Blue stares at Vince. “....Sis?” She sounds like she doesn’t believe it.

“Yeah, sis! Or is sister better? But sis is way easier to say!” Vince excitedly says. He jumps up and down like a ball of energy. If he had a tail it would be wagging real quick.

Julie pokes at April and whispers to her. “Let me call you sis too.”

“Absolutely not.” April firmly says.

“Big sis then?” Julie continues to tease April.

“Don’t make me feel old, it’s just four months okay! Four months!.” April states slightly annoyed.

Blue suppresses a giggle before focussing on Vince again. “I don’t know you? Since when am I your sis?”

Julie pouts. “So close to making her laugh. April, we need to improve the quality of our show!”

April turns her back to Julie. “I’m not part of your show!”

Vince happily laughs and grabs the arm of Julie. “I wanna stay with all of you! Take me with you!”

Julie shakes her arm while looking at Vince. “Blue, there’s something on my arm. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Why are you telling me? I don’t know what to do with him either!” Blue looks confused at Julie.

“Can you be my sis too? And take me with you please! I don’t wanna stay here!” Vince begs to Julie.

April giggles in response to what Vince is doing.

Julie looks at April with a smirk and then points at her. “Sure, but that’s your big sis then.”

April stops giggling and stares like a deer in headlights. “Wait no. Don’t do this to me!”

Vince runs to April and hugs her. “I love you big sis!”

April awkwardly stands still while being hugged and looks away embarrassed.

“We’re definitely taking this with us, for April of course.” Julie states in a teasing tone.

At that moment the sound of a door opening echoes through the halls.

“That’s our sign to go.” Julie says calmly while running back to the way they entered.

The rest quickly follows.

They arrive at the window and go through. It looks quite comical, four little kids with blankets as bags over their shoulders leaving through a window.

Julie closes the window and leads everybody through the alleys till they get to their hideout.

“So Julie, I’ve been wondering for a while now. But how come the house is empty? I don’t usually see houses with planks over the doors and windows making sure no one can enter.” April asks while thinking about it.

Julie responds seriously. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this whole area is abandoned. I don’t know the exact details but it seems like there was a big fire a long time ago. This house wasn’t affected a single bit and thus people began to say it was possessed by demons or something. The whole area is in ruins and nobody dares to come to repair it, so they just closed off the house and left the area.”

“You mean you picked a cursed house as your hideout?” April replies shocked.

“I’ve been living here for a while now and nothing ever happened, who cares about some rumors when this is a perfectly good house to live in, for free even.” Julie casually remarks.

“Nothing? No unexplainable doors opening or things that went missing?” April asks carefully.

Julie gets her usual smirk on before responding. “Hmm, there have been unexplainable noises at night, knocking on doors and windows.”

Blue quickly responds in a scared tone. “Can we not sleep there?”

April chimes in. “I agree.”

“Oh come on, I’m still alive and nothing is wrong with me. At least they made sure I wasn’t alone.” Julie teases.

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“We’re here now so you don’t need anything else.” Blue says in a weak voice.

Julie smiles at what Blue said. “Hmm, I guess. I’ll tell them to pack their bags and leave then.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” April agrees.

Julie opens the door and crawls through, the rest follows as well.

“Sorry guys, I’m replacing you with actual people. So please gather your stuff quickly and find another house to hound!” Julie shouts at the air.

There is no response back.

“I said leave, just do it and make it easier for all of us, okay?” Julie keeps shouting.

The door slams shut with a loud bang.

“Ugh what a childish act, slamming the door when they leave.” Julie grunts.

Blue and April however are standing close to each other with goose bumps. Vince just stands there curiously looking around.

Blue whispers to April. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Of course I won’t leave you.” April pats Blue’s head.

Julie throws her blanket bag down and sorts the stuff. “Let’s give this place a little makeover.”

“With just a blanket and a pillow?” April asks sarcastically.

“You’d be surprised how much that changes the place.” Julie happily responds while making a bed out of a blanket and pillow.

April rolls her eyes. “Can we at least gather some grass? That is softer than the ground..”

“Have fun collecting grass then.” Julie opens the door for April.

“Ooh can I come with you? We can get flowers! And maybe there’s pretty animals!” Vince jumps up and down with excitement.

April sighs. “Alright then, come on let’s collect some flowers.” She crawls through the little opening and Vince follows her.

