"It's me, Rico," said a voice from the door. "I came as we agreed."
"I never agreed to anything," Maximillian scoffed.
He closed the drawer, his gun still inside, and Delilah cried quietly, knowing she got to live.
Maximillian opened the door to see his older brother Rico. He was three years older but looked much older from the stress of his job as a doctor.
He was tall and built like all the men in his family, and wore a conservative hairstyle and reverse rimmed glasses. He had the signature blue eyes they all shared, but his hair was black with streaks of grey and white.
"You don't remember because I made you forget," Rico told him. He adjusted his collar nervously, and Maximillian looked confused.
"Why would I ever ask you to make me forget something," he asked.
"Because if I didn't make you forget, you'd be dead right now," Rico explained. "Let me inside."
Maximillian eyed his brother up and down, wondering what happened.
"I also erased Delilah's memory as well," Rico continued. "Today is the day I bring them back."
"What memories," Delilah asked.
"You've asked me to erase memories multiple times after you do something illegal," Rico groaned. "That way you can't perjure yourself if you get caught. I only return them under specific circumstances."
"I don't remember allowing you to do that," Maximillian shouted.
"Yeah, because if I left that memory you would make me return the others as well," Rico snapped.
"Ah…Makes perfect sense."
Rico walked over to Delilah and noticed the broken pictures and decorations of the room. She had a cut on her finger and she was shaking, sniffling and eyes red. Rico wondered why he let Maximillian control them all. He was the youngest of his siblings, and somehow the most vicious.
He awaited the day Maximillian would finally die, but Rico also knew he would run out of money for his habit once he died . So he continued to let Maximillian control him.
Rico placed his hands over Delilah's eyes and she jerked in surprise. A soft blue glow came from Rico's eyes and she relaxed. He did the same to Maximillian, and he gave them sleeping pills.
"When you wake up, you'll remember everything, but not that I was here," Rico explained. "Don't mess up. When you remember, call me." He quickly left, happy to be as far as possible from his psychopathic sibling.
Maximillian quickly took his medicine, and within half an hour, he and Delilah were fast asleep, and when they awoke, they would repeat the horrible cycle, believing that they were hard-working and blessed.
They couldn't handle the truth, that without their money they were nothing.
So they woke up again, several hours later, knowing that they couldn't let that happen. They showered and got dressed silently, and when they finally could look each other in the eyes, they remembered what they had done.
"We stole the body," she whispered. "We sent it to the Moon Research Facility. He's there."
"I'm starting to have second thoughts," Maximillian admitted. "We can use his body to make us immortal, but at the cost of our money? Is it worth it?"
"If it works then we have the rest of eternity to make money," Delilah said. "It's worth it. This will all be worth it ."
She hugged her husband, her accomplice, her abuser, and the victim of her own abuse as well. Maximillian stroked her hair and stared at the wall, wondering if he would truly make it out alive.
"Can we really live forever without those horrible side effects," he asked.
"Yes," Delilah mumbled into his chest. "Even if it doesn't work, no one will ever forget us."
"You're right," Maximillian grinned. "They owe us. All of them. We shouldn't fear them. We should own them. "
Maximillian and Delilah remembered why they married each other. That no one else in the world agreed with their narcissistic fantasies, that only the two of them could rule everyone and everything, and that it should all be theirs.
"We'll come out of this stronger than ever," Maximillian declared. "And when we do, we'll kill all his fucking spawn."
Delilah grinned. "Let's go, sweetheart. Let's get what we deserve."
They would, of course, get what they deserved, but not what they thought it was.
Sara was home, which she rarely was to avoid her father.
After the October Massacre, she was nervous to be alone. She was afraid someone would break into her apartment and kill her, blaming the deaths on her. They wouldn't be wrong, and Sara knew that she had to hide until everything blew over.
She and Levi begrudgingly returned to their parents' home in New Springfield, and they hated it. Sara hated that her father continued to call her Michael, and Levi hated that Maximillian continued to ask him if he was finally going to marry Mary Jane and stop queering up the place .
Sara decided to talk to her parents later in the day, hoping that the public panic had gone away. She also wanted to know why all their stocks were dropping like flies and was nervous that something worse was about to happen.
She went to their room and overheard them talking from outside the door. Sara gripped the golden doorknob and her eyes wandered all around as she listened to their declaration of stealing Santos's body.
Sara knew her father was going to Hell, but she didn't want to be dragged down with them, and the first thing she thought about was Levi.
Sara ran to her room and locked the door, hyperventilating, the bright yellow room mocking her, and she pulled on her pink tank top, unable to handle the new information. She needed something to touch, as nothing felt real anymore.
