Chapter Text
"Quigley... Quigley, wake up."
Quigley groaned, and turned around in his bed.
"Go away, Isadora. I'm having a dream."
"A dream, huh?" Isadora said dreamingly. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Oh yeah!" Regina said, coming into the boys room. "A dream is a wish your heart makes."
"When you're fast asleep." Isadora added, and the two sisters sang together.
"Who let the girls into our room?" Carroll giggled.
"Did you fall asleep reading again?" Duncan asked, pointing at the book under Carrolls head.
"Guys, can we just go up?" Lewis asked, standing up.
"No, I want to sleep." Quigley pouted.
As he said that, all five of his siblings jumped onto his bed and crawled on him, shouting "Wake up!" time after time again. Quigley sighed, as Isadora and Duncan pulled him down to the floor.
"Fine." he groaned, "I'm awake."
Now, I may need to introduce everyone properly. You can't just see names and immediately know who they are.
This is the Quagmire sixtuplets. Six is a lot of people, but they have managed. I mean, they are still alive. Atleast when this story takes place. The sixtuplets were 13 years old, and right now they were home alone because their parents had a "work trip" to attend. You'd think it would be a dream, like a butler coming in a serving them pancakes every day. But that wasn't quite the case.
Six children, or young teens, all of them just entering, or soon will be entering puberty, maybe is not the ideal to be left alone. Well, let's introduce them more now. You know their names, but you would probably like to know their deal.
The eldest of the bunch was Quigley Quagmire. He was a walking map, basically. He always studied the maps around town and memorised them, just in case they would ever go there. Since the sixtuplets didn't go out much, he wanted to prepare himself more every time they did. If Dora the explorer was around during the time this story takes place, then you would bet Quigleys siblings would sing the "I'm the map" song every day to him.
After Quigley was Lewis Quagmire. While Quigley was the cartographer, he was the explorer. He barely ever looked at a map. If he was in a place he never been in before, he just went whatever felt right to go. There was a special story of when the sixtuplets were around eight, and got lost in the woods. Lewis had helped them all getting out of it before dark, just by pointing at random directions that he "felt was the right way out of the forest". But even though it went well that time, Lewis very easily got lost, because he didn't follow any maps. But time and time again, he can find his way back before he is lost for too long.
Then, there was Isadora Quagmire. She was a real poet, and often held dramatic reads of the poetry she wrote down in all of her notebooks. Her poetry were often at times of a dark and gloomy style, with the hint of some sapphic elements. She was very sure of her identity. Her confident and sassy personality often made her siblings in a good mood. She was also quite mischevious and dare I say, feral. If something had broken in the house, it was probably Isadora. Though, she was more feral when she was with her sister Regina or with her brother Quigley. Those three in the same room would always end with chaos.
We mentioned Regina, so here she is. Regina Quagmire was the performer and singer of the group. She often collaborated with Isadora when making a song. Isadora wrote the text, Regina wrote the melody. A thing she did often was bursting out into song, even if the song had nothing to do with the context. When she didn't sing and dance, she either got engaged in mischief or walked around in the backyard to get inspiration. Regina was probably the loudest of the bunch, too. She was loud and proud, and that was just how it was.
Then there was Duncan Quagmire, the journalist of the bunch. He often took notes on various things. Whether it would be about what they ate yesterday and why is wasn't delicious, or the best way to say hello to other children, he wrote it down. The most irrelevant things could be something great in his world. Besides liking journalism, he was a bit fragile, but had a very kind heart. His siblings sometimes called him clueless, because he was oblivious to some things that were very clear to everyone else. Particularly, one thing...
The youngest of the bunch was Carroll Quagmire. He was a writer, and had for years entertained his family members with the most intriguing of stories. He had created atleast six stories for each of his siblings, which was often inspired by other stories he had read, with of course a little touch of his own imagination, too. Just like Isadora could quote poems and Regina could quote songs on regular basis, Carroll liked to quote various books. Because of his young age, he had mostly read childrens books. But sometimes, he could read more adult-related books, even if he skipped some parts of those because he was nervous his parents or his nosy siblings would find out what he read.
Right now, the Quagmires had just eaten breakfast and sat in their big library.
"What are you reading?" Lewis asked, looking at Isadora. She seemed to be very interested in the book she read.
"Oh, it's called 'female finnish poets'." Isadora explained, "Right now i'm reading a section about Tove Jansson."
"She's not a poet!" Carroll protested, "She's a writer! She wrote the moomins!"
"And an artist." Duncan added.
