chapter nine

oven mitts, shin pads and a psychotic henderson

☆

ALEXANDRA RUBBED HER eyes as she sauntered out of her bedroom. Not even a second later her mother threw her arms around her and, what Alexandra deemed dramatic, cried into her shoulder.

Alexandra pulled a face in confusion and awkwardly patted her mom's back. "We'll find her." Claudia voiced in distress.

It only took Alexandra a few seconds to fully wake up and remember that Mews was dead, but her mother assumed her missing. Alexandra met Dustin's eye and pulled a face, Dustin reciprocating that action.

Claudia pulled away and turned to her son, who stood across the room, seemingly on the phone. "Dusty, baby, you're sure she's not in your room?" Claudia asked the boy who merely held a finger up in her direction, silencing her.

"Uh-huh." Dustin nodded down at the phone and Alexandra rolled her eyes; lying cunt. "Uh-huh. Thank you so much, Mr. McCorkle. Thank you so much. You are a true lifesaver. Alright, this was great. Thank you. Alright. Have a good one. Bye-bye, now. Alright. You, too."

Alex gave her brother a deadpanned stare as he turned and faced both she and their mother. "Good news, I'm guessing?" Alexandra asked boredly, raising her eyebrows at her brother.

Dustin pointed a finger at his sister and grinned widely. "Great news, Alex," he dramatized. "Great news."

Claudia's face brightened at his words. "They found her?" She asked, tearfully.

"No. But they saw her wandering around Loch Nora." Dustin smiled softly as he approached his mother.

"How did the poor baby get all the way out there?" Claudia cried. Alexandra's eyes bounced from her mother to her brother and she sighed deeply, rubbing a hand across her face.

"She probably got lost, mom," Alexandra told her, shooting her brother a quick look.

"They're gonna look for her," Dustin pitched in. "A-And we'll stay here," he gestured to Alex. "Just in case they call again and you're gonna go help look. Yeah? Yeah." Claudia made a noise of relief and threw her body into Dustin's, hugging him tightly. "Give me a hug. Give me a hug. Get in here, Alex," Dustin shot Alexandra a stern look over his mom's shoulder. Begrudgingly, the Henderson made her way over and awkwardly wrapped her arms around the pairs frame, not without shooting Dustin an annoyed look, before they pulled away.

"Go get her," Alexandra told her mom, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're gonna find her, alright?"

"We can find her," Claudia tearfully nodded.

"I love you." Dustin blew his mom a kiss as she reached the door.

"I love you," Claudia said as she pulled the front door open.

"I love you," Dustin repeated, earning an eyeroll from his sister.

"I love you," Claudia said again, turning her head to her daughter. "I love you."

For Christ's Sake.

"Love you, mom," Alexandra drawled with a tight smile on her lips.

"Alright, go," Dustin told Claudia before more could be said, or repeated, and as the front door slammed shut, signalling their mother's exit, Dustin and Alexandra shared a look before they ran out to the garden.

With Alexandra's help he pulled open the storm cellar — they then made their way back into the house, Dustin ran off to do something else, while Alexandra occupied herself with making a sandwich.

Just as she sat down on the couch, about to take a bite, Dustin snatched it out of her grip. "Dude, I was gonna eat that," she called out to him before an irritated look painted across her features as she watched him drop it to the floor.

Dustin looked up at her blankly, a mocking tone to his voice, "Dude, let Dart eat it before he eats us."

She scoffed as she watched him drop a trail of salami on the floor until he disappeared out of the room. The teenage girl huffed, falling back into the couch, pulling a pillow over her face.

It was only when she heard a thump echo through her ears she threw the cushion away from her face and looked up at Dustin stood in the hallway; head gear sat comfortably on his head, a hockey stick held in his oven mitt covered hands and shin pads concealed his figure.

Alexandra rolled her lips into her mouth and silently got up from her place on the couch and strode over to the doorway, leaning against the doorframe she looked him up and down with raised eyebrows.

"Well you look like a dick."

Dustin rolled his eyes, "I'm prepared, unlike you."

Alexandra frowned mockingly, tilting her head as she did so. "Who's to say I'm not prepared?" Reaching over to the cabinet besides her she wrapped her hands around the handle of the meat cleaver and held it up for Dustin to see.

The boy gave her an unimpressed look. "Can you not wave that thing around the house?"

"What? Like this?" She mocked. As she tauntingly waved the meat cleaver, it was as though the universe was out to get her, her grip slipped just the tiniest bit, sending the blade right into the lamp that rested on the cabinet.

Dustin looked down at the broken lamp and back up to his sister, giving her a blank stare that screamed I told you so.

"Oops?"

The boy merely rolled his eyes and gestured for her to follow him. "C'mon." He paused. "Don't accidentally stab me or something, be careful with that thing, dipshit."

Alexandra smacked him upside the head. "Language."

As they stood outside of Dustin's bedroom door they inhaled deeply and looked at one another briefly. They locked Dart in there all night and Dustin stayed in Alex's room — she was even kind enough to give him a pillow when he stopped complaining about her smoking out of the window.

