I didn't bring you a monster of a chapter again today but uh, the good shit is happening in this one so that's where we're all about. There's a very dated reference that only real millennials are gonna catch in this chapter, maybe, idk, you're free to scream about it if you'd like lmao. Holy shit dude, we only have 3 chapters left after this. That's bananas. It doesn't feel real, does it? And can I get them all out before April? I think so. They won't be particularly intense so they'll be relatively easy to write, I say, as if I make anything easy for myself.

Well anyway, thanks for reading!

It was completely dark out when Toni finally awoke. For once, he had slept dreamlessly. But now he groggily pulled himself upright, and rubbed at his eye tiredly. It took him a few moments to really wake up, his brain slowly catching up, and he finally realized that it was dark… Because none of the lanterns had been turned on. He heard Zach snoring away in the nest, but his ears failed to pick up any other sound.

Divine wasn't back yet. Tch, of course she wasn't. She lied to him, and he knew it, and he let her do it. With the way she'd been acting, there was really no stopping her, was there? He hoped that whatever weird mood she was in would have passed by the time she got back. Hopefully whatever she was doing out there would make her… Normal again?

Probably not, a lot of wishful thinking on his part.

He swung his legs off the side of the couch, and languidly stretched, feeling every joint and crack pop back into place. He felt… Better than he had earlier that day. His head still hurt, but not to the same extreme as it had before. For now, anyway.

So… What to do?

He sure as shit wasn't going out there to look for Divine on his own, no fucking way. All the snacks in the world couldn't get him to go across that bridge one more time. Nuh uh, he was staying here.

From the nest, Zach suddenly mumbled in his sleep, incoherent noises at first, but Toni paused when he heard a sleepy but desperate, "No, don't go."

The hairs on the back of Toni's neck rose. What was going on there? Without thinking about it, he was on his feet and stumbling over to Zach's side. The other Hunter didn't awaken as he gently settled beside him.

"Hey it's okay," Toni whispered in assurance. "I'm here."

Whether he was heard or not, hard to say, but Zach's face, that had been twisted into an odd expression, gradually relaxed. What had he been dreaming about? Who was going? The answer was probably pretty obvious. And Toni would be lying to himself if he said he didn't also dream about Ryan. Fucking A.

"I'm here," Toni repeated, lying his head down on Zach's chest. Through the blanket, he could hear Zach's heart thumping in his ear. "I'll stay here with you," he promised.

He sat there, curled up half on top of Zach, and just listened. To his steady breathing, the thumping of his heart, the rush of his blood just under the skin. Toni blinked and stared into the darkness, watching as it slowly but surely started to fade, and the morning light began to creep in. He watched the new day come in, but no quirky Survivor came with it. She'd get here when she did.

Toni closed his eye, and started to doze a little. He did that until Zach stirred under him. The other Hunter awoke with a shrill mrrrrp? Zach let out a huge yawn, sharp canines flashing. He started to stretch, but found his efforts thwarted as Toni was half sprawled across him.

Toni brrrrd at him in greeting, reaching up to nuzzle their faces together. Zach sleepily, but happily beeped back at him. They bumped noses, and Toni rubbed his cheek against the other's jaw. The nest began to rumble as Zach purred loudly, and Toni happily followed suit. They were just content to sit and bask in the early morning light.

After a while, Zach finally asked, "Divine?"

"Not here," Toni answered. "Coming back."

"Oh, okay," Zach said. With a great effort, he wrenched his good arm free from under him to drape it across Toni's shoulders. Toni wiggled into the embrace and placed his head back against his chest. "We'll wait?"

"We'll wait," Toni echoed in agreement.

However long it took then.

"...Mouth feels chalky." Zach complained.

By night, it didn't look like much. In fact, she wouldn't have known it was here normally. But in the early morning light, as the sun was rising, Divine could clearly see it now. "Antiques", painted above the doorway in loopy handwriting. And peering through the dusty window, she could see the shadows of old, bulky furniture.

The door was open- In that it wasn't locked, nor closed all the way. Just left open ajar enough for someone to slip in and out. Like she did, squeezing through the narrow space into the warehouse-turned-antique store. The first thing she noticed, or rather, her nose noticed, was that it was dusty. More so than one would expect a store like this to be. Divine almost expected to see some ancient looking shopkeeper milling about but it was…

Almost deathly quiet.

