Crazy Countrykids!!! {Countryhumans Daycare AU}

Chapter Fifteen: If you give a Countrykid a cookie...

PEACE's POV

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH-OOF"

I groaned and rubbed my head. "Augh...that hurt..."

The Readers who escaped capture had just sent me to go take care of the Countrykids, who were alone at the daycare. I had never used a key pendant before and so I was unused to the Realm jumping. Normally if I got hurt I'd be running to Cookie right now but...

...Cookie was gone...

I teared up again and reached up a hand to feel my locket. I undid the clasp carefully, trying not to damage its frail state any further. The locket was a smooth, plain little thing with a small chain and an almost broken clasp. Its gold paint was scuffed in some places, showing the black underneath it.

I couldn't care less about its appearance.

Opening the locket, I read the small paper Cookie put inside. His handwriting was a little messy, and the writing was a bit smudged from me handling it so much, but it was still very much legible.

It said: You're the most human person I've ever met. Don't doubt yourself. You mean everything to so many people, and you will to so many more.

I lifted the piece of paper up with trembling fingers. Underneath it was a little picture I had put inside.

In the picture, Cookie and I were seated on the floor of the greenhouse. He was showing me one of his carnivorous plants, and I was trying to feed the plant a cookie. Cookie was mid-laugh, his sprout a healthy green and standing tall. I looked a little confused in the picture as to why the plant wasn't trying to eat the delicious cookie. 

I smiled softly at the memory and carefully replaced the picture and message into the locket, putting it around my neck once more.

My courage renewed, I looked around at my surroundings, determined to find this daycare.

Currently I was standing on a sidewalk outside a row of houses that were surrounded by a neat little picketed fence. There were chalk drawings littering the pathway, stick figures, tic-tac-toe, bombs, cats, ho-

Wait. Bombs?

What the heck?

I crouched down and looked closer at the drawing. A little stick figure with an eyepatch was laughing while stick figures with cat-ears, what was probably supposed to be headphones, sunglasses, and others were bowing with terrified expressions. There was another stick figure clutching the stick arm of the laughing maniac, and a pink heart drawn around them.

Weird kid.

I stood up and brushed the chalk particles off of my suit. I couldn't see them, but I assumed they were there. I wasn't as afraid to get dirty than I was before because I had been helping Cookie out with his garden. That boi sure has a green thumb!

Quite literally.

I chuckled softly at my joke, and I turned to tell Cookie.

No one was there, of course.

The laugh died in my throat, and my eyes started to sting. I blinked away the partially-formed tears until I could see again. 

When my vision was cleared up enough, I noticed a bright sunshine-yellow building about two blocks away from where I was. A bright red picnic table was out on the lawn, and there were a few seagulls pacing the top of the building, probably looking for food. A large group of little colorful kids were seated at the picnic table, eating lunch and talking.