Chapter Seven

A destroyed kitchen and nosy neighbors

Cleaning the kitchen after the chaos was hell on earth. The floor was unrecognizable and almost all of their mother’s furniture was ruined. They had to get a vomit bag for Avery who was dizzy from the overwhelming smell that surrounded them. Eventually, he decided to tell her to just lay down on the couch for the rest of the day from how often she was puking to the point of hysteria. Posy didn’t fair much better but she quickly used a rag to block off her mouth and got to the work of helping him dispose of the boggart’s insides.

“I heard you in my sleep and when I woke up my head was throbbing from how loud you were,” She muttered while scrubbing the counter in a hopeless attempt of making it white again. “I guess it confirms that I’m not only a telepath but the ultimate telepath.”

He opened another trash bag for her to dump the ruined sponge in and handed her a new one. “Being able to hear my thoughts in your dreams will come in handy when we go to the land of the fey.” The bag weighed a ton with all of the broken furniture he was throwing in it. Everything that couldn’t stand without wobbling was too damaged to stay.

She shrugged her shoulders, looking less than enthused by his comment. The counter wasn’t any cleaner than before as she started to go at it again. “There have to be hundreds of fey who have abilities like me and I bet they can bend spoons with their mind too.” A tiny pout had formed on her face as she finished speaking.

Aiden lugged the bag over to the backdoor where the rest of the garbage waited to be taken out. He turned around to look at her pouty face and recognized the look in her eyes. “Are you still upset about that? Posy, you being able to read minds is enough of a superpower that we can take. If you could break metal spoons with a single look I’d have ahead of gray hair from all the stress you would cause.”

“Hey, can you guys talk a little bit lower?” Avery poked her head in, red-eyed from the smells of the boggart and the bleach they were using to clean. “I have a massive headache.”

He hadn’t told their sister about how she initially planned to leave them before the boggart disaster started. They had just shared a look as he helped her lay down on the couch while Posy was distracted retching from the odor. It would be petty of him to snitch on her and he didn’t want to hurt either of his sisters to help the other. So to avoid causing drama he kept his mouth shut and claimed that Avery had been invited to a friend’s house for the evening when Posy asked about the suitcase she had packed.

She seemed to notice that something was up but she focused on chatting with him while they cleaned. Aiden made sure to keep his face neutral when responding to Avery’s request. Deep down he hoped that she would take his pleasantness as a sign that she shouldn’t run off and take a day or two to rest.

“Sorry, Ave,” Aiden replied handing her a bottle of water they had managed to salvage from the fridge. Thankfully it hadn’t been moved in the chaos and its insides were mainly untouched besides the freezer being raided for its fruit pops and ice cream cakes. “Drink some of this, you're probably dehydrated.”

Normally Posy would be playful with their sister and become louder on purpose until a play fight broke out or they got into an argument. Instead, she nodded her head after seeing what he had done and took out a bagel and handed it over. “We’ll be quiet as a mouse. Just go lay down, eat some of this bagel and take a short nap before dad gets home.”

‘I almost forgot about last night.’ The teenager thought to himself as he watched Avery’s eyes darken at the mention of the man. Her body language noticeably became more guarded as she stood across from them.

He was worried about how both of his parents would react to the chaos in the house and how it may impact the growing tension between the five of them. Knowing that his mother was an emotional wreck from the argument they had still hurt him deeply. And he knew if she saw the house in disarray with broken tables and ruined food splattered on the floor would make her unravel. A lump began to swell in his throat, sweat gathering on his forehead as he felt the telltale signs of panic showing themselves.

A comforting touch suddenly graced his shoulder as he noticed Posy give him a tense smile. ‘Hopefully, we finish cleaning before they get home from wherever they ran off to.’ He heard her whisper to him from beneath all his troublesome, feral thoughts with her mind’s gentle voice.

Avery accepted their offers gratefully and gave a weak smile, clearly suffering discomfort from her migraine. “Thanks, guys, I promise to help clean your rooms for the next week to pay you back for this.” There was a noticeable crack in her voice as she hurried back to the couch, her thoughts most likely focused on their parents and the words she had said to them the night before hitting her hard.

If the two of them wanted to comment on her change in attitude, they didn’t. Instead, they got back to cleaning up the massive mess in the house. Trashbag after trash bag was filled with garbage that Posy quickly dumped into the trashcan outside. Neighbors peaked to look outside their blinds at them but they continued onward with fixing the gigantic mess. The bottoms of the mops they used were dyed black and brown before they were ripped off, replaced with a new version and the process started all over again.

Aiden’s mind was raising as he watched a neighbor marvel at Posy struggling to fit two more huge bags into the garbage can. They had to have heard the noise coming from their house but hadn’t said anything. Nobody had but he knew that someone would eventually and it made his stomach twist.

“We can just see that our water heater exploded,” Posy offered as they loaded some of the kitchen chair cushions into the washer. “Everybody was sleeping and then boom!” She threw her hands in the air to demonstrate how large the explosion would be. “We all wake up in the kitchen in absolute chaos.”

“That wouldn’t work,” The washer started and his eyes drifted to the multicolored detergent that began to mix in with the clear, ice-cold water. Seeing the water reminded him of his dream with Cassandra and he quickly turned away, clearing his throat. “If our water heater exploded everything within a block from here would be smithereens, including us.”

“Damnit.” His sister muttered as the two looked at each other with faces full of exhaustion. Six more to go.