Snippet #2728535

"I failed...it's all my fault. I guess...I had to die like this, for anyone to forgive me for being so broken and easy to manipulate...I was never meant to live...gah!"

"No!" Jax screamed as he suddenly found himself being splashed with water and was jolted awake. What those words he heard himself say, they had felt real to him, but now in this situation he remembered what was going on. Additionally, he was in the bathing room for some reason with everyone and not in his bed. "Ummm, what happened?"

"You were sweating really bad and struggling in your sleep. Normally you wake up pretty easily, but it was harder again this time" one of the orphans mentioned. Right now, Jax was staying at an old orphanage that was run by some pretty good people, and was built in a convenient spot. Of course, that spot was also sought after by a few others, so lately they had been having a rough time...is what they might say, if money didn't get mysterious donated, not through credit or check, but cash, and the aggressors "disappearing".

"Yeah! You looked like you were in a lot of pain! So we took you here and splashed you with water".

"Even my pyjammas..."

"We were not sure whether to take them off or not, since you could sometimes react strangely to people doing unusual things to you in your sleep, but decided they would need to be washed anyways so we played it safe. Well, we brought you here to not get water over our bed. Anyways, that said, could you help us with some of the younger kids while you take one yourself to wash off the sweat?"

Although they had received some money lately, it mostly went towards food, water, and paying back the bank they were in debt to when Jax first arrived. As such, they had limited beds so orphans had to share with others. Jax shared his with two other boys, and of course the other beds in their room were boys too. Girls had their own room they shared with each other. And since it was to save time and money, instead of many baths were were just two big ones, one for boys, one for girls. Additionally, since it was a bit under staffed, to make things easier on everyone, the older kids helped look after the younger ones.

Jax was usually out, so the times he was actually asked to help were low. In fact, he had the lowest appearance in these things. But that was because even though there was no proof, everyone knew he was the one who had been delivering the money. That said, it did not make him immune to their antics but...people had learned not to play pranks on him in his sleep.

As they took their bath, and Jax wiped away the sweat from his nightmare, another of the orphans came over to him, submerged up to his neck in bathwater.

"So deceptive..."

"Huh?"

"You look so small and frail, but you actually pack quite a punch. So, you 'working' again today?"

"Your talking strange. But...whatever, why do you ask?"

"Because we are going to be playing games in the afternoon, and we were hoping you would play with us since a lot of us look up to you...and, we don't want you to fight all the time".

As he said that, he splashed some water at Jax and tickled him a little. But Jax was able to defend himself. After that, they finished up and left, Jax getting dressed in his spare pyjammas and went to the breakfast table with the others. As the large amount of children began to eat food, Jax managed to sit in his chair and began eating. He noticed one of the other kids had procured a newspaper, and that a lot of people were talking about something in great detail.

"Hey...what is going on?"

"You haven't heard yet? Oh right, you had a bad dream again and went right to the baths to clean up. There was an incident, and the king himself made an announcement. There are also a bunch of juicy details! Listen up!"

And so, Jax got a somewhat late heads up about what had happened in the world.