We Don't Burn.... We Prosper

“I mean I can go out dressed like this but this shirt isn’t providing much in way of protection.”

"Hopefully Nash is wrong about it all, that no one is being targeted. I hope you go there and you just stand in the cold for hours shivering, really bored." Coralee whispered as she got to her feet and made her way to leave.

“I’ll be safe, don’t worry. I love you.”

"Don't say shit like that, it makes me think you aren't going to be safe." She reprimanded gently, squeezing his arm before disappearing out of the room.

“I always say it!”

"Always before you do stupid things."

“I don’t say it that often.”

Coralee didn't respond then, the sound of her own bedroom door closing behind herself.

---

Several hours later, Hudson grunted at the effort of hauling the body of a bruly man up onto his shoulder to drop it into the boot of an inconspicuous white working van, the branding on it that of a everyday window washing company. Blood splattered across his face, and his left eye beginning to swell with dark blue hue. Beneath it several small cuts across his cheekbone from where knuckles had hit. "Well," He panted, "I am sure the ERs will be pleased with this development."

“And our sister will be pleased neither of us are dead.” Ezekiel mumbled as he wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand. Turning his head to the side and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"I will dispose of the body and find somewhere to dispose of the... merchandise they were trading." He cast a sheepish glance towards the edibles wrapped up in plastic and transported in a suitcase. "Are you going to lighten the load and take half of it?"

“I have an appointment to make. I was hoping you could take care of it?”

"Mhm, I can handle it. Fine. It gives me more to play with. I forget how fun adverse you can be." Hudson hummed, lifting his hand up to wipe his nose as he felt blood begin to dribble from it.

---

"You should have seen them, in one breath encouraging me to take the lead and in the next forgetting I existed." Coralee mumbled as she topped up her sisters glass, tucking her legs beneath her as she settled on the sofa. "It was worse than just sitting there is silence. Every word I said, completely disregarded."

“It means when you end up with some of that stash in your possession I have plausible deniability because I didn’t have a hand in disposing of it.” Ezekiel snorted.

---

“By they do you mean Zeke? Because Hudson has never uttered more than a sentence or two at any of the meetings I have been in with him. Always silent. Processing.” Phoebe asked as she leaned against the arm of the sofa, gently swishing the liquid in her glass.

"Passive participation is still participation." Coralee tapped manicured nails against her glass. "It was demeaning. Both of them are responsible for demeaning me."

---

"When in the past year have I ever been caught?"

“Doesn’t mean it won’t eventually happen.”

---

“Have you spoken to them about it?”

"Mm. Zeke dismissed me. It is just them being... them, isn't it? Maybe I should take after you and move out. Find myself a penthouse flat a few miles away."

---

"It won't ever happen. Don't worry your cotton socks about it." He hummed, walking to the suitcase to throw it into the back of their rental car. "What appointment do you have at this time of night?"

“One where I plan on having more fun than you do disposing of a dead body.”

---

“Don’t be too hard on them… Malachi left big shoes to fill. Their shoulders are heavy.” Phoebe frowned, setting her glass down. “They did the same with me, too. Which is why I stopped taking what they said to heart. I love them, dearly. But whilst they’re trying to hold up to the ghost of someone they’ll never be happy, they’ll never feel stable, or certain in themselves. It’s sad to watch, it’s why I got out. Seeing them both try so hard to be someone else. It gets painful. Mother and father aren’t fair.”

"Nothing to do with Gabriella then," He mused, raising a playful eyebrow. "Shall I guess which woman you fall into bed with tonight, or is it better for me to also have plausible deniability?"

---

"Mother and father are trying to keep us safe, keep us secure." Coralee swallowed. "They put pressure on our brothers because they love us."

“But nothing they ever do will be good enough. They will never be him. We can’t bring him back from the dead, Cora. He did what he did and he’s gone. And it’s not their fault. It’s none of our faults. No matter how much they try and say we all could’ve stopped it. He fell in love with the wrong person and there’s not a single thing any of us could have done to save him. And now we are all having to pay for his sins, his mistakes.” Phoebe said sadly, focusing on the floor to maintain her composure. “I miss him too. I do… but the twins will never be him. They will never fill that gap. And the sooner they realise it, the sooner mother and father realise it, the sooner the rest of us realise it - then the sooner we’ll be able to heal.”

---

“You make it sound like there’s a long roster for you to guess from. I can count my friends on one hand, thank you.”

"Friends? Since when have we been calling them that?"

---

"Two years, come the morning." Coralee wrinkled her nose. "And come the morning, we may be organising a funeral for the twins too because of... wrecklessness. What is wrong with the men in our family?"

“They are our fathers sons.” Phoebe snorted as she took her glass and downed the contents.

---

“Fine. I can count the women I’m regularly fucking on one hand.”

""You should expand your options then," Hudson reached across to ruffle his hair, grimacing at the heat that surged through the muscle of his arm as a result. "I'll deal with this mess. You go."

---

"I hope our parents will be proud of them when they are all six feet under and their only remaining children are the girls. The children they sighed and huffed about when the midwives told them our gender."

“Thank you, I’ll repay the favour.”

---

“Not disappointed just… they had three perfect boys, and then along came me.” Phoebe snorted. “I think I broke their streak of perfectly mouldable children.”

Hudson just gave a nod, wordlessly getting into the vehicle then and driving away.

---

Verity sat in the penthouse suite of a hotel in the centre of the city, lounged back on the bed in a ruby red, corsetted lingerie piece. Head turned to the side to stare out of the window at the city lights, expression blank. Still.

---

"They love you, the first girl. They can cope with one girl, the first girl."

“Apologies, later than I thought.” Ezekiel excused himself as he walked into the room, closing the door behind himself and heading straight to the bathroom to wash the blood from his hands.

---

“You think our parents coped with me?” Phoebe snorted. “They were praying the rest of you were nothing like me by the end. You are the one they consider perfect.”