… So, it all began the moment he chose to approach the lady. I could see it within his eyes clearly, and quite menacingly too. That dark, unbridled hatred towards all of the living, centered upon her frail form. Damned fury itself, made to resemble a person. Or one close to it, considering the jester. As for why he turned so infernal, my guess would be due to her own lack of interests in his antics. I, as a warrior, have come to her rescue not long after. True, perhaps I should have not, seeing that my body belongs to Young Pierre. But I simply had no heart in me to leave her to be a victim of such a curse! As well as the fact that you ended up calling me on that “phone” of yours, whilst I was hidden. “Oh, really? Sorry, I guess.” Oh, pay no mind. Perhaps it mattered little, as I thought to come out immediately. All in all, the demonic jester found me, alongside the old lady. The energy within his hand was as dark as the abyss itself. Regardless of my situation, and I knew I had to do something in order to rid it immediately. But first, I had to keep her away, for surely he should not be allowed to cast such curse on anyone. Thus I announced, with full vigor, thus, “Greetings, my old uncle! How fare you well! These have been such long years since we met last…here allow me to help you!” I then turned to the old lady, and said, “Why thank you so much for finding him! Do not worry, he is with me. Enjoy your rest of the day!” Alas, the old lady’s reaction were not at all understanding. In fact, she seemed to be quite confused herself. She asked me, “Are you alright young man?” Despite the dangers, it seemed to me that the old woman did not care for it at all. The jester had became second to me in her eyes. And he still had his ball of darkness on hand. “I am quite alright!” I tried to reassure her. “Here, allow me to take this colorful man with me, for he is my uncle, and children, such as myself, are very responsible for their uncles!” For authenticity, I even took the accursed hand of that monster. He seemed no less offended by that decision. “What are you talking about?” she said to me. “Get away from that stranger already, and go home! You don’t know where that hands has even been!” She was relentless about my safety, as I was a child in her eyes. But, as you might have guessed, I did not relent myself at all. “I am aware that you wish to protect children, such as myself happened to be, from danger but you should not concern yourself! For I, in my ten years of life, have come to know exactly how to fend for myself easily! As such, allow me the favor of you kindly leaving this place!” was what I said. However, she kept on insisting for me to leave, just as I insisted on her to leave. This has turned into a battle of sorts, one which lasted for a full minute. And it was at this point, I believe, that I have lost the jester completely. It is embarrassing of me, I must admit. It seemed as if he lost interest in both of us, and just left us completely to our own devices. Where that damned general of the evil tyrant himself now, I do not know. “Okay…what about, the thing?” Flora asked. “Thing?” Fotia thought on it. “Ah yes, that! That indeed happened! Presumably whilst we were fighting with each other. I myself realized only a moment after I saw the body of Young Pierre looking up into my eyes.” “So wait…you saying he did this while you were arguing, and then left?” asked Flora, incredulously. “Very much so.” “Okay then,” Flora audibly thought, “I’ll try to…contact Chester again, maybe he already left the cave with Tom. He should come in and help you with that. Me and Rose will look for Barbie again. Meanwhile, just stay in the same place, you hear? Don’t…go anywhere this time. Please.” “Rest assured, I will not leave the orphanage! I believe there is a chance that this jester might come to visit us,” said Fotia confidently. “What makes you so sure?” “A instinct from the gut. Now, before you go Smaller Rose, may I ask, I have been given a call this morning from this phone. There was some sort of problem in my ‘bank account’, and they claimed I needed to use my ‘credit card’ to fix it. What exactly are they talking about?” Flora rolled her eyes and shook her head, something Fotia couldn’t see. As she was explaining the whole thing about phones, something else was happening in the dinning room. “I know why your caretaker has been acting so weird lately!” Matthew announced. He was moving around the table, having every eye of each child successfully glued to him. His beak was aimed high, and his smile reached his ears. “And it is because…” Matthew paused, for dramatic effect of course,“She…HAS AMNESIA!” He paused himself in place. After a moment, all of the children gasped. “Oh no, does that mean her temperature needs to be checked?” Mimmy asked, full of genuine worry. “No, you dummy!” Brian shouted from his side of the table. “This isn’t cold! It means her knees are broken!” “What no.” Matthew scrunched the nostrils of his beak. “That is not what I said! I said it was ‘Amnesia.’ It means, she has lost her memory! That is the reason for as to why she acts so peculiarly unusual! And that crow,” he pointed to the boy mentioned, who was looking through the kitchen drawers, “has been looking after her this whole time! He did so in her stead, out of personal desire to help an old lady.” He started moving around the table again. “You see,” he continued, “while she was away, she had a run-in with a dangerous individual, perhaps those of the same cloth as those who are currently terrorising this city!” “What is cloth?” asked Yuri, interrupting the goose. “It means clothing,” readily answered Tam. The polar bear cab nodded, showing that he got it. “No, wait, no, what I meant is ‘the same’”, explained Matthew hastily. “Does cloth mean the same?” asked Thaddeus, picking his nose. “No, it doesn’t I just…” Matthew exhaled. “Allow me to start from the beginning. It all happened earlier this morning, at six AM.” “Is that before breakfast?” asked Mimmy, raising her hand. “Before,” Charlotte answered immediately. “Breakfast is at seven AM.” “Yes,” said Matthew, shaking his head at himself. “Now, back to what I was saying, it all started-“ “Does that mean we can stay up late today?” asked Yuri, interrupting the goose again. “No you are not!” Cindy replied. “She’s still here, so you have to behave!” “No one asked you!” Brian retorted to her. Matthew tried to stop them, only for the room to promptly descend into chaos. It was so seamless, he had no idea it happened, with each kid yelling back and forth, making noise into the air. The goose was flabbergasted, since this was the first time he witnessed it himself. He tried to calm them all down. “A-a-a-alright, how about we-“ “Your face is stupid!” “No it’s yours!” And immediately his voice was drown-out by the din. If there was anything for sure that he didn’t know what to do, was to calm down the energy of others. He just got scared for a moment. Thankfully, there was someone else who could. “QUIET!!!” All of the kids plopped back down immediately, mouths shut tight. Pierre eyes moved from one to another, making sure they were in proper seats. “No one here will be making a ruckus,” the boy said, somehow sounding more commanding than an army general, “for the rest of the evening, understood?” “But we wanted to celebrate Miss Cheshire’s birthday!” Mimmy complained. “And I am sure she appreciates that,” he said, more gently. Matthew found this tone of voice more unusual. “But you will have to postpone it for today. She is not feeling herself today, so let her rest.” “She doesn’t look tired, thou’,” noted Gavin. “She’s kinda full o’ energy, I think,” noted Gawain. “Let her rest! That is final.” The crow turned around on his heels, to signify an end of discussion. He landed his sights on Matthew. The goose’s back stiffened straight. “Are you, or are you not, going home yet, young man?” This was so odd. They were both literally the same age. He knew that for a fact. But he just couldn’t help himself, but nod along in agreement, and then quickly say, “Yes Sir, I’ll be going!” He went straight to the front door, without even giving out goodbyes. He really wanted to leave as fast as he could. Some did try to wave at him, like Mimmy, but he was already at the door before could see any of that. Then as he was about to put his second boot, the door from the front entrance got knocked on. “Please open up, Madame Cheshire,” commandingly said someone with an uneven voice, “this is Officer Hare.” “Let me!” shouted the crow, who dashed right by Matthew. Unlocking it, Pierre welcomed in a young police officer. “Hello, Pierre. Weird seeing you here, of all places. Is Madame Cheshire here?” the rabbit officer asked, taking off his hat. “We were supposed to meet today. We have talked over the phone about it.” “She’s…” the crow boy then coughed. “She’s in the kitchen right now. I’ll tell her that you’ve arrived.” The officer politely nodded. “Would you mind waiting, young man?” said Pierre to Matthew, who nodded in agreement. He turned to Officer Hare again, “It wouldn’t be too much hassle taking him home with you? Something tells me it’s dangerous to go out alone.” “Well…that’s not a problem. I could take both of you home,” Officer Hare offered. “No need, I’ll be staying here tonight. Now, just give me a minute, I’ll talk to Madame Cheshire.” The boy promptly left the room. Matthew