The sound of Mr Richmonds laughter, was oddly comforting, even as several other parts of his brain insisted the sound really should terrify him.

On one hand, two men with guns were threatening to hurt people.

On the other hand, the resident mad scientist was laughing somewhat manically.

But, to quote Lewis Carroll, "Were all mad here."

He felt very sorry for the men with the guns. They really had no idea who they were messing with.

But, not sorry enough to quench the anger. They dared waltz into our wonderland, into his home, and threaten his people. They would regret it.

He tightened his grip on the hilt of my sword. and stepped into the shadow of one of the many pillars that decorated the main floor of the bank. Disappearing from their view, he saw out of the corner of his eye several of the other villagers do the same, in an almost choreographed smoothness. There were still several others too far in the open to slip out of sight unnoticed, including his triad. But he still had no idea where Mr Richmond was, even though Steven somehow knew with disturbing certainty that eerie echoing laugh belonged to him.

His life before the village had consisted of just him and the nightmares. His single mother who tried to help, but didn't know how, and her successively worsening taste in boyfriends. They lived in a bad part of town, but he was good at avoiding violence, and even better at ending fights quickly. He mostly kept to himself and managed to avoid any real kind of trouble. Until a year ago when her latest case of bad judgement came at her with a knife, almost without a thought he ended up with said knife in his own hand, and the deadbeat boyfriend was now just dead. The police had arrived shortly, probably called by the neighbors earlier at the beginning of the fight.

The local police were unfortunately or fortunately familiar enough with his mothers taste in men, that they had no trouble believing that I had been justifiably defending my mother, they were merely alarmed by the apparent proficiency I had for killing people with knives... Along with my recorded psychological history of 'Antisocial Behavior' and 'Night Terrors'. This led to a small parade of social workers and child therapists, whom he really did not wish to speak to.

That didn't last very long though, Mr Richmond found him shortly. It was a fairly easy choice for my mother to choose between suspicious unfriendly social workers who probably wanted to have him committed to an institution, or a new job in a new town which included a full scholarship to a prestigious private school for her son.

Steven was less enthusiastic.

The immediate hatred and mistrust I had upon meeting Mr Richmond was unexpected and alarming, but my initial reaction combined with the 'too good to be true' nature of his offer almost made me dig in my heels and take my chances with the Psychologists.

"Steven" He had said, before I had a chance to really argue, and his name had sounded foreign and unfamiliar when he voiced it. He looked me in the eyes and the hint of irony in his expression told me he knew. "We are not who we were." He paused letting the cryptic phrase settle under the gravity of his voice. "Give the village a chance, I think you will find it feels very much like home."

It did.

He was outsider enough to be fully cognizant of how insane everything was, but it was a comforting familiar insanity.

Mr Richmond had very little to do with Him and his mother once they arrived, which he was thankful for, for various reasons including the fact that, to my horror, his mother seemed to have developed a crush on the "Dashing, Mysterious Gentleman" who had rescued them from their old life. Fortunately once he caught on to my mothers interest Mr Richmond seemed just as horrified as Steven was.

Between the two of them conspiring to help him avoid my mothers invitations to 'go for coffee' or 'Thank him for his help', and Darlene taking Steven aside and reassuring him that hating Mr. Richmond on sight was perfectly normal, but she had been keeping an eye on him for years, and he hadn't done anything out of line, Steven managed to relax enough to acclimate.

And of course, after He met Tyler and Kevin leaving seemed unthinkable.

This was his home, so when he watched the two men swiftly being taken down by Kevin and another villager, he was almost disappointed that there had been nothing he could do. He watched as the two of them were disarmed, which is probably part of the reason he failed to notice whoever was behind him. A strong smelling cloth was pressed against his face, as he was grabbed from behind. His unfortunate gasp of surprise made his head spin before he could even think to hold his breath. His weak struggles were almost immediately followed by a strangled scream, and his unresponsive legs caused him to fall forward.

A hand caught the back of his shirt, and just before he blacked out, he heard a familiar, but not quite comforting chuckle and croon "Oh Sasuke-kun you have no Idea how pleased I am that your Triad is together again."

A.N. Edited perspective pronoun things... That was terrible... er and about the not updating in a year, my computer kinda sorta died a bit, now just sorta works but I can only use it two or three days a week due to my work schedule...and life happens...also I read a lot. Seriously, I really read a lot... I vastly prefer it too writing. So you should probably blame BookBub, and Amazon for having all those free e-books for me to download...