Olive was surprised to find the main room of the factory to be empty of any Red Hats at that moment. Not that the woman wasn't happy to see that, since it meant she got to have a better look about the place without being interrupted for a few moments. Her footsteps do their best to be light, so as to not draw attention to herself to soon. And that seems to work, at least until she walks to the centre of the room, then and only then does the floorboards creek.

Taking a quick step back, Olive looks down at the floorboards that seem so different from the others around the factory. For a moment the woman figures that it is just her imagination that they seem different, until she steps on them again and feels that creek. After a few moments of looking around and stepping on other floorboards, Olive began to hazard a guess that there was something more than just dirt underneath the floorboards in the centre of the room.

To make extra sure however, Olive makes a quick test. In the secret pockets that she had sown into her dresses, the twenty six year old often kept extra needles and thread in there, just in case. She takes out one of the needles, and carefully drops it down the space in between the floorboards. For a few seconds nothing happens, and Olive wonders if her intuition was wrong.

However that flies out the window when the needle suddenly jumped back out from the space in the floorboards, landing nearby. Olive stared over at the needle, feeling scared now that her intuition was not only right, but was even more correct than she really wanted it to be. She looked back down through the floorboards, her voice whispering as quietly as she could manage but still loud enough that someone could hear her from down there.

"Is someone there?"

For a second there wasn't a reply, and then she suddenly hears a voice whisper in a sort of echo, what was quite possibly the weirdest thing to say in the whole situation.

"…Jelly…"

Well, that was certainly not expected.

Olive sits up, her expression contorted into confusion as to what she had heard, but at least it was a confirmation that there was someone down there. After a moment she got back up on her feet, and started to wonder if there was a crowbar or something somewhere that she could use to open up the floorboards and help whoever it was that was stuck under there. However when she turned around to start looking, she ran nearly completely into someone's midsection.

"Miss Trubshaw, what a pleasant surprise," Mr. Snatcher looked down at her from his height, a grin spreading uneasily across his face as she steps back enough so as to not smell the strange scent that was coming off of him. If Olive wasn't on her guard before she definitely was now, her hand gently sneaking to secret pocket she had on the back of her dress. Mr. Snatcher didn't seem to notice though, since he seemed to busy talking.

"Have you been enjoying the Trubshaw baby remembrance?" Whether he was goading her again or not, Olive didn't care anymore. What she did know however, was that she now had the chance to finally let out some frustration the twenty six years old always felt every once a year. Especially since he was the one that brought it up first and not her.

"Usually I hate it when people create a festival and parlor tricks out of the worst day in my life so to answer your question, no I did not enjoy one part of it," Her voice is not restrained like it ever would be in the presence of Lord Portley-Rind and his associates, but for the first time in ten years is defiant and angry. Mr. Snatcher did not seem as though he had calculated this reaction, though quickly covered his surprise with a fake happy expression.

"Really, well that is a shame to hear Miss Trubshaw, truly it is." He tried to move around her so he was behind her, but Olive knew better than to turn her back on him, so instead circled around as he did so they were always face to face, right where she could watch his every move. Her hand stayed in the secret back pocket of her skirts, ready at any moment should she need to defend herself or make a quick getaway from his presence.

Deciding that this conversation was leading nowhere, Olive changed her tact a bit and became a mite more confrontational, squaring her shoulders as she always did when she was ready for a fight, her breath slowing a bit so her heart beat did go to wild in her chest. Mr. Snatcher seemed to notice her change in stance as well, and was now watching her more carefully, though trying not to show that he was on to her.

"What's under these floorboards?" She tried to not let on completely that she knew there was someone under there, since she was worried exactly what would happen to her if she told him. From the corner of her eye Olive could see some more of the Red Hats descending down the steps nearby, which meant that she was now definitely out numbered and should be even more on her guard than before. Mr. Snatcher meanwhile, had been obviously thinking quickly on an explanation to fall back on, and eventually found one.

