Thirteen
Teague
Operation "the rest of the family who are stuck at home" is officially underway. "So what's first on this list of chores?" I ask. That's right, Henri made a list. That's never a good sign.
"Let's see," Justin says, looking at the piece of paper. He actually wrote a list on paper. It should have been titled "Henri's 'how to survive against evil aliens while I'm gone' to do list." That would've been funny. "There's a list of supplies we need and where to get them." Great a list within a list. "And he said here we need to go out as little as possible and stay together. No one goes anywhere alone." We're going to have ourselves a little Weston/Bryant sleepover for the foreseeable future.
We're standing in our kitchen with everyone who's left at home. Justin has taken the lead. Well, he is now the oldest. "Ok, here's the plan. Sky and Daniel head to Dad's shop and get the supplies he listed here. He's got stuff stored away there. Jordan, Arik, Leland and Lorelai, y'all work on gathering up the rest of these supplies. Blankets and quilts."
"What for exactly?" Lorelai asks.
"He wants us to cover the doors and windows. Just for precaution." He answers. "You can start hanging them up. I'm sure you can find some thumb nails around here somewhere." He looks at me now. "You and I will get the rest of the goods."
"I feel like I should be concerned." He smiles a little.
"Depends. How do you feel about handling guns?" Fantastic. "They're back at our house." He turns to Ellen. "And mom you get your pick."
"I think I'll tag along with you and Teague. I need to pick up some stuff at the house."
"Alright." He nods. "Everyone good?"
"What do we need to pick up at the shop?" Sky asks.
"He didn't say. Some boxes of stuff and where to find them is all he's written." He hand the paper to her.
"How very cryptic." She says and takes it from him.
"Anyone got anything else?" No one speaks up. "Alright then. Let's get to it."
Skylar
Daniel and I maneuver through the busy streets and eventually park at Henri's store. "You got the key right?" Daniel asks.
Nodding I say, "Yeah." We get out of the car and walk to the door. We both instinctively look around us. As if a Marshal would dare show its face with all these people around. I unlock the door and once we're inside I lock it behind us. Per Henri's instructions we head to the back room.
"It said the shelves against the back wall right?"
"Yeah pretty sure." The room is a good size. Filled with several shelves of odds and ends. We have to climb over the clutter to to reach the back of the room. "Well, crap there's tons of boxes." I say exasperated.
"Think about Henri. If he was trying to hide something where would he put it?" Daniel scans the wide shelf full of cardboard boxes.
"What makes you think he's hiding it?"
"If he wasn't he would have told us exactly where it was and what it was. He's being careful." Well I guess that makes sense. To Daniel anyways.
Daniel moves closer and squats down, evidently deciding to start with the boxes on the floor under the bottom shelf. I follow his lead and start searching through boxes, emptying contents and then putting it back when we find nothing. We're about ten minutes in when I decide to get something off my chest. "So you and Avery."
"What about me and Avery?" He says without looking away from the task at hand.
"You like her."
"Yeah." He looks at me. "Do you?"
"I do." I say nodding. "She's really sweet. And I can tell she cares about you." He stops sifting through his box.
"Is there a point here Sky?" I sigh. I think about the brief conversation Tori and I had last night while she waited on Dean. She said she had talked to Kyle and he was really no help.
"You've got to tell her." I finally let out. He bites his lip and his eyes dart away.
"I'm not sure we're to that point yet." I resist the urge to roll my eyes.
"Daniel, get some glasses and learn to read. You mean a lot to her. And she definitely means a lot to you. That's evident. I mean, you even let her call you Danny." With that he visibly flinches. I've hit something with that statement.
I stare at him, trying to figure him out. All at once it hits me. God, I'm an idiot. "Mom and Dad." I say quietly. How could Tori and I not have connected the dots? Even Kyle? "Daniel, I'm so sorry. I didn't--"
"Look it's fine." He has associated that nickname with mom and dad. That's what we all would call him frequently. But after they died it must have reminded him of our parents. And he's held on to that all these years.
"No, I don't know how we couldn't have thought--"
"Oh wonderful, I'm being talked about." But then he smiles through his pain. "It's ok, Sky. Really." And that's something I admire about my little brother. Smiling even when it hurts. "Come on, let's keep looking."
"Yeah." Dropping the topic is probably the best thing. "Although, I'm not even sure what we're looking for."
"I've a feeling we'll know when we see it." Suddenly he has a thoughtful look on his face. He starts moving boxes out of the way. I start to say something, but decide to just let him work.
He goes down the line, box after box. He moves one rather large box and finally he says, "Yatzee." I go to look and see what appears to be a latch in the floor. He pulls on it and with some effort it opens up.
