Run.

Run.

Run.

'Life or death,' was the only thought running through Carson's head. He lost count of how many cops were around him. 'What did I do?' He panicked. It was a wild goose chase between Carson and the police.

It was dark and the lights were on. Every room on the orphanage was on. It seemed as though the chase from the outside woke them, and now, they were watching from inside their rooms.

As the cold breeze flew, it sent shivers down Carson's veins. Lightning danced around the ocean, the roaring thunder being it's melody. It was raining hard and the moody clouds covered the moon.

Police.

"We've got this place surrounded! There is no point in running!" They called.

He was scared, he ran. The best thing was to turn himself in but, he feared what they might do. Plus, he didn't do anything wrong. Why would he do something wrong? 'Is it because of the rumors?' Carson thought to himself. That was his best guess. Who knew rumors could go this far?

Right.

Left.

Forward.

It was just running around until he finally stopped, out of breath. As soon as he saw that the coast was clear, he took a while to catch his breath. He was now infront of his room. He wanted to go inside and cover himself with blankets. Protecting himself from the cold, going back to sleep, and having to deal with this tomorrow. But he knew full well he couldn't and that the police could find him easily if they would just search each bedroom. Carson thought about taking a police boat to escape, hopefully finding money to hire a lawyer in the way. He took one last look at his bedroom. Slowly, he looked up at himself. But when he did, he didn't see himself.

He saw Lance.

Lance Hunsterton.

"One day, you'll find that out."

The headmaster.

"You appeared in my dream when I was 7...why?"

A father figure.

"It was just a nightmare."

A comfort character.

"But that day..."

Lance Hunsterton.

"Is not this day."

"Peony Dream."

After a moment of flashbacks, they finally dissapeared.

But he really wished it didn't.

He was now back in his "peony dream." But this time, a woman didn't turn into a corpse. In fact, there was no woman, there were just peonies of different colors. They were scattered and scrambled everywhere.

The setting was just black and empty. They were falling from an unknown sky. Once they hit the ground, they stayed there. But one, one special one woke him up.

A white peony.

~

Carson woke up panting and sweating. He looked around and when he did, it was his bedroom again. The light from the moon shined again. His fencing sword was standing still and the light from the hallways were on. But even if everything was normal again, he couldn't help but wonder why was Lance getting chased by cops?

He stayed on his bed, still sweating, still mentally panicking, and still questioning. For long, Carson awaited for answers. He never went searching because of the risk of getting in trouble.

Lance was his father figure. He was a person Carson trusted his whole life. Even if it was just a nightmare, he felt as though the whole thing was real. He felt like Lance was a bad person. But that couldn't be.

After a while of thinking whether or not he was a bad person, he came to a conclusion. He clamied a declaration,

"I need answers."

~

Slowly and carefully, he peeped his head outside. He was still scared, but something inside him felt like he needed to do this. Carson looked around only to find nobody.

'Perfect.'

Stepping out, he had only realized curiosity got the best of him. He didn't care if he was going to get in trouble. All he wanted was answers. And that, was the only thing he was determined to get.

Carson knew the only place that held the answers to his questions was inside the headmaster's office. He forgot all about the memories he shared with him the other day. In fact, he forgot about all of the other things he did with him. All he had inside his mind was answers.

He wanted them.

He needed them.

It was a rare time for him. He didn't think about consequences at all. He only thought about declaration about getting answers, hes wanted for so long. And that was final.

It was tricky having to get there. Before entering a new hallway, he would stop to check if anyone was around before stepping in. Along the way, he tried thinking of many excuses that would get him out of trouble incase if any authority caught him.

"I had a nightmare and I needed a comfort character."

"I remembered I had tutoring with Ms. Bernadett."

"I need to practice fencing with Coach Amelia."

"Is the coach's name Amelia or Avery?"

Coach Amelia once told her team that it was their choice if they wanted to call her "Amelia" or "Avery." Carson had practiced excuses until he finally stopped. There, he was standing infront of the headmaster's office.

It was a huge wooden door with a small decor that had "Headmaster's Office" on it. On the side, next to the doors had small marble tables. On top of the tables were plants in white vases.

The answers to his questions were on the other side of this door. He was about to open it until he heard distant footsteps. Carson froze in his spot. But not for long.

He turned around and saw a janitor's closet. 'Perfect.' Carson was at the best of luck. He ran over and opened the closet. Carson closed it behind him, carefully, trying not to make a single noise.

"What's for lunch tomorrow?" He heard Lance H. asked.

"Waffles." A familiar voice responded: Ms Serenity.

"Carson doesn't like waffles." Mr. Hunsterton said. "How about banana bread?" He suggested.

His voice dissapeared into the distance. 'He remembered.' Carson thought. He began to regret ever doing this in the first place. What if it was just a nightmare? Lance remembering Carson's weird dislike to the waffles here left a smile on his face. 'What if hes innocent?' Carson thought to himself.

Carson was thinking about going back to bed until he opened the closet door to reveal Lance's office. Behind that door would give a possibility for Carson to stop worrying about the honey haired lady in his dreams. He wanted that continuous concerning to stop, but in order for that to happen, he needed to know what else is behind that door.

'No.'

He thought. 'I came here to get answers. Father figure or not, I'm going in there.' He declared.