"Oh, just some machinery we have to help us rid the scourge of the Box Trolls," Of course he was lying, since Olive was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to explain to her why someone was obviously being held under the floorboards, and make it sound actually logical and not at all illegal. Olive nodded carefully in reply, taking another careful and hopefully unnoticeable step back from the Box Troll exterminator and closer to the door out of there. However before she could start mentioning that she wanted to leave, Mr. Snatcher start to go off on another whole conversation that the woman was sure she didn't want to be a part of nor ever suggested that she might be.

"In fact, we are not that far away from wiping out every last one of the Box Trolls that were the cause of your family tragedy, your grievances will be avenged my dear," Olive tried to look pleased at that news, just as she always did whenever someone would tell her that Box Trolls would pay for her loss. But as always, it only made her feel hollow inside. Most of the time she liked to think that she didn't know why, but sometimes she allowed herself to accept what everyone had told her was wrong.

That the Box Trolls weren't responsible for her family's death. Olive had tried, for all her attempts to not be completely abandoned by the society of Cheesebridge, to believe what everyone else did about the Box Trolls, that they were monsters that ate children and parents, and that they needed to be destroyed. But for whatever reason, no matter how many times she heard, how many times she saw the graves of her father and baby brother she visited every Sunday, she just couldn't accept it.

She had seen how the Box Trolls behaved when they were in her home before this tragedy happened, and couldn't still for the life of her accept that they were capable of what they were accused. It confused her so badly, but at the same time she couldn't think of any other reason how this happened, at least not any that could be proven with evidence.

Not that anyone would listen to her, so instead she just swallowed her instincts back and listened as Mr. Snatcher seemed to be drawling on still, what he was saying seeming to go further and further into a completely delusional area.

"And when the filthy Box Trolls are gone, as I am sure you are well aware, I will become a part of the league of White Hats, a gentleman above all others," At first she didn't really get what he was trying to say, since in the beginning it seemed to Olive that he was just repeating himself on facts she already knew. But then, just as he was finished mentioning the fact that he might become a part of the White Hats, just as the silence after he had spoken was about to become noticeable, he did something that definitely caught her off guard.

Mr. Snatcher had grabbed her hand, thankfully not the one that was behind her back that was just touching the secret pocket filled with pins, and dropped to one knee. For a moment Olive just looked back at him, eyes wide in complete disbelief that he would be so forward about such things. Sure she certainly had known of his motives, Olive had known about them from when she was a teenager and had spent the past decade, at least when she was not grieving for the loss of her family, trying to stay away from those motives of the Box Troll exterminator at every opportunity.

The other Red Hats that had appeared from the stairs above were now throwing some kind of confetti, though Olive was half sure that it was actually rice. Meanwhile Mr. Snatcher had started going off on a tangent of his own that seemed a little too well rehearsed for her liking. The first line of which was already enough to stun her into silence as her eyes darted around for an exit route out of this almost confrontational proposition her was giving her.

"And every great gentleman needs a woman by his side, to stand by him in every decision and obey his will-" It struck Olive not to long into his speech that this was actually happening, and it wasn't just some horrid nightmare her mind was sadistically giving her. The woman was starting to wonder if she should just throw the pins in her secret pocket in his face now and start running, but for whatever reason, be it that she wanted to have the last word or if for some reason she was actually expecting Mr. Snatcher to really tell her who or what was under the floorboards, Olive stayed put and got herself that last word.

"Will you do me the honor of being my wife?" For a second Olive was being certain on just throwing the pins now and running, since it would definitely give him the answer she absolutely had to that question. But then again, she would be left with no real answers as to who was under those floorboards or why the strange boy and Winifred had run and been perused by them just a few moments ago. So instead of violently attacking Mr. Snatcher, she instead pulled her hand out of his grip and answered back as emotionlessly as possible.

