Horrifically!

“Clarity?” Atlee answers like it’s the stupidest question she’s ever heard. “Peace? Family? I know they’ve been acting different, but-“

“But nothing. Ever since I said no to your weird, new-age spiritual thing, everyone’s starting to get all … zombified!” she cuts Atlee off, impatient and face slightly red. “I put up with it for the past week because it was making you happy, but you’re doing something. You’re brainwashing them or drugging them or putting in some kind of cult, no one just ACTS like this!”

“They’re AGREED to act like this, Jessica. I really don’t see why it bothers you so much. There’s no drama in the house, things are orderly and clean, everyone’s working together, why is that so hard for you to accept?” Atlee sighs, clearly frustrated with her friend’s individualistic perspective.

“Because the other day, Kim asked me how my mother’s Alzheimer’s was doing. I told YOU that, Atlee. You’re the only one who I told about that, because it scares the shit out of me. And I saw Marie and Layla talking about Mike Urie, who I KNOW cheated on Marie with Layla, and it was, like, fucking nothing was wrong!” Her expression falters as she speaks. Saying it out loud does sound … a little silly. “Look, I’m not against us being a ‘no secrets,’ house, but that’s never what you told me you wanted, and I helped you build this place. And my family’s medical problems aren’t yours to share, Atlee! What my mom’s going through is serious, and I’m trying really hard to deal, and the last thing I need is you spreading that all over the house.”

“Secrets are toxic. It took me a long time to realize that, Jess,” Atlee offers softly as she sits down on her bed. “I didn’t mean to harm your trust in me, you’ve been my best friend since we both rushed. And if there’s some kind of problem you have with the way I’m running Kappa, please be specific. You have something in mind you’re not saying.”

“Atlee, I know you,” Jessica says, exasperated. “I know you need things to be … structured, but this is too much, whatever you’re doing to them. Look, if it’s just some weird cult thing, I don’t want it, but I can accept it. It doesn’t seem like that, though. Not just. They seemed doped half the time, and the sisters have started doing this thing where they disassociate for a few seconds, and I’m worried if they’re taking something, it’s seriously damaging their brains. And I hate that you won’t tell me what’s happening. I can handle this if I have my best friend here with me, but I don’t know where she went?”

“You don’t want the old Atlee back.” Atlee’s eyes are bright and soothing, but Jessica blanches at her actual words. “The old Atlee was a monster, Jess. Do you know the things she hid from you? She blackmailed people, she had them kicked out of school, she had them arrested. She even had people who got in her way ****, just to make her and Kappa and whatever they were challenging her into something they couldn’t stand to look at anymore. She didn’t even care about the sisters. Not even you. I can, though. She couldn’t. You’d rather have that cruel, petty shell of a human back than what I am now? You’d take that from me, from our family?”

“Atlee … you didn’t … those are just rumors, you told me, you proved it to me.”

“I lied,” she answers dismissively. “I used to always lie. I don’t know if that’s what burned the soul out of my body or if it came so easy because I didn’t have one, but now that I’m full of life, for the first time, I can see the kind of damage it did. People need to work together. But they’re cruel, spiteful things. They need a gentle hand to guide them … and to **** them, if required. It’s all in their best interests.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, I defended you, you fucking psychotic bitch!” Jessica yells. Atlee’s left eye twitches slightly at the spike in tone. And the challenge to her authority.

“Jessica, you’re still my best friend. You’re important to me, more than any one person. But you are not more important than my work. Nothing is. Please try to understand how vital this is. I’m not accusing you or blaming you for being taken in by my act in the past, but now that I can finally be honest, I’m asking you not to abandon me. Whatever we did, it doesn’t matter now. In fact, I couldn’t be what I am without you, if you hadn’t helped me bind the ties of control and authority and order through the malevolent whims of my former self.”

“I did NOT help you do those things, don’t you DARE put that on me!” Tears start to run down Jessica’s cheeks, but she wipes them away as best she can, too mad to make time for them. “I fucking loved you, you idiot. We were sisters! How could you do this?”

“I said I’m not blaming you, Jessica. Don’t hate yourself, because I certainly don’t think you deserve it.”

“Atlee, you’re a monster. You can’t … you can’t hurt people like that. Fuck me, it’s … it’s so easy to see where you did it, where I bought your bullshit, I can’t … you’re my best friend.”

“We’re agreed.”

“And because of that, I’m giving you a chance, once: come with me to the campus security office and turn yourself in. I can tell you want to be different, I can tell you’re TRYING to do something good, even if you’re hurting people still. Please, I don’t want to do this, please tell me you understand why this will be better.” Jessica’s eyes are wide and ****, searching for any part of the person she knew beneath Atlee’s passive, vacant stare she’s adopted. Of course … that person isn’t there. They never were in the first place.

“You can understand, Jessica.” Her voice is hard and stern. “I let you be even though you turned down my generous offer because of personal affection, but I can see how that’s only caused more hurt for you. Just join us, and you’ll see how all of this needed to happen. And the beauty of what comes next.”

“I don’t want to. Atlee, I … I can’t.”

“Jessica, please, I don’t want to be your enemy, just come here and let me show-“

“I CAN’T!” Jessica screams, voice breaking as tears rush down her face uncontrolled. “I can’t be a part of this fucking sideshow you’re making, I can’t let you keep tearing people down to build up your fucking ego! I don’t know what you think you’re doing right now, but you’re just fucking up more lives to make yourself feel more important in this whackadoo, Jonestown bullshit you’re pulling! We can’t be friends anymore, Atlee! I can’t put myself out there for you when you’re just as bad, when you’re WORSE than all those people said you are!”

“So,” Atlee responds calmly, sitting up straight, “no offer will convince you to see things my way?” Jessica shakes her head, trembling with anger and fear at the strange calmness washing over Atlee’s body. The look in her eyes is completely distant, an iron-hard and frigid gaze. “Unfortunate.”

The door to Atlee’s room looks quiet from the outside. You’d never guess at the heated argument raging behind it. The other sisters all sit, stand, or lay where they were, frozen in place with their eyes locked open. The whites of them swim brilliant green, a single tear dropping down each girl’s left cheek as Atlee’s disappointment and sorrow at this rejection rushes through all of them. Some tremble, the part of them fixed in place by the union trying to struggle and break free with this distraction, but no effort avails them. They scream as Atlee cries everywhere but her own face, and Jessica wears her harrowing emotions all-too-openly. Without warning, an ear-splitting scream rips through the building.

With a dull thud followed immediately by a sharp crack, something bursts out of the door from Atlee’s room. It’s a metallic green, the shape triangular with razor-sharp edges. Crimson liquid, clearly blood, drenches the blade, all the way down to its base. A simple, green tentacle, like that Atlee uses for induction of her new sisters, forms it, also dripping with gore on to the pristine hardwood floor. It rotates precisely, then pulls itself back inside Atlee’s room. A wet and heavy thump sounds a few moments after its retreat. And like that, the house is silent once more.