A/N: Ooh, another bonus (deleted) scene? Ya I know I'm your fave!
NATE
Mom had just placed the eight candle on the coffee table when Isaac clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention his way.
Under the dim candlelight, his goofy grin looked eerie and sinister, although I knew he couldn't hurt a fly. "Gather round Hartleys."
Shaniah cocked a brow and tossed her hair behind her shoulders. As usual, her body was entangled with Isaac's. "Last time I checked, my last name is Evans."
Isaac's eyes flitted towards me briefly and his grin deepened subtly at her comment before he cleared his throat.
He had been contemplating popping the question for weeks, and Shaniah's comment had definitely hit home.
He shifted his gaze to Alexa-who had her hand raised- and shook his head. "Hands down Lexanator, you're one of us now. You're a Hartley."
Alexa lowered her hand and I wasn't sure if it was the candlelight, but I swore I saw a blush creep onto her cheeks.
"Oh my gosh it's so warm!" Arianna cried, banging her head against the chair handle with every word. "When is the power coming back?"
Isaac shrugged, his eyes trained on the flickering candlelight. "Not sure Anna, I'm not exactly a psychic."
This earned him a thump on his forehead by Shaniah, who sent Arianna an apologetic smile. It has been five years and she was still trying to earn her way into Arianna's good book.
Alexa sighed before wiping a trail of sweat from her forehead. Some of her curls were matted to her forehead, while the others were oddly stuck in the air due to the humidity.
"If it wasn't raining we could have been in the backyard," Mom muttered, while fanning herself with a magazine.
Isaac's eyes seemed to lighten at mom's comment and he jerked forward, causing more candlelight to cast upon his face. "It's raining you say?"
Shaniah nodded, gesturing to the window above them. Droplets thundered against the pane, obscuring the view of outside.
Isaac rubbed his hands together, and the eerie, villainous smile returned. "Perfect. No lights and a thunderstorm? Guess it's time for my spooky stories!"
"Yes!" Alexa and Arianna shouted in unison while mom,Shaniah and I screamed our protests.
"Ah man, guess we're tied." Isaac grumbled, rolling his eyes in my direction. I simply shrugged in an attempt of an apology. I wasn't afraid of the stories, but after a few times of hearing them, they seemed pretty cheesy.
"Chase hasn't voted," Alexa pointed out. All gazes shifted to the silent brooding boy seated in the single chair beside Isaac. He had been so quiet throughout the entire night-even when the lights had gone- that it was no wonder that everyone forgot about his presence.
He lifted a shoulder, as he smiled sheepishly at Alexa. "I guess I don't mind the stories."
Isaac hooted in approval and slapped Chase on his back with a grin so blinding, he could have illuminated the whole house. "That's why you're my bro."
I bit my tongue to avoid a bitter response from escaping and instead cleared my throat. I momentarily forgot about my anger towards the friends when I felt a warm small hand slip into my own.
"I'd hold your hand so you don't get scared," Alexa teased,with a sly smirk. I wasn't in the least bit afraid, but I wasn't about to complain when she was willingly holding my hand.
"My hero," I drawled, with a playful roll of my eyes. She grinned cheekily at me before shifting her gaze to Isaac. I noticed her cheeks redden for the second time that night, and I followed her gaze to spot Isaac teasingly wriggling his brows.
I shot him a warning look, and he held his hands up in surrender and subtly mouthed an apology.
"How about you tell that story yeah?" I suggested. I glanced around at the group to find that they were watching our interaction very intently.
Isaac clapped his hands, gaining everyone's attention once again and a devious smile stretched across his face.
"Listen up, because I'm about to tell you about the legend of the Baba Yaga."
"Baba Yaga?" Alexa and Arianna repeated. They seemed to be doing everything in sync recently, I could tell that I wasn't the only one that had grown fond of Alexa.
"Yeah, haven't you ever heard of the Baba Yaga?" Isaac drawled, his gaze flitting to each person.
"Can you just hurry up and tell the story?" Shaniah snapped, waving her fists at Isaac. "Obviously they haven't heard of it, they didn't repeat the name just to be an echo!"
"Fine, jeez babe. Relax." Isaac muttered with a scratch of his beard.
"So the Baba Yaga is-"
"Wait is that the story about the hooked nose, bony old lady that flies through the forest in a mortar bowl?" Chase asked, shooting forward, with wide eyes.
Alexa face-palmed herself and Shaniah muttered something under her breath.
"Yes," Isaac grumbled through gritted teeth. He rolled his eyes but quickly calmed down, the same creepy smile creeping unto his face as he continued the story. " She kidnaps wandering children, takes them to her house made of human bones and chicken legs, and throws the children in the stove and eats them!"
Arianna leant forward with a roll of her eyes. "So basically she's our own native version of the witch from Hansel and Gretel."
"Well-"
"Yawn!" She snickered, leaning back into the couch with a shake of her head.
Isaac slumped his shoulders dramatically and sniffled. "You guys are no fun."
Alexa outstretched her hand to give Isaac an encouraging fist bump. "I'm still listening."
He smiled appreciatively at her before returning the fist bump. "See that's why she's my favourite sister."
