December

Richard

Richard turns off the library computer and rubs his eyes with his hands. It's almost time for bed and he's tired, but he'd rather stay awake and keep searching. He's onto something this time; he can feel it. If he could just keep up the momentum, he would find something.

Unfortunately, the night staff are firm on lights out. Bed on time or cleaning toilets for a week, those are the new rules after Tommy, one of the older boys had tried to sneak out last month. Nothing gets compliance like disgusting chores.

When the electronic hum of the computer fades to silence, he gets up. Raven is still sitting at the table she always sits at. She has a book open, but she's not reading it. She hasn't really been reading anything the last few weeks. She opens plenty of books, but her eyes don't move and sometimes she forgets pretend to turn the pages for twenty to thirty minutes at a time. He looks at her from the corner of his eye when he passes. She has dark circles under her eyes. He knows she has nightmares, because everyone knows. There were a few times when she woke the entire house screaming. He feels a little sorry for her because he has nightmares sometimes too. He had a lot of nightmares his first year. Everyone did. Most of them still do.

She should be getting up to go to bed too, but she doesn't and he doesn't remind her. They have an unspoken rule not to talk to each other and he's not sure what will happen if he breaks it. Sometimes he wants to, because he has a lot of questions. He still doesn't know what happened at New Year's last year and he's sure she had something to do with the sheet bursting into pieces on Halloween. Garfield had told him about a similar incident that happened in the basement when the other kids had tried to scare her, after Richard gave him his clothes back. Still, despite his curiosity he didn't want to break their unspoken rule and ask. Even if he did she probably wouldn't tell him the truth anyway. Even if she could explain it, what would the point be? It wouldn't really change anything. It's better to just keep things the way they are.

When he gets back to his room he changes into his pajamas and goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Garfield is at one of the sinks flossing. He gives Richard a half-smile.

"Knock, knock," Garfield says, or tries to say, anyway with his mouth half-full of floss. Richard only knows what he said because it's Garfield and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is usually a horrible joke. It might have been a mistake to get so familiar with the green kid.

"No one's home," Richard puts toothpaste on his toothbrush and ignores the big hopeful eyes Garfield is giving him. It's annoying enough to hear those stupid jokes when he's not tired.

"Banana," Garfield says anyway. "Banana, who? Banana-nana-Batman." Richard spits into the sink.

"That doesn't even make sense," he says before putting his toothbrush back into his mouth to finish brushing.

"I'm still working on it," Garfield shrugs. He keeps flossing and Richard keeps brushing. Richard spits in the sink one last time and when he looks up Garfield is gone and a pile of clothes is on the floor.

"Not again," he groans. "Garfield..." A green hamster wiggles out of shirt on the floor. It chirps at Richard. "Change back!" It chirps and suddenly instead of a green hamster Garfield is a green bunny. "Forget this, I'm going to bed. Don't get caught." Richard turns around and starts to go to the door, but he stops when he hears a roar behind him. He turns and finds himself face to face with a tiger.

"Anyone still in here? It's lights out!" A womans voice calls from the hall. He recognizes it as Ms. Reeves. She's one of the strictest staff members in the house. He usually avoids her if he can. He looks over his shoulder and even in tiger form Richard can see Garfield panicking. The door handle starts to turn, but Richard presses all his weight against the door.

"Who's in there?" Ms. Reeves shouts from the other side of the door. "Open this door!"

"Hide!" Richard says in the loudest whisper he can. Garfield goes into one of the toilet stalls and Richard watches his paws disappear. When he's gone Richard moves from the door and kicks Garfield's pajamas under the sink. Ms. Reeves opens the door and steps into the bathroom, her face is red and she looks angry.

"Just what do you think you're doing!" She's definitely angry.

"It was just a joke," It's the only excuse he can think of.

"I hope you think shoveling the walkways tomorrow is just as funny." She grabs the back of his shirt and hauls him off to the boy's room. "Tomorrow morning you're to get an early start after breakfast shoveling the walkways in the front and back."

