Chapter 25

Adam grudgingly opened his eyes because Scarlett was shaking him excitedly, saying some lines about school or something.

He tiredly sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Wakie wakie, It's morning!" Scarlett shrieked excitedly.

Adam sat up slowly.

"I'm up, I'm up," he laughed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Good morning!" Scarlett grinned widely at him. Adam patted her head before getting out of bed and walking towards the bathroom. Scarlett then ran out of the room yelling for everybody else to get up as well.

After Adam had freshened up, he glanced at the time and groaned.

It was just twenty-four minutes past four.

"Scarlett!!" Adam yelled as he went out of the room.

He heard some noise coming from the boys' room and headed that way.

He saw a grumpy looking Reece using his leg to obstruct Scarlett from entering their room. A dark blue quilt was wrapped around Caleb who peered at Scarlett from where he stood behind Reece.

"Go away, Scarlett!" Reece growled at her.

He hated being disrupted from sleep, the same way he hated sleeping early.

Scarlett clung to his leg stubbornly.

"It's morning! Time to prepare to check out schools! Stop being sleepy!" She tried to crawl under Reece's leg to enter the room to drag Matt out of bed as well, but Reece obstructed her with his other leg.

"Go back to bed, Scarlett!" Reece yelled at her.

"Yeah! It's just—" Caleb glanced back inside the room to check the time from the wall clock. "4:25 am!"

"Yeah!" echoed Matt from inside the room. With all the fuss Scarlett was creating he found it difficult to resume his sleep.

"It's morning already!" Scarlett insisted stubbornly and tried to push past Reece, but he was stronger than she was, and he didn't let her inside the room.

"Scarlett," Adam called and they all turned to look at him where he stood some few meters away from them.

Scarlett immediately ran to Adam and started tugging his sleeves, trying to pull him towards the boys' room.

"They don't wanna wake up!" Scarlett complained in-between a childish huff as she didn't succeed in moving Adam.

Reece scowled at Scarlett. "Whyever should we wake up this early?"

"Why are you even awake by this time?" Caleb asked her with a slight frown.

Adam smiled a bit and kept his right hand on Scarlett's head.

"Easy now Scarlett; it's true that it is morning but it's still quite early to go check out the schools now," Adam explained gently.

"Yeah!" The three boys agreed in a harsh tone.

Scarlett did a small pout.

"What's the hurry anyway?" Reece snorted.

She faced him fiercely and declared, "I love school!"

Caleb winced a bit, but no one noticed except Adam.

"Well go get an award for that or something; don't ever bug me this early again Scarlett, especially for school again with all the teachers and snobby students...yuck," Reece's scowl deepened as the thought of how school was going to be came into his mind.

"I don't think all the students are snobby," Matt's voice resounded from inside the room again.

"Whatever, I don't care," Reece waved him off and walked back inside the room. "I'm going back to bed."

"But you have to—" Scarlett started protesting but Adam gently tugged her arm.

"Let's go back to the room, Scarlett," Adam said lightly.

"Yeah! Goodnight!" Caleb snorted at Scarlett's little figure before shutting their room door.

"It's morning!" Scarlett yelled at the door, walking towards it to violently push it open again but Adam pulled her away.

"Let's go now, Scarlett." Adam held her hand as they walked back to his room. Scarlett had even worn her shoes, they made small noises as she trudged grudgingly by Adam's side.

Adam changed back into his nightclothes and slipped into the bed.

Scarlett just laid staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, Scarlett, why don't you sleep?" Adam asked with a tired yawn. He had been awake most of the night talking to Caleb and he felt tired.

"I don't wanna!" Scarlett cried. "I want to go to school now!"

Adam sat up and Scarlett did so as well, looking at him with eager eyes. He sighed and walked to his reading desk and took his tablet that was on the table and brought it with him as he went back to the bed.

"What's that?" Scarlett asked sharply, peering curiously at it.

Adam chuckled as he switched on the tablet. "It's a tablet computer sweetie, but most people call it a tablet," he replied.

"I've heard of it before, but I've never actually seen it," Scarlett told him as she snuggled by his arm. "It's very pretty."

Adam chuckled again.

"I guess."

"Wanna hear a story?" He looked at Scarlett.

