Notes

CHAPTER ONE: Gracefield House


The sunshine seemed to illuminate the whole room, I heard loud voices which made me open my eyes.

"Guys wake up! It's morning!"

Ava was always the most exited to start the day each morning, honestly, I don't understand how she has so much energy in the morning.

I sighed and got up, started getting ready, most of the kids did, usually the older kids would get really first, and quickly so they had time to help the little ones get ready.

I decided to leave my hair down today, I usually do, since my hair is long it gets tangled easily, but I have no choice but to endure the consequences! Or I could just tie my hair but I never do.

"Rose! Can you help me tie my shoes..."

I looked down at one of the younger kids, who just happened to be Ellie, "Of course!"

I gave a bright smile, she sat at the edge of a bed and I tied her boots, "And done!"

"Thank you!" she hopped off the bed and hugged me before running out and into the dinning room. The rest of us all got ready and helped some of the younger kids before leaving.

I saw Lewis on my way there, I ran up to him and walked by his side, "Lewis!"

"Rosa, good morning!"

I smiled, "Morning! Everyone awake already?"

"Of course, I'm guessing Ava woke you all up again?"

I smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of my neck, "Yeah..."

"I could hear her enthusiasm, even through these thick walls," was she really THAT loud? That must be why my hearing's getting worse, I wake up to that every morning.

We walked into the dinning hall to see half the kids already took their seats, some talking, some just sitting, some saying good morning to each other, seemed like they had been waiting for the rest of us to arrive, I spotted Father, Brother and Sister, and almost immediately I rushed towards them.

"Father! Brother! Sister! Morning!" Sister turned her attention towards me, Father was busy talking to one of the younger kids, and Brother was saying morning to all the other kids.

"Morning Rose, slept well?" I nodded, "Well why don't you sit down, we'll start our prayers in a bit, just need to wait for everyone to be sitting down,"

"Okay Sister!"

I ran off to an empty seat next to Angel, "Morning!" He slightly turned his head "Morning, where's Lewis?"

"Hm? I thought he'd already be here, I was talking to Sister!"

I turned my head to look at Sister and behind her I could see Lewis talking to Brother, "There," Angel followed my gaze, "What's he talking to Brother for?"

"He's probably just saying good morning, you know there's SOME people who have manners," he scoffed and went back to looking at Liam, he seemed sad, "Hey- you okay?"

"I just can't believe he's already getting adopted..." yesterday Father announced that Liam was getting put with a new family who chose to take him in, Angel was one of the closest ones to Liam, they were almost like real siblings.

"Hey it's fine, I'm sure he'll be happy there..."

"Of course he will, that's the problem..."

I was confused, "How's that a problem don't you want him to be happy?"

He looked down at the table, "What if he's too happy, forgets all about us..." I patted his back "That wont happen-"

"Angel! Morning!" Lewis sat down next to me, Angel simply replied with "Morning," as Father, Brother, and Sister sat down.

"Now, let us all appreciate how all 34 of you are able to life happy lives here.." We all said our prayers and started eating.

After eating it was time for testing, "AGE 11. TYPE 1. PLEASE ANSWER EVERY QUESTION WITHIN 10 SECONDS. WE WILL NOW BEGIN." And with that, Brother turned off the lights as we answered every question, a small 'BEEP' could be heard after each answer we wrote, after a few minutes the lights came back on.

"I'll be handing back your test scores... Rosalina-" I looked up as soon as I heard my name, "-Angel, Lewis, Adrien, and Oliver, you five got excellent scores as expected," Father smiled at the four of us.

It was no surprise me, Lewis and Angel did so great, we were some of the oldest kids in the house, but Adrien was only 8 and Oliver was 5, to think that kids their age would have such good test scores, I don't remember being half as good as them when I was their age...

"Rosa! You got a perfect score again! It's amazing!" Sal Smiled.

"Thanks, I'm sure you did good too Sal!"

"It's not just Rose, Angel, Lewis and Adrien did well too..." "And Oliver! Even if he's only five he beat most of the older kids!" Whispering could be heard until Sister walked up next to Father

"Alright kids, it's free time, let's all head outside, shall we?" All the little kids seemed so exited while most of the older ones were a lot calmer.

Avery suggested a game of tag, Lewis was it again, Lewis's test scores might not be as good as mine, but I can't compare to him in tag, he beats everyone in a matter of seconds, I've tried hiding, running, anything, but still get caught, the only person able to beat him is Angel, but he doesn't like to play, and when he does he usually likes to get caught quickly so he can go back to doing whatever it was he was doing, in rare cases he might actually participate.

"Alright!" Lewis looked at Angel who got out his pocket watch, Angel looked back at us.

"Go," and just like that we all ran off and scattered, Angel handed Lewis the watch and ran into the forest, I climbed a tree and moved from branch to branch, I sat on a branch, in was on a tree close to the house, I figured that he'll think I'll go far from the house, hiding in plain sight! Yup! That's my strategy! About 2 minutes had passed, he should be running by now...

"Hey," I felt a tap on my shoulder, I fell off the tree, almost landing on my face, fortunately put I out out my hands, saving myself, "Ow! How'd you get here so fast?!" I got up and dusted off skirt.

Lewis jumped out of the tree, "I didn't expect that reaction!" He chuckled lightly, "Who are we missing?"

"Angel, Adrien, and Keith,"

"WAIT YOU ALREADY GOT EVERYONE ELSE?!" He just smiled and ran off to find the others, I went back towards the house, almost everyone was gathered outside talking, he wasn't kidding, I noticed Ellie running up to me.

