Another week had passed by and I was still uncertain as to whether Doug and Delilah would adopt me. The past week has been hard for me. It's been marred with some of my negative thoughts. No matter how much I tried to clear my head from them, they always came back. Whether it would be about the murders of my parents, the fact that I might go into foster care, or who would be the next victim of the Camden Town Killer's shooting spree. They never left, and they probably won't be leaving for a while.

Speaking of foster care, I only had two weeks before decision day. Being a foster care kid won't be exciting, if I do end up being one. I feel bad for all those kids who fall under that category. Sure, there are some exemptions. Some caretakers actually do care about who they're caring for, but that is the minority of the group. I really hope Doug and Delilah adopt me. They already have 99 kids to take care of. Why not add another? I'm no Dalmatian, but I'm still easy to handle. At least, I would like to think that. I just need to keep hope. Hopeful enough so that I won't fear the worst case scenario.

Another day flew by in the Dalmatian household with no new updates. Everything was pretty ordinary, just like every other day for the past two weeks. We ate, we played with the pups, we relaxed, we ate again, and now it's time to go to sleep. Everyone fell asleep, the only ones still awake being myself, Dylan, and Dolly.

"Hey Colton, can you come over here for a sec?"

I heard Dolly ask for me in a concerned tone, which is surprising to me because she has never been like that. At least, from what I've seen. Dylan would be the one that sounds concerned. When I walked back to where Dolly was, I could see her and Dylan waiting to say something to me.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Colton, you're not worried in the slightest that you might be put up for adoption?" Dylan asked.

"Dylan, you have no idea. Of course I'm scared. Who would be excited about having a new family who you don't know at all and may or may not be abusive? Not to mention, depending on where said family lives… I might have to move away from you guys." I replied with a tone of sadness.

"Well, we're trying to convince our mom and dad to adopt you so that it doesn't come down to that. It would be nice to call you our official brother."

"But why don't they want to adopt me in the first place? They already know who I am, and they've known me for almost my entire lifetime. Why are they even thinking about the decision?"

"That's something that is a mystery to us too Colton. You're going to have to ask our parents to get your question answered. Plus, we're not saying that they're not going to take you in. We're saying that it's a 50/50 chance."

Dylan and Dolly have a point. If I'm going to get an answer as to why Doug and Delilah don't want to adopt me, I'm going to have to ask them. Not now though. I can guarantee that they're dead asleep since they have another busy day at their jobs tomorrow.

"Okay, well, I'll have to do that later. It's getting late and we should be sleeping by now. Everyone else is." I reminded the Dalmatian siblings of the time.

"You're right Colton. Let's go to our treehouse." Dylan responded.

"Goodnight Dolly. I hope you have some good dreams about skateboarding."

"Heh, thanks. Goodnight Colton. Goodnight loser."

Dylan let out a small growl as he heard the teasing remark from his sister. I couldn't help but let out a chuckle to his reaction.

We climbed up the stairs to our treehouse quickly since we were tired and wanted to go to sleep. Dylan and I closed the door and the windows so that no winds or noises could disturb our sleep, which is what we've been doing as a nightly routine now. We climbed into bed, myself first and then Dylan. We tucked ourselves in with our blankets and slowly drifted away to sleep…

Or at least, I tried to. It was about 1 or 2 in the morning and I still wasn't asleep. I wasn't sad or overthinking or anything like that. I just wasn't in the mood to fall asleep yet. I couldn't do much since it was very late in the night and I had someone sleeping by my side. All I could do is stare up at the ceiling and listen to Dylan's gentle breathing as he was dreaming. I hope I can get some sleep soon. If not, I'll feel like a disaster in the morning.

One hour later, no luck. I was getting restless at this point. I needed to do something. Anything. As long as I didn't have to stay in bed and just stare. I decided that if I could get something to eat in the kitchen, I would be able to feel more relaxed and finally be able to go to sleep. The main challenge would be getting there. I have to exit the treehouse, without waking my buddy up, then open the door quietly, enter the house being as sneaky as possible, grab my food, and take it back outside where I'll just eat it in the backyard. It's a challenge, no doubt, but I need to take action about my lack of sleep.

I took off the blankets off of myself and slithered myself out of bed while also keeping an eye on Dylan to make sure that he didn't wake up. Next, I had to tip-toe my way out of the treehouse so that I wouldn't make too much noise with my footsteps. The floors were a bit creaky, but they didn't make enough noise to wake Dylan up. Once that stage of my plan was done, I quickly went down the stairs, across the backyard, and to the back door of the house. Now, here comes the hard part. Trying not to wake up 100 other Dalmatians.

