"Did I ever tell you how I got here?" Marilyn asked, sitting on a stool and swinging her legs.

Gül'lcra'agg waved a tentacle in response.

"I don't care if you don't care! It's the backstory day, and it's my turn, so you're going to have to sit there and listen."

Gül'lcra'agg folded its tentacles and let out the eldritch abomination equivalent of a sigh. The mirror shattered.

She had been 14 at the time. She was still 14 right now but she was just setting up the story, okay? Okay. Her pet-slash-best-friend-ever was a tiny eldritch abomination named N'gwit. It had these really cute tiny fangs and short legs and an otherwise slithery appearance, and it also considered her its best friend. Probably. It was kind of hard to know what the abominations were thinking.

Anyway, it was around the time where Bring Your Pet To School Day was coming up. She wanted to bring N'gwit to school with her, it would be the best thing to have it by her side all day long, but she wasn't sure if she should. N'gwit didn't really like other people, and it could be a bit...bitey, sometimes. It liked to nibble things (often at the expense of Marilyn, rest in peace her favourite pencil, pyjama shirt and voluntary movement in some of her toes).

Upon hearing this, Gül'lcra'agg made a sort of guttural growl. The mirror repaired itself, then broke even more.

Marilyn sighed and continued to narrate her story of arrest.

She'd been debating it alone, sitting under a tree, when a senior approached her.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?"

He looked kinda old, almost too old to be a senior, but he was wearing the uniform, so who was Marilyn to doubt? Plenty of people looked older than they actually were.

"Just wondering if I should bring a pet to school tomorrow."

He seemed pretty confused, so Marilyn went on to explain her worries, leaving out the bit where her pet was a literal abomination.

He told her something along the lines of:

"Well, it's Bring Your Pet To School Day, so why not do it? I don't know what your pet is, maybe like a crocodile or something? I think it would make you pretty cool with an unusual pet like that. Like, even if it seems like a bad idea, you might end up enjoying it."

In retrospect, it was a bad idea to listen to him.

N'gwit was small enough to not hurt any of her classmates as they laid their eyes upon it, but when it sat in her hand, it listened. To their thoughts. Their whispers. Their hidden judgements.

And it showed them to her.

Weirdo. Freak. Who would even do that? Who even talks to eldritch abominations? She's messed up.

The thoughts got to N'gwit more than Marilyn, after all, she'd been dealing with them her whole life. But N'gwit hadn't. N'gwit didn't like the things her classmates were saying about her, and it was getting angry. N'gwit's temperature rose on her hand, hotter and hotter, branding her with four little dot-shaped burn marks from its legs.

Next thing she knew, every object in the room had spontaneously combusted.

Most people got out okay. Nobody died, there were a few people with minor burns or injuries, and surprisingly, only one person with a kind of serious burn. But also, she'd just set a classroom on fire.

There were fees that Marilyn and her family couldn't pay. Hospital fees, repair fees, lawyer's fees, they just didn't have enough money for them all.

When Marilyn appeared in court a month later, she was given a choice,

Waste her childhood in a juvenile detention facility, or spend 13 days in the Easy Way Out, where the abominations could protect her.

There was no reason Marilyn would chose the former.

Lily was still chatting with Sad when Dead gave a scream.

"OH NO! NOT THE BEES!"

Lily glanced at Sad. "Should we be worried?"

"THEY'RE IN MY EYES!"

"Nah, he's just reciting some lines from a movie."

Marilyn had also heard Dead's scream. She ran downstairs into the common room. "Is he alright?"

"He just really likes movies," Sad explained.

Marilyn raised an eyebrow and looked in the direction of the shouting. "I think I'll go check anyway." She walked to the laundry.

He'd spent hours planning revenge on Victoria. Nickelback concert? Too hard to orchestrate, and besides, the only one he wanted revenge on at that point was Victoria. Huge bomb? Expensive, far too destructive, and not guaranteed to work.

Bees?

...bees.

Apis should have thought of that sooner, really. Having been born with the ability to control bees using only his mind, bees really should have been the first thing he thought of. Though he was kind of severely allergic to bee stings. That was mostly what he used his power for. Not going into anaphylactic shock.

It was a pretty useful power.

Apis finally had his plan of revenge. He prepared every element of his plan. He was going to swarm Victoria.

Apis ran into the laundry. Bees were everywhere.

He latched onto their minds, hoping to save himself, and maybe even the other people in the house.

...he sort of cared about them. He didn't want them to die.

Well, except for Dead. He was dead already.

He pushed the bees away, away, out of the house, somewhere far away.

Marilyn ran into the room and glared at Apis. "Did you do this?"

"No!" He shut the back door and folded his arms. He was allowed to get defensive about this, he wouldn't kill Dead. There was no reason to. "I used my bee-control powers to get them away from the room, but..." He pointed to the Dead body. "He was already dead."

"He's always been Dead."

Apis groaned. "That joke's getting pretty old now.

"Fine." Marilyn sighed. There wasn't really a way to find out if Apis was guilty or not. She just had to take his word for it.

And Apis really hoped she would, because he was this house's last chance now. The bees were pushing on the door, the windows, trying to get into the house. They would burst through soon.

He was the only one who could do anything about this. It was almost as if he was put inside the Easy Way Out to deal with this one very specific, unusual challenge.