Carson turned to the direction he heard Mr. Hunsterton and Ms. Serenity walking to. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he crept over across to his door.

Slowly opening it, he saw the headmaster's office. The cold air greeted Carson. There was a wooden shelf full of books to the right and left. On the middle stood Mr. H's wooden desk. On top was his computer and paper work. Along with some pencils and a globe. Behind Mr. H's wooden desk was a deluxe opened flanker window.

He closed the door gently before walking over. "Answers...answers..." He whispered impatiently while he searched through the wooden shelves. There were only non-fiction books about nature and geography, none of that being Carson's interests. Besides, he already knew so much about geography and wild-life. But that wasn't the point right now. He waited for this for so long, he couldn't waste time right now. Besides, it's only a matter of time before Lance comes back.

Carson switched to the other shelf, hoping to find answers there. He kept searching until a huge book dropped. Carson felt like freezing when it made a loud noise. He was so frightened he would get caught because of one book dropping. Even worst, get kicked out of the orphanage for sneaking in.

He turned to the door, inhaling and exhaling that nobody came. He quickly picked up the book. Assured that he was safe, he looked down and read the cover. In luck, it said

"Biological Information."

Once he read that, he was for sure this book had everyone, including the workers' information. Information about the honey haired lady had the best answers to his questions. Atleast, it held an answer to one of his major questions: who are you. But he highly doubt it would answer his other major question, "What does Lance Hunsterton have to do with this?"

He searched through the pages where the social workers' information were at. It was easy for Carson because it showed pictures of them. Hes been noticing only female workers worked in his orphanage (besides Lance,) which was another question, but it remained a small one. Carson couldn't think about that now. He kept searching and searching until he came across an unknown page that looked to be ripped.

That was when his suspicions grew higher.

Lance was keeping that page.

It was obvious that was the honey haired woman's page. At this very moment, he knew full well that that question mark lady existed. Atleast that cleared up the fact that those nightmares weren't just nightmares.

He then started to wonder why was Lance keeping that page? A negative theory came to his mind, "What if he did something bad to that lady?" Carson shaked his head, acting as if he never asked that question. "Couldn't be..." He spoke quietly. "Maybe he accidentally ripped it and placed it somewhere else?"

Just then, the light from Lance's computer caught his attention. Carson looked over to Mr. H's desk. He gently put the book away before running over to Lance's work desk.

"Password Required" was all that it showed (along with a background of the ocean and the moon.) He couldn't focus now on the beautiful background. But it reminded him of the other night when he and the headmaster fenced.

'Focus.' He thought.

For a while, he wondered what his passcode could be. Along with worrying if someone's going to catch him, he worried about getting the incorrect password. (And of course if sneaking into the headmaster's office wasn't going to have the answers to his questions.) But then, a sudden idea came to his mind.

"His birthday."

******

That was the only close idea he had. Carson typed that in. He only knew his birthday because he knew him his whole entire life. Every year, when it's the headmaster's birthday, every orphan's forced to celebrate it.

He really was in the best of luck, that actually got him in.

Carson grew worried since he didn't know alot about computers. Despite being the best in class and writing pretty good essays (which Andre gets jealous of,) he wasn't good with computers. Hence, computers and other technology was something the orphanage rarely learned about.

He looked everywhere, scanning every single site on the computer. He stopped as soon as he saw "maps" He thought of a sudden flashback from long ago, "Maps is a resource to find places, they have symbolic representatives to represent where places are."

'Could I find my orphanage here?' Carson thought. It had nothing to do with his search, but something about looking up his orphanage made him wonder if part of his answers could lie there.

No orphan here ever had phones, it was something the old math teacher used to teach: technology. She died when Carson was 6 years old because of a sickness. Carson and the other orphans only knew about technology because of her.

He searched his orphanage's name up "Hunsterton Orphanage," only to see the empty results "no results found." He found it weird that his orphanage wasn't showing up, but he barely knew about technology, he thought it was normal.

He got out of maps and clicked on a possible useful sight: Hunsterton Orphanage. He clicked on Lance's "headmaster stuff" before at last stopping at a similar site to the book.

"Biological Information," it said. It shared the same title that book had. 'He couldn't delete the lady's page here, right?' He asked himself. 'You can't delete biological information from a site, right?' Without hesitation or doubt, he clicked it.

The page showed a number of names of orphans and workers that worked in the orphanage. The names held the orphans' biological last names. The order of the orphans' names were ordered by the letters of their last names. Sadly, Carson didn't know that honey haired woman's name or her last name. He couldn't just search up "honey haired woman" because to be honest, who would actually name their child that? Carson thought about searching up Lance's name, thinking stuff about the honey haired woman would show up there.

There was a search bar, but before his cursor reached it, he stopped. A name caught his attention.

"Carson Barnes-Peters."

It showed.

He always wanted answers, but not only answers about his orphanage, but also about his past. He wanted to know who his parents were before he was orphaned and what exact events happened. Perhaps, it'll help him understand why he was here in the first place?

He was only here for answers about the orphanage, but it won't hurt if he finds out answers about his past.

Taking a deep breath, he clicked.

Brandon Peters- Father

Christine Barnes- Mother

...

Edward Barnes-Peters- Twin Brother