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Once he'd crawled inside, Shou paled a little as he saw the majority of people in this metal death-trap; men, women and even some children stood around and talked to one another while others were trying to pathetically claw their way out.
Their complexions were just as pale as what Emily's had been; complete with the purple rings under the eyes and the lifeless gazes, it was a truely chilling sight to witness.

However, Shou only just managed to not let his ever growing fear get the better of him as he got to his feet and started to look for his mother within the crowd, occasionally squeezing past various people and receiving a few cold looks along the way...but those weren't going to stop him from finding Emily, not at all.

After what seemed like a few agonising minutes, Shou finally found his mother near the back of the metallic contraption and called out to her in a tone of complete and utter relief.
" Mom!" before running over to the 'undead' woman, albeit stumbling a little.
" Everything's going to be okay now, Mom...I've come to get you out of here" the fourteen year old said as he looked up to her with a relieved smile on his face.
' Thank goodness you're alright...oh mother I was so worried about you, I hope you can forgive me for leaving you for a while'

However, Emily failed to say anything in response at first...all she did was stare down at Shou with lifeless deep blue eyes, a blank stare was the only expression that graced that oh-so pale face of hers, it seemed like another few minutes passed before she finally spoke up.
" So...you finally decided to take me on as your responsibility, hmm?" the brown-haired woman asked in that cold tone that she had used during the confrontation with her son earlier on.

Well 'that' was slightly unexpected, shouldn't she of been happy about that fact?!
Shou just looked at Emily with a rather shocked expression before his eyebrows furrowed upwards and he responded to her.
" Well of course...look Mom, I know you're probably still upset with me for leaving you behind in the house but I can assure you that I didn't mean to be gone long! the McKenzie's literally kept me inside the clinic and refused to let me go out...I had to more or less escape from there" of course what Shou left out was the fact that he'd also gone to the city's grave-yard to see how Emily ( and the other dead people) had come back to life before he'd hurried home to check and see if she was alright...but the way he saw it, she didn't need to know that!

At this point, the teenager was almost ready to start begging in the hopes that Emily would finally understand and perhaps regain her original personality...the mother that he had known so well.
" Please, you have to believe me Mom...when I found out that you'd been taken away, I was determined to find you no matter what!" he pleaded with the thirty-seven year old woman; a hopeful look was more than visible on his face as he tried to look for a sign of understanding in Emily's expression.

" And yet you choose to save her when all hope is lost?" came a young girl's voice from behind Shou...and when the startled youth turned around to see who it was...it caused him to freeze in fear.
The owner of the mysterious voice in-question was a young girl of around nine years old, her hair was platinum blonde with ringlets and her eyes were a rather nice shade of green...unfortunately they were also lifeless and gave off a less than cherubic appearance.
Her white party-dress made a ruffling noise and the gold foot bracelet seemed to click on the child's ankle as she stepped closer to Shou, her gaze just as cold and lifeless as Emily's.
" It's been quite a while, hasn't it Shou?"

" Alexis..." Shou murmured in disbelief, oh he knew who Alexis was alright...she had once been a part-time playmate who hailed from the richer district of East City.
Alexis and her sister Amelia had been kind enough to sneak him into the Hetworth mansion everytime their father was out working; thanks to them, Shou had got a glimpse of what life was like for those who were more fortunate with money.

The three children had played together every now and then for two whole years...until one day, when news had reached eight year old Shou that Alexis had been killed in an accident concerning a horse-drawn carridge.
Amelia had been the one to break it to the bewildered young boy, saying that the twins had been going to a birthday party at the time...but Alexis had got too excited and rushed out to cross the street without thinking.

Shou could also remember that he wasn't allowed to go to the funeral for Alexis either, it was only for members of the Hetworth family...and other high class aquantinces, heck he was lucky enough to get a hug from Amelia before the family moved away.
Yet Alexis's body had stayed behind, buried beneath the soil in East City's grave-yard...until now.

' How is her body still in tact? she's been dead for six years!' he mentally screamed as he took in every detail of the undead little girl, every single inch of her body showed no sign of physical decay what-so-ever.
' This is almost hard to believe...if this is what I really did do with alchemy, then I have officially gone against all the rules...and succeeded!'
" Alexis...it's good to see you alive and well again"

However, it would seem that Alexis was less than happy about her particular situation as she marched up to the 'now older' boy and kicked at his ankle, only to scowl more when the teenager let out a surprised ( and somewhat pained) yelp.
" You've got some nerve, how could you go and do this to all of us?!" the nine year old snapped as she looked up at Shou.
" We were all dead, Shou! dead, buried and resting in what was supposed to be eternal peace...you've just gone and taken that all away from us with that little stunt you call alchemy!"

But the little madame wasn't finished there as she barely gave Shou a chance to respond.
" Thanks to your actions, you've condemned us all to be burnt alive inside this metal death-trap!" Alexis had to wipe her eyes briefly as tears had started to form.

