It had seemed the whole town had witnessed the display out in the streets. In a matter of moments, a whole assortment of people walked by the shop to peer in through the windows, but only a handful came in to see if she was alright. Elsa had left quickly but Kelly had barely noticed as her presence was quickly replaced by Veera.

Kelly had stopped shaking after Veera had forced tea and cookies on her. After she was sufficiently calm and Elsa had returned from whatever errand she had excused herself for she was escorted over to the Silk Road where the itinerary said she was to go next.

Elsa was very nice to her for the rest of the day, being sure to ask her over and over if she was okay, and to casually drape her arm over Kelly's shoulder whenever she answered. She even let Kelly ask her all the questions she wanted about her and her eight arms. At the end of the day, Elsa let Kelly leave early—albeit not happily—to go get dinner for her and Sammy before heading to go pick Sammy up.

Even Veera hadn't been too happy to let Kelly take the meal, but in the end she let her do it, so long as she took Franklin his meal as well. She thought that was a bit strange but she did it anyway. She walked to Mother Hubbard's Daycare with a wary eye on the sky in case the creature—which was confirmed by the town's folk as a Harpy—came back for a second shot at her. As a result she walked more quickly, even though her arms were laden down with the cartons of food and very frequently veered off the path as she wasn't quite looking where she was going.

When she made it to the daycare she was out of breath but smiling as Sammy came sprinting out of the door, his new backpack on his back and an excited grin on his face.

"Did you have fun?" Kelly didn't really need to ask but she did anyway.

This launched Sammy into a long description of the day, of meeting the new kids. How he was scared of them at first and hid inside a tent but they all were super nice and no one tried to eat him. So he made friends with them all at once. There was Aswella, the girl with the bird features, who was sort of stand-offish from the others, Mira, the little cat girl who was clearly the leader of the group, and then David the mummy and Tom who apparently was a werewolf, but only a baby wolf because he wasn't full grown yet and didn't know how to transform yet.

He talked about how brave they thought her to be, no one stood up to Scary Franklin the Undead Mayor, but they had watched Kelly do it with awe. Kelly thought it a bit sad that the kids were all scared of Franklin, especially since he was at the daycare often. She would have thought they would have liked their teacher's boyfriend.

They turned up the walkway to the Mayor's office, the giant black bricked mansion stood silently imposing above them like a great mountain of a building. Kelly couldn't help but stop and just stare at the place. It was the type of mansion a horror movie would take place in.

Sammy had to tug her back into action and Kelly was forced to put a brave face on for her little brother. She smiled down to him happy to see the carefree crinkles around his eyes that she hadn't seen in such a long time. For the first time since she got here she felt a small bit of true happiness. For those two seconds their eyes connected a bit of the pressure and worry lifted from Kelly's shoulders.

Then she opened the door and saw the glaring receptionist and all of that came crashing back.

Kelly was getting used to seeing weird hybrid creatures and at least she knew the name of this one. The receptionist was a cyclops, with one eye and a greyish complexion that didn't look all that healthy. She was wearing drab clothes and had stringy brown shoulder length hair. Kelly had recovered from her shock quickly but Sammy was not as fast.

"Kelly," he whispered tugging her arm, "What's wrong with her face?"

Kelly smiled and laughed hoping to cover up the fact that her brother's whisper had barely been a whisper at all and the Cyclops had totally heard him. "I'm sorry, he's six and he doesn't..."

The cyclops just continued to glare so Kelly cleared her throat and decided to change the topic. "Okay, we'll I'm Franklin's 4:15. Do I go up or do I stay here?"

The Cyclops stared at her in disdain. She did not smile, nor did she attempt to introduce herself or be nice like the other in the town had been. Her brown eyes flicked up and down and a sneer of disgust graced her lips as she assessed Kelly's outfit. And to be fair, the outfit was pretty run down, she had been wearing it every other day for the last six months.

"Mr. Chambers is in a meeting. Sit down and I'll call you when he's ready," she said after a lengthy pause.

Kelly blinked her eyes. "Okay..." she said carefully. "Are you going to tell him I'm here?"

The Cyclops merely huffed and sat back down in her chair. Within seconds she was nose deep in a book and Kelly was seemingly forgotten. Kelly tried not to groan with aggravation, she pulled Sammy over to the chairs that literally looked like they had never been used and sat down. Sammy on one side, the cartons of food on the other.

