At dinner time Moira nervously joined Mr. Hunsen in the dining room. While he wasn't wearing a tie, he did have a formal suit on, but considering she was wearing a dress that wasn't really surprising. She wondered if Mr. Hunsen was ever casual enough to wear a sweater instead of the three piece suit he had on. If he was that strict with his own clothing, he might require her to do the same. She could just picture herself walking around in a ridiculously frilly dress all the time. If that happened, the kids at school would make fun of her for sure. Dinner consisted of four courses which the butler served one after the other. The food was good so Moira relaxed slightly. During dinner, Mr. Hunsen briefly explained what he did for a living and he asked Moira about her current living conditions and school arrangements. He was quite impressed that she was fluent in English and suggested that it would help her greatly in the future. The conversation was light and after they finished eating, he invited Moira to his study to continue talking. After delivering some fresh tea, the butler excused himself and Mr. Hunsen explained that he was headed to the town to pick up some supplies before the next snowstorm hit. It was a possibility that they might get snowed in for the week. Moira sat in a large uncomfortable antique chair that sat facing a very large window that looked down the mountain. The lights from the town were still visible in the darkness.
"You're very lucky going by the rumors," said Mr. Hunsen picking up his tea cup.
"I'm not sure what you've heard around town sir," said Moira shaking her head. "It isn't what you think it is. Rumors tend to get exaggerated especially among the children."
"Oh, on the contrary I think you have a definite talent," he said. "Just as I have a talent."
Moira simply looked at him in confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Mr. Hunsen."
"There's no need to call me Mr. Hunsen. In the future I'd prefer if you referred to me as Chaos," he said abruptly. Moira looked at him confused. His first name was Christen and while it would be inappropriate for her to call him that. Why did he want her to call him Chaos? It sounded like a video game name, but Mr. Hunsen didn't look like the type who played.
"It wasn't long ago that I found out that I could make things simply fall apart," said Mr. Hunsen placing a sugar cube in his tea and showing her. The cube immediately disintegrated instead of sinking. Moira wasn't sure what to make of it, but she was starting to wonder if this man actually had a mental illness. Sure, she'd met many people in the town and a few believed in things that she didn't, but this was starting to get weird. What exactly was he trying to convince her of?
"This is of course just a small example. If I applied my powers to something bigger like the chair I'm sitting in, it would instantly fall apart. I am however fond of this chair so I won't be doing this," he added. Moira raised her eyebrows in disbelief. She didn't know why this man was trying to prove to her that he had powers, but she didn't like it.
"As for you, even your name, Moira Evangeline, means luck and destiny," he continued. "Your parents named you well. The dress I gave you as well as the accessories have every imaginable lucky color, symbol and saying on them and pure luck is what you will become. It's your destiny and I've already seen you in action. I've watched you on the street before preventing people from being harmed and moving them out of danger as well as finding lost money and winning lotteries consistently." If Moira hadn't been creeped out before, she was now. She now knew that he'd been watching her, but for how long?
"What exactly do you want from me?" asked Moira crossing her arms over her chest. "You obviously didn't want to adopt me out of the goodness of your own heart."
"I only wish to utilize your powers to help me and my friend," said Mr. Hunsen. "Don't misunderstand. I won't use you for my business ventures or for gambling. I do well enough on my own. What I need you for is something completely different. In return I'll give you everything you've ever wanted. Jewelry, designer clothes, a villa, trips around the world and a steady income is what I'm offering in return. You'll never have to work a day in your life."
Moira wasn't naive. There was no way that the things he was promising didn't come with a very big price. Moira suddenly wanted nothing more than to run out of this mansion and never come back, but even with her good luck, she might not survive the trip down the mountain in all this snow. The butler hadn't returned yet so she couldn't get a ride even if Mr. Hunsen would allow it. She didn't want him to get angry with her either and lock her permanently in her room so she pretended like she was interested. "That sounds great and everything, but what exactly would I have to do?" she asked unenthusiastically.