"Are you going to read it?" Scarlett asked with googly eyes.

"Un..." Adam looked down at the tablet. He had downloaded an application that had bible stories for little kids, and it came with its own computerized speech.

"Um...sure, why not?" Adam smiled and turned off the speaking setting.

Scarlett adjusted herself beside Adam, snuggling underneath the blankets.

"Aren't you going to read?" Scarlett asked when it was all silent for a while. Adam chuckled and scratched his hair.

"Right." He turned his eyes to the screen. He had never read a book to a child before.

I suppose it's just like reading to yourself. He said inwardly.

"Um...We're looking at the story of Jesus, there are countless stories of Jesus, but we'll be reading—" Adam started but Scarlett interrupted with a whine.

"You sound like an old professor when you said, 'We'll be reading'." She did her best to mimic his deep voice making him laugh.

"And all that introduction isn't in the story...," Scarlett said and laughed.

Adam sighed. "Scarlett, I've never read to a child before. I don't really know how to."

Scarlett hummed in response. "That's okay."

"It is?" Adam looked at her.

She looked at him, her green eyes shining. "Yes, because I'm your first. And anyone you have your first of anything with is always special. Whatever babies say first always make everyone go 'aww!' because that's the first word the baby has ever said. People always say they won't forget their first love or whatever."

Scarlett laughed again.

"That's another reason why Jesus is so special to me. He's the first and only one to die for me, you see? Firsts are special. That's why I'm happy that I'm the first child you're reading to."

"Wow..." Scarlett floored Adam speechless. He never saw it that way.

Adam smiled at her.

"You guys are the first kids I've ever had around me," Adam said.

Scarlett grinned. "That means we're special, right?"

"Yes. Very special." Adam brushed a lock of her blond hair away from her face and she giggled.

Everywhere went quiet again.

How's she this optimistic? At a young age too. Adam wondered.

"Hey Scarlett, how are you so..." He trailed off, not knowing how to put the question right.

"So what?" Scarlett looked at him and he saw the innocence in her eyes.

"How did you end up in my box?" Adam asked instead.

Scarlett didn't look away sadly or in deep thought like he thought she would. Instead, she chuckled a bit and kept her arms under her head.

"I was running away," she said simply.

"Why?" Adam asked in a whisper.

Scarlett laughed again and looked at the ceiling.

"I got to be a superhero!" She said cheerfully.

"What do you mean?" Adam asked curiously.

Scarlett's heart pounded as she leaned near the wall close to the dingy small living room.

Two men were seated on the rickety chairs that faced each other with a wooden table that had been thoroughly eaten by termites in the middle of both chairs.

Three other men stood by the wall that the paint was already peeling.

They all looked mean and the three men standing by the wall had rough scars around their bodies.

A bottle of whiskey was balanced on the table along with two cups for the men facing each other, discussing in rough tones, and using lots of swear words.

Scarlett peeped through the cracks of the wooden door in the room she was in. She could hear their conversations as they spoke in loud voices.

"Add a couple more cash to that you pig!" The man with bushy beards that was supposed to be her father yelled at the other man.

The other man swore under his breath and brought out some dirty and crumbled notes grudgingly from his pocket.

He kept it on the table and Scarlett's father greedily snatched it.

They both nodded at each other.

The deal had been signed. Scarlett's father stood up and headed towards the exit. The other man gave a shady signal to his goons by the wall and one immediately drew out a gun and shot Scarlett's father whose back had been turned to them.

Scarlett stepped back from the crack and covered her mouth.

She just watched her father as he sank to the floor. Dead.

"Get the damn girl!" The other man swore at his other two goons as the third dragged the lifeless body away.

Scarlett's heart raced when she heard their footsteps approaching.

She looked around the room she had been locked in and saw no window or whatsoever. Her only advantage was that it was pitch black inside.

As the wooden doorknob rattled, she hid behind it and her hand struck something.

She grabbed it just as the door was roughly flung open.

One of the men held a dim torchlight.

"Come out, yer girly!" He said in a booming voice.

As they both entered the room; searching with their dim light, Scarlett flung a shaky hand at the goon closest to her.

He groaned aloud and stumbled down; his torchlight fell making the room go dark.

