You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2

Chapter 5: Grassy Knoll Conspiracies

For those of you that just got update notifications: It was just editing. The only reason you got a notification was because I had to add in another chapter to keep the length from being too big. Still, you're welcome to go back and look at the changes :)

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The last thing I expected when Five, Diego, the woman—whose name I had learned was Lila—and I returned to Elliott's place of residence was to be greeted with the barrel of a shotgun. On instinct, I stepped out in front of my younger brother, shielding most of him, as Elliott emerged from the shadows, shaking slightly while his weapon stared us down. Surely, the presence of two new people wasn't any more comforting after... whatever it was that got him so shaken up.

"Where did you get the film?" he demanded, his eyes primarily darting from Five to myself and back again. "'The Frankel Footage'. The truth this time."

"You know this lunatic?" Diego asked quietly as the man in question slowly inched closer to us.

"New acquaintance," Five sighed. "He's harmless."

"Are you sure about that?" Lila's voice wavered slightly, but I couldn't blame her. Her first experiences with our family hadn't exactly been the friendliest.

"Are you, or are you not, an enemy of the people?" Elliot screamed, blinking rapidly.

My brothers' and my gazes fell to each other, genuinely contemplating the question for a moment. We couldn't exactly say we weren't because, technically, that was a lie, but our intents certainly weren't to hurt harmless citizens.

"Such an open-ended question, yeah," Diego muttered.

"Really depends on the people."

"And the circumstances," I added. Clearly, that wasn't the answer Elliott was hoping for, because his hostility only grew the closer he managed to get to us.

"You move one more muscle, I will blow your brains out." He really was trying his best to intimidate us, but all threats just fell on deaf ears. We'd taken out far worse people than Elliott, and the three of us seemed to understand the moment we took his weapon away from him, he'd lose the sudden burst of bravery he was currently riding.

"You want to take this or should I?"

"Nah, we've got this," I assured Diego lowly. "You ready for a tiny jump?"

"Always."

In a literal flash, Five and I blinked up to Elliott, startling him into firing the round he had loaded on the shotgun. Immediately after it went off, I slapped my hands down on his shoulders, just enough to cause him to flinch, which allowed Diego to step forward and snatch the gun from his hands. Once the man in front of me seemed to come to, I whipped him around and pointed an accusatory finger toward him, causing him to lurch his head back.

"I think you'll find it wise not to point a gun at my brother ever again." I moved my eyes from Five to Diego, who were both staring at me with slight concern. "Either of them." Lila's sputtering directed me to turn and look at her. She had her hands raised up slightly, as though she needed to surrender, and she couldn't seem to pick which one of us to look at.

"What the hell just happened?" She still managed to laugh, even though she seemed genuinely terrified.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," I shrugged. "Now, since the film has obviously been developed, we should watch it—figure out whatever the hell we're supposed to see."