AN: Presenting Chapter Seven, with added batshit crazy Leonard "You've Come To Steal My Ribena" Wolf, and a young Vincent wangsting harder than a My Chemical Romance fan. Possibly not the best chapter ever, in retrospect.


With a shaved head and cruel face, Leonard Wolf towered over both of them with his impressive stature and a piercing sneer that he had only ever seen on the face of one other person. His daughter. There was no such stony resolve from her now, however. At the sight of her father, she blanched a sickly pale, frozen to the spot with her mouth open. "This is quite the little mess you two have caused, is it not?"

"W...we...we just...Walter was acting really weird and...well, we went to talk to Father Stone and then..."

"Then, no doubt under the influence of my good for nothing daughter, you goaded Sullivan into killing Jimmy!" Leonard roared, his voice echoing in the dank hallway.

"No! I don't know...Walter knocked me out and then I woke up and Father Stone was..."

"So this is all your doing, then?" he demanded of Claudia, his lips curled back in a feral snarl. She shook her head mutely, her hands shaking.

"No, she wasn't even here!" he exclaimed on her behalf. "She was looking after the kids. You can ask them yourself!"

"I wouldn't trust the word of a child any more than I would trust the word of a heathen," he spat.

"But it's the truth!" he spread his hands in what he hoped was a vaguely pacifying gesture. But he could tell that Leonard was out for blood. He'd just found his friend dead, and he was looking for someone, anyone to punish. "We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You were, perhaps," he growled. "I can see from the state of you that you weren't a willing participant in this." Vincent had to admit that, covered in blood, with his glasses, and possibly his nose, broken, he was probably giving off that impression. Which was a good thing, something he could play on to save his own skin, at least. But as strong as the desire for self-preservation was, he wasn't about to leave Claudia to take the blame for this. Especially since she had barely been involved. Especially since Leonard was a monster. He'd beaten her unconscious, once, for whispering to him in church. He'd kill her for this, for certain.

"Claudia had nothing to do with this, Father Wolf. You have to believe me. She was with the children the whole time."

"Vincent, I am warning you. Don't even think about lying to me to protect her." He leaned in closely and hissed. "Trust me when I say she is not worth it."

Vincent glanced at her fearful face, tears welling up in her eyes as she stared dumbly at her father like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a truck. And the tugging in his chest made him not so sure that Leonard was right about that one.

"Please Father Wolf...Leonard..." he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Don't..."

He was cut so very short as Leonard backhanded him across the face. It stung, but it was more of a gesture than an intent to wound, a reminder of his authority. "I will only warn you one more time, curate. Get the Hell out of here. Go and repent your stupidity before God."

Vincent rubbed his jaw plaintively, staring at Claudia, searching in her face, in the trembling curve of her bottom lip, for some kind of absolution. She swallowed loudly, as if speaking was suddenly an alien concept. "You should go..." she whispered. "It'll be all right."

Evidently she didn't see any sense in both of them going down together. And frankly, neither did he, although it didn't make him feel like any less of an utter bastard.

"Are you deaf, boy?" Leonard rapped. Vincent had never felt more helpless in his life. Walter was a murderer, Stone was dead, and now Claudia was probably going to...well, that simply did not bear thinking about. He could only hope that big bad Wolf wasn't psycho enough to kill his own kid.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, his feet still planted to the spot, as though he was physically unable to walk away from this.

"That is no longer any of your concern. I would suggest you simply be thankful that my daughter's poison hasn't spread far enough to rob your of your senses."

"She's not, she's..." She might not have been poison, but Claudia Wolf was certainly a magnet for bad luck. Considering how devout she was, he thought it a little unfair of the Almighty not to cut her some slack every now and then.

"I have had enough of this foolishness," Leonard thundered. "You can heed my advice, or you can stay here and wait for Sullivan to make you his next victim, but we are leaving. And if you so much as think about trying to follow, you will not live to regret it." He suddenly felt like a kid again. Big bad Leonard, with his big, bold grandiose threats. Threats which were entirely serious, and that he was entirely capable of carrying out. "Come, Claudia." He gripped her arm tightly enough to make her whimper and Vincent closed his eyes. "We have much to discuss." Leonard Wolf had a unique take on the concept of "discussion", which generally involved his fists.

