The Verlice brothers sat around their dining table at four am, minus the two youngest two. All was silent until Jacob entered, immediately having the attention of everyone in the room.

He only looked at Zayne, who looked at him expectantly. Jacob's face said everything he needed to. They found nothing.

Zayne's right elbow was leaning on the table in front of him, his hand over his mouth and chin. That same hand clenched dangerously hard, as his lips formed a straight line. Somebody wanted to piss him off and they managed to use his sister to do that with.

So somebody wanted to die.

He nodded once in understanding at Jacob, who looked down. Callan stood next to Zayne's left, arms crossed and face pissed off. Brayden sat down on the other end of the table, opposite Zayne, looking stressed. Ezra and Silas sat next to each other at the side of the table on Zayne's right. They each had coats on, bar Zayne, to warm them up from being outside.

"Fucks sake," Ezra muttered, slamming his fist on the table, not meaning to do it so hard that it shook it.

Silas sighed and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his cigarettes and lighter.

"Silas," Brayden scolded, disappointed at his brother's habits. "What?" Silas scoffed, bringing the cigarette up.

The cigarette got closer and closer, before Zayne intervened, not at all interested in having Silas stress smoke. "Silas," he warned, making Silas pause and look at him.

Zayne clicked his finger and held his hand out, waiting for the cigarette to be placed in it. Silas handed it to him, very reluctantly and angrily shoved his lighter back into his pocket.

"Thank you," Zayne curled his fingers around the small item and brought it closer to him. He brought it to his own lips and got out his own lighter. Cupping the lighter around the cigarette, he lit it, inhaling the toxic.

He placed the lighter on the table and took the cigarette out, puffing out the smoke. Fuck.

He leaned back in his chair, taking another drag; Silas scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Callan, I want you to check all the security from now and yesterday. See what you can find. Take someone with you to help," Zayne ordered. Callan followed his orders, not wasting any time.

Zayne turned to his three other brothers, "do you guys have any idea who it was? Has anybody spoke to her or been close?"

"Why're you asking us? You're the one who has fucking eyes on her twenty four seven. Aren't you on top of everything?" Ezra sneered defensively, taking Zayne's question as an accusation. This was not his fault. He would never let anyone harm Brynn-

Zayne stood up from his seat and rested his hands on the table. "Ezra, would you like to watch your tone. I am merely asking you a question," Zayne warned, although understanding his brother's defensiveness. He, however, will not take kindly to being spoken to in any other tone that is not respect.

Ezra leaned back into his seat and sighed, "no. There was no one."

Zayne hummed, taking another drag. It was back to tense silence. You could practically hear the knuckles cracking from clenching so hard and Brayden's leg was bouncing violently.

"I'm gonna go check on her," Jacob murmured from where he came in. He was no longer able to handle the tense atmosphere that the brothers emitted.

He made his way upstairs to her room, stopping in the doorway of it. Her door was to be kept open right now.

Brynn no longer had the heated blankets, now back to her appropriate body temperature. The only thing on her was her covers and blankets, which were cocooning her, giving her no room to move. Swaddled like when she was a baby, courtesy of Brayden.

Jacob smiled, even wider seeing Zach and Zaiden on either side of her, asleep. They both kept their distance, about a foot away from their sister, but each had a hand on her.

Zach's hand was holding hers, which was resting on the sheets. Brynn was facing him. And Zaiden's rested on the crease of her elbow, clinging on for dear life.

He wished the scene before him could be so bittersweet. Brothers just wanting to be close to their little sister. The couldn't be though.

Not with the handguns behind each brothers backs, ready for them to grab just incase.

Just incase.

---

The blaring of Brynn's alarm pierced through her ears. She shot up, reaching over for her phone to turn the alarm off. She was shocked to see it was seven thirty. Usually she was up far earlier than that. Her alarm was only set just in case she ever needed it. She didn't think she ever would.

She rubbed her eyes to get the gunk out and clear her vision. Once it cleared, she noticed that her bedroom door was wide open. Didn't she close that last night?

Maybe Callan or Brayden left it open when they came in.

Her covers were also nearly suffocating the lower half of her body. It took a while to properly shuffle out of them and when she did, and got off the bed, she winced at the pain that shot from her feet.

