Written By: Armina Qi Saxton

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Chapter 3: Hiding?

"It has been two weeks since the tragic events on Isle de Gambino and everything has turned back to normal, or as normal as it should be for islanders. some are reeling from the aftershock, while others have gone on with their lives. Even so, many Gaians have been on the lookout for Johnny K. Gambino, once the most powerful man in Gaia. He was last spotted on the island two weeks ago on the day of the memorial, but has disappeared since. If you have any sighting reports or theories as to where he is now, please contact the Gaia 9 news station. This is Cindy Donovinh reporting, for Gaia 9 News."

Just that little bit was often quoted from the Gaia 9 news station on almost every radio station, other news broadcasting services, and local TV stations for miles around. By the end of the day, it seemed everyone had grown tired of hearing it and had shut off their TV's and radio's long before the evening editions. It was the same repetitive lines they had heard before again and gain and they were becoming sick of it. It was the same recap of the Halloween events on Gaia 9, as if that was still the stations biggest top story; surely there were other things in which needed to be covered instead of that.

But there was one thing in which all could agree upon: it was getting back to normal, or as normal as it could be. No one was looking over their shoulders any more, to see if there was anything hideous lurking behind them. No one was wondering if there was going to be anything else launched at them, to get rid of anything that might be still out there somewhere. No, life was about as normal as it could be, for the middle of November. There were still few who believed that there was still something out there, just waiting for them, but they were few and far between.

It felt good to get back to the normal days, as Ruby stepped out of the Hat Shop, stretching her arms to get the blood flowing in them. It was a short break from a long day, a day that did not seem to want to end. There had been bursts of people coming in and out since the store had opened that morning and it was hard to keep track of the little things that went on. Several times she had thought Peyo had been lost in the mad shuffle of people going to and fro, only to find him napping in the back room under a blanket with his teddy bear. Those had been the only relief’s she had since the store opened, taking in the cold November air into her lungs.

The child had barely even come out of the back room, only to ask his mother for something to drink or to eat and to go to the bathroom. Whereas he normally would be sitting somewhere in the store, interacting with other people, playing with the children that came into the store, or even helping his mother, he was now shying away from everyone. Peyo had poked his head out once or twice, blushing slightly when someone looked over towards the doorway that lead to the back. It was strange behavior for the boy, but Ruby wasn't worried just yet.

She smiled at several people walking past, hoping they would walk right on over to the Gambino Outfitters and bother Sasha instead. All day she spent smiling a fake smile to people, wishing the day would end so she could take a hot bath in the tub. Strange as it was, it was busy on this day, even when the official Christmas shopping season had not even begun yet. She wondered if people were just getting their shopping done early on before the actual rush of the season, or if it was just that they were grouping together now on the island. Still, it keeps me busy and away from thinking about things, Ruby thought with a sigh. It's too nice of a day to stay inside, even for November. Maybe I'll close early and take Peyo to the beach for a little while.

"Staring off into space or taking a break? Either way, you need to get back to work," Someone said from somewhere inside a group of people that was moving from one place to another. Ruby blinked her eyes as a familiar figure pushed through the crowd and came towards her. She forced herself not to frown or to glare, as she clasped her hands in front of her.

"Hello, Moira. Haven't seen you around here for a few weeks now," She said sweetly, as Moira came to a stop in front of her. It wasn't known to many people that Ruby didn't care much for Moira, yet tolerated her for the most part. It wasn't the girl herself, but the attitude that she had with others. How Sasha could stand to have this girl as best friend was beyond her, but each their own. "What brings you up from Durem?"

"I'm taking Sasha back to Durem for lunch. There is a little coffee place on the corner by Edmund's shop that she'll like. It'll do her some good to get away from the island," Moira said with a quick nod, her eyes wandering over to the far edge of the Marketplace. "Edmund has an eye on the Depot until I get back, then he'll take a quick breather. It's been hectic today."

