Nobody speaks for a minute. The weight of this information is heavy. By now, all of them have a grim understanding of what the Marauders are capable of: Theft, ransom, murder. Tay, of course, knows this more intimately than the others, and it’s no surprised that Hoodie’s words hit her like a spray of grapeshot. Although she’s spent the last 24 hours or so thinking about how pretty objectively awful her family is, she’s spent the past 20 or so years being a part of that family and desperately craving their love, their attention, their pride. It’s a mixed bag for her, and so even though she can feel everyone’s eyes on her, she can’t really figure out anything to say.

Luckily for her, Cannon can’t help himself but to say everything all the time. “Thank you for the news, walkin’ toilet papah. Nice to meet ya, I’m Cannon from Old Boston. I’m gonna assume you and the Maraudah kid ah friends, which makes you a good guy, which is cool cause I’m also a good guy. So, because we’ah all good guys heah, we’ah gonna keep on clearin’ the bugs out of this building, then we’ah gonna go cleah the Maraudahs out of town. Yeah?”

Lex nods. “Sounds good to me. For whatever reason it is that the Marauders are here for - and I hope it isn’t to kidnap me, because that would mean that Tay somehow told them that I’m here - they probably have a whole lot less of an incentive to commit wanton murder compared to the bugs. Bug hungry, bug eat. That right, Cannon?”

“Bug hungry, bug eat. Couldn’t have said it bettah myself.”

“Then bugs are our priority, which means clearing out this building and keeping everyone here safe is more important. We’ll get to the Marauders later.” He looks around at the group, a facade of courage taped to his face. When his eyes meet Tay’s, though, the facade falls to the floor. “Um, why are they here, though. Tay? This isn’t some big, weird, long con to get me, is it? Get captured on purpose so you could befriend me, then I’d more willingly come with you when the rest of the Marauders get here?”

Tay is clearly too busy processing the news that her family is here to respond. She does slightly perk up at Lex’s use of the word “befriend,” but other than that she’s a statue.

“Uh, Tay? Tay I’d really love an answer. I know you’re still actively trying to kidnap me, but, I dunno, I kinda feel like we were, like, getting somewhere, and if this was your plan all along, that would really be kinda a bummer.”

She snaps to and shakes her head. “No. No, Lex. It wasn’t. I didn’t even know you were here when I got here. This definitely wasn’t the plan.” She bites her lip. “At least, not my plan.”

“Umm. Okay. So it was someone’s plan that you were-- are?-- a willing participant in, and, well I guess it sounds stupid to say it out loud now, but, we’re-- we’re not friends?”

“No. I mean- no, no there’s no big conspiracy, I’m not a part of anybody’s plan other than my own. I’m just as confused as to why there are more Marauders here as you are.”

Lex chews his tongue for a bit and looks around at the others before his eyes fall back on Tay’s. “And?”

Tay forces the slightest of smiles. “And I hope we’re friends.”

“Aaaaand you said somethin’ about this bein’ someone’s plan?” Cannon asks. “You wanna talk a bit more about that?”

“I would also like to hear about that,” Hoodie rasps.

Tay shuffles her feet uncomfortably. “The bugs being here. I probably should have figured it out myself, but if you’re saying that there are other Marauders here, then, yeah, this is definitely part of someone’s plan. Probably my sister’s.” She spits out that last word like it was a rotten seed.

Lex asks, “And what plan would that be, exactly? Cause, you know, if we’re all friends here, then being savvy to the other team’s game plan would be pretty cool.”

“It’s a tactic we’ve only used once or twice before, and only to attack really big settlements like this one. Usually, the Marauders only go after smaller communities, communities that we can infiltrate and incapacitate without too much resistance. I mean, we’re all good fighters, but there aren’t that many of us. Taking a place like Camp Trin in a straight up attack would result in enough casualties so as to make the attack more trouble than it was worth, if it even were to succeed at all. So, in order to make things a bit easier, we’d rally up a horde of bugs and let them loose on the town. The bugs cause a bit of chaos, they take their own casualties, so by the time we show up, the town’s defenses are already in shambles, so we can waltz in and take what we want without too much of a fight.”

“Are you saying that you had them rally up the bugs and send them here? To make capturing me easier?”

