Suddenly, Goldie’s fingernails extended from her left hand as she pointed it towards the doorway. Golden spears that glimmered and shone in the overhead light flew towards where she saw her attacker, gliding through the air like bullets and shattering the walls that they hit. But she didn’t strike anyone. Fuck. I probably should have enabled my security system, huh? I’m guessing somebody thought we wouldn’t be home and tried to burgle us. To be fair, we really shouldn’t’ve been home at this time. Goldie’s fingernails returned to her hand. She had to find this person before they got to Thomas. It didn’t seem like their ability was particularly dangerous, but Thomas didn’t have a Civ, and a fully grown individual could easily hurt him even if their Civ wasn’t specifically designed for combat.

  “ALL RIGHT, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I’M NOT PLAYING GAMES! COME OUT RIGHT NOW, AND MAYBE I WON’T TURN YOU INTO SWISS CHEESE!” Goldie screamed. No answer. “Fine. OVER GOLD!” Goldie extended her left arm at a counter in the room across from the kitchen, grabbing onto it with her hand. Then, in the blink of an eye, her arm unextended and she was standing at the table in the other room. “Ow!” she shouted as she collided into the table, her waist striking the metal at intense speeds. Not only was Phantrana hard to control, Goldie was also quite severely inebriated. She had to support herself against the wall as she walked around, stumbling and hunched over. Fuck, it’s getting worse.

  Thomas Finn had decided that that “something he needed to do” was hide in the bathroom. He had heard his mother shouting at somebody, but he didn’t know who or if they were even in the same place. Mom’s a powerful Civ user. She’ll handle it. She’s smart. She’ll keep me safe. Thomas heard footsteps outside of the bathroom door. He also heard his mother stumbling and tripping around downstairs. Please tell me she hasn’t been drinking even more, Thomas thought.

  * * *

  Romeo Straitzi opened the door into one of the nearby bathrooms. I thought I heard somebody in here. Curious. But I guess it’s empty, he thought. I was worried that there were more people in the house. I should get out of here soon, but I have little reason to be concerned for my safety. Something for Nothing will be able to contend with whatever weaklings are inhabiting this place . . . including that drunk.

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  Romeo almost hit his head on the doorway as he stepped into the empty bathroom, his long gangly limbs extending almost as long as he did, stretching out his jet-black jumpsuit. I’ll just take a look for some valuables in here; then, I’ll move on to the next one. I should be keeping that one busy downstairs. If she wants to find me, then find me she will. He chuckled internally, marvelling at his own genius.

  It was dark under the bathroom sink. He had hidden himself in the automatic cupboards below it, trembling in the dark, hearing the burglar chuckle to himself and stomp along the tile. I can’t just wait in here. This guy’s going to find me unless I act now. Thomas’s eyes adjusted as he examined the space under the sink. There was a shining metal knife that had caught the glint of the bit of light streaming in from the cracks. Along with Thomas’s attention. Perfect! Just what I wanted. Thomas grabbed the handle, leaning over from his fetal position as he did . . . and then he screamed.

  The moment he touched the knife, dozens of lacerations appeared on his arm, causing twelve-year-old Thomas to howl in agony as he examined the fresh red blood dripping from his wounds. He tried to open his grip to drop the knife, but he couldn’t. Thomas was crying as the cupboard door quickly opened and he came face to face with a man in a high-tech mask hiding his face.

  “There you are.” He breathed heavily as he grabbed the screaming boy by the top of his head, clutching his messy brown hair. “I’m going to need you to stop screaming, young man. I promise I won’t hurt you otherwise,” Romeo whispered.

  Thomas couldn’t stop, though. He was clutching his bleeding wounds as he sobbed in both terror and pain.

  “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.” Romeo whispered as he slammed Thomas’s face into the tile.

  And he stopped screaming.

  * * *

  Goldie heard screaming coming from somewhere upstairs. Thomas. She panicked. “I’m coming, Son!” she shouted, preparing her Civ to tear through the ceiling and get up there as quickly as possible. “PHANTRANA!”

  “Looking for someone?” Goldie heard a smooth voice whisper to her right. She turned, distracted from Thomas’s pleas, as she saw the burglar—the same figure she had seen skulking around the other room a few seconds ago.

  “You. What have you done to my son?” Goldie hissed, her eyes glowing a bright gold as she prepared her attack.

  “He’ll be all right,” Romeo said, immediately before two golden fingers impaled his eyes, causing him to let out a horrible shriek as blood leaked down his mask.

  “You didn’t think I was going to let you finish, did you?” Goldie steeled her gaze and walked towards the dying thief. “Anybody who hurts my son is as good as dead.” She gritted her teeth as she attempted to extend her fingers.

  “Is that so?”

  Goldie whipped around to see the burglar standing in a separate doorway. He was leaning casually against the doorframe, snickering to himself about the clever trick he had pulled. “Well then, I’m afraid I have bad news for you. Something for Nothing takes those precious desires and turns them against you. This is a nice house you have here, Goldie. I was expecting to take everything in it while you were out at work, but it appears you and your son are both deadbeats.” Goldie couldn’t remove her fingers from the corpse. Both of her hands were tied, each stuck in a separate object. Fighting this guy was going to be a bigger challenge than she had initially thought, especially considering the fact that he could effectively clone himself. Fuck, how can this get any worse? Then, he took out a heat gun. Oh, good. Of all the times in my life where I’ve had big questions about my future, I’m glad the universe finally decides to answer me in a way that gets me killed.