Tally House

19: "A Nightmare Made of Love, From Simon"

hey. it's been...way more than a bit, but I didn't wanna leave you guys wondering when the next chapter was so I decided to give it to you now :) this of course will be 15k+ words, so buckle in for this one. oh btw thanks for 4k reads!!! ENJOY!!!!!

TW: blood, cutting, torturing (but don't WORRY guys simon isn't doing it this time lolz)

~

It now had been a few days since Simon & Ross got into contact. Tonight was Monday night, 10:55 PM to be exact - almost time for Simon to fall into the trap and get arrested. The tallies stood outside their SUV near the entrance of the park boringly waiting for the clock to strike 11 and for Simon to show up. Detective Garcia sat in the car along with 2 other hidden officers who were in the car for backup. A few undercover officers were also in cars parked close to the park up the street.

Andrew groaned audibly as he rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms. "Where the fuck is this dude? I never thought I would be saying this, but I just want him to show up so he can get arrested already!" He complained.

Rob put a finger to his lips, signaling for Andrew to shut up. "Shh! He might hear us." He shushed.

"Sure he can," Andrew scoffed as he rolled his eyes again.

After another couple of minutes of waiting, Detective Garcia rolled down the window slightly only to where you could see the top of his head. He was growing incredibly patient. Never in his many years of being a detective, he had to wait this long to arrest someone. It was such a shame that Simon set the record for Detective Garcia losing his patience.

"Has he shown up yet?" Detective Garcia questioned, peeking through the small crack in the car window.

"Nope," Ross flatly responded. "He probably will soon, though."

"He better...also, do I have to wear this wig? It's very uncomfortable and itchy." Detective Garcia complained.

"If you want Simon to believe that his mother is actually in the car, then yes!" Joe argued.

To try and make their plan better, the police took ideas from each tally and either discarded or listened to their ideas. Personally, they knew the most about him even though Simon probably knew more about the tallies than themselves. One of the ideas that was unfortunately listened to was the idea that Detective Garcia should try and look like Simon's mom to convince him that his mom was in the car. Joe was the one that suggested the idea and he thought it was genius.

Detective Garcia at first rejected the idea since he didn't really wanna dress like a woman and Simon couldn't see that much in the car anyway. After many hours of Joe begging him to do it, Detective Garcia agreed under only one condition. He had to wear only a singular piece of women's clothing. Nothing fit him, so he chose the last resort which was a long black wig that they had bought from a costume store. It was absolutely uncomfortable but he still had to wear the damn thing.

A few minutes passed and it turned 11. Simon was supposed to show up by now, where the hell was he? Sure, it only just turned 11 and the man wasn't all that reliable, but when it came to his mother he'd probably hurry, right? He actually would be but he was running a bit late. ...fashionably late. Meanwhile the tallies waited for him, he was squirming around in the backseat of his car trying to hurry to put on his clothes because he knew he was a bit late.

Simon had gone all out for this occasion - he had gone out to some fancy stores and had stolen some clothes. He was wearing a dress shirt, new pants, a blazer, and some shoes that his dad had given him a while back but still were fancy. This was very important to him and he had to make sure that everything was perfect. He had even bought her flowers! Of course Simon didn't know which ones she liked so he picked his favorite ones, which were peonies.

Simon let out heavy sighs as he hurried to button up his blazer. "Goddamn it- why are there so many buttons?!" He shouted in anger as he struggled with putting the buttons in the holes because he was rushing and his fingers were twitching in excitement. He was about to see his mom in God knows how long, 17? 16 years? Because of that, he had to look his best.

Once Simon was done putting on his blazer he took one look at himself in the rearview mirror to see how he really looked. Besides the messy hair and the thin layer of sweat that was on his forehead, he looked presentable enough for his mom. He smiled as he got into the driver's seat and sped away to Rotary Park. While speeding there he might have broken a few traffic laws, but who cares? He NEEDED to hurry to see his mom and it wasn't like anyone else was driving this late anyways.

As he sped, he noticed he was running "a bit late" (it was almost 10 minutes after 11 at this point) but didn't stress. His mom wouldn't have minded if he were late, right? Simon prayed that she didn't. Because of this, he started to worry. A lot. But the last thing he needed on his mind was stressing about whether he upset his mom because he was late or not. So, in order to keep him from crashing his car because of stress, he grabbed a CD from his glovebox and started to play some tunes.

You may be wondering, "what did he play?" It wasn't really anything big. Just a bit of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. Despite Simon stalking and literally traumatizing the tallies for life, he still enjoyed their music from time to time. He even started to sing along a bit to "Good Day". The moment was so surreal to him, he was driving while listening to the music of the band he stalked which was also helping him see his mother once again. It was almost like he was dreaming, but he knew he wasn't since he could feel the adrenaline rush through his body as he pushed on the gas pedal a little harder.

He kept looking at the time displayed on his car radio as he sped to the park. The time may have been a little off, but it was only off by a few minutes if anything. Simon still took the time into consideration though, as he thought if he got there before it was actually that time then everything would be perfect. As he still was speeding into the park a small smirk started to creep up on his face. In the far distance, there was the small outline of a sign that was very familiar to Simon: the Rotary Park sign.

"YEAH!" Simon exclaimed as he began giggling. "Heh, I got there just in time. Mother's probably gonna be so happy to see me..."

The sign of the park actually wasn't directly near the entrance of the park, but rather near a corner right around the entrance. Simon then stopped and parked his car along the street. He had this interaction all planned out - he was gonna show up out of nowhere (or it may have seemed) holding his mom's favorite flowers and surprise all of them. The tallies didn't really matter to him all that much anymore, all that mattered to him at this point was seeing his mom again.

But before he got out of the car, he pushed his hair back a bit and tried to style it. It irritated him how his hair was so long but he couldn't help but smile while doing so. He was looking good for her! His mother! She hadn't seen him ever since he was a kid and he was a full-grown man now, so he probably wasn't all that cute anymore. Despite this, he still had to look his best for her. After he fixed his hair he carefully dabbed the sweat off his forehead as he looked in the rearview mirror. While doing so, he could also see a faint SUV around the entrance of the park and some people standing around it, which were probably the tallies.

Simon wasn't wearing his contacts nor his glasses so he couldn't see as well, but who else could it be? He could also make out a faint silhouette in the SUV but it was too far for him to see. He quietly cursed himself for not grabbing his contacts before he left his apartment. Then, finally after what seemed like an eternity, he was finished fixing himself up. Simon carefully took a few deep breaths before grabbing the small bouquet of peonies and exiting the car.

Just as Simon was walking to the entrance of the park, he was still around the corner but paused once he saw someone coming out of the car. "What the fuck...?" He squinted to try and see but it did him no luck since he did it too much.

Detective Garcia heavily sighed as he got out of the car, along with the few other officers in the car soon following as well. He threw the wig to Joe which he replied with a dramatic eye roll and a scoff. The officers started to walk back to the car they all arrived in, but Detective Garcia stayed for a minute to talk to the tallies. He sighed sadly as he began talking to them.

"Look, I'm sorry boys," Detective Garcia apologized. "But I don't think he's actually coming. It's 11:07 and he probably would have been here by now. We'll still look for him, and contact you whenever we get updates."

Rob sighed as he nodded and looked down at his feet. "Alright. At least we tried, thoug-"

"No!" Ross exclaimed, stepping in front of Rob. He was clearly pissed off and didn't wanna give up on trying to lure Simon in. "How could you just give up so easily?! The guy will show, just give him some time."

"Ross, he won't. He either figured out our trap or is too busy to actually do it. We don't know what he's doing but we know that he isn't gonna come here tonight." Detective Garcia replied with a stern tone.

Ross huffed as he backed away and shook his head in disappointment. "Whatever. You know, the next time we get hurt again, blame THIS GUY!" He pointed to Detective Garcia.

At this point, the tallies were so tired and bored of waiting there that they couldn't bring themselves to agree with Ross so they instead stayed silent and watched as he was pouting. Detective Garcia sighed and nodded. In many cases before, people were mad that things didn't go their way so he was used to it. He put a hand on Rob's shoulder and gave him a reassuring look.

"Still, I'm sorry. We'll find him soon, I promise," Detective Garcia said as he began to walk away from the tallies.

"Thank you, anyways..." Rob quietly responded. He waited for Detective Garcia & all of the officers to leave before he wanted to scold Ross for his outburst. Once they did, he turned to him with the most angered face he had ever given anyone ever.

"ROSS!" Rob yelled. "What the hell was that?! I mean, I get why you're angry and why he gave up so quickly but how could you blame him for our danger?!"

