August 2nd, 2030

Lindsey... Where did you go? Lyle wondered as he entered the vacant house that once in name of the Jefferson family. Vacant, with a For Sale sign on the front lawn of the calm, blue, two-story home on Burton avenue. He knocked a few times but he found that it was unlocked for some reason. It was just him and he and Lindsey had separated days before, when the young man of pale skin and spiky hair had come tailing after them. He was crazy, and he was scary, too. Still, Lyle Edward Jefferson, the teenager with sandy-blonde hair that had not been cut in years, had come back home. No, the place he called home. He blinked and it was in the same status. No Liena. No mom or dad. No convertible that was made in the sixties in the driveway. No fucking dice.

Had they left something for him?

He went inside and he explored the entire house, starting at the main floor. Kitchen, empty. Bathroom on this floor, empty. Balcony could not have been left with any clue either, he disregarded it. Then, he made his way to the basement. Furnace was already catching dust and covered in cobwebs- that meant that it had been awhile since anyone stepped foot in here. Basement lights went out within five minutes, leaving him to stumble in the dark as he made his way back up again. If something was there, he missed it because it had gone dark. Curse him for not being Speedy Gonzalez.

Second floor, where the three bedrooms were. Nothing in the parental unit. Bathroom? Nope. Liena's room? Apart from a turquoise comb left behind, nothing. And then, the last place he could ever fear; his own private quarters.

He grabbed the bronze handle and turned it slowly and dramatically. Like all the other rooms, he expected to find nothing. Why would they leave something intentionally? Why, he could already see them and hear their arguments when they stepped foot here from time to time. They wondered his condition, his status. Hell, maybe even cops and detectives also entered this room. It was depressing to think about, to know that, in all the time he was gone, locked in a cell underneath ground, they mourned him heavily. They surely had to have cried and begged the gods above to return him safe and sound. And older sister Liena- What did Liena think? How devastated was she?

He pushed the door and let it go ajar widely, and he saw nothing there. He entered anyways, it was rather funny for him. Where there was a bed with a racecar cover, there was a pocket of space. Where there was a desktop and a gaming chair, there was space. His dresser, tan-white with five drawers on it, gone. His closet, full of clothes and the laundry basket beneath it to stuff his smelly clothes from school, gone. The posters of Halo and Call of Duty games, also gone. His life was gone, he was-

Who was he, if no longer Lyle?

He fell to his knees; he was too heartbroken and wished he never missed all that missing time. They moved on without him, that was the painful nature of all this. Liena and their parents had birthdays he missed, the parents had wedding anniversaries and went to dinner, never thinking of Lyle. The worse feeling in the world-

Lyle broke into heavy tears and succumbed onto the floor. He bawled his eyes out and wiped them away as fast as they were falling. The horrid concept where you just stopped existing to the people that gave birth to you, to the sister who made an oath to be with you until time said otherwise- it hurt him, it hurt him so much that it could have killed him. Given him a fatal heart attack.

He knew that they moved on, because if anything, they had moved. They had done what Lindsey's own family had done to her. He felt what she felt and now he needed her comfort, she could relate to his pain and remedy it by being there for him. Only, Lindsey was gone. Lindsey took another direction, ran another path- He believed that, but there was no way of knowing. Never.

Give me a sign that you're still around...

He kept crying, not noticing the shadow creeping into the room. Heather Eleanor White- Gloom- had come with a growling stomach. She licked her lips and decided Lyle was the next meal.

Act VI: Renaissance, Chapter VI: Gloomy Night

Lyle rolled down the stairs, tripping on a step while eluding the horrific girl with shark teeth. He got on all fours and tried to rush out the door- but Gloom came down soaring, avoiding all the steps to get him. "MEAT! LONELY MEAT, TASTY MEAT!"

"Tasty-?!" Lyle was flung back to the wall across from the front door, creating a crater where the bookshelf once was. How the girl was strong, he had no idea. His back caught pain, aching sorely all over. "What do you-?"

Gloom lunged at him, mouth wide open. "GLOOM IS HUNGRY!"

Lyle rolled to the side, frantic to escape her- Wait, why am I trying to outrun her?! I have-

Gloom jumped again, trying to devour him. She put out her hands to grasp as him, claw at him with her nails if she needed to. "HOLD STILL!"

