New home. - Part3

Arthur realized that the voice was getting farther away and ran after her, turning left into the corridor Arthur saw Maria lying on the sofa while changing the television channels with her cell phone. Arthur walked over to her and wanted to ask about the elevator, but seeing the living room he stopped in appreciation, the television in him room was already large, The television in the living room occupied an entire wall, glancing around he wasn't overly surprised as, apart from the television, everything else appeared quite ordinary, the sofa was identical to the one he had seen Samantha using earlier, with the only difference being that it was a little bigger, there was a desk next with flowers on it, and a table on top of a rug with another vase of flowers, Arthur took his time looking around and ended up forgetting to ask, which made the scene a little funny, since he just looked like a curious child looking around.

Maria stared at him and found his action a little strange, but at the same time she found it funny and couldn't help a slight smile appearing on her face as she thought 'If he's as proudly silly as Kat it might be funny to mess with him, let's see how he reacts first'.

- Cough, cough! - Maria forced out a cough as she stared at Arthur.

- Mn? - Arthur looked at Maria who had just let out a dry cough and realized that this was just to get his attention, his expression changed a little, showing a bit of confusion in his eyes when he asked. - Er... Did something happen? - Arthur knew the question was a bit stupid, but as he didn't even know why she had called him, he thought it was better to ask a stupid question than to act stupidly, as he really didn't know why she had called him.

- No, nothing..., But are you all right?" Maria asked as she looked at Arthur with a worried look.

- Mn? Me?" Arthur asked in surprise.

- Yes, you're looking around like a baby with an idiot face, I was worried. - Maria said with a worried look on her face while holding back the urge to laugh.

- What?" Arthur stood for a few seconds after answering a question awkwardly, he didn't even really understand what was going on; looking at Maria's expression he remembered the people at the orphanage when they were worried about him, but what she said was clearly an insult, and even if it wasn't relevant, Arthur was still a child and no matter how much he tried to be more mature than he actually was, he was still only eight in the end. - I'm not a baby! I was just curious, AND I'M NOT AN IDIOT!!! - Arthur shouted with his eyebrows furrowed and his fists clenched.

- Fufufu... - Maria smiled at Arthur's reaction which made him even angrier; observing Arthur's reactions Maria was pleased with her new job 'identical to Kat, it'll be fun to play with, no, teach him. This is definitely going to be interesting,' Maria thought as she smiled at Arthur's reactions.

Maria decided to calm him down a little as Clare would be arriving soon, but as soon as she sat down the lights went out and the only light left was the moonlight that had just become more visible with the end of the sunset. Maria looked at the television and waited a few seconds, seeing that the light hadn't come back on despite the generator Maria frowned and reached for her cell phone, when she saw that there was no signal she got up and covered Arthur's mouth who was still looking annoyed despite being silent looking around; as soon as Maria covered Arthur's mouth he wanted to push her and ask her what she was doing, but before he could do that he heard her whispering. - Arthur, stay close to me for a while and don't make a sound.

Arthur was confused by what she said, but seeing how serious she was he decided to stay quiet and obey, he was dragged by Maria to the window of the house and waited while he watched her open the latches of the window and lift it carefully; after opening the window Maria picked Arthur up and put him in the yard, passing by the window too she closed it and muttered. - What the fuck, Clare! You could at least ask me to wear one of the costumes, fighting without one is shit! Sigh... - After sighing, Maria looked at Arthur and spoke. - You have to listen to everything I say, understand?

Arthur didn't understand the situation, but still nodded in agreement. Maria saw this and grabbed Arthur's hand, dragging him across the yard. Arthur tried to observe his surroundings, but with the sudden blackout in the house he would only have the help of the street lamps and the moonlight, and as the grounds of the house were huge, the street lamps weren't much help and the moonlight didn't illuminate the surroundings very well, so he could only see a few meters in front of him, which wasn't very useful, as Maria was dragging him along a path full of bushes; he continued to be dragged for a few more minutes until he reached a lake.

Although there was no longer any light from the setting sun reflecting on the lake, he still recognized it as the same artificial lake that he had seen through the window earlier. He was still inside the bushes while looking at the lake, when he suddenly heard voices coming from above.

- Haven't you found him yet? You know they won't be able to hold that freak for long.

- I know, I know, but that little shit must have hidden as soon as we cut the power.

- Look hard, their house is big after all; if we can kidnap him, we can get him out of jail...

- Right, get some people to look in their garden too.

- Right... - The voice paused and then sighed before saying. - I hope he's still in the house, this garden is really big.

After that, Arthur didn't hear anything else until Maria complained. - Fuck! Are those bastards here? - Maria's hand began to exert more force until Arthur tried to pull his hand away. As soon as he did, the grip softened, and he heard Maria's voice again.

- I'm sorry, I got carried away... Well, we're in a bit of trouble so I hope you'll let it go. - Maria said, lowering her voice.

- Right... - Arthur spoke as he stared at Maria's expression, at the moment she looked annoyed, but at the same time he noticed a small glimmer of fear, which made him curious. - Maria? - Arthur called out to Maria in a low voice.

- Mn?

- Can I ask you a question? - Arthur ignored the obvious irritation in Maria's eyes as he asked.

- You've already asked the question, now keep quiet or they might find us. - Maria replied as she turned and ignored Arthur's irritated face. After Maria turned around, Arthur didn't speak again, he just thought 'WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ANSWER?!' and although he was cursing Maria inwardly, he did as she said and stayed silent while being guided by her.

Maria dragged Arthur around the lake while she hid in the bushes next to the lake, she wanted to stay close to the lake as the moonlight reflecting off the water gave her greater visibility, however, this would only be useful beforehand to see someone approaching and the moment they got closer they would only have the advantage to hide in the bushes while going in the opposite direction, if that happened she would have to deal with losing the source of the light, and with possible noises that could attract everyone to her position which would be a big problem given who was trying to kidnap Arthur at the moment.

They managed to stay for more than ten minutes in a certain tranquility as they circled the lake, but after a few more minutes, to Maria's dismay, the situation changed. Arthur heard some footsteps and felt his hand being lightly tugged by Maria, he couldn't see her expression since she was on her back as she pulled him, but he could still tell from Maria's shaking hand that the situation wasn't very good, he ended up looking back out of curiosity and managed to catch a glimpse of a person, the person was wearing a battle suit used by the army, the suit consisted of some parts of armored and resistant metal, the metal parts were all connected by thick wires with metal on them, but what caught Arthur's attention most was the helmet, similar to a motorcycle helmet, only more compact and with a blue light similar to a half-moon in the right eye, Arthur looked mainly at the half-moon that was where the eye should have been on the helmet, he looked at it because whenever the man looked around the half-moon was completed with a red circle.

The man dressed in a combat suit continued to scan the landscape and the half circle continued to fill with red. - FUCK! What the fuck, they only gave us fifteen minutes?! - The man shouted after a message appeared on the inside of his visor.

"This is already the second chapter where the last paragraph has disappeared when viewed on cell phones. To avoid this, I've decided to duplicate this message at the end of each chapter, hoping it will resolve the issue. If you're reading this, I apologize if it's intrusive, but it's a better solution than leaving the chapter incomplete."