“Three little girls,

  One girl was brave and asked the monster,

  The second was a coward and hid.

  The third watched.

  The monster looked, unblinking,

  The brave little girl lost her courage,

  The coward lost her life,

  And the one who watched, watched.”

  “That’s a strange poem?” Thea cut the cookie in half.

  The three girls looked at each other.

  “Yeah, we made it up after that one nursery rhyme—ten little soldiers?” The bravest triplet answered, or to be more precise, stumbled.

  “Guess the coward is going to die?” Thea mumbled.

  “Well, I’ll protect her.” The braver one, which Thea assumed to be the oldest–she knew to be the oldest–answered.

  “Hmm, but who is the coward?” Thea smiled and gave a piece of the cookie to the oldest.

  The oldest stared at the food item like it had maggots rotting out of it. But then took it with both hands, as though receiving a blessing.

  Thea took a box filled with half-cookies outside the kitchen.

  “By the way, what are your names?” Thea turned around one last time.

  “Liane,” the oldest pointed towards herself.

  “Liana.” The one who shivered at the first sight of Thea.

  “And Lina.” To the shortest girl.

  Thea turned away, humming like a bird.

  The three walked outside with Thea.

  Liana walked out first, and felt her feet wet, she had a habit of not wearing shoes in the kitchen.

  She screeched at the dead body of the barista.

  Everyone looked at her.

  She bent down, her skirt soaked in his blood. She shook him, again and again.

  Lina looked at her; other than Liana, the other two had witnessed the murder.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The irony of life is that the one who loved him the most could not see him breathe for the last time.

  Liana kissed the wrist that was cut. Blood stained her lips.

  “You shouldn’t drink dead blood, could be bad?” Artemisia said in a sing-song way.

  Liana looked at her. Then at the corpse. Then at her again.

  Then she sighed.

  “I don’t even feel angry at you,” Liana said, her lips trembling.

  “Not that it’d help!” Artemisia giggled.

  “But I do hope, from the very very bottom of my heart, that you feel the loss, a thousand times worse than mine.” Liana smiled, tears falling like water from a faucet.

  “Sounds like you are angry, my bad,” Artemisia shrugged.

  Liana opened her mouth, the oldest covered it.

  Liane shook her head.

  Liana nodded.

  “You are gonna smell bad, with the blood.” Thea’s words were sharp and quick like her stare. Compared to her slow action of giving half-cookies to everyone in the cafe.

  “That should be the last of your concerns,” Lina said. She glared at both of them.

  Artemisia smiled back. Thea looked away.

  “Whatever the fuck is wrong with you two, do you even fucking understand what you are doing—-” Liane held Lina’s mouth.

  “I’m handing out cookies, want another?” Thea answered.

  Artemisia laughed, loud enough but not loud enough to break the sound of glass that broke into a thousand pieces.

  And the newly named 666 stood in front of Artemisia.

  “Wasn’t the window already broken? Are you stupid? Why did you break more?” Artemisia moved away from the 666’s attack.

  She took a large piece of broken glass and inserted it into one of the sphere’s mouths.

  It cried.

  And that made the woman scoff at how pathetic they were.

  But it’s easy to kill a bee; what is hard is the hive.

  And the 666 came like a swarm running to kill. Their wings are still, just like an accessory.

  Everyone ran away. The mother took her child.

  The redhead and the old man ran without a thought.

  The unimportant strangers sprinted out. The triplets got away.

  Thea walked towards the corpse.

  Artemisia grinned.

  “This is going to be fun.” She took out her knife and started stabbing.

  But even the largest of stars dim in comparison to constellations. And the spheres attack one by one, relentless in their pursuit of destruction.

  Artemisia laughed, she had already died once, hanged from the noose. This time, she would be ripped to shreds.

  So she closed her eyes. But then she couldn’t open them.

  And when she did, all the spheres were gone.

  She stared at the arm she was sure she had lost. Then looked at the coffee house.

  It was her, a half-eaten corpse, and Thea who was looking at her.

  “You ok?” Thea asked in a hushed voice.

  “Thought I died, really,” she grinned and then stretched. “That was fun!”

  Thea scratched her head and picked up the sword.

  “Oh, new weapon?” Artemisia jumped towards her and took the sword from her hand.

  “Yup.” Thea walked away.

  Artemisia looked at the silver sword with a navy blue hilt.

  Then she swung it around.

  “Can I take it?” She yelled at Thea.

  “I would need another weapon then,” Thea said, tilting her head.

  “Don’t worry, I can make more corpses for you!” Artemisia said, playing with the sword.

  Thea shrugged.

  Artemisia followed, a bright grin, like that of a child who had finally convinced her parents.

  “Do you think anyone else is alive?” Artemisia kicked a dead 666.

  “Don’t really care,” Theea answered.

  “Thea is so mean!” Artemisia laughed.

  Thea stopped walking.

  She looked back at Artemisia. Who just raised her eyebrows.

  “Say my name again,” Thea asked.

  “Thea?”

  Thea took a breath and nodded.

  “You two survived?” Lina ran towards them, the other two following suit with doubt in their steps.

  “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that!” Artemisia chortled.

  “You should be—anyway, Thea, where should we go next?” Lina asked.

  Thea looked at her, opened her mouth, looked at Artemisia, then said, “We should probably journey to some government shelter.”

  “Does anyone know where it is?” Thea continued.

  “We could use maps?” Liane suggested.

  “Yes, but there has been no signal for a while,” Thea said. “For now, let’s just get inside some mall for food.”

  “Yeah, I’m crazy hungry,” Artemisia dragged the words.

  Liana and Lina rolled their eyes.

  “You two are such meanies,” Artemisia stuck out her tongue.