Santos didn’t want any more kids, they were too much work, and they were always pestering him.

Their voices all night had been swirling in his head, asking if he was okay. Yes, physically he was okay, and out of all the ridiculous things he’d seen in his life, dead bodies walking was nothing new.

What was new, was that everything kept repeating, but nothing this horrible had ever happened before. He was crossing the football field, off to find more food when he was greeted by Deceit and Amity.

“‘Sup,” Deceit grunted.

“This bitch again? Can’t you die!”

“I could ask you the same thing too, Lyrica.”

Santos froze up. He had not heard that name in quite some time. Deceit could taste his panic in the air, his worry and regrets. She wanted more.

“Dad wants to see you again,” Deceit said. “Isn’t that right, Amity?”

“Yes! He’s missed you,” Amity said.

“He lied to me. He tricked me. I’m not his friend anymore. It’s that simple,” Santos replied. “Don’t call me by that name anymore.”

Santos turned in the other direction and then stopped. He remembered all the people in the soccer field, and Deceit would take her time torturing them before she scooped out their brains like gelato from their skulls.

“I think I’ll come with you,” Santos said.

“What!? No! Don’t come back,” Deceit screeched.

“W-why not?”

“I don’t want him to like you more than me!”

Santos saw another jealous child, just like the many he already had. They buzzed in his head, empathizing with her jealousy, and it made the moment even more surreal than it already was.

It was strangely hot after the strange fire from before, and now rain could be heard above, but none fell through. The dome kept it out, and it made the sky echo, the entire world pounding against their sky.

“Don’t you want to make him happy? I’m sure he won’t replace you if he comes with us,” Amity said.

Deceit closed her eyes, and then a thin line appeared on her forehead. It slowly stretched wide open, the two folds on her head revealing a singular red eye. She could see Santos’ true form, and it made her jealous.

The red eye strained against the humid air, and it looked around rapidly, trying to see if there was some kind of trick Santos was trying to pull. There was none.

“You’re not going to do anything,” Deceit asked.

“No,” Santos replied.

Deceit rushed towards him and Santos stood still, not letting her scare him. She circled him, with her one eye, and she saw the truth.

“He’s not lying. Fuck.”

Her skin flaps closed over her large eye, and it made a low moan, happy to return to its slumber. She opened the other two, her brown eyes still scanning him, looking for something else. Some other reasons to say no.

There was none.

“Come with us,” Deceit sighed.

Santos followed them out the football field gates and towards the main building. All the dead around them had fallen over, baking in the humid hot air. Their fetid smell didn’t unnerve him in the slightest.

The numerous wars he had been through were no different.

Deceit pushed open the side door to the main building with so much force it fell off its hinges. Santos was bewildered when all the corpses they passed were missing hands or fingers. There was no magic he knew of that required only fingers.

Deceit had taken them back to the gymnasium where she chose the hosts for her children. It was still filled with some of her drones, and they all turned to look at her when she walked in.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She held out her hands, covered in blood and tar, and uttered a single word.

“Phone.”

The closest one next to her came right over and placed its head in her hands. This time she made sure to try to keep more blood inside the head, and she held it from the bottom, trying to keep it in.

Santos had seen the process before. He had done it a few times himself when he still thought that talking to Him was a good idea. It never was. He had lied to Santos since the very beginning, and if not for Him, Santos would still be home, with all his brothers and sisters, not cursed to walk among the meatsuits.

The call went through, and the woman’s green eyes opened. Her dismembered head gazed up at Santos and smiled, licking its lips in excitement.

“I’ve missed you so much,” He said.

“Fuck you.”

“I would love that,” He laughed.

With every laugh, black blood spurted out of the neck, and Deceit was annoyed, trying to keep as much inside the head so the call wouldn’t end. After seeing some bits of the esophagus fall out, she gave up and simply handed the head to Santos, who didn’t want it.

He held the young woman’s head by her short black hair and spat it in its face.

“I’ll try anything once,” the head whispered.

“What the fuck do you want,” Santos screamed.

“I want to know your secret, Lyrica. Why do all your children walk in sunlight after forty years?”

“No clue,” he lied.

“Tell me. Tell me or else I’ll-”

“Or what? You’ll sell me out a second time? I already can’t go home! You can’t threaten me with anything else!”

The woman’s mouth opened wide, and its eyes stared right into Santos’. Strange images flooded his head. Images of Levi, Sara, and Rikka. Images of all the people of clan Slater, and Santos’ favorite children as well.

The head closed its mouth, and the threat said without a single word uttered.

“You cannot lie to me,” He said. “I know you know. I will find out. When I do, you will have no choice but to return to me.”

“You need to move on,” Santos said. “I have.”

With the bit of strength he had left in him, Santos threw the head into the hard gymnasium floor. Black blood and brain matter spilled out and coalesced at his feet, and he just walked right over it and looked down at Deceit.

“I won’t tell you, no matter what. You can kill everyone and I will never tell you,” Santos said.

“Why do you treat Father like this? With your power, we could make so many of my siblings walk in the light,” Deceit replied.

“Exactly. Fuck no. You’re bad enough as it is.”

Deceit gave him a look and remembered the second reason she came here. The body of Michael Slater. Santos knew where it was, and she would get it out of him, no matter what.

“Amity, it’s time. Hold him down,” Deceit screamed.

Amity’s bones stretched out from her hands, elongated and grotesque. They clattered as they pushed out, and she wrapped them around Santos. He was about to open his mouth, but before he could, Deceit placed her mouth on his.

Black sludge poured out of her mouth and into his, and Deceit’s eyes went wide when she felt something cold.

He threw up.

“What the fuck,” Deceit screamed.

“Don’t touch me you fucking roach!”

He wretched blood on the ground, no more food left inside him, and now he was truly weak. Santos’ breathing was labored, and his eyes fluttered trying to stay conscious, while he mumbled a strange language and asked for his wife.

“Drop him,” Deceit commanded.

The bones receded back into Amity’s fingers, crackling and crunching. They pushed up against her skin and small ridges could be seen underneath her skin as she shuddered, trying to fit them all back into place.

Once they had, she and Deceit stood on top of Santos and grinned. Amity held him down by his arms and he screamed as Candice opened her mouth. Her special mix covered his face and he struggled to move as she continued to pour it into his mouth.

He kept coughing it up, so she grabbed him by his curly hair and pushed his face into the puddle, holding his jaw and tongue open.

“Eat it bitch,” she screamed. “Eat it!”

They were interrupted by a young woman who opened the gymnasium doors.

She took in the entire scene. The tar, the corpses, the DJ playlist that wouldn’t stop. It took her a few seconds to process what was happening, and when she did, her fury was expelled in a gust of wind that tore up the room.

“Get off my grandpa.”