“Everything will be fine, Boss,” Nero answered, rubbing his hands together in excitement. “Nothing to worry about.” He was sitting down in the sewers, where a small apartment-sized living area had been carved into one of the brick walls for him. His lab coat was soaking wet with green sewage water as he sat in the dingy, dank darkness of Neonight’s industrial waterways. There was a man leaning against the bricks, wrapped in shadow. He looked strong, but he wasn’t huge. His strength was developed.

“Isn’t this whole debacle because of your chimaera?” the man asked, his voice deep and gravelly—one that commanded respect, even (or maybe especially) when you couldn’t see his face.

“These ones will be different. I’m using a simpler animal for the base. Dogs and crocodiles are both too intelligent. They think. These ones will follow orders.”

“And what are those orders, Nero? I’d like to hear that you understand the objective.”

“Yes, yes. Kill Thomas Finn by sending them to the apartment to wait for him. Nothing more.”

“And if anything more happens?”

Nero looked at a cage full of cockroaches. “You’ll make me regret it, Hudson.”

Hudson Beaudoin looked up at the ceiling of the sewers. “It’s scheduled to rain tonight. My son usually gets MarsDonald’s on these nights. Perhaps I’ll have them turn it off in case he’s out late again.”

* * *

Blair, Piotr, and Rio checked every MarsDonald’s in Neonight and tried calling Thomas multiple times. “No, Mom, I’m with friends. No, I haven’t seen any gangs. Why would I be involved in gangs? It’s not even dark yet. Well, I mean it’s always dark, but it’s not at its darkest! I’ll be home soon, okay? I love you. And PLEASE sign my report ca—” Rio said into the screen of his Unit as the trio walked up into Night 41 Apartments. “She hung up . . .”

The group had realized that Thomas Finn was lying about where he was and where he was working. Blair also realized that it meant he was lying about how he was paying rent, which meant he either had savings but couldn’t afford his own groceries or he had gone back to killing for money. “Move the Headstones,” Piotr said, warping the lock on Thomas’s door with a marble. The door opened slowly as Piotr peeked his head in. And Blair poked her head in below him, and Rio below her. “I don’t think he’s home,” Piotr said as the three walked through the door.

It didn’t take long to search the main room of the apartment. Piotr peeked his head inside one of the kitchen cabinets. “What are you looking for?” Rio asked, watching him with a strange expression on his face.

“I’m . . . I’m not sure. Everybody just checks the cabinets,” Piotr responded.

Rio turned on the kitchen faucet. “Wet Hands,” he said and soon heard it speak.

“Thomas Finn came here yesterday to get ready for a date. You’re not alone in this apartment. Hope this helps.” Rio stepped back in confusion, and Blair and Piotr all turned their heads.

“Thomas has a boyfriend? Why didn’t he tell us?” Blair asked, her hand on the doorknob to Thomas's bedroom. Piotr had gone to check in the washroom and decided to avoid the cupboards in order to not seem like an idiot in front of Rio. He wanted Rio to like him, partially because he wanted to prove that his own child would like him as well.

“That’s what you’re worried about? It just said there’s somebody else in the apartment!” Rio whisper-shouted, trying to maintain some level of stealth, given the fact that an enemy might be present.

“Yeah, US! Duh, Rio. Thought you were so smart,” Blair said opening the door to Thomas’s bedroom and looking inside. Sitting on top of the bed was a human-sized cockroach with pale human arms and legs, lying on top of Thomas’s bed on its back. It was either sleeping or dead. Blair’s eyes were wide with disgust as she slowly closed the door like she had seen anything and turned to face the main kitchen/dining room area. “Guys. Either Thomas has an extremely specific fetish or he’s been turned into a cockroach. I’m honestly not sure which is more likely—or horrible.”

Suddenly, a bullet flew through Thomas’s bedroom door above Blair’s head, causing her to duck right before it hit. “I think you woke it up,” Rio said, no longer attempting to remain secretive. Another bullet flew through the wall that separated Thomas’s bedroom and the kitchen, the bullet flying towards Rio before striking him in the mouth and sending him falling back into the sink.

“RIO!” Blair shouted as another bullet, even faster this time, flew through the door and into her cheek, sending blood rushing out of her face as she fell against the wall, holding out her arms to stop herself from falling onto the ground as her face turned pale. Then, she saw Rio sit up. He had fallen back into the sink with a dull thud, and the back of his denim clothes was currently soaking wet. His forehead was bleeding, but it hadn’t pierced his brain, and it hadn’t been moving with the speed of the bullet that hit Blair.

Piotr heard what happened to Rio and Blair but he couldn’t see the attack, as he was standing in the shower, “investigating”, which was really just standing in the shower with his thumb and forefinger on his chin as he made noises like “hmmm” and “aha!” He had quickly turned away from his extremely important and urgent task to sprint out of the shower, screaming loudly, before he felt something hit him in the leg. And again when he screamed in pain, lifting his leg off the ground, knocking both of his legs out of commission before he fell and hit his head on the tile, another loud thud sending a bullet into his chest. In only a few seconds, Piotr had been knocked almost entirely out of commission.

He saw Rio sitting in the sink, staying perfectly still, mouthing something to him. Piotr rubbed the back of his bleeding head as he looked down at the bullet wounds on his legs and chest. There were two massive holes in his ankles, each about the size of a large grape, and another deep wound in his chest, although not as large. He saw the bathroom cupboard slowly open, revealing a small hand on the other side as he lay on the tile. Always check . . . cupboards, he thought. Then, Piotr fell back, unconscious, as blood leaked from his head.