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"Ahaha," Asrafel giggled nervously, unlocking the seat belt and the door to the car. "No no, I'm fine, just hungry and tired, no worries!"

He gave Karma a goodbye hug, before leaning over and doing the same for Baniru. "Thank you so much for taking me home, it means the world to me! I'll have to find some way to repay you.." He reached behind him and slipped a card out from heaven knows where, handing it to her. "This is where I work, actually. Benedict Daycare! Please stop by soon, and bring Karma, okay? I'd love to see you both again."

He nuzzled Karma's hair softly, before setting him down on the seat once he moved out of it, and locking the seatbelt tightly around him. He looked up at Baniru with a grateful, and knowing smile. "I wish you both the best." He offered, before slowly closing the door.

Baniru had woken up early that day. The sunlight was pouring softly through her window, a few bland brown birds chirping happilly on the other side. The air smelled fresh after the rains, and the whole world seemed clean and innocent on that particular morning.

This was not what woke her up.

Karma had found himself a bottle of half-opened gatorade in the minifridge, and decided to pour it all over the poor girl's face.
It was hard twisting the rough plastic cap open and tipping it over, he'd give her that. But, as he decided with a malicious giggle, she deserved it.

He didn't have a bed to himself anyway. She should have seen it coming.

Baniru had literally jumped out of bed with a start, drenched in all the flavours and smells of 'Lightning Blueberry'. He hair immediately became sticky and latched to the back of her clothing, a few misplaced drops being sucked up and absorbed by the white linen bed sheets.

"..." she looked to the giggling little toddler. He was even sitting on the floor with the open bottle in his hands, for crying out loud!
He's just a kid, he's just a kid, he didn't know what he was doing. Don't take it too hard on him.

...

"KARMA!" she yelled in frustration, seizing the bottle and denting it by the pressure of her grip, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

Karma, however, had grown silent at the rudeness in her voice. The tone made him glare at her in disgust, and frown with all the ambiety of a shriveled up cactus.

With a flustered sigh, Baniru sat back down on the edge of her bed. She was sticky, it was getting hot out, and now she had to go to the community shower downstairs AGAIN.

"Fine, rugrat. But you are coming with me to the showers for a bath."

The word 'bath' in the same sentence as 'me' made Karma throw the bottle at her.

Fifteen minutes was all it took to be run out of the shower hall. Karma's hair was still soapy and needed conditioner, but at least the people downstairs had sympathized and not crucified him, for god's sake.

"Don't look so smug." Baniru mumbled unpleasantly, drying him off. She was already dry from wind factor and half clothed within a towel and dirty shirt, deciding it was better to take care of the kid first before he caught a cold or something.

"Keep this up, and you're gonna get me kicked out of this place."

Karma giggled delightfully at her tone of voice. Something about it said that his little escapade of tripping people with soap bars had gone well.

It wasn't that he was a bad kid. No. Karma could actually be one of the cutest angels you had ever met. When it came to his guardian, however, he held a deep grudge. Which meant that he would possibly do anything to make her life miserable.

What a sweetheart.

Baniru sighed to herself, dressing Karma in his usual black apparel. It was quite dirty from the day's previous excursions.
"I believe we get to take a trip to the laundromat today."

"Landrammm...!" the toddler giggled happily, clapping his hands together. While he had never been there, it sounded dangerous.
And fun too.

The Laundromat... part 3

It had been some time since the wreck now. Karma could tell, when he woke up in his caretaker's arms, cradled in the most innocent position.

The car was still tilting dangerously off of the cliffside.

He let out a little sigh before examining exactly what was going on. Baniru looked painfully crooked, laying partially on the steering wheel and dusty car deck. What the hell was wrong with her? Seriously, who in their right mind would find that comfortable?

He was kind of wrapped tightly against her, but with a few squirms he was out of that bit in no time. Tumbling delicately out of the woman's arms, Karma did a routine check on himself, unaware of just how much danger they were in.

Fingers... check.
Shoes... check.
Shiny black hair... check.

Well, it seemed like he was all there. Now to wake up his caretaker so he could blow this popsicle stand.
Karma inched forward, crawling closer to his surrogate mother's face. There was some sweet sticky stuff on the side and down the front, and it was really red. He didn't know what that stuff was, but it looked like candy.

