The painting was of a young man, with beautiful green eyes. He was hurt, and his eyes looked past the viewer with the wideness and despair of a wounded animal.
The orphanage was old, and dark, and still, and dead.
The years had not been kind to it, after its original architect vanished for unknown reasons. How many more had come and gone since then? How many names added to its deed, how many shoes crossed its threshold? Maybe the records still existed somewhere, but they might have gathered as much dust as the orphanage had.
But time and time again, as if some strange power from within its ground had whispered to them, newcomers would make their way to that decrepit place.
Against all profit, or family, or society, or sound mind, something inextricably bound within it would draw them towards it.
Mmm...
Like now.
Like the Green Family.
****
"Well, what do you think?" he asks you, showing you the photo of this strange house on the hill. That house. The house that marked the point at which she left, as if the house itself had somehow eaten her whole.
As you look back up into your father's soft emerald eyes, that gentle smile that fills his face - the smile of a man who really, really needs a win right now - threatening to crack with the same effort you'd snap a twig, you have a choice to make two choices to make.
WHICH CHILD ARE YOU? CHOOSE ONE:
-- [] Silas (19)
---- You take the most after your dad - broad nose, square chin, curly brown hair, and piercing green eyes. You've always been a stickler for the rules and got a straight A+ in almost any subject you tried and praise from your teachers. Some would say it's your own hard work and practical confidence with people - perhaps more cynically, some would also say its the privilege of being a handsome, fit, moderately well off guy who passes for white (truth is it's probably a mixture of the two).
---- You were looking forward to going to university to study medicine when it happened, and your plans for the future shifted to helping dad look after the others while you figure out where to go next.
---- Silas is by far the most physically strong and athletic of the siblings. He's also the most responsible and level-headed, generally, and has a good range of academic knowledge. Unfortunately, when he is inevitably taken to a place he cannot solve with strength or predictability, he will struggle. As the closest to adulthood, he will also be the easiest for the enemies of the green family to label a "threat".
---- You know. Hypothetically. Not that the green family have enemies, obviously. That would be absurd.
-- [] Myrtle (16)
---- You don't really take much after either of your parents, which is perhaps expected when you're related by paperwork rather than blood. They always insisted you belonged, but you can't help but feel inadequate - you always feel bigger than you'd like (and you've certainly tried to shift the pounds before, for the sake of avoiding the scathing notes you seemed to get left in every school yearbook), and your glasses were always a little too, uh, prominent (your eyeballs are hot, hot garbage, and you really wish there was a review site for eyeballs just so you could leave them the 0 star reviews you know they deserve). About the only commonality is the weird coincidence of green eyes, but typical that even those would be closer to a murky grey.
---- You were at the end of your tether with school and the endless... monsters that seemed to call it home, even with Silas trying to look out for you. Now that mom is gone, it's... weird. Everything's weird, and you can't do anything about it, and on top of that you keep having those gonzo weird nightmares about the pitch black painting.
---- Myrtle is a pretty smart girl but struggles with both low self-esteem and poor physicality and a shortness of breathe. That said, she is generally an adaptable person and may yet discover an unusual strength if placed into an unfamiliar place.
-- [] Jade (14)
---- You take the most after your mom - wavy dark hair, soft turquoise eyes, and delicate fingers - and have always been... flighty? Whimsical? Dad says gifted, Silas says quirky, Myrtle says bouncy. You don't know what any of that means - you were never great at reading people - but what you do know is that your collection of hot pink & orange meerkat t-shirts where they each have a different hobby are proof that there is some sort of cosmic force in the universe that is pure and good, and also no matter how long you've owned them the haters who want to throw them out will need to pry those shirts from your cold, dead hands.
---- Things for you are... good! Always good. Weird, but good. Mom is just... playing some sort of weird prank. You hate it - when she finally comes back you hope she's really angry that you smashed her favorite set of antique china cups - but she'll come back. Till then, you're gonna keep working on your hobbies. They're easy to pick up and fun to do and you're so talented, you're so cool, maybe she'll learn this was a really dumb move to abandon such a cool, talented girl and never, ever do it again.
---- Jade is a wild child with a seemingly infinite number of hobbies. She's not especially great at any of them so much as she's a really good beginner in almost any weird art, craft or skill you can think of. She is not however an especially studious or cautious child and if presented with a fantastical scenario (like, hypothetically, being trapped in another world full of weird aliens and faefolk) would probably view it all through the lens of a whimsical storybook adventure and not, say, a death trap.
