behind the pool shed where she had been cowering. There was no way she was going to try and go toe to toe with whatever the fuck that thing was fighting the other girls up on the deck. For all she knew, the Leviathan might use the chaos of the whole situation as an opportunity to gut Madison. Honestly, even if she was certain the Leviathan would be on their side, Vashti felt no urge to help the girls who feigned care and had the gall to call one another sisters. There was nothing familial between the members of the Coven. Not for Vashti, anyway. A surge of anger rushed through the girl and she scrambled off after Emily. “Hey, wait for me!”

As it seemed, physically, Madison was the strongest one but Annabelle wasn’t going to let Saul leave here alive… When Madison got back, Annabelle let out an incredibly loud, ear-piercing scream that caused Madison and the others to grab their ears. A sound that could be heard from all over Tampa… and it attracted all the other Wendigos that Annabelle created straight to the beach house.

The growing danger was enough to spur Mariah into finally flinging shields about. “--two, three, four,” she counted off, casting that shielding spell on the sad Fractured Jaws, Lyss, Isla, and herself. Sure, she was more fearful than courageous, but her shield should still be effective, right? Before that creeping feeling of doom and dread, associated with someone getting the shield equivalent of wet napkins, could fully settle in, Mariah completed her casting with a, “What now?” Whipping around, she looked to Lyss, entirely ready to follow her lead.

Lyss was stunned. She was this close to seeing her life flash before her eyes. At the moment, she was more grateful for her sisters than she had ever been before. With Annabelle distracted once more, and Lyss’s ears still ringing, she took a second to gather her thoughts again before responding. “We need to draw out whatever is making her believe we’re Saul.” She looked back at Annabelle. “I don’t think the Jaws will last until the DENs arrive either. We need to keep distracting Annabelle from direct attacks until they get here.” Her eyes moved towards the table, where Herik’s mother’s cure laid. If the DENs didn’t get here fast enough, they may have to use it.

“Oh-- uh-- HEY--” Mariah had an idea but she knew it was stupid. She also didn’t know the name for it so she gestured to Lyss, “Fire bottle things-- them. The booze. With the rags? Do you know the ones? I’mma just go get some,” she threw her hands up and ran into the house… looking for liquor. At a time like this.

After the assault on her ears, Madison felt Mariah’s abstraction augment her own. After Annabelle was done screaming, Madison punched her square in the face and shattered the deer skull into pieces… along with Annabelle’s actual skull. After punch and Annabelle came toppling over but she regenerated from the Jaw’s powerful blows almost as fast as Madison can throw them out. There had to be a limit, there to be a point where she couldn’t regenerate any further.

“Die!” Annabelle shouted as she tried to dig her claws into “Saul’s” midsection but the Jaw’s stopped her. His three skulls manifested and latched onto her massive claw and dug his teeth as deep into her flesh as he could, keeping her there as Madison punched her over and over and over again. With her free hand, Annabelle slashed at Madison but she caught it.

“Get out of here!” Madison shouted at her girls and she held Annabelle in place with all of her strength. The Jaws manifested a clawed hand on top of Madison’s that floated on top of hers like a glove as she cocked it… then she rammed it through Annabelle’s chest.

Annabelle hissed as she desperately tried to pull away… to the point where flesh was ripping.

Lyss turned her head towards the rest of the Coven. “Everyone get out of here, but stick together! Watch out for that asshole that was on the roof or Saul. If you see the DENs, send them this way!” That said, Lyss moved into a position to the side of Annabelle and Madison. She knelt and used her knee as a balance as she aimed the handgun directly onto Annabelle’s head. As the monster attempted to rip itself apart from Madison, Lyss unleashed round after cautious round into the side of her skull. The second her gun was empty she planned to run, but she couldn’t leave Madison to fight her alone.

Annabelle’s skull was blown to bits as she ripped her arms off getting away from Madison Brown. Her body dropped to the ground and Madison couldn’t resist floating over to her and stomping on her chest so hard that it left a hole in it - leaving cracks on the pavement. Madison turned her head towards Lyss as she said,

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

She extended her hand to Lyss…. However, the three skulls of the Jaws floated over to her face and hovered for a second

“... We would appreciate it,”

“If you do not seal us.”

“--and I’d appreciate it if ya moved th’ fuck out th’ way,” Mariah shouted, as she came running out of the house. In each hand was a bottle of Jack Daniels, that had a single rag coming out of the top, which was very violently ablaze. With only a few seconds waited for Madison and Lyss to move out of the way, Mariah chucked the two molotovs toward Annabelle, while shouting a slurry of the finest Latin Curses for added effect. Not really keen on seeing if she even hit her target, or if the flames would simply burn the whole house down, Mariah immediately ran off since it was ‘get the fuck out’ time.

They hit Annabelle’s immobile body and burned her… and the beach house. Madison almost hissed about losing the beach house but it was a lost cause, to begin with, Annabelle here. Mariah took off and Madison grabbed onto Lyss’s upper arm and flew off with the power of the Jaws towards the front of the beach house. Maybe they killed Annabelle Heart? Honestly, Madison wasn’t gonna stick around to find out.

It wasn’t the end of Annabelle Heart as, instead of regenerating, she underwent a transformation… flesh jutted outwards like a tendril, forming something new. And the Messiah disappeared into a mass of sparks and embers.

---

A black car with tinted sped down the streets of Tampa towards the Coven’s little beach house, sirens blaring. In the front seat was Meifeng Liao and Trevor Obott in full decked out gear and Meifeng had her phone out as she called the Director. Her heart was racing as a bead of sweat went down her head - how could she be so stupid as to fall for such an obvious strategy!? Meifeng knew that she had to be quick or else the Coven was dead. When the Director answered, Meifeng heard the Director’s filtered voice.

“Liao,” The Director said.

“Annabelle Heart is currently engaging the Coven!” Meifeng said.

“I am aware,” The Director started. “I ordered a full-scale evacuation of Tampa… and Maximilian and the rest of the Agents have commandeered a vehicle. I heavily advise that you standby and regroup with Maximilian and then engage her.”

“But… affirmative, Director.“

“There’s an 80% chance that Annabelle will be stopped tonight,” The Director informed her, “I trust that you’ll make the right decisions - now if you excuse me; I have to justify everything that has just transpired.” Then hung up.

“So, um...” Trevor said as he held the assault - that he knew would do jackshit - in his arms, his legs were shaking. “... What are we gonna do?”

“We’re going against the Director’s advice,” Meifeng sighed.

“You know what she said, right?” Trevor raised an eyebrow.

“Well,” Meifeng shook her head, “Screw the odds.”

---

Madison flew towards her car and felt some type of relief as she got closer and closer. Annabelle wasn’t behind them, so that was something. That went easy, maybe too easy…. That was not the death of Annabelle and Madison knew it. However, she was all but confirmed when she heard the massive boom coming from the beach house. She went a bit faster as she dropped Lyss at her car and ran over to the driver’s side.

That’s when the massive boom happened as the beach house was knocked over by her massive frame… and her massive and disgusting frame entered the view from the rubble. Annabelle Heart’s second towering form, an eldritch monstrosity composed of all of Annabelle Heart’s victims. They writhed in her body and screamed for help. Her tail was long and had a razor-sharp tip at the end…

As Annabelle walked out, she knelt on one hand and her tail launched itself at Madison’s car.

“Shit! Move!” Madison flew away from the car as Annabelle impaled her vehicle… and she knew that she was not covered from this. The creature marched forward and Madison’s heart started racing as she whipped her head towards it… that thing was horrific, worse than anything that Madison has ever seen in her life.

Then she noticed it. Her eyes shot wide open as her jaw dropped… as two of the people that were comprising Annabelle Heart’s body.

… Were Kayla Foster and Agatha Loom.

“K-Kayla...” Madison said to herself as she heard Kayla begging for help, freedom from that freak. Madison’s hand briefly drifted towards the necklace…

Annabelle marched towards them…

… And that was when she stopped, breaking out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. She grabbed her stomach as she rolled on the floor laughing. It was deep, monstrous, and sounded like it was a true demon laughing at… what? Madison was in shock as she flew away, but she noticed a black car blaring sirens speeding up to the scene.

Out of the car came Meifeng and she immediately shouted, “Everyone! Get out of here! Now!” She screamed at them. “Get far away as you can!” Madison didn’t waste any time in flying away.