"Absolutely not," Well she had tried to be emotionless, but it was hard to do that with the memories she had of him threatening her father, threatening her family. The other Red Hats that had been throwing the rice confetti stopped in their actions, now looking uneasily at their boss for what his reaction would be. However Mr. Snatcher's reaction was not one of sadness, embarrassment or even complete anger, instead he seemed more annoyed that she was fighting back against him. Olive didn't give him a chance to speak as he got back on both his legs, her hand pointing directly down to the floorboards nearby.

"I asked what was under those floorboards, and I know you lied so tell me the truth. What is down there?" She took steps back when she saw Mr. Snatcher's expression starting to darken more, one of the other Red Hats, Mr. Gristle (whom seemed to have shaken off his head injury pretty fast), chuckling under his breath. The boss of the Box Troll exterminators was almost snarling now as he answered back to her question.

"Nothing that you need to bother your mind about," Well, that seemed to be the best that she could wrangle out of him for, since at least she knew for certain that he had lied before and trusted her hearing enough to know that there was someone down there. And now it seemed that he had finally managed to reach anger, a point that Olive knew was the best to get away from. Looking quickly to the other Red Hats, the woman got the feeling that since they were a good way up the stairs, that she would at least get a few more seconds to get away than if they were on the ground level with her and Mr. Snatcher.

"Very well, continue to cover it up if you want, but I know there's someone down there, I heard them. And I will be back for them," There was a flash of worry at being found out, before Mr. Snatcher's anger returned in full force. Now that he knew that Olive knew there was someone under the floor of this factory, the woman decided now was probably the best time to make her exit. Manuvering herself so she was now her back was facing the door and Mr. Snatcher was in front of her, she got ready to run.

"Oh I very much doubt that devil woman! I've stepped over Trubshaws to get what I want in the past, I am not above doing so again!"

Olive didn't give herself a moment to wonder what he meant by that, as instead she noticed that the other Red Hats were beginning to slowly descend the stairs. So instead of questioning further, she got herself that last word.

"Not today,"

Her hand moved quick, taking a handful of pins and throwing them directly in his face. Olive didn't bother looking to make sure she had even injured him, instead letting her feet carry her as fast as possible out of the factory and down the street beyond.

The woman didn't look behind her once as she ran, her hearing already notifying her of the footsteps that were in fast pursuit of her every move. Thankfully the woman had managed that day, as she always did whenever she knew that Lord Portley-Rind and his ever watching wife weren't noticing, to where trousers underneath her skirts. That, combined with the fact that she wasn't wearing a corset that day either, managed to grant her more athleticism than she would have with that damned air cutting piece of 'fashion'.

Olive knew she was in control of where the chase would go, and so to make it even slightly harder for them to catch her, and to make sure that none of the Lord and Ladies that judged her safe future as a part of their level in life, saw this exercise, Olive directed the chase into the back streets and alleys of Cheesebridge.

Of course the Red Hats knew the streets of Cheesebridge than anyone, they had been given a decade to know them like the back of their hands while hunting down those Box Trolls, so Olive wasn't completely sure how well this was going to go for her. Which was why as she turned another corner to run down another alleyway, the twenty six year old had started thinking about a place to hide from them while getting her thoughts together on what to do next.

Immediately her mind jumped to the one place she was pretty sure the Red Hats would not follow after her for the life of them, that and she knew that was where Winifred and the strange boy she had run off with, where safe and waiting. So, with this new location in mind, Olive took quick turns and twists down the dark streets, though it was still day light, and made her way towards the closest sewer opening.

A man hole was probably out of the question for entrance into the sewers, the few moments it would take to open it and crouch down to climb down the ladder would have her caught for sure, but that didn't necessarily mean that she was out of options. For instance, the alley way that Olive now had in mind as a destination did have a rather large, gated pipe opening that lead down into the tunnels under ground.

She didn't have a lot of time left, the footsteps behind her never ceasing in growing closer despite her every turn and past attempt to lose them. The pipe was really the only chance she had left to get out of this situation and still have the ability to find Winifred and help that person underneath the floorboards of the Box Troll extermination factory. If she allowed herself to get caught, Olive had a feeling that she wouldn't be going anywhere, ever again.

