The Promised Neverland has taken my life and restored it so...woop here it is. Be warned though, this will contain manga and anime spoilers!
Her tiny hand griped tightly at the cold, metal bar in front of her, holding it slightly tighter as her pale blue eyes stared curiously at the black void of the outside tunnel in front of her. An ominious wind blew from beyond and she closed her eyes as her face was suddenly hit with the cool breeze. It tangled her short hair to a point where she looked like she just got out of bed. She opened her mouth and started to murmur to herself.
"I wonder what it's like out there-"
"Hey, Casey!"
The 6 year old orphan let out a squeak of surprise and turned around quickly to face the boy who called her name. She easily caught sight of a small, black-haired boy, around her age, came running over to her. His hazel eyes shown brightly as he smiled at his friend, picking up his pace. He was followed by another girl who was about a year older than the other two, she had light brown, long hair that was tied back into a pony-tail.
They both eventually reached the young girl and they took a moment to catch their breaths, tired after the long run. Casey giggled at this.
"Thomas, Jayden, how did you find me? No one ever comes here..."
"Well, there's a reason for that! If Mom finds out we're here, we'll get scolded!" Jayden partially whined as she caught enough air to speak. The 7 year old gave Casey a worried look as she looked up, "We should leave-"
"Why do you have to be such a wuss, Jayden? It's just the gate, it's not like some giant monster is gonna come eat us!" He gave the older girl a menacing smile and he turned to look at her, reaching his arms up to look like claws and he started making loud, fake snarling noises. This caused Jayden to squeal in terror and hide her face, getting a laugh out of both Thomas and Casey. After this brief moment, Casey put her hand on Jayden's shoulder, smiling softly.
"No monster is gonna come out, we leave here through this tunnel when we get adopted. I'm just here wondering what it's like out there..."
The other two kids were silent as they considered Casey's words, their curiosity drawing them to look towards the darkness ahead. Once again, the strong wind returned, this time with what sounded like small whispers coming from the void, though the children didn't seem bothered with it. The three of them stayed where they were for a brief minute before a couple of voices called to them.
"Carol, Thomas, Jayden, there you are!" A tall, blonde boy emerged from the undergrowth behind them and he was followed by a boy with darker brown hair. It was the blonde who called out and the brunette finished for him.
"Mom had everyone go out and look for you three! She's really worried." He said while catching his breath. The blonde was Danny and the brunette was Landon, they were both 7 just like Jayden.
The three of them looked at the two boys with guilt, all suddenly feeling bad for worrying Mom. She must've been paranoid to send everyone rather than go herself. Danny then sighed, but his face held a fond smirk.
"It's bad enough you always wander off, Casey, but did you really have to bring them along?" He teased, earning a pout from the girl.
"Hey, I didn't ask them to come!" She whined loudly, Danny laughing in response as he walked over to her and pulled her into a one-armed hug, the younger kid struggling to get out of his grip. The other kids laughed at the display of a tiny gremlin trying to escape the grasp of her hunter. Landon sighed softly with a fond smile after calming down.
"Come on, we should get home now before Mom misses us even more." And with that, they took the long journey home where they were greeted with Mom's loving embrace.
Casey stared out into the lucious green fields and beautiful forests of her home from her place against the single tree at the top of the hill next to the House, called Grace Field. A truly beautiful sight really, especially in the spring time, where the grass held a gorgeous shade of bright green, the bluest skies above shine down alongside the warm sunlight that smiled down at all the kids running around and playing amongst their friends, no, their family.
Here, they don't just consider themselves close friends with each other, but they're like brothers and sisters. To Casey, that's more important than friends. Which is why she was so heartbroken when her best friend, Thomas, was adopted when they were 8, she cried herself to sleep that night, with no one able to even approach her to comfort her. However, she knew she couldn't be sad about it forever. He found a new family of his own, and she should be glad he did. This thought alone brought a smile to the girl's face.
As one of the older of the kids at 10 years old, she took up a role in caring for the younger of the children. In fact, Jayden, Danny, and Landon took up most of the chores and other household tasks to assist Mom. This lead to Carol practically splitting off from them since what she did most of the time was humor the little ones and keep them busy. It's not like they were distant from each or stopped being friends, but they don't hang out as often anymore.
She was closer to many of the young ones because of this. Rather than hanging out with Jayden or the boys, she's lightly rough housing with a couple of the younger boys, playing tag, or reading a story to the babies. Even now, she was just reading a fictional story alone but a few kids were there keeping her from feeling lonely. Gilda, who's a cute 6 year old with short, green-tinted hair and large circular glasses, was leaned against Casey and reading the book over her arm. She seemed interested in the material, too.
One of the kids Casey is closest to is a little red-head named Emma, and she is by far the most adorable little girl she's ever seen, with her short and messy ginger hair, her wide green eyes that seem to always be shining, her round face, and adorable voice. The kid's always finding new ways to have fun and is always running around and wandering off into the woods just to be hunted down again and again by Casey, and yet she's somehow still energetic by bed time.
Definately reminds Casey of another little girl.
Emma also has two best friends of her own, Norman and Ray. Casey was actually surprised that sweet, fun-loving Emma started bringing quiet, introverted Ray around whereever she went and even the boy himself seemed like he was having fun with her. Norman wasn't that big of a surprise but Casey was sure his calm and intellectual mind wouldn't even be able to keep up with Emma no matter how hard he tried.
Casey chuckled to herself, now that she thought about it, of course the three smartest kids in the orphanage would be this close. Kind of a no-brainer really. This thought caused a chuckle to escape from Casey's lips. It's amazing those kids and how intelligent they are for their age, they don't always get perfect scores on those daily exams but they're pretty close most of the time. They've already surpassed nearly everyone, even Casey and those older than her.