Mom chuckled and patted Alexa's head. "I can't exactly remember pushing you out my dear." She shifted her gaze to Isaac and grimaced. "That grinning mischievous boy over there I can't forget. A whopping nine pounds, eleven ounces, and most of that weight was just his head!"
"Maaaa!"
Everyone erupted into boisterous laughter, and the room no longer felt eerie and chilling. It felt as warm and comforting, as if the lights had never went.
"Moving on," Isaac drawled, waving a hand to dismiss the laughter. He clapped his hands and knitted them together. "On to the second scary legend of tonight.... the Boginka."
Surprisingly no one had any comments or quirky responses, which fortunately for Isaac, meant that he had total control of everyone's attention.
"Legend has it that a Boginka is the torture soul of a young dead woman. She appears in the woods as a naked, ugly, hobbling hag. It's considered bad luck for young children to stumble upon the Boginka. She often scares and then or even makes them ill."
"So what I'm basically hearing from these stories are..." I started, meeting everyone's expectant gazes. "That we should stay the heck out of the woods... which we're living in right now."
Alexa nudged my side, causing me to drop my gaze onto her smirking face. She wiped a few droplets I'd swear away from her face once again, her teasing smirk not wavering. "Scared Nate?"
"Of course not."
"Scaredy cat," someone snickered. I peered into the dim light to spot the culprit, but the lack of light made it difficult to see everyone's faces entirely.
"I'm not a scaredy cat! To prove it! Isaac bring on the next legend!"
As the last word, many things happened at once. The reflection of the flashing of the lightning in the window, made everyone flinch. Crashing of thunder quickly followed, and then although there was no presence of breeze, all the flames of the eight candles immediately extinguished.
All the girls screamed as the room plunged into complete darkness, and although I was concerned about Alexa's fear, I couldn't help feeling a bit satisfied that she had all but jumped into my lap when it all happened.
She was mostly leaning against me, clutching onto my hand, releasing little pants every other second.
"Now who's the scaredy cat?" I whispered in her ear, which resulted in a well-deserved pinch on my arm.
"Maybe it's the Boginka coming to get Arianna," Isaac said. Although the complete darkness prevented me from seeing his face, I knew that he was undoubtedly smirking in our sister's direction. "She has been pretty rude to us this week. Boginka doesn't like rude children."
"Isaac knock it off," I snapped, kicking out my foot. It successfully made contact with his leg as I heard a grunt in response.
"Just having some fun. What else are we supposed to do?"
When no one replied, he spoke up again. "Exactly. Jack shit. Oh I have an idea! Let's play I-spy! I spy.. something black!"
Again no-one paid Isaac's ramblings any mind, although due to her close proximity I heard Alexa snicker at Isaac's ridiculous suggestion.
"Oh that's right! The answer is everything! I can't even see the outline of my own hand!" He continued to whine.
"Is there a legend about a evil spirit that comes to take annoying whiny brothers?" Arianna asked suddenly.
Everyone snickered at this, even Isaac with his infamous snicker that resembled a garden sprinkler.
"Ah, I wish the lights can return now. I'm all hot and sweaty." Mom said with a little sigh.
Miraculously and a little creepy I'd say, the lights decided to return at that moment. The fan hummed to life and Alexa and mom rushed to plant themselves before it, sticking their faces directly before the cool air.
"Jesus ma, you're magic!" Isaac exclaimed. He pushed himself to stand, and wiped a trail of sweat away from his forehead.
"I think I'm going to shower," Shaniah announced. She stood up as well and started heading to the hallway. Arianna sprung from her seat and ran towards there as well.
"Not if I get there first!"
The two sprinted down the hallway, and Isaac shook his head at them.
"That's my girl!" Mom laughed to herself. She stepped aside to let Alexa get a turn of the fan.
"I don't think I'd get over how amazingly fun you guys are," Alexa admitted, throwing an arm around mom.
It was a little after two in the morning according to my clock, when I felt a dip in the bed. I reluctantly opened my eyes to search for the culprit who had awoken me.
After everyone had taken a shower, we all had retreated to our bedrooms for well-deserved rest. I had no trouble falling asleep, having had a cold shower and experienced a long night.
My eyelids flickered open to spot that it wasn't one of Isaac's creepy legendary spirits waiting to devour me, but it was instead Alexa.
She was sleepily rubbing her eye, her curls messily plastered across her cheek, while others stuck up awkwardly on her head. "Can I sleep here?"
Without thinking twice, I scooted over and patted the space for her to lie beside me. She obliged and climbed into bed, covering both of us with the comforter.
"Too scared to sleep? And I thought I was the scaredy cat," I murmured, wriggling my brows.
She scoffed although there was a small smile tugging at her lips. " I just had a nightmare. That's all."
I simply nodded before outstretching an arm, she took the opportunity to cuddle into my bare chest and I wrapped the arm around her. This was the second time we had slept beside one another, and it felt as perfect and comforting as the first time.
"Thanks Nate."
"Anytime Princess."
A/N: I'm actually quite mad that I deleted this scene Bc it was cute and funny asf. But oh well!
Hope you enjoyed these deleted scenes! Unfortunately these are the only bonus chapters you'd get because these are the only extra content I wrote that I didn't publish.
But never fear! The prequel will be here very soon! And I have the upmost faith that you'd love it!❤️
Love you guys! Mwah!
~Sierra 💋