2022-06-23 12:50:19°°° Not so Pleasant Surprise °°°
The rest of the morning was peaceful. Andrew threw tantrums after finding out he had to go to school without Jason, whose class would be going on a field trip. Since it held little to no academic value, he decided to sit out the two-day trip.
Sean reminded Andrew of the gain and attention he’d enjoy, as most kids would want to know what new heroic saves Sean had made. A smug smile was plastered on Andrew’s face throughout the drive to school, a smile that Sean was sure would last throughout the day in school.
It was almost eleven fifty in the morning, ten minutes before Ann would be back from seeing a client.
The kitchen was a mess; flour was scattered everywhere. In the pans were the dishes Ann had washed after breakfast, the floors, and the boys—Sean, Jason, and Dan—who had called in sick to work.
Sean was supposed to be in charge of taping the baking experience, which soon became a flour fight. They had all covered themselves and their phones in flour.
DING!!
The oven alerted the trio, who were engrossed in watching DIY videos on YouTube.
They all looked at themselves. They were exhausted. After four trials, the first of which was pulled out of the oven too early, The second had too much flour, hence breaking easily. The third was burned, and even though the internet said they’d get better the more they baked, the fourth had all three problems.Dan looked at both boys and took a deep breath. If this didn’t work out, then they’d just order a cake from the closest cake store.
Sean took out a camera and began recording. After putting on the oven gloves, Dan opened the oven. The smell of freshly baked cake was encouraging. He nodded and pulled out the cake pan. He walked with it to the kitchen island and dropped it on one of the cake trays Ann had stashed away in the store room.
Jason walked to the island and took a deep breath. The tension in the air was high, but their dramatic and slow motions made it seem thick and suffocating.
"Not burnt," Jason raised a check list and ticked the corresponding box. "Smells nice," he ticked again. "Looks right. "The ingredients seem well mixed, but I think we are forgetting something," he said, putting his pen in his mouth and thinking.
"Chocolate?" Dan asked.
"No," Jason shook his head.
"Salt?"
"No."
"Water?" Dan raised a brow.
"No, it’s not any of those," Jason shook his head, still thinking.
"The pan needs to be turned upside down." Sean blurted something out from behind his phone’s camera.
"What? No. "Who bakes a cake and... turns them over?" Jason’s sentence slowed down toward the end. "Oh, my God."
"What?" Dan half yelled, feeling genuinely tensed. Ann would be back anytime soon.
"The cake… I just realized that we do not know how to take it out of the pan." Jason turned to his father with horror written on his face.
~~
"Andrew, help me with the bag," Ann said, shutting the door to her car.
She’d dropped by Kingston Junior High to pick Andrew up after she got a call concerning him. Andrew wasn’t feeling too good, so she’d picked him up and taken him for a quick checkup.
"Honey, I’m home," Ann announced, holding the door open for Andrew to walk in. "Dan? Sean? Jay?" She called out, dropping her bags on the sofa. "Anyone home?" she shouted, but still there was no reply.
"Mom!" Andrew, who had walked in ahead of her, yelled out in pure horror, startling his mother.
Ann jerked from the shock of the scream, and immediately she got a grip on herself and ran towards the kitchen.
"Oh, my God," her eyes widened upon reaching the scene. "What happened here?" she asked, unable to stop shaking her head.
"Surprise?" The baking trio—Dan, Sean, and Jason—gave a suppressed and unsure yell, the camera in Sean’s hands still recording.
"Dan? "You mind explaining all of this?" Ann gestured to the entire kitchen. The kitchen island was covered in flour, and the black floor tiles weren’t spared from the flour bath either. "What have you done to my kitchen?" she cried.
"Umm…" Dan was unsure of what to say. "You weren’t supposed to be home this early," were the words he found himself saying. Immediately after he said it, he, Sean, and Jason face palmed. "I’m sorry, those were the wrong words," he tried taking back his words, but like bullets out of a gun’s barrel, it was physically impossible.
Ann took a deep breath and then asked more calmly. "What are you trying to do?"
"Sorry Mom," Jason stepped forward. "We noticed you have been quite stressed of late and we haven’t been helping matters in anyway, so we decided to do something... special for you," he said with a smile that was mixed with multiple emotions.
"Oh, my God!" Ann couldn’t help but laugh softly. She wanted to speak but found herself speechless."Does that mean you aren’t mad?" Sean forced a smile.
"I… I don’t know... should I?" She turned to Andrew.
Immediately he realized she was asking for his opinion, and a mischievous smile appeared on his face. After sending and receiving eye messages to and from his brother, Jason, Andrew gave his verdict.
"No," he said with a serious tone, shocking even his mother. He then walked around the kitchen, inspecting it, before facing his mother. "I reckon at least a thousand dollar damage was done; the flour, eggs, and electricity burned." "Just how many cakes did you guys bake?" He turned to them, pointing at the waste bin with cake pans sticking out.
"Are those my…" Ann’s eyes widened. She had been so focused on what it would take to clean up that she hadn’t noticed the cake pans.
"Andy!" Sean yelled at Andrew under his breath, giving him a stare that was supposed to make him scared and stop making matters worse.
