**Chapter 37 — Garden of the Deadly Six **
Morning light pierced the broken windowpanes of the Deadly Six mansion. Dust floated in sunbeams like tiny ghosts. Cainen yawned, scratching his head, still wrapped in a blanket that smelled like wet dog and smoke.
"We need food," K mumbled, brushing cobwebs off his hoodie.
"We need money," DMK groaned, pulling Lilith's foot off his chest.
Kaito sat up slowly. His body was still wrecked from the torture, but his eyes were sharp now. Alive.
"We need a garden."
Everyone blinked.
"A... what?" Cainen squinted.
"A garden," Kaito repeated. "Something we grow ourselves. No poison. seeds. Just we grow."
Lilith walked in, face blank, holding a watering can she found in the basement. She placed it down without a word and walked off.
They all stared.
"...Guess we're makin' a garden," DMK shrugged.
The Build.
They started in the back of the mansion—a small clearing now empty after they chopped down the trees.
K drew lines in the dirt. Lilith came back with gloves and old seed packets. Nobody knew where she got them. She didn't explain.
They dug rows. Hauled bags of compost from a busted shed. Repaired a rusted fence to keep animals out.
Cainen complained about worms.
DMK ate the worms.
Kaito smiled more than he had in his whole life.
Lilith... speak there way. But she watered every plant twice.
They laughed. Fought. Argued over seeds.
But it was theirs.
By sundown, fresh soil lay in clean lines. Tiny green shoots poked through the ground.
Cainen stood with hands on his hips.
"Not bad."
K crossed his arms. "Still think the name Deadly Six sounds like a gang, not a farm."
"We can be both," Lilith grinned.
Lilith wiped her brow. Kaito handed her water. She took it with a glance.
Still no jokes.
But she stood beside him now.
That was enough.
As the sun dipped low, they all sat on the back steps of the mansion, dirt-stained and exhausted.
Cainen leaned back and whispered, "We might actually make it."
Kaito nodded. "Yeah... if the damn carrots don't kill us."
Lilith cracked half a smile.
Then they all slept with a dim light in the corner
End of Chapter 37.