I could tell that I said the wrong thing. You know that feeling, right, when it seems like you can’t go back to the way things were before you stick your foot in your mouth? Charlie was looking at me like I had really just punched her in the stomach, like she kind of hated me for being me, like she genuinely belied I was a fool.

But I had said it. I had brought up the subject of YOU, and Charlie wasn’t ready to go there. She just stood there holding my binoculars, staring at me like I was scum. And then she held out the binoculars to hand them back. And then she let them drop to the ground while staring directly in my eyes. She only said, “Drop the charade, Sam.”

_SADIE _

Thomas Meers

Holland Smith

Adon Freeman

Jack Holt

I push the paper back to the chief after looking at the names and photos. “Why do these names sound so familiar?”

The chief leans back in the chair. “Because two of them were apart of the last case you contributed in.”

My eyes widen. “The Locomotive Dash and Smash? That was over 10 years ago!” I look at the photos again. “They can’t be about 25.”

He taps a large finger at the man labeled Jack Holt. He’s a nice looking young man, Asian too, with a prideful look in his eyes and a firm set of commitment on his mouth. “This one was the one who started it,” he slide his finger to the Black man labeled Adon Freeman, “and this is the one who did it. Back then, we couldn’t charge them how we wanted to because evidence was skimpy, so they got out earlier than they should’ve.” Chief shakes his head. “And now look where we are.”

“Well, what about the other two?”

“Cannibalism.”

I blink. “What?”

Chief points at the glasses wearing Thomas Meers. “When he was a boy, someone said he was a cannibal, went to the police station and all. The blondy here,” he points to a pleasant looking man who looks sort of like an angel in my old Christian children bible books, “was his friend at the time as well as a girl named Penny King. The girl went insane a few months after meeting them; though her parents knew she had mental problems before. She’s living in a mental rehab facility.”

“So,” I say, getting straight to the point, “why have you called me here?”

Chief looks at me his face grim. “Because they are suspects in the multiple strings of killing that have been happening around the state and others. We dub the killer, or killers—the Judges of Man.”

THOMAS

Blood pools at my feet, staining my hands, hair, mouth, and glasses. All around the white floor of the rehabilitation facility. Bodies, dressed the the white of their uniforms and the crimson of the shining blood, are laying there, still, unmoving. Holland jumps over them, key in his hand, and moves to where the thing is being held.

Jack, Adon clinging to his side, walks up beside me. “Did you have to make such a mess, Thomas?”

Holland clicks his tongue as he twists the key in the lock. “Aww, don’t blame him. He didn’t get the chance to go hunting this week because of your planning.”

I lick my lips, the blood giving my stomach a calm, then get to work on my fingers. Adon frowns, looking at my pants. “That’s gonna take a long time to wash.”

“Well,” Holland swings the door open, “good thing you don’t do the laundry.”

The four of us walk in, Adon jumping onto my less solied back to avoid the blood and bodies. The thing is there, shaking, rocking herself back and forth. The room around us looks like a room for a small child, adorned with a small bed and pictures all around the walls.

Pictures of faceless creatures dressed in human clothing. How poetic.

The thing looks up, eyes glazed over but sensing our presence still. She looks as though she’s on a different plane entirely; somewhere higher than the average human. I have to hold my nose as her disgusting scent washes over me. The thing hisses as we near, but stops when she sees me, hands going to her shredded ear.

So she remembers.

Jack steps forward, a confident smile on his face. “Hello there, Ms. King. May I call you Penny?”

The Penny nods, keeping her eyes locked on me.

“We need your help in our lastest endeavor,” Jack picks some invisible dirt out of his nails, “Of course, you have no choice but to say yes, or I’ll let Thomas eat you.”

I frown. “I wouldn’t eat something as horrible as her.”

Jack looks at me, eyes disappointed. “Then I’ll let Adon deal with with you, Penny, he’s been so lonely after Thomas ate his last doll.”

Adon’s hands tighten on my back in excitement. “Oh, yes please!”

The Penny shakes her head. “No. Penny helps. Penny helps.”

Holland strides up to her and grabs a fist of her hair. “Are you sure we need her? I’ve been waiting to kill her for a looong while.”

The Penny starts to shake. Jack shakes his head and takes Holland’s hands into his own. “You’ll have to wait for this one, Holland, we need her.”

“Until we don’t,” Holland mutters below his breath.

