The Outsiders (ON HIATUS)

Chapter Three - Years Gone Bye

     It had been another three years since anybody had heard anything out of him, but that didn't mean the Duke family was about to let their guard down. They knew much better. Just look at what happened last time they stopped paying attention, even for a mere day. Jack Duke was actually becoming a bit paranoid. Since nothing had happened for three years, he was constantly in fear that he would strike at any given moment. Nanny would try to make him calm down, but he began having hallucinations. He was scared of everything. Even ten-year-old Colton tried to help his father, but nothing worked. Eventually, Jack Duke ended up committing suicide.

     At his funeral, Colton stood by the casket. He shook hands with people, hugged people, and nodded his head as everybody told stories of his father. Anybody would've said that Colton looked like Jack did at Beverly Duke's funeral six years ago, only younger of course. The sight actually made elderly men and women tear up. Imaging Colton as Jack and Jack as Colton, it was just an extremely somber sight. Seven-year-old's Trevor and Mason stood next to their six-year-old sisters, Hanley and Jaylen. Nanny would stand there behind them, blending in with the crowd. Jack's suicide was by gunshot, therefore his deceased body was not the most pleasant thing in the world to look at-- so the casket was closed.

     Later on that same day, after the five small Duke children had laid their father to rest beside their mother, everybody made their way back to the family home. With the entire family gathered around in the living room, the children sitting in the floor at the feet of Nanny, and the court judge standing at the front of the room, Jack Duke's will and final testament were read. As the judge read through the entirety of the thing, some people sighed and nodded happily, some slightly gasped when their name wasn't called for something they wanted, and some just obviously did not give a care in the world and were really only there for the pie. When the middle-aged man reading had reached the final noted thing on the paper, he turned toward the five children with a look of slight shock on his face.

In his official voice he read, "As my last testament, I leave my estate and everything on it to my children. If they would request assistance from the nanny, Miss Mary Jane Albarn, that should also be allowed in the court of law."

     Almost every head in the room turned to face the children. Obviously none of them understood what was happening, but Nanny sure did. Many people gasped in shock and exasperation. The people who didn't care stood from their seats and entered the kitchen for a slice or two of pie. Then somebody spoke up-- it was Nanny.

Her strongly-accented voice broke through the crowd, "Now you people should be ashamed of yourselves! Blaming these poor, innocent children just because you didn't get what you wanted! This is probably the reason he gave it to the children, because none of you are worthy of having anything to do with this property. If you'll just excuse yourselves to the kitchen for some refreshments, that'd be grand." And with that, she turned away to look at the children.

"Now kids, I want you all to go to your rooms. If you want something to eat, tell me now and I will get it for you. But do not talk to anybody, understand?" Nanny asks them.

     The five of them nod their heads in understanding. Nanny then walks into the kitchen to attempt to calm a couple of people who are fighting over the pie knife. You can just see that not ending pretty.

     Colton stands up first, which means that his four younger siblings follow his lead of course. Then he marches his little row of ducklings straight down the hall and drops the girls off in their bedroom, and the boys in their own. But instead of doing as he normally would and shutting himself up to play video games, he sits outside in the hall. It's a good thing he stayed there, too. Because something ugly, and something mean decided to make its way toward the youngest Dukes that night. It didn't make it to its final destination, of course, all because big brother Colton saved the day.

     Nanny made her way down the hall about twenty minutes later, exhausted after battling with the family members. They had all left, and a good thing too. What Nanny saw when she turned the corner into the hall was quite a gruesome sight. Colton was sitting Indian-style in the middle of the hall, looking straight ahead. He was covered in a black substance of some form, which was also all over the walls and floor. There in front of the boy, however, was the body of a snake. To Nanny, it looked like any ordinary garden snake. But to Colton, the thing spoke. It spoke in a very tempting voice. It told him to kill everybody, and then kill himself. But he knew better than to believe anything that a snake told him. He made it seem like he was about to enter his brothers' room, but instead turned at the last minute and slammed him foot down onto the serpent's head. Once he had him pinned to the floor, Colton realized that his fingernails were like daggers. Upon noticing this, he stabbed the snake multiple times with his knife-like nails. That snake was no more once Colton Duke was finished with him. He looked back down at his fingernails, and saw that they were no longer in points. This slightly shocked him. Nanny knew it would be only a matter of time before something like this happened, so she wasn't much shocked about the snake. She used her own abilities to clean up Colton and the mess he had made, including the dead snake body.

     But this little incident wasn't the last of the strange happenings with the Duke children. Not at all, because just two weeks later, there was small mishap involving a stove top and a specific seven-year-old Mason Duke. Nanny had been preparing supper when somebody had knocked on the front door. She wiped her greasy hands on her apron and made her way to answer the door. Little did she know that Mason had wandered into the kitchen to ask what was for supper, and decided to see for himself when he couldn't find Nanny. That child pulled a skillet full of boiling hot grease onto his small body, but not a single inch of skin was burned. Nanny rushed back into the kitchen after hearing the loud bang of the heavy skillet hitting the floor. To think that a twenty-pound iron skillet full of boiling grease hadn't harmed a seven-year-old boy at all was nearly impossible to believe. Well, it would've been to anybody other than Nanny.