• Talula Nomed woke up in her bed, at a forty degree angle made with pillows, with a heart monitor attached to her chest and to her stomach. Both were normal, and the beeps were regular. She saw Talin fast asleep with his head in his hands, sitting on a chair, snoring away.
    Walter was also asleep, resting on his knees and softly holding her hand next to his face. He looked gentile and childish. His face made Talula smile.
    Talula put her other hand on her stomach. No more pains! What happened to her, she wondered. How long was she out?
    “Walter...Walter,” she whispered, taking her hand away, and grabbing his shoulder.
    Walter woke up instantly, as if he had just fallen asleep. “Mistress Talula!” he jumped up.
    Talin did not wake up.
    “Shh,” Talula put her finger to her lip, “What happened to me?”
    Walter just stared, slightly turning pink. He turned around so she couldn't see. He cleared his throat. “Well...”
    “Pfft...” Talin had one eye open, seeing Walter's face, then he burst out laughing.
    “What!?” Talula snapped.
    Then, Talin had a glaring face to Walter, “You did it to her. You tell,” he growled.
    “What!? I-I can't tell her! You're her twin! You tell her!” Walter covered his face in his hands.
    Talin's face remained cold. “Tell her.”
    Walter paused for a long time, “...you...you have something...” he finally came up with.
    Talin couldn't hold in his laughter, but quieted down.
    “Something? What? I demand you tell me!” she pounded her fist.
    Walter was in deep trouble. He didn't want Talula to use the “I demand” card. He didn't want to say it, but he had to obey. He paused again for a long time. He breathed a long breath to hold in, “I can't tell you!”. “You...are pregnant,” and he ran out of the room as fast as he could with a non-pink face on.
    Talula's eyes were as wide as they could get. “P-pregnant...h-how? W-with who? Oh...my...God....”
    “By doing it 'your way', duh,” Talin slapped his hand over his face. If it wasn't his sister, he'd be laughing until his guts hurt as if it was funniest home videos.
    “B-but I... I can't be!! How can I be pregnant!?” she objected.
    Talin looked at her, compressing the hidden smirk even more down to give a “are you stupid” face. He slapped himself again, “...”
    “But-but how!? I only fed! I-I only...AUHHH!” Talula threw herself back. She looked at her stomach, not moving her head. It was flat. “How far?”
    “Five months. With your belly, you can still go to school. It's only natural to not explode until a day or two before birth,” Talin said, covering his mouth because he couldn't hold a strait face.
    “Wait...Does Mom know!?” Talula bounced forward again.
    “Not yet. No one's dared told her yet. And I think I should tell her, since I'm already on her worthless list. Don't worry, I won't mention his name,” Talin got up and waved as he left the room.
    Talula was going to stop him, but he left. She slammed her head back on the pillow.

    At the entrance of the grand hall, almost all of the family surrounded the gold-painted double doors. Talin walked up slowly, people backing away as he passed the circle. He stopped in front of the doors as people edged away. He pulled a deep breath, and opened the doors and shut them behind him.
    The family waited. Long, seeming even longer, moments crawled by. People stood frozen, waiting for something to happen. And just then, Talin came out confused.
    “She's not there!” he choked.
    Murmurs and whispers filled the hall, and everyone was confused.
    “She never leaves there unless it's something important!”
    “Maybe she already heard!”
    “No no. In fact, I haven't seen her all day!”
    Talin hurried past the crowd, it quickly following him, and barged into Talula's room.
    Talula was the only one in the room. “You told her?” she asked.
    Leaving the room quickly was a no. Talin went into his room. A Walter slapping himself so his cheeks wouldn't be red, but no Mom.
    Talin shut the door and looked in bathrooms, bedrooms, and other places. No where. Talin looked in the last place he knew. He signed the Cross, and went to find only Katline.
    “I'm sorry,” Katline smiled to hide her pain, “She's not here, Master...”
    He clutched his fists, and left. He couldn't concentrate on that now. He had to find the evil woman who put the curse on his maid first. He closed the door and went on searching.
    “Walter!” he went back to his own room. “Do you know where my mother is?”
    Walter almost jumped. “W-what? Y-your mom?” he was a little shaken from his own problems.
