(Needed to put this random second chap somewhere)

A first person perspective from the viewpoint of a child being taken care of by the Mitchell's. Child-centric.

It's not that I don't like Mis' Beca.

I just –wish Mis' Chloe could've taken me with her or something.

I'm sitting on the couch right now, reading one of the books Mis' Chloe gave me before heading off to work and leaving me alone with Mis' Beca. Alone. So far though, Mis' Beca hasn't approached me –but of course I tend to speak too soon on a lot of things of the sort. First came the sound of her feet against the wood, then she was strolling up to the left of me.

"Hey kiddo," she smiled, coming over to where I'm sitting on the couch and plopping on down right next to me. I was never really one for being too comfortable with physical contact (Mis' Chloe being the only exception), so naturally my first instinct is to pull away from her.

"Hi Mis' Beca," I replied, quietly of course. Even though Mis' Beca is Mis' Chloe's babe (she is, Mis' Chloe told me so), I still didn't really like being around her on my own.

"Watch'ya up to?" asking this while leaning in close to me, so close to the point where I could pretty much smell her perfume waft over me. I scooted to the side a bit, then proceeding to hold the book up to face her.

"Reading."

"Oh yeah?" she asked with a tilt of her head, looking the book up and down. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That's…interesting."

But the way she said made it clear that it wasn't interesting. To her that is. I frowned, pulling the book away from her sight and stuffing it to my other side.

"I like it," I defended, puffing my chest out and crossing my arms, making direct eye contact with her. I read from another mystery book that this was described to be the "intimidating" look. Of course, that's what I was aiming for here. "It has a well formatted background concept to the entire narrative."

"Does it?" I could tell she was struggling to keep her cool know, constantly looking away and not being able to meet my eyes. "That's…yeah that's pretty cool."

"Uh-hu. It is cool."

"…yeah."

I still had my arms crossed when she finally decided to back away, muttering another "that's cool" before going to sit on the other far side of the couch and click on the TV. I only huffed out a breath, bringing the book back up from beside me and going back to reading.

But of course it wasn't really reading. It was more of me just scanning over a sentence without comprehension, other more conflicting thoughts going around in my mind. Like, why didn't I like Mis' Beca? Mis' Beca's always nice –always supportive and stuff. Of course I still liked Mis' Chloe better but –I don't know. Maybe it's because Mis' Chloe isn't back from work yet.

"Mis' Beca?"

Her head immediately snapped my way, an expression of concern written all over her face. "What's up kid? You alright? Are you feeling sick? Do you need anything? Want me to make you something to eat?"

"Um…" I scratched nervously behind my neck. "No."

"Oh." The light of the TV screen reflected off the side of her face as we stared at each other for a moment. "Well…what is it?"

"I was jus' wondering when Mis' Chloe's done with her work. She said she'd be back by nine."

At first her face went blank, then soon split into a wide grin. "Missin' my babe huh?"

I nodded slowly. See? Told you they were babes.

"Well, it's not nine yet buddy. It's only six. Three more hours to go."

At this, I let out a deep breath, muttering a faint "okay" and going back to my book. Three hours, that's not too bad right?

On the other hand though, I'm also kind of tired. Not too tired, but tired enough for me to let out a yawn, snuggling myself into the pillow on my side. I've always enjoyed the natural warmth of this couch, as if there was a heater buried inside the stuffing. It felt nice.

I ended up putting the book down after a couple of minutes since, yeah, I was pretty sleepy. But I didn't fall asleep, instead I settled at staring at the TV. There was a weird movie going on, something about singing and dancing girls. I didn't really like it though, it looked kind of boring. So instead I glanced up at Mis' Beca, curious to see what she thought of it. But Mis' Beca wasn't watching it. I mean, she was –but she wasn't. She was doing what I was doing before with my book, reading but not comprehending. A weird, dazed look on her face.

Now I feel bad. Maybe I was too "intimidating" on her?

"Mis' Beca?"