Going to the bathroom, she sat on the toilet to fully inspect them. They were really red and some of the skin was really hard. What happened to them?

She took a cloth from underneath the sink and rinsed it under the tap, carefully bringing it up to the sore skin and hissing when it made contact.

When her feet were as clean as she could get them, the entire cloth was rinsed and left to dry on the radiator. Brushing her teeth was next and then getting dressed. Once the school uniform was on, she, very slowly, rolled on socks, the only real pain being noticeable when she slipped her shoes on.

She got an idea. Going to her sock box, she pulled out some fluffy black ones and took the socks she had on off. The fluffy ones were slipped on and the plain ones were placed over, making the sting much more bearable.

Now she was dressed, and ready and the time only read seven fifty seven am. About the time Brayden likes them to be down for breakfast.

She did as she usually would, coming down to the kitchen only stopping when she got to the entrance. All her brothers were there, Brayden, Silas, Zach and Zaiden on the bar stools with their backs facing her.

Zayne stood on the other side of the island with his hands spread out on it, looking serious as always. Callan was on the side of the island, arms crossed and listening to whatever they were talking about and Ezra was getting a glass of water from the tap. Even Mika and Jacob were there, leaning next to the sink. The room smelled of cigarette smoke, ashtrays with cigarette ends in them all over the island.

They looked really serious, creating very unnerving energy around the room. Mika, Jacob and Zayne were all in their usual suits, except without their blazers and their sleeves rolled up to their elbows. The rest of them were still in their pyjamas. Brynn furrowed her face, wasn't it a school day?

Callan was the first to acknowledge the girl's presence. He was fully focused on Zayne until his eyes trailed to the entrance where she was. He didn't comprehend that she was there at first, not paying any mind and refocusing on Zayne.

But something clicked in him as he whipped his head back to her with wide eyes. "Brynn!"

Everyone turned their heads far too fast. Bar stools spun around, Ezra's glass was put down and everyone's bodies were upright and tense. The girl's face furrowed further, "it is Tuesday, isn't it?" She felt a little stupid, it was, wasn't it?

She brought her phone up and clicked the side button to turn the screen on, the date read Tuesday. Most of them looked at each other.

"Yeah it is, sweetheart," Brayden got up onto his feet but stayed where he was, playing with his hands in front of his stomach.

Brynn looked towards Silas, Zach and Zaiden next to him, "how come you're not dressed?" They opened their mouths but nothing came out, so they looked towards one another.

Brayden spoke for them, "their classes start later today, hun" Brynn didn't remember them having later classes on a Tuesday.

Jacob then chose to speak up, "you know what, it's a while before their classes start, why don't I take Brynn to school?" He came around the island and smiled at the girl whilst she inspected the rest of everyone's faces.

Ezra took a swig of his water, his gaze entirely on her. Silas, Zaiden and Zach made their way out, presumably to get ready and Brayden and Callan gave each other unidentified looks. Mika leaned back against the counter, arms crossed and eyes focused down on the floor.

Zayne was the last she looked at. He was just staring at her blankly. Eyes narrowed, arms crossed and lips in a tight line. What was going on?

"Why don't you go get your bag, honey?" Jacob blocked her view of all of them. She looked up at him and gave a small smile. "Okay."

She did as said, including brushing her hair, coming down to Jacob by the front door, now with his blazer on. The second she stepped off the staircase, Brayden came out from the kitchen with something wrapped in tinfoil and some more stuff in his other hand.

"Some breakfast, bambina," he handed her the wrapped thing. It was warm, meaning it was probably toast. She really thought she could get away with it today.

"I'm sorry. I was up late this morning, otherwise I would have made pancakes and woken you up. Here's your lunch," he tugged her bag off her back and shoved said lunch in there, a sandwich, bottle of water, crisps and a banana.

He zipped it back up and readjusted it, fixing the straps. Brynn tried to analyse him; he was acting weird.

"And if you need me at all, you know to just text, and make sure to eat your breakfast and lunch and I'm sorry for not being up properly this morning for you, I swear I'll make it up to you tonight, we'll watch a movie with loads of treats," he was still frantically tugging at the backpack straps to fix them and playing a bit with pieces of her hair that fell on her face, moving it behind her ears and over her shoulders, "and I'll-"

"Brayden," she stopped him. "It's alright, you did nothing wrong. Seriously, you're amazing. Are you feeling alright?" she asked, concerned. His face looked tired. He hadn't shaved in a while, so some stubble was noticeable and he had bags under his eyes. Was he alright?

