Mistaken

The Next Day

"Mademoiselle, I'm going out now. See you this evening"

" Hey Charlotte, I didn't hire you so that you can run around the neighbourho-"

THUMP!

"Who does she think I am? Her grandmother?!"

"Who knows. You could be…." Roux who was still standing on the display quipped wittily.

"Shut up Roux! Someone could see your mouth moving through the window"

"Ouhh come on…Let her be mademoiselle. It's not like you really need an assistance in the first place and if I'm not mistaken she was talking about giving food to the orphans who was living at the slum. She's going around doing good things"

"I know. But it is dangerous out there. She had a powerful ability and not to mention she might be targeted by the dark side people for working with The Morpheus."

"Don't worry mademoiselle. The Watchers would tell us if she was in need of help. For the time being, what do you think about THE missing children cases?" the mannequin directed the mademoiselle's attention toward fliers detailing about the missing children that were glued on the wall.

" I think it was ordinary kidnappers. Might have nothing to do with the Underworld" the mademoiselle casually blowing up smokes from her tobacco pipe.

"Do you think so?"

"What's wrong Roux? Have you seen anything suspicious lately?"

"No. But that's what makes everything even more suspicious. If this kidnappers were ordinary people, I could have seen something on the streets. But nothing seemed amiss on the street lately"

"Hmm…that make sense" The mademoiselle nodded in agreement.

"Moreover, I could feel something is different in this shop." Upon saying that, the mannequin immediately pulled the curtain to covered the display area and walked toward the mademoiselle.

"Something feels off in this shop. They were certain times at night that I could not remember anything" The mannequin stared off to the space trying to search for the memories that she had probably forgotten.

"When did this start?"

"Two weeks ago"

"Two weeks?" the mademoiselle turned her head around to find the pipe that was mysteriously dropped on their doorstep two weeks ago on the shelf.

"Do you think this 'thing' caused all of this?" Roux went to the shelf and picked the pipe up.

"I don't know what 'this' that you are referring to, but, this pipe is definitely suspicious. My supplier had replied and stated that they did not send me any new antiques."

"What is your next plan?"

"I've contacted the watchers already to ask whether there is unprecedented move against The Morpheus or not. Let's see what they have to say"

********

Charlotte was running late and arrived at the place where she met Hyacinth later than they had promise. She had a bag filled with loaf bread in her hand in which she collected from the tavern's kitchen this morning. They were the leftover that were about to be threw if not for her saving them for better use.

However, the little girl with green eyes were nowhere to be found. She walked around the area and asked the people about Hyacinth, but most of them refused to even converse with her.

'That's weird. Hyacinth seemed excited to meet her yesterday.'

Charlotte also realized that the people on the street was looking at her with much disdain that was strangely absent in their eyes yesterday. What made these people changed their attitude toward her?

"THAT'S THE WOMAN! CAPTURE HER!!"

In a flash, Charlotte's hands were bound with a rope. Her sight went pitch black when 'someone' covered her head by using a rug sack. She was threw against her will onto a cartwheel and about to be taken to some other place.

Charlotte tried to yell but nobody was bothered to come and saved her. Who are these attackers? Where are they taking her? And most importantly why are they attacking her?!

After a while, it appeared that she had arrived at the attackers' place as the cart stop moving. Her attackers toughly grabbed her arm and dragged her into what it seemed to be an abandoned, old warehouse. Once inside, they threw her on the cold ground and untie the rope that bounded her hands.

Once the rug sack on her head was removed, Charlotte could clearly see the faces of her attackers. To her astonishment, she saw a group of young kids were lining up in front of her.

None of the kids appeared to be older than 13 years old. They were four boys and three girls in total. All of the kids looked unkempt in shabby clothes.

"Who are you people and why you are doing this to me?" Charlotte tried to start a conversation with the kids. They looked harmless to her.

"Stop feigning innocent. Where did you take Hyacinth?" one of the boys began to bark loudly at her.

"Hyacinth? Yes, I was looking for Hyacinth. Are you guys by any chance Hyacinth's friend? Thank goodness I've found you. I tried to look for her the entire afternoon coz I promised her these food�� she took out the bag that was attached to her dress.

She could see the small ones were practically swallowing their saliva when she opened the bag. Poor babies! Even stale loaf made them salivating hard!

"Do you want some?" she offered one of the loaves to the smallest girl in the group. The little girl was about to take the loaf before being thwarted by the oldest boy.

"Hey…that's not nice.." Charlotte reprimand the oldest boy. He must be the leader of their little group.

"Don't you try to trick us with your loaves! You are the kidnapper right? Why did you kidnap Hyacinth and all the missing kids? Where did you kept them?!"

"I…..I didn't kidnap anyone…"

"Liar! Hyacinth went missing right after she said she was going out to meet the woman who gave her money yesterday! First you lured her with money. And today you are doing the same with loaves of bread!"

Charlotte's patient is getting thinner by minutes.

"Hey! Watch your mouth. If I wanted to kidnap her, I'd do it yesterday. Why would I delayed it one day with these loaves. Come here girl, let's eat the bread before it gets colder"

Without hesitation, the little girl ran with excitement toward Charlotte. She took the loaf from Charlotte's hand and found a perfect spot on her lap to enjoy the the treat.

Seeing that their friend was eating comfortably on the strange woman's lap, the other small kids swarmed around Charlotte to get the same treatment from her.

"Now, now. Be careful. Eat slowly, no one's going to take the bread from you"

In a blink of an eye, Charlotte managed to get into the smaller kids' good side with the food that she brought with her. She then proceed to lift her eyebrow twice as a gesture to challenge the older boys to do the same.

Some of them seemingly swayed when they smelled the lovely aroma of the loaf, but the oldest one stood unmoved. He still had his determine facial expression on his face. He seemed to be one of the young boys who won't budge even if Charlotte offer full course meal to him.

The sound of rumbling stomach -however- defied their determination. The other boys had already looking at each other guiltily.

"Go on and eat if you wanted to" the oldest boy in which Charlotte assumed to be leader surprisingly encouraged his friends to eat the bread.

"But what about you?" one of his friend asked.

"I won't take anything from a suspicious stranger" he uttered the words with full vehement.

"Alright now, listen to me kid. I am may be a stranger, but I'm not a suspicious kidnapper. In fact, you guys took me away without my consent and that makes me the one who was being kidnapped here"

"She got a point Charlie" one of the boys interject.

"How many times do I have to tell you, do not call me by real name Bill!"

"Charlie? Your name is Charlie? My name is Charlotte. Nice to meet you Charlie, Bill" she nodded her head to both boys.

"My name is Rose" the little girl in her lap cut in excitedly.

"Well, nice to meet you Rose" she patted the little girl's head.

"Urghhhh!!" Charlie appeared to be annoyed with this turn of event.

"Sit down Charlie, Bill and everyone else. I am not your enemy."

Realizing that they did not have any other options, the older boys (including Charlie) hesitantly filled the spot around her.

Charlotte then proceed to happily hand the remaining loaves to the boys.

"Fill up your tummy. We're going to talk about Hyacinth later"

*****

Meanwhile back in the antique shop

"She's late! It's getting darker and she was nowhere to be found! What should we do mademoiselle?"

"Hmmm…I decided to cut her today's salary. She shouldn't take her works easy like this" The mademoiselle responded casually.

"I agreed. She should take her job seriously. This is only her third week and she already abandoned her duties!" The mannequin though so.