Rafael wanted to think he was almost asleep when he heard scuffing noises in the kitchen. The truth was, his eyes were as wide as if it was twelve o’clock in the afternoon instead of one in the morning. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. Between the anticipation of his conversation with Tyler and still thinking about Ezekiel’s backstory, he’d have to make sure coffee was well in stock at their house.

The cabinet doors squeaked open, and he was too curious to pretend like he was sleeping. He got out of bed and slipped on a shirt before entering the hallway. He didn’t get far before he saw Alejandra opening the fridge, searching through it.

“I forgot about groceries today. I’ll—” Rafael stopped short as his sister shrieked in surprise and slammed the fridge door shut. “Alejandra?”

“God, Rafael. You scared me.”

He blinked, then glanced behind him in the hall. “I… live here. Why are you surprised?”

“It’s almost one in the morning. What are you doing still up?”

“The same reason you are,” Rafael said. Alejandra gave him a strange look. One he couldn’t quite decipher. “You know, Tyler’s talking to us tomorrow. Telling us about what Neal said and what we’re doing with our characters.”

Alejandra closed her eyes. “Right! Right, right, right. I nearly…” she trailed off, straightening her glasses.

“You… forgot? Did you seriously—”

“Nope.” Alejandra opened the fridge again. “Of course I wouldn’t forget that. Why would I forget something like that? Ludicrous.”

She pulled out the gallon of milk before grabbing the bowl on the counter. Rafael did nothing more than stare as she poured the milk into the bowl.

“Since when have you put the milk in first, before the cereal?” Rafael asked.

“Huh?”

He gestured at… whatever the hell she was doing with that bowl. She frowned, screwing the lid of the milk back on. “No, no, I’m just… going to drink it.”

Rafael stared as she put the milk back in the fridge. “From a bowl?”

“Couldn’t find any mugs,” Alejandra said.

“Dishwasher should be clean.”

Alejandra gave a click of her tongue. “Look at you!”

That was all she said. Rafael continued to stare at his sister, worried about her mental state. Was the stress of everything finally getting to her?

Alejandra picked up her bowl and stuck it in the microwave. It was like he was staring at something he couldn’t quite understand. This seemed so normal for Alejandra, but something was off. His sister wasn’t volunteering an explanation, either.

She cleared her throat, straightening her glasses again as she waited for the microwave to be done. Once it was, she gave the milk a swirl with her finger before putting another ten seconds on the microwave. Rafael didn’t know what else to do but to watch her, shuffling his weight from one foot to the other. “Since when do you drink warm milk?”

“Since forever! Helps me sleep.”

Rafael frowned as she took it out of the microwave. Alejandra made a point not to look at him as she shuffled into the hall. He watched her, waiting for her to acknowledge the curious look on his face, but she opened the door and slipped into her room. “G’night!”

Rafael was so confused by the whole thing that he remained in the kitchen. He glanced at the still open cupboards and noticed an entire stack of mugs next to the bowls. He squinted, waiting for the mugs to give him an answer, but none came. It’d be easier to get an answer from them than from Alejandra.

There was a loud crash from Alejandra’s room that made Rafael jump. He spun around.

“I’m fine! Totally fine! Just me being clumsy!” Alejandra said.

Rafael waited a bit longer, but that was it. He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. He really needed to get some sleep.

He climbed back into bed, tossing and turning. It didn’t sound like Alejandra had any easier of a night.

Then all at once there was a knock on the front door, and Rafael woke up with a gasp. It was late. Or, rather, at least ten o’clock in the afternoon. He hadn’t slept in like this in ages. Rafael headed toward the door. There was only one person it could be.

Bright light and heat hit him both at the same time as he opened the door. “Hey, Tyler. Sorry, it… was an awful night’s sleep.”

