File type: Text File (.txt) [Download]
-----------------------------------------
…
Chester was half-sitting, half-lying in the front lobby. He’s been waiting for a few hours now, leaving him the only person present at the hospital. It wasn’t entirely late, to be clear. People just haven’t been visiting this place at all. Even the staff shrank, with Chester only meeting a nurse, a janitor and the lady at the front desk.
“Hey, you over there!” called the nurse, a stout squirrel woman. Chester lightly shifted his head to her direction. “You hungry? Want a sandwich?” she asked, pulling out a healthy looking food in a transparent bag.
Chester didn’t answer, just stood up and moved towards her. She left it for him to pick it up.
“Been a while, eh? Haven’t seen you since early fall,” the lady absentmindedly chatted.
“Got busy,” Chester answered, half-truthfully.
“Mmhm.” The woman kept on typing at her computer. She probably felt pity for him, Chester figured. He didn’t need any though, he just felt angry.
Angry that this clown had to be so hard to beat. He always goes extra mile, for no reason at all. He isn’t even sure why he was doing so many things to them. Why did he want to hurt them so badly? Especially Barbie, who did nothing wrong. At this point, he felt like he should be doing something. Something right now, in fact.
But frustratingly, he couldn’t. Azure was out, trying to pinpoint the location of the clown with Rose. He said he wanted to go with him. He wanted to take down the clown himself. Then suddenly, Azure had a weird reaction. Chester couldn’t remember the scene that flashed in his head, but the spirit left before he had a chance to ask again to go with him. In the end, all he was left to do was just sit on that wobbly, uneven, old chair. Just do nothing, but waste away.
He felt awful.
“Chester?”
He looked up. Both Tom and Barbie were walking out of the hallway. The cat said “thanks” to the front desk lady, who just nodded and mummed something.
“You were here this whole time?” Tom asked, as he got closer. “Sorry we didn’t appear earlier. I didn’t want to bother you, so I went to visit Mom. I also invited Barbie, when I saw her pass by.”
Chester, with the same flat expression, just gave a shrug.
“No problem.”
The two kids looked at each other.
“Want us to walk you home with us?” Barbie asked.
“Don’t you have to get ready for your dad?” he replied promptly. Tom cringed a bit from it.
Barbie, however, just tilted her head left and right.
“That can wait a bit,” she said. “How’s Fotia?”
Chester revealed everything that had happened beforehand. From his arrival to their place, to finding all the kids, including Matthew, for some reason. Then he found Fotia, who apparently switched bodies with that old lady, only to lose consciousness later. He got him to the hospital as soon as he could, detransforming right before he entered to not get attention. Then he got Fotia to the front, they ask what happened, he made up a story about some accident in the kitchen. They got her on bed, then left him alone. He also learned from Flora, while waiting, about how he and Miss Cheshire ran into the clown, who switched their bodies.
“And now I’m waiting,” he told them. “They said it was probably some faint spell she had, probably because of her wound. Nothing serious, they said. They said they will look after her…him…and will tell me if something is wrong. But so far, nothing.”
Barbie nodded.
“I wonder how it’s like to turn into an old lady.” Him and Tom turned to her. “I mean, he’s a boy…but now he became an old lady! That’s, like, the opposite, right?”
The two exchanged glances, before slowly, but surely nodding in agreement. That was probably weird for him.
“By the way, where’s Flora?” Chester asked her.
“I’ve seen her with Mandy.”
“Really?” Chester asked, incredulously. Barbie nodded confidently.
“Yep! Said she needed to do something with her. She mentioned she did something, but is gonna need to fix it before it’s too late, and then left. Said she’ll tell me everything, later.”
He turned to Tom, who just shrugged a bit.
“Hmm, wonder where’s she is now,” Chester mumbled, moving back to his seat.
Barbie and Tom stood there for a while, before taking a seat next to him. It was a quiet evening, for those three.
…
Flora took another deep breath. Finally, after seven solid minutes, she became calm and collected, enough to analyze her situation. Which was bizarre as all heck.
They were just led by a bunch of big men into some building, without being told why. That building was tucked in some far off corner in an alley, where no one would think to even visit. Aside from a hall, there were two rooms, one where she was waiting inside, and another one, where they took Mandy into. Also, the mayor himself was in charge of this whole thing, making it even more mystifying. He said it would only take few minutes to her, and now, it has been full fifteen.
Flora checked her surroundings again. Aside from rather low-quality light, the room was clean, with a nice carpet, a desk on the side on which laid some magazines (she noted the date on the top one was several months late) and a row of chairs. There were two men, both wearing suits and sunglasses, but not exactly uniform. They felt less like secret service, and more like some back-alley mafia goons. That said, they were undeniably stone cold as far as goons went.
That was until one of them turned his head to look at her, which she realized because she stared too long at him. She quickly snapped her head back into place, a chill in her spine going both ways. He shifted in his position, and then cracked his neck.
What was happening here?
She waited two more minutes, and then finally something happened. The door slowly opened, and out trotted Mandy. Without saying a word, she sat down next to Flora. Her face was, despite being covered by her white as snow fur, very pale. Whatever happened there was big, and Flora had no idea what to expect. She her lip was being held the entire time.
“Next!” came out from the room. It was the voice of the mayor himself.
The big man near his door nodded. He began moving to her, but she quickly got up before he got any closer. It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience. She had no clue what she was supposed to do here.
She entered the office. It was brightly lit, much brighter than the waiting room. There was one, small window somewhere near the ceiling. He sat by the desk, which he was busy cleaning. She didn’t see much, but the papers were placed into the same bag he came in with. They looked like photos. Other than that, there was a lamp, and a small hula dancing bobblehead doll at the corner.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, without looking at her.
It felt like she was about to be interrogated. This was no different that those old spy movies, where an evil mastermind would take their victim to taunt and torture. While she wasn’t sure about the latter part, for a fact, she was sure for one that she was going to have to take extra care about what she’ll say to him.
“You can take a seat,” he repeated, now looking at her. Realizing she was standing the whole time, Flora quickly nodded and went to the chair nearest to her. She was having hard time swallowing.
Thoughts were racing in her mind, in particular being those of possibility of him asking her about Rose and the other spirits. This was obviously the case, why else would he call her here? She might play dumb, but might make him more suspicious of her. And if he suspects more, he’ll probably be even more aggressive. Could she handle that? Rose is far away, but she knows that if there was danger, she would come, right?