Ruby only nodded in slight agreement, lightly crossing her arms over her chest as she eyed her. She suspected that was just an excuse to come up to the island to catch a glimpse of the rubble left behind or to get something out of someone. It would get her up there at least; whether or not she was actually going to take Sasha to downtown Durem later was another matter entirely. If she was really doing something for her friend, and not on the island because she wanted to snoop around, then Ruby would make a mental forgiveness to Moira and think nothing of it. If it wasn't, then she would have to pull the girl all the way back to Durem and keep her there until her curiosity fizzled out.

"What’s the real reason you came all the way to the island? You and Sasha both could have met in Barton and gotten something there. That's where Ian and I first met, in Barton Square." She genuinely smiled for the first time that day, remembering the day like it had only happened yesterday. Peyo hadn't even a passing thought, nor was anything that followed after that first meeting.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Ruby," Moira said, breaking her gaze that had gone past the Marketplace's stalls and perhaps beyond what Ruby was thinking she was looking at. She gave an innocent stare, puffing up her lips. "I am just here to take my best friend out to lunch. Is that so hard to understand?"

"Sure you are, Moira. You and I both know that you two usually meet in Barton for lunch, or even go to Bass'ken for a picnic." Ruby was now giving Moira the look and posture that all Gaian mothers had: eyes scrunched up and knowing, lips pressed into a thin line, arms crossed over chest, and body leaning forwards to indicate that there was something that needed to be said. "I can count the number of times that either you came up here to have lunch with Sasha or Sasha came to Durem on one hand."

"What makes you think that I am here for anything else’s besides for lunch?" Moira looked offended that her plans were being questions, her eyes shifting away from Ruby. There was only three that were invulnerable to this look that Ruby possessed and all three were not exactly human. If Moira had that same ability, then she could tell a lot more stories to Ruby's face then anyone else on Gaian soil.

"Because I know for a fact that Sasha went to lunch already and has long since returned. If you don't believe me, then you can go to the Outfitters and see for yourself." She nodded towards the shop in which Sasha worked in. Moira looked doubtful, even though she did not raise her eyes to meet the woman's gaze. Eye contact was what she to have in order to make people talk.

"Well, then, I'm here to eat lunch by myself. It's always nice to get out of the city every so often," She said through nearly gritted teeth. It was a failed attempt to get herself more credit, even though it was stamped all over her face that it was a down-right lie. Ruby had to force down a laugh at the look that was on Moira's face, one that told her she did not want to be caught in this lie."

"Moira, look at me. Look at me, please," Ruby instructed calmly, her voice lower and her tone loving. It was the same thing that she used towards Peyo when he had done something wrong and it usually worked ninety-five percent of the time. This was how she managed to get things out of people, by using the same logic that she used for own child and applying it to those that were already long-since grown up.

And it was a mistake that people often made by trusting that motherly voice, as Moira looked up and met Ruby's eyes. Her body stiffened, her face contorting into a pout, and her hands going onto her hips. Ruby smiled in satisfaction, knowing that she caught another person into her snare. If this didn't work this time around, she would give up trying to get things out of people that most others would drive themselves insane to get. It was a gift, she had told Agatha one day a few years back, a gift that one had to be a mother to possess and a master to learn.

"Oh, alright. I'm not really here to eat lunch or to take Sasha with me back to Durem. When I heard that Edmund had come up here on the day of the memorial, I thought I'd come up here and see it for myself, but only when there were more people around. Happy now?" Moira said, sighing with defeat. She gave Ruby a glare, only to receive a smug look in return.

No, not exactly." ruby leaned forwards more. "You had a little more then two weeks to come up here to see it for yourself. I am sure you've talked at least once more in the past two weeks and there wasn't too many people here during the first couple of days. Why didn't you come then, when there was hardly anyone here?"

"I wasn't about to come up here all by myself, even if Leon himself said it was safe to come up here and Edmund was with me. It's not everyday that you hear things about zombies and people's homes being destroyed," Moira practically shouted, causing several people to look her way with odd looks. She turned around, putting her back upon Ruby as she glared towards the port. "Besides, I don't do well with very little people around. You never know what might pop up."

