A RedCrackle Tale

Chapter 3. - Deep Breaths and Red Roses

3rd Person POV

    The next few days went by in a blur for both the kids and for Carmen. For the kids they were starting to put their plan into motion, Jump and Tech were starting to base their plan up to get hold to the facial recognition technology, Feil was studying the short term symptoms of heart break. Which in within itself is a difficult topic seeing that he had to do it without anyone noticing. As for night her job was most likely the hardest to get done even as she was known for her stealth to sneak past a possible Super thief and record their sleeping habits was nearly impossible. For Carmen the days were not her best, to say the least. Carmen kept having the same brutal nightmare and almost every time was afraid to sleep which made night and her own life harder. Carlotta was doing her best to help but Carmen's situation was highly unusual. 

    Before an eye could blink it had been a week and everything changed. Someone new was coming to the orphanage. This new kid was a small boy that was eleven or twelve; but the way shyness and fear had overtaken him he looked a lot smaller and younger. Mark was his name and as for his parents; they were another story all together. They had died in a fire; Mark had lived because he was playing in the front yard when it started. The funny thing was no one could pinpoint what had started the fire or how it had spread. 

Carmen's POV

    I was in the study when I heard my mother's voice 

"C., you might want to come down we have someone here" it was a nervous tone a if this was no simple matter, but was anything really ever simple anymore?

    "I am coming" I called back as I reassured the Children that it would only take a minute and scurrying downstairs quickly. I paused when I took in the sight that in front of me; there was a child crying in the back corner of the room, a woman in a suit tapping her foot as if she just wanted to leave and wore a scowl of discontentment, and of course my mother looking back and forth between the child me and the woman in the suit. 

"Can we just get this over with; I've got somewhere to be and I cannot  be late?" The Female in the suit pressed clearly annoyed. She help up sheets of parchment with writing on them Wait are those custody papers?  I wonders and then I noticed the small kid in the back of the room had started backing up into the wall with fear in his small watery eyes. My mother snapped out of her trance and started signing the papers. I slowly made my way to the child he looked shell shocked and broke down.

"Hi there" I said gently pausing as I noticed burn marks on his arms almost as if he had reached into fire. I gasped slightly and he took note then spoke.

    "I-" he swallowed "I know you... you were there, weren't you?" his tone grew steely "It was you!!" he looked into my eyes. For a kid he seemed to stare into my soul, he spoke with his voice soft so that only I could hear "La Femme Rouge; that's you, right?" I nodded, but how could he possible know- my thoughts were cut off as he spoke in that same quiet tone "They hurt you, They made you hurt him. Yet you tried to same them, My parents you tried." he said as he noticed of a fresh burn on my leg. My mouth hung open and he hugged me tightly as if I were the last person he could trust. I suddenly felt someone's gaze on me; I held his hand as I turned to see the woman in the suit who had seen him as annoying looking at me with curiosity

"he hasn't spoken in days, wouldn't answer any of our questions." she said her tone becoming soft "He just kept hyperventilating, he wouldn't rest. He wouldn't even take one deep breath." she looked at me in awe as if I brought a miracle into the world. Then as soon as it had come the moment slipped away as she gathered the papers and left to go process them. 

"mamá, could you finish up with the other kids while I get this one settled?" I started to lead him upstairs  and with a slight tug he followed, We had to talk.