No, she returns without event.

Angelica returns, and you follow her inside. Initially, it was dark, lifeless, cold, and utterly empty of even furniture. You follow her without a word until you enter a closet with a trap door. It’s difficult to judge if this was originally here or made more recently. Whatever the case, on the other hand, you’re opened to a large room with about 30 beds and (with the help of Angelica) 20 kids occupying the space, including the young boy you saw earlier. Warming the place (as well as keeping it bright,) are several barrels with fires lit inside of them. They crackle as they burn whatever contents were put it. Thankfully, these barrels emit a welcoming scent. It smells like a camp fire, which is actually somewhat off putting because you would have suspected the area to be less inviting. However, you found yourself not just warm, but also curiously wanting to poke around.

Scarlet makes a weird noise as she stiffens. A harsh curse comes out under her breath as she takes count of every child in there. The majority of boys are around 10-12 years of age. There are some girls, too, but they’re older, matching the same age as Angelica, besides for an odd ball or two that's either slightly younger, or slightly older.

Scarlet sidesteps as a few kids run across. She crosses her arms before speaking. “So, what are you doing here exactly? Do you have any idea what Angel wanted help with?”

Angelica shook her head. “Not exactly. We’ve been moving around a lot, but this place has been our home for about three weeks. As for what we’re doing…Angel said we would meet some people to get us back home.”

“Home?” You inquired.

“Some of us are runaways. Some of us were kidnapped,” Angelica looks at the room, avoiding eye contact.

“How’s he treating you?” You ask. She spins around.

“Great! He’s treating us great!”

Scarlet glares at her, but when their eyes meet, her expression softens. “You can trust us, Angelica.”

Angelica glares at Scarlet return. “Angel is treating us very well. Don’t think of anything else! What’s it matter to you anyway? You’re not getting paid to investigate.”

“Calm down,” you interject. “While we wait for your caretaker. Is there anything you need to do? Why were you even outside?”

“To get some space,” she says quickly. “It’s cramped here, and the others my age don’t talk to me.”

“Why?” Scarlet cuts next.

“Because they’re assholes,” Angelica moans. “They’re from richer families and— forget it. They’ll just bully me if I complain to you guys. And I've had enough of that.”

“I’m not going to say anything. Sounds like Highschool drama shit anyway," you retort, very uninterested with the subject suddenly.

Scarlet knocks your foot with hers without drawing attention. “And why are they bullying you?”

Angelica grumbles. “I have my reasons, I guess… HEY. You wanted to help, right? Can you get the boys to clean up and maybe help us get everything looking, I dunno…proper?”

Before you can say anything, Scarlet signs both of you up for house chores. Angelica sighs with overplayed relief and runs off. “I’m no good with kids,” you tell Scarlet.

“Neither am I,” she adjusts the rifle on her shoulder and sheds her backpack. You do the same, but make sure you keep your rifle on you, too. “Let’s see what we can do.”

…

…

Scarlet is acting very motherly towards the children. She even managed to make a few of them laugh as she got them involved with the cleaning operations. Honestly, you are amazed by her ability to care for and handle the boys with such tenderness. You couldn’t help but smile. That said, you weren't going to offer your hand anymore than you already have. You've folded enough shirts and pants for the rest of the week. You felt sorry for the kids, sure, but you weren't to do their laundry.

Scarlet went to the youngest first and made her way up to the oldest, which was a girl named “Alice,” a girl with short black hair and brown eyes. She just recently turned 18 but didn’t seem too keen on talking or even helping anyone else. You only interacted with Alice because she opened the conversation first. And it was because she wanted to know if you played any instruments…The guitar, but that only made Scarlet perk up at the mention,

By the time it's time to start food prep for dinner, you’re lounging on one of the many empty cots, going through one of the crinkled comics. Most of the text was too faded to read, and most of the papers were missing, making following the story impossible. All you were sure of was that it seemed you were in a place for troubled kids, despite Scarlet doing a good job keeping them busy with all types of chores… You didn’t consider Scarlet to have such a caring trait for children…? You’re even more surprised to see her smiling as she is talking to some redhead named Charlie. You meet eyes briefly, and she manages to straighten her mouth.

Even though you were warned that Angel wouldn’t be here until nightfall, you wondered how long these kids were on their own. The youngest was probably close to being 9. He hardly spoke at all. You look closer at your new “housemates” and discover that they look relatively healthy, all considering, anyway. Angelica announced that dinner wouldn’t be ready for another hour.

“Alright,” you murmur to yourself, tossing the comic book aside. “What should I do?”