Tyler gave a pathetic nod. “I hear that.” He walked in deeper, nodding at Hraktar and Ezekiel. “Hey, guys.” Tyler sat down on the couch, and Rafael walked over to Alejandra’s room, knocking on the door. “Alejandra?” He heard his sister’s deep breathing, and shook his head. “I’ll fill her in on the details. She needs to sleep.”

“Yeah. Sleep when you can,” Tyler said. He looked awful. Rafael managed to get some sleep, but Tyler looked like he hadn’t gotten any.

“Are you driving home?” Rafael asked.

“Yeah. Once I talk with everyone, make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Tyler said.

“Are you up to that? You look like you haven’t slept at all.”

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Tyler shrugged. “Setting up the email system with the other groups took time.”

“Other groups?”

“Yeah. Sit down, I’ll explain.”

Rafael listened, his heart dropping farther the more Tyler spoke. It wasn’t looking good. Any of it. No way back. Happened before. Defeat the monsters before they create an apocalypse on earth. And if they managed all that, his characters would then need to get used to life on earth.

Rafael was almost glad Alejandra couldn’t hear any of this. Hraktar and Ezekiel glanced at each other, not sure how to take it.

Once he was done explaining the details, Tyler fell silent. The exhaustion truly started to hit him then. “We have a lot to do before next August.” Tyler stood up, straightening before looking at Rafael. “I need to have a word with you in private.”

“Yeah. Sure,” Rafael said, standing up. They walked over to the front door as Hraktar and Ezekiel talked about what they needed to do.

Tyler stared at the front door, taking a deep breath, then slowly letting it out. “Looming apocalypse aside, I need you to understand something.” Rafael frowned, not sure how he was supposed to react to someone starting a sentence like that. “Ezekiel needs to be cured of lycanthropy. We will work together on that. But let me tell you how that’s going to be.” Tyler raised a hand, pointing at Rafael’s chest. “You’re getting stronger, your bond with Ezekiel deeper. My guess is in the next day or so you’ll even be able to roll from a distance. And when that happens, Evelyn is one hundred percent in charge of who goes to the sessions. If she wants to come to a session and doesn’t want to see your face, she’s not going to see your face.” Shame pricked Rafael’s cheeks, and he wasn’t sure how long he could keep Tyler’s gaze. “If she wants you to come, you will be in separate cars during our travels. If you come but make any sort of comment or look at her in any way that makes her feel uncomfortable and she changes her mind about you being there, you take your car and go home immediately without another look, without another word. And I will tell you this right now,” Tyler said, his voice both certain and exhausted. “Those are just about the possible comments and looks. Because if you ever touch Evelyn Larsen again, I will not stop Nick from beating the shit out of you, because I will be joining him.”

Rafael took this all in. He stared at Tyler, understanding the hurt and the pain. For once, he was glad someone was talking to him like this, even as it hurt. It reminded him of how much pain he’d caused, when everyone else took his huge crime almost in strides. The cage Ezekiel had made for the monster was there, and Tyler pulled out a length of chain and a lock for him to wrap around it. Rafael was more than happy to take it and lock the creature in the cage. “I agree with everything you said. And I will comply. I hurt her, and I know I hurt the group. I have a mountain to climb to rebuild any sort of trust with anyone, and I’m… sorry. I will listen to Evelyn. Listen to her through your instructions, because I will stay away from her.”

Tyler gave another sigh, looking away. “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.” He rubbed his eyes, like that would somehow fix the bags under his eyes. “Why’d you do it, Rafael? Why’d you hurt her like that?”

Rafael’s muscles froze up. The careful wall he placed around any memories of that night came crashing down. Everyone kept asking about what happened. No one asked about his motivations. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, the words tumbled out of him. “I was… lonely.” Tyler raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. The silence pulled the confession out of him. “I’d pretended for so long that everything was alright. With my family. With my dad. Pretending he wasn’t raging at us all the time. Hiding the bruises when needed. It was exhausting, trying to be normal.” Rafael couldn’t look at Tyler. This, more than anything, felt like a certain torture he couldn’t bring himself to relive while staring a friend in the eye. “They were linked. My need to hide everything my dad did while also hiding my feelings from Evelyn at the time. Completely different, but it was still the same sort of exhaustion. When my parents divorced, when we were finally going to be free of him, I…” Rafael stared at the door, tears burning his eyes. “It wasn’t as freeing as I thought. My dad was gone, but my mom disappeared, drowning in jobs to repay an ocean of debt while struggling with her own mental health.