...

How dare she! Eating candy without him! He could just make a list of all the rude things she's done for crying out loud! She would have to pay for that later.
With a raise of his palms, the toddler began to slap her.

"Maaaaa," he babbled out softly, gently hitting her face. "Banbanbanban.."

However, this did not wake her up as it had previous mornings. Karma was startled by this, but, he decided, she was just trying to outdo him.

"Buububububu~" he growled, hitting harder.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

An hour or so had passed and still nothing. The little toddler could not move anywhere else, and the harsh sunlight was just pouring in through the windsheild.
Tiredly he tried hitting her again. It was a slow and unrewarding process, this hitting, maybe it wasn't quite the right tactic.

"Maaam..." Karma said worriedly, his whole posture drooping. All of the windows were up and none were broken- save for a large crack through the right side. It was getting increasingly hotter as the sun rose higher, and his tongue was starting to stick to the roof of his mouth.

Faintly, ever so faintly, he thought he could hear sirens in the distance.

Once more. Just once more, he'd try it.
"Maaam..."
With a tiny balled up fist, Karma hit the woman smack across the jaw.
And yet, there was still silence.

That was it. He was just so tired...he needed sleep...the heat was collecting everywhere. Plus it was starting to smell quite bad in there, old cushioned seats and the smell of drying blood mingling with the thick, heavy air.

And with that, the little toddler slumped back onto a crooked stomach area, and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Baniru woke up, she wasn't suprised of where she was. Her vision swirled and danced along with the pain in her head, circling the bright bulb of flourescence above her. The faint beeping of a monitor could be heard off in the distance, and soft breathing noises right beside her. There was a lump by her side. A warm lump.

Trying to look down to see where that breathing was coming from, she quickly realized she couldn't move her neck too well.

...Wait.

A few more blinks up at the ceiling threw her a hard curveball of a question. Did her ceiling look like that at home, when she happened to gaze upon it's lovely visage? Nooo...
With a small gasp for air, Baniru realized she could only see out of one eye.

Well, that was absolute fun-frikking-tastic. Now she was would never be able to drive again (Not that she would want to)! She would have to steal shopping carts as vehicles to get her back and forth. And all thanks to-
A small twang echoed in the back of her thoughts. Karma. Karma! What had happened to the kid?
Luckily, her hand was resting across the chest of the little warm lump by her side. It seemed to be breathing.

A slow smile spread to the woman's face. She knew who that was, lying snuggled at her side in the crisp white hospital bed.
And although Baniru couldn't lay eyes upon the toddler, a feeling rose up and told her that he was just fine.
A feeling so light and pure, that it danced across the grip of her heart like a butterfly waltz.
A feeling so wonderful, that it made her mind fizz with joy.

A feeling called... Love.

~

Everything would be alright in the end for the two. Someone was definitely watching out for them, far off into the hazle sky.
Just who it was, who was to say?
Then again, all that mattered was that someone was out there.

The Laundromat... Fin

Nightmares... part 2

"Well," came a sharp sigh, eyes emblazoned into tan skin just as the sun was stamped across the sky, "I suppose it''s time."

"Let's go." A hand was gently outstretched, shadowed by the keeper.

Karma fidgeted a little in bed, tears spreading down his cheeks with hot shame. He knew what part was coming next. He knew. He knew.
Shades of Indigo and Midnight Blue were clutched tightly within the palms of the toddler, for if he let go, the dream would mean nothing.
He would be lost. Lost forever in a sea of memories that weren''t his, yet played back to his mind, waltzing to a melody that sounded different yet familiar at the same time. He would vanish from this plane, this existence, swept away into the lost life of right doings and harsh punishment, swept into a world all it''s own.

He would be... lost.
He would become the sunshine that bounced off the desks in arithmatic class, the curiosity pressed against the jagged bark of a tree, the summer sweat in a basketball game. Karma would become an ageless time in which God had set forth a looking glass, a time in which he was just a miniscule grain of sand swirling about within his own consciousness...

"Let's go." A hand was gently outstretched, shadowed by the keeper. "Let's go. Let''s go. Og s'tel, go go go. Why don''t we go, off into nowhere? It is time to leave, don't you know.

It is time. It is time. Let us... go."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Excuse me."

"Yes? The blonde in the back."

