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Event: Flaming Orca

The drive up to the house was something out of horror story, or at least Otto thought so as he finally stepped out of the crowded van. Shawn, the new kid that was hired three months ago when the café started to get more swamped with people, had to drive the nine setter van. Due to many unfortunate events, the rooky waiter who had just gotten his license a year ago had to drive them all up about an hour north to the Matakami vacation home.

None of the other people going could do it legally. Shiri had never had to drive a car in his life, Neil only had his permit (which had expired some many years ago), Quentin and Collan were just insane behind any sort of electronic device, Otto’s was suspended because of too many parking violations (he was really confused by this as well, he didn’t know that it could happen either), and Tanz and Beast could barely see over the wheel when they were sitting in the driver’s seat (not to mention they were around the age of six, or, at least they think Beast is that old).

The road up was filled with white knuckle driving from Shawn because Neil was a horrible backseat driver not to mention his boss, and all his co workers were in the back along with two children. The roads were not nice for a nervous driver but there are no fifty foot drops or steep slopes like there was on the last vacation Otto went on. (Valley viewing might look nice in a catalogue but aren’t good places for dates. Especially when the lady in question would rather hide in the car then making out in the soft patch of grass near the railing..)

Shiri (the younger brother), Collan(the cooks assistant), and Quentin(the cook) for some odd reason all chose to sit in the back and have a bunch of whispered conversations. There was also a lot of giggling that Otto wanted nothing to be a part of. At all. Collan was the strange kid who dyed his hair a bunch of unflattering colors and slept on Quentin’s couch. Though Otto hated to think that Quentin was almost worse because Quentin was actually very nice and not as scary or weird as people always assume him to be, but the relationship that the two of them seemed to be in was very odd and somewhat disgusting. Collan is young enough to be his son.

Shiri was a whole other story though. The man was Neil’s younger brother (the youngest of the Matakami’s) and the both of them ran a café for their older brother Kent, who has yet to even set foot in the place. Shiri also had a kid, or found one? Otto still isn’t too sure of that part of it, but Tanz, the little spaz wonder seems to be everywhere at once and jumps around until he gets attention or is distracted by something shiny. The kid walks all over his father but not in a mean way, it is just that Tanz seems to have to dress Shiri in the morning instead of the other way around.

The three of them giggling could only mean bad things, or really stupid things. Hopefully they are just laughing at Tanz as he tries and fails to braid Beast’s hair. The poor thing looks like he jumped right out of a children’s book. He is covered with fur, has claws, fangs, and even strange ears. He isn’t a fierce beast though, more like a giant ball of fuzz with a daddy complex. Though if Otto was being truthful, Neil is kind of a s**t dad to have and he would totally try to impress him as well. But letting Tanz braid his hair and playing princess with him might not be the best way to that b*****d’s heart.

The two kids next to Otto decided that it would also be a good idea to try to braid his hair after they ran out of hair on Beast (which is kinda odd, because there is a ton on the little guy) and he let them, if only to see the absolute look of concentration on both of their faces. It was keeping them quite for one thing. The only thing that could be heard for the latter half of the drive was the giggles from the girls boys in the back and the somewhat stilted conversation in the front of the van.



The house was beautiful.

No words could really describe what the place felt like, Tanz and Beast were already running towards the water while the older people unloaded the bags that held their food stuffs and clothing for the next two days. It might have only been a weekend vacation, but the boys were going to make the most of it.

Shawn had been given babysitting duty because he couldn’t lift any of the other bags after he was pried from the driver’s seat. He really didn’t enjoy driving. At all.

“Shawn! Shawn! I wanna see the fishies!” Tanz screamed in the distance.

"No. Tanz will just eat them." Beast said in his growling voice as he took off his shoes and rolled up his pant legs. He really liked his purple pants.

Tanz had just run right into the water without a car for his shoes or his pants. Shiri had made sure to pack extra clothes for him. Six pairs to be exact. He could mix and match.

"Eating fish is mean.” Shawn said as he sat down on the ground not far from the water. It was a shallow part of a lake so he wasn’t too worried about the kids getting out of hand. They both meant well, and actually took good care of each other. Beast not letting Tanz do anything too outrageous and the little brat making sure that Beast doesn’t wonder off anywhere. Beast had a bad habit of going and investigating things. He tells them that it is just to make sure that it isn’t a threat, but no one believes him. Except Tanz, but he doesn’t really count.

