The music box's scream wasn't a sound—it was a memory made physical, vibrating through their bones like a dentist's drill. Payune's fingers trembled as she turned the tiny tooth over in her palm. It was too small to be hers, too sharp to be Hayuni's.
Recognition came like a punch to the throat.
"Mother's milk tooth," she whispered.
The Eclipse stopped kneading. The missing candidates raised their raisin eyes. The kitchen held its breath.
Hayuni's tails lashed like live wires. "That's impossible. Mother still had all her—"
Memory unfolded against their will:
The nursery, but wrong—
Mother kneeling before a fourth crib, one they'd never seen
Her fingers prying open tiny gums
The wet crack of enamel giving way
"Hush now," she cooed to the wailing infant, "every recipe needs something sweet."
The tooth dropped into a silver locket that pulsed like a second heart
The vision shattered. The tooth in Payune's hand burned white-hot.
The third grave exploded upward, dirt raining down in slow motion as something not quite dead clawed its way free.
What emerged wasn't a body.
It was:
A shadow that bled thick, syrupy darkness
A voice that cracked like burning kindling
A presence that made the Eclipse whimper
"They called me Leviathan," it whispered, each word dripping with the weight of forgotten prayers. "Then they called me mistake. Then they called me nothing at all."
Its form solidified just enough to reveal:
Mouth sewn shut with mother's hair
Hands fused into shovel-like appendages
Chest hollowed out where a heart should be
The music box leaped from Payune's grip, embedding itself in the hollow cavity with a wet thunk.
The Third Sibling laughed.
Mother collapsed inward like a failed soufflé, her form dissolving into:
Shattered porcelain (From the cup that never reached her lips)
Embroidery thread (From the gown she wore when burying her shame)
The locket (Now pulsing wildly against the Third's chest)
The Eclipse dropped to its knees, oven mitts raised in supplication. "We needed the tooth," it wheezed. "The recipe demanded—"
"LIAR."
The Third's voice split the bakery in half, revealing:
The truth beneath the kitchen (A crib large enough to hold a galaxy)
The real ingredients (Jars labeled First Betrayal, Last Regret, The Silence Between Heartbeats)
Mother's final secret (Written in flour on the counter: I MADE THEM TOO WELL)
Hayuni's foxfire turned black. Payune's dragon scales sprouted teeth. The Third Sibling unstitched its mouth.
What happened next defied comprehension:
The Eclipse tried to run (Its oven door hinges squealed in protest)
Mother's locket opened (Releasing a swarm of phantom teeth)
The Third Sibling ate the music box (And with it, the concept of lullabies)
The world unmade itself in courses:
The candidates became the dough they'd kneaded
Their raisin eyes popped like overripe fruit
The bakery walls wept buttercream tears
Second Course
Hayuni vomited up nine lifetimes
Payune's dragon shed its skin to reveal another, smaller dragon beneath
The tooth sprouted into a screaming tree
The Third Sibling licked the remains of the Eclipse from its shovel-hands and pronounced:
"Needs more salt."