This thought alone, got her to run just that smallest bit faster towards her new location, trying always to make sure that the Red Hats were behind her, never suddenly in front of her where they could easily have her trapped. So far that had only managed to happen a few times when she wasn't completely focusing on what was in front of her, where thankfully Olive had found a way out at the last second, just scraping past their grabbing hands that wanted to stop her from getting away.

Every nerve end in her was screaming to stop, which made sense since Olive was pretty sure she had done at least three laps of the alley ways and darkened streets of Cheesebridge, and her legs were just begging for a rest. But she couldn't stop just yet, not when there was still a chance for her to get to that pipe opening, which by this point was just ahead of her. With one last burst of her energy that the woman could manage after twenty six years of not really having to run as fast as she did this day, Olive managed to make it to the gated pipe.

It took her a few precious seconds, in which the Red Hats were still running down the other street but were definitely not that far off, for Olive to notice that the gate had a padlock on it. With fast shaking hands, a pin was again pulled out of her secret pocket of her skirt, fiddling in the key hole for a few seconds as she prayed her limited intelligence in lock breaking wouldn't ruin her chances of getting away.

Apparently whatever world creating deity that existed was smiling down on Olive that day, either that or the padlock was so old that it was really that inefficient, since the padlock almost immediately unlocked and fell into her hand. One look back down the street was enough to tell Olive that the Red Hats were close to grabbing her. So, with one quick fluid motion that the woman wasn't completely aware she had the capability to do, she slipped through the gate opening, shutting it behind her and locking the padlock back into place.

Mr. Gristle, the smallest and apparently most animalistic of the Red Hats, was the first to reach the gate of the pipe that stood between him and capturing Olive, grunting furiously as he started to attempt to apparently yank the gate of its hinges. Olive took a step back as she watched him, wondering how long it had been since the man had apparently lost his mind, her hands touching to the cylindrical wall around her for support as she tried to slow her adrenaline filled and frightened heartbeat.

The other two Red Hats that seemed of a sounder mind, that being Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickle, were right behind him and looked somewhat conflicted. Olive knew the look of confliction when she saw it, she wore it herself quite a lot for the past decade, but what it was they were unsure about she wasn't completely sure, but the woman decided to take a chance that they were conflicted in chasing her as she attempted to plead to them. All the while trying to ignore the rather loud attempts of Mr. Gristle to rip the gate covering off the pipe she was hiding it for that moment.

"Just let me go, let me…" Olive felt her lungs burning with the need for her to stop talking there and let some of that precious breath oxygen in, no matter if it did somewhat smell since she was currently standing in an opening to the sewers. This lack of breath was a slight problem to her, since it didn't really give her a chance to give evidence as to why they should let her out of their grasp and face the wrath of their boss. Still, it seemed to be something of an incentive to have the two at least slightly reasonable Red Hats to have a discussion.

"Chasing a young lady through the streets… doesn't really sound like a very good guy sort of thing… does it Mr. Trout?" The tallest of the Red Hats, who also had somewhat slight mouse like features with his noticeable front buck teeth, said as he turned to the almost intentional opposite in appearance partner in Red Hat ownership, who looked just as lost for an answer that would justify what Mr. Pickle had said.

However, Olive did not let herself stay around another second longer to find out what their final opinion of their actions was as Mr. Gristle's violent attempts to rip the gate apart had started to elicit sounds of creaking of metal giving in to his strength. Fearfully she turned and ran further down the pipe, having to duck her head eventually as the pipe grew very slowly yet surely, smaller.

Olive didn't stop her fleeing through the pipe until she was sure that she couldn't see even the smallest indication of the light from the pipe opening anymore, but still she only slowed it to a very fast walking pace. Still, that probably wasn't the best of choices since because the light from the pipe opening was gone; she was stumbling through the darkness with no idea as to where it was leading, though really the final destination could only be better than being caught by those Red Hats, especially Mr. Gristle.

