Chapter Text
The sun was shinning high in the sky above the ever-growing town of Newer Home. Its residents were going about another day of their individual lives. In the towns previously empty eastern sector, the still new citizens were also going about their business as usual.
Leaving the Café, the group of four children hastily made their way to the park in town square. In the hands of two of the kids were small brown paper bags with a few baked goods they’d gotten.
“Wait up guys!” JJ called out from behind the group as they ran ahead of her. “Ye gotta try ‘nd keep up with us!” Called back the voice of one of the Fox twins, Jessica. Although, she preferred being addressed as Jesse. As her twin brother slowed down, he added, “We don’t need to be running this fast anyways, Jesse!” BB agreed with Junior. “Well fine then!”
Once JJ caught up with the Fox twins and her own twin brother, the four were off to the park again.
~~~
The park was lively on the sunny Saturday afternoon. Many monster families had brough their kids to come play, and even the odd human families were spotted in the crowds.
Among the humans at the monster park that day, was a stranger to everyone there. He was a man who always kept a low profile. It was crucial to the line of work he involved himself in.
On this particular day, he was on a job for a rather resentful company—a boss from one, more specifically. He’d hired the man to target Newer Home’s east-sector residents, and them only. The monsters were to be unharmed.
The man was hanging around one of the children’s playgrounds, keeping an eye out for one of the targets. Not long after he’d arrived, did they arrive. A group of four kids; two of them resembling the few other human children at the park already, and the other two resembling two iconic foxes who were among those the company was hoping to harm.
The man watched as the four went to the side of the playground near where the benches were. As they all sat down to enjoy the sweets they’d gotten from the Café not far from the park, the man subtly made his way over to a nearby flower bush.
The man took his knapsack from off his shoulder, and crouching down by the bush, he rummaged through its contents. Pulling out a couple fake flowers and a small glass vile with a foreign substance inside. Using a gloved hand to open the vile, the man poured the small amount of the liquid onto the similarly colored flowers.
After doing so, the man slowly moved to place the fake flowers among the real ones. He placed them just far out enough to be seen from a certain distance, but deep enough in the bush to make it hard to tell the flowers were fake.
And with that, the man left the park.
The four were still sitting on the bench eating their sweets. Well, three of them were anyways. JJ had already finished her muffin and decided to go look at the flower bushes while waiting for the others.
Going over to the closest flower bush from the bench, JJ crouched down to look at the flowers. It didn’t take her long to notice that some of the flowers looked terribly out of place. Reaching to grab one of the flowers, JJ pulled it from the bush with surprising ease.
“Wait a minute…” The others looked over to her. “I think this flower is fake!” She speculated, holding the flower up to her nose to sniff it and see if it truly wasn’t real. The moment she did, her nose was met with a terribly bitter and sour smell. The smell was so strong, she immediately dropped it and coughed.
“Ye ok?” Jesse asked her from the bench, seeing as JJ’s face had scrunched up in the way one’s would when tasting a lemon. Taking another cough from the strong scent, JJ answered with, “Yeah… I think…”
“Hey guys, let’s play blind mans bluff!” Junior suddenly suggested to change the subject. “Ok!” BB answered. Junior looked to his sister expectantly. “Fine!” She said, moving her hands up to the knot of her head scarf. “We’ll use me scarf as a blindfold. But next time-”
“I’ll bring a separate scarf next time Jesse. Swear!” Jesse gave her non-identical twin a suspicious look, all while handing him her scarf. “Yer idea, yer it!” And with that, her and the older twins ran off to the playground equipment.