Shou just remained silent as Alexis screamed at him and blamed the teenager for his apparently reckless actions.
Deep inside the young boy's body, it deeply hurt him to hear Alexis say all of these things to him...in life she had been such a sweet ( although annoying at times) and mischevious girl who never thought bad of him, she and Amelia had even been like big sisters to the young Tucker boy; but now...
" I...I..." he stuttered helplessly, really wanting to apologise to the upset girl...yet those words of apology failed to come and he really couldn't understand why.

However it was at that point that Emily walked over and rested a gentle hand on the little girl's shoulder.
" Alexis, please don't cry...I know the burning may hurt when it happens, but after that we will have eternal slumber once more" with that a motherly smile made it's way onto Emily's face as she stroked Alexis's hair.

Shou just seemed to stare at the two for a moment as he saw that oh-so familiar look and gentle persona that he'd longed to see in Emily once again...why had she waited until now to finally show off that personality properly? and more so...why did it have to be towards someone who wasn't even a relative?

As for them all burning to death in this place...well Shou was going to make sure that didn't need to happen, although it seemed that he missed Emily's reasoning that she would like to die.
' It's probably just her thinking that there's no other way out, yeah that must be it! I mean mother would never give up this easily' and he definately knew that for certain, Emily had been a woman who had battled an illness for as long as possible, keeping herself alive just so she could look after her son...she hadn't gone without a fight and to see 'this' Emily practically giving up on the spot and resigning herself to her fate made the teenage boy shake his head in disbelief.
" Mom...what are you saying? I've made an exit that we can all crawl out of...come on! Morty and the others are outside, we'll be able to make sure the others don't hurt you... my friends even know a short-cut home and then we'll all be safe!"

However, Emily didn't say anything and just looked to the side instead as she heard noises outside.
" Are you sure about that?" was all she asked as she could hear the shouts of other people, her eyebrows actually furrowed up into a look of worry which made her look a little bit more alive.
" Because it sounds like there's more than just your friends out there..."

Confused at what his mother meant at first, Shou also looked to where Emily seemed to be listening and concentrated...only to pale considerably as he heard the voices of the men from before, they'd came back to the burning site!
However he couldn't let doubt take him over now and the fourteen year old just looked up to Emily with a knowing ( although somewhat nervous) grin.
" They won't be able to stop us, we have alchemy on our side!"

The only thing that Emily did after that was look Shou straight in the eyes, a feeling that was definately unpleasant to the young teen since his mother's eyes showed no signs of life at all and said in a rather cryptic tone.
" And how do you know that those other people don't?"

In the meantime; Mortimer, Julius and Samuel were still doing their best to keep the mud-walls up in order to keep out the now-angry civilians, however...Mr. McKenzie's voice seemed to boom out over the yells and shouts of the other men on the other side of the wall.
" What is the meaning of this?!" he exclaimed before turning to one of the workers from the gun factory.
" Marcus, bring this barricade down...nothing's going to stop us from saving our city from the unholy undead!"

" Saving this city? pssssh' you hear that guys? old man McKenzie's really gone off the deep end this time" Julius grumbled then blinked as Mortimer rolled his brass-coloured eyes.

The red-head then cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled out.
" If anyone needs saving... it's those who have the unfortunate fate of being near you, you crazy coot!"

" Julius, Morty!!" Samuel hissed with a wild fearful look in his deep blue coloured eyes; he really couldn't believe the pudgy and spotty members of the group sometimes and this was just one of those instances.
" You know what McKenzie's temper can be like...if he gets ahold of us, we'll end up being the laughing stock of the entire neighbourhood!" the oldest ( yet smallest) member of the group still wasn't over the last time they'd got into trouble with McKenzie, that man wasn't against spanking others in public as punishment!

Yet before he could say anything else, Samuel was interupted by Jack McKenzie's voice; lightly furious was probably not the best word to use for his tone.
" Why you cocky little...okay that does it!" after several nasty sounding thuds sounded on the hard mud, Jack could be heard muttering a few cuss words before speaking louder again.
" Marcus, forget the battering ram... I've got one more ace up my sleeve, Aaron!" he called out the boy's name into the crowd of people and it wasn't long before a strawberry blonde haired teenage boy came out of the sea of people and towards him.
Jack just grinned and pointed to the wall.
" I've got a job for you...some naughty brats have put up this mud wall and are stopping us from ridding the city of the hordes of dead people that have been wandering around... do you think you could help out a soul in need and do the honors of getting rid of this muddy obstacle?"

Aaron just scratched at his freckled cheek nervously ( Jack could sometimes have this effect on people) before glancing at the wall of mud and giving a nod.
' Why would they want to help defend the dead anyway? I should think we'd be doing those walking corpses a favour by putting them to rest once more... ' the young boy thought to himself as he studied the surrounding area.
" That wall should be easy enough to get rid of with my speciality... but I'll need some form of moisture in order for it to work, does anyone here have a bucket of water?"

The three boys on the other side of the wall remained completely oblivious as one of the gun factory workers handed Aaron a full bucket of water, that had originally been kept around for use on the fire if it got too out of hand.
" Thanks, this is perfect!" Aaron said, thanking the older man...and with that, walked towards the wall and tipped a fair amount onto the ground in front of the mud-based barricade.
Grabbing a nearby stick, the teenager sketched out the transmutation needed for his type of alchemy and then put his hands down on the edges of the circle before concentrating.