Thankfully, the pipe didn't become too small that she couldn't fit through it when she reached the other side of the pipe. When slowly climbing out of the pipe and to what was on the other side, Olive noted that wherever this part of the sewers was, while it did smell bad, it certainly didn't smell as awful enough to be the part that she suspected. So Olive guessed that where she was now, was either a long forgotten portion of the underground in Cheesebridge, or had something to do with rainwater.

Where the pipe opened up on the other side was darker than before, and was certainly too big to be another pipe, Olive knowing this since she could hear her footsteps and breath echoing even more than it did before in the pipe. There was a possibility that it was the size of an average room, though there was no real way to tell besides stumbling around and feeling the walls. Olive still wasn't completely sure where she was supposed to go next, not that she could see it even if she did know, so she just continued walking.

All around her was almost dead silent, apart from the periodic sounds of water dripping and her own footsteps. It was calming in the fact that she could no longer hear other footsteps behind her, chasing her down with the want to drag her back to that factory, most likely to join that person under the floorboards, which was definitely not something that she wanted to do. What she wanted to do, was find Winifred and that strange boy, however it was only as Olive had entered the underground herself, that she wasn't sure exactly how she was going to find them now.

Certainly this place was a lot darker and possibly bigger than the twenty six year old had given it credit before, and was feeling very foolish in that she didn't decide to follow after the children first before going into that factory, and had assumed that she would easily discover the two children in this rather huge place. But still what the woman had discovered in that factory was well worth the trip, since now there was someone in there being kept possibly against their will, and needed her help, since it seemed that no one else seemingly could or possibly would even if they knew.

If it was anything that the twenty six year old hated more, it was the thought that she could ever have the possibility of doing the right thing, and not doing it. Now that Olive knew there was someone down there, she had to do something about it since the woman knew that otherwise she wouldn't let herself sleep at night. The guilt would keep her awake, as so it should since it was her morals and her way of living that Olive really held up to a high standard.

Olive's thought process was broken with her eyes catching a glint of light nearby, she walked towards it carefully, not sure what to make of it just yet since it didn't look a lot like sunlight from the way it looked and the fact that Olive felt heat the closer she walked. So there was the possibility that it was a fire light, which seemed possible due to the evidence of the sense of heat and the color of the lighting.

Fire lighting could mean permanent living, so as far as the woman knew that she could be either slowly walking towards the Box Trolls 'lair', or where Winifred and the boy where currently staying and possibly waiting for her. Still, Olive knew she couldn't walk away from it because there was a chance that it was one thing instead of the other, so she instead continued to walk towards the fire sourced light; hoping all the while that it wasn't the worst of the possibilities.

As Olive took another step closer towards the light, she felt the ground for some reason go smooth underfoot, and she slipped forwards with a frightened cry that echoed through the underground and back to her. Because the ground was apparently now made of smooth metal, and so because of that Olive was now slipping down the almost slide like ground towards the light she had been trying beforehand to slowly go towards it. Now, she was sliding towards it faster than she would have liked, and had no way of stopping it.

Olive had let out only one frightened cry with slipping forwards, but was now silent as she was gritting her teeth together to harshly to bother making a noise. The slide that was once the ground continued on, eventually twisting into a funnel, the hole down the bottom leading to who knows where, and Olive certainly didn't want to know, as she tried to stop her fast descent down this funnel like ground, wandering what had happened to the usual physics of the world that would not allow for the ground to become like this.

But of course her efforts to stop or at least slow down in her descent failed as she of course fell through that strange funnel like hole and to the world below, her gritting teeth loosening to a frightened cry as she fell, not knowing how this was fall was going to end, if she was going to be seriously hurt, or worse. The fall of course had to eventually end as she landed, but where she landed was not where or how she had ever expected.

For instance, her fall was cushioned rather well, in that it didn't end with her legs broken or something. Olive had squeezed her eyes shut when she had fallen, and took a few seconds after she had stopped before she finally allowed herself to open her eyes to see if she was alright, which thankfully she was, though what she saw that had cushioned her fall so well, confused her for a few seconds before the dots connected in her mind.