Again, her head instantly went up, looking over to me once more. "Yeah kid?"

"Are you okay?"

"…yeah," she slowly came to nod, now looking pretty confused as to why I asked her that. I guess I was being pretty rude before. "I'm good."

I nodded, then she nodded, then we were both nodding.

"What about you? How're fairing over there?

"I'm doing…" I took a moment to come up with the word. "…good."

That made her smile, and, I guess me too. After that, I went back to my snuggled position on the side of the couch, bringing my feet close and tucking my head into the pillow. She went back to watching the weird movie, a small smile still present on her lips/

I sighed, drinking up the warmth of the couch as my eyes slinked lower and lower. Mis' Beca's nice, I told myself. Nice, just like Mis' Chloe.

But I still don't trust them.

…

..

.

..

…

I wasn't scared.

But I was. Not. Yes, I am, scared and helpless –desiccated and frightened. I'm not –but I am.

No one's ever there when you need them. And when they do come, it's either too late or useless in terms of erasing the sights seen. Sights seen, viewed, experienced –never ever ever ever to be forgotten. I could still see them, lifeless blank stares, stares that were just staring. Staring at me, staring into me and pulling me towards them, into their clawed grasp and laughs. They were laughing, from the old to the young to the one who pulled the triggering shots in the beginning. A rope, connected to her neck and spurring out into the lines and patterns of their faces dripping with red and blue and purple.

I couldn't close my eyes, 'cause every time I did they'd just become stronger. Enhancing themselves with the added attempt at obstruction, giggling and clasping gnarled hands with the souls of the basement stairs. Touching and teasing at my blindness, making me stumble and trip up the stairs but refusing to ever give me the key to an exit not to be found. Running as they chase, hiding as they search –steeled gazes swimming with a rainbow of colors and flowing with a variety of senses. Maddening and insane, cruel and harsh.

"Disgusting," she came to whisper into my ear again. Again and again and again and again until I had lashed out to make her stop, only to find my feet stuck. Twisting –I'm sorry! –screaming –don't please-

I wasn't scared.

I was terrified.

I hated them, I hated her –I hated everyone and everything. I hated Mama and Daddy for never coming back, for making me wait. For forgetting and relenting. I hated myself for forgiving and accepting, crying and lying.

I was breathing, they were still. Never moving. And smiling.

Always smiling.

...

"…ey…"

..

"…ey!"

.

"Hey!"

..

"Hey wake up!"

…

"Hm?"

I blinked open my eyes, only a bit shocked to see Mis' Beca's face right up in mine.

"…hi Mis' Beca."

"What?" she whispered, baffled I guess. "What do mean hi? Are you alright kid?"

"M-hm," I answered, bobbing my head up and down. "I'm fine Mis'."

Her shoulders all but slumped down, still confused obviously but maybe relaxed just a bit more. "Did you…" she started hesitantly. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yup," I replied without even a bat of hesitation. It's true though, I did. And I remembered it and all.

"Sooo…" she scratched at the back of her neck. Was she nervous right now? That's usually what I do when I'm nervous. "Are you alright then?"

"Yup."

"Oh," then she backed up from me, still scratching at the back of her neck and now hair. "Okay. Well, I'll be, y'know," she pointed to the other side of the couch. "I'll be right there if you need me and whatever."

"Okay."

She went back to sit over there, plopping down and going to squeeze tightly at her thighs before settling back into the cushions with a load sigh. I looked away from her, gaze only passing by the TV as it returned to staring down at my own pillow, then to my pants, then to hands.

I've had dreams like this before, that's why I'm not too scared right now. Granted, it's still hard to control the shaking –like right now my hands just don't seem to want to stop shivering. And yup, it's also still hard to get the pictures out of my mind –seeing them flash continuously after the dream was finished.

But I'm working on it.

"Hey kid?"

I looked away from my trembling hands, peering shyly back at Mis' Beca. I didn't want her to see my hands.

"Yes Mis' Beca?"

