Trent kept expecting a conversation to start up as Mae guided him through the city, but none did. They ended up parking in the mostly empty lot of a closed-down convenience store and stepped out of the car without anything being spoken beyond Mae's terse directions. The atmosphere only grew more ominous as she stared at their apparent destination for several long seconds with wide, stricken eyes: the space beneath the huge neon sign he'd seen earlier.

"Come on," she said quietly.

He didn't argue, even though he didn't like where this was going, glancing uncertainly at Bea and Molly. Bea looked tense, Molly a little awkward, but mostly keeping a poker face. Trent wondered if this was some kind of trial by fire Mae was putting Molly through, or if it was just coincidence. Probably coincidence. It was just a thing Mae felt like she had to do, and Molly happened to decide she wanted to go along for the ride, probably not truly realizing what the ride entailed.

It was cold and a little wet as they walked down the sidewalk, dew forming on everything as a light mist hung on the air. Trent wondered if it would rain at some point in the near future. He kept focused, feeling his anxiety not quite spiking but definitely waking up and growling a warning now that he was deep in an unfamiliar city in the middle of the night, doing something potentially damaging for Mae.

He trusted her, but he knew she didn't always have the best decision-making abilities for things like this.

They reached an intersection and crossed the street, and then walked along that side until finally the four of them stood at the base of the small hill the vast neon sign was built atop. It looked huge, the lettering some ten or fifteen feet tall.

Big and red and burning in the night.

DURKILLESBURG

"I hate this sign," Mae finally said, her voice quiet but perfectly clear in the oddly flat silence that surrounded them. It was almost like the town was holding its breath, waiting for something bad to happen. "I've got some kind of psychological condition. They're still figuring out what it is. When I was fourteen...I attacked someone with a bat and put them in the hospital. I don't even remember doing it, exactly. Not all of it. They called me Killer after that. I heard that word whispered a lot afterwards. By the time I was preparing to go to college, I hadn't forgotten about it, but I'd stopped thinking about it all the time. And then I got here, and I saw this sign, and that's all I could think of. It was like the town was calling me KILLER."

Trent wanted to say something as she fell silent, to comfort her, but he could tell she wasn't finished, and even so, he wasn't sure what to say.

"This sign was the last thing I really saw when I dropped out of college last August. I always knew I'd come back here. I didn't know why or how, but I just knew. It wasn't over. And here I am." She laughed softly. The sound was more than a little odd. "To try and get laid."

"Mae…" Bea said finally.

"It's okay. You might as well wait, I'm not done yet. There's one more place I have to go. And then we can go to the hotel."

Abruptly, she turned and began walking again. They all followed after her. Trent glanced at Molly again, and found a look of disquiet had broken through her calm. She looked a little freaked out. Great. Not a good sign. On the other hand, she'd find out sooner or later about that. In truth, he was surprised it hadn't already come up yet. It was better that she hear it sooner, and from Mae's mouth directly. Though he was deeply curious of what she thought about the whole situation. He was even more curious about where they were going.

Mae brought them to a steep set of stairs built onto the hillside and they silently climbed up them. As they reached the top, he suddenly realized they were at the edge of the college campus, and ahead of them, in the middle of a huge parking lot, was a statue. A big bird, a distinguished old man who was pointing off to the horizon.

Mae slowed until she stopped at the edge of the parking lot, staring up at the statue for a long time. She said nothing, minutes passing by in the chilled gloom.

"I remember it so differently," she whispered finally. She sounded like a woman in a dream when she continued speaking. "I kept seeing this thing, everywhere I went. You can see it from almost anywhere on campus. And it was like it was pointing at me. Like it was waiting for me. I was a little crazy at the end. I couldn't come out of my room, I couldn't do anything, like I was locked down in my head somehow. I could see this thing from my window. And it seemed alive, somehow. And accusing. I hated it so much."

When she finally turned around, she had tears in her eyes. She began shedding them, crying silently as she smiled at Trent and Bea, and but he could sense an immense and immediate change in her, a powerful one, as she began walking towards him.

She almost knocked him over as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I feel free," she said finally. She sniffed. "I had no idea what would happen when I came here, but now I know why I needed to. It's like I'm free, of all the bad shit that happened here, all the accumulated crap that gathered in the corners of my mind while I was going to college. It's like...I'm not sure what it's like. Just this huge buildup of pressure, getting worse and worse, feeling like dread and doom, and I don't want to face it, but finally I do, and...it all just goes away, and there is no dread, no doom, no disaster. And everything's fine."

"I love you, Mae," Trent murmured as he hugged her back.

