For awhile, this day went just like the last one.

Mae eventually woke up and came down to join them. By then, they were both hungry again, so he ended up ordering some Taco Buck.

That was awkward.

Danny showed up again, saw Bea, and almost ran away. He ended up making it through the ordeal with Bea glaring at him with her arms crossed from behind Trent and Mae, and then he basically did run back to his car and take off.

"Wait, you said Danny quit day before yesterday?" Mae asked as they set the food out.

"Yeah," Bea replied.

"I thought he already quit to go work at Taco Buck."

"Oh, he did. And then he came back after about a week because they weren't giving him enough hours. So I took him back on. Ungrateful bastard."

"Huh."

They dug in, and then went back to hanging out. Bea finished off the comic, Mae spent a lot of time playing Max Payne, only giving it up once Bea said she wanted to watch a movie. They selected a shitty horror movie and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mae and Bea both jumped, however, when someone banged on the front door.

"Oh shit," Mae whispered. "I gotta put clothes on."

"Who the fuck is it?" Bea asked. "Shit, I'm naked."

"Go on, pull some clothes on, I'll see what's up," Trent said. Great, now they had him paranoid. Then again, the last time someone had come banging on his door unexpectedly, it had been a cop. Although that had turned out fine…

Trent got up and moved over to the front door, grabbing his discarded t-shirt and pulling it back on. He suddenly felt the urge to grab Mae's bat, but it was back at her place, and Bea's was out in her trunk. Maybe he should buy a bat.

He looked out the little window high up in the door and saw…

A hat?

Why did that hat look familiar?

He opened the door and relaxed immediately.

"Mae's boyfriend!" Gregg cried.

"Trent, right?" Angus asked.

"Yeah. Uh, what's up?" Trent replied.

"Gregg thought it would be nice to, uh, surprise you and Mae, and Bea's here? That's her car, right?" Angus asked.

"Yeah, she's hanging out too. Uh...come in. They're just...upstairs."

"Doing what?" Gregg asked as they came in.

Trent shrugged, for a second helpless. "...girl stuff?"

It seemed to work on Gregg, who just laughed and took off his coat. Angus gave him a small, inscrutable stare for a few seconds, then took off his coat as well.

"It's Gregg and Angus!" he called.

"Mae! Are you butt naked up there!?" Gregg yelled, standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"For your information NO!"

"Were you making babies!? I bet you were! Ha ha ha!"

"Gregg, please," Angus murmured.

Gregg looked back at the two of them. "What?" he asked. Angus nodded awkwardly to Trent, and that seemed to get his attention finally. "Ohh...yeah. Sorry, I guess I'm embarrassing you. I'm just so used to saying everything and anything to Mae. Think you're gonna have to get used to that, I'll be totes honest."

"Gregg," Angus said.

He sighed. "Okay, I will try to reel it in."

"I think I'm gonna try to potato peel your face off," Mae said as she came downstairs, wearing a sweatshirt and some sweatpants.

"Not if I drown you in puke first!"

"Psh, you couldn't do that because I'll pull your arms off and play piano with them."

"You two are so weird," Bea said as she emerged.

"Hi, Bea," Angus said.

"Hey, Angus. How'd you two get here?"

"We walked," Angus replied. "We kind of bailed on Mae and Trent earlier and then we got really busy, but we decided to come visit for awhile."

"I can drive you home after, so you don't have to deal with the cold," Bea offered.

"We would definitely appreciate that...uh, is your dad working again? We stopped by to talk and he was there."

"Yeah. I had, like, a nuclear meltdown yesterday and he covered for me today and yesterday."

"Are you okay?" Angus asked.

"I'm fine," Bea said. "Great, actually. I've just been sort of chilling and hiding out here." They moved to the living room and he sat on the couch between Bea and Mae, while Gregg and Angus sat in the two recliners against the wall.

"Man, these are nice," Gregg said. "Like, mega fancy."

"You've got a nice house," Angus said.

Trent laughed uncomfortably. "Thanks, I'm still trying to make it feel like mine."

"So, I never really got the story, uh, how'd you meet?" Gregg asked.

"Actually yeah, same," Bea said.

"I showed up at the bus station, no one was there. And then Mae showed up. She walked me into town and showed me my home...then jumped me," Trent replied.

She giggled. "Yep, jumped right on his dick."

"Almost literally," he muttered.

"Whoa, Mae," Bea said, "how'd you, like...know? That it was a good idea?"