Ruby remained silent, taken aback by Moira's voice and the volume in which it had risen to. Never once she had heard it go to that level before, nor had she seen the look that was on her face before she had turned around. It was a look that she would probably never see again, a look that hinted there was something more to this girl then she originally thought. She bit her lower lip, looking away as though she could not even look at Moira's turned back.

"I'm sorry. I just...." She began before she was cut off.

"No, Ruby, don't apologize. I know you just wanted to know why I was up here when I should be back in Durem. I don't know half of the reason as to why I am here. I guess because there is something Edmund knows and is not telling." Moira paused at a passing though then smiled wickedly. She turned back around, looking directly at Ruby, who looked right back at her. There was a gleam in Moira's eyes, one that told her that there was an idea forming in her mind and those ideas were often crazed and outlandish. "Maybe you could persuade him to talk. I mean, if you can get Logan to talk about things, then certainly you can get Edmund to talk, right?"

"Moira, it isn't that simple to get things out of those that don't want to talk about it. Why do you want to know?" Ruby eyed her suspiciously. There was, more often then not, a reason for people to be asking about things such as this and it didn't seem fitting that Moira, of all people, wouldn't know.

"Because, Edmund came back from here that day like....like something had happened. Something that I just can't explain." She shook her head. "I've never seen him look like the next question someone asks him would be his last or that he was so scared of everyone else finding out what he knows. And I believe he is the only who knows where Johnny is hiding, if Logan doesn't know. After all, he was hiding at the lake for a couple of days."

"Hiding?" Ruby asked, surprised. She blinked several times, trying to hide that surprise but Moira didn't seem to take heed of it. She knew that Johnny wasn't around here, perhaps dead from the blast that tore into his mansion. That was one rumor she knew wasn't true when she cornered Logan two weeks ago, asking if he had any visitors since Halloween night and got a response that she hadn't expected. It was, however, odd to hear that the one who once proclaimed to be the richest man in Gaia was hiding. "I don't understand. Johnny Gambino, hiding? I'd think that he would be keeping a low profile around the Gaian Territories for a while, but not strictly keeping to the shadows without anyone seeing him. I would think he would try to be trying to get his image untarnished."

"It is odd, isn't it? You'd think he'd be going around, trying to, at least, explain a few things. He owes at least that to the Gaian Population."

"Yes, he does," Ruby echoed, looking as though she had just lost something and was trying to place where she had least seen it. Her mind wandered away from everything that went around her, fidgeting with the strings to her bonnet. That was a sign that she was thinking, too deep in her own world that she ignored Moira; even if she had spoken, she wouldn't have picked up the words. There was something that she had to ask someone else, before it chewed her mind apart.

"Ruby, where are you going?" Moira explained when Ruby walked quickly past her, as she turned around to watch the other woman go quickly to the port-side of the island.

"Just watch the store for a few moments, Moira. I'll be back," She shouted over her shoulder as she started to walk even quicker then she had before.

"WHAT ABOUT PEYO?" Moira screamed over the now very talkative crowd that was starting to gather behind her with surprised and confused expressions on their faces. Some even expressed that same surprise that Ruby would run off as quickly as she had, without even bothering to close down the Hat Store or to take her son with her. Moira stared after her, her mouth hanging in her own surprise before closing it and sighing. Turning back around, she was met with some very wide-eyed stares that were wondering the same thing. "Alright, all of you. Move along, there's nothing to see here. The Hat Shop is closed for the next fifteen, twenty minutes, that's all. Let's go, come on."

She felt like she was herding a flock of sheep away, as she waves her hands in front of her to show that she wanted a clear path to the doorway to the shop. A few muttered to themselves about this but complied anyways, throwing her several confused looks and possibly a few glares. Moira sighed and shook her head as she pushed the door open to the store and walked in, only speculating on what Ruby was going after.

