'Thiiiieeeef,' the child repeated, scowling. 'Ariel stole my teddy.'
Ariel Lauder, Harry's memory echoed, the second child that disappeared. Thief smiled and hugged the child with a tenderness Harry would never have assumed Thief capable of.
'Ariel,' Thief said in a tone that made Harry gape, 'Give Olli's teddy back.' A little blonde girl looked sulky but handed back Olli's toy. He hugged it and Thief laughed: light and tinkling. Harry almost fainted from shock. All of the grotty, hardy girl he had met was gone.
Along with all his suspicion. Thief was a thief, not a kidnapper.
And the kids she rescued became her children.
The third child shyly glanced at Harry.
'Whossat?' he asked, brushing a strand of hair from his eyes.
'Harry,' Thief replied, rustling his hair. He reached his arms out towards her and she picked him up, smiling as he clung to her. She looked over to Harry, who was staring wide-eyed at her.
'You...'
'What?' she asked incredulously, bouncing the child up and down.
'You... mother them...?' At that, Thief looked hurt.
'They not want to go back. They stay here.'
'You can't do that!' Thief burst into tears and held the child tighter, who sniffled and buried his head into her breast, looking furiously at Harry. Harry felt bad for saying that to Thief but was still outraged that she kept kids down in her grotty drain.
'You have to take them back.'
'They die anyway,' Thief replied simply. Harry could feel the colour drain from his cheek and the world sway around him.
'What...?'
Thief wrenched the sleeve of the child's jumper up to his elbow.
The child screamed.
Harry screamed.
Grotesque, infected bite marks covered the child's arm.
YOU ARE READING
Sewers
AdventureHarry is both shocked and horrified by the disappearance of his little cousin, Stephanie, the fourth child to go missing from his neighborhood area. He sets out to find her and enters a drain, greeted by a homeless and nameless girl living in the se...
