"Another piercing Tember? Really?" his mother Ida was fuming, "and right in the middle of your beautiful face! You have to take it out, now."

"No."

"You are so eager to make your own dear sweet mother cry?"

"Stop with the guilt trip. It's not gonna work."

"Ughh," she rubbed the temples, "Whenever did you become such a difficult young man. Where did I go wrong... First it was the ear piercing... then you showed up to work with that- THAT- hair! What's it called now? A mohawk? And bright blue no less! Where did you even FIND such a shade?"

"Al did it for me."

"THAT! That right there is your WORST choice yet!" Her voice slowly rose, as Tember had hoped.

I just need to bide my time until the kids wake up, Tember thought patiently, And surely they'll get me a chance to get me the fuck outtta' here.

At that very moment Tember felt his silent prayers were answered, as they heard the faint pitter-patter of Bradly coming down the stairs. Then he turned the corner and asked about some breakfast...

While it was true that Mrs. Price was quite strict with all her children, it was a well-known fact that would never raise her voice when her younger children were present.

"Hey bro," Tember whispered across the table, "You just save my life, no joke."

His younger brother looked confused for a moment and then glanced back to their mother, and it suddenly clicked.

"Sure thing big bro," a whispered with a wink.

"Welp! Time or me to head outta' here," Tember eased himself out of the creaky chair behind the desk and grabbed his skateboard.

"Don't you dare think this conversation is over young man, you hear me?"

"Oh, I almost forgot," Tember said ignoring her threats, "Sister Irena stopped by this morning. 'Was asking 'bout a new gal in town n' if we'd seen her, dark skin, red hair, and like a green scarf or something, I dunno.'"

"Well, I haven't seen anyone like that, but- Hey!" Ida said, chasing behind her son, "You forgot your helmet!!"

Already half-way out the door, he simpley yelled back, "It'll just fuck up my hair!"

He slammed the door behind him without giving her a chance to reply.
At some point the twins, Ilsa and Kallen Price, had appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

Kallen leaned over to her sister and whispered, "He just used the f-word, hehehe."

"That's enough outta' you lot as well," Ida Price said sternly, turning to face her three younger children, "Now. Who's hungry?"

"Me!" they all shouted at the same time, and Bradly quickly began to set the table for lunch.

"Yo!" Jasper called out from a block away, "Hey, Tember!"

The greeting was completely ignored, as Tember had his headphones on, blasting NOFX. Jasper ran to catch up to him, and he counted his blessings that the roads were already covered in rock salt, which always slowed down Tember's skateboard.
Gasping for breath, Jasper finally got close enough to slap in from behind, almost knocking him off.

"What the FUCK dude?!"

Jasper leaned over placing his hands on his knees for support, still huffing.

"Dude," he said, in between breaths, "I've been calling n' runnin' after you for like two blocks!"

"I had my headphones on," Tember replied, kicking up his now grimey skateboard into his hands.

"Yeah! I get that!"

"Then you also get that my headphones serve a dual purpose in letting me listen to my music, while also enouraging other people to leave me the fuck alone?"

"Don't be such a prick, dude," Jasper had finally caught his breath, "I'm looking for two of my chickens. You seen 'em? I was sure they woulda' gone downhill into town so-"

"Ain't seen no chickens," Tember put his headphones back on and began to skate away without another word.

"Oh screw you then!" Jasper shouted.

"Astrid, my little wildflower," her father leaned over the counter she was currently stocking up to open, "Why don't you and Oliver take a break today?"

"Ugh, seriously dad?" she gave him a wicked side-eye, "You're so irresponsible. I have work to do."

"Listen here missy!" her mother chimed in while wiping the tables, "We ran this place just fine and dandy before either of you were ever born. Don't you start thinkin' we couldn't do it just as well and good without ya.'"

"Did somebody say day off?!" Olly suddenly popped his head out of their walk-in freezer in the kitchen.

"See there, Astrid," Brennen pointed, "Even your own ma' thinks you've been working too hard."

"The same does not go for you, Olly," Dagmar mumbled, as she continued to set out napkins and coasters.

"And just what exactly am I supposed to do all day then, hm?"

"Let's go to Al's!" Olly suggested as he heaved the last few cases of Smthwick's onto the counter by the cooler, "I saw Earnie and Wen heading that way earlier, with a new girl too! An' she was pretty fine!"

"Let's keep your hormones out of this decision, please," Astrid shot back, disgusted, "and be serious, Al's? No way in hell. I ain't lettin' that demented little freak chop off one of my fingers n' eatin' it!"

