There was an entourage of them, it seemed, walking down the beaten and overgrown path. Lily, noticing her hand she'd used to punch Featherstone in the face throbbing more and more by the second, was walking between Cassidy and Tulip in the back, while Jesse walked just in front of them by a few steps, Featherstone tight in his grasp. Ahead of them, Jody and TC leaded, guns in hand while they kept close to another Grail agent, who went by the name Hoover, who they'd discovered lingering in the bushes not long after they'd found Featherstone.

Tulip glanced towards Lily at her side as they walked, "Thought I taught you how to punch better than that." She teased, staring at Lily's bruised hand. With a heavy sigh, Lily cranked her head one way, "I guess I should've let you give it to her." She groaned apologetically, "Sorry. I lost my temper too fast."

Tulip laughed softly, understanding that if the roles had been reversed, Tulip probably would've done the same. It was one thing to die and come back to life, but she knew that Lily had gone through a period of time where she thought Tulip was dead for good, so she understood that the feeling of hate for Featherstone was probably even more than what Tulip had for her.

"Nah," Tulip sighed, "Was hopin' it would go a little longer. Too bad Jess had to come in and ruin the fun." She joked. Deep down inside she knew she'd be the one putting a bullet to Featherstone head soon enough.

With his grip tightening onto Featherstone's unbroken arm a little harder, Jesse huffed at Tulip's statement, "Well when I felt like I punched a concrete wall when I was just sittin' there mindin' my own business, I knew there was somethin' wrong." He stated, "Fuck me for being worried, I guess." He sighed sarcastically. With a permanent scowl plastered on her face, Featherstone glanced to Jesse, reluctantly dragging her feet as Jesse pulled at her.

"I wasn't thinking about you, obviously." Lily huffed, "I was thinking about beating that bitch until she was a broken pile of bones."

"Hmph! Please." Featherstone scoffed, "As if you could've killed me with your bare hands. You punch like a girl." She spat between clenched teeth. Lily felt her blood boil and it took every part of her not to lunge a few feet forward and plow Featherstone back to the ground, and at the same time, Tulip cocked the hand gun in her hand - but Jesse's eyes looking back at his sister and girlfriend stopped the both of them in their brief moment of thought before anything could come out of it.

"I loved it, honestly." Cassidy added, "Every second of it. When ye snapped 'er arm-" He brought up his free hand not holding the umbrella to his lips and pinched his fingers together and made a kissing gesture to them, "Some of yer best work I've seen yet." He gushed proudly.

Jody's voice bellowed over top of everyone else's, "Suppose now that you two got that thing goin' on..." He started, slowing his pace so he was standing at Jesse's side while he walked, "You feel what the other does, then?" TC turned his head back curiously as well.

Both Jesse and Lily ignored the question Jody had asked, the only sound was all of their feet scaping the dirt beneath them. When he didn't get an answer, Jody took it into his own hands - literally, "Like this?" Jody smacked Jesse on the back of the head.

"Ow! Fuck, Jody!" Jesse swore, grabbing at the back of his head with his free hand that wasn't gripped onto Featherstone on his other side. "No." Tulip said from behind them, "Don't think Lily felt that. Try a little harder, maybe." She enticed.

Going for another smack, Jody lifted his arm, and Jesse ducked, "Cut it out, Jody!" For the first time since they'd shown up, they heard Jody's laugh. It was deep and maniacal.

Eventually, they'd made it to a swampy area, Tulip's mouth went crooked as she glanced around, "How many rotten sheds are on this fucking property?" She asked, staring at the crooked shack they were walking towards. There was no answer from anyone. Attached to the shack was a dock going out into the water - if you could even call it water. Lily stared at the still and thick muck that surrounded them. The dock had several missing planks, and the ones still left on it looked very unpromising.

"Get out there." Jesse pushed at Featherstone to where TC and Jody had some sort of meat grinding machine set up. Hoover, the other grail agent, stayed behind near Lily, Cassidy and Tulip - who seemed to all silently vouch in together not to step foot on the sketchy dock and watch from a distance. Grabbing a rock from the ground, Lily tossed it into the swamp in front of them. As expected, the thick algae and filth that consumed the body of water enveloped the rock immediately - it was as if the swamp swallowed it in front of their eyes, not even a few inches from the surface it was nowhere to be seen.

A shiver went through Lily, and it seemed Cassidy read her mind, "Who knows wot the fuck's been at the bottom of this bog." To which Tulip huffed impatiently, crossing her arms and staring toward the dock, "I just want to tie a few cement blocks to these fucker's ankles and toss them off already so we can be done with all this shit." She stated.

