Chapter 17

"It's not much further down the path." Alex said as they tried to reassure Lorraine and Oscar that their trip would end soon. The adults had driven the teens to the park, the same park that they had taken Laylian to.

"We've been walking for ages!" Lorraine said which made all three teens roll their eyes. At that moment they felt some empathy for the twins for needing to deal with their parents at all. They had been walking for approximately ten minutes and the amount that Lorraine complained made Alex want to pull out her tongue.

"Honey we've been walking for ten minutes, be silent." Erin smirked at Oscar's words as he told his wife to shut up. He was all around grumpy and irritable at his wife's actions and honestly thought that the teens would be able to help them put their children right. "This is for Kelso and Tyrell, we have to fix them."

Alex screams internally. Alex was non-binary, mainly due to the fact that they saw themselves above the human's and fae's definitions of male and female and though tiit didn't apply to them. Though seeing humans start to do this felt rather nice, the humans are starting to see that gender is only labels. Alex...or Nero may be one of the most powerful dark fae but even they could recognize the bravery that those people had to step out of the stereotypes.

Brandon and Erin stayed quiet at that, they didn't want to say anything at all about gender as they knew it was something that bothered Nero. It was a rather good timing as they were only a few more steps away from the hedges that covered their house. Only Nero considered that place a home. Erina and Brandon preferred to call their human accommodations home.

"Ah we're home sweet home!" Nero said as they stood in front of the hedges. Their grin was starting to unnerve the two humans who had followed the three teenagers into an almost abandoned park at a very late time in the evening. "Just step through here and you'll see something magnificent!"

"Finally!" Lorraine almost leaped at the hedges, not even waiting to think about the stains that would appear on her clothing or the mess that it would turn her hair into. She was eager to get this done and over with , she wanted to get back to her van and have a good drink whilst snuggling into her duvet.

She had almost stepped back onto Oscar's foot as the sight before her was nothing like what she expected.She had gone from lush grass and blooming flowers to benign surrounded by death and broken things. The three teenagers were quick to surround the passageway from which they came . "don't worry about it! It's just a little bit run down, we're recovering from a fire that happened earlier this year."

Erin always knew how to pull at human's heartstrings. She knew exactly what to say in order to calm humans down from panicking, she wasn't as successful with the fae though she still had a pretty large effect on them. "Oh dears i'm sorry." Lorraine said without a hint of sympathy in her voice.

"Yes it's much more put together inside." Brandon supported his friend as they led the humans past the broken water fountain and into the boarded up mansion . The mansion had hardly changed since the twins had wandered in . The broken glass had been picked up and the frames had been worked on to make the place look somewhat put together. There were also more dead ends , since had Laylian not woken up last time Nero would have four new play things.

The three teens led the adults intot he living room. The mirror was stick chipped but they had gotten somewhat presentable furniture for the place. The paint was still peeling as it was a lot more difficult to create. A few picture frames and chairs were a lot easier for fae to conjure up as opposed to entire walls.

The two humans sat down on the limited amount of furniture available as nero went into what they like to call the kitchen. Whilst they were gone the other two had to entertain the humans, they did so with idle small talk until Nero returned. In their hands was a tray full of tea cups .

"My apologies about the mess..." Nero said as he handed a cult to the humans before sitting down with their own . "we are not yet moved in here. This place is rather well-known where i'm from but it has unfortunately fallen into disrepair."

Oscar nodded as he looked around , the place was rather peculiar to him. He had seen a lot of buildings that had fallen to disrepair through his many travels . This house seemed similar but not entirely the same. He thought it was odd how there was new furniture scattered around the place yet the much and grime still remained, dirtying the new furniture.

"Ah yes this building seems rather grand." Lorraine tried to compliment as she scrunched her nose up in slight disgust. "Once the walls are painted and the ...walls cleaned this place would look smashing!" The teacup in Nero's hand began to rattle and so they placed it down on a random chest of drawers, which were missing two draws on the inside.

"It will won't it?" Nero folded their hands over their crossed legs and smiled wickedly . Brandon and Erin were stationed behind the humans as they were instructed. There was a few seconds of silence as Nero's grin grew wider and wider and his illusion started to fade.

The humans stared in horror as the blackness of Neor's trousers and hoodie started to blend into their skin. Their eyes started to glow a bright purple whilst the hair at their roots began to lighten. They started to chuckle darkly as erin and Brandon started to head towards Lorraine and Oscar.

The humans had no time to make a noise as Nero leaped towards them . "Now my dears. I know that I have said we'd help you get your children back..in fact..." They trailed a long fingernail down the side of Lorraine's face and watched her shiver in fear. "You are going to help us retrieve them and their fae...partners."