Lyle let her have it, pushing himself off the ground with his special canine jaws brought out to play. They dug and bit into Gloom's neck when she landed, her hands pushing hard against Lyle's chest. She pulled back her hands and directed them onto his head, trying to pry his jaws from her neck.

"AGH, MY NECK!" Gloom scratched at Lyle's head, then thought to pull his hair. "LET GO! LET GO!"

Lyle drew blood.

"OW, THAT HURTS!"

Lyle let go; his ears could not withstand her crying. And he pushed her away, gaining space between them. "What business do you have breaking into my house?"

"Wha- Your house?" Gloom let out a confused moan, hands rubbing around her neck. "But this place is for sale-"

"Leave this house at once!" Lyle shouted, keeping his distance. "I don't wish to be bothered by... Strange girls with deformed teeth."

"MY TEETH?! WHAT- WHAT ABOUT YOUR TEETH?!" Gloom pointed at him and frantically shook. "THERE IS NO WAY!"

"Uh..."

"Wait... I know!" Gloom laid a hand flat and struck the other down down as a fist. "You're one of them, aren't you?! One of those phenos on the news!"

"Phenos?" He drew confusion. "I don't understand-"

"Those escapees from those horrible places!"

And he knew what she meant. "Oh... Oh, yeah..." And he grew visibly sad. "Yeah..."

Gloom gasped and frowned. "Whoa, uhhhh... I'm sorry-"

"What the-?" Lyle looked puzzled. "Weren't you just attacking me?"

"I'm a woman of many-" But she coughed violently, drooling blood- and vomited buckshot. "Oh, God."

"You're one of us?'

"W-well-" Gloom had bent over, making a mess in the living room. "Yeah, m-more or less-"

"Could you take this to the kitchen sink? Or maybe just get out?"

Gloom wretched out more in front of him. She spilled her blood and intestines gruesomely before him. Lyle acted quickly and dragged Gloom to the kitchen, not having her barf her insides all over his old home. "Thank you!"

"You're crazy, you know that?!" He dropped her head over the sink and turned the faucet on, letting water run down. Gloom was then cupping water to her mouth and cleaning her face. "What were hoping to accomplish here?"

"Kill and eat you," Gloom lightly answered. "I want you, I want food, I'm-"

"You... Eat people?" Lyle felt his insides rattle, his stomach churning from the fact. This girl was a freak. More or less, she said, so maybe she was a pheno. But she couldn't have been... Right? "Do you?"

"Dead or alive, I consume the flesh of my own kind, yes," Gloom answered through the water in her mouth. She finally closed the faucet and wiped her mouth dry, turning to him. "Thanks for that-"

"Excuse me?" Lyle crossed his arms. "I didn't do it for you, but for the house! This is my house and you've come here an intruder."

"Your house?" Gloom grinned, showing her shark teeth again. "This place is empty, waiting to be sold."

"Now, but before... It wasn't."

Gloom rubbed again on her neck, the teeth marks having vanished now. "Oh, so this was your place? I get it now."

"Where'd you come from?"

"Everywhere," Gloom replied, looking at him with hungry eyes. "Didn't think I'd be running into one of those mutates out there. Bet you'd put up much of a fight, so I think I'll call this a draw." Gloom strolled out of the kitchen- but Lyle grabbed her by her dress and kept her there. "What?"

"Hang on, I still want to talk."

"Well, I don't!" Gloom jerked him away and in doing so, she ripped her new dress. "Hey! You meanie!"

"Agh, oops!"

Gloom raced her hands over her back. "I can't reach it! Where is-? Oh!"

"Serves you right," Lyle pleasantly said. "You're not going anywhere."

"As if you have any say in what I do!" Gloom brushed him away and made an attempt to leave again. She would not find her lunch here, and he was getting what he'd wanted. "Goodbye, freak."

"No!" Lyle followed after her, running like a dog on all fours, circling her to block the front door. "Hold on, you! I won't allow you to leave and find someone else if it is as you say!"

"Hmm?" Gloom crossed her arms, her breasts being crushed visibly. "Get out of my way! You're lucky I won't waste my time with you! And what do you care if I take someone else? That should be of no concern of yours!"

"Well, it is because it's wrong!" Lyle protested. "What you're doing has a name. Cannibalism! And it is a crime, the last time I've checked."

