"Sorry," Honey said, "we tried to salvage the game, but I think this one's a wash."

"Don't worry about it," said Frank, "you get the rules?"

"Yeah, think so."

Frank reclaimed his seat on the couch. The cushions sighed as he fell back into them, their picked and frayed fabric welcoming in the lingering warmth of his body heat.

Joey moved in next, giving Honey's thigh a small wrap of the back of his hand, "Make room, kid."

"Not a kid," said Honey as she obliged request.

Joey socked in-between the two of them while Julie and Susie sat criss-cross-applesauce together on the floor.

"Honey," Joey said, "your parents name you that on purpose?"

"Oh," said Honey, "No, they didn't. My name's MarĂ­a Luisa. I've been called Honey my whole life though. Funny story too, I actually didn't even know that until I was in kindergarten and my teacher called my name. I didn't answer because, well, no one ever called me by it."

"Really?" Julie chuckled.

"Yeah," Honey replied, matching her smile.

"Hm," said Jed.

"What's the matter, Jed?" Frank asked, "From your extensive research, I assumed you would have already known that."

"Don't gloat, it makes you look foolish," said Jed, "I did know, however, I didn't know why. I find it rather amusing in fact, partly unbelievable too. Kindergarten, you say? That would make you five, or close to. How is it you managed to go that long without knowing your own name?"

Honey shrugged, "I was a kid. My parents called me their little 'Honey-Bee' and it stuck."

"Do you miss them?" Julie asked.

Honey couldn't help but be taken aback by the question. To be honest, she hadn't thought of it up until now. She felt guilty for that. Not that they were relatively close now, strained more like it. Her parents had always been the protective sort, a bit overly so, and with good reason.

They never really did get over her moving to Weeks.

"I do," she said, "I suppose I'm a bit lucky, though."

"What do you mean?" Susie asked.

"Well," she started carefully, "I guess lucky isn't really the right word, but I know, at least, my parents won't be surprised. Strange disappearances and deaths are kind of the norm for my family.

I grew up without mirrors in my house because they thought the Candyman would snatch me away in the night. Apparently he's got a thing for that, they told me someone is always bound to him in some way: my mom, my grandma, her grandma," she rolled her wrist along with the account, "so on and so forth. They'll just chalk it up to dear old grandad when I don't return their calls or texts. I guess it's not entirely wrong either. My last trial...I think I've got a lot more in common with him than they realized."

Her hands fell limp in her lap.

Evan noticed.

"It sucks and I do miss them, but at least it's not unexpected. I guess it's the best I could have asked for."

Amanda shuffled the tiles and built the world of Catan up once more.

"At least they'll have an answer," she said, "They won't spend years wondering what happened to you, or where you went. Not a lot of families get that. They won't have to grieve for long."

Honey felt the gravity of it all like a crushing weight, one new suitcase of guilt and desperation stacked upon her shoulders with no room left for more. She felt her smile fade and all the light within her turned black.

"Yeah," she said sadly.

"Sorry," Amanda said, not sounding all too sorry-ingly.

"You don't have to answer them," Evan reminded her bitterly.

"Oh, it's alright," Honey lied, "What about you guys?"

"I lost my family a long time ago," Amanda said.

"My parents threw me out at 16," said Joey.

"And my parents always threatened to," Julie laughed in comparison.

"Don't have any," said Frank.

"We lost touch," said Jed.

Susie shrugged.

And Evan was silent in a way Honey did not recognize.

Frank handed the dice to Honey, "What about your job?" He asked, "Bet you don't miss that."

And just like that, all the warmth that radiated from her returned in a nuclear explosion as she barked a laugh in the face of such a silly question.

"No!" she declared rather too loudly. "My job was fine in theory. Building spreadsheets and setting up meetings isn't as hard as the job postings make it out to be. It's actually pretty straight forward. But my boss was a piece of work. This guy would have me painting lines in the parking lot, weeding the stupid little rock garden, fixing doors, painting walls," she explained rather animatedly, "let me tell you, I did not get paid as much as I should have for everything I did - or all the skeevy comments. Didn't even get health insurance." She blew a raspberry, "Shame I can't hang him up on a hook."