"I guess...I just knew? I don't really know. Sometimes you just know...he held my hand. We were standing on a hill in between the bus station and town, like out in the woods, and I heard the trains and stopped and listened, and I took his hand. And he let me. It was that, and a lot of little things. And he didn't get weird about anything, like trying to talk me into anything. And, like, dude was patient. I accidentally squeezed his balls too hard when we were fooling around."

Both Gregg and Angus winced. "Ooh, yeah. That's-man. That's patience dude," Gregg said.

He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah."

"And he fucking went down on me, he offered. And he told me we could stop if I wanted and he wouldn't be mad. I don't know, I've read so much shit online about women who are super uncomfortable when they lose their virginity, and they feel like they can't say no, and just let it happen, but I honestly feel like I could've said 'stop' and he would've stopped and not given me shit about it," Mae explained.

"That's...yeah, that's a big deal," Bea said. "I felt the same way, when we hooked up."

Trent felt his eyes widen and saw Mae burst into a grin, both of them looking at Bea.

"Wait-" Angus said.

"Oh shit. Shit," Bea snapped. "Dammit! Just-forget you heard that."

"Whoa, whoa, back up! You hooked up with Mae's boyfriend?! FOR REAL!?" Gregg cried, nearly bursting with excitement.

"Oh boy," Trent muttered, shifting in his seat.

Mae giggled gleefully. "She did!"

"Mae, you promised!" Bea snapped.

"You're the one who said it!"

"I know, I just-dammit!" She leaned forward suddenly, staring at Gregg with such a stern expression that he froze up in an instant. "Gregg, I need you to listen to me. Very carefully. This is important. You can't talk about this, okay? You can't. It can't get out. Trent and I are just friends as far as you're concerned. Because you know how people are in this town, Gregg. And I know that you know."

His expression sobered immediately. He nodded slowly. "Yeah...I know. It's okay, Bea, I won't say anything. You don't have to worry about that. Me an' Angus get enough shit for being gay. So I hear you, I won't say anything." He broke into a huge grin again just as abruptly. "About you bouncing on Mae's boyfriend's DICK!"

"Oh my lord, Gregg," Bea groaned, hiding her eyes behind her hand.

"Or toking up hardcore, I know I smell weed in here."

"Maybe some discretion might be in order, Bug," Angus murmured.

"Oh come on, we're allowed to give each other shit, right? I mean come on, after all the total BS drama we went through, we can give each other shit...right?" Gregg asked.

Bea groaned, then sighed. "I mean...that's fair."

Trent heard Mae make a small sound and glanced over at her. She had a horrified look on her face, but also one of...resignation?

"You okay, babe?" he asked.

"I...shit," she whispered. "We're all here...guys...I haven't told Trent about the...you know. What happened in the mine...but I have to. And I said I would on Longest Night, but I'm just realizing, we're all here now, and I don't want to wreck Longest Night. And, like, if this is gonna wreck our relationship, then I guess I wanna get it out of the way."

"Oh...hmm. Oh my," Angus murmured.

"Shit dude," Gregg said. He looked nervous.

"I'm sorry to do this on your day off, Bea," Mae said.

"No, it's okay. It-he should know," Bea replied.

"I'm gonna tell you what happened, then you're gonna wanna talk to the others, because you're going to think I'm nuts, and you're probably going to think Gregg would exaggerate things, but I think you'll believe Bea and Angus," Mae said, looking at Trent solemnly.

"I...uh...I mean I guess hit me with it, I'm tired of living in suspense," he replied. The whole mood of the room had changed.

It was like the air was heavier.

Mae took a deep breath, then sighed and hunted down a half-smoked joint. She lit up and puffed on it a few times. "Shit. That's better," she muttered. "This shit actually does steady my nerves. Um. Okay. So...I'll spare you the ghost stuff, because I guess it wasn't really a ghost. Uh...all of us ended up facing down a murderous cult deep in the mines not far from town. They've been sacrificing people to an old god they discovered. In exchange for people to eat, it helps the town and also keeps the cult feeling young and being successful."

Trent stared at her for a long, long moment. Then he looked around at the others, who all stared back at him, their expressions solemn and serious.

"I wanna ask if you're fucking with me," he said finally, "but...I can tell you're not."

"I'm really not dude. I wish I was. I told you, you'd either think I was nuts or believe me, and I'm not sure which is worse."

"Bea?" he asked.