"Crime?" Gloom had a scarier laugh. "You dare call survival crime? By that logic, we're all offenders! Hey, you should know all about that, too! You've been locked up and freed some months ago, right? You're just like me, you're a survivor with those freak abilities and those freak physical traits and you have the gull to call me out?! Are you some sort of hypocrite?!"

"No," he shook. "I don't go eating people, miss. That's a crime against humanity."

"Crime against-" Gloom had underwent a series of darker changes since Dadetown. Things mattered not to her. Everyone who was caught in the range of her deadly shark teeth was dead. If they fought back- just like Lyle- no biggie, she'd move on and take to another place and lie in wait for the next victim. "I guess I'm a danger to all mankind, pffffft."

"I didn't say that-"

"If I could eat the whole world's population, you would be right."

He shivered; she meant it in the coldest way possible. "You can be changed, I'm sure they're working on a cure, then-"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Gloom held up the index finger from her right hand. "I'm not one of you, we just have similarities, I could so easily pass myself off as one of you."

"It's that easy?" Lyle stood up now, but had not moved. "Is... Eating easy?"

"I tend not to care anymore," Gloom honestly revealed.

"Well, you're looking at someone who does! A life's a life, and I value my own greatly. And if I can learn to do that, I can with everyone else. How dare you take that from them..."

Gloom had not been seeking to have a moral debate over this. "I want to live, too. I eat to survive-"

"BLASPHEMY!"

"It's unfair, so get over yourself, youngster."

"THAT'S YOUR JUSTIFICATION?!" Lyle didn't know what to do, but his bodily instinct said to go and attack her. Maybe he could have bested her when it came right down to it- Stop her and hand her off to the cops or whoever qualified to handle these matters. He rushed her and she sprung high, hands reaching the ceiling, and landed at the base of the door. She turned the knob and pulled- "How can I let you leave-"

She took a step outside.

"-when you could endanger the girl I've escaped with?"

Gloom halted her movements, hand still on the knob. "Girl?"

"I wasn't alone-"

Gloom turned to sniff the air inside. "I don't smell anyone else."

"That's because I've lost her, the girl I was supposed to be protecting, and I royally messed up by losing her..."

Gloom began to catch on his secret message. "Oh, I think I finally understand your anger. You're worried that I'll..." She nodded slowly. "Okay, okay..."

"The odds are never impossible these days," Lyle believed. "We were both kidnapped, experimented on and survived all their tests. You know about us, but were you aware that plenty of people died in those cold places?"

"I... I didn't-"

"What chance did we have to survive, right?" Lyle grit his teeth. "She is thirteen right now, and I'm seventeen. We've been there for the last four years, care to do the math?"

"Oh..." Gloom closed the door back shut. "You don't like the idea of her facing dangers alone. You could try to stop me but it'll just be one less danger for her out there. Big world, big number of obstacles."

"Still, you're inhuman. That's enough reason-"

"What was her name?"

"Don't sidetrack me!"

"I'll make sure not to eat her if I come across her," Gloom proposed. "Name and face features?"

"But you're still gonna-"

"Then fight me if it means that much to you!" Gloom then offered. "I don't plan to stop, I've always loved the taste of human flesh for years! Do you think you're the first male to demand that of me?! You think you're the first who wanted me to change?! I won't! I am who I am and no one should ever expect me to be any different! You know why?! Because... Because everyone else eventually leaves me!" Her mind had raced to Jerry Cruise, the man of white hair and a stone-cold nature.

Everyone else eventually leaves me, she says. Everyone else... Who was everyone else to a thing like her?

"I'm sorry, is this where I'm supposed to feel sympathy for you? Are you kidding me?"

"This is the part where you understand your effort is futile!"

"I'll try again, I don't believe that!"

"Then you'd have to chase me, won't you?" Gloom put his skills and determination to the test by running out as fast as she could. He gave chase, starting on two feet yet. He lost his way from home. Down these familiar streets. Past the old Hayden home. Past the Mulligans. Past the Tones. All these houses had changed in the time he was gone, he had seen to it. He noticed and compared them. Of course he had known that not everyone had remained. Out of all neighbors, maybe less than half still lived there- and not any of the remainders had noticed Lyle. Maybe they were at work or taking a nap. Lyle Edward Jefferson had come home for the first time in years and no one had welcomed him. No one had noticed him, if anyone had.

