He was scared, now Mary Jane was scared, and he was compelled to transform, unwilling, the pain intense, his sacrifice required. Mary Jane backed up into the corner wall, as some of the colors in the room flowed toward him.

She screamed, picked up the lamp post, and bent it out of shape, as Levi’s entire body sparkled, his face obscured, she was convinced, there was no more she needed to see, but it was too late, what had started needed to be completed, and she would have to sit through it all.

The colors pushed back into her skin, pinning her against the wall, and Levi’s eyes were popping against his skull, abnormally so.

“Levi, are you okay,” Mary Jane asked.

He said nothing.

“Just nod if you’re okay.”

Levi keeled over to the ground, and bits of him, chunks pushed out onto the floor, he regretted that he did not change it to hardwood floors earlier because this was a stain that would not come out.

Mary Jane rushed over to him and held his hand as he died. Lying on his back, the blood bubbling up, staining his teeth and pale face, the last thing he saw was her face in disbelief and horror. His eyelids fluttered rapidly, and his body seized and shook, and Mary Jane sobbed, she pleaded, she begged for him to stop, she apologized, but it continued.

Her tiny hands were covered in his blood, stuck under her fake black nails, and she held onto his arm, caressed his face, and told him that he would be okay, that people had survived worse.

He would not be okay, as a small, yellow finger punctured his right eye, through the eyelid as well, and turned, quickly, swiveling, pouring more blood out of his body, causing her to shriek.

Absentmindedly, she crushed his face with her obscene strength, speeding the process along, the left side of his head in her hands, and she heaved as two hands were pushing out of a thin red sac, growing inside of him, rapidly gestating.

“I take it back,” she sobbed. “I take it back! Stop!”

The rest of his head cracked open, a young boy's face still inside the sac with his brother, their eyes looking right into hers, and she saw the source of the finger. They slid out, rapidly aging, a year for every second, and their embryonic shell was too small for their growing bodies.

Leviathan Slater was no more, and the parasitic twins had returned, erupting from inside of him, eating, moaning, in Mary Jane’s bedroom, paying her no mind, feasting on the sacrifice, this time having time for lunch, and they would not miss the opportunity.

She ran to the bathroom, slid on the tiles, smacked her head to the ground, and was knocked out cold, the door still open, and the bored gods sighed because their time would not be long.

“He did all this to impress a woman,” Trom asked.

“Silly. She won't even give him a son,” Tair replied.

They gossiped while chewing the remains of Levi and roamed his apartment, rubbing blood and various strange fluids on the walls and furniture. While in the living room, taking apart the television with their bare hands, and playing with the parts, they saw a family member.

The windows in the apartment were gorgeous and towered up the wall, up to the ceiling in the living room. It was a great investment because one part of the house that could be seen whenever Levi broke the electrical appliances in the house. From the living room windows overlooking the street, they could see, up in the air, Unas, sucking all the fire and ash, a small speck in the distance, and they were furious.

“Unas and his wife trapped us in here, and yet he gets to play,” Trom lamented.

“He is a traitor. We should kill him,” Tair agreed.

The windows rattled and shook, a small crack spreading, and finally, spraying everywhere, shards of glass falling outwards onto the street down below, citizens fleeing from the demon above in the sky.

The twins saw their chance, but Levi wanted to return.

One God was enough trouble destroying parts of the town. Three of them would be unfathomable. They pleaded and cried, but after a few seconds, they gave in much faster, their reluctance a lot less, because Levi told them that if Unas had beaten them before, what made them think they could win this time?

Mary Jane awoke and crawled out of the bathroom, terrified and horrified, and she started thinking that she should call Rico. She didn’t want to know this or see this. The memories of standing inside of a man and exploding inside of him still came back to her, a recurring nightmare, yet this time the man she loved had exploded in their bedroom.

Walking quietly, edged up against the wall, she slid past the stain on the carpet that had spread all over, out the door, paranoid that he would rise from the dead, more memories of the three nights trapped inside a dome flooding back to her.

She walked down the hall, silently, towards the living room, making her way out of the apartment, and found Levi. Levi transformed and changed back so quickly that there wasn’t a lot of Levi to give back, and he was horned, blue, bloody, and naked in the living room. Mary Jane didn’t know it was him, he didn’t look human anymore.

With yellow eyes and the smell of rain and blood in the room, Mary Jane dared not move.

They stared at each other, and he coughed up bits of himself, streaming down his mouth, his blue eyes glowing in the dark.

“Mary Jane, I love you,” Levi rasped. “I died for you. Please don’t think that I lied to you because I wanted to hurt you.”

