After going back to the man in the tower, Kan had described Nicole’s features to him. The man replied back to Kan that he didn’t remember anyone looking like that wandering around the alarm tower but Kan knew he was hiding something. When he had described Nicole’s features, the man’s eyes had barely shifted but Kan noticed it. The man was not disclosing all the information he knew.

“Thank you Big Brother. Find me if you remember anything about seeing Nicole, it’s very important that I need to find her.”

“Yeah, i’ll let you know if I remember anything about this Nicole person. Stay safe on your way back home.”

Kan decided to go back home after finding out that the man wouldn’t give him any information on Nicole. As Kan left he made his search for Nicole seem urgent so if the man knew Nicole then he would report back to her. This was the only thing he could think of to do right now to get in contact with Nicole.

Kan had spent the whole day talking to this man about Nicole but he had to leave because it was getting closer and closer to sunset. He had to get back to the clinic so he wouldn’t miss his chance in joining in on Jane and his parents conversation with the mayor. He needed to find out whether this meeting will help him prepare for the future or not.

……

“...let’s go Clive…”

“Ok, Claire…”

“Shhh...be quiet...Kan is still sleeping.”

Clive and Claire were up and ready to leave the room but they didn’t know that Kan was still awake. He had never fallen asleep since he came back from the alarm tower. He had been waiting for this time since he had been at the clinic. It was time to enact his plan.

“Mommy...Daddy....where are you guys going?”

Both Clive and Claire were spooked by Kan’s sudden awakening. Hearing Kan speak to them, Claire stare daggers into Clive. Trying to fix Claire’s mood and to convince Kan to go back to sleep, Clive spoke to Kan.

“Um, Kan. Daddy and Mommy are just going to go out for a walk. We’ll be back in a little bit so go back to sleep, ok.”

Clive tried to give an excuse to Kan and hoped that Kan would accept it and go back to sleep but that didn’t work. Kan being crying as they walked towards the door and both Clive and Claire were frightened.

“It’s ok Kan, Mommy and Daddy will be back in a bit. Please don’t cry.”

“Nooo! Mommy and Daddy are going to disappear again. Uwaaaawaaaawwaa!! I’m going to be left alone again.”

Hearing Kan cry even more made their hearts break. This wasn’t the first time they had experienced this but they still wouldn’t be able to get used to it. The weeks after Kan had woken, he would wake up in the middle of the night crying in search of them. They could only imagine how lonely he was while he was in a coma, so they would always sleep in the same room as him to keep him company. They had thought that Kan had finally gotten over being alone but they were wrong as he was still crying for them right now.

“Ok Kan. Why don’t you come with Mommy and Daddy then. We are on our way to see the mayor.”

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“Hich..hich...Ok.”

As Claire agreed to bring along Kan, he wiped away his tears. Kan’s outburst was a mix of truth and lies. It was the truth that he would feel lonely without his parents but it was a lie that he couldn’t sleep without them. He had already gotten used to sleeping by himself again, but this time he was driven by a goal. Without even realizing it himself, he had changed since he woke up from his coma. He was determined to save the village and he was doing things he had never done before. He was hiding secrets and telling lies to find any clues on how to save the village.

Both Clive and Claire agreed to take Kan so all three of them walked towards Jane’s bedroom. As they knocked on her door, Jane immediately opened it. Feeling sorry about not keeping the meeting a secret, Claire explained to Jane why she was taking along Kan. Seeing that it was just Kan, Jane didn’t mind it.

……

In a room, with a few chairs and a table were five adults and a child. The people in the room were Jane, Claire, Clive, Kan, the mayor, and Dylan. Dylan’s wife, Eliza, was asleep with their son Leo in another room while they were in this empty room bare of decorations.

“So what is it that you wanted to talk about Jane?”

The mayor got straight to the point and asked Jane for calling them out. From what he heard from Clive and Claire, Jane wanted to talk about something important. The mayor didn’t know what she wanted to talk about so he got straight to the point and asked her.

“Before I start talking mayor, can I ask you a simple question?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Do you know of someone by the name of John Stock?”

“John Stock?”

Hearing that name, the mayor began to think if he knew of anyone by that name. Having lived so long and also travelled quite a bit, he knew a lot of people. As he thought of this name, he could think up of two people with this name but they were only acquaintances. He couldn’t think up why Jane had asked this question.

“I do know a few John Stock’s but i’m not sure which one you are talking about.”

“Hmmm. Ok. Let me relay his message and see if you understand it. I was told to tell you this by a man named John Stock about 20 years ago but with what happened with my life I totally forgot. It wasn’t until Kan came to talk to be about my past did I remember his message. The message from him was that if I was ever to come live in the village of Clear View, and if the village was to ever be in a crisis, I should tell the mayor to go look for the dragon in the Dragon’s Den.”

“The Dragon’s Den!!!”

The mayor was absolutely shocked at what Jane had just said. She had just mentioned about a secret of the village that was only known to a select few. Presently only three people knew of this secret and they were him, Doctor Frank, and Jonathan.

“John Stock? John Stock!? John Stock!! Hahahahaha, I never knew he would communicate to me in such a roundabout way.”

The mayor was laughing and no one knew why he was laughing. Even Dylan had never seen his grandfather laugh so hard before. Everyone was confused except the mayor.

“Umm. Mayor why are you laughing so hard?”

The first one to speak up was Clive. He was just as perplexed as everyone else was but he was the first to recover. Clive had asked the question everyone else wanted to hear the answer to.

“Hahaha. You should be the happiest one right now Clive. This message is from your father.”

“DAD!?”

Clive was completely shocked, this was the first message he had heard from his father besides the letters from four years ago. Everyone else was just as surprised as Clive to hear that this message was from Jonathan Lock.

While everyone was in shock, Kan was off repeating Jonathan's message. He was in different kind of shock from everyone else.

‘If the village was to ever be in a crisis, tell the mayor to go look for the dragon in the Dragon’s Den.’

‘Is he talking about the calamity that will happen in a few years? How does he know about it and what is the Dragon’s Den?’