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Lunch was formless gray served on green trays. Lack of funding showed more in the cafeteria than it did anywhere else in the orphanage. Meals with nutrition, flavor, or color arrived in the form of donations after holidays. Teddy’s friendship was an asset for this reason. Oliver and Stan observed his suspicious behavior during playtime; he was sweatier than normal and refused to speak or make eye contact with anyone. Even Sister Nice knew he was hiding something. She was patrolling the rows of tables when Teddy dropped the pretense of secrecy.

“I have something incredible I want to show you…” He started.

“Ew. It’s not pornography again, is it?” Asked Mersa. She, and a boy named Krink, was also in audience for the big reveal. “Because that was nasty. I am moving to a different table if you want to talk about naked ladies.”

Stan noticed Sister Nice homing in on their discussion. She hovered around the orphans in stealth, waiting for an excuse to regulate with the wooden paddle she was clapping against her open hand. Trouble could always be found somewhere between Teddy and Krink.

“Wow! Teddy! I have never seen someone get so embarrassed about farting in the play room!” Stan put up the rouse and Oliver reinforced it.

“No one would have noticed it was you if you didn’t say anything!”

“I didn’t far…” A glance over his shoulder told him everything. The ploy repelled Nice and saved Teddy from the wrath of god. “Oh, uh, well, it wasn’t me that time but that is good to know.” Satisfied danger was no longer within earshot, he continued the enticement at a lower volume. “Uh, thanks. Anyway, porn is hard to – it’s not porn! It’s a game but I can’t tell you anything else. Just meet me at my secret fortress after curfew!”

That was asking a lot. Breaking curfew had consequences but the rendezvous was in the storage area of the basement and off limits to the orphans. His peers needed convincing.

“Will there be candy?” Krink asked. He seemed impatient, as if that was all he wanted to know. “I would kill a man for some sugar.”

Confirmation of sweets won them over. Their hushed excitement turned to scheming in seconds; as a group, they agreed that it would be easier to bypass the night watch if they had a distraction. Then Krink said that he had a plan, though he wouldn’t explain what and this worried his lunchmates. Sister Nice blew her whistle to sound the end of lunch, cutting the subject short; all kids got up from their seats and Krink slipped away in the commotion. Oliver watched as Krink left the cafeteria holding hands with a smaller boy named Benzo.

“That can’t be good.” Oliver pointed after them. “We can’t just l let him go.”

Teddy escalated the sense of alarm when he added, “did you know his real family is alive? I heard they pay to keep him here where god can watch him.”

“Krink is horrible.” Mersa said. “I don’t think he sleeps. Whenever I wake up at night he’s sitting up, staring at someone.”

“Teddy keeps a jar under his bed because he doesn’t want Krink to watch him walk to the bathroom.” Stan said.

“It’s true.”

There wasn’t time to catch up to them. Children filing out of the cafeteria barred Oliver’s exit and Benzo’s fate remained in wicked clutches. As soon as they could they combed the orphanage but the results weren’t good. If the kidnapper sneaked out of the building he could have taken his victim anywhere.

Hours later they found Krink in the playroom. He was the only one in there when Oliver and Stan arrived, sitting at a table and staring out the window. An unnerving grin underlined a face that was already unpleasant. Nothing about his head belonged on an 11-year-old’s body – thinning hair greased back from a receding hairline gave the illusion of extra forehead. Deep wrinkles zig-zagged down his face like a tally of the crimes he had committed so far. Between whatever dark story those lines told were eyes darker than coal, a pronounced nose, and beard stubble. When they sat down next to him he gave no reaction. Minutes passed as kids filled the room, each pausing to note the evil statue that Teddy eventually took a seat next to. He didn’t blink once during that time. That didn’t help them discern what he was looking at and they were too uncomfortable to inquire. Finally, Mersa entered, took the last chair at the round table, and asked, “what in the name of god did you do with…”

“Benzo?” Sister Nice yelled over the noise of children. “Is Benzo in here?” Play slowed to a quiet. “Have any of you seen Benzo?”

