Chapter 2

  Aiel made a running start, then put his arms under his brother's armpits and jumped out the window.  He spread out his wings to slow his descent, and the two boys fell to the ground with no damage.  Jules did the same with Faye, except their fall was less clumsy.
 "Jules." Aiel said, getting his younger brother's attention, "Go to the woods behind the house, Dee and I'll be there in a bit."
 "I - what? No!" The youngest brother exclaimed, looking back over at the house and stepping away.
 "Go. We'll join you in a bit, I promise."
 The two brothers looked at each other in the eyes, then Jules broke contact and ran off towards the woods behind the house, pulling Faye behind him.
 Aiel started running around the house and Deevon hurried after him.  There was a loud bang, and the two skidded to a stop in front of the house, Aiel slipping on the wet grass and falling.  He grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him down with him.
 Deevon shouted, then put his hand over his mouth as attention from a group of people turned to them.  They were all human, and were standing in a group.
 "Monster!" A voice shouted, and Aiel let go of his brother and looked the man in the eye. The winged boy was stunned at whose eyes he was looking in. Jamison Laveau, son of Evangeline.
 "Monster?" Aiel asked with a laugh.  "You're only now getting around to calling us that and you're how old?  And... You killed my parents, and you're calling me a monster."
 "I did the necessary, boy." Jamison said, cocking the rifle again. "Gettin' this town rid o' its freaks and parasites."
 "What do you mean, Jamison?" A feminine voice asked from behind the dark-skinned man.
 "Uh, what?" He asked, spinning around and aiming his gun at nothing.
 Aiel and Deevon caught on as they saw Analee in her nightdress while the rest of the mob could not. They both took deep breaths and pulled the same disappearing act, and an unsettled murmur went through the crowd.
 "Yes, Jamison," Deevon said in a sweet voice, easily strutting over behind Jamison and murmuring in his ears, "What do you really want~?"
 He shrieked.  "LET GO OF ME!" The dark skinned man exclaimed, spinning around and attempting to smack Deevon in the head with the butt of his gun, while the boy just ducked, gold eyes glinting.
 "Now, now..." Aiel said, putting his hands behind his back and striding closer to Jamison, "That is no way to treat children, now is it?  We're small and innocent, at least I am."
 "Get back!" He shouted, pointing his gun square at Aiel's chest. "Don't think I can't see your disgusting figure!"
 "Oh, well, with your mother, I have no doubt about you seeing me.  But what about the person... behind me?" Aiel stepped to the side and Jamison looked down, seeing a small child. The child's mother ran in and picked up her kid.
 "He's gone mad!  Why are we here?" She yelled, "He's pointed his gun at my baby!"
 "Mad? Then we all have! Y'all saw with ya own eyes those parents—those... monsters with your own eyes!"
 Analee made herself visible and dropped to the ground, and the woman with the child let out a shocked, "oh!"
 "I don't know what happened!"  Analee exclaimed, her voice high with panic.  "I don't know!  All of a sudden I'm here!  My parents are dead!"  Her voice was choked with tears as she pointed at Jamison.  "He shot them, I saw him!"  She lowered her face to the ground, and Aiel saw her smile as she fed off of Jamison's fear from the small group of people turning against him.
 "JAMISON VINCENT LAVEAU!" A woman's voice exclaimed from the crowd and the three eldest siblings watched as a dark-skinned woman elbowed her way through the people. "What on God's Earth have you done?!   Is this fire?  This house is on fire!  Lord almighty, your mother is furious!"
 Aiel smiled as he recognized Evangeline's friend Agetha.
 "What...?"  Jamison blinked a couple of times and looked around.  He took a couple of steps back and looked down at his hand, dropping the pistol he was holding.  "M-Miss Aggie, I- I--"
 "You nothin'!!" She exclaimed.  "You've gone crazy!"
 Deevon smiled. "Off your rocker, ya hear~?" He asked into Jamison's ear. "My, oh my... would your mother ever be disappointed in ya..."
 "You're making your entire family look awful!" Agetha continued. "Ya've gone crazy and now you've burned this house to the ground!"
 "M-Mis Aggie!" He said again, "You can hear-- see them!"
 "I don' hear nothin', I aint' see a thing!" She laughed, looking at Deevon with his hands on Jamison's shoulders. "Where's them 'parents' you had mentioned?"
 Jamison turned to look at a spot in the driveway that was covered with black splatters.  There were no bodies.
 Analee briefly looked at Aiel, eyes widened slightly. She tilted her head to the side.  The eldest nodded sadly, and watched as rage crept into his sister's eyes as what little smile she had vanished.
 Agetha lead the small group of people away, promising them tea and light snacks at her house if they decided to come by.  Analee got up to her feet and went over to Jamison.  Deevon stepped back as she grabbed the man's face in her hand.
 "What do you want?" He said, attempting to have rage in his tone, but his voice quivered.
 "Nothing, Jame."  She said, her green eyes bright.  "I'm just enjoying your fear."
 "Mr. Laveau, I have a question for you." Aiel said, stepping forwards as his sister's pupils dilated and she released Jamison's face. Light from the house fire highlighted Aiel's bat like wings and the edges of the boy, cloaking the details of his features in darkness.
 As Jamison attempted to turn and run, he collided into Deevon, firelight making the trio of siblings appear more 'monster' like than before.
 "Now," Deevon said, gripping the man's wrists and turning him around to look at the oldest brother, "have some manners for us monsters, look when we talk to you."
 "It might hurt for you to hear this."  Aiel said gently as he placed his hands on either side of the man's face.  "I'm sorry to say that you sound positively insane."
 "GET YOUR FILTY HANDS OFF OF ME!" The man screamed, shaking his limbs wildly and trying to wrench away from the oldest sibling.
 Analee placed her cold hand over his mouth. "Now, now," she hissed, "We'd go fetch the twins, if we didn't know your mother."
 "Indeed," Aiel nodded, looking the man in his dark eyes. "You are mad, yep."
 A question formed in Mr. Laveau's eyes as he spoke it slowly. "Mad?"
 Rather than answer, Aiel laughed and closed his eyes, keeping a grip on the man's head as he thrashed about despite his hands being firmly grasped by Deevon.
 Eventually, Jamison Laveau gave an agonized scream, something fierce that echoed through the woods, before he went limp in a temporary slumber.

