MADELINE'S P.O.V.

"Uh...Madeline?" Madison said my name. "You need to come over here right now."

I spun around and tilted my head to the side. "What is the matter, sis? You concerned about that pimple on your leg? Providence said that it would go away on its own."

"Madeline, you need to see this for yourself."

"You want me to see your pimple?"

"Just get over here!"

I took one last glance at Night and the baby bunnies before I scrambled across the room and to Madison's bed. She had her blankets up and was peering under them for some reason. She scooted so I could see just what was hiding between her legs. When I made out that it was an animal, a real hedgehog, I pressed my hands to my cheeks and squealed.

Madison frowned at me and slapped a hand over my mouth. "You need to use your inside voice, sister of mine," she whispered. "We do not want Providence or any of the orphans to barge into our room. And we certainly do not want the bunnies to be stolen."

Almost all of the orphans are jealous of us. They are jealous of me and my twin because they believe that we both receive special treatment from Providence and the other mistresses. I want to make it clear to you readers that neither of us have ever received any special treatments. We are treated like all the other orphans and are always on our best behavior.

Maybe that is why they do not like me and Madison. Maybe they are jealous that we always behave.

The hedgehog was sooooo cute! He was sniffing and walking around. He was sniffing Madison's legs. The sheets. I opened my hand and slipped it underneath and waited for the animal to crawl in my palm.

"What are you doing?!" Madison hissed.

"Do not worry. I am being extra careful," I reassured her.

The hedgehog crawled to my open hand and sniffed my fingers. Then my palm. Then he crawled into my palm and continued sniffing.

I carefully brought out the creature and watched him with amazement. I had never seen a hedgehog in all my life. I have seen them on the Internet, but I never had seen one in real life. By how big he was, I could determine that he was an adult.

"Mr. Prickles," Night said. "Wonderful to have you."

I figured that he was referring to the hedgehog. "You know this hedgehog?"

"His full name is Mr. Prickles. He is known as one of the most loyal hedgehogs in the agency. Why do you not tell these lovely girls about yourself?"

The hedgehog named Mr. Prickles stood on his hind legs and cleared his throat. "I would love to if only I had the...wait a minute. Why should I tell these girls - these humans - about myself?" He looked at Night. "Why the heck are you talking in front of them?" He gasped and pressed his paws to his cheeks. "Why the heck am I talking in front of them?!"

The talking hedgehog leaped as high as he could off my palm and landed on my bed. He scurried to the end of my covers, grabbed them with his mouth, and tugged them off the bed.

Can you readers guess what was under my covers? A hedgehog!

There was another hedgehog in our room. He looked the same as Mr. Prickles - except that there was one major difference. This poor animal was missing two body parts. Both his paw and his arm on the left side were gone. He just had three paws.

It is easy to tell that his paw and arm are not there if you pay attention to how he walks. He does not walk like Mr. Prickles or other hedgehogs. He sometimes stumbles or falls on his side.

I was on the verge of tears. It breaks my heart when an animal is having problems doing something that we and animals take for granted. I wanted to scoop him up and give him lots of love. And that is exactly what I did. I carefully scooped him up and held him close to my chest.

"You poor thing," I said, tears blocking my vision. "I am going to hug you and kiss you and feed you and comb you and love you forever."

The adorable hedgehog looked up at me and cleared his throat. "You do realize that I am an adult, right?"

"I do not care if you are a baby or an adult. You need all the love that you can get."

"Are you just saying that because I am missing a paw and an arm?"

"Yes, but I mean what I say. I promise to help in any way that I can."

"I do not need your help, human. Why the crub am I even talking to you? You and the rest of you humans should never know that animals like me have a high intelligence."

"I promise that my sister and I will not tell a soul."

"That is not good enough."

The hedgehog jumped from my grasp and landed on his three paws. He was now on top of the white stand where Night and his babies and their cage were. My eyes went wide as he pulled out a small, black object. It was a gun. But I did not think that it was real.

"Awe. The cutie is pointing his toy gun at me," I said.

He pointed the gun towards the ceiling - and fired.

My twin sister almost fell out of her bed. As for me, I was startled by the sound of the gunshot.

"Definitely a real gun!" Madison shouted.

I looked at her. "What happened to inside voices?" I questioned.

"Wobbles, please," Night said calmly. "Please put the gun down. These girls are not going to hurt you."

Wobbles looked at him. "I...I killed someone. I killed a human."