บท 5: Family.

Unbeknownst to Avery, the moment she turned the corner along the hallway, a figure raised his hand to adjust his glasses before stepping out of the shadow. Decked out in a black casual t-shirt and slacks, no one would be able to tell from a distance that it was the infamous Archibald Donovan.

Carefully shutting the door behind himself, Archie took large strides to close the distance separating him from the bed. Avery hadn't bothered to cover the body with the white sheets like she met it so Archie had no problem recognizing the person on the bed.

"Hi Arthur," he muttered in an emotionless voice. "Your sister was just here and I'm sorry to say she stormed out angrily.You should pray wherever you are that she refrains from doing something stupid, cause I won't interfere in whatever shit your family is going through."

Pausing for a while as if to make sure the stiff body in front of him was hearing, he continued,

"And don't blame me later on. You were the one who asked me to keep my eyes and hands off your sister."

He spent a few seconds staring down at the body until all of a sudden, his eyes caught on something strange.

He stepped away from the body and took his phone out. His fingers flying across the screen in quick succession, he walked out of the room and placed the phone on his ear.

"Five minutes, Rome. Get to the hospital before the time is up," he instructed.

★★★

Avery threw the large doors open, stepping into the strangely quiet family mansion where she had grown up. She had only seen the mansion in this state once, and that was when the day after her parents died when Grandfather McCallum had ordered that the house be solemn and quiet in preparation for the funeral.

Something told Avery it was the same now. They were preparing for a funeral, but she had no idea who it was for. Everything was damn messy and to prevent herself from going insane anytime soon, she needed to find someone to demand answers from.

Spotting the telephone at one corner of the living room, Avery ran to it while murmuring gratitude to whoever it was that kept the device there.

She punched in a series of numbers and was about pressing the dial button when a voice echoed from behind, halting her movements.

"Look who's here. If it isn't the smarty ass Avery McCallum who used to have everything."

Avery turned, her brows quirking in surprise as she recognized the person standing before her. Her cousin, Valentina, and the latter's family made up of her brother, father and mother, were the people Avery loved the most after her own siblings, her grandfather, and Brian of course.

"Tina?" she gasped. Hard as it was, she had prepared herself mentally to hear worse news at home than the one she heard at the hospital. Therefore, seeing one member of her family unhurt made her relieved as hell. "Are you alright?!"

"Shouldn't I be asking that question, cousin?" Tina replied the question with one of her own.

Avery frowned. She could spot the smirk tugging at the end of Tina's lips and could tell from years of growing up with her, that Tina was holding in her laughter. That seemed highly illogical in this situation except all this was a prank.

Her heart jolting at the slight possibility of everything she had watched today being a joke, it sank back when she remembered that Arthur's cold body had been real.

"Tina, is that—are you smiling right now?" she questioned. "No, forget about that. Just tell me what's going on. I'm fucking confused and I can't even understand a thing of what I see in the news. And Emma! Where's she and grandfather? Arthur too, what happened to everyone?" she fired the questions off like bullets, taking a short pause before proceeding, "I could have called but I left my phone back at Brian's cause I didn't want to take it to church. Who knew this would—"

"Oh shut the fuck up, Avery," Tina cut her off. "This ''tell me what the problem is and I will handle it' attitude of yours is what actually irks me so much about you! And you still manage to keep it after you have fallen?" Her nostrils were flared from anger by the time she was done talking, while her eyes shone with fury.

Speechless, Avery could only stare while she tried to understand the situation in her head. Tina had never acted like this before. Not only Tina, but all members of her uncle's family had maintained a good relationship with Avery and her siblings. In fact, the former could not remember having any form of scuffle, fight, or even the slightest argument with them. Peace and love; it was their family motto and they had completely lived by it for as long as Avery could remember.

She let out a loud sigh, "I really don't know what you're doing right now, Tina, but trust me when I say I have no time for jokes. Please just answer my question."

"What's with that confused look in your eyes? Don't tell me you really do not understand what's happening," Tina chuckled. Receiving a blank stare as reply, she could no longer hide her smile. "Listen up then, Avery. I will give myself the pleasure of telling you what's happening and watching you break in front of me."

'Break me?' Avery thought, concluding her cousin must be just as shocked as she was at the sudden occurrences in their family. It was the only reason why she was speaking nonsense.

Tina began, "Before anything, Avery, I want you to know everything you watched in the news is true. Oh…not exactly true, but the public already believes it to be true. I guess the only reason why you aren't being hunted down for destroying a whole family is because your face hasn't been broadcasted yet—"

"Tina, can you please just go straight—"

"Shut it, Avery," Tina interrupted. "It's my time to talk while you listen so shut the fuck up and don't interrupt me!"

"As I was saying, I guess your face hasn't been broadcasted yet because the police are still attempting to investigate all these. But sorry, Cousin, we might have done a messy job but at the end, we won't ever get caught!" she burst into an hysterical laugh for a few seconds, before regaining her composure.

Avery stayed quiet and stiff all through. A part of her was still trying to understand Tina's words, while the other part of her already knew the conclusion. It was just like the fictional books she had read…but she still refused to believe this.

Uncle Jon, Aunt Kathy, Robert and Tina wouldn't do this. There was no reason for them to. And they didn't even have the power to.