Shawn sat down across from Lauren. She seemed very formal and polite, but the good thing about that from Shawn's prospective was that it made it clear how he should react. "Thank you, it's really nice to meet you. I really like your tree house."

Lauren smiled again



"Ummm..hhhmmmmm." She agreed, nodding her head. "I'm so glad you said that. When Chris called me on the phone and said that you were from Main Street or Rodeo Drive, I made sure that I called everyone who was a member of Kids Incorporated. We're all so happy that you are here. We're involved in an super slooth investigation." Lauren explained.


"I like to talk about what is most important." Lauren said. "So I'll get straight to the point."

"We want you to join Kids Incorporated and be part of our club and our investigation."

It all seemed straightforward enough to Shawn, and their goals were clearly aligned. He nodded amiably. "I mean, if you're really investigating what's going on on Main Street, I'd be happy to help."

"Perfect! That's great." Lauren exclaimed. "But there's just one little thing..." Lauren started to say before one of the other kids cut her off.

"He can't be friends with the Club on Main Street!" a kid shouted.

"Yeah! Jimmy is a jerk! He egged my house!" another shouted.

There was a chorus of complaints suddenly about Edith and Jimmy and Sara. Then Lauren turned around and with that the kids simmered down.

"Yeah." Lauren said, as if she was tired from herding cats. "That's pretty much it. You can't be friends with any of them anymore. Besides, you live here now. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Shawn hesitated for a moment - he didn't like the idea of having to reject one group of friends in favor of another. Especially when he hadn't even known either group for a full day, and knowing he needed all the help he could get. He tried to come up with a compromise that'd let him keep access to both. "I get it, those guys are jerks. But I just thought of something - what if I pretended to still be their friends? That way I can tell you guys what stuff they've found out as soon as they find it."

Chris stiffened at Shawn's words while Lauren nodded in agreement.

The crowd of kids behind her began to discuss Shawn's strategy. First with whispers and murmurs and then with louder words, the idea clearly dividing the group.

"Absolutely not!" one boy shouted. "He can't be friends with kids on Main Street. They aren't like us."

"We need to find out what is happening and he knows about it." Another girl countered.

"Want to play tic tac toe?" A smaller kid said to both from the corner of the crowd, question being drowned out by the growing argument.

Shawn could tell his idea was divisive, so he didn't want to alienate half the group by committing too hard to it. "It's just an idea I had, is all. It just feels like this investigation's really important, so we should put that first, right?" Hopefully they'd see his point, so he could hang out with both groups without making them mad.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:55, Thu 16 Dec 2021.

Shawn struck a neutral ground with the words, but it was too late. Indeed, as the bickering continued, kids moved from one side of the wooden boards to the other and now there was a clear divide. Both sides were yelling.

Chris jabbed his finger in the air, like it was knife.

"We talked about this before Lauren! We can't trust those kids from Main Street. They aren't like us at all!" his friendly demeanor now salted with annoyance and a touch of anger.

"I know! But its different when you have to tell someone that they can't be friends with their entire neighborhood. How would you feel?" Lauren countered, her voice quavering, unclear if she was going to cry or yell. "Besides, he's right. We need to put the investigation first." Lauren finished.

The kids on her side were yelling at Chris. One kid stuck his tongue out and made a farting noise, making fun of the kid on the other side that he had squared off with.

Shawn was living with Chris, so he was definitely the one that Shawn wanted to persuade the most. He widened his eyes a little, looking guileless, like someone who hadn't meant to touch off an argument like he did and was now trying to find a compromise that made everyone happy - which, in fairness, was entirely true - and looked at Chris. "Maybe that's how I can help? If the Main Street kids try anything sneaky, I'll be able to find out about it and warn you?"

Things quieted down as the yelling gave way to murmurs, each kid eagerly eying how the two sides would weigh Shawn’s proposal.

“Alright.” Chris conceded, a bit of pep to his voice, as if he really hadn’t conceded anything.

“You can be like a spy for us. A full member of our club. But I’ll be watching you…”

"There is no reason to worry. It’s just important that you don’t stay friends with them. I think that will satisfy most people in the group. You’re with us now. So don’t lose yourself when you go over there. Remember,  you have to find out details that can help us solve this case. The missing kids." Lauren finished.

Shawn nodded firmly, trying to convey that he was going to take his self-imposed spy mission seriously. "I have a friend who's missing too, so I'm gonna make sure to tell you everything I learn." He especially wanted to convince Chris, since they were living together and all.

"So what do you guys know about what's going on? Chris said you know more about it than anyone."

Lauren frowned and rubbed her eyes. "I’ll tell you…we’ll tell you everything " Lauren said, glancing over at Chris to make sure he was going to comply.

