The first time, Brad is gone for about a week. Everyone worries, but Brad comes home feeling just fine and the hype dies down faster than it should have.

The second time, Brad returns with a red, angry cut running the length of his forearm. He tells everyone he fell on a rake and nothing more, stays at home only to change his pants, leaves the next day.

The third time, people ask where he goes and he says to Mars. Chester thinks this means he's getting stoned out of his mind and asks to join. They're only gone for a week and when they return, Chester is numb and covered in blood that isn't his and Brad is bandaged up. They decide to stop speaking to each other for a while.

People ask why he goes and he says it's just to play games. People ask Chester what it was like and he says it's a game you don't want to lose.

The fourth time, Brad tells his wife he might not come back because he's getting good at the game. She wants to cry or yell but she can't really remember why she fell in love with Brad in the first place. He wants his son, though, but she refuses. So he takes Chester's.

The fifth time, he drops Tyler off at home and Chester is furious but happy to see Brad at the same time. He swings his arm out and smashes his fist into the side of his face, then throws his arms around Brad's neck.

Brad asks if he can borrow Tyler again next week and Chester punches him on the other cheek and slams the door in his face. So Brad goes around the back and sits around their backyard pulling up grass until Talinda threatens to call the police.

The sixth time, Brad comes back bleeding and sits in the back of his car for a few hours before calling Chester. The call goes straight to voicemail and Brad leaves a message saying he's going to die unless Chester comes to get him.

Chester's car pulls up besides his in less than ten minutes.

The seventh time, Brad asks Chester to go with him, says they need another player. Chester shakes his head so Brad loops his arm around his friend's waist and presses their lips together. Chester keeps refusing and Brad keeps kissing him until one of them gives up.

It's Brad.

The eighth time, Brad comes home to find a new family living in his house, but he doesn't care because he's perfectly comfortable in his car anyway. Though he wants the comfort of something other than his car seat and goes to Chester's house again. Talinda doesn't want him to be in the house so they sit on the porch. Brad leans in and kisses Chester and gets kissed back. Brad wants to carry him into the backseat of his car and drive away, but he hears Tyler crying about something inside the house. He tells Chester straight to his face he should've killed that little brat when he had the chance. Chester says nothing, stands up, and walks into the house.

The ninth time, Brad comes back after a month or two and knocks on Chester's door again, asks him to come to that horrible place with him, asks him to play that horrible game where people die for fun and insanity. He has another scar on his arm. This one is longer, curves at he inside of his elbow and ends at his shoulder. Chester doesn't want Brad to be disappointed, so he let's him tug him to the car.

He presses their lips together again and when Brad moves to take off his shirt Chester whimpers but doesn't try to deflect his hands. Chester shivers when Brad is inside of him and comes with an emotionless moan. Brad kisses the gentle slopes of his collarbone and somehow feels as though its a goodbye present.

The tenth time, Brad comes home without Chester and Talinda yells at him while the kids cower in the kitchen. Brad takes residence on their couch and pretends to listen while she screams in his face. He asks her why she doesn't just call the police and send him to jail, almost tells her he fucked her husband, leaves before she can respond to anything.

Brad misses Chester though, so he drives to that place where the air is burning and everyone wants Brad and everyone else wants Brad dead. He asks where Chester is but nobody knows. Brad has been coming here long enough to know that someone always knows, so he asks around some more. He has to hurt a lot of people but he gets the information he needs and finds Chester six feet underground pretending to be dead. He leans into Chester's terrified body and presses his lips to his ear, tells him it's just a game, it's just a fun game and the better you get the more you can play.

Chester shakes his head and says it's a game where everybody loses.

They play it together, one more time. Brad sends Chester out by himself because everyone is after Brad. Thirteen people are injured. One person dies, the initials AL carved into his chest with a pocket knife. Someone else jokingly adds a big Z to his stomach. Brad comes back with no scars and bloody weapons, but Chester is bleeding from too many places to count. Brad tries to bandage him up but Chester keeps fussing and pushing him away, crying that he wants to go home.

Brad yells at tells him to be strong, tells him that he came away with scars the first few times but that he's fine now.

Chester keeps crying and Brad kisses him hard and long, tells him he'll take him home if he tries to win tomorrow

The eleventh time, everyone plays the game without Brad and Chester. Brad is somewhere, staring at the red sky before wiping the blood out of his eyes and seeing that it's actually a lovely shade of grey. Chester is somewhere, too, scrubbing the blood off his body with too-hot water and trying to erase the images of playing that horrible game from his head. He knows Brad is outside dying, Brad is outside probably bleeding through the gash in his head.

Brad told Chester to win, and now he's regretting what he said earlier. He doesn't care though. He just needed a new teammate, and it's not unlike one to turn against him like that.

But at least Chester can go home now.

-e.n.d-