Author's Note: Welcome back, my dear Wastelings! I have missed you so much! I missed writing this series. I have been writing in the Wonderland Bites but it's not just the same. But I am here now. Last season, we learned that Izaya had been murdered. And boy, oh boy! 5,522 words. This has been the most that I have written for a season premiere. This is what happens when you write pieces of it back in April and use five-minute writing exercises to write more parts. All I had to do was add more details, connect everything with some extra scenes, and here we are. We will get to see how and who killed Izaya, and why. Plus, the stakes are going to be higher. I already can't wait to work on next week's halo. But you've got a lot of reading to do for this season. So I am going to shut up and let you enjoy this halo.
Dark Side of Wonderland
Halo Zero: Jigoku:
December 16th, 2015.
It all started with an innocuous question from Honoka.
"When was the last time anyone saw Izaya?" she asked. Everyone in the apartment turned to her.
"What?" Haru asked. His sister shrugged at him.
"I mean, when was the last time anyone saw him in person?" she asked. Everyone stared at her. They tried to think. Nobody had an answer to that. It seemed so strange. Izaya had been a fixture in Ikebukuro that they would've noticed if they hadn't seen him in a long time. It was now that they started to really think about it.
"[What are you getting at?]" Celty wrote with her shadows.
"I don't know," Honoka said, shrugging. She sat back on the couch. Her words still had a lingering effect on everyone. Haru looked into her eyes.
Shingo looked at his laptop.
"Guys, come look at his," he said. The tadpoles, Risa, and Celty crowded around for a look.
"He really is dead?" Chie asked.
"Looks like it," Shingo said.
"Think K-sensei knows?" Wez asked.
"[I believe he does,]" Celty typed on her PDA. She typed up a quick text and sent it off. The dullahan's mind seemed to be elsewhere.
"Is something wrong?" a voice asked behind her. Celty turned to see Madoka standing behind her. The tadpole had her glasses on again.
"Are you okay?" Madoka asked. "Is it about Izaya or something else?" The dullahan didn't answer at first. It didn't help that vision tadpole kept staring at her. What was troubling her really? Even without her head, Celty started to remember some parts that led to Ikebukuro's destruction. She even started to guess what was coming next. Or maybe it already happened and they just didn't notice it.
"[I don't know how to explain it,]" Celty typed. She started to type something else but paused. How was she going to break it to the tadpoles in the room? Maybe they already knew but didn't want to say it.
"What are you ladies talking about over there?" Yukio asked. Madoka and Celty looked up.
"[Not much,]" Celty said with her shadows in the air. The dullahan wandered out of the room. The tadpoles looked at each other. Shingo turned back to his screen. They were all gathered here. The only thing that they knew was their guesses as to why. Shingo didn't know why he said this next thing. In fact, it startled him when he said it.
"And then the first trumpet sounded," he said to himself. Shingo covered his mouth.
"What did you say?" Reo asked. The tech tadpole turned his head. He looked so pale as he shook it.
"I… I don't know," he said. "It just came out."
"The first trumpet?" she asked in a low voice. Shingo shifted his eyes away from her.
"Yeah," he said in a low voice. They already knew that it'd already happened. The question was did the others know it?
-Megumi-
I stared at my nails, wishing to be somewhere else. Why did I have to be here now? The others just had to drag me along. And for what? Because we're all up shit's creek? Um... Newsflash. We've been up shit's creak for a long time now. What else is new? I threw back my head and groaned.
I looked up to see Naomi staring at me.
"What?" I asked. She frowned with that worried look in her eyes. I rolled my own eyes.
"What? What do you want?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" Naomi asked. I clicked my tongue. This again? Do I have to spell out that I am fine? It's getting to be annoying. I threw up my hands in the air.
"I'm fine," I said. "The rest of Ikebukuro will be fine without that creep around."
"But you killed somebody," Naomi said. I made a face at her.
"You are aware of what my powers are, right?" I asked.
"I mean without your powers," she said. I threw back my head and groaned.
"I know that!" I said. "It's too late to do anything about it. Not like Haru is going to let dear sweet Honoka bring him back from the dead."
"That's not the point," Naomi said. I rolled my eyes.
"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked.
"You have to talk about it," she said.
"Why?" I asked. "There is nothing to talk about."
"I just want you to be okay," Naomi said.