“What? No! No. On our last job, I fucked up and almost blew it for my entire family. They said that the only way for me to redeem myself was to come here by myself and steal something big. Anything big. I wanted to get inside that chapel and find something in there. Lex, I didn’t even know you were here, how could I have? But when I heard you talking to Cannon, I knew that you were my only chance. But, the rest of the Marauders, they should have no idea that you’re here, I have no idea why they’re launching a full scale assault on the town, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Hoodie crosses her arms. “So there’s no way at all that they would know that Lex is here?”

“No.”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re lying.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“We don’t even know who you are!”

“I’ve been watching you since you came into town. You had no issue lying to Lex about who you are. All you do is lie. Why stop now?”

“I’m not lying!”

“Then why are they here?”

“I don’t know!”

Hoodie grabs Tay by the neck and hoists her into the air up against the wall. Tay fights to loosen Hoodie’s grip, but finds that she’s unable to use her full strength. She thinks back to that horrible, unnerving sensation of Hoodie’s left arm crawling around her own like a snake and feels her will to fight shrivel up like a testicle in a cold pool. To boot, Hoodie’s grip is like a vice on her neck, she couldn’t do anything about it even if she was operating on all cylinders. She kicks her legs, struggles, but, she can’t break free.

Lex raises his hands at Hoodie. “Stop it! Let go of her!”

“Why are you looking out for her? All she sees you as is a bargaining chip, you’re just meat to her.”

“She’s my friend!”

“You’re not great at picking friends, kid.”

“Well, the luxury of being able to pick is kind of a new one. I know it’s weird and stupid, but, I-- I’ve lived my whole life locked up in a palace. I have servants and subjects, I don’t have friends. I have siblings, but-- being with you guys in prison is the closest thing I’ve had to a slumber party, and going through this building right now, I’m so, so scared out of my mind and I feel like I’ve had vomit in my throat constantly since we first stepped foot in here, but I’ve never had so much fun in my life. I’ve never felt a purpose like this, I’ve never been with people who I think are genuinely so cool, and I know that she’s not got the most perfect past, but, in a way, you two are kinda all I have. All that’s waiting for me back home is a full belly and an empty life.” He looks down at his hands and twiddles his thumbs. “I don’t want that. I want this.”

Hoodie looks at Lex. Really stares him down. It’s hard to read her expression, considering the only visible point of expression is her eyes, but Lex thinks he sees something. Understanding? Pity? Really, really hard to tell. But, whatever it is, Hoodie loosens her grip on Tay. The Marauder falls to the floor on her hands and knees, wheezing, trying to catch her breath.

She doesn’t have a whole lot of time to catch her breath because Cannon, who has been silent for this whole back and forth, grips his lacrosse stick tight, takes a couple steps towards Tay, and rips an uppercut at her, which she just barely dodges by stumbling backwards.

“What the fuck are you doing? What’s the matter with you?”

Cannon’s face is covered by a dark a cloud as Tay has ever seen it. Thus far, he’s seemed to only have two settings: Loud, and fight. Now, though, she sees something new on his cheeks. Red, hot rage. “What’s the mattah with me? With me? Are you jokin’ right now? I’m the crazy one? Did you seriously just tell us that you use bugs as a weapon, and you got the fuckin’ audacity to ask what’s the mattah with me?”

“I’m not saying I like it, I’m saying I’ve done it because I had to.”

“Because you had to? You don’t have to do jack shit. You got your own ahms and legs and eyes and eahs, you can do what you wanna do. And you’re tellin’ me that your family would sic bugs on unsuspecting, innocent people, and you never gave a shit?”

“Of course I did. How could you think that? Have you even been listening to me?”

“Not enough of a shit to do anything about it though, huh? Bettah to stroke your family’s ego than to tell them to not do the most evil fuckin’ thing in existence?”

“What the fuck are you talking about? We’re talking about the Marauders here, killing people isn’t exactly a novel idea to them. Whether the bugs kill them or we do, we’re still murderers, why do you care so much about us using bugs? What’s the difference between using a bug versus using a knife?”