“Your name is Flora, is that correct?” he asked, as he fumbled in his bag again.
She took a deep breath.
“Why yes, that would be me,” she answered, keeping her tone even.
He lightly raised one eyebrow.
Or maybe, in fact, he won’t lay a finger on her. Rose said, that information is power. And she who knows more, will wield more power. Between the two of them, she knew way more, so that already put her in a good spot. Furthermore, this was an opportunity to learn more. To learn about him. About Tom’s mother. About the evil lair they found under the mayor’s building. She had entered a new battleground. This time, it was not about magical powers, moves, or weapons. This was a battle of wits and information.
In here, she could take him on.
Bring it, she wanted to say.
She looked long and hard at the goatman’s eyes. When he finally looked back at her, they were locked into an intense staring contest. She would not let him go, she thought to herself.
“I-“ GUUUUUUUUURRRRRGLEEE
That was the noise that came from her stomach. It was loud enough to have filled the room.
Mayor LeonHart chuckled. “You haven’t eaten anything, young lady?”
“Umm…sorry,” Flora mumbled. Her face had turned into dark shade of red.
She just realized she forgot to eat this entire time. The only thing she had was a bit of that apple pastry. Since then, she’s been walking on empty. She wanted to disappear immediately and just be done with it. There was no way out for her.
“Well, isn’t that adorable,” he said, sounding condescending. “Apologies, if I don’t have anything with me. I’ll try not to take too much of your time then.” He then reached into his bag. Do you happen to know this boy…Chester, I believe?”
He pulled out a folder from his bag. From inside of it, he pulled out only a single photo, which was of the hedgehog boy himself. It was probably taken earlier in the year, where he ran around in that festival.
“What about him?” Flora kept her cool, as she knew she should.
“It’s simply just a, ugh, precaution,” he said, before taking the photo away. “I’ve heard that he has been hanging around with some group of children, as of late.”
Flora watched him put away the bag down. He then looked at her, with the most sincere expression his face could manage, just to say,
“You can go now.”
Flora didn’t answer immediately. “Huh?”
“You can go home. I don’t think there’s much of point behind this,” he then looked into her eyes, “other than perhaps.”
Flora felt weird around him. He felt very fidgety, with the way he moved and the way he talked. She remembered seeing him make public appearances in the office, but never cared to remember anything about him as a person. She just saw him as a boring politician. But up close, her view of him changed the longer she watched him.
“Here is the thing…” he articulated the last sentence. “The boy, I believe, has been caught in some…trouble, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying, Miss Macherie,” he sighed, “is that this young man is likely came into contact with some unsavory type of people. The types that could, theoretically, not that I am saying is exactly, could lead him to trouble. Perhaps, it is tied with the last few…events, so to say. But I also think that there has been some overreaction from the townspeople, which created rumors. Some of which, I am not particularly fond of myself.”
Then he stopped talking. Suddenly, his nose cringed, as he went to reach for his bag. He was looking at the lamp on the desk, which Flora moved her gaze to do so too. A giant spider crawled up on it. He pulled out a tissue, and promptly wrapped it around the spider, before putting it on the floor, away from himself. Something told her that he wasn’t any more comfortable in that room than she was. He was probably thinking about leaving this place as soon as possible. Somehow, a familiar feeling for her.
“One of those rumors is that there is a group of people intentionally attacking the town. As for why they would do that…well, it is an attempt, by me, note, to drum up attention and get more people to visit out town. Between these complaints and piled up requests to do something about constant attacks, I feel almost powerless. This is not good, Miss Macherie.”
Flora raised one eyebrow.
“Wow…that is very awful!” she said, emphasizing her sympathy towards him. “They are being so unfair towards you, Mayor LeonHart. Have you tried to explain it to them?”
“Oh, my dear,” he grinned half-heartedly, “if I had an explanation ready, I would have. I am out of my depth with this one, and have been trying my hardest to fix this. And, you see, some people have began blaming the boy again.”
“Really? Ch-…him? And what do you mean again?”
He looked at her with narrow eyes.
“Ah, right, you moved to this place not that long ago, correct? Well…some time ago, this boy’s mother has been….well, we unfortunately lost her.” He looked down at his hands, and mournfully shook his head. “She was quite a darling to the town, being very kind and welcoming young lady. Everyone blamed him for what happened. But no one had any real proof for it, just…anger.”
He turned to look at the window above him. Maybe it helped him reminisce, but it was really dark outside to look at anything.
“I was well acquainted with her, in the past. We never had anything but…friendly relationship. Although, I don’t think I was ever in her point of view. She was a very…passionate woman. Someone who had fire in her to turn, and would light up the fire in everyone around her. She had this innate desire to explore the world, which in turn made her interested in archeology, of all things. This then became a boon to this town, as she won awards and gained recognition for her work, which brought people to visit this town. Thanks to that influence, a lot of us ended up changing. We had to modernize, we had to become better. And then came her death…and with in an unfortunate amount of bad press. There were words of secret dealing, of a killer on the loose, of the backwater little town, which killed a poor, young, prospective lady, just as she was about to finish her hiatus…”
He then gave a long, difficult sigh. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but there was a lot of dread behind them. Flora couldn’t believe someone could just feel so old.
“So, why are you telling me this?” she asked, finally.
“I want you to know, that I am very much here to protect this town,” he said, without looking at her. She felt sincerity in his words. “Everything in it has all that I care about. And part of it means, I’ll have to take precautions.”
He stood from his chair.
“I think we should wrap it up here.” He gathered his bag, only to stoop and look at her again. “I am not trying to put any responsibility on your shoulders, just so you are aware. But, if you happen to come across anything, anything at all, do not be afraid to contact me.”
“I’ll…try to, Mayor LeonHart,” she replied with a smile.
“Good,” he said, looking convinced. “You can go home now. My men will escort you out.”
Flora nodded and followed her way out.
As he said, his two men escorted them out without a problem. Oddly, Mandy was quiet for the rest of the night, not even bothering to mumble a word to Flora. That fox rarely, if ever had nothing to say. Then again, Flora herself felt overwhelmed at the moment, enough to not have anything to say herself. They parted as soon as Mandy got near her house.
Flora decided to spend the rest of her night on the phone. She needed more info than ever.
Something was happening, without a doubt.
But without information, she was not going to win this.