"He and the police are our ONLY protection! No matter what we've done in the past, Simon always comes back! The only way we're gonna be safe from him is if he's in a prison cell rotting away for all of THE SHIT HE'S DONE!" Ross argued.

As Ross was fuming and arguing with Rob, Simon stood there, absolutely stunned. He couldn't believe what he was seeing right now. It was as if he could see everything clearly now even though he physically still couldn't see the tallies. The whole thing was faked, the tallies probably never even contacted his mother. Simon could feel absolute rage course through his veins as he began to grit his teeth.

Everything was a lie. Even if his mother was actually contacted, she declined and that's why she wasn't there. His time was wasted; everything he did for her was all for nothing. Simon started to cry as he stomped on the ground, ripping the peonies up into little pieces and then stepping on them all. He then ran back to his car slamming the door before he hit the steering wheel, screaming.

"AAAAAAA!" Simon screamed, his voice even cracking a little bit from his anger. "WHY- *hit* DOESN'T- *hit* SHE- *hit* LOVE ME? WHY DID THESE STUPID FUCKING PEOPLE HAVE TO LIE AND DECEIVE ME?!"

The horn of Simon's car may have honked a few times from how hard he was hitting it, but he didn't care anymore. He didn't care if he was alerting the tallies that someone was there, if anything he wanted to let them know he was there. He wanted to let them know that they really upset him this time. After screaming and hitting the steering wheel a bit more, he calmed down and tried to put on an emotionless face as tears continued to stream down his cheeks.

"I...I need to figure out who even told me this was gonna happen. Who was it? Was it-...it was Ross, oh, THAT FUCKER!" Simon yelled as a wave of manic laughing washed over him. "OF COURSE IT WAS HIM! Oh, Rossy...I'll fucking get you."

Simon then put his key back into the ignition and began making a U-turn out of the street. He was still laughing, even grinning as he sped back to the parking lot he currently resided in. His mind raced at the speed of light looking for ideas of how he could possibly torture Ross again without actually getting caught. Blackmailing wasn't enough since he didn't have much interesting dirt on him, sending him horrifying things wasn't gonna work because he didn't have anything, and any other option he could think of proved to be futile.

So, he thought of the next "best" option. Haunting Ross in his dreams. It may have taken a lot of work to do but Simon still remembered the spell and was willing to do anything in order to make Ross suffer once again. As Simon sped back to the parking lot, he cackled and the same evil grin he had before was still on his face.

"Shouldn't have thought to mess with me, tallies. You'll all be sorry, I swear. Especially Ross." Simon growled.

~

Soon after going back to Bora's house, the tallies all went to bed, still annoyed that they hadn't caught Simon yet. Ross especially was annoyed - but rather angry than annoyed. He couldn't believe that the police just let him go and gave up only mere minutes after it was 11:00. A question kept lingering in his mind, and that question was "why didn't they just wait a little?". He couldn't understand and was outraged that they didn't wait just a few more minutes for Simon to show up. Ross also didn't understand how the tallies weren't as angry as him, why weren't they when they had suffered probably just as much as he did?

It seemed like everything that Ross had understood once before now made no sense at all and had lost all understanding. But he didn't wanna let this get to him anymore, so he tried to calm down and went to bed. He was still in fear that Simon was gonna haunt his dreams once again but he...surprisingly didn't? After Simon had driven back to the parking lot, he sobbed and sobbed until he felt as if he couldn't cry anymore. He was tired and mentally drained from what happened in the last hour.

But Simon wasn't drained enough to make at least one more threat to someone. Who, you may ask? As soon as he had stopped crying, Simon tried to figure out who he had known who could've given that information to Ross to make him believe that he & the tallies had actually talked to his mother. His father was immediately ruled out since he knew that he would never give information to the police. He knew this because of the arson stint he pulled when he was 14; when he was arrested, the police had tried to ask his father for information but he didn't say anything, damn well knowing everything that happened.

Any of his friends were eliminated, also with exes. There were some that Simon still had a vendetta against and they had one against him too, but they were cowards and probably weren't even contacted by the police. That left only 1 person to threaten. His brother, Gareth. He and Simon weren't always the closest of brothers which obviously gave him a reason to tell things to the police. Once Simon figured this out, he was even more angered than he already had been since his own blood had betrayed him. Someone that he had trusted somewhat backstabbed him just so justice could be served.

Simon scoffed as he began to dial Gareth's number into his phone. "Oh, wow. My own brother! My own FUCKING BROTHER! I suppose that being mom's favorite has its pros and cons." He gritted his teeth as he really struggled to dial in the last digit and not smash the phone with a hammer.

The sound of a phone calling someone could be heard for a few seconds until it was replaced by a small sigh and the voice of Gareth. "H-Hello...?" Simon could tell that Gareth was obviously sleepy, or disappointed. One of the two.

"Good evening, brother," Simon greeted. "So! I heard that you told some personal shit about me to the police! Care to fucking mention that, Gareth?"

Gareth sighed once again as he felt himself begin to get angry. "Listen, Simon, I had to. After what they told me what you did to those poor people...I just had to! You're honestly fucked up for doing that and there was nothing else I could do to make up for YOUR actions."

"But why couldn't you be just like dad? Why couldn't you keep your STUPID MOUTH SHUT AND JUST LET THINGS HAPPEN NATURALLY?!" Simon questioned.

"I- 'naturally'?! How the hell would things happen NATURALLY? You're a fucking psycho who keeps stalking and harassing innocent people! You know, I actually care about you and just wanna get you the help that you NEED but of course you have to ruin THE PLANS TO DO SO!" Gareth exclaimed.

Simon simply laughed and then tsked at his brother's shouting. "Tsk tsk tsk, I'm perfectly sane, brother. I think that it's you who needs help. You told the police the most PERSONAL shit about me! Do you remember those little trips that mom would take us on, to Hawaii, when we were kids? How she'd take us to the beach?"

"Yes, yes I do. Why do those trips even matter right now?!" Gareth argued.

"I remember how even though you were just a baby, whenever you pissed me off I wanted to shove your face into the water and drown you when mom wasn't looking. Blame your pathetic death on you being a stupid infant. Did you know that that could have happened so many fucking times?"

The rage that the two felt now came to an all-time high, with Simon throwing morbid insults at Gareth and Gareth feeling absolutely disgusted. He couldn't help but question if Simon had actually thought that even though he was just a child. Gareth placed a hand over his mouth, gasping as he felt himself get nauseous. All Simon did was simply grit his teeth as he evilly grinned.

"WHAT THE FUCK, SIMON?! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ME! I...I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE WHAT YOU JUST SAID TO M-"

But just as Gareth was about to release all of his anger on Simon, Simon cut him off by hanging up the phone with a heavy exhale. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out an angry laugh through his teeth. "Well, I just burned a bridge I probably didn't mean to burn! Not like there was much of a bridge there anyways..."

With a sigh, Simon turned off his phone, took the battery out, and chucked them both to the car floor along with a small grunt. He sat back in his seat and lowered it so that he could blankly stare at the grey roof of his car and think about his actions. Some that were made recently, and some that were made a few months back - such as when he first decided to stalk the tallies. Thinking about it, Simon thought that how he had originally done it was so stupid. What he used to do was go to places where the tallies would perform early with his ex (who had introduced him to Tally Hall) and watch them set up. It was nothing much like stalking really, it just was he got too obsessed with the five which led to this.

Those memories also made him wonder about something. A "small" question that had been lingering in the back of his mind ever since the whole Hawaii thing happened. Did he actually like doing this? Actually, was all of this even worth it? At the end of the day, Simon was just a crazed fan who was even crazier in the head. He didn't need to do all of this just to get noticed or get a thrill. Other things could've been done to pacify his need for chaos that he'd randomly get.

Now, with Simon FINALLY realizing this didn't mean that he was just gonna stop stalking the tallies. Oh fuck no. He had already gone too far! He couldn't just have ruined his life for nothing, planning for months and months only to give up and turn himself into the police. Simon had thought of himself as a smart man too much to surrender. That meant that he had to finish his actions and go through with his plans. Go out with a bang before...well, he wasn't really sure if his escaping plan was gonna work or not, so he had decided he was gonna try and live a new life with a new identity if he had gotten the right amount of money.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I'll do!" Simon exclaimed as he suddenly rose up out of his seat, pulling it back up as well. He had a small smile on his face since the thought of carrying out his plans made him feel slightly better. The pain of his mother not actually loving him was still there, but this was something that distracted him from that. "I just have to get enough money. Eh. I'm sure I can do that, or at least find a way to get it, in the morning though. I'm quite tired."