Boxes, she had landed on a rather large pile of boxes.

At first she tried to deny that it couldn't possibly be what she thought it was, but that failed quickly when Olive saw glowing yellow eyes peering out from the holes in the cardboard.

Olive jumped up to her feet the moment she saw it, as if they were a fire that burned her hands, a cry of surprise rather than fear, backing away fast as the Box Trolls tipped their boxes back upright, their heads slowly poking out of the top as they watched her. For a moment nothing happened, Olive just looking back at the Box Trolls and them looking at her.

Nothing happened, as certainly there wasn't any life threatening actions against her, which Olive found she wasn't all that surprised by, which did make sense, since Olive remembered them from her time as a teenager. That time that Olive had at one point tried to deny for the sake of accepting her families death, but eventually accepted that it wasn't false, that the Box Trolls weren't as dangerous as everyone had said before.

"Miss Olive!" The moment was broken by the happy yell of Winifred as the little girl suddenly ran out from seemingly nowhere and attached herself to her nanny's side. Olive naturally hugged the small girl back, of course immediately confused as to why she was here, with these Box Trolls in their 'lair', especially when she had seen her only with the strange boy.

The same strange boy that the woman noticed immediately was standing not that far away.

Her arms wrapped around Winifred that much tighter subconsciously, not sure how to act in this situation so she fell back on being protective of the only child she had left under her care, that she had responsibility for. Olive didn't want anything to happen to Winifred while she was there, didn't want to think that she was helpless to do something or protect this child while standing right there and looking at the danger in the eye.

She had been helpless to protect a child in the past; she didn't want that to ever happen again.

"Winnie, why are you with Box Trolls and a strange boy?" Her question was hushed, hopefully to the point where only the little girl could hear her instead of any of them standing in front of her. The ginger girl broke from the protective hug and rubbed at the back of her neck, taking steps back to the Box Trolls and the boy. Olive knew Winifred was getting ready to explain herself, knowing the physical attitude of this child since the twenty six year old practically raised her, but still Olive felt the prick of fear in her that Winifred was walking closer to what she wasn't completely sure was a safe situation, despite of her morals and past experience telling her that the child would be fine.

"Well…" There was a quick explanation to what happened to her and this boy in the factory, which for one second did not sound the slightest bit safe and only made her want to go back there to wrap her hands around that Mr. Snatcher's throat. However, after a few moments when the explanation was over, the woman noted the expression on Winifred's face, knowing the little girl enough that she was holding something back that needed to come to the woman's attention.

"Winifred Portley-Rind, what aren't you telling me that I need to know?" Olive didn't like to take on the appearance of the disapproving and disappointed adult, having had enough of that in her life herself, even now and she was twenty six. This just didn't seem like the ginger haired girl that Olive had seen throughout her ten years of life, since if Winifred was talking about something, she would spare no details. In fact, sometimes she would go into a little too much detail for the woman's liking.

So what wasn't she saying?

"This is Eggs," Winifred gestured to the strange boy, who looked very awkward and for some reason and ignored the gesture for him to move forward as he seemed a little… scared somewhat of Olive. She was a little confused by his mannerisms, mostly because her memory, experiences, and the fact that he standing right near them, that told her that he was acting a lot like a Box Troll. Why this was, she was pretty sure that it was because he was dressed like one of them and seemed much more comfortable standing by them than by her and Winifred.

"Well he's… the Red Hat's said he…" Winifred trailed off as Eggs seemed to gain some nerve, stepping forward a little bit before he spoke up, though his voice was a little softer than it would be otherwise.

"I'm the Trubshaw baby,"

Olive was usually filled with words, so many things she always wanted to say, or had said or will say. But in this moment, she was completely silent, any thought of any words that could fill this void dropping down into her stomach and causing it to ache so terribly with a hollow pain.

"He's your brother,"

Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.