Kind of hard to not get even a little envious of them.
But, she loves all of them nonetheless and she hopes every single one of them will leave this place to live great lives-
"Casey, could you come here, please?"
"Huh?" The 10 year old girl turned around againt the tree towards the direction of the voice that just called for her, and she smiled brightly, "Yes, Mom!" She quickly stuck a book mark into her novel and closed it softly. She patted Gilda's head as she stood up and told everyone she'll be back for their game of tag. She gave them a side smile as she ran joyfully towards the woman in a black dress and apron.
Casey laughed and embraced the woman as she reached her, feeling herself get wrapped up in the older one's arms. After a brief moment, they pulled apart and the woman grasped Casey by her shoulders, "So what is it, Mom?" The girl asked curiously, blue eyes open wide with wonder.
Mom gave her a sweet, loving, but almost sinister smile.
Carol scrunched up her face as the sunlight filtering through the window blasted her and temporarily blinded her with white light. She groaned and blinked a few times before her eyes got adjusted to the brightness of the early morning. She hummed and sat up, realizing that everyone is just now starting to wake up. She was one of the oldest on the House, probably for the best she's one of the first to get up.
She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her bed, she was about to speak when a squeaky female voice stopped her.
"Everyone, time to get up! Or you'll be late for breakfast!" It was none other than the little energetic, ball of sunshine herself, Emma. Like every other morning, she's standing on her bed and shouting at the top of her voice, a gleam of childhood innocence shine bright in her emerald green gaze. Lately, she's been taking over the role of waking everyone up in the morning which is a bit of relief for Casey since it's usually her job. These kids are growing up and she couldn't be any happier.
"Well, I suppose no one wants to miss an opportunity for a delicious breakfast, right?" She chided in as she stood up from her bed and walked over to the 7 year old, picking her up and holding her in the air as high she could, spinning around while the child laughed in joy. Emma wrapped her little arms around Casey's neck, replying to her comment with a, "Nope!".
The older girl chuckled and put Emma down just as everyone else was getting out of their beds.
Chaos insues for the following few minutes.
Carol, along with her fellow older kids, are dragged back and forth by the younger kids who have trouble with things such as buttoning up their shirts or getting their shoes on. Emma had been able to do all that herself and leave the room immediately, trying her best to assist the older kids who take it upon themselves to care for the younger kids. Girl has a weird knack for stuff like this, she always wants to help others no matter if they want it or not. Not even Norman and Ray could stop her from doing so.
Casey smiled as she rememberd a conversation she had with Emma once as she helped button Anna's uniform.
"You guys are always taking care of us, it's only fair that we start helping you out!" She declared with a look of determination on her face. The child had gotten a bad cut on her leg as a result of recklessly running about the forest and tripping on a rock, it was bleeding and everything. Conny had come crying to her and saying that Emma was hurt, which sent Casey into full on "big sister mode". By now, the cut had been cleaned off and now the limb was wrapped up in gauze.
Carol chuckled nervously, removing her gaze from the wrapped up wound to look at the girl, "Emma, what do you mean? It's our duty as the older kids to take care of you."
Emma only narrowed her eyes in what almost looked like a glare as she stood back up and seemed to test out and see if her leg hurts, "But you guys are always the ones who get us up in the morning, get meals ready, and make sure we're able to sleep at night. Once, you stayed up with Norman when he was sick because he couldn't sleep with his fever. Mom had to put you to bed after breakfast because you were so tired. You can't avoid taking care of yourself just because we may need it..."
Casey only sighed and started putting the medical suppiles away, her face holding a solemn expression.
"Emma...if neither me or the others are around to care for you-"
"But we can help ourselves! You may not believe it, but we're not that helpless." Damn, this child was persistent. Casey was getting annoyed at this point and she narrowed her eyes.
"Emma-"
"Just you wait, one day we'll be the ones taking care of you!"
The irony of those words came when Casey came down with pneumonia later that winter, and Emma felt the need to rub it in her face whenever she'd come by to see her, because most of the younger kids pitched in to help her recover. Mom always had to usher Emma out but Casey couldn't help but smile then. For once, she appreciated Emma's naivety, but still, she'll hopfully understand Casey's position someday when she's older.
As the last of the remaining kids left the room, Casey entered the hallway only to halt when Don came zooming by in his chase for Conny. Casey saw the 6 year old catch the 2 year old and embrace her, laughing loudly. The girl smiled and continued on her way, saying good morning to everyone she saw. As she looked around, she saw Danny, Landon, and Jayden starting to get breakfast ready while everyone else kept each other busy by playing small games and running about like the children they were. She will admit, they did get a little irritating when she would get shoved back and forth along with everyone yelling and shrieking like lunatics.
But, they were her lunatics. And she wouldn't trade them for all the gold in the world.
She suddenly felt herself bite her lip and tear up upon thinking about her family in this matter, she has to make this last day with her family last. She's supposed to go to her new foster home tonight, as Mom had told her a week prior, and she was confident they would be fine without her help around the House. However, she doesn't think she could handle leaving them behind, not after spending the first 10 years of her life with them. She doesn't think she could live without them, without Jayden, without Mom, without...Emma...
She couldn't help the tears from finally coming down her face and the whimpering from getting louder. But, luckily for her, everyone was already in the dining hall and waiting on her, she knows this since she heard Danny calling her name. So, she quickly wiped the tears and composed herself, walking into the dining hall with a smile and taking her seat.
So, longer than expected but oh well XD