…
-----------------------------------------
…
Chester was half-sitting, half-lying in the front lobby. He’s been waiting for a few hours now, leaving him the only person present at the hospital. It wasn’t entirely late, to be clear. People just haven’t been visiting this place at all. Even the staff shrank, with Chester only meeting a nurse, a janitor and the lady at the front desk.
“Hey, you over there!” called the nurse, a stout squirrel woman. Chester lightly shifted his head to her direction. “You hungry? Want a sandwich?” she asked, pulling out a healthy looking food in a transparent bag.
Chester didn’t answer, just stood up and moved towards her. She left it for him to pick it up.
“Been a while, eh? Haven’t seen you since early fall,” the lady absentmindedly chatted.
“Got busy,” Chester answered, half-truthfully.
“Mmhm.” The woman kept on typing at her computer. She probably felt pity for him, Chester figured. He didn’t need any though, he just felt angry.
Angry that this clown had to be so hard to beat. He always goes extra mile, for no reason at all. He isn’t even sure why he was doing so many things to them. Why did he want to hurt them so badly? Especially Barbie, who did nothing wrong. At this point, he felt like he should be doing something. Something right now, in fact.
But frustratingly, he couldn’t. Azure was out, trying to pinpoint the location of the clown with Rose. He said he wanted to go with him. He wanted to take down the clown himself. Then suddenly, Azure had a weird reaction. Chester couldn’t remember the scene that flashed in his head, but the spirit left before he had a chance to ask again to go with him. In the end, all he was left to do was just sit on that wobbly, uneven, old chair. Just do nothing, but waste away.
He felt awful.
“Chester?”
He looked up. Both Tom and Barbie were walking out of the hallway. The cat said “thanks” to the front desk lady, who just nodded and mummed something.
“You were here this whole time?” Tom asked, as he got closer. “Sorry we didn’t appear earlier. I didn’t want to bother you, so I went to visit Mom. I also invited Barbie, when I saw her pass by.”
Chester, with the same flat expression, just gave a shrug.
“No problem.”
The two kids looked at each other.
“Want us to walk you home with us?” Barbie asked.
“Don’t you have to get ready for your dad?” he replied promptly. Tom cringed a bit from it.
Barbie, however, just tilted her head left and right.
“That can wait a bit,” she said. “How’s Fotia?”
Chester revealed everything that had happened beforehand. From his arrival to their place, to finding all the kids, including Matthew, for some reason. Then he found Fotia, who apparently switched bodies with that old lady, only to lose consciousness later. He got him to the hospital as soon as he could, detransforming right before he entered to not get attention. Then he got Fotia to the front, they ask what happened, he made up a story about some accident in the kitchen. They got her on bed, then left him alone. He also learned from Flora, while waiting, about how he and Miss Cheshire ran into the clown, who switched their bodies.
“And now I’m waiting,” he told them. “They said it was probably some faint spell she had, probably because of her wound. Nothing serious, they said. They said they will look after her…him…and will tell me if something is wrong. But so far, nothing.”
Barbie nodded.
“I wonder how it’s like to turn into an old lady.” Him and Tom turned to her. “I mean, he’s a boy…but now he became an old lady! That’s, like, the opposite, right?”
The two exchanged glances, before slowly, but surely nodding in agreement. That was probably weird for him.
“By the way, where’s Flora?” Chester asked her.
“I’ve seen her with Mandy.”
“Really?” Chester asked, incredulously. Barbie nodded confidently.
“Yep! Said she needed to do something with her. She mentioned she did something, but is gonna need to fix it before it’s too late, and then left. Said she’ll tell me everything, later.”
He turned to Tom, who just shrugged a bit.
“Hmm, wonder where’s she is now,” Chester mumbled, moving back to his seat.
Barbie and Tom stood there for a while, before taking a seat next to him. It was a quiet evening, for those three.
…
Flora took another deep breath. Finally, after seven solid minutes, she became calm and collected, enough to analyze her situation. Which was bizarre as all heck.
They were just led by a bunch of big men into some building, without being told why. That building was tucked in some far off corner in an alley, where no one would think to even visit. Aside from a hall, there were two rooms, one where she was waiting inside, and another one, where they took Mandy into. Also, the mayor himself was in charge of this whole thing, making it even more mystifying. He said it would only take few minutes to her, and now, it has been full fifteen.
Flora checked her surroundings again. Aside from rather low-quality light, the room was clean, with a nice carpet, a desk on the side on which laid some magazines (she noted the date on the top one was several months late) and a row of chairs. There were two men, both wearing suits and sunglasses, but not exactly uniform. They felt less like secret service, and more like some back-alley mafia goons. That said, they were undeniably stone cold as far as goons went.
That was until one of them turned his head to look at her, which she realized because she stared too long at him. She quickly snapped her head back into place, a chill in her spine going both ways. He shifted in his position, and then cracked his neck.
What was happening here?
She waited two more minutes, and then finally something happened. The door slowly opened, and out trotted Mandy. Without saying a word, she sat down next to Flora. Her face was, despite being covered by her white as snow fur, very pale. Whatever happened there was big, and Flora had no idea what to expect. She her lip was being held the entire time.
“Next!” came out from the room. It was the voice of the mayor himself.
The big man near his door nodded. He began moving to her, but she quickly got up before he got any closer. It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience. She had no clue what she was supposed to do here.
She entered the office. It was brightly lit, much brighter than the waiting room. There was one, small window somewhere near the ceiling. He sat by the desk, which he was busy cleaning. She didn’t see much, but the papers were placed into the same bag he came in with. They looked like photos. Other than that, there was a lamp, and a small hula dancing bobblehead doll at the corner.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, without looking at her.
It felt like she was about to be interrogated. This was no different that those old spy movies, where an evil mastermind would take their victim to taunt and torture. While she wasn’t sure about the latter part, for a fact, she was sure for one that she was going to have to take extra care about what she’ll say to him.
“You can take a seat,” he repeated, now looking at her. Realizing she was standing the whole time, Flora quickly nodded and went to the chair nearest to her. She was having hard time swallowing.
Thoughts were racing in her mind, in particular being those of possibility of him asking her about Rose and the other spirits. This was obviously the case, why else would he call her here? She might play dumb, but might make him more suspicious of her. And if he suspects more, he’ll probably be even more aggressive. Could she handle that? Rose is far away, but she knows that if there was danger, she would come, right?