"What?" Andrew smiled, unmoved by the threat-glare. He then turned to his mother. "Personally, I’d say you should be mad at them, but..." with emphasis on the word "but," he gave his brother a look, "since they did it to please you, I think it would only be fair you let them off the hook... of course with conditions," he smirked at Jason.
Ann thought for a moment. Andrew was a con artist, and she knew it, but he was right. They should be punished for damages, but she shouldn’t be mad at them. She sighed deeply and looked at them. "Well, if it tastes good," she said, placing much emphasis on the word "if." I’ll let you guys off the hook with just cleaning up and doing dishes for a week. If not, you pay for the damages, and domestic chores are all yours for a month," she smiled, facing Dan, letting him know that he was the one who would foot the bill and run the house for a week or a month depending on the outcome.
"Mom has been possessed by Andy," Jason thought to himself, frozen.
"Ann," Dan called after her as she left the kitchen. "Can you maybe help us take the cake out of the pan?" he asked, biting his nails.
Ann laughed and walked back to the kitchen to give them a hand.
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Author's Note
I would like to use this medium to honestly appreciate you for reading till the end, thanks a ton.I really had a hard time working this book till the end, it had a lot of twists and turns that I hadn't expected. With every research I made throughout the course of writing this piece, I kept seeing ways it could have been better, but despite the imperfection, you remained in the journey till now, thanks a bunch.I would also like to thank my grammar and punctuation editor 'Miracle Mgbe'. It was a crash program, editing over one hundred chapters in five days, thanks a lot.To everyone that supported this book with their reviews and comments, thanks a ton, for those who just added it to their library, thanks a ton, for those who just opened it to get a better look at the book cover, thanks a lot too lol.Anyways, book two is already in the works, I can't promise a release date as I would like to perform as much research as possible, but I will say this, "Bloody Horizon; Gods Amongst Us" w
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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY
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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & NINETEEN
°°° Heart of Mexico °°° • Mexico City, Mexico In the city, now made into a crater, there was nothing but silence and flames, but in the midst of the rubble, a boulder was “driving” itself through the rumbles, keeping to the shadows as it navigated the city. It kept moving until it arrived at the epicenter of the explosion. After a couple seconds, the boulder rumbled silently, and then it split apart from top to bottom, revealing two people. They both looked like they had been through hell, especially the bald African American, who needed to be supported by his partner. Blue and Madera slowly walked closer to the spot that was the source of the blast and halted, looking at it for a while. In front of them was the lifeless corpse of their organization's most powerful entity, in a constricting position. “He tried to save her in the end?” Blue muttered in a low and solemn tone. "Nothing remained of her blue, nothing," Madera said, her voice cracking."Why... why was she cursed in su
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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & SEVENTEEN
°°°Theories, Speculations Facts°°° • Mexico City, Mexico • In the once busy and bustling city of Mexico, there was nothing in sight except death and destruction. The atmosphere was calm and serene, but the reason for this serenity was nothing The sound of the whirring blades of the “Blistering Truth” news helicopter invades the silence, bringing noise to the ears of the dead once again. The channel is a privately owned network dedicated to telling truths that other news stations aren’t permitted to tell. The camera pans over the site of the explosion, which was literally the entire city, but upon deeper analysis, the epicenter was discovered. It was around the city’s cathedral. The aerial view reveals a massive crater in the place of what used to be a tourist attraction, the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. The crater was several thousand meters in diameter and several meters deep, with debris scattered for miles around. The reporter’s helicopter hovers over the scene, safely
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & SIXTEEN
°°° Clash of Power °°° • Guerrero Landfill, Mexico Dirt and dust filled the atmosphere as both men collided, releasing wave after wave of timber-cracking shockwaves as they met themselves, fist for fist, kick for kick, until a blow to the abdomen sent him rolling into a rock, cracking it open. Blue huffed as he tried to catch his breath, struggling to push himself off the ground. “I was expecting that by now you would have been wise enough to know that going for head to head combat against me would be futile,” Carlos chuckled, and he began stalkily walking towards the struggling bald man. “If you had used your ability to manipulate the earth to create an armor, this fight would have been less damaging for you,” Carlos chuckled, but then his grin vanished as he suddenly felt a sinister, rage-consuming presence beside him. His eyeballs turned reflexively to take a glance, and standing beside him was the red-headed lady, Madera. “THOOM!!!” Dust filled the area as she slammed her
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FIFTEEN
°°° The date before death °°° • Somewhere under Mexico "I never thought these tunnels would end," Cardinal Es chuckled as they exited the tunnel, which had shrunk so much that only one person could walk comfortably in it. They had arrived at a sort of underground bunker, just as the higher-ups had told them they would find. "Heh, Madera would be so pissed if she realized she took the wrong tunnel," he laughed as he walked towards the bunker's door. Five meters away from the door, he suddenly collides with an invisible wall and is pushed back a few feet. "Anything less, and I'd have been disappointed," Cardinal Es chuckled, taking a stance. “I really don't think you should be attacking a reflection force field,” Red called out, but Cardinal Es either didn’t hear in time or he didn’t care altogether, as he threw a punch at the force field. THOOM!!! An explosive shockwave cut through the air in the wake of his punch, and as expected, the force field absorbed and redirected the fo