Trevor slowly got out of the car and had his hands up as he focused on Annabelle… he allowed the Coven to get away, but at what cost?

“How long do you think you can keep this going?” Meifeng asked.

“Don’t know,” Trevor said. “Usually I did it for like a few seconds.”

“Don’t strain yourself,” Meifeng said, “We just need to wait for Maximilian to show up.”

---

---

Maya had totally slept in and missed the coven meeting. She was pretty sure they’d be done by now, but that didn’t stop her from driving towards the beach house. Because, why not have some relaxing time at the pool?

Really, it wasn’t her fault. She had… quite the late and energetic past few nights, and the last thing she’d been thinking about was about the potions. It didn’t affect her so why should she bother turning up on time?

Sadly, traffic just made it worse. Everyone seemed to be trying to get out of the city? She had no idea why, not exactly being one to keep up with news or random pings of her phone while driving. It just made it very very irritating for trying to get to the beach house.

Which was on fire. Maya got out of her car, which she’d pulled up a bit away, and instantly regretted it. “What the fuck?!”

Oh fuck, it looked like she’d missed an entire fight… A losing one at that. She gaped at the monstrous figure of Annabelle in the rubble of what had been the beach house. She didn’t need to be told by Meifeng to get away.

She should have just stayed at home.

Maya quickly glanced at the other coven members, cursing under her breath when she realised that Lyss didn’t have an easy way out. Fuck, fuck, could she just drive away and be alright with that? Probably not.

“Lyss, get over to my car!” she yelled, which probably wasn’t smart at all, before diving back into the driver seat and starting up the engine.

If Lyss didn’t instantly run over, she was driving away. She could save herself at that point.

---

---

As soon as fire was being thrown around, Isla was out of there. Lyss had said to stick together and she tried to do that, by sticking to Mariah as the other girl ran away.

She twisted her head at the loud explosion behind them.

“Oh shit! She ain’t dead, hell, she’s even worse now,” Isla yelled to Mariah, not stopping running even though she was terribly unfit and dying of the heat. “I don’t wanna be anywhere near this, fuck, I can teleport us like a bit further away, aw fuck.”

She really wasn’t sure if teleporting was the right idea, cause then she’d be exhausted, but also it was much faster than running - so she held out her hand in offer to Mariah anyway.

---

---

The Coven was fleeing again, only this time Penny couldn’t blame them. Everything they threw at Annabelle did next to nothing against her healing factor. Even her coins were ejected too quickly from Annabelle’s body before Penny had a chance to manipulate them to shred through her innards. There were enough of them to keep Annabelle busy regenerating instead of fighting, but how long until one of the Coven or herself exhausted their abstraction? Penny began moving to join the other girls in a retreat, but held back just a bit to make sure that everyone got away before Annabelle started her onslaught again.

Lyss shouted something about a person on the roof, but after Mariah’s fiery cocktail all Penny saw was sparks and embers as the beach house caught flame with the abomination. Only after Madison grabbed Lyss and flew away did Penny take off, blasting a few more coins towards Annabelle’s burning body before she skirted around the side of the burning house. She barely made it to the small, sandy frontyard as an eruption shook the ground and the house crumbled in on itself.

Penny turned and gasped as the massive form of Annabelle emerged from the burning rubble, her burnt, gangly body fused with a screaming mass of corpses, and whipped her tail at Madison’s car. The attack was so quick that Penny almost missed it. The vehicle was effortlessly skewered, but better the car than a person. Penny activated her abstraction to allow herself to see Annabelle’s next strike and tensed as the wavy image of the monster’s claws began to move. No strike came as Annabelle grabbed her stomach, doubled over, and began...was that laughter? It was an absolutely awful sound.

Penny dropped her abstraction as the DENS agents arrived and called for everyone to leave. Penny turned to run off with the other girls but then stopped, twisting her hand into a fist as she bit her lip. Goddamn it, this might turn out to be the stupidest decision in what could possibly be a very short life, but she couldn’t leave until she was certain Annabelle was taken out. Penny spun on her heels, reactivated her abstraction in case Annabelle broke free of whatever charm Trevor had cast on her, and ran over towards Meifeng. She stopped next to the woman and braced herself for whatever came next, holding a tiny salvo of coins that swarmed around her wrist for the moment Trevor lost hold of the monster.

“Y’all are part of the group that raided the Dollhouse, right?” said Penny, saving her own introductions for when they weren’t fighting a mutating mass of murder victims. She scanned the area for Emily or Herik but saw no sign of them amongst all of the chaos. “Look, she’s gonna be unstoppable until we hit her with a cure. If you don’t have one then the bitchy brown haired girl and the Thor stunt double do—wherever they are.” Penny felt bad for the Coven members with cursed family, but if Annabelle wasn’t stopped their cures wouldn’t matter anyway. “Either way, I can help.”

Without a second thought, Mariah took Isla's hand, and trusted they would end up somewhere safe. Just before they left, Mariah caught a glimpse of the burning Beach house, and winced. She hadn't meant to set the whole damn thing on fire but hopefully that would help the situation... or something. Fires blazed then the forest quivered before her-- scenery abruptly shifting with Isla's teleport. Almost reflexively, at this point, Mariah reached out to catch Isla just before she could hit the ground, and ended up down there with her.

Well.

They were certainly out of danger, sort of. Where they were exactly could be anywhere. Mariah held isla in one arm as she pulled her phone out, then opened up Google maps. Around them was a forest and they were in the clearing but, for some reason, her phone signal didn't want to pull her location. Great. As quiet and seemingly safe as it was here, a sense of anxiety caused her hands to shake, as she went to lower Isla to the ground. Slowly, she paced about, praying to the Verizon gods for a signal-- the lone bar of cell service answered her prayer. Google's positioning wonked about as she stared at the map, with a deep sigh leaving her, and it sounded awfully loud. Her brows scrunched and she sighed again-- the noise far softer than before but she felt eyes upon her.

Had those monsters decided to cut through these woods on their way to Annabelle? Thick sloshing and splashing picked up from within the forest somewhere-- Mariah looked over her shoulder at the unconscious Isla-- the world flipped several times.

"Neigh," neighed a very distressed horse, with an air of familiarity, as it used Mariah as an off-ramp from the forest. "Whinny," came the freaked out noise of the horse, as it continued on it's stampede into the wood-line, leaving Mariah as a heap in the mood. As she lay on her side, Google locked in on her position, and she stared at her blue icon on her phone screen. All things considered, that could have gone far worse, had she not decided to wear her glamorous football helmet. Sure, her side was screaming in pain, as was her leg, but Isla didn't even get hit and she didn't get a third concussion.

Quickly, she sent her location as a text message to Max, and figured he was already locked in on it anyway. He was kind of a legend for knowing where she was and when, without her telling him, and Mariah figured he was just really good at guessing games. As it stood, Mariah decided she was in a rather comfortable position for a nap, anyway. Eventually, Max did arrive, and they scooped Isla into the car, as he lectured Mariah on all the danger in Tampa and other such concerns, keeping the lecture going allllllll the waaaaay to Miami.

Herik stood from the edge of the pool making his way to Lyss, so he could get the potion. He planned to leave right away. If there was anything else that came from the meeting he'll get an update about it later. He was half way to her when the sound of broken glass sounded from the house. Like a window was broken, but not in the way a child accidentally breaks a window with a rock or ball. It sounded like a car crashed through the wall.

Whatever it was startled Lyss.

“She’s here.” He didn't know who she was talking about, but it didn't sound good. He called Asta, because Madison called Jaws. If their heavy hitter was gearing for a fight he was smart to do the same. The pool door was broken like a squished soda can, an abomination came out of the darkness asking for a person he didn't recognize. Who's Saul and why would he be here? The other members managed to have a decent conversation with it. Maybe it was as much of a threat breaking down the door suggested. He was too optimistic. Annabelle came at them with intent to kill. Herik moved out the way, away from the potion bottle. It was on a table close to the fight. He had to get that bottle before it was broken or taken. He was close enough Asta could swipe it from the table and bring it back to him. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned around and saw Vashti escaping with Emily. He's not the type to run from a fight, especially with something that dangerous, but the risk of breaking the potion if he stayed was too high. Asta snatched the bottle and brought it back to him. he put it in his pocket and followed behind Emily and Vashti, but diverted from their path to the moped so he could get to his car.

