The next morning Jay joined Nolan on one of the couches in the living room. Nolan had been quiet since they checked Leah's room the night before, and Jay was getting concerned.

"Are you okay?"

Nolan looked at Jay. His eyes were red and watery. "As okay as I can be, I guess."

"So? You think Mickie's right about our parents sending us here? You didn't have anything to say about it last night."

Nolan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "I don't know. I can't speak for anyone else, but I can say that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out I was sent here by my family."

Jay's eyes widened. "Really? Why?"

Nolan glanced at him through sand-colored bangs. "My parents died three years ago. My aunt and uncle took us in, me and my siblings, two sisters and two brothers. At first, I thought they were kind, decent people. I mean, not everyone would agree to take care of five kids like that. But within a month, they were treating us like garbage. I'll spare you the details, but I put up with it for as long as I could. Two months ago, I fought back. I punched my uncle when he tried to hit my sister again. Then I tried reporting them to child services. They threatened to kick me out, but they never did. I guess they found a better way to get rid of me."

Jay sat in stunned silence for several moments before blurting out, "That's messed up. You end up in this hell hole because you tried to protect your little sister? How is that fair?"

Nolan gave a bitter little chuckle. "I realized three years ago that life has never been fair. So what about you?" he asked, sitting up straight again. "You think someone sent you here?"

"Oh yeah, definitely my mom," Jay said flatly.

Nolan raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Your mom?"

"It's nothing dramatic like your story," Jay said, "but my mom hates me. As far as I can tell, she's hated me since I was born. Makes me wonder why she didn't just get an abortion and save us both the trouble."

"Why would your mom hate you?" someone asked.

Jay turned around in his seat to find Mickie standing behind the couch. "How long have you been here?"

"Just got here, but I couldn't help overhearing. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Jay said, motioning for her to sit down. "To answer your question, I have no idea why she hates me. All I know is, I'm apparently the reason for every bad thing that's ever happened in her life. I'm the reason dad left, even though I was seven at the time. I'm the reason all her boyfriends dumped her. I'm the reason we're always broke."

Mickie was sitting beside him now and she looked at him with her dark, unreadable eyes. He realized, not for the first time, that he really liked her eyes. "That's... sad," she said, and he felt a little embarrassed.

"You said your dad sent you here, right?" Jay asked. "Feel like sharing why?"

She hesitated for a while, as if thinking it over, then shrugged and said, "Why not? It's pretty simple. The man who's supposed to be my father is just a lazy, greedy playboy who knocked my mom up and then got stuck with custody when she died during childbirth. He never really wanted me and now he's got a new girlfriend, who has kids of her own. Suddenly I'm in the way of the lifestyle he wants, so he made me disappear."

"Could he just let you live with some of your mom's family?" Jay asked.

Mickie shook her head. "Believe me, he tried. He was gonna dump me off on the grandparents, but they were already dead when he looked them up. My mom was an only child, so I don't have any aunts or uncles. We did find out my mom has a cousin, but we couldn't find out where she lives now and dad couldn't be bothered with tracking her down."

"Again, that's messed up," Jay said. "What the hell is wrong with parents, just getting rid of their kids like they're throwing out old clothes or something."

Mickie looked him straight in the eyes. "You probably know this already, given your situation, but some parents really don't give a shit about their kids. All those family movies and feel-good tv shows we grew up watching lied to us. Parents aren't these saintly, self-sacrificing angels who only want their children to be happy. Parents are just people. Selfish, greedy, human people."

Jay thought of his mother, always yelling or screeching or throwing things, and he couldn't remember ever being hugged by her. He couldn't remember ever holding her hand or sitting in her lap. The one time she had broken down and cried, after a particularly nasty breakup when he was thirteen, he'd stood several feet away from her in the kitchen, his hands held stiffly by his sides. And it never even crossed his mind that he should go to her and hug her or comfort her, because she'd never comforted him, and the idea of it was foreign to him.

He met Mickie's gaze and said, "I think you're right about that." When Trinity walked by, Jay stopped her. "It's confessional hour. Wanna talk about why your parents hate you?"

Trinity thought for a moment, then put one hand on her hip and flipped her dark brown curls over her shoulder. "Probably because my mom's last three boyfriends tried to get with me and she wanted to get rid of the competition."

"Wow," Jay said, not knowing what else to say.

"Am I the only one who had good parents?" Nolan asked, "I guess I was pretty lucky until they died."

Though Jay asked the rest of the others, only Quentin and Ginger were willing to share any information about their families. Quentin guessed his parents were tired of taking care of him and Ginger confessed that she'd been living with her grandparents in a homeless shelter. Jay privately wondered if her grandparents had thought "disappearing" was better than the life they could give her.

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As the day wore on, some of the tension from last night began to dissipate. Nolan and Mickie made dinner for everyone, and they all gathered in the dining room to eat. When the sunlight began to fade outside the windows, Nolan stood up from the table. "Okay, it's starting to get dark out, so we need to talk. It would be too cramped in the bedrooms, so I was thinking all the girls could sleep in the living room together and all the boys could sleep in the dining room."

"They get couches and we get a table?" Diego asked. "How is that fair?"

"Dude, just pull your cot in here," Jay said.

Nolan ignored Diego and went on. "Also, someone from each group needs to keep watch at all times, so you need to plan out a schedule for taking turns. If you start to get sleepy while you're on watch, for God's sake wake someone up."

Trinity stood up then. "We should also grab up anything that could be used as a weapon. There's a fire poker in the living room and knives in the kitchen. If you see someone besides one of us, scream for help and run. But if you get cornered, fight!"

Across the table, Jay saw Ginger trembling. Kyrie was beside her, patting her arm and saying, "I'll protect you, don't worry."