“Can we go now,” Adon tucks his head into my shoulder, no doubt trying to snuff out the growing coppery smell of the drying blood, “I wanna go home.”

Jack looks at the Penny. “Whatcha say Penny?”

The Penny nods her head violently. I hope it flings off her neck. “Yes, Penny come. She comes.”

(HEY! The _Fruits _characters are here! You know if you know.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!)

(From Fruits, Holland’s thought process; ⚠️Mentions of cannibalism⚠️)

I am the chef, the cook, the angel of death who comes to serve delicious plates of stew and vegetables to my love.

I see my work as a necessary part of Thomas’ life. My Tommy always hungers for more than the average human diet. He craves for the fruit of his kind, and I give it to him.

My parents don’t suspect anything. They’re too busy with other things to notice their middle son sneaking off at night, reading random cookbooks, or failing in his subjects.

I suppose that their both ashamed of me, a bastard child. My mother hates me because I’m not hers and my father ignores me because he feels ashamed.

I don’t care for either of them anyway, neither my two half-siblings. They all are just ripe fruits waiting to be picked and peeled.

My oldest half-sister, Finny, is on to me. Once, while she was visiting on a college break, she saw me and Thomas watching television together on the couch.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend, Holland.” She had said, eyes narrowing in what I think was suspicion.

I had ignored her and she went away moments later.

Surprisingly, she did not report to the parents about it. That’s the only thing I like about my half-sister.

She knows how to mind her business.

But then the next time she came over, after dinner and all, she had asked me in my room, “So what’s the deal with your boyfriend? Isn’t he that guy who was seen eating raw meat that one year in 5th grade?”

“So?” I had replied.

“I don’t wanna tell Mom and Dad, but I just don’t think that he’s someone to hang around.”

“He loves me, and I love him, so piss off and go back to your college life, Finny.”

Finny was quiet for a moment and laughed. “You have to be an absolute fool to believe that!” She sighed. “Man, Holland, I’m really worried about you, but do what you want to do. That boy’s just probably using you.”

Then she left the next day.

Of course he’s using me. I want him to use me. He deems me useful, not just an ornament to be ignored and forgotten. Thomas loves me; he loves what I can do.

That’s all that matters.

I can’t wait until the day he smells the fruit that stands around me. Until the day he asks me to help him with four more dishes.

(🙃Thanks for reading and have a great day!)

“You’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that!”

“It would help if you stopped saying that, mother. I know he loves me, he said so.”

Her mother snorted, attempting to find some humor from her daughter’s idiotic words in such a horrible time as this. “People say things they don’t mean, dear.”

“I know he meant it.”

“I thought that too about your father, and where is he now? That’s right. Off with some tramp in the woods. Darling, I’m just trying to protect you.”

The girl paused, biting her lip. “I know you think I’m still a child, Mother. But I’m old enough now to be able to make my own decisions. He’ll come back, I’m sure of it.”

“You need to accept the fact that you’ve been lied to.” Her mother put a hand on her daughter’s cheek. “He was no good anyway. Besides, I hear arranged marriages are popular nowadays.”

The girl smiled sadly. “I’m going to go to bed. If you hear anything, please wake me.”

“Of course, anything darling.” She waited until her daughter’s door was closed. A satisfied smile spread on the mother’s face. The banging that had been covered up by her daughter’s wails before could now be heard. Her smile dropped, and she fished around in the nightstand’s drawer until she came across a shiny gold key. She went to the wardrobe in her large walk-in closet, and unlocked the door, opening it a sliver.

Inside was a young man, his hands and feet were bound, while the gag was still securely in his mouth. He grunted silent pleas, but she just ignored them.

“I’m not sure if you heard that conversation, but you’re out of the picture. Now, if you promise to be quiet, I can assure you nothing…terrible will happen to you.” The grin returned to her face, an evil glint in her eyes as she closed and locked the wardrobe door once again. Her plan was slowly falling perfectly into place.

“What’s so wrong about it?” I ask, my older sister Sammy rolls her eyes. Pacing the porch of our house.

“I don’t know,” she pauses, her hands on her hips. “Maybe, Davian, it’s the fact that you’re the reason her Mom died.”

I feel like she slapped me across my cheek. Even though we’re a good yard apart. I know I was the reason the car crashed, but I keep thinking that maybe I can make her life better.

“I know,” I say, falling to the old wooden steps. “That’s why this is so hard.”

