Chapter 1

Minutes passed. Dimitri was more lost than he'd ever been in his life. He looked around again, noticing things now. The living room consisted of three leather couches; all of them black. There was a small, squared table in the middle, and in front of it you could see a medium size TV. Then there was a longcase clock.

It was tall, about 2 meters long. It was one of those old clocks that were still weight-driven with the pendulum held inside the tower. The case had an elaborate – and from the looks of it expensive – carved ornamentation on the hood, which surrounded the dial.

He sat down at one of the couches, not moving his gaze from where little-Rose was located, scared that something might happen while he wasn't looking. Hours might have passed, and Dimitri jumped when he suddenly heard the phone ringing. He started looking for it frantically everywhere. He stepped into the kitchen and found it.

When he was in front of it though, he was hesitant to answer. What in the world was he going to tell Abe? Was the caller even Abe? Afraid that little-Rose might wake up with all the noise, he picked up the phone.

"Hello?" He said.

"Dimitri, it took you a while to answer," So it was Abe. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine here." He responded.

"Oh, good. What is Rose doing?" He asked.

"Emmh… She's sle– "

"Ahhh!" He was suddenly interrupted by Rose's cries. The phone must have woken her up.

"Dimitri?" He heard Abe ask on the phone.

"Ohh… She's crying." He said with alarm, terrified.

"Ah, well. I'll let you do your thing" What? Dimitri thought completely scared now. "I just wanted to say thanks for everything you're doing for us and for Rose. I know it's hard to babysit small kids, but you… You take care of Rose. Thank you for that." He said with Rose's screams as background music.

"What do you mean?" He asked, having no idea why he and Janine felt so grateful towards him for babysitting Rose. She was just a little girl, after all.

"Well, you know… I'm talking about her autism." He responded.

"Her… - " He couldn't even finish the sentence.

"I'll leave you both know. And thank you once again." And with that he hung up the phone.

Dimitri just stood there, having absolutely no idea of what to do now. He was brought back by the sound of another scream. Then he remembered Rose had been crying, and he hurried out of the kitchen. He reached the living room and saw little-Rose moving everywhere around the couch. He walked towards her, kneeled, and reached for her, but when his hands had barely touched her small arms she flinched away from him – never looking up at him.

"Naahhh!" She emitted, at the same time trying to bury herself in the couch, getting away from him.

"I'm sorry, Rose." He said. "I don't know what to do." He tried a second time to bring her into his arms but she flinched away again, making weird noises, and this time she started shaking and smacking her head on the couch.

"Rose!" He got up alarmed, hoping some space between them would make her feel better. Or at least stop her from doing what she was doing. It didn't.

"Please, stop doing that Rose." He said, but it seemed like she couldn't hear him. Or maybe she was just ignoring him.

Her actions didn't stop and Dimitri only grew more worried. Suddenly she started screaming and rolling over in the couch, she fell hard to the floor. Still she continued with her previous actions.

"Rose!" Dimitri said. "Stop it, please." He moved towards her but then stopped, fearing that he might scare her. "Please, I – I'll do anything. Anything. Just stop." She didn't stop.

"Oh, please. I'm sorry Rose, I'm so… so sorry. I didn't mean what I said. Please forgive me." He said collapsing beside little-Rose, burying his face in his hands.

Everything was silent.

When he finally realized the girl had stopped what she was doing he looked up. Little-Rose had her back turned to him, her head facing down. He waited for a few minutes. Then he heard her playing with paper. He waited a little bit longer. Then she turned around, facing him for the first time, though her eyes still wouldn't leave the floor.

In her hands she had a white piece of paper. She showed the piece to him. There was a drawing in it, made by her. The image showed a guy. Tall, built and with hair that touched the shoulders. On top of the figure there was a letter D.

Dimitri realized the drawing showed him.

Then little-Rose started moving. She pointed towards the drawing, then towards him. She took the piece of paper in her hands and brought it up to her chest, hugging it. Dimitri thought little-Rose was trying to tell him she loved him. But then she released the paper. She pointed towards the drawing again and then moved her small finger towards him. The she shook her head.

Dimitri stopped breathing. Little-Rose repeated the action once again, but more eagerly this time. Almost as if she knew. As if she knew he wasn't the Dimitri she'd met.

Dimitri was scared to death.

AN: I think this is too weird for you guys so I'll just make this a short story. Still I hope you enjoy it. Please review. Thanks for reading.