The Birdcage

Intrigue

Nyx sat down to breakfast, bright and early the next morning, and plopped the diary on the table beside her before getting stuck into her eggs. "Mmm, this shit's good."

"Hungry?" Jayson asked, raising a brow. Like usual, he was the first at the table; the others expected to arrive sometime soon.

"Starving." Nyx said, quaffing food with gusto like she was about to fly off somewhere else any minute.

"Careful, Lil' Sis, you'll bite your tongue off." He teased. He gestured to the book on the table beside her, just as Ronnie and Katherine were making their way towards them. "What's that?"

She shrugged. "Just this diary I found." She lifted it up so he could see the name. "Why, do you recognise it? Or know the name?"

Ronnie and Katherine, absorbed in their own conversation, set their trays down on the table and began to settle in chairs the other end.

Jayson shrugged benignly, leaning slightly back in his chair. "Just interested, that's all. Can I have a look?"

Nyx laid her fingertips very gently on the top of the book. "Not yet, no. I think I'm going to keep this one to myself for a bit."

"Are you sure?" Jayson said, already reaching across the table for it with his hand already outstretched. "I might have some insight-"

Nyx snatched it quickly up off the table. "No." She stared at him with wide, challenging eyes. "Daddy's not here to make us share, so drop it." To anyone else, it just sounded like a sassy quip.

Ronnie, paying attention to them for the first time in the conversation, turned her head towards them with a confused expression on her face. "What's going on? Something up?"

"Nothing." Nyx said benignly, carefully picking the book up off the table and placing it in her lap.

Really not at all how I wanted it, but it got to the point it was either go with it or ditch the chapter. Hopefully it comes across okay!