Months later, I was at the lab doing all of the work that Beatrice volunteered for. That she volunteered me for. When she walked in the front door, everyone could hear her. I just listened to the drama and filled out paperwork.

“Oh Lucas! I’ve brought in a new candidate to study!”

“Who… is this?” he asked.

“His name is Adam.”

I almost choked on the biscuit I was chewing and flew out of my chair at lighting speed. When I got to the lobby, I saw Beatrice clutching Aven’s arm. Aven herself was dressed in this fancy dress similar to Beatrice. Huh, I definitely didn’t own any like that.

“Aven!?” I exclaimed.

“Stuffing your face again, I see.” Beatrice rolled her eyes at the biscuit that I had clenched between my teeth. “Adam’s here for questioning whether you like it or not. And if I hear another word on it, I won’t hesitate to say something to my brother.”

“Fine,” I growled, crossing my arms and staring daggers at her. I leaned over to Lucas and whispered. “Please go easy on her, and no touching.”

“Alright,” he nodded before turning to Aven. “Are you ready Ms…?”

“Murphy,” she coughed, trying not to use her voice too much.

“Right this way, Ms. Murphy,” Lucas said, leading Aven down the hall and to his office. As they went to his office, the motherly Debbie went up to Beatrice with a fresh basket of baked goods.

“Would you like a biscuit?” Debbie offered her, taking out of the basket. “I made them earlier. They’re still warm.”

“Do I look like I eat biscuits?” Beatrice raised a brow.

“Uh, maybe?” Debbie said, confused. The two hadn’t really interacted, but the moment made me giggle.

“No.” Beatrice said with her nose in the air. 

“Cén fáth gur fuath leis an mbean glas brioscaí?” the small Irish assistant, Bailey, yawned in her native tongue. Though Debbie had been teaching her English, she was too tired to use it sometimes.

“Do you want to say that again in English, you indentured shit?!” Beatrice asked, furiously putting her fists up. Dallas rolled his eyes and buried his face in a textbook.

“Leave her alone,” Debbie shamed. “The poor girl can barely keep awake.”

“Hmph,” Beatrice grunted, flipping her hair and letting Fluffy slither down her leg.

“Are you actually sticking around this time?” Rex asked, rolling his eyes. “Or are you leaving when Aven’s done?”

“I’ll be leaving,” she replied. “My brother wants to introduce me to Adam’s fiance before I can ‘ruin it all’ or something. Can you believe he said that? As if I’m about to steal any man dirty enough to marry that man.” I watched everyone give Beatrice a weird look.

“Girl?” Bailey tilted her head. “Boy?”

“He’s a m-”

“Her name is Aven, and she is a woman.” I interrupted. “Beatrice just can’t accept it.”

“He’s a man who likes to crossdress,” she spat. “Surely you three have noticed his masculine body and face?”

“Not particularly.” Rex shrugged. “I wouldn’t care if she was a coyote on its hind legs in a dress.”

“I saw a beautiful young woman.” Debbie said. “Definitely not a man.”

“Perfect, he’s tricking you too.” Beatrice rolled her eyes. “He’s tricking you all!”

“I think you’re just jealous she looks better in a dress than you do,” Rex said, trying to hide his smirk. Beatrice went red in the face and shot him a glare. 

“I am not jealous!” she fumed.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” I said with the thickest layer of fake sympathy I could. “Maybe if you ate more than an apple a day, you might get an ass too.”

“MY BABY!” Beatrice screeched, swiveling around and scooping Fluffy into her arms and clutching him to her chest. She swatted a biscuit out of Debbie’s hand right before she could finish giving the poor snake a biscuit. The baked good flew through the air and his Dallas on the head, much to his displeasure.

“Please, just shut up or get out of here.” Rex said flatly, covering his ears. The poor guy couldn’t take loud or high pitched sounds.

“Hmph,” she huffed, marching out with her only friend.

“She had that one coming,” I snickered. “Nice job, Rex.”

“Anytime.” He smiled a bit.

“Snake lady go.” Bailey laughed.

“I’m not impressed that a good biscuit got wasted like that though.” Debbie frowned. “If she won’t eat it, at least let the snake have a bite.”

“Can snakes even eat biscuits?” I asked curiously.

“Who knows,” Dallas grumbled. “Neither of them got to eat one.”

“Was that a joke?” Debbie laughed. We all thought it was actually pretty funny. Especially with Dallas’ deadpan tone.

“No,” he hissed, going back to his book.

“Well, I better head out and let you two work.” Debbie sighed. “Bailey’s coming back home with me. I think she’s getting a bit too sleepy to continue working, huh?”

Bailey nodded with a yawn.

“I guess we’ll see you in a couple days then.” Rex chuckled. “Hopefully you sleep well.”

“I’ll try,” Bailey yawned as Debbie took her hand and escorted the girl out.

“Well, we oughta finish up for the day, huh?” Rex asked me.

“Ugh… I suppose.” I groaned. “Let’s go.”

We went to go on our way, but I noticed how much Rex was struggling to move. I slipped my arm around his, making him tense up.

“Hey, chill out, I’m trying to help,” I told him.

“Yeah, whatever…” he mumbled. “Ask first.”

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked. 

“Yes, I’m fine,” he grunted. “I’m just not as young as you.”

“Yeah, yeah, old man.”

By the time I got Rex back to his place to rest, and came back out, Aven was out in the lobby waiting for me.

“He wasn’t too hard on you, right?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Lucas.