Though, oddly enough, it was quite nice, refreshing, to have someone to talk to while she smoked, it was relaxing in a sense. They bonded, and, with reluctance from both parties, confided in one another about Alexandra's sudden change of ... personality. Dustin knew she didn't want to talk to him about her situation — he just thought it was because she was running away from her Demons, but truthfully, it was because she didn't want to scare him.

Dustin was the most consistent, stable relationship in her life and she didn't want to ruin it with the horrors of her extra curricular activities.

"Alright, Dart ... It's breakfast time!" Dustin said, with a raised voice, slowly turning the knob of the door until he heard a click.

"Come on you ugly son of a bitch! It's chow time!" Alexandra banged on the door.

"Really? Do you have to?" Dustin rolled his eyes before he slowly reached his hand out and pulled the door open.

Once the door was open, the two ran over the slices of salami ( and Alexandra's poor sandwich ) and made their way outside, floods of curse words were coming from both Henderson's and Alexandra didn't have it in her to berate Dustin on his excessive use of language.

Once they made it to the shed, Alexandra shoved Dustin inside before slamming the door shut behind them.

Dustin leaned forward, peeking through the small holes in the run down shed, he muttered to himself whilst Alexandra leant against the wall, attempting to catch her breath.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," Dustin mumbled ferociously once he spotted Dart making his way into the garden, picking up the slices of meat as he did so.

Alexandra smacked her brother on the shoulder and shot him a glare. "Can you shut the fuck up? It'll hear you then eat us, asshole."

While Alexandra's situation made her stronger, it wasn't like she could go rouge or gain the sudden ability to fight everything and everyone. All she had was heightened hearing, heightened smell and the capability to grow sharp teeth so that she could devour people merely to stay alive, it wasn't a gift. It wouldn't help her in any way, it was a curse.

"What's it doing?" Alexandra asked, still leaning against the wall.

"He," Dustin insisted, not taking his eyes off of Dart. But she never got an answer when suddenly, Dustin's eyes widened. "Shit!" He cursed, throwing himself against the wall, besides his sister.

"This is why I told you to shut the fuck up!" Alexandra whispered at a hiss over to her brother. "We're so gonna die." Alexandra said to herself under her breath as she pressed her pointer finger and middle finger against her forehead, moving it to her chest before she touched both her shoulders.

Though before she had time to question what they were going to do, Dustin took a deep breath and a yell reverberated through his throat. As he burst out of the door Alexandra's eyes widened and a screech left her mouth.

"What the fuck?!"

Dustin pulled his arm back and sent the end of the hockey stick flying in Dart's direction, the creature screeched out as the stick collided with it's body — causing him to go flying into the storm cellar, his body tumbled down the stairs before Dustin rushed at the cellar and slammed the doors shut, using his body as a weight against the doors.

"I'm sorry." Dustin huffed, out of breath. "You ate my cat."

All of a sudden Alexandra doubled over, laughter spilling from her mouth as she stumbled out of the shed.

"I'm sorry ... What the actual fuck did I just witness?"

☆

Alexandra glanced out the window as she watched Dustin fill up the grave he had dug for Mews. The Henderson girl continued to roll the joint held between her fingers as she watched him speak into his headset.

The faint sound of him screaming Code Red was heard from inside before Dustin finally finished digging the grave. The boy dropped the shovel to the ground and stomped inside, continuing to mutter incoherent words into his mic.

"Can you do something more productive? Jesus Christ." Dustin muttered as he walked through the living room, headed towards the kitchen.

"This is productive. If I don't get this in me then I'll go insane with the situation," she scoffed, speaking to his retreating figure. "I mean, there's a fucking alien-monster-creature thing in our cellar, like, what the fuck? And me? I'm a boy eating freak with a very bad diet!"

Pushing herself up from the couch she followed him from the kitchen and into his bedroom.

"If you're gonna just stand there do something useful, help me," Dustin spoke, glancing up at her from his place knelt down on the floor as he ferociously scrubbed the blood stains from his carpet.

Alexandra's fingers paused their movement. "No."

"Asshole," Dustin cursed up at her before he began speaking into his mic. "Alright, it's Dustin, again. Seriously, I have a code red."

After a moment a voice came through.

"Could you please shut up?"

Dustin's eyes brightened. "Erica? Erica, is Lucas there? Where is he?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

Alexandra huffed out a laugh, "I love this kid."

Dustin shot his sister a look. "Is ... Is he with Mike?"

"Like I said, I don't know and I don't care."

"Please tell him it's super important," Dustin sighed. "Please tell him that I have a code-"

"Code red?"

Dustin smiled in relief. "Yep, code red. Exactly."

"Mhm. I got a code for you instead. It's called code shut-your-mouth."

"E-Erica?"

"She is literally my dream child. So, what do we do now?"

Dustin stared down at the floor for a moment in thought before he glanced up at his sister.

"I need a ride."

AUTHOR'S NOTE !
dustin and alex just casually slaying (well, dustin slayed ... alex sat on her arse for 50% of the chapter and offered us nothing but her good looks)

*UNEDITED*