Sam woke early in the morning. He looked up to see light just barely filtering through the thin hotel curtains. He kind of sighed, before rolling over to face Calamari, and wrapped an arm around her waist. He nuzzled his face against her back. "...caalll…" He whispered.

He didn't hear her answer, and he eventually sat up a little so he could kiss her forehead. "...Cal…" He whispered.

"Hhm…?"

"Good morning," He whispered, pressing another kiss to her head.

"...morning." She finally whispered back, turning her head to look up at him before she just totally rolled over to face him.

He fell back on the bed, and just reached out to take her hand. "...you know…" He started, glancing up at her hair...tentacles still up in it's normal topknot. "...I can't believe your hair is still up."

"I hate having it down," She muttered. "...I don't think I can express how much I hate having it down."

"...you can't, huh?"

"I can't, I'd die if anyone actually saw me with it down." She admitted. "...actually I need to entrust you with a very important duty."

"...oh?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"...if my hair is ever down and I can't put it up for whatever reason, you gotta put it up. Even if I'm fucking dead, you got me?" Calamari said, her face was one hundred percent serious.

"I can't tell if you're joking." Sam said after a long moment.

"I am not joking." She said. "I am dead serious."

"...well, okay. If you're serious then I promise I'll put it up for you if I can." He said with a nod.

"...thank you." She said after moment, reaching over to pull Sam a bit closer to her. "You have no idea how much I appreciate that, even if it's stupid."

He pressed his face against her shoulder and nodded, wrapping an arm around her waist again. They rested in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying each other's company before they heard footsteps coming down the hall and the sound of their door practically being busted in .

"-MORNING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!"

Sam jumped and sat bolt upright, looking at Shrimp standing in the doorway with his hands in the air and a big grin on his face.

"...oh my god I'm glad we put clothes back on last night." Cal muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah, me too." Sam muttered back. "...Shrimp you're not supposed to just….bust into people's rooms."

"Yeah well this is our first day as the national champs and I think we gotta celebrate and shit." Shrimp said quickly. "You guys wanna go get breakfast before we have to leave?! Me and Sal are gonna buy!"

"Yeah, that's fine just get out of our room for a bit so we can get dressed." Cal grumbled. "Go bother Pepper."

"Oh, Sal's on it!" Shrimp said, before finger-gunning at them and turning to walk out the door.

The two of them slowly crawled out of bed when the door closed, and they each grabbed some clothes from their suitcases to get dressed. Sam worked on packing his up while he waited on Calamari. He glanced at his phone, reading the time and then the date underneath.

November 20th.

His blood ran cold. Tomorrow was usually a big day, Olive's birthday. He always made sure to celebrate Olive and Basil's birthdays when he could at home, and now Olive wouldn't be able to. Not when she was by herself.

Any background guilt he normally felt about his sisters just tripled. He sat there and stared at his phone until he heard Calamari come out of the bathroom. He immediately turned to her, putting on a smile. "You ready?"

"Yeah, I think so." She said, pulling on some sandals before walking to the door. "Let's go!"

All of breakfast, and all of the ride home Sam seemed to be just staring into space. Calamari tried to get him to talk, but something seemed totally off. He just didn't want to talk.

He was just thinking about how to save Olive. At first, it was just a daydream. Something that wouldn't be possible, but as he took more time to think about it, the more it seemed to be possible after all. If he went that night when they got home, he might be able to break into a window when both his parents were passed out drugged or drunk.

By that night, he had himself totally convinced that he could do it. He stood up from Cal's couch, "...I better go on home." He said after a moment.

She looked up at him, clearly frowning. "You sure you don't want to stay here tonight?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I just need to get home." He said, and leaned down to kiss her goodbye. He started to turn away, before he felt Cal grab his hand.

"Sam, wait…" She said quickly. "...is something wrong?"

Sam blinked a little, and put on a smile. "Wrong? No, not at all….why?"

"Ever since this morning something's been off…" Calamari said. "...I know we...you know...the night before I...if something's wrong…"

"-oh! Oh god no, no it has nothing to do with that. I really enjoyed it. It's something really personal…" He admitted, shuffling his feet a little. "I just need to deal with it. I swear, it has nothing to do with you."

