The newspaper article relates the airship accident my parents and brother perished in, and at the end, there's a mention of the fact I'm still alive and been left at an orphanage. My cousin circled those lines in red... One could think that was cause he wanted to find me to bring me back home in my family..
But then you might stumble upon the letter he wrote to his mother, my aunt Catherine, and wonder why he's talking about a revenge.
And finally, you could find the reply to this letter, written in French by his mother, and which can be translated as :
"My dear son,
I beg you to be careful. I have already lost a husband, I don't want anymore drama in this family. You're telling me that there are complicating matters, that certain persons too curious stepped in. You can't risk your freedom or your life. Act now for our good and the memory of your father. Disappear both, make her sign it, get rid of her and come back.
I'm waiting for you.
Catherine."
Anyway, it seems that some of the last events hastened my cousin's decision to make me sign those papers and then kill me.
He told everyone he was willing to sell the bakery and go back to Scotland with me because New Babbage wasn't a safe town.
Then he closed the bakery and started talking to me into signing those papers. I learnt that our grandfather had precised in his last wills that he wanted the part I inherited to be totally given to an orphanage in case I would die. My cousin Arthur was angry about this decision and wanted me to sign a paper saying I was giving his mother and him my part of the inheritance. He said he would kill me if I didn't, but I could see this light in his eyes, that very light I had noticed already before, which meant he would kill me anyway...
I refused.
So he tried to catch me and put me into a chest, but I fought back and hurt my knee on the corner of the chest. It was bleeding much and I was scared I would die drained from all my blood, but then he managed to apply a fabric against my nose and mouth and I only remember that I lost consciousness...
When I woke up, I was in Mr Whitfield's clinic, laying on his bloody table, and I soon recognized some of the faces around me. There was Jimmy, and Miss Janus, Miss Breezy, Miss Jedburgh Dagger, Mr Holmes, Doctor Watson, Mr Tenk, Mr Sanus, Miss Canolli, and I saw that Mr Rip was guarding the door. Maybe I forget some... I remember hearing a voice speaking some French to me, and also someone talking about icecream. I think the Doctor Watson bandaged my bleeding knee too. I opened the eyes and was so relieved to see everybody around me, to see those friendly faces, really caring about me, worried about me, I almost cried. But I didn't. I'm not a crybaby... But that made me feel really good and warm after the horror I had lived through. My heart is squeezing with pure fear when I think about what happened to those urchins Moriarty have kidnapped... When I think about what Lucas the little ghost told us... I lived the panic of being at the mercy of a malicious crazy man... and thanks to Miss Beq, Miss Orchid, Mr Rip, Mr Holmes, who investigated on my cousin's case, thanks to the Professor Nishi, Elenore, Jimmy, Poopdeck, Mr Tenk, Miss Breezy, Mr Wirefly, Doctor Watson, Mr Holmes, Mr Kanarik.. all those who found me laying drugged hidden in this big chest in Arthur's secret lab, thanks to those people who didn't believe my cousin's lies when he said he had sent me to Scotland, who couldn't think I was leaving them without even saying "bye", who didn't find it was normal to have a kid disappearing, thanks to my friends, I am not a ghost now.
After I woke up in the clinic, they thought I would be better in a comfy bed and safer in a place with only one entrance. So we went to Miss Janus, Mr Wirefly and Miss McMillan house, above Miss Bergamasco's store. There I soon fell into a more natural and sane sleep. I woke up later at the sound of voices and stood up to see who was in the neighbour room. Miss Janus, Miss Jedburgh and Mr Rip were there, but also my friend Loki and two other women I had never seen before. I learnt later that they were Elenore, now looking older than me, and the Professor Nishi, who had changed a lot.
We talked about Arthur and Loki wanted to go find him and kill him, but I said he was dangerous and mad, and then we talked about Moriarty, another madman, and it appears he had been seen recently coming out of the Library, and also been heard talking about something big happening soon. We talked about the Van Creed society guys and Mr Rip said he had a copy of the documents Mr Jesper Renfold gave to the Iron Essence. I'll have to ask him about it when I'll be allowed to go out.
We also talked about the bombs threat another madman (gosh, this city is full of them) announced and I remembered I had seen something looking like one right in Loki's Absinthe cafe, in the backroom. So we rushed outside to go deactivate it, but Jimmy and Rip told me I had to stay inside, cause of my cousin being on the loose. I went into a sulk, but Jimmy said he'd tell me all what would happened there and I climbed the stairs back with Mr Rip, who was guarding me. I soon felt sleepy again and went on the bed to rest some more. I woke up not longer after, at the sound of something glassy breaking and heard with horror the voice of my cousin, speaking to Rip. He was asking where I was and I froze, panicked. Mr Rip didn't reply, but asked in turn who the stranger was. I understood that Arthur was masked. I decided to hide under the bed, hoping that no harm would happen to Mr Wirefly, and then I heard the sound of a gun shooting and steps on the metal made stairs outside.
I rushed outside the bedroom to find Mr Rip holding his right shoulder, his left hand full with his own blood. I started to curse my cousin, fearing he would hurt some more of my friends on his crazy ravings and asked Mr Wirefly how I could help him, but he said the best was to hold the wound to prevent it from bleeding too much.
A little after, Finley arrived, running and asked Mr Rip to go with him because they had found Arthur, or more, Arthur had found Jimmy, Gemini and him, in the backroom of Loki's cafe, and threatened to shoot them if they didn't tell him where I was. It's a bit confused, I think someone stopped by, asking what was happening and got threatened in turn with Arthur's gun. Jimmy took the chance and shot my cousin dead while he was distracted.
The man passing by, Mr Trilobyte Zanzibar could witness Jimmy was just defending all of them against a crazy lad who would have shot them all otherwise.
So now is the end of this nightmare and I finally lost the family I thought I had found... Or did I really?
In truth, as Miss Janus said, as Loki said, the urchins and people of New Babbage are my family. And New Babbage is my home. And I love it... Even with all the mummies, Moriartys or Dr Obolenskys of the world around...
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