Sammy tugged on her arm, "Kelly, I'm hungry!" he whispered into her ear. Kelly sighed, she didn't know how long Franklin's meeting would take.

"We'll wait five minutes and if he doesn't call us up, we can eat okay?" she asked. Sammy nodded and she ruffled his hair. "Why don't you start on your homework?"

"It's just coloring," Sammy said with a sulk, but when Kelly stared at him sternly he obliged, digging through his new backpack before spreading out sheets on the floor with this pencil crayons scattered around him. Within minutes it looked like he had unpacked half the school on the floor.

"God, Sammy, why did you make such a mess?" Kelly asked. She had been keeping one hand on the food so she could tell as it slowly got colder and colder beneath her palm.

Sammy only giggled and continued to colour and Kelly continued to sit there and tap her foot or her fingers against the cartons that were rapidly cooling off. The minutes trickled by, Sammy finished one page of coloring and moved onto another one, he had just learned to stay in the lines, every now and then he would hold it up and ask Kelly how he had done. She always answered with "Very good job! If we had a fridge it would be on it," which caused Sammy to smile and return to his coloring with a renewed vigor.

After at least twenty minutes of waiting there was a bang of a door from farther up the winding staircase and then Franklin came pounding down the stairs quickly, covered head to toe in a light dusting of red sparkles, he was too busy playing with the cuffs of his dark suit to notice Kelly or the Secretary jumping to their feet.

Franklin turned to the Secretary without even acknowledging Kelly. "Has the new girl come in yet?" he asked. The Secretary's one eye was wide but before she could answer he said: "She's late and she had direct orders to come here as soon as she was done with Elsa's. Elsa said she let her out early so she should have gotten here a long time ago. I'm going to have to go find her..."

"I'm right here," Kelly said and Franklin turned around to face her. Sammy had stopped coloring and was staring up at Franklin with wide eyes. Kelly waved at him. "See, you found me."

Franklin looked her up and down with appraising eyes as if he hadn't really paid attention the other times he had bumped into her that day and was only now considering her outer appearance. He turned back to the Secretary who was cowering in front of him.

"Did you purposely not let her up even though you knew I was waiting for her?" Franklin asked in a low tone.

Kelly heard the first of the Secretary's stutters as she ordered Sammy to pack up his mess so they could move. She interrupted any further argument the two of them could have by saying: "I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding."

Franklin turned back to her, the glare on his face spoke volumes of how he did not appreciate her stepping in. Even though Kelly was certain that she had just saved the Secretary from a very stern lecture that she looked terrified to receive she did not seem the least bit grateful for Kelly's assistance either.

"Just go sit in my office," he growled and Kelly lowered her eyes. She turned back to Sammy, helped him stuff the rest of his belongings into his new backpack and then with his hand in hers they climbed up the stairs.

She ushered Sammy into the office, holding the door open for him. She shot one last glance at Franklin and the Cyclopes, confirmed that he was still just glaring at her, and not throttling her like Kelly was worried he might do, and then darted in after Sammy.

Franklin's office was large but lackluster.

Its walls were a muted maroon, there was one large bay window that was covered by large matching maroon drapes. It almost looked like a theater curtain except a couple shades darker than it should have been. The floor was wooden except for the carpet large circular carpet that the desk was situated in the middle off. It too was a muted plush monstrosity, and the desk was a dull looking mahogany thing straight from the 18th century.

The walls by the door were bookshelves, and the wall behind the desk housed two massive oil paintings. One that looked like the lady in white they had bumped into earlier that had set them on the path to this ordeal except with all black and in a black cotillion looking dress also straight out of the 18th century. And the other was of Franklin in all his human glory looking magnificently handsome except for the fact that he had been painted in the costume of that of a French Lord if he were at Versailles when Louis the VII was in power.

The ceiling was a magnificent mural of all the constellations that lead her eyes to a deep midnight blue curtain on the wall opposite of the bay window that seemed to span the whole wall length and breadth. Like the night sky had been painted on the ceiling and the sky draped down wall.

The whole room was covered in a thick layer of sparkles.

There were red ones all over the walls, floor, desk and bookcases. But the ceiling and the midnight blue drapes were covered in a black sparkling. Kelly couldn't keep her eyes off of the midnight blue drapes. It felt like something was calling her to it, like something had taken a hold of her chest and was trying to drag her by it.