-- [] Forrest (11)
---- You have a weird mixture of your mom's wavy hair and your dad's emerald eyes, though unlike Silas they're almost sharp. You're pretty short for your age - which your friend Ruby seems to want to relentlessly tease you about, eugh, girls are the worst. You've always been a bit of a dork when it comes to fashion, usually wearing plaid shirts with black hoodies or socks with sandals, like some sort of tiny grandpa. But whatever. You're your own person. You don't need to be more like Silas.
---- Dad reckons you used to be more talkative, but what is there to talk about? Mom was around less and less, then she got you all into debt buying a weird house in a gross fart-backwards town in the middle of nowhere and then ran away with James Bond or got kidnapped by russians or died or something. It doesn't matter, just keep your head down. Every time you get first place it feels good. Every time you reach Mythic it feels good. Doritos taste good. The guys on Reddit respect you, unlike Silas and Myrtle and dad, and that's cool and good. You're cool, damn it.
---- Forrest is a smart, strong willed kid with a real knack for computers and figuring out logistical or technical systems, and he's honed some surprisingly good reaction times and a keen tactical mind from the eclectic mix of video games he sinks more and more of his time into. He has also, sadly, convinced himself that bottling up his feelings and cutting off his family will somehow make everything okay, but it wont.
-- [] Erin (6)
---- You're the smol bean babber of the family (you don't completely know what that means but Silas calls you that and he gives really good hugs and he's a really cool big brother)! You have short, tightly curled dark hair and bright green eyes and hands with a grip like a terrifying TRUE AMERICAN BALD EAGLE or something? Myrtle joked about it once but eagles are cool so that sounds fun! Your favourite colour is yellow, so you wear a lot of it, and Jade sometimes helps do your hair because she's really good with hairdressing sometimes (she gave it up a while back because it was too difficult but that's ok, some things are difficult). You like orange juice! But only when it's sweet.
---- A part of you wants to be "cool" and "grown up" but then you remember that Forrest seems to have become way, way less fun since he started trying to be cool and grown up, so you generally spend more time listening to the part of your brain that wants to be a dog or a horse or a rocketship or a gremlin or a doctor or something, and Jade is really good at playing those games with you! She even let you be on her vlog a bunch of times!
---- You hate being alone. Mom was around less and less and then she just... disappeared, and now you're going to have to move to the weird house that ate her?! You hate it. You're more fidgety than before and you regularly stop whatever you're doing to give the nearest person a hug. You cry more than you or others remember.
---- Erin is a small child, and is not well prepared for any sort of weird, dangerous or bad situation. If you choose this character, things will be dangerous and difficult.
*****
As for your second choice (answers refer to intent, not specifics): WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IDEA OF MOVING TO THE OLD ABANDONED ORPHANAGE THAT YOUR MOM BOUGHT BY GETTING YOU ALL INTO DEBT BEFORE MYSTERIOUSLY VANISHING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH? CHOOSE ONE:
-- [] No, dad. That is an incredibly bad idea and I do not like it. Please don't take us there.
-- [] I don't like that place, but we need to know what happened.
-- [] Mom must have had a reason for buying it. Maybe it'll be for the best? Worst case it's only temporary.
-- [] Don't answer him, just give him...
---- [] A cold look.
---- [] A shrug.
---- [] A hug.
"Well, what do you think?" he asks you, showing you the photo of this strange house on the hill. That house. The house that marked the point at which she left, as if the house itself had somehow eaten her whole.
You can't help but scratch the back of your neck to try and calm the sensation of worms working their up your spine, but dad doesn't pick up on it - or if he does, he doesn't react to it.
"Yeah," you nod, your own smile mimicking dad's but with ever so slightly more of an edge, "I agree. It's a bad situation, but it's the best way to figure out what happened."
"Oh, phew, you have... wow, you have no idea. I'm glad to hear you say that," he sighs, mouth widening into a nervous grin and cracking up with worried laughter, "It's... yeah. Look, I know it's gonna be a painful situation. But will you help me convince the others? I think a united front will really go a long way."
A united front.
You'd overheard mom and dad using those words more times than you could remember, ever since you were smart enough to listen in on their conversations without them realizing. You can't help but squint a little bit at it.
Mom's only been gone a few months and you're still coming to terms with the fact your goals have been put on hold for whoever knows how long, and dad has just, like... immediately settled into some sort of weird... co-parenting, idea, thing?
You give a deep sigh and that same confident smile, shrugging at his suggestion.
"Yeah, dad. A united front, I guess. Though I think that-"
Your dad's mobile going off interrupts your thoughts, and he gives you the familiarly nervous "sorry, hold that thought" look that you used to be more familiar with on mom's face until - as if the expression hadn't left with her disappearance - it had jumped to dad's on an almost daily basis while he answers it.
