The heavy black did not shift as the massive steel door opened.

Petre wanted to rush towards the noise, but some strange (Nothing seemed strange nowadays) worry held him back. He instead watched as the short female silhouette looked on from the other side of the massive door, still as a statue.

He was not alone in the basement, but the others were scarcely even human. He had tried to speak with a few of them, but they all babbled senselessly (One had even recited a poem Petre vaguely remembered) at the sound of his voice. Some were shackled to the wall as if it were a dungeon.

"I'm surprised."

Petre's heart sank when he recognized Manya's voice. Nuncle had led him here. Nuncle had shoved him inside and locked the door. Some small part of him (A very, very, very stupid part) had hoped his cuz knew nothing of the madness downstairs. Petre still could not believe that such... such evil dwelt in the same building he had worked for the past few years.

"Helloooooo?"

The effect was instaneous. As Manya raised her voice and it echoed off the stone walls, every body within the room (Aside from Petre) began to shake and squirm. A low whine started to fill the room and it soon crested into full-fledged screams.

"Uh oh," Manya said, still cast in the heavy black of the room.

She entered the basement (The dungeon) and closed the massive door behind her with ease. As if it were some normal door and not a slab of steel sturdier than a tank.

"Can't have someone hear their whining," Manya said, and while Petre could not make out her eyes in the sunless room, he knew that she was staring at him.

His mind was entirely blank. There were dead bodies in this room. He had been left in a room with dead bodies. And here was Manya, his light-hearted cuz. Full of playful mischief. Even here her voice was full of laughter, the noise of it made wretched as the fearful moans of man and woman rang out.

"Cat got your tongue, biiiiig brooooother?"

Petre blinked and Manya stood over him. She was a small chihuahua, full of bark despite her small statue.

And she towered over him, her blind iris aglow with red menace.

"Theeeere's a little noise," Manya said as Petre let out a muffled cry. Powerful hands gripped his cheeks and pulled them slowly apart as if in a familial pinch.

"I know you are confused, cuz," Manya said. "But once I fill you with my color, you'll forget allllll about that little incubator."

Petre was lifted off the ground. He was convinced she would tear off his jowls. He kicked and punched and continued to cry out in blind confusion.

And then Manya quieted his screams with her own mouth. A wave of revulsion shot through him as his cuz embraced him in an adult kiss, but then a torrent of wet gushed down his throat.

He kicked and kicked. He tried to tear her away, but she was stone. This was not his cuz. This was not human.

And he was dropped. A horrible sound filled the room. Manya was laughing.

"I'm not like my sisters, Petre. I don't want to be... noticed. We'll go somewhere far away, cuz. Just the three of us."

Something wrapped and writhed in his stomach. He could feel its dark coils uncurl and spread as it flowed down his throat and dropped into his belly.

"I was patient," Manya said, her voice distorted and far. "I was cautious. I waited. I wanted to see how you would ripen. That was a mistake. I should have been greedier. I should have- "

Petre vomited. His stomach burned as if filled with coals. The fire scourged his throat and wherever the dark coils had tried to spread. He wretched all of it onto the floor of the basement.

And he was lifted into the air. A red glow of hate filled his vision, blinded him to the black that consumed all.

[ yOUu wouLd DeNy mY coooloUr, biiig broOoOooTher?! ]

They were not lips that held his mouth, but the same flood of wet filled his mouth and forced itself into his stomach. Petre scarcely had time to notice the tears that streamed down his face amidst the terrible roil of his belly.

[ i foUunD yoOu fiRsT! yOu aRrE miINe ! i wiLl nOt lEet ThE otHerS haAvE yOoUuu! ]

Petre was going to die. He had no idea what was going on. He was not allowed even a moment to collect his thoughts. He was going to die in a dark basement as some monstrous creature pumped him stomach full of a rancid oak.

And all he could think of was Blurb.

Petre found himself on a floor. The same white heat filled his stomach and burned away the invasive black.

The Manya-creature stood over him. It did not so much as twitch, and so Petre could vaguely make out its silhouette of black. The same small girl from the neck down. But then an indiscernible black shadow erupted from where the head should be.

"She wouldn't..."

The black monstrosity disappeared and Manya's head returned.

"That little incubator wouldn't dare."

The building shook overhead. Manya darted away. Petre watched her blur towards the door and then it was thrown open. It crashed into the wall, but the building shook overhead as if from an explosion.

Manya disappeared into the black hallway. And the door was left open.

Petre stared at it, his mind broken and unmoving. Another explosion ripped out from above. With the door open, Petre could hear shouts and the crackle of gunfire.

He was at the door. He did not remember standing up, but he stood at the doorway. He was not crying, but his body shook and shivered and a salty wet slid down his face.

"I'm jusht sho confushed."

Petre's voice, but he scarcely recognized it.

He was in the hallway, but he did not remember leaving the basement.

There were more explosions, more gunfire. The army. The polici. Gang members. His mind churned over the source of the noise, but could not still.

And then a wreath of fire appeared before him. Light filled the hallway and seared his eyes. Petre stumbled away from the closeness of the noises, from the warm touch of fire, from the terrified human misery that filled the hallway.

And then he felt her warmth.

Petre lowered his hands from his eyes and there was Blurb. She straddled the chest of a uniformed man in riot gear. The wall beside her had collapsed inward, revealing the streets outside strewn with charred vehicles and human bodies.

"B-blurb protect!"

Petre stumbled into her gooey embrace and felt the day's aches start to dissolve away.