Riley lifted the pen off the page and stared at the document, racing thoughts not letting her see it as anything more than a blur of dark letters on white paper.
"So... what now?" She asked, passing it and the pen back to Mr. Asher, who took it with a nod before responding-
"Well, all that's really left is for me to take you to your new home. And while I wish I could do it here and now, paperwork needs to be processed which will take at least until tomorrow. And even then, I think the best date would be in two days, on fifteenth."
Riley lifted her brow in confusion, looking up at him.
"Why the wait?"
"On that day Ella will be shopping for Christmas with the kids all day, which lets me do the necessary shopping with you and show you around the house without four extra curious heads to make you anxious. And even afterwards, I'm not expecting you go out and start socializing with everyone immediately. As fast or as slow as you want."
Riley took in the explanation, nodding in understanding as she went over his answer, one part sticking out to her.
"...four curious heads?"
Mr. Asher chuckled and sat back down on his chair, feeling a bit dumb for not mentioning that before.
"Yeah. Ella and our three kids."
"You have three kids already and you're taking another one in? Are you a billionaire or something?"
"Haha, hardly, but we're comfortably well off. We actually live not that far from here, some old hefty household on the edge of this place. It was quite cheap since nobody would ever buy it otherwise, it's in the middle of nowhere."
"Sounds... cozy." Riley responded, unsure what to think about the seclusion. Then again, it's not like this place was anywhere near the city centre either...
"Oh it is, especially when the fireplace is lit. But then again, it's within the walking distance of this place if you need some space for yourself."
She nodded, happy to at least hear that. While she wasn't gonna be coming back to this place, being able to reach the abandoned playground will be welcome.
"Anything else you're curious about Riley?" He asked, taking glances at his watch.
"Your kids, if you're adopting another one then are most of them off to college?"
"As a matter of fact, none of them are!" He gave it a hearty laugh, smiling wider at Riley.
"You're gonna be the second oldest, in fact."
The explanation didn't make anything even a lick clearer. How could he afford the time and energy to take another kid in with all three still in house?
"Now I'm confused." She flatly responded.
"Lemme try to make it clearer then. The oldest is Andrew, he's seventeen and in last year of high school. Then you, then Lily, had her eleventh birthday couple weeks ago, and then Timmy, he's four."
"Been busy, eh?" Riley whispered under her nose on accident, intending to keep the quip in her mind. Her eyes and face shot away from Mr. Asher, trying to hide herself and her embarrassed blush from him.
"Very." He answered with a chuckle, getting up and stretching his arms, taking a glance out the window at the afternoon sky.
"And you must be tired." He followed up, going out to put the document back in headmaster's office, urging her to follow him with a gesture.
She slowly stood up, grimacing as her leg screamed at her for daring to use it again after overexerting it like that. After she finally managed to walk out of the room, Mr. Asher was waiting for her, another question on his lips.
"As for picking you up from here, I'd rather have it done in the morning so we have as much time as possible before the rest of the family comes back. What's the earliest you could get up on?"
Riley thought about it for a bit, reminding herself about that one kid who could arrange waking up... And yeah, she didn't want to spend any more time in here than she strictly needed to. Bad fortune, after all.
"Six. How's that sound?"
"Ella is gonna complain about the alarm clock set at five-fifteen, but six is pretty much the best case scenario. Plenty of time and mostly vacant shops. If you can manage it then it's great, but if not then I'll just be waiting at the cafeteria, no sweat."
Riley smiled slightly at his words, appreciating the buffer in case something happened.
"And for now Riley... well, I'd advise getting some good rest. Big day ahead of you, so just take it slow, wrap up anything that needs taken care of, pack your stuff, and try to get as much sleep as possible. And in more immediate future, I think they're serving lunch right now, judging by the noises."
Indeed, cafeteria sounded like it was full to the brim judging by the echoing footsteps from below. Mac and Cheese maybe?
"So... is that all for now, Mr. Asher?" She looked up at him, enjoying his presence more than she would admit to herself.