You sigh and smile and nod, looking out the window to the street beyond it. A quaint but normally lively sort of suburban avenue, rows of boring, ordinary houses and their boring, modest lawns.
Fitting, perhaps, that it's started to rain outside. Gently does it, pattering against the window, not unusual in early October.
You wonder how many more times you'll get to see Alex before you move away? If... if they'll even want to see you again after all of this? All your shared goals for the future, the two of you to study medicine together, to share a room and eventually get a place together.
Your smile becomes a little fainter, that image cracked by your mom's disappearance. You and Alex in a little apartment, swapping notes and cute jokes and splitting bills, all with the man in black watching from the wall-
"Hey, Silas, um... did you get any of that?"
You snap back into reality, trying to shake the thought from your mind. You turn to look your dad in the eye and smile, though he looks concerned.
"Hey, hey, you... you ok? You were crying."
Oh.
"Oh!" you wince, quickly rubbing your eyes and cheeks, "sorry dad. It's nothing, just... things. A lot going on."
He nods slowly, and gently rubs your shoulder with his free hand.
"Well, if you ever want to talk about anything - and, I get it, there's a lot to talk about - then don't leave me out of the loop, okay?"
"... Yeah."
"Great. That said, the call was from school, and-"
"Forrest? Or Myrtle?"
You wonder for a brief moment if it could be Jade, but the worst thing you can picture her doing is trying to publicly audition for a talent show that hasn't started auditions yet. Certainly nothing that would require them to call dad.
Your dad sighs, the long and drawn out sigh of a man who is really not looking forward to any point of any of the conversations he is going to have to have with many different people over the next few weeks. He gently raises his free hand to his forehead and massages it.
"Both. Listen, I'm going to go and try to sort this out, then I'll need to pick up Erin, and I've got to grab some stuff from the store. We'll talk this all over some more when I get back, okay?"
You nod, and give him the warmest, more reassuring smile you can muster.
But as he goes to grab his coat and keys for the old four by four, you make a decision: CHOOSE ONE OR TWO:
-- [] Volunteer to go to the school on dad's behalf, to speak to Myrtle, Forrest and their teachers. Maybe you can get a moment to try and talk to them both about the move as well?
-- [] Volunteer to go to kindergarten and pick up Erin. Whoever picks up Myrtle and Forrest is probably going to get involved in an unwanted argument, and Erin's at a pretty vulnerable age.
-- [] Volunteer to go to the store to pick up some things, and maybe even suggest a take away? You haven't had chinese in ages.
-- [] Try to contact Alex. You need to figure out a way to heal this rift.
-- [X] Try to contact Alex. You need to figure out a way to heal this rift.
-- [x] Volunteer to go to the school on dad's behalf, to speak to Myrtle, Forrest and their teachers. Maybe you can get a moment to try and talk to them both about the move as well?
-- [x] Volunteer to go to kindergarten and pick up Erin. Whoever picks up Myrtle and Forrest is probably going to get involved in an unwanted argument, and Erin's at a pretty vulnerable age.
-- [X] Try to contact Alex. You need to figure out a way to heal this rift.
-- [X] Volunteer to go to kindergarten and pick up Erin. Whoever picks up Myrtle and Forrest is probably going to get involved in an unwanted argument, and Erin's at a pretty vulnerable age.
[x] Volunteer to go to kindergarten and pick up Erin. Whoever picks up Myrtle and Forrest is probably going to get involved in an unwanted argument, and Erin's at a pretty vulnerable age.
-- [x] Volunteer to go to the school on dad's behalf, to speak to Myrtle, Forrest and their teachers. Maybe you can get a moment to try and talk to them both about the move as well?
-- [x] Volunteer to go to kindergarten and pick up Erin. Whoever picks up Myrtle and Forrest is probably going to get involved in an unwanted argument, and Erin's at a pretty vulnerable age.
As your dad turns to leave, you focus on the others. Dad's become the core of this family with mom's disappearance, and he's trying to pull double duty - though you can't help but feel like he was steadily becoming more and more central in the months before all of this anyway.
It's probably not worth you going to school on dad's behalf - they contacted him, after all, so they'll be expecting him to deal with it. But, that doesn't mean you can't help out.
"Hey, uh, dad!" you shout after him as he unlocks the military green four by four.
He stops to look at you, the rain seeming to keep the air between you clear to speak even as it keeps your dad on the edge of leaving.
"What if I pick up Erin? I get the feeling that things might get... loud, with the others, so what if I take her to the Geek & Greek? They've got some fun games and the foods okay. Might help take her mind off of what's been going on."