She was so distracted that she hadn't noticed Sammy darting around looking at everything. He had found his way to Franklin's desk just as Franklin had opened the door. Sammy, with a paperweight rock in hand, turned to Kelly with an excited cry of: "LOOK AT THIS!" only to find Franklin glaring at him from the doorway.

He dropped the rock immediately.

Kelly peeled her eyes away from the curtains to Sammy and then crossed to him before Franklin could make a move. She bent down to pick it up. "Sorry about that, but he's six," she told him. "At least he didn't put it in his mouth."

"Ew! I don't put rocks in my mouth!" Sammy cried.

"Well, yeah, not anymore," she said in a teasing tone. She and Sammy giggled a bit at the joke while Franklin watched. Kelly had slung an arm over Sammy's shoulder, her eyes stayed on him as he mumbled that he hadn't wanted Franklin knowing that when he was younger he used to eat dirt and rocks, she completely missed the look of longing that crossed Franklin's face. She only found the glare when she looked back up to him.

Kelly found that once her eyes locked with Franklin's again she couldn't talk. She just stood there, completely mute, with her arm around Sammy's shoulder. The silence was heavy between them, and both seemed unable to move.

After a moment Kelly found her voice, though she needed to clear her throat before she got anything out. "So do you have something to do or are Sammy and I going to sit here and watch you work?" she asked.

This jolted Franklin back into action again. He lowered his eyes from her and crossed to his desk, being sure walk around her leaving as much space between them as possible. As if she were the threat and not him. He bent over disappearing briefly behind his giant mahogany desk and when he reappeared all he had was a duster.

Kelly eyed it with disdain. "You brought me here to dust?" she asked.

"Yes," Franklin answered just as curtly. And that was it. He just stood there staring at her.

"You want me to dust this entire room... with just this little feather duster?" she asked again.

"It's magic. You'll figure it out," he said and then sat down.

Kelly turned to Sammy. "Here, why don't you sit over here and continue to color..." she whispered but Franklin interrupted again.

"If he wants, he can pull up a chair and use my desk. It'd probably be easier than the floor."

When Kelly turned around he was already clearing a space across from him for Sammy to put all his stuff, and Sammy was loving it.

She helped Sammy pull the chair over to the desk, and watched as he spilled his crayons all over the coloring pages he had and consequently all over Franklin's papers too.

Kelly started with an apology but Franklin waved her off. "You start dusting, I've got this," he said, clearly meaning that he'd manage Sammy while she was working.

Right well, it wasn't like she was going to leave the room, so she figured it'd be alright to let him watch over Sammy. Seeing as she would be watching over him.

And besides. He wouldn't mistreat a kid. She didn't think anyway.

"Kelly, I'm hungry."

Right the dinner she had picked up. Right away she turned to where the food at been left. She opened up the carton for Sammy, which was fries and chicken fingers, and then handed the carton meant for Franklin.

"Don't make a mess," she warned Sammy.

"I can eat just fine, thank you," Franklin snapped and she looked up at him. "The hole in my cheek has been there a while and I know to chew on the other side of..." he paused as he caught her surprised stare. "You were talking to him, weren't you?"

Obviously she was.

"Uh... you can eat too if you want..."

"No, I want to get my job done, then I'll eat," she said and then turned away from him.

Kelly did as she was told, figuring she'd start in one corner and work her way around the room. As she dusted she could tell that she wasn't moving the red sparkles, but she was managing to clean the film of actual dust that was under it.

Huh, when was the last time he had this place cleaned? Or was he just waiting for someone like her to show up so he could punish them with it?

As Kelly made her way along the walls of the room, dusting all that she could find, she kept an eye on Sammy and Franklin. Sammy kept asking him color choices and Franklin went about giving him recommendations in a very serious manner. Like it was the most important of businesses. And Sammy was loving it.

He'd talk about what colors went with what, and he'd ask Sammy what the theme of the art was. Sammy's was clearly enjoying every second of it.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't that bad... with kids. He was still horrible with her and she didn't trust him, but he seemed to be really good with kids.

Kelly figured she could finish this dusting job, prove that she wasn't up to any sort of trouble, and then they could go back to Granny's Bed and Breakfast. It was step one in her plan to lure them into a false sense of security and then she and Sammy would make a break for it.

But then she got to the curtain. The curtain that had been calling her.