"So here's what I know. We were all there, in the mines, and there were indeed a group of men who confessed, openly, to our faces, that they sacrificed teenagers and 'losers' by throwing them down a hole that seems to be bottomless, to feed their god. They brought up the old god stuff. Whether or not that's what was happening, they genuinely believed they were sacrificing people to an ancient god in exchange for success, youth, and prosperity. That much is fact."

"Yep," Gregg said.

"That's all true," Angus said.

"Was there any, uh, proof of the old...god? I mean, what is it? Are we talking, like, Cthulhu here? Lovecraft stuff?"

"Yes!" Mae cried. "Fuck, I'd forgotten! I knew there was a book like this, I just couldn't remember. Shit, I looked all over the place for it...yes! It's like that!"

"This sounds like the Midnight Meat Train...though that's Clive Barker," he muttered.

"Now there's a title," Bea said.

"So, proof?" he asked, looking around.

Bea sighed. "Not...exactly."

"Okay, what's that mean?"

"They claimed that only those who had 'the glimmer' could actually communicate with the old god. I, personally, have two things I can contribute. One, this one is less convincing: I definitely felt something in that mine." She paused and looked anxiously at Mae. "I know I said I didn't, when you asked me at band practice, but I lied. I was really scared. Sorry."

"It's okay," Mae said, "like, I get it."

"When we were standing there at the hole, the bottomless pit, I felt something. I don't know what to call it: energy, a presence, reality distortion. I don't know. But I felt it. The second thing, this is...crazier, but they said the guy who had the glimmer had a gift of being able to shift through walls, and I...saw that. With my own eyes. Not a trick of the light, not any kind of fuckery, but like, straight up I saw it."

"I saw it, too," Angus murmured.

"We all did," Gregg said quietly, unusually subdued.

"What happened?" he asked.

"They let us go. They wanted us to take over for them," Mae said quietly. She took another shaky pull on the joint. "They said they were getting old, and even with the god's magic, they couldn't last forever, they needed someone to take over. To keep killing. To keep the town alive. We left. Rode this old elevator back up to the top...and he came up through the back of the elevator. He came at me, he was so mad, because we shot him with an arrow. He was furious. He came right through solid rock and metal, Trent, I swear to Sky Cat God."

"To what?"

"That's...another story. I met God, or the thing people call God, in my dreams. It was weird. Um. So, yeah, that's what we got."

"What happened to the guy attacking you?" he asked.

"We all grabbed Mae," Bea said. "He was trying to drag her away. We got her back, and the elevator finally collapsed, and it took his arm off. And...from a few things I've heard, I'm guessing that elevator collapse ended up causing a cave-in."

"Mae, do you believe there's an...old god down there?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "I do. I can feel it in my head. Or I could. It's quieter now, but I still kinda feel it, and I still have weird nightmares. Although I haven't since I met you. But yeah, I believe it's down there. They call it the Black Goat."

"God, that's creepy," Trent muttered. "Bea? Do you believe it?"

She sighed, looking away. "I...don't know," she admitted. "Thinking of it makes me sick. I felt something down there, dude. I know that much. I'm really undecided. On the one hand...I don't know what's real, what's impossible, what isn't. Maybe there's some ancient entity with telepathic abilities sleeping way down deep in the earth. Maybe not a god, maybe an alien, or something else. Or maybe it's something else entirely."

"Like what?" Trent asked.

"I have a theory," Angus said. They all looked at him. He stared back at them, flat and inscrutable. "I've been doing research. I've found several references to natural gas leaks in Possum Springs. The sinkholes, the mines, there's been some big gas leaks. And they are known to cause brain damage and hallucinations."

"We all hallucinated the same thing?" Gregg asked uncertainly.

"Mass hysteria is a documented phenomenon," Angus replied.

"But you said you saw it," Mae said. "You said you saw the guy come through the wall."

Angus was silent for a moment, then sighed softly. He reached up and took off his hat, set it on the table, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of cloth. Taking off his glasses, he began to clean them. "I saw it. I remember seeing it. But...I know memory can be faulty, and it was dark. It's less faulty if we all remember seeing it. But...it's technically possible that we missed something. That maybe there was some other way up...he took some shortcut we didn't realize existed, and our minds sort of filled in the blank in the stress of the moment, and some combination of stress, the insanity of the situation, the natural gas, and whatever else, made us all think we saw it. I just...I don't believe in paranormal phenomenon or supernatural happenings."

"Not even when you see it with your own eyes?" Mae asked.

