When they enter into the house they can hear Laurel’s mother still muttering her prayer on an endless loop. Laurel leads them to her mess in the dining room.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Laurel…” Benny stares down at the remains in both horror and disgust. His reaction fills Laurel with a sense of shame for her actions, but also a hint of disappointment in him. He makes up for it though by grabbing her hand in his and kissing her on the forehead. “We need to do something about her.” Benny points out the obvious.

“Wanna kill her too?” Whit suggests. In his mind death doesn’t mean anything. It’s a rite of passage that every human being must go through whether young, old, healthy, sick, self-induced, or murdered. He doesn’t understand why other people seem to attach so much weight and levity to it.

““No!”” Benny and Laurel who have a normal mindset towards death quickly dissuade him from his current line of thinking.

“Alright then, jesus.” He mumbles disheartened. Instead he steps over the body and kneels down next to Laurel’s mother and in a bright and happy voice says: “Heyo! Mrs. Bennet!”

Laurel’s mother is shaken out of her reverie by Whit’s enthusiastic greeting. “W-Whit?” She murmurs quietly to the air in front of her before looking over at him. “When did you get here?”

“I didn’t.” Whit smiles, “This is all a dream.” He tries to convince her.

Laurel’s eyebrows shoot to the moon at this bullshit.

Laurel’s mother though seems to half buy it. She stares down at the legs of her deceased husband with a deep set frown, “It is?”

“Of course. You don’t actually think any of this is real do you? How could it be?”

She blinks a lot before deciding on what reality she wants to live in, “Of course.” she mumbles in a deluded state. Whit helps her stand up and tries to lead her out of the dining room but when she sees Laurel she starts a half moaning-half screaming sound as her entire body begins to shake.

Without hesitation Benny grabs Laurel by her shoulders and pushes her out the dining room and back out to the living room.

“I can’t believe that’s actually working.” He says to her when they’ve moved out of sight.

“Neither can I,” she says, “but this whole morning has been insane.” With a sigh she leans up against the wall. “I blame the black goo.” No matter how Laurel looks at it she’s pretty sure that the mysterious substance this morning is the cause for everything she had felt and done.

Benny half smiles, “So you got that too?”

“Yeah, and you?” She looks up at him.

He nods, “I’ve been crying black tears out all morning. Whit told me he was puking black gunk last night.”

Laurel frowns, “What the fuck?” She looks down at her hands still covered in dried blood and wonders how she should tell him about the thorns that had appeared all over her.

Whit pops his head out from around the corner, “You got any drugs? Something to put her in a deep sleep that will leave her questioning her sanity?”

Laurel rubs her forehead, “Um, medicine cabinet down the hall, there should still be a few valium left from the last time mom went to the doctor’s.”

“Solid.” He gives her a thumbs-up before disappearing again.

Benny sighs and runs one of his hands through his hair, “So, I guess we have to do something with the body now…”

“Yeah…” Laurel gives in reluctantly. “I guess we should start with trash bags and duct tape.”

Benny nods, “Solid.” he quietly murmurs.