I slunk back downstairs when I felt functional again. The house seemed fairly stuffed. Small people were running around and causing havoc.


    “Nobody went anywhere?” I asked when Tom lifted his head up from a book. He was sitting by the darkening window and caressed the paper reverently. Did learned burglar find a book written in legible script or was the written word still cruelly beyond his reach?


    “Dentist, Bank and Milo snuck out,” he spoke with a defeated sigh.


    “And didn’t take C? Rude.” She was part of the scrapper gang, after all.


    “She didn’t want to go. You know she’s… a bit different now.”


    “Yeah.” You’d think missing memory would make people more immature. Not in that particular case! “Does that bother you? Or her. You know it can be… adjusted.”


    Tom shook his head, “No. Citri said she knows exactly what she’d forgotten and doesn’t want to live with it again. It’s more peaceful around the house, too, don’t you think?”


    “Dunno, man, I slept straight through the day. Do you… uh, remember this morning?”


    “You smashing your empty conk open? Yeah. Hard to put that out of my mind, actually.”


    “Whuchu reading?” I gestured towards the thick tome on his lap instead of going deeper into that mishap.


    “Dictionary. Some of the new kids know how to read.”


    “That’s… nice? You can ask to have that too.”


    “Can I?”


    “Sure. He’s not actually… monstrous. That guy’s perfectly reasonable. He’s just… not human.”


    Tom shut the book and tapped its cover. That was a poor choice of words. Perfectly reasonable? About a creature which killed them all and wiped our hometown off the map.


    Averting my eyes I spied an untouched basket of food. Dried meat, bread, several fruits, more of the buns. They were too obedient. Afraid. Some after all were wide awake when monster’s nature surfaced. The creature in question was nowhere to be seen, but it was enough to have felt it once. Dentist was actually too brave to still be alive.


    “You can probably eat. It’s just that you all are still connected to him and by ingesting you’d feel it.”


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    “Is that’s how it will be from now on?” he asked in an uneasy whisper.


    “No. I think you’re all done, he’s just using the collective recollections to look for others…” that he ate. I shut up in time. Tom was too relieved to have caught my slip. Sure, they already knew everything, and perhaps I was just being conned for info but I preferred this tentative peace.


    “I actually hoped the group would wander around the town today and figure out what you all want to do,” I steered conversation into clearer waters.


    “The locals seem nice. I think they want us to stay. There is not a single other child! Why do you think is that?”


    “Not sure. Some localised disaster?” Monsterised, more like. Didn’t want to go back into that line of thought. “I got same impression. The crones here are far superior to the ones we grew up with, eh?”


    “Incomparably. An entire basket of perfectly good treats? That’s more than what I’ve gotten from my parents. Can I… ask you to tell about yourself? Nothing I didn’t know before, just… it’s hard to know I know you and have just vague feeling of deja vu to back it.”


    I averted gaze to stare at the falling snow. “There’s not much to say. We weren’t close. You minded your business even before the injury and I was scarcely home, working. Ruby took care of everything and I just went along with whatever he wanted. I’ve known him the longest.”


    Man’s lips moved as he was connecting the dots and formulated follow-up question. Failed. Quiet man merely stammered out, “… Cherry?” Figures, she was up there in the chronological line.


    “Dead. Monster’s got nothing to do with that. Not this one, anyway.”


    “Bad client?” he whispered clenching fists.


    “Yeh. With Lime.”


    “Fuck,” he cursed silently. “I don’t remember any of that.”


    “I do. Peach went missing around then, too. Right? Somebody said she left, but that haughty bitch would have never left her precious stuff behind.” A woman interceded and I had to stop and wonder who this was. She sat with legs curled up close and hugging thighs as though to pull up a skirt and that hinted towards identity more than the face. Ugh, Marina.


    “You won’t get anything out of eavesdropping here,” I lashed out trying to mask my complicity in that disappearance, just to find myself pinned under Tom’s examining stare anyway.


    “How can you talk to me like that? I am just trying to helpful!” It would have been a completely valid point, but waterworks ruined the effect and merely prompted me to scowl. “What a miserable day. Tommy, tell him off!”


    “Learn new tricks, princess. He’s not blind anymore,” I mocked and was not surprised to hear even more fake wailing. I received glares from other eavesdroppers sprinkled around the room. Didn’t take it personally - the noise was irritating.


    “Reese, apologise,” Tom chastised me anyway.


    “We need your eyes checked out. But fine. I’m sorry you’re as average as the rest of us now.”


    “You uncouth imbecile! I’ve been through a lot!” Marina shouted as though rest of us were on a vacation. Getting nothing from me, irritating woman stormed off.


    Finally, some peace. However, the ambience was ruined and occasional frown tossed my way was a reminder that to them I was but a stranger. Or worse - the cause of their predicament. Just some asshole picking on one of them, regardless of how annoying she was being. There was not one usual smirk. This was not something I wanted to suffer through this fine evening.


    After an irrelevant exchange of words, I picked up a fur coat off the new pile, jumped into boots I haven’t seen before and ventured outside. Wasn’t long before crunching of a second set of steps joined me. Broken greeting reached me.


    Bilingual flirt must have been keeping an eye out on the suspicious house. Another sneaky individual ready to squeeze some sort of information out of me. I had nothing against that. Loved that game and encouraged the man with an inviting smile. After all, never know when an infatuation of random bystander could save my ass.


    I struggled to remember the few words I’ve learned and his patchy collection of phrases was not much more impressive. The rapid glances towards my lips clued me in more than attempts at verbal exchange. This guy was forward and I didn’t hate predictable people. Less talking meant a drama-free time too. Perhaps a bed for the night, away from all the problems.


    Without much overthinking I leaned in and kissed him. He froze up upon the contact, but tentatively closed in to press our chests together and reached for my hand. Muttered what probably was an apology for the glove and stuffed it into the pocket. His fingers were cool and calloused. Erudite initiated another touch of lips, but this contact was rigid too. He was clearly interested, but the facial expression was that of tasting vinegar. Man spoke and gestured towards the mouth.


    “Bitter,” was the only legible word he remembered. Before any of that could be laughed off, local man was gripping the throat in pain and coughed. Snow was no longer white. I felt like falling. I waited for this awful dream to end but the snowflakes kept on swirling all around.


    Why me? Why does it keep happening to me?


    This was purely my fault. I caused this. I’ve completely forgotten that the spit was noxious too and not only to the demon. I was tired of suffering the result of all these poor choices. So, so tired. I just wanted fifteen minutes of peace. Instead, reality kicks me straight in the groin. My existence was a bane – upon me, my friends, strangers, the monsterkind.