Chapter 27/1 – The Album of "I Love Yous"
A book where each child writes or draws a different "I love you" every day.
It already has 1,827 pages.
Lysithea reads a random page every night before falling asleep.
Chapter 27/2 – The Last Picnic Before Winter
Blanket
The last warm day of the year.
Giant picnic in the garden with a magical tablecloth that never runs out of food.
They all fell asleep on the blanket watching the clouds turn into animal shapes.
Lysithea dozed off with eight little heads in her lap.
Chapter 27/3 – The Final Promise of Childhood
The last night before the collective eighth birthday.
The dormitory was lit only by dozens of floating candles that Joker and Harley had conjured together.
Everyone in pajamas, sitting in a circle on the floor, legs crossed, hands held.
Joker began, voice steady despite being only 7 years old:
— Tomorrow we turn eight.
Some people say big kids don't cry anymore, don't play anymore, don't believe in magic anymore…
But we've decided that's a lie.
Harley continued, eyes shining:
— We will grow up, yes.
But we'll grow up carrying all of you with us.
We're going to build a place where no one will ever separate a chosen family again.
One by one, the children spoke:
- Rina: — I'll run faster than any chain.
- Marina: — I'll make entire oceans for us to swim in together.
- Astrid: — I'll be so strong I'll carry the world on my back if I have to.
- Sylvara: — I'll make gardens bloom wherever we go.
- Lirien: — I'll sing songs that heal broken hearts.
- Kuroe: — I'll teach the world to laugh at fear… even if I have to force it.
Joker and Harley together:
— And we… are going to build the greatest circus that ever existed.
A circus where everyone who's ever been forgotten gets a VIP seat.
And you, Mommy Lys, will sit on the throne in the middle.
Mirella, voice trembling: "And I'll shoot arrows to protect that circus from any enemy."
Graciela, eyes misty: "And I'll cook for that circus until my bones turn to dust… and then I'll keep going."
Lysithea, already crying, opened her arms.
Eight children + two nuns piled on top of her at once.
They stayed like that for whole minutes, just breathing together.
Then they raised their little pinkies. Thirteen pinkies intertwined in the center of the circle.
— Pinky promise is eternal law — they all said together.
The candles went out on their own, as if even they were moved.
Outside, the moon was full… and a subtle red tint was beginning to stain its edges, as if the sky were whispering "the show is about to begin."
And so, embraced in the dark, thirteen hearts beat in the same rhythm one last time before the world tried to break them.