Charlie ran all the way home after the incident in the cafeteria, she couldn't stand to be in the school building for another minute. Octavia didn't feel very well this morning so Stolas kept her home which meant he wouldn't be picking her up from school and hear the news about her running out. When she arrived at the house, he didn't notice her sneaking in, he was too busy ranting over the phone with Stella.

"I didn't steal that money Stella! I swear!" He shouted. "What reason would I have to steal? I'm set for life!...Spite you? No if I wanted to spite you, I'd do it legally. Like writing a blog about your terrible fashion sense."

"You're one to talk!" Stella screeched on the other line. "At least I never wore fur!"

"That was your brother's fault! He told me that fur was in again!"

"He lied you idiot! You know he hates you! More so than I do!"

"Alright let's just put the insults aside for once and try to think rationally. I know we never had any real love for each other but we know each other, you know me. You know how much I love our daughter so do you really think that I would risk putting myself in jail, and leaving her without a father just to piss you off?"

For once in her life, Stella was quiet. For five minutes, Stolas didn't hear a sound come from that phone. Then even more surprising, when Stella spoke again, she was more calm.

"I suppose that would be a little out of character for you." She admitted. "But who else would do this to me?"

"I don't know but come on, it's a million dollars Stella. Lots of people would sell their own kidney for that kind of money."

For once, Charlie was glad that Stella called because she really didn't want to talk explain things to Stolas. She only wanted to be alone. As quiet as a church mouse, she went upstairs and into her room, slowly and carefully closing the door. Then just like the other night before, she threw herself on to the bed and started to cry into her pillow. Crying because she wasn't sure if she could stay here any longer. She didn't know if she could continue going to school where she would get bullied and then come home to a man who she believed only cared for her out of obligation. She just wished that she couldn't be here anymore.

Then as if it were an act of fate, a book dropped down from her shelf. Charlie got up out of bed and retrieved the book. It was the book Gina had given her. The one that Charlie had started reading weeks ago but then stopped. She had almost completely forgotten all about that book. She didn't know why, but suddenly she wanted to finish reading it. Perhaps an attempt to take her mind off of how miserable she was feeling? But for whatever reason, she opened the book and flipped to the page where she had left off. She began to read.

This was a world built for children, created by the imagination, wishes, and dreams of a child. It was originally supposed to be a place of shelter and escape for children, created by a man who believed that nothing was more precious than a child's smile. He was a toy maker, the best in his hometown. No one could craft anything more beautiful than him for each creation he made, was built with love. He made his creations love children just as children loved them.

But these toys were not mere play things. They were friends. Guardians. Their purpose was told live for the child who gave them love. If one of his toys was given to a child with a regular and happy childhood, then they would remain inanimate as any normal toy would be. But if given to a child who was in danger. One who is abused, neglected, or orphaned, then the toy springs to life and does whatever it can to help that child. They would take the child away to this hidden world and take care of them there until the toy maker could find a loving family for each lost and sad child.

On one page Charlie saw various illustrations of a kindly looking man dressed in 17th century clothes. In one picture he was in a toy shop working on something, in another he was handing out toys to groups of children who were playing and dancing about, then there was one of him spying on two sad children through one mirror and a sad couple through another mirror, and the last one showed him introducing the couple and the two children.

She turned to the next page.

But even a place designed purely for the well-being of a child can be used for a sinister purpose. When the good toy maker died, someone took control of his world, a monster who turned into from a sanctuary for children, to a trap for children. This new ruler, manipulated and lured children away with promises of treasures, and treats, and anything else the child could desire. And once the poor child was caught in this trap, this monster would take their eyes, their hearts, their souls, steal away their lives and twist them up into this creature's own idea of what toys were. And they would spend the rest of their lives forced to entertain and love this tyrant until said tyrant became bored with them and broke them.

The illustrations on this page was much more frightening and ominous looking. It showed a tall, menacing, figure shrouded in darkness towering over scared children and reaching out to snatch them away.