"Marilyn. Get out of here. Close all the doors between here and the loungeroom. Bring Dead with you. Hide in your bedrooms, all of you. It's your only chance against the bees."

He didn't think he could reach enough of the bees with the door closed. But maybe, if it was safe for everyone else, he could open the door and get all the bees away from the house.

Marilyn dragged Dead into the common room, locking all the doors between her and Apis. She really hoped he was telling the truth about those bee-control powers, because even Apis probably wouldn't survive four thousand bee stings.

She dumped Dead on the floor. "Alright, guys, don't panic, but there are angry bees swarming the house right now, and they kind of killed Dead."

"I'm not dead-" Dead sat up- "I'm alive."

"You're only alive because you're Dead," Marilyn groaned. "Speaking of dead, guess what Apis will be in a few minutes? He's standing in the laundry, using mind control magic to get rid of the seven million bees swarming the house right now."

"Uh, shouldn't we help him?" Lily pointed out. "You said it yourself. We have to keep everyone alive."

"Do you have a death wish? Because I don't." Marilyn shrugged. "It was his own choice anyway. If you want him to live, maybe just have faith in his bee mind control."

"Bee mind control?" Dead asked.

"Don't ask," Marilyn replied. "Anyway, we need to get up to the bedrooms in case Apis screws up."

As Apis was about to swarm Victoria with many hives of angry bees, Always High Guy flew in the way of his plans. He could fly, he had superhuman strength, and he was high. Always.

Despite that, he still beat the crap out of Apis. He telekinesised all the bees away from Victoria's apartment window, and over to who knows where. Probably somewhere in the mountains. And then Always High Guy had thrown Dominus Apis to the ground to engage in a fist fight.

For someone with no muscle, no training, and absolutely abysmal aim, Always High Guy was powerful. Almost an even match with the extremely strong Apis.

Had his opponent been a regular guy with super strength, Apis would have won. His strength was the super-est, and everyone knew that. But his opponent was Always High Guy, who could also fly, and move any object using his mind and a haze of suspiciously euphoria-inducing blue smoke.

Apis thought he was done for when Always High Guy finally pinned him to the ground under a fridge. But when he raised his fist in what Apis thought was a punch, he flipped his hand into a thumbs-up and kissed Apis' cheek. Not in a boyfriend way, but a friendly-dog-greeting-its-owner kind of way. It was pretty gross. But Apis also appreciated the gesture, because it meant that he wasn't getting punched. Who knows, maybe it was even how Always High Guy gave respect to his opponents after defeating them.

Always High Guy pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a selfie with Apis. And another one. And another one. He was putting them all on his Snapchat story, or something like that.

And then he called the police.

"Yo? Gerald, my man Gerald – what do you mean you don't know me? It's Gavin – oh okay – no this isn't a prank call yeah I have this dude under a refrigerator here, he was trying to kill my best friend with bees."

He would remember those words forever. The last words he would ever hear as a free man.

Apis sighed. He was slowly realising he would never get revenge on Victoria.

His side of the petty, bitter, salty story of feud was ending.

Apis opened the door and fused the beehive mind with his.

Leave, he compelled them.

Away, he instructed.

Far away, he told them.

They would leave. All the bees would leave. All of them.

Even you, Brian. Thomas. John, William, David, Richard, Edward, Margaret, Catherine, Beelphegor, Justin Beeber, Beelial, yes these were all real bee names, Beelzebub, even you, Queen Elizabeeth the Fourth. Away from this house.

Slowly, the dark cloud that was covering the house lifted. The bees flew away, far from the house, never to be seen again. He didn't know where they went, but he knew they'd all be happier and safer somewhere away from the house. The people in the house would be happier and safer, too.

He turned around to go into the common room when he was greeted by a small swarm of bees still in the house. Leading them was someone he thought he'd never see again.

"Melvin the Bee-trayer."

Apis' oldest enemy. He'd died in an attack of a house where he was sprayed with bug spray. But here he was

"Thought you'd seen the last of bee, Dominus Apis?" Melvin laughed evilly. "Sick'im, bees!"

Apis didn't have the energy left to control these bees. There was nothing he could do to save himself.

But maybe he could save the others.

As the bees stung him, Apis grabbed the insect spray from the top of the washing machine and sprayed Melvin's swarm with it.

"You've bee-trayed your last, Melvin the Bee-Trayer!"

Melvin and his swarm screamed and flew around angrily.

"You might survive your first bug spraying, but nobody ever survives their second!"

Apis watched as his enemy's swarm dropped to the ground, definitely dead this time.

He hadn't got his revenge on Victoria. But by trying to, he had ended up getting revenge on someone better.

Apis knelt on the ground. He was ready to die now.

He clutched his chest and fell backwards. This wasn't as terrible as he'd expected it to be.

When the buzzing stopped, Marilyn headed back downstairs. Maybe the guy had succeeded. Maybe he was still alive.

Oh wait. No he wasn't.

Apis lay dead on the floor, a can of bug spray by his side and a couple hundred dead bees scattering the room. Damn, that was one good bug spray, if it got rid of all those bees.

Marilyn dragged Apis' body out to the pool.

He was gone.

Four inmates remained in the Easy Way Out.

END OF DAY TEN