"Let her alone, Naomi," Itori said. "She clearly doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself." I put up my hands in a shrug.
"But…" Naomi said.
"She's right!" I said. "I don't really give a shit." Naomi just looked so defeated. She walked over to her side of the living room and sat down.
"Can I go now?" I asked.
"No," Michiko said. I frowned as I lifted my chin. Why was I even asking? I could just get up and walk out right now. I have no idea why I haven't tried that yet.
"And what's stopping me from getting up and walking out that door?" I asked. Michiko folded her arms across her chest.
"You have no idea how bad things are right now," she said. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I muttered. "We've been in danger for months." Michiko-san shook her head.
"This is different," she said. I raised an eyebrow at the terrified look on her face.
"Oh really?" I asked. She didn't speak at first.
"Go on! How is this different?" I asked.
"Megumi!" Naomi said.
"No!" I shouted. "We're all friends here, right? We should all know the truth, yeah?" Michiko-san dropped her shoulders.
"Fine," she said. Michiko-san paused for a moment. She mumbled something under her breath but we all heard what she said. Even Anzu looked up from her phone. Those five words from Michiko's mouth shut me up there.
"I heard the first trumpet," she murmured.
-Three Days Ago-
"Where is Noto-san?" Greg asked as he looked around on the main floor of the office. Most of the workers didn't even try to make eye contact. Greg had his hands on his hips as he prepared to try and get someone's attention. One of the girls looked up from her computer.
"She took PTO this week," she said.
"What?" he asked with a confused look on his face.
"She put in last month and is taking time off this week," another coworker said. "She's not going to be back until Sunday."
"Why? Did you need her for something?" another female coworker asked. Greg didn't say a word as he turned and walked back to the stairway. The three women looked at each other for a moment.
"What was that all about?" one of them asked. The other two didn't have an answer. The women shrugged to each other and just went back to work without saying a word.
-Shibuya-
She has a dilemma on her hands. She's found her next target. However, there is a problem. She frowned to herself in her hotel room. This morning, she tracked him down to a diner. Her target was dressed like a salaryman in his dark suit as he sat in his booth in the front window. She watched him walk into the diner from her car. Just seeing him again made her blood boil. All of those memories came back into her head as she watched him pull out his phone.
"Yeah, that's right. Look at your phone all you want. Act like there isn't a care in the world."
It took her all not to get out of the car and storm over to him. However, the situation changed when an unexpected element walked into the picture. A woman in a long brown coat looked like she was struggling to walk into the diner. The man in the suit stood up as she waddled over to his booth.
In the car, she blinked as she wrinkled up her face. Hm? What is this?
The man kissed the woman on the lips. She took off her coat and set it on the back of the other side of the booth. The woman looked like she was seven or eight months along. She struggled to sit down as the man helped her in the best they could.
Meanwhile, a puzzled look came across her face. What the hell was happening? Who the hell was that lady? She just had to find out. She took a breath before she got out of the car. She was going to get to the bottom of this.
She got a table near the booth. Close enough to hear the couple talking.
"Don't forget, my sister is coming over this evening," the woman said.
"Huh?" he asked. "That's today?" She threw back her head and groaned.
"Seriously? I have been reminding you for weeks!" she said. "How could you forget?"
"Okay, okay! I'm just kidding! I didn't forget," he said. "Don't worry. I will get her flowers and the sparkling juice."
"Sweetie," she said in a dreamy tone. He chuckled.
"I wouldn't get you alcohol," he said. "I will get your favorite too."
"Oh, I love you so much!" the woman said.
The sappy affection made her want to hurl. This just created a problem that she didn't want to deal with. The target had a wife and a baby on the way. She was going to have to keep an eye on the target and his family for the time being. She picked up her menu and stared at it. She wasn't hungry but she was going to have to blend in anyway.
-Ikebukuro-
The Master has been tracking her. Reo walked to school. She was alone. That's good. This would be the fourth tadpole that he encountered. The other three were going on down the path that he set up rather impressively. (Okay, they needed a little more encouragement. But it was nothing that the Master could fix.) He hoped that he would send this fourth tadpole on that path too.
Reo shivered through her thick brown coat. The city felt colder around her these days. The other tadpoles could feel it too. However, there was one little detail that she was keeping to herself. She heard the trumpet from the distance four days ago. The girl didn't know who to tell. Part of her hoped that she was hearing things. Now, she knew that wasn't the case. Reo knew that she would have to tell somebody. And then what?
