Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Minor Character Death, Child Abuse, Swearing


At this point Thaddeus couldn't even be sure if he was still in Pennsylvania. Once he'd tucked William into bed-

"Dad, you don't have to do this. I'm not a little kid anymore."

"Of course I do, young man."

-and been sure that he was actually asleep, Thaddeus had left the hotel room to get some air. Now it was all around him. The wind embraced him. A shiver ran down his spine, but he smiled at the chill. Out here, where houses were far and few between and the only light was that of the full moon hovering over him, it was like being in another world. He'd left with no clear destination in mind, just hurried from the city and its peering eyes, planes, and cameras. Mountain slopes rose in the distance, while below him roads curved across ancient hills. Here, away from everything, it was as though he was the only man in the world.

Not that he was alone.

When shall we begin?

Their voices came together as one.

"Soon."

If William weren't here, he might have already finished with this madness. Sid and his father were living on borrowed time. But it wasn't as if he could just buy William a one-way ticket back to California now…

Thaddeus shook his head. All this power and he still couldn't bring himself to get the damn thing over with. Why waste time? If his family saw him now, floating forty feet above the ground, they'd all but fall down dead. All he needed to do now was-

No. Another face flashed before his mind, one that made his blood boil.

He smirked, heading back east along the wind. It was the Christmas season, after all. What was a better gift to give his family than a few extra hours?


Merilyn had just started taking off her shoes when a knock came on the door. She froze, trying to blink away the sleep that crept over her eyes like cobwebs. The subway ride home that morning had seemed even longer than usual. Even working the night shift, she'd been asked to stay an extra hour to help make sure the café was ready for an event later that day.

Right then she didn't care if she slept in her bra or if Travis woke up alone the next morning. Her couch lay only a few feet away from her, worn but cozy. She stepped forward, ready to collapse onto it, when the knock came again, just a few notes louder.

She froze. Pulling out her phone, she squinted at the bright screen. Christ, who the hell needed her at three a.m.?

A knot tightened in her stomach. She'd known that they were getting a new landlord, even heard rumors that he was a real hard ass. But she'd paid her rent on time that month. Why not knock on Janet from down the hall's door instead? Unless it was one of Travis' friends. The thought made her chest tighten. If it was, she'd sooner wait and have them vomit all over her welcome mat than open the door.

The knocking came a third time.

"Mer, what the hell is that?"

Merilyn stiffened. "Nothing that you should be worrying about. Go back to bed."

Taking a deep breath, holding it in for a few moments, and then releasing it in a long exhale, Merilyn headed for the door. Peering through the peephole showed little more than a dark blur. Slowly, she cracked the door open a few inches and peered out.

"Who is it?"

"Is this Merilyn Parker?" The man standing before her was bald, wearing dark sunglasses and a brown leather jacket that probably cost more than five of her paychecks combined. Most definitely the new landlord.

"What's it to you? I'll have you know I turned in my rent earlier this week."

He chuckled. "I assure you, that isn't my concern."

Just as she tightened her grip on the doorknob, the door flew open. She moved back as if pushed by an invisible wind. The man stepped forward, his sunglasses gleaming in the hallway's dim overhead light, shutting the door behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She searched around her frantically for an umbrella, a frying pan, anything. "Travis!"

The man flicked his wrist as she spoke. She didn't know why the motion caught her eye, but the quick gesture was nothing compared to what she did when she felt her throat tighten. She reached towards it, grabbing at the skin of her neck as though she could pull it apart. Pant as she might, all air suddenly seemed a million miles away from her. She looked to the man with eyes wide as saucers, only to see herself reflected back in his lenses.

"Mer, what the hell's going on?" When Travis got closer, his eyes turned from his not-quite wife clawing at her neck to the man standing in front of his doorway. "Who are you?" Travis picked up his pace, hurrying towards the man. As he came forward, he suddenly froze, his leg and arms raised, his face red. He was statue still, practically standing on one leg. Merilyn blinked. It occurred just quickly enough that she didn't notice her throat loosening. She took in a sharp breath, feeling the air swim through her throat.

"Wh-what did you do to him?" She pushed herself against the wall.

"Oh, nothing yet." The man gave her a small smile. Stepping forward, he pulled a hand from his pocket. She blinked once, twice, but no matter how many times she closed them, lightning sparks (as though he had just rubbed his hand along a freshly dried set of sheets) flew from his fingertips. They danced along the air, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise.

His whole hand was glowing when he placed it across Travis' upper abdomen. His eyes widened while the rest of his body remained still, only a hollow gasp escaping his throat. Merilyn had to place her hands against the wall to keep herself from falling.

When his hand had touched Travis, no sound had been made. It was just as quiet when he pulled his hand away, though the large bruise across his chest about made her scream. But when she tried, only a mix between a whimper and a yelp came out.

The man's other hand was glowing as well. Stepping forward, he pushed Travis back, causing him to collapse with a thud on the floor. The burn was twice the size as before. The edges of Travis' undershirt released a thin line of smoke.

