Some nights in the orphanage were very cold. I could hear the wind chiming outside and the windows vibrate as the kids shivered on our hard beds on the floor.

Cat had left for school when she turned 10 years old. Nights were lonelier without her. Ribbit and I snuck out together but I never took him to sit on that hill where Cat and I had enjoyed our secret nightly getaways. 

Being one of the older kids, I felt safer and more confident. No more beatings for doing the chores too slowly. As a bigger kid, I could easily shove and pick on the smaller kids. It was the way of things. I was very lucky Cat had been there to protect me when I was still too small to protect myself. Now I could fend for myself for the most part.

A few hundred meters behind our backyard was a twisted tree. Ribbit and I went there for timepass, playing catch with the smaller roots. A few dead bodies were usually lying around that tree, the ground soaked in their blood. If you are not careful, you die. It is the law.

The tree did not attack us immediately as we approached. We had played here for a long time so we knew that the roots reached somewhere between 3 to 4 meters long. When we sat down at a 4-meter distance, the tree did not move. Going closer would have been too dangerous so we waited until the tree lost its patience and moved one of the smaller roots just a little bit. Ribbit grabbed it with both hands and I used a knife I had stolen from Mrs. Hopscotch to cut through the root. The root then started bending and twisting, trying to escape as other roots made its way to attack us. Some scratches and cuts were unavoidable, but I knew Mrs. Hopscotch would never notice them. A root tied around Ribbit's hands and he struggled with it, I stabbed it several times. The tree let off for a second and we grabbed as many of the cut-off parts as we could before stepping back into safety. We would trade the ones we did not use ourselves with the other kids to get toys, food, and candy.

Ribbit's hands were bleeding a little bit and he looked at the tree vengefully. The roots were sucking up drops of his blood that had fallen onto the floor.

"I want to come back here when I have a proper weapon. I will kill this tree and build my own house with trees like this.", he spat on the floor. "Eat that."

I giggled at his joke. It was night and we were alone. This was the best time of our day for both of us, away from our callous caretaker and unhappy children. 

"What do you want to be when you grow up?", Ribbit asked, his thumb pressed on his wound.

"I don't know.", I stared into the distance the same way I had seen Cat do it.

"What do you want to be?", I asked him.

His chest was lifted with pride as he answered: "I will be one of Hades's closest bodyguards."

He looked at me expectingly, I shrugged. 

"It is the greatest job in the world. I will be right by our father's side, he will be so proud of me.", He insisted.

"Don't you want to be close to Hades?"

I shrugged again. "Maybe I don't want to work for Hades at all."

Ribbit looked at me, horror and shock floating over his face. "You can't do that!"

"But why?", I asked.

"You just can't"

We counted the roots. I cut the bigger ones in half. 

"I really want to go to school. I miss Cat", I said.

He smiled. "When we are in school we will be so much closer to working for Hades."

I shrugged half-heartedly as his enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

"Do you ever wonder what life is like outside of Chaus?"

He chuckled. "Buncha softies."

I chuckled in agreement. "They are so weak."