 Faye and Jules looked up and over towards the scream that sent chills along their bodies.
 "Jules?" Faye asked, looking at her brother in the night as she rubbed her arms. They had left the warmth of their burning house quickly, and now they were cold, walking through the woods.
 "Faye?" He answered, keeping his gaze on the terrain in front of them.
 "Do... do you think that sounded like Miss Evangeline's son?"
 "Hm." Jules said simply. "Aiel was starving, he was a goner anyhow."
 "I never liked him..." Faye mumbled. "He was a bully."
 "Yeah, he was mean. But I bet Aiel's happy, right?" Jules grinned at his sister as he took another step and they entered a clearing where a small metal shed was.
 "I bet he's happy, yeah." Faye grinned back, "He was getting moody."
 "A grumpy jerk." Jules agreed as they entered the shed and began to clear it out, making room for the seven members of their family.
 "... Jules?" Faye said quietly, removing an armful of garden supplies. "Do... do you think Mom and Daddy are alright?"
 "Do I think they're alright? 'Course they're alright! Why wouldn't they be? They're like... super strong!"
 Faye didn't answer, but sat the tools under a tree on a blanket of leaves, hoping they would be alright and wouldn't rust.
 "FAYE!" Jules yelled, running up to his sister and taking her hand.
 "W-what!?" She asked, startled at his sudden attitude change.
 "Let's go to see if they're alright, okay?"
 "But Aiel said not to."
 "Is he here right now?"
 "N--"
 "Yes." A voice said behind them and the two turned around to see their eldest brother behind them.  "Jules, I'm disappointed in you. To think you would stop listening to me."
 "Know you just had a meal, but honestly, chill." Deevon mumbled behind Aiel.
 "Rude, much?" Aiel asked, not turning to look at his younger brother.
 "Where's Mom and Dad?" Faye finally asked, looking at her siblings. Analee and Deevon adverted their gazes while Aiel sighed in exasperation and made an attempt to change the subject.
 "You--"
 "Where's they?" Jules asked, looking the eldest in the eyes.
 Aiel made a pained smile, "Well, uh... they'll be back, sooner or later..."
 "So... They're dead?"
 "... Pretty much, yeah!" Aiel smiled genuinely at his brother's ability to be so upfront.
 That upfront brother, however, changed his demeanor as soon as the bad news had been announced.  Jules looked down and let go of Faye's hand to run his through his hair.
 "No... Did you see them die?"
 Aiel just looked at his brother with a slight grimace, and Jules widened his eyes.
 "No, no!" the seven-year-old looked up at his brother and stepped back. "Stop it. You're lying! Where are they!?" He looked around the clearing before sucking in a breath to shout.
 "Jules Zakeriah Deveraux." A feminine voice said flatly, and the pink-haired boy looked up at his older sister Analee.  "As much as I wish we were, we're not lying... They're not around here."
 Faye had sunk to her knees in the grass and was blankly staring at her pale hands in the night, feeling the hot tears slide down her cheeks and drip off of her nose. She suddenly felt an overwhelming emptiness, terror even, and she couldn't tell whether it was hers or Jules's, they were linked in such a way. When she heard someone sit next to her, she looked at Deevon and hugged him tightly as he put his arms around her.
 "Who did it!?" Jules yelled finally. A temper ran through the family, and a short one at that.  "I'll kill them!  I swear!"
 "No... Not much you can do anyhow." Aiel said with a shrug. "They're just as gone as Mom and Dad, technically."
 "But-but... They-" Jules's voice cracked and he looked down.  "They... they..." He wiped his eyes and stared at his oldest brother.  "Well what do we do now!? We don't have a house!"
 Aiel offered a small smile and ruffled his brother's pink hair. "Hey, we got this. We'll be fine. Okay, Jules?"
 Jules gave a sigh and sat down. "I'm... I'm tired..."
 "The fire department's there." Deevon said, stroking Faye's hair until she relaxed. A short while later Aiel, then the rest of the children, heard the sirens.
 "That hearing of yours," Aiel stated, "It's sure something else."
 "We should get some sleep," Analee stated, looking up at the sky through the trees. "The shed's cleared out, I see.  Good job."  She patted Jules's head, and would have done the same to Faye if she were in reach.  "We can sleep there tonight, then in the mornin', we'll go and..." She cleared her throat, "See what's all left..."
 Aiel nodded, looking Analee and she shrugged before walking towards the metal shed, ducking to get in.
 Aiel looked down at his brother. "Come on," He said, smiling and standing up, "let's go and get some rest, m'kay?"
 "You're probably tired from yelling so loud the whole state can hear you, anyways." Deevon said, standing up and carrying a sleeping Faye.

 They went inside, though the two older brothers were unable to sleep well, and did their best to rest for the next day.