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Chapter Four: Relatives

Loman crawled into the tunnel, which had been altered since he last was there. Now the strange objects were missing from the wall, and instead had been covered in a velvety, metallic blue fabric. "Dre, are you here?" He called out softly.

"Yes," her soft voice echoed back. "Are you alone?"

"I am," he said. He had told his parents that he would be spending the day at a friend's house studying. They were surprised that he was suddenly showing an interest in school, but thought nothing of it. "Are you?"

"Sort of," she responded, and Loman entered the tunnel. The two children met in the middle of it, and Loman saw that other children were with her, watching Loman closely.

"They wanted to meet you," she explained. "These are my brothers and sisters."

"I kind of figured that out," he replied, noticing that one of the boys and the youngest girl had blue hair and the others had black. Dre laughed.

"You can tell us apart by our hair color, obviously," the bluenette boy beamed, referring to him and his twin brother. The other boy had black hair. "But close your eyes for a second." Loman obeyed, and when he was told to open them, he was shocked to see both boys with black hair. "How'd you do that?" He asked the boy sitting closest to him in amazement.

Both boys looked as shocked as Loman felt. "How'd you know it was me?" The blue-haired boy wondered, his hair returning to its previous state.

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Loman joked.

"Then don't expect us to share ours," the black-haired boy said seriously.

"Guys, be nice," Dre warned. She turned to Loman with an apologetic smile. "That's Bon, and he's Junior," she said, pointing to the blue-haired boy and his brother respectively. "And we'll tell you how he did it later. But it's really hard to explain."

"It isn't if you listen to Dad," the ten-year-old girl interrupted softly. She had long black hair that fell to her shoulders, and wide dark eyes that stared at Loman in wonder. "I'm Pan," she introduced herself, offering a wry smile. "And I know who you are."

"Pan knows everything," the smallest girl announced.

"She doesn't know what's in the books that I brought," her oldest sister retorted.

"You don't either," Pan pointed out neutrally. "And we all will soon enough."

"I'm Elva!" The tiny girl said loudly, giggling a little too loudly. Her blue hair was very long, and it brushed against her back like a cape. Her facial features were a little too sharp for someone as young as her, and she looked sweet, but not angelic. Her eyes were big and green.

"What are in those books?" Loman said, pointing to the items in Dre's arms.

"Good question," she replied, shifting so that she could lie on her stomach and look at the books once they were open. "I found them in the attic yesterday."

"If Dad finds out that we were in there, we're going to be in so much trouble," Bon complained.

"Get over it," she scoffed. "Where's your sense of adventure, Bonaventure?"

"At home," he said, anxiously glancing back down the tunnel to where they had come from.

"Do you guys live alone back there?" Loman asked, peering over their shoulders curiously.

"It's just us and Mom and Dad," Dre said casually, preparing to open one of the books. "And Mom's gonna have a baby."

"Do you know what the gender is?" He asked, thinking about the sibling that he would have soon. It was going to be a girl, and his parents wanted her to have the first initial "L". Some of the possible names included: Lolita, Lucia, Lilac, Laura…

"It's going to be a boy," Elva declared.

"It's going to be a girl," Junior announced. The two siblings engaged in a staring contest, which Loman decided to break by showing them what he had brought along.

"Look what I found yesterday in my tree house. Doesn't this girl look familiar?" He said, trying to sound silly. He handed Dre the photo of Coraline, and her eyes widened.

"That's our mom!" She gasped. "Where did you get this?"

"Is she named Coraline Jones?" Loman said as the photo was passed from his friend to her younger siblings.

"Yes! How do you know all this?" Pan asked, her eyes growing wide with excitement.

"She's been missing from my world for…many years," he said weakly, slumping against the wall. "Everyone thinks that she ran back to the man who kidnapped and…well, held her prisoner." He almost mentioned the part about the alleged rape, but decided not to in front of Elva, who probably didn't know what the concept of murder was.

"That's nonsense," Pan declared. "Mom has never been in the real world before…has she?" Dre's face was as white as a sheet, and Loman reached over and touched her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"I looked in the books last night," she confessed in a hoarse, and Junior glared at her. Loman blinked. Had he missed something?

"You promised that you wouldn't open it without us there!" Junior said angrily.

"I couldn't resist," she admitted. "And…Mom was lying to us. She's been in the real world before."

"What are you talking about?" Loman demanded. "This doesn't make sense! What do you mean 'the real world'?" The Beldam-Jones children glanced at each other.

"Let's just take him back home," Pan shrugged. "He's going to find out sooner or later."

"When did you last eat?" Dre asked, ignoring Loman intentionally. "I don't need to for another two years."

"Me, too," the others chorused, and Loman's face scrunched up in confusion. This day was getting weirder and weirder.

"Dad's going to—"

"Shut up, Bon," Elva ordered playfully. Then Dre's face lit up.

"I learned something new from reading this book," she said slowly and dramatically. "Wait here. I have an idea." She scrambled back down to her end of the tunnel, leaving Loman and her sisters and brothers behind.

"What do you mean? What's going on?" Loman complained.

"I'm not going to eat you," Elva giggled. "None of us are." Pan smacked her lightly on the arm.

"We don't eat children," she said in a reassuring voice. "That's the rule: we only eat people that are older than us."

"Oh, joy," he said. "That makes PERFECT sense," he added sarcastically, "just like you being able to change your hair color."

"I'll explain that if you tell me how you figured me out," Junior reminded him.

"But it wasn't too difficult. You two don't look anything alike if you look closely." This was true. Junior had a slightly fuller face and a small nose. Bon had sharper features and a longer, bonier nose, and his skin was slightly paler.

"Mom says that we look exactly alike," Bon said solemnly.

"Parents aren't always right," Loman said, more to himself than to them. He felt a light tap on his shoulder, and turned to find…Dre grinning at him. He jumped and bashed his head on the ceiling of the tunnel.

"You scared me!" He shrieked, rubbing his sore head.

"Sorry," she hissed, clamping a hand over his mouth. "Be quiet, or our parents will hear you!" She removed her hand slowly, but Loman continued to gape.

"How did you get behind me? Is this some kind of joke?"

"No. I'll show you!" She grabbed his arm and started to lead him out of the tunnel.

"Why can't you just tell me?" He whined.

"Seeing is believing," Pan said, quoting her mother. They stepped out of the tunnel and into the real living room of the real Pink Palace. Dre shut the door after all of her siblings climbed out.

Another door had appeared next to the one that connected their 'worlds'. "How'd you do that?" Junior asked, his voice betraying his envy. His sister ignored him and opened the new door, which had a nearly identical tunnel inside of it. Loman got the eerie feeling that whatever was at the end of this tunnel was at the end of the first one, too.

"I'll explain when we get there," Dre said, slipping into the new tunnel. She didn't crawl away from them, but sat there, smiling at Loman. "Shall we go?" She asked cordially, holding out a hand for him. Loman stared at her, unsure of what to think or what to do.

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