"Yes ma'am." Richard says because it's pointless to argue. If he pisses her off more, she might make him do more chores.

She lets go of his shirt when they get to the door. He goes in and gets into his bunk. It's the closest one to the door. He climbs up the ladder and gets in bed.

"We're still missing one," she says. "Someone is going to be cleaning toilets tomorrow." The other boys laugh and as if on que Garfield appears behind her.

"Sorry, I had too much broccoli at dinner. It didn't agree with me," He says, causing the other boys to burst into even more laughter. Ms. Reeves is not impressed.

"You know the rules. Those bowls better be spotless tomorrow," she tells him.

"But," Garfield doesn't get another word out. She points to his bunk, the top bunk across from the door and he sighs, but complies. When all the boys are in their beds, she turns out the lights.

In the morning Richard eats breakfast as slow as he can, not at all eager to go outside. Eventually all the toast is gone, his juice and banana to and he loses all his excuses to sit at the table. When he gets outside, he's surprised. Garfield has started shoveling and made a pretty good dent in the front walkway.

"I got you a shovel," he says, pointing to a big one propped up against the wall next to the door. "She'll notice if you don't at least pretend to shovel with me." Richard takes the shovel and joins him.

"I'll start over there." He points to the front gate.

"Cool! We can meet in the middle!" Garfield yells. Richard ignores him, because even though he's glad Garfield is helping, this is still all his fault. He should have never been nice to that kid after getting him to help with the necklace. He should have never even gotten him to help in the first place. Garfield was always goofing around and getting into trouble. If he had known that he had no control over his powers, he would have never made him help.

Richard starts shoveling in front of the gate, pitching the snow to the left and then the right, not particularly caring where it lands, as long as it's out of the walkway. He only gets a few feet away from the main gate when a green dog runs up to him. He has clothes in his mouth, but he drops them when he gets to Richard.

"Seriously?" Richard groans. Garfield whimpers and starts turning around, back and forth looking from Richard towards the house. "What?" Suddenly Garfield is human again. Richard smacks his hand to his forehead

"I smell blood, I think someone is hurt." Garfield says quickly before turning back into a dog. Richard rolls his eyes and starts to go back to shoveling, but Garfield barks at him.

"Fine." He picks up the other boy's clothes and watches Garfield track in the snow. He's going to make Garfield finish shoveling after this. They walk along the fence until they get to the side of the building. Behind the tree, against the building Richard can see a small figure of a person. As they get closer the violet hair is unmistakable. Garfield runs and Richard follows. Raven is curled in a ball against the building in only her nightgown. Her bare arms are covered in long scratch marks. Dry, frozen blood runs down them and sticks to her hands and cheeks. Her skin is almost blue and her eyes, while open are lifeless.

"Are you okay?" Richard asks even though it's obvious she's not. He bends down in front of her, but she doesn't move. She might even be dead. He puts a hand on her bare shoulder. She's so cold, he's sure she has to be dead, but her eyes move, like they're just now seeing him. Garfield whimpers next to him. Her eyes, previously lifeless, fill with unmistakable fear and begin to water.

"Go get help," Richard orders him. He starts taking off his jacket and wraps it around the girls' shoulders as Garfield runs off. He pulls her away from the wall to get it behind her. "What are you doing out here?" he asks, not that he expects her to answer. "Are you stupid? It's cold! There's snow on the ground." He looks at her bare feet, her toes are practically purple. He'd seen a movie once where a man had to have his arm cut off from being exposed to the cold. Would she have to get her feet cut off? It looks like someone or something attacked her, but even if that had been the case, she should have gone inside. Only an idiot would stay out here.