To her immediate left, she spotted a glass counter with an old cash register atop it. Drawing near, she could see an office chair directly behind it, the leather cracked and worn away. And behind that, on the wall, was a corkboard with all sorts of papers and photos pinned to it. The ones that stood out the most were the numerous pictures, old Polarids, of two children, with long black hair, beaming at the camera. From toddlers, to awkward teenagers, to fresh faced young adults, the black haired children persisted.

As youngsters, they looked nearly identical, almost perfect clones of the other. But as they got older, their features changed ever so slightly, truly making them stand out and more distinctive. She recognized them instantly regardless.

And judging by how so many of these photos seemed to take place inside the store, this had to be their family business.

She was in the right place, at least.

Divine slowly ambled through the store, picking her way past old cabinets and couches, glass cases full of knick-knacks and thingamabobs. It felt like everyone's grandmother got together and pushed their collective living rooms together, and made it a whole store. Gaudy leather armchairs, and elegant dining room tables. A whole shelf dedicated to ceramic, crying clowns, which were above a shelf full of adorable little ceramic dogs. There didn't seem to be a real theme with the organization, everything was just sort of everywhere.

But she gravitated down a worn path in the floor, the only stretch of it that wasn't covered in dust, and had dirt and dry mud smeared along it. The faint streaks of blood were only mildly alarming. The trail brought her to a back nook of the store where the Witch had made her den.

There were piles of junk on the floor, odd things and ends. Silverware, children's toys, and jewelry, among other things. Through a window high above on the wall, the sunlight shone through, and the treasure trove sparkled. In the very center, numerous cushions and pillows had been piled up with blankets and curtains to cover it.

And there in the middle, looking extremely cozy with the cow magnet laying in her open palm, was the Witch. With her other hand, she had it slightly bent at an angle so she could taptaptap a claw against the magnet. She cooed happily to herself, taptaptapping in glee.. A Witch, curled up with a magnet, happy as a clam. Didn't see that every day.

Divine didn't announce herself or anything, just stood at the entrance to the little den and waited. The Witch didn't give any indication that she knew she had company, not right away at least. She played with the magnet for a bit longer before softly whispering-

"You… Can come in."

The Survivor took a few steps closer.

"You… Can sit down… With me."

"Are you sure?" Divine asked.

"I want… You to sit," the Witch insisted.

Divine shrugged, alright then, and slipped off her pack and gun before closing the last few feet between them. She gently eased herself into the pillow pile next to the Witch. This was Divine's first time being this close to her. Long black hair, around to her mid-back, shiny and slick with grease like her brother's. From the pictures up front, her eyes had been an icy blue, like limpid tears, but now glittered a bloody red. When her mouth opened, Divine could just make out a set of ragged fangs hiding behind her lips.

The poor girl looked as if she'd been left out in the rain the last few months. Pale skin covered in dust and other crud, with the remains of her dress holding onto her by a prayer. She had lived this long, sure, but barely. She was nothing but skin and bones wearing rags, and yet played with the cow magnet as if the world hadn't ended whatsoever. A small, simple joy in a rather bleak setting.

Divine found herself strangely enamored by that.

The weight of the evening was starting to hit her, and the cushions beneath her felt oh so soft and comfortable. She could fall asleep right now without realizing it. As if to reinforce the idea, she involuntarily let out a huge yawn, tired tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

'I need to get back,' she thought. 'I've already been gone so long…'

Which ended up being her last thought. It was like she blinked, and then next thing she knew, her eyes fluttered open. She had… Slumped way over, practically flat layed out, but with a strange heaviness atop her. For a moment, she thought the last twenty-four hours had been a weird dream, and she was back in the safehouse with Zach using her as a pillow.

But when she moved, the weight toppled off her, and she was greeted with the many faces of a dozen, small stuffed animals that had been neatly stacked on top of her.

"What the fuck?" she whispered.

"Sleeeeepyyyy," the Witch said next to her. Divine looked up in surprise, she had almost forgotten where she was. The Witch peeked at her behind her long hair, a little curved grin on her face. She had set the magnet aside for a stuffed black bird, of which she gently stroked the top of its fuzzy head on the side of a claw. "Sleepy Friend… Needed sleeping friends."

"Oh!" Divine exclaimed, finally making the connection. Couldn't sleep without a teddy bear, or ten, okay okay, made sense. "Oh yeah, totally. You're right, thanks. Did I uh… Sleep well?"