“I’m so sorry that you have a friend that is missing. I really am. I don’t know what that must feel like. And to have it happen in your own neighborhood…I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

For a moment, Shawn let some of his actual feelings of vulnerability show through - how tired and stressed and afraid he felt. "I just...have to keep doing stuff. The more I know, the more I can help." He looked at her hopefully, almost expectantly - Lauren had said she'd tell him everything, and he wanted to learn.

After Shawn spoke, revealing true everyone was silent. Outside, the wind rustled creaking the wooden floor boards that everyone was sitting or standing on.

No one said anything.

A kid, a girl by the sound of it, was sniffling somewhere behind Lauren, perhaps she had also knew of someone that had gone missing. Or maybe it was just a cold.

Finally Chris spoke. “It’s coming from one house on Main Street”

Shawn kept quiet in case anyone had more to add. He didn't want to seem ungrateful, but that alone wasn't much to go on - hopefully they knew more than just that and just needed encouragement to further explain. "I think I know which house you're talking about." Shawn described Ralph's house, feeling a pang as he was indirectly reminded of Bobby once again. "Kids go to the house, but they don't come back, right? At least not normally?"

Picking the right moment was something that Shawn had learned over time, first on stage in acting. And more recently through hours and hours of practice. Just pausing that one second, appearing grateful and then finishing with a question. It might have been nothing to the unpracticed eye, but Shawn knew that details mattered in a delicate conversation like this. And his patience and practice paid off.




"That's just part of it." Lauren confirmed. "We did some research on the house at the library."

"I did the research." Chris corrected.

"Chris did the research." Lauren agreed, clearly doing her best to not get frustrated at Chris. She did a good job as far as Shawn could tell. It would be more than a passing job to get passed the first rounds of a try on on stage.

"The house isn't supposed to exist. There's no record of it in the town registry. There's no sale of it. No one even purchased it." Chris said. "I know because my Dad taught me how to the use the Dewey decimal system at the library before the last woman like your Mom was living with us."

"So, when we started investigating the house, I just told the librarian at school career day that I was looking into being involved in like selling homes. It's really boring stuff to be honest. Nothing like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with Robin Leach. But it turns out that there's a whole bunch of information at the library. And there's sale records in the public records area with micro..feesh... I think that's how he pronounced it."

"Anyway, all of the homes on Main Street, Rodeo Drive and Celebrity Drive have records. Except that one house. There are no records of it being sold or bought or even built. Nothing."

"Also, there's no record of anyone living at that house because its not supposed to exist. So that woman is some kind of imposter."

"We think she's a ghost."

Shawn nodded along with Chris, genuinely impressed at him being smart enough to look this stuff up at the library and find something interesting from it. And it made it even clearer what Bradford and Mr. Clayton had done together, not only putting Ralph and...and Bobby in the house, but creating it altogether! And now it was the den of...him.

Fortunately, the idea of ghosts had already been brought up, so Shawn felt comfortable in adding more details of what he knew. "I think you're right. I've tried to investigate stuff myself, and I thought the lady's a fake." He paused for a moment or two, partially to think about what he was going to say, and partially to build a bit of anticipation so they'd pay more attention when he did speak. "Have you guys heard anything about clowns? Or a circus?"

Lauren and Chris looked at each other and then both back to Shawn. The tree house grew silent for a second.

"Yes." Chris said. "The fact is, that, the only record of that plot or land or whatever you want to call it is about that. The librarian had to go through the microfiche and she found some old article. Like way old. Older than my grandpa and he was in World War II. Anyway, before the development was build that whole area on Main Street used to be used from a traveling fair. Some kind of Circus or something. The spot where that house was used to be the only place the post office used to deliver mail. I mean, the only marking place. The article was from before my grandpa went to the war. It was just someone in a newspaper talking about their childhood or something from long ago and it was published like, when my grandpa was a kid."

Chris cleared his throat, putting his hands in his pockets. "Anyway, the house doesn't exist. And the land under the house was the spot where the post office would deliver mail. And that's it. The field were the Circus set up was basically all of what is now Main Street. And the Circus only came around like once in a long while."

"Do you know something about Circus and Clowns that might help?" Lauren asked hopefully.

Shawn had read some interesting things from the papers in Mr. Clayton's case, and it sounded like Chris' research lined up it as well - there was an old Circus, and it had been here before. Still, even if the history was important, he knew he should share the stuff that he'd learned from others first. "I think so. Kids on Rodeo Drive are starting to have dreams about clowns and circuses. And all of the ones that do, they eventually disappear. And a lot of them were seen around that house."