Before You Go | A Prequel

2.2 | The Visit

"T...,"

-"T...,"

"O...,"

-"O..."

"M..,"

-"M..,"

The siblings' spelling session was cut short by the chiming tune that carried through the corridors and into the kitchen of Floyd Manor.

"Well that was fast," Nico murmured as he tied off the last of the trash bags. He'd finished going through the pantry, as well as the refrigerator, and amidst cleaning out all the empty boxes and spoiled produce, he discovered their food supply had dwindled even more than he'd realized. And with each item he called out (or spelled out) to his baby sister, he could almost feel the stinging zap from the wallet in his back pocket.

The doorbell chimed for a second time, and Nico groaned as he picked up two of the bags, both of which were heavier than he'd expected. The white plastic sides bulged and poked with the utterly stomach-turning threat of mystery-trash-juice waiting to splatter onto a freshly mopped floor. Well maybe not freshly mopped, but recently mopped enough so that Nico didn't want to have to do it again, not today.

"M!!??" Ellie prompted him again. She followed as he walked down into the living room then into the foyer, trash in tow.

"M, A...," he sat the bags down by the door, "T, O—,"

-"Waait!"

Nico unlocked the door and opened it with a roll of his eyes. But his annoyance was quickly thwarted by relief as he was met with the already smiling face of his best friend, Charlie Robinson.

An eyebrow cocked up, and Charlie's smile pulled into a smirk, "You called me all the way up here to take out your trash?"

Nico huffed a scoff as he blinked, "No. No, I-I can manage the trash, thank you."

Charlie let out a chuckle as he sauntered inside, both thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. Nico closed the door behind him.

"Hey... Lee...," Charlie trailed off as he shook his head at the six year old who squinted up at him looking most unfriendly, "Not... Leena?"

"Not Leena," said Nico.

"I'm not Leena! I'm Ellie!" she asserted.

"Of course. Ellie. I'm sorry. I'll remember next time," he extended his hand, "Forgive me?"

The child's face scrunched in a scowl as she seemed to size up both Charlie and his apology.

"Ellie, be nice," chided Nico.

A reluctant 'Yes' was finally grumbled as she shook the tips of Charlie's hand in truce.

He smiled, "Thanks."

-"Yeah, yeah."

"Hey," Nico sent a pointed look, "Don't end up at timeout instead of the store."

The girl's expression pinched, and she turned on her heels with a 'hmph'. Nico shook his head as he faced Charlie again, "Are you sure that you're gonna be able to—,"

"It's fine," Charlie laughed, "I swear. My little cousins are exactly the same way. I'll manage." His chocolate eyes conveyed an earnest assurance, but suddenly widened as they looked past Nico, to the carnage that had become of the living room, "The real question is can you manage? What happened?"