Mr. Hunsen rose from his seat and lit the candle on the table. Then he went and switched the lights off before returning to his seat. Moira watched him warily the entire time. "You see my friend cannot come out in the light. Don't be afraid, but I call him Silence and he's like the personification of the dark, but he's so much more. You'll meet him soon, but we want to use your luck to defeat his enemies."
Moira gaped at him in disbelief. "Who are his enemies?" she finally asked humoring him. She had the sudden sinking feeling she'd somehow fallen into a horror movie and if she ever got back to the orphanage, she would refuse this adoption and any others in the future immediately.
"Those would be the personifications of other forces," said Mr. Hunsen. "Take the Tooth Fairy or the Sandman as an example."
"So like imaginary beings that kids believe in like Santa Claus," said Moira avoiding his gaze and looking out the window.
"That's correct," said Mr. Hunsen. "If you work together with us, we can defeat those beings."
"But why?" asked Moira perplexed. "What harm does belief in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus do? They just exist to bring hope and happiness to kids. What's the harm in that?" While Moira read stories to the other kids in the orphanage, she had lost her own belief long ago, but she still remembered those nostalgic days when her own parents had told her stories about them. It was some of the happier memories she could recall about her life before she lost them both.
"It's simple," said Mr. Hunsen. "The more belief the children of this town and the world have in those beings, the stronger they are. Silence is very weak because it's almost never completely silent nowadays. With all the electronic gadgets, screens and toys, he's fading away and he simply wants to have a little more power so he doesn't cease to exist. Of course for helping him, we will also gain power."
Moira was silent as she wasn't sure how to respond.
"Don't you want to have power," said Mr. Hunsen. "Power brings wealth and your luck talent would be greater than ever. Do you not realize that you could get whatever you wanted in this world. You could even marry a prince and become part of the royal family. Would you like to be a princess?"
"And you?" asked Moira starting to feel nauseas. "What is it that you want?"
"I've been very wealthy most of my life and I have all I desire," said Mr. Hunsen arrogantly. "I only want to become like Silence. I want to be an existence that doesn't end. I can already control the chaos force and in the end I will become Chaos."
"Isn't that a bad thing," asked Moira. "Doesn't chaos bring things like war."
Mr. Hunsen chuckled. "No, you're mistaken. You're thinking of it as a completely negative thing. All atoms in this universe that are built will eventually fall apart. The snowman you make outside will melt. Anything in its way is consumed by lava. There is so much natural chaos in this world. I'll simply be controlling a portion of it. I'm not trying to destroy things. I simply want to become a being like Silence."
He wants to live forever realized Moira. While he says he doesn't want to do bad things with the chaos, can he really control it like he says, she wondered. She quickly realized that he could destroy anyone that got in his way with a power like that and if it got out of control, he could destroy everything. Moira clutched her hands tightly on her lap. If her luck could help her, she needed it to help her now. Moira knew that Mr. Hunsen was expecting an answer as she stared out the window, but she couldn't reply immediately. Suddenly to her surprise she saw someone approaching the house from down the slope. It wasn't just a single person either. She squinted trying to see who it was. Who would be crazy enough to come here on foot in a snowstorm? The red coat of someone dressed as Santa Claus stood out the most and easily caught her eye. There was also what looked like a person with tall rabbit ears. Were they wearing a hood with ears on it? A glowing yellow blur and green blue blur flew over the two figure's heads. UFO's? Suddenly a boy with white hair in a hoody landed on the ledge in front of the window and Moira sat back with a start almost spilling her tea. She glanced at Mr. Hunsen, but he stared ahead without saying anything. He must not be able to see them she reasoned. Moira glanced at her tea. She had wished for luck and now she was seeing things. Had the butler put something in the tea? The window started to crystallize with ice where the boy rested his hand.