"I love you, too. Both of you. Bea, you and Trent helped put my pieces back together, and you didn't have to. You worked so hard to help me." She let go of Trent and hugged Bea. "I will always love you for that."

Bea sniffed. "I love you too, Mae," she murmured.

"Oh man, are you crying?" Mae asked, looking up at her.

"No!" Bea replied.

"You totally are!"

Bea sighed heavily and wiped at one of her eyes. "So are you."

"Yeah, but I'm a mess...thanks. For putting up with me."

"You're welcome," Bea replied, making Mae laugh.

She sobered and turned to face Molly. "I freaked you out, huh? I'm sorry."

Trent looked at Molly again, and her expression had worsened.

"I...I'm not sure what to say," she murmured. She seemed to have lost all her self-possession, her confidence. She looked...more than a little lost. "I'm freaked, but...not for the reason you think. I'm not freaked out about what you did in the past, I'm freaked out about what you did just now."

"What do you mean?" Mae asked.

"How did you...we just met. I mean, we met at the party months ago, but tonight is our first real night together, and, like, I get being open or whatever. But, like, you just bared your fucking soul. You showed me, like, the ugliest parts of your life."

"I told you it would get ugly, what did you think I meant?" Mae replied.

"I thought, like, you were going to tell me about some embarrassing hookup you had in college or something stupid you did at a party. I, I just, how? How can you show that to someone? How are you so open?" Molly asked, sounding almost stupefied.

"It's just how I am, I guess," Mae replied. "Should I not be? I mean, it's not like anything bad happened. Unless you don't want to hook up now?"

"It's not that, I still want to, I just...you didn't know nothing bad would happen. That was a huge gamble!"

"I get the impression this is, like, a thing for you," Trent said.

"It is! I have...trust issues," she murmured, hugging herself suddenly. "It's...hard to talk about. I can't really talk to anyone about stuff in my life. Stupid shit I did. Failures. Bad decisions. How can you do it?"

Mae shrugged. "I don't know, I just do. I guess, it's like, what's the worst that could happen?"

"People judge you. People hate you. People try to fuck up your life," Molly replied.

"Is that what happened to you?" Bea asked.

"Yeah," she muttered. "You could say that."

"Ah man, I'm sorry," Mae said. "Um...do you want a hug?"

Molly looked at her for a moment, then laughed softly. "Yes. I'd like a hug." Mae walked over and hugged the woman. "I've met some truly weird people in my time, but you are way up there. You are so weird...in a good way. I don't understand you at all. But...I guess, it kind of makes sense, if you've got a best friend and a boyfriend who just have your back no matter what."

"That helps a lot," Mae said. "I'd be a walking shatter without them."

"Is shatter a noun?" Bea asked.

"It is now," Mae replied. She let go of Molly and looked up at her. "So...now what? Do we give you a ride home and part ways because this got way too weird, or do you come back to the hotel with us and have some fun? Or do we take you home, not because it got too weird, but because you need some time to think? I guess there's a lot of options there, it's not just a binary choice."

"Um...you know what? Yeah. I want to go to the hotel with you, still. You guys are just...you're all something else. Again, in a good way. I like it. I want...to know you all better."

"I've got something to say," Trent said.

"Ooh, that's you're 'take charge' voice," Mae murmured.

"I...what? Nevermind. Molly: I understand that it's clearly a point of contention for you, and I'm not saying it's an absolute must but...if you're going to get to know us any further, I think it's only fair that you start talking about yourself in some capacity. Seven people talked with you explicitly tonight, and none of us really know anything about you," he said.

Molly shifted uncomfortably. "That's...fair. You all are going out on a limb, letting me into your lives, even just a little, and I'm beginning to see what a big deal that is. I thought I'd met people like you before, poly people, creative people, but...no. It's becoming obvious that you all aren't like anyone else I've met. There's something very different, and amazing, about you, and I want to know more. And if that's the price of admission, then...yeah, I can pay it."

"I appreciate it," Trent said. "We've all been through a lot, and trust...well, it's important to us. So is very open communication and honesty."

"Clearly," she muttered. "I need...you guys have weed on you, right?"

"We do," Trent replied.

"Okay, I need to toke up. Uh...I'm ready to go to the hotel if you are."

Trent looked around.

"I'm ready," Mae said, smiling brightly. She really did look light a huge weight had been lifted, like she'd faced some demon, and discovered it was nothing more than illusion. A laughable thing, or some horror that no longer held any sway over her.

His relief was immense. It had turned out for the best.

"I'm very down to head to the hotel," Bea said.

"Cool, let's get back to the car."