I opened the door quietly, and snuck into the house. I felt as if I was a burglar sneaking into someone's house. Only this time, I was sneaking into the home of my close friends and for a good reason. I walked quietly through the hallway and into the kitchen. Even though the Dalmatians eat kibble most of the time (I don't know how they don't get tired of it), they do have some food that both humans and dogs can eat. I found some turkey, some bread, and lettuce. Not the biggest sandwich, but anything can do. I ate my sandwich in a matter of minutes and headed off to the treehouse again. I remained quiet so that I wouldn't wake anyone up. I thought I would make it outside without disturbing anyone, but then I heard a soft voice.

"Colton? Why are you still up at this hour?"

"Delilah! Oh, I'm sorry if I woke you up. I wasn't feeling sleepy at all, so I went into the kitchen to grab a snack."

"It's okay Colton. You didn't wake me up. I was just on my way to grab a cup of water myself. Are you feeling okay?"

"Well, to be honest, not really. I'm not sad, angry, scared, or even hungry. I just have this strange feeling inside of me that's preventing me from getting rest."

"Sweetie, I have the rest of the night to talk with you. Care to share what your feelings are at the moment? I can maybe help you find a solution to your conflict."

"Sure."

Delilah and I sat down on the living room couch, a bit messy from all of the pups sitting on it. We made sure to stay silent so that no one would wake up from our conversation.

"Okay muffin, go ahead. And don't be shy, you can tell me anything."

This was my chance. I could ask her why her and Doug didn't want to adopt me as their own.

"Here's the thing. And this has been bugging me for some time now, but I brought my attention back to it after I had a conversation with Dylan and Dolly before we went to bed. But why don't you and Doug not want to adopt me?"

Delilah was surprised to hear me ask this, but she already had an answer to tell. She had to say it eventually. I just know it.

"It's not that we don't want to, Colton. It's just that... we're afraid that you're not going to be comfortable living with 99 Dalmatians. Excluding Doug and myself. Sure you've visited many times, but there's a difference between visiting and living here your whole life. Or at least, until you find your own place."

She had a point. As much as I love the Dalmatians and seeing them everyday, I often got a daily dose of chaos just from visiting them. Would the chaos be too much for me if I decided to live with them? That's a question I kept asking myself. Delilah noticed the slight disappointed look on my face and tried to cheer me up by adding to her previous claims.

"Sweetie, listen. We still love you either way. Dylan, Dolly, Doug, myself, and every other Dalmatian that lives in this house considers you as someone special to them. No matter what happens, you'll still be in our hearts. You'll be an honorary member of the Dalmatian family."

"Thanks Delilah. I sure hope that you all keep me in your hearts."

"I don't hope. I know."

I gave Delilah a side hug, and she was quick to respond by hugging me back. I could definitely feel the mother's love coming from her hug. I'm sure that Dylan and Dolly have had many hugs from her before.

"Well Colton, are you feeling awake still? Or would you rather go to sleep?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I'm still feeling restless a bit. I might need a few minutes or even an hour to fall asleep."

"Say no more."

Delilah got up from the couch and went to go look for something. When she came back, I could see a book in her hands. I appreciated the friendly gesture of her reading a lullaby to me, but I think I'm a bit too old for bedtime stories now.

"Uh, Delilah? I think I've grown out of the bedtime story age. Thank you though."

She let out a little laugh before talking.

"Silly Colton. This isn't a book. It's a photo album. It's full of old photos that we've taken over the years, and some that have been handed down to us from our older relatives. I wanted to show you these at a different time, but considering that this is the only private time we'll get, I'll show you now."

She opened up the photo album to the first page, where I could see a pair of Dalmatians. The picture looked quite old, so I was interested in asking her who they were.

"Who are they?" I asked, pointing at the picture of the two.

"These are my great-great grandparents, Pongo and Perdita. Such a lovely pair those two were, from what I heard. Not only were they lovely, but they were brave. They stopped this evil witch of a woman named Cruella De Vil from getting the fur of Dalmatians. She wanted to take all of their fur so that she could make a fur coat out of it. Luckily, they were heroic enough to stop her from doing that."

A human lady wanting to skin the fur off of dogs for her own pleasure? That's no human, that's a witch! I could see where she got 'De Vil' from.

"I guess that Dylan and Dolly took after their grandparents, because from what I've seen, they are brave."

"Yes, I agree with you Colton. I wish they could still be here and tell that to them. But, as long as my children can carry on that brave spirit, then their grandparents are already here with them, but in their souls."

