Two years later

I woke up to the harsh smell of smoke.

When I listened carefully, I could hear flames.

I yelped in fear. The manor was on fire and by the sounds of it, not everybody could get out. I grabbed some of my most prized possessions (including a photograph of my parents Dimitri had found in the rubble after the explosion), which I had put all of them in a backpack for the times I went out for the day and I might wanted them, and ran out the room.

Most of the servants were crowded around Constance's room, so I decided she definitely had enough people to get her out. I then ran down the corridor where Bertram, Thomas and Leona's rooms were.

Thomas and Bertram nearly ran into me as I went to go and find them. Thomas had obviously inhaled some of the smoke, as he was bent over coughing, his eyes bloodshot.

Bertram was holding Thomas so that he could drag him while he was coughing, with a handful of hankies in hand, one over his mouth, another going onto Thomas'. Passing me two, he said "Get Leona." before they ran for the staircase.

I quickly went into the room next door, knowing I had to calm myself down before I tried to because otherwise the incident with the door handle during the explosion would happen all over again. Leona was sat in the corner of the room, shaking violently and petrified.

"Leona, it's me, Clive. We have to get out of here!"

"What's the point in saving me when I'm so useless?" She whispered.

"You're not useless! Don't start with the stupid conversation and just run!" I said, pulling her up by the armpits, giving her one of the hankies, and using the other to cover my own mouth. I grabbed her hand and we ran for our lives.

The fire was following us almost the whole way we ran, and just reached the staircase as we escaped. We were both coughing most of the way, since Bertram's hankies weren't the most ideal thing, but they didn't get so much of the poisonous gases on our lungs. Leona bit her left finger, which would leave a graze, and I fell over into a crawling position panting.

"Was the fire following you?" Bertram said to me, looking down on me. He sounded mad, but it was only because he was scared and was trying to show he wasn't.

"Y-yes." I said, before going into a fit of coughing. Thomas obviously could tell I was going to throw up because he grabbed a handful of leaves before sticking it below my mouth and letting me throw up probably all of what I had eaten and then some.

"That means that Constance had no other route out…"

I realisation, I suddenly stood up, wiping my mouth. Saliva was dripping down my face, but I had finished with the puking.

That moment brought so many memories and déjà vu. First the house exploding five years ago, and now the house collapsing because of the fire. All the servants had either fled or went into the manor to help Constance, because Leona, Bertram, Thomas and I were the only four people I knew could see.

The realisation of Constance's death just hit me.

My breath started heaving, and when Bertram and Thomas tried to comfort me, I pushed them away. Leona eyes closed slightly in understanding.

No, no, no. I've lost the parents I loved because of a reason almost identical, and now I've lost my adoptive mother for an almost identical reason. But at least it was an-

My breath was still hitched as I started to bawl my heart out. As the fire brigade came far too late, the policemen, the doctors, I carried on crying, and I didn't care who saw me. I had lost someone who had given me hope, now I was back to square one.

One Week Later

Constance's funeral was yesterday. It was a quiet one, since I knew most of the people- the servants- who knew her well enough to be invited, died with her. They filled two rows of the graveyard, but Constance's was the only one that had people invited to it. It was a private one, so none of the public arrived until about an hour after the funeral had ended. The only people there were the surviving servants who had fled, two ladies she used to have tea and scones with, as well as Bertram, Thomas and myself. Leona didn't come.

I preferred having it this way. The servants organised it, since I was too fraught to do so, and this is probably what Constance wanted. Only the people she loved there, not people who she didn't know who just came because she was rich.

And the good thing was, I'd managed to avoid going back to the orphanage. Spring and Cogg had just got a new apartment just above the well-known Midland Road Clock shop, since Cogg's job was to tinker around with the clocks at Dove Manor. Before that they lived in a small house with three bedrooms, and were planning on keeping it for when Cogg wasn't only working and sleeping. However, after the fire, Spring said that Thomas, Bertram and I could stay there.

Leona had gone into a house where a woman looked after the blind. It would be the last time I saw her for a good couple of decades.

I had decided to go and have a look at the Midland Road Clock Shop today. I'd heard a lot of things about it from Spring, Cogg and the locals, but I'd never actually gone in to see for myself.

As soon as I actually got onto Midland Road, a long twisting road, I could tell roughly what the shop would look like, even though it wasn't until the very end of it. It would be…cosy. Cosy, that's the best word to describe it.

Once I reached the shop, I knew I was right. It was packed tightly into the other sides of the road, but you didn't feel as if you were squashed in between the sides.

I knocked on the door, saying it was me, before going in. I knew it was a clock shop, but I didn't realise that there would be so many clocks, ticking away, only one or two out of time. You could tell how much love was put into the shop.

After looking at all of the clocks closely, watching the seconds tick by at every angle thought possible, I went into the back half of the shop. This was obviously their more personal half. All the clocks here were either broken, new or just fixed, and the only non-clock related item was a desk with a door directly behind it. "There's a flight of stairs behind that door, go up them in you're in the apartment." Cogg said behind by back, making me jump. I didn't realise he was behind me, but almost as soon as I turned around, he was back in the front room.

I decided to go and explore the upstairs since he had given me permission in his own sort of way. Cogg would word things a little differently to how others usually would. I tried to make a guess of what it would look like again. Spring would obviously be the one designing the place, so it would be welcoming and friendly.

