Gary hadn’t been considering the consequences of Marking Gil. He wasn’t sure what would happen when the full moon came out, and quite frankly, he didn’t care at the moment. Now that he had made sure that he would always be able to find Gil, it was time for him to head home.

As he left the area, he could see that the Marking worked as intended. A visible red mist trail could be seen in the air leading to him. Now he had two markings, one for Barry and one for Gil, but the way Gary was able to tell the difference between the two of them was due to the different scent each mist would give.

Quickly, using a Charging Heart for the second time, Gary rushed back, skipping his daily gym workout and headed to his apartment block. While doing so, the images of Tom appeared through his head.

‘Those guys, why…why…why would they hurt him that badly!’ Gary ran faster and faster, leaping over trash cans in the middle of the street without slowing down.

‘Tom, why didn’t you say anything? With how late they were, they must have been torturing you all that while. How could you protect that scum? The smile on Gil’s face… that was not the face of a human; he’s a monster worse than me! He will just come back to hurt you again and again, so I need to make sure he doesn’t get the chance!’

The good news was that the running had quenched Gary’s anger a little, and he had made it back to his apartment far quicker than he had anticipated, even with his newfound powers. Opening the door, he quickly looked down to search for the letter that his school surely must have already sent out.

However, it wasn’t there. More accurately speaking, there was nothing there. Usually, there would at least be spam letters advertising something, if not overdue bills that piled up. Unfortunately, someone appeared to have already collected all this.

“Are you looking for this?” Amy asked, holding up a letter in her hand while standing in the kitchen. The rest of the missing letters were also on the countertop.

“Amy!” Gary rushed over and was far quicker than she had expected; the letter was quickly snatched from her hand before she had any chance to hide it behind her back. Just as he had expected, the letter was to inform his mother that Gary had been excluded for a week for getting into a fight to the point of sending a schoolmate into the hospital.

“Hey, you know I’m still going to tell Mum!” Amy said, pouting. “Ever since you came back with your green hair, I was worried that one day you would do something stupid, but this? Seriously, I know that you like watching those Altered fights, but you’ve never gotten in a fight before! What was it even about that you sent the other guy into the hospital? A girl, or a boy, or maybe just some stupid boy stuff?” Amy couldn’t stop asking her older brother questions driven by a mix of worry and curiosity.

‘There’s no way I can tell Amy that I got into a fight because he threatened to date her! That would just be too…too..embarrassing.’ Gary’s face was going red just at the thought of it.

Still, he needed to figure out a way to stop Amy from telling their mother; otherwise not only would he get an earful and worry her to death, she probably wouldn’t let him freely leave the house anymore either. He would be grounded, and he just couldn’t afford that in his current situation.

“Why did you even open the letter in the first place, it's not even addressed to you?” Gary tried to change the subject, clearly annoyed that his sister wouldn’t back down.

“Because I saw your school logo on it. Schools only send letters home if it's good news or bad news, and come on. With your head, what the hell kind of good news would there be? If it was something I wasn’t meant to see I planned to just close the letter and place it back in as if I never opened it.” Amy smugly replied, aware that she had the moral high ground on this one.

Seeing no way out of the situation, there was really only one thing Gary could do.

“Please, I beg you, just don’t tell Mum. You should know how much she would worry. It’s just a week, I will manage to somehow keep it hidden from her.” Gary pleaded. “I promise to make it worth your while!”

Unexpectedly, his little sister held out her hand, turning her head away.

“Fine, but you owe me! If you want me to keep it a secret then it's going to cost you.”

A few seconds later, she felt something in her hand. Opening her eyes, she saw a fifty note in her hand. For a moment, Gary could swear that he saw Amy’s eyes turn into gold bars.

When his little sister had asked for payment, she hadn’t literally meant money. She had intended to blackmail Gary into taking over her chores for this week. Either that, or perhaps make him act like her servant or bodyguard next time she visited Stacy, but this was much better than all of those options.

“Where... how do you even have this much money?” Amy asked. “Don’t tell me you robbed the guy on top of sending him to the hospital?!”

The truth was, other than the five hundred he had stashed away in their room, Gary had been now down to the last hundred from the first paycheck he had earned that day fighting against Billy Buster… and now he had given Amy half of that, just so that she would keep quiet.

“Nothing of that sort! What do you take your brother for?!” Gary protested, but Amy pointed to the letter he still held in his hand.

“You know, how I’ve been claiming to visit Tom a lot lately? Well, the truth is I’ve been helping out another friend of mine with their family business. They give me money for helping out. At the end of each day, I get paid in cash.”

“I haven’t told Mum because you know what she’s like. She would just feel bad and tell me to stop. Saying it's an adult’s job to take care of their family, but… you know, I’m also part of this family.”

Hearing this, Amy felt a little bad for taking the money. Gary had worked hard for this money, and he had done so for the sake of everyone.

“Arghh, here take it back.” Amy said, shoving it back in Gary’s hand. “After you tell me all that, what kind of person would I be to take it? You think about others too much.” She sighed, making her way back to her room.

“Wait, are you going to tell, Mum?” Gary called out after her.

“No, just do what you want.” Amy turned around and smiled. Although her brother wasn’t the brightest, he really was the best brother she had. “I’ll try to think of a way for Mum to accept the money, if you have more of it.”

Now, knowing that his sister wouldn’t reveal the situation, Gary went out with the letter, destroying it on his way out.

“Wait, it’s already this late. Are you going to your work again?” Amy asked, worriedly.

“Nope, I need to return something to someone,” Gary replied and shut the door.

It was time for him to hunt.

****

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