“Alejandra and I almost went into the foster system. Things were supposed to be better when my dad left, but they weren’t. And I… went back to pretending.” Tears dropped to his cheeks that he quickly wiped away. “Kept going back to how everything was fine. How my life wasn’t falling apart. Again. And I couldn’t take it. Evelyn was the only one who helped me truly smile, even if she didn’t realize it. The only one who made it easier to pretend everything was alright. I wanted that one part of my life where I didn’t have to pretend, where I told her how I feel, but… I showed up drunk instead, because that was how my parents always took the edge off. I shouldn’t have. But I didn’t know any other way.” Rafael bowed his head, rubbing his neck. “I don’t even remember what I said to her. Just that…” He finally met Tyler’s gaze. “Just that I wanted to kiss her, so I did. Because she made me not feel so lonely. But I went too far. Way too far. Farther than I ever thought I’d go. Which… terrifies me.”

“Because what if you went all the way,” Tyler said for him.

Rafael’s face crumpled, because that, at its core, was his guilt. He opened one of the bottles, just a sip. Telling himself he would only talk to her. One sip, one confession. But he did more. More than a swallow, more than a kiss. He didn’t think he would, but he did. He never reached for her pants, but what if he just wasn’t drunk enough? What if that created the monster now growling in the cage. He craved the boundaries set up by Ezekiel and Tyler, even the beating Nick gave him because he caught a glimpse of the creature lurking, and he was terrified of it. Needed help to contain it. Wanted to make sure everyone gave him specific instructions to keep it locked up tight.

“Shit, man,” Tyler whispered. He closed his eyes, his face to the ceiling. He let out a breath, then straightened, placing a hand on the doorknob. He closed his eyes. “Thank you for telling me. No doubt you’ve replayed it a million times and figured out how that could have gone different.”

“About a trillion, actually,” Rafael said.

Tyler shook his head, a different sort of exhaustion filling his eyes. “I’m sorry you went through that. I also hope you know that my previous statement still stands. Evelyn’s in charge. She’s gone through hell, too, and she deserves to know that people are looking out for her.”

“I agree,” Rafael said.

“And despite everything you told me, and the rough childhood you had, I want you to know that I still will beat the shit out of you if you touch her again,” Tyler said.

“You have no reason to trust me, but I assure you, I never want to touch her again,” Rafael said.

Tyler nodded. “Good.” He opened the door, the heat trickling in. “It’s as you said. You’ve got a mountain to climb rebuilding our trust, and you’re starting at the very bottom. I’ll be honest, you did pretty good in today’s climb, but there will be many, many others. And as far as I’m concerned, if you fall back again, I’m not giving you another chance. I will kick you out of the group, and you will roll from a distance the entire time we take care of these monsters.”

Rafael nodded. “I know. And… thank you. For this last chance.”

Tyler sighed, glancing behind him to see Hraktar and Ezekiel still discussing what they need to do. “Do you two… need any more help?” Tyler asked.

“Help?” Rafael asked.

“Your dad, he’s…”

Rafael shook his head. “He’s not coming back. My mom’s family has made sure of it. We’re safe. We’re fine.”

“Good.” Tyler patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll see you later, Rafael.”

He walked to his car, and Rafael closed the door to keep the heat away. He leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was at the bottom. He felt that image again of the monster lying in wait in his cage. Growling as Rafael approached him. He showed the monster the key to the lock, then flicked it away, refusing to see where the key landed.