Things were complicated, but they had to keep smiling.

Pretend, smile, laugh, run, cry, fear. Everything at the needed moment, not after and not before.

Norman was just a boy, a kid of eleven years old that got to know something he shouldn't have, but the thing is; would it have been better if they didn't find out?

They would still be living in a complete lie, not knowing that all the hugs their "mother" gave her were meaningless and that every kid that left the door with a suitcase was meant to die the moment they went through the gates. They would be happier, their smiles would be genuine, but death would be something inevitable; living in utter bliss until reality approached to end them.

Would knowing the truth even make death something preventable? Will they be able to save themselves; to save them all, or would their suffering and efforts be in vain?

It was so crude, the reality. But now that they knew it, they would try their best to escape and leave those demons without food for a while.

And if it all did end up failing, then at least they tried, right?

That's what the boy liked telling himself at night. Nights were longer since Conny left, the night they found the truth felt interminable, neither him or Emma could sleep; and even after that night, all the nights after seemed the same. The thought that those creatures existed, that they roamed around wanting to eat them, it was scary to think about it.

Norman was still just a kid, after all. No matter how intelligent he was, his age didn't change and no matter how well he acted, he felt fear too.

He didn't want to die, he was scared and not just for himself. Ray, Emma, Gilda, Don, Nat, Anna- all the kids! They depended on their actions, the lives of many kids lied on their hands and it made him both more determined and anxious at the same time, even if anxiousness was an emotion almost impossible to see on Norman's face.

They got to know about the trackers inside some part of their bodies and about the giant wall after the small fence in the garden, theoric information too, but the escape plan seemed wobbly, not as stable as it should be.

Now Krone just arrived, the sister charged with helping the mother. It just complicated things further, it was obvious mother brought that woman to the orphanage because she knew something was wrong.

She suspected about them, and Norman knew. Krone's arrival was just her way of saying 'I know what you're planning and you won't be able to do it', just as when she showed her clock that happened to be a tracker following device.

Isabella was just as smart as them and much more, that's why she was a mother after all.

Because they wouldn't be dumb enough to send a person incapacitated for such work, to take care and look over 39 kids of all ages going from 1 to 12 years.

It was some sort of chain, but those things were yet to be discussed with Ray and Emma, he should stop dwelling in his own thoughts right now.

After talking in the library with Emma and Ray, Norman left to get a glass of water. It was night, dinner was done and most children were already sleeping, Emma and Ray already went to their beds.

As Norman filled his glass with water from the hall's sink, he frowned and looked at the water flow with silent, unworded desperation.

He was going to get them all out of this place safely.

They were going to.

But right now, he had to appear calm, as always. Norman couldn't afford to crack under the pressure of strong emotions.