“Your name is Flora, is that correct?” he asked, as he fumbled in his bag again.
She took a deep breath.
“Why yes, that would be me,” she answered, keeping her tone even.
He lightly raised one eyebrow.
Or maybe, in fact, he won’t lay a finger on her. Rose said, that information is power. And she who knows more, will wield more power. Between the two of them, she knew way more, so that already put her in a good spot. Furthermore, this was an opportunity to learn more. To learn about him. About Tom’s mother. About the evil lair they found under the mayor’s building. She had entered a new battleground. This time, it was not about magical powers, moves, or weapons. This was a battle of wits and information.
In here, she could take him on.
Bring it, she wanted to say.
She looked long and hard at the goatman’s eyes. When he finally looked back at her, they were locked into an intense staring contest. She would not let him go, she thought to herself.
“I-“ GUUUUUUUUURRRRRGLEEE
That was the noise that came from her stomach. It was loud enough to have filled the room.
Mayor LeonHart chuckled. “You haven’t eaten anything, young lady?”
“Umm…sorry,” Flora mumbled. Her face had turned into dark shade of red.
She just realized she forgot to eat this entire time. The only thing she had was a bit of that apple pastry. Since then, she’s been walking on empty. She wanted to disappear immediately and just be done with it. There was no way out for her.
“Well, isn’t that adorable,” he said, sounding condescending. “Apologies, if I don’t have anything with me. I’ll try not to take too much of your time then.” He then reached into his bag. Do you happen to know this boy…Chester, I believe?”
He pulled out a folder from his bag. From inside of it, he pulled out only a single photo, which was of the hedgehog boy himself. It was probably taken earlier in the year, where he ran around in that festival.
“What about him?” Flora kept her cool, as she knew she should.
“It’s simply just a, ugh, precaution,” he said, before taking the photo away. “I’ve heard that he has been hanging around with some group of children, as of late.”
Flora watched him put away the bag down. He then looked at her, with the most sincere expression his face could manage, just to say,
“You can go now.”
Flora didn’t answer immediately. “Huh?”
“You can go home. I don’t think there’s much of point behind this,” he then looked into her eyes, “other than perhaps.”
Flora felt weird around him. He felt very fidgety, with the way he moved and the way he talked. She remembered seeing him make public appearances in the office, but never cared to remember anything about him as a person. She just saw him as a boring politician. But up close, her view of him changed the longer she watched him.
“Here is the thing…” he articulated the last sentence. “The boy, I believe, has been caught in some…trouble, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying, Miss Macherie,” he sighed, “is that this young man is likely came into contact with some unsavory type of people. The types that could, theoretically, not that I am saying is exactly, could lead him to trouble. Perhaps, it is tied with the last few…events, so to say. But I also think that there has been some overreaction from the townspeople, which created rumors. Some of which, I am not particularly fond of myself.”
Then he stopped talking. Suddenly, his nose cringed, as he went to reach for his bag. He was looking at the lamp on the desk, which Flora moved her gaze to do so too. A giant spider crawled up on it. He pulled out a tissue, and promptly wrapped it around the spider, before putting it on the floor, away from himself. Something told her that he wasn’t any more comfortable in that room than she was. He was probably thinking about leaving this place as soon as possible. Somehow, a familiar feeling for her.
“One of those rumors is that there is a group of people intentionally attacking the town. As for why they would do that…well, it is an attempt, by me, note, to drum up attention and get more people to visit out town. Between these complaints and piled up requests to do something about constant attacks, I feel almost powerless. This is not good, Miss Macherie.”
Flora raised one eyebrow.
“Wow…that is very awful!” she said, emphasizing her sympathy towards him. “They are being so unfair towards you, Mayor LeonHart. Have you tried to explain it to them?”
“Oh, my dear,” he grinned half-heartedly, “if I had an explanation ready, I would have. I am out of my depth with this one, and have been trying my hardest to fix this. And, you see, some people have began blaming the boy again.”
“Really? Ch-…him? And what do you mean again?”
He looked at her with narrow eyes.
“Ah, right, you moved to this place not that long ago, correct? Well…some time ago, this boy’s mother has been….well, we unfortunately lost her.” He looked down at his hands, and mournfully shook his head. “She was quite a darling to the town, being very kind and welcoming young lady. Everyone blamed him for what happened. But no one had any real proof for it, just…anger.”
He turned to look at the window above him. Maybe it helped him reminisce, but it was really dark outside to look at anything.
“I was well acquainted with her, in the past. We never had anything but…friendly relationship. Although, I don’t think I was ever in her point of view. She was a very…passionate woman. Someone who had fire in her to turn, and would light up the fire in everyone around her. She had this innate desire to explore the world, which in turn made her interested in archeology, of all things. This then became a boon to this town, as she won awards and gained recognition for her work, which brought people to visit this town. Thanks to that influence, a lot of us ended up changing. We had to modernize, we had to become better. And then came her death…and with in an unfortunate amount of bad press. There were words of secret dealing, of a killer on the loose, of the backwater little town, which killed a poor, young, prospective lady, just as she was about to finish her hiatus…”
He then gave a long, difficult sigh. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but there was a lot of dread behind them. Flora couldn’t believe someone could just feel so old.
“So, why are you telling me this?” she asked, finally.
“I want you to know, that I am very much here to protect this town,” he said, without looking at her. She felt sincerity in his words. “Everything in it has all that I care about. And part of it means, I’ll have to take precautions.”
He stood from his chair.
“I think we should wrap it up here.” He gathered his bag, only to stoop and look at her again. “I am not trying to put any responsibility on your shoulders, just so you are aware. But, if you happen to come across anything, anything at all, do not be afraid to contact me.”
“I’ll…try to, Mayor LeonHart,” she replied with a smile.
“Good,” he said, looking convinced. “You can go home now. My men will escort you out.”
Flora nodded and followed her way out.
As he said, his two men escorted them out without a problem. Oddly, Mandy was quiet for the rest of the night, not even bothering to mumble a word to Flora. That fox rarely, if ever had nothing to say. Then again, Flora herself felt overwhelmed at the moment, enough to not have anything to say herself. They parted as soon as Mandy got near her house.
Flora decided to spend the rest of her night on the phone. She needed more info than ever.
Something was happening, without a doubt.
But without information, she was not going to win this.