Everything seemed to fall silent if only for those few seconds...maybe even a minute; before the soil where the transmutation circle was, started to bubble over and a small rumbling could be felt.
Aaron just did a little smile as he began to put more energy into the transmutation, his attitude becoming a lot more confident as he quickly looked to Mr. McKenzie and did a thumbs-up.
" It's ready to go!"

" I don't like this guys..." Samuel muttered as he just stood staring at their side of the wall, something about the silence on the otherside was bothering him greatly.
" Things have gone too quiet out there, you don't think they decided to go back home...do you?"

Julius just seemed to let loose with a small huff and glanced back towards the metal contraption that Shou was still in.
" I hope so...if those idiots are still around, we'll never be able to make a clean get-away..."

" Well if things have gone quiet on that side, then maybe that means they have gone..." Mortimer stated in a confident tone and then smirked.
' Maybe I was wrong... this plan has worked out for the better afterall' he thought before speaking up again.
" I guess our alchemy made a wall that's tough to break...of course I'll bet that they were trying to get in on the part that I made and couldn't get through, it just goes to show how good I am at this sort of thing!"
Samuel and Julius just let loose with fed-up groans in response to that and while Julius rolled his ice-blue eyes, Samuel just put a hand to his forehead and shook his head slightly in disbelief.

However, all three boys soon turned their attention to the ground beneath them as the rumbling began, shortly followed by the sound of water rushing up from somewhere and splashing against something.
There wasn't much time for questions though, as they then glanced towards the wall and realised ( much to their horror) that the sound of the water was hitting against the mud-wall with what seemed like extreme force.

" Awww man, now we're in trouble!" Samuel exclaimed and had already started to panic by flailing his arms wildly.
" This is all your fault Julius, Morty... if you hadn't of said anything, we wouldn't be in this mess now!" he snapped at the two younger boys... in case no one knew, the Hunton boy had a tendency to lash out verbally when under pressure.

" Well I didn't think he'd react *that* badly!" Mortimer snapped back, normally for some adults it took a 'lot' more name-calling and disrespect before they snapped at the younger generation... unfortunately, it was now very clear that Doctor Jack McKenzie was not one of those people...

" That's the problem, you two never DO thin-" however before Samuel could finish his sentence, a weird sludge-like sound could be heard...and upon looking back to the wall, the sixteen-and-a-half year old let out a terrified screech and pointed at it.
" But nevermind that now, we've got other problems!"

Puzzled by that, Mortimer and Julius looked to where their terrified friend was pointing...only to pale when they saw that their alchemy-made barricade was beginning to melt and it was then that their minds went awry... of course they had been in trouble beforehand but this just tipped the scale!
And so far the only thing these three boys were doing, was standing around and staring helplessly over at their now-melting, alchemised mud-wall.

However it was then Samuel who let out a small huff and began to roll up his sleeves before whipping out a piece of chalk from his pocket and began to draw on the ground.
' Just this once... I want to be of some use, just this once' he mentally told himself as he thought back to all the times he'd stopped Mortimer, Julius and even Shou from causing mischief around East City.
Out of the four of them, it was Samuel who had always been the good boy, it had always been Samuel who always wanted to 'do the right thing' and attempt to keep his younger friends out of trouble...even if sometimes it hadn't worked at all.
But this time it was Samuel who wanted to play against the rules and actually help his friends by any means possible... and right now, those means was by using alchemy.
" Well what are you waiting for?! if they're breaking their way in... the least we can do is protect out 'fort'!" he yelled at the other two, a wild look replacing the normally timid and docile look in his deep blue eyes.

It didn't take very long for Julius to respond to that, as he merely blinked at first before doing a rather evil-looking smirk.
" Now you're talking!" he cheered and knelt down on the ground, taking out the chalk and began to sketch a circle on the dry mud.

Mortimer just gave a somewhat shocked look to Samuel in response to the shorter boy's words from moments before...not because of the fact he was becoming the new voice of reason for the group ( far from it...this was Mortimer Larke afterall) but because of the fact that he'd known Samuel back when the two of them were three and five years old; and in the red-headed boy's golden eyes...Samuel had never shown to have this sort of streak to him at all, but it would seem that Morty was wrong about that.
' You really can't judge appearances, I guess...' he reasonated with himself before smiling to Samuel and giving a nod.
" Right!"

Before long, all three boys were sketching transmutation circles on the ground...and just as the first lot of people from the other side made their way over the now melted mud wall, the teenagers slammed their hands down onto the outer lines of each circle and started to transmute more mud barricades just to give the older people a hard time.
Very soon, those men were running from rising walls or smacking into some... unfortunately Aaron was also there and on Jack's command, had started to transmute streaming jets of water in order to get rid of the newly formed barricades.

It started to seem as if mud and water was flying everywhere once the ground started to become too moist for the mud walls to form properly and so Morty, Samuel and Julius had done the next best thing... make mud balls and actually throw them at the oncoming enemy.
It may of been a childish strategy but it proved to be effective as a few people ended up being knocked down by those slimy balls of mud... and even Aaron's water alchemy wasn't enough to protect him as he also got pelted by some.

