Right boy in the wrong place, it can make all the difference.

FamBam Chatlog

OhMyGawd: Sissy where u at

Queen S: Still good. Don't worry too much.

OhMyGawd: Kkkkkk M says we mades it.

YesMom: How long are you going to take? Will you be missing dinner?

Queen S: Yes.

OhMyGawd: Dueeede u know what that means? We breakin into the nudez stash~

YesMom: Holy shit....U right.

Queen S: Eat healthier. Save non-perishables. Eat more than instant noodles.

OhMyGawd: Who gonna stop me? Mom?

YesMom: Bich June get back here and clean your shit up. Then we feast. Without Sophie.

OhMyGawd: Yaaaaassssss spicy ramyum night!

Queen S: Vegetables. Protein. Vitamins. Do your workouts.

OhMyGawd: Damn I miss eggs. Ramyum is not as yum without da egg and toppings.

YesMom: Sophie I love you~

OhMyGawd: Oh my god noooo. Sophie, he's going stupid over the little stove thingy.

YesMom: It's an induction stovetop you ignorant sloth child. What we gonna do without out? Start a fire? Get firewood? Clean the firepit? How about NOT?!!! Plug it in and bam!

OhMyGawd: Yeah u right. Sooophie I love you~ *image sent*

Queen S: Ramen looks good. Plus 2 sets of push ups and core workout.

OhMyGawd: Awwwwww come on!

YesMom: Meh. I'll just do them real fast.

YesMom: Sophie it's been a while, you still good?

Queen S: Yes.

Queen S: Making traps.

YesMom: It's completely dark now, you okay?

Queen S: Yes. Main group not far.

OhMyGawd: Me no thinks u just settin some 'traps', unless u trappin....SOME CUTE BOOTIES??!!OMG!!! Without me?!! How could you? );

Queen S: Taking a shit. Big dump. Much better now.

YesMom: ....

OhMyGawd: Lies!!!! I see you! >_<

YesMom: Why are you like this?

Queen S: Big dump. Huge.

OhMyGawd: XD lol

OhMyGawd: U still alives jie?

Queen S: Alive.

Queen S: Idk about the guy I just brutally murdered but I'm still good.

OhMyGawd: K coolz.

Queen S: Tell Mattie not to worry too much.

OhMyGawd: K. He takin 'a long n relaxing bath' with flowers and candles and shit.

Queen S: We don't have a bath tub.

OhMyGawd: DATS WHAT I SAID! But BAM! Boi rolled out a fuckin LOG tub thing! WHERE? WHEN?! HE MADE DAT?!?! IDK yo, M scaring me more den usual.

Queen S: Oh. Good for him.

YesMom: Sophie you still good? It's been hours.

YesMom: Sophie please respond.

YesMom: If I don't hear from you in 20 minutes I'm coming down there.

Queen S: All good.

YesMom: Are you staying down there tonight? At the shelter?

Queen S: Yes.

Queen S: Btw, I got us a cat.

YesMom: You what?

OhMyGawd: A KITTY?!?!?!!!

YesMom: No

Queen S: Yes

YesMom: You did not just pull a cat out of nowhere. DID YOU???

Queen S: Adopted. It's mine now. *image sent*

YesMom: I can't see shit in the blur but that doesn't look like a cat thank god.

Queen S: He's a runner.

OhMyGawd: NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN!!!

YesMom: wHY do u have an 3 hour version NYAN CAT???

YesMom: SHUT

OhMyGawd: I am a creature of fine and exquisite taste. Like Nyan?

OhMyGawd: I miss bongo cat

Queen S: Go to sleep.

OhMyGawd: I am a creature of the night

YesMom: She playing her games.

OhMyGawd: WE! WE R PLAYING- WE R IN THIS TOGETHER!!!

YesMom: Splatoon 2 was a mistake.

OhMyGawd: Ur a mistake.

Queen S: Good night. See you tomorrow by afternoon.

The screen went back to sleep as Sophie tucked away her connected phone. She tapped at the charger with a stranger's stolen phone, unusable off line but for the apps. It must have gone dead days ago.

From afar in a corner of the empty half-built hut, Leon waved his tail slowly, if he had one. The boy sat much like a cat or similar animal, graceful in that 'I don't give a crap' way, legs crouched up like a punk. If he jumped, he could easily run over the edge of the exposed mud wall and right back into the dark.

