… “I’m leaving for today.” “Take care!” said the front desk lady, waving to the nurse without turning away from the screen. There were two things still making noise within that place. The tapping of the keyboard by the lady, and the ticking of the clock on the wall. When Chester looked at the clock, he felt weird. It was a standard, digital clock, with bright green illuminating letters, sure, but it wasn’t what bothered him so much. Instead, those were the thoughts, that suddenly crept up on him. Like how what was now, became before. What will be in the future, just became now. Even saying it like that was weird. The future became now. Something only “became” in the past, right? Things “will” happen in the future, which “will become” the past, and “start being part” of your life. Let’s not forget too, that things from the future just appear out of nowhere. Meanwhile, things in the past will just never leave after they happen. It is a locked loop, where everything just happens and never stops happening, but will not leave once it does. They were all locked within this prison of time, and the key was never made. It might appear, or it may never will. And now, their past shall haunt them, increasing in quantity and size, until finally, it will become impossible to handle it, as they are slowly crushed by the weight of the- “Don’t you think it’s time for you kids to go home?” Chester, Barbie and Tom looked up to stout squirrel lady simultaneously. They all exchanged glances, with Chester choosing to finally notice how uncomfortably he sat. Tom and Barbie apparently were the same. They have ended up being there for over an hour, now. Tom was first to speak, “I guess there’s no point in staying here for too long.” He then bent forward to reach claws on his toes. “Yeah,“ Barbie agreed, as she bent both her neck and spine left and right. “I still need to talk to Mom and Dad. Oh, I hope Dad didn’t leave early!” she suddenly exclaimed, then jumped from her seat. “What about you Chester?” asked Tom, rummaging in his backpack. “You still wanna sit here?” Chester kept quiet. He probably was still numb, but also, he just did not thought that he should leave him. Something in his mind told him he shouldn’t, under any circumstance. That it was an important for him to do, as if it would be more honourable for him. Maybe he just had been hanging out with Azure for a bit too long. “I dunno,” replied Chester finally. “I would say, you should go back!” Barbie offered her opinion, now standing in front of him. “The orphanage is now by itself, right? I think maybe you can take care of it, while Miss Cheshire is away!” She looked at Tom, who was still getting up, to see if he shared this opinion. And then suddenly it hit Chester like a sack of rocks. The rugrats!!! He left them without making sure they’ll be safe from monsters! He left them without supervision! They need him! What was he doing here!? “You kidding me!” Chester spat out, springing back into his feet. The other two were taken aback by this. “I need to get back-“ he grunted, in the middle of his sprint to the door, “- my LEG! Pulled a ham…” The other watched him fall down on the floor, clutching his leg. The front desk lady asked if he needs to see someone. As always, future brings things from out of nowhere. And then through the front door entered a bull-dog man. He dashed straight to the desk lady, not even noticing the kids whom he passed by. “Hey, ugh, I’m here to see a friend,” he said hastily, sounding out of breath. “He is a donkey, my height and uh....same emblem as this one.” He pointed to his jacket. The emblem was of some TV station. “Is he here?” “Down the hall, the last door on the left!” Barbie shouted out to him. He looked at her with surprise, as if she just appeared in front of him. “Oh, thank you!” he said, with a smile. He looked at the desk lady, who silently nodded and reached for her phone. “You are welcome! Are you his friend?” she added, sounding curious. “Oh, yeah.” He looked back at her again, his brows are furrowed. “Why do you ask?” “Oh, um,” Barbie mumbled. She looked like she was trying to make up a story. “He seemed like he has a friend?” Both Chester and Tom exchanged glances without her noticing. While Chester busied himself with his pulled leg, Tom stepped in to explain it all. “She found him, Mister!” he said. “Really!?” The man was looking at her with shock, and even checked in with the desk lady. She nodded, while still talking with someone on the line. “Well, thanks a lot! I guess I owe you for this. Um, do you want anything?” Barbie thought about it and said, “Not really…” “Well, I’ll be here if you need anything.” He then turned towards the desk again. The lady a confirmative nod, which made him smile. “Okay, I’m going now!” Chester said, finally back on his feet. “Take care of your leg, and be safe!” Barbie said to him, right as he dashed out of the building. “Wow, he is going through a lot, isn’t he?” “Yeah, I’m not jealous of him one bit. Kinda