This crazy 'war' had been going on whilst Shou had been talking to Emily and Alexis... yet just as it seemed that the three teenagers could keep up the resistance, the three of them ended up being jumped by some tall men who had managed to get past the earlier onslaught of mud balls.
" Mr. McKenzie, we got them!" called out one of the men as one of the boys struggled in his grip.

It was then that Jack came forward with a rather nasty looking glare making it's way onto his features.
" Troublesome little punks..." he muttered as he looked to the boys as they squirmed around while being gripped by their captors, he then gave a nod to the man that had spoke up.
" Good job, Roberts... just make sure that you, Lewison and Hughes keep these runts here... trying to sabotage our plans to help East City, really...youngsters these days" the doctor muttered before making his way towards the metal contraption, one eyebrow raising quizzically as he noticed the alchemised flower pattern...and the medium-sized hole that was now in the metal.
" So... not only were you trying to make sure we didn't burn them; you were also trying to let them go free, too?!" he bellowed as he looked around at the boys with a rather wild expression.

Samuel just winced at that and started to kick around even more.
" But Mr. McKenzie, you don't understand!" he started, about to mention the fact that Shou was in there... but he just got silenced by the rather irate older man.

" No buts! I always knew that you three were troublemakers...but this just proves that you're much worse than that, did you ever take it into account that these dead people might harm the living?! by letting them out, you endanger the entire population of East City or even Amestris itself!" Jack yelled, carrying on with his almost self-righteous sounding rant... before he was interupted by one of the other men that were holding one of the boys.
" What is it, Hughes?"

The bespectacled man just adjusted his glasses with his free hand before letting loose with a sigh.
" Aren't you being a bit too hard on these kids, McKenzie? I mean they're only children... I have a son at home who's just a few years younger than them for goodness sakes, they probably didn't know what they were letting themselves in for"

Jack just seemed to stay quiet for a few seconds before he finally spoke up again, this time referring to Mr. Hughes by first name terms.
" I realise that Michael, but I don't think even Maes would go as far as this...and as for not knowing what they were letting themselves in for" he huffed and pointed to all the melted mud barricades and puddles of muddy water that littered the once dry patch on the burning site.
" This looks like it was planned in advance to me...and naturally, a planned crime definately needs a fitting punishment..."

" What are you going to do?!" screeched Mortimer as he tried kicking at it's captors legs...only to get kneed in a rather sensitive area and just let out a pained squeak... however that did get Mr. Hughes to glare at Marcus Lewison... Lewison then rolled his eyes and whispered a 'sorry kiddo' to Mortimer... of course Morty was currently too preoccupied by the pain to even pay attention to the apology.

Jack just smirked darkly as he glanced at the hole in the metal before reaching into his trouser pocket and fumbled around for something...before pulling out small box.
" And what better method of punishment than to destroy the very thing you tried to protect!" he snapped as he opened the small box and took out a match.
" Aaron, Thomas, Joseph...throw the logs into the hole; we might as well take advantage of this opening, seeing as the ground's too wet now"

Aaron and the other two just nodded to Jack and did as they were told...although Aaron shot a rather apologetic glance at the three boys being held captive as he walked past them, carrying a few logs.
' I'm sorry you three had to go through this... but if what Jack says is true, then maybe it's for your own good' he seemed to say inwardly...he figured he'd just get clobbered if he was to go up to them and say it outloud, so saying it mentally seemed like a more painless option.

Pretty soon, the gathered up logs were sticking out of the hole that Shou had transmuted earlier... and Jack McKenzie stood near the metal contraption, frowning as he could see a few of the undead coming towards the hole in a desperate bid to get out.
" And now... consider all of us saved, everyone!" Jack shouted out to the crowd before smirking at Mortimer, Julius and Samuel.
" As for you juveniles...consider this a lesson in the basic laws of nature, the dead should stay dead with no exceptions!" and with that, he lit a match and threw it into the hole before running back towards the crowd.

Samuel looked completely devastated as he saw the flames begin to appear as the logs sent on fire within the metal box, and began to struggle in Michael Hughes's grip.
" Please, you can't just.... please just let me go!" the teenager began to yowl somewhat pleadingly as tears started to form in his eyes.

Mortimer's brassy eyes had widened when seeing what Mr. McKenzie had done and began to also panic, knowing full well that Shou was still inside that thing.
And very soon even he started to struggle, but he wasn't about to burst into tears like Samuel had started to do and the same went for Julius as well.

" If you don't let us go and stop that fire right now, then Dr. McKenzie is going to be faced with a much worse crime than what we've been commited of..." Julius muttered rather darkly as he glared at both Michael and Marcus with those ice-blue eyes of his, however he also directed it at his own captor too.

Michael looked a little puzzled at that and briefly looked over to Jack McKenzie who was now being surrounded by the other people who seemed to be cheering him on for his 'good deed' ...but decided to at least listen to what the chubby teenager had to say and looked back to Julius with a concerned glare.
" Okay then...why don't you boys tell me why that is, hmm?"

