There were kids, dressed in white, staring off into space, opening their mouths as someone spooned food in or offered water.

“What the fuck are we supposed to do with all of this?” Fume Hood asked, voicing my thoughts exactly.

Dying 15.2

Man and woman, old and young, dressed in clothes meant more for simplicity and comfort than any personal expression. The entire scene was garish in the flourescent lights, the orderlies that handled food, water, and what looked to be bathroom breaks moving stiffly. A lot of the people were pale in a way that suggested they hadn’t seen sunlight recently. But not all.

“He collects people,” Imp said. “People aren’t an easy thing to collect, and you don’t collect this many and then stick ’em somewhere. So why?”

“Imp’s talking from experience,” Samuel said.

“Yeah, totes. I keep an eye out for any guy who’s at least a thirteen by my metrics.”

“Thirteen what?” Caryatid asked, from the rear. She was staying close to the door. She’d dropped her breaker form to talk.

“Inches,” Chastity said. About twenty feet away, Roman cracked up.

“Gotta rate ’em one to ten on the sexy scale. Slim and wearing clothes that fit are better than muscle. Then you rate ’em one to ten on the dark, sarcastic humor scale. Add ’em together. Guy’s gotta be a thirteen to count. I’ll take a girl, but I’m pickier, she’s got to be a sixteen by my system. I stow ’em in my personal headquarters, but I feed ’em, I water ’em. So I know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m… eighty percent sure she’s joking,” Caryatid said. “But that twenty percent—”

“She’s joking,” Samuel told her. “And missing my point. I wasn’t poking at her and trying to make her look bad. She does collect people. Us. Heartbroken.”

“I didn’t go looking for you. I went after Heartbreaker and then when I’m making sure he’s well and truly dead, there’s these kids around like, ‘Dad’s dead? Okay, I’m going to go watch cartoons.’”

Roman replied, “Because fuck him, we looked forward to Saturday mornings all week, negotiated for what we’d watch. He didn’t deserve to matter more than that.”

“The women screamed over the cartoons,” Samuel added.

Imp sighed heavily. “Yeah. I could dodge those poor women and use my power until they ran out of energy or ran off. Thing is, they weren’t looking after you, and it wasn’t like I could leave you all. Not an option.”

“Could’ve. Maybe should’ve,” Chastity said. “Life would’ve been simpler.”

“Maybe,” Imp said.

“Could have devoted more time to tracking down men who rate on your scale,” Chastity added.