Heroes of Flowers: Karmi's Camden Adventure

Chapter 13: To Catch a De Vil

"Hey um Kirby I appreciate you helping me move my stuff to my grandpa's, but can you tell us why we're here?" It was now close to night, with the evening sun disappearing over the city, and Kirby had dragged him and Karmi over to a room in their house.

"We're here because the unthinkable has happened." Kirby had dragged over a board that was covered by a tarp.

Karmi looked quizzically at the tarp. "Can the explanation of the unthinkable happen tomorrow morning? My parents don't like it when I'm not at the hotel after dark."

"You know why we're here! A-" Kirby glanced around the room before their voice turned into a whisper. "A De Vil is in Camden."

Eleanor gasped. "What?!"

"That Hunter kid is one of them, and that itself means our canine friends are in danger." Kirby pulled away the tarp to reveal several drawings that looked like they were made by the jock and old newspaper articles taped to the wall.

Geez, dramatic much? "Okay just because Hunter has the same last name as the lady that tried kidnapping Dalmatians all across London doesn't mean he's gonna do the same thing." Karmi argued.

Both Eleanor and Kirby gave her weird looks. "Past evidence says otherwise!" Eleanor pointed to one of the taped articles. "A couple decades ago a woman named Ivy De Vil tried to kidnap the dogs in the Dalmatian Plantation, and not all of them were dalmatians!"

"And then when my Mom and Aunt were kids, this guy called Harris Devil ran a dog daycare scam to try and steal people's dogs, and both him and Ivy had Cruella as an aunt!" Kirby added.

"It's not even exclusive to here, the most recent incident was several months ago when this woman named Claude Vilke-" If Karmi had been drinking water she would've coughed it out as that name was hauntingly familiar. "Who was found to be a direct descendant of Cruella, had a hoarder house of Dalmatians, purebred and mixed alike!"

Kirby noticed the shocked expression on the biotech major's face. "Did we infodump too much?"

"I know the name Claude! She was the lady that owned the hoarder house my family rescued Domino from!" Karmi exclaimed.

Eleanor's eyes widened. "Really?"

"You mean to tell me she was a De Vil?!"

The jock nodded. "Yes, yes I am. There's a reason we don't speak that name aloud, or say the De Vil family name in public, if there's dogs in danger, there's one of them."

Karmi did not miss the way both her friends glanced around the room nervously everytime they mentioned the name De Vil or a person from said family. "So uh... is this a 'we don't talk about Bruno' thing for Camden?"

"I haven't seen that movie yet but probably?" Kirby shrugged.

"Not every dog incident is because of that family." Eleanor argued. "Maybe Hunter is just some kid using the name to scare people."

The animal whisperer had a point, but Kirby shook their head. "Nope, already looked him up thanks to my aunt's supervillain database."

"Your aunt has a supervillain database on the De Vils-?" Before Karmi could finish her sentence she got shushed by Eleanor, who had a grave look on his face.

"Don't say that name so casually!" Eleanor hissed. "Legend has it that if you speak the name of the family aloud, the one who cursed them, Cruella, will come to haunt your dreams."

Okay note to self, tell that to my parents. Karmi frowned. The incident of the first dalmatian kidnapping and future events thanks to the woman and her descendants must've really traumatized the people of London if they were scared to say her family's name aloud.