And we’re back! Quick recap: Spades is dead, Rush is leader, Dag is getting tortured, and Noemi is high.

Cool.

I feel like I should at this point be pumping out like 2-3 chapters per week, since I’ve got fifteen written and just sitting around. So that’s probably how it will go.

Noemi is totally rolling now, and is involved in an animated conversation with these lovelies. As the night wears on the group slowly succumbs to the music, bouncing and swaying where they stand.

So she looks over and basically decides she’s had enough of getting stared at, and she’s wasted enough not to give a shit that she’s going to go freak out on a murderous gang leader.

Mid sentence, she tears herself away from Kaz and strides purposefully towards Rush, who is now avoiding her gaze.

Noemi: Do you wanna stop fucking staring at me?

Rush: What are you talking about?

Noemi: You know what I’m talking about.

Rush flips his hair and flashes her a cocky smirk.

Rush: Sorry honey, you must be on something.

Noemi: You’re the one who’s on something!

Rush: Okay, fine. What?

Noemi: What do you mean, what? Stop staring at me!

Rush: What are you doing in this place anyways?

Noemi: I don’t know, living?

Rush: I’m trying to say you catch my attention sometimes cause you don’t look like you belong in a place like this.

Noemi: I grew up in the hills. Now I’m here. Is that okay with you??

Rush furrows his eyebrows and looks quizzically at her.

Exasperated, Noemi scoffs at him, turns on her heel, and leaves.

Yo, so Noemi aged up! I didn’t make a big affair of it cause the Mad House doesn’t have calendars, so Noemi had no idea when her birthday was.

But I think she looks gooooood.

I wanted to use this shot to show off her cool shoes, but then I lol’d at funny glitch.

Taco: Hurr durrrr.

Get out of the floor Taco, you’re drunk.

So anyway, tonight Noemi’s just trying to find somewhere to pass out, and discovers that the nice room she wanted to sleep in is kind of occupied.

She had heard that there were more beds downstairs, but had so far been nervous to check it out. This was because she had been told that the basement was referred to as “The Dungeon”, and that didn’t sound very inviting.

She’s not even all the way down the stairs before she decides that the dungeon lives up to its name. It has obviously never been decorated like the lavish upstairs, and seems to be more of a damp, dusty storage space.

Everyone in here is either passed out or passing around a huge pipe. Noemi decides to keep going into the next room.

This room contains the beds she had been hoping for, but everything else is pretty much chaos. She notices Zana out cold on the floor. She must have tried to make it to a bed, but never quite made it. Her fingers are twitching and she seems to be making attempts at lifting her head.

Further down the room a drunken fight seems to be starting, and Rexie and some guy are going at it on a bed, completely oblivious. Rave seems to be dry heaving.

Everyone seems pretty occupied, so Noemi climbs shakily up onto a top bunk in the corner. Violent bedspins rock her, and she holds on to the wall and keeps her eyes wide open until finally she falls asleep.

The days start to form a pattern of hanging out, doing whatever work needs to be done, hanging out some more, partying like a rockstar, and passing out somewhere random. During the day the girls primp and try to clean up last’s night’s mess, and the guys go out on missions and hold secret meetings. Everyone in the Madhouse is always either intoxicated or hungover.

It’s early evening and Noemi is hanging out with Taco in another basement room. The entire basement seems to be a labyrinth of rooms defined only by concrete walls. Beyond the three rooms she has been in already Noemi learns is more rooms that are unlit and completely unused.

Noemi: Why don’t you guys use those rooms?

Taco: We don’t need them I guess. They’re just full of old shit. Nobody even used this room until Chem and I cleared it out.

Noemi: What do you guys use it for?

Taco: We cook in here.

Noemi: Cook what?

Taco: Stuff you don’t need to try. Seriously, I don’t even do it usually. Here, come see.

Noemi follows Taco behind the curtains. She sees a guy working at a table covered in all kinds of glass instruments. The air has a strange sour smell.

Chem: Hey, man. This stuff’s just about ready.

Taco: Good stuff, man. Noemi, this is Chem. He’s our chemist. He cooks, I sell.

Chem: It’s our contribution to society.

Chem goes back to his work and Noemi looks around.

Noemi: Is this where Kaz’s stuff comes from?

Taco: Uh, no. She makes her own stuff at her place. It’s good, easy stuff.

Chem: Stick with that stuff, little lady. Don’t get mixed up in ours unless you’re real sure.

After her encounter with Chem, Noemi returns upstairs to her friends. She tells Daisy about Chem and Taco’s room, which Daisy already seems to know about.

Daisy: Oh yeah, those guys know what they’re doing. And it’s a good thing they do. I tried their stuff once and it is dangerously mind blowing.

Yayyyy drugs.

Noemi takes Chem and Taco’s advice and sticks with Kaz’s stuff. Some nights she finds herself dancing for hours with no idea where the time went.

Just about everyone in the Madhouse seems to like to dance too, and the stereo always draws a crowd.

Noemi giggles and flows with the music, Meg at her side in the sea of bodies. Everyone’s skin is slick and hot.

Noemi spins, stumbles, and is grabbed out of the air by someone behind her.

She reaches out for something to hold onto. She steadies herself and looks up at Rush snickering at her.

Disgusted, she pulls herself away and stalks off.

It is at this point that Noemi should examine the fact that her entire life has been spent living in the house of someone she hates.

She hated Jemyn, and now she definitely hates Rush. She hates his dumb hair that he flips all the time, and his ugly tattoos of scorpions, and she especially hates his stupid lip piercings.

Noemi: OH MY GOD he is just so cocky!! Do you see the way he looks at me? It’s like he’s laughing at me without even talking to me, he’s so condescending.

Yeah, honey. Bye guys!!