(Edit- OH MY GOD I can't believe I posted this without editing.. It was horrible! I'm sorry...)

"Please Dad! I have orchestra pracitice" Mark hoped that that word "practice" might get him somewhere but he could tell that his father was set.

"You can practice later, this dinner has been planned for more than a year now. It's not often that the family can get together like this."

"...", Mark stared fixedly at his feet, he knew this thing really shouldn't be a big deal, but as usual, he had that terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Mark." Dad's voice took on that, disapointed, slightly hurt tone, "Everyone is really exited to see you." At that last part, Mark shivered.

"Are they going to be there?"

"Who?"

"...You know.. The twins."

"Of course," Dad gave him a confused look, like everyone else, he seemed to be unaware of terrifying nature of those two girls, "your cousins were especially exited to see you. What the problem?"

"The problem is I really can't go." Mark turned quickly and tried to retreat to his room. A strong hand gripped his shoulder.

"You're going. Its non-negotiable." and from there on out, it wasn't.

And that was why Mark was now sitting with his parents, in his second-best tux in the best restaurant in town waiting for the other contingent to arrive. He sighed out loud, earning a raised eyebrow and tried to make the best of it. "Is Uncle Soul coming?"

"Of course he is!" Mom piped up with her own "make the best of it" voice, her's was a lot more sugary, though he knew she had the same issues he did with dad's siblings, "He's bringing that girl along too right?" She touched dad's shoulder, "What was her name? Mariah?"

"Maka." Dad replied, knowing what was probably coming next.

"Oh, right, are they married yet?"

"Um, no." Mom asked the same question every time the topic of Uncle Soul and his roommate popped up. The two always seemed really close, but it wasn't even confirmed that they were dating.

"Oh, I see. It's really a shame..."

Dad replied with agreement like noises and Mark took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Uncle soul wasn't too terrifying... at least, he never acted scary... Though, he was just so cool that it was impossible not to be intimidated. But Mark could handle that, a lot of things intimidated him, and none of them were quite as interesting or inspiring as Uncle Soul. That was at least something to look forward to...

"WES!" Someone called excitedly from the front the front of the restaurant. The very nature of that voice jarred Mark right out of his momentary optimism

Standing right in front of the Maitredee, waving like an over-enthused grade-schooler was a woman of considerable beauty and style. She was wearing a long black cocktail dress and was adorned with what had to be thousands of dollars worth of jet black jewelry. On some it would have looked gawdy, but as anyone would have agreed, Aunt Heart looked like had had been born to wear it, just as she looked like she had been born to wear just about anything else. She looked so young and charismatic that Mark marveled at the fact that this woman had two daughters his own age. Though, beyond that gorgeous image, irrational fear started to gather in the pit of his stomach. Something intangible rushed into the room along with that elegantly clad figure and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He had to gulp down the urge to run away.

Dad stood and greeted his younger sister as she hurriedly made her way over. Mark noticed that she was alone. Which was strange since everyone usually showed up to these things in a group, Dad said it was because they all worked for the same company.

"It's lovely to see you all!" Everyone was exchanging hugs and greetings. Mark slowly got to his feet knowing that there would be trouble if he didn't act at least a little sociable. "Mark! You look more like your father every time I see you. Still playing the Cello?" Auntie Heart smelled like cinnamon and for some reason... gunpowder? He didn't want to know so he just gave her a hug and sat back down.

His Aunt's smile looked a bit more forced than usual but he paid it no mind as the four of them sat down again. "Sorry I'm the only one here. Everyone was waylaid; they should be here in a few minutes..."

"What happened?" Mom sounded both affronted and morbidly interested as she asked the question. This was an unusual development when it came to Dad's family, it was a rare crack in their usual facade...

"Um, The car broke down." Aunt heart replied a bit too quickly and looked shiftily behind her. There was a shift in that intangible force and Mark knew she was lying, and that she was afraid, but why?

"Oh dear, how terrible..." Mom had just started when a large group came running in.

"Oh! There they are now!" Auntie Heart was up again in an instant and Mark's inexplicable insight was gone. She made a beeline for two slight, dark-haired forms. So the twins HAD come... Oh joy. Mark's heart was beating a mile a minute as the group approached. He kept his eyes on the two girls as the clamor of everyone else arriving surrounded him. He watched his Aunt, strangely emotional, as she bent down to the level of her daughters, touching their faces, turning them from side to side and finally pulling them into an embrace. Was that a tear she was wiping? Her eye was probably just itchy from all that mascara right? Right?

"Terribly sorry we're late..." The tall, thin man that was the twin's father started. Mark didn't like to think about his name because it just suited him too well.

"The bridge was closed-" Uncle Soul finished.

"There was work to do-" Maka also finished.

"I was folding laundry-" Uncle Death finished his own sentence and everyone looked at one another sheepishly. Mark looked away before he was noticed, that feeling was so strong now that he felt nauseous.