Since he had called Gareth not too long ago, he was sure that he had reported it to the police and his phone could've been tracked. Because of this, he had to drive to a new parking lot or at least an abandoned place where no one would go looking for him. This wasn't all that hard since he knew a few places. And so, with that, he had put the keys in the ignition and drove off to the first place he could think of - the parking lot of his apartment. Or I should say old apartment now since he was either gonna live in a jail cell or in a hotel room. He knew it was risky for him to sleep there, but it was only gonna be for a day or so and Simon adored the thrill he was gonna get.

Once Simon found the parking lot (which wasn't all that far away from his old one), he had put the car into park, took the keys out, and laid the seat back so he could sleep comfortably. He would usually sleep horizontally in the backseat but this time he wanted to sleep in the front so he could wake up to a beautiful view. And that view being a brick wall since he was parked right in front of it. But Simon liked the memories, it reminded him when everything was still normal. Or just memories of him continuously stalking and planning to stalk a band all in his apartment. However, he needed to be reminded of those memories to get him hyped up for tomorrow.

But Simon was still sleepy and started to fall asleep, so reminiscing on the evil plans would have to wait until he woke up later. As he fell asleep looking at the grey roof of his car, the tallies were sleeping, looking at the ceilings of Bora's guest rooms. And also much warmer than Simon who's only warmth came from his blazer. Everything was still the same though, as if nothing had ever happened. The world simply went on while the tallies still went through grief of the loss of their house, and most importantly: the bitter feeling of defeat. As they had always felt. The sun began to slowly rise over [UNDISCLOSED LOCATION], and the morning came by rather quickly.

Bora soon left for work since it became 6:00 AM, in which the noises that he made while doing so woke up 2/5 tallies. Andrew & Joe. When they woke up, they just looked at each other, very confused with a hint of fear in their emotions. They didn't speak for safety reasons; just in case whoever was downstairs could hear them talk. This plan started to backfire after the two kept giving each other vague looks in order to try and communicate without actually speaking. Soon, they turned confusing and they had to use hand motions which helped, but only somewhat.

Joe pointed downward and then made a weird crawling motion with his fingers along with a shrug. This meant that he didn't know if the two should go downstairs, but Andrew took this the wrong way and gave him a weird look. He tried to reply to it by making the same crawling motion with his fingers but up along his arm, thinking that he meant a spider. Joe heavily sighed as he shook his head and looked down in disappointment.

"No, Andy! I meant that I'm not sure if we should go downstairs or not." Joe whisper-shouted, tilting his head to the side a bit with a frown. This was a bit surprising since for once he didn't act like his emo self.

"OH," Andrew replied, whispering as well. "Then, shit! These hand motions are confusing. I just say we go down there anyway. I doubt that Simon even knows where Bora lives. I'm sure that it was just him leaving for work, not our psychopathic stalker coming to attack us at 6 in the morning."

Joe sighed, now starting his whole emo act once again. "I guess you're right," He flipped his half-wavy bangs to the side since they had gotten a bit curly as he slept even though he straightened them yesterday for the 100th time.

Soon enough they had both gained courage, Andrew & Joe quietly snuck out of the guest room and were mindful of the noise they made. They knew that Bora had left for work now, but they still didn't wanna be loud and wake up the other tallies. Walking down the stairs was like hell for the two since they were long and also creaked every step they took. Joe kept hugging the railing while Andrew tried to balance himself and also trying to be light so he wouldn't make noise. Once they came down, it was definitely a relief for two reasons: 1, if Simon were actually there he would've caught them, and 2, the nightmare that was walking down those stairs was over.

"Sooo, what do we do now?" Andrew questioned quietly. He was for sure going to get breakfast, but what after that? He wasn't really sure what to do since the others weren't up.

"I dunno. Get something to eat and some coffee...maybe have some time alone to ourselves. I feel like we're always forgotten about, so why not do our own thing?" Joe suggested.

"Hm. Guess you're right," Andrew replied, now going into the kitchen and expecting Joe to follow.

The two really didn't do much after that, besides getting breakfast and lazily getting ready. This part totally was skipped because you, the reader, probably didn't wanna see the dry parts of writing the author conducted and not because he wasn't sure how to write scenes so boring. Totally. But, as they were getting ready, they had decided they were gonna wake the others up at 7:00 or so just because they wanted their alone time. They wanted to have fun by themselves and not just with the tallies. Andrew & Joe didn't have to be a part of the band all the time! Even though they lived together and saw each other most of the time.

After they finished what they had to do to get themselves ready, which for Andrew consisted of doing a normal routine one would do, while for Joe he had to "emoify" himself (what Zubin had called it), they weren't really sure what to do. Well, something that wasn't boring and something that they didn't do normally. Nor did that involve going out since who the hell knew what would happen if they went out by themselves? Simon could just come strolling by and...do something odd to them. They didn't really know what he would do if he actually just came up to them.

An awkward silence filled the hallway that the bathroom Andrew & Joe used to get ready, as they stood there, not knowing what to do. They felt a sense of shame since they weren't sure what to do now that they weren't being led like puppies. Andrew slowly looked over to Joe with a grimace, and in response he looked over to Andrew the same.

"Wanna...uh...go play pool?" Andrew questioned, praying that Joe would agree so they wouldn't be bored with their free time.

"At this point, sure." Joe replied with a shrug.

"Alright," Andrew sighed as he began to walk to the door of Bora's game room (yes, the man had a whole ass game room), leading Joe along as well.

Meanwhile the two were boringly starting to play pool, the other tallies were starting to wake up. Or should I say tally. Rob's eyes slowly fluttered open, regaining consciousness as he looked up at the ceiling where the sun was starting to shine. He sat up with a smile on his face and stretched slowly. He had a feeling that today was gonna be a good day, or how good it can get after your house was burned down, until he saw the time on the clock: 6:37 AM. A flood of panic rushed throughout his body, he woke up late! How could this have been?! He went to sleep early!

"Oh God, oh God!" Rob exclaimed, jumping out of bed and rushing straight to Zubin to wake him up. "ZUBES!!!! WAKE UP!!!!"

"Wha-" Zubin muttered, not really sure what was happening since he woke up to the sound of Rob shouting and him being violently shaken by the shoulders.

"Wake up!! WE SLEPT IN," Rob replied in a rushed manner. As if sleeping in once in a while after experiencing such trauma was a bad thing.

Rob went over to try and wake up Ross but paused as he saw his eyes were already open and just looking at Rob blankly. Ross groaned and turned over, placing a pillow over his head. He didn't wanna deal with anything today after being so disappointed. The other man had got that, so he nodded and went out of the room to try and wake the others up. Things weren't all that good for today but he at least wanted to carry on and try and pretend things were. He then went to go look for Andrew & Joe to try and wake them up and was quite panicked to not see them there.

Suddenly, every scenario went through his head - but only the worst kind. What if they had locked themselves outside? Or even worse, Simon had kidnapped them?! Rob's breath started to quicken as he ran back to the other guest room to tell Zubin to help him look for the others. They had just gone through a horrible wave of devastation, they couldn't go through it again! Andrew & Joe hadn't even been gone for that long, but Rob was already starting to have the "mother" side of him kick in and panic every second. That was until Zubin called him over to the game room.

"DID YOU FIND THEM?!- oh." Rob said, running into the room only to see the two playing a game of pool and a few of the balls on the floor. He immediately sighed into his hand, not only in shame of himself but as well as disappointment since the two didn't wake the others up. He expected more of them.

"What?" Joe questioned, confused on why the other two were looking for him and Andrew.

"Nothing. We just thought you guys had been kidnapped by Simon, that's all," Rob said as he turned away from the two, giving them the cold shoulder.

"...o-kay then," Andrew replied, putting down a cue stick on the table. "So, I assume you guys haven't gotten ready yet and want to have breakfast. We already have, so you can leave us out."

"No one is left behind!" Rob stated, now turning and walking out of the room. Presumably downstairs to the kitchen so that they could start breakfast. Even if 2/5 (4?) already had it.

"What about Ross?" Zubin asked.

"He seems sad, so I'll let him be..." Rob trailed off as he walked downstairs.

Zubin shrugged, now turning to Andrew & Joe. "Alright then. You guys can go while I go get Winter," Now walking back to the guest room.

The remaining two looked at each other, this time giving each other looks that they could understand, which essentially said "fuck it." They walked out of the game room and downstairs, only to see Rob in the kitchen already having his first cup of coffee for the day. Everyone was saved, for he wasn't gonna be passive-aggressive anymore because of the caffeine. Rob was for sure a strange man but what he needed to function wasn't questioned. He was also getting out a box of mixture for pancakes, as he probably didn't feel like putting in actual work today since he was still sad. Just as the others were.

