The Syndicates

Fifteen

Skylar
Who knew folding laundry could be a stress reliever. Lorelai, Leland and I decided to tackle the mound of laundry that had been sorely neglected the last couple days. We hauled the three baskets up the stairs and to my room where we turned on some Gilmore Girls and got to work.

"I'll be right back." Lorelai says after she successfully folded a whole three towels. Thinking nothing of it, Leland and I continue folding.

Leland finishes her basket quickly, as do I. With Lorelai still not back, we decide to finish hers for her. We do that and she's still not back. "It's been nearly 20 minutes, should we check on her?" Leland asks. I think for a minute. Something occurs to me.

"I will. I think I know where she's gone." I stand carefully trying not to knock over our neat piles of laundry. "Give me five minutes, then come up to the attic." She looks puzzled. "Trust me." I leave the room and walk down the hall. Sure enough I see the stairs to the attic have been pulled down. As I ascend the steep steps that are more like a ladder, I hear thuds of stuff being thrown around.

I peak my head up, hoping not to get hit by anything. When I see the coast is clear, I fully enter to warm attic. Contents of boxes lay in a mess on the floor, I assume from being thrown across the room. At first I don't see her, but I then spot her crumpled in a corner, hidden by some un-thrown boxes. Oh, Lorelai.

I make my way over to her and kneel beside her. My heart aches when I hear her sobs muffled by her hands. "Lore." She turns away from me. "Lorelai, come here." Half against her will, I pull her out of the corner and into a hug. I hug my little sister tighter than I think I ever have.

"It's not fair." She says and she's exactly right. She's seventeen, she shouldn't have to worry about creepy alien things attacking us, or knowing how to fight with old swords, or her family dying for crying out loud. She should be worrying about some stupid boy at her school, thinking about ACT and SAT scores and how she's going to spend her summer. "Like, what is even going on? What are we supposed to do?" I pull away from her, wanting to make sure she hears this.

"In the grand scope of things, I don't know. And there's no way to know. But what we're going to do is take it a day at a time."

"I don't want to be hero." She wipes tears from her face.

"You know, the greatest heroes never asked for it. Most of them, were put into situations that they didn't ask for, but they chose to make the most of it. To use their abilities to fight evil."

"This isn't going to be a 'with great power comes great responsibility' talk is it?" I snort.

"No. I swear." I think for a minute. How to I console her when I don't really know what's going on? "I don't know what tomorrow will hold. To be honest, I don't really know what's going on at all. But what I do know is that we will figure it out. We'll face what ever this is and we're going to do it together. You're never alone, Lore." I laugh. "You're tougher than me and Tori, and you definitely know you act it. But I hope you really believe that. You're capable of more than you think. We all are. We'll get through this." I smile and hug her again. She takes a deep breath, the tears ceasing.

We hear a noise and see Leland has joined us. Right on time. Without saying anything, she grabs both of us in a big bear hug. After a minute I pull away. "Alright, we've got some Netflix to watch and some junk food to eat."

"I second that." Lorelai says, now smiling. Leland hops up excitedly.

"Ooh, I'll get the pop-tarts."

Three baskets of laundry and two episodes of Gilmore Girls later I pull two blankets off my bed and drape them over a sleeping Lorelai and Leland. I'll leave them here on the floor, I don't mind. I check my phone, no notifications. It's later than I thought too.

My thoughts stray to my family on the road, who hasn't called back yet. I have to almost slap myself to keep myself from worrying. "It won't do them or you any good." I say quietly to myself. I think about curling up in the floor next to the girls and calling it a night when I hear a soft knock at the door. Daniel pops his head in and I quickly put a finger to my mouth so as to keep him from waking the girls. I get up and and shut the door quietly behind me.

"Heard anything?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"No." Awkward silence.

"What's on your mind Daniel?" I say, suspecting something is bothering him.