"I think so, unless you wanna ask one more thing before I head off. Oh, but first-" He handed Riley an empty cloth shopping bag- "something to put your stuff into, since I assume the default is still a black trash bag for your belongings?"
She nodded knowingly, stuffing the bag into the pocket of her jacket as a final question did spring up.
"Mr. Asher... what's your name?"
He was taken aback at the question, before thinking it through and smiling in understanding.
"It's Rick. Rick Asher. Or, if you were to ask Timmy, Daddy Asher."
She giggled at this, taking a deep breath and slowly walking towards the stairs, looking up at him for the last time for now.
"Well, see you on Saturday, Mis-... Rick." She awkwardly corrected herself to his chuckle, and headed downstairs. If it was Mac and Cheese, there was no force in hell or heaven that would make her skip out on it.
***
It was Mac and Cheese.
The line was something absurd, even after ten minutes of standing in it. There were at least a dozen kids ahead of Riley, and what looked like twice that behind. The room was so full that most kids had to eat standing up, or knelt in front of the tables, or sat against the walls.
That's what you get when you only serve actually tasty food once a month or so.
After finally waiting out the queue, Riley took her bowl and walked towards a free spot under the wall, already salivating at the thought of salty goodness she held in her hands. As she slowly limped on however, something unnerved her. People were... staring at her. Not everyone of course, but quite a lot of them were. Did she have a gaping hole in the back of her jacket or what?
Trying to ignore the attention she sped up, sitting down in the corner and pulling up her knees to her chest, just wanting to enjoy the meal in relative peace.
First few bites went quiet and pleasant, Riley closing her eyes to enjoy the taste more. As she was impaling some more macaroni onto her fork, she heard someone whisper to her-
"Is that true?"
She snapped her head to the side, glaring at the intruder, some ten-ish looking boy sitting a couple feet away from her. She had no patience for being interrupted like that, harshly snarling back with- "What!?" before continuing her lunch.
He didn't get the message.
"T-that y-you're getting adopted by, y-you know... *skunks*?" He whispered the last word as if it was a grave slur or something.
"Maybe. Now piss off." She didn't even bother looking back at him, not wanting to give him any more attention than he deserved.
News sure got around quickly over here.
She looked up from her spot in the corner of the room, her piercing glare forcing everyone who was oh so curious to look back at their food, lest her eyes burn their soul. Most of them were just some curious kids, but some... some were visibly envious, especially the older ones. She couldn't really blame them for that, but she wasn't feeling like being at the receiving end of their scorn anyway. Others still looked... afraid. Only a few of them, true, but enough to throw her mind in for a loop. What were they afraid of?
She kept chewing through her lunch, the uneasy atmosphere having drained most of the flavor away.
Thanks, assholes.
Few minutes later she got up to put the bowl away, glancing around the room some more. She kept seeing the same expressions, curiosity, envy, fear... the latter still confusing her, but a glance over the boy who sat at the opposite wall, the wolf whom she'd helped out yesterday did start tingling something together under her skullcap.
He looked fucking terrified.
But... not of her, right?
She had to get to the root of this.
***
She walked back down to the main corridor, standing in the doorframe of one of the storage rooms, difficult to spot unless you were walking right by her. At a glance, one would think that she was waiting for someone to walk into her ambush, which... wasn't that far from the truth.
Soon the first kid who she remembered being afraid walked by her, almost jumping as she caught his attention with a quiet "pssst!". He couldn't have been older than nine or so. She waved for him to come into the dim room, intending to ask him about it all only for him to speak up first-
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
pulling out her supplies as he spoke up-
"P-please don't leave us R-Riley..." He begged, his voice sounding like he was about to tear up on her.
"Too late to turn back now. What are you shaking so much about?"
The boy couldn't hold his tears in anymore at that, whimpering a bit before he looked over to the sides and out the door, as if checking for someone-
"B-B-B-Bruce..."
And then... it clicked. He wasn't afraid of her, or for her-
He was afraid of her absence.
Guess she really did underrate Bruce as more than just a bother. Maybe for her he was, but for any younger kids...
