Chapter 3: No Need For Fright
"Hey, it's okay, kiddo," Poppy heard the mummy say as he picked her up into his arms. She flinched, shaking in fear, but then felt something wrap around her, to which she looked to see the mummy had wrapped a soft blanket around her. He smiled at her and rubbed her back, which helped her shaking to calm down. "There we go. Don't be afraid," he said soothingly to her.
The young girl bit her lip, still unsure, but she noted how the mummy's face seemed kind. "Who-Who are y-you?" She stammered out.
"King Pepi," he said with a smile. "And you must be Poppy. Oxana was telling me about how she and Boris adopted you and your brother."
"She did?" Poppy asked in surprise.
"Of course," he said, chuckling. "You two are part of the family now and what's so neat is that you two are humans."
Her eyes widened at his words. "Then...you guys are...monsters? Like real monsters?" She asked, curling up again in fear.
King Pepi sighed softly. "Hey, easy, I'm a nice monster," he said, holding her in a hug and rubbing her back again. "Just cause someone is a monster doesn't mean their automatically bad, okay?"
He said this gently, to which she looked at him in surprise. He smiled and stood up, still holding her. "Come on. Let's go find your brother and the others," he said, carrying her downstairs. Poppy still felt a little fearful as she hoped her brother was okay.
Edgar flinched when skeletal hands scooped him up and he was soon being held like how a parent held a child. "Easy now, little one," the skeleton said, his voice soothing. "I'm not going to hurt you."
The boy looked at him with wide eyes. "B-But you're a m-monster," he stammered out.
Oxana came into the kitchen and sighed. "Oh, dear. I was hoping this wouldn't come to light so soon," she admitted. "Remy, can you bring Edgar to the living room? I'll call my husband."
"Of course, Mrs. Hauntley," the skeleton said, heading to the living room, still carrying Edgar. They met Pepi and Poppy, who looked relieved her brother was okay, but she gasped at seeing a skeleton. "Ah, hello, Poppy," the skeleton said to her nicely.
"Hello, Edgar," Pepi said to the boy.
"How do you guys know our names?" Edgar asked.
"Oxana and Boris told us," Remy said.
A blue ghost popped out and a stone gargoyle came in and both looked surprised, but then realization dawned on them. "Uh-oh, they found out, didn't they?" The gargoyle asked.
"Well, maybe it won't be so bad," the ghost said.
Vampirina came in and she looked worried. "Oh, boy," she said, looking worried too.
"Vampirina, what's going on?" Poppy asked, her voice a bit fearful.
The blue-skinned girl sighed. "Well...we're not humans, for starters," she said. "I'm a vampire, along with Mom and Dad. King Pepi is a mummy king. Chef Remy is the skeleton. The ghost is Demi and the gargoyle is Gregoria."
Boris and Oxana came in and they looked a bit pensive. "So much for wanting to wait until you both had settled in more," Boris said with a sigh before looking at the twins. "Poppy. Edgar, it's alright. You two won't be harmed."
Edgar spoke up then. "Did my mom really ask you guys to take me and Poppy in?" He asked, seeming a bit wary.
"Yes," Oxana said truthfully. "But your mother didn't know about us being monsters."
Poppy began shivering a bit. "Are you...going to eat us?" She asked fearfully.
The monsters' eyes all widened. "NO!" They all said at once, making the twins jump in surprise. The monsters then calmed down.
"No," Remy said a bit more calmly.
"If that had been the case, you two would have been eaten long ago," Pepi pointed out. "But we monsters don't eat humans."
The twins didn't look too reassured. "But...vampires drink blood," Edgar pointed out.
"True, but we don't drink human blood," Oxana said, her voice reassuring.
"Yeah," Vampirina said. "And we definitely don't eat family members."
Poppy began to calm down a bit, feeling Pepi rub her back again gently. "See? You guys have nothing to be afraid of," he said, his voice soothing.
"But...why didn't you tell us sooner?" The brown-haired girl asked.
"Well, we didn't want to overwhelm you," Boris said gently. "You two had just lost your mother and we knew it wasn't going to be an easy transition for you two to live here, so we decided to wait until you both had settled in more before revealing that we were monsters."
"Plus, we didn't want to scare you too," Remy pointed out.
"So we made the house look normal as possible so that you two wouldn't be afraid of us," Oxana said. "We wanted to earn your trust first."
"So...you lied to us?" Edgar asked.
The monsters flinched. "That's a little harsh," Gregoria said.
"Maybe we shouldn't have been so secretive," Demi admitted sadly.
Poppy could see that they were all a bit remorseful about not telling her and her brother the truth sooner. Though they technically hadn't lied. She then tried to look at the other side of things and took a deep breath. "Well, I guess if we had found out sooner and we tried to tell someone that we saw monsters, they wouldn't have believed us," she said. "They would have just said we have active imaginations."
Edgar flinched at that, to which Remy noticed. "Edgar? What is it, little one?" He asked gently.
"People already say that I have an active imagination," he said sadly. "Poppy's right. No one would have believed us at all."
Oxana took a deep breath and went up to the boy. "Edgar, it's alright," she soothed him. Remy gently handed the boy to her and the red-haired vampire began gently rocking him to soothe him more.
Poppy noticed how motherly Oxana was being and noticed Boris come up to her and Pepi, to which the mummy gently handed her to the male vampire. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you two sooner," he said. "We honestly didn't do it to lie to you."
She nodded. "You didn't want to scare us," she said. "But...you guys really do care, right? You're not just pretending to care?"
"No, we're not pretending," he said, not taking offense at the question.
Vampirina smiled. "I really am glad to have a brother and sister," she said.
Demi came up to them. "We're all really nice," he said. "Can...Can you give us all a chance to prove it?"
Edgar looked a bit pensive and looked at Poppy, who looked back at him before she thoughtfully bit her lip. "Well," she began. "What do you think, Edgar?"
"I...I'm not really sure," the boy admitted. "But...I guess they deserve a chance to prove what they say. It's only fair."
She nodded before taking a deep breath. "How about...a trial period?" She suggested. "Say...a month."
The monsters all nodded. "Alright," Oxana said. "If you two want to talk about anything, you can come to any of us."
Vampirina looked at her siblings. "You guys okay?" She asked.
"Honestly, we don't know yet," Edgar said.
"But...you guys promise Edgar and I won't be hurt, right?" Poppy said.
"We promise," Pepi said with a nod. "You have my word as king."
"And our word as Hauntleys," Boris said.
"And my word as a skeleton," Remy said.
The twins looked at each other and nodded. "Okay," Edgar said.
"Okay," Poppy said.
It was definitely going to be an interesting month.
So the twins now know the Hauntley's secret. How will things go? Stay tuned to find out. :)
And please leave a review, but no flames.
GoldGuardian2418
