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Silva slapped a hand on the buzzer, then headed up the stairs and into the waiting room, looking it over for any sign of the cupcakes Al and Soho had told him about. There hadn't been any in the house, ice cream, cookies, all other types of junkfood, yes, but not cupcakes. And that left this... place.

He scowled darkly when he didn't see any signs of snacks. What the hell had been in those cupcakes to begin with? He slowly headed for the kitchen, wondering what he would do even if he found the damn things...

When he reached the kitchen he looked it over, eyeing the counters and cabinets before opening the fridge door. There was nothing there. He cursed, chewing on his toothpick and wishing there was someone he could just beat the crap out of to make things better.

His brother was a spaz, his little girl was screwed up in the head even more than usual... and he couldn't do jack s**t about it. He slammed his fist into the fridge door and headed back to the waiting room.

So what did he do? He didn't want to talk to the jerks that ran the shop. For all he knew they were the ones that had did the whole... cupcake thing... to begin with.

s**t. How in the hell had Al gotten taken down by sugar in the first place? He cursed again and headed out the door. He didn't want to leave either of them on their own for too long. They'd probably wind up doing something extremely stupid.

Silva paused before he got out the door, not really wanting to go home, not really wanting to stay there. But something hit him. If Soho and Aleric were affected... could others have been? The last thing he wanted to deal with was a bunch of feien addicts... Mean bastards without self control.

He was mean enough for all of them, dammit.

Athanasia buzzed by like a Feien out of hell towards the lounge area nearly smashing head-on into Silva. A quick 'Sorry' escaped her before she skid to a halt over the table where the cupcakes were, 'were' because it seemed as if they ahd vanished. They DEFINATLY weren't there anymore. She quickly buzzed to the other tables searching for the basket. "They have to be here...they have to be here somewhere." Athan reached up and scratched at her neck, red marks were already there, as if she'd been scratching the same area for a while. "Where ARE they!" She buzzed over a table before alighting upon it. "********!"

Silva stared blankly at the juvenile feien, his eyes narrowing as he noticed her actions. "There's no cupcakes, darlin, you'll just have to deal with it." He told her coldly. What the hell was with the cupcakes, anyways? He was getting sick and tired of this!

She snapped her head around and glared at Silva. He dared to speak to her? The b*****d. "I'm sorry?" She'd heard him perfectly well, her hearing was actualy quite acute, she just couldn't believe he'd spoken to her. She rotated her head as such to pop her neck. "How do you even know that's what I'm looking for? You don't even have any idea who I am? How do you know what I'm looking for?" Athan was probably getting a bit over her head. But this guy was a toothpick, she could probably take him...

"I know because you're acting just like the other feien in my family." He drawled. "Like an addict." Yeah, he'd seen a few sixties movies. He knew the signs. "They aren't here. I've already looked. Too bad there's not some sort of feien rehab or something..." He muttered thoughtfully.

"Go home kid, dunk your head under some cold water or something."

She had taken to buzzing sporadically between the rest of the tables just to get some of the extra energy out. She kept scratching at her neck. UGH! Why was this guy still talking to her? Did he REALLY think he knew what was going on. "You don't have any clue what's going on. You obviously haven't ever tried those cupcakes. They were the best things I've ever put in my mouth! Oh GOD they were so ******** good! I just want ONE more! That's it..just ONE MORE ******** CUPCAKE!" She flipped a table centerpiece over with the rage of the last statement. "They have to be here somewhere! A basket full of cupcakes doesn't just vanish into thin air! That's impossible! GAWD DAMN IT!!!!"

He cursed and grabbed for her, wanting to see her neck. Hell, she was even crazier than Soho was acting. "Quit that, dammit. Getting more will just make this worse." He really didn't want to have to knock her out... She was too close to his Soho in appearance. Red eyes, white hair...

s**t.

"Ungg..Let go!" She struggled against his grip, but he was surprisingly strong to be so damn wimpy looking. She attempted to wriggle out of his grip but it didn't seem to be working. She slammed her head back towards his face hoping to land a hit. "Let me go! You don't have a damn clue what's going on! Just becuase your little ******** family, or whatever, had a cupckae doesn't mean jack s**t. They don't know what it's like to enjoy them! I should know! I had TWO of them! And so did Hitomi, she just doesn't know that it was the cupcakes that made her feel so great. Let me the ******** go!"