"Well, she did write some poems too!" Isadora said.
Regina, who had been lying upside down in the couch, smirked at Carroll.
"Hey Carroll, you're the author." she said, "If we were characters from the moomins, which ones would we be?"
Carroll bit his lip, which meant he was thinking.
"Well, I do think all of us would either be Snufkin or Little My."
"Works for me!" Regina said and attacked Duncan who just sat peacefully on the couch.
"Reggie, stop!" Duncan yelled, "Why are you always on me?"
"I think something happened in the womb that made Regina get on you like this, brother." Quigley suggested.
Isadora glanced outside the window. From far, you could see two chimneys sticking up from the trees. It was lucky smells lumbermill.
"You know..." she said, "I can't help to feel like something more is going on at that mill."
"I wrote a story about it." Carroll said, "It was about three children who end up there and are forced to work, and one of them gets hypnotised and almost murder a guy."
"For some reason it feels like that has happened." Regina said.
"You think?" Isadora asked.
"Yeah! I mean..."
Regina started to hold onto Duncan kind of aggressively and then started to sing.
"Cause I still believe in destiny that you and I are meant to be!"
"I never know what song you're singing." Lewis admitted.
The remaining hour, not much happened. Everyone just stopped talking to look in books or just walk around the house to themselves. That is, until Carroll looked out the window.
"Car coming our direction!" he informed.
Everyone almost jumped and ran towards the window. They didn't recogonize the car. It looked to be a car for someone who repaired fridges.
"Have we locked the door?" Quigley said in a kind of panicked voice.
"Of course!" Lewis said, "But... for safety reasons, let's hide!"
Everyone giggled, as Lewis and Quigley tried to find good hiding spots. They weren't going to hide because they were scared, but because it was just fun to hide sometimes. Quigley and Lewis always found great hiding spots, too...
"Alright, everyone in here!" Lewis ordered. He had found a space behind a bookshelf where you could squeeze in atleast four or five people.
"Guys..." Quigley said, "I don't know if this is a hiding spot, but I found something under the rug-"
"Quigley, we don't have time!" Lewis said. "Ok, we can't fit everyone behind the shelf, so you and me have to hide behind the couch."
Quigley nodded and zoomed behind the couch. Right as he did, the sound of someone opening the front door in the hallway could be heard.
"Who is it?" Duncan whispered. Isadora shushed him.
"Children?" a familiar voice called.
"Children?" another familiar voice called.
"Duncan, Quigley, Isadora?"
"Carroll, Lewis, Regina?"
"Fuck, it's our parents." Regina whispered happily.
The children still hid themselves though, because they hoped their parents would go inside the library so they could pop up and suprise them.
"Are they not home?" their mother asked.
"Well, it's unlikely they have left." their father nodded, "I mean, where would they be?"
Their mother glanced at the rug, who Quigley had rolled up a bit as he thought he found a hiding spot.
"Oh no..." their mother whispered. "Could they have- they haven't...?"
"No, they know better than that."
"Then where are they?"
The sixtuplets decided that they had been hidden long enough, and decided to jump out to greet their parents.
"Suprise!" Quigley and Lewis said as they dashed out of the couch.
"Hello!" Carroll and Duncan yelled happily.
"Boo!" Regina and Isadora screamed.
Their parents got suprised alright. Their father even fell backwards because he felt started.
"Are you ok, father?" Lewis asked.
"No, he broke his leg!" Carroll exclaimed, "He's got a bandage! Sorry we made you broke your leg after scaring you."
"The bandage was there before we scared him, idiot." Regina said.
"How did you hurt you leg?" Quigley asked.
Their father just smiled. After all his children had gone quiet, he opened his mouth.
"Breaking out of prison in Peru."
That evening, the six Quagmires sat in their pyjamases in the library and read books, while their parents discussed something. Being good children, the Quagmire children eavesdropped on everything.
"Why do they always talk about fires?" Quigley whispered.
"I know, right?" Duncan replied.
"We can hear you kids back there." their father informed them. "If you went to my school you would've flunked eavesdropping."
Lewis gave his parents a suspicious look.
"What kind of school teaches eavesdropping?" he asked.
"No, I think it's time for you to go to bed." their mother hesitantly said. "You got a big day tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow?" Isadora asked.
"It's a secret."
Very confused, the sixtuplets stood up and followed their mother to bed. They were never children who would protest when their parents sent them to bed. It was mostly because they found everything to be much more interesting and exciting at night, and that's why most of them snuck some books they didn't want anyone to know they were reading into their rooms. After their parents had closed the door, they brought their flashlights and read the books, or did something else, like eavesdropping on a conversation in another part of the house. The second alternative was the one two of the sixtuplets did on this very night.