"Hey! Don't be such a jerk!"

"Er... I'm pretty sure he only did that the one time..." Brennen mumbled, "But! Yes! It's much more likely to all be rumors of course. I'd think you'd know better than to buy into that stuff... Right, Astrid?"

His wife paused to glance sideways at her husband. It was clearly a warning for him to shut the hell up.

She crossed her arms and glanced at her brother, "Of course I don't, but he's still crazy as fuck. Why do you even hang out with that guy?"

"Come with me 'n find out then, why doncha'?" Olly teased, "That is, unless you're too scaaared."

He began making chicken noises, and Astrid's eyes narrowed.

Her face hardened, "I am not afraid of anything."

Back at Al's, the game had continued, and they were all getting a little looser with each empty bottle.

"Who's turn is it? Is it my turn?" Wen asked, clearly losing track of who had asked the last question and who was next.

"Yup, Wendy-bean! You're up!" said Earnie.

"Finally! I have another question for Sabre! So, you seem really smart. Were you in college before you came here, or did you have a job? If you were studying or working, what field were you planning on going into?"

"Hey! Uh-uh, no way, that's at least two questions! Against the rules!" Al announced, and turned to Sabre, "Just answer the first one."

"Okay," Sabre replied, "Well... where to start... I never actually had a formal education. I guess you could say I was homeschooled? My mom taught me everything I know. But..."

"Buuuut...??" Earnie leaned forward, enthralled.

"Well, she covered the basics for sure, but as I got older we mainly focused on computer science, programming, coding..."

"So you were like a hacker??"

"Don't interrupt!" Wen chastised her.

Meanwhile, Al's eyebrows had risen ever so slightly.

Well, this is getting interesting after all, he smiled.

"By the time I was sixteen," Sabre continued, "I ended up getting good at it, like really good. As good as my mom in fact. So, we started working together."

Sabre looked down at her feet again. Had she said too much? Would they be able to figure out who she really was? What she'd done?

"Working on what?" Earnie asked, intrigued.

"Hey! Again with the cheating! She answered BOTH of Wen's questions and now you can't even wait your own turn?!"

"Well excuse the shit outta me! I've never met a hacker before. We don't even have fuckin' broad band in this town! It's like we're all stuck living in the damn middle ages out here!"

"It's not that big of a deal, though, is it?" Wen tried to smooth his ruffled feathers, "I can do pretty much anything I would use the internet for on my smartphone anyways."

"Yeah..." Earnie slumped, still pouty, "Me too I guess."

"It's better for me too... I think..." Sabre mumbled to herself without thinking, even a hint of shame escaped her voice.

The other three all looked up at her with curious expressions.

What the fuck am I saying? Learn to keep your mouth shut for god sakes! Sabre internally cursed herself and the alcohol as well.

"Your turn then," Al spoke first, "Go on, Sabre."

At some point in the afternoon, Al had finally started calling her by her name.

"Ok, Al," Sabre had already decided on her next question, "Where are you from?"

Both Earnie and Wen's eyes widened slightly, but Wen then put her chin in her hand to pout, "Nobody's asking me any questions... I'll never get another turn."

Earnie patted her back while Al took a deep breath from his vaporizer and let it out slowly in puffs that formed perfect ringlets that hung in the air. All the while staring right at Sabre with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Impressive smoke rings," she said, "But, are you gonna' answer?"

"Hate to disappoint," Earnie piped up, "But I can tell ya' this- I already KNOW he's gonna drink. Hahah! So go on Al, get on with it."

Al raised his eyebrows, looking at Earnie.

"The ocean," he replied simply.

Wen gasped, suddenly bouncing up and down in her seat.

Earnie was shocked into silence, his jaw hanging agape.

"What do you mean 'the ocean?' Were you, like, born on a boat or something?"

"Ah-ah now, don't get greedy. One question. One answer. Those are the rules. And now, it's my turn," he smirked.
He turned to Wen, "Here's a question for you for you, Wen, if ya' want another one so bad. If Earnestine here were actually a boy-"

"I AM a boy!"

"Yeah, c'mon, Al! Not you too, of all people-"

"Don't interrupt, you hen-pecking nuisances!" he sighed, "Okay, let's just say if circumstances were different, would the two of you already be dating by now?"

Earnie and Wen were both clearly stunned by the question, and they looked at eachother anxiously.

I guess it's not something they'd ever talked about, or even considered, Sabre thought silently.

"We're just friends, Al, you know that!" Earnie spat.

"Tut-tut. That's not an answer to the question," Al calmly retorted, "And it's Wen's question, not yours. Let her answer for herself."