He paused and furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm fine. Why? Is something wrong with you?" He placed the back of his right hand on her forehead, then to her two cheeks. She reached up to bring it down.

"I'm fine, Brayden," her assurance wasn't convincing him.

"Are you sure? Because we can keep you off today? Have a movie day? You can get back into your pyjamas-"

"Brayden," Brayden's attention was drawn to Jacob who still at the front door, still waiting. He had his hands in his trouser pockets and was giving Brayden a look.

Brayden nodded and turned back to Brynn. "Okay," he whispered, before bringing her into a tight hug. "I love you," he kissed the top of her head and squeezed a little harder.

"Okay, now go before I change my mind and force you to spend the day watching movies with me," he chuckled and gave her a gentle shove in Jacob's direction. She chuckled.

Jacob placed a hand on her shoulder and un-clicked the lock on the front door. "Come on then, let's go."

They exited, stepping out onto the driveway, and into his white car. Throughout the car ride, Jacob kept making sure she was eating whilst simultaneously holding conversation. Brynn came to a conclusion during their car ride. He's cool too.

But despite how cool he was, she still did her best to avoid eating. She'd pretend to eat pieces then hid them back into the tinfoil. When she was "finished", it was folded up and tucked it into her left pocket to throw away at school.

They got to school and Jacob parked right at the front, in Silas' usual space. As she turned to thank Jacob for the lift, he face fell when she noticed that he had already got out the car. Quickly, she got out after him and saw he was still by his door, putting dark sunglasses over his eyes.

She walked to the hood of the car, "thanks for driving me, Jacob." He looked at her weirdly, "you kidding me? Anytime."

He got closer and brought his arm around her shoulders, walking nearer to the front entrance. "Have a good day, work hard or something," he said, giving her a slight judge to the entrance doors.

Once going through them, she gave one last wave to Jacob, who returned with one of his own before fully entering.

When the doors closed, she checked where she was on her phone. Having a photo of it was so much easier than carrying around and using the actual paper. This way, she wasn't at risk of having it snatched like some people did. She'd seen so many people snatch someone's timetable because they had it out in front of them and she did not want to experience it first hand.

English.

The classroom was close but when she got to the open door, it was empty except from Mr Laurier who was sat in his desk chair on his phone. She backed up and out of sight from the doorway entrance, not wanting to be the first one there. It could lead to having to have a one-on-one chat with the teacher and she was just not ready for that.

She leaned against the lockers on the right of the doorway, now completely out of Mr Laurier's line of version.

She'll just wait until somebody else goes in. Quite a few people were in the corridors, but none were in her class.

Nearly ten minutes later, it was fifteen minutes before all classes started and she needed to be in a classroom and she was going to do just that before a voice stopped her.

"Brynn?"

Whipping her head up at the sudden voice, she saw Sid stood about three feet in front of her. She straightened herself up against the locker.

"Sid, hi," she greeted back with the best smile she could, although it physically pained her face to do so. My brothers don't want me talking to you.

"Hey, so how've you been?" He kept looking around the corridor like he was expecting something, not seeming at all interested in talking to her.

"Yeah, I'm good," she nodded and looked around like he did. Maybe she was missing something.

"How are you?" He turned his head back to her when she asked. "Oh, me?"

Who else would she-

"Been good. Say how's Zaiden?" Why do you want to know?

"I don't know, why don't you ask him yourself?"

He chuckled nervously, "how come you don't know how he is? You're his sister, you live with him."

"Well, I'm sorry I don't know." she shuffled uncomfortably. Being in a class alone with a teacher didn't sound so bad right now.

He stepped about a foot closer, his face morphed into a much more serious one, almost threatening. She pressed herself up more against the locker, the lock jamming into the back of her blazer and back.

"Well that's a bit inconvenient." For who?

"Oh."

"Hm."

After a five more seconds of tension, she coughed once, "I've got to get to class."

