Chapter 38: The Surprise - Two for the Price of One!
The roar of the Fenrir heavy motorcycle grew from distant to near, finally coming to a halt in front of the garage door.
Edward killed the engine, dismounted, and the fatigue of the long journey was significantly diluted by the anticipation of being home.
He took off his aviators, ran a hand through his somewhat messy hair, and was still wondering about Alan's cryptic "surprise."
Edward whistled as he unlocked the front door with his key.
"I'm home!"
However, he wasn't greeted by his mom's enthusiastic hug, or his dad's head peeking out from behind a newspaper, or the pitter-patter of Lily's feet running toward him.
The house was silent—you could even say eerily quiet.
This unusual stillness made Edward raise an eyebrow.
He kicked off his boots and walked into the living room, where the air seemed to carry a strange scent, a mix of cheap perfume and a faint, almost imperceptible tension.
"Dad? Mom? Lily?" he called out tentatively.
"Oh! Edward, you're back!" His mom Sarah's voice finally came from upstairs, but it sounded forced.
Immediately after, she and his dad, John, appeared at the top of the stairs, both with complicated expressions on their faces—a mix of joy, concern, and a hint of unmistakable awkwardness.
"What's going on?" Edward immediately sensed something was off. "Do we have company?"
"Uh, something like that..." John adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. "Honey, you tell him."
Sarah came downstairs, gave Edward a hug, then took his hand, her expression becoming serious and full of sympathy: "Edward, you remember Mom's been working on a case recently?"
Edward nodded. Of course he remembered. It was a follow-up to a child abduction case, apparently involving some messed-up family situation, but he hadn't asked for details.
"The child in the case, Esther, is in a really complicated situation. There's no suitable guardian for her right now, so I... I brought her home to stay with us for a few days," Sarah said, gesturing upstairs. "Esther, come down. This is my son, Edward."
As she spoke, a girl wearing a vintage dress with two neat braids slowly emerged from the shadows of the staircase.
She looked about nine years old, with pale skin and eyes that held a calm and disturbingly mature intelligence way beyond her age.
She walked to Sarah's side, curtsied slightly, and said in a sweet, clear voice, "Hello, big brother Edward."
Edward looked at her face, and his mind went blank. A scene from a horror movie, long buried in the depths of his memory, instantly resurfaced.
An ageless psychopath?
Before he could recover from this sudden "surprise," his father, John, also cleared his throat and pointed to the other end of the living room sofa.
"And... Edward, this is Emma. On our way back from upstate two days ago, we came across a car accident. This child was the only survivor, and her aunt... well, anyway, the police paperwork isn't finished yet, so we brought her back for now."
Edward's gaze stiffly turned to the sofa.
There sat a dark-haired, blue-eyed girl in a frilly dress, looking like a porcelain doll. She held a teddy bear and watched him curiously with a pair of innocent, wide eyes.
"Hello," Emma's voice was as clear as a bell.
Edward's eye twitched violently.
The Bad Seed?
He felt his temples throbbing.
He'd gone out for a road trip, played bit parts in two horror movies, and then came home to find his house had straight-up transformed into a halfway house for horror movie villains?
"Mom and Dad, where the hell did you pick up these two?" He finally couldn't hold back and blurted out.
The tone was less a question and more a groan before a total breakdown.
"Edward! Language!" Sarah glared at him reproachfully. "These two children have such tragic backgrounds.
Esther has been through so much, and Emma even witnessed her loved ones die. What they need most right now is care and stability."
Edward took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to scream.
He looked at the two "poor" girls in front of him: one was actually thirty-three, a psychopath skilled in manipulation, arson, and seducing her adoptive father; the other was eight years old but with full-blown antisocial personality disorder, a cold-blooded killer who'd murder classmates over a freaking spelling bee medal.
Stability? Care? What they probably needed was a maximum-security psychiatric facility.
"Then... where's Lily?" Edward felt his voice wavering slightly.
"Oh, Lily's in her room," John replied. "She seems... not too thrilled about the new sisters. She's been holed up in there all day."
No shit!
Edward roared internally.
That's not "not thrilled"—that's territorial hostility, a demon's radar detecting two other anomalous signals!
He finally understood what Alan's "surprise" was.
Alan must have seen this scene through a mirror at home and then gleefully left him that cryptic message.
He now felt his home was no longer a home, but a reality TV set called "Dangerous Minds Daycare."
A demon sister from Hell, an adult psychopath disguised as a nine-year-old, an eight-year-old born killer.
Jesus Christ, with this lineup, they could form a team to end civilization. What's next, Samara crawling out of the TV?
Just then, Lily's bedroom door creaked open.
Lily, in pink pajamas, peeked her head out from behind the door. She didn't look at the two new girls but stared directly at Edward, her eyes full of grievance and a hint of unmistakable wariness, like a puppy that had discovered intruders in its territory.
"Brother..." she whispered, then scampered on her short legs to Edward's side, hugging his leg tightly and burying her face deep, as if seeking protection.
Sarah and John smiled with relief at this scene.
"See, Lily's still closest to you," Sarah said softly. "Edward, as the oldest, you need to take good care of your three little sisters."
Edward looked down at "Lily" clutching his leg, her body trembling slightly, then looked up at the two "new sisters" across from him—one with a shy smile, the other with innocent eyes.
The gazes of the three "sisters" silently collided in the air, but only Edward could feel the eerie atmosphere, instantly solidified with invisible tension.
Lily was using her actions to declare ownership to her "master" and warn him of foreign invaders.
And Esther and Emma were using their best disguises to assess the new "brother" who seemed to hold the most authority in this family.
Edward felt less like a big brother and more like a prison warden.
He reached out and stroked Lily's head, his movements gentle, but his words made all three "little girls" freeze simultaneously.
"Don't worry. Big brother will take real good care of you all."
He deliberately emphasized "real good care."
A flicker of surprise flashed in Esther's seemingly calm eyes, and Emma's innocent expression also seemed to freeze for a moment.
From this impossibly handsome older brother, they both felt an inexplicable sense of danger that instinctively made them uneasy.
Only Lily, the demon who knew Edward's terrifying nature best, buried her head deeper.
She knew that her brother's current demeanor meant he'd activated "cat playing with mice" mode.
This was gonna be good.
"Alright, alright, it's getting late. Edward, you must be exhausted from your trip. Go shower and get ready for dinner."
Sarah clapped her hands, breaking the eerie atmosphere. "Esther, Emma, you two wash your hands. John, come help me in the kitchen."
His parents turned and headed toward the kitchen, leaving only Edward and his three "darling sisters" in the living room.
Edward released Lily and slowly walked to the sofa, dropping down casually, leaning back comfortably, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Esther and Emma with keen interest.
He said nothing, but that gaze—as if it could see right through them—made Esther and Emma feel as if they'd been stripped naked, standing exposed before him.
All their disguises, all their schemes, seemed so pathetic and transparent under that stare.
"You two," Edward finally spoke, his voice flat but with an undeniable tone of command, "better behave yourselves."
He paused, a wicked smile playing on his lips.
"Otherwise, I'll show you what a real 'horror movie' looks like."
With that, he stopped paying attention to the two girls whose expressions had subtly changed. He stood up, stretched, and said to Lily, who was still clinging to his leg, "Come on, Lily. Show me what you destroyed today."
Lily immediately looked up, her face instantly replaced with an innocent smile: "Nothing! I was super good today!"
The two headed upstairs, one after the other, leaving Esther and Emma standing in place, their expressions for the first time losing control, becoming dark and uncertain.
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