a/n: naww! Thanks to all who reviewed the first chapter! Thanks to Pascal-chan, who said it was good so far! Also thanks to theNextAlice, who reviewed as always! Anyone love Ellie-May as much as I do? Anyway, Pascal-chan, the boy in the music box wasn't supposed to be exactly Oliver, there had to be some difference, but you'll see why later. Anyway, thank you all for your support! X3 once again, you're all awesome, and super nice! This'll go back and forth between Ia and Ollie.

There he was, big and strong, and he seemed to me the most important man in the world. My father, Leonard. He looked like me, but his face was adult and manly, and his eyes, that were brown, didn't shine with the same childish light.

But that day, though he vowed he was sad to leave Mother and me alone to our own devices, he was busting a grin from ear to ear. His usual grin, which never did quite reach up to his eyes. He took off his cap and patted it down on my head. He held my face and looked into my eyes. "You have your mother's eyes. The only one of our five children who survived, and the only one with your mother's golden eyes. Be proud, my son."

I put on a brave smile though inside I was so scared I could hardly breathe. The last time Father went out to sail he nearly died. The storm raged and the ship almost turned over and Father was nearly lost. I didn't ever want that to happen again. He may not be the best man in the world, but he was my father. Mother and I wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for him.

As the ship sailed away, he waved goodbye to us. I didn't know back then that it would be his last goodbye. I didn't know he wasn't going to come back.

When the ship was out of sight, Mother set off home. She wanted to be alone, I suppose, and she probably knew that I wanted to be alone too.

I wandered around aimlessly through the streets of our small town. The buildings were old and shaky, and they looked like birds that were molting. The paint was peeling off them, bit by bit. There were damp patches everywhere, and they all either reeked or were drafty. Somewhere, on some street, the corpse of someone who had been hanged was probably still dangling from the rope, left out for everyone to see. This town was where most things were sold, but it definitely wasn't the ideal place to live. The buildings loomed tall and gloomy that day, casting long, eerie shadows across the streets.

Out of nowhere, this brute of a Bentley Hummel and his cronies, Herbert Pocket and Vincent Gargery emerged from the darkness. He was a big, stocky bully who liked to pick on smaller kids, namely, me. Bentley grabbed my neck with one of his fat, stubby hands and shoved me against the wall. "What are you doing here, pipsqueak?"

"Yeah, what are you doing, ox? Goin' ter yell 'Olly Olly Oxen Free!'?" Pocket and Gargery chorused. They were such weaklings they repeated everything Hummel said. Sometimes I think they don't have brains of their own. Ha! Weaklings indeed! As if I was any better than them.

"What do you mean, what am I doing? This isn't private territory. It's just part of town. I live around here."

Hummel smirked. "No, Girly Whirly. You were trespassing. This is my family's private territory."

"Do you even know the meaning of trespassing? Honestly, Hummel. I wasn't breaking into anybody's house or farm or whatever. And as for this road being your family's private territory, I don't see any official signs around here that say so."

He let go of my neck, but not before socking my eye, his long, dirty nails leaving a cut that promptly bled. I sighed and began absent mindedly dabbing at the cut with my shirt sleeve.

Several streets later, I found Mother, who tried to bandage the cut but utterly failed. Instead, she ended up bandaging half my face. She tweaked my nose. "You were always such a one for getting into trouble, Oliver."

"I don't mean to get into trouble, Mother. It's just that trouble nearly always finds me."

Mother gave a tired smile. "I'm tired, Oliver. I'm going to stay inside the house for today, all right? Be sure to come back before it gets too dark." With that, she turned around, stepped inside the house, and shut the door behind her.

Walking away dejectedly, I felt like the whole world was against me, against Mother, against Father. I felt like there was no hope. No flowers grew; it was all horrid gray pavements. The sky was never blue; only gray and dank with the infinite fog. Sometimes the town was a scary place to be, even if everything was a monotone. Horrible things happened. People were hung, sailors were lost at sea, bullies roamed free, innocent people were murdered, and the rich gambled their money away. Trouble was lurking in every corner, waiting to pounce.

I sighed again, for the third time in as many hours. "I wish something would happen."

a/n: so? What did you think about it? I know this chapter was short too, but this chapter pretty much just introduced Oliver's life and I didn't have all that much inspiration—well, not as much as for Ia, anyways. But, as always, please read and review!