CHAPTER 3: Aftermath
"Uh,
yeah, that's nice thought, but in candy land only."
Hearing the voices, Xander swiftly brought his head
back down to the table. There was a low
thud, then a moan. Maybe that was a tad
bit too swift. The voices started up
again, wondering what happened, then the soft thumping of footsteps on wood as
people rushed down the steps.
Thoughts slowly formed in the near sloshed boy's
mind. Ahh, monkey's …
He was cut short by Erika's high pitched voice,
"Stop playing opossum, you little perv!"
Nuts, they still remember last night. Maybe with a well-placed mickey in their
drinks, they could forget these unpleasant memories…
"Answer us, Susie! Now!" Shouted Tseng.
Slowly, the "most unclean" lifted his head up,
squinting his eyes. Out of nowhere, he
felt the familiar sting of a fan on his forehead. Yup, he was in some deep…
"Stop stalling and say something!"
His face began to contort in rage. Ever so slowly, he rose from his
not-so-comfy seat. He cocked his head
to one side, peering at them through one of his eyes. Small popping sounds could be heard from the back of Xander's
neck, as he brought his head around to the front again. He started to laugh almost menacingly. "Tick-tock, the beat don't stop, now does
it?"
Aerith leaned forward. "What are you talking about!? Wait, no. Just stop talking all
together. I'm sure that whatever it is,
is just more mindless babble."
They just don't want to stop talking, do they? All the time, its just "Talk, talk,
talk. Blah, blah, blah." Well Xander just about had enough of
this. He paced around to the back of
them; next to the staircase were all the sticks from the railing had come apart
at. He picked one of the sticks up and
started to tap the palm of his free hand with it. "Mindless babble ay? Well
Xander says," His voice shifted to a demonic tone, "Whoop-dee-friggen
DOO!" His voice went back to normal (if
that's what you want to call insane), "Today's your lucky day chili'n! You're all going to…" He grinned
maliciously, "DIE!! Whoo-hoo!"
His friends looked at one another, and back to him
skeptically. Tseng spoke up. "So… what does us dieing have to do with
clocks…?"
Aerith nudged him in the side and tried to cover up
her moving lips as she whispered into his ear, "Psst! The chickens have flown the coop! The hand has lost its thumb… The marbles have fallen into the drain!"
Gwen's eyes widened in complete shock and
horror. All this in a few hours! The poker game, Xander sneaking in on them,
him falling on his head -when he was younger and now-, and now this: Xander was
going psycho on them and here Aerith is; making fun of his mind's leave of
absence. What more could happen? Woops, jinxed it.
Outside the house, in the walk up to the door,
Elmyra was coming back from her trip to the train station. Alas, her precious
hubby wasn't there –she was beginning to think he would never come-. Closer and closer the door got to Mrs.
Gainsborough until she stopped to turn the handle. She was about to open up, but she thought she heard voices… but
that was probably her imagination running wild… right? Nope her head wasn't playing with her ears,
those were definitely voices. The
children are probably up an about, helping to repair the damage to the railing;
what sweet children they were especially that Xander, so well behaved and
kind. I wonder how he broke the
railing? Oh well, she would answer her questions when she got in.
With a smile on her face, she turned the knob and
walked in…