****

It was like a bad dream, really, that could not be explained in full or even a way to wake up from it. It was as though there was no escape from a maze of dancing images that played on shafts of light and dark. Images of things that had passed in the flow of time, of things that were happening all around, and of things that the future still held. It was not consistent with what little memories there were, things forming and fading as quickly as a passing moment. It was all but a wishful dream to those that could not understand.

And this dream played silently on his mind, in and out of consciousness. He did not recall how many times he had fallen in and out of the void that kept him stumbling around the outskirts of the known Gaian borders. He did not know where he was going or why he was heading in any particular direction. all he knew was that he had to stay away from the wandering eyes that would walk the paths that went from one town to another, keeping his distance. Very few even looked at him as a passing beggar from neighboring places, a beggar that did not choose to be this way.

If they looked more closely, they would have seen a young boy staring at them, wanting to ask where he was and how he managed to get there. That is, if the stayed conscious long enough to look up at anyone with his large, round, and blank eyes. Every time he opened his mouth to call someone, he would fall back into that unknown void and tumble into the grassy and cold land below. He was often hidden well enough that no one ever saw much of him at any given moment; the few that did, had run straight into stores and homes, crying out that they found someone laying dead-like on the side of the path. However, as soon as another set of eyes came to inspect, the body had risen from the dead and had wandered away into another part of the land.

It was for the best, at this point, in keeping himself hidden away from prying eyes. There was no use in trying to remember things that did not need to be remembered or trying to find things that need not be found. At least, for now.

****

Ruby did not know why exactly this could not wait until the next morning when there were fewer people roaming about, looking after her and wondering why she was not back upon the island or had Peyo with her. Something Moira had said about Edmund knowing Johnny's whereabouts triggered something inside of her mind, something that she had to ask one of two people about. If she didn't, the feeling of guilt would consume her and she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything until she asked. When she did, this urge would subside for the time being.

She walked quickly from the Port of Gambino where a small boat had taken her from the island to the port, only a few people stopping her on her way to Bass'ken Lake. They wanted to know where she was going, if the store was closed, and where Peyo was. She waved them off, not answering the questions and muttering a few apologies to people with small promises to answer questions at another time. At the moment, she was on one track and that track could not be derailed.

Passing a few people with buckets and fishing poles that were going to the port, Ruby slowed down some as soon as the lake came into sight. Even she was surprised at how fast she managed to get to this spot; she ignored the aching pains in her legs as she set her sight upon a long figure appearing out of the cabin that set upon the lake. She frowned deeply as she headed towards the cabin, not willing enough that day to take the journey all the way to Durem to talk to Edmund; there was someone closer that she could pry a little bit more information out of before quickly heading back to the island.

It was as though she became a hawk and had her sights on her prey, as she swooped down from her perch and landed almost in front of the only other person she knew who could possibly answer her questions Logan blinked his eyes as he stopped walking along the outskirts of the lake, his own bucket and rod in his ands and eyes set right on Ruby's small but imposing form coming towards him. He was clearly surprised when she stopped in front of him, arms crossing over her chest and her eyes narrowing.

"If you are going to ask me if I know anything else, you might as well try talking to someone on the Council. I don't know any more then you do," Logan said automatically, as though he knew what she was going to say.

"You know something. After all, Johnny did stay in your home for twos days. Where is he? Where did he go? Has he come back since then?" Ruby asked, firing off a few other jumbled questions that he couldn’t understand. She asked these questions fast and under two minutes, her listener's mouth opening slightly at the pace in which she was talking. His response to it was a blank stare and a soft chuckle, as he lowered the bucket to the ground and leaned slightly on the rod that he held in his other hand. Ruby took in a deep breath from her rapid talking, hoping that at least a handful of her quick questions could be answered.