She had a good point. If Dylan and Dolly are already brave, then they technically have the same mindset and the same spirit as their grandparents from years ago.

She continued showing me pictures of her older relatives, of her pups from when they were younger, and pictures from when her and Doug got married. Then, she stopped at one page and let out a small chuckle.

"Colton, do you happen to know who this is?"

She pointed at a human that was sitting right next to Dylan. They both looked like they were toddlers or young children that just started school. Then, I quickly caught on and discovered who it was.

"Is that me?"

"Yes! That was you as a child. And Dylan as a small but quickly growing puppy. This was one of the first playdates you both had. From there, you two became good friends and became inseparable. Well, you both still are inseparable to this day." She smiled.

"Yeah, we're closer than we've never been before. And I… yawn… like it that way." I yawned in the middle of my sentence.

"Sounds like it's time to go to sleep for you."

"Yeah, I guess. But I don't want to risk waking Dylan up. I've already done that and I felt guilty about it. I still do."

"Don't worry Colton. You don't have to go back up to the treehouse."

I saw Delilah come back into the room with a few blankets for me to use and a pillow. She placed them on the couch so that she could make a bed for me.

"There. You'll be sleeping on the couch for the night. Oh, but be careful, your alarm will be the puppies waking up and running to the kitchen for breakfast." Her and I let out a laugh at her joke.

"I'll make sure to take note of that. Thank you Delilah. For allowing me to talk to you and sharing those photos with me. I really liked it."

"You're welcome Colton. We'll have plenty more discussions, don't worry. Sweet dreams."

She tucked me in and left me to sleep in the living room. It didn't take long for me to doze off for the night, as it took only a little bit of time for me to close my eyes and drift away to sleep...

A few hours later…

"Breakfast? Breakfast? Breakfast?... BREAKFAST!"

I woke up to the sound of a wave of puppies passing by the living room. I guess Delilah was right. A tsunami of pups is what it took to wake me up.

"Hey Colton!" Dolly startled me.

"Why did you sleep on the couch? Does Dylan know?"

I was hesitant to answer her questions. I had just woken up and this was my wake-up call. Perfect.

"Uh… uh…"

"He was tired and needed some assistance sleeping, Dolly."

Delilah came over and answered her questions for me. Thank goodness for her. I would have never escaped out of the situation myself.

"Now, come along you two. Eat first, talk later. Dolly, there's some kibble for you to eat. Colton, I believe we have some cereal for you to eat. Take as many bowls as you need to fill up."

We walked to the dining room where we saw all of the Dalmatians feasting on kibble, including Dylan. I assume that Delilah told him about what happened with me before he could even ask. He just welcomed me with a smile and a wave. I prepared a bowl of cereal for myself and I took my place at the dining table, sitting right next to Dylan. I felt a bit awkward knowing that I was the only one not eating kibble, but I'm glad that the other Dalmatians understood. They knew I couldn't eat dog food.

"So kiddos, today marks the start of the weekend. What are you all going to do?" Doug asked happily.

The pups all responded at the same time, making it impossible for me to hear all of their responses. Doug, somehow, was able to hear all of them though.

"That's great pups. What about you Colton? Anything fun planned for today?"

To be honest, I don't know what I am going to do for today. I don't have anything planned. Maybe walk around or try to find something? I don't know...

"Not really Doug. I don't have anything planned for today. Maybe I'll talk to one of the pups and see if I can find something interesting to do."

"Believe me, you'll find something. There's always an adventure here at our home. Big or small, you're bound to find something."

"Heh, thanks Doug."

When we finished breakfast, we cleaned up just a teeny tiny bit before we ran off to find something fun to do. Of course, being the neat freak that he is, Dylan cleaned the house. That was his way of having fun. As for everyone else, they found other fun things to do. Diesel was digging up holes in the backyard, Delgado was trying to beat his record time of riding around the house with his wheelchair, D.J. was playing some fresh beats, and everyone else was out and about doing something. Everyone except two familiar Dalmatians. Where could they be?

"Psst, Colton."

I heard a slight whisper coming from somewhere, but I couldn't determine where it came from. So, I just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"Psssttt, Colton!"

The whisper got louder. I tried to find where it was coming from. After a minute of searching, I found that the source of the whisper was coming from the open basement door. It also looked like Da Vinci was the one who was whispering for me.

"Da Vinci?"

"Colton, come with me please. There's something I would like to show you."

"Sure, but is this a secret?"