I cover my eyes with the palm of my hand. Trying to fight the tears that are burning in my eyes.

The old porch creaks as Sammy walks across it. “Davian,” she whispers, taking a seat next to me.

I lift my head up, meeting Sammy’s hazel eyes. “It’s just,” I start, racking my brain for the right words. “She’s different.”

Sammy nods, as she plays with the rings on her fingers. “Davian, I know you like her.” Sammy looks down at her hands. “But you’d have to be an absolute fool to think you can keep lying to her about this.”

I hate how Sammy is always so right. I wonder if she ever gets tired of it, I do.

I nod slowly, lowering my head. “I can’t help it.” I mumble as a soft breeze blows dry leaves across the ground. “I mean at first I guess I was just trying to make her feel like she wasn’t alone.” I pause looking up at Sammy.

Her eyes are shinning with tears as she brushes her brown hair behind her ear.

“But then.” I smile, Maisie’s face appearing to me. Her blonde hair falling at her shoulders, her bangs that she always brushes out of her eyes. Her beautiful black blue eyes.

“You fell for her?” Sammy asks, still fidgeting with her rings.

I nod, watching the leaves fall softly to the ground from our big oak tree. “Yeah,” I mumble. “I did.”

“you’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that!” my best friend ali says to me, looking at a text i got from my boyfriend. the text reads, “i promise ill never leave.” from both of our experience, that promise is never kept. by any man. “i dont know, i have a good feeling about him” i said to her. she laughed and we went on with our night. as the relationship progressed, my good feeling stuck around. he was the sweetest soul. he bought me flowers, all the cheesy relationship stuff you see in movies. i truly did believe him. but you know, nothing lasts forever. the guy i thought i knew, who always wanted to be around me, loved my presence and made me feel like the only girl in the world, turned into a face i could barely recognize. sitting through all of my work shifts with me turned to staying home and playing video games, the all night facetime calls turned to sleepless nights alone, and “i love clingy girls” slowly faded into “i need alone time”. why does this always happen to me? arguments became more frequent. i could feel him getting sick of me. next thing i know, i suffocate him. im too much. im too needy.  i still remember the first time he broke up with me. i was texting him at work, and he said something that hurt my feelings. we argued about it, until the words “we need to break up” appeared on my screen. i freaked out. left work immediately with a family emergency, and scream cried in my room begging him to stay. it was pathetic, the way i was begging. “ill change anything you want”. “tell me what i have to do”. “ill do anything”. the list goes on of the things i said to convince him to stay. he declined every call, and refused to meet up in person because he needed space. i felt like a little girl trapped in a 17 year olds body just wanting someone to love her. lets just say this exact scenario happened about ten more times. even though we are together now, one specific breakup sticks with me to this day. we saw the barbie movie together. on the way home, he dropped the bomb that he didnt want to call that night. being as sensitive as i am, that stung. i tried to argue it, but instead of him changing his mind, he broke up with me. i parked the car in front of his house and followed him into his yard, grabbing onto his hands begging him not to leave. there was a point where i had to just give up and go home. my best friend on the phone, “its okay d, youre going to be okay.” the words echo in my mind to this day. i was a fool to believe that.

I crouch behind a rowan bush with Finn, my hand on his back pushing him to the ground, as close to the dirt as he is willing to get. His body is still and steady, but his heart is beating faster with each passing second—or perhaps it’s mine.

“Your aunt didn’t tell us what to do when we reached the trolls” I whisper in his ear, careful to avoid drawing attention. “And I don’t think they like humans very much.”

He shakes his head slightly. “Your human. not me.”

I roll my eyes so far back it stings. "You may have a miniscule amount of magic flowing in your veins, but the moronic Neanderthal bloodline coursing through your bones is far more abundant," I tell him with mild exasperation as I press my nose against the hairs of his locks. “They will devour you just as eagerly as they would a run-of-the-mill mortal.”

I bite back a smile when he tries to hide his shudder.

“Lilith. Lilith listen” he whispers with upmost seriousness. “Trolls are extremely dull creatures. I shall bargain for the map, and if that doesn’t work then I shall fight for it.”

I raise a brow and my scowl grows. He’s looking at me as though I’m the strange one. “You’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that!” I whisper-shout, careful not to let my anger raise my voice. “You can fight and bargain as much as you want, that doesn’t mean you’ll win anything.”