feel sorry for him too, actually,” Tom admitted. And then his phone began to ring, making him reach for it. He looked at it. Barbie tried to peek too, but the sudden jolt that Tom made pushed her away before she managed to see anything. “WHAT!?” Tom’s mouth fell agape. “What is it?” Barbie asked him, trying to understand his reaction. He gave her the phone to look at immediately. It was hard to believe it at all. According to the mail sent, he was being invited to the tournament, as a full-fledged contestant! And as a matter of fact, his victory was uncontestably true result of today’s events. “Wow! No way! Congratulations!” Barbie exclaimed to him, grabbing his shoulder in excitement. “You got in!” Tom read it again, too lost for words. The whole match had been etched into his memory enough that he could recall the specifics more than he could fur on the back of his hand. The sudden destruction of Botzilla’s bot, the silence that turned into a roar, the way the referee disqualified him for cheating…He could never forget that for the rest of his life. And now here, typed with clear, black digital letters, that he was declared a winner and gets to compete. This was impossible to imagine becoming true. He even told his Mom that he was done with bots. And yet, somehow, as if by miracle, it all came true! …Unless. Tom recalled the last time they were with the vice-principal. He left them near the school, letting them go while going to the building. The man decided to speak on his phone as soon as they arrived. This was despite the fact that he did not uttered a word during the drive. Tom’s mind then repeated Chester’s words from before. The cat cub gave a long, drawn out exhale, not bothering to look at Barbie’s direction, who was becoming more puzzled by him. He was getting cold every second. And yet, his mind was turning hot in return. He finally made a decision. “Mister!” he yelled. He quickly ran up to the front desk, as the man was still talking with the squirrel lady. “Excuse, Mister!” “Yeah, what is it? Do you need something quick, I’m about to leave.” “I just have a few questions to ask.” Tom looked at his phone again, quickly realizing what he was doing. He was hating every second of it too. “Would you mind if we…could talk in private?” … Flora’s eyes were locked in place. She was having a hard time figuring it out. And yet, the more she thought about it, then clearer and more horrible did the image became. She was biting on her lip harder than she meant to, slightly beginning to rock her body back and forth. She was starting to panic. “Flora!” “Huh?” She looked up to see Barbie. She was in her pyjamas, just like the deer girl was. There was a look of concern on her face. “Are…you okay? You don’t look good.” Barbie approached Flora with raised hand, but the latter gently pushed it down. “Oh, I’m fine! Kinda got goosebumps…it happens.” “Really?” Barbie tilted her head to the side, only to shrug. “We are about to eat desserts!, Wanna come with us?” “Um…I’m not that hungry.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’m sure!” Barbie narrowed her eyes. “Really? You ate half of the table earlier.” “And it was delicious! Anyways, I’m fine, just…go and eat without me.” “Hmm, okay.” Barbie stood by the door, turned to the direction that led down the stairs. She stood there for a moment, just quiet. “Barbie?” Flora peeked to get a look at what she was seeing. “Do you…get scared of…your family?” “…Huh?” “It’s weird, right? To be scared of your family, right? You shouldn’t be scared. They understand you, and raise you, and help you when you need it, and don’t question why you do things in certain ways…They would never do anything to you, right? Like, it doesn’t make sense to be scared of Mom or Dad or…” Barbie’s train of thought trailed of. “I think that’s normal.” Barbie looked at Flora again. “But…” Barbie hesitated. “But why would you think you need to be scared of your Mom and Dad? All you are telling them is just the truth! I am well…” “I think it’s fine to not feel entirely safe with parents. Maybe even lie to them, if you need to. Some parents are like that.” Flora sighed, feeling dour herself all of a sudden. “But, but, but I don’t want to lie to my parents! Why should I?” “Why are you telling them the truth?” Barbie paused, thinking over to herself. Flora considered her own mother for the second. She remembered how she asked her mom if she could see her father, only to get ignored. She remembered how she talked about becoming a comedian, but her mother shot it down immediately. She tried to talk about her time at school, how she got bullied, and how her mom just moved them to a new location. Her mom was…hard to deal with. “Because I love them.” Flora looked up to the lizard girl. “I…have no idea, what might happen in the future. So, I need to tell them exactly everything right now, so at least they will know!” Barbie then turned around and left to go downstairs in a hurry. Flora didn’t even have time to think up a