Scarlett hit his head with the object making him scream.

The other goon brought out his gun and started shooting willy-nilly. Scarlett went down and crawled towards the closed door.

As soon as she got to the door, it was flung open by the man that was outside.

He grinned evilly, showing off all his yellow crooked teeth.

"Where do yer think yer goin'?!" He snarled and reached out to grab Scarlett that was on the ground, but she raised up her head and bit his fingers till she tasted blood.

He screamed and fell down. As the other goon rushed towards her, Scarlett got up and slammed the door. Then she quickly kept a chair underneath the doorknob so when he turned it, the door didn't open.

He peeped through the hole and saw Scarlett running out of the house.

"Get back here!" He growled as Scarlett ran out into the night. He started hitting the door, in order to break it open.

Scarlett knew the door couldn't hold as it was old.

She trod carefully when she got outside as lots of evil people carried out their business in her area, grabbing homeless children for human trafficking.

Her father wanted to sell her, but he wasn't so lucky to get away.

Scarlett saw huge lights ahead.

She knew they were close to the airport. They always fished in her area because it was easier to transport them illegally through their smuggling plane.

She started heading there when she heard sobs.

Scarlett rounded round some houses and saw lots of children, teenagers, and the likes, squeezed into one big dirty cell.

Scarlett was about to take a step towards them when she heard the burly men coming after her, swearing at the top of their voices.

"Get out of here while you still can," One teenage girl told her in between sobs.

Scarlett looked back and saw the men coming closer.

"Best yer stay there, brat!" The leader snarled, still holding his fingers in pain as he ran towards her.

Scarlett quickly jumped up and hide away from the rusty old nail that was placed at the entrance of the cage.

Immediately everyone inside the cage busted out, some hitting the men as they ran past them.

In the swarm of children, Scarlett made her escape towards the airport.

"Boss, those kids are all running away!" One screamed in horror.

"Leave 'em, we ain't gonna catch 'em all now. Let's get that brat that caused this and give her a lesson," the boss replied venomously and the four of them started chasing Scarlett hotly again.

She was visible because while the others were running backward; trying to find new hiding places, she was going forward, towards the airport that had lights all around it.

As Scarlett neared the gates of the airport she turned back and blew a raspberry at the men and shook her bum at them before sliding into a small hole that was through the walls, gaining a simple entrance in.

She heard their boss growling, but she was too happy to care.

She giggled as she ran towards some men with a company's badge on their clothes that were loading up some goods. That was the private section of the airport she entered.

Scarlett managed to sneak past the guards, she being little and all.

She was looking everywhere in amazement when she heard footsteps coming her way.

She gasped and looked around wildly as she spotted a huge box that has yet to be sealed and moved. She quickly brought out the device in it and hid it somewhere and entered the box.

When the men got to the package they were laughing and talking amongst themselves. One sealed the top and soon they all lifted the box, along with Scarlett inside.

Scarlett heard the faint voice of the bad men talking to some security guards as the men carrying her box passed by.

"Sorry sirs, this is private jurisdiction. You can't be here," a security guard said in a hard note.

"Well, you see sir, we're just looking for our little sister. She's small, just five—" the boss went on to describe Scarlett.

Soon Scarlett couldn't hear their voices again as the box she was in was loaded along with the rest.

"This plane must make it to Ocean Ville in six hours' time. I hear Mr. Hunt is going to need one of his gizmos in there real soon," someone was saying to another person before their footsteps faded off.

Not too long Scarlett felt the plane lifting off the runway.

She sighed and smiled.

She was safe.

Adam looked at Scarlett, he blinked back the tears that were forming and looked away.

"I'm so sorry, Scarlett," he said but Scarlett shook her head.

"Don't be."

He looked at her, surprised. How could she have gone through all that ordeal and still look calm about it?

Scarlett grinned at him.

"If it didn't happen, I wouldn't have met you, then I would be really sorry," she said.

Adam didn't know what to say so he didn't, instead, he hugged her.

"Hey!" Scarlett broke the moment. "I still want to hear that story though."

Adam laughed.

"Sure."

He was comfortable and started telling her one of the parables of Jesus, The prodigal son.

They were both engrossed in the story that they didn't hear the soft footsteps that walked away from their door.