𝚃𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝: 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙳𝚊𝚠𝚗 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝙸 (𝙳𝙺 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚏 𝚡 𝙽𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒)

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 7

~

𝙵𝙸𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚃𝚁𝚄𝚃𝙷

{𝙹𝙾𝚁𝙹𝙰}

I had just finished getting ready for the day when I went out to my living room. Mum had D's parents over. I smiled their way before goin' over to kiss my mother on the cheek.

"Morning," I greeted.

"Hi, sweetie," mum smiled. "Hope you're hungry. I made a big spread for brunch."

I chuckled before going over to greet Mr. T and Mrs. C.

"Hey, baby," Mrs. C greeted.

"Ya'll hangin' out today?" I asked them.

"Yeah," Mr. T responded. "Just to try and get our mind off some things."

"What's going on?"

"D called them," mum said.

I looked between them with furrowed eyebrows.

"They're extending their trip," Mrs. C continued. "Mani caught a bug, and they wanna wait until she feels better before they travel back."

Mani's sick?

Something about that didn't feel right to me. Vampire's don't get sick. And the story would've been flipped if she turned D while they were away.

"He told us not to worry," Mr. T said, "but he sounded a little off..."

"I'm sure they're okay," mum said sympathetically. "If something were really wrong, they would've hightailed it back here already."

She then looked to me, her eyes relaying the unspoken request to not worry. But I couldn't help but to worry.

After excusing myself, I headed out. I drove to the Knowles estate and got there in record time. Anxiety filling me, I rang the doorbell, only to be "greeted" by Mani's other sister, Courtney. She eyed me warily, me just getting straight to the point.

"Is it true?" I asked.

"Hello, Jorja," she sarcastically smiled. "How are you?"

"Listen...just tell me, straight up..."

"Jorja?" I heard from behind her.

I looked to see D comin' to the door. Relief washed over me before I looked to Courtney.

"They came back a couple weeks ago," she explained. "But we didn't want to alarm anyone."

I released a breath as D brought me in for a tight embrace. Once I came in, he led me to the living room. I couldn't even get two steps in before Courtney stood in front of me.

"Close enough," she said.

I furrowed my eyebrows before sizin' her up.

"What's your problem?" I asked her.

"Coco," D said, "chill...it's alright..."

She gave me the once-over before finally stepping aside. When she did, I did the best I could not to audibly gasp.

There Mani was, looking unnaturally thin and flushed. Her eyes were droopy, and every movement she made was weak and frail, including her smile towards me.

My face fell in empathy as I sat next to her, her covered in a giant quilt as she leaned more into D's embrace.

"Hey..." she greeted.