By the time Zubin had gotten Winter and came downstairs, some pancakes were cooked and Andrew & Joe were in the living room, on the couch waiting for it to be done. He saw Andrew was reading a book and looked quite uninterested in it as Joe was listening to music with his iPod. He could tell since he heard an emo song out of his headphones, with the artist probably being Fall Out Boy because Joe never shut up about them. Zubin pulled up a pillow and carefully set Winter on it so he could go make himself coffee. He soon walked into the kitchen, got a mug, and prepared the coffee maker as he watched Rob cook the pancakes.

Zubin couldn't help but notice how depressed Rob looked. Or, down, at the least. Earlier he had looked alright but now he was just the complete opposite, and he had a guess as to why. It was because Simon didn't get arrested as the tallies wanted him to. That meant that they had to spend another day living in fear, waiting for him to strike again and relying on the police for protection. Even though their attempt had failed. The tallies were tired of it, and they couldn't even do anything since they didn't wanna get charged as well! Whether it was by Simon or the law.

At their lowest, some of them thought that they should just accept it and thought that with enough police work, he'd go away. That was until their home was burned down along with everything in it. They wanted to do something, but it seemed like every attempt was pointless. Rob especially did so since he was enthusiastic and tried to make the tallies' lives the best they could be. Now that everything happened, he would lose all hope along with the others as well. But there was something that he didn't express all that much now as the tallies did: his emotions about the situation.

Rob had tried to carry on and hide away his pain to try and cope. Zubin saw this in him since he had done the same as well. That's why he was previously cocky and narcissistic, and with that happening to him; he didn't want the same to happen to Rob, so he had to get him to talk.

"Hey, man, you feeling okay?" Zubin questioned as he had put the mug onto the platform of the coffee maker.

"Oh- what?" Rob replied, completely changing his expression and instead seeming as if everything was fine. Zubin could tell that this was to try and hide how he felt. "Yeah, I'm good. Why do you ask?"

"You looked kind of sad. Or at least to me, you did." Zubin claimed.

"I-" Rob paused, turning around to face Zubin before sighing slightly and looking down at the floor. He frowned and looked as if he was debating something, and that thing was whether to tell Zubin how he truly felt or not. On one hand, it would do him good since he could be comforted, but on the other, it would cause Zubin to worry and that was the last thing Rob wanted right now.

"I sort of am."

"Oh? What's up- if you don't mind telling me of course." Zubin said, trying to lighten the situation so Rob could feel comfortable about opening up.

Another sigh came out of Rob's mouth as he flipped a pancake. "Well, it's just hard. Hard to keep on going when everything's probably gonna get worse. Simon still hasn't gotten arrested, so that means that we're still gonna get hunted and the police will barely do anything. I know we're not their main priority, but Ross was right. They did give up too early."

"Hey," Zubin cooed softly, tilting his head to the side. "Don't say that. I mean, yeah, he hasn't gotten arrested yet, but if he comes for us again I'll beat his ass. Again." The two laughed despite knowing it probably wouldn't do anything.

"Yeah, but I'm sure it won't scare him off. I just want us to be okay. At least for a little bit, you know? I'm so fucking tired of living in fear every day, waiting for him to just pop up again. We don't even know what he'll do, or how! I just- UGH." Rob grunted as he slammed a fist on the counter, aggressively taking a sip of coffee before flipping another pancake and putting it onto a plate.

"Calm down, Rob. I know this irritates you but you shouldn't talk about it when it makes you angry to even explain how you feel. But, that doesn't mean you should hide how you feel. You can always talk to one of the guys, shit, even me if you don't feel comfortable-"

"Zubin, your coffee!" Rob interrupted as he pointed to the coffee maker, pointing out the overflowing coffee from Zubin's mug.

"OH- goddamn it!" Zubin exclaimed, turning off the coffee maker and wiping the spilled coffee with a towel. "Fuck. Anyway, what I was saying was that you can always talk. Express how you feel, don't keep it inside, man. I know what it's like to keep it bottled up and it turns you into someone you're not."

"Thanks," Rob softly sighed, still looking sad. "I'll try. It's just hard to since it's all so much and I don't know what to bring up first...anyway. These are almost done, so I'll call for you guys to come in soon."

"Alright-" Zubin paused, thinking of something to do as a goodbye gesture. He settled on doing nervous finger guns before scurrying out of the kitchen. Sure, he may have just helped Rob, but he also made it awkward as hell.

Once Zubin got back into the living room, the other two tallies now sat close to each other, talking to each other and writing stuff down. He also noticed that Joe had Winter in his lap which pissed him off a bit since she was perfectly fine where she was staying. Soon, he plopped himself back down on the couch and took Winter back. He did it carefully though just because if he did it too quickly she wouldn't know who he was and bite his hand. This he sadly had to find out himself. Of course Joe had noticed, but he didn't make a fret about it and instead just looked at Zubin weirdly.

"What are you looking at, bro?" Zubin questioned, now beginning to look at Joe weirdly as well.

"Nothing! Nothing," Joe claimed. "I just wanted Winter on my lap a little more longer. That's all."

Zubin let out a deep exhale as he narrowed his eyes and pondered if Joe had actually just asked that. "She's literally my own daughter, but alright. AAAAnyway, what're you two doing?"

"We're writing a song. Or at least trying to. We come up with little parts but we don't get far." Andrew frowned.

"Hm. I could help you, if you want." Zubin replied.

Back in the kitchen, rather quickly again, Rob was almost finished preparing the pancakes, he just had to place them evenly all on a plate so they wouldn't fall down. Even though there were 10 of them, which he had quickly made out of instinct after years of rushing himself to get ready. He figured that he could just stack them as if he were preparing a game of Jenga! ...right? If they were placed evenly then he could probably do so.

While playing what Rob liked to call "Pancake Jenga", he couldn't help but overhear the 3's conversation over by the couch which wasn't that far away. They were talking about a song. Writing a song, to be specific. It was ironic since he actually had thought of a song. Of course not recently, but he had it in his head for a while. The remembrance of the song made him wonder if he should share it with the band or not until he had finished stacking the pancakes and called the 3 in to get their food.

They all rushed in, scattering to the kitchen like rats running to cheese. Of course Rob made them all line up and wait for their turn to get their food so the kitchen wouldn't be a place of chaos. The conversation from earlier continued, although this time Rob didn't pitch in any ideas since he was busy cleaning the coffee maker and the counter area where the coffee had overflowed. With the conversation - the three had actually started to come up with concepts for a song, or at least a few of them. One idea that popped up quite frequently was one force against one another, but that idea was too broad. They needed a specific story or a premise to go off of.

Andrew sighed, getting a small bowl to pour his syrup in. "But what forces do we wanna put against each other? Good & Evil? Good & Good? Wait, wouldn't that make it Evil & Evil?"

"It's not like we would know," Joe remarked, rolling his eyes and flipping his emo bangs to the side. "We're not philosophers."

"Yeah, no shit, Joe. It's just- why is writing a song so hard this time around? Have we lost our creativity after this whole thing? I have so many questions, but I never get answers. I just end up with more questions than answers." Andrew complained.

"Maybe we should try a new idea. We can revisit it later or something. Rob, do you have any ideas?" Zubin asked, nodding to the other man mindlessly scrubbing away at the counter with a rag.

"What?-" Rob interjected as he turned around to face the other tallies. "Oh. Uh...sure, I have an idea for a song or two."

"Go on. We're all ears." Zubin said with a smirk, leaning back against the other counter.

~

"Rossy...Ross..."

"W-Whuh?"

Ross's eyes fluttered open slowly, eyes trying to get used to the semi-dark room he was in. The only source of light seemed like it was from the windows in an unseeable area, probably behind him and curtains covering them. He groaned as he felt like his whole body was sore even though he had just woken up. Looking around a little bit more, he realized it was the guest room he was staying in. He could see the bed that Rob slept in and even the little "beds" that were on the ground that he and Zubin slept in as well.

Everything seemed normal until he remembered: a voice woke him up. But who would it have been?- oh Jesus fucking Christ. There he horribly stood. Simon, smiling in front of Ross, taunting him by crouching down to his level and simply laughing at him. His long fingers traced over his cheeks in an almost adoring manner. It was like he meant to be threatening but comforting at the same time, but since Simon was himself it just came off as threatening. He was gonna try to hit him until he looked down and noticed he was duct taped to a chair. That was why he woke up so damn sore.