Gloom had been enjoying herself, laughing merrily along the sidewalk. Lyle raced to catch up to her, and five blocks away from his old place, he was right on her, reaching a hand out to finally stop her. And Gloom jotted her head to the side, saw him too close, and bounced up into the air, soaring ten feet above. Lyle had nearly fallen over, but slowed down and circled around below her. She can actually fly! Good Lord, what more surprises do You have in store for me?'

"What's wrong, can't you fly?" Seemed Gloom didn't care about being seen. In her own mind she had known phenos weren't a secret anymore. She used that as an excuse to be more freer than she had before. And she had been spotted time to time in these past few weeks, flying as high as a bird heading south for the winter. "What could you do?"

"Come down here and I'll show you!"

"Why be on your feet when you can be up here?" Gloom tossed the peace sign with her fingers, winking and giggling. "Maybe you'd like to see it with me. Tell me, Mister Doggy Boy, have you ever been high enough to see the world? It's so big and wide, you could never believe its size."

"No, I have never. Not even from a plane."

"Plane..." Gloom rubbed her chin. "Those flying things..."

Flying things...? Lyle cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe someday I will see it from your angle."

"Yeah, I have a better idea!" Gloom fell back down to earth, right in front of him. She wrapped her arms around him and then flew back up. The special guest gasped but didn't try to budge free; he'd have a painful drop if he did just that, so Lyle stayed calm and let her do what she wanted. And what she wanted was to show him what she could see when she soared higher to the clouds. "You're surprisingly lighter than I thought you'd be! Talk about a twig."

"I've always been scrawny, what do you want from me?"

"Take a look, tell me it isn't pretty."

And Lyle looked around. The sun, the skyline, the entire board of landscape down- this part of the world was colorful and calm. He saw that the goth-looking girl was right. The air was fresher up here. Colder somehow but more purified here, more relieving. He had no idea how to explain it. And he didn't need to; she knew it all too well. "It's... Cool up here."

"What if I decided to drop you?" Gloom giggled. "Would you like to freefall by yourself?"

"No- No!" Lyle begged. "I don't want to!"

"What if I'd catch you?"

"Stop playing with me!" Lyle chortled. "It's not how I'd want to go."

"I promise I'll catch you, really!"

"No!"

"Why? Why, when you belong down there anyway?" Gloom touched his mind, infiltrated through the cracks. "You've always been there, confined to grounds. Cement, grass, carpet- and never up here. Are you telling me you don't want to go back down?"

"Not when I could be killed!"

"Think less about the dying and more about the falling."

"Same thing!'

Gloom released her hold on him, letting him take a dive out of the sky. "It isn't."

""HEEEEEEY!" Lyle plummeted down, screaming while the winds smacked his face and blew his hair like a pack of streamers.

"AND CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!" Gloom let herself fall face-first, chasing after Lyle this time. "DON'T WORRY, I'VE GOT YOU!"

Not how he'd imagine he would die. He could become street pizza, if he was lucky. No telling where he could land- die. Die. Of any places down there- but Gloom caught him, lifted him up with both hands and stopped him from having a messy death. "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE?!"

"The idea was for you to have fun!"

"WHAT FUN IS THAT?!"

"Why, the fun kind, silly!" She made a cute, happy face along with her statement. "Wowee, wasn't that simply amazing?"

"You're insane!" Lyle's heart beat so fast it was ready to break free from his ribcage. "Leave me alone! Set me down and just leave me alone!"

"Don't tell me that wasn't fun! It was! The adrenaline, the breathtaking dive! The-"

"PUT ME DOWN!"

"Okayyyyy..." Gloom came down over a park and dropped Lyle next to a tree, witnessed by some kids and their parents. She didn't care at first but Lyle had spotted a handful of curious critters suddenly charge at them with cheery, content expressions. His first thought was that they'd put themselves in danger of being eaten by the shark-toothed man-eater. He had been too shaken up yet to get up and stand steady; he lied on his side among the tree, breathing hard still. "Hey, it looks like we've been noticed!"

"Hey..." Lyle reached out and tugged on her dress. "Don't hurt these children!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Gloom slapped his hands away. "I mean, these ones are too young. Teenagers, on the other hand-"

Lyle winced, heart skipping a beat.