Julie is busy folding all the clothes they got. With only two of them left there’s a silence between them.

Blue decides to sit next to Julie and look at what she’s doing. It’s relaxing and gets rid of the goose bumps she had before.

Julie breaks the silence and questions Blue. “So, did you have any siblings before Vince came? I guess you at least got a sister.”

“Ah, yeah one older sister and two younger brothers. Although we’re a quadruplet so we’re all born on the same day.” Somehow Julie manages to soothe Blue enough to make Blue able to talk about this a bit more.

“That’s amazing, did you like them?” Julie exclaims.

“I guess. I didn’t get to see them a lot. Even though I shared a room with my sister, I'd only see her in the morning and evening. I don’t know where she spent her time.”

“Do you miss them?” Julie stops folding to look Blue in her eyes.

Blue looks sad. “It’s as if a part of me is missing. But it can never get complete again.”

“I get you.” Julie says nostalgic.

Blue reacts surprised. “You have siblings?” 

Julie gives a sad laugh. “Had, just one, a younger brother. We used to roam the streets together, but one winter he got sick. I begged to everyone for help but they all ignored us. He ended up freezing to death next to me.”

“Why would they ignore you? That makes no sense!” Blue blurts out.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s easier. Our lives mean nothing to them, that’s the rule on the streets. You better get used to it now since you’ll get to experience it first hand soon enough.” Julie explains.

Blue doesn’t understand. “Why would we mean nothing to them? That makes no sense!” 

“Ha, you’re so innocent, aren’t you? It’s not their problem and thus they ignore it so it doesn’t become their problem. We’re like rats to them, if they notice us they’ll look at us with disgust.” Julie says with a small smile.

“Even kids?” Blue wonders.

Julie thinks for a bit. “Kids most of the time want to play with us or look at us. Their parents always hold them back, though.”

“So adults are the mean ones?” Blue asks.

“I guess you can see it like that. They just use what they learned from their parents.” Julie states.

The door opens and April crawls in with lots of grass in her arms. “Missed me?”

“Obviously” Julie teases back.

Vince follows with a flower crown on his head and all kinds of flowers in his hands. “Look at what I found! So many pretty flowers!”

“That’s great, now this place can change into a flower palace!” Julie smiles at Vince.

“Let’s gather kids off the streets and give them a home!” Blue firmly says.

Julie laughs “Fine by me.”

“Hmm? Okay then.” April says confused.

Vince excitedly says “Does that mean more friends?” 

“Let’s eat breakfast first, can’t start doing your great plan on an empty stomach.” Julie walks towards the bag full of bread and hands everyone one.

Together they sit at the fireplace and eat.

“So does anyone know how to get to places here?” Julie asks the others.

She gets a bunch of stares and silence as a response back.

“Okay so today we’ll walk around and get you guys familiar with everything. It helps not getting lost when trying to get here.” Julie announces.

“Awh, do we have to?” April complains.

“You’re free to go out on your own, I’m not gonna search for you to get you back here though.” Julie sarcastically says.

“No search parties for me then?” April says with a laugh.

“I’ll search for you if you get lost!” Vince happily says.

“Thanks buddy, at least someone's got my back here.” April smiles.

“If I searched for you I would get lost myself, without even finding you..” Blue mutters.

April laughs. “Alright, I’ll stand still to wait for you then, just check every possible place and you’ll find me after a while.”

Julie sighs. “Very useful. I still think knowing how to get anywhere helps more.”

“We got you for that.” April remarks.

“In that case I’ll be staying inside from now on, have fun out there.” Julie teases.

“Okay okay I get it. Just know it’s gonna take a while for me to memorize anything.” April mutters.

“We can make a map for that, so there’s something to help you remember.” Julie assures.

“If we have a map why would we need to find it ourselves?” Blue questions.

Julie rolls her eyes. “Cause it’s really handy to actually know what the place looks like and thus know where you are on the map and where your end destination is.”

“Can we get more flowers? Or maybe bunnies! Let’s get bunnies in here!” Vince proclaims full of excitement.

“No bunnies. Flowers are alright though.” Julie smiles at Vince.

They finish their meal and are ready to walk around the streets.

“Let’s get this over with.” April mutters.

“Be happy I’m wasting my precious time on making sure you won’t waste more of it!” Julie jokes.

And so their adventure starts. With the end goal to not get lost.