When she stepped to the side to go into the classroom, he did the exact same opposite her. "Class doesn't start for another ten minutes, at least."

"I like to be early."

"Is that why you were stood out here for over ten minutes?"

She gulped, "yes." Sid narrowed his eyes, then softened them after a few seconds. It looked like he'd came out of his tense attitude.

"Sorry Brynn, I just miss talking to him." She nodded steadily in fake understanding.

He still wasn't finished, "can you get him to unblock me?"

Wouldn't he block you for a reason?

"Uhm I don't think so," she answered, unsure on how'd he would react. He swallowed as his features hardened.

"And why not?" He did not sound happy.

"Why are you blocked?" she asked.

He swallowed again and looked around before focusing on her again. His hands rubbed his side pockets on his trousers.

"Oh," he chuckled and cleared his throat," it was just a joke. Between friends. He just forgot to unblock me, so can you-"

Brynn jumped at the hand clasping around her right arm, coming face to face with Aubrey, "Brynn, ready for English?" She didn't look at Sid as she pulled Brynn towards her and they walked into the classroom.

"Jesus, he's so creepy sometimes," Aubrey muttered when they were out of earshot from him. Brynn hummed and made her way to her desk at the back. Aubrey followed her and stood where Penny usually sat.

"Thanks, by the way," Brynn thanked her, Aubrey came just at the right time. The latter smiled, "any time. Their entire bloodline is-"

"Aubrey, not that I'm not enjoying your positive attitude in my classroom, shouldn't you be in your own?" My Laurier asked from his desk, still on his phone.

"Right," Aubrey looked ahead at him, "sorry, sir." She made no move to leave though yet.

Mr Laurier didn't even look like he was listening, still focused intently on his phone. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper. Standing up, he slipped his phone into his trouser pocket and walked around his desk and down the aisle of desks to the two girls.

"Miss Verlice, I have to say, your Macbeth analysis was very impressive. You're a very talented analyser," he placed the sheet down showing all her, now marked, work. At the top in big, red writing was a score.

45/45

"Whoever's at home should be very proud, top score," he tapped the top of the sheet. Would her brothers really be proud of her?

"Thank you," she stopped staring at the sheet and felt her face heat up at the praise. The man smiled and nodded.

When he walked back to his desk, Aubrey leaned down over Brynn's shoulder. "Oh my god. Smart ass," she teased and nudged her head with Brynn's. Brynn huffed, still looking at the sheet, hoping it would never disappear.

"Miss Camber," Mr Laurier's warning voice came from his desk, where he was back on his phone. Aubrey stood straight back up, "sorry, sir."

She looked back down at Brynn, "I'll see you in a bit?" Brynn nodded and Aubrey made her way out of the classroom. She smiled, folding up the piece of work and putting it in her right pocket. Today was starting off good.

---

Not long after Aubrey left, Penny came in, followed by more of our class. Penny said she was proud of her score, as Brynn did with hers. Penny got thirty nine, only missing out on labelling subject terminology.

After English, they had second period, French and then form. Chemistry was third and then it was drama. Today they actually got to be in the studio.

Their teacher, Mr Chanse, told them to get into groups of three, which worked out perfectly for Penny, Aubrey and Brynn. He placed their group in the corner by the giant red stage curtains, which wasn't the best idea because Penny found the costume box behind it.

It was going fine, until Penny's face shot around the curtain giving Brynn and Aubrey near heart attacks with the creepy, witch mask she was wearing.

"Jesus, Penny!" Brynn held a hand over her heart, whilst Penny chuckled with her hand on her knee. She stood back up and went behind the curtain again. Then Penny came back and held another mask up, this time a cows one. "Hey, Aubrey look it's you."

Brynn snorted as Aubrey remained silent before laughing sarcastically with Penny. After a few seconds of her aggressively laughing, her face went back to nothing and she shot up and after Penny behind the curtain.

Class ended, it now being lunch. Penny, Aubrey and Brynn were the last to leave the class, purely because it took them a while to put every costume and prop back into the box.

However, when they actually left, Zach, Zaiden and Silas were waiting outside the theatre block, now in their school uniforms. They all stopped.

Zach saw them, smiled at Brynn and signalled her over with a wave. Aubrey placed a hand on her back, lightly pushing her forward. "I think that's for you." Brynn turned and narrowed her eyes at her.