    Talin fumed a breath, then said, “Look! You'd better get in there and talk with my sister before I beat your a** for knocking her up! Or else, I'll send you to go find my mom and tell her that you did! Which one!?” he yelled, letting out his stress.
    Walter was frozen with fear. He didn't know which choice was worse, but he knew Talin was fuming. He ran out into Talula's room across the hall, the family watching him run from one side to the other.
    Talin huffed and walked out of the room, heading for the front doors. “Hmm...” he continued to find his mother.
    Talin stepped outside, overlooking most of the town. There was the bookstore, houses, shopping store, food, and the graveyard. “The graveyard... Mom surely wouldn't be in the graveyard. She wouldn't visit anybody but herself. Unless she died...” Talin relished in the thought, but shook it away, “Well, it's the only place where humans usually don't go, so let's give it a try.”
    Talin arrived by himself, no crowd behind him. He couldn't see at first, but he did see a huge tomb like no other. “Ah...Dad...” he thought. He walked towards the tomb. He never knew his father, but his grandmother told him stories about how silly he was, and how he pretended to be human. What he pretended became his son's uncontrollable curse...but it made no difference to Talin. He had felt normal when he had heard the stories anyway.
    Then at first, he saw a figure with a red dress, and after a couple of steps, he saw the rest of the features.
    “Mom?” he breathed.
    She looked awkward, as if she didn't know why she was there. Either she was blushing, or she had too much make up on, like a school girl confessing her love. She was crossing her arms, a single rose in one of her hands, and she was looking at the tomb from her side, not actually facing it. “What am I here for?” she asked herself. “Why did I bring you a rose? Are you still using your powers in death, you nut of an incubus?” she sighed. “I didn't even love you. Why were you so nice? You weren't a monster...” her voice trailed off in thought.
    “Is she capable of regret!?” Talin widened his eyes.
    “...You see the mess I'm in now? Even Talula has gone against me. Talin still doesn't have his powers because you gave him a choice. You had to give him a choice, didn't you? Now he's powerless, and Talula will take over. She has more power than me, thanks to you. I was going to keep Talin under my thumb so she couldn't take over, but you interfered! You killed my chance of being the best head of this family. Now Talula's going to...” her voice trailed off again.
    “Of course, she's wining for herself,” Talin rolled his eyes.
    “I guess...” then, his mother said something, but he didn't catch it. He took a step forward, the grass crunching under his feet.
    His mother turned fast, too fast for Talin to hide. “Oh, it's just you. What do you want?” she said bluntly, her pink cheeks faded away.
    “Oh. Uh...uh...” Talin lost his mission. “Oh! I-I need to tell you something!” he straitened up.
    She sighed. “What?” she rolled her eyes.
    “Uh...oh...um...It's about Talula...” he stuttered.
    “What is it!? Spit it out!” she had less patience than Talula.
    “Um...well, she collapsed today...and, well, we found out...she's having a baby...” Talin couldn't look into his mother's eyes, so he stared at the ground. After a minute, he looked up to see his mother in total shock, then she started laughing.
    “Talula!?” she had to wrap her arms around her stomach and lean forward. “Man, she's as bad as I am! And I thought I was bad!” She straitened up again, and wiped a tear with the hand with the flower while trying to stop giggling.
    Talin didn't know what to say. Talula getting pregnant was funny? He hadn't even told her who the father was and how he was taking it. He thought that was the funny part. “Oh well,” he shrugged in his mind.
    His mother calmed down, and went back to a frown. “I will go see her,” she threw the flower on the name plate, and walked away, Talin following her at a distance.
    For a second, Talin looked back at the flower, and then, just for a moment, the grass around the tomb seemed to bloom. Talin blinked, and the flower was gone. He stayed for a moment, but nothing happened. He went back with his mother.

    The doors opened for Sayline, and she went into her daughters room with a serious walk.
    Talula was petting Walter's hair, when they both jumped as Sayline came in.
    She looked at the both of them, back and forth. “Him? The elf servant!? You've got to be joking!” her wide eyes did not show any hint of laughter now.
    Talin quickly followed into the room, then tried to walk back out, but his mother caught him by the collar.
    “Why didn't you tell me of this!?” she whispered into his ear.
    A tremble grew up Talin's spine. “U-uh...lack of details?” he stuttered.
    She huffed and shoved him from her arm. She walked up to Walter and grabbed him by the collar. “You'd better have a good explanation for this!” Sayline snapped.