Charlie flipped the page and this saw the illustration before reading the paragraph. This one was of adults tearfully searching in the town and the woods for their children, finding nothing but old, broken toys covered in dust and cobwebs.

Many times, a child would suddenly disappear from this town without a trace and no matter where their parents looked, they never found their son or daughter again. For once a child willingly barters away their eyes and their hearts to this monster, they are doomed. All children that it preyed upon, to this day, still remain a prisoner, a slave to it.

Suddenly, Charlie's reading of the book was once again interrupted. This time by a tapping sound on her window. Charlie put down the book, and pulled back the curtains to find Vaggie sitting outside the window. She had gotten up here by climbing the old sycamore tree that grew very close to this side of the house. Both Charlie and Octavia had expressed a desire to climb it but Stolas forbade them to, fearing that one of them may fall.

"What are you doing up here?" Charlie asked opening the window.

"I came to check on you." She said entering her room.

"This late? Does your mother know you're over here?"

"Of course not but after what happened today, I had to come over. Are you alright?"

"Honestly, no." She admitted. "This had to be the worst day of my entire life. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to school again."

"Have you told Stolas what happened?"

"What's the point? He won't care. He's too busy dealing with his ex and taking care of Via. It's days like these where I just wish that I wasn't here anymore."

"Join the club. To tell you the truth, I don't want to go home to my mother. She never wanted me anyway."

"Vaggie I'm sure that's not true."

"Then why does she always make it sound like meeting my father was the worst thing that ever happened to her? And if she cares about me, as much as she says she does, then why doesn't she ever do what I want? Why doesn't she encourage my dreams of being an artist? Or why doesn't she let me see my father?"

"I'm sure she has, at the very least, an understandable reason for all the things she does. I mean, she's your mother. She takes care of you because she loves you. Not because you were left to her in a will like I was with Stolas."

"I seriously doubt that. If Mom could have afforded it, she probably would have aborted me."

"You don't know that."

"Well what am I supposed to think when she acts like the worst thing that could happen to me is to get knocked up like she did?"

Charlie didn't have an answer for that.

"I'm sorry." Vaggie said. "I didn't come here to take my frustrations out on you, I just came to check on you and ask if you wanted to go with me to Mystique Hollow again. We haven't been there in awhile and again, I am not ready to go home to my mother."

"I'd love to go with you but what if Stolas comes upstairs and checks on me?"

"Well you told me earlier this morning that Octavia wasn't feeling too good right?"

"Alright so just go down there, tell him that you don't feel good either and that you might have caught what Octaiva has and you're going to bed early. He'll leave you alone for the rest of the night."

"I don't know. Stolas maybe distracted more than usual lately, but he isn't stupid. Of course his ex wife would beg to differ."

"Trust me, I've used that same bit on my mother plenty of times. It never fails."

So Charlie did as Vaggie suggested and Stolas believed her. Then Charlie placed a few pillows under the blankets of her bed, turned off the lights, and climbed out the window and down the old sycamore tree with Vaggie. Together they sneaked away to the bridge and once again crossover into Mystique Hollow. However, Charlie had left the window to her room open so that she would be able to sneak back in later and that allowed something that had been hiding on the rooftop to fly into her room.

It was Louis, carrying a bag of items. He landed on Charlie's desk where she had left the book and used his talons to open it and flip though many pages. He stopped on the last page that Charlie had read and then opened up the bag he had brought with him. He had brought sheets of paper the kind as the book's pages, a collection of dry paint, a paint brush, a sketching pencil, and a container of ink. Plucking a feather from his body, he dipped one end into the ink and along with the other tools he brought, he began to add new pages to the story. Pages that he hoped would prove helpful to the girl and any other child that may read this book.

All children that it preyed upon, to this day, still remain a prisoner, a slave to it.

Then the owl started to write on the first new page.

All except one...