Bree looked like Norman when she'd revealed she wanted to break up but her mouth did not hang open like a fish's, thank the stars.

There was a sad look about the Mayor's eyes and Bree couldn't tell if it was regret or guilt.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked.

"Jimmy is my younger brother." He said. This time he spoke in his casually kind tone and leaned back into couch.

Bree felt wheels spinning inside her head. She tried to connect dots but nothing seemed to make sense.

"How is that possible?" She asked.

The Mayor crossed his legs at his feet. The man was as hairy as his French poodle. Perhaps it was the only trait he shared with Jim.

"It is a long and tiring story miss Deckard but yes we are, in fact, brothers and Berry is my little niece." At the last sentence, he made a shushing gesture and nodded toward the house.

"She thinks you're her father." Bree stated quietly.

"She does and it hurts me to think that one day i'll have to tell her otherwise but for now, she's way too young to understand." Gordon said.

Bree herself was finding it difficult to understand. She didn't want to pester the man with questions but she also wanted to know why everyone avoided or hated Jim.

"You took his child from him and locked him up in the middle of the forest." She accused hoping to get Gordon to talk. His lips tightened and Bree feared she had crossed a line and he would kick her out. That would suck big time. But Gordon's shoulders suddenly slumped.

"I did what was best for her and for him. He had options - go to jail for life or live far from town. He chose the second and now he wants to come back. I can't let that happen."

"What did he do that was so wrong?" Bree asked feeling a little impatient.

"He killed Berry's mother." Gordon snapped.

Bree retracted her head slightly. She was surprised that she wasn't shocked to hear such a thing. Jim already looked like a killer and a crazy one at that.

"Who was she?" Bree asked. She was always on the asking end.

The way Gordon avoided her eyes at that question made Bree believe Berry's mother was probably someone he loved. He leaned forward and laced his fingers again. They were long and slender like a pianist's.

"It's not important but he murdered an innocent woman in cold blood. You don't know him and you're vouching for his freedom. He's scarred my town too many times and all those years i'd fought with myself. I couldn't put him away because he's my brother and that caused me a lot of trouble. Killing the woman i. . . " at that point, Gordon held his tongue. He sighed and rested on the couch again. "He crossed the line when he took Berry's mother. I had to whisk the child away before he hurt her. Still, i pardoned him. I didn't want the whole town to hate me so i gave him a choice."

Bree finally began to understand why the man was hesistant to free Jim. What she didn't quite get was Norman's story. What had Jim done to him?

"You let him go." Bree said.

"No. He was punished to a life of isolation, he just had to choose where he'd live out his days- jail or that wild habitat he loves. He left and has never shown his face again as agreed. I do know he does business now. He makes the best woodwork, he's good at chasing wild animals and bringing them home for dinner."

At the mention of wild animals, Bree perked up. She was already confused as to whether she should continue pleading for Jim or just let it go. He had helped her build the cage and if Bree captured this monster, Jimothy would have a hand in saving the town. It wouldn't take long before that monster switched diet.

She thought about telling the Mayor the story but decided not to.

"I understand now. I guess it's um, it's time i went back." She said and stood up.

"Miss Deckard. . ." The Mayor called. He hadn't moved from his sitting position except for the interval slouching and leaning forward. Berry hadn't come back either. Bree wondered if she had emptied the refrigerator by now. ". . . you said Jim did a good thing for you. What was it?"

Bree paused. Could she tell?

"In the end, you'll see. A lot of things are going on in your town that you don't know about." She answered and took her leave. She wanted to say goodbye to Berry but Gordon opposed saying Berry got wild whenever anyone interrupted her snack time. Wild? well, there's a funny description.

Bree headed back to town, unable to get the disturbing image of Jim's arrow whistling past her head out of her mind. Had he intentionally missed? She was thankful that she had gotten this information right after she retreived the cage from him or else she would have found it difficult to visit the forest at the time that she had.

She stopped by the library to get Tatum's prize. On her way up, she spotted Pepper - hunched over her phone as usual.

"Ronny Chieng?" She asked startling Pepper.

"Bree? What are you doing here? I mean, it's nice to see you again." Pepper said. She wore a huge Nike shirt that read Kickin' It. Bree tried to imagine Pepper kicking anything. She had long legs and whoever found themselves at the end of it would be unlucky but then again Pepper was a peace loving teenager.

"I came to get something. Is Ed upstairs?" Bree asked. She discovered she missed the smell of new books which was very weird. She could tell when the library got restocked because the whole place carried the strong smell of fresh paper.

"He got another car." Pepper said. Her tone made getting a new car sound like bad news and it was, for everyone who worked at the library.

"Oh man, that's terrible." Bree sympathized. "I came for those spray cans he stashed away in that stupid locker of his."