He's just closed the door when the others came running out the door. He saw fire through the window. If killing it with fire didn't do the trick he wasn't sure fighting it would go well.

BOOM!

The car shook from the sound. Annabelle turned into a giant monster beyond the likes of anything he's ever imagined. What the fuck? Herik turned his car on and booked it from the property. There's no way they could fight that. For the first time in decades he truly felt afraid. His hands shook, his breathing was rapid, he didn't slow down at the yellow light, but sped up. Somethings caused for disobeying traffic laws. He sped all the way to the hospital trying to stave off a panic attack. It brought back memories of the last time he felt this way. He couldn't remember clearly, but he felt the phantom pains of someone holding something soft over his face, the faint ringing of his mother's screaming. Whatever the hell that thing drudged up he didn't want to think about while driving.

---

Lyss felt anything but relief by the time Madison dropped her by the car. The house was on fire. Thankfully her important possessions were back in her apartment, but there went the Coven’s home within seconds. She thought that killing Annabelle had been too easy, but she at least believed that they could get to a safe distance until Meifeng and Maximillian were nearby.

Then the house exploded. Lyss ducked and covered her head and neck with her arms as she cowered against the car. “Fuck,” she cursed. Of course Annabelle couldn’t have stayed down for another minute. Lyss felt her arms drop by her sides as she looked up at the towering beast. We really should have left her the way she was.

Lyss was stuck in place staring at the horror that towered over their burning home. She saw the spike of a tail swing downwards, but she couldn’t react until it struck the car beside her. Lyss dove away from the car and landed roughly on the pavement. Shattered bits of glass sprinkled themselves around her and she was careful not to cut herself as she scrambled back to her feet.

“K-Kayla…” Lyss looked at Madison and saw the horror on her face. When she followed her eyes back to the monster before them, she found what Madison was calling Kayla. Except, it couldn’t really have been her, right? And Agatha too? How?

Lyss had heard of Annabelle’s curse before. It was just a brief lesson her grandmother gave her long ago, when she honestly was too young to be hearing of something so terrifying. Every soul the Hunger’s curse claimed was trapped within the host like some vacuum. She never believed that it could physically form itself, but she had the proof standing right before her.

Lyss’s heart was pounding. It felt like her chest would burst at any second. She couldn’t move, frozen again by the shock. Her eyes moved from Annabelle and turned towards the dark shadows that began to surround the property. The Hunger’s minions. Annabelle’s cursed victims were all gathered together. They were trapped.

Meifeng and Trevor showed, but Annabelle’s guttoral laughs only twisted Lyss’s stomach into knots. The mass of undead around them stopped, but she knew Trevor could only hold his abstraction for so long against something like her. If Maximillian didn’t show soon… Nothing she could do could-

---

”Alyssa…”

Lyss blinked. The chaos before her had stopped. The color of the fire and stars above was muted, as if a filter was cast against her vision. She turned in circles, looking at each of her friends, sisters, and the evil beings that waited for Annabelle’s release to swarm. She didn’t understand. Time had stopped, and she could have sworn that was her father’s-

”Alyssa Burns, listen to me.”

Lyss turned back around, and suddenly she was at her childhood home. Her dad stood before her, as tall and dark as she remembered him. It was quiet, except for the static in the back of her head. “Dad, I…”

“I know this is strange. I’ve been gone from your life for so long, and for that I’m sorry.”

Lyss stared at him. She was in shock, and yet she felt more at peace now that she ever had before. She wasn’t sure what to do, what to say, or even what to think. Her dad looked remorseful, but his eyes were warm and kind. He really loved her, she finally thought. Even if he’d left her, he had loved her.

“I cannot give you much in this form, my dear… but I can pass this along to you.”

”We can give you this.”

From behind her father, her grandfather suddenly emerged beside him. The two stood side to side. They looked so alike when they stood that way.

[b] “The Burns legacy is passed from eldest child to eldest child only when they are deemed worthy of it.”[/color] Lyss’s grandfather began before her dad continued.

“We have been watching for you quite some time, Alyssa. We are both extremely proud-”

Her grandfather chimed in, ”-but also unsure of your actions since we joined The Hound’s ranks.”

Lyss felt her cheeks burn. This was a recollection. Of course. She understood completely what her grandfather had implied.

“But…” Her grandfather said as he nodded towards his son.

“You are ready for the Burns power now.” Her dad finished with a smile.

Lyss looked between them. She was unsure of receiving this power, herself. This was the power that broke her family apart. This power was the reason her grandfather, her father, and then her mother left. Each of the men before her were so obsessed with living up to the Burns legacy it killed them. Could she handle the power? Could she refrain from it’s temptations and continue her life in peace?

On the other hand, she thought back to her current reality. Annabelle was unstoppable. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of her victims just waiting to tear each of her sisters apart. She needed this power if she was to defeat the Hunger.

“I will accept the Burns legacy,” Lyss finally said as she looked her grandfather and father in the eyes. “ I promise that I will not abuse it like so many have before me. I will not pursue the art of necromancy for my own benefit, but for the benefit of those I love.” She looked her father in the eyes. For so long she thought he was doing what he thought right for the family, but when she grew older she realized that he had done it for himself. She would be different.

“Then it is done. Take the ring I have given to my son, your father, and defeat those who threaten your loved one’s lives.”

“I only wish I could have been there to help you today,” Her father said to her with a melancholy smile. He held out a fist and opened his palm facing upwards. “Alyssa Burns, I give you this gift. This recollection so that you can do what my father and what I could not.”

Lyss slowly took the ring from his hand, her eyes wet with tears. “Thank you, father.” She nodded to her grandfather. [color=D3D3D3] “Go in peace.”[/b]

Her grandfather gave her a smile, nodded towards his son, and faded into the darkness in the nearest doorway. Lyss faced her father and smiled sadly. She couldn’t believe that this was how she would see him after all this time. She didn’t even have time to ask him why he’d left all those years ago. Instead, she choked out, ”Go in peace.” Her father was hesitant, but in the end he smiled, nodded, and followed in her grandfather’s footsteps.

Lyss took a deep breath as he left, and wiped the tears from her eyes. She cleared her throat and looked at the ring in her hands. This was it. The power of the Burns all in one tiny object. She held up her right hand and slid the Burns ring onto the same finger as her own channeler. The two began to glow with black energy, and then they merged together. Lyss traced the new ring with her fingers and blinked.

---

She was back in Tampa, back in front of the remains of the beach house, and Annabelle was still making those awful sounds. It didn’t sound like laughing anymore. Just a bunch of shrieks and grunts. Trever wasn’t going to last until Maximillian came.

It was time.

Lyss looked at the ring on her finger. It looked almost the same, except the band was thicker and the jewels had fused together. It was half her father’s ring, and half of her own ring. She held her arm out, palm facing downwards, and inhaled deeply. Then exhaled slowly, her arm lifting towards the sky as she closed her eyes.

In one fluid motion, Lyss swung her arm downwards and knelt on one knee. Her palm hit the ground with a sudden force that shook the pavement. As she opened her eyes, her ring and her irises glowed with the black lux. She was performing a summoning ritual. It would take almost all of her energy to succeed, but she could feel the power of her father’s ring fueling her own. Her father and grandfather were both here with her, even if they couldn’t be seen. The power of three strong Burns, their own power passed down to them from the Burns before them, were shaking the ground of Tampa’s coast.

Even Annabelle would feel the charge in the air. Any bird that remained in the area suddenly flew off into the night. The ground trembled, softly at first, and then violently. One by one, Lyss’s own army of the undead broke through the dirt, concrete, and sand around them. They sprung up behind Annabelle, in front of her, and all throughout Annabelle’s horde. A large amount of them emerged between the DENs, any remaining Coven members, and the bloodlusting victims that surrounded them. Lyss stood as she finished, panting softly to herself. She wasn’t sure how many she summoned, but she knew it was enough to make this work.

“Alright. My men will take care of Annabelle’s zombies. Just focus on keeping her here until Max brings the cure.” She shouted, her head turning to Meifeng and nodding.

That said, Lyss faced Annabelle once more and threw her fist into the air. Her undead suddenly attacked. A small group began to climb up Annabelle’s body, tearing flesh as they went, while the rest began to rip her undead soldiers apart.