…
Who here wants to see more of Kingdom Hearts 4?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…
Chester was half-sitting, half-lying in the front lobby. He’s been waiting for a few hours now, leaving him the only person present at the hospital. It wasn’t entirely late, to be clear. People just haven’t been visiting this place at all. Even the staff shrank, with Chester only meeting a nurse, a janitor and the lady at the front desk.
“Hey, you over there!” called the nurse, a stout squirrel woman. Chester lightly shifted his head to her direction. “You hungry? Want a sandwich?” she asked, pulling out a healthy looking food in a transparent bag.
Chester didn’t answer, just stood up and moved towards her. She left it for him to pick it up.
“Been a while, eh? Haven’t seen you since early fall,” the lady absentmindedly chatted.
“Got busy,” Chester answered, half-truthfully.
“Mmhm.” The woman kept on typing at her computer. She probably felt pity for him, Chester figured. He didn’t need any though, he just felt angry.
Angry that this clown had to be so hard to beat. He always goes extra mile, for no reason at all. He isn’t even sure why he was doing so many things to them. Why did he want to hurt them so badly? Especially Barbie, who did nothing wrong. At this point, he felt like he should be doing something. Something right now, in fact.
But frustratingly, he couldn’t. Azure was out, trying to pinpoint the location of the clown with Rose. He said he wanted to go with him. He wanted to take down the clown himself. Then suddenly, Azure had a weird reaction. Chester couldn’t remember the scene that flashed in his head, but the spirit left before he had a chance to ask again to go with him. In the end, all he was left to do was just sit on that wobbly, uneven, old chair. Just do nothing, but waste away.
He felt awful.
“Chester?”
He looked up. Both Tom and Barbie were walking out of the hallway. The cat said “thanks” to the front desk lady, who just nodded and mummed something.
“You were here this whole time?” Tom asked, as he got closer. “Sorry we didn’t appear earlier. I didn’t want to bother you, so I went to visit Mom. I also invited Barbie, when I saw her pass by.”
Chester, with the same flat expression, just gave a shrug.
“No problem.”
The two kids looked at each other.
“Want us to walk you home with us?” Barbie asked.
“Don’t you have to get ready for your dad?” he replied promptly. Tom cringed a bit from it.
Barbie, however, just tilted her head left and right.
“That can wait a bit,” she said. “How’s Fotia?”
Chester revealed everything that had happened beforehand. From his arrival to their place, to finding all the kids, including Matthew, for some reason. Then he found Fotia, who apparently switched bodies with that old lady, only to lose consciousness later. He got him to the hospital as soon as he could, detransforming right before he entered to not get attention. Then he got Fotia to the front, they ask what happened, he made up a story about some accident in the kitchen. They got her on bed, then left him alone. He also learned from Flora, while waiting, about how he and Miss Cheshire ran into the clown, who switched their bodies.
“And now I’m waiting,” he told them. “They said it was probably some faint spell she had, probably because of her wound. Nothing serious, they said. They said they will look after her…him…and will tell me if something is wrong. But so far, nothing.”
Barbie nodded.
“I wonder how it’s like to turn into an old lady.” Him and Tom turned to her. “I mean, he’s a boy…but now he became an old lady! That’s, like, the opposite, right?”
The two exchanged glances, before slowly, but surely nodding in agreement. That was probably weird for him.
“By the way, where’s Flora?” Chester asked her.
“I’ve seen her with Mandy.”
“Really?” Chester asked, incredulously. Barbie nodded confidently.
“Yep! Said she needed to do something with her. She mentioned she did something, but is gonna need to fix it before it’s too late, and then left. Said she’ll tell me everything, later.”
He turned to Tom, who just shrugged a bit.
“Hmm, wonder where’s she is now,” Chester mumbled, moving back to his seat.
Barbie and Tom stood there for a while, before taking a seat next to him. It was a quiet evening, for those three.
…
Flora took another deep breath. Finally, after seven solid minutes, she became calm and collected, enough to analyze her situation. Which was bizarre as all heck.
They were just led by a bunch of big men into some building, without being told why. That building was tucked in some far off corner in an alley, where no one would think to even visit. Aside from a hall, there were two rooms, one where she was waiting inside, and another one, where they took Mandy into. Also, the mayor himself was in charge of this whole thing, making it even more mystifying. He said it would only take few minutes to her, and now, it has been full fifteen.
Flora checked her surroundings again. Aside from rather low-quality light, the room was clean, with a nice carpet, a desk on the side on which laid some magazines (she noted the date on the top one was several months late) and a row of chairs. There were two men, both wearing suits and sunglasses, but not exactly uniform. They felt less like secret service, and more like some back-alley mafia goons. That said, they were undeniably stone cold as far as goons went.
That was until one of them turned his head to look at her, which she realized because she stared too long at him. She quickly snapped her head back into place, a chill in her spine going both ways. He shifted in his position, and then cracked his neck.
What was happening here?
She waited two more minutes, and then finally something happened. The door slowly opened, and out trotted Mandy. Without saying a word, she sat down next to Flora. Her face was, despite being covered by her white as snow fur, very pale. Whatever happened there was big, and Flora had no idea what to expect. She her lip was being held the entire time.
“Next!” came out from the room. It was the voice of the mayor himself.
The big man near his door nodded. He began moving to her, but she quickly got up before he got any closer. It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience. She had no clue what she was supposed to do here.
She entered the office. It was brightly lit, much brighter than the waiting room. There was one, small window somewhere near the ceiling. He sat by the desk, which he was busy cleaning. She didn’t see much, but the papers were placed into the same bag he came in with. They looked like photos. Other than that, there was a lamp, and a small hula dancing bobblehead doll at the corner.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, without looking at her.
It felt like she was about to be interrogated. This was no different that those old spy movies, where an evil mastermind would take their victim to taunt and torture. While she wasn’t sure about the latter part, for a fact, she was sure for one that she was going to have to take extra care about what she’ll say to him.
“You can take a seat,” he repeated, now looking at her. Realizing she was standing the whole time, Flora quickly nodded and went to the chair nearest to her. She was having hard time swallowing.
Thoughts were racing in her mind, in particular being those of possibility of him asking her about Rose and the other spirits. This was obviously the case, why else would he call her here? She might play dumb, but might make him more suspicious of her. And if he suspects more, he’ll probably be even more aggressive. Could she handle that? Rose is far away, but she knows that if there was danger, she would come, right?
