There we were stood in our sunday best beside the door. It had become an irritatingly regular occurrence, the cheap material of my jacket rubbed against my skin as I shuffled from foot to foot within my place in the line. Closest to me was our latest arrival, Christian. He was a boy of few words and yet, there was something about him that vexed me so. Perhaps it was his beauty, his large grey eyes glinted in the dim light beneath a head of hair the colour of ebony, although he was young he stood out amongst us, making even the most beautiful of the inhabitants of this humble home seem dull by comparison. Yet, he did not seem aware of the effect he held over others, despite his small and slim frame the rest of the children we lived with seemed wary of him from the moment he stepped through the door, or rather the moment he was forced through the door. Such a dramatic moment was his arrival, more-so than the rest of us and we all come from similar homes. Crack-whore mothers, drunken fathers, the usual background story for children such as us.

"I don't want to go, where is my Mama, where is my Mama?"

"Mama's sleeping Christian, now come on darling we have a lovely bed for you upstairs and there's lots of children here who are very excited to meet you ..."

The boy kicked and screamed, he stretched out his legs to meet the frame of the door and pulled at the hair of the cop who carried him through. His shirt was scrunched up around his neck exposing an array of burns that decorated his chest, his ribs were clearly visible beneath a thin layer of his seemingly transparent skin. Sarah, who stood beside me at the time gaped at him as we both watched from the staircase with the other children.

"Pretty one like that, he'll be gone within the month," she stated matter-of-factly, "young too, not as tainted as the rest of us."

I'd been there five years, Sarah had been there seven and so have undertaken the motherly role within the group. However, her efforts to comfort Christian as he curled up in the corner of the playroom came to naught. So that's how we left him, everyday as we ran about the house, read our books and engaged in meaningless chatter to pass the time there he stayed, never rising from his corner of the room, curled up so small that the vertebrae of his spine were visible the entire length of his exposed back. Even the younger ones dared not go near him, the second youngest, Ellie, once reached to stroke Christians hair with her dolls brush on his first morning with us. As soon as the bristles lightly touched his dark locks with impressive speed he moved from his position and swiftly knocked the brush from her hand, the force of his blow knocking her to the floor also before he retreated.

The opening of the door before us jolted me back to reality. One of the smaller boys clasped my hand in anticipation which I quickly shook away before straightening my jacket, trying to pull at the cuffs so they would stretch the length of my arms. Being that we are unwanted children stowed away in a house in the middle of nowhere the majority of our clothes were either two sizes too small or too large. The couple that entered were different to the others, all the children gasped in awe as they stood before us draped in all their jewels and finery that seemed to make them glow in the sunlight behind them. Christian of course was an exception to the rest of us, he merely cowered at the end of the line in his assigned place, his eyes fixed on a crack within the wooden floor. An unease began to creep over us as we stood awaiting inspection, we felt the gaze of the godly couple rest upon each of us in turn. They smiled politely and occasionally patted one of us on the head as they moved down the line of us children, then they stopped. My heart started to pound in my chest as I heard their footsteps stop and peered up to see them looking down at myself and Christian. For once I was speechless, this way my chance, could this be the day when I leave this hell hole? This was not just some charity case, these people were wealthy, really wealthy from the looks, I could have everything I ever wanted, I could go to college when I got older, I'd want for nothing …

"Hello Son."

Even their voices seemed soft and warm, I grinned up at them composing myself and deciding on what best to say, this was it, the first day of my second chance at life. The man reached his hand out. It rested on the shoulder of the boy beside me, it rested on Christian.