Marilyn narrowed her eyes, staring at her ex step-brother, who looked back at them calmly. Now, she realised what had felt so out of place when Neal had opened the door. True, he had given them their ususal greeting, but his smile had been a second too late, and when he saw the triplets, she had seen his confusion in his eyes. She knew that May was right in her descision that Neal could be trusted, but first she wanted to find out exactly how much he knew. So she did that.
"How much do you know?" If May had heard her train of thought, she was sure the girl would have had face-palmed. Or maybe even buried her head deep in the nearest wall.They all experienced some change in mentality or the other- May's patience had gone and jumped off the Mount Everest. Neal looked at Marilyn as if she was crazy, and answered.
"All I know is that you guys were kidnapped a few days ago, that you were already dead when your father arrived with the ransom, that your bodies disappeared from your coffins right before the funeral." He answered frankly. Marilyn winced inwardly, knowing that Neal was not as unfazed as he pretended he was. One part of her, however, wanted to jump up and celebrate the fact that she had finally managed to unnerve her ex step-brother."That's all. I've told you what I know, now tell me what you know."
May was the first one to speak. "We need your help."
"I can help only if you tell me what's going on. Why is Mother saying you're dead when you aren't?"
"Can you close the window?" Sena interrupted, coughing. "I think she's got people searching for us."
Neal sighed before quickly closing all the windows and returned, and sat down. "Now tell me the whole story. Don't leave out a single detail."
The girls shared a few looks of unease before they began removing the hats, caps, scarves, sunglasses and masks they wore. Neal inhaled sharply. He did not know about the triplets, but the others... They had changed. Marilyn's short hair was now light blonde, in contrast to the copper brown she had been born with. Her skin was not fair anymore, instead it was paper-white. Her eyes, however had changed the most. There was no differentiating between the whites of her eyes, her pupils and her irises- they were all a color so dark he almost mistook it for black. Only when the light hit her eyes, was he able to pinpoint that her eyes were actually a very dark amber. Almost like liquid honey, he thought. He stared at her in shock, the gears of his mind spinning as fast as they could, trying to find an explanation for why she had changed so drastically.
"Neal?" May's soft voice broke through the chaos in his head. Looking to his side, he saw her watching him with the same eyes, only, her's had a tint of purple to them. Her hair, which had been a shiny ebony before whichever incident had happened to them, was a cross between dark purple and black. As he glanced at June, he saw that her hair, too had changed colors from black to an bright blue. And he very much doubted that turquoise, orange and caramel brown had been the triplet's original hair colors.
"Neal?" May repeated, sounding irritated. This got Neal thinking. Again. Marilyn winced as the young man spaced out, frowning slightly as he tried to work out what was happening, causing May to look as if she wanted to slap him unconcious. Marilyn grinned, an idea popping into her head. Picking up a thick book- about three inches thick- from the table infront of her, she flung it at Neal's head.
Neal looked up as Sally let out a loud guffaw, just in time for his forehead to greet the book on collision course to his forehead. HIs head flew back from the force, his neck emitting a loud snap. Most of the girls- namely everyone other that Sally and Marilyn, who were busy laughing- watched Neal's unmoving body with bated breath and wide eyes. A few minutes passed before a soft 'tch' was heard. The redhead wrenched his head back into place, rubbing the back of his head as he looked at the girls with a confused expression on his face.
"... I still don't understand." He said simply. Sally doubled over, laughing at the other girls' expressions. Marilyn just shook her head, knowing full well that she was no one to question her ex step-brother's un-normalcy.
"You do realise we haven't even started explaining yet?" Sierra sighed, leaning against Sena, who seemed to have fallen asleep in the midst of the little incident. May just stared at Neal, wondering whether this had been a good idea. Whatever had happened to her and the girls was definately not logical at all, and, strange as it sounded, Neal was a man who loved logic.
"Which part didn't you understand?" June asked, tossing an ice pack at him. Neal finally looked at them.
"For starters, your appearances have changed. And, well, I don't really understand how the heck that explains why people think that you all are dead when you obviously aren't. It doesn't explain why May is cranky either, or why- Mari?"
The blonde was rolling on the ground, clutching her stomach, her frame shaking with silent laughter. Noticing that she was at the center of attention, she sat up, wiping the tears that streamed down her face, her grin seeming permanent on her face. "It's- that cliche line- I just remembered-" She broke off, laughing.
"What cliche line?" June raised an eyebrow at her cousin.
"OH! I know!" Sally squealed. "When Mari asked how much he knew, he said 'that you guys were dead' or something like that!"
"Really, girls?" May's eye twitched. "May I ask why you are remembering this now, and how the hell that is even funny?!"
Sighing, Neal wondered whether the girls had lost their sanity sometime between their 'deaths' and them reaching his house. This is going to be a long night.
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A/N: Hey there people! I'm really sorry for not updating in a long time... And I have excuses too, but since they're all something along the lines of being busy because of school and tests, I'm going to skip that part. Thank you for voting, person who voted (Sorry, I don't know your name...), and thank you for reading, readers! ... I have bad news. I might not update this story for sometime because of exams and the writer's block that seems to be hell-bent on stopping me from writing this story. On the plus side, I might put up another story for which ideas keep flowing in! Thanks for reading! Please read, comment and/ or vote!
