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seil on em llet

Tell Me No Lies

When Beta finally awoke, the first thing he saw was the mountains, but they were distant and moving fast. His stomach churned as the recent events came back to him.

Beta raised his head and looked around himself. They were in another car, he couldn't depict what kind. He was never much for cars. Hershey was next to him in the backseat, looking tense and pale like he had witnessed something he shouldn't have. Beta looked down and saw Min's car seat strapped in between them; Min was fast asleep. They were on a lone road as the mountains engulfed them.

"Welcome back to consciousness," Matrix said from the passenger seat. He looked at Beta through the rearview mirror. That's when Beta saw who was driving, his teal nails clutching the wheel.

Elias.

Elias didn't even bother to glance at Beta as he kept his wings tucked behind his back and drove along.

There were many things he wanted to say to him, but one specific question came to mind first: "What is wrong with you?"

"Is anybody cold?" Elias asked, completely ignoring Beta's comment. His voice was light and sweet, but also simple and civilized.

"I trusted you."

"What about hot? Anyone hot?"

"You killed them."

"Oh really? I didn't notice." Elias rolled his two mismatched eyes.

"You slaughtered them."

"You do realize that they just get sent back to Plato, right? And that they would've had to kill themselves to get back anyway?" Matrix fidgeted in his seat as Elias spoke. Beta so badly wanted to insult him further, but he choked on the fact that he was completely right. They weren't truly dead...

But they did suffer, Beta concluded, letting his eyes drift back down.

Elias saw this and went on. "Not sure about Syncs, though. In that department, I might have killed a lot of people. But, we all did so..."

Matrix sighed as he stared into the distance. "Stop saying we, there is no we." He spoke bitterly. Elias just blinked and ignored him.

All of a sudden, a figure popped up from the trunk of the car, screaming. Hershey and Beta whipped their heads around in shock. "Ah!" Beta announced. "I was wondering where you'd gone."

"What's happening?" Ah asked, looking flustered. "How did I get here?"

"Questions we all want answers to," Matrix announced. "Along with why the hell this ass finally decided to show up."

"I was waiting for Beta to wake up to explain," Elias responded, acknowledging Matrix's presence.

"Wait, you're Elias?" Ah asked. Elias just nodded. She let out a quick laugh. "Wow," she whispered. "You're...actually exactly what I pictured you'd be. The Cider was very descriptive." Ah leaned down and held up a sword, examining it.

"Uhm...Well, I don't know who you are so—"

"Are going to explain or not?" Matrix said sharply, cutting him off.

Elias took a deep breath before he started. Hershey sat quietly, watching the window and waiting for words to be had. "Okay," Elias began.

Beta, Matrix, and Ah tuned in. "When I was still, ya know, living, I lived with my dad, my mom, and my sister. We weren't poor, given we weren't rich either, but we had a good life for the most part. Then things...sort of got bad when my dad started 'looking' at me differently. He started noticing things that he didn't want to, like the way I never willingly invited any boys to my birthday parties, or the way I would get into my sister's nail polish and clothes when she wasn't home, or the way I couldn't get over my best friend, Gus, from middle school moving away. He clearly didn't like the way things were going for me. So, he got into the internet, and found this helpful little website called 'How to 'straighten' out your child: 10 steps to heteronormativity.' Spoiler Alert: Steps 1 through 8 involved beating the shit out of your kid every time they did something 'gay,' which evidently, I did a lot. My sister didn't know it, and my mom didn't stop it. Sometimes I think she wanted to but...didn't know how. Nevertheless, she died of AIDS not long after.