"Temper temper, darlin." He drawled. He avoided getting headbutted easily, she was hardly what one would call fast. "If the cupcake was the thing that made you felt good, then it's the same thing that's making you feel like s**t now, dammit." He growled.

He was so tempted to knock some sense into her, just like he had Aleric. But she was tiny, not even half his size, and her arms felt so delicate in his large hands. It was almost scary how easily he could snap them.

She was really starting to lose her temper, and the fact that this barbarian was here hugging her wasn't helping. "I swear, if you don't let me go I'll bite the s**t out of your arm. It's starting to look mighty ******** tempting." After realizing that he wasn't letting go anytime soon she nodded forward and sunk her teeth into his arm, hoping to get some kind of release reaction.

"Stop it!" It was high and shrill and desperate, and it came from a small white blur who knocked herself between them and tried to drag Athanasia away: she was red-cheeked and panting, Ruby's sister, with the same horrible glaze to her eyes that the other cupcake victims had. She gave Silva a dirty look, tugged the smaller girl-juvie's teeth smartly away with a push to the forehead, and gave the adult male a very very very weak stomp to the toe. It was more like a brush. "She's just a - she's ain't nothin' but a little girl, Mister Silva, don't angry up her blood - just stop it, for the love of God! Honey, shhh, I know you want 'em, we all want 'em, God have mercy on us all."

He cursed and threw her away from him, leaving a large chunk of flesh taken out of his arm. He reached up, healing it, thankful her mouth wasn't as big as it seemed when she talked. "Little girl if you want to die..." He started out, his voice as cold as the arctic wind. "You've come to the right man." His hand tightened into a fist.

Wait, dammit, she was a little girl! Just like his Soho... And if he lost his temper... He took a deep breath. Then he looked at Dee, forcing himself to respond. "I know, dammit." He muttered.

Athan hit the tabletop hard and grimaced. "******** HELL! That hurt!" She quickly stood up and dusted herself off. Happy that she had at least nicked Silva. The b*****d. She turned her head and spit, a little chunk of Silva flew out with it. Her eyes traveled to Burgundia for the first time and took her in, it was odd how closely she resembled herself. The hair, the markings, Athan had black ones as well..but still...the similarity was there. "And who teh hell are you? Why are you here? To find more cupcakes too? Do you know where they are??" Her eyes grew wide and her mouth started to water.

Burgundia took away the rumpled piece of rose-red material that she so often wore around her shoulders: she pulled it over Athanasia's, despite the fact that she herself was trembling, and tried in vain to smooth her own hair. "There aren't any more, darlin'," she said tightly. "There now, don't mind it. In the name of - in the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate - "

Dee clasped her hands together and said a quick, fervent prayer to steady herself before turning back to Silva. Her teeth were visibly chattering. "Sir," she said, voice breaking from strain. "Did - did - did - Ruby, she - she s-surely didn't - ?"

Silva was eyeing his arm, wondering if the bite would make him addicted. He doubted it. He glanced up at Dee, nodding briefly. "She and Aleric are out of it. I knocked the old man out, got Soho to her room with Nick and Nack making sure she doesn't do something else suicidal."

This was Soho's sister, after all. Crazy as a loon, but she loved Soho. "Then I come here and find two more juvie females jonesing for some sugar. What the f*ck happened while I was gone?"

Athanasia seemed to lapse into a sort of trance state. Her eyes unfocusing into some point in the distance. Nothing else occupied her thoughts right now except getting another cupcake, and soon. Upon her first arrival she has been a lot more concerned about getting two, another one for herself and one for Hitomi. But she didn't even care about her right now either. She paid little attention to what was said around her. Her head seemed to shudder for a mometn and she looked at a spot on the table where she thought she saw a smudge of icing from one of the cupcakes, she started crawling on all fours towards it...

A sort of wail had come up from Burgundia at the news: she dropped to her knees and held on tightly to the necklace around her neck, M's diamond. She pressed her forehead to the floor just once before lifting it up again, holding herself, fingers digging into the sides of her arms.

