"Wow." Miki whispered. "She sounds so disappointed that she wasn't the murderer."
"I think we should tell Ben." Silver said.
Miki snorted. "What would that do? You think he'll make her get rid of them?"
"She's has human bones in her closet, Miki." Silver hissed.
Cage turns back to them. “Not worried about where she found a body, why she kept it, and how she got the bones out of that flesh????”
“Oh.” Ryder replies. He pulls the shiny, clean skull, out of the tote. “How’d you clean it off?”
She shrugs. “Gabriel helped.”
Silver choked and stumbled back from the door, hitting the wall beside Cage. "Gabriel what–"
Miki rolled her eyes at them. "She obviously ate it, Cage. I just said she was a cannibal."
"Gabriel knows about her bones?" Silver gasped. "And he helps her clean them off?"
Kissa squints and turns to look at the door. She automatically stands, hissing aggressively. “WHAT'RE YOU DOING GO AWAY!” She shouts.
Ryder stands, laughing, and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, Kis. They just want to see your bones.”
Silver let out a shriek and scrambled backwards down the hallway. "I'm telling Ben!"
Miki groaned and pushed away from the door, her butt hitting the floor with a loud thump. "GUUUUUUUUYS, you ruined it! We can't spy if she knows we're here!"
Cage stands. “KISSA DO YOU EAT PEOPLE?!”
“HOW DISGUSTING! WHY WOULD I EAT SUCH A REVOLTING CREATURE.”
Ryder laughs, patting her shoulder again. “Oh my word kiss.”
"Uuuuuggghhhh." Miki groaned again and flopped back onto the floor. "Ruining my spying AND my theories! It sounds so much more interesting if Kissa eats the bodies and keeps the bones."
Silver bolted to her feet and dashed over to the railing, searching the lower floor for Violet. "VIIIIII!" she yelled. "Kissa keeps bones in her closet!!! Human bones!!!"
Kissa walks to the door and slams it, screaming into the wood. “GO AWAY.”
Violet stands up from the chair, setting her book down, “what??”
"Wait, wait!" Miki said, sitting up. "Wait, Kissa!" She leaned over and pressed her mouth to the crack under the door. "What bodies do you eat if you don't eat humans?"
Silver gasped for breath and pointed back toward the hallway. "Kissa said she found a body and cleaned the bones off and she keeps them in her closet! A HUMAN body!"
Violet stands still in horror. “Is this a joke?” She softly asks.
Ben opens the back door, coming in. “What’s all the commotion??”
Kissa kicks at where Miki’s face is at the bottom of the door. “GO AWAAAAAAYYYY!!!”
"BEN!" Silver yelled. "Kissa ate a human body and keeps the bones in her closet! I heard her say it!"
Miki snorted with laughter, hearing Silver's less-than-accurate report. "Oh dear." she muttered under her breath as she pushed to her feet and joined Silver at the banister. "Okay, the bones are for real but Kissa said she doesn't eat humans so I doubt she ate the body. But she did literally said she found a body and kept the bones from it. Ask Ryder; she was showing them to him."
Ben furrows his brow. “What??” He heads up the stairs and Violet sits down with a sigh.
“Kissa, where on earth did you get those bones?” He shouts.
“The forest.” She replies.
He stares at the door. “Our woods?”
“No!” She yells. She turns to Ryder, teeth gritted. “See what I deal with?” She hisses.
He chuckles. “You know, they’re humans too. If someone randomly had Kavi bones laying around you’d sure be uncomfortable.”
Silver followed, hiding behind Ben and biting one of her fingernails. "Ryder was holding a skull." she whispered to him.
"Wait," Miki bent down and spoke under the door again. "Where did you get them if they weren't in our woods? How long have you had them?"
She huffs, turning back towards the door. “Years ago, Mik. Literal years. I found it out on a mission.”
Ben sighs. “That’s disgusting. Why did you just keep it?”
She rolls her eyes. “I thought they’d want it and when they didn’t I kept it.”
He blinks. “That… that doesn’t answer my question.”
Miki rolled away from the door and sat down beside Cage. "She has literal skeletons in her closet. I'm never gonna let her live this down."
"But why did you keep them???" Silver squeaked, still hiding behind Ben. "Why did you clean them off? This is like… premeditated and thought out bone keeping. Isn't that illegal?"
Ben rubs his forehead with a deep sigh.
“A lot of things are illegal…” he mumbles, trying to decide whether or not the argument is worth it.
Cage shivers. “I mean, where would she put them if we told her she couldn’t have them? There can’t just be random bones in our woods.”
Kissa turns back to Ryder. “This is why they’ve never seen my bone collection.”
He smirks. “Cause you may or may not have a distant cousin of theirs bones? C’mon Kiss.” He ruffles her hair.
Miki laughed. "Yeah, well, if we go by what's legal then I think half of y'all would be in jail so… that's not really an argument, Sil."
Silver stared at Ben in horror. "You're just gonna let her keep them??? In her CLOSET???"