The Witch glanced down at her bird thoughtfully, and then after a few moments eventually answered, "Friend slept."

Sure, whatever that meant.

"Was I asleep long?" Divine asked.

"Friend slept," the Witch repeated, still petting her bird. Cool, that didn't answer anything. Probably a while then. Hopefully not long. Divine glanced around the room, finding no clock, or any sort of time piece that could help her. And it was hard to guess from the sunlight, with the way it only half lit up the room now.

She should go, she realized. But her body ached deeply as she slowly picked the remaining stuffed animals off herself and sat up. Dropping a whole building on a Tank should have killed her. It didn't though. But it felt like it had anyway. Divine carefully stretched, softly oofing every time something cracked or felt sore.

The Witch regarded her curiously.

"Friend hurt?" the Witch inquired.

"Just a little," Divine said. "I was pretty busy last night… Hey I killed him, ya know."

"You… Killed?"

"The Tank. Yeah, I fell off a building and stabbed him through the skull. It was pretty epic actually. I had my arm swung back, and just as I was about to bring my machete down on him I was like, time to die! And then I sunk it into his stupid head until he stopped flopping around."

The Witch blinked at her, completely bewildered.

"It was uh… It was a pretty cool story…" Divine trailed off. "Epically pwn'd… You should have been there…"

Divine looked away uncomfortably, feeling extremely awkward for essentially gloating about killing a meat wall. Like sure, it had to count for something, for doing it all on her own, but saying it out loud felt… Like a dick move? Especially when the Witch had warned her about going after him? And she had anyway because… A death wish or some shit? She still wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"So uh, Tarran's not around huh?" Divine commented, quickly switching to a new topic. "What's he up to? He goes out a lot?"

"Huh?" the Witch started. "Uh… Brother… He walks."

"Oh around outside?"

"Sometimes he brings… Me shinies."

"Shinies huh?" Divine echoed, looking over the piles of junk on the floor. "What is he, a raven?"

"Brother is not me," the Witch grumbled.

"What?" Divine snapped her gaze to the Witch. "What does that mean?"

"Brother is not Raven," the Witch frowned. "I am."

"Wait, you-"

The piles on the floor. The nest of cushions. The stuffed blackbird in her arms. Even her hair, black that would also be described as-

"Of course," Divine laughed. "You're Raven. I knew that."

The Witch's frown twitched into a small smile.

"My friend, Raven," Divine tacked on.

The other girl's smile widened.

"And I'm your friend, Divine," the Survivor introduced herself slowly.

"My friend~" Raven said, clutching her bird tightly with a big grin on her face once more. "Friend, friend friend~"

"I'm very grateful you're my friend, ya know," Divine added. "It makes me happy. Does it make you happy?"

Raven responded by wiggling in place with the same grin on her face.

"Yeah, that's cool," Divine nodded. "We're pretty cool."

She really wasn't sure how to say it, or even ask. Just what it was that compelled Raven that night, to try and warn her about the Tank. Because that's what Divine realized it was now, a warning. But she hadn't listened, 'cause after all, suddenly being able to hear words between sobs was the last thing she had ever expected. And then for Raven to show up? In their hour of need?

Had she known that Tarran had "tattled" on them? Making amends for his actions? But Divine also recalled her little talk with the Screamer yesterday, and that made it sound like that Tank had been menacing this whole side of town for a while…

But what did she know. She couldn't read Raven's mind, just make guesses. And Raven, while chatty, didn't seem ready and willing to freely give answers unless she had a reason to. That was fine. This was all fine. If someone had told the Divine of fiveish months ago that she'd be sitting down for a nice chat with a Witch one day, well, that Divine would have blown their head clean off. Look at her now though. Who would have thought? Certainly not her.

"I should go soon," Divine sighed.

"What?" Raven said, looking up at her. She already had tears budding up in her eyes. "Why?"

"My friends are waiting for me," Divine explained gently. "They've been waiting all night for me. They're probably worried about me."

"But I like you here," Raven started to sniff. "Stay here."

"I can't stay forever," Divine shook her head. "My friends are sick right now. I have to make sure they're okay."

"Ohhh… Oh okay…"

She seemed to understand but she also sounded so… Dejected. Her sharp, bony shoulders started to shake, and her whole frame rattled. It damn near broke Divine's heart. This girl's first friend in forever and now…

"But I can come back later?" Divine suggested. "Yeah, I'll come visit again soon. Once my friends are better, but before we leave town. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yes!" Raven agreed, smiling again despite the tears that rolled down her cheeks. "I-I would like that. Y-You promise?"