They all stared at Jody and TC, Featherstone standing in front of them as she awaited her unknown future. Everyone's attention was consumed to Jody and TC as they started the loud, screeching machine - loading the giant grinder with anything and everything - dead racoons, weasels, Hell - even a whole turtle, shell and all.

Tulip, Cassidy and Lily hadn't even noticed Jesse had left the dock - their eyes were glued to the fluorescent, red goop that poured out of the grinder each time something else went into it. The pipe leading out of it was spitting and splattering out into a giant mason jar, to which Jody soon picked up and took a swig out of. With a twist in their stomach, Lily and Tulip cringed in unison.

"Swamp consume!" TC declared, to which Lily noticed Tulip's neck practically snap as she glared daggers at Cassidy, who stood between them with his large umbrella. He looked down at her, "Wot?" He yelled over the loud machine. Tulip raised her brow, "That's the stuff you gave me the other day?! That's what this was!?" She shouted. Cassidy raised his brows as they arched over his sunglasses, "Well I heated it up first! Suppose to kill diseases n'shite, like!" He yelled back. Lily turned towards the machine again, watching more gunk spew out of it, "Oh no." She groaned, too quiet for anyone to hear over the noise other than Cassidy, who turned to Lily, "How was I suppose t'know!?" He yelled. Tulip stepped closer to Cassidy to better yell in his face, "I can't believe you gave me that shit-"

"Hey!" Jesse's voice bellowed from behind them, and they hadn't noticed he'd even been off the dock, "Where's the other one!?" The three of them turned, their eyes scouring the area as they realized Hoover had disappeared. Jesse pressed his lips together angrily, "Damn it!" He swore, stomping towards where Featherstone stood on the dock, "Go find him!" He ordered, yelling loudly over the noise of the grinder.

The three of them scattered immediately, determined to find any trace of Hoover, the other Grail Agent who'd gotten away. There was no trace of him, not even Cassidy could pick up a scent or movement. Tulip was running into the woods, not sure she was on any kind of lead until she heard movement. Following it, she realized it was Jesse with Featherstone, and she watched in disbelief as he let the bitch who killed her get away - willingly.


The sun was down, the bedroom that Tulip and Jesse were staying in during their stay in Angelville was dark other than an old lamp letting off a feeble bit of light in the far corner. Jesse stood in the middle of the room, explaining himself as fast as he could to his sister, girlfriend and best friend.

With her lips in a tight line, Tulip sat on the bed, Lily just a few feet away was sitting on an old armchair that reeked of stale cigarette smoke and moth balls.

"Listen," Jesse continued, "I didn't get a chance to tell you guys all this because everythin' just happened so fast-" The sound of a lighter sparking cut his words briefly, and Tulip glanced towards Lily at her side, who was lighting a cigarette between her fingers. From the other side of the room, Cassidy stood near a window, peaking out every now and again as something caught his eye - but there was always nothing there. He sighed, leaning against the wall and listening.

Lily's voice was quiet and cold, "You just..." She dragged for a while on her cigarette, "Let her go." She exhaled a trail of smoke, shaking her head up at her brother, "She killed Tulip... and you let her go." Jeese moved his head to the side, his eyes closing as he felt the frustration brew inside of him - of course he had to understand where the anger from them was coming from, it sounded really awful, but he had to explain, "Lily, just listen, to me for a second, alright?"

Jesse was speaking as quietly as possible, with a lot of speed and determination behind him, "I can't break what's been done with gran'ma without Genesis. I need Genesis, and the only way to get it back is through the Grail. I'm just using them as a means to get it back, and then once I do, things will go the way we want them to. I couldn't just kill them then and there - I mean, we don't have a way to do hardly anythin' without gran'ma or Jody or TC knowin' about it, so those Grail agents were my only fucking hope at getting Starr here to get Genesis back." Jesse explained.

Feeling her heart sink, Lily remembered just how trapped they were. The memory of herself being choked out the one time she'd tried to leave was flooding her mind again. Lily looked up, feeling Tulip's eyes on her as the both of them came to an immediate understanding - the fury inside of them quickly diminishing.

"I need my power back to get us out of here." Jesse reiterated, "And the only way to do that is to convince Starr that I'm still with him."

Tulip looked up at Jesse who stood in front of her, waiting for her to say anything. They locked eyes and Tulip read them well, "Then we kill them." She stated more than asked. Jesse kept his eyes locked to hers, "We kill them all." He agreed, "Gran'ma, Jody, the Grail, every last one of them."

