"So, Damien," Thorn said, puffing a little as he jogged alongside the carousel to talk to Damien and Adrian, and looking quite comical in doing so. "How are you enjoying your birthday?"

"Great!" Damien chirped with a grin.

"Glad to hear it," Thorn said, ignoring the chuckles coming from the people around him, Adrian included. "Are you both having fun?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Yes," Adrian said, with a half-fake smile. "But sometime," he added, voicing a conclusion he'd come to a few minutes ago. "I want to learn to ride a real horse!"

Adrian had imagined himself astride a strong and proud midnight black stallion with a starlight-silver mane, galloping faster than anything across varying terrain: across a solitary plain of soft, downy grass falling before the breeze with crystal clear waterfalls and rivers around, deep in a pine forest at sunset, mountain ranges with the wind tearing through the air around him, something with a lot of glorious fire that he hadn't come up with yet…

Thorn's voice broke into his thoughts. "All right, Adrian, I'll see about getting you riding lessons."

Adrian smiled, for real. He'd enjoy that more than riding an artificial horse around and around in aimless circles. Damien seemed to agree. "What about me? Can I do it too?" he asked excitedly, wanting to do the same fun-sounding thing as Adrian.

"I don't see why not."

"Yay!"

Adrian laughed quietly at his brother's exuberance. Then his attention was directed elsewhere by a disembodied voice.

"Damieeeeen…Damieeeeen…." Damien's head jerked up at the sound of his name. Someone was calling him, and it sounded strange to Adrian. He and Thorn, and Katharine, who was nearby, looked over too.

"Damien! Look at me! I'm over here!" Katharine lifted Damien off the carousel horse and held him in her arms. Damien pointed towards the house. "Look, there's Nanny!"

It was Holly.

Adrian climbed off the carousel and went to stand beside them. He stared intently at Holly's form, trying to see what she was doing. She was standing on the very edge of the balcony –the same one, in fact, that Adrian had been watching the sun rise from just a few hours before – with a strangely frozen, smiling expression. He studied her more carefully, trying to figure out what was happening and what was going to happen. Adrian wanted to see if he could figure out what Shaeido's plan for Holly's death was before it was fully executed. He thought he had it.

Holly was in a precarious position on the edge of the balcony, in danger of easily falling. Adrian thought she might fall from that height and die that way; an image of her broken corpse, her limbs splayed out and her body twisted and bent at awkward, abnormal angles, the odd smile frozen on her lips, flashed into his mind. He frowned. Rather uncreative, Shaeido. I expected something a bit more inventive coming from you. Then he noticed a small detail about Holly he had missed before.

Adrian's eyes traced the length of rope tied to the roof above Holly's head, stretching down to Holly and snaking around her neck, and realized what Shaeido's real scheme was exactly one second before Holly jumped off of the balcony.

The first pang of shock pulsed in Adrian's heart at the same time Holly's neck snapped, and tore through his veins as her body swung back and smashed into the window. It numbed him, stunned him. Whoa, he mouthed, and made a mental note never to underestimate Shaeido's talent of causing an imaginative death again. You promised over-the-top entertainment, Shaeido, and you definitely came through. He glanced at Damien to see how he was taking it.

Katharine, speechless with horror, had mouthed, My God; and turned Damien's head away to shield him from the sight. She looked down to Adrian, and he made like he was shocked and terrified – turning himself into what he thought a regular child would look like if he had just witnessed his nanny leap from a balcony and hang herself. Thorn put his arms around the three of them to comfort his family. Katharine welcomed the embrace, but Adrian slipped out of it to Katharine's other side, to see how Damien was.

He seemed to Adrian rather dispassionate about his nanny hanging dead from the balcony.

But he was only a child, and he probably didn't really know what had just happened. He looked at Adrian, only his eyes moving, his head resting on Katharine's shoulder. Adrian put a comforting hand on his brother's back, just in case he was frightened at all. Damien smiled, happy to have Adrian with him, and Adrian returned the smile, glad that Damien seemed to be okay. Then Damien's eyes flicked away suddenly, and then he looked back at Adrian and said, in a muffled voice since his head was still on Katharine's shoulder, "Look." Adrian looked, and saw the dog.

It was smiling in a self-satisfied way, pleased with itself at having done its job well. Hey, boss, it seemed to be saying. Are you pleased with me, too? And Adrian was. The dog had carried out its task thoroughly and efficiently, succeeding also in impressing him enough for Adrian to accept it as having the makings of an excellent protector for Damien. He glanced at Damien, who did not seem to feel threatened by the presence of a large fanged animal so close to him. He slowly lifted his little hand and wiggled his fingers in a friendly wave at the dog. See you later. Adrian turned back to the dog and bowed his head slightly, keeping his eyes locked onto the dog's face. A job well done. You're dismissed. The dog turned and bounded away into the bushes. Adrian stepped away from his grieving parents to look unrepentantly at Holly's body, swinging slightly due to the momentum. I wonder what your replacement will be like, he wondered idly.

~0~