Ben crosses his arms, looking away from Sil. He turns to walk back down the stairs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Cage stands and gasps. “You can’t pretend this never happened!!”
Ben continues his slow decent. “What happened? Nothing happened.”
Silver's jaw dropped and she stood frozen for a second. "BEN–what, you can't–" she bolted over to the railing again and leaned over. "VIOLET! VIIIIIIII, Ben won't make Kissa get rid of her bones!"
Miki watched Ben's retreating back and turned to Cage. "And here I thought nothing could surprise me anymore. Apparently I was wrong. Write it down, Cage. The Day Ben Didn't Freak Out About Something We All Thought He Would Freak Out About."
Cage shivers again and turns back to Kissa’s door. “You really scare me!” He shouts.
“Good!” She shrieks back.
Violet stands up again, arms crossed over her chest and obviously very uncomfortable. She passes Ben on her way up the stairs and he turns to raise an eyebrow at her.
“Kissa! You take those out of the house this instant. I will not repeat myself.”
"Thank you." Silver sighed, leaning against the banister. "At least one person in this house is sane right now."
"Oooooohhhhhh," Miki crooned. "Mom's gonna get you, Kiss! Come on, Cage." she grabbed his hand and tugged him back toward Silver. "We should get a safe distance away before this goes down."
Ben stays on the steps and leans against the railing watching all of it he could see.
Violet stays silent for a second, before following up, “Kissa?”
Kissa slams the door open, making Vi jump just a little, and glares. She holds the tote of bones. “What do you want me to do with them??”
“Take them out of the house.” She replies firmly. “You’re a bright girl, I’m sure you can think of something.”
Silver started and backed away as far as she could to give Kissa space to pass her. Miki raised an eyebrow at her. "We could just bury them." she whispered to Cage. "That's what people usually do with bones."
Kissa huffs, turning herself invisible and stomping down the steps.
“Don’t bury them in my yard!” Violet calls after her.
Ryder turns invisible and follows after her.
“Where are you going?” He whispers.
“The park.” She growls back.
Cage raises his eyebrows and looks down the stairs but only sees Ben. He turns back to Miki. “Kavi are really scary.” He whispers.
Silver grimaced, biting her fingernail again as she heard rather than saw Kissa stomp away out of the house.
Miki shook her head. "Kavi are weird, y'all. Whyever did you fall in love with one, Silver? Why couldn't you have picked a normal human?"
Silver glared at her sister. "In case you hadn't noticed, I don't know very many normal humans, and I'm not a normal human myself. And there's nothing wrong with Gabriel. I love his weirdness."
“He helped her clean the bones off, Sil.” Cage points out. “That’s passed weird. That’s messed up.”
Violet rubs her forehead with a sigh, then heads down the stairs. “What is it with this one?” She mumbles to Ben while walking past. He grins and follows.
“She’s fun.”
Violet rolls her eyes. “Of course.”
Ryder follows Kissa into the backyard where she sets down the tote and they remove all of the human bones, filling a trash bag with them. She sighs. “I wanna go home.”
Ryder looks her over, obviously sympathizing. “No. It’s a lot worse than this now.”
She sniffles and wipes her face, still flustered and angry. She ties up the bag, but Ryder takes it, since he’s stronger and she probably couldn’t carry it while flying.
Silver closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was super weird, and she was trying not to be creeped out by it. She held up a one finger in Cage's direction, still not looking at him. "Yes. I know. I just… it's fine. He's a Kavi. That's what they do. It's fine." she turned and walked toward the stairs.
Miki shook her head. "You know what they say. Love is crazy."
Cage furrows his brow. “Just cause he’s Kavi though doesn’t mean he’s gotta be so scary.” He whispers to Miki.
Violet pauses in the kitchen, getting herself a glass of water and gulping it. Ben grins and pats her back, making her momentarily choke.
“Are they getting to you?” He teases.
“She is.” She states, referring to Kissa.
Kissa sniffles while they fly, shaken and irritated, letting Ryder lead the way. “Wh-where are we going?” She asks.
He shrugs. “I’ll just put em in Dio’s closet. You obviously put a lot of work into these and I don’t want you to loose them.”
He turns to see her smile and grins.
Silver jumped over the railing and landed on the floor below, raising an eyebrow at Vi and Ben before curling up in a chair. The one time Ben wasn't upset, Violet got mad and that was worse. I much prefer the threat of being burned alive.
Miki rolled her eyes at Cage. "Cage, they have fangs. They have to be scary. It's in their DNA. Have Kissa or Gabe ever told you about a Kavi acting normal and not-scary?"
Cage thinks for half a second, then shakes his head. “No actually. They’re terrifying.” He shakes his head and shivers. “We live with them.”
Ben chuckles, pouring himself some coffee.
“It’s not that big of deal, Baby.”
Vi gives him a glare over her water. “Human bones, Ben. Human bones. I will not have that in my house.”