But then he wouldn't get the phone charged.

He watched her carefully, silent as ever. The small fire cackles between them, the only light besides the charing green cable or the occasional screen of a phone.

"It's only at 45%" Sophie waved the device.

The kid looks away as if he was never interested in the first place.

"Still don't want to talk? Oh come up, you talked to the others. Said my name at least."

He side-eyes her, a small snorting sound exhaled from his nose. Stubborn brat. Still, he came out, that was something. The thing that Sophie knew for certain about Leon was, starve him, threaten him, whatever, he wouldn't care and would still fight on. Hide till he dies.

But bore him? Oh no no no. Leon, cannot be bored.

Now to say he had a sicker sense of humor than most children his age was an understatement. He took a detached sense in people watching. Like there was a television screen between him and reality. The hurt, pain, fear, and joy that other people felt was just that- actions across the screen. It doesn't affect him and why should it? It's not real.

If it's not real then it doesn't hurt.

When his crack whore of a mother beat him it didn't hurt.

When her clients took more interest in him than her, when their filthy hands roamed and disgusting breath sucked into his skin, he didn't feel it.

When the system took him and withdrawals came in full waves in his underweight body from quitting cold turkey, he wasn't there. Sober and not there

It's not about going somewhere else mentally. It wasn't as simple as that. It was a cut off of the senses. Static numb to dull to physical pain and a as complete disassociation without being dead. Most days it would feel better to be dead.

But who cares?

Sophie chuckled at the tough boy act. She wasn't mocking him, not when the act was more of a reality than it was just a front. Leon was a messed up son of bitch and that's what she liked about it. It was just, he was so god damn small. Fucking puny. He was never a tall and intimidating guy, not with the struggle to survive. He was always lanky and short for a guy, but last she recalled he wasn't this. This runt barely reached her shoulders and she was no model either.

It was also because he was just so damn young.

The last time she saw the kid he must have been at least 19. Killer twink that made all the boys come round, straight or not, didn't matter on this island. Now that one was a stone cold man eater, murderer. Put some more meat on him and he'd steal any woman's man, if he felt like it.

This one trembled in the shoulders, twitched from staying too still. This one didn't even have his balls drop yet. Ah yes, the perfect pedo bait. If Sophie was a well-disguised imitation than Leon was the real cut, authentic grade schooler flesh and a kittenish prowl to his demeanor. It was wrong to call a child seductive in any sense, but that's what Leon was.

A tasty easy meal to the predators, looked good smelled good and worse yet he knew he tasted damn good. Knew it too well. The scrawny boy of a whore knew the power he had over people. From uncomfortable fear to expertly hidden lust. He sees them all.

Right now he doesn't know whether to believe what he sees.

Sophie played on the stolen phone, logging into a random puzzle game app.

"Top score- Leo. Impressive."

"...."

"I'm not a mind reader. What do you want to do after this...Leo?" she taps at the device, the sole excuse he silently gave to staying.

"What did you do with the body?"

He bristles at that. Forces himself to stay silent, to stay still. But this brat is still to green, he's not the level of manipulative and deceptive he will be, not yet.

Now that boy? That was a top grade slut so good he had to be hidden.

Sophie wishes she could say she felt bad. That she was a good enough person to cry and sob and promise to protect this vulnerable child from all the bad things that will happen. But that is not what happens, nor does she want it to.

She liked her Leon.

"There won't be a search party, not if I don't make a fuss. But the foragers? It would be so easy to stumble where I left you."

"..."

The boy leans back, his blanket slipping to reveal thin shoulders in a beaten white tank. His usual oversized jacket, conveniently red, hung to dry on the wooden railing. That along with his sloppy jeans. When Keshia had found him by the edge of the clearing, when Sophie urged Caleb to rush her to him, Leon was splattered wet. All of his belongings fit in a ratty basic backpack, even the stolen shit Sophie manage to scrounge up for him. He traveled light, coming and going as he pleased. Like a true stray.

A stray that just had its first real taste of blood.

"He was heavy right? Fat bastards like those are a bit inconvenient to get off. They always reek more too? How did you manage it?"

"...."