A knock came from the door, and Sara nearly jumped out of her skin. Had someone found out she heard them? Had her parents come to kill her?
"It's me," Levi shouted.
Sara rolled her eyes, upset with herself, and opened the door to see Levi, wearing nothing but black shorts and looking tired. He slept only four hours a day and believed sleeping more than that was a waste of time. He only slept a full eight hours once a week, on Sundays, since it was the day of rest.
"They left so you can come out now," Levi told her.
"Oh thank god," Sara groaned.
Sara moved to the side, and Levi went inside her bright yellow room and sat on the fluffy white and green sheets. He always felt odd being inside a girl's room, more so inside his own sister's.
"Don't get angry, but I want to talk about something," Sara said.
"I can't get angry before I hear it," Levi replied.
Sara put her long hair up into a bun and sat next to Levi on the bed and looked into his eyes, trying to emphasize what she was about to say.
"You know we can just leave right," she told him. "We can take some money with us and never come back."
"You sound as if we're eloping or something," Levi chuckled.
"I am so serious Levi," Sara whispered. "They're a lot worse than you think. Even mom."
"You know she's just afraid of him and-"
"No! They're in on it together. She's not some small, weak, woman!"
Levi knew internally that they were all complicit in their father's illegal activities by being silent. They weren't any better, so he ignored Sara's accusation.
"I want you to be happy," Sara pleaded. "I know you don't want to come out but-"
"I am not gay! I have a girlfriend."
Sara let a long sigh through her nose and told herself that it was best to handle one issue at a time.
"Fine. That's not what I wanted to talk about. It's about October. "
There was still a lingering feeling of guilt deep inside Sara's soul. She knew she was responsible for all the people that died, but at the same time, she convinced herself that trapping them in there saved more lives than the ones that died.
This was entirely false because if she never approved the shield, the government would have mowed down Deceit in a hail of bullets. Sara did not even confess to what she had done at church. She knew that the person on the other side of the box, with the thin flowery curtain that covered her face and his own, was sworn to never tell a soul about their sins.
Sara was still paranoid, that some well-meaning priest would tell the world, and in the night they would come for her, just as they had come for Mayor Anderson two months ago, attempting to kill her and her family over a conspiracy theory.
She didn't want to be a liar like her parents, so she had to tell Levi, the person she loved most.
"Everything has been so horrible since those three days. I keep seeing people I thought that died walking around town," Levi said.
"It's just stress," Sara replied. "It must be hard for you ever since your teammates died."
"I thought I saw Gabriel the other day. I swear, I saw him when I went to the 8-Twelve store at 2 AM. It was so weird . I know it's just stress but, I feel like it was my fault...I'm their leader. I should have protected them."
"You can't be everywhere at once," Sara explained.
The guilt only increased as Levi opened up to her about how he felt guilty about the deaths of Mark and Gabriel, and how Ryle lost half of his leg. Sara and Delilah were the only people Levi told anything. He, like his father, had this strange idea that they constantly had to have others think that they were strong and powerful.
Being emotionally open was for the weak, who could afford it.
"Ace said he's not coming back," Levi croaked. "He feels like it's all his fault. When he quit he called to tell me. He really thinks it was all his fault."
Now Sara started to cry, for a boy she was acquainted with because she knew that she was to blame. "Don't cry," Levi said. "He'll probably come back soon. It's probably someone pressuring him to quit."
Sara decided to finally confess.
"I did it," Sara sobbed. "I killed all those people!"
She covered her face in shame with one of her green pillows, her sobs muffled by it. Sara had never told anyone, and instead of the relief she anticipated, she felt worse.
"Sara you didn't-"
"I told them to launch the mechanism," Sara screamed. "It was me! I did it!" Levi grabbed a nearby pillow, bending it, trying to use it as a stress ball. His entire world was bending along with it, like funhouse mirrors.
Everything was warped, a horrible impression of what should have been.
"Don't do this," Levi said. "I can't handle this right now."
"Everyone was trapped and died because I was too stupid to remember the code for emergencies! I did it!"
"I don't believe you…. I think you're just scared…It's the survivors' guilt."
"Levi shut the fuck up," Sara screeched. "Don't you understand what I'm trying to do!?!"
Levi got up and left.
He just left, not wanting to know anything new, unable to handle the truth. He understood how Ace felt now after he tried to confess as well. Sometimes it was best not knowing, and even if he did, nothing would change.
Sara didn't want to tell anyone else. Her own brother had rejected her attempt at emotional catharsis, and she was now hell-bent on making it right. Sara swore on her grandfather's grave and to God himself that she would stop her father and set out to bring him down.
She wouldn't let him take her brother away from her.