"Rose found c-cupcakes," she said. "This will be a difficult day. This will be a difficult day. - Oh, Ruby - We brought 'em inside; there was a note, too, sayin'..."

Burgundia turned her head sharply to bite into her shoulder until it bled: then, with difficulty, she finished. "It said it was a gift. A kindness."

What the hell was going on here? One of them was looking close to licking the table on her hands and knees, the other was biting herself? Dammit, how much more screwed up could this get? He called out the the girl on the table. "It's not going to help, dammit."

Then he turned to Dee, reluctantly pulling her into his arms to heal the shoulder wound. "Alright, darlin, biting yourself isn't going to help anyone." He told her, his usually cold tone softening slightly as he patted her back. Treat her like Soho, he told himself. She acted more like an adult than Soho, but she was still a little girl.

Athan seemed to freeze at the sound of Silva voice, her chubby cheeks forming a hard snarl. She snapped her head back to look at him, her neck bones popping again. She threw her white hair over her shoulder before approaching Silva. "I think you know where they are. I think YOU did something with them!" She aimed a sharp kick to his shin. "SOMEONE here knows where they are! They can't just vanish! That doesn't ******** happen!"

She dropped an automatic curtsey. "Thank you kindly," she murmured. Dee's accent was even worse than usual. "I apologise for actin' so wretched. I guess - I just can't - it stops you thinkin' straight: I just... I think about God and it helps a little, but it's like surely goin' crazy. You have to do something else to yourself to get your brain right... Pain works a little. Just not for long. Is Ruby awful sick with it?"

Burgundia turned to Athanasia, and her expression was that of deepest pity. Her hands were on the other juvie's shoulders and she was pulling her away from Silva, gentle. "Nobody knows. Nobody knows, goddamn it - Honeychile, look, it ain't gonna help; they're not here. I... I looked in the trash." At that piece of terribly undignified information, her lower lip wobbled.

Silva twitched, looking down at the little monster with his eyes darkening. "If I had been here I damn well would have gotten rid of them. They've screwed up enough people already." Her, he didn't care about. But Soho and Aleric, and hell, even Dee there for some reason... it was starting to really piss him off.

"You sure you don't know who dropped them off?" He asked Dee.

"NOOO!!" She jerked away from Dee's grasp like a child in a tantrum. "They're here SOMEWHERE! We just aren't looking hard enough. Someone took them and we have to find out who! Or we could find out who MADE them! Get them straight from the source...who makes cupcakes. Someone here had to have done it, right? Athan's hands had started to tremble and twitch as did the muscles in her right cheek.

"We just found 'em on the step," Dee said distractedly, watching Athanasia in what was obviously torture: she had it badly. "In a basket... A little one, like, like how you'd get flowers in. I remember. It was wicker. Cheap, crunchy. Will ye not then be reminded? That is She who knows the seen and the unseen. - I - I - Rose-mama, she put the note in... It w-was on the table here."

She put her head in her hands. "Let me die. Just let me die - just a little note, it... Written in... Not typed, written."

"Alright, darlin, breathe in. Did Casca get one of the cupcakes?" He asked, trying to get her back to the subject at hand. Her bond sounded like an idiot, but hell, his wasn't too bright, either. "Do you know of anyone else that did?"

God help them if someone more dangerous than him got ahold of one... Addictions were scary things. Things someone would kill for...

"Hitomi had two. I had two. I came back to get us more but they aren't here." The tremble had traveled from her fingers and cheek to both her arms and her chest. Her upper body was visibly trembling and her head was starting to bob of it's own accord. She was going downhill and she was going fast. But what was to be done? No one knew what had truely caused it, so who knew how to really end it?

"I was bringin' one home for Cas," Burgundia said, voice wobbling. "I ate it all, I'm... I'm a... no; no sir, he didn't eat any, he... I guess he's got his cigarettes, he... don't eat much these days anyhow, I guess. I don't know anyone, just me and Ruby and... they hurt my li'l sister, I'll kill 'em."

And this new Feien had had two? God have mercy on her soul.

"It's alright darlin." He told her, patting her head awkwardly. "I'll do the killing for you." He glanced over at the other feien, noting the twitching. "Both of you should go tell your bonds. Maybe they can come up with something that will help. I need to get back to Soho."