"You're joining the graffiti artists?" Pepper asked in disbelief. Bree wanted to laugh.

"No. I owe them." She replied instead.

"There's like 90 spray cans, how do you want to move them? Your bag is way too small." Pepper pointed out.

"Oh yeah." Bree said and kissed her teeth then dug her hand inside her handbag. "but there's a bag in my bag."

Pepper laughed - a rare sight, and followed Bree upstairs. Ed had either forgotten to lock his office or he just did not care. At the end of the room stood a brown locker, like the half part of a wardrobe. The lowest part had a large drawer. Pepper fiddled around and found the keys then opened the drawer.

Inside, spray cans of different colors rested ontop one another. Bree pulled out a folded piece of polythene bag and unraveled it. With Pepper's help, she stuffed the bag full of spray cans until the drawer was empty.

"Thank you, Pepsi." Bree said when they had come downstairs.

"why do you call me that?" Pepper asked for the first time.

Bree shrugged. "I honestly don't know."

Pepper chuckled. "see you around then."

"Yeah, you too." Bree said and boarded another taxi to deliver her booty of spray cans.

Bree had never seen Tatum smile but when she had set down the polythene bag and opened it, Tatum smiled like she'd just won a million dollars.

"No way, she got it back." Tate announced to the others. They all scrambled forward to snatch a can from the bag and began to chatter in excitement.

"Thanks, Bree. You're officially a friend of Graffitismo." Tatum announced.

"Graffitismo? Your group's name is Graffitismo?" Bree asked in an amused tone.

Tatum clenched her small fists. "got a problem with that?"

"Absolutely not. I love Latin." Bree answered quickly. It was silly. She was being intimidated by a twelve year old but then Tatum wasn't alone and despite not having physical strength, they could spray paint Bree to look like a rodeo clown or worse, The Mad Hatter.

Bree left with her face still the same shade as her entire body. She went back home and changed clothes, ate lunch and went to get Allen again.

"Don't worry boy, this time, you won't have to go all the way in." She assured the dog.

She picked up the order she had placed earlier - a platter of delicious pig roast. She transported it and Allen to the farmhouse, all the while trying to keep the dog from digging his teeth into the meat.

She pushed the meat in a wheelbarrow, all the way to the back of the Pendulum. After setting up a picnic mat made out of fresh leaves, she dumped the delicacy on it then ran to the farmhouse to hide. She pulled Jonas inside even though the horse wasn't quite happy with leaving his weed salad.

She had acquired new equipments for her next trip. This time she had a bow and a quiver full of arrows. silly? Not so much. Jimothy had given her one when she retrieved her cage. It was made from oakwood and had metal arrows instead of normal wooden ones. Staring at the metal shaft and red fletching made Bree nauseous. Jim had tried to dart her with one of those - by accident.

She had a couple of flares in her bag this time, her map, her two favourite books (she always carried them everywhere, they were therapeutic somehow). She brought a flashlight, batteries, food and water, warm clothes and a blowtorch, just in case.

"Okay Allen, you're going to help me sniff that big guy so i can find out where he lives." Bree said, rubbing Allen's back.

She slung her backpack and placed the quiver around her waist. It was a modern style quiver and Bree liked it. She stayed outside and sat on the grass next to the boulder, waiting for her target to show up for a late lunch. The pen was still empty and Bree liked that it was, otherwise those pigs would practice aerobatics and bathe her with mud.

It didn't take long before Bree saw leaves rustling. She stood up and crouched, making sure she was completely out of sight. She could not see the picnic but she was sure the monster had swallowed the meat in one big bite. She carefully approached the Pendulum and peeked from the front. Luckily, her target was just disappearing into the forest.

How did he walk so fast?

"okay Allen, let's go know where our friend lives." She said and ran toward the forest with the bloodhound behind her.

Tracing monster footprints shouldn't have been difficult. They had large feet. But this one seemed to walk on air. He did leave toeprints but they looked like holes poked into the earth. Bree was lucky she'd brought Allen along otherwise she would've lost the monster eons ago.

Allen's nose was more effective than GPS. Despite not having any constant footprints to follow, the dog sniffed out the monster like it was one of his treats. They went past the first cave, passed a frozen body of water that formed both a pool and a slide. There were so many bamboo trees after that, Bree thought they'd somehow started back where the forest began. The pair continued tracing the monster and it led them deep into the heart of the forest.

Finally, they stumbled upon an abandoned building looking up at a snow covered precipice where Bree could see the entrance to an incredibly large cave. She wondered how a building could be located deep in the forest. It was built out of the finest bricks but the structure had crumbled to almost nothing. Only a few walls stood erect and untouched by whatever had caused the collapse.