"Hold on. Stay here and don't go anywhere, I-I'm gonna go grab something and I'll be back." She instructed him, tone of her voice markedly changing- no longer weirded out or complaining about the oddity around her, but now wanting to actually do something about it.
For once, she felt like she was in control of things, and she was gonna relish in that control for all she could.
The high of getting to sign a document.
The boy shook in place and nodded weakly, slinking off into the dark to avoid being spotted as Riley raced back upstairs and to her room, scrounging up a pen and an old, half-filled notebook, tearing out all the filled pages and throwing them in the trash.
Time to gather the evidence.
She made her way back much more inconspicuously, hiding the notebook on the inside of her jacket, taking her usual route towards the courtyard before taking a detour back into the other part of the building, slipping back into the now empty-looking closet, looking around for the kid.
"Hey, you still here?"
"Y-yeah..." The sudden words startled her a bit, coming from apparently behind her, a quick glance revealing him to have hidden behind the opened door, huddling up against the wall in the dark.
"A-alright. I might be leaving, but I'm still gonna try to do something about Bruce while I can." She closed the door and flipped the light switch, the meek lightbulb providing the minimum of visibility in the cramped space, the sudden jump from darkness to light making the other boy flinch.
"R-really!?" The excited squeak that had left the boy surprised her in its eagerness, Riley chuckling and weakly smiling before nodding firmly back.
"Yeah. But for that, I'll need you to tell me what he's done to you. As... as much as I'd love to just come over to beat his face senseless, I think this way will be more effective." The follow-up did wonders in taming the boy's disappointment at her not taking the most direct route to solve the problem, letting him just gather his thoughts before speaking up.
Riley sat down against the wall and just... listened. She wrote down the testimony as legibly as she would manage, occasionally giving the boy some breathing space as he nearly teared up once more. After all was said and done she got up and smiled softly down at him, thinking through it briefly before stretching her arms wide, wordlessly offering him a hug, which was gladly accepted.
"It's gonna be alright, don't worry. Now, I just need your name and signature."
He looked up at her scared, asking- "B-b-but won't Bruce know that's me!?"
"Bruce is never gonna see this with his eyes. Besides, he'd know it was you even without the name, but we're gonna need it so that the secretaries can make really sure that it's you. Is that okay?" She spoke softly, trying to abate his fears.
He thought for a second and nodded, Riley's words managing to cut through most of his worries.
"M-my name is P-Peter..." He managed to stammer out, Riley pulling him closer in a soft embrace as she wrote his name with the free hand.
"And your last name Peter?"
"J-Johnson..."
She drew a horizontal line underneath the testimony, pointing towards it and asking-
"Can you write your name there Peter?" -as she handed him the pen.
"I can't write well, can't you do it?" Riley chuckled at that, softly shaking her head and continuing-
"Don't worry, it doesn't have to be written well, it just has to be written by you."
"A-are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's so that they can see you signed on this testimony yourself and know it's authentic."
"I-I see..." He replied as he picked up the pen, his hand shaking as he slowly wrote his full name down, legibly if slightly crooked.
"Perfect. That's all I really need, now I only ask you that you don't tell anybody about this. At least not while Bruce is still around, aight?"
"Okay Riley. W-w-, Do you think that this w-will make him go away?"
"After I get a few more testimonies, I'm dang near sure of that. Now, pretend nothing happened and you haven't talked to me, alright?"
He nodded and ran out of the storage room, going presumably back to his bedroom.
After taking a few moments to collect herself, Riley got up, heading off in one of the side corridors as she sorted her thoughts, thinking how would she contact the other kids without arousing too much suspicion.
There were a few more meals before she'd leave as a last resort, but other than that all she had left was just roaming the building until she'd spotted someone from earlier. Guess an upside to having barely any memory with names was having a photographic memory with faces.
As she made her way upstairs towards the reading room, the sheer surreality of the situation hit her, making her laugh briefly to herself.
A few months ago she wouldn't have ever imagined doing something so wild. As much as she hated Bruce, she wasn't exactly keen on getting stabbed in the back in the dead of night by some teenaged psycho who got off on stealing kids' money. 'Snitches get Stitches' and all that.