Evan made a small sound that could have been a chuckle.

"Why didn't you?" Amanda asked.

"What?"

"Why didn't you kill him?" Amanda clarified.

"Well, just because he was a bad boss doesn't mean he deserved to die," she shrugged, "me disappearing is probably way worse anyway," she laughed, "oh man, he's going to be SO screwed tomorrow morning."

Amanda smiled.

"You worked with Jigsaw, right" Honey's voice tiptoed over the name, "what was it like?"

"Nothing like that," Amanda said as turns passed between them, "But...I learned a lot," she said, "about people - about myself."

"Did you like it?"

"I did."

"What about you guys?"

"No job," said both Frank and Joey, much to Honey's expectations and no-offenses.

"Susie and I used to work at a Dairy Queen together, it was alright when there were no customers," said Julie, "we used to make the grossest concoctions when we were slow. Butter Pecan and Eggnog, or Birthday Cake and Garlic."

"They have garlic ice cream," Honey said as she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"They do!" laughed Julie.

"Yuck!" Honey shivered at the thought of its flavor on her tongue and tried to wash it down with Jed, "What about you?"

"I loved my job, working with the media," Jed said with a grin, "only time I got to talk about myself and get paid doing it."

"Your selfie game needs work though," Julie said.

"My selfie game," Jed repeated with emphasis on the terminology, "is fine."

"Oh-ho-kay," laughed Julie.

"Not everything needs a filter," Jed pointed out.

"You're telling me it wouldn't be hilarious to put a dog face filter on one of the survivors?"

Jed thought about it for a minute, then nodded, "You may have a point. Ok, how do I do it?"

"Give me your phone."

Jed handed his phone to Julie, who immediately tapped her fingers over the screen.

"Oh!" Honey pointed, "you have a phone? Do you have a charger I can borrow? Mine's dead."

"Sure," Jed said, "I'll drop one off tomorrow. Think you can survive?"

"Probably not," Honey snorted, "Do they work? The phones?"

"Sort of," said Julie as she tip-tapped away on Jed's phone, "music and cameras work, apps too...sometimes...but no real internet and any calls and texts you want to make only work within the realm. That means you're stuck with us," she said, sticking her tongue out between her teeth. "I can get you everyone's numbers when your phone is charged," Julie said, "us, Jed, Amanda...not a lot of us have them. Doc still has a beeper," she chuckled.

"Doc?"

"Doctor Carter," clarified Evan in his usual gravely monotone, "I wouldn't go looking for him anyway."

"Got it," Honey gave a thumbs up. Were the circumstances any different, she might have questioned his reasoning. But this was a realm of murderers - and she wasn't about to ignore the warning of one, especially when it regarded another.

"What about you?" Honey asked.

Evan frowned, "No," he said, "No phone."

"Here," Julie handed the phone back to Jed, "Evan doesn't know what a meme is anyway and his fingers are too big for the keys."

"Hm," grunted Evan.

Jed inspected his phone briefly then snapped a photo and chuckled to himself.

Frank built a road.

"Don't worry," Julie said, "we're all pretty easy to find here, all of our "homes" are connected," she said with air quotes, "We're staying up at the Mount Ormond Resort."

"Susie said you were thinking about staying with us," Frank interjected with thin kindness.

"Oh," Honey tucked a wayward strand behind her ear, "yeah she did ask, but Evan was nice enough to let me stay here, so you don't have to worry about that."

"It's no problem," Frank insisted, "and I'm sure you could use some actual clothes."

"I have a laundry room," Evan gruffed.

"And she has - what? One pair of clothes?"

"For once I agree with, Frank," Jed said, "you're not exactly fun-sized."

"It's alright, really," Honey waved off their concerns.

"You've had two trials?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah."

"She'll be fine then, the entity usually provides a few sets after shadow-trials," she said, "I wouldn't worry about it."

"If you change your mind, you let us know," Frank added and offered the die to Honey.

"Sure," she said, "thanks," and rolled.