response. She sat alone in the room for few minutes. She did nothing else, but go through her phone. She missed out on a lot from just one day. So, her goal was to catch up on everything, and start doing things right. “Flora?” Flora looked to the rosen-haired spirit. The latter entered the room and sat on the bed across from her. “Did you guys find Chester’s caretaker?” Flora asked first. “Fortunately, we have located the position of the jester,” Rose replied. “It seemed that he essentially had created a new sort of Torque that we have not seen before. As such, we are not confident that you are able to take him on, yet. That is to say, we believe it to be best that you rest till the morning.” “I see.” Flora nodded slowly, and suddenly thought of Chester. Hopefully he’ll sleep at night, too. “Now, it is your turn,” Rose said to her. “What has happened?” Flora sighed, then looked out the door again. She could hear, faintly, how Barbie was telling her parents about everything. There were some gasps, and some bit of crying. She thought that maybe she shouldn’t listen in on them so much. “Here,” she brought her phone closer to the spirit. Rose eyes quickly grew huge, as her mouth fell agape. “Your mother!?” Flora nodded, then looked at the article with the picture of their car again. “It apparently happened a while ago.” Both her and the spirit fell silent. They could her the crying coming from the downstairs again. What a heavy night this has turned into. … Next morning came in usual manner. The children were still in their beds. Some were more awake than others, but none dared to disturb the domain of silence. Maybe it was because after yesterday, there wasn’t enough energy left for the kids to do anything but rest. One could hardly argue against it. “EVERYONE, COME DOWN TO EAT!!!” shouted Chester from downstairs. Suddenly, the smell of morning breakfast, made of burnt eggs and toast, dutifully entered the chamber. It gave some effort to make them budge, at the very least, though nothing happened. Yuri, for example, was enjoying his sleep too much to notice it. Tiana was set on waiting until everyone left first. Lily, being a bat, just couldn’t help but sleep for much longer than others, as she to bed much later too. Cindy was similar, but in her case, she just decided to go back to sleeping. “EVERYONE, UP!” exclaimed Chester, now in the room, “IT’S MORNING ALREADY! TIME TO EAT AND ENJOY YOUR DAY!” And then the bedroom was filled with the wonderfully effective noise for waking up known as the panging of two pots. The amount of bodies jumping and crashing on the floor beside their beds only managed to reach a half. Not that Chester didn’t try enough to get that. “Whats that for?” grumbled Thaddeus, rubbing his tired eyes and bruised nose. “Go eat your breakfast, it’s ready,” announced Chester. “C’mon, before it gets cold.” “But, we want to sleep!” Yuri complained. “And it’s cold!” Cindy noted. “I can’t find my slippers!” Thaddeus added. “Get ready, or I’ll throw them all outside!” Chester just said, leaving them all to groan altogether. He left towards the hallway, and was about to go down the stairs, before he met Azure. The spirit’s arms were crossed, and his eyebrow raised to hint dissatisfaction. “I do believe you could do better in communicating with these children,” he said to Chester. The boy scoffed. “Really? You of all people think I should communicate better?” Chester’s look was nothing but smugness, which unfortunate for the spirit, was hard to argue against. “Well, I do believe that you should instead focus on getting me to Madame Cheshire first.” Azure sighed, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. Something flashed in Chester’s mind, like an image, though it was hard to describe for him. Azure had definitely seen something. “You found her?” he asked. The spirit’s reaction was nonplussed. “You ought to consider your fellow orphans first,” Azure said. “Why won’t you tell me where she is?” “Because, Chester,” Azure looked up the stairs, noticing some noise coming from the room. The two of them stared a bit, but nothing came out afterwards. A fact that Chester did not like, actually. “C’mon, get up!” said the boy, ready to go back up. Chester felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to the spirit, who held him in place. “Because, you need to collect yourself, and take care of them first,” said Azure calmly. Chester lightly pulled his shoulder away. He took few steps up. “How do you suppose to help others, if you let your emotions drive your judgment.” Chester stopped, then looked back at the spirit. Their connection has severely grown over the last few days. If at first, Chester could only feel the strongest emotions of his spirit, he could now even discern the smallest element between each word that came from Azure. And all he could feel now, was worry. Just a sense of concern, directed towards him. If there’s anything that Chester has learned over the past few days, was how much guilt just