The workday had been over, and all Qiana wanted to do was shower and go to bed. She had the job of tilling the soil, walking up to her room with a towel, drying her hair, and getting changed into a nightgown, even though it was only 5:30. She stared out her window that stretched into the surrounding fields and forests, the sun painting the sky once more and for a while the girl felt at peace from the silence and stillness.

Silence

A loud knock then ejected her from her trance. It was Malachai, "Hey, its me."

Standing up she then opened the door the tall young man stood with his hand behind his back, "May I come in?"

"U-uh yeah."

Standing off to the side, Malachi sat in her boudoir chair that faced the side of her bed, revealing he carried the shed bible.

"I heard from Thomas you knew the holy scripture. Didn't know someone like you did."

Qiana couldn't help but scoff, "Someone like me huh? A demon?" She mocked out the last part.

"Please don't mistake me," Malachai said, "This is not a chance to make fun of you I just genuinely want to know how much you know of it. I mean, I come from a small town in Nebraska, where once everyone in town went to church every Sunday. I went to vacation bible school in the summertime. Learned a lot of gospel songs in between that and saw all kinds of funny church lady hats." He laughed as Qiana's posture relaxed. She knew he was telling the truth but didn't know how he would react the way her kind saw religions.

Sighing, she opened up, "It's hard to tell you. Things like organized religions aren't allowed among clans of shifters. As well as some ideologies that humans are famous for think Nazism or Ku Klux Klan. It creates too much divide when we are a breed that needs to live in the dark. Our universal motto is "The Pack is Above All Else." You're either in or out."

"It seems tight-knit, but I still don't see how much of a problem it can be." He replied.

"Well, I think because of missionaries that used to kill native americans if they didn't convert. It's just one of those old laws. Those same old laws that...well unfortunely my parents had to know the scrifice for."

Pausing, Qiana looked down while fidgeting with the sleeves of her gown. If she told him this there was no going back.

Malachai listened intently as she continued, "My parents were found out to be practicing, I think, Christian. The council found their bible and sentenced them to death. Made an example of as they burned their remains in front of many people. I had no idea, I was 5." She shrugge trying to hold it together.

"It was that time I was given to Mr. and Mrs. Bullard. A home for children like me who weren't a part of their parent's crimes but still needed a chance to live a normal life within the clan. They adopted me as their own, and I had a few "brothers" and "sisters" that I lived with. Caz, my best friend, was a youth leader of sorts who would come around and check on me, invite me to clan meetings, or hang out with kids our age. In all my 18 years of being alive, he stuck around the longest. Then I met Germs through him because he - like many other shifter kids - struggled with drugs and needed some guidance. We all just became a group of friends through the bullshit..."

She then began to weep into her hands as Malachai sat next to her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Qiana hiccuped in her hands, "My parents are now in prison because of me, and my friends had to move far away because of me...I should've never gone out with them, and now I'm stuck here."

As she cries, Malachi continues to comfort her and not saying anything. His thoughts flash by thinking she isn't as fearsome as the family, and he cautioned her to be. As his empathy reveals itself Malachai decides it was only fair to open his heart to her as well.

"I know how you feel," He began, "This isn't our home either, we just came here after our town was destroyed."

Qiana sniffs wiping tears away from her eyes, "What do you mean? You're not all from Nebraska?"

Malachi Cracked a smile, shaking his head, "Nah, me, Rachel, Ian, and Michael found the Hewitts a few months ago. I've had loved ones killed too, but not in a manner you think."

Raking his wild red hair back, he proceeded, "The adults were stressing about the corn harvest dying and having nothing by the fall. There was a boy named Issac who was known around for being a Mennonite of some kind. He started preaching to other kids and teens, myself included. I liked all the things he said about a powerful god known only as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." about all the miracles he could perform and how he could help us. Isaac showed everyone a vision of him, and we all felt it, he was in the corn. The only catch was that we had to make a sacrifice, that meant evey adult in town had to go."

Qiana got understandably nervous before it reminded her, "So the rumors were true? No shit!" She thought as Malachai kept talking.

"They all joined Him in the cornfield. But at 19, Isaac told us that was the time to join He Who Walks Behind the Rows. A lot of us began to trust Isaacs's leadership and thought of ways of taking him out. Then, two interlopers arrived in town. it was a mess, Isaac wasn't doing much to stop them eventually, I got tired and took over. I ordered him to be killed along with the interlopers, but they managed to get away, and that's when we saw him possessing Isaac's body. Starts killing everyone in his path, but the interlopers set him and the entire fields ablaze. I got away along with Rachel, Ian, & Michael. Rachel tried to go after the interlopers, but they knocked her out cold and sped away with two other kids in their car. We lost not only everybody but our absolute faith. I still have nightmares now and then about He Who Walks Behind the Rows. I feel my soul is still damned, but I pray with the family often, and they assure me I'm worthy of salvation."

