Page 2 of Fight

I nod, “Yeah, that worked wonders, thank you.”

Malachi chuckles, “I don’t think you will ever have to thank us for kissing you.”

“He’s right,” Ace replies, “if we ever ask you to do that, know that we have been abducted by aliens and you are talking to our fake stand-ins, send help immediately.”

I stare at him wide-eyed, “Alright, that was a bit out there even for me.”

Mason frowns, “Yeah, man, that was really weird.”

Ace shrugs, “Well, at least she knows how unlikely it would be and what to ask us if she’s ever suspicious that we’ve been abducted.”

“I hope I am never suspicious that aliens have abducted you guys. Otherwise, that would mean that there’s something very wrong with me,” I reply, feeling highly amused at the way this conversation turned out.

“Are you stalling?” Rip asks me, a knowing glint in his eye.

“Yes,” I reply, and then sigh heavily when I add, “Alright, let’s go back in and talk to my dead grandmother and my grandfather, who was my butler.”

“I bet you never thought you’d say that sentence,” Mal points out as we turn back around and walk back to the house.

I shake my head, “Nope, never. It honestly sounds like some crazy TV show or some shit.”

“I’m not going to disagree with you, but I will point out that if you really think about our lives, especially what’s happened recently, then you’d be able to say the same about them too,” Mason replies.

“He’s right. We just found our grandparents in a basement,” Ace points out, and we all stop where we are, having just reached the bottom of the grand steps, and stare at each other until the absolute absurdity of what has gone on in our lives over the last few hours sinks in and we all end up laughing at the sheer craziness of it. I mean, you couldn’t make this shit up.

Once we’ve finally calmed down, I say, “Alright, I now feel more than ready to head back inside and talk to my dead grandmother.”

As we start making our way back up the steps, Rome asks, “Do you think you’ll ever refer to her as just your grandmother?”

I shrug, “I don’t know; it depends if the shock of her being alive when she’s supposed to be dead ever wears off.”

“Fair enough,” Rome answers as we push through the front door to find an empty lobby.

I sigh, “You guys saw them too, right? I’m not having some kind of mental breakdown?”

Rip chuckles and grabs my hand, threading my fingers through his and squeezing tightly. He replies, “We saw them; you aren’t having a mental breakdown.”

“Or we all are,” Ace points out helpfully and then exclaims, as Rome clips him round the back of the head, “Ow!”

“That wasn’t helpful, dude,” Rome points out, and they once again have me smiling in amusement.

“Jynx dear, we’re in here,” my dead grandmother calls out from somewhere to the left of us, and without allowing myself any more time to falter or procrastinate, I stride with purpose into the room.

As soon as I enter the room, I locate the safest place to park my ass for what is sure to be an interesting conversation and head straight for it, Rome sitting on one side of me, Rip on the other, and the others standing around the small couch.

Something about our seating arrangement makes my grandmother smile, and I would ask her why but right now, I just don’t have it in me.

“Okay, I’ve gotten over the shock,” I start when the room remains silent, and then add, “that was a lie, I’m not over the shock at all, but I am ready to listen.”

My dead grandmother smiles, “Where would you like me to start?”

I look at Gerald, “My first question is actually for you?” I ask, and he nods. My question has more anger in it than I intended, but out of everything, this is the thing that is affecting me the most because Gerald has always felt like family to me, and finding out that he actually is, well, it sucks that I didn’t know. I want to understand why, which is why I ask him, “Why couldn’t you tell me that you were my Grandfather? I would have loved to have known that you were.”

Gerald’s expression fills with regret, “I am so sorry, Jynx. I wanted to tell you I really did, but it wasn’t safe.”

Demelza puts her hand on his arm comfortingly and takes over the explanation, “When we first found you, all we knew was that you were struggling in the schools that you had been in, your mom was useless, and you were living in a trailer, that’s it. I thought that once I died or faked my death, all of my enemies would disappear with me and that you’d be safe. Just in case that didn’t happen, and one came out of the woodwork, Gerald stayed behind to protect you. You couldn’t know that he was your Grandfather because no one could know about his link to me, as that would put him in danger and raise questions that could lead back to this place.”

“And then I realised that you were much more than you seemed. You had training similar to what a child of the five families would have, and you thrived in it. I quickly realised that you were more than capable of taking care of yourself, but then the Ravens decided to make an appearance because of something that your grandmother stole, and they were trying to take you down because of it. I couldn’t just disappear and leave you to deal with them by yourself. But imagine my surprise when you decided to take matters so completely into your own hands that you took down the leader of the Ravens, I was so incredibly proud.”

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