"Yes, it is a secret. Not because I want it to be a secret, but because someone else requested for it to be a secret."

Now I was beyond confused. If Da Vinci didn't want to hide this away from the others, then who did? I walked into the basement, seeing all of Da Vinci's works of art. She lived up to the name that her parents gave her. She was good! Then, she directed me to the center of the basement, where a square shaped item was being covered up by a large piece of cloth. Looks like she had a surprise for me.

"So… Colton… I've been feeling really bad for you and the position you're in right now. That gave me inspiration to paint something that I wanted to paint for you. But, I didn't go with it originally because I was afraid that you wouldn't be too happy with it. That was until someone came up to me and asked if they could help contribute as a way of saying sorry. So, as a collaboration project, we came up with something for you to make you feel better. Without further ado, here is your painting!"

Da Vinci took the cloth off so that I could see the painting. What I saw in front of me made me smile wide and made my eyes glow. The painting showed me standing on the moon with a flag in my hand, looking proud with the fact that I made contact with said moon. It looked beautiful.

"Wow! Thank you so much Da Vinci! I really love it!" I complimented. But then I remembered, she claimed that it was a collaboration.

"Wait, who helped you? Who gave you assistance?"

"It was me." A voice came from out of nowhere, then the voice revealed themselves to be someone that I would've never expected.

"Dante?! You helped Da Vinci with the painting?"

"Well, I gave her the idea of having you in space and on the moon. But let me explain everything. I helped her because it's my way of saying sorry. I made my prediction of disaster striking in Camden Town the same week that your parents died. I felt bad because I didn't want you to think that I meant for this to happen. I really didn't. It was just pure coincidence. I want to keep this a secret because I don't want my siblings to think that I'm some apologetic Dalmatian who lost his dark image. So... I'm sorry Colton."

I could not comprehend what I was hearing. Dante was apologizing to me, for something that I didn't even think about. It didn't cross my mind until he explained it. Now it makes sense. He didn't have to apologize, but I'm glad he did. It goes to show that even he has a heart.

"Dante, you don't have to apologize. I agree with you. Your prediction and my parents' death were pure coincidence. I'm not mad at you, and I never have been. I appreciate the fact that you took time out of your day to help Da Vinci. You both are amazing. And don't worry, the secret is safe with me."

"Thanks Colton."

"No problem Dante."

We embraced each other in a group hug. I was grateful to have a painting made for me, but I was even more grateful to know that my best friend's siblings felt like my own siblings. It felt amazing.

I left the basement with the painting in my hands. Unfortunately, there's no room for me to place it in Dylan's treehouse. So, I did the next best thing and placed it into a closet where a bunch of my other stuff was placed. I didn't consider it a junk closet. More like a storage unit for my belongings that couldn't be placed in the treehouse.

Once I placed it in there, I walked back downstairs only to see every Dalmatian sitting in front of the television. All 101 Dalmatians, watching whatever was on the TV. Funny, I didn't remember seeing them in front of the TV a few minutes ago.

"Colton, look!" Dylan exclaimed.

It looked like a news report. I saw the main headline…

"Camden Town Killer Found, Taken Into Custody"

No way…

"They found him! They found the Camden Town Killer!"

We all celebrated, knowing that we wouldn't have to fear for our lives anymore. The Camden Town Killer was off the streets, and most likely, won't be coming back on them again. For me, I was happy not only because of that, but we received justice. For my parents, for Tatum, and everyone else who died at his hands/paws

More details were coming in about the killer. Then, the moment we were all waiting for had finally arrived. Who was the ruthless murderer that killed helpless beings in cold blood, including my parents?

"Authorities have now released the identity of the Camden Town Killer. A young, gray-furred wolf named Miles Barkman."

"MILES?!"

Uh oh…

Thanks for reading the new chapter everyone! I want to say a few things. First, I'm not dead (thankfully). I've just been busy with keeping my life together. I will be even busier now though because 1. I will be starting in-person school again in a few weeks, and 2. I will be working at my first job ever. I want to make sure that I stay on top of both of those, so again, don't be surprised if I don't update in months. And when I do update, chapters might be shorter. I apologize for that. Second, I want to thank all of the readers who are still following or favoriting this story even after this long period of time. You guys are the best and sorry if I've let you down with the wait time. I'm trying my best. And third, a huge "Hello!" to all my new readers! I see that I've gained a few in the months that I was gone. Welcome! Nice to see you!

With all of that being said, once again, thank you all for reading the new chapter. I'll be back with another chapter, for sure. Have a good day everyone! As you already know: peace, love, and stay amazing.