Alyssa Burns was unafraid.

---

---

Vashti hopped on Emily's moped and, honestly, the girl had more important things on her mind than Vashti. She didn't even bother putting on a helmet as she threw the potion into her purse. Emily immediately started the moped as she darted off before the rest of the Coven could get out there. Unfortunately, she had left with what she came for so her loyalty to the Coven was... waning, unfortunately. While she had a newfound appreciation for them helping her, the fight with Annabelle was, to be frank, more than what she could chew. More than what any of them could chew, unfortunately. So, the plan today was to haul ass to the hospital, get her sister cured, and then get the fuck out of here. She was more than certain that the Coven or somebody would figure this out.

The streets of Tampa were chaotic, to say the least. Cars were abandoned (or crashed), bodies were littering the streets, and Emily desperately hoped that the chaos wouldn't reach the hospital. Part of her wanted to call her family to make sure that they're okay, but they're out in Tampa Palms, very north of Tampa. The breeze hit Emily's face as it threw her hair all over the place. She was weaving and dodging different vehicles that were abandoned in the streets.

However, she didn't realize that some of the Wendigoes remained in the city. Coming from behind one of the cars, she heard a loud screech as it lunged at her - Emily herself didn't get a good look at it because her flight or fight instincts kicked in. She immediately swerved to her left as she screamed, but unfortunately, she turned too much and the moped fell over. Out of reflex, perhaps, she attempted to use her ability but that was a fruitless effort as the moped came flying from underneath her.

Emily felt herself roll over and over again as she felt a pain like no under and the cacophony of her poor little moped was replaced by ringing. All she saw as she looked up like the night sky as everything spun - yet, perhaps out of sheer willpower, she managed to remain awake. Only because she knew that she was easy prey for that thing marching towards her.

She tried to push herself up with one hand, but she couldn't feel her entire arm. She looked at her arm and saw that it was snapped the wrong way at the elbow and Emily almost vomited. She couldn't feel it, and she knew that was worst. Her other arm was fine, but she managed to push herself up as the guy sauntered over to her - probably seeing that she was easy prey, which she more or less was. She knew that she was bleeding inside.

... but what about the cure.

---

---

Getting into a city that was undergoing a full-scale evacuation was not easy. Fortunately, Maximilian and the DENS agents "commandeered" a vehicle. They were all stuffed into a cramped sedan with Cindy at the wheel, and Maximilian and Leon stuffed into the back. Speeding towards Tampa as they were just entering the city - fortunately, not all exits were clogged. Unfortunately, it was absolute anarchy from the looters and the other crooks... they passed a member of Forgiven screaming and shouting his ideologies.

"I know for a fact that Meifeng is going to try to fight Annabelle," Cindy said.

"Maybe Agent Liao will realize that she can't do everything... for once," Maximilian rolled his eyes.

"Oh no," Cindy answered, "I've known her for years. Expecting her to listen to reason once she sets her mind on something is a waste of time." Cindy sighed.

"... I just hope she's okay," Leon said.

However, they heard the monstrous scream that reverberated throughout all of Tampa and they didn't know what it was. It sounded Annabelle, but far, far, worse, immediately Maximilian's eyes shot open as he grabbed onto the safety handle that was overhead. There was something in mind, an idea because they couldn't lollygag if Agent Liao's, or the Coven's, lives were on the line.

"Stop the car," Maximilian sternly said.

"What?" Cindy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I can get there faster on my own," Maximilian said, "We don't have time to argue, trust me on this."

"What about the rest of us, then?" Helena asked with a raised eyebrow. "You're definitely not risking the cure."

"I'll keep her busy, while you catch up," Maximilian said, "Trust me."

Cindy nodded her head as she came to a stop and unlocked the back doors... while he immediately tried to get out given that he was larger than average, that wasn't easy. When he was on his own two feet, he rocketed off towards the sky at lightning speeds. In all honesty, all he had to do was follow the destruction.

Just hold out a little longer, I'm almost there.

---

---

Vashti gripped tightly to Emily as the moped buzzed down the road, weaving in and out of crashed cars and fallen powerlines. Her boiling anger towards the Coven, and thus in turn Emily, had subsided momentarily. More accurately, it had been flash frozen by a terror that gripped her very soul. She hardly had a grasp on what the hell was even happening due to her own self-absorption, but she felt that even if she had kept herself in the loop about Annabelle she still would not have been prepared. She closed her eyes as Emily drove past the first dead body. It only made the screaming and howling that accompanied a city plunging into complete chaos that much worse.

A wave of panic broke through the icy terror as Vashti felt the Leviathan stir inside of her, wanting to do nothing more than to join in on the fun. She pressed herself closer to Emily with a whimper and began counting backwards from one hundred. There was a screech and a tire skid. Vashti felt her stomach sink while her body began to float. Her eyes snapped open. Everything seemed to crawl to a stop as she soaked in the scene of Emily rolling on the ground after the sliding moped; directly beneath Vashti was a Wendigo, its arms outstretched as it staggered towards the easy target. If Vashti wasn't so terrified knowing that she was about to break her neck she might've laughed: she'd known that Wendigos were more than myths.

The Wendigo picked up its pace as it worked its way towards Emily. Claws flashed as it let out a high-pitched screech and brought its hands down towards the injured girl—and immediately went flying into a car as the Leviathan's tail slammed into the Wendigo's side accompanied by the foley work of a perfectly timed thunderclap.

---

---

Dark storm clouds formed overhead in the moonlit sky as it began to rain. It was heavier than normal, as if the storm had been brewing for quite some time. The Leviathan looked down at Emily with her yellow eyes, roared as lightning lit up the sky, and then turned towards the Wendigo, the moped, and then back to the Wendigo. No fucking stupid scrawny ass cannibal bitch fucked with the Leviathan's royal ride. The Wendigo stood up to its full height and screeched as it recovered from hitting the car. It towered at least a foot over the Leviathan, but height wasn't nearly as important as raw fucking power. The Leviathan roared at her gangly subject, certain that would be enough to break the shitstain in two, but the long, lanky, wannabe regicide was too stupid to take the Queen's mercy. Fine. It'd get the royal execution instead. The Wendigo slashed out at the Leviathan with its long arm.

Big fucking mistake.

The Leviathan stepped into the attack and caught the Wendigo's forearm with her fangs, biting down hard enough to produce a pleasant scream but not to snap completely through. Then the Leviathan dug her claws in with one hand under the Wendigos ribcage, spun around its back while pulling the Wendigo's arm with her jaw, and latched her other set of claws in at the Wendigo's opposite shoulder. She then twisted and threw the Wendigo onto the ground, biting and shredding as she death rolled the Wendigo. Shrilling and shrilling screams gave way to nothing but a low, bassy growl as the Leviathan emerged victorious over the pulpy remains of the Wendigo.

The Leviathan, face stained with blood as she swallowed a hunk of Wendigo meat, looked yet again at Emily. Her eyes narrowed. This primate had failed to keep her Queen safe, plus she carried poison with her. It would be unwise to suffer the existence of such a disloyal subject any longer. Once, the vessel would react strongly against such thoughts of harming one that she seemed to be close with, but those blocks had been destroyed by a feeling of betrayal. The low growl grew louder. There was nothing holding the Leviathan back now and, really, rotten Wendigo meat was not a meal fit for a Queen. Fresh primate, now, that just might do.

With a crash of lightning and a clap of thunder the Leviathan hiss at Emily, her jaw opening wide, her teeth stained red with blood, and then she lunged in for the kill.

Emily screamed at the top of her lungs.

---

---

"You are not comfortable,"

"With leaving Lyss-Friend alone,"

"To fight that beast,"

"You want to go back,"

The Jaws gravely voice talked to Madison as she flew in any direction but there. She heard all sorts of sounds from there but she knew that she would die if she went back there... but, was it really right to leave Lyss back there? Especially since she had her back from the beginning. Madison sharply sighed as she kept pushing forward.

"We would have no issue,"

"In helping the Burns scion,"

"Even if it'd result in the death of all of us,"

"I don't want us to die," Madison answered as she came to a sharp stop. "I want to just... go back to the things were! Where we had Kayla, Izzy, and Claude - and we didn't have to deal with the feds or whatever the fuck that thing is!" Tears started streaming down Madison's face as she realized the severity of everything weighing down on her.