"COUSIN MARK COUSIN MARK! GUESS WHAT!" Mark's own anonymity was strangled when his neck faced a similar experience. He closed his eyes tightly; his chair fell backward as he was dragged down from behind. When the world stopped moving and got a bit quieter he slowly opened his eyes. While he was still hoping that things were just a bad dream he did not seem to be that fortunate.

Looking down from above were two pairs of identical brown eyes on two porcelain-colored faces. Each one had a perfectly quaffed night-black bob that was curly on one side and straight on the other. The straight side was cut shorter so that each one had a long dark curl trailing down their cheek. It emphasized that one was a perfect mirror image of the other, though their personalities were far from the same.

The older one was on the right and her name was "Grim", she was quiet, critical and frightening. The one on the left was "Reaper", she was loud, violent, and also frightening.

There were a few very long moments of recognition, in which Mark blinked a lot and hoped they would disappear. Then the right side of the image flew into motion. "MARK! GUESS WHAT!" Reaper grabbed his arm and yanked him up again, Grim helped with the chair.

"What."

"It's a secret." She went from loudly yelling from a few feet away to whispering from two inches.

"Okay..."

"Me and Grim got KIDNa-ffshhed"

"Reaper, shut up." Grim had clamped a hand over her sister's mouth, "Mom said not to tell."

"But! It's Cousin Mark!"

"You especially can't tell him."

"But it was so COOL!~"

"Yes, it was terribly and inexhaustably cool, but Mark is a wimpy civilian with the soul-perception of an orange. He'll think we're freaks, so be quiet."

Mark wasn't sure what he thought about being called a "wimpy civilian with the whatever-she-said of an orange" and he could easily say that he thought his cousins were full-fledged freaks. But … what on earth was cool and why didn't he get to know? He started to open his mouth to ask, but then thought better of it. With those two it might just be some freakish ghost story about a monster guy with three heads that liked devouring the souls of artists... all topped with a bunch of ridiculous lies about how their dad had defeated him with his flying skateboard. The creepiest part was the way they told the story; so honestly that Mark's lie-dar wasn't tripped. And then there were the hallucinations... he bit his tongue so hard that he tasted blood. "Just survive for six courses." He told himself, "Just survive for six courses and you can go back to your normal life."

Mark eyed the rest of the table while the twins continued to bicker off to his right, it really wasn't just those two who were strange. Of the nine people not including him, the only people who felt "normal" were his parents. Though no one but the twins ever tortured him like that...

They were all scary though, It wasn't that they were bad, they were all great people just... maybe too great? Too attractive, too fast, yet too laid back, too in sync with each other? Mark could point out the specific natures of each individual, but they all seemed joined by an immense strength that morphed to project each nature. It was unnatural, dangerous beyond the dangers of nature and Mark couldn't trust it.

He scanned their faces; it was a feeling that he tried to forget about in the long breaks between these gatherings, the feeling like he was surrounded by other-worldly beings. He knew mom felt it too, her rosy cheeks a little paler than normal.

He accidently caught someone's eye, Uncle Soul grinned, showing his uncannily sharp teeth and as usual seeming to tap directly into an endless internal reservoir of coolness. Mark wished he could have just a drop of that reservoir. Unfortunately, being "cool" meant you had to make everything seem easy. Not really something that came easy to Mark...

"How've you been?"

"I-I've been great!" Mark jumped to reply, and immediately felt like he had done so a bit too quickly. "I, uh, mean yeah. Some stuff is lame though...", He gave his impression of what he thought a smirk might look like, he knew he probably still looked like an idiot, but at least he was trying. Though Uncle Soul was as scary as the rest of them, he was by far Mark's favorite relative and someone whose opinion he respected. He never said anything freakish and he was the most amazing musician Mark had ever seen, probably the best pianist in the whole world...

"The twins picking on you again?"

"Uh, yeah, but its no big deal."

"That's more than I can say..." Uncle Soul laughed and ran a hand through his white hair, "Those two are nothing but trouble. But I hope you know they don't mean any harm."

"Uh, yeah..." Mark was sure that his uncle probably knew what he was talking about... It didn't really change his opinion though. Mark fell silent again as the first course arrived.

Plates of salad were set out in front of everyone, and Mark didn't hesitate to take a bite, he was actually starving now that he thought about it. Not to mention the food was great...

"Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen," The Chef, a stuffy looking man with a waxed mustache, had emerged to explain his creation, Mark looked up and a dizzy sensation washed over his psyche. His eyes locked with the eyes of the "chef" and he knew that the waxed mustache, along with the skin underneath was nothing but a mask. Mark stayed still, petrified, wondering if anyone noticed. He watched the guise melt away and the creature continued to speak.

"It's time to die!~ Shibusen scum!"

(And there we are!~ sorry about all the OCs... its just what I do.)