Your dad frowns a little. You can practically hear the cogs ticking away despite the soft patter of the rain.
"It's... it's your day off though?" he asks, "I would've thought the last thing you'd want would be going in unless you had to? Besides, is it really designed for small kids?"
You shrug, then give an awkward chuckle.
Hard to know how much to tell him.
"Yeah, sorry, you're right. I'll take her to Burger King or something."
He smiles, giving a sigh and nod of relief.
"Sounds great, yeah. She needs picking up in like an hour, but yeah, I'll leave it with you! That'll be nice. Thanks Sy."
You nod and give a big thumbs up, and he gets into the car and drives off, just that bit more relieved. For just a moment, the rain seems a little lighter, and you head indoors to kill some time.
You can't help but shake the feeling that someone was watching you, though.
****
It's a pretty short drive to the Claygreen's Miracles Preschool, even in your mediocre silver toyota, and it's early enough in the day that the only other traffic is parents picking up their kids. The downside, of course, is that it's a pain finding parking, but you split the difference and park maybe a ten minute walk from the school.
The same sense of paranoia pervades you as you make your way down the smooth grey sidewalk - this is the nice part of town, you know - but every time you glance over your shoulder there's no one there.
Still, it doesn't bare worrying about. There are other things to focus on, after all.
Waiting in the reception for the bell to ring and Miss Stokins to bring out the kids, you're struck by how ordinary everything is. How many dozens of times have you collected Erin over the past year or so, whenever something would come up for dad and mom was out of town?
It occurs to you how familiar this was already becoming.
How long had your life been marching to this point and you were none the wiser?
"Baked beans?!"
You're snapped out of your own head and immediately find yourself smiling from the familiar nickname - it took Erin all of five seconds to come up with it but you're not gonna be the one to tell her it's not the funniest thing on the planet.
There she is, your favourite smol bean in the whole world, emerging from the crowd of other small hyperactive people in her favourite yellow raincoat, a bright blue backpack strapped to her back like a jetpack about to explode.
"WOOOAAHHH, gross, nasty!" you cry out, face scrunching up as you mime the idea of backing away from a giant fart.
She starts to laugh, and you immediately crouch down to give her a big hug, and it feels like she doesn't even blink before she's latched on.
"You came to pick me up?" she asks, and you think you can feel her tremble a little.
You frown, and hold her very, very gently so that she's half way to arms length.
"Yeah. Is everything... is everything okay?"
Erin frowns, and her smile has immediately fallen into concern.
"Why isn't dad here?"
Oh.
CHOOSE ONE:
-- [] Tell the truth. (He had to go to school because Myrtle & Forrest got in some kind of trouble)
-- [] Tell a partial truth. (Some stuff came up that he had to take care of, so I offered to come and pick you up!)
-- [] Tell an... extremely tailored truth. (You asked dad if you could pick Erin up specially so you could get some food together and hang out!)
-- [x] Tell a partial truth. (Some stuff came up that he had to take care of, so I offered to come and pick you up!)
There's no need to unduly burden kids with financial problems or family strife, especially when they can't do much about it. Just like Silas wishes he didn't have to step up, he can spare Erin the worries.
You maintain eye contact mainly by virtue of Erin having gone into one of her intense moods, and smile. Even when you're not at your most confident, your smile is disarming.
"Well, some stuff came up that he had to take care of, so I offered to come and pick you up!"
Her eyes narrow slightly, but then she nods sagely, before at last her lips widen into a smile. You can't help but feel a sense of relief, when your eyes are drawn to a short, slender figure just behind the crowd of kids.
"Hi Erin!" she says with a wave, and you cough into your fist a little as she gets closer and gives a little salute gesture to you, "Hi Silas-"
"Baked beans, Miss Stokins!"
"... Baked beans. Your dad called, said you were picking her up."
"Oh!" you exclaim, suddenly aware that you never actually called them to let them know in advance you were going to be picking her up, and are struck by the realization that you could have been stuck here for the next hour or so while they went through all the extra paperwork.
Thanks dad, life saver, you think with a smile, and make a mental note to thank him when you see him this evening.
"Yeah, sorry for not calling."
She shrugs and smiles, "It's not a problem. Now," she claps her hands together, turning to Erin, "remember what we did today?"
Erin gives a big grin, ever so slightly gap toothed, and you can't help but wonder if one of these days she's gonna just straight up explode.
"Painting! I painted a bunch of bumblebees!"
Classic... "In a weird coat!"
... ally strange.
"That's right! But next time, remember?"
Erin shrugs and smiles.
"Next time I should use more red for the bear...?"
