"You did what?!"

Lucia crossed her arms, stubbornly staring the old man down.

After pacing the hallway in the burrow for a good five minutes, she had finally come up with a proper way to tell their leaders, for lack of a better word, about the boy they had found on the hunting trip.

Needless to say, Kevin was absolutely livid. His usually pale face now matched the craze of ginger hair that sat upon his head, looking ready to steam from the ears any second.

Tom was a whole different story.

He was younger, in his late thirties, and sat across from Lucia patiently. His face didn't give anything away as he thought the situation over, hand absently tapping against his thigh.

"I didn't have much of a choice. What if he's telling the truth? I couldn't shoot down an innocent human, that'd make me just as bad as them." She was getting fairly worked up, always self-conscious of what others thought of her judgment.

"It was irresponsible and ruthless; do you ever think before you act?" Kevin growled, rotten teeth showing as he glowered at her. Lucia felt slightly ashamed at not having thought of the whole thing more carefully, but what else could she have possibly done?

As if on cue, Tom finally looked up, gray eyes patient. "No, you're wrong Kevin." The ginger-haired man turned on Tom quickly, eyes surprised. But, the younger one just simply put up a hand, an innocent gesture. "You're right about being irresponsible, but Lucia didn't act ruthlessly, did you even half pay attention to her whole story?" This made Kevin pause, mouth hanging open as if he were about to speak.

"Exactly. The decision wasn't made without her thinking it over. She even said she thought about both options, and I believe the one she made to be the right one."

Lucia's confidence came flooding back at the praise from him, he was one of the fairest and intelligent of their group and getting a compliment from him was very difficult.

"So, where would this boy be? You said his name was Darko, correct?" Tom began, ignoring Kevin's obvious glares.

Lucia smiled lightly, green eyes vibrant. "Yes, that's what he claims to be called, and I left the out a couple hundred feet, just to be safe."

Tom turned back to smile at Kevin, grabbing a coat from a hook on the wall, "See? She thought the whole thing thoroughly." And with a clap on her small back, he exited the door, gesturing for them both to follow.

The three reached the small group within minutes, Lucia leading the way with a bow and arrow still in hand. She wasn't surprised to find Jasey basically mooning over Darko, naïve eyes wide as she admired him in a kiddish way.

Lucia would have sent her a warning glare, but the other two boys caught her attention much faster.

Jackson and Clyde looked to be seconds away from tearing each other's throats. Clyde was sneering at the taller boy, eyes narrowed in a menacing way, while Jackson seemed to be holding back from throwing a curled up fist in his face.

"Say it one more time." Jackson warned, ready to hurt him any second, his usually kind eyes were dark and intimidating.

Clyde didn't seem at all scared, more amused than anything, thin lips pulled into a smirk. "What are you afraid of, huh? You seem quick to be defensive." He sneered, taking a step forward as if to prove he wasn't scared of Jackson.

"I swear if you-" But, Lucia was quick to cut him off.

"Boys," She hissed, embarrassed by their immature behavior, though her glare was mostly fixed on Jackson, ashamed and surprised that he hadn't known better than to let Clyde get to him, especially because he was always trying to get under people's skin. Jackson should have known that by now.

Clyde didn't seem ashamed at all, just smiling triumphantly as Jackson hung his head down a bit, eyes scanning the forest floor and anything else to avoid Lucia's harsh gaze.

Ignoring the two, she gestured to Darko who was now glancing in their direction with intelligent interest. "This is him." She nodded for the two to go forward, quickly meeting Jasey's eyes and directing her away.

Kevin didn't seem sure of what to make of Darko. His once harsh looks were now softened in curiosity, but the hostility didn't leave his eyes as he circled the boy.

Tom stayed further back, inspecting everything from the distance he stood. "The scars," He pointedly looked to Darko's neck. "Where are they from?"

Lucia couldn't have been sure, but she thought she saw a flicker of fright or maybe shame in his eyes before he quickly answered, voice even as ever. "Complications when the parasite's captured me." There was a slightly tightness to the answer, but it went unnoticed.

"Right, those filthy creatures would do anything." Kevin grumbled in a hateful tone as he finished his examination and went to stand beside his partner.

"Lucia has told us your story." Tom began, again about ten times calmer than the man next to him. "And I must say, I'm quite shocked and conflicted." He added, eyes now narrowing in concentration. "You see, all of us haven't come across a normal human in over five months, our only company is the wild life and they don't come with much news of anything." Humor lined his words. "But, I'm very sure that these beings don't just die. They have to be in a body that dies to end their own life, correct?"

Darko looked a bit surprised at being treated so nicely and equally that it took him a moment to answer. "Yes, that is what was believed. But, even as the thing lived inside of me, I was still able to think and speak to it, I was never actually gone."

Everything froze in that moment he said those words.

Lucia could have sworn her heart stopped.

Her mind turned into a blank frenzy, everything pulling and twisting as she tried to grasp what that meant.

He was still there, even when the parasite had invaded his body.

That meant he was still alive.

Which meant others were still alive.

Her family, they had still been in there.

She caught Jackson's warning glance, but ignored it as she reeled on Darko. "What do you mean you were still alive?" Her voice sounded distant and unreal, like this whole thing wasn't happening.

Everyone turned on her in surprise, besides Jackson, he was the only know he knew the truth about their doings.

"Answer. The. Question." She practically growled out, eyes wide and crazy. She had to know. If she had murdered her own family with them still being alive…she didn't even want to think about it.

Darko looked confused and concerned, but slowly began to answer. "I was still there. I couldn't move my limbs or make any sort of decisions besides when the beings guard was down. But, there was no doubt I was there. It frustrated him."

Lucia's vision was going in and out, tunneling at points, but she pushed herself to stay conscious because she needed to know the answer to her next question. "Are there others? Others who stay alive?" The desperation in her voice sounded pathetic to even her.

The dark-haired boy seemed conflicted on whether to answer or not, obviously taking notice to the pain and sadness in her eyes. "I-well," He stalled.

She broke.

"Tell me!" She screamed, hands curling into fists and ready to do anything to get the answer out of him.

Seeing no other option, he looked down. "As far as I know, yes. The parasite that was in me had been transferred to me and apparently they were all having problems settling here. They think our emotions and motives are too strong to be taken over-" He paused, seeing that she wasn't listening.

Lucia had tuned off after the first answer.

Yes.

They had been alive and under there.

The fear in her sister's eyes weren't just the parasites, but her own. She had been there, buried underneath everything. The little girl Lucia had taken care of since she was little had been murdered in cold blood. Lucia had killed her own sister.

"Lucia," Jackson's voice filtered in through her tyrant of thoughts, but it went mostly ignored as her vision began to cloud even more and nothing was coherent.

How could she live with herself knowing she had killed four innocent humans that were simply brain-washed at the moment?

It was easy.

She couldn't live with herself.

The guilt weighed down till it was crushing her and she couldn't breathe.

That's when everything went black.

(A/N : Well, here's chapter five. Hope you all enjoyed it, it was definitely an interesting one to write.

Directly to RainbowTeeth8 – Thank you so much for the compliments, it seriously means a lot. And of course, I'll check out your story.

Directly to aqualizzard – Thank you so much for checking out the story, I really do appreciate it. And Lucia's hair is supposed to be a sort of red-brown, I was sort of picturing her fox-like with the green eyes and what not. And again, thank you for reading the story.)