"Did you have fun?"

"...."

"Did you enjoy it?

Leon pounces, the blanket was thrown in a way to distract and cover one's vision. Sophie stayed arms crossed still but for one leg, her 'injured' one, sticking out to both block and kick. She leans back on the stool, an unnatural balance.

When the blanket falls the fangs are out. Edges raised and heckled.

Sophie coos at the sight. Leon really was such a cutie when he was this young. This was the reaction that got men's blood flowing.

Play dead, play a doll and they'll take that like a starving man can't taste what they're shoving in their faces. They'll take and take but then, they get bored. When they had enough, they leave you alone. Simple.

But react?

Show that you're alive? That you scream and moan, flushed in red from blood and pumping hear? Now that's exciting. That fills them with something besides the dead dread of another unknown day.

Sophie waves the charging phone.

"59%"

"I fucked his head."

Leon's voice cracked from dryness, his eyes stared straight at Sophie. Arms reached out as if to claw her face off if not for her well placed foot and the phone being teasing waved into his little face. He looked a little more than deranged and that was just fine by Sophie.

His first words- how precious.

"You didn't." Sophie grinned, already getting more and more comfortable.

"I did."

"Bullshit. You don't even have a dick."

He pushes off her in disgust, sneering the way boys his age do after a bad game.

"Your shitty fuck? I fucked his brains out. Right through his eyeball. I fucked it so that all the gunk came squishing out. It was gross."

"Usually is. I saw."

"Then I fucked the other one. Then through the throat. Stabbed it through the neck."

"Aww shame I missed that part."

"...you're fucking crazy."

The boy decided then and there, plopping himself down. He left the safety of his hiding spot to come play with a crazy lady. Batshit senile. Leon has his share of fucked up but he never sat down and chatted over the fire about them.

"It's because I'm crazy, that you can tell me. What did you do with the body next? He didn't die right away...now did he?"

"....no. That's why I had to punch him in the throat."

"Smart. Where did you learn that?"

"Bitch."

"Are you referring to me? Someone else? Or when you were made someone's bitch?"

It would be so easy for him to twist, knock her down and just fucking run. Take the shit and run. Anything around this person screamed fucked up and he would only be dragged into deeper shit with her.

"There are no social workers here to save you."

"Like they do shit." growled out Leon.

It's always been one abuser to another. One way to use him then the next, new state new way to suck. Fuck getting saved- if Leon wanted to be saved he did it himself. No 10dollar suit ever did shit cept change the scenery.

"There's no one here to save you from them." Sophie crooned.

"What do you want?" the kid spat out, rough as sand and mud gritted between his teeth.

"What makes you think I want anything from you?" she gasped, hand going to her mouth in playful shock.

"Fuck you. Fuck off. Everyone wants something."

"Of course they do. It's what people do. Even you want."

"What...the fuck...do you fucking want?"

Such a mouth on one so young. It was ill suiting on the baby face but Leon made it work, something about his eyes, the way his face contoured, something said he wouldn't mind ruining you for life. Where others were all bark Leon was sheer bite.

"No one to protect you." Sophie offered simply, as if she was noting the sky was blue or that water was wet.

"Who the fuck cares?"

"No one to stop them." she repeats.

"Fuck it." he makes to swipe the phone, then he was off.

"No one to stop you."

"..."

Now that, that gives him pause. But Leon plays it cool, plays to pick up the fallen dusty blanket. Let's Sophie talk since she liked talking to nothing so damn much.

"There's no one to protect them, no system to run and behind. No cops to pay off, hell no cops at all. Don't make trouble to the main group, to the survivalist, and there is literally nothing to stop you.

"...bullshit."

"Did you anyone stop you from gouging that asshat's eyes out? Anyone at all?"

"...."

"Oh they could have! If they caught you. How exciting. "

"You're a sick one."

Sophie smiled sweetly, the kind she would show to outsiders. Businesses polite, a reasonably good and kind girl. The kind you would find anywhere.

"Did anyone stop me?" she breathed, the question lingering like smoke in the air.

"Why me?" he throws back, not letting her gain an inch. Or at least, appearing that way. Murder was a shakey nighttime run.

"Why not?"

"Why the hell do you bother with me you weirdfuck stalker?"