"Rosa! You got caught?!" I giggled slightly and pat her head, "Yeah.." Not too long after, Adrien and Keith showed up, but the game was still going.

Minutes passed and we started many conversations waiting for Angel, soon after about 10 more minutes, we saw him walking back with Lewis, Oliver ran towards them.

"No way! You got caught again?"

Angel held up the watch "Actually, time's up," all the kids gasped and ran towards Angel, mostly praising him and suggesting that he should teach them to be as fast as him, Lewis walked back and stood next to me.

"He sure is popular, huh?"

"Well he's the only one who can beat you, must be the fastest person in the world.." I crossed my arms as Lewis chuckled. We played a few more rounds of tag before Father rung the bell, then we ran back inside.

We gathered up at the front door to say our goodbyes to Liam, "As you know, Liam here has been chosen by a family, he'll be leaving today, I know it's sudden and I'm sorry but we'll give you time to say your goodbyes before we leave," all the little kids ran towards him and said goodbye, most cried, I could see Angel holding back tears.

"Shouldn't you say something?" He nodded, wiping off the tears at the corners of his eyes, he walked over towards Liam who calmly smiled, you could see tears at the corner of his eyes, but Liam didn't cry, he kept his happy smile, "I guess I'm leaving, huh?" 'Yeah, leaving, right...'

He hugged Angel and not long after Father said he had to go, "I'll miss you all, I promise to write to you!" Father turned towards Sister, "Sister, walk him to the gate..." Sister nodded and grabbed Liam's hand "Come on now, we can't be late," 'I wonder why,' Liam nodded, waved as the door closed, and soon he was gone.

Us being the older kids, had chores, one of them was cleaning the house, but that chore was only a few times each week after play time, while most of us had to clean, others like Avery got the chore of putting the younger ones to bed.

I started up a conversation which was suddenly interrupted by Ellie who ran up to us crying, "ROSA! ANGEL! LEWIS!!!" I looked over at her, "What is it Ellie?"

"IT'S SAL!! She- she went towards the gate! She didn't want Liam to leave! She might be lost! I-it's so dark outside and-" She kept sobbing, 'this isn't good' I thought, Lewis knelt down to her level and he pat her head, "I'll stay here with Ellie, go find Sal-" he looked over to Ava "Ava, find Father or Brother and let them know," Ava nodded, dropped the broom and hurried off to find Father, we ran out the door through the forest.

"SAL!" I yelled repeatedly but no response, "SAL!" she didn't respond to Angel either.

As we got closer to the gate we saw a little figure running towards us, it was Sal, we then realized she was crying, "SAL?! Why are you crying are you okay?!" She ran towards us and immediately hugged me, "Liam... h-he-" she just kept crying 'so she knows', we brought her back to the house, she reluctantly followed, we went upstairs to the room, instantly her knees gave in, she fell and started crying.

"I SAW HIM! HE... HE WAS... THERE..." She screamed in between sobs, 'how am I supposed to cover this up?' I knelt down to her level and I pat her head, "Sal... I know you miss him but he'll be happy with his new fa-"

"You don't... u-understand... Liam's not... he's not-" I could barely make out what she was saying in between sobs, but I didn't need to, I knew what she was trying to say, we waited until she calmed down.

Angel went outside and brought back a glass of water, she drank it all and we brought her over to my bed and got her to sit down, soon after she started talking.

"He was... dead..." hesitation could be heard and tears were streaming down her face but she was calmer than before, 'so I was right, she knows', Angel side-hugged her, his eyes wide open.

"I-I saw h-him... lying there-" you could see the tears fall, "And there was this- this flower in... and- I hid and I saw.... I saw weird guys... they- they had these... masks, and-" she started sobbing again "Sister-" my eyes widened, 'she knows too much.'

"She talked... to them- she-she let them kill-" she kept sobbing, 'should I tell Father?'

"She said... something about..." Sal took a deep breath "A shipment.. she mentioned... Ali"

"Alyssa?!" 'Even I wasn't told about future shipments', I looked at Angel, "Angel, you don't think-" he hugged Sal tightly, "-Ali's next..." he cut me off.

We calmed down, soon all the kids had to go to sleep, but I couldn't sleep at all, it felt exactly like that night, that same day, I stayed up for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep...

It was... already time for another shipment? No- that's not possible, Liam left recently, don't they wait about 2 months or so usually? I walked through he crowd of kids, I was shorter? Smaller? I couldn't understand, I saw who was getting adopted, Cedric? But wasn't he adopted like- 5 years ago?

I looked over to my right, Riley was crying, but she's not supposed to be here, Sister Iris grabbed Cedric's hand and walked out, shutting the door behind them, now it was time for chores and to go to sleep, I went to bed and took a few seconds before I got up.

'This isn't right', I ran out of the room, and out of the house, I ran all the way to the gate, and I stood there, I held the bars in my hand as I saw the truck drive away, the door was opened and you could clearly see Cedric's dead body on the verge of falling off, the Vida was a blood red color.

I couldn't do anything, the gate was closed and I couldn't fit through the thick bars, "CEDRIC!"

I woke up in cold sweat, breathing heavily, I saw Ellie sitting on my bed gently patting the covers over me.

"Rosa! It's time for breakfast! Let's go!" Ellie got off my bed and ran out the room, everyone was changing, some older kids helped the younger ones, no sign of Riley, Cedric was dead, and so was she... so it was real, Sal's screams, the tears, as she told us about her encounter with- of course it was real...

"Rose, come on, we'll be late! I don't wanna miss breakfast!" Avery ran out and I started changing.

'I don't know how' I thought to myself, 'But I have to get us out of here, somehow, someway, someday... I WILL GET US OUT OF HERE'