It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring…

The rhyme played in the skull of the young girl as she stared out the window of her stripped bedroom. Her eyes reflected the dark gray sorrowful sky as it cried over the city. She watched the raindrops on the window race each other down to the ground. She heard nothing in her empty home. She heard no one in her cold abode. It was only the sound of rain pouring into the streets.

The old man is snoring…

She would never hear that sound again. That sound she thought was always so annoying in the middle of the night would never come back. For weeks, she's missed that sound. She missed knowing she was not alone. She missed knowing that she had people who cared so much for her. Warm tears streamed down her cheeks and her nose prickled as she began to cry, attempting to stifle her tears. Those beautiful days with her parents were now just a memory. Their warm smiles and embraces would never be felt again. Their voices would never reach her young ears. No matter how much she wanted their comforts, it would never come back for her.

"Sweetie?" A soft voice called from her doorway.

The little girl looked up, wiping her tears. Her red eyes met the dark brown eyes of the social worker who had been taking care of her for the past few weeks. It was too soon. She didn't want to leave yet, but there was no choice. She had no other family members that would be able to take care of her. Actually, she had no other family in general. No aunts, no uncles, no grandparents… She was all alone in the world.

The woman walked over to the child, her face keeping a gentle smile as an attempt to reassure her. She took the red scarf that was neatly laid on her bed and wrapped it around the child's neck. The room was dead silent aside from the pouring rain and occasional thunder outside.

Lifeless maroon eyes looked up at the business-clad raven-haired woman as she put her scarf on for her. "Mommy and Daddy… They won't come back, will they…?" She asked in a weak voice.

The question snapped the social worker out of her musing and created a faint frown. There was no way she could lie to a young girl after everything's she's been though. She was only five-years old and already she's had the reality of life beat into her. She couldn't help, but feel pity knowing that she was so young and already she had lost everything she loved. Why was did it have to so cruel? The woman's lips parted to speak. "I'm so sorry, sweetie." She whispered. She pulled Ib into a gentle hug. "I'm so sorry…"

Ib kept still, not wanting to do anything. Tears stopped flowing, leaving nothing, but an empty shell of the sweet child she used to be. She looked back into the house, stripped of the pictures hung on the wall and all furniture. It was just an empty dismal room. She couldn't call this place home anymore. Even if she had grown up within its familiar, secure walls, it was no longer the home she knew. It was no longer filled with the faint smell of tobacco that her father would smoke once in a while. It was no longer filled with beautiful piano music that her mother would play at her request or whenever Ib was crying. Everything that made it a warm house was gone with her parents and it would never return for her.

She felt a hand wrap around hers and nudged to the car. As the door closed, she looked out the car window, staring at the empty porch, imagining her mother and father standing there, smiling and waving at her with their sweet smiles as if she was going to school. Thunder rolled and lightning flashed, blinding the child for a moment. She blinked her eyes open and felt her heart sank. The porch was empty once more.

"Bye Mommy… Bye Daddy…" She whispered as the car drove away through the rain.

"Oh dear… Where has she gone…?" The old woman wondered as she searched the kitchen. She looked under the table, checked the supply closet and even behind the oven. The child was nowhere to be seen. Normally, having a child run off and hide wasn't such a problem, but this was the first time it wasn't for a game. Were things happening too fast for the new arrival? Granted, some of the other kids came on strong and were pretty blunt…

The sound of the door opening and closing caught her attention. Was it her? She heard the sound of wet sneakers squeak on each other as they were being taken off.

"Oh, hello, Garry. How was school?" She asked with a sweet smile.

The teen looked at her and walked into the kitchen quietly, giving a mere shrug as his answer. "It was fine, ma'am." He answered. The tall male ran his slender fingers though his damp, wavy hair, throwing both lavender and dark purple strands back. "You seem troubled. Is something the matter?"

Heather gave a wary smile. "Ah, not quite. One of the kids has gone into hiding and now I can't find her. She's been missing since this morning."

"Is that right…?" Garry asked quietly.

So another kid was playing tricks on their caretaker. Garry often found that annoying when they made her worry like that. It caused trouble, not to mention a lot of worry. Well, in the 8 years he's been living here, he knew what would happen. The child would just show up and then everything's back to normal. He grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder as he made way towards his room upstairs.

The steps creaked as he lazily climbed up the stairs. He heard another kid was to join them starting today. Well it's not like it made much of a difference. He was fifteen years old and in high school, the only teen in the entire orphanage. The only reason he was here in the first place was because he was being bullied by the others older kids and thus he was allowed to live under Heather's care. It was rather lonely though, but that's how he grew up. He learned that life will always be cruel at age 7 in his old life. He immersed himself into his thoughts, thinking that the scent of the freshener-tinted air was better than the beer-scented one back at his old home. No friends, no family, no smile. That's how he had been living for the past eight years.

He shut his bedroom door behind him, throwing his backpack on the old mattress that was his bed.

Whoosh

The teen shuddered, rushing to close the window that somehow opened itself once more. He was chilled to the bone from the rain. How he regretted losing his umbrella to the kids that snuck into his room. He took off his coat, draping it over his chair, exposing his wet white shirt which stuck to his skin, exposing his pale color. He opened his closet in search for a change of comfortable, dry clothes. Well he found one, but they weren't his…

"What…?"

He stared down at the small body asleep on the floor of his closet. Her face was peaceful and a gentle pink and wet? Had she been crying? He began to wonder how long she was in there, sleeping. Then he realized that she was a new face. She must've been the one that Heather was looking for. What to do…? He thought long and hard about what to do. Normally, he'd just tell Heather and things would settle down fairly quick, but something was different. This girl chose to hide in his closet of all places. Something must've set her off. He knelt down, examining her porcelain face. His heart sank when he noticed that even as she dreamed she still cried.