She trembled, the sound of his voice the same, coming out of a monster, and she steadied herself on the wall, leaning onto it, trying not to panic. Mary Jane’s long hair whipped around as the open window pushed a giant gust of breeze, ash, and screams from people outside.

“Levi, I’m sorry. I liked it better when you lied.”

The only part of her skin that could be seen were the parts where her tears had slipped down her face, and she screamed, she screamed that it was going to end.

“I am not going through another three days like before,” Mary Jane bellowed. “You can’t do this to me! I did not stand inside a man that exploded to have it happen again! ”

“Jane, what are you talking about,” Levi rasped, more bits of him falling out of his mouth.

He took a few steps forward, and Mary Jane gasped, as he had an extra set of arms. His half-baked transformation did more harm than good, and Mary Jane made a choice.

She chose herself.

“Don’t worry,” Mary Jane shouted. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry, because this will never be a problem ever again. ”

Mary Jane stumbled out of the apartment, and down the fancy and shiny hallway, with its real plants, not the fake ones, of course, their customers paid for much more. Levi stumbled out as well, naked, shaking, his hands crackling with electricity.

“Mary Jane,” he bellowed. “Get back here!”

The hallway lights flickered, and Mary Jane cried, her fear confusing her, she wasn’t strong anymore, she didn’t believe she was invincible, as the man she loved chased after her, her little bracelets jing-jangling the faster she ran.

Levi was fast for a large man, his daily runs in his favor, but he kept slipping on the floor. Desperate to stand up, he kept sliding on the black and gold marble floors, grasping onto his neighbor's doorknobs to keep steady as Jane ran faster.

He gave up and then started running using his extra appendages, like a horse, and he easily caught up to her, smacking the both of them into the wall next to the elevator.

Slippery and covered in blood, she easily escaped and clicked the elevator doors rapidly, screaming for help, but no one answered, the tenants hiding in their rooms after a demon in the sky sucked all the fire out of the metropolitan area.

“He’s going to kill me,” Mary Jane screamed. “Somebody help!”

“I’m not going to kill you, Mary Jane,” Levi roared. “I just, I just want you to promise you won’t tell anyone who doesn't need to know!”

“He’s going to kill me,” Mary Jane pleaded. “Help!”

The elevator seemed to be taking its time, crawling to the 9th floor, slowly, and Mary Jane’s eyes went wide as the digital label on top said five, six, seven, eight, and then stopped.

It stopped and Levi grabbed her, squeezing all four arms around her, and she screamed louder, her voice echoing off the halls, pleading, but no one would answer.

“Don’t tell anyone what you know,” Levi commanded. “If you do, my dad will kill you.”

“I won't,” she promised, her head shaking no rapidly. “Just don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me.”

A soft ding went off and she turned to look at her savior in the elevator.

“No,” she cried. “This isn’t fair.”

“Life isn’t fair.”

Maximilian and Rico stood in the elevator, not shocked by Levi’s bloody and grotesque body, because they assumed the transformation in town was because of him, and not the new owner of the very angry sword.

“Did you call them,” Mary Jane sobbed. “Why did you call them?”

“I never did. I would never,” Levi insisted.

Levi stood in shock and Maximillian sneered at the woman, no, the girl who had threatened him with a hug and got a gun out of his pocket. He unlocked the safety and held it in front of her face.

“Jane, we need to talk,” Maximilian said. “You lied. You shouldn’t lie about things as serious as sexual assault. That ruins lives.”

Rico was not his usual mess of a self, a walking bundle of nerves. He was cool, calm, and composed as he got out an orange syringe from his pocket, along with a terrifyingly long needle.

“We’re going back to the apartment, and we’re going to fix all this,” Maximilian said. “We’re going to be a family again.”

Mary Jane heaved, and the entire apartment rumbled. Her eyes sparkled gold, and a giant pillar of cement and rock pushed out, separating her from Rico and Maximillian, and blocking the elevator doors.

She pushed free, collapsed to the floor, and crawled away, but stopped because Levi would just catch her easily before. Mary Jane stared at the floor, because looking at him was too difficult, not just the blue tint of his skin or his horned forehead, but the betrayal of it all.

“Janey, don’t be like this,” Maximillian yelled. “Just come quietly!”

“Never,” she roared.

“Jane, come here,” Levi screamed. “I’ve got you! I won’t let them hurt you!”

Mary Jane’s eyes stopped flashing gold and she cried harder, but there were no more tears left to cry, her body was spent. She crawled on the floor, no one else left to trust, questioning everything, as reluctantly she went to her fiance.

