“Two against one, Citri,” Tom spoke to the girl quietly sitting on the bed and I belatedly realised he had fished out an answer out of me.


    “Whoah, that was purely hypothetical. And this is hardly a democracy,” my attempt to escape the decision process was haphazard and paltry at best.


    Tom turned towards me with a crooked eyebrow. “You’re right. This isn’t a democracy. Neither it’s a decision hot-headed kids like Denti can make. You know the stakes better than either of us, Reese.”


    The weight of his gaze almost made me want to confess all my sins, but there just wasn’t any point to it.


    “This is also none of my business,” I leaned onto the wardrobe and smirked to fend off the pressure.


    “That’s not the impression I got,” and before I could dismiss the notion Tom went on, “After all, all of us are here thanks to you.”


    And also because of me. This is why people shouldn’t be making assumptions without knowing all the facts.


    “What is the name we used to call you before?” Tom asked and I averted gaze from the earnest expression. He was convinced and there was no changing it. I wasn’t being very subtle about this in first place, so why all this stubbornness now? They were smart enough to figure this much out, it wouldn’t be long before my complicity in their sorry state becomes apparent and from long lost ally I’d turn into enemy most foul. That will suck.


    “It’s Reese,” I doubled down after picking up my backbone off the floor.


    “Is that thing coercing ya sumhow?” Citrine whispered cautiously from her corner. Great, now it veered into an even weirder topic, one impossible to answer without sounding defensive. Nor did I want to bring that thing’s omnipotence into further examination. I mean, what would they do if that was the case? Besides bolting for the mountains.


    “Sure, whatever. So what are you doing about them?” I nodded towards the absentminded people.


    Mercifully, they got the clue and dropped it. We sat down and hammered out the details of more important things. Come morning, the cabin had eleven young children. All empty-headed and yet exceptionally eloquent. Monster spared no expense to their vocabulary, cognition or nimbleness. The little people put on the mismatched articles of clothing with such grace and coordination, all three of us adults stood slack-jawed and jealous. I wasn’t sure if it was okay to keep it like this. On one hand creepy, on the other – they’ll need all the help they can get, especially if the group decides relocate to some other place.


    “Alright, let’s go introduce them to the rest!” I clasped my hands with enthusiasm I didn’t feel.


    “What are we telling everybody? Massive coincidence, we’ve found all the little cousins instead of our friends?”


    “Egh… Half-ass the truth? Worked so far,” I suggested tentatively.


    “Oh, there wus sumhing ‘bout monsters yesterdaye. Wut wus tha’ about?” Citrine inquired scrunching up the forehead.


    The roomful of strange children might be fun to explain to an already spooked crowd. I shrugged and got up, “Food allergies. I guess I’ll go gloss that over. You two keep an eye on eerily well-behaved juveniles? They might actually be pretty confused.”


    “Right…”


    Surprisingly, when I got back down everyone seemed to be wakeful and not at all flustered. Did he make them forget? Monster himself was nowhere in sight, but it was past dawn and I figured he left to deal with the locals. Well, fine by me. I would not be questioning this unsupervised sandwich.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The managing power duo peeked out and finding no great havoc, went on and introduced our new little friends. The room was left stunned, even though more than half were very young and still stupid. Nobody trusted their eyes, and even ears upon hearing Tom’s explanation.


    “Bullshit! How do we even know that’s them then?” rebellious youth under Dentist’s influence called out. “Are we to go on this asshole’s say so?”


    Valid point all in all, and I had no counter-argument there. However, I saw an opening and stabbed back, “You’re free to go on another asshole’s say so and get shot into the other buttock.”


    “Ya and we know you lied about that now, don’t we?! It was an accident and those people are nice,” midget limped forward bravely.


    I scoffed at the na?ve hypocritical brat, “It’s as though you never lead anybody on by pretending.”


    He argued back but I mentally checked out whilst wondering why the ringleader wasn’t making those arguments himself. Found bushy eyebrows merging into one in the far corner whilst he whispered with Dancer. Conversation at large turned to borrowing more children’s wear from the townsfolk. We’ve always wildly improvised, but this little town insisted on helping, so nobody had qualms on imposing.


    Perhaps nothing bad was afoot? That would be nice. This was an eventful night, I was tired and I began eyeing the sofa.


    As if reading my mind and vehemently disagreeing with the plans to nap, Dentist popped up in my path. I really should have just went upstairs, but all that climbing up and down was hard on my chewed-up joints. Angry oversized child shoved me to refocus the wandering gaze back on him. “What the fuck’s going on? What do monsters want with us?”


    First instinct was to antagonise the brat and call him extra yummy. I squashed it.


    I could insist monster wanted nothing, but he wouldn’t believe it.