"Avery. She texted me and wants to meet. Sky, she knows somethings off. I can't keep lying." He pauses here, a pained expression on his face. "I can't tell her. I physically can't. Not to mention I don't know what to say." He gives a small laugh, but there's panic in his eyes.

"Do you love her?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Then she deserves to know. You owe that to her." He nods his head, probably already knowing these truths.

"Nothing to it, but to do it, right?" He smiles a little.

"Right." I give a small laugh.

"Better get out while my courage is built up."

"We'll give you a pass on the going out alone rule." Besides he's got a knack for hiding in plain sight. He nods and we give a quick goodbye. "I really hope this goes well." I say quietly to myself.

Justin
If I could stop getting phone calls that cause unnecessary amounts of stress and worry of the wellbeing of my family, that'd be great. That's two in one day. Once again I assume the worst: Kiezer made an appearance and is slaughtering my family. Good job, Justin.

It didn't take Dean long to show up and tell his side of the story, or rather Tori's side. At least she told him not to worry. Thanks Hayden.

Between worrying that he might be in danger and Dean feeling like he's out of the loop, we both decided it might not be a bad idea for him to hang here. Strength in numbers, right? He apparently had been planning on it, because he came with a bag packed.

Leaving Dean with Teague, I set off upstairs to find Sky. I quickly find her putting away towels in the bathroom. "Hey you." She looks up and smiles. She looks tired, but still as beautiful as ever.

"Hey. No word?" I shake my head.

"Not yet. I wouldn't worry though, probably won't be too much longer." She nods agreeing. "The girls asleep?"

"Yes, and they need it."

"Rough night?"

"You could say that. But they'll be alright." Finishing with the towels, she puts the basket down and leans against the doorframe. "They shouldn't have to be worrying about this stuff. They should be worried about how they're going to fill they're summers, crushes and what classes to take their senior year." She sighs.

"You're right. I wish I could snap my fingers and spare then from this. Arik and Jordan too." I pause. "But I can't. And you can't. This is what we have to deal with and unfortunately we can't change that. They're tough and they're not as fragile as we think." She smiles a little. "They'll handle it. Probably better then us."

"Ha, you're probably right." She hugs me. "What would I do without you?" The better questions is what would I do without her. I've have a mind to just drop down on one knee right here and now, but I change my mind. There will be a better time later.

Deciding that sleep won't find us for a while, we head downstairs to try and find something on tv. We settle on a cop show, as that's about half of what's on tonight. Sky keeps checking her phone. I wonder if she's waiting on Tori or one of them to text, but then I decide she's just checking the time. After about the hundredth time I finally ask her, "expecting a call from your boyfriend for something?" She slaps me on the arm for my sarcasm.

"No. Daniel went to meet up with Avery to talk."

"Oh, dear."

"Yeah. I'm worried about him."

"He's a big boy now Sky, he can take care of himself." I say half joking, half serious.

"I know. He was just stressed about it." I gently take the phone from her and set down on the other side of me.

"Stop worrying about it. It'll be fine." She nods.

We're finishing that episode when we hear the door. We can see from here that it's Daniel coming into the kitchen. Sky gets up and meets him. I watch them talk and then she hugs him for a while. He turns and heads up stairs and Sky rejoins me. I raise my eyebrows in question. She shakes her head. Not good.

She settles back down next me not giving any details and I decide not to ask. "You want me to talk to him?"

"I think he just needs to be alone tonight." Probably right.

"It'll just take some time." My phone ringing breaks the solemn mood a bit. I grab it off the coffee table. Hayden, finally. Please let everything be ok.
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A/N: Yes, I updated. Hard to believe, right? I'd definitely say that I've been a struggling writer and I'm not totally over it. But that comes with the territory, right? Plus, I've been really busy with graduating high school. 😊😝✌🏻️
I know this chapter was a bit shorter, but sometimes that's necessary. Hope you enjoyed fifteen! Have a good rest of the day!
~Emerald_Parrish💜