The group managed to settle into one corner of the room where there wasn't too much in the way of slime trails in the room, though between first Grace's transformation, then Lucy and Zoe's transformation, and then Megan and Jenny's forced entry into the Chapman family's master bedroom, there weren't too many places that were fully clean of things like the slime trail that Slug People would leave behind them or semen resulting from what came as part of the transformations in the Chapman family and what Megan and Jenny had done trying to get at Jeff. The area around the door to the closet was especially dirty at the moment, given what Megan and Jenny had done. None of that was really going to be conducive to what the Chapman family really needed at the moment, which was breakfast.
Thus they collected the bags they'd gathered in the kitchen and allowed Jeff to sit down while with has back to the wall. Lucy, Zoe, Whitney, and Grace then relaxed on their tails while also making sure that their bodies were between Jeff and either window, in case Megan and Jenny tried again. From there they set about readying a breakfast, which was going to have to be dry cereal for the moment. Jeff accepted that and figured they'd probably grab would could be preserved outside of something like a refrigerator. The only thing that was a bit more difficult was that the scent of arousal that Megan and Jenny had left behind still lingered and had all of them up at the moment, as Jeff noted his penis standing erect, as were Lucy, Zoe, Whitney, and Grace's, but for the moment that was more a distraction than anything else.
"So... where do we start with all of this?" Jeff asked as he poured cereal into the bowls for all of them to eat from.
"I think it's best we start with the man responsible for all this," Whitney spoke with a sigh.
"The man responsible?" Jeff wondered.
"Yeah, we ran into the warlock that either transformed Megan and Jenny... or simply enslaved them," Lucy nodded, "he apparently knew dad... or was arguing with dad over something and that then lead to dad's death."
That left Jeff totally bewildered over the whole issue. A part of him had some wonder if Megan and Jenny weren't anything more than pawns for someone else, as most everything that had been written and reported about Slug People gave an indication that while they had an extremely high libido, they weren't truly malicious. They didn't independently go after people in the way that Megan and Jenny had, which would indicate that someone else was controlling them. This likely related to all the stories of the origin of Slug People going back to witches and warlocks in the Middle Ages, for reasons Jeff didn't know.
"The man's name is Edward Cupple," Whitney spoke, "he runs a local realty shop or branch... I'm not sure if he's the owner or working for a larger company."
"Didn't someone from a realty company come to dad's funeral?" Jeff asked curiously as he tried to sort things out.
"Yes... that WAS Edward Cupple," Whitney answered, "he approached me and commented about wanting to do business in the area, which made no sense, as I don't know much about how realty works, I wasn't going to sell the house while you four were still here, and I was grieving the death of my husband... who I thought died in an accidentally caused fire."
"Accidentally?" Jeff said slowly, "you mean... you think it might have been more deliberate?"
"I have no idea why your father went to that realty office that day," Whitney said slowly, "and the papers he's had that I got access to couldn't give any reason for it, either. Thus there is no reason for it that I'd know of. The only hint of this was from what Cupple said at your father's funeral... that he wanted to do business in the area."
"So... maybe dad knew of this interest in the area and told him that we weren't selling," Jeff took another spoonful of the cereal. It crunched a bit while he was chewing on it.
"It goes deeper," Lucy grumbled, "as when mom realized who the guy was when he just appeared in front of us..."
"Wait... he was in the house?" Jeff gasped.
"Yes," Zoe nodded, "we got down the first floor and the living room and Megan and Jenny weren't there... but this guy was creepily standing there in the hallway toward the kitchen. And it felt weird talking to him... like he was assaulting our minds."
"But we clung together," Grace said with visible relief in her voice.
Jeff took a sigh of relief at that. That had to mean that the hive mind that Grace had mentioned was actually something that could protect Slug People when they were together. Someone might be able to brainwash one Slug Person but not a group of Slug People, which would have to meant that if Megan and Jenny had been born/hatched as Slug Women, they might be quite limited away from other Slug People, and could well be victims of this Edward Cupple just as much as they were. Though Lucy picked up the explanation on what had happened.
"And the fact that he came in taunting about us being Slug Women now and wanting us to serve him," Lucy spoke, "that raises my thought that the fire that killed dad was deliberate and Ed wanted dad out of the way."
"We can't prove that, though," Whitney said slowly, "it's possible... but we have no evidence of it and we still have no clue as to why your father went into that realty shop..."
"That only raises the question of how to deal with him," Jeff said slowly, "if he is a warlock... there isn't much that you guys could protect yourself with should he try something advanced... and I'd likely be even more vulnerable."
"In theory, we might find something that could serve as protection," Grace theorized, "as his magic wasn't invincible as it couldn't overcome the hive mind. Which in turn means that there could be other things that would serve as protection against him..."
"Though that would require knowledge of magic," Zoe pointed out, "something none of us have. And few people probably even believe in magic until something like this happens and they can't deny it."
"Which we don't have," Jeff said looking down and noted out of the corner of his eye that Whitney and Grace looked down for a moment too.
"That doesn't mean we can't learn or find someone that does," Lucy commented, "given all the stuff that went on in the Middle Ages, I'd bet at least the Catholic Church has had some members that knew magic or at least how to protect someone from those using it for ill intent... or maybe we go and find the Slug People colony here... tell them what's happened to us, what Megan and Jenny have done and that they're serving this Cupple. They might have more first hand knowledge about all this."
"At least on what could protect us from attack," Zoe agreed, "and since we know we have a way out now... we could go and find them."