Burgundia gripped Silva's arm, eyes wild. "Tell her I love her," she said fiercely, and then - twitching awfully - she fled, ran away from both the adult and the other female, flinging herself towards the door.

Athan started walking towards the edge of the table but fell down off the edge and into a chair pushed underneath it. She curled into the fetal position, her arms wrapped around her knees as she laid on her said. Her teeth were chattering and her wings flapped sporadically, creading a random buzzing noise in the room. Something was definatley wrong with these Feien, but what it was exactly, only time would tell. Hopefully, for the sake of the Feien, we'll find out sooner than later.

Silva looked after Dee, then down at the feien on the chair. With a shrug he took to the air and headed out the door. Her bond would come look for her sooner or later. And who knew? Maybe one of the quacks that worked there would find her and figure out a cure.

He sure as hell wasn't going to deal with her. He had enough problems of his own. With that he flew out the door.

Silva slammed his fist into the buzzer, then headed up the stairs and to the waiting room of the shop, ignoring the two strung-out feien following him. He was far worse than they were. Soho glanced at the two males, then slipped away, heading for the lounge to see if there were any cupcakes hidden. Aleric wrapped his arms around his body, leaving Silva to do the hard part.

"SHABBY!" Silva shouted. "Whoever the ******** you are, get your a** out here!" He shouted. His voice wasn't its usual calm, derisive tone. It was ragged and harsh, as if he wasn't quite in control of what he was saying.

Sunil, who had been hiding in the shop in hopes of encountering Averno, jerked awake at the sound of voices. Her first panicked thought was that she was being attacked and she darted up in the air and basically slammed herself into the ceiling. It was lucky for her that she hadn't been straight in the first place, so all she really did was knock the wind out of herself.

On the way back down, she took the time to note that she knew the feien who had interrupted her little nap.

"Silva?" She questioned, her eyes wide. "Shhh~! Don't make the cupcake man mad."

She put a finger to her lips to pantomime silence and then glanced around, clearly paranoid. <******** the cupcake man." Silva growled, turning to look at her. "You know him?" He asked, his mind going from drugged haze to normalacy, then back to haze. He rushed towards her, reaching for her neck. "Who is he?" He demanded.

His eyes were bloodshot, and lacked the self-control that he usually had under the surface.

Sunil was jumpy, but she wasn't co-ordinated. As Silva advanced, she darted - right into him.

"I don't know. I don't know," she whispered. "But he controls the cupcakes. IF you make him mad, we might not get anymore cupcakes. I NEED CUPCAKES."

And the thought of the last little bit of cupcake she had savored put Sunil out of the moment and into a little blissful memory. Her eyes glazed over and she shook a little.

As close as she was he forgot about the throat and wrapped his arms around her, his hand twining through her hair and jerking her head so she was looking at him. "I said..." He growled, "******** the cupcake man. Look what he's done to us."

"I need..." He stopped, shaking his head as his thoughts twisted. "I killed Nick, dammit... I killed him..." His grip loosened as depression overcame him. "s**t... I need more..."

"I'm gonna get more!" Sunil blurted out and then bit her lip abruptly. It was tough not to say what was on her mind and the thought of more cupcakes was keeping her from curling into a ball again and just hoping for it all to end.

So she put her hands against Silva's chest and shoved.

"Let me go!" She glared at him. "I know you're just trying to steal my share of the cupcakes. They're for me. FOR ME! AND I AM NOT SHARING!"

"I could just kill you, too." Silva said, a little smile playing on his lips as he ignored her shoving and played with her hair. "I could break your skinny little neck and then what would happen?"

But would it get him more? And-- He paused, looking over her shoulder. "Ni--Nick?" He whispered. "I--I killed you..."

"Go ahead," Sunil said, sounding resigned. Her body went limp and she hung her head. "It's probably all a lie anyway. If I had an unlimited supply of cupcakes I wouldn't give them up for something simple like a l-"

She quickly shut up, but didn't perk up. Instead she put her arms around Silva and pulled herself up close to him. She was starting to feel cold and shaky again. The little cupcake from before had worked itself out in her system and she was slipping back into full-blown cravings.

"Whoever Nick is," she said quietly, "at least he isn't beholden to some mysterious man for cupcakes. You don't eat when you're dead."