The two kids were bickering good naturally a few feet into the water.

“I wouldn’t eat it!”

“Yes you would! You like fish sticks!”

“They are delicious, no one can hate them!”

“They only taste good because Kentin puts bad things on them.”

Beast couldn’t really say Quentin’s name, and to his horror the man himself finds it adorable. He just calls him Cook when he around Quentin or Collan, because he coos almost as much.

Tanz gasped tragically like he saw on the movies that Shiri watches when he thinks the kids are in bed and tackled Beast. He usually wasn’t one that liked to tackle, but Beast was making sure not to get his clothes wet and Tanz thought he needed some excitement in his life.

Shawn sighed and lay back in the sand, even though he knew he would be shaking out his underwear later on that night, as the kids started fighting. He wasn’t worried though they weren’t going to hurt each other intentionally. They seemed to be more focused in seeing who could stuff the most mud down their pants.

Totally harmless.

And Shawn wasn’t on laundry duty either. He was banned from ever using a washer against one week into working at the café. Now Shiri does all his laundry. It was a good day to be a teenager with an over protective boss.



Otto had helped Quentin and Collan cook dinner, if only because no one else knew how to fight them in the kitchen. It was quite entertaining to watch them work with each other if you weren’t in the middle of it. They were more interested to see who could chop the fastest or could work the longest while being groped.

Otto was voted the only one who knew what to do with the flirting. Neil just made them sweat because he threatened to something not very nice to something they hold dear to their manhood if they did something like that in his kitchen again, they wait until he is out of the room before resuming cooking. Shiri didn’t know how to defend himself in any situation, so he manned the tables in the café. Otto could elbow his way in, yell the order and take the cooked food out to the costumers without blinking. Shiri secretly thought he was magical while Neil just clenched his jaw and ignored him.

They were having the fish that Tanz and Beast accidently caught in their Pants Stuffing War. Tanz cried for an hour because he killed the little fishies and Beast was kinda afraid to go into the water again. Some of the fish they got wouldn’t even fit in their pants. Everyone was clueless on how they caught them.

Shiri, Tanz, and Beast were up in the bathroom taking a shower to get clean for dinner as Shawn and Neil set the table. They didn’t quite have enough room to fit all of them on the dining table, so they were letting Quentin and Collan eat at the kids table to punish them for making such a mess of their clothes.

“Almost done old man.” Collan garbled from his corner of the kitchen. He was in charge of making the pasta and the salad.

“I just need to make Tanz’s sandwich and the fish will be done.” Quentin told Otto as he filled the pitcher of water for the cups on the table.

Neil came in and grabbed the pitcher from Otto as he turned to bring it out into the dining room.

“Here you go big boy.” Otto said to Neil’s back as he walked out of the kitchen without saying anything. Otto was actually really surprised that Neil was even helping, usually he either took over what was going on or he watched from the outside.

It seemed to Otto that he just hated everything the existed. Except his brother Shiri, but it was really hard to tell that most of the time he talked to him it was affection and not rage. Neil was quite the odd goose in Otto’s opinion. But a boss was a boss even if they the majority of them seemed to have something stuck up their a**. He signed his paycheck. So Otto was golden.

“Shawn.” Otto stepped into the dining room carrying the plate of fish and the salad bowl.

“Yeah?” The kid is question looked up from where he was giving the kiddy table spoons.

“You wanna go tell Shiri and the squirts that dinner is ready?” Otto really didn’t want to go up there and potentially find Shiri naked. Neil was still giving him subtle death threats every time he went to give Shiri a hug. Otto was an affectionate guy, and Shiri was always in need of hugs.

Shawn smiled a little and nodded. If Otto didn’t know the kid better, he would have said that Shawn had a bit of a crush. But there wasn’t any blushing or stammering in the presence of Shiri so either Otto’s gaydar was broken (highly unlikely) or Shawn was just a very odd teenager (most probable) who just genially liked Shiri.

Otto took note to think about it later and catalogue all further movements Shawn made in Shiri’s general direction.

