1 ~ 1 ~

"Cheerios?" Mommy looks at me holding a yellow box of cereal in her hand.

"Can we please get the sweet ones?" I point to a golden box of the same cereal on the shelf.

"Ooh, honeynutt!" Mommy sings, grabbing the box in front of my finger. "Okay, almost-birthday girl, I guess you're calling the shots now."

I smile big, because it is almost my birthday. I'm gonna be seven years old, a big kid, almost a grown up.

"Why don't you go pick out your Daddy's cereal, big girl?" Mommy says, reading the back of the honeynutt box. I know exactly which cereal daddy likes because it's the boringest box on the shelf. Daddy likes Bran Meal, a white box with a picture of an oat on it. I turn to run and go get it but I bump into a leg. I fall down on my bottom and rub my head.

"Sweetheart, watch it!" Mommy calls after me. She lifts me up from under my arms and places me back on my feet, and then smiles at the tall man in front of us.

"I'm so sorry, she gets a little too excited sometimes."

"Oh it's not a problem." The man had a deep voice and he talked funny, like one of Mommy's characters from her Doctor Who show. He looked down at me, and I could see that his eyes were gray. "I'm sorry, sweetheart." He gives me a small smile and I look down at what he has in his hand.

"Mommy," I turn to look at her, pointing toward his hand. "That's Daddy's cereal."

Mommy nods. "It sure is, but we don't point, do we?"

I let my hand drop. "No."

The man chuckles. "She's a bright one, isn't she." He smiles at my Mommy.

"Yep" Mommy smiles back and strokes the top of my long blond curls. "She's a keeper."

"Well here you go, Keeper." He hands me the box of cereal. "This was the last box, make sure you tell your father that it was you that found it, alright?" The large man winks at me.

I lift my eyes from the cereal box to the tall man. "It's okay, you can have it. You found it first, and Finders Keepers." I shrug as he takes the cereal box back from me. "I can pick out another cereal for my daddy. I'm really good at picking cereals." I give him a hundred watt smile and the tall man's eyes brighten to a grayish-silver color. I gasp and mommy takes my hand.

"Thank you, again." Mommy smiles politely at the man, but somethings off. She picks me up and places me in the seat of the shopping cart. I wanted to tell her that I didn't even get to pick out a cereal for daddy. But her face is pale, and her jaw is tight. I hoped she wasn't mad at me for bumping into the tall man.

"Have a nice evening, mam." He calls out behind her, but she doesn't turn around.

~~~

Recess is my favorite time of the day. But not today. It's too hot, and Lily didn't come to school today so I had to spend the whole day without my bestest friend, and this little caterpillar on the edge of the sandbox won't crawl onto my hand no matter how many leaves I push at him. I tried to pick him up like Lily showed me but I got too scared and I dropped him a couple of times.

The caterpillars head turns toward my palm, I place my other hand behind him to guide him into my hand. I've almost got him.

"Tag! You're it!" Joshua Kinsley yells, pushing me over and into the sandbox.

"Ah!" I screamed. I wasn't hurt, but my caterpillar was gone now. Maybe he fell back into the grass. Maybe Joshua made me squish him. Tears began to sting my eyes. "Why did you do that?" I cried out. I must have been loud enough for Ms. Sommer to hear me, she was out of her seat in an instant.

"Joshua!" She called after him, loud enough for everyone at recess to hear. "Get over here right now, young man."

Ms. Sommer let Joshua have it in front of the whole playground, she told him he'd spend the rest of recess sitting by the wall. I got up from the sand and dusted off my pink capris. Maybe I could find my caterpillar again.

"Are you alright?" A deep voice came from behind me.

I turned around and had to tilt my head all the way back to see the man's face. It was the tall man from the grocery store.

"How did you get here?" I smiled at him, wiping the rest of my tears away. He kneeled to one knee and fixed the curls that had gotten messed up during my fall.

"Are you alright?" He asked again. He didn't seem as nice as he'd been at the store. No, this time his voice sounded different. Angry. "Did that boy hurt you?" His eyes, they were changing color again. The gray parts were moving like waves at the beach.

"How do you make your eyes do that?" I asked, pointing at his eyeballs. His eyebrows creased and he looked upset, it was the look Daddy got when one of his crossword puzzles stump him.

"Excuse me, sir!" Ms. Sommer called out as she strode toward us. "You need to leave this area, immediately this is an elementary school. Get away from that child now, before I call the pol-" She stopped in her tracks as her eyes met his.

The large man's silver eyes continued to dance as he spoke. "I am her guardian, she'll be leaving with me."

"She's leaving with you." Ms. Sommer answered. Her voice was low and it sounded sleepy.

With that, the large man lifted me into his arms and carried me away. I watched as the teachers walked one-by-one to Ms. Sommer. They waved their hands in front of her face and shot confused glances at me and the tall man.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, as he walked us to a parked car near the playground.

"I'm taking you home." He told me in a low voice. "He placed me in the backseat and buckled me in, and then we drove away.