sucked. “Give me a minute,” said Chester, wearily. To be fair, getting kids up and in an organized fashion is not an easy task. Even the most expert caretaker would use most of their energy to get most of them up. Thankfully for Chester, getting Lily up managed to be relatively easy. With her awake, he found the necessary clothes, the missing slippers, and even had enough time to find a band-aid to put around Thaddeus’s nose. Everyone went down the stairs together with littler problem. The breakfast was still warm, though less because they did not take too long to get ready. Most of them were too hot when Chester made them beforehand. For each kid, Chester made a plate filled with weirdly shaped, burned scrambled egg, half-burnt toast, whole blocks of cheese and a cup of cold juice. The reaction everyone had left more to be desired. “I want honey on mine,” said Yuri. “Okay,” Chester replied. He made two steps, only for Azure to whisper him something. He turned around and said, “Anyone else want anything?” “Can I have milk instead?” asked Cindy, pushing the glass of juice away with her paw. “Okay,” he took the glass, “will someone have more juice?” Charlotte raised her hand. Chester gave it to her, promptly. “Can I also have another toast?” she asked. “Not enough bread.” He looked around. “Anyone else? That’s it.” Few more kids raised their hands. “No eating by TV, or you’ll clean the whole room yourself.” Instantly several of those hands lowered. And thus the morning went by like that. One mentioned how they wanted their juice to be warmer, another asked if they could get more egg, third one suddenly asked for cereal instead of that breakfast, and more. Then there was a request to clean up their spill, another one wouldn’t eat anything, and then someone decided to start a fight in the middle of their meal. “Brian, if you don’t stop bothering her, I’m gonna dump a bunch of ice down your pants!” threatened Chester. “But she started it!” Brian complained. “No I’m not!” Cindy objected. “Doesn’t matter, you should stop. Got that?” Cindy looked at Brian, then smugly said, “Yeah, got that!?” “Cindy, I’ll dump ice in your pants if you keep doing that too.” The cat girl’s eyes went wide, and the wolf boy snickered. All in all, Chester found himself exhausted by everyone. It was only thanks to the help of Azure, and a bit from that Lily girl, that he even was able to go through it so well. As Chester plopped down on one of the chair, he suddenly felt a bit more sympathetic to Madame Cheshire. “Well done, Chester,” congratulated him the spirit. “Yeah, great.” He looked up to the spirit, and asked in the most pleading tone he had, “Can we go take down the monster, now?” Lily entered the kitchen, where Chester was. He saw her carry some plates, going up to him with them. “I think we should get some groceries.” Chester sighed, and then nodded. “Yeah, sure. We can probably get them from the community centre.” Chester made his way to the living room. The kids were already seated, watching some television show with puppets. The hedgehog boy found those creatures bit too creepy for himself. “Okay, I’m gonna go to do some grocery shopping, try not to misbehave while I’m gone, capische?” The kids all gave him weird stares. “Alright, you,” he said, pointing to Lily, who was walking right behind him. “As my second-in-command, write down all we need and then we can go.” “Um, okay.” Lily went to look for some paper and pencil. “No fair, I’m going too!” Brian complained, standing up on his seat in the bed. “Sure,” Chester said, shrugging. “You coming too, Tiana.” The giraffe’s eyes grew big. She looked around to see again if maybe he meant someone else. But then he repeated himself to make it clearer. She stammered, “B-b-b-but-“ “You have the biggest arms, you can definitely help,” he explained. “Now both of you, go and get ready.” “Can I come too?” asked Mimmy. “I feel much better than yesterday!” “Eh, just don’t get trampled on,” said Chester, after considering it. “Go with them.” The hamster excitedly ran up the stairs, alongside with the wolf boy. Tiana, the only one least excited, followed them along at her slowest. Chester made sure they were all up, then went to check up on Lily. “Why are you trying to help the orphanage so suddenly?” Chester looked back at Cindy, who was watching him from the couch with Charlotte. “You never cared about us before, so why now?” she asked. “Because you gnomes wouldn’t survive by yourselves. After you’ve done watching TV, do your homework.” “Really? But it’s the weekend!” Yuri complained. “Yeah, and you barely do anything. Now go back to watching.” Chester grabbed the paper from Lily and led her with him to upstairs. On the way, he flicked on one of Yuri’s ears, to latter’s surprise. Azure watched it all from the side, contemplating silently to himself. The past stayed the same, and yet the present has changed. Perhaps, his future was far less chaotic than he initially believed it was going to be for the boy. …