"Well, uh, no, more lik-"
"Too late!" she shouts over Miss Stokins comments, dashing past you like a bolt of lightning. You twirl and chase after her, doing your best to give a polite wave to the teachers as you push through the swing doors behind her.
****
The walk to the car is as uneventful as the walk from it, but you can't help but ask about the bear and the bumblebees.
"Oh," she says, her smile widening, "It tried eating the bumblebees because they were staring at it, but they stung it."
"Yea-"
"TO DEATH."
"Oh! Was... was Miss Stokins happy wit-"
"Nope! She said next time I should draw flowers and grass, but flowers and grass are boring! They just sit around going 'AHHHHH!' all the time, constipating and stuff."
You glance down at Erin, and see as she emphasizes the point by scrunching her eyes up as tightly as she can manage. You can't help but laugh.
"Con... constipating?"
"Yeah, thinking a whole lot! It's a really cool word."
...
The conversation dropped from a mixture of reaching the car and trying to catch your breath back, and the rain having now grown heaver and heavier, you're struck by the question of where to actually go. On the one hand, you did tell dad you'd head for Burger King. On the other, it'll probably be pretty busy on a Friday afternoon after school, and the food is bad for you, and the Burger King himself is really weird.
On the other other hand, the Geek & Greek has none of those problems, and it has Alex. You need to figure things out with them.
"So, where we eatin'?"
As you unlock the doors to your ever reliable little car, you give as loud a "Mmmmmmmagic word?" as you can muster while closing your eyes really tightly, before feeling her gently slap you on the leg.
"Please and please and thank you. Where, where?"
"That's better. And how about the Geek & Greek? Come on, passenger side."
As you take your seat and undo the passenger door, Erin narrows her eyes and watches you. She makes her own sound of "Mmmmmmm?" and skips around to the other side, but as she hops into the passenger seat you realize her eyes are narrowed, tracking you as if you'd just kicked a really big ant hill for no reason.
"Why there? You go there to work all the time. If I had to work there all the time I wouldn't want to eat there."
You shrug, and smile.
"Well, because the food is good, there's games, and I need to talk to Alex. You remember Alex, right?"
She gasps, and then gives a frighteningly wide smile.
"Is she-"
"They," you say, raising your eyebrows.
"... they! Are they gonna teach me some more magic?!"
"... Huh. I forgot about that. Yeah, I'm sure we can get them to show you something weirder than, like, stealing noses."
Erin's eyes positively light up like she was watching fireworks, and there's no difficulty at all convincing her to strap in. With a flick of the radio you start to drive to the Geek & Greek, and it plays some smooth jazz. It's pretty solid, and with a smile you ask Erin what else was going on at school today - anything to try and ignore the gentle sound of buzzing in your ear.
****
Claygreen was a modest town, mainly suburban in its structure, but the Geek & Greek was way on the edge of town opposite from the Miracles Preschool - maybe a ten minute drive all told.
It seems quieter than normal, though. You were so focused on listening to Erin talk about the "chocolate ring, like an onion ring but instead of onions it's chocolate" that you only begin to realize that you're still in the center of town.
How many times did you drive past the library?
The shops and take away's are empty.
There isn't another car in sight.
Nina Simone's I Put A Spell On You begins to play over the radio.
You tilt your head, slowing the car to a crawl in the middle of the road, because right in the center of the road ahead is a figure cloaked in shadow, and you can hear bees inside your skull.
"Hey, uh, Erin," you whisper, "hop in the back. Keep your head down."
"Huh?" she says, jolted out of her ramblings, "Wha-"
"Please, Erin. There's something weird-"
The figure leans forward and vanishes with terrifying speed, as if a crack of redandbluelightning at the height of a dark blue storm, and something crashes into the side of the car. You slam your foot on the pedal as fast as you can, Erin screaming over the broken radio, as you desperately pray that your "adequately second hand" toyota will get you to safety.
CHOOSE ONE:
-- [] Try to get back home.
-- [] Try to get to the Geek & Greek.
-- [] Try to get to the police precinct.
-- [] Try to see what just came after you and run it over.
Optional secondary vote (can be made in addition to the above):
-- [] Call the police.
-- [] Call dad.
-- [] Try to calm Erin.
-- [] Call mom.
Apologies for the delay with the post, bunch of stuff IRL plus general procrastination and some roadblocks in the writing. Plans for the quest are accelerating.
"Oh!" you exclaim, suddenly aware that you never actually called them to let them know in advance you were going to be picking her up, and are struck by the realization that you could have been stuck here for the next hour or so while they went through all the extra paperwork.
