Kaede liked Ivan a lot. He didn't treat her like a stupid kid. He didn't treat her like she didn't know anything. He was nice, when a lot of her Dad's friends ignored her, or were kind of scary. When she had wanted to confess to Tommy last year, Ivan had helped her figure out what to say, and pretended to be Tommy so she could practice.

So when Kaede came down to the kitchen and saw Ivan standing in front of the sink, she ran forward and hugged him hard around the waist. "Ivan! You're back! I was worried, because it's been like forever."

"Kaede, sweetie, please let go of me. You'll get your clothes all dirty." Ivan's voice wasn't the happy or nervous thing it usually was. It sounded like he was crying.

Kaede pulled back, looked down at her hands, and gasped. Her arms and hands were covered in dark red-brown that smelled like copper and... "Ivan? Are you hurt? What happened?"

"It's not mine. I'm fine. Hey, Kaede, do you mind if I use your shower?" he asked, still facing away from her.

"What happened?" she asked again, more urgent. "If you're hurt, my Dad knows medicine. Did someone hurt you? Was..." She dropped her voice, stealing a look at the open trapdoor. "Was it the NEXT in the basement?"

Ivan turned slowly, and Kaede's eyes went huge. Ivan's shirt front was soaked with blood. There was a dark red smear on his cheek and chin, even covering part of his mouth, and on his shoulders there were more lurid handprints. The stains on his face had been cut with tear tracks, but he wasn't crying now.

Kaede didn't even realize she was backing away until she ran into the stove. "W-w-what happened?" she asked again, fear making her voice quaver. "Whose blood...?"

"It doesn't matter."

There wasn't a part of Kaede that didn't want to run away. The look on Ivan's face was enough to drive her to tears, even if she hadn't been so stressed by the situation. He didn't look like her friend, the one that always had time to play even when the grownups were busy.

He looked like a ghost.

"Is it because of him?" she asked again, more urgently. No one was allowed to hurt Ivan.

"It's complicated," he said, but that wasn't the same as saying 'no.'

"I hate him!" Even Kaede was surprised at how loud her voice was. "I hate him! I don't know why Dad brought a NEXT home, but I wish he was gone! It's always bad when NEXT get involved!"

"Kaede-"

"Dad's so stupid to trust them! Everyone says they're dangerous, so why did he bring one here? I saw on TV that he was dangerous!"

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear on TV," Ivan said, but he didn't sound like his heart was in it. "Not all NEXT-"

Kaede ran up to her room, furious at her father, furious at the world. Normal fathers didn't bring dangerous criminals home to where their daughter lived. Normal fathers didn't ignore their daughters to spend all their time in the basement with a weirdo.

The image of Ivan, covered in blood with creepy empty eyes made her shudder. He'd said it didn't matter, but it did. Things like that didn't happen before there was a NEXT in the basement.

Two weeks ago, Kaede had written down the number to call if she knew anything about the escaped NEXT. She'd wanted to call at the time-what if the NEXT hurt her father?-but couldn't figure out how to do it without getting her father in trouble.

Better in trouble than dead, she decided. The police would understand, especially if they turned the NEXT in themselves. If they found him in the house without an explanation, her father would really be in trouble.

Hand trembling, Kaede picked up the phone.