They embraced and Levi wasn’t embarrassed about his nudity anymore because there was no shame left when they were naked and had no secrets left between them. He stroked her hair and picked her up, and he carried her back to her apartment, promising that he wouldn’t hurt her, apologizing, kissing her bloody cheeks.

Levi would never kill her because he loved her, and he loved her so much that he estimated that it would only take three minutes for his father and uncle to go to the lower floor, take the stairs, and come back upstairs to their apartment.

He left the door unlocked as he carried her inside, and he told her that it was going to be okay, he meant it, and no one would ever hurt her.

“ I’m sorry I ran, I was just scared,” Mary Jane admitted. “My head hurt and I couldn’t think straight.”

“I know. I would be scared too.”

He carried her down the hallway, past pictures of family and friends hung on the walls, and placed her gently on the bed, bundling her in the sheets. Levi got in, spooned her from behind, and told her to relax.

Everything is fine, nothing is wrong.

Carefully he placed his index finger on the side of her head, giving her a little jolt, and she passed out.

“Just like Ace you can’t handle the truth, Mary Jane,” Levi whispered. “I should have learned my lesson the first time.”

“You really should have.”

Maximilian and Rico stood in the doorway, bracing for another fight, but Levi groaned and his eyes fluttered as his body finally corrected itself. The horns slid off his head, like salami sliding down a wet mirror, wet streaks of blood burning his eyes, and they fell to the ground.

Levi stumbled out of the bed, and screamed, pushing his body up by his arms, and his bones cracked, loudly, the extra arms sloughing off, leaving gaping wounds on the sides of his abdomen, and he shivered on the ground as they sealed up, his skin losing its cerulean hue.

Rico and Maximillian waited patiently, not the first nor the last transformation they had seen, and not the worst either. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rico about to inject into his arm the syringe with the strange orange liquid, and he jumped in surprise.

“Uncle don’t,” Levi pleaded. “You don’t need to do that. Just take care of it!”

Maximillian was surprised, Rico more so that suddenly, Levi was now a willing participant in their crime.

Levi dragged himself to the edge of the bed, closest to the door in case they would try anything to hurt Mary Jane in her helpless state, and laid out his conditions.

“Mary Jane told me she lied. What she did was wrong, but you’re still a horrible person, Uncle Rico.”

“I needed-”

“I don’t care what you need,” Levi screamed. “You tried to hurt her and-”

“I don’t want to hear about your opinions, ” Maximillian interrupted. “We’re going to make her forget, there will be a mistrial because there will be no witness testimony to give .”

“Do it. She knows about the celestials and she won’t keep it a secret. She knows about me. I’ll do what you want if you make her forget.”

Maximillian smiled because he didn’t have to convince Rico to sift through his son’s mind as well. Rico was disturbed by the damage he had done to Ace’s mind, that he did not want to do it again unless he had no choice but to.

Rico was afraid of his little brother, and he smiled at the pain he could inflict on his future daughter-in-law. Now he was afraid of his nephew, the same, willing to do whatever it took to control everyone else.

“Forgive me, Mary Jane,” Rico whispered.

“She can’t hear you, stop being dramatic you pathetic addict,” Maximillian barked.

Rico lost what little confidence he had, his little brother bullying him with a few words.

“Dad, just stop. I want to know, please, why won’t you make me forget, ” Levi asked. “This would hurt so much less if I never knew.”

“Leviathan,” Maximillian cooed. “I would never hurt you. If we wipe your mind it will make you, well, just a little stupider. I can’t have that.”

“You can’t,” Levi asked skeptically.

“Of course. We should help you, your mother and I made you as intended, special, after all. Why would I want to ruin so much potential?”

Levi didn’t know why but these words made him feel ill. These words did not sound paternal, but the word choice was, but nothing was ever simple with Maximillian.

Maximilian cocked his head to the side and sighed.

“I don’t need to wipe your mind anyway. You listen fine on your own.”

Levi followed them as they left the destroyed apartment, his entire body numb because it was true. His father didn’t need magic or money, drugs, or power to control him, because fear alone was enough.

Mary Jane woke up in a hotel, with Levi, told that she had too much to drink and did not remember when they went out to the beach, just to the two of them, and it was a good thing too because a terrible monster had attacked the town and destroyed their ill-decorated apartment.

The trial was a mistrial because Mary Jane could not remember a thing, and her testimony changed many times as she tried to guess what was going on.

The lawyer of the defendant, Rico, argued that her story did not match up and that Rico couldn't assault her, since Mary Jane’s hands were registered as lethal weapons.

Leviathan looked in the mirror the morning after the trial, and the scar was gone, but the shame was still there.