SINBOUND

IV

SNAP.

CRUNCH.

SNAP.

SNAP.

CRUNCH.

"Stop chewing so loud, Elio."

"No fuck off, Carlo. You're the one taking photos of them very loudly. Like, dude, turn your damn phone to silent! You'll wake them both up."

"Don't blame me, they look cute. Plus, we came up here to wake them up. And we're failing pretty miserably."

"So what? You want photos of random cute kids sleeping on your phone? That's creepy! Who even are they? I thought dad was going on an emergency business meeting. Instead he came back with two randos."

Somebody poked my cheek. Again.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

Po- I grabbed the hand just as it was about to touch my face, tightening my hold around Ares with the other arm.

"Oh. She's awake!"

I opened my eyes to two unfamiliar boys hovering over us. We were now in a bedroom, a very bland one might I add. Ares was still snuggled into my side and I couldn't help but wonder how we got here.

One of the boys had black, wavy hair and olive skin. He looked older than the other, tattoos visible under his white T-shirt and black shorts. He had many rings on and his eyes, the shade of green both me and Ares had. And I suppose our 'father.'

The other was much younger, but maybe a year older than me. He had a big goofy grin on his face and his hair was dark brown, and disheveled. His eyes were also green and you could see some tattoos scattered across his body, but nothing as extreme as this other guy. His ears were pierced with studs and he had a chain around his neck, also wearing a variety of rings with some chain bracelets.

"What the hell?" I groaned.

They quickly took a step back, clearly realizing they were too close.

"Hi. Dinner is ready! You are so pretty. And you look exactly like our dad for some reason. Are you some cousins or family members we didn't know about? Wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, our dad asked for you to bring us downstairs to eat dinner. Wait no...that was wrong. For us to bring you guys downstairs! For dinner. If I didn't mention that already." The younger one blabbered, stumbling over his own words.

"If you didn't understand him through his constant ranting, my father would like you both to join us for dinner. We'll lead you down. I apologize for Elio here." said the older and I nodded my head, shaking Ares awake.

I muttered in his ear a quick explanation as his gaze fleeted to the two unfamiliar men in this room, and he nodded.

"Let's go!" exclaimed the overly hyper one, Elio.

I quickly looked in the mirror and fixed my hair to make myself look the most presentable I could be but it was no hope as my curly hair was all tangled. I threw it into a messy bun and fixed Ares' curls as we walked to make them look less disheveled. We walked through long halls with expensive paintings lining them, the marble floor screaming wealth. I almost felt bad to walk on it with dirty shoes.

Soon we arrived at the dining room, where all conversations stopped as soon as one of the boys opened the door. They took their seats and I looked around the table.

At the head of the table was Alessandro. Next to him on the right side sat Amari. On the left side sat the older boy who led us down here. There was an empty seat next to Amari and then across from that seat sat the younger boy, Elio who led us here. Next to the empty seat was a boy who was identical to Elio. Then, there was two empty seats next to one another.