He looked back to her, eyeing her up and down like a farmer examining a cow about to be sold to a slaughterhouse. Then he turned back to Travis, reaching a glowing hand first for his neck and then towards his face. This time, she heard a soft sizzle as their fleshes met.

She reached for the door, turning the knob wildly in every direction. No matter how hard she pulled it forward, it remained stubbornly still. She was so caught up in it that she only turned around when she felt something wet fall across the back of her shoulder.

When she turned, she knew it was a nightmare. The creatures standing before her, after all, were nothing if not nightmarish. Two were only standing mere inches from her, their tongues outstretched. One's moved like a snake's, wrapping around her neck but not tightening.

"Wh-what…" she began. The most that she could get out was a whisper. "What's going on?"

Behind the man stood four other monsters, grey as chalk and every bit as unreal. If this were any other situation, they would have looked comical against the backdrop of her worn living room.

"Not what, Ms. Parker, but why." He pulled his glasses off, revealing a softly glowing orb where his left eye should have been. "Does the name Billy Batson ring a bell?"

She squinted at him. "What does Billy have to do with this?"

"Everything." The man's voice had been calm before, a bit like a schoolteacher trying to not yell. Now, though, he seemed only a step away from screaming.

The nearest monster's tongue tightened around her neck. Its tongue wasn't smooth, instead covered in an array of bumps including, she noted as bile rose in her throat, suction cups. Seemingly effortlessly, it raised her almost half a foot above the ground.

"Was it lust that made you have him? Or laziness that made you walk out?"

The tips of her eyelids were burning. From this vantage point, she could see how still Travis was. Travis, who could jump out of bed with only a moment's notice. Travis, who never stopped moving.

"Mister, I don't know what you know about that boy, but he's better off without me."

"Oh, believe me, I understand that fact perfectly well." He crossed his arms over his chest. "He knows that too." He surveilled his nails. "How often do you think of the boy?"

"Wh-what?" she rasped.

"It was a rather simple question. How often do you think of the boy?" He tapped his chin. "Daily, hourly, only once a year when his birthday rolls around… I assume you get the idea."

Her heart was beating faster than the legs of a leading Kentucky derby horse. "I-I don't know. I'd say never but-"

She'd known it was a bad answer even before it left her lips but something, something, made the truth slip out.

"Never?" He stepped forward, moving over Travis as though he were nothing but a fallen tree limb blocking his path on some unseen road. "Never!"

"He-he isn't part of my life any longer, with good reason."

His left eye was glowing now, shooting sparks. A long scar ran up and below his eyelid, and still looked slightly red, as though it was fresh.

"Did you ever stop and think about how he might feel about that? Just what abandoning him might do to him?"

"Mister, I don't know who you are, but you need to stop this!" It would have been a weak protest even if she could manage to say it a little louder.

"I'm his father." He stepped back again, turning and taking in the apartment. "The rats must love this snug little shithole of yours, don't they?"

His father? No, C.C. wasn't that old, and he couldn't afford that jacket if he won the lottery. Her mind flashed back to a few years prior, when a boy showed up on her doorstep. Was this-

He didn't even look at her when he next spoke. "While I know you're hungry, Lust, it would do you well to let Sloth have the first bite."


They pulled Merilyn Parker apart like a child did a Barbie doll. First came one of her legs, sending a glob of blood onto the surrounding walls. Then her body fell to the floor with a loud thump when Lust took off her head. For a moment, what was left of her lay sprawled on the ground. The sins turned towards Thaddeus, their tongues outstretched, and he gestured towards the bodies.

"Take what's left of them."

Sparks glowed out of his skin, lighting the surrounding darkness. Reaching forward, he held onto a coffee table covered in old magazines and receipts until it burned. His hand went next to the nearby couch and wall.

He closed his eyes and saw William, first as the boy on the cusp of manhood back at the hotel, then as the tween running away from the same apartment that Thaddeus was currently standing in. Then he was a little boy again, so small and fragile looking, calling out for his mother.

In her last moments, had Merilyn truly regretted what she'd done? He swallowed the lump in his throat. Did it really matter? Last minute repentance or not, she was dead. Dead as she should have been to William when the police drove him away from the carnival.

And if in her last moments she truly didn't care about what she'd done, the result was the same. So then did it really matter if his father and brother didn't beg him for forgiveness? If tears didn't run down their cheeks?

No, Thaddeus supposed, it did not. As the fire grew, eating away at the walls and carpet, Thaddeus struck the large glass window, sending pieces of it flying. He stepped through, his cuts closing over almost as quickly as they appeared, his feet touching air. Then, like a phoenix emerging from the ashes, he took off into the night.


In the end, he didn't head back to his father's estate. The twinkling lights of the city guided him back to the hotel, where he came in through the glass balcony to find William still asleep in his bed. Even at his age, he looked impossibly small beneath the covers balled up around him. Leaning down, Thaddeus brushed hair away from his face and kissed his forehead.