Seven

Keith and I left the house half an hour ago, and we still haven't run into either Jeff or Liu. We simply strolled the streets of Sunny Hills, looking around in the shadows for our brothers. But we've had no luck finding them so far.

"Mellie?" Keith whispered, looking over at me, "Are those two coming toward us or are those two coming towards us?" He rushed out, panic in his eyes.

I shrugged, plan A ringing in my mind. "Meh, they're coming towards us." I murmured, and Keith stared me down.

"How are you so calm?" He wondered, and I shrugged once more. We were standing over a lamppost, so there was a source of light above us. We didn't move, staying under the light until the other two people came face to face with us.

"Oh, fuck." Keith whispered as the two people came into the light. They were two familiar. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Language, Keith." I hissed, staring at the two figures. One had their hood up, and the other had a scarf covering half of their face. I know exactly who they are. They're my brothers. Keith stared at me from the corner of his eye, awaiting orders on what to do.

"Plan A?" He questioned, making sure that both of the boys heard.

"Nah," I shook my head, "We both knew we wouldn't go along with plan A." I shoved the heels of my palms into my eyes, letting out a frustrated groan.

"Hey Jeff, Liu." I muttered, staring straight at the pair. Jeff, dressed in a loose fitting white hoodie- stained with both old and new blood- with tight black jeans and converse of the same colour. He pulled down his hood, grinning at me. There was no malice in that grin. His cut smile still somehow dripped blood- which shouldn't happen- and he ran a hand through his shaggy black hair, his eyes unblinking.

"Hello there, little Mellie." His voice was croaky and gruff but full of emotion. At hearing his voice, it brought tears to my eyes.

"Oh, Jeff…" I mumbled as he opened his arms, letting me collapse into them, tears leaking freely out of both my eyes, and his unblinking ones.

"Hey! I'm still here, Mellie!" Another voice interrupted, cheer in his voice. Liu. I stepped out of Jeff's embrace, grinning, and wiping my tears away.

"Hello, Liu." I whispered softly. He smiled widely, pulling me into his arms. He wore a forest green sweatshirt, a large black coat on top. He had black jeans and black trainers, and also a large black and white striped scarf. On his face were scars I never knew he had. At one point, I guess Jeff must have tried to cut a smile into Liu's face too (as he does with all of his victims) as Liu had stitches across where his smile should have been. He also had a stitched scar across the bridge of his nose.

Liu suddenly let go of me, his eyes darkening slightly. He thrusted his arms out wide. " 'Ello there Melanie!" He exclaimed, holding a hand forward for me to shake, "I'm your other brother, Sully!" I immediately shook his hand, a grin as wide as his on my face.

"Well then Sully, welcome to the family." I grinned, pulling him into a hug. He pulled me in closer, whispering into my ear:

"I'm Liu's other half, you see? His defence and coping mechanism. His loco." He ended his words with a joking chuckle, before releasing me from the hug.

I looked back between Sully, Jeff, and Keith, before loudly exclaiming, "Woods family group hug!"

We all rushed into the hug, squishing each other tight. I noticed Liu's eyes lightening back up.

"Wait a second." Keith finally spoke, looking at Liu and Jeff. "Why the hell do you two look so young? Jeff, you should be twenty-four, and you, Liu, should be twenty-six!" He exclaimed, confusion in his voice. Oh yeah, they do look younger than they should be.

"Ah, yeah…." Liu muttered, "We have eleven years of chaos to catch up on, don't we?"

"Well for starters, sorry for not telling you Keith, but during the time we were in Utah, I swear I saw you two; but as soon as we came here, I've never seen you. How'd that work?" I asked, whilst Keith's eyes drilled holes into my head.

"You saw them and never told me?" He questioned, sounding offended. I knew he wasn't, but I nodded anyway.

"Okay, so you know Slenderman?" Jeff began, making me nod. "Well, good ole Slendy's real, and he's really uptight. Only on the anniversary of the incident we could leave his realm into a forest to find you, and once you two left Utah, we've been unable to find you. Your trace was well covered up." Jeff explained, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay, we understand." Keith said, as I nodded in agreement.

"Wait, does that mean we'd only be able to see you at very random times or something?" I wondered, and the boys laughed, shaking their heads.

"Nope," Liu grinned, "Don't you think our earlier stunt was to show something? We were looking for you, because after eleven years of pleading and hoping, Slender claims you are now of age and you can come and live with us in the mansion. He also wants another healer, so, of course we put you on the recommended list."

"If you couldn't find us how did you know that Mellie was a healer?" Keith cut in, and the boys looked at each other with mischievous smirks on their faces.

"We didn't!" They exclaimed, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, we just guessed. If you weren't, we'd teach you." Jeff said, brushing the matter off.

"Am I coming with you guys?" Keith wondered, staring down at us.

"Well, duh," Liu said, face expressionless, "Why wouldn't you come with us?" Keith only shrugged.

Jeff and Liu looked at us expectantly, opening out their arms- trying to make us go before them.

"Where are we going?" I asked, walking in front of them.

"You're coming with us, obviously. We're going to the slender mansion. Oh, and by the way, it isn't as cool as it sounds." Jeff mumbled, as the four of us began to walk together, making our ways to the forest.

We didn't pass anyone on the way to the forest, even though it was quite a long walk. It was in the middle of the night, but none of us really cared.