However, the Jaw's face craned around her body and then faced her head on. The thing was the minature skull of a T-Rex, but somehow she managed to extrapulate some type of emotion out of it.

"... Those days are gone, Madison Brown." Each head spoke in unison as she realized that she was acting no better than the likes of Vashti.

Speaking of which... she saw a conspicious dark cloud form overhead not too far away as she heard the cries of something. She strongly suspected that was Vashti, but how in the world did she transform? They were hauling ass away from the chaos, but the whole city's in flame. Madison wasn't certain but the new thing on her mind was making sure that Emily was okay. Vashti didn't look happy with the outcome.

She jetted off towards the eye of the storm and she was hoping that Vashti didn't do what she thought she was going to do. Unfortunately, when she finally arrived on the scene, Vashti was already transformed into the Leviathan and had turned towards a disabled Emily. "Fuck!" She whisper-shouted as she put both arms out and charged Vashti head on like she was superwoman.

"Vashti!" Madison shouted to get her attention off of Emily just for one second.

The Leviathan's claws dug into Emily's shoulders as her maw expanded to be large enough to snap off a good chunk of Emily's head. Upon hearing the familiar voice the Leviathan paused as the storm intensified around them, the pupils of her eyes narrowing into a thin slit upon recognition of the source. The Leviathan roared, spittle and Wendigo blood flying towards Emily's face, as she spun to face Madison. Her tail lashed around her as she turned, most likely smacking Emily away as she took two tremoring steps forward before Madison barreled right in to her chest.

As Madison hit her, the Leviathan reached out to grab the woman and force her into a death roll to quickly end it the same way she'd finished off the Wendigo. However, she was hit too hard and too fast to get a grasp. Instead, her claws racked against the girl, impossible to tell in the moment if she hit soft flesh or bone armor as the Leviathan was knocked prone. Somewhat dazed by the blow, she attempted to flip on her belly to lash out wildly at Madison while on all fours.

Mission complete.

Emily was saved, however, Madison had to save herself as fortunately the Jaws tanked most of the Leviathan's attack. Unfortunately, the Jaws was still weak from fighting Annabelle... The Leviathan didn't break through the Jaw's armor, but they definitely cracked it. Madison knocked Vashti off balance and when she hit the ground, she did a roll and landed on her feet. But, she barely had time to process things as she saw Vashti was on the ground. She quickly leap up into the air and raised her leg and got ready to bring it down onto Vashti's chest.

The Leviathan didn't even attempt to roll away as the stomp cracked a number of ribs with a sickening crunch. However, she took the opportunity to grab hold of Madison's leg with the immense grip of both of her hands. The Leviathan opened her mouth and snapped at Madison's leg, trying to take a crippling chunk out of the girl. At the same time, the Leviathan began to twist her body, hoping to bring Madison down to the ground for an easy meal.

The Jaws was cracking more and more under the pressure of Vashti's jaws, but he was holding on for now. She tried to fly upwards but the Leviathan brought Madison down to the ground with a painful bang - the impact felt like she fell off a one story building but she can still fight. She hissed in pain as the Jaws manisfested his three skulls and they quickly lunged for the Leviathan's throat, ready to rip it out.

The Leviathan caught two of the skulls with her hands but was unable to do anything to stop the third but jerk her head. It was enough to prevent the Jaws from tearing out her jugular, the teeth instead sinking to the muscle between her neck and shoulder. The Leviathan pushed up off of Madison, ripping both herself and a chunk of flesh free from the grasp of the Jaws. The Leviathan lifted its head back and let loose a roar that shook the streets as bolts of lightning struck an overturned car and the nearby street light. The rain pounded down heavier than ever as the dark clouds overhead began to swirl with an unnatural intensity. The Leviathan let loose another roar as she spun and swung her tail at Madison.

When the moment presented itself, Madison rolled over and landed on her feet. The rain intensified and it was already had to see with the Jaws active. Yet, she could see the faint blue glow from the cure - however, she couldn't protect herself from the swing that hit her right in the chest and knocked her right onto her ass. Of course, she was able to rebalance herself. This wasn't working and at this rate, the Jaws was going to give out before the Leviathan could. She eyed the potion again before she hatched a plan, a simple one at that. She quickly flew backwards as she put up her middle finger at the Leviathan,

"Come and get me you scaly-bitch!"

Naturally, the scaly-bitch planned to do just that. The Leviathan flicked out her claws as she stomped towards Madison, the wind whipping around her as the storm howled in unison with the Leviathan. She could see her prey weakening before her. The Pretender to her throne at the top of the Coven food chain was already dead, but she wouldn't be able to ascend until she turned Madison and the Jaws into bone dust. The Leviathan leapt towards Madison, claws ripping at the air, mouth open wide to bite her head clean from her shoulders, eager to taste blood and victory.

Thankfully, Madison's gambit worked - of course it did, regular Vashti wasn't all that smart to begin with. When the Leviathan charged at her, Madison jumped up into the air assisted by the Jaws. She quickly flew through the air and landed right by the potion, but she didn't pick it up yet. She turned around as she faced Vashti, giving her the middle finger again.

"... You said you were gonna kill me, right?" Madison shrugged. "Seems to me you're too fuckin' fat and lazy to get shit done!"

Madison's taunt could hardly be heard over the Leviathan, whose howling had morphed into a feral scream of pure rage. She finished rampaging against the space where Madison had once been and turned to find her prey yet again. The Leviathan's nostril flared as lightning streaked across the sky and popped against the top of a nearby building. Another bolt struck the ground between the two, sending up debris and smoke alongside a blinding flash of light. As the burst faded Madison could see the Leviathan charging through the smoke, claws held back and ready to slash through the woman.

Instead of dodging or even blocking the attack - Madison charged at Vasti as fast as she could - with her own fist cocked back. When she got close, she swung it directly at Vashti's stomach as hard as she could. The punch slammed into the Leviathan, the power behind it strong enough to stun her as it knocked the wind out of her. Now was the moment of truth, with her free hand Madison shoved the potion as far into the thing's gullet as she possible could. A tear streamed down her eye as she thought to herself: Forgive me, Emily.



Emily screamed at the very top of her lungs in harmony with the roaring Leviathan, who began to claw at her own throat as she thrashed away from Madison. The Leviathan's tail arced around in a big hit, but faded before it ever came close to making impact. The scales that covered the Leviathan shedded and began to clink against the ground like raindrops while the storm overheard subsided with one last low rumble before dispersing. The animalistic howling was replaced by a girlish scream as whatever remained of the Leviathan was eaten away by the potion. Her fingers stopped tearing at her throat as she dropped to her knees and began to roughly cough in a way that made her whole body convulse, her lizard eyes shifting back to human as they widened in terror.

She was dying.

With one final cough a wave of dark bile expelled itself from the girl's mouth. A tiny, crystalized lizard embryo was also spat out. Vashti fell silent as the terror stopped smothering her. She wiped her lips. Her whole body had felt like it was hurting from the most intense hangover she'd ever had, but as with actual hangovers throwing up alleviated a lot of the pain. Vashti stared down at the tiny, bloodied embryo as it was swirled up by dark water from the dying rainstorm and unceremoniously carried away to a sewer grate. Was that it? Was the Leviathan finally gone? She still felt sick, but the swirling in her stomach was different. It was over. It was finally over.

Vashti looked up at Madison. She should rush to the girl and hug her, thank her for saving her from her curse even if it put her at risk of getting chewed on by the Jaws again. All the ill-will and all the petty drama had been washed down the sewer with the remannts of the Leviathan. Vashti only felt gratitude towards Madison. She should be radiating with happiness, yet why did she feel so miserable? Then she saw Emily, saw the horror on her face, and realized how awful she felt right now was nothing in comparison. Shaking, Vashti stood up as tears washed the blood and muck from her face as she carefully approached Emily.

"Emily..." said Vashti, unable to make eye contact. Her voice was strained and somber, utterly devoid of her usual manic energy, as she continued,"Emily I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." Vashti knew that if she hadn't come along this wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't have joined the Coven this wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't have been so hungry for magic powers this wouldn't have happened. Her voice cracked as she began to sob between words, "Your sister...oh my god...oh my god..."

Vashti reached out to hug Emily.