Lewis and Quigley noticed their two brothers had sunk into their books under their blankets, so they took the chance to sneak out.
"Mother and father have only been home for a couple of hours and they act strange already." Quigley whispered.
"Yeah, it's like something happened on their work trip." Lewis replied. "I really do wonder what's going to happen tomorrow."
"Yeah. We gotta find out."
The two boys heard their parents talking in their room, and so they decided to eavesdrop outside.
"I hope they don't do anything innapropriate." Quigley said nervously.
"In that case we stop eavesdropping and go back to bed." Lewis shrugged, "And get on with our lives."
Quigley frowned, but then proceeded to press his head against the door.
"You don't think VFD will take them tonight?" they heard their mother say. "You know they are always nearby."
"Darling, they didn't take them while we were away, so they are most likely safe."
Just as their father had said that, there was a sound coming from downstairs.
"Lewis..." Quigley said. "Do you smell smoke?"
Before Lewis could answer, their parents opened the door. They found their two sons sitting on the floor, looking suprised.
"Uh..." Lewis said, "We were just-"
"You said you smelled smoke?" their mother asked.
"Yeah!" Quigley said. "Downstairs, we..."
Their mother grabbed Quigley's hand and their father grabbed Lewis's. They lead their boys downstairs. Their mother sniffed in the air.
"Smoke... yeah, it smells like smoke, alright."
She let go of Quigley's hand and walked into the library. Ten seconds later, she returned.
"Emergency!" she called, "Darling, I saw her!"
"Who?" their father asked.
"Her!"
Mr. Quagmire looked very concerned. "Oh no."
Suddenly, their parents exchanged a nod and dragged Quigley and Lewis towards the living room. The boys noticed that the whole family photo at the window had started to burn, which had lead to some books catching fire. Their mother rolled up the rug where Quigley had found something underneath before. He noticed now that it was a trap door, which their mother opened.
"Boys, get down here." she ordered.
"Why?" Lewis asked.
"Get down here! Now!"
Quigley and Lewis felt very nervous, but they did what their mother said.
"We are going to get your siblings!" their father yelled. "Stay there!"
After he said that, the trap door closed.
"Fire! Fire!"
Isadora and Regina, who had huddled together in Isadora's bed to read a book they didn't want anyone to know they were reading, hesitantly threw it under the bed when they heard the voice.
"Do you smell smoke?" Isadora asked.
"No, but someone did scream fire." Regina shrugged. "I think it was... mom and dad?"
The sisters looked at each other and decided to run out to investigate.
"Fire!" their mother screamed in the hallway. Their father had opened the door to the boys room and dragged out Duncan and Carroll.
"Where's Quigley and Lewis?" Carroll asked.
"They're-"
They were interrupted by the sound of fire spreading. Mrs. Quagmire ran down to check.
"It's... it's too late!" she screamed up towards the others. Mr. Quagmire nodded, and quickly opened a window at the end of the hallway.
"Kids." he said, "Jump out."
"We can't jump out!" Duncan protested, "We'll hurt ourselves!"
"No, you won't! I chose this window specifically because-"
"It has soft bushes to land in right outside." Regina said. Everyone looked at her. She just shrugged. "What? I sometimes play on the roof when I want to be alone."
"That's-" their father said, "We'll discuss that later, young lady! Now, jump out!"
"With pleasure." Regina said and didn't think twice about jumping out.
After she jumped out, Isadora jumped after, thinking it was safe because her sister did it. However, Duncan and Carroll were a little more concerned.
"Boys, you have to jump!"
"But what if we miss the soft bushes!" Carroll cried. "What if we-"
"Hey guys!" Isadora called from the outside, "Are you going to jump out or not?"
Carroll heard his sister's voice, and he took a deep breath. He climbed up the window, and jumped out too.
"Father, I don't know..." Duncan whimpered. His father bent down and looked at him.
"Duncan, I know it seems scary. But you have to listen to me. You need to do the scary thing first, and get scared afterwards. Okay?"
"But-"
"Okay?!"
Duncan formed tears. "Okay..."
His father hugged him. "Jump out now. Me and your mother will be right behind you."
Duncan nodded and stepped up. He didn't see much because of the darkness, but closed his eyes, and jumped. Four seconds later, he felt like he had fallen onto a pillow.
"Very good, Duncan!" Carroll applauded. "It wasn't so scary as we thought, was it?"