"He's staring at me..." Silva said, only half hearing her words. He wrapped his wings around himself, and her, since he was still holding her. "Dammit, Nick... I didn't mean to... I could have..." He took a rasping breath, then shoved her away from him.

"Don't touch me, dammit." He said, his eyes narrowing at her. "You're trying to use me, aren't you?"

Sunil snorted and turned her back on Silva, wrapping her arms around herself and beginning to shake.

"What for," she asked derisively. "You don't have anything I want."

She turned around and made a face at him.

"You're useless to me. You don't have any ******** cupcakes."

And then while any other feien would have shut up, she continued - taking out her frustrations on Silva.

"You're a moron, coming here and yelling for the shabby man. The biggest idiot I've ever met. He isn't going to give you cupcakes for nothing! You have to earn them, just like the rest of us. I bet you didn't even think of that, did you? You just thought you could come here and beat him up."

She laughed bitterly and drew her legs up to her chest.

"If you had half a brain you would realize that the cupcake man is probably wise to you. He isn't going to show himself. That's why he sends notes and leaves half a cupcake under the desk blotter in the middle of the night. He's smarter than you Silva. Not that that says much."

"I'm going to kill him." Silva gritted out coldly. "And damn all the stupid ******** that are addicted. Including me." He was shaking, so he wrapped his wings around himself. "I should have died..." He went on, not really seeing her even though his eyes were focused on her. "A long time ago."

He was... he was finally doing the one thing he feared. "Now I'm just like Snake..." He whispered, shaking hard. "I'm just... I'm just like Snake."

"It's the... It's the cupcakes." Aleric whispered from where he was rocking on one of the chairs. "They're the thing that's... that's making us like this..."

"No!" Sunil said, focusing on Aleric. "No."

She shook a little as she let go of her legs.

"It isn't the cupcakes making us like this. When you have the cupcakes you feel glorious." Her eyes glazed over in memory. "The cupcakes make you the best you can be. It's NOT having the cupcakes that makes us like this."

She curled up again, tucking her chin into her chest like a child.

"Don't you see? We're worthless without the cupcakes. We always were and we just never saw it. I don't know about the two of you, but I'm going to do exactly as the shabby man told me so I can get more of the cupcakes. He promised me as many as I WANT!"

She took on a slightly crazed look.

"If you'll promise me part of your share, maybe I'll ask the shabby man to give you guys tasks too."

"It's... It's an addiction..." Aleric whispered. Then he grew angry. "And you can't HAVE MINE!"

Silva was starting to sweat. His whole body was vibrating, he was shaking so hard. He needed to... he needed to HIT something. "Shut UP about the ******** CUPCAKES!" He bellowed, raising both hands to his face and clawing.

"Fine," Sunil said, sounding reasonable for a moment. "I'll stop talking about them because I know I'm going to get more and you're not. I'm going to tell the shabby man not to give you any."

She looked smug.

"If you see the shabby b*****d..." Silva said, his eyes narrowed. "Tell him I'll be coming soon." He finished coldly. He looked around, seeing a still shaking Soho enter the room.

"They aren't... they aren't there..." She whispered. "Why aren't they there? Maybe... maybe he hasn't seen it yet..."

"We're leaving." Silva growled. Before he killed someone else...

"What isn't there?" Sunil asked sharply. "Are you holding out on me?"

She gave Ruby a sharp look.

"You better not be holding out on me."

"There's--there's nothing to hold out!" Soho wailed. "It's not there!" Tears were falling down her face. "Mister Silva Demon even killed Nick for it and it's NOT THERE!!" She wrapped her arms around her body and started wailing, not able to talk comprehensively.

Sunil just stared at Ruby in shock for a moment. She had to be talking about cupcakes. Even Sunil's limited intellect could piece irrational behavior and raving together with cravings.

"Were you promised cupcakes?" She asked, advancing on Ruby. She put her arms out to shake the other juvenile. Anything to get an answer. "Did the shabby man tell you he would give you all the cupcakes you could want?"

"Ye--Yeeesss!!" She wailed. Then she hiccuped. "May--maybe I'm early..." She whimpered.

"I said we're LEAVING." Silva growled. Aleric took to the air, almost falling since he was shaking so hard.