Sophie looked bored again, tapping at a phone that was neither of theirs. The cartoonish sound effects of the game standing out against crickets and fire in the silent night.

"You're the only one who knows how to play."

He glares at her from across the dying flames, before throwing in a stick. He was staying longer then, Sophie noted, barely looking at him. She was busy destroying some multicolored blocks.

"You're the only one who knows how to play this early on. Everyone has to play, we don't get a choice. Now those fuckers are figuring it out but you?"

The phone squeaked little recorded catchphrases. Sometimes a cartoon cat would meow a pun.

"You're already a pro."

Leon stopped answering entirely, retreating back to his corner is an uninterested prowl. But he sets, settles down to get comfy. He wasn't running, not from this.

"What I want is simple. Play with me."

"Fuck off" he sneered,

"Play with me. It will be fun."

"Fuck you."

"73%."

He looks at her like she's insane in ways no drugs or their violent withdrawals can replicate. She looks back to see a little boy well on his way.

"You can ride my coattails, easy peasy right? Food, shelter, what everyone has here, what you're stealing the barest crumbs of, all that is nothing to me. Stay behind me and let's play."

"I'll rip a role in your throat."

High score, squeaked the cartoon cat on screen. The sound of fake coins and confetti popping.

"It's not my throat you want."

Sophie turned the screen with empty eyes and a wide grin, her name sitting pretty right on top.

"Stick close to me and level up, it's faster than hiding and grinding. We rest now and head back to my camp late morning tomorrow."

"...."

"I have a nintendo 2ds up there?"

"....is there even any good fucking games to go with it?"

Of all things, that is what gets an 11-year-old to respond.

"Hmm a few, some pokemon some professor Layton, mostly old stuff. My siblings have newer games. " answers Sophie honestly.

It was Mattie who brought it all along, playing perfectly with her end of the world game. Sure there isn't time right now but Sophie is grateful. While her siblings were grateful for the electric generators to charge their devices. Definitely a good stress relief and distraction for them all. Sophie would probably get back to playing some of the more violent action games when the itch started acting up at the wrong time.

"...."

"They're playing Splatoon right now as we speak."

"Well fuck why didn't you say so earlier stupid?"

With that Leon plopped down entirely, not at all bothered by the creepy lady, how he was played into her murderous schemes or the fact that he just committed murder but a few short hours ago. This wasn't the worse the kid has seen in his short life. With his back to wall, the only breathing threat right where he could see her, Leon felt as safe as he could get in this place.

Leon felt as safe in the unspoken rules that Sophie wasn't out to eat him. He knew it in the same way he knew himself. That wasn't the game. They weren't each other's types. What fun was it kill a sick sad bitch?

"Good night Leo." Sophie mocked, the last sound lingering at the back of the throat.

"Hmm...stupid. It's Leon."

Every time he woke up that night, not that he ever fully fell asleep, it was to that stupid face. Fire lit and wide awake. Sometimes she was on her phone, doing god knows what, sometimes she was carving a hunk of wood or just generally keeping watch.

He still didn't fucking trust her.

Sometimes she was watching him. Straight up watching him sleep.

Leon gave her a middle finger up and closed his eyes, used to sleeping on floors dirtier than this. In comparison to the broken lithium tiles and god knows what that streaked them, the dirt and straw were even cozy.

He was only staying for the games. God was it boring out here.

Night cricketed on just like that.

Until it didn't.

"Rise and shine princess."

Leon didn't fucking trust the crazy woman and he was right. It wasn't even light out and she flung a god damn knife at him. He rolled but a few inches away, the blade falling to the floor. Quickly he gripped it by the handle, tempted to fling back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, it's the only one I'm giving you." Sophie tossed the safety cover and strap. She could afford one tactical knife- bought so much for a reason. Even if Leon ran now, he'd have that. Give his scrawny ass more a fighting chance.

The boy was already alert, not dulled from sleep, or the lack of it. Now that the shock had passed he regarded the things carefully as if it were a bomb that might explode at any moment. You gave kids like him a lot of things. A beating. A case at Juvie.

You don't give them weapons to kill you with.

"Let's go. This is the best time to forage before the scavengers are up."

"When I stab you it will be with this knife."

