When Melanie’s dad got home, Melanie informed him of the confrontation she and Alfred had with Harold. He was a bit confused at first, but Melanie explained everything to him, about Alfred’s family, his reason for choosing to live on the streets, and his brother’s threat to tell Alfred’s family about him.

Alfred had mentally sunk to a dark place as he sat in Melanie’s room, not moving, not noticing his hunger, not even responding to hearing Melanie or Jacob say his name as they discussed the issue.

“Tell the family? What’s going to happen if Harold does tell everyone? He didn’t physically show it earlier, but I could almost taste his disgust at seeing Melanie. If he tells the family, something bad might happen.

“What if my family decides to go after Melanie and Jacob? It’d be my fault if they hurt the two of them. If they do something to harm Melanie and Jacob, I’d be responsible for bringing it on them.” Alfred thought as he began to rock back and forth slightly on Melanie’s bed.

Melanie came into the room and sat beside Alfred with a plate of food, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. “Al, look at me.” She said sternly. Having never heard Melanie sound so serious and strict brought Alfred back to reality as he slowly looked up at her in silence.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you need to listen to me. Don’t worry about your brother, or your family, or anything. They can’t do anything to us, so we don’t have to worry about anything, ok?” Melanie said, a solid look of sincerity in her eyes.

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“Family… lots of connections… they can do whatever they want… because of money.” Alfred muttered, his mind slowly going blank as Melanie wrapped her arms around him.

“It’ll be ok. I promise you that if they do anything to us, we’ll fight it like we’re fighting to stay out of hell.” Melanie whispered in his ear. The tingling sensation her breath on his ear began to take him out of his nearly unresponsive state as he began to think about his hunger and how nice Melanie’s hair smelled.

Melanie saw him starting to look more alive and smiled. “There we go. Here, I brought you some meatloaf, you should eat before it gets cold.” She said as she placed the plate next to him and stood up.

“If you want to be alone for a while, I can go.” She said as she began to walk to the door. She had just reached for the door handle before Alfred finally spoke.

“W-wait… can you please stay?” He asked, sounding similar to a small puppy when its owner leaves for work for the day. Melanie smiled and sat back down next to him.

“You’re worrying too much. I’m sure your family won’t do anything too bad. Try and calm down, alright? I’ll stay here as long as it takes for you to calm yourself.” She whispered to him as she wrapped her arms around him again.

After a long moment, Alfred took several deep breaths and stood up. “Alright, I think I’m good. Thank you, Mel.”

Melanie smiled again and walked to the door. “Now come on, it’s about time you stop sulking alone in the room.”

The two of them went to the living room, where Jacob was holding an envelope. “This was on the front doorstep. Either of you see who put it there?”

Both Alfred and Melanie shook their heads as Jacob opened it. Inside, there was folded paper. Jacob opened the paper and read something on it, then silently handed the paper to Alfred.

Melanie peeked at the paper over Alfred’s shoulder as he read it. In very fancy cursive penmanship, a message in blue ink read “Leave or they will suffer. Return now or you’ll lose them and it will only be your fault.”