"I promise," Divine nodded. Already in her mind, she was planning out the next trip, and what to bring with her when she did. Maybe a care package would be nice? Something to help both siblings out? She wished, deep down, that she could bring them with. Add them to her little pack, her little family unit. But there was no way the boys would accept them as is, and it'd be crowded inside the safehouse with two more.

But she wished… Just something better for them. She held no malice towards Tarran, not anymore. And she felt only gratitude towards Raven, a fondness even already. Nothing she could act on right now, but maybe soon. Before she decided on what the hell she was gonna do from here.

"I'll be back before you know it," Divine promised. "I won't leave without saying goodbye."

The last few days were really catching up to her now. Her pack and gun felt heavy on her back, and her feet felt like they were made of lead. Everything hurt ten times worse than it did before. Her head swam, vision near blurred, senses all out of whack. Just had to make it home. Just get back to that blanket nest, and fall into it, and never get back up. The boys could squash her into a pancake for all she cared, just as long as she got to rest for a while.

They all needed a good rest.

Almost there…

Five feet forward.

Four steps up to the door.

She reached out to push it open-

With more force than intended, it swung open noisily.

"Hey I'm ba-"

There was a loud BANG, followed by a pained screech. Divine stumbled into the room, blinking rapidly as her eyesight adjusted-

Zach was in the blanket nest, clutching his side and grunting in pain, a string of curses dropped from his lips. And right above him, clinging up the ceiling… Was Toni. The claws on his hands and feet dug into the plaster, just enough to keep him from falling. He panted heavily, eye darting around the room frantically, and red in the face.

What… Just happened?

Divine glanced between them, trying to piece together some sort of explanation. But her head was killing her, and she felt extremely grimey. This could wait until like, way later.

"Don't all jump up at once then," she mumbled, closing the door behind her, then limped forward across the room. "I'm gonna take… The world's coldest bath. If I don't come out soon, please make sure I'm not drowning in the tub. Thanks."

She dropped everything along the way to stumble into the small bathroom. She twisted the knobs until water finally came sputtering out into the tub. Divine gently started lifting her shirt off, whining from the pain in her shoulders when she heard a thump from the living room. A few moments later, a shadow appeared in the doorway behind her just as she dropped her shirt to the floor.

"Hey," Toni greeted her breathily.

"Heyyy," she replied back, examining all the cuts and bruises that littered her arms, at least what she could see past all the dirt.

"That took ya, huh?" Toni commented.

"I got a little sidetracked," Divine said, sitting her butt down on the edge of the tub to wrench off her boots. She sighed loudly in relief once her feet were free, stretching them out and hearing her ankles pop back into place. "Ooooh, fuuuck meee."

"So where'd ya go?"

"I went over to Raven's."

"Who?"

"My friend Raven. Tarran's sister?"

"Por que?"

"Goddd I gotta spell everything out for you. Ya know, the Witch?"

"You're telling me, you spent all night with the bruja and the pendejo?"

"Do I look like the lying type to you?" she asked, looking him in the eye.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Okay well… Yeah I spent some time with Raven and Tarran. Happy?"

"No?"

"Oh well," she shrugged as she finished undressing, and stepped into the tub. The water felt icey cold, but was utterly soothing to her feverish skin. She sat down and leaned back until her back hit the tiled wall.

"You're telling me," Toni started again, crossing the short distance between them to lean over her, like he was going to intimidate her into fessing up. "That you got beat the fuck up… Hanging out… With those two?"

"They really know how to party," she said deadpan. Toni pushed away and threw up his hands in defeat. He didn't need to know details. Not really. Not yet, anyway. Maybe after she sat here and soaked for a while. "Alright well what were you and Zach doing when I walked in?"

"Nothing!" Toni snapped defensively. "Nothing happened!"

"Yeah, because you used his ribcage as a springboard for funsies, sure."

"Shut up!" he spat, his face turning red again.

"You shut up."

"I don't wanna talk to you anymore," Toni snarled, and stomped out back to the living room.

"Whatever," Divine rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest and sunk herself a little lower into the water. Later she'd apologize for the attitude, and maybe the deceit, and really explain herself. And maybe regale them both with her grand adventure. And then…

Then she could work on how they were moving on from here.