“Your name is Flora, is that correct?” he asked, as he fumbled in his bag again.
She took a deep breath.
“Why yes, that would be me,” she answered, keeping her tone even.
He lightly raised one eyebrow.
Or maybe, in fact, he won’t lay a finger on her. Rose said, that information is power. And she who knows more, will wield more power. Between the two of them, she knew way more, so that already put her in a good spot. Furthermore, this was an opportunity to learn more. To learn about him. About Tom’s mother. About the evil lair they found under the mayor’s building. She had entered a new battleground. This time, it was not about magical powers, moves, or weapons. This was a battle of wits and information.
In here, she could take him on.
Bring it, she wanted to say.
She looked long and hard at the goatman’s eyes. When he finally looked back at her, they were locked into an intense staring contest. She would not let him go, she thought to herself.
“I-“ GUUUUUUUUURRRRRGLEEE
That was the noise that came from her stomach. It was loud enough to have filled the room.
Mayor LeonHart chuckled. “You haven’t eaten anything, young lady?”
“Umm…sorry,” Flora mumbled. Her face had turned into dark shade of red.
She just realized she forgot to eat this entire time. The only thing she had was a bit of that apple pastry. Since then, she’s been walking on empty. She wanted to disappear immediately and just be done with it. There was no way out for her.
“Well, isn’t that adorable,” he said, sounding condescending. “Apologies, if I don’t have anything with me. I’ll try not to take too much of your time then.” He then reached into his bag. Do you happen to know this boy…Chester, I believe?”
He pulled out a folder from his bag. From inside of it, he pulled out only a single photo, which was of the hedgehog boy himself. It was probably taken earlier in the year, where he ran around in that festival.
“What about him?” Flora kept her cool, as she knew she should.
“It’s simply just a, ugh, precaution,” he said, before taking the photo away. “I’ve heard that he has been hanging around with some group of children, as of late.”
Flora watched him put away the bag down. He then looked at her, with the most sincere expression his face could manage, just to say,
“You can go now.”
Flora didn’t answer immediately. “Huh?”
“You can go home. I don’t think there’s much of point behind this,” he then looked into her eyes, “other than perhaps.”
Flora felt weird around him. He felt very fidgety, with the way he moved and the way he talked. She remembered seeing him make public appearances in the office, but never cared to remember anything about him as a person. She just saw him as a boring politician. But up close, her view of him changed the longer she watched him.
“Here is the thing…” he articulated the last sentence. “The boy, I believe, has been caught in some…trouble, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying, Miss Macherie,” he sighed, “is that this young man is likely came into contact with some unsavory type of people. The types that could, theoretically, not that I am saying is exactly, could lead him to trouble. Perhaps, it is tied with the last few…events, so to say. But I also think that there has been some overreaction from the townspeople, which created rumors. Some of which, I am not particularly fond of myself.”
Then he stopped talking. Suddenly, his nose cringed, as he went to reach for his bag. He was looking at the lamp on the desk, which Flora moved her gaze to do so too. A giant spider crawled up on it. He pulled out a tissue, and promptly wrapped it around the spider, before putting it on the floor, away from himself. Something told her that he wasn’t any more comfortable in that room than she was. He was probably thinking about leaving this place as soon as possible. Somehow, a familiar feeling for her.
“One of those rumors is that there is a group of people intentionally attacking the town. As for why they would do that…well, it is an attempt, by me, note, to drum up attention and get more people to visit out town. Between these complaints and piled up requests to do something about constant attacks, I feel almost powerless. This is not good, Miss Macherie.”
Flora raised one eyebrow.
“Wow…that is very awful!” she said, emphasizing her sympathy towards him. “They are being so unfair towards you, Mayor LeonHart. Have you tried to explain it to them?”
“Oh, my dear,” he grinned half-heartedly, “if I had an explanation ready, I would have. I am out of my depth with this one, and have been trying my hardest to fix this. And, you see, some people have began blaming the boy again.”
“Really? Ch-…him? And what do you mean again?”
He looked at her with narrow eyes.
“Ah, right, you moved to this place not that long ago, correct? Well…some time ago, this boy’s mother has been….well, we unfortunately lost her.” He looked down at his hands, and mournfully shook his head. “She was quite a darling to the town, being very kind and welcoming young lady. Everyone blamed him for what happened. But no one had any real proof for it, just…anger.”
He turned to look at the window above him. Maybe it helped him reminisce, but it was really dark outside to look at anything.
“I was well acquainted with her, in the past. We never had anything but…friendly relationship. Although, I don’t think I was ever in her point of view. She was a very…passionate woman. Someone who had fire in her to turn, and would light up the fire in everyone around her. She had this innate desire to explore the world, which in turn made her interested in archeology, of all things. This then became a boon to this town, as she won awards and gained recognition for her work, which brought people to visit this town. Thanks to that influence, a lot of us ended up changing. We had to modernize, we had to become better. And then came her death…and with in an unfortunate amount of bad press. There were words of secret dealing, of a killer on the loose, of the backwater little town, which killed a poor, young, prospective lady, just as she was about to finish her hiatus…”
He then gave a long, difficult sigh. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but there was a lot of dread behind them. Flora couldn’t believe someone could just feel so old.
“So, why are you telling me this?” she asked, finally.
“I want you to know, that I am very much here to protect this town,” he said, without looking at her. She felt sincerity in his words. “Everything in it has all that I care about. And part of it means, I’ll have to take precautions.”
He stood from his chair.
“I think we should wrap it up here.” He gathered his bag, only to stoop and look at her again. “I am not trying to put any responsibility on your shoulders, just so you are aware. But, if you happen to come across anything, anything at all, do not be afraid to contact me.”
“I’ll…try to, Mayor LeonHart,” she replied with a smile.
“Good,” he said, looking convinced. “You can go home now. My men will escort you out.”
Flora nodded and followed her way out.
As he said, his two men escorted them out without a problem. Oddly, Mandy was quiet for the rest of the night, not even bothering to mumble a word to Flora. That fox rarely, if ever had nothing to say. Then again, Flora herself felt overwhelmed at the moment, enough to not have anything to say herself. They parted as soon as Mandy got near her house.
Flora decided to spend the rest of her night on the phone. She needed more info than ever.
Something was happening, without a doubt.
