“I am the triggering event. Nothing more, nothing less”, she interrupts me with a firm voice.

I brush her back, slightly, sweetly. If there’s someone totally innocent in this matter, that’s Carmen.

“How do they know?”, Alice asks.

Tasha’s eyes are concentrated, deadly serious.

“Something is missing”, she murmurs, and everybody looks at her.

“What do you mean?”, I ask.

“All the people on that list were at the shed when John James Sanders overdosed”.

Dante blinks his eyelids slowly.

“Somebody was there and saw us”, he considers, “Somebody saw us that night, and decided that we were responsible for what was happening”.

I shake my head.

“John James Sanders was alone in the shed”.

“How do you know?”, Dante asks me and I close my mouth.

“He’s a veggie…”, I mutter, like this simple statement could erase the established facts.

“Tomorrow we’ll pay him a visit… supposing that he’s still hospitalized”, he states.

“What are we going to do?”.

Tina’s voice is tensed, scared. She’s not even included in the list and still she feels like she’s part of the game. Part of a lethal game that is definitely bigger than her.

“You, Bette and Angelica must go away. And even you, Alice, and Tasha”, Dante says firmly.

“No”.

Tasha stares at him coolly.

“I am not going anywhere. I haven’t been trained to run away”.

Alice’s hand takes hers and squeezes and when she speaks, her voice is cracking a little.

“If Tasha is not going, then I’m not going”.

“Al…”, I admonish her.

“Shane, shut up. Don’t ask me to do what I don’t wanna do”.

“I just think you guys should be safe from all of this”.

“And I think you guys need help”, Tasha retorts, staring at me in the eyes. I look down, glancing at my hand, still interweaved with Carmen’s.

Dante takes a long, defeated sigh and gets up.

“Bette, Tina. Are you in a position to leave immediately? Do you have a safe place to go?”, he asks.

Bette nods her head firmly and gets up.

“Yes. I’m gonna ask Phyllis to give us hospitality. She has a country house and I am pretty sure nobody will be looking for us, there”.

“Good”.

“What about Marshall?”, Carmen asks out of the blue, flipping a strand of hair behind her ear.