Cassidy finally spoke, hoping to shed some good energy, "Sounds like y'got a plan, padre." He sang quietly. Jesse nodded at Cassidy, "I can't leave Angelville, but I have an idea of how to get Genesis back to me right here in Angelville, so we'll need a distraction. Kinda like the one today." He explained, waiting for a moment before continuing, "Which means," Jesse sighed, leaning against the end of the bed frame, "It's gonna have to start with you two-" He looked from Tulip to Cassidy, "Since you're the half of us who can leave this property without being worried about being choked to death by your grandmother." Tulip let out a feeble chuckle at how insane that scenario was, "Hmph."

"What about me?" Lily stated, her brother his head to her, "I'm just supposed to run around doing errands for our gran'ma with Jody?" With his head already shaking, Jesse took a quick breath, "No." He said, "Show me that book of mom's again."


"You try any of this stuff?" Jesse asked, flipping pages of the book Lily had found hidden in the wall of the bedroom her and Cassidy were staying in. They were sitting in their room now, Tulip and Cassidy stayed behind in the other bedroom going over the little instructions Jesse had given them on what to do tomorrow. Cassidy listened in to what Lily and Jesse were talking about from down the hall, but it was a bit distracting seeing as Tulip was finding anything she could laying around to construct a bomb out of a toy car that had been laying in the room since God knows how long.

Lily shook her head to her brother, "Try? Jesse, I don't even know what this shit is." She took a deep breath, "Why don't you try." Jesse huffed, "Hmph. I've never had a knack for anything like this." Jesse groaned quietly.

From beside him sitting on the bed, she shifted her weight to lean into him, her brows narrow over her eyes even though his eyes were on the book in his lap, "What's that supposed to mean." She groaned back.

"It means that you've got more of this stuff in you than I ever will." He stated, flipping another page, "I think it's worth a shot." Finally, he looked up to his sister at his side, and her face said it all. She wasn't entertained by the idea and she wasn't convinced, either. Dropping his shoulders, Jesse turned to her a little more, "Come on." Jesse scoffed, "You're telling me that after everythin' you've been through, you still don't believe there's something in you?" He took a sharp breath, "I mean, for fuck's sake, you're telling me all your visions you've had your whole life, that intuition and feeling inside of you, Hell - even a few days ago you brought us right to where our mom's buried without knowing anything about it - not to mention, that the ghost of our mother has been coming to you, and she even took it upon herself to throw down that damn dresser and pretty much rubbed your face in it-" His hands shook the book, "And you don't think that means something-" "No." Lily said quickly, raising her brows and staring at the book, "You're right. It does, it does." She took a deep breath in, a bit overwhelmed by it.

Jesse's eyes moved back to the pages, "All's I'm sayin' is I think mom used these... " He wasn't sure how to phrase them. When their grandmother had used any form of her powers it was always dark, terrifying experiences, but the notes written in his book by their mother wasn't anything like that. They seemed to be defense tactics, things she used to protect herself from the evil in Angelville, "...practices-" Jesse continued, "-to stay alive as long as she could here."

"Did you see her use any of these?" Lily asked, her eyes wide as she looked into Jesse's, searching for any form of advice or guidance, "I don't know where to start with all of this." Lily said with a quiet and shaky voice. Jesse felt his heart sink, "No." He sighed. He'd never seen their mother practice anything like what their grandmother did. Their grandmother practiced loud and proud, using the evil things she conjured for the purpose to shove into people's faces and induce fear - maybe their mother had been practicing silently. Jesse shook his head again, swallowing the lump in his throat, "Like I told you, I was scared of all the things gran'ma would do. I didn't want to know about most of it, and anything I did end up knowin' about scared the Hell outta me then and still now to this day." His eyes went over another page before speaking into it thoughtfully, "But maybe it doesn't always have to be that way." He said slowly, before looking back to his sister, "I think mom did all this stuff in secret. I mean, look how she hid it. I think what she was doing was behind everyone's backs, silently protecting herself or me or whatever."

He could see the gears turning in Lily's head as her eyes moved to the book and she began thinking herself. Finally, she looked back at him, "I've been waiting to see her again so I can ask what it all means. To ask for some help."

Shifting his weight Jesse sat more upright, "Listen, I know it's a lot, and I know neither of us really understand any of it... but I promise part of my plan is to find someone who can help you out with all this. But for now, can you just do me the favour of just seeing what you're capable of?" They stared at each other a moment, "Yea," Lily's voice finally said, "I can do that, Jess." He smiled at her, wrapping his arms around her right away and squeezing her tight. Deep inside Jesse, he believed that Lily was capable of a lot more than any of them could imagine. A large part of him was convinced that if for some reason he wasn't able to get Genesis back, Lily and her unknown potential could be their only way out of Angelville.