But without information, she was not going to win this.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…
Chester was half-sitting, half-lying in the front lobby. He’s been waiting for a few hours now, leaving him the only person present at the hospital. It wasn’t entirely late, to be clear. People just haven’t been visiting this place at all. Even the staff shrank, with Chester only meeting a nurse, a janitor and the lady at the front desk.
“Hey, you over there!” called the nurse, a stout squirrel woman. Chester lightly shifted his head to her direction. “You hungry? Want a sandwich?” she asked, pulling out a healthy looking food in a transparent bag.
Chester didn’t answer, just stood up and moved towards her. She left it for him to pick it up.
“Been a while, eh? Haven’t seen you since early fall,” the lady absentmindedly chatted.
“Got busy,” Chester answered, half-truthfully.
“Mmhm.” The woman kept on typing at her computer. She probably felt pity for him, Chester figured. He didn’t need any though, he just felt angry.
Angry that this clown had to be so hard to beat. He always goes extra mile, for no reason at all. He isn’t even sure why he was doing so many things to them. Why did he want to hurt them so badly? Especially Barbie, who did nothing wrong. At this point, he felt like he should be doing something. Something right now, in fact.
But frustratingly, he couldn’t. Azure was out, trying to pinpoint the location of the clown with Rose. He said he wanted to go with him. He wanted to take down the clown himself. Then suddenly, Azure had a weird reaction. Chester couldn’t remember the scene that flashed in his head, but the spirit left before he had a chance to ask again to go with him. In the end, all he was left to do was just sit on that wobbly, uneven, old chair. Just do nothing, but waste away.
He felt awful.
“Chester?”
He looked up. Both Tom and Barbie were walking out of the hallway. The cat said “thanks” to the front desk lady, who just nodded and mummed something.
“You were here this whole time?” Tom asked, as he got closer. “Sorry we didn’t appear earlier. I didn’t want to bother you, so I went to visit Mom. I also invited Barbie, when I saw her pass by.”
Chester, with the same flat expression, just gave a shrug.
“No problem.”
The two kids looked at each other.
“Want us to walk you home with us?” Barbie asked.
“Don’t you have to get ready for your dad?” he replied promptly. Tom cringed a bit from it.
Barbie, however, just tilted her head left and right.
“That can wait a bit,” she said. “How’s Fotia?”
Chester revealed everything that had happened beforehand. From his arrival to their place, to finding all the kids, including Matthew, for some reason. Then he found Fotia, who apparently switched bodies with that old lady, only to lose consciousness later. He got him to the hospital as soon as he could, detransforming right before he entered to not get attention. Then he got Fotia to the front, they ask what happened, he made up a story about some accident in the kitchen. They got her on bed, then left him alone. He also learned from Flora, while waiting, about how he and Miss Cheshire ran into the clown, who switched their bodies.
“And now I’m waiting,” he told them. “They said it was probably some faint spell she had, probably because of her wound. Nothing serious, they said. They said they will look after her…him…and will tell me if something is wrong. But so far, nothing.”
Barbie nodded.
“I wonder how it’s like to turn into an old lady.” Him and Tom turned to her. “I mean, he’s a boy…but now he became an old lady! That’s, like, the opposite, right?”
The two exchanged glances, before slowly, but surely nodding in agreement. That was probably weird for him.
“By the way, where’s Flora?” Chester asked her.
“I’ve seen her with Mandy.”
“Really?” Chester asked, incredulously. Barbie nodded confidently.
“Yep! Said she needed to do something with her. She mentioned she did something, but is gonna need to fix it before it’s too late, and then left. Said she’ll tell me everything, later.”
He turned to Tom, who just shrugged a bit.
“Hmm, wonder where’s she is now,” Chester mumbled, moving back to his seat.
Barbie and Tom stood there for a while, before taking a seat next to him. It was a quiet evening, for those three.
…
Flora took another deep breath. Finally, after seven solid minutes, she became calm and collected, enough to analyze her situation. Which was bizarre as all heck.
They were just led by a bunch of big men into some building, without being told why. That building was tucked in some far off corner in an alley, where no one would think to even visit. Aside from a hall, there were two rooms, one where she was waiting inside, and another one, where they took Mandy into. Also, the mayor himself was in charge of this whole thing, making it even more mystifying. He said it would only take few minutes to her, and now, it has been full fifteen.
Flora checked her surroundings again. Aside from rather low-quality light, the room was clean, with a nice carpet, a desk on the side on which laid some magazines (she noted the date on the top one was several months late) and a row of chairs. There were two men, both wearing suits and sunglasses, but not exactly uniform. They felt less like secret service, and more like some back-alley mafia goons. That said, they were undeniably stone cold as far as goons went.
That was until one of them turned his head to look at her, which she realized because she stared too long at him. She quickly snapped her head back into place, a chill in her spine going both ways. He shifted in his position, and then cracked his neck.
What was happening here?
She waited two more minutes, and then finally something happened. The door slowly opened, and out trotted Mandy. Without saying a word, she sat down next to Flora. Her face was, despite being covered by her white as snow fur, very pale. Whatever happened there was big, and Flora had no idea what to expect. She her lip was being held the entire time.
“Next!” came out from the room. It was the voice of the mayor himself.
The big man near his door nodded. He began moving to her, but she quickly got up before he got any closer. It was definitely a nerve-wracking experience. She had no clue what she was supposed to do here.
She entered the office. It was brightly lit, much brighter than the waiting room. There was one, small window somewhere near the ceiling. He sat by the desk, which he was busy cleaning. She didn’t see much, but the papers were placed into the same bag he came in with. They looked like photos. Other than that, there was a lamp, and a small hula dancing bobblehead doll at the corner.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, without looking at her.
It felt like she was about to be interrogated. This was no different that those old spy movies, where an evil mastermind would take their victim to taunt and torture. While she wasn’t sure about the latter part, for a fact, she was sure for one that she was going to have to take extra care about what she’ll say to him.
“You can take a seat,” he repeated, now looking at her. Realizing she was standing the whole time, Flora quickly nodded and went to the chair nearest to her. She was having hard time swallowing.
Thoughts were racing in her mind, in particular being those of possibility of him asking her about Rose and the other spirits. This was obviously the case, why else would he call her here? She might play dumb, but might make him more suspicious of her. And if he suspects more, he’ll probably be even more aggressive. Could she handle that? Rose is far away, but she knows that if there was danger, she would come, right?
