Chapter 5: The Calm before the Storm
The next morning, Will woke from a pleasant dream, not concerning any of the happenings of the previous night. But, as he cleared his thoughts and sat up in bed, he started as he remembered. He jumped out of bed and into his clothes, hurriedly brushed his teeth and raced downstairs. There he found Anne at the table in the process of toasting waffles and micro-waving sausages for breakfast. Her brothers were also seated at the table, and the group was in conversation about one of Anne's previous boyfriends. That's all that Will caught of the conversation, because when he entered the kitchen, the conversation came to an unnatural halt as everyone looked up at Will.
Will raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, everyone. And I thought I was an early riser. Hmm. What are you all talking about?" He glanced at everyone, but paused when he came to Derrick and Jack, who still had a tainted aura. They didn't notice anything.
Anne stood up and turned around to face Will. "Ha ha. Early riser, indeed. It's ten o'clock, smart one." She caught his hand in hers and kissed him lightly on the lips.
This time Will raised both eyebrows in shock. "Ten o'clock?! We were supposed to meet Merriman this morning. Where is he?"
"That old guy Anne told us about? He called this morning before you or Anne was awake. He told us to tell you that he couldn't make it this morning because of some extended house rental problems or something along those lines." Colin told Will as he began picking up dishes from the table that some of the guys had already finished with.
"Oh. That's actually okay, then. We can spend the morning hanging out or something." Will suggested of the quintuplets as he poured himself a glass of orange juice for breakfast as the kitchen's counter. Anne started helping Colin with the dishes.
"Actually, I think yesterday was a pretty tiring day for all of us. I think I wouldn't mind spending today relaxing, if that's alright. Is it?" Derrick commented.
"Yeah, and we might've gotten food poisoning from that shifty-eyed fast-food place employee last night. I'm not feeling too good, and he was really freaky." Jack added.
Will laughed. "Alright, that's great. Maybe I can still get together with Merriman today, then." He washed his orange juice glass as Anne and Colin finished the other dishes.
"Cool, thanks Will. I'll be resting in my room if anyone needs me." Derrick said. Jack nodded and followed Derrick up to his room to rest, also. Shane, Colin, Anne, and Will remained in the kitchen.
"Well, I'm not feeling sick at all, how about you, Colin?" Shane asked.
"Nope. Oh well. What do you think about doing today?"
"Actually, I was thinking about going for a walk around town. You know, pick up some English chicks... Should be a lotta fun. You in?" Shane smirked and Colin rolled his eyes. "Oh well, yeah. But seriously, dude, I'll go out for a walk around the area. Hopefully I won't get lost, but I'll find a pay phone if I do. Anyone want to come?" Everybody shook their head, and Will glanced out the window above the sink, wondering about the weather. There was a fine blanket of snow on the ground and everything in sight, but the sun was shining brightly and the thermometer showed an unreasonably high temperature for having snowed just the previous night.
"Okay, then. I'll see you all later." Shane shrugged and donned his heavy boots and coat that had dried from the night before overnight. He started out on his walk from the kitchen door waving 'bye to all of them before shutting it.
"Oops. I better go get dressed, I think. I'll be back down in a minute, and maybe we can all do something fun, unlike all of the weirdo brothers?" Colin smiled warmly and trotted upstairs.
"You gonna get dressed, too, Anne?" Will asked, noticing she was still in her tank top and his old boxers.
"Nah, I don't think so. Maybe later. I'm feeling lazy. Do we have anything real planned for today anyway?"
"No. I guess that makes sense. So, what should we do with Colin?"
Anne didn't answer, but walked over and stood close to Will's body and wrapped her arms around his neck. He responded by putting his arms around her waist and pressing her close. She kissed him gently on the lips and whispered, "Do you like them?"
He smiled and kissed her back a little harder. "They're great. But there's something I have to talk to you about soon...It's about last night." Seeing the concerned but tired look on her face, Will decided it could wait. All he wanted to do now was make her happy, and he wouldn't be able to do that by related the previous night's discoveries. "Don't worry about it now, Anne. It can wait."
Anne smiled. "Thanks, Will." They kissed each other more romantically, hugging each other close until Colin reappeared from dressing. The couple broke away with one last hug, but kept holding hands.
Colin grinned. Now don't be doing anything naughty, Will Stanton. That's my baby sister you got there." he said lightly.
"Colin!" Anne blushed red.
Will smirked and smiled at the siblings. "Don't worry, Colin. You can trust me. Your sister is something special." he kissed Anne's temple lightly.