Gloom faced the fascinated kids who gasped and looked to her in wondrous awe. A few of those boys there waved their arms up and wanted to be picked up. Gloom smiled and laughed and complied to their demands, levitating only ten feet and taking two at a time like she was some ride at an amusement park. She spun around for further joy, and went back down to repeat it. But the parents that had shown up slowly made their way over to voice their inevitable concerns. Lyle had no idea what was to be, but he gulped. Gloom didn't seem to be raving human limbs just yet, but he kept a close watch from down there.

"Hey, you! Put those kids down!"

Gloom had stopped spinning for the fifth time and came back down, letting the boy and the girl whom held tightly onto her go. The kids retreated like a pack, but the group was replaced with another- and the second one was hostile, the opposite of the kids. Her smile faded, the enthusiasm leaving her like Elvis Presley leaving the building. "Sorry, thought we could all use the fun!"

"She's one of those beings on the news!"

"What were they called? Phenoms or something?"

Gloom laughed nervously. "Oh, c-come on, I'm not a danger for the little boogers-"

"Get out of here, we don't want your kind!"

Gloom raised her hands at them. "I'm not here to-"

"Leave the park, witch!"

"Fly away like you were just doing!"

Lyle finally got up. "Hey-"

"Go away, demon bird!"

"Witch!"

"Worthless pheno-girl!"

"Filth!"

Gloom backed into the tree, where Lyle then saw a new expression on her face; pain and sadness, on the brink of tears. She retreated, driven away by the scornful wrath of the parent collective. From there, they turned their heated attention to Lyle. "Hey, boy, are you one of them too? Were you with her?"

He shook his head quickly. "No, I can't fly."

"Wait," one of them, a father had noticed, "I know that face! By God Almighty, Lyle Jefferson, is that you?!"

Lyle blinked a few times and had not identified the man yet. "Yes- Yes, it is..." The fact that he had now been recognized should have made him smile, but the joy did not come. "I'm sorry, I- I don't know who you are. I can't-"

"Lyle, you don't recognize me?" To the others, he spun and said, "it's okay, he lives here."

"Lives...?" Lyle brushed himself off. "But my house is empty."

"Oh, have you gone to your old house on Burton? Your folks have moved, but they're still here, they just relocated just east of here. A house on Camden street, I believe."

"What- They're here?!" Hope had begun to fill in him.

The firm, nice man had changed his eyes. "You have been away, haven't you? Dear Lord, do not tell me that it was them, wasn't it?"

Lyle exhaled through his nostrils and said nothing to this, as much as he wanted to. "I'd love to see my family, that I know."

"Go, Lyle..." The strange man put his right arm out and pointed to the end of the park. "They await you."

"Yeah... I bet they are..." He looked up, hoping to spot Shark Teeth again. She wasn't there. "But I have something to do first."

He returned to his old house first, the center where most memories were made. Here, where the birthdays happened. The past Christmas holidays. New Year's Eve. Thanksgiving. Many of those, enough of those. He'd sit in a table where his mother recited a prayer and they blessed God for the wonderful gift. He'd fall asleep dreaming of Santy Claus! All the presents underneath the triangle tree, as he called it, would be there wrapped in colorful wrapping paper, waiting to be torn, and the anticipation had him excitement. He spent it all with family, a perfect family. Liena would hug him, love him, help him up to a chair and serve him that hot cocoa mother made. Why, even now, he could feel how warm and tight her hugs were. And that smile was just as motherly as that of the missus of the family. Lyle thought he saw Liena briefly and raised his hand to grab her hand- and it was just a hallucination being played from his mind; he was tired and he was missing her just the same.

And then... He had a darker thought; four years later, just how had Liena changed? You got older, but how older and... What's new? Why don't I get to know before I come in? Do you all... Is there a possibility that I'm dead to you all? Do you guys have a blank casket in my name? Do you...?

His next thought was to get to the cemetery first, to see if his conclusion was valid or not. And part of him had been butterfly-in-the-stomach scared to go and see. It just could not be just or fair if it was true.

Gloom had entered and leaned against the wall silently, but she made her presence known. "You came back here... Why?"

"Ahhh! Jeez, can't you knock?" Lyle had exhausted breath on Gloom now. "What did you want? I thought you had gone."

"Could say the same about you and this place," Gloom huffed. "Will you answer my question?"

"I've come to say goodbye before I left forever."