Trinity gave them a reassuring smile. "So far the attacker has only taken people who were alone. They're avoiding groups, so we should be okay as long as we stick together. Everyone remember what happened to Leah. Don't go off alone, no matter what."

After dinner, Jay volunteered to wash the dishes. Standing at the sink, he thought of home, of his mother, and remembered the time he'd dropped a teacup a little too hard into the drainer and a tiny piece of glass had chipped off the bottom edge. He'd dreaded telling his mother about it, but he'd decided to just get it over with when she walked into the kitchen to get some water. He was still drying the dishes when he held up the cup and said, "I think I chipped it when I put it in the drainer."

His mother had looked at the cup, then rushed over and grabbed it, examining it closely and running her finger along the edge. She looked up at him with cold, angry eyes. "This was my favorite cup," she said.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident. But it's just chipped a little on the outside, so it should still be okay to use..."

She suddenly threw the cup on the floor, where it shattered into a thousand pieces. "You ruined my favorite cup! You did it on purpose, didn't you, you little shit!"

Jay had backed away from the sink, though he still had a dish towel in his hand. "I didn't do it on purpose! I just-"

"You just what?! And I didn't ask you to wash the dishes anyway!"

Jay lowered his eyes and clutched the towel. "I just... wanted to help."

His mother reached into the drainer where several clean dishes were waiting to be dried and pulled them out, one by one. "Look at these! You did a shitty job of washing them! I have to do them all over, so you just wasted your time."

Jay silently laid the towel on the counter and started to walk out.

"Hey! Clean this mess up before you go hide out in your little shit hole room," she said, pointing to the smashed cup on the floor at her feet.

Now, Jay found himself washing different cups, at a different sink, in a different place. He carefully laid them in the drainer to avoid chipping them, as if his mother would suddenly burst into the kitchen and begin screeching if he made a mistake. Instead, it was Mickie who walked in, holding a towel.

"I'll dry," she said with a smile.

Jay reddened slightly and smiled back. "Thanks."

After that, everyone went about setting up their sleeping arrangements. Diego grumbled as he dragged his cot into the dining room. After taking Quentin's cot, Nolan and Jay brought their own. Caden was the last, wearing a dark hoodie zipped all the way up. Jay wondered if the room was colder than he thought and checked the coal heater in the corner.

Nolan held out a large meat cleaver. "Think this would work as a weapon?"

"Sure," Jay said, "but you'd have to get awfully close to the guy to use that."

"How do you know it's a guy?" Diego asked.

Jay shrugged. "I don't. It could be a girl, I guess. Or a monster. Who knows?"

The boys said little else as they settled in for the night. When the lights shut off, Jay shuddered and tried to get comfortable. Nolan had the first watch, so he sat in a chair at the table, the meat cleaver clenched in his hand, watching the windows. Though he tried hard to fall asleep because he knew his turn to watch was coming up next, Jay was wide awake. He heard Caden snoring and wondered how anyone could sleep in this situation. His thoughts ran randomly from what Mickie was doing to how Ginger was faring to whether or not a meat cleaver did indeed make a good weapon.

After around an hour, Quentin suddenly sat up. "I can't fall asleep," he said.

Jay sat up too. "Same here."

"Is there anything you can think of that would make you sleepy?" Nolan asked, going into what Jay mentally dubbed "big brother mode".

"A glass of milk, I guess," Quentin said, sounding a little embarrassed.

"Alright," Nolan said, standing up. "The kitchen is right next door, but we'll all go together. That's the rule."

Diego rolled over. "Some of us were actually sleeping, you know."

"But you're awake now, aren't you?" Nolan said.

Diego swore under his breath and got up, then walked over and nudged Caden. "Get up. Quentin wants milk so we all have to risk our lives to get it for him."

Caden sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Ah, okay," he said sleepily.

The five of them walked down the short corridor that led to the kitchen and Nolan opened the door carefully, looking inside as best he could in the dim light before motioning the others in. Jay went to the fridge and got the milk for Quentin, who was already holding a glass.

Diego stood leaning against the counter, looking annoyed and Caden raided the fridge for a pudding cup. Jay was closest to the door to the living room, so he looked at Nolan and said, "Should we check on the girls?"

Diego made his trademark derisive snort. "You wanna try peeping on those chicks? They've got a fire poker and they're all in a shitty mood. Good luck with that."

"No, that's not what I... I mean I'm just concerned and..."

Nolan interrupted Jay's stammering. "I'm sure they're fine. We would've heard something if there was trouble, and we might wake some of them up if we go in there."

"Ah, yeah, you're right," Jay said, feeling kind of like an idiot.

"What was that?" Quentin asked all of a sudden.

"What was what?" Diego said.

"I thought I heard something. Like... footsteps outside."

Nolan ran to the window and looked out. "I don't see anything, but everyone be careful."

All five boys remained completely silent, waiting to hear something. Jay strained his ears and tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. And then glass shattered somewhere, and Quentin cried out in fear.

"Shh!" Nolan said, creeping over to the door they had came through. It had sounded like the glass broke in the dining room.

Diego backed up against the counter and Caden sat his pudding cup down.

Nolan put one hand on the door and pushed it open very quietly. From his position, Jay could see down the small corridor leading to the dining room. Illuminated vaguely by tiny lights overhead, Jay could make out a figure standing in the hall. It was impossibly tall and gaunt, with long limbs, covered from head to toe in darkness. Jay froze, utterly terrified. Nolan backed away from the door, obviously having seen the same thing. As it slid closed, Jay saw the figure heading toward them.

Then, before Jay could even process what he'd just seen, he saw swift movement in the corner of his eye. He looked over just in time to see Caden step behind Quentin and shove the wheelchair through the swinging door. As the door swung closed again, they heard Quentin screaming in terror.