"Ah!" Simon exclaimed, still smiling and this time standing normally as he brought his hands together in a pleased way. "You're awake! I thought it was about time we saw each other again! I got to say, even though you essentially ruined my life, I missed you.

Ross looked at Simon with pure rage, and he looked back at him with an evil grin and a smug look on his face. As if what he was doing were nothing. "You son of a BITCH! WHY AM I HERE?!"

"Well, it's because you tried to get me ARRESTED. Remember that, Rossy?" Simon questioned as he got closer to Ross to try and intimidate him.

"Of fucking course I do! That was only because YOU BURNED OUR HOUSE DOWN. IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN ANYWAY!" Ross shouted.

Simon tsked as he looked down at his feet, tapping his foot, seeming to be disappointed in Ross sharing his anger. "I had to do that because you had told the poli- AH, FUCK!"

Out of nowhere, Ross positioned himself just right to kick Simon in the face to try and stun him for a tiny bit. It was only meant to cause him pain but he received some pain too as he fell on the floor from how hard he kicked. Simon held his nose in pain, groaning as he felt some blood trickle down onto his hands. While he began to grow worried about whether Ross broke his nose or not, Ross was twisting his hands back and forth to try and rip the duct tape apart.

Noises of the tape ripping were made but they couldn't be heard over the annoying sounds of Simon panicking and letting out several cuss words. It wasn't too long before he had freed his hands and was able to free other parts of his body. But, as this happened, Simon finally stopped being a little bitch- I MEAN WAS IN PAIN and had started to gain "control" over the situation again. He lunged at Ross, trying to punch him in the face, but this was stopped because Ross clapped back with his right hand and held the fist in an attempt to try and hold Simon back.

Simon was surprised by this, but he didn't have any time to react since he tried to force his fist out of Ross's. His other hand was occupied with trying to push him off, which made it perfect so that Ross could punch him with his other hand. In which he had done. This only made Simon bleed more in the nose with blood on his chin and mouth along with the second man's fist since he kept punching him. For now, he was stunned and crying out in pain - another perfect chance for Ross to take hold of the situation.

Ross was still bound a bit to the chair, not to mention the other parts of his body were still duct-taped together. He took a small moment to undo the tape, careful of watching Simon since the fucker was unpredictable and could've gotten up at any moment even though he was in pain. A hand grabbed out for Ross, trying to grab him by the legs and pull him, but he kicked it in response since he still was undoing the tape. Simon let out another cry in pain since the kick was pretty hard.

Once he was done untaping himself, Ross felt pretty proud of being able to escape from that...as well as a feeling of pure rage. Simon was finally here and in a vulnerable state. This meant that he could get revenge on him for all the things he had done, not just to him, but to the tallies. He wished for the first time that they were all here with him so that they could all torture him in unison. Just like Simon had done to them. As he thought about this, Simon slowly began to get up and limp towards Ross.

"Oh FUCK no you don't," Ross replied, grabbing Simon by the shoulders and throwing the both of them to the bed that wasn't that far.

Even though this was a pretty strong move, Simon still wouldn't give it up. He weakly lunged at Ross to try and at least hurt him a little bit. But this proved to be futile as he was held down by Ross and had an alarm clock held to his head, with it forcefully being pressed against him.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TRY! IF YOU TRY AND HURT ME AGAIN, I'LL FUCKING BASH YOUR SKULL IN WITH THIS!" Ross yelled, panting as he held a firm grip on the alarm clock. He wasn't sure if he was actually gonna do it or not, but he was gonna at least hit him a few times with it out of anger.

"Okay, okay!" Simon obeyed. "I'll be still- just fucking DON'T TOUCH MY NOSE AGAIN!" Tears were now beginning to stream down his cheeks; not just because out of pain, but because of a realization. A realization that he wasn't gonna win this fight he had put up. That for once he had lost and couldn't do anything about it.

Ross scoffed, getting off of Simon with a little bit of a push for good measure. "Fucking weak bitch..."

Finally, Simon was put to rest and wasn't able to do anything to hurt Ross again. Or at least for now. The other man needed to make sure that he would stay this way, and why not make sure he did by doing the same thing that was done to him? But there was one problem. With what? Ross looked around the room, searching for anything that could be a makeshift rope or make him not be able to move. For a second he thought all hope was lost until he looked right in front of him: the bedsheets. He could tie Simon's body parts together and then tie him down to the chair like he did to Ross!

He couldn't believe that he was smiling because he had found a way to tie Simon up. Even that he WAS tying him up! In a swift motion, Simon was rolled onto the floor (which he groaned in pain) so that the bedsheets off of the bed could be taken off and used to tie him up. Ross didn't care if what he was doing could be seen or not, because all he would have to do was get the alarm clock and hit Simon a few times until he stopped. Getting revenge on your stalker had never been so easy. However, taking the bedsheets off wasn't all that easy since he had to pull and almost fell over from how much force he was using to pull.

But, once that part was over, Ross went over to Simon and slipped the bedsheets underneath and over him, tying his arms together to his torso. He let out little groans and huffs but the other couldn't tell if it was out of pain or just out of annoyance. Probably both. Ross shortly moved onto the lower half of Simon's body, tying his legs together with the other bedsheet. It took a bit to get the knots secure to where they wouldn't come undone (because who knew what Simon could be capable of with knots), and when it was finally done, Ross stood somewhat proud of his work. If Rob were there, he would've been proud of him too, and/or clapping. The thought cheered him up a bit.

One part of Ross's small plan was complete. Now, he just had to put Simon in the chair and torture him if he had the guts to. He most likely did since the feeling of rage was still coursing through his veins. With that said, he pulled up the chair and essentially threw Simon into it and he landed with a small groan. It was uncomfortable to be in it when he was bound from moving. Ross felt like using the cords of the alarm clock and the lamp from the nightstand to tie the second man down to the chair, and it was surprisingly easy to do so since they were secure and tied together easily.

"Creative now, aren't you?" Simon teased with a small smirk on his face. He was still in pain, but he also still had to be cocky about everything.

"Shut up," Ross huffed as he now knelt to the ground, forcefully bending Simon's legs so he could be fully bound in the chair. He didn't wanna have him get into his head (at least any more) so he could mess up his plans. He also wasn't in the mood to talk.

With a sassy scoff and an eye roll, Simon looked away to the side and left Ross alone for now since he wasn't having his bullshit. This only made him more fucked since the knots were finished quickly, leaving one man tied to a chair who was usually the one to be on the other side of the situation, and another man finally getting his chance at getting revenge. Which he was hungry for. Ross looked at Simon with a disgusted expression on his face, looking down at the man with a subtle feeling of power. He knew that anything could go wrong if he had fucked up one single thing, but he didn't wanna acknowledge that and just wanted to hurt Simon. However, Simon had acknowledged that, but just didn't wanna do anything for right now.

Before Ross spoke, he wanted to have some leverage over Simon. Something to have that could actually hurt him. He went over to the console table that was by the door, scavenging in the drawers to find something that could be used as a weapon. There wasn't much that could be used except for one thing: a letter opener. Ross really never had the chance to use one, so he didn't know how normally sharp they could be and was careful to grab it before shutting the drawer and having a tight grip on it just in case anything was tried on him.

"So, do you remember when you first did this to me for the first time?" Ross questioned, slightly leaning down in front of Simon to get him to look at him and take him seriously. "Well, I'm sure you do. You had forced me to answer your stupid questions. And if I had disobeyed, you hurt me with migraines. I'm gonna do the same thing to you, but-"

Ross paused for a second, holding the letter opener up to Simon's face to try and seem threatening. "Every time you don't answer a question or try and hurt me with your fucking 'dream powers' again, I'm gonna cut you or stab you with this."

Simon scoffed a little as he blew his long hair out of his face, laughing slightly. "I don't think you know how sharp that thing can't be, but okay. I'll let you get your revenge on me for now. It's funny, you're in the position that I would normally be in. You've won at my own game - but anyway. What do you wanna know?"

~

It had now been a few hours since Rob had shared his song idea and the tallies started to work on songs, in which they were all in Bora's game room writing and even recording small (but pitiful) parts of songs they had come up with. However, they didn't come up with many songs. A song that they were for sure settled on was called "Out in the Twilight" which was the song Rob had come up with. They didn't have much trouble making a small demo, except for the drums part. They had to have Zubin do those parts since Ross was sleeping and they all didn't wanna wake him up since they knew he was upset. But they would've preferred to have him there so he would know how to play the song later.