It was then that the boys began to tell the bespectacled older man the real reason as to why they'd came out to the burning site and also why they'd built up the mud walls in the first place.
" It was all Shou's idea to come down here originally, he only wanted to save his mom!" Samuel explained, his panic seemed to be forever rising as he kept looking from Michael to the metal box and then back to Michael again.
" We didn't mean to cause all of this trouble!"

" And now that moron's gone and set that...that 'thing' on fire, with Shou still inside it!" Mortimer exclaimed, pointing with a very firm hand, over at the box.
" If he dies, we're not the ones who are going to be responsible for this..."

" It'll be Jack McKenzie and his merry band of idiots" Julius mumbled rather coldly, finishing off Mortimer's sentence...more or less.

Michael's eyes seemed to widen at that as the complexion drained from his face... surely these boys had to be lying, right?
Yet as he gazed into their eyes, it was easy to see that their looks were far from kidding...and that assumption began to fade from Mr. Hughes's mind more or less straight away.
' They really aren't lying...aww man!' he thought to himself before letting go of Samuel and got Marcus Lewison and Jimmy Roberts to let go of the other two boys.
" Well what are we waiting for, let's go and stop that blaze!" he shouted to Mortimer, Julius and Samuel before looking to Marcus and pointed over to where Jack McKenzie and his celebrating group were.
" Lewison, you go and tell McKenzie what these boys just told us!" and when Marcus just nodded and did so, Michael just started to sprint back down towards the metal box.

" Finally! a decent enough adult who actually listens to us" Samuel said, breathing a sigh of relief before grinning to the other two.
" Makes a pleasant change from the usual, huh?"

Mortimer just chuckled a little at that but then that smile faded as he looked towards the metal box.
" Yeah, but Shou's not out of danger yet...come on!" and with that, the spotty teen began to run down towards the site in the direction that Michael had gone in only seconds earlier.
And pretty soon Samuel and Julius were following suite, Samuel being quite hopeful that things were going to be okay now.

However... inside the metal box, things were far from okay as the flames had started to spread...and the poor undead person ( the one who had only wanted to find a way out) from before, was now screaming wildly as flames had started to engulf him completely...but soon, it wasn't just him, but several others that were also screaming as they too were set on fire.

Shou, Emily and Alexis were still at the back of the box...yet they could see the horrific scene that was unfolding right in front of them and Alexis had started to pathetically hide behind Emily's legs in the ever-wishful hope that she'd be safe behind there.

" But I don't understand..." Shou murmured as he looked at the nasty sight of people running around on fire and winced at the horrific screams that seemed to be growing in numbers at a very rapid rate.
" Morty, Julius and Sam were out there...they were protecting us" he carried on, through the flames and people... Shou could just about see the hole that had once been a ticket to freedom for him and his mother, the logs were blocking it and the flames would of made it very diificult to escape by now anyway.
' All hope really is lost...' he mentally whimpered to himself as he looked towards the burning people and could now feel the tempreture as it began to rise even more, as well as smell the foul-smoke that was beginning to reach suffocating levels.
" There really is no way out now..." the fourteen year old muttered while trying to hold back a frightened sob, he didn't want to die; it wasn't his time to go...he just knew it wasn't!

" Oh but there is..." Emily suddenly stated, resting a surprisingly soft hand on her son's shoulder before smiling gently and gazing down at him with those soft eyes he'd been so used to seeing when he was a small boy.

Shou looked up to his mother and sniffled a little before speaking up again.
" Th-there is?" he then quickly had a look around the interior of the box... trying deperately to see if there was an exit from the box that he had perhaps missed from before, however there didn't seem to be one... which only made him look back to Emily with a confused look on his face.
" How?"

Without saying another word, Emily suddenly grabbed ahold of one of Shou's arms quite tightly before also grabbing ahold of one of Alexis's arms.
" The only way fit for a heretic such as yourself...by burning!" however Emily still wore that gentle smile that neither fit the situation nor the words that she had just spoken.
And before the teenager could argue, she began to walk forward towards the flames...dragging Shou and Alexis along with her.

" Mo-Mom, what are you doing?! how's this going to solve anything? we'll be killed!" Shou exclaimed in a panicked tone...which began to become even more apparent as they neared the intense flames.
" Mom, please...I...I don't want to die!"

" Maybe you don't want to Shou..." Emily muttered before turning around to look him directly in the eyes, that soft look from before had gone...and all that remained in it's place was an icy cold glare.
" But me and Alexis do! ...you never once thought about the concequences for all of this, did you?!"
When the only thing Shou managed to mutter was a saddened 'No' Emily just growled a little and began to run faster towards the flames.
" Well then...it's only right that you suffer from them, my boy!"
And as the flames started to surround Emily, Alexis and Shou, all the fourteen year old could do was close his eyes and let loose with a horrified shriek...and then after that, it went black.

All of a sudden, Shou's eyes snapped open and he found himself staring at...his bedroom ceiling?!
As he sat up slowly, beads of sweat trickled down the young boy's face and his heartbeat was currently going like crazy.
' I'm alive?' was the first thing he thought to himself as he looked towards the bedroom window and saw that the sun was already in the sky, a few birds could be heard twittering on the roof of the house outside... although that was coupled by the noises of people walking down the street.