He watched impotently as Leonard dragged his daughter off into the darkness at the end of the corridor, before simultaneously punching the wall and letting out a single sob of utter frustration through his gritted teeth. It was all just so bastard unfair.


He knew better than to try to follow Leonard, and he also knew that the more he pissed him off, the worse it would be for Claudia. Eventually he went back into the room where the children were, seeking out some kind of human comfort for himself and feeling like shit for doing so. As soon as he entered, they crowded around him in a little gaggle, knowing better than to ask questions, but looking at him with the most ardent curiosity nevertheless.

He sat down amongst them and said absolutely nothing. He continued to say nothing for three hours until the receptionist eventually came in and quietly asked him if he would stay to take care of the children for a few days, while the Valtiel sect sorted out the whole Stone mess. He could sleep in one of the spare children's rooms, she said. She didn't seem too cut up about Jimmy being dead. He could imagine that not very many people were. He agreed for two reasons. Firstly, if you were smart, you didn't say no to The Order. Ever. And secondly, he'd rather be in close proximity to Claudia than go back to Pleasant River. He imagined she was probably being tortured at that very moment. All sorts of horrible images ran through his mind. He had witnessed Leonard's cruelty towards his daughter over and again, throughout the years, and they had all been for such minor transgressions that he could not imagine what Hell this would unleash in the Wolf household. Not to mention, there was still a deranged killer on the loose in the form of Walter Sullivan, and whatever had taken a hold of him, it was probably fairly angry at Vincent for turning a gun on it. Still, there was no alternative but to stay.


Over the next few days, it was almost more than his self restraint could stand not to go to the Wolf house. His mind was conjuring up all sorts of horrible images, and he choked them down bitterly as he tried his best to see to the running of the Orphanage. He would see Leonard dead for this, one day, he vowed to himself. One day, when he was the one with the money, and the power.

But the only way to get to that position, to change things from the inside, was to play ball. Hopefully, if Claudia survived this, she would start to see things from his point of view, she would start to realise first hand that fanaticism could only lead to destruction.

Luckily there were plenty of things to keep him busy. He didn't know how long he'd be left running this place, and he hadn't the first clue how to go about running a children's home, but he'd be damned if he was going to follow Jimmy Stone's schedule. The first thing he did was let out the smattering of kids who were locked in those disgusting cells in the basement. Two of them had to be taken to the hospital. The good thing about Brookhaven, like most places in this horrible little town, was that The Order had their claws in where the administration was concerned, so there would be no knocks on the door about child abuse. But he was certain that Stone would not have even bothered to send the kids for medical attention. How many children had died here and had their deaths covered up? He could remember being fed that old line as a boy that none of them had believed, that when one of their friends suddenly disappeared, they'd been "adopted". Over the years "adoption" had become a euphemism for a horrible death. The word still made him shudder.

The kids could scarcely believe their luck. He had called an assembly and announced that, for the time being, there would be no rising at five in the morning, there would be no lessons, that they would be free to play in the grounds during the day, instead of being locked in their little cell-like rooms. It was gratifying to hear a cheer go up. He stressed that it would be a temporary situation, and things would return to normal soon, once The Order installed a replacement for Father Stone. He didn't want to get their hopes up that life was going to improve for them. But this was probably as close to a holiday as they were going to get. He would still take them to church once a day, as was custom, but maybe, just once or twice, they could actually stop at the amusement park for a change on the way home. It wasn't that he much felt like going to the funfair, or indeed that he much felt like anything besides caving Leonard Wolf's head in with a baseball bat, but he had to keep a level head. Besides, sticking two fingers to Stone's abusive regime gave him a small sense of satisfaction. And Claudia would be delighted when he told her.

If he ever saw her again.

He shook his head. Of course he would.