"...I don't know," he admitted, putting his glasses back on. He picked his hat back up and fiddled with it, staring unhappily at it. "I just don't know. It's been keeping me awake. It's very difficult. I'd rather believe it wasn't true."

"Me too," Gregg muttered.

"What do you think?" Trent asked, focusing on the fox.

He stared at Trent for a few seconds, then stared at the floor, then groaned. "I dunno, man. The murder cult is real, I know that. I felt something down there. I think Mae is right, and there's some old god down there, and they were feeding it. I always have had a weird feeling that Possum Springs should've died by now, it's almost like a zombie, somehow walking on and on. Undead. So yeah, I think I believe Mae, but...I don't want to."

"Mae?" he asked.

She sighed. "I saw it. I spoke to it," she said, looking down. "When we were looking for a way out, and crossed that shallow puddle of water. I, like, fell straight down a hole. You said I looked like I was sleepwalking, that's when it happened. I fell down a hole and I was in, like, outer space. Like deep space. And there was a hole at the center of everything. And it was swallowing everything. I think it's like...The End. Of everything, of the universe. The Black Goat was there. I couldn't see it, I don't know if it was possible for me to look at it, but it was there, in the darkness. It spoke to me, but in a language I couldn't possibly understand or reproduce. I can remember its voice and the sounds, but I can't...I don't know, they won't come out of my mouth. They just won't. They can't. I have no idea what it said, but it let me go."

"Why?" Trent murmured.

"Same reason they let us go: it needs me. It needs someone to feed it." She looked up suddenly. "Trent, whatever you decide, whatever you think, I want you to promise me something right now: promise me you will never write about the Black Goat. Please, please promise me that." She reached out and gripped his hand. "Please."

He could read desperate, furious need in her eyes and knew he only had one real choice. "I promise, I won't write about the Black Goat," he said.

She looked relieved, relaxing. "Thank you. I think...writing about it would give it power." A long moment of silence passed. "Or maybe another way in. So...what do you think about all this?"

"How'd you get out? You said the mine you were in collapsed?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. We walked until we found a hole, and it led up the well in Germ's backyard. He blew it up with dynamite and collapsed it. I was there when he did it," Mae said.

"Holy shit, you went back?" Bea asked.

"Yeah. I didn't want to tell you guys because you'd just get worried about me."

"Mae, you've gotta stop doing this," Bea growled. "You tried to walk away from us and do this alone twice you fucker. You were fucking comatose for like a day or two after you took that bad fall and almost got shot-"

"Who shot at you?!" Trent asked.

"One of the cultists. They even admitted it. I didn't get shot, but I fell down and hit my head pretty hard. I was...hallucinating for a little while. It was weird. I'm okay now. And you're right, I'm sorry, I just...hate putting you guys at risk."

"That's our decision to make, Mae," Bea said, staring at her grimly.

"Not if you don't know about it…"

"Mae!" she snapped.

"You made me promise something, now you have to promise something," Trent said. "Promise you won't go off on your own to do something stupid dangerous without at least telling one of us. Okay? Promise."

"Okay, okay, jeez," she muttered. "I promise. I'll stop wandering off to do dumb shit."

"Thank you," Bea said, "both of you."

"So, am I nuts?" Mae asked.

"Are we nuts?" Gregg asked.

"No," Trent said after a moment. "I don't think you're bullshitting me. I believe that you believe what you're saying."

"And, do you believe...any of it?" Mae asked.

He stared at her, then groaned. "I don't know," he admitted. "The sad reality of the situation is this: I wasn't there. And apparently the evidence is buried in a mine, cordoned off by police, I'm guessing. I don't know what I believe. I don't really believe in God, but...I don't necessarily not believe in ancient powerful Lovecraftian entities. I mean, I'm a horror writer, I don't think it's allowed for me to completely disbelieve it. But this explains a lot, at least." He paused, ran a hand over the back of his neck. "Shit. This is so heavy."

"Told you," Mae muttered.

"Yeah, you were dead on about that. I don't think you're nuts. But...we do have to consider your unique mental health problems when factoring all this in…"

"That is true," Bea admitted unhappily.

"Yeah, I know. But I can't be hallucinating it all right?! I mean, you were there, guys!"

"No, Mae, you couldn't have hallucinated all of it," Angus said.

"I guess, the biggest question is: what do you intend to do about all this?" Trent asked.

"We still need to deal with Casey…" Bea murmured.