Tigerlily was currently sitting on the edge of the bed and licking one of her paws as part of her morning wash... there was no sign of a coffin in the bedroom nor was there a bloodstain or signs of a struggle, everything was completely...normal.
It was then that Shou's mind finally pieced everything together and he just blinked awkwardly a few times.
" It was just a dream..." he murmured before looking around at the room once more.

Everything that had seemingly happened last night... Emily coming back to life along with all of the dead people in the graveyard, being held captive at the Doctor's clinic, the plan with Samuel, Mortimer and Julius, seeing Alexis again...and finally, burning to death in a flaming metal box; it had all been nothing but a really horrible nightmare!
Shou then started to smile at that " it was just a really, really horrible dream..." he carried on with his sentence before getting to his feet and started to jump on the bed out of joy.

" I didn't commit a taboo! I didn't get Morty, Julius and Sam in trouble! Mom's not a cold-hearted undead person...and...and...and I'm still alive!!" he yelled out with every jump that he made before accidently stumbling on a landing and ended up falling back onto the bed.
But despite that, he just started to laugh ( whether or not sounding slightly insane could be anyone's guess) out of pure euphoria and relief that the horrors he'd witnessed had been nothing but imaginary.

Naturally, this just got Tigerlily to tilt her head to the side slightly in confusion, she wasn't this used to seeing her teenage owner show this much display of energy, well definately not in recent months at least... but pretty soon she just let out a little 'mew' as if to say 'ah well' and went back to washing herself once more.

After a few more moments of relieved happiness, Shou could hear the phone ringing downstairs and looked a little puzzled at that...who on earth could be phoning him at around eleven o'clock in the morning? he definately knew it wasn't Julius, Samuel or Mortimer...those boys were often out goofing off somewhere by this time.
Maybe it could of been Laura McKenzie? she sometimes checked in on the teenager to make sure he was doing okay.

With that in mind, Shou hopped off of the bed and ran down the stairs, still relieved that the horrors from last night had been nothing but a horrible dream afterall.
Once he'd got to the living room, Shou finally reached the phone and answered it with a slightly bewildered sounding ' Hello?'
However, his pupils must of shrunk in shock as he heard a very familiar voice on the other side of the phone, one that he had not heard for eight years...

" Shou? dear lord boy, is that you?!" a male's voice exclaimed over the phone before letting loose with a surprised chuckle.
" You certainly sound a lot older than I remember you sounding...but I guess I can blame that on me being away for so long, you're doing okay aren't you?"

Despite Jacob's joyful sounding tone on the other side...Shou wasn't exactly too thrilled about hearing his father's voice again.
Jacob could of phoned home all those years ago if only to ease the anxiety that poor Emily had suffered from, and Shou was sure that Jacob's absence had been one of the reasons for his mother's downfall.
Understandably, it took Shou a few moments before he replied to his father while attempting to not sound bitter towards him.
" I'm alright Dad...I finished my school studies a month ago, I haven't really looked into getting a job as of yet though"

Jacob just seemed to hesistate in saying something for a moment before speaking up again, he hadn't expected his son to be this forward in educational studies...didn't most boys stay in school til they were around sixteen? he really wasn't too sure nowadays.
" Erm...well that's good to hear Shou, how about your mother? is she alright?"

Even if it had been an innocent question on Jacob's part...Shou flinched at that and seemed to tighten his grip on the phone, he should of known that the conversation would come to the subject of Emily sooner or later.
" No..." Shou started up, figuring it was best to at least tell his father what had happened...it wasn't like he was going to come rushing home out of sympathy and attempt to be the father he should of been all those years ago, anyway.
" Mom died off an illness three months ago, so I've just been living here since then...although Mrs. McKenzie comes to check in on me every now and again, so it's not like I'm alone"

But from the fuss Jacob started making on the other side of the phone, it didn't sound as if that was okay at all.
In his mind, Jacob Tucker still saw his son as a helpless six year old boy...and started to ramble on about how he didn't have to worry about being left on his own ever again, it also seemed as if he was generally upset at the news of Emily's death as he practically started to apologise, saying how sorry he was to of left them for all of these years and how it must of been hard for poor Emily.

Although he then paused and told Shou that he had to go out somewhere, but not to worry as the teenager wouldn't 'have to worry about being alone anymore' which just got Shou to respond with a rather puzzled sounding ' Erm...okay?' needless to say...the fourteen year old had a bad feeling about this.

After putting the phone down ( as his father had hung up before he could even say 'Goodbye' ) the young boy had felt a little cautious for the rest of the day...that is until Laura came around for a visit in the late afternoon, although for some reason she seemed to be carrying a load of papers this time round.
While that had puzzled Shou somewhat, he had quite happily welcomed Laura into the house and even offered to pour out some tea for her; just like he did every other time she visited.

" You know Shou, a boy your age shouldn't be this eager to make tea for a guest...why aren't you out messing around with those friends of yours?" Laura asked casually as she sat back in one of the chairs at the kitchen table while Shou served her some tea.