She held her black garb up to prevent tripping as she cruised straight past the culprit and continued toward the dormitory. Once again left unattended, Krink broke his silence.

“We have our game to play and now they are distracted with a game of their own.” Krink said through his teeth. He stayed frozen menacing.

Mersa then asked, “Krink, are people going to die?”

“He probably ate Benzo right outside the cafeteria,” Teddy joked.

“What? No!” His face once again showed sign of life when he tossed Teddy a frown. “I gave him some of your candy to stay hidden until we finish playing your game. If you bribed him like you should have none of this would have happened.”

“Damnit! Krink! That’s chocolate on the edge of your mouth! You thief!” Teddy squealed.

“We shared it.” He had stiffened to stone again and was back to sneaking words out his grimace. “Look. He’ll be fine. When we get back I will let him out and we’ll stuff him with more candy and the nuns will think he ran off on a sugar rush or something.”

Mersa was the first to say, “that is a horrible plan! If we get caught then we’ll all look guilty. It’s better for us to just rat you out now, idiot.”

“Yeah, then we can get to the to the secret fortress while everybody is beating your ass.” Stan said.

“That’s a good distraction.” Oliver noted.

“No. Because if you do no body will see Benzo again.”

When that shut them up they could hear Sister Nice returning to the playroom. All present orphans had stopped what they were doing to focus on what they couldn’t believe they were hearing. No one said or did anything (some were drooling), but the limelight was on the sweaty gargoyle.

“Fine. No one’s gonna say anything your face don’t give up.” Stan assured.

“What’re you trying to do? You stick out worse than a turd in holy water.” More than usual, according to Mersa.

“Shut your mouth, pig!”

In defiance and in shock, she opened her mouth and looked at Krink. The doorknob clicked as Sister Nice swung through screaming. That an entire room of kids was staring at one of their peers went unnoticed.

“Benzo is missing! Oh, mother Mary,” then she put the whistle to her lips and ripped the air in two. Everyone, including her, had their hands to their ears except Krink. He sat there an indurate effigy. Kids started to complain and cry by the time her lungs ran out of breath and her face was exhausted red. She marched to the other side of the play room to the door that connected to the staircase. As she did she was barely able to rasp out a command.

“Mersa, you’re in charge. Everyone listen to Mersa.”

She slammed the door behind her. Krink was oozing, drenched in guilt; whether or not his performance kept him from getting caught, he was relieved. He exhaled and let the façade go. Upset sounded in earnest.

“Unbelievable.” Piped Teddy.

“Come on!” Shouted an orphan from across the room.

Other disagreements rang but Mersa’s was loudest. She stood up and reached across Teddy, grabbed Krink’s left nipple, and twisted with a farmer’s grip. Like a rabbit in a wolf’s mouth, she had him and pushed him sideways out of his chair to the ground where he curled up fetal, whimpering.

“If I don’t see you apologize to Benzo by the end of the night I am ripping this off and I will force you to wear it as an eye patch!” She cried, then released Krink.

“Calm down!” He got back to his feet, rubbing his purple injury through his shirt. A swirl of creases indicated where he had been grabbed. “He’s still in the building. They could get lucky and find him, or maybe they’ll pray real hard and god shows em.”

This was difficult for the four of them to believe because their own investigation said otherwise, but the orphanage was huge and hid many secrets. Working with him was the surest way to Benzo even if he was lying.

“You stink, Krink.” A boy in a blue shirt said before turning on the television.

“How does he always get away with it?” Someone else asked.

He never really did because he wasn’t good at being a criminal; on the contracy, Krink was a recipient of frequent (and usually public) punishment. This was a rare occasion in which he bothered to conceal his misdeeds (insofar as anyone knew). Sister Nice considered her role at the orphanage a test of her faith. She believed god made orphans out of bad children and that made them all guilty in her eyes. Nothing to her distinguished Krink from Mersa. Under the observation of Sister Nice he was never suspected first unless he had blood on his hands. The temperature around their table cooled. Other orphans took to their own distractions while Teddy, Mersa, Oliver, and Stan went under the cover of a terrible distraction to play Krink’s game.