"Hello, Reo-chan!" a voice spoke up in front of her. The girl jumped back with a gasp. From around the corner appeared a man who looked just like Izaya in a bright red kimono. He took a puff of his pipe before he held up his hand.
"No, I am not this Izaya fellow you keep mistaking me for," he was quick to say. "Who is he anyway?" Reo stood blinking.
"Then… are you…?" she began to ask. Izaya's double raised his eyebrow. Reo lifted her chin.
"Are you him?" she asked in a low voice.
"Him who?" the man asked. Reo looked around for a moment.
"The Master of Lies?" she asked. The man perked up when she asked that.
"Why yes," he said. "At your service." Reo took a nervous step back.
"May I ask how you know who I am?" the Master asked.
"T-T-They took me about you," she said.
"Was it anything good?" he asked.
"They said that you were up to something," Reo said. She could feel herself shaking. The girl wanted to run away but she found herself frozen. He gave her a sympathetic look.
"Aw," he said. "Why are you so scared of me? I won't bite. I'm just interested in your powers."
"M-M-My powers?" Reo asked.
"Yes," the Master said. He closed his eyes and took in a breath.
"Mmm," he said. "A human lie detector. That sounds fun." Reo looked confused.
"But wouldn't my power be against you?" she asked. "You are the Master of Lies, after all."
"True, but your powers deal in human nature," he said. "Just Mikado's, Chie's, and Erina's." Reo stood frozen.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
"I just want to see your powers at work," the Master said. "You haven't been using them, have you?" He held up his hand.
"And don't give me the 'you're scared to use your powers' line," he said. "You are only saying that just to get out of seeing all that you can do." The tadpole girl stared at him with big eyes. She found herself looking up at him as he towered over her. When did he have time to close the gap between them? The Master patted her on the head.
"Come on," he said. "Show me what you can do." Reo gulped as she stared up at him. He didn't have to raise his voice to get her attention. Reo had a deep notion that she had to do as he said.
"Who are you going to pick out for me?" she asked when with her eyes on the ground. The Master smirked to himself.
"Come along and you shall see," he whispered in her ear. He snickered as he patted her on the head again. Reo winced at his suffocating touch.
December 16th, 2015.
Aozaki found her spooky. Aka-chan swung her skinny little legs back and forth as she sat on the couch. This was supposed to be the Red Oni's reincarnation? This had to be a joke, right? The blue oni slightly glanced around for any hidden cameras in the room. Something about this little girl seemed... off.
She didn't speak at all. Did she even know how to talk? Aka-chan came off as a special needs child. Granted, she functioned like any normal little kid. (Ha! "Normal".) This little girl ate like she had been starving for days. Sometimes, Aka-chan would just stare off into space. Akane didn't mind the one-eyed little girl. She just had someone to play with. Aozaki did have to admit that it was good to take the heiress' mind off of her mother and grandfather for the time being. But still, did it have to be this spooky, weird little child?
Aozaki leaned in close to the little girl's face.
"Who the hell are you really?" he asked. Aka-chan said nothing but stared back at him. She cocked her head to the side. Now, Aozaki never believed in reincarnation but he might be proved wrong in this case. Still, why did it have to be this weird little girl? It would be funny if it wasn't so creepy.
Aozaki looked up when he heard the door open. Akane, Kine, and Mikiya stood in the doorway. Aka-chan perked up when she saw the yakuza princess. (Of course, she would come to life like a normal child now.)
"I'll see you when I get home," Akane said. Aka-chan started to pout.
"Aw, don't be sad," the yakuza princess said. "I'll be home later to play with you. I promise." The little girl with the one eye said nothing but sat back in place.
"Excuse me," Akane said as she bowed. She turned and walked out the door. Aozaki turned to Mikiya and Kine.
"So it is true?" the Blue Oni asked.
"Yes," Mikiya said.
"I had to id the body," Kine said.
"Oh," Aozaki said. "Do you think she did it?"
"We're not sure yet," the new boss said. "However, I do have some guys on the payroll who are looking into it." Meanwhile, Aka-chan began swinging her little legs back and forth against the couch again.
