𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈 𝐃𝐎 ─── 𝘩. 𝘥. 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴

20. siblings

act one chapter ten
﹝SIBLINGS﹞
season one episode five
❝ blood pact, remember? ❞

────── · ✦ · ──────

marie awakens that tuesday morning to her brother smacking her in the face with a throw pillow. "ow, hey!" she yells, sitting up and shooting william a glare as she grabs the pillow and whacks him back with it. the boy is unfazed by her payback. "what the hell was that for?" she demands, tossing her pillow to one side of the bed.

"no school!" will exclaims, practically jumping off of her bed. normally, both walters would be devastated by the cancellation of classes, but when the town's mines mysteriously collapsed the night before, that meant they had some exploring to do. "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon! i wanna check out the mines!"

marie groans and flops back down on her mattress before covering her head with her duvet. "where's dad?" she asks, her voice muffled by the thick sheet. between school and ballet, she deserved to sleep in for a few more minutes, didn't she? "get him to take you."

"he's at work!" william pulls the duvet off of his sister with a loud 'swoosh'. "get up! i'll make some toast!" he hurries out of marie's room to bribe her some more with some breakfast.
marie covers her face with a pillow and screams into it.

━━━

marie stands near her and william's bikes as she watches her brother carefully balance along the edge of the mines' small crater. she takes a bite of her toast. "hey, come a little further away from the edge, will you?" she calls out loud, earning a thumbs up from the younger walter. "father would kill me if you got hurt," she mutters before finishing the piece of toast in her hand. she brushes her palms together before reaching into the basket of her bike and pulling out a bottle of hand sanitiser. she spritzes some on her hand before rubbing her palms together again.

her eyes drift towards the mines. as she looks over the fallen rocks and police tape, the scientist side of her brain takes control. how could the mines just collapse like that with no prevalent conditions to weaken them? it was strange. strange, yes, but not magic. no way. there was no way henry's little fairytale theory could be tied to this. not in a million years.
she was sure the police and whatever team they brought in to examine the site would find a plausible explanation as to why this suddenly happened.

"ow!"

the sound of william's voice snaps marie out of her thoughts.
"i'm okay!" the boy stands up from the spot he had fallen on after tripping over a rock of some sort and brushes off the knee areas of his jeans. "oops." he notices a small rip on the left pant leg and sees a small graze on his kneecap. "m!"

"great." william's sister jogs over to william and crouches down in front of him, examining the cut. "it's just a graze. nothing to worry about. happens all the time in ballet, yeah?" she glances up and gives him a small smile. "we'll go to granny's. she'll fix you right up with a bandaid and some cocoa."

"cocoa!" will giddily exclaims before running over to their bikes. marie begins to stand up as well but stops herself when she notices something shiny on the ground. will probably tripped over this. she reaches down and grabs whatever's poking out from the dirt before tugging a few times. when the object is finally pulled from the dirt, marie brushes off the remaining debris from the orb and raises an eyebrow as she holds it up to the sunlight to examine it.

"what's a christmas tree ornament doing all the way out here?" she whispers to herself, rotating the bejeweled orb around to examine all sides of it. her intense gaze on the ornament breaks when william rings the bell of his bike to get her attention.

"oh, yeah, sorry," she mutters, standing up and hiding the ornament behind her back as she walks over to the bikes. she quickly tosses the orb into the basket before pulling out her hand sanitiser. she applies it once again and mounts her bike before kicking off and starting to ride alongside her brother in the direction of granny's diner.

━━━

now settled in one of the barstools in granny's diner, marie uses one of ruby's pens and a piece of paper from her notepad to scribble down a few thoughts that had been brewing in her mind during the ride over. she can see granny hurrying william into one of the back rooms to tend to his cut in the corner of her eye.

1. restock home first aid kit
2. make a travel first aid kit because will's a klutz
3. christmas ornament found near mines?? why and how?
4. research on mines suddenly collapsing
5. head to the studio later, 4-6 p.m. bring pai

her writing is interrupted when ruby leans over the counter with a warm smile and taps the paper with the eraser part of a pencil, causing marie to look up. "oh, hello, ruby," she greets, clicking the pen.

"hey, m. i just got off the phone with your dad, and he said he'll put whatever you order on his tab. he'll pick up some stuff for will, too, so," she pointedly looks down at marie's notes, "you can cross the first two things off of your list."

marie glances down at the paper and sighs in relief. "thanks, ruby. uh, will's getting hot peppermint cocoa and spaghetti with meatballs. i'll have a pot of tea with milk and a grilled cheese with fries, thanks."

"got it. be right back." ruby winks and leaves the bar to hang the order on the kitchen window. marie folds up her paper and slips it into the pocket of her lilac cardigan before messing around with the pen. she looks up when she hears the front door open and grins when she sees a familiar face walk through the door.

"hey, pretty lady," she greets as the grace family nears her. "and paige." paige's mother chuckles while marie's friend pouts.

"okay, rude."

after exchanging pleasantries with marie, mr. and mrs. grace head over to a booth while paige slides up on a barstool next to marie to have some good old-fashioned gossip time with her before she had to join her family for lunch.

"hey, you hear about the mines? i'm glad school's cancelled; i mean, i was so not prepared for that english presentation. kind of creepy. the mines, not the presentation."

marie watches her friend continue to blabber about the mines with a small smile on her face. when paige finally pauses to take a breath, she parts her lips to speak.

"yeah, it's certainly weird how it collapsed out of nowhere without anything provoking it. will and i went there this morning to dig around." she's unsure of whether or not she should mention the christmas ornament, but she ultimately decides not to, dismissing it as irrelevant to the conversation. it's not as if it meant anything. the holidays were right around the corner, after all.

"and, of course, he tripped," marie continues, shaking her head slightly. "granny's fussing over him right now. i bet if i go over and make your presence known, he'll immediately run out."

paige giggles. "he's cute. i wish i had a brother like him. i wish i had siblings, period."

"you have me!" marie exclaims. "we're sisters. blood pact, remember?" she holds out her right index finger towards her friend.

paige grins at her and mirrors her actions, pressing her index finger against the pad of marie's. "blood pact remembered."