He needs to get her inside. Garfield is taking too long. He pulls her away from the wall again and turns around, squatting on the ground. He pulls her arms over his shoulders and grabs her legs, holding under the knee and putting her on his back like a piggyback ride. It's hard to walk like that in the snow and she's so cold. It's like carrying a giant ice brick, but he walks towards the back because it'll draw less attention. There are kids playing in the front yard, but no one is supposed to play in the back.

Garfield must have had the same idea because a green dog runs up to him from the back door and Mrs. Huntington opens it. Ugh... Did he have to pick her? She's far from his first choice.

"My word..." she covers her mouth at the sight of them. "Get in here, quick." Richard moves as fast as he can with the girl on his back and Mrs. Huntington holds the door open for him. She leads him to her office and closes the door behind him. "Put her down in the chair." Richard does what she says and as soon as Raven is in the chair Mrs. Huntington pushes him away and is in the girls' face.

"Go get James and get out." Mrs. Huntington says. "Finish shoveling the driveway."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Richard asks.

"That's isn't your concern." Mrs. Huntington snaps. "Get James and go finish your chores. I don't think I need to tell you to keep this to yourselves." Richard can take a hint. He looks at the frozen girl one last time. She doesn't move. Maybe she died on the way inside.

He does what Mrs. Huntington asks and gets the groundskeeper, which is weird. Why does she need the groundskeeper? Shouldn't she just call nine-one-one? He gets another jacket and shovels the driveway, sure that an ambulance will pull up, but it doesn't. Garfield comes back in clothes. Richard expects him to start blabbering about what happened, but he doesn't. He stays quiet.

The rest of the day is normal. Richard does what he always does. He reads the newspaper when the staff are done with it. He eats lunch with the other boys in his room, though he notices the empty table. After lunch he goes to the library since he knows it will be empty, or he'd thought it would be. Garfield is there.

"Do you want to talk about what happened this morning?" he asks.

"What's there to talk about?" Richard shrugs. Garfield probably won't know anything he doesn't.

"...She was so scared. I could smell it." Garfield says. "And what happened to her? Why was she all scratched up...? I didn't smell any other animals around or people..." That's interesting. Richard had assumed that she'd maybe been attacked by an animal or perhaps even a man, though the latter seemed unlikely. James is the only male staff member regularly on the property and he avoids the kids like the plague.

"..." Richard ignores him and goes to the computer. The electronic whirr of it booting up is a familiar and comforting feeling.

"I heard all the girls in that room have been having nightmares." Garfield says. That wasn't news. There had been gossip about that for months. Martha and Jessica swore to some of the boys in his room that every night one of the girls had a dream about the devil. He was always killing all the kids in the orphanage or destroying Gotham. Richard always assumed it was for attention. "Aren't you even a little curious or worried?"

"No," Richard says.

"I thought you were friends?" Garfield asks. Richard turns around and shakes his head.

"Why would you think that?" he asks.

"You mean you both just sit in here and don't talk or anything?" Garfield gives him a look like he's weird and Richard turns back to the computer because he knows it's weird, but it had worked for them very well for the past year and he expected it to continue to work.

"I come here because it's quiet," Richard says. Maybe Garfield will take the hint and leave.

"...Well, I want to be friends." Garfield says. Richard opens up an internet browser and starts working on his research. "You can ignore me, but I'm not going anywhere." Richard does ignore him and Garfield lasts less than a minute before he starts talking again. "She's nice."

"..." Richard doesn't reply.

"Last year she gave me her candy cane... and you're nice too. You both helped me when... that situation happened in the summer." He doesn't have to turn around to know that Garfield just shuddered. "Why don't we all just be friends?"

"I don't need friends," Richard says, hoping it will offend the green boy enough to make him leave.

"Everyone needs friends," Garfield argues. "She needed a friend or she wouldn't have been outside like that. You needed my help to get your thing back. If we were friends, you could have just asked me for help instead of being a jerk."

"..."

"When she gets better, I'm gonna be her friend." Garfield says. "You can be my friend too. If you want."