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relletyrots

Storyteller

"I think you win the award for cutest kid," the golden-eyed guest admitted, smiling at the baby.

"Well I will take that award gladly," Richard said, setting Min back down in her crib.

"So...you know about everything? With the Syncs, I mean," Hershey asked.

"Yes, I do," Richard responded. "Are you going to ask me why?"

Hershey nodded his head slowly. Richard stepped away from his sleeping child and whispered. "She told me she heard them in her head."

He leaned in, thinking he didn't hear Richard correctly. "She...what?"

Richard just kept smiling, knowing how ridiculous it sounded but not caring. "You heard me right. Two of them, actually. She's their livelihood. Everything is stuck in her head...and growing."

"That...must have been hard to swallow," Hershey added, unsure of what else to say.

"It was," he said. "At first. But, then something happened. A Sync broke in and tried to eat Min." Richard looked at the crib and Hershey followed his gaze.

"Oh my God," Hershey said, walking back over to the crib. Richard followed him, reaching over the edge of it and pointing to a red scar on her neck. "That's from the Sync's nail...and this—" Richard pointed to a colorful array of black, purple, and pink plastered on her arm. "Is from where Ah accidentally hit her in the arm with the bat while beating the intruder senseless."

Hershey's head snapped toward Richard, eyebrows raised. "She did what?"

Richard laughed. "Yeah, that's when I realized 'Hey, that's not the Ah I married.'"

"It was the Syncs...in her head," Hershey concluded. "Yeah, I guess seeing your wife go postal on a guy does something to you."

"Yeah," Richard said. "And killing him." Hershey winced, sensing it was coming to that. "The police deemed it self-defense, although they were a bit skeptical when I told them Ah was the one who did it."

"With her broad shoulders and big arms?" Hershey didn't see how they would doubt it.

Richard hesitated before speaking the next part. "And we had some help from the neighbors...who are also Syncs."

Richard saw the boy's head turn to him, but the surprise wasn't as damaging. He heard a sigh before the words hit. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

"Huh, Ah underestimated your mental abilities—"

"Richard, you live in a Sync neighborhood!" Hershey hissed. "That has to be dangerous."

The full-grown man sighed. "It's already dangerous," he realized. "Why do you think you're here?"

Hershey's eyes shifted. "Friendly conversation?" he posed and Richard just laughed. "How can you just be so okay with a species that's tried to eat your daughter and violated your wife's head?"

Richard thought about it for a second and didn't take long to find an answer. "I choose not to blame a whole egg carton for the disfigurement of only a few bad eggs."

"The Cider that they were talking about; Walker, Beema, and Talon?" Ah's face melted as she said it. "Apparently, he's--from what I've heard--this amazingly sweet guy that Beema and Talon took in. He's...actually who I'm looking for," she clarified. "And I think where he is now is where Elias is too."