Qiana felt some fear but also pity. Pity that the kids were all duped into a cult, pity that their god was a god of death and not the abundance they sought, just one that kept taking from them. She leaned into Malachai's shoulder trying as if to share the weight on his shoulders.

"I'm...sorry, Malachai. I really am." Qiana uttered out.

Malachai shrugged, hands folded onto his lap, "Ahh, don't be sorry. I'm the fool who only feels sorry for himself and his stupid choices. I'm sorry you lost your family before you got to really know them. I guess it's kind of nice you read the bible. It's like they still speak to you through it."

Qiana gave a warm smile before leaning in further to give a side hug when Malachi slipped his arm around her waist in response. For a moment they both made eye contact when something came over the redhead. He quickly gave Qiana a chaste kiss on her forehead before blushing profusely.

All she could do in response was just smile, reach around with her other arm, and hug him tighter.

"Thank you, Malachai."

Giggles can be heard beneath the dry, tall grass and old wheat as crickets can be heard clicking their repetitive noise almost going along with the twinkles of the emerging stars. A soft Texan accent could also be heard singing in tandem:

"Wish I didn't have to wake her and tell her its time to go,

But someone is waiting - for me at home!"

Closer now to the source over an emptied bottle of whiskey, sat in a pool of water Tex and Freddy. Her feet sat on his shoulders, bright pink color polish that needed to dry while Freddy finished up the man's manicure with the same color. Wiping off the excess around the cuticle, Freddy smiled brightly, a rosy flush sitting across her cheeks.

"Welll, wadaya think? Not bad, eh?"

Tex then observed the perfect pink that sat on his nails, "Fair Dinkum!"

Freddy laughed out, with Tex laughing along right right her.

"What? I ain't say that right?"

"You did," Freddy said wiping a tear from her eye, "yah accent just sounds so Amahican!"

She continued before Tex splashed water on her.

"No! Pleayse don't ruin yah nails. I just finished!" She pleaded, still giggling.

"Oh yeah? Well, little missy, I think yours are just about dry." Tex said before swiftly grabbing her by the legs opening them and going in for a kiss.

Both tongues, hot and smell of liquor. For a moment, time seemed to sit still for Freddy as their bare bodies in water began to press against each other. She hadn't felt this much in love since, well, ever.

Pulling away, Tex cracks a smile before enacting his plan, "Let's run away together? We can stay the night at the family gas station down the road."

Freddy began to shake her head, but Tex kept persistent, "They won't ever know you're gone we not going too far. Just away from this, for now. Whatya say?"

The next thing Freddy knew, she was dripping wet and walking over to get in his truck when a familiar whipping of bird wings flew right behind her.

"Oh, ya must be a moron ta be gettin' in this truck!

It was Katerina.

"Oh bloddy hell you bogans-"

"Who ya callin' a bogan, ya fuckin' oath!"

That was Brutus' voice.

Freddy still discombobulated felt Katerina pulling on her arm away from the truck before Tex came around.

"Woah, woah, hey now, what's this about?"

"Don't bothah anythin' about this ahah heaps good as gold, ya wannah try 'n kill us off slowly it's not garn ta wawrk that easy with just a bottle of liquawr." Julibee shouted as the blonde man didn't take much too seriously in his drunken haze. Putting his arms up in defense, he laughed.

"Kill ya? Really? Naw naw, come on I'm drunk as a skunk you have my dick out to the wind nekkid here. I mean? Heh, heh, make your mind up!"

Tex then heard rustling at the other side of the pond seeing the figures emerge as his family. A tense moment came on before Alfredo spoke up.

"Tex, brother just what in the hell is going on, them devils stripped ya nekkid or something?"

Getting furious and fed up in his drunken state, Tex shouted, "Can't a man fuck a beautiful woman in peace around here?!"

"Go on 'n take him here!" Brutus yelled out in annoyance before grabbing Tex by the arm, walking him over, and tossing him to his family.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Vilmer barked out, "You really think if we didn't get here, you wouldn't kill my cousin? Hard to believe. So tell me, boy, you still fixing to do that, hm?"

Brutus was getting sick and tired of dealing with the humans he couldn't tear to sheds and quickly made up his mind if they weren't going to drop this and let him and his siblings fly off, it seemed like a justified enough killing to present to the council in the next report.

The Aussies and Texas maniacs were at a standstill.