Teams

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"Are you enjoying it here?" Isabella asked Sister Krona later that night.

"Oh, of course!" Sister Krona said uneasily. "Your children are a delight. They're all so intelligent and very well behaved."

"Quite. And speaking of which, you've been on your best behavior as well."

At that, Sister Krona stuttered. "Y-yes..."

Isabella smiled. "It's good that you're trying to gain their trust. You even played tag with them. I was worried you'd be too spontaneous, but it's been fine."

Sister Krona's glare darkened.

"You're just insurance." Isabella continued. ""The only reason I called for you in the first place was simply to make sure that the products were protected. So you see, those who know the secret are not your concern. All you have to do is keep working hard. Pretend to be obedient to me, and laugh about having leverage."

"I-I would never..." Sister Krona stuttered.

"Your soul purpose to being at this house is to be my pawn." Isabella said. She stood up and walked up to her. "But, if you behave...."

"I'll award you the mom position you so desire. You have my word."

Sister Krona narrowed her eyes at Isabella. She sweated as the older woman cupped her cheek. "Now I know you're a smart girl, so try not to make any more errors."

After a goodnight, Sister Krona silently shut the door and staggered back into her own bedroom. She walked up to her bed and picked up her baby doll. The more she thought of what Isabella thought of her, the woman's glare darkened and she began ripping her favorite doll out of anger, pulling its head off. She squeezed it angrily. "HOW DARE SHE!!!"

Sister Krona angrily slammed the baby doll's head on the ground and began stomping on it, letting all her anger out. "JUST WATCH! YOU'LL SEE! I'LL DRAG YOU DOWN! YOU WITCH!!!"

Her angry panting soon turned into sinister laughter. "And then soon....I will be mom here!"

The next morning, Penny stood outside with Emma, Norman, and Ray, helping them with laundry. She stared at the tool she was holding.

"Emma, Penny."

The girls started and turned to him. Norman smiled. "We should start playing tag in teams from now on!"

"What makes you think that?" Penny asked, glancing curiously at the white-haired boy.

"Honestly, most would die if they escaped on their own." Ray said, giving the girls a knowing look.

"C'mon, Ray!" Emma snapped.

"Not to say that they don't have some protentional." The raven haired boy said, glancing down. "But we shouldn't let them run solo."

"Ray's actually correct about this, Emma." Penny said. "I don't see why not. It would even be more fun for the kids."

"Penny's right." Norman said. "We'll make formations and then take off in teams."

"That way we can simulate the real escape." Ray said, and those eight words made Penny shudder. "The real one...." she and Emma muttered at the same time.

"I had another idea as well," Norman said quickly.

Ray, Penny, and Emma turned to him.

Norman turned serious. "Let's tell Don and Gilda. If we get them on our side, then they can be team leaders."

"I think that's a good idea, too." Penny said. "It'll be useful when we execute the real escape. And Don and Gilda will be a big help with the other kids...."

"And what if they turn out to be Mom's informants?" Ray snapped, interrupting Penny.

"I...hadn't thought of that..." Penny said, sheepishly hugging herself and looking down.

Norman smiled at them. "Don't worry. I'll basically be killing two birds with one stone. Just leave it all to me." He put his finger to his lips. "I've already made arrangements."

"You have?" Penny asked, surprised. "That was fast."

"Emma. Penny."

The girls turned to Ray.

"Listen." The boy continued. "Memorize these formations. They're a hundred of them."

"A-a-a hun-hundred?!" Penny squeaked out, dropping her basket of clothes in shock. Emma had the same expression as well. "Wait, do you mean by ear?"

"That a problem?"

Emma thought for a moment and glanced at Penny. "Well, what do you think?"

Penny smirked, and she and Emma turned to Ray and said in sync, "Easy peasy!"

"The goal here is to not get caught." Ray said, giving the teams instructions. "You have ten minutes. Go!"

Penny ran with Emma's team, assisting her with the younger ones. Emma turned to the kids and yelled gleefully, "Everyone, follow me and Penny!"

Norman grinned at his team. "Let's surprise Ray by winning!"

"We got this in the bag!" Don grinned.

In the forest, the game continued. Emma gave a signal to Norman's team, and he separated his group from hers. Emma glanced around and gave a signal to her teammates, and they went to their knees as planned. Penny turned to the kids with a pleased smile on her face.

Phil glanced up at her and laughed excitedly.

After the game finished, they met back at Ray's normal tree by the house.

"That was so fun!" Phil cheered.

Emma walked up to him with a smile. "You did pretty amazing out there, Phil!"

"Can we do that again?" Don grinned. "And this time, I wanna be a leader!"

"Maye we should take a break first." Gilda said suddenly, giving the kids a gentle smile.

"Good idea, Gilda." Penny said. She turned to Ray, Norman, and Emma, and they nodded. They walked to the back of the house and refreshed themselves with ice cold water. Penny sighed as she gulped hers in one gulp.

"This is a great idea!" Emma said, pulling Penny from her thoughts. The brown haired girl turned to Emma as the orange haired girl continued. "I think it will work!"

Ray glanced up at the kids and turned to Phil. "Emma, Penny, what's Phil's score?"

"Phil?" Penny asked. "What about his score?"

Emma hummed. "I'm pretty sure he's avenging about 203."

"Pretty high." Norman said.

"When we played tag with Sister, and now, he was one of the last left." Ray frowned suspiciously. "How odd. And on top of that, he and Sherry are always looking for you three."

Emma thought for a moment and nearly flipped out. "Ahh, stop it! I don't wanna suspect him! There's no way!"

"You've got to be more suspicious of everyone, ya dummy!" Ray snapped at Emma. "This is life or death!"

Noticing Emma and Penny both tense up as they scanned the crowd of people ahead of them, Norman broke the silence. "Hey, Ray?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you any closer to breaking the tracking devices? How much time do you need?"

"Let's see here...about ten days."

"Right. Then ten days from now."

Penny, Ray, and Emma jumped, turning to Norman in surprise as the white-haired boy continued. "That's when we'll break out of this place. On November 8th,"

Penny, Emma, and Ray gasped.

"Wait!" Emma stuttered. "That's so soon, which is fine, but..."

"T-ten days..." Penny stuttered, shocked.

Ray glared at Norman. "Are you crazy?! Connie was shipped two weeks ago. And shipments go out every two months! So we should have a month and a half! Weren't we supposed to use that time to carefully prepare our plan?!"

"Yeah, but see? You're only thinking that way because Mom is controlling us to think that way." Norman pointed out. "So I say we outwit her."

"We're likely to fail when we rush. What then, Norman?!" Ray snapped.

"We need to escape before winter comes." Norman carried on his point. "Once we break the devices, we'll execute the escape plan."

"That actually makes sense." Penny said, staring at Norman. "I'm seeing your point, but that also means we have a little over a week to do everything..."

Norman nodded at his little sister.

Ray gritted his teeth.

Emma narrowed her eyes. "So let's talk to Don and Gilda about the plan tonight."