"Ding," the elevator doors slid open, and Eric and Chloe stepped straight out. But the second they crossed the threshold, their senses were assaulted by a horrific stench. It smelled like charred meat cremated over a stove, mixed with burnt mayonnaise and scorched caramel, all capped off with the odor of a damp rag that had been soaking in a fish tank and used to smother a fire.

Covering his nose, Eric slowly turned his eyes toward the kitchen. His eyes went wide. The place looked like a war zone, the granite countertop was covered in weird, unidentifiable stains, the walls looked like a crime scene splattered with fluid, and the evidence of the disaster lay buried deep inside the trash can.

"My god... what on earth is this?" Eric asked, covering his nose.

"Ugh... what did they do this time?" Chloe asked, pinching her nose and fighting a sudden wave of nausea to keep from throwing up.

"Where are they?" Eric asked, looking around the completely empty space.

"Sob... sob,"

"Huh?" Suddenly, they caught the sound of someone sobbing. Their eyes snapped straight to the sofa, and sure enough, there they were, five girls looking like a total mess, their faces half-stained with black soot and their hair completely disheveled. They were huddled together, heads bowed around the coffee table as if they were worshipping three open pizza boxes.

Without waiting, Eric and Chloe walked over to Emma, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura, who were all gathered around the coffee table. Up close, the damage was pretty severe. They looked like they had just survived a dangerous biohazard experiment gone wrong, sobbing and shoving pizza into their mouths at the same time.

"What were you guys even trying to do?" Chloe asked, still holding her nose.

Eric stepped over to open the balcony door to get some fresh air flowing, cutting off the AC so that when it ran later, it wouldn’t circulate that bizarre stench, an odor powerful enough to kill small animals. The kitchen exhaust fan was already running on high, sucking up what he figured must have been twice the stench just a few moments ago.

When Eric walked back over, Emma turned to him, her eyes pooling with tears.

"I’m sorry, honey. The others and I were just trying to bake a cake for you," Emma said, her voice shaking and breaking.

"Yeah... we wanted to make the place feel warm and cozy just for you," Laura said.

"I didn’t want you focusing on everything that happened to you in the past," Priya added.

"We promise we’ll take care of you. We’re nothing like your parents or your siblings," Monica added.

"Yeah... and we’ll never throw wild accusations at you or betray you," Heidi added.

"What are you guys... even talking about?" Chloe asked, totally confused.

But when Chloe turned to look at Eric, she gasped. He was standing completely still, frozen in place. His eyes were locked on the five girls crying over their pizza, his mouth slightly open as if he couldn’t quite process what he had just heard them say.

"You guys... what did you just say?" Eric asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Seeing the look on Eric’s face, which made him look like he had just seen a ghost, all five girls instantly went quiet. They stuffed the remaining pieces of pizza into their mouths to shut themselves up. Meanwhile, Chloe, completely out of the loop, just looked back and forth between Eric and her five friends, trying to figure out what was going on.

Eric realized his reaction had changed and freaked the five girls out, so he rubbed his face to calm himself down. Then, he leaned over, picked up a slice of pizza from the coffee table, and took a casual bite. His eyes kept moving from Emma to Monica, then over to Priya, Heidi, and finally Laura, before landing right back on Emma. Once he finished his slice, he got straight to the point.

"Did you tell them?" Eric asked Emma. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Emma didn’t say a word. She just kept her head down and nodded. Before Eric could even react, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura jumped up and swarmed him.

"Don’t be mad at Emma," Monica said.

"We’re the ones who begged her to tell us everything. It’s not Emma’s fault," Priya said.

"Yeah... if you want to be mad, take it out on us," Heidi said.

"Exactly. I’m ready for whatever punishment you’ve got," Laura added.

Looking at the four of them with their eyes pooling with tears, Eric couldn’t hold it back anymore. "Hahaha," he burst out into a loud laugh, leaving everyone completely confused, including Chloe. The truth was, he wasn’t angry at all; he was just shocked that his past had come to light.

On top of that, whenever he remembered his past now, he felt absolutely nothing, it was like remembering a movie he had watched once, leaving no real emotional mark on him.