Good luck putting any stitches once I'm gone, you piece of shit.
With her motivation renewed, she pushed on towards the reading room, hoping some of the kids would be hanging out in there, and willing to talk. A few minutes later she had arrived, grabbing a random book from the nearby pile and sitting down at one of the desks, looking around. She didn't need to be as inconspicuous here after all, as if Bruce would ever willingly set a foot in the same room as a book.
As she scanned the faces around the room, she noticed the wolf boy in the corner behind her, and judging by him hiding from her sight he'd noticed her as well.
Here goes nothing.
She slowly got up and approached him, taking a nearby chair and sitting down at his desk, frowning as he was visibly shaking in fear, hiding himself behind the book he was reading.
Riley gave him a few moments before she tried to catch his attention with a short quip-
"I'm not gonna eat you, you know."
He gasped quietly at this, peeking out from behind his book, his eyes already sparkling with tears.
She softened her expression, getting a weak smile out of herself before she continued-
"Why are you shaking so hard?"
He tried to stammer something out for a few moments, his voice cracking up in panic.
"Hey, hey, it's fine. I'm not gonna hurt you kid, I'm not working with Bruce. How about this?" She tore out a page from the back of her notebook, sliding it and a pen forward towards him underneath the book he was holding.
"Take your time."
He slowly put down his book, looking up at Riley in confused fear as he started writing, scribbling a few things down before crossing them out, finally passing the pen and paper back after a few minutes, having written down a question-
~"Why did you help me yesterday?"~
Riley sighed as she read his question, any straightforward answer refusing to reveal itself to her.
"Because... because you needed help, simple as that." She grimaced internally at her own non-answer, knowing how well she'd hate it if someone said something like that to her.
"And right now, I need your help to get rid of Bruce for good." His eyes and... ears immediately perked up at her answer. She had no idea the latter was even possible.
"H-h-how so?" He softly asked, still shaking like a dried leaf.
"You and few other kids tell me about what he's done to you, I'll pass it over to the administration and they're gonna make sure he sticks in kid jail for a long, long time."
He let out a squeal of fear at that, shaking his head.
"B-b-but he'll know and he'll h-hurt us!"
"He's not gonna have even a single peek at this, trust me. And even if he finds out, it's me who he's gonna be after."
"A-are you doing this because you're l-l-leaving?"
Riley took in a deep breath, nodding slowly in response.
"Might as well do something right before I'm gone." She sighed, her conscience biting her for not doing something like that earlier.
"D-do you promise he won't hurt us?" He spoke up, sounding so... so hopeful. Riley felt something stabbing at her, she wanted to tell him it's all gonna be alright, she so desperately wanted to.
But she couldn't. She hated promising things she couldn't provide.
"I... I can't. I can't promise you that. I'm as certain as I can be, but I can't promise you that. I wish I could."
He looked up at her, initially confused and slightly upset, but as he chewed through her words, he nodded slowly in understanding.
Smart kid.
"If you don't want to, then I can't force you to tell me what he's done to you. It's your-"
"I-I'll speak."
She smiled at him, opening her notebook to a new page and picking up her pen.
"I'm all ears."
***
This one took... longer than Riley had expected, and not because of the boy's, or rather Sam's fault. At times she just had to put the pen down and take in some deep, slow breaths, else she'd shatter the cheap plastic with her hand.
Turns out Bruce hasn't just been harassing him, but also almost anyone he caught him speaking to. Explains why he was trying to hide in the corner. And the money he's been stealing from him? Pocket money from his grandma who is herself only barely scraping by, trying to send what she can since she's too sick to take him in herself.
Bruce had to fucking go. Her current plan wouldn't work, wouldn't be... enough. He'd just get transfered somewhere else to terrorize some more kids. It was correction facility or she might have failed for all she cared.
As the rage sped her thoughts up, something did come up, a wild stretch... but not an impossible one. Hell, it might be scarily doable. She chuckled to herself before her train of thought was derailed-
"Riley?"
She shook the sensation off, promising to herself that she'd let herself focus on it once she was done for the day.
But not right now.
