Chapter 10 - The Lie
"Now what?" Wilhelm asked his brother, panic creeping into his voice as he stepped into their room. "How in hell are we going to pull this off?" he groaned, flopping heavily down onto the bed.
"My thoughts exactly," Jacob admitted, mirroring his brother's sentiments with a sigh. "Even if there was no piper, how are we supposed to collect over a hundred children… from inside a forest?" He muttered darkly, sitting beside Will on the hard mattress and cleaning his glasses. "I mean four or even ten children I can see being possible. But a hundred and eleven?" He asked in disbelief.
"And that's not the only problem, we also need to find out what actually happened," Will added.
"Huh?" Jacob questioned, turning towards his brother in surprise.
"I'm not that dense Jake, even I could tell they weren't telling us the whole story," Will explained, sounding hurt. "I wonder why they lied," he continued.
Feeling a twinge of guilt following his brother's words, Jacob stayed silent, not wanting to further offend Wilhelm or start an argument.
"Come on. Am I really that dense, Jacob?" He asked, sitting up from the bed and looking his brother in the eyes. Noting the mild alarm in Jacob's expression, Will frowned, joking, "Oh dear, it's even more serious than I thought."
Trying to brush it off with a laugh, the older Grimm continued, "Anyways, what do you think the townspeople are hiding from us?"
"No, Will… you're not," Jake said distractedly as something clicked into place, "I think… I'm going to go out for a bit." He decided, visibly caught up in his thoughts as he stood and moved towards the door.
"You? Go out? Now that's unusual. What, did a pretty lass catch your eye?" Will wondered with a smirk. "Don't get lost… or anything," he added, kicking off his boots and making himself comfortable on the bed.
"Lass?" Jake clarified with a raised eyebrow, "No, Will, not exactly." Jacob replied, closing the door softly behind him.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. This is the updated version of Chapter 10, uploaded on 02/23.