“No, it was… it was ok.”

“Let’s just go home,” I said, saying goodbye to Lucas and walking home with her. “Did Beatrice give you that dress?”

“She said if I was going to go out with her, I needed to meet her standards,” Aven said. “Since Reginald’s stipulation was that she had to let me be female. So she gave me this dress and let me keep it.”

“Huh, really?” I asked, surprised. “She values those dresses… A lot.”

“Told me I had ruined it by just wearing it, so I could just keep it.”

“Weird,” I mumbled, unlocking the door and going in. “Just weird…”

“The corset is killing me,” Aven groaned. “Please, get me out of this death trap.”

*   *   *   *   *

Months later, I was in my art room painting. I had been struck by a particularly strong sense of inspiration. This image in my head of a great big phoenix that I just had to get out. I’d spent days doing it, not even leaving the house to see Lucas. He could wait; art can’t. As I was finishing up the colors though, Aven came bursting in. 

“Max, Max!” she howled.

“What is it?!” I asked, almost snapping my paintbrush. I swear, if that bitch sister-in-law did something to her, I was going to-

“It’s Lucas!” she sobbed. “He’s- He’s caught!”

“Wh… What…?”

I dropped my paintbrush as Aven put a newspaper into my hands. It was one of the smaller news columns to the side. I read it to my own horror.

Man Arrested For Unethical Experiments

One man, Lucas DuCarmont, had set up a laboratory in our city New York and had been running unethical experiments on its residents for over a year now!

He claims it was for this new field of science named “psychology” that he was studying. Upon police investigators turning notes over to Columbia University professors for examination, the study notes appear to be no more valid than Plato’s theory that there were only four elements!

Though the police won’t disclose how they found out about his crimes, he was apprehended two days ago late at night and was executed just this morning.

His associates are still at large though, and the police are willing to pay a $20 reward for any accomplice that can be turned in and brought to justice, preferably alive. Be on the lookout for any suspicious or odd persons, for these were the target recruits for DuCarmont’s horrible experiments and who he offered the most jobs to.

We’re now left to wonder, are our own streets even safe when such monsters operate next door? How did the police not catch on sooner? And can we be certain there’s not another one just down the block?

By the time I finished reading, the newspaper in my hands was almost completely crumpled from my grip. Tears rolled down my face, staining the paper as I wiped my eyes with it. I couldn’t believe it… He was really… He was gone… What about everyone else? Where had they gone to?! I needed to-

“Max,” Aven whispered, grabbing my arm. “Max, are you-”

“This can’t be right,” I whispered. “I need to… I need to go find him and-”

“Oh dear, dear sister,” hissed a voice around the corner. Beatrice slowly walked into the room, wearing one of those mean faces. Not exactly a smile, but it was definitely to intimidate me. “We all knew this day would come.”

“Shut the fuck up!” I howled, pointing at her. “Did you do this?! Did you go to the police and-”

“Oh, be a baby somewhere else!” Beatrice spat. “If I wanted to go to the police, why did I do it only now?”

“I don’t know! You get bored and torment people into the worst things, because that’s what you are! You are the worst the world has to offer!”

“I didn’t even come here to mock you!” she screamed. “But he deserved it! You deserve it! You all deserve to rot in hell!”

“The only one who’s going to hell is you!” I hurled back. “I’ll be content going anywhere knowing you’ll burn for the rest of your meaningless existence, and everyone will be overjoyed by it!”

“Would brother be overjoyed knowing about your little scandal?!” Beatrice asked, walking out of the room. I started chasing after her.

“You’re not going to-”

“Fluffy, restrain!”

On her command, the snake slithered up my leg and squeezed as hard as it could, making me cry and fall to the ground. I could only watch Beatrice walk into the living room and tell Reginald something while I struggled across the ground. When Fluffy let go, I got to my feet but was met with Reginald’s disapproving face.

“Get out of my house,” he whispered.

“Reginald, I-”

“Get out of my house!” he bellowed, turning to walk up the stairs.

“Reginald!” I cried chasing him up the stairs. “Reginald, listen to me, I-”

“I DON’T NEED YOUR EXCUSES!” he stopped to shout furiously.

“Are you really going to trust your sister over-”

“Did you do it?!” Reginald interrupted, looking me dead in the eyes. “Have you been adulterous?” I fell silent and looked down. “Ugh,” he painfully groaned as he got to the top of the stairs. “I thought I was your only love!”

“Reginald, it’s…”

“How complicated is it, Maxine?! What miraculous explanation could you have except for that I was gone during the day and you felt lonely?”

“…”

“That’s what I thought,” he spat, a look of pure contempt as he looked away.

“Reginald!” I exclaimed, grabbing his arm. I had to explain it to him. We could work this out. Come to an understanding. We could-

“Get off of me, woman!” he roared.

Reginald pushed me off of him, and for a moment I felt absolutely weightless. Everything seemed to slow down as I looked around me. My fluttering dress through the air was beautiful, like flying silk. I saw Reginald's head turn backwards as his face slowly morphed into worry. My head started going back too, and I could see Beatrice’s smug expression transforming into one of some haunting realization. An odd, but inspiring sight. Maybe she could be my next piece with that kind of haunting face. And then finally Aven, sobbing her eyes out in that beautiful light pink dress she had. God, she was so pretty. And the final thing I was aware of, the final thing I ever felt, the final thing I ever lived to know, was just a sharp, thundering sound in my ears that I could never forget.

Snap