And, oh, did I mention? They were using half of the instruments Bora owned and half of the instruments they owned. A day or two before the attempt of Simon's arrest they had gotten back all of the instruments that hadn't been burned and were actually stored in the game room. That was a part of the reason why they were even recording there. The whole noise situation wasn't all that great, so it kinda made the demos sound like shit a bit. But really good shit.

Right now, they were just chilling and sort of on a break. A pre-break, if you will. Just a period where they barely did any work and were ready to pause at any moment once someone said something. Rob was reviewing lyrics along with Andrew, Zubin was writing down how to do some drum parts for Ross, and Joe was just randomly plucking at the strings of his guitar. It was peaceful. Except for two things. 1: They were still worried about Simon getting them, 2: Recording didn't feel the same because Ross wasn't there.

Even when they recorded, they couldn't be normal because of Simon. It was supposed to be something they enjoyed, that's why they even started the band, but it was all tarnished because of one man they didn't even know existed only a few months ago. How could one man do this to 5 people? It would be incredible, except that he traumatized them and tortured them to a slight degree. Even though the one who got affected the "most" was torturing him back right now - but the rest of tallies didn't know that. All they knew was that they had found a little bit of peace but still no sense of hope.

"Hey, guys, do you think it's time to go on break?" Zubin questioned, looking up from a small notebook and at the rest of the tallies.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Rob exclaimed as he sat up. "Yeah. Even though it feels good to be back recording, I feel as if my creativity has just been..." He paused slightly, making expressions with his hands that looked like small explosions. "Stripped from me, basically."

"Then let's go," Joe sighed, flipping back his bangs and setting down the guitar to walk out of the game room. The rest of the tallies followed him in a line like small ducklings.

One by one, they all walked down the stairs and scattered across the house to go do their own things. Most of them went to the living room to go lounge while Zubin SPRINTED to the backyard to go get Winter. He figured that she wouldn't like hearing the loud noises of the instruments, so he set her outside to go play. There wasn't much to do so she sort of just frolicked around a bit and soaked up the sun. However, Zubin didn't want her to get into any danger or to get stolen. Bora's backyard was pretty protected but for a bunny like her, he betted that anyone would do anything to get her.

The rest were just sitting on the couch or laying back in the recliner, chilling. Rob and Joe were just watching TV while Andrew looked around the place for something to do. He thought that watching TV while on break was just as boring as working. Piles upon piles of various things were made just from the stuff that he found inside the cabinets under the TV stand. Some were books, games to a console that could not be found, magazines, old photos, and strangely the broken half of a skateboard.

Andrew sighed as he sat down on the floor, looking at the piles in defeat. He truly just couldn't have one entertaining way of spending the time. Succumbing to watching TV was the only option. All was futile until he glazed his eyes mindlessly over the bookcase in the corner of the room. He saw something that would make his eyes widen and sparkle with opportunity. There it sat, a dusty old PlayStation 2 on top of the bookcase. Perfectly included with a controller. Seeing it made him physically gasp, how could something go right for once?!

"Do my goddamn eyes deceive me?" Andrew questioned, getting up from the floor and feeling as if he were compelled to walk toward the console. Once he walked up to the bookcase, he barely even had to stand up higher to get it, it was almost like he was destined to find it.

"Oh my God," Andrew muttered, looking at the PlayStation in all its glory along with the controller sitting on top of it. It even had the wires too. "I need to connect this!"

Suddenly, Andrew ran in front of the TV, and without caring about the protests from the other two unplugged everything and hurried shoving the plugs into the back as if he knew what he was doing. It took a few minutes before everything was actually plugged into the right holes, but eventually it turned on and he was stunned. The other tallies weren't really all that impressed since they knew it was there and just didn't tell anybody, but they let Andrew stare at the TV in amazement. It was kinda funny to see him that excited over something that already existed.

But just staring at the screen wasn't gonna do anything, so Andrew started to go through the pile of games that he had found earlier. He didn't look and instead just blindly switched them around so that he could take one. And once he grabbed ahold of one, a small smile appeared on his face, thinking that the game was gonna be one of the cooler ones he saw. The surprise that he expected was in the form of that. ...somewhat. Instead of pulling out an awesome game like he thought he was, Andrew only pulled out "Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue". To say that he was puzzled would be quite an understatement.

"What? Why does- why does Bora have this?" Andrew questioned as he looked at the game in pure disbelief.

"Not like I would know," Rob replied, slightly scoffing at the whole situation. "Maybe you should play it. It could be fun."

"A Barbie game out of all things? Really? I mean, not my thing, but alright." Andrew said, putting the disc into the PlayStation. He prayed that Rob was right and it would cause him to be entertained at least a little bit.

Meanwhile Andrew was starting to play the game, Zubin had just come back from inside and was carrying Winter gently in one arm. He had to close the door with another which made him hang onto her tightly so he wouldn't drop her. A small look of defeat was on his face as he walked back into the living room, feeling ashamed. Not of Winter, but rather his parenting methods for her. She had pooped in the backyard which she had never done before. EVER. Well, not at other people's houses, at least.

Zubin of course cleaned it up, but he couldn't help but wonder - why did Winter do that? It wasn't really a normal thing for her to do, she had only ever done it in her cage and not when roaming. Even when he let her out back at the house (may it rest in ashes) she didn't do it. So, why now? He thought that maybe this was her way of "rebelling" because of the whole Simon situation. He figured that it had stressed her out too and made her feel angry. It saddened him to think so since he wanted her to feel anything but anger and stress.

Winter probably just had to go and went there, but Zubin was fearing the other option that he had come up with. But he didn't wanna let it stop him, so he sat down with the others on the couch with a sigh. His hands were free now since Winter was in his lap and he used them to sigh into and drag them along his face. A dramatic huff came out of his mouth as he frowned softly.

The huff was definitely noticeable, so Rob turned his attention from the book he had now been reading to Zubin. Yes, he may have been bored, but that didn't mean that he shouldn't comfort his best friend.

"What's up, Zubes?" Rob questioned. He was now in his strange mom-like therapist mode.

"It's just- Winter's acting out because of our whole situation. I never thought it had to come to this where even my bunny is stressed out. The last thing I want is for HER to feel this way, and I don't even know how to help because I feel the same." Zubin sighed, gently caressing Winter.

Rob softly gasped as a mix of surprise and confusion came onto his face. "Oh my God! Wait, what did she do to make her 'act out' ?"

"She defecated in the backyard," Zubin answered, clearly not proud of her.

At hearing this, Andrew let out a soft scoff as he was busy clicking buttons on the controller. The usage of the word "defecated" wasn't quite the common thing among the tallies. Including Zubin. But he didn't find this funny as well as he furrowed his eyebrows and kicked Andrew from behind.

"OW," Andrew exclaimed, holding his back while turning to Zubin. "What was that for?!"

"Well, what was that SCOFF for?" Zubin replied back with a hint of sass in his tone.

"It was just you never use the word 'defecated', that's all. Geez, you really need to learn when to take a joke."

That last remark made Zubin quite ticked off with Andrew since it made him think that he was right since he had been right about his whole "asshole act" a few days ago, but he brushed it off and took a few breaths to calm himself down. He didn't really wanna pay attention to him after that so instead he just took a look at the TV screen to see what was on. Instead of there being a normal show though, there was gameplay of a Barbie game out of all things. He tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"Are you playing Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue?" Zubin questioned as he looked down at Andrew strangely.

"Yeah?" Andrew said back, still having his attention set on the game.

"...can I play?" Zubin hesitantly asked.

"Uhm...yeah, sure. I don't think there's two controllers, but we can switch turns." Andrew stated, moving out of the way for Zubin and making a spot on the floor for him.

"Hell yeah," Zubin remarked, gently getting Winter out of his lap and setting her onto Rob's.

"Hey!-" Rob protested, or at least tried to. He sighed in defeat as he looked down at the white, black & grey spotted bunny just resting in his lap. "Well, if I can babysit 4 adult men then I could babysit a small bunny."

From then on, Zubin & Andrew took turns playing the game and Rob watched Winter until he got so bored he fell asleep. Joe took it upon himself to keep an eye on her but didn't really pay attention since he was busy listening to Fall Out Boy and any other mainstream emo band you could think of. Winter had wandered out of his lap, but Joe trusted her not to cause any havoc upon the house. He figured that since she was so small she couldn't do anything too bad. Right?

But meanwhile that disaster was cooking up, the other two tallies actually had fun playing the game. It wasn't their usual type of game they'd play but that made it more fun to them. And, surprisingly, they didn't feel the feeling they at this point knew all too well: dread. Nothingness. A small part of it was still there but it was small. They were starting to be happy for once. The same couldn't really be said for the other tallies, but if they felt that way, then the others would eventually too. It was somewhat progress.