It wasn't the sort of thing I'd want as a house, but it was nice. It was a cross between cream and orange (but not one of the sickly shades that you can get) and since it was only small (the apartment was only over the back room), the living room, kitchen and dining room were all part of one big room. Either side of the front door was another door leading off, and after having a quick look in each, the one on the left side was a guest room and the one on the right their bedroom. It was…quaint.

Spring came up a little while after I had finished looking, and I was now sat on their small sofa with my head down in a book I had found in their bookcase.

"Do you like it here, Master Clive?"

It seemed that Master Clive was going to stick, despite not living in Dove Manor anymore.

"It was what I pictured the two of you would live in." I smiled. "I'm not used to being anywhere with an open plan like this, but it doesn't feel empty."

"Thank you, Master Clive. Cogg always says he doesn't like it and it's too feminine but you're not feminine at all. I hate how society thinks polite men are gay…" And she was on one of her ramble's again. I'd never even been called gay so I don't know why she was talking about homosexuality and politeness being connected.

~x~

"I heard about Constance in the newspapers…I'm sorry about your loss."

I sat silently in the office Dimitri had provided four our plotting again Bill. He had rented it, and we used it for information and files we didn't want public eyes seeing or ears hearing. I looked down, shading my eyes from him.

I guess I was more upset in a crying, moping away about Constance than my own parents. I knew I could make someone pay for my parents, but I couldn't for Constance since it was a complete accident.

"If you don't want to get anything done today and just go home, then I understand." Now I known Dimitri for two years and knew his personality, I could tell what he was doing. He had his dark side that I had seen when I first met him, but he knew when to empathise.

Just as I was about to reply to him, one of our goons came in, barging through the door. We hired a small amount of men to work as goons to help us with our plot and to be almost like bodyguards for me and Dimitri. Most of them looked near enough identical, but the more important ones looked more unique so these were the ones who had names and weren't just nameless. For example, two of them were Bostro and Fisheye. These two were mainly working to protect me, so that was why I knew them better than the others. The whole group was called 'The Family', though nobody acted like it. "We have visitors. Say they know Clive."

Dimitri just looked at me, obviously wanting me to give the answer since they know me. "Male or female?" I asked. If they were male, then I wouldn't be so keen. Bar my friends, Cogg and my father, none of them had been nice to me.

"Male. They seem harmless though and I think they're safe enough here."

I didn't really want to, but it seemed safe. "Let them in then." I sighed.

I didn't expect the two people who walked in to be who I thought would.

"Thomas?! Bertram?!"

Thomas was the one who said it. "Bill Hawks killed our parents as well for money!" He blurted.

"Who are these two?" Dimitri asked coolly.

"Thomas and Bertram are orphans who lived in Dove Manor. Other than me, they were two of the only people to survive the fire."

"I see." Dimitri said, entwining his fingers together, his left index finger on his lower lip. The room was silent until Dimitri spoke again. "I guess, if you don't backstab, then I can let you help. Go out of this room, turn left and take the room second to the right."

"OK, thank you!" Thomas said, before the two walked off.

As soon as they did leave, Dimitri was at my throat. "Why did you tell them?!"

"I didn't, I swear! Nothing is at my house either!"

Dimitri loosened his grip, then let go. He needed to control his anger more. "So, Dimitri." I said rather casually and coolly. "Have you got any plans on what we could do?"

"Yes, but they're not very effective. Bill has too many guards for any of them to work." He said. "What about your ideas? Are any of them useful?"

"Like I said on the day I met you, since he is so interested in time travel, you should base it off that. Why don't we remake a new time machine? Then we could have a presentation which we invite him to, but make sure us purposely fails. We could make it seem like a complete accident, and while all the people at the personation are freaking out, we could taking him somewhere else, and then make it seem like he's lost in the future. We could use fake identities and go to a costume shop so no-one knows it's us. I thought about it ever since I said it the first time we met, and this is the best plan I've had so far."

Dimitri seemed impressed about the idea. The one thing I didn't like about his expression though was the fact it looked like he was going to praise me as if my six year old self thought of it, not my sixteen year old self. "We'll have to fill in more details, but that's a pretty good basic plan. Also, have you got yourself a job yet, now you're eligible for one?"

"Not yet. I've been too busy sorting out Constance's death first."

"Well, since you've told me about your passions to be a journalist, I think that would be a good place to get one. It's two birds with one stone, really. You're working as something you love, and you can get the information we need that the press knows but the public don't."

"Yes, I thought about that. And even though the plot seems like we'll need infinite amounts of money to do, I know exactly where to get it."

"Constance?"

I nodded. "The reason Constance Dove adopted was because she didn't have an heir to the Dove fortune. She didn't want the money to go to the Government, and she wanted a child who had lost almost everything to feel like they had something. It's all mine. The cash sum is more than you'd probably earn or even dream of in a lifetime. Apart from keeping myself alive, all that money is going into our fund. I want nothing more than revenge. I don't care if it means spending the rest of my life behind bars. At least I'll have done what I wanted."

"Even when I saw you when you with your parents before the explosion, I knew you were one of the most ambitious people that I'd probably meet." Dimitri mused. "But, one thing."

"Yes?"

"You probably know this already, but I'm just repeating it, so don't get mad. Once you step into the next phase of this, you can't back down, it'll be too far. Are you sure you want to risk your life to go through with this?"

"Of course I want to. There's nothing that pleases me more than the thought of Bill Hawks dead."