"If I knew where he was, you wouldn't be the first to know nor would I. It seems like information reaches here last, although it took you two days to finally figure out what he was here," He said with a slight shake of his head. "Where he went, I don't know and don't care for that matter. The best person who would know would be Edmund, and I haven't seen him in a week, maybe more. I don't leave the lake that often and those that do come here are the random fishers you see around the lake. As for Johnny coming back, well....that's something different."

Logan paused, as if listening for something, It only made Ruby want to know what he was going to say next even more, although she knew that he was trying to hear for those same random fishers to be listening on a conversation that they shouldn't be listening on. They figured that if they didn't hear it first, they could just as easily listen onto a conversation from one of them. It happened on more then one occasion, when information that was half-true got out and more rumors started then actual truths.

"And?" Ruby asked, her eyes going wide innocently. Logan stared at her, an eyebrow raised.

"I am not one of those people who are constantly asking where he is every day nor throwing wild theories into the wind. If he comes back, he comes back. It doesn't really matter, as long as it doesn't bother me much. If that is what you came all the way from the island for, then I am sorry you wasted your time. You probably would have been better off asking someone in Durem than me."

He picked up the bucket, smiling and nodding once to Ruby before starting to walk away. He did not get very far, perhaps about a pace and a half away, before she latched onto his arm just as quickly as he had asked him questions that he did not understand well enough to answer. Logan looked down at her sideways, tempted to push her away so that he could join the rest of those that dotted the shores of the lake, but there was something in her eyes that made that though disappear completely. It was an almost said, longing look, as though there was something more to her visit then a wasted inquiry to where a single man's whereabouts were.

"Ruby, what is it? What is it that you want to know? I've told you before that I don't know anything else and you are better off asking someone from the Council about, or even Edmund. Whoever you run into first," He said, nodding towards the walls of Barton Town, where the heart of the Council lay. He didn't mean to sound too cold or rude towards her, but he was tired of being asked things that he did not know about himself. Things that he did not wish to concern himself with.

"Did....did you see where Gino went off to? I've heard that he was last seen here, during the Olympics, but they were only rumors." There was a pleading tone to her voice, a pleading that he knew only a mother could have. His expression softened just a bit, only because this was one thing that he could at least answer somewhat truthfully.

"The last time I saw him, he was trying to get himself out of the lake. How he got there, I don't know. I only saw him for a moment before he stumbled off somewhere, I believe in the direction of Aekea. I can't really be sure if he went that way or back towards Durem. I didn't get a good look as to where he actually went, just that it was unusual that he didn't at least try to finish the race to the island. There was something wrong with him, as though he was intentionally trying to run in the opposite direction." Logan shrugged as Ruby let go of his arm. "That's all I can remember. The Olympics were a couple of months back and my memory isn't what it used to be. Sorry I can't be more help to you. I know mothers worry, even with children who aren't theirs."

"It's not so much that I worry about him---maybe it is a little bit---but Gino had been acting strange even before the Olympics. It was as though he was planning on leaving, just to see or hear his father's reaction to him disappearing. If it had anything to do with Johnny, then...." Her voice trailed off, leaving her train of thought hanging. Neither one had to have her finish her sentence to understand fully the message she was trying to convey. "Thank you, Logan. I am sorry that I bothered you with a mother's worry."

"A mother's worry is never a bother," Logan said with a smile before turning his head back around and moving towards the others that were fishing along Bass'ken Lake's shore. Ruby stood there for a moment, thinking over what Logan had just said. In the direction of Aekea or Durem. That was where he had thought that Gino had gone to; that, or back towards Durem. But why towards either place, when there were other places that he could stay in without anyone saying a word to Johnny? Aekea was a place out of the way and not on the route in which the Olympics had run and Durem was on the other side of the Gaian Territory, both about the same distance away from the island. Maybe it was an attempt to get far away from the island as possible.

She sighed, shaking her head as she started back towards the port. She knew that Logan was right: the Council knew something. If Johnny Gambino was hiding, they would know about it and where exactly he was. And only they could tell her, even if she had to pry it out of every one of them by force.