"I just –um…you. Um, you can –y'know, you can talk to me about this kinda' stuff if you want."

It was my turn to look confused, tilting my head to the side and going to stuff my still quivering hands underneath my arms. Why in the world would Mis' Beca want to know about my dream? It wasn't even a good one.

"No thank you Mis'. I'm fine."

"You sure? I mean, I'm not trying to push you or anything but –you were…pretty freaked out kid."

"No thank you Mis'," I repeated again, still maintaining eye contact with her. "I'm good."

"Alright," she nodded, beginning to shuffle her back up from the seat and came to face me a little better. Then she held an arm out, motioning in an all too familiar gesture to me.

"C'mere then."

I was, of course, skeptical. She was using the same hand gesture Mis' Chloe always did before giving me a hug. And she said "c'mere." Meaning, through this, only one possible solution. Mis' Beca wanted to give me a hug.

On one side, it'd be extremely rude if I ignored her. But then it'd also be even more extremely rude if I didn't give her one. Oh man, if Mis' Chloe were here right now, she'd probably get really mad at me if I didn't give her the hug. So I sucked it up. "Okay," said with a sigh and getting up from my curled position, standing with a shiver from the warm spot and going over to where her arms were still open. I stretched open my own arms, reluctantly slipping into hers.

Mis' Beca smelled like jasmine, where Mis' Chloe smelled more like lavender. It was weird. I think.

What I was expecting was a hug. What I got was a hug. But then as I was fidgeting around, Mis' Beca goes ahead and pulls me in closer, slipping an arm underneath my knees and smoothly slipping me right off my toes. The only thing I could do was squeak and grasp onto her shoulder as she came to sit me on her lap, now laying back onto the cushions and guiding me to the same onto her chest. I was quiet for a second, unsure really to do in this situation. Should I just…get off or something…

"You're shaking?" she suddenly came to speak while snapping me out of my thoughts, and I glanced nervously up at her as she peered down with a notched eyebrow.

Well, I hate lying. So… "Maybe?"

"Is it because of me?"

Wha-t?

"No!" I rushed to say, maybe even surprising her a little. I didn't –she wouldn't –I think? I don't want her to feel –it was only the dream right? "It's just…sometimes after having a bad dream –my hands, they keep shaking."

"Shaking hands huh?" her gaze wandered down from mine, coming to look at the trembling hand grasped at her shoulder. Oops. No wonder why she found out. "Lemme' see what I can do about that."

One of her hands shuffles away from around me, coming up to gently take hold of my shaking hand. First it's her fingers, gently soothing around the tightly grasping knuckles. Smooth and lenient, a few seconds later and I could almost feel the relaxation of her form transfer into mine, untangling the fingers from her shirt and going on to hold it in her warm palm.

It was here I realized how big Mis' Beca's hand was, and how small mine was. It was here I also discovered at how tense I was, and came to suddenly think as to why I'm really strained right now.

"Relax kid," she whispered, pretty much reading my mind. My hand was still in hers, and I was amazed to find that they weren't shaking anymore.

Weird.

So I willed my shoulders to loosen up, almost letting out a breath of relief at the way my neck and my whole body just seemed to sink. Sink and sway in the glowing heat of Mis' Beca, slowly eating away at the jagged tension riled in my chest and legs. It was nice, feeling the breathing of another person after seeing so many stiff and still.

I like Mis' Beca. And Mis' Chloe. They're both really nice. Letting me stay in their apartment instead of outside, and giving me a cozy bed to sleep in and good food to eat. Always giving me hugs and making sure I'm alright. And then there was this, Mis' Beca pulling one of Mis' Chloe's "cuddles" as she once called it.

But.

I still don't trust them.

._.

Hey, so this was a test run fic. If peeps like the idea of a kid-centic fic, then i'll upload more. This fic's connected with another one im in the process of making (10,000 words as if now). Very hesitant on posting tho cuz thats just how i roll._.

Really, really hoping peeps liked this. *bless yur soul good people* *i send u kiss* *i will literally cry*