“Leave me alone,” she rasped, shaking the knife at him, her hand trembling so violently it sent moonlight flashing off the blade.
“We’re not coming to help you kill her,” Jericho said, emerging from the hedges still in his Winter Soldier gear, eyes gleaming through the half-dark.
Beverly’s head jerked, wild-eyed, as Captain America entered next, Freckles stepping into the garden light with clinical precision. He studied her like she was a lab specimen, not a person. “We’re here to make sure she stays alive until the finale in…about thirty minutes.”
Under the phosphorescent glow of the security lights, Bev looked less like a person and more like something dug up. Her makeup had melted into streaks of gray and red, her gown torn and spattered. “You’ve got this all wrong,” she babbled, voice breaking apart. “I’m not who you think I am. He’s lying.”
When August tilted his head—slow, deliberate—even Archer felt a chill. Bev saw it too and seemed to realize she’d just cornered herself. “Okay, no-no-not lying,” she backpedaled, “but—but embellishing. I-I could’ve been a better mother to him, but it wasn’t as bad as he said. You know how funny memories are.”
“Okay, then,” August said softly. “How about we play a little game?”
“Umnishka,” he murmured, eyes flicking up toward the nearest security cam. “May I borrow you for a moment?”
There was a crackle of static before Lucas’s calm voice filtered through. “Already on the way. Give me five.”
The garden stilled. Even the wind seemed to pause, listening. Bev’s breath came ragged and loud in the quiet, the knife trembling so hard it knocked against the pearl buttons on her bodice with a metallic tick-tick-tick.
Then Shep’s voice cut through the night.
“Well,” he said, “this has been…fascinating, but I think I’ll go retrieve my rabbit before he grows fangs and starts biting.”
“Good call, Sam,” Elijah purred into the channel.
“Those bunny bites are lethal,” Nico quipped from somewhere deep in the mansion.
Mal’s giggle followed, light and feral.
The laughter rippled through comms like static, unnerving in its cheer. Bev flinched, like she could feel the predators closing in.
Shep disappeared just as Lucas arrived. The shift in presence was immediate, like the temperature dropped when Shep left, only to rise again as Lucas stepped into the light.
Mac and Archer’s eyes met across the chaos, both of them fighting back laughter at the absurdity of the tableau: Bev in her bloodstained ballgown, three superheroes, a villain and a pirate, circling her like some unholy Justice League fever dream.
It wasn’t funny. It was tragic. But it was also, undeniably, more than she deserved.
“Looks like it’s just us now,” August said, pulling a wicked-looking knife from his belt. Its serrated blade caught the moonlight. The handle was carved in the shape of a bat’s wing, all black metal and menace. He twirled it lazily around one finger. The gesture was pure theater, but the danger beneath it was razor-sharp.
“You claim Zane’s embellishing,” August continued, his voice smooth as smoke, “but I’m sure you’ve heard about my husband’s…abilities. How confident are you that your memories are the correct ones?”
“Very,” Bev spat, eyes wild as they locked on Lucas. Her bravado cracked as quickly as it came. “Wait, how do you know he’s not lying to you?”
“My husband doesn’t lie,” August said, stepping closer until the knife hovered like punctuation in front of her chest. “If anything, you should be more afraid of him telling the truth.”
“I have nothing to hide,” she said, her chin lifting in defiance that was starting to crack.
“Willing to put your fingers where your mouth is?” Jericho asked, deadpan.
“Wh-what?” she stammered, her voice a pitch too high, too sharp.
Jericho looked to his husband. “Feeling sentimental, Freckles?”
“Our anniversary is approaching,” Atticus said. “Let’s call this a double date.”
Archer snorted softly. “Seems like you don’t need us anymore,” he said, tipping an invisible hat. “We’re gonna take a stroll through the hedge maze.”
“Is that code for fuck in the gazebo, you pervs?” Noah asked, voice crackling through the comms.
Archer smirked, giving the four remaining family members a mock salute before catching Mac’s hand and leading him toward the maze. The cool air swallowed them as soon as they stepped off the lantern-lit path, the sounds of the confrontation behind them muffled by the thick hedges.
