The Next to be Taken

Chapter Nineteen

My eyes slowly opened, seeing the world come into focus. I rubbed my eyes, getting the junk out of them.
The room I was greeted with was a room that was about as big as a huge house. Not including height wise. The same bedroom I was given when I came here. I laid in bed for a little while, just staring up at the ceiling. I stretched my legs out, rolling over to my side to get up. I scratched my head, going over the little bridge attached to the nightstand, sitting on top of it to put my worn out, green converse on.

Tying the last knot, I jumped up to head downstairs and out my room. At the same time I left my room, I ran into some of the other kids. Well, Kaitlin, Timothy, and Carter.

"Wow, you're alive!" Kaitlin exclaimed.

"Wait, why?"

"You were sleeping for a while." Timothy said.

"Really?" I yawned. "What time is it?"

"Eleven." Carter said, trying to read the clock up high.

"Are you kidding me? How did I sleep that long?" I followed his gaze up to the clock like I didn't believe him.

"You missed breakfast." Carter mentioned.

"Yeah, Dash didn't want to wake you. But he saved you something to eat if you're hungry." Kaitlin added, continuing their walk down the hall.

"Oh, okay.. Um, where is Dash?" I turned around, trying to catch them before they left completely.

"Uh, I think he's in the office." Kaitlin called back to me, not stopping.

"And that would be..?"

"Just find his room and you'll find the office." They all left out of sight.
Well, isn't that just helpful..

I followed the hall down to the end. I remembered that night when I first attempted to get away. When I tripped over my shoe laces in front of that big door. I'm sure that was his room. Let's see if I was right. I backtracked my steps from that night until I found the door. Looking up at this door, I grabbed and pulled down hard onto the rope to get the door open. The door slowly became ajar, showing a dim room on the other side. I slowly crept into the room, looking out for the giant. A well made bed was straight ahead of me, dark wood night stand next to it. A dresser to my left. Walking all the way in, I noticed a tiny hall. By that I don't mean my size of course. It's just smaller and shorter than any of the hall ways iv'e seen here. I decided to walk down the dark hall. I could see a light switch, but that's way out of my reach. Going all the way down to the end, there were two doors.

One on my left, which led to like a bathroom and one on my right, I pushed the door open. Hearing typing. I peaked in, being as quiet as possible. Dash sat in a small dark room on the computer, typing away with his back to me, so there was no way he could see me unless he had eyes on the back of his head. Which at this point wouldn't surprise me since he stays on top of everything. I felt like I shouldn't bother him and that I was violating his privacy by barging into his room like this without permission. Just as I was about to leave, he stopped typing.

"Do you need anything?"

It caught me off guard, I spun back around and came back to the door. "U-uh, no. I was just wondering what you were doing."

He exhaled, picking up small bits of paper. "Just trying to get some things filled out." He turned in his chair to face me. "If you want you can come in."

I realized I was still barely in the doorway. So I took some steps in, when he turned back to face the computer. I noticed there were drawers right next to his desk, with looped handles. I ran over to that, trying to climb up them. Half way up, I looked over my shoulder to see how high up I was. If I fall now, who knows what could happen. I would imagine that I shouldn't die, but could be badly hurt. I continued, pulling myself on top of the table top then onto his desk.

Of course he had his reading glasses on, staring at the computer screen. I started to walk around his desk casually, exploring the everyday things you would find. Pencils, pens, stapler, and a ruler. I picked up the ruler, standing it up on the wall. So I could get more of an idea how small I was considered here.
Measuring myself, it looked like I came up to five inches and a half.

"Ever have one of those moments when you just feel really short.." I mumbled, looking over the ruler.

Dash glanced at me from the corner of his eye. He cracked a smile, hearing what I had said.
I looked down next to him, seeing human sized papers. I walked over to them, picking them up. I looked over the words, trying to make sense of them.
I didn't get my full education, the only thing I made out of it was: 'something, form.'

"What's this?" I asked, still looking over it. Seeing Dash's signature at the bottom.

"Oh! Darn, you weren't suppose to see that." He tried to take it away from me, I turned away from him, pulling it away.

"What is it?"

"Can't you tell?" He raised an eyebrow.

I looked back over it, scanning my eyes over the words. Catching a few words here and there like: form, child or children. Some things like that.

Dash waited for me to say something, I could sense his curiosity getting him.
I slowly lowered the paper, not even looking up at him first.

"Ahh," he seemed to have caught on. He took the paper from me, putting it down at my feet. He pointed at a word. "Mavis, what's this word?" He looked up to me. I got down, sitting down.

I looked at the word he had his finger on.
Trying to sound it out in my head so I didn't sound stupid trying to sound it out aloud.
App... Appli... App.? I squinted my eyes. App.. a- what the hell? Guard... Guardi?

"Guard," Dash tried to help me.

"Guard." I repeated after him, keeping my eyes on the paper.

"Guardian, app." He glanced back and forth between me and the paper.

"Guardian app," I muttered under my breath, rubbing my eye.

"Application." He finished for me. "Form."

I slowly looked up to him with uncertainty. Not saying another word.

"I was going to tell everyone all together." He sat back in his seat. "It was going to be a surprise. What do you think?"

"I... Um... I.. don't know.." I stood up quickly, taking a step back. He is signing forms to be our guardian? I honestly didn't expect this to happen. I didn't know how to respond to it.