Sophie waved him off, dressed in tights and boots laced tight. The boy wouldn't risk dulling his blade. The only one he had. Besides, she knew enough how to not get scratched.

"Follow along if you don't want to get lost. Let's get breakfast."

She walked off, back into the still dark woods.

If Leon followed, then it was just for the games. Games and maybe food. Besides, she gave him a fucking knife.

He still didn't trust her, but this? He tested the weight. sheathing the blade. This he could trust.

He follows, half listening as she talks utter nonsense again. A mouth that wouldn't shut up about potatos or basil or shit. It shuts up only to crack open a hard-shelled fruit, inner flesh a sappy white and filled with cockroach dark seeds. He takes her offered half only because it smelled sweet, and he was fucking thirsty.

She didn't shut up again till they turned about to head back to the main group, something he's avoided all this time. He was no packing mule so she wasn't getting him to carry shit. If there was spare fruit in his bag it was only for himself.

He follows with a threat and a promise, never too far from her shadow. Staying silent and still as she waves or introduces him to early risers. Observes as she drops the edibles to a bunch of useless at the designated shelter area. He knows, long knew the crazy lady and her dumb brother and sister did this. But this is the first time he stood there, out in the open. He would have ran off to the shadows by now if it weren't for the knife.

"Leon's very shy, he's still...shaken up from the accident." Sophie would say to a few curious faces, identifying the small boy as one of her own.

He knew what she was doing, he wasn't stupid. Marking him. If lost return to Sophie. He wouldn't play along but he didn't interfere, didn't play nice. There was still too much to observe, to plan for when thing go south.

It's after Sophie plays another round of annoying social butterfly, Leon in full view towed behind her, that it happens. She was mid-talking to the airline staff, prepping to hand out the morning rations and securing their hot morning meal when they see it.

A fucker got socked in the face.

"Graaaahhh! Get him off me! Guards!" a man even larger and flabbier than the thing they killed last night goes shaking to the ground. He was all jiggling toasted pork and even for a distance, people could smell the obnoxious cologne radiating off him to cover-up the lack of proper baths.

On top of him punching away was a solid but wirey sunburnt kid, a teenager without even peach fuzz on his face yet. He gets away with it for two, three then four more seconds. The guards' lack of action more purposeful than hesitation. Only when the furthest guard, a surprisingly handsome Asian man with about 60% resemblance to the teen pulled him off.

"Stefen what the hell are you doing?."

"That bastard! It wasn't for him, all that food we caught wasn't saved for him!"

"Stefen no."

"GYEONG! I'LL DOCK YOUR PAY FOR THIS." gasped the man, through his choked wheezing, a red unrelated to sunburns rising in his face and across a hairy chest.

"He doesn't even get paid! No one does! Look at where we are you stupid old geezer! Can't pay for shit! Credit cards don't work out here! You're not paying for shit and all you do is eat and shit!"

"Stefan, calm down." ordered his brother.

"But Shawn I-"

"Now." the older man's voice was stable but left no room for arguments.

The young growled, clenching his fists back before reluctantly getting dragged away by someone who must be familiar. Another guard of the fat man on the ground, who struggled to get himself back up.

Now, this wasn't boring at all. It's been too long. Leon can't stop the grim childish chuckle that comes bubbling out of him, especially after Sophie gestures for them to sit back and enjoy the show. Like a sick joke, Sophie motions with her hand the crude bobbing motion he must have made that the dead man's head just last night.

It cracks a not quite loud laugh out of him, amused only out of other's suffering. Barely audible in the noise of the scene and crowd. But it's enough.

Somewhere a sick old monster likes what he sees, likes what he hears. Somewhere a few more predators get a whiff and can't help a second look.

A teenager making his angst and anger fueled walk of shame turns to the mocking noise.

"What are you laughing at?" Stefan growls towards some shitty kid.

Leon looks up to meet him in and eye and snorts, angering the older hothead even further before he's dragged off to avoid any further drama. Leon snorts further at his fumbling and ear tugging.

" Having fun yet?" comes Sophie's funny knowing voice, a mix between a therapist and a tour guide. It was annoying.

Leon ignores her as always, preferring to return the teen's F-bomb with a subtle middle finger.

Sophie nods at the sight, sipping at her soup. Puppy love was just so cute.