A blood-stained bowtie.
A half-drained tumbler of amber liquid.
Mister Sunshine stares, hands trembling. His usual smile long since faded.
Tears stain his cheeks.
“They believed in something,” he chokes the words out. “They believed in the Sunshine.”
“Children who put their faith in every word I spoke. That if you smile, life will be okay. That a little sunshine chases away the clouds.”
“But this war… It is a storm cloud that consumes the sky. Arcadia has lost its smile, and for what?”
“To protect a secret...”
“Or because people want to expose that secret.”
Mister Sunshine reaches into his jacket pocket, pulling out a small silvery-white substance.
“A secret is like this. Lithium.”
He inspects the chunk of metal.
“Able to be hidden away, kept out of sight and it remains harmless. Much like a secret, hidden away that secret isn’t a problem.”
He glances at the tumbler of amber liquid.
“Then there is water. The desire for secrets to be revealed. For the world to be a transparent place. Water seems harmless, even essential for life. But water has a nasty habit of leaking from places that it shouldn’t leak from.”
“Water can be a real pain in the backside.”
Sunshine holds the chunk of lithium above the tumbler.
“When that water comes into contact with this lithium…”
“Drop it!”
He drops the metal into the glass.
BOOM!
Flames erupt, the glass shatters into a million pieces. Sunshine doesn’t so much as flinch.
“It was revealing a secret that got us all into this mess. If nobody had found out about that door, Arcadia would be living in the same ignorant bliss it always has.”
“But they had to reveal the secret… and now look where we are.”
He grasps the bloodied bowtie, clutching into his trembling hand.
“Death. Bloodshed. Ruin. Heartbreak. Loss.”
“All because of a secret being revealed.”
His hand clenches into a fist, around the bowtie.
“Captain Arcadia is that water. He wants to know my secret.”
“I’ve warned him time and time again, but water has a funny way of persistently leaking where it’s not welcome.”
“Sometimes a secret is better left unearthed. Because when that lithium comes into contact with that water…”
“That’s when the fucking fun begins!”
Sunshine stares a vacant stare, before blinking the same resolve back into his eyes.
“Water can be a persistent little so-and-so. It doesn’t care what it destroys, it will always find the path of least resistance to its destination. And your destination, Cap, is my lithium… My secret.”
“You have seen first hand the devastation caused by revealing secrets. You’ve seen Arcadia torn to pieces from a secret just like mine.”
“All of this and you still want to know who the Zookeeper is. Like that will bring back your friends.”
“I know what happens if you find out the truth… More bloodshed. More pain.”
“I cannot let my secret out. I cannot let that lithium become exposed to your water, friend.”
“Arcadia doesn’t need any more heartbreak.”
“It needs the sunshine to dry up all the rain.”