removed both of his boots, then went to sit on the staircase. It creaked loudly, despite the fact that he barely ate anything. It shined brightly at the very least. Matthew thought as much, trying to keep his eyes away from the officer. “Kids these days can be extremely responsible, right?” the officer rabbit talked to Matthew casually, giving a friendly smirk. “Oh why yes, they do,” responded Matthew. Feeling less shy, he continued, “In fact, they can be extremely responsible. Some, like myself, just happen to enjoy doing utmost to be as responsible, unlike those few…’troubled’ kids. Must be quite a handful in your line of work, is that not right?” spoke Matthew, before doing his honking-full laugh. When he looked again at the officer again, while the latter was still smiling, his gaze had drifted away without saying anything. He probably stopped paying attention. The goose decided to keep his beak shut. “Are you here about Chester again, officer?” one of the kids asked from the dining room. The officer’s ears stood up, as those tend to do when someone gets caught off guard. “Not at all. Um…This doesn’t concern you, you don’t need to worry,” the rabbit officer tried to explain. “Are you gonna take him away?” asked another kid, probably Cindy. Matthew became familiar with how she talked. Also by the fact that Brian immediately answered. “No he doesn’t, now shut up!” “It’s not tomorrow, right?” asked Tammy, out of curiosity. “Shut up!” shouted Brian. “How about you-“ “QUIET!” shouted Pierre, And thus, another shouting match had been prevented before it even started. Office Hare plunged one finger into his ear, clearly affected by that shout. “Excuse me, officer.” “No…problem…” The officer looked a bit disoriented, actually, as Matthew noted. That’s the second problem with having big ears. “She is ready to talk you now,” Pierre said. He then took officer’s hand, who was still busy trying to get his hearing back, and led him away. Matthew heard Pierre shoo away all of the kids from the dining table. Before long, they were in the same front entrance hall as Matthew was, occupying different part of the staircase. They were all probably were waiting to see what the talk will lead to. “He’s definitely getting taken away,” said Charlotte. She was sitting next to Cindy. “It’s kinda obvious.” Tianna nodded without saying a word. She sat at the bottom. “Yeah, cause he’s a troublemaker!” noted Gavin. “He always does stuff like that!” added Gawain. “Even was there when the monster attacks started, everyone thinks he started them!” Matthew raised an eyebrow. “Really? Everyone truly believes he started it all?” “It’s so dumb! He didn’t do anything!” protested Brian. “It must be that Mayor! He’s the one who started the attacks and blamed Chester for it!” “How do you know he didn’t?” Cindy said to the back of his head. Brian looked up at her. “Because he didn’t, that’s why!” He then blew her a raspberry. ‘Well, he was always in those places, whenever they happened,” Tam noted. She sat next to Tiana. “That’s just a coincidence!” Brian protested again loudly. A big, long SHUSH rang through the room. Everyone looked at Lily, who pointed to the direction of the kitchen. It became clear to everyone what was about to happen. Then, promptly, everyone sat quietly, making no further comment. No one could hear much from the kitchen, aside from occasional voices. While they heard Miss Cheshire loudly proclaims stuff, like something about “Old people like me,” or “Phone batteries,” no one was able to figure out what they were talking about. “Some kids think Chester should go. Others think he should stay.” Matthew looked at Lily. She took a seat near him. “I don’t know why, though. Everyone acts like he has to. I only came recently, so…” Matthew bent his neck to the side. “Why tell me this?” “I dunno,” admitted Lily. “I kinda want to know why, I guess. Do you know how to learn about it?” Matthew didn’t say much of anything. He just was aware of Chester’s status as an outcast. And also that…well…about his mother. That was what he heard about him. He never had real proof of that, of course. Just the same thing that everyone told him before. He didn’t think it was unreasonable to believe these things, though. Some people were just like that. And that kid openly loved causing trouble. It was just that obvious. The goose gave a long, sad honk. “I don’t know what to tell you, m’lady,” admitted Matthew. “Some things can never be learned about. It is sadly, how the real world is.” “Well now, no need to be so sourpuss about it!” Matthew and the orphans looked towards the door. It slowly creaked open, revealing behind it a standing figure. It was a clown. “How about we play…a game…” …