"Would I like to see my family again?" Jiahao asked the question back to Alice, unsure if she had heard it right. Alice only nodded, waiting for an actual response to the question.
"Of course I would, I've been worried sick about them!" Jiahao found the question slightly stupid, anyone could tell that seeing her siblings again was all she wanted, but Alice only realised this moments ago.
A silence fell between them, Jiahao was almost angered by the question until Alice finally spoke up.
"Then I'm sorry. You're free to leave here." Alice bowed her head slightly, as if she was ashamed of herself.
Jiahao stood still for a moment, thinking this was some cruel joke, but it didn't take long for her to start running.
She ran through the manor as if her life depended on it, and depending on how you looked at it, her life did depend on this.
She ran straight back to the window she originally came in through. Sure enough, it was there. No matter how many times she checked before, it seemed like this window had just vanished, but no. Here it was, open, the uncut grass outside the manor almost starring Jiahao down.
She hesitated for a moment, but quickly shook off any doubts or hesitations she had, she exited through the window. And sure enough, she was outside the manor. Not stuck in the courtyard in the middle of it, finally outside that cursed building.
She slipped through the crack in the garden wall and took off running once more, heading straight home. Not stopping once, not even for a breath.
By the time she had made it back to her flat, Jiahao's face was bright red, and she was heaving.
She opened the door to the flat, and her eyes lit up. Her siblings were all here, sitting around like they were waiting for her.
Damien almost passed out when he saw her. Jiahao smiled brightly at him, and he ran at her, arms open.
Neither of them were ones for hugs, but this was the kind of occasion that required one.
"You're alive! Holy fucking shit, you're actually alive!" Damien patted Jiahao's back as he spoke, almost as though he was trying to confirm that she was actually in front of him. Damien didn't even notice the pain in his shoulder until he was almost hunched on top of Jiahao.
The twins quickly pulled the now hunched over Damien off Jiahao before hugging her themselves. Damien cursed at the twins for basically throwing him to the floor, but they didn't bother to respond.
"Are you okay?" May asked once she pulled away from the hug. Jiahao nodded.
"Perfectly fine." She smiled softly, reassuring both the twins that she was okay.
"Did that weird monster do anything to you?" Max asked, looking like a kicked puppy.
"Nah, nothing, she's a vampire, y'know? Crazy, right? I thought I was going insane when she said it to me." Jiahao chuckled as she spoke.
The twins looked at each other, neither of them were particularly shocked by this information, but vampires being real was an odd thought.
Jiahao's smile quickly dropped as she remembered something Alice had said, "Um, Alice kept saying that you two weren't human either…" Jiahao forced a small laugh as if this idea was preposterous, but deep down, she agreed with Alice.
The twins stayed quiet for a moment, neither of them knowing how to respond, but Damien piped up. "You didn't need some weirdo vampire to tell you that, I've been telling you for years!"
"I mean, how could we not be humans?" Max asked, he thought that maybe Jiahao had gone crazy. Max waited for May to back him up on this, but she stayed silent.
Jiahao shrugged, "I don't know, Alice never really explained what she meant."
May finally spoke up, "One of the books I took from the manor said some stuff about twins, but I couldn't really read it." Her voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to admit this at all.
"What's the point in worrying about it though?" Max was frustrated with this nonsense, of course, he was a human. If he wasn't human, then what the hell was he? A ghost?
"I guess you're right." Jiahao let out a small sigh, she couldn't exactly go back to the manor to ask Alice about the twins…
Or could she?
Damien took everyone out of their thoughts, "Why don't we just forget about all of that, and have a celebratory dinner?" Despite the fact that he was curled up in a ball, in pain, his signature smirk returned.
Jiahao rolled her eyes, "Do you have money for dinner?"
"While you were gone, I've been fixing up the clocks I took from the manor, if we sold them, I'm sure we could afford a proper meal…" Max's voice was quiet, he thought his suggestion to be stupid, but everyone's eyes lit up when they heard this.
May smacked the back of Max's head, "Why didn't you mention that sooner? We've been starving for days!"
Max didn't respond, instead he lowered his head, acting like a kicked puppy once more.
"May, just be happy." Jiahao scolded, and for the first time, she was happy to be scolding May. She was home.
"You two go pawn the clocks, and get food for dinner, I'm going to have a look at Damien." Neither of the twins even attempted to protest, instead gathering the clocks in a small rucksack.
Jiahao knelt down next to Damien, "You okay?" She asked even though she already knew the answer.
"No, those little sadists fucked me up!" He couldn't even raise his voice through the pain.
Jiahao lifted his shirt, and when she saw his shoulder she winced. "Jesus, that's bad."
"Yeah, no shit." Damien's response was deadpan.
"It'll do, there's no point in removing it now, it'll just hurt more." Jiahao felt bad saying this but it wasn't worth removing all the sutures just so it would be slightly cleaner looking.
"Don't look at it if you're not going to do anything!" Damien scoffed.
Jiahao could only laugh, "I'll get some cold rags for the bruises. The ones on your forehead are bad, Arden got you good."
"Arden? Is that the name of that thing?" Damien scoffed once more, seeming less than impressed with this information.
"Eh, I'll tell you all about them later." Jiahao just chuckled, as she stood up to wet some rags.
Damien was left on the floor wondering about this Arden character.
It wasn't long before the twins made it back, their rucksack filled with various different items. Mostly vegetables with a small slab of meat wrapped in parchment.
"Soup?" Jiahao raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it lasts for a while. I got some bones from the butcher as well for the stock." May seemed proud of herself.
Jiahao grabbed a large pot and handed it to Max, "Go steal somebody's clean water." She waved him off, before getting to work. Damien was holding a wet cloth to his head, unable to really help with the cooking.
So May and Jiahao began most of the preparations, for a moment, things felt normal.
Like Jiahao hadn't just escaped being kidnapped, like the twins' identities weren't under scrutiny, things were just normal.
And Jiahao was happy, for a brief moment, but her mind wandered back to Alice, and Arden.
She silently wished Alice was here to try the soup, since she seemed so curious about human food.
But there was no point in thinking about Alice now.