Kitano's poison garden was taking shape. However, there were still some weeds that needed to be pulled. Chisa took out one more weed with Haruna's murder last month. The Dante Killer also helped out by taking out another weed with the head of the Awakusu in the same month as well. However, that wasn't enough. There were still the rest of Saika's army with the children looking around for Anri's baby. Plus, the Awakusu wanted revenge for Dougen's death. On top of that, there were still the Dollars, the Toramaru, the Dragon Zombie, Nebula, his daughter's little cult, Vozrozhdeniye, and Mam to deal with. Still, it would all be worth it for his beautiful poison apocalypse garden. In fact, he already knew what he was going to do next.
Just in time in to take the next step.
Kitano picked up the phone.
"Yes, it's me," he said. "Are you ready to begin? Good. I will be right there in twenty minutes." The therapist hung up the phone and looked down at a small black case on his desk. He finished this drug three days earlier. Kitano was just waiting for Etsuko to be finished on her end. The doctor made final touches to her drug.
Kitano rose to his feet. He already had a fresh tape in his tape recorder in his coat pocket. Time to go ahead and begin the final stage of Project Tadpole. He picked up the case and walked out of his office.
Etsuko stood over the Heartseed plant as she waited. She looked up when she heard the lock beep and the door open.
"I'm coming in," Kitano said. Etsuko stood up straight with the needle in her hand.
"So who is going first?" she asked.
"Would you like to do the honors?" her partner asked. "Do you have all of the ones that you are going to inject with?"
"Yes sir," Etsuko said.
"Good," Kitano said. "Then we can begin." He pulled out his tape recorder and hit record.
"December sixteenth, 2015," Kitano said. "We are in the final stages of the Tadpole Project. Today, Asato-sensei and I will now begin the experiment called Fountain of Youth. Asato-sensei will administer the Hachiman while I will administer the Tamayori-hime drug." He turned to Etsuko.
"You may begin," he said. The doctor bowed with a syringe of dark blue fluid in her hand. She turned to the Heartseed and began injecting the base and the roots. Some of the little flowers started to turn dark blue.
"Very good," Kitano said. "Asato-sensei has administered Hachiman to the tadpoles. And now, I shall administer my drug to the rest of the test subjects." He handed Etsuko the tape recorder and pulled out the kit. Kitano walked up with a syringe of baby blue fluid in his hand. Like his colleague seconds before, he got in and began injecting the base and the roots of the Heartseed.
"Kitano-sensei has completed his part in the experiment," Etsuko said into the recorder. She handed it back to her partner when he closed up his kit.
"Thank you, Asato-sensei," he said. "And now we will wait. It should take about thirty minutes to take effect. And then we shall add the pills that will go with the injections."
"Yes sir," Etsuko said.
"End of the first recording of the Fountain of Youth Project," the therapist said. Kitano hit stop on the tape recorder.
10:00 a.m.
Already, Mikado had the sense that something wasn't right. His body felt like it was on fire. The boy panted heavily. Mikado could barely move. He was laying on the ground feeling like he was going to drown. Something told him that he was being pulled into another experiment. He looked at his right hand. The skin looked like it was rippling. It also looked like it was glowing. Mikado could feel little holes opening up all over his skin. The sensation of bugs crawling all over him made it worse. He tried to scream for help but it felt like something was choking him. Was it possible to feel cold and hot at the same time? Mikado thought that he was going to die.
He wasn't the only one in this predicament.
Anzu's phone hit the floor as she fell off the couch. Noriko looked around in a panic as she saw Megumi, Itori, Anzu, Naomi, Yukari, and Reo huddled on the floor in pain.
"I don't know what to do!" she shouted. "They were fine one moment and then they all turned out like this! I don't know what happened!" Michiko ran into the living room. Naomi made eye contact with her. She tried to beg for help but she could barely move her mouth. A single tear ran down her cheek.
"What do we do?!" Noriko asked.
"I don't think we can do anything," Michiko said. The girl whipped her head around.
"What?!" she screamed. By that time, Masaomi ran into the living room.
"Michi-chan, it's Mikado!" he shouted. "I think he's…" His words trailed off when he realized when he saw the tadpoles on the living room floor. The former shogun was able to piece it all together.
"How long do you think this is going to take?" Masaomi asked Michiko. She just shook her head.
Meanwhile, Mikado tried to crawl to the doorway where his bag was. He made it near the door before he blacked out from the pain.
Meanwhile, the news was playing in the background about the discovery of Izaya's body in an abandoned building. Kitano looked down at the scrap of paper on his desk. Izaya's name was written in thick black ink.
