No Use for Moonlight

9➪Kathrine

Kathrine awoke to sunlight seeping through the patterned cotton curtains, and she shifted under her thin quilt. Her hair was sticking up in multiple directions, which was nothing unusual.

For a second, she wondered if the whole night had just been some odd dream. But then she felt her arm muscles aching, and the small scrape on her knee; with both injuries coming from the formidable wall she could see just outside her room.

She slid out of bed gracefully, and leaped to the wardrobe as baby animals chirped around her.

Well; more so she fell out of bed and trudged towards the wardrobe but she liked to think she had more poise than that.

After Kathrine had gotten changed into her best fashionable reporter outfit, she jumped down the stairs three by three. Luckily, she didn't break her ankle like two summers ago.

However, she did come right to stop when she slammed into her father, who was standing disapprovingly at the bottom of the stairs.

"Kathrine. I'd hope you'd have more decorum while moving around the house." He said, staring down at Kathrine like he always did.

Kathrine refrained from rolling her eyes. "Nobody else is in the house, it's just us. And I'll move around the house just as I please." She countered, trying to march right past her father. He stopped her.

"Still, I do expect you to act at least a bit more proper." He told her firmly. "Anywho, I heard something rather strange last night. Almost sounded like voices coming from the wall. But that's impossible; no one in sane mind would try to climb that monstrosity." He chuckled.

Kathrine was about to laugh; and tell her father that she must be totally insane, but decided against it. "You must be hearing voices then. Maybe you're the one not of sane mind." She spat back, pushing past him and out the door.

Kathrine stomped around the town, scaring all the citizens. She was already mentally composing a poem about how her father should work off the roof and get impaled by his perfect picket fence. Poetry wasn't Kathrine's usual form of writing, but the thud of her feet acted as a beat, which seemed like perfect inspiration for her poem.

"Kathrine Pulitzer?" A voice asked. Kathrine glanced up to see Davey beside her. He looked brighter now, his eyes not as red or as puffy as when she first met him.

"Oh hey Davey." Kathrine greeted, hugging her notebook to her chest.

"You working on any stories?" He asked, tilting his head to the way.

Kathrine ducked into an alleyway, frowning at Davey. "When did I tell you that I wrote? I never mentioned it?" She stated, putting one hand on her hip.

Davey chuckled to himself, like he'd told some unfunny joke in his head. He seemed like the type of person to do that. "You're not exactly subtle. First off, you carry that notebook like it's your first born child." Kathrine held her notebook tighter, giving Davey a look. "You have lead on your face, and a pencil tucked behind your ear. And you looked far too interested in my sob story, as if you were chasing a story." He pointed out.

Kathrine tried to swipe at the lead on her face, but just spread it further. "Whatever. Anyway, you won't guess what, but something incredible happened last night!" She exclaimed happily. Then she went on to describe the adventure in great detail while Davey listened. Kathrine might've exaggerated slightly, and left out how she struggled to climb up the wall. She still had some dignity, remember.

Once she'd finished, Davey frowned. "I wouldn't call that incredible. Unusual, yes, but incredible? Nah." He said, shrugging like he couldn't care less about what Kathrine got up to during the night.

Kathrine huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "Didn't you hear any of what I said? There were rats and baby spiders, and those boys looked starved beyond belief!"

Now Davey sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "I heard you just fine. And I'm worried about those boys. And curious. Why do they live over the wall? Did someone put them here? Were they born there?" He mused, staring up at the sky.

The two stood in silence, their brains whirring in unison as they pondered Davey's previous questions.

Davey spun around, with his eyes lightning up like a Christmas tree. "You want a story, right?" Kathrine nodded, still confused at what Davey was getting at. He continued, "Well there's your story. Those boys, and what's behind the wall! If you write a story about it, maybe you can help them?" Davey shrunk in on himself and blushed. "I'm mean, I dunno if it's that good of an idea." He shrugged lamely.

Kathrine gasped. She threw her hands up in the air, nearly hitting Davey right in the face. "You're a genius Davey! I'll run a story about over the wall, and I'll get my father to publish it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She yelled, spinning Davey around excitedly.

As Kathrine ran off, Davey was left standing in the clean alleyway. He smiled to himself, bemused.

Who knew what Kathrine would do now?

-///—///—//-
Me not updating regularly? Pfhhhht, where'd you get that idea! That's ridiculous!

But seriously, sorry for not updating this in a bit. I have a bunch of tests coming up and things are getting rlly hectic currently.

Hopefully I'll update this more often, but no promises.