kindness as the deepest thing inside

by Mystical Magician

(sorrow as the other deepest thing) A beast of magic was accidentally bound to newborn Spencer's soul. His life may have been marred by tragedy, but She was his caretaker, his one constant companion. She taught him to protect himself, and he taught himself to hide. From power-hungry foes, creatures of evil, and the best profilers in the country. It works, until it doesn't.

2. Orphanage I

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things
[…] Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore
-"Kindness", Naomi Shihab Nye

The police sent the baby John Doe to the hospital immediately, mentally clinging to the miracle of his survival as they processed the scene. The twelve other babies and the kidnapper were sent to the morgue.

This was a case that yielded far more questions than answers. Thirteen babies had been kidnapped from all over the country, and all but one had died of what the coroner had finally ruled to be neglect. Thirteen sets of parents had been murdered, by blade, poison, and even what looked to be wild animal attacks. No one had even begun to connect the kidnappings. There seemed to be no motive, no common element connecting any of them. The murderer was dead himself, killed by some third party, or possibly a partner, and so they could not get any answers that way. The case was eventually and unsatisfactorily closed.

Information regarding the single survivor was not much more enlightening.

The identities of the other children could be confirmed using finger- or footprints and comparing them to hospital birth records. Baby John Doe was eventually assumed to belong to a couple that had opted instead for a home birth with a midwife. The most likely candidates for his parentage had been killed along with the midwife almost immediately after the birth, and if any paperwork or birth certificates had been filled out, none could be found. No family members stepped forward to claim the baby boy, and further investigation proved that any relatives willing to raise him were not fit for it, either institutionalized or living in retirement homes.

And none knew what the parents had been planning to name their child.

In the end, the baby's main nurse decided to call him Spencer. It was as good a name as any, and the officials hardly cared what he was called as long as there was a name to put on the paperwork.

Once he was fully recovered from the ordeal, Spencer was placed in the closest orphanage with the room for him. It was located in a small, insular, relatively isolated town in northern New Hampshire. The people were superstitious, deeply suspicious of outsiders, and extremely devout Christians. Some might even call them fanatical.

Unfortunately, just a few days after Spencer's arrival, the circumstances surrounding his placement were leaked and the gossip quickly circulated the community. Thirteenth baby and lone survivor of what was most definitely some sort of satanic ritual. It was not hard to draw their own conclusions as to why this one lived when none of the others had.