Bree was sure the house wasn't ruined by natural disaster. It looked like the structure had been bulldozed. She inched into it carefully. There were no doors or windows, rubble covered the floor and as Bree stood in the middle of the wreckage, she realized the building was a king sized bedroom.

"This is strange!" She muttered, exploring the length of the room. It had the strange feel of an old chamber. Bree wondered how someone had built a bedroom in the middle of the forest. She also wondered where the rest of the house was.

"Come on, Allen." She urged and left the rubble. The precipice was farther than it looked and Bree realized the cliff was too steep for Allen- she had to climb all the way to the top alone.

"You wait down here for me, okay." Bree said sizing up at the unusual cliff. It was draped in snow from top to bottom. Bree knew there was a cliff drop behind, probably two hundred feet.

She pulled out two arrows and plunged them into the rock face. The points dug into the surface, releasing drops of snow into her hair. Bree shook them off, thankful that the arrows did not break upon contact. She glanced at Allen. He sat obediently on the snowy ground, his tongue hanging out with a bucketful of drool dripping from it.

Bree took the first step. Six feet off the ground and she realized she had to support her own weight by her arms since there was no place for footing. Her arms began to ache and Bree considered going back down.

Regardless of the cold, Bree began to sweat profusely. She couldn't fail, she had to keep going. The higher she went, the smaller Allen looked on the ground.

She finally emerged on the top and slumped on the snow. Her arms ached like she had lifted three Teslas. She crawled to the edge and peeked down at Allen. He barked when he saw her and sat put.

Bree adjusted her backpack and stared at the cave entrance. She was about to walk into certain death. She began to question what she would do when she got in. All she wanted was to pinpoint the monster's location and she could've turned back at the wrecked bedroom but something kept pulling her in. Something she couldn't control and it definitely was not curiosity.

Bree knew that her interest in the monster was not normal. A normal person would avoid coming here but she had, with both eyes open. Her boots crunched against the snow as she walked then she stopped when she caught sight of an opening by the corner of the cave. She traced the opening with her eyes and discovered with exasperation that there had been some sort of staircase leading up to the mouth of the cave.

"Oh come on!" Bree said swinging both arms up in frustration then brought them down and winced in pain. "Ow!"

The closer she got to the cave mouth, the louder the snow seemed to crunch like crackers under her feet. It was impossible to not alert her presence.

Inside the cave was incredibly cold and Bree wondered how the monster could live in such condition. It did look like a bear but not the kind that lives in the cold. Bree stopped walking when she spotted a large aluminum platter leaning against the wall.

It was the same one she had served the pig roast in. Bree frowned. The platter was still intact, without anything much of a dent or a scratch on it. She picked it up and stared at it then almost immediately, she saw the faint reflection of something descending from the cave ceiling.

Bree's eyes widened as the object fell. She lifted the tray above her head just in time for the icicle to shatter on it, leaving a loud echo in its wake. The impact pushed Bree down and she laid sprawled out on the snow. She stood up with a groan and glanced up at the ceiling. It was covered in icicles so large they could've been giant swords.

She placed the platter (now dented) on her head and carefully began to proceed further into the cave. Once or twice, an icicle would fall onto the tray and Bree would struggle to bear the weight. By the time she was 20 feet deep in the cave, she had a tray full of broken ice.

"Whoa!" Bree exclaimed and put the tray down when she finally reached the very end. The rest of the cave spread out in front of her, with small boulders of ice protruding from the ground like a bunch of dinosaur teeth. There was a large bed of snow with a body print on it. Bree was sure the monster slept there. The ground was littered with leaves, tree branches, funny looking objects like a smashed tyre, a birthday hat, a billboard, seats from a roller coaster, a parking meter, a broken chair and other things Bree found strange. It was either the monster was a collector or it just enjoyed ripping and breaking stuff.

Bree scanned the space. It was large enough to fit nine school buses. Icicles swarmed the ceiling like a cluster of toothpicks and the ground was covered in ankle deep snow but there were no footprints.

Bree suddenly became alert. No footprints now meant the monster was in here. She pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow.

what are you doing? Bree's brain asked in shock.

We're supposed to be leaving. It nagged but Bree barely paid attention. She circled the room and found an opening that led to the top of the cave. It was like one of those volcanic holes.

Bree peeped up and saw the blue sky. This was no hole. It was a skylight.

The opening did not look natural. Scratches around the walls showed that it had been dug from above.

But who would do such a thing?

In the middle of her thoughts, Bree sensed rather too late. Within a split second, something slammed her halfway across the room, sending her into the wall with a loud crack.

Spots danced around in her eyes and the room darkened. She tried to lift her head but the everything spun like racecar tyres. Her back was numb from pain and her head throbbed badly. She touched her nose and felt warm liquid oozing out of it.

Blood.

GRRRRF!

Bree felt the ground tremble underneath her as her eyes began to droop slowly.