Hurrying down the street, Marie Landon glanced to her left and right, her tell-tale red cloak fluttering out behind her. Her brown hair, unevenly cut, fluttered by her ears and in front of her bright green eyes. With a soft sniffle, she lifted a pallid hand, brushed the hair from her eyes, and paused before hurrying forward. "Blue!"

Langdon Smolley -Little Boy Blue as his friends called him, or Blue to his close, close friends- turned, blinked, waved. "Red!" Under his arm, the usual grubby primer. Langdon came from a rather poor family, and had had only this one school book from the beginning of his learning. Because of this, he could read every word perfectly and quickly.

"Hey, I got that book that you asked for…" Reaching into her tote bag, Red withdrew the small, black-bound book entitled The Works of Dreams, held it up, and swung it back and forth with a small taunting smile flitting across her face.

"Ah! Yes! Thank you! How did you get Mr. Dumpty to give you it?"

"Silly! I paid!" Red held it out, inviting him to take it.

Blue grabbed it, hugged it to his chest alongside the grubby old primer. He smiled happily, "Wonderful! I'll return it as soon as possible, okay?"

"Keep it as long as you need to."

Blue bounced up and down in excitement, "Oh! Thank you! Thank you so-"

"Langdon Bradford Smolley!" came the shrill voice of his mother. Turning, Blue blanched when he saw his mother, red-faced and furious, "Come here right now! You said you would take care of your little brother!"

"…Yes, mom…" replied Blue solemnly, shooting an apologetic glance at Red. "Got to go, Red… Thanks again… See ya?"

"Sure. See ya." Red twiddled her fingers at him happily.


"Rapunzel Matista. Four days since she was missing… Found dead: today." Detective Pinocchio Daring stared down at the mutilated cadaver with painted wooden eyes before the thin, meticulously carved eyelids slid down to blink. Wood shavings splattered down to his ears before fading off to small, realistic side burns. "Throat slashed. Apparent lack of blood at the scene… Suggests Murder was committed somewhere else and that she was dumped here. Exactly like the others."

The first officer sniffed, "Who could do such a thing? I mean…This was deliberate. Drugged apparently, judging by the vomit on her, maybe some sexual assault, deduced from the absence of clothes -could be nothing though-, and… Killed with a single deep slash to the throat. Look at that… Whoever did this nearly decapitated her in the process, exactly as he did with Goldilocks and Snow White and-""You don't have to sound like you admire the guy." Snorted the wooden Detective.

"I don't… Just saying."

"Well then. Stop saying and call in the crew. We can't be raising a panic about this serial killer. Don't let anyone know about this… Just say there's been a rape or something, make people wary enough to be careful, but not enough to panic and do something stupid…" Pinocchio turned away, paused, and then muttered, "And make sure that we keep the girls off the street. He seems to be after them."

"So, ages ten to twenty, should we say?"

"Should you say? Yes. Put up a curfew. And I want extra patrols by the men, understood?"

"Yes, sir!" The first officer saluted sharply.