"Ugh, fuck! I miss him," Mae cried.

"Who's Casey?" Trent asked.

"Our, like, best friend," Gregg said. "When we were growing up, it was me and Mae and Casey, playing in a band, doing crimes, having fun. He went missing awhile back. They admitted it, those fuckers admitted they killed him! They captured him and threw him down the hole! FUCK! Even if there is no fucking dark god down there he's still dead!"

"Oh my God...I'm so sorry," Trent said.

"It's...we're dealing with it," Mae muttered.

"But his parents think he's just missing," Bea said.

"We shouldn't tell them," Gregg said. They all looked at him. "I think it's better if they think he's still out there, living his life, maybe even happy. I mean, that's what we all thought! We were sure he'd finally hopped a train outta this pit stop."

"We should tell them, it's better to know," Bea said.

"Know what? That he was fed to a god to keep Possum Springs running?" Mae asked.

"That he was killed by a cult of murderous psychopaths," Bea replied.

"But they still wouldn't know, they'd just have our word, do you even think they could find the body!?" Mae said.

"We're still trying to figure it out," Angus said, attempting diplomacy.

"Guys, there's one more issue. A new issue," Gregg said. They all looked at him.

"What issue?" Mae asked.

"Uh...his relative? Your, what, great-uncle?"

"So? What about him? What's he have to do with this?" Trent replied.

"Was he a member of the cult?" Gregg asked.

Everyone was silent for several seconds.

"Holy shit, how did I never make that connection?" Mae whispered.

"How did it slip by me?!" Bea cried. "Jesus."

"That's a very good question," Angus said.

They all looked at him. "Well, I'm not a member of this cult, if that's what you're worried about. And I have no idea. We spoke via letters, but he was kind of vague about his life. I have no clue if he was a member of a cult or not," Trent said. He looked around. "I've been going through all his stuff...but I haven't found anything suspicious. If anything, the only suspicious part is how weirdly empty the house is. Actually, if you wanted, we could pull this place apart looking for evidence...you haven't talked to the cops about this?"

"No," Mae said. "Right?"

"I sure haven't," Bea muttered.

"Eff the cops," Gregg replied.

"No," Angus said, "but we should. At some point."

Mae sighed. "Not looking forward to that conversation." She looked up at Trent, finally meeting his eyes. Her expression hardened. "Are you going to break up with me, but you're waiting until we're alone to do it, because that would be less weird? Because if you are, you might as well just do it now. Like, I'll understand, but I gotta know."

"She's right," Bea said, surprising him a little. He looked over at her. "I know, it's weird, and uncomfortable, but after what happened in the mine, and all the shit we went through, like...we're honest with each other. Or we try to be. I mean it's not like I'll hate you or anything, people should be allowed to break up-"

"I'm not breaking up with Mae," he said, looking back at her. "Okay? I'm not leaving you over this. I don't really feel like it changes anything."

"For real?" she asked.

"Yes. I mean, I completely understand why you were reluctant to tell me this. I wouldn't know how to explain this to a new girlfriend if it happened to me, especially if it were still ongoing. Like, I get it. And you didn't do anything wrong, Mae. None of this is your fault."

She stared at him for several long seconds, then her face twisted up and she threw her hands over her eyes and she burst into tears. "Yes it is! Yes I have! I did things wrong!"

"Mae…" He wrapped his arm around her and she fell against him hard enough that he almost fell off the couch. "It's okay."

"No! It isn't! I'm such a fuckup! I fucked everything up!" she wailed.

Bea shifted and got on her other side, hugging her from the back. "It's okay, Mayday," she said quietly. "You're not a fuckup."

"I am! I dropped out of college and wasted my parent's money! They're going to lose their house because of all the money they had to spend on me! And I hit Andy Cullen with a bat and he's probably fucked up for life because of it! I broke so many things! I wrecked the bathroom at Donut Wolf! I fucked up Gregg and Angus's date! I said all those shitty things to my mom and Bea! I yelled at Cole for no reason! I'm a fucking disaster!"

"Mae, it's okay," Angus said quietly. He now stood in front of them, and slowly crouched down. "It will be okay, Mae."

"Yeah, come on, Mae, we're all disasters!" Gregg said, crouching in front of the couch as well.

Mae went silent, and let out a little laugh. "I dunno, Angus isn't a disaster. Trent clearly isn't."

"I definitely have problems, Mae," Angus said.

"But you have it under control! You're like an adult!"

"Not all the time," Angus said.