Wait - did you notice how I said "disaster"? Yeah, that was obviously for a reason. From her small, but chaotic upbringing, she was more than capable of doing anything harmful even though she was small. And also a bunny. Currently, she was roaming the hall upstairs just looking for anything she could do. Or undo, rather. Everything in the hall looked almost impossible to break since it was either too tall to get or too solid to break. It looked like she wouldn't be able to do anything until she saw something absolutely fucking glorious.

Just like Andrew earlier, her small eyes sparkled with amazement once she saw it, an all-marble vase with sculptures of people carved into it with such fine detail. It looked perfect; perfect to destroy. The vase wasn't even that tall either, so she could easily break that thing. Her mind filled up with so many possibilities of how she could break it. It became hard to decide! That was true until she decided on her classic, but still golden move of hers.

She called it the "bunny kick". It was literally quite just that, her kicking, however it had some extra spice to it since she was herself. A mischievous bunny noise came from Winter's mouth as she prepared herself to do it, she hadn't done it in such a long time. She had feared that she wasn't able to do it because of said time gap. But she proved herself wrong as she jumped and kicked her leg directly at the vase, knocking it over and shattering it into many little pieces.

Winter was proud of herself, but the noise was loud and startled the tallies downstairs. Zubin, thinking a threat had just appeared, paused the game immediately and looked around for anything to harm since he was in fight mode. However, as he looked around he saw that Winter wasn't in Rob's lap. The man had barely just woken up from the noise but he was sure as hell about to be in for a ride (taken for a rideeeee).

"ROB!" Zubin yelled, averting his attention to Rob by walking closer to him. "WHERE'S WINTER?!"

"I...I don't know, I fell asleep. W-What's happening?" Rob questioned as he looked around the living room, panicked.

Even though a complete disaster could've been going on in the tallies' minds, Zubin really cared about Winter, so Rob just not paying attention to her made him furious. So he thought it was alright that he just started to aggressively shake the other man by the shoulders out of anger. "WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER, YOU NERD FACED, YELLOW-TIED BITCH?!"

"Hey!" Joe shouted, suddenly standing up and approaching the two. "He's not at fault here, if anything, I am. I was keeping an eye on her when she suddenly went out of his lap and I figured she wouldn't go that far. I guess I was wrong."

When Joe said that, a whole new level of anger appeared in Zubin's eyes. It had never been seen before. "OHOHOHO, YOU EMO FUCK!!"

"Stop it, you guys! We could have a serious situation on our hands and you choose to fight?!" Andrew exclaimed as he stepped in between Zubin & Joe.

Rob stumbled as he got out of the chair, looking behind him carefully. There was a subtle look of concentration on his face - he was making a plan if someone really were in the house. With a huff, he looked down at the floor, then at the other 3.

"Guys, we have to split up. Everyone grab something that can be used as a weapon. I go to the backyard, Joe roams downstairs, Andrew looks outside literally everywhere, and Zubin goes upstairs. Got it?" Rob commanded.

The tallies all nodded as they grabbed multiple things from the living room to use in case of a fighting situation. With that, they all headed their separate ways and tried to keep as quiet as they could. They didn't know what they had on their hands here but they also didn't wanna find out. It could've been Simon out of all people, and God only knew what he was planning this time. He could've done Part ii of what he did to the tallies' house.

As the others were searching in or outside the house for an intruder or at least a cause of the noise, Zubin was walking carefully upstairs, holding a glass bird in his hand. The bird may have not looked like it could cause much damage but since it was heavy it could. He also had his fists as well. Where the broken vase was wasn't until the end of the hallway, and he had barely entered it. Zubin also had Winter on his mind and was looking for her.

But just as he was hoping to find Winter, he found her. In a surprising position, may I add. There she was, just sitting peacefully on the floor next to Bora's priceless vase which was now in pieces. He at first didn't suspect it was her...until he saw the look she had on her face. Others couldn't tell at first glance, but Zubin knew her well and let out a gasp once he realized. The gasp was so loud it drew the tallies who were inside still straight upstairs, making them shocked as well.

There was a brief period of silence before Zubin spoke. It was taken as a time for him to fill with rage and decide how to scold Winter. "*inhale* WINTER MARIE SEDGHI WHAT HAVE YOU DO-"

~ (hey guys this is where the blood, torturing, and cutting TW starts soooooooooo you may wanna skim or skip through this part)

"First, I wanna know how you do-" Ross paused, making movements with his hands. "This. How are you able to get into my mind and do this to me?"

A scoff came from Simon as if the question were stupid. To him, it probably was. "Wellll, there's this little thing that actually exists. Witchcraft, and stuff. Or is that what you would call it? I don't know how 'magic' works."

Ross could not just believe what came out of Simon's mouth right now. Witchcraft? Was he kidding? He looked at him as if he were crazy, which he was, but he just sat there with a straight face as if he wasn't. Although that was probably something he was doing to make Ross convince him. He wasn't gonna fall for it this time.

"Are you being serious right now? Witchcraft? Magic? Really, man? I know that you want nothing else but to see me suffer but right now you've got to be honest." Ross threatened as he brought the letter opener closer to Simon.

"Awh! Do you really think that low of me? Damn. Anyway, I'm being for real. That's how I reacted when I found out too. I don't understand how it works, but I know how to get into your dreams." Simon replied.

"Okay then..."

For a few seconds, Ross had grown overwhelmed with his questions. He had so many to ask but he didn't know WHICH to ask. Some probably were able to be answered while others weren't. That was also a hard decision for him, should he have just asked all the unanswerable (is this even a word) questions to torture Simon? He probably should've done that but he wanted to save it for later and torture him with waiting. Just like he did to him and the tallies.

"Why did you let yourself get this far in your stalking? I mean, why did you choose to pick on me out of the rest of us?" Ross questioned, a desperate look getting into his eyes as he looked at Simon. Which he could obviously tell. It wasn't like it was gonna get him not to lie.

"You just asked me two questions, Ross," Simon complained, acting as if he were offended. "But I guess that's alright. For this first one, I don't really know. I guess I just go after what I like too much. Same with the second question. You are my favorite of the band, after all." After he said this, he just looked at Ross with a smile. As if he hadn't spat out absolute nonsense.

"Wait- what?! You LIKE me?!" Ross exclaimed as his eyes widened and filled with fear.

"No! Nonononono! Of course not. I mean just as a person. Like, if I weren't stalking you and doing this to you then I'd probably be your best friend." Simon claimed.

"Uhhhhh, okay then. Let's just move on from that and pretend like that never ever happened."

"Okay."

The next question is when Ross hit a dilemma again. He was gonna ask if he could at least get a hint as to what he was gonna do next, but he knew that Simon wouldn't answer that. He wouldn't just give out his plans like that! He may have been crazy but he wasn't dumb. But also Ross wasn't either, and he knew if Simon wasn't gonna answer his questions then he'd get hurt. He wanted to hold back on the semi-torturing until at least a few questions in but he thought: Why not? It's not like he would do the same if the roles were reversed, so fuck it.

"So, can you at least give me a hint as to what you're gonna do the next time you unfortunately roll around?" Ross asked as he upped his confidence just by a little. He was still scared shitless since he was in the presence of the man who he had hated and feared the most.

Simon gave one another of his classic, annoying scoffs. "Really? I mean, to be honest, I didn't really plan that far. I just had planned doing this. But even if I had plans for what I'd do later I wouldn't tell them to you, idiot."

"Oh? Then you know what you're gonna get, right?" Ross questioned as he stepped closer to Simon, with the letter opener being pressed against his clothed arm.

"Yeah, whatever. I guess that's fair," Simon sighed with a shrug. "Getting your revenge on me and such. It's almost impressive how you've managed to get me into this position. But, could you just at least try to be nice with the cutting?"

"Okay," Ross replied, preparing himself to cut the man he'd been wanting to hurt for so long. It was both scary and exciting, he didn't know if Simon was gonna react all weirdly and try and hurt him but he couldn't have given a single fuck. At least he actually got revenge on the guy.

~TW: cutting, torturing starting here~

"Heh, knew you'd suck u- OW! A-AH, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Simon yelled out in pain, looking down at his arm which had just been freshly slashed. He didn't exactly see the cut, but he knew it was bad just from how much blood was rapidly soaking into the sleeve of his blazer.