"Heh," the therapist said to himself. He thought back to the conversation he had with Osamu back in the summer.
July 25, 2015.
"Why do we still keep him around?!" Osamu asked. Kitano sat looking at him. The younger man slammed his hand down onto his desk.
"When do we get to kill him?!" he shouted. Kitano looked him in the eye.
"When are we going to kill him?" he asked.
"Yeah," Osamu said.
"All in due time," Kitano said. "All in due time." He opened a drawer in his desk and reached inside. Osamu watched as the boss pulled out a small sheet of paper. His nostrils flared as he saw what it was.
"You were planning to kill him!" he shouted. "You were going to kill him without telling us, weren't you? Weren't you?!"
"No," Kitano said in a calm tone. He could tell that the younger man didn't believe him. The therapist put up his hand just as Osamu was about to call him a liar.
"I did start to curse him to death," Kitano admitted. "I had his name written down on this very strip of paper here." He rested his finger on the sheet of paper in front of him.
"But then, I remember that I had done this before a long time ago," the therapist said. "That got me thinking…" Osamu's face changed as something clicked in his brain.
"Wait… Are you experimenting with something here?" he asked with that question dropping into a whisper. Kitano broke into a smirk.
"I just had to see if it was still binding," he said. Osamu's intrigue peaked now.
"Do you think it's going to be her again?" he asked. Kitano sat back in his chair and shrugged.
"Who's to say?" he asked. "Now that I've thought about it, it changes every time. The only way to find out is to see what happens."
December 16th, 2015.
Kitano picked up the paper and threw it away. That weed was finally killed and removed from the poison garden. Still, Tandeki had more work to do. This game was coming to the home stretch after all. Why stop now when they were ahead?
Zoryn sat on his bed in the dark. He's been here since October. So why hasn't he made his move yet? The simple face of the matter is that he feels that it's not time yet. Everything hasn't fallen to pieces just yet. It's not his job to fix anything. Zoryn is just there when shit really hits the fan. That's just his nature.
He picked up his phone and made a call.
"It's me," Zoryn said. "The information broker is dead as you predicted. No, I haven't met up with him yet. I am working on that. He's not in the position that I… I mean, we want him to be in. But rest assured, the latest experiment has begun. He should be in the last throes of it in just about…"
The Russian man looked at his watch.
"Twenty minutes. Oh, he's already got that girlfriend of his pregnant. It won't be long before Tandeki learns about this unborn child. And then they will probably get their hands on it and run experiments on it. He doesn't want that to happen. To be honest with you, neither do I. I don't know, I just want the guy to have a little bit of happiness this time. He's already been through enough and we're about to drag him over the coals again. Hm? What have I been doing? Not much. I have been looking around the city. The disease is just now starting to surface. It's beautiful, you know? I wish that you can see it.
"Hm? Yes, yes. I didn't forget. I will get to it. Come on, I have yet to let you down. And I'm not about to start. Trust me. Trust me."
Zoryn looked out his hotel window. The snow was falling lazily outside. He heard that there was going to be a heavier snowfall later in the week. The old Russian man broke into a smirk.
"Anything else you need to know? Okay, I will keep you posted. Goodbye." Zoryn hung up and looked out the window again.
"Okay, Ryugamine-san, the game board is just about set," he said to himself. "What are you going to do now?"
11:28 a.m.
Kitano took out his tape recorder and hit record.
"Tadpoles are such beautiful creatures. It is easy to see why they are so envied. They didn't choose to be this way but that's just how they are. They are human but are a new special breed of human. They can't see their beauty but others can. They shall be the ones to inherit the dying world. I and my colleague are seeing to that. We now have to enter the final stages of the project. The heart problem will be almost solved. I am hoping before Christmas but time and reality will be the ones to have the final say in that. First, Asato-sensei and I will stop the clock for them aging and then immortality will follow suit. After all, we can't have such beautiful creatures going old and dying in a world that is about to die itself. Now can we?"
11:34 a.m.
The experiment was taking root with the tadpoles. Masaomi took hold of Mikado's hand.
"Come on, man," he pleaded. "You can get through this! We're here for you!" The tadpole could barely move. Anri sat in the corner, looking panicked. Meanwhile, Shinra and Michiko tended to the other tadpoles. The doctor managed to get Risa on the phone.
"How long have they been like that?" he asked over the phone.