“Your name is Flora, is that correct?” he asked, as he fumbled in his bag again.
She took a deep breath.
“Why yes, that would be me,” she answered, keeping her tone even.
He lightly raised one eyebrow.
Or maybe, in fact, he won’t lay a finger on her. Rose said, that information is power. And she who knows more, will wield more power. Between the two of them, she knew way more, so that already put her in a good spot. Furthermore, this was an opportunity to learn more. To learn about him. About Tom’s mother. About the evil lair they found under the mayor’s building. She had entered a new battleground. This time, it was not about magical powers, moves, or weapons. This was a battle of wits and information.
In here, she could take him on.
Bring it, she wanted to say.
She looked long and hard at the goatman’s eyes. When he finally looked back at her, they were locked into an intense staring contest. She would not let him go, she thought to herself.
“I-“ GUUUUUUUUURRRRRGLEEE
That was the noise that came from her stomach. It was loud enough to have filled the room.
Mayor LeonHart chuckled. “You haven’t eaten anything, young lady?”
“Umm…sorry,” Flora mumbled. Her face had turned into dark shade of red.
She just realized she forgot to eat this entire time. The only thing she had was a bit of that apple pastry. Since then, she’s been walking on empty. She wanted to disappear immediately and just be done with it. There was no way out for her.
“Well, isn’t that adorable,” he said, sounding condescending. “Apologies, if I don’t have anything with me. I’ll try not to take too much of your time then.” He then reached into his bag. Do you happen to know this boy…Chester, I believe?”
He pulled out a folder from his bag. From inside of it, he pulled out only a single photo, which was of the hedgehog boy himself. It was probably taken earlier in the year, where he ran around in that festival.
“What about him?” Flora kept her cool, as she knew she should.
“It’s simply just a, ugh, precaution,” he said, before taking the photo away. “I’ve heard that he has been hanging around with some group of children, as of late.”
Flora watched him put away the bag down. He then looked at her, with the most sincere expression his face could manage, just to say,
“You can go now.”
Flora didn’t answer immediately. “Huh?”
“You can go home. I don’t think there’s much of point behind this,” he then looked into her eyes, “other than perhaps.”
Flora felt weird around him. He felt very fidgety, with the way he moved and the way he talked. She remembered seeing him make public appearances in the office, but never cared to remember anything about him as a person. She just saw him as a boring politician. But up close, her view of him changed the longer she watched him.
“Here is the thing…” he articulated the last sentence. “The boy, I believe, has been caught in some…trouble, so to speak.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying, Miss Macherie,” he sighed, “is that this young man is likely came into contact with some unsavory type of people. The types that could, theoretically, not that I am saying is exactly, could lead him to trouble. Perhaps, it is tied with the last few…events, so to say. But I also think that there has been some overreaction from the townspeople, which created rumors. Some of which, I am not particularly fond of myself.”
Then he stopped talking. Suddenly, his nose cringed, as he went to reach for his bag. He was looking at the lamp on the desk, which Flora moved her gaze to do so too. A giant spider crawled up on it. He pulled out a tissue, and promptly wrapped it around the spider, before putting it on the floor, away from himself. Something told her that he wasn’t any more comfortable in that room than she was. He was probably thinking about leaving this place as soon as possible. Somehow, a familiar feeling for her.
“One of those rumors is that there is a group of people intentionally attacking the town. As for why they would do that…well, it is an attempt, by me, note, to drum up attention and get more people to visit out town. Between these complaints and piled up requests to do something about constant attacks, I feel almost powerless. This is not good, Miss Macherie.”
Flora raised one eyebrow.
“Wow…that is very awful!” she said, emphasizing her sympathy towards him. “They are being so unfair towards you, Mayor LeonHart. Have you tried to explain it to them?”
“Oh, my dear,” he grinned half-heartedly, “if I had an explanation ready, I would have. I am out of my depth with this one, and have been trying my hardest to fix this. And, you see, some people have began blaming the boy again.”
“Really? Ch-…him? And what do you mean again?”
He looked at her with narrow eyes.
“Ah, right, you moved to this place not that long ago, correct? Well…some time ago, this boy’s mother has been….well, we unfortunately lost her.” He looked down at his hands, and mournfully shook his head. “She was quite a darling to the town, being very kind and welcoming young lady. Everyone blamed him for what happened. But no one had any real proof for it, just…anger.”
He turned to look at the window above him. Maybe it helped him reminisce, but it was really dark outside to look at anything.
“I was well acquainted with her, in the past. We never had anything but…friendly relationship. Although, I don’t think I was ever in her point of view. She was a very…passionate woman. Someone who had fire in her to turn, and would light up the fire in everyone around her. She had this innate desire to explore the world, which in turn made her interested in archeology, of all things. This then became a boon to this town, as she won awards and gained recognition for her work, which brought people to visit this town. Thanks to that influence, a lot of us ended up changing. We had to modernize, we had to become better. And then came her death…and with in an unfortunate amount of bad press. There were words of secret dealing, of a killer on the loose, of the backwater little town, which killed a poor, young, prospective lady, just as she was about to finish her hiatus…”
He then gave a long, difficult sigh. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but there was a lot of dread behind them. Flora couldn’t believe someone could just feel so old.
“So, why are you telling me this?” she asked, finally.
“I want you to know, that I am very much here to protect this town,” he said, without looking at her. She felt sincerity in his words. “Everything in it has all that I care about. And part of it means, I’ll have to take precautions.”
He stood from his chair.
“I think we should wrap it up here.” He gathered his bag, only to stoop and look at her again. “I am not trying to put any responsibility on your shoulders, just so you are aware. But, if you happen to come across anything, anything at all, do not be afraid to contact me.”
“I’ll…try to, Mayor LeonHart,” she replied with a smile.
“Good,” he said, looking convinced. “You can go home now. My men will escort you out.”
Flora nodded and followed her way out.
As he said, his two men escorted them out without a problem. Oddly, Mandy was quiet for the rest of the night, not even bothering to mumble a word to Flora. That fox rarely, if ever had nothing to say. Then again, Flora herself felt overwhelmed at the moment, enough to not have anything to say herself. They parted as soon as Mandy got near her house.
Flora decided to spend the rest of her night on the phone. She needed more info than ever.
Something was happening, without a doubt.
But without information, she was not going to win this.
…
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
Comments