"Excuse me, you're the head of this foundation, correct?"

"Yes."

"May I ask some things?"

"Okay."

"I'm sure it's something all of us here would like the answers to. Shall I proceed?"

"Fine."

"As the person who founded ''The Center for Deserters'', what can you say on the subject?"

"...Hn."
The woman standing on stage let out a low groan, sighing deeply. Reporters, reporters, reporters. They were all like robots that just kept asking for things of yours. It never ended.

"Well.." she started quietly, her voice resting at a small hiss, "People that have been run out of their homes and have no place else to go can come to this facility for shelter and help. It started as a place where people can go if they were hunted for, but now we double as a center for the abused and homeless."

A small laugh resonated from the crowd, growing like a wave of mockery and rippling until the whole hall shook with its weight. The woman at the pedestal stared in awe for a few seconds, before snarling attention from the audience into the microphone.

The room did not stop, however.

It quivered with snide remarks and sneers, frothy yells and angry, lucid comments.
One particular shout reached the ears of the woman on stage:
"So it also doubles as a shelter for Sphinxes too, right?"

Her eyes wavered, and she could feel her whole body start to tremble. It was starting again. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach. That same sickness was coming that came every time. Panic, anger, fear. Stir it up and you get one hell of a message.
S.O.S.

Had these people no shame?
No respect for the dead, the forsaken, those who have been run out and beaten?
Then again, who could have respect for something they use as stirring tools for their tea?

"Ha ha yeah! The imaginary creature that popped out of a fairytale! Tell us more about it too!"

"And werewolves!"
"And demons!"
"Pumpkins that turn into carriages!"
"And mice that turn into horses!"

Baniru snapped out of her reverie. No no, that was a past life. A time when she was a fool, a slave to fear. Besides, they all got what was coming to them.

Just as she had.

Nightmares part 2... end.

The little girl ran. Oh how she ran. Tumbling over desert dunes, racing to her home once again, hoping her father would be alright...

Her footsteps led all the way from the point of escape to where she was currently headed.

Stupid girl.
Didn't she know that the hunters would simply follow them?
Follow them to burn the villiage, hunt the remaning sphinxes down for their knowledge. Hunt hunt hunt. Kill kill kill. Use sphinx bones as tablewear, it was all the rage back in London. Enchanted spoons, eat with one and you'll gain the knowledge of a thousand years.

The child slowed her running down a bit, panting. She could still see her father atop the cliff, as a miniscule dot, his fists raised in rebellion. Men were slowly advancing on him, strange sticks with triggers and brown handles placed in their hands.
He would live, she thought. He would make it to see at least another age. They couldn't touch him with sticks, they couldn't...

...
...



Karma's eyes snapped open with fear, staring into the wide darkness of an open window. Baniru thew the same look at him with intrigue, her hands clamped about his little shoulders.
It was silent for a long time. Thickening. Tensing. Panic seemed to ooze from the walls.

"Karma...?" the woman whispered softly, tears spreading at the corners of her eyes.

The little boy did not answer. He just sat and gazed at a seemingly endless point, far off through the wall.

"Karma." Baniru whispered a little louder, with more assertion.

And with that, water welled up and came running down the toddler's cheeks, as he scrunched up his face with wet, shuddering sobs.

"You must have been having a nightmare..." the woman whispered, holding the little boy close.
"It's alright now, you're awake. The bad dream doesn't exist anymore."

Karma couldn't express the fact that yes, the bad dream was still around. The bad dream never went away.
It was cradling him now, with tender whispers of love.
He should know.

Nightmares... fin.

Another stranger waltzed into the laundromat, humming a light song that drifted and hung in the warm afternoon air. He was too, carrying a large basket of messy clothing and dirty rags, ready to wash them.
It was a laundromat, after all.

He danced with his laundry all the way to a vacant washing machine, smiling heartily as his short jet hair became messy and tassled.

"I know you, I saw you in once upon a dream~"

"Excuse me," he said smoothly, smiling softly down at the woman beside him, "Are you using this washer? There are no other vacancies around, I'm afraid."

There was a slight movement beside him, a big black cat popping out from the clothes tucked neatly into the man's basket. It mewed loudly, the collar bell around its neck giving a faint tinkle of the hour, before the animal stood up and stretched.