There was a muffled shout of ‘FOOD!’ from upstairs along with two squeaks. One belonging to Shiri and the other was unfamiliar to Otto. Maybe it was Shawn? Yes. That would be awesome.

Otto grinned to himself as Neil turned his glare to the stairs as Tanz came crashing down. There was no other way to explain how the kid goes down stairs. It is highly dangerous and yet Otto is never able to look away, it is like a car crash in a way.

Tanz skidded into the kitchen in only a shirt (most likely belonging to Shiri because it was more like a dress), a single sock, and his stuffed monkey Monkey in his arms. His eyes were as big as saucers as he asked in a stage whisper,

“Food?” The little pout afterwards was totally cute and staged, Tanz has been taking lessons from the flower girl next door, but the waver in his voice was real. “Do I have to eat the fishies?”

“Nah little dude,” Otto ruffled his hair as Tanz preened. “We got you and Beast some PB and honey sandwiches to chow on.”

Beast, Shawn, and a blushing Shiri soon came down the stairs and wondered into the living room. Much quieter then Tanz though that wasn’t saying that much, a herd of elephants weren’t quite as loud as the little guy.

“Dinner’s ready, yeah?” Shiri smiled at his brother totally ignoring or just not noticing the menacing look he was being given.

“Yupper doodle!” Collan sang as he brought in the pasta and the sauce. This was everyone’s cue to sit down and eat dinner.

Otto quickly ran to the kitchen to grab Beast’s and Tanz’s sandwiches, handing it to them with a smile before he went to sit down at the Big Boy’s Table. The conversation seemed to be him and Neil bickering about the rising price of corn products and rice while Shawn and Shiri stared at them and seemed to be poking fun and giggling at each other.

It was terribly disgusting and Otto was completely jealous. Maybe after dinner he would take a romantic walk by himself to even out all the grossness.

Neil just stared at them for a while before he rolled his eyes and seemed to be over his Overprotective Brother Deal. Otto tried not to blink at him too hard.

So Shawn and Shiri huh?



The moon reflected wonderfully off of the water and the sand was pleasantly cool as Otto walked along the edge of the lake. Early he was talking with Shiri and he brought out pictures of him and Neil when they were younger looking at the whales that seemed to have gotten lost in the rivers and somehow wound up in the lake.

It was a huge deal back then, they called the wildlife service’s and they came and herded them back to the ocean before the fresh water hurt them anymore than it already had.

Otto was whistling to himself as he stared at his feet and thought about the whole trip. They were going back in a day and Otto wasn’t surprised to find out that he would miss the place. It wasn’t quite or peaceful because going back to nature never is. There are always the birds cawing over head, the frogs singing in the forest, and the annoying bugs at night. Those things really don’t seem to matter though, because isn’t that the beauty of nature? How it can be so annoying or retarded and you love it anyway? Just the way it is?

Snorting to himself Otto kicked a bit of sand and brought it head up to look at the sky. But before he could admire all the stars he could see here but not back in the city he saw something bright up ahead. A fire maybe?

Otto picked up from walking to a jog as he saw a person standing near the fire. He couldn’t make out who it was, or even if it was a boy or a girl, but he got the feeling that they looked at him before they seemed to disappear into the night.

The first thing to hit Otto was the smell. It smelled like something was burning, well duh fire did that, but it smelt like burning flesh. He could only see the tip of the fire because it was over some sort of hill but as Otto climbed it he finally saw how large the fire was as the heat hit him.

He was beginning to wonder why that person would start a fire here and just leave it when he took a closer look at when was burning and his stomach dropped as he gagged.

The thing that was fueling the fire wasn’t wood.

It was a whale.

Event: A Child?

Neil was pinching the top of his nose as he tried to absorb what his younger brother was telling him. There were screams of happiness coming from the living room as well as obnoxious laughter that could only belong to Collan and Quentin.

Shiri was fidgeting like it was his fault, which Neil felt bad about making him feel, but he could have told him in a slightly different way.