"Oh..."

"Are you stalking me now?"

"No, not at all..." Gloom pointed up. "Did you see the world from my perspective?"

"I did and it was scary!"

"Why was it scary?"

"Um, hello?! I was falling!"

"Well, that too but you missed my whole point."

"I don't-" Lyle stopped and put his head down, hand covering it. "Okay, okay, enough of your games. Could you please just tell me why, and don't feed me that 'fun' crap. That was not fun, not in any way."

"Alright..." Gloom did a 360 degree turn and made a circle with her finger. "All of this, the entire earth, the ground- we start here when we're all born. Correct?"

"Duh."

"And gods are up there, they can move up and down, but they are not here, right?"

"Yes, they're powerful-"

"I wasn't born like this, you see... I've been remolded and I can fly. Essentially, I am able to move up."

"Yeah...?"

"I thought I was happy to be able to do that, and I did it on my earliest days, but... I had to learn the hard way that it was just me in the skies. And the gods are too far away for me to reach. Always."

"Sorry, I don't have a tissue for you."

"Wanted you to see what I see everytime I go up. The entire globe looks peaceful but what does that mean when you're alone, with no one to see it with?"

"Well, you dropped me...! I didn't have time to-"

"Because you cared too much about being down there. You're too scared to fly, too scared to go high, if you had this power."

"Where is this coming from?! Do you hear yourself?!"

"Fly with me again."

"No!" Lyle shrieked. "I don't know what your game is!"

"I just want to see you ascend."

"What?!"

"Fly, for once."

"I-"

"Don't be afraid of the fall."

The fall... What is this fall she actually refers to?

Later

He went down that path, crossing sidewalks and passing streets he had never seen before. Looked at the street names, tried to find that one he'd been told. And he found that street; it was then a matter of finding out which house it was. He looked thoroughly, but he didn't need to for long. One of the driveways had a familiar Cadillac resting right on the driveway. This was it, this was the one.

This was where Lyle could be re-integrated into society. It's you! After all this time!

Lyle took a step into the path from the street to the front porch, taking longingly to reach the door to knock. He had a wide smile placed on, already picturing how perfect today could be. Perhaps it could have been- but he froze when his formed fist was just ready to signal the household of his presence. Who was in there? Would they be happy? Surprised? Why did they move eastwards?

And he thought of Lindsey. Wait... She's still out there, lost and alone. She needs me.

There was conflict there. One outcome or the other, when there should not have been. He had an obligation here that he had not been bothering. And why was that?

Don't be afraid of the fall.

Lyle couldn't make up his mind. Returning home and live the rest of his life in peace. And then, on the other hand, Lindsey Sweetwater was by herself. Scared and alone, he believed. Wait, how did he get here and forgot about her? Why did he-?

The fall.

Lyle began to pant. It worked into his body.

Fall.

He looked down in confusion before his mind made up. Walking through that door made him selfish, and leaving, selfless. The hunt for her had to go on.

"Don't be afraid to fall..." Gloom had followed him. "Not from this."

"Why do you follow me?"

"You make me curious, that's all. I want to see where you go and if you remember you want to stop me."

"You could fly and there would be no way-"

"I don't feel like flying now." Gloom set her hands behind her back. "What about you? What are you going to do here? Try to catch up to me or fall for her?"

He blinked, twitched. "Fall for her... Fall from this path. That's what you've meant."

"I mean many things," Gloom corrected. "And nothing at all."

"Are you always this cryptic?"

"You'll never know."

Lyle looked back at the door, and then the street. Home. Lindsey. Old life. The life of another. "Which one...? Which one?" Then- "No, I'm sorry, I have to hold off on this..."

Lyle backed away from the home and sprinted away. I need to find you, I need to take you and lead you home before I can come home. I need to-

Gloom followed him, but he made no effort to fight her off.

I need to fall from this path to save the only girl I know depended on me. I- I failed her, and I will have done so without redeeming myself if I-

"I'm coming with you!"

"Like heck you are!"

"I'll make it easier for you by giving myself up so that you can keep watch on me. I'm sure you would like that little compromise."

"You're not letting this go, are you?"

"Oh, I don't plan on letting you go, my dear. I'll follow you to see where you'll take me."

"What about eating people?"