If Simon wasn't in pain before (which he was) he was for sure in pain now. The cut wasn't really all that bad, not bad enough to need stitches, but the pain that came along with it felt as if he had just been knifed in the arm. Meanwhile this happened, Ross smirked slightly. He felt strangely satisfied with himself. No guilt, just pure victory over Simon. He knew that he wasn't supposed to hurt people, but why not hurt someone who had hurt him so many times before? And, I couldn't stress this enough, deserve it? He was a deranged pyromaniac stalker who liked silly little indie bands, what was there not to hate besides the music taste?

Everything seemed as if it was sort of turning up for once. Well, from what Ross knew. However, this little feeling of pride over himself for finally hurting Simon didn't last because the man's groans of pain were annoying him. They were long and dramatic, fitting to how his personality was. Why couldn't he just shut up for once and give Ross time to gloat?

"That was me being fucking nice, asshole," Ross growled as he looked down at the pathetic man in pain, judging him. "Oh, and could you for the love of God, shut up? You're lucky that you're in a dream or else everyone in a 3-mile radius would hear your 'cries of pain'. I mean, it's not even that bad! Stop whining, you bitch."

"How could I not?! YOU FUCKING CUT MY ARM OPEN!" Simon yelled as he shifted and squirmed around in the chair out of pain.

Ross rolled his eyes, already sick of the man. He wasn't gonna waste his breath though because he saw this as an opportunity to hurt Simon again. Who wouldn't wanna take a chance like that? So, without warning, Ross began to go in to do a deep cut into the other man's thigh but paused as his pants got in the way. He let out an annoyed groan, taking a bit of the material and cutting it before finally sinking the letter opener into the man's thigh and dragging it to the side. Now, with this imagery, you'd think he stabbed Simon, but he didn't - for it was just a cut that was a few layers into the skin. No big deal.

Simon was for sure not happy with this, with him letting out a loud scream and tears starting to flow out of his eyes. The pain was almost all he could think about, that's how intense it was. The only other thing he could think about was: Why was Ross hurting him so bad already? He had been obedient, and he hadn't even tortured him that much in the past! Or at least he thought. Of course that wasn't the truth, and a part of Simon knew that, he just didn't wanna accept it for he was just a "troubled man who had a little trouble with the law". Whatever that meant.

~TW ending~

"The louder you get, the more I'll hurt you," Ross stated as he wiped away some of the excess blood he had on his hands onto his pajama pants.

"Oh my fucking God...fine, fine, I'll keep quiet. Just- please! You're gonna leave me to die here, Ross!" Simon exclaimed.

"It's not that bad! Well, not as bad as what you did to me and my friends, but whatever. I'll settle for this. Now, answer my questions and maybe I won't cut you, 'kay?" Ross reassured in a mocking tone, even leaning down with his hands on his knees and tilting his head to the side.

"I- WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO ANSWER."

"Hm. Why us, out of all the other bands you could've picked?

"God, y-you're stupid. You guys are my favorite!"

Simon was really testing Ross with that response, especially when he gave a scoff and smirked cockily. But he knew in order to make it "fun" for himself (he just liked the feeling of revenge) he had to drag it out and hurt him in a timely manner. An annoyed sigh came from him, rolling his eyes and preparing to deal with him once again. He hadn't even spent that much time yet with Simon, but he already hated him and wanted this dream to be over. But he knew it couldn't unless someone else woke him up.

"Why did you decide to stalk us? You could've just been a normal fan, but no," Ross sighed, letting out a disgusted groan. "You just had to be our stalker. It's crazy that I'm even saying that. As if we SHOULD have one." His remark was meant to be a little funny, but somehow neither of them found it funny. That's how serious the situation was.

"That's sort of a good question...like I said before, I go after what I like. Especially things that interest me a lot and make me happy. I didn't really intend to stalk you, I rather just wanted to see what you guys were up to." Simon replied. He looked defeated and had his head hanging down, looking at the open wound in his thigh.

"You know how much that doesn't make sense, right?" Ross questioned out of pure disbelief.

"It does. You just don't get it because you're too fucking dumb to." Simon insulted.

"YOU FUCKING-" Ross paused, stopping himself from stabbing Simon, letting out a loud groan and setting himself down on the bed. He almost had it with the other, but he had to have self-control in his thirst for revenge.

Though he felt the most powerful he'd felt in months, Ross was stumped. He had run out of questions. Who knew that he didn't really have all that many questions although he was confused about so many things? It didn't make sense all that much, but he probably was just shocked that he even had the chance to do this. All Ross wanted to do was hurt Simon instead of ask him stuff. It was impossible not to from the stuck-up expression he made to every cocky word he spoke.

With a sigh, Ross got up and stood in front of Simon once again. He looked down at him with a glare and it was returned with a grin. Simon's hair hung in front of his eyes, so his horrid beat-up face could (thankfully) barely be seen.

"When are you gonna stop this?" Ross asked, crossing his arms, but careful not to accidentally stab himself.

The same shit-eating grin was still on Simon's face as Ross said this. "I don't knowwww~ Probably when I'm done having my fun or get arrested. Which, by the way, you won't be able to do for a little while. My mom and my issues with her may be my weak spot, but that's one of my only ones."

"Hm-" Ross paused, looking at the letter opener in his hand. "I think a small cut to your stomach wouldn't be too bad, right?"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING DARE!"

"OH, YES I FUCKING WILL!"

All of a sudden, Ross jumped toward Simon, ready to hurt him with the letter opener in hand. But just as he was ready...it all went to black. Or white, I should say. Instead of looking at Simon in pain, he looked at the ceiling of Bora's guest bedroom. He had woken up from the nightmare. His eyes fluttered open and adjusted to the light, but also to reality because he had just been pulled from his revenge spree. Which he may have not been happy about.

"Oh, man, FINALLY my efforts worked!" Rob exclaimed, which scared Ross a bit since he thought he was the only one in the room. "Man, you are hard as hell to wake up. I would've let you sleep in but I was also worried about you and didn't want you to waste the day away by sleeping."

"I...I..." Ross stuttered as he groggily sat up. He was at a loss for words, he didn't know if he should've told Rob about what the fuck just happened or not.

As soon as Rob saw this, he went into a state of panic and feared that Ross was grumpy at him. It was expected but he also didn't wanna upset him too much. "Oh no. Did you not want to be woken up? Did I upset you? I'm sorry!"

"No, it's not that, it's just...I- uhm," Ross replied, still struggling to speak.

"What?" Rob asked in a concerned tone.

"I had another dream with Simon in it again. Not just any dream. One of THOSE dreams."

~

Zubin lied there on the couch, next to Winter, who was sitting on a pillow like the queen she was. It had been a bit after he had scolded her, which he rightfully did but was a bit too harsh at points. Which Zubin had known and was now apologizing to her. Just like her, he was stressed out as well.

"I'm so sorry Winter. I shouldn't have been so harsh on you. I just- you shouldn't have to be worried about this. We'll eventually be okay. Hopefully." Zubin sighed, feeling guilty as ever.

"*bunny noise*" Winter replied.

"I know. And I'm sorry for that. You're too young to worry just as much as your father does," Zubin trailed off, looking at the blank TV that had been turned off.

Instead of talking, now Zubin just felt tired and wanted to rest for a bit. He gently petted Winter and hummed comfortingly so that she could sleep. He wasn't really the kind to sing a lullaby, especially since they usually just fell asleep together in silence. At that moment, all was well. Even if Simon was gonna strike again. He had felt true peace with his bunny.

However, that all went out the window when the sound of Rob running and falling down the stairs was heard. He was running so fast that he lost his balance, but he had to deliver the news to Zubin. Especially since he knew Zubin was gonna be excited to be involved in something that would take down Simon or hurt him in any way. He sat up once he heard Rob, instantly turning his head to the stairs to see what was up. He started to worry since Rob's eyes had been wide and looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

"ZUBIN, ZUBIN!!!" Rob yelled, running over to the couch.

"What is it?!" Zubin questioned.

"IT'S TIME TO TAKE DOWN SIMON ONCE FINALLY AND FOR FUCKING ALL. MAYBE KILL HIM. MAYBE." Rob announced.

Once he heard this, Zubin's eyes lit up with opportunity. He was a bit worried about how Rob figured this, but he was for sure excited as he sprung up off of the couch. "OKAY!!!"

~fin~

word count: 15,428 words

hello once again!! this A/N isn't gonna be all that long (knowing me it probably will be), but man did I miss writing this book. well, just writing in general. ever since I updated this book some things have...occurred. a lot of changes. BUTTTT, WHO CARES!!!! a new chapter is out along with one on the extras 'cos I wanted to be nice. after almost a year of not updating you guys deserved it. no idea what I'll write now, but it may or may not be my own work or fanfiction like it always is. dunno. but I'm gonna go now, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you have a good day/night. bye!!!!! xo