That pull was still there. This desire to sweep it aside to see what was behind there, but on the one edge she tried there was nothing but wall. Seemed kind of silly to have a curtain covering a bare wall, especially since it wasn't a decorative tapestry or something.

She managed to ignore all other longings to check what was behind the curtain until she got to the other side of it. She got there and it was like the pull was gripping her heart, trying to rip it out of her chest and to that curtain.

She couldn't stop herself from lifting her hand and brushing the curtain aside. She expected to find nothing, just like before, but this time she found a door.

There, she had seen behind it. That should have been enough, but as if her body were on autopilot, she found herself checking to see if the door was locked.

It was not.

She shouldn't have, all the synapses in her brain were telling her that this was a bad idea but her body had a mind of its own. Without quite knowing what she was doing she had the door opened and she had stepped inside.

On the other side of the door was just a little hallway. Well that wasn't true, the hallway was large enough to have two rows of statues, creating an aisle down the middle.

The room itself was low lit but the amount of sparkles in that room was blinding. And they were all different colors. Each statue had there own.

And each statue must have been someone in town. She recognised Vera, Mr. Tinker and Elsa but she didn't recognize the others which meant that she hadn't met them yet. Along with each statue having its own color it looked like each statue was missing something. Like it looked like Vera's was missing a necklace.

But that wasn't the statue that was really calling to her.

Her eyes were still on the statue at the end of the hallway. It was on a raised platform as if it were in a place of honor, except once she got closer she realized it was just Franklin.

And he looked nothing like Franklin was supposed to..

He was handsome for one, and completely human. His plaster face was smooth with a suave smile, he was in a tuxedo, his hair swept to the side in some outdated hipster fashion. He looked almost like the painting in the office, except more of this era. But it was the glowing red pendant it had in it's extended hand that had captured her attention. Because it was an awful lot like the statue was offering it up to her.

Break me.

God lord she was hallucinating a necklace talking to her.

Break me.

Her fingers reached out for it. She couldn't stop her self. An electric tingle ran form her fingertips all the way to her shoulder the second she touched the necklace.

Break me.

The necklace came free from the plaster fingers with easy, like it was made to come free of them. The tingle was stronger now, it was almost like her whole arm had fallen asleep and was starting to wake up again.

Still she didn't let it go.

Destroy. Me.

It was so insistent. She couldn't stop herself. She felt as if she could save herself from all her troubles and all she had to do was destroy that necklace. She raised her hand up, was about to dash the necklace on the floor, then stamp on it for good measure when someone grabbed her wrist.

The second he made contact the spell vanished. Kelly came free of it almost in surprise, as if she couldn't understand what had happened or how she had gotten there.

Where she blinked her eyes free, when she had gotten them clear she found she was look up into the very angry face of Franklin. His nostrils were flaring, his eyes were set in a dangerous glare and there was a terrible fire raging in those startling blue eyes of his.

She knew she shouldn't have been touching things that didn't belong to her, let alone trying to destroy them but he was looking at her like she had tried to kick a baby.

"Do not. Ever. Ever. Touch my totem," he growled into her face. He sounded almost demonic.

"I'm... I didn't know!" she cried but he didn't accept that as an excuse.

"Let it go," he ordered but Kelly was panicking and had frozen completely. Franklin didn't like that though, so when she didn't listen, he twisted her wrist until the necklace fell out of her grasp.

Once she had dropped it, he let her go and Kelly staggered back, cradling her arm to her chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as he stooped down to pick the necklace up. She wasn't sure why she was apologizing. It wasn't like what she did deserved him twisting her arm until he had fractured her wrist, or worst.

"I didn't know... I don't know what happened... it was like..."

Franklin turned a dark glare onto her and she faltered to a stop. "Get out," he ordered. "Leave. Now."

Kelly took a hesitant step away. "I... I'm sorry... I can... I can finish cleaning..."

"Just get out!" he raged at her but Kelly didn't move. And when she didn't, he got right into her face and roared as loud as he could.

Now that. That got Kelly running. She practically tripped over herself to get out of that hallway. She grabbed the Sammy, who had been left in the behind in the office, sobbing with his hands over his ears. He didn't like arguing, brought back terrible memories. This had no doubt set him off.

She took a hold of his hand and dragged him away.

She didn't stop to pick up his things, or hers for that matter. She got him down the stairs and out onto the street. They didn't go back to Granny's for their stuff, she just kept running. Right through that town and back onto the road that would take them out of there.