"Oh, I'm hungry!" Gloom showed, rubbing her stomach. "But I've gone long without eating so I'll hold off. And don't worry, I won't try you or the girl."

"You're still concerning."

"Tehe, that's fine! By the way, what's your name?"

"Don't!"

"I'm Gloom!" she happily answered as if he had shared his. "Well, it's what I wanna be called. My real name, I've begun to hate it."

"Alright," he said uncaringly. "As much as I don't want to, it beats going into some wild goose chase. I only say yes because I can have a say on your meals now."

"Still have to eat."

"Then we can dumpster dive grocery outlets!" Lyle suggested. "They toss meat that isn just about to expire! You can stuff yourself like a king."

"Sorry... What's dumpster diving?"

"Hoo boy..." He rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long journey. And this first night, a gloomy night.

Night

Gloom chewed her way through the packaging and ate the temperature meat. It was lukewarm and too mushy but she gobbled it down messily. Lyle preferred this over her chewing on legs and arms and anything else of a living person, even as disgusting as it was. She made too many slopping noises just the same, and he lied down on the living room of the empty house. Why it hadn't been sold yet, he didn't know.

"I'm sorry, do you not have manners?"

"I did, once," she answered him, spilling bit and pieces of ribs over the floor. "Manners were part of the old world. This is the Dark Renaissance now. Everyone seems to want the one thing these days."

"One thing?" Lyle scoffed, hearing a joke from her. "I'm part of that everyone, so what do I want if you're so confident and smart?"

"Well..." Gloom took her next bites slow. "I don't know... I'm not sure yet, I can't read you well. You're different from the others."

"Others?"

Gloom wiped her mouth and lowered her package of frank sausages. "Awhile back, I've been kept in a basement by this sheriff in a Colorado town. He'd kill offenders and lawbreakers. You know, people he figured nobody would miss. He'd drop them down and had me eat them as long as I served his needs. To him, I was a tool and a sex toy, not a girl who wanted to live."

"You... You were...?" Lyle sat upright and shivered, facing her.

"The natural order of things is to kill or be killed, that's what I've understood. But for me, I was the better of the two. I was a predator but with this man- this cruel sheriff, he made me feel like weak prey. I didn't know it before, I don't know if it was pure ignorance or I just chose not to accept that my own free will had been taken."

"Jeez, I... I don't know what to say? What... What happened next?"

"A knight in shining armor came to my rescue, of course."

"And he saved you?"

"Well, yes- He busted me out and presented to me a new deal. Together we flipped the town upside down and brought all the conspirators to justice. The sheriff's friends were trying to make him some bad guy with propaganda and trickery but he plowed through it all. But..." Gloom sighed. "I've bled for him, I've taken maybe one or two bullets for him, and he just gave me up. I know he intended to leave me to the right people but I didn't want him to leave. I wish he said goodbye- I can't remember if he did- And I wish I had the chance to tell him that I've developed feelings for him. The kicker here was that he was over eighteen, and that's called... Well, you know."

"Oh..."

"I have a shameful tendency to fall in love with the guys that aren't good for me..." Gloom shook her head with a touch of sadness. "The very first man I've ever been with is the one who did this to me-" Gloom tossed her meat away from her. "It's true, they can call me a monster and a cannibal and- Hey, a vampire, too. Hell, I'm just like a vampire, I know that. But I still bleed, I still hurt and I long for a companion. I long..."

Lyle listened to her needs with his heart.

"I want to fly as close to the ground so the next flier won't be afraid to go the altitude I usually soar at. I want..."

Lyle moved closer to Gloom, now being reeled in by her emotional state. Again, Gloom wiped herself and set her hands on her lap. "I know what you need," he told her, then laid his hand on the side of her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were more than just some carnivorous fiend, Gloom."

"I just want someone who can stay, someone who could..." She knew her words but she could not say it to him. He didn't need to; he leaned in and closed his eyes and she knew where this was going and accepted it with welcoming hands.

They shared their first kiss. Glyle.

AN: I said it to the threads, had plans for Glyle and another ship (spoiler) built in for the same arc. They know where I'm going with this and I've actually, once, specified what direction I would be going. Of course, they thought I was Flagg so they cannot link it back to me LOL. Glyle y'all, done weirdly but I've done my best.

Next chapter would have been posted by the time you've scrolled down here. Unless you just scrolled down right away. Shame on you.