    “Denti, stop dat,” Citrine tried to intercede but it sounded a bit weak as though she too wanted answers. Perhaps just tired? She did stay up all night too.


    Whichever the case, it only spilled more oil into the fire, “Nu-uh. This asshole shows up and starts saying we’re all gravely injured, city’s gone. Oh but relax, it’s all fine! Some other monster is conveniently restoring us out of goodness of his heart. How?! And you’re all buying that!”


    Any other time I would have been proud. Right now? I wanted a cigarette and to claw my face off. I was tired of this all.


    “You’ve got a terrible poker face,” I quipped. For somebody who suspected something this nasty he sure was running his mouth off a lot.


    Angry child reared back and swung. Which was scary, because he was no longer a malnourished kid and I was still quite the scrawny adult. The fist stopped some ways away from my face and I smirked.


    “Your plan of action needs some work, too,” I fist-bumped his paralysed body and went to sit down. All those eyes watched me with horror and I felt like suffocating. The illusion of normalcy was over. I knew this was coming. It’s good I chose to keep the distance. “Oh, release him already,” I muttered to absent monster, who was evidently spying anyway. Dentist’s arm fell to his side but he turned to glare daggers at me some more.


    “For fuck’s sake, what do you want me to say? You’re correct. You’ve all been killed by him, but he restored you too - for no fucking reason. One good deed a day? Soft spot for the orphans? Take your fucking pick.”


    “Where’s Ruby? Octavius?”


    Now I really needed that cigarette. My monster whom I was beginning to trust, growing attached to, even liked - has irretrievably killed a person I held dearer than myself. Saying it out loud left me no room to be delusional.


    My fingers dug into the face and I uttered forbidden secrets, “They’re gone.”


    Room was stunned into stillness, but I saw Dentist’s knuckles strain against white confines of the skin. His face was pure malice.


    “Go ahead, he won’t stop you this time,” I said and really hoped that was the case. Felt like getting punched in the face, my teeth be damned.


    “Yes. He will,” Dentist gritted out through forcefully clenched jaw.


    I stood up, scanned the room’s many decorations and picked out a heavy brass candleholder. Got used to the weight and swung it towards my head so hard I found myself on all fours. Poked the bump and agony almost made me piss myself. Fingertip was coloured with a rainbow.


    I huffed and scrambled to stand up again. Brat in front of me looked on the verge of retreat. Unhinged wasn’t what I was going for, but putting arrogant punks to their place was just the next best thing. I took a long look at my weapon of choice, wondering if I could put me out my misery instead of dealing with this.


    Somebody else’s fingers twined around the metallic finery and they pulled it away. “Denti, you idiot. How do you still not see this dolt is one of us?” Tom chastised way too loudly and then pressed a motley scarf to my self-inflicted booboo. I hissed instead of howling, but only because noise would have made it worse.


    “Bullshit. This lunatic is with that thing,” petulant brat was mouthing off back.


    “Yeah I don’t know what that is about exactly, but everyone’s memory is patchy. It’s not a stretch to think we’ve forgotten someone. Think. Who was Ruby running the operation with? Because sure as hell it wasn’t on his own,” Tom’s booming voice ricocheted in the empty chambers of my brain, causing me to wince. When the meaning of the words finally registered I felt like crying. He did remember. Sort of. And still even kind of trusted me.


    I turned to him, ready to sing praises and kiss the observant man, but saw him battling a nosebleed and refrained. Instead, I held onto his shoulder tighter so I wouldn’t fall flat from all this relief.


    “Yea, well, that’s what they want you to think! If they can mess with our heads, they can make us remember whatever too! It probably was Amber. Who’s also conveniently missing,” Dentist grated out with similarly reddening upper lip. Tom swayed by my side. It finally clicked.


    “Get out!” I shouted. “Get outside now! Take him,” I threw Tom onto unsteady Dentist and backed away, squeezing the gauze to the weeping injury. The roomful of observers were rousing, but not quickly enough. The smallest of them were also beginning to trickle from various orifices. Shit. “At least open the windows! For fuck’s sake there’s poison in here get your asses out!”


    Distinct sound of elbows hitting the floor. Then snarling troublemaker tripped over nothing and two more joined the naptime.


    “Shit. Park! Help! Please,” I shouted, looking around for a miracle solution. Didn’t want to get close to anyone because it would only exacerbate the sickness. Couldn’t even leave because some gawkers still stood at the stairs, the rest were slowly shuffling outside. The two prone bodies closest to me looked to have started sweating profusely. The thick sweaters were visibly soaked.


    Monster was nowhere in sight, but I felt very distinct wriggling under the scarf. He was aware then, at least. “Help them,” I shouted like a madman and pointed.


    “I am fine,” deep voice announced even though I was yet to see the speaker. Was one of the mouths appropriately appropriated? I didn’t even care anymore.