"I will let you meet Silence," said Mr. Hunsen suddenly breaking the silence. "I'm sure you'll be convinced after you meet." He promptly blew out the candle and stood. He gripped Moira's wrist and pulled her to her feet. She quickly put her tea down so she wouldn't spill it. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness fairly quickly and then she saw the closet open on its own. She stepped back frightened, but nothing emerged, however, it was suddenly silent all around her. There was absolutely no noise, but the beating of her own heart. She couldn't hear the noise Mr. Hunsen made as he sat back down or anything else. In a panic, she turned back toward the window. Her eyes caught the gaze of the boy outside the window. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him. Help me, she mouthed to him. A cold sweat started on the back of her neck and she turned slowly back toward the closet. There was nothing there but darkness, but the longer she stared, she started to see a pair of softly glowing eyes and they were getting brighter.
"It's Silence!" yelled Jack Frost to the other Guardians. "He and that man are trying to erase us by using the girl to gain more power." He'd been able to hear the man's plan through the window.
"We can try and scare Silence off," said North pulling out his sword. "But he'll simply return. The man believes in him too strongly."
"But the girl can see us," protested Jack. "She can even see me. We can't just leave her."
"I say we give it a try," said Bunny grabbing his boomerangs. "What do we have to lose?" The Sandman and the Tooth Fairy followed his lead and swooped in.
One moment Moira stood trapped in silence and horror staring at a pair of yellow glowing eyes that seemed to get bigger by the minute. The next moment the room was in chaos. What clearly looked like a variation of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, a very large Easter Bunny and a glowing man appeared in the room and attacked the darkness. The boy from before the one that had frozen the window was also there. Whether he was a snow fairy or Jack Frost she didn't know, but she desperately wanted to run away and leave this room because nothing made sense anymore. The silence around her broke suddenly and she became able to hear again. She rushed for the door and turned the knob, but it was locked.
"You don't really have a choice," said Mr. Hunsen behind her. She turned to see him standing, but he seemed oblivious to the others in the room. "I didn't want to force you, but we need your cooperation. If you choose not to help us, I'll use my powers to cause an avalanche that will take out the whole town. So now what will you choose? All those people's lives depend on you."
"Don't listen to him," said Jack from behind her. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "If he succeeds and becomes Chaos, the entire world will be destroyed. That force was never meant to be controlled. We, the Guardians of all the children in this world, will stand against him, but if he harnesses a force like that, we won't be able to stop him."
Suddenly the house creaked very loudly and Moira made her decision. She whirled around and faced Mr. Hunsen. Maybe tomorrow she would wake up and all of this would just be a crazy dream, but she couldn't let him win. If all it took was belief to fuel his powers like he had said, then she would destroy that belief of his. She smiled widely and laughed suddenly and all the Guardians in the room stopped to look at her in confusion. "This has been a very entertaining story. Do you like to scare people for fun? I almost fell for it."
"I'm very serious," said Mr. Hunsen turning to face her.