"... Get off me, you bitch!" Emily screamed at the very top of her lungs as she shoved Vashti away with her unbroken hand. She forced herself to her feet, almost falling over because she was in so much pain that she couldn't hold herself up onto herown two feet. However, a red hot rage shot adrenaline through her that was telling her to kill Vashti. She stuck her finger out as she accused her and Madison, pain and simple,

"... You two killed my sister."

The Jaws deactivated on command by Madison, and the girl tucked her hands into her pockets as she looked down. She realized the weight of her actions and just who Emily was fighting for. She felt as if she did the right thing by helping Vashti, but was it really the right thing? Save one person and doom another? Well, she couldn't really say it was the right thing to do, and honestly, she didn't have the right or the place to truly make that distinction. That was why Madison hung her head and not a word escaped her lips.

"That's not true," whispered Vashti, clutching her chest where Emily had shoved her. Vashti frowned and glanced at the dejected Madison; for a moment it felt as if she was going to deflect Emily's accusation. "You can't blame Madison. I...I would have killed you. You can't blame her. It was me. Only me. Emily, I'm so sorry. Maybe We could—"

Vashti stopped talking. There was nothing she could do or say to make this better. She choked out one final apology and hid her face.

"... Don't bother," Madison just said with a sigh, before she faced.

"You..." Emily turned towards Madison as the next words coldly cut into her. Reeking of a familar rage to Madison when she faced down the Hound just a few months ago. "... Should have let me die."

"Vash," Madison spoke to her, "Do you think you can get her out of here?"

Vashti lowered the hands guarding her face and nodded. She could try anyway. She had a vague idea of the area they were in and the howling of the Wendigos seemed to be moving further away. Still, she wouldn't be surprised if Emily wanted nothing to do with her and refused to follow. Before she turned to usher Emily away, Vashti asked Madison, "Where are you going?"

Madison was illuminated in a purple aura as she floated up a few feet in the air. She was quiet for a second, all because she was not sure whether or not this was a sane action to take. She sighed as she just said,

"... I'm going back for Lyss."

---

"Girl, are you-" Madison was about to say to Lyss as the girl was gonna stay behind with... that thing. She saw Kayla, she saw Agatha, she was more than certain that Izzy was in there somewhere. She wanted to stay behind but that thing... that thing scared Madison. Nothing she did worked against it, and if Lyss wanted to stay here and be a hero... yet, despite how she desperately tried to justify leaving, she was just lying to herself. With the Jaws around her, she flew off towards the rest of the Coven. Yet, something didn't feel right about leaving Lyss and Penny behind.

To the surprise of Meifeng, two members of the little Coven decided to hang around... for whatever reason. Lyss should know the danger that Annabelle poised, the other girl Meifeng wasn't sure about. The Agent reached down to her hip and pulled out her Glock... not that it would do her much good against that thing.

Lyss' zombie horde assaulted Annabelle and Meifeng didn't get a chance to tell her how Trevor's abstraction worked. A glance was sent his way as he exhaled and hunched forward and Annabelle was unintentionally freed from his effect. Meifeng didn't scold Lyss for this because she was about to tell Trevor to cut and run. The freakish abomination stopped laughing as the screams of her victims could be heard as they writhed from inside of her hulking frame.

It seemed that the curse was more than just a desire for flesh but she was trapping them inside of her. Meifeng wished that she could free them but, alas, the circumstances mean that she won't be of much help here. At the very best she can stall for time. The zombies were attacking her, but Annabelle slashed at them or tossed them aside as she rose up to her full form.

"Trevor," Meifeng said as he aimed his rifle at her, his hand was shaking as a bead of sweat went down into his eye. "Go."

"Aw, hell no!" Trevor said, "I ain't leavin-"

"Go!" Meifeng shouted at him, giving him the side eye as she said, "All you're going to do is throw your life away!"

The boy grumbled before he took off after the rest of the Coven.

Meifeng sighed as Annabelle stood to her full height and she stepped on an undead warrior that she had knocked off. "Look, I'm going to be honest here," Meifeng started, "We, most likely, stand a snowball's chance in hell against her."

Annabelle took one step forward.

"We don't have cures, so at best, we're gonna stall her," Maybe they should have listened to the Director when she said the DENS should have kept all the cures. "You two understand that, right?"

"No sweat," said Penny, the initial shock of Lyss summoning an army of the dead now diminshed. She rolled her neck and bounced on her heels, loosening herself up for what might be the last fight of her life. Maybe she should've felt a little scared, but Penny knew that she wouldn't let something as trivial as dying stop her. She grinned, overflowing with adrenaline. "I practically killed a god before. This is nothing!"

Annabelle let out a loud roar as she lunged at the crowd with her claws out.

Thanks to her second sight, Penny was able to see the path of Annabelle's attack and moved to deftly dodge out of the way as her claws made mulch out a handful of the zombies Lyss has summoned between the abomination and them. Penny barely had the time to shield her eyes from the spray of putrid flesh and bone that flew her way as Annabelle tore through them. Shit. No amount of false confidence could keep her thinking that this was nothing. Meifeng said they had to stall. Penny figured Lyss's army would be the best way to do the job—the more targets the better. In the meantime, Penny needed to keep Annabelle away from shredding the summoner.

Meifeng didn't need an abstraction to know that she should get the hell out of the way. The Liao Matriarch took off in the other direction as the creature crashed into the ground claw first. That thing's roar etched itself into her mind as Meifeng looked at her SUV and used her metal powers to take apart a nearby car... creating several massive lances.

"Oh c'mon! How ya gonna kill Saul if ya can't even hit me?" taunted Penny, uncertain if Annabelle could even comprehend language anymore. She blasted a few coins at the monster, knowing they wouldn't even tickle her but hoping they'd be annoying enough to draw her attention away from Lyss. At the same time Penny backed up outside of what she hoped was Annabelle's striking range, ready to continue her game of chicken with the deadly abomination.

The coins didn't even phase Annabelle for a second as she marched towards her - one could hear her faintly growling, but it was hard over all of her victim's screaming. She quickly grabbed a silver sedan and chucked it at Penny with only one hand.

Lyss, meanwhile, had gotten herself to a good distance away from Annabelle's current position. A few of her undead surrounded her to act as guards and were quickly put to work as Annabelle's flesh eaters ran for her. Lyss paid attention to every undead that perished in a fight against the soldiers and at the strength of the monster in front of them all. Her face was steel. The adrenaline rushing through her overcame any fearful thought. This was her time to prove herself. To bring the name Burns back into the mouths of the extra-normal world. She watched Annabelle chuck the sedan Penny's way and pressed her hand to the ground once more.

A horde of undead erupted from the ground in front of Penny- enough to block the vehicle from coming close to her. The undead that weren't immediately crushed by the car crawled out from the pile and ran for Annabelle's hand. They latched onto her arm like carnivorous ants. Piece by piece they tore at the bodies that made up her wrist until it was barely holding itself together.

"Aim your attacks at her limbs! We'll tear this bitch down part by part until she has to crawl towards us." Lyss shouted above the chaos. She just now was starting to feel strained by the use of power, like she'd just run half a mile. She wasn't finished yet.

While they were attacking, Meifeng had completed her lance... a long construct made out of a car that coalesced into one jagged and brutal weapon. Meifeng had her hand up as she launched it at Annabelle's wrist and then she completely severed it as she cut through it. The creature loudly roared as she, with her remaining hand, cleved through the undead horde with one swipe. She quickly grabbed the javelin and chucked it in Meifeng's direction.

Meifeng put both of her hands up and reflexively caused it to stop in mid-air. Annabelle grabbed onto her severed wrist and placed it right against the stump. Annabelle planted her feet into ground as she let out a hellish screech into the air. One that was louder and inhuman than the last one, one that could be heard throughout Tampa...

... It transformed any Blind who heard it into Wendigos and called them to Annabelle.

Penny clutched her ears as Annabelle howled, distant baying harmonizing with the abomination. Thanks to Lyss's interception, the sedan that surely would've squashed her instead served as a whole new stockpile of missiles. Penny reached down and brushed her fingers against the shattered bits of windshield and metal. They lifted off the ground in front of her until they were eye level and she effortlessly directed them towards Annabelle with a flick of her wrist, aiming for the creature's unwounded wrist.