He stands up, his gaze intense. “If I’m a fool bound to fail, then I shall fail so spectacularly it would be a success on my end.”

“That’s not how it works!”

Before I can pull him back down, he takes a step forward catching the attention of the three trolls.

They truly are an awful spectacle, huddled around a pond with wagons full of gold and tools—and bones. Their features are flat and broad, hair long and matted, and their skin is so coarse you can chisel stone with it.

My muscles clench when they all stare at Finn.

“What do we have here!” One of the gentler looking trolls bellow. It’s long fingers reach towards Finn. He takes a step back.

“So thin” says another. “No meat on him.”

Finn makes a face while turning back to me, one that says ‘just watch’.

I fold my arms and get on my knees to see better.

"Greetings, creatures of Vagyord," he says with a deep reverence, inclining his head forward so that his locks shield his face. "We have heard that your kind holds the map to Avarinth, and I and my fellows are in dire want of it. I am here to offer a trade for this priceless item."

The gentle looking troll turns to the smallest one, and it takes out a golden scroll from the wagon.

“And what will we get in return?” The oldest one inquires, “when we can just keep the map and eat you for supper.”

Finn reels back, then plants his feet on the moss and clears his throat. He’s trying not to show fear, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if creatures like them smell it.

“Jewels, weapons. Um—I don’t know, human flesh?”

The oldest laughs, the kind of laugh you don’t want to join along.

“But we have all that” it rasps. “Weapons, jewels”, it shifts its pointed finger from the cart to Finn. “Human flesh.”

Finns hands inch towards the sword on his belt we bought at the pawn shop, the sword that could barely cut through bark. It’s impossible for him to win a fight against them.

“Wait!” I shout before thinking of what I’m doing.

The trolls all turn to me.

I heave a long, strained breath and step besides Finn. “The map” I lie, “takes us to a treasury of gold only we know to find. If you do us harm, you shall never see a coin of those riches.”

I see Finn tense out of the corner of my eyes and decide it’s best if I ignore him, so they can to.

“Or, we can just torture the truth out of you and get it ourselves” the peaceful looking one muses. They flash an awfully yellow smile.

“Yes” I say. “But you will never be able to find it. It’s not meant for your kind. So when we do find it, with your map or not, we can split the riches. Or, we can keep it for ourselves.”

The trolls stare blankly for a second, then huddle together and begin speaking in muffled mumbles.

“You think they’ll believe your lie?” Finn whispers besides me.

“As you said. They are awfully dull creatures” I respond.

The trolls turn back towards us, wearing reluctant scowls. Then, they toss the scroll.

“If we don’t see the gold by the next full moon, we will hunt you down, and eat you whole” the oldest trolls says.

I squeeze Finn’s arm and smile.

“Of course”.

The trolls are one of a thousand problem we need to solve later. Now, we need to find Avarinth. There was one thing we didn’t lie about; Only Finn can access the portal out of all of us. And that’s the only way I will ever see Mari again.

I used to have nightmares about monsters Lying in bed, twisting and turning The whole night sleepless and awake

I would wake up abruptly and scream Terrified and shaking While my parents lie naive in their beds

These constant nightmares Turned into panic attacks Leaving me breathless and agitated

Trapped and frighted Scared out of my wits Wondering if it would ever end

Flashbacks come and go Of summer days spent lying in bed Dreaming about shapeless figures in the dark

But one day I found out that it didn’t matter It wouldn’t ever be important

Because I would have to be An absolute fool to believe That these monsters would ever be real

I used to think it Was Too late for me

I used to think I Would Rot away without having lived a life

I used to think I’d Die Just as he had

I used to think I’d Fall And never get back up

But now… If… If I really think about this It still hurts I’m still in pain But everything beautiful is in pain Or at least, Everything beautiful has been in pain at some point, So I don’t need to be ok. No one needs to be ok, They just need to be willing to stand up.

If you ever think you’re not good enough, Well, You’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that.

I spent years of my life living in the shadows of my big brother he was always the coolest guy I knew. And everyone else loved him just as much as I did.

And when I say “did” I meant that

When I was about 15 my big brother went off to college we’d talk on the phone everyday. One day I noticed I hadn’t talked to my brother So I called and didn’t get an answer Instead, I got the voicemail.

Hey, you reach Ramen leave a message after the beep He said

And jokingly that’s what I did

Hey, be here it’s your little sister when you get this call me back screwed