"Then I'm very sorry Mr. Hunsen, but I'm going to have to refuse the adoption because I'm not lucky at all," said Moira seriously. "I'm not the person you're looking for because everything that you heard or saw is a lie. My Dad was American and my Mom was Danish which is why I speak both languages really well. It's not because I have the luck to be talented or smart. My Dad was in the military so we traveled a lot, but he was killed in action and Mom and me came to Denmark to see my Grandmother who was in an assisted living facility. Mom died in a car accident here and all I had left was my Grandmother, but she couldn't raise me so I ended up in the orphanage. She died last year. I have an inheritance waiting for me when I turn eighteen because of the life insurance money, but until then I was supposed to remain at the orphanage until I aged out. How is that lucky? I lost both my parents and my Grandmother and became stranded in an orphanage in a country that I was unfamiliar with. Sure I knew the language, but that was it. If I had luck, I'd still be with my parents. Oh, and those raffles I win are all set up by the people I work for. Besides babysitting, I often clean or wash dishes for some of the local businesses to earn money. The parents of the kids I watch sometimes give me things because they feel sorry for me, the poor orphan girl. Those raffles that I win are the result of the owners of businesses that I work at setting the item aside so I can get it. There's absolutely no luck involved there at all. Those raffles are all rigged anyway. Why do you think that the employer's families often win them? As for helping people on the street, I simply pay a lot of attention to my surroundings and I don't have a phone to distract me. Don't you know how many kids go missing every year. The world is a dangerous place so naturally I pay attention. It's also just me being selfish instead of helpful because I didn't want to have to help pick up their dropped packages or listen to crying kids so I was watching out for them and myself. Oh, and everyone has found lost money at some point in time. It's not like I've ever found anything over a dollar. People are careless and routinely drop their change. That's normal, but most the town doesn't run around with cash nowadays anyway so it doesn't happen often. I watch where I walk so if I happen to see a coin as I go by, I pick it up. There isn't any luck involved. I'm not lucky and I'm sorry, but you don't have any powers either." Mr. Hensen frowned.
Despite what she said, in actuality Moira strongly believed that she really did have a talent for luck and right now she needed to funnel all her luck into preventing an avalanche from hitting the town if there was a possibility that Mr. Hunsen really could bring that down on them. It didn't matter if there was no luck left for her for the rest of her life, but she was going to face Mr. Hunsen head on and destroy his evil intentions. He was nothing but a bully trying to get his way by threatening others when he found out he couldn't buy her.
"You say you're Chaos, but dissolving sugar in your tea isn't proof. I've seen sugar do the same thing at the orphanage. That only means it's really old when it dissolves like that. We have to make our sugar last a long time and we're constantly eating stew and soup because we don't have enough for baking. It would have been way more impressive if you made the chair fall apart, but it would be too easy if its your furniture. Look at it!" she pointed. "It's all antiques that are older than you. I'm sure the glue holding the pieces together is weak. You said that you discovered this talent for making things fall apart recently. I'm asking you seriously. Have you changed your medication recently because you need to go back to the doctor. Mr. Hunsen, I'm sorry, but you're seeing and hearing things that aren't there. When you turned off the lights, I didn't see anything. It was just dark. There's nothing here."
"Silence is there," said Mr. Hunsen.
"No, he's not," said Moira confidently walking over and flipping on the lights. Even though she'd seen the closet open before, when the lights came on it was closed. She could tell by Mr. Hunsen's face that he was starting to lose confidence in his belief. "You're getting older and you want to live longer. Believe me I now how that feels because I've already lost too many people, but becoming a spirit or a God is only fantasy. It's a delusion kind of like the ones my Grandmother had before she passed away. You're exhibiting the same signs. I'm really sorry that I couldn't become your daughter," she said sympathetically. "You really seem like a good man and I don't think it's in your nature to threaten people, but you do need to seek help for your condition. Please unlock the door. I would like to go back to the orphanage once the butler gets back."
Christen had started to second guess himself. Moira's story was really pitiful. She could still make a life, but she had lost a lot at a young age. All the little things that had made her seem lucky had been destroyed one after the other in her story and he couldn't really consider her lucky anymore and that meant he couldn't use her. To make it worse, he had never told his butler about Silence so he had no one to back up his claim and now Moira was saying that she'd seen nothing in the dark. Was it really just his imagination? He'd been so confident, but had he been dreaming all this time? He'd lived a solitary lifestyle when he wasn't conducting business, but he hadn't expected to develop some type of neurosis from it. He felt weak for the first time in a while and started to panic. He was well aware that he had threatened this girl and he was sure the rumors would spread around town about his behavior once she returned to the orphanage. Perhaps if he donated enough to the orphanage, she would keep her silence.
A rumbling could be heard from outside, but the window faced the opposite direction so Moira couldn't see what was going on.