A Slender Child

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

In a normal household, when you received visitors, they would arrive at your front door and politely knock or ring your doorbell.

In a normal household you'd go to the door, open it with a smile - whether you were happy to see them or not - and invite them in.

In a normal household there would be a moment of greetings and polite "hi, how are you?"s and "you look well"s that were exchanged.

But that was a normal household. If there was one thing I'd learned from living with the Slender man, it was that normal didn't exist for me anymore.

There was no knock on the door - our guests suddenly appeared in the middle of our living room, nearly giving me a heart attack despite the fact that I was expecting them. Slendy groaned in a way that begged, 'kill me now.'

The were no polite greetings, but rather loud yelling.

"OH MY GOD YOU'RE PREGNANT!" the Trender man screeched. He grabbed my shoulders and held me at arms length while he looked me over with an almost mother-like concern.

Splendor man clapped his hands together and laughed like a little boy who'd found his favorite toy. "Wow! Who would've thought our little Slendy would be a daddy!" he squealed.

Slendy raised his brow. "Little?" he growled.

Splendy giggled and wrapped his arm around his younger brother. "Yep, widdle baby brother, I'm happy to say that you're finally growing up," he snickered.

Slendy gave his polka dotted suit clad brother a hard shove. "Get off me you rainbow spotted, empty-headed, over enthusiastic fungus," he complained with a hiss. "And speaking of growing up Splendor, maybe you should try acting your own damn age for once!"

Meanwhile Trendy had swept me up in hug. "This is sooooooo fabulous!" he nearly sang. "Is it a boy or a girl? Did you pick a name yet? When's the big day?" he started firing off questions.

"Trender," Slendy sighed as he finally managed to peel his second oldest brother off of him, "give her a moment to answer before you ask the next question." He walked over swiftly and pulled me from the Trender man's arms and into his own, almost like he was protecting me. That made me giggle.

"Unknown gender, no name yet, and mid November," I answered evenly. I shot Slendy a look that said, 'I've got this.' I smiled reassuringly. He sighed and pressed a long pale finger against his temple.

His brothers irritated him to no end, and I knew it. He would have happily went another couple centuries without the grace of their company and not shed a tear. He was actually doing quite well today - I was impressed. The last time I'd seen these three in the same room, Slendy and Trendy were already wrestling on the floor by this point. Slendy was trying. He really was trying for me.

"Mid November?" Splendy exclaimed, "Why that's only three months from now!"

I smiled and rested my hand on top of my belly. As if on cue, the little being growing bellow my navel nudged against my hand. "Yep."

Trendy put his hands on his hips and shot Slendy a distrustful look. "And we're only just now finding out?"

Slendy shocked me by smiling, but it was forced and devoid of humor. "Surprise," he said monotone.

Trender scoffed. "Thanks," he drawled sarcastically.

"Sky?" Splendor asked me quietly as the other two bickered.

"Hm?"

"Um... Have you... had an ultrasound done?" he asked. I was startled to see that the normal grin he always had plastered to his face had slipped. It only took me a second to realize that the same thought had occurred to him that had occurred to Slendy when I'd first told him that I was pregnant.

I smiled warmly at him. Despite Slendy's feelings of irritation towards his brother, I actually liked the tall, goofy man. He had a certain... care free, child-like innocence about him. It was almost contagious. "Yes. Would you like to see pictures? There's a really cute picture of its face," I told him.

His face lit back up in the way that I was used too. As I'd figured out with my boyfriend, 'face' was the magic word here. "Oooh! Yes, yes please!" he cheered.

I grinned and walked into the bedroom to grab the pictures. Behind me I could hear Trendy once again begging Slendy to wear something more fashionable than that 'horribly old and outdated suit.' He apparently did this every time the brothers saw each other.

"You've got to set a better visual example for Junior," Trendy scolded.

"I like my suit, thank you very much," a miffed Slendy growled in reply.

I walked back in the room and laughed.

Trender turned to me. "Sky hun, help me out here," he begged.

I grinned and shook my head, then tugged on Slendy's jacket lapel playfully as I walked by. "I like his suit too," I said. Slendy smiled at me and Trendy glared.

I handed the pictures to Splendor, who was now sitting on the couch, his beady black eyes wide and excited like a kid on Christmas. Inwardly I chuckled. He was so easily pleased.

"Awwwwww!" he sighed. Trender was at his side in a second, peering over his shoulder. He too cooed over the pictures.

Slendy put a hand on my shoulder and looked down at me with a loving smile. I returned the look and put my hand over his. "See, it's not so bad, is it?" I said.

He smiled ruefully. "Well YOU certainly seem to be handling it better this time," he said, no doubt recalling my outburst the last time I'd met his brothers. "I'm not sure how much longer my patience can hold out though little one." He grimaced.

I got up on my the tips of my toes and have him a quick kiss. "Frankly, I'm amazed you've lasted this long." I shot a quick glance at the two oldest Slender boys. Over from the couch Trendy could be heard musing aloud about all the infant clothes he was going to design for us, while Splendy started singing, "Baby," by Justin Bieber.

Slendy face palmed. "Splendor, there are trillions of songs that have been performed throughout the ages, so why... in the name of God... are you SINGING JUSTIN BIEBER?"

"Hey! He has a nice voice!" Splendy objected.

"Then leave the singing to him and keep your mouth shut!" Slendy yelled.

Trendy shook his head with a tsk-tsk. "Haters," he mumbled disapprovingly.

Slendy growled in frustration.

I sighed. This was going to be a LONG weekend