Penny was about to unleash another flurry of change when she heard a series of crashs cut through the roar of the raging fire that was consuming the beach house as well as the wailing of sirens and unrelenting car alarms. Stepping through the window of a neighboring house was a Wendigo, something Penny had only seen in recollections or heard about from her friends. Another lanky freak skulked around from behind the house, still wearing its novelty "the Grillfather" apron and carrying a large fork in its hand. Further down the road Penny saw more shapes emerging from the houses, still shrieking in response to Annabelle.

"Well fuck me," muttered Penny to herself. She fired off a couple of rounds at the closest Wendigo while trying to keep Annabelle in her peripheries. As she continued to rapid fire coins like a machine gunner against the bayonet charge of the opposing army, turning the cul de sac into a No Man's Land, she shouted at Meifeng, "I thought you had backup!?"

The sound of gunshots filled the area as Meifeng unloaded into the crowd of people that Annabelle called to them. They had to deal with Annabelle and her army, which was not a good idea at the moment.

"They're on the way!" Meifeng shouted back, even though she was more than certain that they were gonna be dead before they got here. Yet she didn't have the heart to tell them that. However, Meifeng hopped on the nearest car's hood as she shouted, "Girls, get over here!"

Lyss blinked where she stood amongst the chaos. Had Annabelle just... reattached the hand? Hell no. They were quickly running out of options. Even if they could move fast enough to completely tear Annabelle apart, the monster would probably regroup just as fast. It looked like more bodies, or body parts, were on their way now too.

"Where the hell is Maximillian?" Lyss shouted over the noise as she made her way towards Meifeng. She picked up a broken piece of wood from the ground, most likely from the destroyed beach house, and shoved it into the stomach of a nearby zombie.

By the time she reached Meifeng, her circle of soldiers had withered. Lyss took a deep breath, gathering more energy, before summoning a group of undead to protect the car that Meifeng and Lyss were using as a base of operations. She continued to kneel on the ground, her eyes closed as she focused. She pressed both hands against the pavement. Moments later, near Annabelle's right ankle, the ground split into a house sized crater. Out of the hole came 20 foot golem like undead. It roared against the sight of Annabelle's larger form and immediately set to tearing at her ankle.

"Hopefully that will keep the bitch occupied for longer." She growled.

By the time Penny had laid down enough covering fire to make it to the car, Lyss had already summoned another zombie horde to surround it. Not wanting to test her luck on anything, Penny used her second Abstraction to summon a burst of air beneath her. She jetted over top of the horde and landed on the roof of the car, catching herself with her hands and knees. She shook her head and caught her breath before she wiped the blood from her nose. Penny stood back up, her vision blurring as it returned to normal, and assessed the situation.

"Holy shit, dude," uttered Penny, shocked by Lyss's golem. There wasn't much time to stand in awe, as Annabelle's Wendigos were still pouring in from the beaches and the gated communities. Penny pushed past her growing migraine to fire off coin after coin to slow their advance, although by being locked out of her second sight the shots were noticably worse. It didn't stop her. Coins buried themselves into car doors, shattered windows, and tore through Wendigos as she continued twisting and pointing like an impassioned conductor orchestrating a symphony of destruction.

"You got a plan, lady?" asked Penny to Meifeng over the sound of the fighting.

"We're gonna get some distance!" Meifeng shouted over the chaos, she gazed upon the freakish monstrosity that Lyss had summoned and saw the undead monsters that she had summoned. They were protecting them against the minions, but what about the larger form of Annabelle Heart? That thing would shred them to pieces. Other than that, Meifeng had no real plan because this thing keeps pulling out new tricks and making all of her plans useless. What was taking Maximilian so long?

Annabelle almost fell into the crater created by Lyss' minion coming out of the ground, she let out a roar as she got her footing... which she didn't have for long when the undead brute grabbed at her ankle. Tearing away at it, however Annabelle raised her fists up into the air, roaring as she brought them down on top of the undead beast's head. Flattening his skull and sending fluids out in every different direction... she grabbed the minion by the shoulders before she saw the three that were in her way...

... She heaved him up and then threw him at the three.

"We gotta move!" Meifeng shouted as she grabbed onto Lyss by the forearm and then detached the car hood from the rest of the car. Penny hopped down from the roof of the car to hitch a ride before Meifeng quickly launched them to the side, out of the way as the freakish brute came barreling at them like a speeding 18-wheeler! Unfortunately, Meifeng didn't really account for balance and in her desperation at getting out of the way, she slid off of the hood of the car and hit the ground with a thud. She hissed in pain as she tried to roll back onto her feet.

Lyss flinched as she watched Annabelle crush her giant solider almost a second after she'd summoned it. Her anger that each plan was failing also diminished the second Annabelle threw the dead golem their way. "Fu-!" She was cut off when Meifeng grabbed her arm and propelled them away with the hood of the car. Unfortunately she didn't get a second to feel relieved. The moment Meifeng lost her balance and fell, Lyss felt the hood drop out from under her. She threw her arms up and managed to land on her feet, but the sudden impact threw her off balance. She fell forwards and threw her arms out in front of her, now finding herself on all fours on the dented hood. "Meifeng!! Are you alright?"

Lyss turned her head to look for her, but all she noticed were the hordes of The Hunger's minions coming their way. Half of her soldiers that had been around the car were crushed by the golem, but the rest were fighting their way to her side. She looked around her for a weapon, but there was nothing in sight. "No way in hell I'm dying this way," Lyss muttered to herself. She turned and planted both hands on the ground. The zombies were getting closer. Too close. By the time she summoned more minions the horde was feet away from her. Her minions came pouring out of the earth like ants, and instantly collided with the raging flesheaters. Lyss panted. She wouldn't be able to keep summoning this many of them. Maximillian needed to show soon.

"... You're not," Meifeng hissed in pain as she forced herself up to her feet and looked at Annabelle. The undead army was clashing against Annabelle's flesh eaters, but Annabelle herself was unstoppable. They needed someone like Max to stop them... then there was a pang of guilt knowing that she didn't let these girls run off while they had the chance. Meifeng sighed as she raised her hand up into the air and little scraps of metal floated up all around the aging matriarch.

"You two!" Meifeng screamed, "Get out of here!"

Lyss shook her head, finally finding a piece of pipe from the wrecked beach house and holding it like her aluminum baseball bat. (Which was laying with her speedster somewhere among the horde.) "There's no way out at this point, Agent! I can't leave you behind." Lyss took a step forwards and knocked a zombie upside the head before it could tear one of her soldiers apart. It's head caved in like a smashed watermelon. Her soldier moved on to the next advancing freak, but Lyss was starting to notice her soldiers were quickly being overtaken.

Penny had messed up the timing when she tried to save herself from their crash landing, so instead of just hitting the ground she actually hit the ground, popped herself up in the air with a blast of wind, and hit the ground again. Her ego was hurt the most, but the scrapes and bruises would surely be hell tomorrow—although making it to then was looking pretty dim. Normally, she had an ace in the hole when it came to desperate escapes thanks to being close with Kimberly, but as far as Penny knew she was still stuck in a DENS detention center. She was pretty sure she had just heard her phone crack when she landed the second time, anyway. She staggered up and joined the other two.

"Yeah, we're not done yet. You're stuck with us," said Penny, who wasn't keen on other people taking the heroic sacrifices or flexing their authority. Still, that yet was coming pretty fast. Lyss's line was dwindling, and Annabelle's forces were pushing. It was only a matter of time. Penny had a plan, but she would only inact it the moment Lyss's creations no longer held the line. If she acted too soon it'd shred whatever was left of their defenses. So instead she continued to make rough potshots around Lyss's zombies, the pack on her waist starting to feel real light.

"That was not a request," Meifeng hissed at the two. "I will not stand here and let you two throw your lives away!"

At this point Annabelle had yelled yet again... not that it did much as anyone who could be transformed into a Wendigo was already there. However, as she roared they stopped clashing against the undead forces and ran into Annabelle - leaping into her body and contributing to her unholy mass. Suddenly, she went from being three stories tall, to four. She stood tall as a trail of steam came out of her mouth.

"... Get out of here!" Meifeng screamed.

Lyss stared up at the monstrous form in awe. How could Meifeng expect to take her on alone? She was a strong woman, for sure, but how long would she last? "I'll get to a safe distance, but I will not leave you alone!"