    “U-uh...” Walter was looking left and right.
    “Mom! Put him down!” Talula shouted.
    Sayline huffed again, and threw him. She looked at her daughter. “Well?” she said, trying to hide her anger.
    “Well what?” Talula said with just as much attitude.
    “What are you going to do about this?” Sayline asked.
    The two men in the corner of the room noticed how much the women were alike. They both looked at each other, scared for their lives. They nodded to each other and slowly walked out of the room.
    “Get back here!!” they both yelled.
    And the men zoomed back into the corner.
    “Now, what are you going to do with the baby?” Sayline asked again.
    “Well, I plan to keep it,” Talula answered.
    “You're only sixteen,”
    “So?”
    “How are you going to take care of it?”
    “I'm going to quit school after the end of this year and take care of it.”
    “And what of your brother and the cambion?”
    “Her name is Abelina,” Talula growled, “and he will do whatever he likes.”
    “What if the baby turns out to be a cambion? The elf is half human.”
    “His name if Walter. And if the baby turns out to be a cambion, I will take care of it.”
    “And what of the elf?”
    “His name is Walter,” she growled again, “and he will take care of me and the baby.”
    “What if he runs away?”
    “He won't.”
    “He won't?”
    “He won't.”
    A pause filled the room. The women were staring each other down. Then men were looking at each other, then at the women, and back.
    Sayline sighed,“Next thing you know, Aunt Melly will be cooking with the servants in the kitchen... Alright. Fine. You seem to think you can handle it, so I will let you,” and Sayline left.
    The boys let out their breaths. That was over.
    Talula crossed her arms. “'I will let you'. Ha! Who does she think she is!? I'm old enough to think!”
    Walter smiled and walked to her side.
    “That was totally different from what she did when I told her...” Talin said in shock. He told them how she had acted.
    Both of them had blank faces.
    “Well, I'm gonna call Abelina. She doesn't get math at all,” Talula threw her legs over, and sat up.
    “A-are you okay to get up!? I-I mean, are you sure!?” Walter asked.
    She looked at him with one eyebrow up, “What? You're saying I'm to weak to walk?”
    “N-no! I-I'm just worried about your condition, Mistress Talula,” he quieted down.
    “Stop with all the Mistress stuff. I'm your baby's mom now. I'm Talula, or Tali,” Talula got up, looked at her brother and went to the phone.
    Talin didn't really care. He just knew if Walter hurt his sister in any way, he would kill him. He looked at Walter, who already knew the circumstances, and left.
    “Hey Abelina! Do you still need help?” Talula asked on the phone.
    “Eh heh heh. It would be nice. My brother can't even understand them...” Abelina laughed.
    “Alright,” Talula got her math book from her bag under the table, “What do you need help on?”
    Walter sat on the bed and looked around. Through the curtains, he could see the sun was going down. He looked at Talula's back. “My child...” he thought. If he hadn't known better, it would have looked as if she was just normal, and he had this morning. He got back up and walked behind her.
    She looked at him, still talking to her friend, and smiled, then went back to work.
    He hugged her from behind and kissed her on the neck.
    She giggled.
    “What? Don't laugh at me,” Abelina laughed.
    “No, no. Nothing. Someone's distracting me,” Talula tugged playfully at his hair to try to get Walter off.
    “Ah. I know what you mean. My brother bothers me all the time, asking questions about when we were little and stuff,” Abelina laughed.
    Walter smiled and started nibbling.
    “Heyyy! Stop that!” Talula giggled.
    “Ooh, I see. Having a study date. I'll leave you two alone. Just don't get in any trouble. And you have to tell me about what's happening tomorrow,” and she hung up.
    “Dang it, Walter. You made her hang up!” she laughed.
    “Good. You should see how much you cost on your bill,” he smiled.
    Talula looked into his eyes and moved his hand over your belly. “You already got me in trouble for this,” she smiled.
    “Which means you can't get into any more now, right?” he laughed, and dug back into her neck, but then looked at her and said, “You know, if it's a girl, I would hate to see her get pregnant, because your mother is really scary, and you are just like your mother, Talula.”
    Talula raised her eyebrow again and looked at him, not pleased, but she forgot about it when he kissed her and laid her down on the bed.