They Who Hide Under Top Hats

Edmond had no idea what he had gotten himself into. His superior, who was a Boroughman, had told him to go with a small troop to Avarier Theater, one of the largest theaters in Everton Borough. He had been told that there had been an incident. And incident regarding the Everton Family, the Great House that ran Everton Borough. Edmond didn't think much of the Great Houses, he thought they were all posh imbeciles who let innocent Circulions die for their politics. So naturally he assumed it was some minor issue. But once he got to the theater what he saw shocked him to his very core.

It was a bloodbath.

Everyone who had attended the opera that day way lying dead on the floor in puddles of blood. Some seats had holes in them from gunfire. Bodies were left hanging from the upper balconies and even the actors on stage were not spared the brutality.

"Why did they kill the actors? They were human," Edmond asked himself. There was no question about who had committed this atrocity. It had been the Order of Man and their vicious Hunters. And while Edmond wasn't the biggest supporter of the Great Houses, he still wouldn't wish such a grizzly fate onto anyone.

"Look, the swine even hung the bodies on stage," said Jack, one of the other soldiers. Edmond looked towards the stage. He saw seven bodies hung by nooses hanging just above the stage floor. There were two men, two women and three children. It was the sight of children hanging from the ceiling that disgusted Edmund.

"I never thought the Order of Man would be so brazen," said Jack morbidly observing the hanging bodies.

"The Circle will get their revenge. I suspect it was trap, a sabotage. The Order of Man isn't supposed to know where members of the Great Houses are at any given time," said Edmond.

"Right you are. I hear it was an intentional betrayal. I've heard rumors that it was a Guildsman in the Actors Guild. Someone they threatened or bribed. According to the rumors, the poor fool turned himself in once he heard about what happened here so I imagine they must have tricked him," said Jack.

"Maybe, but how?" Edmond thought as he inspected the bodies strewn around the stage. How had the Order of Man gotten to a Guildsman? It should have been impossible. If what Jack said was true, then he knew that Guildsman would be tried and most likely executed. An incident like this may even spark a war between the Circle and the Order of Man.

"I still can't believe a Great House is dead." he said.

"This is the doing of that new Montgomery fella. The one who took over the Order more than a decade ago. He must have been planning this for years. This is the most damage that Order has done to the Circle in centuries. Curse that entire dynasty! His forefathers must be singing over what he has done here!" said Jack.

Edmond went silent. He walked along the corpses covering his boots in blood. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. It wasn't like any of them were alive. But just as he was about to turn around and leave he heard a faint voice.

"Help" it said. "Help…"

Edmond immediately rushed to the place where he thought he had heard the voice. It sounded like a little boy. He began to move the bodies around him, suspecting that maybe he was trapped beneath the corpses. He pushed aside all the old and bloody bodies until he spotted a small hand sticking out from under a corpse of large man. He saw the fingers of the hand twitch and moving.

"Help me…"

"Hey! I think I have someone here!" he shouted desperately.

Edmond began to lift the body on top of the boy as Jack and some other soldiers came rushing to his aid. Once Jack reached him, he and Edmond pulled away the body of the man. Edmond then saw a boy lying on the floor completely covered in blood. His eyes were closed at first but as they shoved away the corpse on top of him he let out a large gasp as though he had been choking on the blood coming out of the corpse. Edmond immediately grabbed the child and hoisted him up to a sitting position. The boy started to breathe rapidly as though he were in a panic. But Edmond tried his best to calm him down.

Edmond the examined the boy, he looked about twelve years old and was neatly dressed in a waistcoat and suit. Edmond noticed the Circulion pin he had on his suit so he knew the boy was member of the Circle.

"You, boy. Are you alright?"

"The men with…the… the angle faces. They killed… killed everyone!" the boy gasped. Edmond held his hand and instructed him to take deep breaths. The boy obliged.

"Do you have a name?" he asked. The boy turned his head towards him and gave a scared glare as tears rolled down his cheeks.

"My name is… is… Uly… Ulysses. Ulysses… Everton,"

The moment the boy said that name a wide stare enveloped Edmond's face. The shock nearly overwhelmed him and this true for all the other soldiers too. He saw Jack's mouth drop.

"Impossible…" he told himself while in his surprised state. A state that jack brought him out of by coming close to him and whispering into his ear.

"Edmond, take this boy out of this theater. We'll have to burn it to the ground to avoid suspicion." He said. Edmond simply nodded and lifted the boy up into his arms and carried him out of the theater as the soldiers set fire to the place.

"The Order's plan had failed." He thought to himself. "The House of Everton lives on."