"Sorry Sam, got a bit distracted. You said it was all for now, right?"
"Y-yeah. W-will that be enough?"
"More than enough, don't worry. It's *definitely* more than enough." She said slowly, trying to suppress her temper.
"Now I just need your signature and full name, and that... that'll be all for now." She passed the notebook over to him, rubbing her face to try to calm herself down.
Few scribbles later and they were both free to go, Sam getting up first and causing Riley to jump a bit as he placed his paw on her shoulder, getting her attention.
"C-can you p-promise me something R-Riley?" He sounded concerned, worried not for himself but for her.
"What is it?"
"That you'll l-look out for yourself. B-Bruce will try to h-h-hurt you in return, c-can you promise me that y-you won't let him?"
"I won't. I haven't so far, and if he tries anything then well, the knife's always in my pocket. I promise I won't let him hurt me Sam." Riley sounded determined, smiling slightly at Sam's worry as she got up herself, emotions surging through her.
"T-Thank you." He smiled before making his way out of the reading room, leaving Riley with her own thoughts.
After a few minutes she got up herself, hiding the notebook in her mattress before she made her way to the courtyard, taking a deep breath of the freezing air as she watched the pristine snowflakes fall, sky above quickly darkening as the sun set. As calming as the sight and the chill were, they weren't enough. She walked over to the punching bag, hiding in the small alcove as she started her routine, going at the bag as she heated her body up, letting her fantasies run wild.
Too wild perhaps, as her raging thoughts only became wilder and wilder, red all over her eyes as she started to snarl and grunt with every punch, hitting as hard as her body would let her, feeling like she was about to reach her limit. She drew her knife with the final strike, carving a massive gash out of the bag and sending a sprinkling of old sawdust over herself and the floor as she struggled for breath, leaning on the cold wall.
She slid down and sat on the ground, eyeing up the courtyard and catching a few pairs of eyes watching over her, most of them scattering once she'd taken a glance at them.
"Great, as if I needed more audience..." She muttered to herself as she got up, before making her way over to the bathroom to wipe most of the sweat and dust off of herself with a wet rag, too tired for a full blown shower. Dinner wasn't served quite yet, so she had some downtime to go over the plan she'd come up with earlier.
It was... wild, but nothing she couldn't manage. While she was hardly a locksmith, she knew how to rattle open the most common door locks relatively stealthily. She got some experience with computers back in the middle school, none of this should be too much... The passwords might me tricky, but judging at... the staff's overall view of their pupils, she didn't think they even locked up their PCs when they left.
This all just may work-
*yaaaaaawn*
She was, indeed, exhausted. Dinner and bed, she had so much to do tomorrow, and so little time.
Riley got up and headed downstairs, taking her place in line before the dinner started being served, looking around with groggy eyes as she leaned against the wall.
Her hand shot to her knife once she saw Bruce walk past her before forcing himself into the front of the queue, as if it was utterly ordinary- which for him, it was. She was holding the switchblade so hard her knuckles whitened, fantasizing about doing the same thing to him as she'd done to the bag.
All in due time.
Thankfully, soon enough the dinner started being served, Riley downing the creamy excuse for a soup in a couple minutes before jogging back to her room, the last thing she needed right now was even more anger in her system.
She took off her jacket, laying down on top of her sleeping bag as she unwinded, reaching to grab another old notebook and drawing some random scribbles on the first page she'd opened, the actual contents unimportant. Just something to focus on, let the tiredness pass...
After flipping to a mostly empty page she'd started drawing a tall figure, her style something between the most basic stick figures and simple outlines. She tried to recall as many things about Mr. Asher as she could, the clothes, his face and slight snout, his expression and tail. Of course there was only so much detail that could be made by a shaking hand with a ballpoint pen on an A5 page, but the exercise was enough for her to bleed out all the leftover anger.
She tore out the page and slid it into the planks of the bunk above her, to remind herself about Saturday when she woke up.
But before Saturday was tomorrow, and it was gonna be a rush.
She slid inside her sleeping bag as she felt consciousness slide away from her, dozing off in an instant.