Shou just gave a small shrug in response and did a small grin to accompany it, concerning the thing on what boys should or shouldn't do...well considering that he had practically been raised by a woman for most of his life, as well as the fact that he'd also been around his mother's friends...he was bound to show a little bit of feminine sensitivity such as politeness and wanting to serve people cups of tea; not that there was anything wrong with that at all; although granted, Jacob would of probably been disgusted at the fact...
A man shouldn't have to do a woman's work in Jacob's eyes, but he wasn't here...so it didn't matter.

As for the second topic on goofing off with Mortimer, Samuel and Julius, Shou couldn't help but say a vocal answer for that.
" Those three would of come knocking on the door if they wanted me to hang around with them...they're probably just getting themselves into trouble by bugging the workers at the gun factory anyway" and Shou didn't need to be reminded of how that had gone for him a few years ago when he did decide to be a mischief-maker for once.

He had got some of the workers angry from throwing pebbles into the work area and tried stealing some of their food on the lunch-break...
But Shou soon found out that they ( like Dr. McKenzie) weren't against smacking a child and ended up being sore for about a day and a half as a result, needless to say that the young boy had decided to try and stay out of trouble after that.

" Aww, well you're such a good boy for staying out of it then...I'm sure Emily would be so proud of you" Laura said softly as she took a sip from the cup, however her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something and after swallowing a mouthful of the hot drink, spoke up again.
" Oh! that reminds me sweetheart...you know how you and Emily were waiting for Jacob to come back?" the blonde then grinned and waved the papers around.
" Your father called me today, he told me that he heard about Emily's death and wants you to go and live with him...you don't have to worry about being on your own anymore!"

While that normally would of been good news for any child, Shou was far from happy about the fact and just shook his head.
" Oh, n-no...I'm alright with living here! I mean I have Tigerlily with me...and you only live down the road, it's not like I'm really on my own!" he insisted with a nervous smile.
" I'm nearly an adult anyway"

But despite Shou's insisting that he was alright with looking after himself, Laura just sighed in disbelief and shook her head.
" I'm sorry Shou, but you still have another four years before you'll finally be listed as an adult" she confessed and ruffled his hair slightly...much to his discomfort.
" But nice try..."

Shou just sighed in despair at that...while it was true that he was still considered a child, it wasn't like he was five or six anymore and it wasn't like he cried whenever there was no one to look after him...as far as he was concerned, he grew out of that a few months ago; even if he did still feel lonely sometimes, but it wasn't like he sobbed his heart out over it... however he was currently curious as to what those papers that Laura had with her, were about and absently pointed to them.
" Erm...what are those abou-" was all he said in a questioning manner before he trailed off as Laura let out a surprised gasp.

" Oh! you mean these?" Laura asked and pointed at the papers...when Shou gave a nod in response, Mrs. McKenzie just smiled a little.
" Well, these are adoption papers...due to the fact that you're partially an orphan with one remaining parent who lives away from home, the State has ordered that you go and live with your father...see here?" she pointed to one of the boxes that held a tick and a signiture.
" Jacob already signed it earlier today...so you're officially his son once more" however...Laura also seemed to give a sad little smile, it looked as if she'd wanted to adopt the young teenager too...but she felt that maybe it would be best for him to go with his actual father.

" It's also my duty as your guardian to take you over to his place...that's more or less why I came over, I know it may seem a little sudden Shou... but Jacob said that he would feel more at ease as soon as you were back with him" although deep down, even Laura couldn't help but find that pretty strange.
' Although I'd personally call that ' an act of desperation by a lonely father' on Jacob's part... but I guess I have no say in this' she muttered inwardly to herself as she finally finished off the cup of tea and got up from the chair she'd been sitting on.
" So I suppose you should pack up the things you have and we'll get going"

Shou was hesistant in responding at first... but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that there no use in resisting when the odds were against him.
He was too young to stay living on his own for a long amount of time, it was only a matter of time before the money he had ran out and what's more, he had no job to support himself; so in the end, Shou just gave a small nod and also got up from his chair.

After that, the two of them began to pack up the essentials that Shou would need; like his clothes and toothbrush.
Shou had also chose to bring along his sketch books, text books and the Tucker's family photo album...and of course, Tigerlilly was definately coming to live with him and Jacob...who cares if Jacob wasn't too fond of cats? Tigerlily had been Shou's and Emily's and the young teenager was adamant on keeping her.

Once everything was packed up into Laura's motorcar and the house was all locked up...the three of them were now making their way over to Jacob's residence.
Shou just stroked Tigerlily as the tabby cat lay fast asleep on his lap, and looked out at the scenery that passed them by.
' I'll have to phone Morty, Sam and Julius later on and tell them about what's happened and where I'll be living from now on...I just hope Dad lets me hang around with them' was all he said inwardly to himself.

About an hour and a half later ( Laura had a bit of trouble finding the address) the car finally parked up outside Jacob's house, Laura got out of the car and began to make her way up the garden path, finally reaching the front door.

As Laura knocked at the door, Shou just remained sitting in the car with Tigerlily and gazed at the residency that he would finally be calling 'home' from now on.
It was quite a quaint looking house and not too fancy, it was moderately sized too...and while not a State house, nor a mansion; it was definately easy to see that it was bigger than the house that the Tucker's had in the backstreets of the city...it even had a garden too!
' So he's been living the good life, er? ...good for him' Shou thought with a frown...and that frown didn't go away when he saw that Jacob had finally answered the door.