"Okay, that'll do for the time being." Colin gave a mock serious face, but ruined by breaking out smiling. "So, what's on tap for the entertainment front today?"
"I think we should stay home, it'll be okay this first day. Will?"
"Oh yeah. That's great. How about some card games? Colin?"
"Awesome! How about B.S.? Anne's great at that."
Will smiled and left to get some cards from a closet as Colin and Anne seated themselves at the table.
When Will was out of the room and the siblings were seated, Colin asked Anne seriously, "Anne, do you really want Will? I guess I need a while to get used to him, and he seems like a great guy, but as your older brother I need to look out for you in things like this."
Anne laughed, but took Colin's question seriously. "Yeah, older by like two minutes. But yeah, I'm totally sure about this. Will's better than great. He's the best there is! I really, truly, love him, Colin."
Colin breathed a small sigh of relief as Anne smiled at him reassuringly. "Good. If you have any problems, remember, I'm always here for you."
"Thanks, Colin. I love you, bro." Anne reached across the table to hug her brother thanks. Then, Will reentered with a deck of playing cards and a couple of board games.
"B.S. first? Then I thought a couple of these might be interesting. How about it?"
"Great!" Colin exclaimed, seeing his favorite board game, Trivial Pursuit, in the stack Will had brought in.
"Cool." Anne agreed as she started shuffling the cards Will had passed to her as he set down the board games on the countertop.
As Will took a seat at the head of the table, Anne on his right and Colin on his left, Anne dealt the whole deck out evenly.
The trio enjoyed their midday together, and was joined by Shane after he had come home from his walk. He joined in as they were playing Trivial Pursuit. It turned out that both Colin and Shane, on a team together, were really good at the game and both Anne and Will, the other team, were really, well, bad. But, as Colin and Shane breezed their way to victory, everyone laughed hard and loved the time they had together.
Halfway through their game of Pictionary, the phone rang. It interrupted Will's and Anne's turn, where they were on their way to an easy victory against the brothers. They were more artistic than the Bet guys, but they both thought it immense fun and only very minor cheating to communicate the answers to their drawings telepathically, making the brothers gape at their "skill". Will got up to answer the phone after he guessed what Anne was drawing in only a couple of seconds, again to the amazement of Shane and Colin, who were frantically searched for evidence of them cheating.
"Hallo?" Will answered the phone.
"Will. It's Merriman. Listen, I probably can't explain this to you on the phone, but you must get over here now. I'm at the church. Meet me outside here in 15 minutes."
"Merriman? Wait... what? Wait! I can't... Oh!" Will scowled. The phone line had gone dead. It sounded like what Merriman needed was something urgent. But how would he explain to Anne, Colin, and Shane that he suddenly needed to go? He couldn't very well tell them about Merriman... Will had a hunch that what Merriman wanted was Old Ones business, and didn't want it to become anyone else's. But what other way was there? Will had no choice but to tell.
Will decided as he casually strolled back into the kitchen that he would tell Anne, through telepathy, but he would make up a story so that Colin and Shane wouldn't know.
Anne, that was Merriman. He sounded urgent. I need to get to the church in the next fifteen minutes. What should I tell Colin and Shane?
Will? Merriman wanted something, urgently? What could it be?
Anne, I don't know. I just need to get to where he is as fast as I can. What should I do?
Uh, okay. Maybe you should just tell them that a friend called and wanted you to go over there for some time to have a chat or something?
Okay, I'll tell them that. I hope it works.
Don't worry, I'll back you up.
"Hey, guys? That was just one of my old friends who called to say he was in town, but just for a couple of hours. Do you mind if I quit the game to go see him?" Will inquired of the Bet siblings still seated around the table.
"Was it Melvin, Will? Melvin Black or something? You told me a couple of days ago that he was traveling around the country." Anne tried to help.
"Uh, yeah. Melvin. So, you wouldn't mind me taking off for an hour or so? It won't be long, and I have a lot of stuff to catch up with him on."
Colin and Shane just shrugged. "Nope, we don't mind. We'll just hang out."
"Thanks so much, guys. I'm terribly sorry about this happening so suddenly. I'll be back as soon as I can." Will felt relieved that the boys weren't acting suspicious, and threw on a long, heavy coat and boots for trudging through the snow, even though the snow was thinning because of the sun's rays. He walked over to Anne and kissed her on the cheek, and said his last goodbyes. Then, he casually strolled out the door and closed it behind him. Once outside, he began a fast jog to the church in order to meet Merriman's time frame.
Will?
Yes, Anne?
Be careful, whatever Merriman wants you for.
Thanks, Anne. I love you.
