After Midnight

7

A loud crash from downstairs jolted me awake. Startled, I untangled myself from my sheets and ran down the stairs to see what was going on. In the kitchen stood Brent and Darren looking wide eyed at the stove that was covered in green goo.

"What are you two doing?" I hissed. "It's six in the morning on a Saturday, shouldn't you two still be in bed sleeping in or something?"

"We were bored." Darren said shrugging.

"Bored? Why are you guys even up?"

"WE PULLED AN ALL NIGHTER AND I TRIED COFFEE FOR THE FIRST TIME." Brent yelled excitedly while spinning around. I rolled my eyes at Brent's antics and scrunched my nose as I inspected the goo on the stove.

"What even is that?"

"Beats me." Darren shrugged. "We just put a whole bunch of stuff in a pot and tried cooking it. I told Brent I'd give him ten bucks if he ate it, but it kinda blew up."

"I'LL STILL EAT IT." Brent said making his way to the pot to see what was left in it.

"Dude we put expired milk in there."

"Brent don't you dare try-" I warned, but it was too late, he had already shoved a spoonful of the slop in his mouth. Darren and I stood still and watched as Brent's face morphed from delight to disgust and back  to delight again. "It's not that bad."

Brent went for another spoonful and I almost gagged.

"Well I'm going to go back to my room now." I said

"Wait!" Darren called out. "There was a package left for you on the front step with a card. I put it on the dining table for you."

"Do you know who it's from?"

"I have no idea. It's just a plain box with your name on it. Kinda creepy if you ask me."

"Thanks." I said walking to the dining room table to where the box was at. Sure enough a large plain brown box with my name written in perfect cursive sat there. Slowly I tore open the side, various items spilling out in the process. I picked up a small white card that had fallen on the floor, reading the matching cursive writing that was on top of the box.

Love,

I'm quite appalled by the lack of protection you're carrying around with you. For your own damn safety, and for my peace of mind, please take everything i'm giving you. You out of all people should know that there are even worse creatures than me lurking in the shadows.

-Aiden

I looked in the box to see it full of weapons. Arrows, wooden steaks, burner phones, and bullets were all neatly organized in rows. On the floor by my feet, a gun had fallen out.

"So what did you get?" Darren called out, making his way to where I was. With my heart pounding in my chest I shut the box and picked up the gun, hiding it behind my back.

"Oh, it was nothing, just girl stuff." I rambled causing Darren to scrunch up his face.

"Ew. Gross." He said and walked away. I let out a sigh of relief and quickly opened up the box to place the gun inside when one of the burner phones started to ring.

"Hello?" I answered while rushing upstairs back to my room.

"Holy shit." The gruff voice on the other end said. "Aiden wasn't lying, you're back after all."

"Peter? Is that you?"

"Yeah! Oh man Lily, it's been so long! How are you? When Aiden said he was going to talk to you none of us expected that you would come back. I can't believe that bastard's charms actually worked!"

"I'm only doing this for his brother. After this I'm gone again for good." I stated. Peter ignored my comment, getting straight to business.

"So I'm assuming you've gotten the package that Aiden and I put together."

"You would be right. But next time someone plans on sending a box full of weapons to my house could you give me a little heads up? My brother almost caught me with an gun and that would have created a huge mess."

"Oh shit, sorry Lily. It was kinda Aiden's idea. You know how he loves the element of surprise." I rolled my eyes.

"Trust me, I know."

"Well we were thinking of having our first official meeting sometime this week. Possibly Monday? There's still so much you don't know, and I just want to make sure we're all on the same page going into this."

"Yeah, Monday could work. How about-" A knock on my bedroom door interrupted my sentence. "How about I call you later to figure everything out." And with that I ended the call and hid the package and burner phone. Outside of my door stood my dad wearing his favourite fuzzy slippers and holding a cup of coffee.

"Morning kiddo." He beamed. "I was wondering if you would be able to help clean the basement with your brothers today. I'll be able to help you guys later when I get back from my physical therapy appointment."

"No, don't worry about it dad, the three of us can handle it by ourselves, just focus on your therapy today."

"Lily, I'll be fine. I want to help, I want to try to get things back to normal."

"Alright, but if your leg starts bothering you at all, I banning you from the basement."

"Deal." He said and left my room.

Well, so much for sleeping in.

It was time to start cleaning.