People have asked me to continue the story. So here is the next chapter guys. I hope you enjoy it.
--
Rosette Christopher quickly settled into a pattern following that day. She no longer was part of the Magdalene Order. While not exactly angry at the organization, it would never be the same without Chrono fighting at her side. It would just be too different without him. So unable to deal with the loss of her only love so soon, she threw her entire strength and all her energy into the orphanage where she had been raised, acting as a teacher, friend, and guide to those who stayed there. There were a lot more kids now too. A lot of people had died when Pandemonium had started to throw the world into chaos. It left a lot of children without parents. Rosette could understand the pain of losing a loved one during that chaotic time. So she always made herself available to them.
"Rosette! Rosette!" a child called from somewhere behind her. It was Marianne, a young girl who had arrived here a few months prior to her recovery. Bright blonde hair, originally braided, now undone and soaking wet, dripping onto the dress she wore, swished around. "The new group of boys are being mean again. They undid my hair and dumped water all over me."
"Oh really," Rosette muttered, eyes flashing. "Now we can't have that. Lead me to where they are." Marianne led Rosette to the river, where a group of four boys stood on the river bank laughing and joking around.
"That was way too easy," the leader of the group moaned. "Marianne could at least provide a challenge for us." Marianne sniffled. Rosette comforted her.
"Come with me," Rosette instructed, leading the young girl over to the storage shed and unlocking it. Few people had access to this place. She was one of them. "I say it's payback time." She pulled two water guns off of a rack on the wall and loaded them with water, handing one to the young girl beside her. Marianne was eleven years old. "If anyone asks, this was my idea and I'll take responsibility." Both of them smiling as they crept back towards the river bank.
"Hey, bro, who should we go after next?" another boy said. "Someone more interesting than Marianne." All the boys laughed. Rosette counted down with her fingers. Three fingers. They aimed their waterguns. Two fingers. They put their finger on the trigger. One. They let loose, completely soaking the four boys. Screaming and hollering, they looked around for who had done it.
"Serves you miscreants right," Rosette scolded, stepping into view, water gun at the ready. "You know as well as I do that bullying is not around here. If I catch you at it again, the punishment will be harsher. Remember the golden rule. Treat others how you wanted to be treated. I expect all of you to apologize to Marianne before dinner tonight. If I find out that even one of you hasn't, all four of you will still be punished as a group. You want to act like a gang, then you'll all punished as one. True brotherhood at work." Rosette grinned evilly, her water gun at the ready. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, mam," the boys moaned as one, taking off to change into dry clothes. Rosette smiled.
"Rosette, that was so cool!" Marianne said excitedly, not even caring anymore that she was still wet. "Someday I'll think back on the good way to get kids to behave and I'll be just like my cool big sister. Thank you!" Marianne took off to do her chores, handing her water gun back to Rosette. As Rosette emptied the toys of their water and put them away, she sighed. If Chrono were here, she knew what he would say. He would scold Rosette for setting such a bad example, explaining to Marianne that Rosette was not a good person to idolize when it came to her way of dealing with threats. But Chrono wasn't here, at least not in person. His spirit lived on in her, that much she had come to understand.
Morose, she left the shed and relocked it. Once a week, she prayed for three hours straight that she would see Chrono again in this lifetime. Azmaria, assistant manager at the orphanage, prayed with her. Chrono's loss was a big hit to her as well. Rosette was the person in charge of everything here. And without Azmaria, this place would have burnt down by now. Joshua traveled around as a priest as usual. Every now and then he would pop in and visit with everyone, bringing candy for all the kids from the various places he traveled to.
As Rosette mused on this, the path her life had taken since Chrono had died to restore her time, screams and shouts of panic filled the air. Rosette looked around quickly, trying to discern the source of the chaos. Her eyes went wide with horror as she saw what was the problem.
The sanctuary was on fire. Rosette looked at her watch. This was usually the time the kids went to pray for each other in there. This made her run full out towards the sanctuary, her thoughts going a million miles per hour. Please tell me no one was in there! Rosette silently pleaded, scared. Please, let everyone be gone from that place and safe.
"Rosette," Azmaria panted as Rosette ran up to where everyone gathered. "The fire came out of nowhere. Before we knew it, it was blazing. Five kids are still trapped in there and we can't find any way to get them out." Azmaria looked desperately from Rosette to the burning church, as if she expected Rosette to be able figure something out that they weren't able to seen.
"Azmaria, keep the kids away from the building," Rosette ordered, tearing the bottom of her skirt and soaking it with some nearby water. "I'm going in to get the kids out. Contact the fire department and get them out here A.S.A.P."
Rosette wrapped the soaked cloth around her nose and mouth to filter out the smoke, running into the burning building. "Rosette! Wait!" she heard Azmaria protest as she vanished from everyone's view.
The wooden pews were all aflame, halfway gone by now. The tapestries and hangings were completely burned, the metal hangings clanging to the ground noisily and further feeding the burning walls. "Help, someone help!" Rosette heard from somewhere in the front of the church. The kids were crying. Fighting to see through the smoke, Rosette was barely able to see the kids huddling together, surrounded by flames. Rosette whipped off her jacket and charged forward, beating down some of the flames.
"Come on!" Rosette shouted over the noise as the rafters collapsed. All five of them flocked to her, clinging to skirt tightly. "Stay with me. I'll get you out here safely." All the kids nodded through their tears. Rosette led them through the building, dodging and moving around the rubble to get her charges to safety. Luckily, it was not a large building.
"Rosette, we're scared," one of the kids cried softly.
"Don't be afraid," Rosette encouraged. "I won't let anything happen to you." They clung tighter to her skirt. "Look, the front door is just there. We're almost out." Coughing and choking, they emerged into the sunlight. People pulled them away from the building as they emerged and the fire department took over.
"Rosette, are you OK?" Azmaria demanded as she met Rosette. "You're black with soot. Oh my, stay still.' Azmaria began to clean up Rosette's blackened face. "You were in there for so long. We were worried. Thank goodness you're OK."
"Rosette," the kids who had been trapped in the building said as they approached her. The came to kneel by her. "Thank you for saving us. We were so scared." They all hugged her. Rosette merely smiled and hugged them back, equally relieved that they were all OK.
"Rosette, who was the tall man who saved us though?" the oldest one asked. "He said he knew you. A rafter was about to fall on us and he came out of nowhere and brought us to a safe place, telling us to stay there, that you would be there shortly to bring us out."
"There were only the kids in the sanctuary," Azmaria told a confused Rosette. "No adults."
"But we saw him!" They sniffled. "Long purple hair, tall, we almost swore he had wings, but we were only imagining those. Brownish-red eyes. He looked like he had a grafted a thin piece of metal under one of his eyes and wore tattered clothing. We asked him to stay, because we were afraid. But he promised us that you would be there shortly. He said he would come to see how we were doing later. It sounded like he knew you on a personal level!" Rosette froze where she sat. "Rosette?"
"Azmaria," Rosette began doubtfully.
"I know. But he died, Rosette. This person must have looked a lot like him. They have never lied to us. I'll look more into this later. For now, let's get you all taken of. OK?" Rosette took Azmaria's hand and she was pulled to her feet. Azmaria felt Rosette's hand trembling.
What's going on here? Azmaria thought to herself as her and Rosette escorted the shaken children into the dorms to clean them up. It sounds like him, but it can't be him. He died. I saw him die right in front of me. Hopefully this will play out soon though. Rosette doesn't need this. She's just now started to accept his death as fact. As much as I want Chrono to be alive and with us now, can this really be true?