"Thanks," she turned back to her brothers, who were now all looking in their direction, "I'll meet you guys at the library."

"Are you sure? We don't mind," Penny asked, avoiding looking at the brothers. "I mind," Aubrey cut in, raising her hand in protest.

Penny slapped the back of her head, "ignore her." Aubrey scoffed and walked in the direction of the school's main building, "oh real mature. Haven't heard that one before, original, so funny, amazing, witty, hilari-." Her voice got lower and lower and she walked further away,

"We'll wait for you in the library," she said. Brynn nodded whilst Penny turned around to catch up to Aubrey.

Now that they were gone, her brothers decided to make their way over by themselves. "Come eat lunch with us today, love," Zach was the first to speak. She didn't think he was asking.

They were each looking around a little warily. "Can I not go to the library?" she asked cautiously.

Zach looked towards Silas, the latter answered me. "With us, today."

"Besides, I've missed sitting next to you," Zach said. "Just for today." Something told Brynn it wouldn't be just today.

She nodded, only to get a look from them, "okay."

"Great," Zach held one of her shoulders as they began walking. Sending a message to tell Aubrey and Penny what she was doing, she kept her eyes on her brothers, they wouldn't stop occasionally looking around.

What was going on?

---

She didn't remain out of their sights the entirety of lunch. The entire time, she was forcing her lunch down her throat to avoid their gazes. Their friends tried to speak to them, but they only got a grunt in response.

Then they tried talking to Brynn, which kept her from thinking about what her brothers were doing.

They stayed with her until last period, which they walked her to and waited for her to come out of. The drive home was silent and tense.

Silas parked into his space in the garage and she didn't wait for them to get out. The second the car's engine stopped, she left, walking as fast as she could to the door, hearing fast footsteps following.

The door was already slightly creaked open. This was her chance to sneak in and go to her room.

Yet those plans didn't work out, because the second she entered Callan and Brayden were already there.

Callan was in his suit, except without the blazer and Brayden didn't look like he went to work at all; dressed in a white sweater and black sweatpants.

"Hey, hun. How was your day?" Callan started. Brayden placed his arm around her shoulders and began leading her somewhere. She still didn't understand what was wrong with her brothers today.

She tried to pay no mind to Silas, Zaiden and Zach, whom she knew were all watching from the garage door. "It was good."

She wondered whether or not she should tell them about the English score today.

Would they really care about something so minuscule? It's not like it affected them at all.

"We thought about having an early dinner tonight, does that sound okay?" Brayden asked as he guided us to the dining room.

Having dinner shoved down her throat so soon after lunch did not sound appealing at all, but this early dinner was probably at a convenience of her brothers. And if it helped them and they would prefer it, then she was going to do it. For them.

"That's fine," she told him. He smiled and they were finally in the dining room where Zayne and Ezra were already sat. They sat and when they sat, Silas, Zaiden and Zach made their way in.

Red pasta was in front of each of their spaces as was water and cutlery. In the middle of the table was three big plates of garlic bread. It was always set up like this except hers always included a glass of blackcurrent juice next to it. Nobody else had it, but she did

The siblings ate in relative silence, until half of the garlic bread was gone, which was when Zaiden spoke up. "What's that in your pocket?"

Brynn looked up, wondering who he was talking to- only to realise he was speaking to her.

English work.

"What?" No way did she want to show them

Zaiden raised his eyebrow, "your right pocket." Brynn, at all costs, had to avoid looking down at her right pocket.

"Nothing."

"We can see the paper in your pocket, love," Zach interjected.

She took a new approach, looking down. She could clearly see the paper which was visible over the top, but chose to ignore it. "I don't see anything."

"What's on the paper, sorellina?" Callan clasped his hands over his plate, staring curiously and trying to deduce the situation.

"What paper?"

"Brynn."

"Callan." Callan narrowed his eyes.

Brynn felt something light against her side. Jerking forward slightly, the feeling didn't go away. She turned to her right to see Ezra casually leaning over, his hand creeping closer to her pocket..

She gasped as her eyes shot down to the paper in her pocket. It now had Ezra's tattooed hands on it, grasping it. Quickly going to grab it back didn't work out because he had already took it out and sat back up in his seat.