"And yeah, I'm a disaster, just more quietly," Trent said.

"I don't deserve this," she moaned. "You're all so great and nice and I'm just a stupid shitty person and I don't deserve this niceness-"

"Mae," Bea said. "You remember what we talked about, after the party? The party in Westberg."

"...yeah. Proximity."

"It counts for a lot, Mae."

She was silent, just staring down at her lap now, frowning deeply.

"You're a good person, Mae," Angus said.

"I don't feel like a good person."

"Mae...you have problems, and they make you prone to doing bad things sometimes, but you obviously care about people. You care about us. You like to help people. And protect them. You try to. You've made considerable strides towards improving yourself and your behavior since you moved back to Possum Springs. You're a good person, it's just...sometimes being a good person doesn't feel all that good. Sometimes it feels great, but sometimes it just doesn't."

"...I guess you're right. I still don't feel good...but I feel better now." She looked over at Trent. "You're really not gonna break up with me?"

"I'm really not going to break up with you, Mae. I like you."

"I love you," she murmured, hugging him again.

"I'm...on the way there," Trent said, hugging her back.

Mae laughed. "It's okay. I know love isn't easy for some people."

"Good lord, this is a fucking trial by fire," Trent muttered. "This was eighteen different kinds of awkward. I feel like I just walked naked through a hailstorm or something, getting hit with all this stuff in front of people that I didn't even know existed like a week ago."

"Mae's a lot to handle," Bea said.

"And she seems to cause extreme, even hazardous honesty in everyone around her," Angus said.

"She's a thunderstorm! An asteroid! Hurricane Mae!" Gregg declared.

"That's what my mom called me," Mae murmured, rubbing her head slowly against Trent.

"Well, every hurricane has an eye," Bea murmured.

Mae giggled. "Nightmare eyes."

"So...where does this leave us, exactly?" Trent asked.

"Well...now you know the whole truth," Mae said. "And, uh, I guess maybe...uh...so if your great-uncle was a member of the cult and he was down there, then it means...we sorta killed him? Does that make you mad?"

"We didn't," Bea said. "They literally did it to themselves. Or, at least, that one stupid asshole did it. We didn't collapse the elevator, we were trying to leave. He attacked us and as a consequence of that attack, the elevator collapsed, causing the cave-in. He killed them."

"If he really was part of a cult of assholes kidnapping people and throwing them down a hole, ancient god or no, then he deserved it," Trent said.

"Oh thank God," Mae whispered.

"Glad we are agreed there," Angus murmured.

"But I mean, do you think people are going to show up here?...uh-oh," Trent said.

"What-oh?" Mae asked.

"When I went to get my power turned on and new driver's license, the guy behind the desk got really freaked out when he learned who my great-uncle was...could that mean he was part of the cult, and the guy knew?" Trent asked.

"Could be...although it could also be something else. But that is suggestive," Bea said. "I've got at least some of the city council pegged. I've seen them since the whole incident, but that doesn't mean the whole cult was down there. Just most of them."

"So we should keep an eye out," Trent said.

"Yeah. They probably know who we are. I imagine they're keeping a super low profile given the police are now all into it…" Bea replied. "Unless the police are in on it. I mean, at least some of them have to be, you know how those fuckers are."

"So watch our backs around...everyone? Since everyone is a suspect?" Trent asked.

"Boomers, mostly, I think," Angus said. "They had a real 'make it like it used to be, good old days' vibe to them."

"So middle-aged people."

"Upper middle-aged, I think," Bea said.

"When will we tell people?" Mae asked.

"I don't know...we should wait until next year at least," Bea replied. "There's that whole thing about more people, uh, losing the faith and all that, during the holidays."

"Maybe I can help," Trent said. "I'm the only one who has, like, an 'official' tie to this. They have to tell me once they're finished with the police report...I think. I mean, as his next-of-kin or whatever, right?"

"I think so," Bea said.

"I'll ask again after Longest Night."

"All right...so, uh, any other questions?" Mae asked. "Or can we, like, go back being normal twenty-somethings hanging out again?"

"I'm okay with that," Angus said.

"Yeah, twenty-somethings! Doing twenty-something hangout shit!" Gregg declared.

"Makes sense," Bea said.

Mae looked up at Trent inquiringly.

"Yeah," he said, "I'd like that. Think I need more time to process all this."

"We're still processing it," Bea muttered.

Mae got to her feet. "Let's watch epic fails on YouTube!"