" Ahh Laura, I was beginning to wonder where the two of you had got to" Mr. Tucker SR said with a small laugh as he shook hands with the young woman.
" Shou didn't put up a fight in coming did he?"

" Oh no, e-heh actually he came along quite well...I'm afraid I have to apologise, we would of got here sooner but I had a problem with finding the address to this place" Laura confessed, laughing nervously.
" But we're here now...Shou's in the car although I think he's a little bit tired, he was really quiet during the journey here" she said, looking back to the car and called out.
" Come on sweetheart, why don't you come up to see your father, hmm?"

But despite even Laura calling out to him, Shou refused to budge...he felt much more at home in the car than with his own father and just stroked Tigerlily softly as she woke up from her slumber.

Although his eyes widened when he saw that Jacob was now coming towards the car and tried to scoot backwards in the chair and away from the car window with Tigerlily now cradled in his arms instead of on his lap.
' No! I don't want to go with him!' was pretty much what his body language and thoughts seemed to scream.

Before long, Jacob had reached the car and didn't hesistate in opening the door.
" Come on Shou, you can't stay in there all day...don't you want to come out and see your old man again?" the older man said, surprisingly softly...yet that just got the hairs on the back of Shou's neck to bristle, Jacob was talking to him like he was still a little boy!
However Jacob just paused as he saw Tigerlily and looked to the young teenager with a questioning expression.
" ...Don't tell me you picked that thing up off of the street just before you came over here, Shou you know how I am with cats..."

Now *that* did it... and without any warning, Shou finally spoke up.
" Tigerlily's not going anywhere! Mom got her from a pet shop seven years ago and she's been with the family ever since" he told Jacob as he cuddled the tabby cat close to him.
However, his expression and tone soon softened as he looked down at Tigerlily.
"...And I'm not going to lose her now"

Jacob didn't say anything in response to that at first, but the look on his face almost seemed to resemble the expression he used to give Shou when the boy got himself into trouble, although to Shou...the memory that perhaps showed the greatest example of that scowl was that time when he'd been caught with one of Jacob's alchemy books.
After what seemed like forever, Jacob finally did what sounded like a defeated sigh and just turned his back on his teenage son.
" Fine, you can keep her...but just remember that she's your responsibility and yours alone" he muttered...obviously that was his way of saying ' So you're the one who has to feed her, groom her and make sure she goes to the toilet outside; I'm taking no part in any of it' and before long, was making his way back up the garden path.

Shou didn't really say anything in response to that...but a ghost of a smirk graced his face if only for a moment, as he knew that he'd won a arguement against his own father.
' You never could stand it when someone stood up to you, could you father?' the adult Shou's mind asked, not really feeling the smugness that his younger self was currently displaying...he'd lived through all of this before and he knew how it all turned out in the end, that was something he dreaded in seeing again...but he was thankful enough in knowing that it wouldn't be happening yet.

After Jacob and Laura had taken all of the stuff ( that Shou and Laura had packed up anyway) from the Tucker's old house into Jacob's house, Shou decided that maybe it would be best to give Jacob a chance afterall and pretty soon, the fourteen year old finally got out of the car with Tigerlily still cradled in his arms.
" This is going to be our new home, girl" he told her as he gazed up at the building.

" I have to admit I'm pretty nervous about it...but we should be okay here, right?"
Naturally the cat couldn't comfort him by telling him ' of course it will be alright' considering the fact she didn't know the human tongue, but she did let loose with a couple of mew's to at least show that she had been listening.

Once reaching the front door, Shou set Tigerlily down on the ground carefully and just looked to Jacob and Laura as they were discussing a few more things and Laura finally turned to face Shou with an apologetic smile.
" Well then...I suppose I should get going now, those patients of mine can get pretty cranky if they don't get seen to in less than a minute of their arrival" she said with a small little chuckle and gave the boy a hug.
" You be good for your Dad, okay?"

Shou looked fairly alarmed that Laura had to leave so soon...but as she explained her reasons for not being able to stay, just gave a small sigh and a nod...he should of known that it would just be him and Tigerlily left with Jacob sooner or later.
" Okay I will...and thank you for bringing me here, Mrs. McKenzie" he reponded as he hugged back, giving a slightly sad looking smile.
" Take care..."

Laura took note of the sad look on Shou's face...yet as guilty as she felt for leaving him with Jacob, she knew that she couldn't do anything about the situation.
" You take care too..." and after nodding to Jacob and giving a wave to him, Shou and Tigerlily; Mrs. McKenzie finally went back down the garden path, got into her car and drove off down the street.

Shou just watched in despair as Laura's car disappeared into the distance...and just shot his father an anxious look as the older man turned to go inside the house.
' I might as well see what this new house is like...for all I know, I might learn to like it here' the young teenager told himself mentally as he followed Jacob into the house, getting Tigerlily to follow as well.

When he was inside the house, the first thing Shou noticed was that everything looked a lot more tidier.