"You're kidding me." I say in disbelief. Leave it to Henri to have a secret storage compartment.
Daniel reaches down and pulls up a box and then another. We open them. "No way." He says. The boxes contain several blades. Myrmidon blades. We both laugh a bit and smile.
A noise comes from the front of the room. Or maybe it was outside the door. We look in that direction and then at each other. As if reading each other's minds he grabs my hand and we move to a corner. We huddle together and he turns us invisible. I look back and see the mess we left. They cannot see those blades. I reach my hand out and focus on trying to telekinetically close the box. I'm a little surprised when I actually do. Then I close the latch and push the boxes back a little. Maybe it'll look less suspicious now.
We hear footsteps. They become louder. Whoever or whatever is moving towards us. We both hold our breath. I don't even dare to think lest they somehow here my thoughts.
It finally comes into view. It's not a giant shadowy figure like I remember Marshals being. This is something else. It's shorter and leaner. It's clothing is gray and black with a hood that's pulled over it's head. I immediately notice the weapon strapped to his leg. A blade. Too short to be a sword but too long to be a dagger, which is a total Skorix thing.
It turns and scans the area. Its pale almost silvery face is visible under the hood. Silver wisps of hair stick out as well. He strides closer to us, examining the shelves and the boxes. He doesn't seem to take notice of our mess, although the whole room is a mess.
I can't help but intake a breath a little too sharp as he moves even closer to us. He stops. Listening. Way to go Sky. I grip Daniel's hand tighter. The thing scans around almost robotically. He then walks right past us, nearly swiping Daniel's knee. I feel Daniel tense. Only when we hear it exit and then wait at least two minutes does he finally relax. I let out a breath too.
"Can we flee now?" Daniel says.
"You read my mind." I answer. Maybe it's the adrenaline or the narrowly escaping danger that makes us laugh.
Justin
I guess you could say guns are my area of expertise. I am a cop after all. On the way over here I was afraid for a minute that Teague might abuse them. But I reminded myself that we aren't teenagers anymore. I should really give him more credit.
It pleases me when I notice that he's taking my lead. Teague knows how to handle a gun. Henri made sure of that for all of us at a young age. But he's acknowledging the fact that I do this every day.
Thankfully none of the hand guns are loaded, but we've checked to make sure. Each of the magazines are empty and there's no bullet in the chamber. As we check we count. There's more than enough for all of us. "Ok, where did Henri get all of these?" Teague asks.
"Yeah, and how did I not know about it?" We look to mom for an answer. She shrugs.
"Henri knows how to make friends with the right people." Alright then. "And do you really think he'd risk Gage knowing about these when he was a sixteen year old?" Good point. "Henri looked at them as an investment for the future." I guess we couldn't wait for danger to come to then try and be prepared. "That other box has all the boxes of ammunition." Good to know.
"Jay, let's carry these out to the car." Teague suggests. I nod.
"I'll be along in a minute." Mom says. She been packing up food and other necessities. I doubt we'll be taking any trips to Walmart any time soon.
I grab a box and Teague the other one. As soon as we enter the garage Teague spills what's on his mind. "Am I the only who's actually concerned about Kiezer just making a full attack in our front yard? I mean the whole thing with you and Kyle and Sky the other night. He's obviously been watching us."
"If he was ready to kill us he would have done it already." I say as I open the back of the car whilst balancing the box with one arm.
"Ok, so what is he waiting for?" Teague sets his box down.
"We don't know. Dad thinks he's planning something. That he wants a show. Maybe he's looking for the rings." Teague doesn't seem totally satisfied with that answer.
"How did he find us in the first place?" That I'm not sure of. Dad and Mom and Cora were the definition of careful and discrete.
"He's had fifteen years to look." Crappy answer, but it's all I got. My phone rigs. I pull it out and see that it's Sky. My heart rate spikes. Don't assume the worst Justin. "Hey, y'all alright?" I answer.
"Yeah, we're fine. Although we had a visitor at the store." She says.
"What?"
"Not a Marshall. Something...well, smaller. We managed. It didn't see us." Well that's a relief.
"Did you find whatever it was?"
"Ha. Get ready to start googling how to fight with a sword." I guess my dad had a whole arsenal he wasn't telling us about. My dad's freaking awesome.
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A/N: Almost three weeks without an update. My life has been really busy lately. I had a birthday. (Yay, I'm an adult now.😁) And last weekend I went to Dallas Comic Con. Y'all it was amazing and I met Stephen Amell.😝😝
Hope you guys liked this chapter! I know, I'm the queen of typos. #sorrynotsorry. 😂😂 Have an awesome day!
-Emerald_Parrish👽
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