"You're right." Duncan said. "Now, father said he and mother would come after us."
But their parents never came after them. The four siblings waited for several minutes, watching the flames spread more and more. That's when the fire department finally came. A bunch of people ran in and out of the house and tried to put out the fire. A man even came up to the four children.
"Is someone still in there?" he asked.
"Yes." Isadora said, "Our parents."
"And our brothers." Carroll added.
The man nodded and ran around to inform everyone to look for people inside. As he did, the four sixtuplets watched their house collapse, piece by piece. The saddest thing was probably the library, where they had spent so much time in their lives. It was like their whole childhood got ruined.
Duncan saw one of their couches getting burned to crisp, and remembered when he was just five years old. He and his siblings had jumped on that very couch so much that it broke. Several times. And still, their parents fixed it up, even if they knew their six children would break it again.
Carroll saw their kitchen disappear behind the flames, and remembered when he told such an engaging story that everyone in his family forgot to eat anything because they were so invested. Eventually, the food got cold. Their parents were too lazy to warm it up, so they put it in leftovers and called for pizza.
Isadora saw someones bed almost falling through the burnt floor, and remembered when she accidentally spilled ink all over her sheets and had to explain to everyone why she was writing poetry in the bed in the first place.
Regina saw the roof, which the smoke had now surrounded, and remembered the first time she climbed the roof just because she wanted to. Her parents got so mad at her for it, but already the next day, she was up on the roof again.
The four siblings stood in their pajamases and watched their childhood home get burned to the ground. They wondered where their parents, and their brothers, could be that made it take such a long time. They couldn't be dead...? No, they have to get out!
"What do you mean they all died?"
The four Quagmire children had watched their house burn for an hour without moving. Eventually, some random banker they never met before moved them to the side and told them their parents and brothers had perished.
"My name is Mr. Poe." said the banker, "And I help out orphans, just like you."
"Never call us orphans again." Isadora ordered.
"But you are orphans. Now, I know this may seem very sad, but you got nothing to worry about! Your parents left behind the Quagmire sapphires, which will be yours when you come of age! Your brothers would've inherited it too, but you know, they are dead now..."
"You fucking unsensitive bitch." Regina mumbled.
Mr. Poe didn't seem to hear her, because he continued to speak about crap.
"Now, there were three boys and a girl?"
"Two boys and two girls." Isadora corrected, and bit her lip.
"You're a girl?" Mr. Poe asked, "Wow, your hair is too short for that!"
Isadora grinded her teeth, because hair lenght should not be associated with gender.
"Now," Poe said, "Get into my car."
"No." Regina said.
"Yes." Poe said.
"What if I don't want to?"
"You have to! I am an adult and I want everyone of you to get into my car! I am going to drive you to a place where you'll be staying until I have found a guardian for you!"
The Quagmire children did not want to go to another place, nor get a guardian. They did not care about any sapphires they wouldn't get for several years anyway. But, where else could they go?
Unwillingly, the four siblings climbed into Mr. Poes backseat and squeezed themselves together.
"We're leaving our childhood house." Isadora said, "To live a life like a lonely mouse."
"That was a good poem." Carroll said.
"No, it wasn't." Isadora muttered. "It sucked."
Carroll just shrugged. He knew his sister was in a bad mood, and he understood why. He didn't feel so well, either.
"Why don't one of you sit beside me?" Poe asked, "So you're not squeezing all four in the backseat."
But the Quagmires shook their heads. Mr. Poe shrugged, and started the car to drive off.
A while on the road, Carroll saw a truck labeled "Lucky smells lumbermill" on the side. He could've sworn he saw three people lying in the back of the truck, but he shrugged it off. Meanwhile, Regina started to hum on a familiar tune.
"Oh, are you humming to 'Seven little girls sitting in the backseat'?" Mr. Poe asked. "I love that song!"
"Yes..." Regina said slowly, "But I have my own version."
Without someone asking her, Regina started to sing. Not loudly, but still loud enough for her siblings to hear. The melody was the song Mr. Poe mentioned, but she had spontaneously made up her own text.
"Four sad Quags sitting in Poes backseat
being sad and lonely all day
Poe asked 'Why don't one of you come up and sit beside me?'
And this is what the four Quags said:
All together now, one, two, three
Keep your mind on your driving, keep your hands on the wheel
and keep your snoopy eyes on the road ahead
We're fucking depressed
sitting in the backseat
so just leave us the fuck alone!"
Her siblings gave her a sad smile and nodded. They liked her version much better.