Ninjago: A Malicious Lullaby

2 • ...Yet So Far Away

    "Medine, wake up," a familiar voice spoke, breaking through Medine's blissful unconsciousness. Hastily, the voice —which Medine recognized to be her brother—spoke again sternly, but to someone else— "Hey, you don't need to—" A bony hand touched the Melody master's upper arm. Startled, she flung upright with a gasp. Her eyes recognized the man in front of her, but...

    "S-sir! What are you doing in my apartment?!" Medine cried at the old man, pulling her bedsheets over herself in embarrassment. Medine never let herself be seen in her light pajama wear by anyone other than her family, and this intruder was really making her self-conscious. "You know him?!" Harper throws his hands at the guest while eyeing his sister in wild disbelief.

    Smiling as if nothing he was doing was out of the ordinary, the man steps back and speaks with a scratchy chuckle, "Y'all got the unlucky room, didn't cha?" he walks over and knocks on a wall that made an alarmingly brittle sound, close to the cracking of old, rotten wood. He turns back to face the two conscious siblings. "Do y'all know yer front door don't work?"

        Unamused, Harper replies unamusedly with narrowed eyes, "...Yes. We're very aware."

    The old man clears his throat and walks back, stopping at the center of the room. "My apologies for the rude awakening, but ah've been sent as'uh bearer uh bad news. In a matter uh..." he pauses to check his watch, "thirty minutes, to be precise, y'all gon'need tuh leave."

    "What?" Medine said. She furrowed her brow, speaking quickly and briefly, "What are you talking about?"

        "Yer gettin' evicted," the man said curtly.

    "What?!" Harper and Medine cry. "You can't do that!" Harper frowned.

    The old man smiles to himself, amused at the false accusation. "Now, don't get me wrong, I had nothin' against ya. We only learned y'all came from Chen's Island a week ago. This whole dilemma cudda come soona'."

    Medine pursed her lips. Who does this guy think he is; knowing this information about them? "How—" she starts, but she gets something caught in her throat. This is no time to get emotional, Medine. Keep a level head. We don't even know if this man knows what he's talking about. Discreetly clearing it, she spoke again, and steadily, "How do you know about Chen?"

    "He was yer benefactor, right?" The man asks plainly, beginning his explanation, before Harper jumps out of his bed and demands, "Just who are you?! You have no right to know this information about us! And barging in and telling us to leave?! Who does that?!"

    Swiftly lifting a brow, the man stood undisturbed. "The owner 'uh 'dis apartment complex can do whatever 'e wants, ya know. And that so 'appens to be me." he added with a small grain of salt. Harper's eyes widened as he slowly backed off. Medine bit her lip. Now she was grateful she held her manners to a higher standard than her brother.

    Regaining composure, Harper tilts his head slightly upwards, giving a short huff. "Prove it," he challenged.

    "Gladly, if you mus' be so sure, but yer only wastin' tahme, young man..." the old man said, reaching into his pocket and taking out a license of property, with a picture of a young man's face in black in white next to a line with a wild-looking signature swirling all around it. Underneath in parenthesis the name "Dennis Wildbury" was written in print. Dang, Harper slanted his mouth, this old geezer's owned this place before I was even born. The Harmony master took a few glances back and forth between the picture and the old man holding it. They shared the same mole on the right side of their face and the same crooked hooked nose. Defeated, Harper steps away from from the paper indifferently and crosses his arms, "Fine, you win... Mr. Wildbury."