Walking inside of HQ, I take off my hat and fall onto the comfy couch. Alice runs to my side and jumps with her hands on the couch frame for support.
“Tea party! Tea party! Tea party!” She chants happily over and over again. I pat her on the head and get back up.
“Alright hold on buddy,” I say as I turn my attention to the others. “We have to see if Poe is okay.” Alice pouts and crosses her arms defiantly. Alice… She was a girl who was found next to her parent’s corpses after an incident she doesn’t even remember the details of. All she knows is that she killed her parents with her guardian, DIE4ME, or 4 for short. She was later taken into the knights by Claudius, who saw potential in her… which is what he says for everyone here. But overall, she was a pretty sweet girl if you didn’t get on her bad side.
“But I have something to tell you!!!!” She says whining. I was about to say something, but 4 speaks up for me.
“Lady Alice, before the tea party, wouldn’t it be wise to restitch me together so you won’t have to during the party? That way, Hero can go and talk with the others while you have something to do to wait.” Alice thinks about it and nods, a smile beaming from her face.
“Okay! I’ll go do that now! See you soon, Hero!” She says running off to her dorm. I smile and shake my head before turning back to the others. I go into the office with them as Poe sits on the table.
“You saw the signs!” Castor said, prancing back and forth in front of him. “Why didn’t you tap out sooner? Now since “Mister easy going” over there sliced up your book, you’re gonna need another way to summon Lancelot!”
“You could have simply taken over. Virtual Insanity was already active, wasn’t it?” Poe answers back calmly, taking a sip of coffee. Castor holds his hands out angrily as he slams the table.
“I TOLD YOU! CLAUDIUS TOLD ME TO FOCUS ON SUPPORT! YOU CAN’T PUT THE BLAME ON ME! ARE YOU MOCKING ME?!” I quickly ran in between the two two of them before Castor did something drastic. He takes a deep breath and slaps himself in the face before turning back to his desk. “Stupid Hero, having to step in…” He mummers to himself as Claudius walks into the room.
“Ah, I see Poe has made a recovery. Marvelous. Now let's prepare the plans.”

He says placing down a diagram on the table. I was never really a fan of his “plans” He overexplains everything like this is a game of baseball, and I LIKE baseball, so it’s a shocker that this was so boring to me! Just before I dozed off, I suddenly felt light on my right hand… I turned around and it was completely dislocated from my arm, falling to the ground with a thud. Blood gushes out, staining the carpet underneath me as I pick up my hand and place it back to its proper spot. “Hero… I told you NOT to doze off!” He says sternly. “Perhaps it was a mistake even bringing you into this organization if you can’t even pay attention for 5 minutes!” I suddenly feel my hand reattached to my body as I feel my wrist… that was his Guardian. He never uses it for combat and the only times I see him use it is when he’s punishing me for whatever reason… I still don’t even know the full power of this thing since Poe, Alice, Castor, and I are the only ones who fight for him. I pretend to pay attention for a couple excruciating minutes until everyone (except me) understands the assignment. Welp, time for the only good part of being in this shitty place. Alice’s tea parties. I took a step into her dorm and there she was, in a plastic pink chair at a plastic pink table. Her room was surrounded with red cardboard hearts and black and white stripes. Something straight out of a wonderland. I sit next to 4 as she happily “pours” me a cup of tea. She never actually has actual tea since it’s all pretend, but I’m happy to play along with her.
“Lady Alice,” 4 starts from across the table “Didn’t you have something to say to Hero?” Alice perks up and nods, looking down at the table. She seems hesitant to say this but she looks up at me and whispers softly.
“I uh…” She looks ashamed of herself as she admits this. “I’m scared of dying now…” …Well that's a shock. The whole motto of this organization. Wait no- it’s our belief. There wasn’t really anything of loss if any of us died, so why should we fear it? Like Claudius said, ‘it’s just an endless slumber.’ Before I could speak, she responded as if she read my mind. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely fine with ending the lives of others, but… your life is special to me. If I die, or even worse, if you die, we won’t have moments like these again…” her voice cracks slightly as she uses a napkin to wipe her eyes.

“Claudius always says that it’s just going to sleep for eternity, but what if I want to wake up to see the stars?” …I never thought about it that way. But then again, If I’d die, I probably wouldn’t be conscious to regret anything… but… I can’t just do nothing and watch this child get hurt by the beliefs this system puts on her. After the tea party, I headed into my dorm, thinking about what to do… And then I remembered, Zach. He risked his life for that girl, but I still never knew why. Maybe the reason was what Alice said…? I guess I have to see for myself. Once no one was around, I grabbed my bat, my hat, my medication, and headed out of my dorm. If those guys can bring down the Knights, Alice could be free to make her own choices… I opened the back door slowly but a certain voice made me freeze in place.
“Where are you going?” I turned around and saw Poe, with a new book, standing there with a stern expression. “Don’t tell me you finally plan on betraying the group.” Yikes… I forgot how good he is at reading people… Oh maybe that's why his guardian is- Nevermind, I gotta focus.
“No I was just… Getting groceries! Yeah! That's right!” I say standing straight like a soldier from the army. Poe shakes his head and turns around.
“If you go in the next 10 seconds, I’ll pretend I never saw anything. But be wary, if we meet again, I won’t hold back.” Wow… I guess this was his way of saying thank you. Well I should probably get the hell out of there… I ran off, bat in hand, trying to find those guys… It’s going to be hard to gain their trust… but I have to risk it all for her… I suddenly spotted them all at the park with that Kingsman guy I only heard rumors about. He’s holding a woman in his arms. It doesn’t look like she was awake… Wait, who's the homeless guy on the tree?

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