Wilfred was dreaming again. He'd always been the most vivid dreamer out of all his siblings; the only one who could consistently recall the phantoms in the night. Garten claimed he didn't have dreams (He woke screaming some nights) Whittel couldn't remember them, and Lucy only dozed. But Wilfred…... Wilfred's dreams were the worst.

That green thing was on fire again. Blazing and smoking. There were children gathered around the base, and one by one they caught fire, falling, writhing to the ground in a fit, finally burning away to bare bones. They looked like they were made of a patchwork of shadow, dust, and…. something green. Flowing through their veins. The last child turned and looked right at him. The youth stared at him a minute, oblivious to the bones. He was not big; but his shadow eyes were different from the others. He did not scream or cry out as the fire slowly engulfed him, burning away his shadows and darkness. Just before he faded into the same bones as the other children, Wilfred caught a glimpse of brown eyes he thought he recognized. But a moment later he was a pile of ashes and remains, just like the rest. The burning green faded away, and there was a hawk screech and the sound of clashing metal before Wilfred was falling…... falling…. falling….

Wilfred was extremely confused. He had woken to find Jupiter staring down at him with an extremely comical expression of his interpretation of what a creepy clown would look like. Still half-asleep and foggy with dream, he let out a shout that startled the mischievous princeling, who jumped back and smacked his head against the poorly placed bookshelf. He let out a cry that woke Whittel beside Wilfred. And suddenly everything was chaos.

"Owww. What'd I do?" Jupiter moaned from the floor.

"What's going on?" Whittel asked, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his glasses.

"Told you it was a bad idea!" Bleston shouted in between laughs.

"All of you need to be quiet!" Ian hissed.

"Huh? Hey what're you all doing here?!" Garten was awake in a moment and on his feet. Poppy, topping everything off, stuck her head in the window.

"What the-"

"Coast's clear!"

"Clear for what?"

"Hey, can someone tell me what's going on?!" Ian finally got up and shouted,

"Everyone shut up!" To Wilfred's enduring surprise, that was a shock enough to get even Bleston to close his mouth. "What Poppy?" He asked, turning to his sister. She wasn't fully in the room but standing on the decorative ledge outside and hanging her arms over the windowsill.

"Coast's clear. I think that you're Grandfather passed out in the front garden or something a few moments ago." Garten turned away. Even Poppy knew better than to ask about that.

"How come you're all here?" Garten finally asked. His tone was careful and a bit clipped. Clearly, he didn't want to snap at any of their friends, but he also obviously didn't want them there.

"To get you out, obviously." Bleston responded. Bleston was…. a little strange. At least in Wilfred's opinion. He had a lot of liberal ideas that were a little unusual, but he was alright. "C'mon, with the fire and everything? You know we would have been over sooner but-"

"You were at Harbone." All three Longtreaders chorused.

"I bet those two talked it up to you," Ian said. Ian was the poor buck stuck in the middle of Bleston and Jupiter. "But really it was extremely boring."

"Definitely." Jupiter agreed, still holding one hand to the side of his head. "If you want conferences, go there. I think I'll stick to First Warren."

"That's just because you can't sit still-" Bleston argued.

"You aren't any better-" Jupiter interrupted.

"Hah, that's what you like to think-"

"The last thing anyone wants to do is listen to you two argue." Ian sighed. "Shut up, for the love of Natalia."

"Aww, Ian, but I'm your adowrable wittle bwother." Jupiter said, making the most innocent face he could possibly pull. Ian stared at him for a moment and then said,

"Someday, you are going to regret the fact that you still tried to baby-talk your way out of things at the age of twelve."

"I bet he'll still be doing it then too." Poppy remarked.

"Wha-Hey!"

"Um, we still don't know why you're here." Wilfred reminded them. "And funny as Jupiter's baby-talking is, it's not really helpful."

"Only goes to show that he's the baby of the family." Bleston muttered. "And he's the farthest thing from 'adowrable' I've ever seen." Jupiter kicked him in the shins. "What, can't get any higher?" Bleston taunted. "C'mon shortstack-"

"It's only because I'm two years younger than you!"

"Right, and you'd best remember that."

"You're all idiots." Poppy snorted. "Why'd I let you three drag me out here in the dead of night?"

"Because you love me." Jupiter responded, smiling sweetly.

"Hey!" Wilfred shouted, annoyed that, yet again, he was left to be the only one who could stay on track.

"Right, right." Bleston said, refocusing. "We told you. We came to get you out." Garten raised an eyebrow.

"And where are we going?" Bleston shrugged.

"Who knows? Away. Somewhere where your grandfather isn't." There was silence for a moment. Bleston shifted from foot to foot, and Poppy tapped her fingers against the window frame.

"What about Lucy?" Whittel asked softly.

"Yeah," Garten added, "What about her? She can't go anywhere. She can barely walk-with the crutch and asthma and all."

"Oh," Jupiter said quietly, "We didn't think of that." He has zero impulse control. Wilfred sighed to himself.

"Shut up." Bleston hissed back. Jupiter stuck his tongue out at him.

"It doesn't matter anyways." Wilfred finally said. "We're leaving on our own."

"What?" All four Goodsons said together.

"Our parents are getting a divorce." To Wilfred's surprise, it was Whittel's voice that rang out strong when neither he nor Garten spoke up for several minutes. "Mother is taking us to Nick Hollow, where her parents live."

"When?" Again, all four of them were in sync. The three Longtreader brothers shrugged.

"Not for a few months, probably." Garten said dully. "Lucy's still sick and won't be up for such a big change when she gets out of the hospital anyways. And then there's the legal stuff and the house and school and everything…I don't know."

"But you…. you can't leave," Bleston said, clearly upset and trying to hide it. "You can't." He finished helplessly.

"You think we want to?" Wilfred asked.

"If our grandfather could just drop dead everything'd be perfect." Garten snorted.

"And we'd also be out of a paycheck," Whittel contradicted. "It's only his veteran money that's paying for anything. Father doesn't work." Garten glared sourly at the ceiling.

"Doesn't matter either way." Wilfred finally said. "Even if they weren't separating, we still couldn't leave. We can't leave Lucy."

"We'll see you at school." Garten said gruffly. "But you need to leave before our aunt finds out you're here." Poppy was the first to disappear back out the window. Ian cast them a sad, backwards glance and quickly followed.

"I'm sorry." Jupiter said softly. "It isn't fair." Garten gazed at the younger buck with a mixture of exhaustion, bitterness, anger, and grief.

"It's the way it is." He finally said. "Sorry won't help it." Then Jupiter was gone, and the only one left was Bleston. He looked like he wanted to say so many things, but he met Garten's eyes and something there caused him to hold his tongue.

"See you at school." And then he, like the rest of his siblings, was gone.