"I'm… I'm sure!" Risa said. "I tried to call for an ambulance. But your dad won't let me!"
"I don't think that's going to help at all," he said.
"What should we do?" Risa asked.
"Wait it out," Shinra said.
"You can't be serious!" the lawyer shouted.
"There isn't much we can do with these experiments," the doctor explained. "The best we can do is to wait for it to pass."
Suddenly, just as soon as it started, the pain stopped. Mikado slowly came to in the room. Masaomi felt relieved as his best friend sat up.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I don't know," Mikado said. He started to look at his body. There were no bugs or holes in his skin. What was that just now? Mikado hoped that he was losing his mind for a moment but he knew better by now.
Suddenly, phones rang all over the apartment. Mikado and Masaomi looked at each other with unease. They knew what was coming next. The tadpoles in both apartments answered their phones.
"Good morning, my dear tadpoles," Kitano's prerecorded voice filled their ears. "If you are hearing this, congratulations! You have survived the first stage of Project Fountain of Youth!" Hearing his voice made Megumi want to vomit.
"Doesn't he ever shut up?" she mouthed at Naomi and Anzu. Itori put her finger to her lips.
"What does this mean?" the recording asked. "Well, in short, you will no longer age. Once you turn twenty-five, you will forever look like you are twenty-five years old. But what if you are over the age of twenty-five? Don't worry! You will forever look like the age you are now. How is this even possible, you ask?" They could just hang up the phone. So… Why don't they? Maybe they just have to know how bad the damages are going to be.
"Well, I will tell you," Kitano's voice resumed. "Asato-sensei and I gave you two separate drugs depending on your age. Asato-sensei gave those over twenty-five the Hachiman drug. Meanwhile, I gave everyone twenty-five and younger the Tamayori-hime drug. The processes themselves are rather fascinating. That can be a whole recording in itself." He sighed.
"But alas, I don't have the time to go into all of that," he said. "To wrap this up, you will all stay forever young. This is just stage one. There are still some more things that we have to do to get things just perfect. We will be in touch later. Until then, bye, I guess. I still need to work on a better way to sign off on these." The tadpoles each hung up. Masaomi and Mikado looked at each other. The latter did his best to keep it together but the cracks were already starting to show. Meanwhile, Anri held her hand to her stomach.
11:45 a.m.
Kitano counted down the last few seconds on an old watch before he hit record on his tape recorder.
"We have finished the first experiment. So far, everything looks good but I will have to go in and personally check on them. I have a good feeling about our chances." His lips curved into a cold smirk.
"As of 11:45 on December sixteenth, 2015, We will begin part one of the experiments right now." Kitano hit stop on his recorder.
The tadpoles don't know it yet, but they now have targets on their backs. All for different reasons. They could say that they have become victims of their own talents. It is easy to see why. They really do stand out in a crowd. They've become more beautiful, stronger, faster, and smarter. As Megumi put it, they are pretty much gods now. However, not everybody likes this. One entity, in particular, thinks that they should not exist.
She opened her eyes in the dark.
"They have become an abomination. They should not exist." She's heard this from somewhere and now she's made that her own belief. In her mind, everything is coming apart because of these tadpoles. The balance has to be put back into place. She believed herself to be the one to do it.
So, she set out toward Ikebukuro on her own little mission. She had to see to it that Kitano's prized flowers in his poison garden withered where they stood.
"Now bring us the blood of the tadpoles. Now bring us the blood of the tadpoles. Now bring us the blood of the tadpoles. Now bring us some here."
She smiled to herself as she walked through the crowded streets in the snow. It was so easy for her to get lost in the crowd. No one was going to take a second look at a petite girl with a black winter hat on. She kept her head down as she sniffed the air. They smelt so sweet, so sickeningly so. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. There were so many of them around in the city. She didn't know which one to start with. The best part of this? She was going to enjoy the reward she was going to get after hunting down all of the tadpoles and killing them. Her mistress was going to be so pleased with her.
She covered her mouth to suppress a chuckle. She kept walking as she sang to herself.
"We won't go until we get some. We won't go until we get some. We won't go until we get some, so bring them out here."
There is so much piling on in December alone. It's been going on since after Halloween, but no one saw it. That's about to change. Those that notice something is wrong are either acting with it or against it. No matter what side they are on, they are going to have to act and act fast. After all…
Winter is coming.