"Forget about it, don’t worry. I’m not mad, just surprised. Now that you know, don’t go making a big deal out of it, alright? I’m completely fine, and I don’t hold any lingering feelings about what happened to me. There’s no need to bring it up again, not because I’m trying to bury it or it hurt me, but simply because I don’t care anymore, and it’s just annoying to listen to. Got it?" Eric said calmly, offering a smile.

"You’re not mad that I told them everything?" Emma asked, finally speaking up.

"It’s fine. Even if I got mad, it wouldn’t change anything since the cat’s already out of the bag. Let’s just drop it," Eric answered, cool and casual.

"What story are we even talking about?" Chloe asked, totally lost.

Eric, Emma, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura all turned to look at Chloe, who was standing there with a massive question mark on her face. Eric then looked back at Emma, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura.

"Go ahead and fill her in. I’m going to head to my room to take a shower, so wait until I’m inside before you start, okay?" Eric said with a smile.

"Okay!" the five girls chimed in, their energy bouncing right back.

Eric headed straight to his room to clean up. While there was a common bathroom outside for guests, the lingering, bizarre stench in the living area made him choose the privacy of his own bedroom setup instead.

Once Eric’s bedroom door closed, the five girls immediately invited Chloe to sit down and laid everything out for her. As Chloe listened while eating a slice of pizza, her face slowly shifted through a whole spectrum of colors, turning from flushed red, to dark anger, back to pale white, then red again, and finally a complete mix of emotions until she covered her mouth with her eyes pooling with tears.

"So... Eric went through all of that... before coming to this city," Chloe said, processing everything she had just heard, and it was blindingly clear that she could feel exactly what Eric must have felt.

"Yeah... that’s why we were planning to bake a cake for him," Emma said.

"Right, it’s just... we messed up the recipe," Priya added.

"Cut us some slack... it’s our first time making a cake... but hey, there’s a first time for everything, right?" Monica added.

"Yep, exactly," Laura added.

Chloe glanced over at the kitchen, then back at her friends, then over at the kitchen one more time. By the time she looked back at her friends, the five of them had crept up right next to her, startling her.

"Huh... what do you guys want?" Chloe asked, getting ready to bolt.

"It’s not fair if you’re the only one who stays clean."

Before she could even react, the five of them piled right on top of Chloe, hard enough that the sofa she was sitting on tilted backward before snapping back upright. Chloe’s face turned a shade of green as her five friends squeezed her tight and rubbed their soot-covered faces all over her.

***

Meanwhile, inside his room, Eric sat on the edge of the bed after getting showered and dressed, drying his hair with a towel. He picked up his smartphone and unlocked it. Hearing the girls talk about his former family had reminded him that he still had Caleb’s number blocked.

He unblocked the number, and instantly, "ding... ding... ding," dozens of messages flooded his phone. They went from Caleb being completely confused to outright apologizing, but the one that caught his attention was a text sent just a few minutes ago. It read:

"Eric, maybe you don’t give a shit, but Jade called me earlier and asked me to let you know. The family group chat is losing its mind... Vivian had a miscarriage and she’s in the hospital right now... Jason got arrested by the cops for assault and battery right in front of the hospital... against Vivian."

Reading the message, Eric pressed a hand to his chest, testing to see if he still had any lingering feelings for Vivian, whether it was hate or love. It turned out he felt absolutely nothing.

He read the text again, and it felt like reading about a stranger’s life, someone he didn’t know, even if he happened to know how the story went. "Sigh," he breathed out a sigh and got ready to reply, but suddenly, "riiing," his phone rang so loudly it startled him, nearly making him drop it.

He looked at the screen and saw Caleb was calling. He picked it up.

"Hello,"

"Eric, sorry man if I messed up with you. Back then I was just confused and had no idea what was going on until Mike filled me in, so I’m sorry," Caleb said, sounding pretty panicked.

"Yeah, it’s fine," Eric replied calmly.

"Can we talk? Want to meet up at the bar tonight? I just want to catch up," Caleb asked.

Eric thought about it for a second and didn’t answer right away. He weighed the pros and cons of going to see Caleb, but in the end, since Caleb sounded like he didn’t have any hidden motives and just wanted to talk, he agreed.

"Alright, let’s meet there," Eric answered.