I love you, too.
The next morning, Will woke from a pleasant dream, not concerning any of the happenings of the previous night. But, as he cleared his thoughts and sat up in bed, he started as he remembered. He jumped out of bed and into his clothes, hurriedly brushed his teeth and raced downstairs. There he found Anne at the table in the process of toasting waffles and micro-waving sausages for breakfast. Her brothers were also seated at the table, and the group was in conversation about one of Anne's previous boyfriends. That's all that Will caught of the conversation, because when he entered the kitchen, the conversation came to an unnatural halt as everyone looked up at Will.
Will raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, everyone. And I thought I was an early riser. Hmm. What are you all talking about?" He glanced at everyone, but paused when he came to Derrick and Jack, who still had a tainted aura. They didn't notice anything.
Anne stood up and turned around to face Will. "Ha ha. Early riser, indeed. It's ten o'clock, smart one." She caught his hand in hers and kissed him lightly on the lips.
This time Will raised both eyebrows in shock. "Ten o'clock?! We were supposed to meet Merriman this morning. Where is he?"
"That old guy Anne told us about? He called this morning before you or Anne was awake. He told us to tell you that he couldn't make it this morning because of some extended house rental problems or something along those lines." Colin told Will as he began picking up dishes from the table that some of the guys had already finished with.
"Oh. That's actually okay, then. We can spend the morning hanging out or something." Will suggested of the quintuplets as he poured himself a glass of orange juice for breakfast as the kitchen's counter. Anne started helping Colin with the dishes.
"Actually, I think yesterday was a pretty tiring day for all of us. I think I wouldn't mind spending today relaxing, if that's alright. Is it?" Derrick commented.
"Yeah, and we might've gotten food poisoning from that shifty-eyed fast-food place employee last night. I'm not feeling too good, and he was really freaky." Jack added.
Will laughed. "Alright, that's great. Maybe I can still get together with Merriman today, then." He washed his orange juice glass as Anne and Colin finished the other dishes.
"Cool, thanks Will. I'll be resting in my room if anyone needs me." Derrick said. Jack nodded and followed Derrick up to his room to rest, also. Shane, Colin, Anne, and Will remained in the kitchen.
"Well, I'm not feeling sick at all, how about you, Colin?" Shane asked.
"Nope. Oh well. What do you think about doing today?"
"Actually, I was thinking about going for a walk around town. You know, pick up some English chicks... Should be a lotta fun. You in?" Shane smirked and Colin rolled his eyes. "Oh well, yeah. But seriously, dude, I'll go out for a walk around the area. Hopefully I won't get lost, but I'll find a pay phone if I do. Anyone want to come?" Everybody shook their head, and Will glanced out the window above the sink, wondering about the weather. There was a fine blanket of snow on the ground and everything in sight, but the sun was shining brightly and the thermometer showed an unreasonably high temperature for having snowed just the previous night.
"Okay, then. I'll see you all later." Shane shrugged and donned his heavy boots and coat that had dried from the night before overnight. He started out on his walk from the kitchen door waving 'bye to all of them before shutting it.
"Oops. I better go get dressed, I think. I'll be back down in a minute, and maybe we can all do something fun, unlike all of the weirdo brothers?" Colin smiled warmly and trotted upstairs.
"You gonna get dressed, too, Anne?" Will asked, noticing she was still in her tank top and his old boxers.
"Nah, I don't think so. Maybe later. I'm feeling lazy. Do we have anything real planned for today anyway?"
"No. I guess that makes sense. So, what should we do with Colin?"
Anne didn't answer, but walked over and stood close to Will's body and wrapped her arms around his neck. He responded by putting his arms around her waist and pressing her close. She kissed him gently on the lips and whispered, "Do you like them?"
He smiled and kissed her back a little harder. "They're great. But there's something I have to talk to you about soon...It's about last night." Seeing the concerned but tired look on her face, Will decided it could wait. All he wanted to do now was make her happy, and he wouldn't be able to do that by related the previous night's discoveries. "Don't worry about it now, Anne. It can wait."
Anne smiled. "Thanks, Will." They kissed each other more romantically, hugging each other close until Colin reappeared from dressing. The couple broke away with one last hug, but kept holding hands.
Colin grinned. Now don't be doing anything naughty, Will Stanton. That's my baby sister you got there." he said lightly.
"Colin!" Anne blushed red.
Will smirked and smiled at the siblings. "Don't worry, Colin. You can trust me. Your sister is something special." he kissed Anne's temple lightly.