Wendy looked confused and lost in thought for a moment, but in the end she took her bottle and drank 'till it was empty, leaving Earnie in an even more confusing state of shock.

"Well, thanks for makin' things weird, asshole," Earnie glared at Al.

"It's my specialty, dear," he leaned back in his chair, clearly without a hint of remorse.

Some minutes later there came a peppey sounding knock at the door, making all four of them jump. Al crept to carefully peek over the shutters of the windows, and sighed, equal parts relief and annoyance. He unlocked the door and it swung open revealing Oliver Crown, and surprisingly, his older sister Astrid Smith.

"For fucks sake! Doesn't anybody in this town have shit else to do besides bother ME?!"

"Nope!" Olly replied as stepped inside.

A stone faced Astrid stood waiting at the door with her arms crossed.

"And you? What do you want?"

"Isn't it a common courtesy to actually invite people into your home?"

"Ugh! You blood-suckin' bitch! You think I actually invited ANY of these moochers here?"

"Then I'll just wait outside."

"Fine by me," Al had already started closing the door when Olly piped up.

"C'mon man, don't be like that to my sis."

"Your sister is the devil."

"Oh just shut up and invite her in already! Quit bein' a dick about it!"

He sighed, and opened the door ever so slightly, gritting his teeth, he spoke quite bitterly, "Come in."

"Why thank you-" 

Al grabbed her by the shoulder before she could cross the threshold, "That invitation does not apply for more than three hours, you got it? The next three hours."

"...Fine," Astrid swept through the doorway nonchalantly.

"Would ya look at all this! We gotta' party goin on here now don't we?!" Oliver announced as he pulled out a rusty old folding chair.

He offered it to his sister first, but she shook her head. Unlike her parents, Astrid was tall and lean and one hundred percent muscle. Although her blonde-streaked hair was in a messy ponytail, and she was wearing pretty casual clothes, Sabre couldn't shake the image of her standing there looking like a sentry. Then her eyes wandered to her belt which held a gun holster on one side... and there was indeed a gun in.

"Scary huh?" Sabre jumped, for as the group cohorted, Oliver had slowly edged his way to where Sabre was leaning on the counter, "Y'know there are only about seven hundred civilians here in Scotland that have a licence to own a gun, and three of them live right here in this little town..."

"So, your sister's one of them huh?"

"She is. But there's nothing to worry about. She's gotta nasty temper, but she'd never actually kill anybody."

It suddenly came to her, that memory of leaving the pub the other day... It was her, she was the one who broke a pool stick on someone's back.

"Olly!" Wen called him over, "Come join our game! You too Astrid!"

"I'd rather not," she proclaimed with a deadpan face.

"Y'know... I'm beginning to feel my hospitality being taken advantage of here. None of you can be so ignorant that you don't know I rather dislike other people in my home and there are already FIVE of you-"

Astrid suddenly interrupted him by holding up her hand, and snapped the straps to the holster placing her hand oh her gun.

"What the fuck are you doing? Put that thing away!" Olly whispered urgently.

"Shut up! All of you," she looked up towards the loft, "I heard something. Upstairs."

They were all deathly silent until her intuition was confirmed, by a soft scratching noise that was actually probably coming from the outside stairs, and then a quiet *tap*tap* at the door. It continued. *tap*tap*tap*

"That's it. I'm going up stairs, right now," and as she did so, Al lunged at Sabre, shaking her violently by her shoulders.

"You! Did you lock the door to your room when you left?"

"I...uh. Yes? Probably?"

"Well did you lock the door when you got back then?? Did you close the curtains?"

"I-I-I'm not sure, I-I can't recall. We came back though the front door-" with one final shove he tossed her back onto a pillow.

"Useless! Irresponsible! For all we know that crazy lady could be right at my doorstep! Or worse! Already INSIDE! UGH, this is all your faut! I NEVER should have signed that lease with some- some ignorant rando! You're gonna' get me killed, I know it!"

Well, it's not like he's the only one having misgivings about that contract either, Sabre thought to herself as she followed Astrid upstairs. 

The rest of the group scrambled up into the loft place, with the exception of Alistair, who went directly to the door leading to the basement. He unlocked it, swung the door open and disappeared into the pitch black, without another word.
Sabre could hear him frantically locking each lock from the other side, but she was pushed ahead by the tiny group. Still, the mysterious scratching and tapping continued.

Finally, Astrid, seeming to have lost he patrence, with her gun drawn, kicked open the door to reveal the trespasser.

"Buck-COCK!" a chicken cocked it's head.