"Oh...well that's a relief." She said with a small laugh. "...okay well...you know you can always ask me for help with that stuff? I know you've been quiet about...personal past stuff but...I love you and I want to help."

"...I know." He said softly. "I really appreciate it. I do….if it ever gets bad...I'll tell you." He whispered.

"..you swear?"

"I swear."

"...alright. I trust you." Cal said, squeezing his hand and letting go. "I'll see you later then. Love you."

"Love you too, Cal." Sam said as he headed for the door, grabbed his jacket and headed out. He glanced at his wrist watch then at the moon well up in the sky. Now was the time to try.

His old house wasn't far from Calamari's current place. He found himself looking up at it within fifteen minutes of leaving.

He slowly made his way around the back of the house, and jumped the chain link fence into their old stinky, backyard. He had to shuffle through knee high grass just to get to a back window that he knew from experience was loose and easy to get into it from the outside.

He first pressed his ear to the glass, listening for the sound of voices, relieved to hear nothing. He slowly started to open the window and pushed it to the top before climbing inside.

His feet hit the dusty wooden floor with a soft tap. He turned to close the window as gently as he could before looking around. The room was dark, and he saw only beer bottles and a bit of drug paraphernalia sitting on the coffee table. The only thing that worried him was the shattered beer bottle by the door. His dad was angry, and Olive was the only one to take it out on.

He tiptoed his way to the stairs, and slowly crawled up on all fours as if it would make it any quieter. He snuck down the hall to Olive's room, and reached out to push the door open. Inside, he saw her sitting on her bed with her knees up to her chest. She jumped when the door opened, and scrambled to the corner with a yelp before pausing.

"...S-Sam?" She choked.

"Y-Yeah!" He whispered, hurrying to her bed. "I-I came to get you! You can come home with me, stay with me. You won't have to be here anymore!" He said quickly, reaching out to take her hand.

"S-Sam wait-" She whispered, looking much more scared than happy.

"No no it's fine. They're in bed I think, we can just sneak out. Let me see you, have they been to mean…?" He said, quickly scanning over her. She'd grown in the past year, and their cruelty shown in the form of cuts and bruises all over her.

Olive shook her head quickly, and pulled her hand away before pressing further into the corner. "N-No they're not, S-Sam you g-gotta go-"

"Not without you!" He said, reaching out for her again. "Come on Olive-"

"N-No j-just run!" She said quickly and frantically waved her hand before freezing. She looked up over Sam's head at something in the doorway.

Slowly, he turned to see two tall figures. His stomach sank as he recognized them.

"...look who's back." He heard his mother's voice cut through the silence, making him feel sick. "You come back for your sister? How sweet…"

Sam watched her come closer, something glinting in her hand. He started to push himself back towards the window. "M-Mom-" He choked.

"You remember what I said I'd do if you came back?" She asked as she walked forwards and reached down to grab him by his shirt and yank him up so they were eye to eye. He could see her pinpoint pupils and bloodshot eyes staring at him. "...I said I'd kill you. I don't break promises."

Sam could barely start to get a word out of his mouth before there was a white hot, sharp pain in his side forcing him to gasp for breath. He looked down to see the handle of the knife sticking out of him.

"...where are you going to put the body, Mimi?" His father asked, coming to stand over the two of them.

"Somewhere in the edge of town maybe. Throw him in the ocean, he'll dissolve." She said and reached down to yank the knife out with a short cry from him.

"...that's a bit of a drive." His father answered.

"Then we better start."

His father reached out and grabbed Sam by the tentacles and smashed his head against the wall to knock him out, and everything went totally black.

He only remembered snippets of what happened after that. He remembered opening his eyes and looking at the blurry ceiling of his father's truck before someone hit him in the head again. He remembered the cold concrete beneath him as he was dragged over what was maybe a parking lot. He remembered yelping a little when old wood and rusty nails of the deck scraped against his skin. Terrible, terrible pain in his chest and stomach and a boot on his head and something cold against his throat.

Then he heard the screech of another car in the parking lot and stranger's voices, and his dad's panicked voice. Their footsteps hurrying back down the deck until it was silent, all except for the waves crashing against the shore just lulling him back to sleep. It was so cold. He was so tired. He was tired of waking up to the feeling of his head buzzing and then it all going back to black.

He just wanted to sleep, so he closed his eyes and let himself drift into unconsciousness.