So, in another effort to contribute to the fight, Lyss pressed both hands against the ground. She began to murmur a spell into the ground, black sigils appearing beneath her hands as she did so. The ground in front of and behind Annabelle began to shake. The pavement cracked and from these cracks more undead emerged. They quickly ran towards Annabelle and began to climb up her long form towards the head. Lyss stood up, breathing like she'd run a mile as she wiped blood from her nose. "That should distract her while you get some shots at her."

That said, Lyss turned and began to book it down the street. She looked to the skies and desperately hoped that Max would be there soon. Annabelle roared as she tried to desperately get the undead off of her, slashing at even her own form to get them off.

"Oh come on!" bellowed Penny as she threw her arms out in front of her. It wasn't immediately clear if Penny was angry at Annabelle changing yet again, Meifeng's stubborness, or both. Regardless, her plan had been dashed when the Wendigos combined forces to form one giant asshole, which meant the "yet" had arrived. It was time to get out. Only Penny didn't do the smart thing and join Lyss in the backline. With one eye on Annabelle, Penny marched up to Meifeng, grabbed her by the wrist, and said, "Don't be such a fucking idiot."

Penny's second sight reactivated in time to see that Meifeng was probably going to reflexively try to pull away, so she strengthed her grip and grabbed her with her other hand. She kept watch of Annabelle's movements out of her periphery, ready to launch herself and Meifeng away with a blast of air if needed at the first sign of trouble. It was time to see if this stranger was true to her word. "You said you wouldn't stand here and let us throw our lives away. So let's fucking go."

Meifeng narrowed her eyes at Penny, making sure to maintain eye contact as she thrusted her hand out of Penny's grip, stretching out her fingers at the same time. She shook her head as more metal floated in the air and became vicious and jagged blades.

"I may be old, but I can handle myself," Meifeng shook her head as she spoke. That obstinance faded fast as she spoke almost with a whisper, "If you two really are determined to die on this hill with me, then... let's go."

Annabelle just stopped trying to flail the undead off of her and focus on the group in front of her. She slammed both of her claws into the ground as she went to all fours - so hard that she created holes in the ground and shook the earth. She roared again, probably signaling that she was about to charge. She rushed towards the trio, every time her hands hit the ground it made a boom that could not just be heard but felt. She carried herself forward like an animal, a true raging bull.

"Now girl," Meifeng said as the sharpel formed a ball... that limply dropped on the ground, "How fast can you move us!?"

"Fast enough," Penny said. It was a hopeful statement, and perhaps a bit of a lie. Penny had never attempted to use her borrowed Abstraction to launch both herself and another person away, but if there was anytime to make it work it would be now as Annabelle charged them. Like a matador holding a red flag, Penny would wait for the moment right before Annabelle impacted them to latch on to Meifeng and whip themselves away with a blast of air.

"My idea is kinda crazy, I'll warn you!" Meifeng warned her as Annabelle kept charging at them. "Don't move until I give you the order, got it?"

Annabelle got closer and closer, before she opened her maw to devour the two. Exactly as Meifeng planned, she doubted that Annabelle barely had a human thought in her head at this point. That she was just raw, animalistic rage, in... this terrifying form. When she opened her jaw, Meifeng quickly launched the ball of sharp blades and knives into her mouth as far as it can go. The beast gagged as she came to a stop and Meifeng shouted.

"Move!" On cue Penny moved both Meifeng and herself out of the way as Annabelle came to a stop. When she got some distance away, Meifeng activated her trap card and had the ball of blades explode as violently as she could make it... and it caused Annabelle's head to explode in a red mist as Meifeng hoped that would be the end of that abomination... however, with everything that has happened so far, she knew that she only slowed it down for a second. At least they gave themselves a second to-

Meifeng eyed the tortured souls that are apart of her hellish mass as they turned their eyes towards her in complete unison. Meifeng forgot about that tail... it launched itself at the two at extremely fast speeds. Meifeng barely had any time to respond before she felt the thing pierce through her stomach as she hunched forward. Coughing blood as she grabbed her stomach as that monster's tail hit the wall behind her.

Penny hadn't even seen the tail coming, her senses scattered by the juggling of her abstractions that left her short of breath and with a throbbing headache. Her eyes went wide as she swallowed a scream as the woman right next to her was impaled. She could have prevented it if she had just pushed herself harder and jumped them back further. Her breath quickened. Her eyes darted back and forth wildly. She reached her hand out towards Meifeng but stopped. What the fuck could she do?

Lyss had looked back just in time to see Annabelle thrust her tail towards Penny and Meifeng. She stopped dead in her tracks, nearly tripping over herself after she witnessed the tail impale Meifeng. "Meifeng!!" She shouted. How could this happen? How could no one come to their rescue? Had they already been taken down by wendigos? She couldn't believe this.

Lyss was shaking with rage. Annabelle couldn't win. Not after Claud lost her life to get the cure. She knelt to the ground and slammed her hands down again. The ground between the headless abomination and Lyss's friends shook violently. She was summoning more soldiers, and while it drained her energy she felt her father's channeler helping her stay alive. Two more golems erupted from the Earth. One took Annabelle's tail and ripped it in two. It turned towards Meifeng after and carefully gathered her into it's arms before heading towards the direction of Lyss.

The other grabbed onto the piece still attached and tugged as hard as it could in an attempt to pull Annabelle off of her feet. Lyss was hoping it could distract Annabelle long enough to get Meifeng to safety. Annabelle roared as she turned towards the beast and swung her clenched fist at it - knocking its head off and sending it flying.

When Meifeng got close, she was barely conscious. Eyes were unfocused, she was coughing up blood as she was going pale. Fortunately, the piece that had impaled her was still attached so she wasn't bleeding out. She stammered out the words, "Just go..."

"Shut up and keep breathing," growled Penny as she knelt beside Meifeng, her eyes darting back and forth between the dying woman and Annabelle.

When Annabelle was done with the giant, she turned back towards Lyss. She dug her claws into the ground as she used them to launch herself forward. Her claws were outstreched as she went in to finish Meifeng off...

---

---

... However, mid-air something crashed into her midsection and sent her flying off course. She hit the ground in a pavement destroying roll that crushed car and anything else that got in her way. She slammed her claws into the ground in an attempt to stop her roll and all the eyes on her undead frame turned to face him.

Maximilian Cornell.

He turned his head towards Lyss and saw that Meifeng was injured. He got here in barely the nick of time... he should have been here much faster. Maximilian shook his head, "I should have been faster," He started, "Is everyone okay?"

"Are you fucking—no!" barked Penny, turning to gesture at Meifeng's wound. "She's still alive, but..." But so was Annabelle. Meifeng's plan had been to buy time for her backup, and the backup was now here—but Penny was about tapped, Meifeng was dying, and she had no clue how many more bodies Lyss could yank out of the ground. "Superman, you think you can finish that bitch?"

"I'm not sure," Maximilian said, "But damn I'm going to try."

Lyss, meanwhile, had been ready to greet the Hound when Annabelle came their way again. She stared up at Maximillian, relief and anger spreading through her. It's about damn time, Maxi. What took you so long? "Where's the rest of the team?"

"On their way," Maximilian said. "I had to get ahead of them, and I'm glad I did when I did...." He looked down at the injured Meifeng.

However, somebody else joined the fight a little too late: flying in was Madison Brown. She landed next to Lyss as she put her hands in her pockets, looking at the unholy being that Annabelle had become. She didn't know what type of strength that Lyss, Penny, and Agent Liao had that allowed them to fight this thing so fearlessly. However, Madison felt like the fight was over.

"Hey girl," Madison said to Lyss, "I... really shouldn't have left you behind like that." She shrugged.

Lyss blinked, staring at her sister for a moment, but then her face softened. "You don't have to be sorry. I'm just glad you're here now." She glanced Annabelle's way. "Could you get Meifeng out of here?" She knelt down for the last time, and summoned one more golem to distract Annabelle. When she stood, she wiped more blood from her nose.

"And you too," Madison said as she looked at Meifeng. "I could care less about her, I ain't leaving without you."

"It's all you from here, Max."

Maximilian cracked his knuckles as he faced down the monster. "This isn't going to go the way it went last time," Maximilian told her, "Get Meifeng out of here and clear the area, I'm taking the gloves off."

He stretched his shoulder as he said,

"She's killed more than enough people."