“So,” Neil tried again, ignoring the way his brother flinched at his tone, “Otto went out for a walk this morning? Let’s start with that-”



Otto really did hate his friends. Really really hated them. This was why he was outside in the freezing cold instead of eating breakfast inside the house like a normal human being. Otto was hoping that they would have stopped laughing at him for the whole incident the night before, but no, they had to be complete assholes about it. Even Tanz and Beast got in on it. Thought they mostly just wanted to make sure he was alright, because Quentin and Shawn kept saying he was sick. So he had to sleep in the kids room so they didn’t freak out and think that he was going to die from a strange and sudden brain tumor.

No more late night soap operas and medical shows for them when they couldn’t sleep. Otto would make sure that Shiri and his brother kept up with that. Or there would be blood spilt. And it would most likely be someone else’s, because Otto really did like his job so killing his bosses were out of the question. Along with the kids, because it wasn’t their fault they have sponge like brains. So many it would have to be a random homicide?

Yes. Otto grinned into the misty morning air as he contemplated all the ways that he can dismember someone and all the places he can hide them. He eventually started humming and kicking the sand with his sneaker (he didn’t know there was going to be a beach, so he didn’t pack sandals like everyone else).

Otto didn’t really pay attention where he was going so when he found himself walking down the same hill that lead to the place he found just last night he wasn’t all that surprised. He still couldn’t look directly at it without seeing the burning image that his mind decided would be a great thing to remember for the rest of his life. But when he actually stopped to listen he thought he heard something.

Laughing? Otto stopped in his tracks and glanced around slowly. It sounded like it came from behind him. But it sounded more like Tanz when he was giggling at you for doing something wrong, not an evil giggle that haunts horror movies since the dawn of time.

Otto turned around slowly and openly gaped at what he saw.

“Hi!” The thing child said in a bubbly voice staring at him with its big brown eyes.

Otto couldn’t do anything but scream bloody murder. For the second time in as many days.



“-then we went out to see what happened! Because I haven’t really heard Otto scream like that-”

“And you found that?” Neil asked curiously, though it sounded more like disgusted to anyone who wasn’t listening closely enough.

“Her name is Leana!” Tanz shouted from the other room, the child could have bat like senses when it benefited him. Otto and Shiri winces at the wail that came from just up the stairs.

Otto had locked himself up after he came running into the house as Shawn and Neil both carried Leana. She didn’t have any lower body or arms just fins and a tail. But her face and chest was human enough. Shawn had checked her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt besides the scratches on her fins and tail from when she tried to drag herself on the sand.

She said that she woke up last night and tried to explore where she was, and ran into Otto on his morning walk and latched onto him. Much to his horror.

“-but she is a whale and the one burned last night!” Otto’s hysterical shout came down the stairs again this time with a few more curse words then before. Good thing the children were in the other room, Otto taught Tanz and Beast enough phrases already to make a few people blush at the café. Shawn was trying to calm him down because he was the only one who hasn’t laughed at him yet and Collan and Quentin were to busy playing with the children to be any help.

Neil was still pinching his nose and looking up the stairs when another shout and mumbled response came from the bathroom.

“I’ll go get Otto.” Neil signed, Otto wouldn’t yell at him at least. Shiri knew this as well and his shoulders relaxed a notch. Poor Shawn had been up there for an hour trying to get Otto to calm down and come down the stairs. But as soon as Leana called him Papu he ran up those stairs like a bat out of hell.

“Good luck.” Shiri patted his brother on the arm and went to go check on the kids. He might trust Collan and Quentin not to poison his food but he didn’t want around his kids for too long.

“Where is Papu?” Leana asked from where she was laying on the couch in the other room.

Beast replied in his gruff voice, “He is hiding in the bathroom.”

“Silly Papu!” Leana laughed, “Can we go play with him?” Her eyes got huge and even Tanz could admit that she could do the eyes better than he.

Shiri noticed with growing horror that Quentin had picked Leana up and was brining her up the stairs with a smirk on his face with Collan, Tanz, and Beast following silently behind him. Shawn was just coming down the stairs making funny faces when he moved out of the way to let the group pass giving Shiri a scared look. Shiri sighed and walked into the kitchen but he could still hear Otto shriek from the other end of the house as Leana screamed “Papu!”

It was going to be a grand old time by the time they got back to the city. Shiri could tell by the grin on Shawn’s face and the giggles coming from up the stairs.