Chapter 2: Alerted

Across the location of Ryder and Lily was a cottage soaked in a palette of brown. Sitting on a chair in the kitchen was Charlotte Thome, facing her husband, Henry Thome. "Where's Ryder?", she asked, hoping that the answer wouldn't be the same one she was expecting.

"I don't know, probably out playing again?" he responded, to which Charlotte sighed heavily at. For all they knew, it was probably true, except for one thing: what Henry thought of 'playing' was usually something that would get Ryder in trouble.

In the small town of Seaside Haven, Ryder was pretty much the only troublemaker, as far as she knew. He was always doing annoying but harmless things like throwing soft eggs at people, ruining outfits, causing people to trip, 'borrowing' small things in mass to make people feel crazy, and other shenanigans like that. However, sometimes, he would do harmful pranks, like hurting someone, ruining their days, or… well, not really anything else.

His routine was usually twice every week, switching from Monday and Thursday to Tuesday and Friday.

As Charlotte was looking for a calendar to check what day of the week it was, there was a sudden scream coming from an alleyway that, despite sounding far away, was more like a screech; and she could only assume it was from a far away distance.

Though Charlotte paid more attention to Ryder's routine and antics, and therefore would be able to assume where the screech was coming from (if it came from something or someone caused by Ryder), her husband, Henry, was able to locate where the screech was much faster, as he had ears of an owl.

"Let's go!" He nearly shouted, running to the car, as Charlotte ran behind him. Despite his usual carelessness for basically everything, Henry was sensitive to possible dangerous situations happening to others, due to a childhood trauma, so whenever he heard a scream, he would immediately put down whatever he was doing to go help.

Arriving only three minutes later, since the town was relatively small, both Henry and Charlotte immediately ran around, trying to locate the source of the screech, though it was tough as it had stopped.

"That way," Charlotte yelled at Henry, pointing to a narrow alleyway that Henry hadn't thought to look through, and sure enough, Ryder and Lily were there, looking down at an old lady who seemed to be in pain, lying on the floor.