“Cause its not fuckin’ murdah, it’s worse. It’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to someone in the entiyah fuckin’ world. I know you’ah too self absorbed to look at how your actions affect people, and crybaby ovah heah lives his sad, sad life eatin’ the best food and dressin’ in the best robes so he’s got no idea, but bugs ahn’t dead. My job, my whole life is killin’ bugs. Every day I’m surrounded by ‘em. When you’ah around ‘em as much as I am, you staht to notice a lot. That buzzin’ noise, that horrible fuckin’ buzzin’, it’s not a battle cry, it’s not any kind of language, it’s a fuckin’ scream. An agonized fuckin’ scream. Because these people ah so hurt. It’s the pain of dyin’, of bein’ killed, but it doesn’t end. It just goes on and on for the rest of theiah lives. Because they’ah not dead, they’ah not gone, they’ah in theah. And they’ah watchin’ hands and mouths that they can’t control killin’ and eatin’ theiah own friends, theiah own family. Killin’ em isn’t just an act of self presahvation, it’s not just so I can get meat to cook up, it’s an act of mercy. Every single second for these people is complete and uttah tortchah, physical and emotional. It’s the worst thing that can happen to a person.

“And you, you’ah telling me that you’ve played an active role in allowing more people to turn into bugs? That you and your family have willingly done this to people? And you nevah for a single fuckin’ second thought that what you’ah doin’ might be wrong? And you’ah askin’ what’s the mattah with me? Fuck you Tay, fuck you. You’re a fuckin’ waste of human life. You’re shit, you’re gahbage, holy shit I’ve never been this mad in my entiyah life. Not only are you the scummiest excuse for a person who’s evah lived, but you had me and crybaby here goin’, thinkin’ that maybe you really were more than just a Maraudah. But you’re not. You’ah not. You’ah exactly who everybody thinks you ah. A fuckin’ plague on anyone you’re around. And I’m a dumbass for fallin’ for the idea that you might be cool.”

Nobody says anything for a long time after that. The only sound in the air is the sound of the conflict going on upstairs. People screaming, crying, running from bugs, bugs pounding on doors, that ever present buzzing noise. It was background noise to them before, but now it is deafeningly loud. Bone chilling. Skin crawling. Loud.

Tay is still on the ground. She’s on her hands and knees, her head facing the floor beneath her. She is doing everything in her power to stop her hands from trembling, to force the tears forming beneath her eyelids to dry up, to stymie the heaving in her chest as she tries to get in a clean gulp of air. She’s been on the wrong side of plenty of fights in her life, she’s been ostracized and abused by her family over and over and over, but she has never, in her entire existence, felt this low. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, being with Cannon and Lex felt good. She liked them. She still does like them. That’s why Cannon’s words hurt her like a punch to the gut. She’s always craved the approval of her family, but she’s never really liked them, so when they hurt her, there’s enough emotional distance to keep it tolerable. But, Cannon and Lex, she craves their approval and she likes them, so to hear all of that from Cannon, especially off the heels of Lex calling her his friend -- Tay is utterly broken.

Like we all do when we’re broken, Tay quickly falls back into whatever habits she knows will help her to survive. Put up the walls. Act now, think later, feel never. She looks around the hallway. She sees Cannon, still staring daggers at her. She sees Hoodie, an unreadable expression on her face. She sees Lex, trying to force back tears as well. She sees rows and rows of rooms, between each of which is a torch to light the hallway. Her brain shuts off. Blind instincts kick in.

Before anyone knows what’s happening, Tay grabs a handful of cards and flings them down the hallway. They chop through the bindings keeping the torches attached to the walls, sending them falling to the floor. Flames immediately start licking across the carpet and up the walls. Plumes of smoke quickly inflate into the air. Tay grabs Lex by the neck with one hand, her free hand poised with cards ready to be thrown.

“You’ve only got a few minutes to save everyone upstairs. Clock’s ticking.”

“You’ah a fuckin’ psychopath, Tay. Ah you kiddin’ me right now?”

“Lex and I are going downstairs to meet up with my family. If you follow us, everyone in this building dies.”

“Fuck you, Tay. Fuck you.”

Tay doesn’t hear him. She’s already taken off down the stairwell, Lex in tow as her hostage, as flames begin to overtake the building.