Otherworldly

"Everything Isn't What It Seems"

(Tw: Dead animals mentioned, Homicide mentioned. Kidnapping. Needles)

"Goddammit, where did she go now?" Idris said angrily in their mind. They were looking for their nine year old daughter, Lu. She was always getting into mischief. Normally doing things like putting glue into her ten year old sibling, Louisa's, hair, or putting firecrackers in the toilet when her eleven year old sibling, Niko, had to go to the bathroom. Or throwing mud at her twelve year old sister, Gabbi.....Oh and not to mention her pushing her thirteen year old sibling, Val, out the window. Ever since Idris adopted these five children, they could have sworn that there hadn't been a quiet day in that house since. They couldn't exactly place the exact date when they adopted these kids but... it definitely had been a long, long time.

*2 hours later*

Idris still hadn't found Lu and gave up, assuming she must be in that creaking old tree house of hers and no way was Idris climbing that.

"IDRIS!" suddenly Idris felt two arms hug around their body. They elbowed whoever it was in the stomach and turned around to see who it was. Their friend, Milo, was holding their stomach, leaning against the counter that was in the kitchen they were in. "Oh- sorry Milo" Idris quickly apologized. It's not like they meant it. Yeah, they kicked their other friend they used to know "accidentally" out a window, but they wouldn't do that to anyone else they actually cared for. Milo was unresponsive for a minute before regaining his composure. "It's fine- Anywayyy-" Milo continued, pulling his words out at the end. A habit he had since Idris met them. "Star sent me to come ask you a question. She told me that she found a dead frog in her room so she immediately blamed you" Milo said, now twiddling with a piece of fabric from his yellow sweater they were wearing. "Why did she immediately blame me-?" Idris asked, mocking confusion. It wasn't that big of a shock after Idris threw a dead bird at her window as a prank and then almost passed out from laughing so hard. "You know why, don't play coy" Milo said. Damn. Only ones who normally knew when Idris was straight up lying to their face was Milo and Lu. Of course, that's normally when they didn't care if they knew or not. "Fine. Just tell Star I'm sorry about that or whatever, I still need to find Lu." Idris hears Milo sigh out of exhaustion. Idris silently snickered to themselves and continued trying to find that mischievous daughter of theirs.

"Hey have you seen Dad-? I haven't seen them in like 3 hours. Something isn't right" Louisa asked Niko, whilst Niko still played with their bouncy ball. "I don't know. I'm sure they'll be back soon, they normally are. Eventually, anyway" Niko said, still playing. Louisa huffed in frustration and got up from the floor of the play room that they were both in, and went for the door to leave.

"NOVA" Nova heard Milo yell and run over to her. "What is it?" Nova asked, wondering what all the racket was about. "I can't find Gabbi and I swear, Idris will choose me to dissect next if I lost their kid again" Milo said, freaking out. "I'm sure they aren't gonna kill ya, they normally only do that to their exes, and that one guy who stared at him for two seconds longer than what Idris wanted him to-" Nova got cut off, "Nova damnit, this isn't the time! Idris is going to be back soon and if I lost their kid I swear-" Milo was practically flailing their arms at this point. "Dude calm down" Nova said, putting down her cup of.... Gods knows what was in it actually. It looked sticky and purple, Milo observed. "Why are you both yelling and why did I hear my name?" Gabbi asked from behind Milo. "Ah!" Milo made a sound and jumped from the sudden sound. He turned around and saw Gabbi standing there, sucking on a popsicle. "See? Told you she'd show up" Nova said, picking back up her drink and continuing her sips on it. Milo wondered how she could be so calm.

Lu hummed to herself while putting all of her dolls in a jar full of bleach. "There we go. All done" Lu smiled proudly at herself. In front of her, she had a pair of, previously clean, scissors that she had splattered ketchup on, a jar of bleach with three of her dolls stuffed inside, and a big board with poorly drawn pictures of stick people who were "dead" and ripped up red Christmas ribbon attached to each picture like a detective case. "Now I'm just like father" Lu said, smiling proudly of what she had created. Lu didn't fully understand that her father was a homicide detective- oh well, at least she didn't see what Idris' photography was of, that would have been worse.

Eventually Idris found Lu after she already got out of the tree house, so Idris didn't see what Lu did in her tree house. Eventually, Idris and the rest of the cult were sitting down for dinner. Star had cooked some kind of Mexican rice recipe she had found on YouTube and she had made some random sushi with it. Weird combination but Star loved making weird combinations so that was to be expected. Idris did what they normally did. A "head count" to see if everyone was there. They don't know why they do it, but they do. All of them were sitting at a long dining table. They started by looking to their right. They counted everyone there. Everything seemed to be fine... At least that's what all of them thought. They all thought they would have a nice dinner, but then something happened. Something that could not be explained. A crash. A sharp snapping of glass shattered against the ground. Another body hitting the floor. Although, they weren't that lucky for it to just be done.

People in CDC suits. People in black suits behind a bullet proof glass. Another needle piercing the skin with oozing liquid inside the clear vial, light reflecting the surface as if it was a prism for reflections. Things going from normal every day life to something the cult didn't even know they got swept up in.

What was exactly happening.....?