"Okay, that'll do for the time being." Colin gave a mock serious face, but ruined by breaking out smiling. "So, what's on tap for the entertainment front today?"
"I think we should stay home, it'll be okay this first day. Will?"
"Oh yeah. That's great. How about some card games? Colin?"
"Awesome! How about B.S.? Anne's great at that."
Will smiled and left to get some cards from a closet as Colin and Anne seated themselves at the table.
When Will was out of the room and the siblings were seated, Colin asked Anne seriously, "Anne, do you really want Will? I guess I need a while to get used to him, and he seems like a great guy, but as your older brother I need to look out for you in things like this."
Anne laughed, but took Colin's question seriously. "Yeah, older by like two minutes. But yeah, I'm totally sure about this. Will's better than great. He's the best there is! I really, truly, love him, Colin."
Colin breathed a small sigh of relief as Anne smiled at him reassuringly. "Good. If you have any problems, remember, I'm always here for you."
"Thanks, Colin. I love you, bro." Anne reached across the table to hug her brother thanks. Then, Will reentered with a deck of playing cards and a couple of board games.
"B.S. first? Then I thought a couple of these might be interesting. How about it?"
"Great!" Colin exclaimed, seeing his favorite board game, Trivial Pursuit, in the stack Will had brought in.
"Cool." Anne agreed as she started shuffling the cards Will had passed to her as he set down the board games on the countertop.
As Will took a seat at the head of the table, Anne on his right and Colin on his left, Anne dealt the whole deck out evenly.
The trio enjoyed their midday together, and was joined by Shane after he had come home from his walk. He joined in as they were playing Trivial Pursuit. It turned out that both Colin and Shane, on a team together, were really good at the game and both Anne and Will, the other team, were really, well, bad. But, as Colin and Shane breezed their way to victory, everyone laughed hard and loved the time they had together.
Halfway through their game of Pictionary, the phone rang. It interrupted Will's and Anne's turn, where they were on their way to an easy victory against the brothers. They were more artistic than the Bet guys, but they both thought it immense fun and only very minor cheating to communicate the answers to their drawings telepathically, making the brothers gape at their "skill". Will got up to answer the phone after he guessed what Anne was drawing in only a couple of seconds, again to the amazement of Shane and Colin, who were frantically searched for evidence of them cheating.
"Hallo?" Will answered the phone.
"Will. It's Merriman. Listen, I probably can't explain this to you on the phone, but you must get over here now. I'm at the church. Meet me outside here in 15 minutes."
"Merriman? Wait... what? Wait! I can't... Oh!" Will scowled. The phone line had gone dead. It sounded like what Merriman needed was something urgent. But how would he explain to Anne, Colin, and Shane that he suddenly needed to go? He couldn't very well tell them about Merriman... Will had a hunch that what Merriman wanted was Old Ones business, and didn't want it to become anyone else's. But what other way was there? Will had no choice but to tell.
Will decided as he casually strolled back into the kitchen that he would tell Anne, through telepathy, but he would make up a story so that Colin and Shane wouldn't know.
Anne, that was Merriman. He sounded urgent. I need to get to the church in the next fifteen minutes. What should I tell Colin and Shane?
Will? Merriman wanted something, urgently? What could it be?
Anne, I don't know. I just need to get to where he is as fast as I can. What should I do?
Uh, okay. Maybe you should just tell them that a friend called and wanted you to go over there for some time to have a chat or something?
Okay, I'll tell them that. I hope it works.
Don't worry, I'll back you up.
"Hey, guys? That was just one of my old friends who called to say he was in town, but just for a couple of hours. Do you mind if I quit the game to go see him?" Will inquired of the Bet siblings still seated around the table.
"Was it Melvin, Will? Melvin Black or something? You told me a couple of days ago that he was traveling around the country." Anne tried to help.
"Uh, yeah. Melvin. So, you wouldn't mind me taking off for an hour or so? It won't be long, and I have a lot of stuff to catch up with him on."
Colin and Shane just shrugged. "Nope, we don't mind. We'll just hang out."
"Thanks so much, guys. I'm terribly sorry about this happening so suddenly. I'll be back as soon as I can." Will felt relieved that the boys weren't acting suspicious, and threw on a long, heavy coat and boots for trudging through the snow, even though the snow was thinning because of the sun's rays. He walked over to Anne and kissed her on the cheek, and said his last goodbyes. Then, he casually strolled out the door and closed it behind him. Once outside, he began a fast jog to the church in order to meet Merriman's time frame.
Will?
Yes, Anne?
Be careful, whatever Merriman wants you for.
Thanks, Anne. I love you.
I love you, too.