"We'll... we'll figure something out." He said.

"No!" Sunil said, grabbing onto Ruby. "No, you're not leaving."

She didn't really have a plan, but something was forming. She just needed to concentrate a little harder.

"Do you have a plan?" She yelled at Silva. "You don't, do you? You're just gonna let us all die of cravings while the shabby man laughs in some dark corner at how stupid we are."

She shook Ruby, mostly because she herself was shaking.

"The shabby man is playing with us and I don't ******** like it. I say we collaborate against him."

"He's going to come after me sooner or later." Silva said, taking a deep breath. He turned to look at Sunil. "I never ate one of those damn cupcakes."

"I--I fed him powder!" Soho wailed. "But there's no--there's no cupcakes..."

"s**t." Sunil's face fell. Her only hope had been getting more cupcakes if she followed the directions on the letter from underneath the blotter. If Ruby had been promised cupcakes and then hadn't gotten any...

"Maybe he's late in delivering the cupcakes," she said to Ruby, unsure. "Maybe they'll be delivered to your house?"

But that didn't make any sense. To be honest, why would the shabby man give up cupcakes all at once when he could keep stringing them along like this?

Oh dear, these were uncomfortable thoughts. Sunil let go of Ruby and started to cry herself.

"But, but... why would someone do this to us?"

"Because he's an evil sonuvabitch that likes watching me kill people." Silva said, his voice a raspy growl as he hugged himself again. "I'm already bad... what happens when I get worse?" He had almost killed Sunil just a few minutes ago... he had even been looking forward to it...

"I need more... I need more of that s**t..." But he didn't want to.

"I don't... I don't know." Soho whispered, oblivious to Silva's answer. "I did what he asked... where are they?"

"Is he watching?" Sunil asked. But the answer to that seemed obvious. How else could he know how she coveted Averno's curls? How much she liked the way they curled and shined.

"I'm sorry Ruby," she said to the other juvenile. "I hope he comes through - because if he didn't come through for you, he won't come through for me."

This seemed hopeless and Sunil wrapped her arms even tighter around herself.

"If he wanted to kill us, wouldn't he just have poisoned the cupcakes? This seems worse somehow. Like a test. How much can we take before we all snap?"

The answer there seemed to not be very much and Sunil closed her eyes. She had to do what the note said and hope, but to be truthful she expected nothing but a slow lingering death from cravings.

"Who the ******** says I haven't already?" Silva asked, watching as Nick waved at him from behind Sunil's back. He couldn't even get worked up about it. He was getting depressed again, and he didn't like it.

"I'm turning into Snake... Soon I'll be smoking strange smelling s**t and waking up in Mexico with alcohol poisoning and a strange woman in my bed and--" He paused, wondering why he was afraid of that again...

Aleric was looking around, hoping he might see a spare cupcake somewhere, Soho was still bawling her little heart out, albeit silently.

"Well, look at it this way," Sunil said, "if you die of alcohol poisoning, you won't be around to crave cupcakes or kill people."

Actually that didn't sound that bad. Did alcohol work on feien? Sunil gave Silva a look. He probably knew the answer to that.

"Does alcohol work on feien?" She asked, licking her lips. "If what I've seen on TV has any bearing on reality, getting drunk might really take the edge off this other craving. Or kill us."

She didn't sound that upset about the second option.

"We can get drunk." Silva said, as thoughtfully as he could in this state. "But hell if I know what it'll do." He turned to Aleric. "Let's go get drunk."

"For once..." Aleric said, his teeth chattering with his shaking. "I agree with you. Soho...?"

Soho glanced up through her tears. And since she had three eyes her entire face was covered with them. "Wh--what?" She asked.

"We're going home." Aleric said.

"Wait!" Sunil said, sounding quite pitiful. "I want to get drunk too."

She teared up.

"Take me home with you."

Silva scowled, then shrugged. "Hell, why not?" He asked. "Someone needs to drink Nick's share." The three took to the air, Soho not really knowing what the plan was, but going anyways. She glanced back at the lounge one more time, her heart breaking.

Then they left, expecting Sunil to follow.

And she did, slowly, silently, and crookedly.

She'd worry about Averno's hair later. After all, if Ruby was any indication - she could be doing a lot of work for nothing.