Brynn scrunched her face in annoyance. Crap.

He unfolded the sheet and narrowed his eyes to read it. His eyes trailed it from top to bottom and went back to the top, where he was probably reading the score.

His eyebrows raised and he tilted his head the slightest bit before looking at Brynn.

"Huh," he hummed and handed it to Callan next to him, who took the paper with no hesitation. He read it the same as Ezra then his eyes widened when he saw the score.

His eyes were filled with something that was nothing short of pride, causing a tiny part of Brynn to feel pride.

"Forty five out of forty five on your English exam?" he asked smiling, tilting his head to the right.

The rest of them all looked at their sister shocked, stood up and went to look at the paper over Callan's shoulder, pointing at things on it. Except Zayne, who just watched.

"Holy shit."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"We're so proud." Brayden.

"I don't even know what half these words mean."

"Top of the class already?" Zayne asked, with a raised eyebrow and Brynn looked over at him, what was the point in hiding the blush now?

"We'll have to put this on the fridge." Callan boasted.

Brynn groaned and rested her elbows on the table, letting her head fall into her hands.

They were so embarrassing.

---

Another load of sick erupted from her throat and into the bathroom sick. Brynn didn't make it to the toilet this time.

I think lunch and dinner were a bit too much, she thought, biting her lip to prevent tears welling up. It hurt.

She dry heaved a few times and eventually stopped after a few minutes. Once she knew there was no more, she turned the tap on to clean the sink and rinse her mouth. The girl needed a proper glass of water after that..

Everyone was asleep at this time, a bit after two am, meaning Brynn could go downstairs undetected if she was quiet enough.

She'd managed to do just that, tip-toeing out of the bedroom hallway and to the top of the stairs. The only light that was on was the chandelier in the main entrance hall and the two silver wall lights on either side of the front door.

She got to the kitchen, the lights turning on when her feet touched the floor, including the ones in the cupboards. And the cupboard with the regular glasses in was right above the stove.

Brynn tilted tilted head looking at it and pursed her lips in thought. The bar stools caught her eye. She'll stand on one of them to get up.

The twelve year old, with difficulty, carried the stool over to the front of the stove and carefully lifted a foot onto it, then did the same with the other foot. She balanced herself then stepped onto the counter, finally able to reach the cupboard.

She opened it and got a glass out, freezing when she heard something in the room.

It was the breeze that came after someone walked. The person was either wearing socks or soft soled shoes because the steps themselves didn't make so much noise. If they were barefoot, Brynn would have heard their skin against the tiles.

Then she felt the presence behind her and gasped and spun around. Her feet caught over her pyjama bottoms and she slipped off the counter as well as dropping the glass.

Closing her eyes and waiting for the impact of the floor to come, it never did. Odd.

She opened her eyes. Instead of being met with the kitchen's cold tiles, She was dangling above the ground by a few feet. She saw a muscled chest, covered in tattoos. The strong chest was connected to grey sweatpants and thick grey socks.

A large arm was wrapped securely around the middle half of her torso, holding her up easily. Brynn reluctantly looked up to the person and was met with Silas' unimpressed look.

His left hand was brought up to show that he was holding the glass she'd dropped. He brought it all the way up and then rose his eyebrow.

He huffed, obviously not amused, and lifted her onto the counter so she was sat on it properly. He placed the glass down next to her, shut the cupboard door and carried the stool back to its place much faster than she brought it.

Brynn picked up the glass to get her water, but Silas snatched it back and put it under the tap himself. When it was filled up, he passed it back to her.

"Thank you," she took a sip, he grunted in acknowledgement.

She shifted off the counter and went to leave. She wasn't stopped so she presumed she was allowed.

"Wait Brynn," Silas called out as she was halfway out. Turning to him, he stepped forward and tapped his hands a few times on the island.

"I just uh-"

Waiting patiently for him to finish, Brynn nervously played with the rim of the glass.

"I- uhm," he wouldn't look at her, just the marble.

"Goodnight."

Brynn smiled faintly, trying not to do it too widely though so he didn't think she was weird.

"Goodnight, Silas."

---

Please praise me for this chapter. I require validation. 🧍‍♀️