~~~

We had been in the car for a long time. I lived close to the school, so I knew we weren't near my home anymore. The large man didn't say anything, he just continued to drive. I was starting to feel really scared, and tears were stinging my eyes again.The sky was a dark blue color now. Mommy and Daddy would be wondering where I was, why I didn't get off the yellow bus. They were probably scared too.

"Where are we going?" My voice was almost a whisper.

"Quiet." The large man said, he sounded both angry and calm. "I need to think. I need to get you out."

He pulls a cellphone from his pocket and dials a number. I look out the window, thinking some more about my Mommy and Daddy and trying not to cry.

"Dammit, Damien pick up the bloody phone! I need your help. I-" he glances back at me. "I've done something. Something… wrong, and it's going to cost me my life if they find us. I'll meet you back at the flat." He hangs up and glances at me in the small mirror.

"I know you're scared." He says softly. "I'll try my hardest to explain everything to you as best I can, Keeper. Dammit, don't cry. Just know that I'm trying to protect you.

What did he call me? His eyes shifted back to the road.

"There are bad people out there, Keeper. They don't care that you're a tiny little thing. They will show no mercy and-" He paused when he glanced back at me again. The tears weren't stinging my eyes anymore, cause they were running down my face. "I'm scaring you. Dammit!" He sighed before he continued. "I'm sorry. Just understand that there is no other way."

His eyes stayed on the road as I cried in the backseat. With no clue of what he was talking about, or what he meant, I let my head rest against the door. Maybe if I go to sleep I can wake up, and all of this will have just been a bad dream. Please, let this just be a dream.

~~~

It felt like only seconds had passed when my eyes drifted open. I peeled my face away from the leather seat. A soft glow from the car's touchscreen was the only light left in the dark car. The sky was black, there was no moon and there were no stars. I sniffled as I stretched. The man glanced at me in the mirror again.

"Perfect timing. We're here."

I looked out the window and saw a large cement wall, I shifted to the middle seat to see out the windshield. There was a huge metal gate. The tall man rolled down his window and stuck out his hand. There was a beeping sound before the heavy metal gate opened. The car rolled slowly through the entrance. The tall man drove a little further before he parked in a cement room with lots of shiny cars. I unbuckled my seatbelt as he turned toward me.

"I'm going to place this jacket over your head. You need to keep your head low and stay quiet. No one can see you, no one can hear you. Do you understand?"

I nodded and he got out of the car.

He opened my door and placed the jacket on my head the way Mommy did when it started raining and I forgot my umbrella. He picked me up and walked us inside a warm area. He went up some stairs, turned and then climbed some more stairs. When he was done climbing, he opened a creaky door and carried me through a long hallway. When we finally stopped walking, I heard him softly tap against a wooden door five times.

The door opened and I heard the kind of classical music that Ms. Sommer played during quiet time, and then I heard a second voice, as we quickly moved into the room

"Christ, Julian, what in the hell did you do?!" I heard the second voice say as the door shut closed.

Julian. That must be the tall man's name.

Julian set me down on a soft cushion before removing the jacket from my head.

"Oh my god." The other man said, as they stared down at me. I stared back at them and then the other man stared at Julian.

"You're a dead man. You know that, yeah? You're dead, and I'm dead. You've killed us both, Julian!"

"Calm down, you over dramatic fool! She'll just stay here with us, until we figure out where to take her."

"Where to take her?! Are you thick in the head? You shouldn't have touched her Julian! You should've just left her the hell alone and let the guard handle her."

"Handle her! You mean k-" Julian cuts his eyes at me, before restarting his sentence. "We both know what they would've done if they'd found her. Her parents are hunters, Damien. It's already too late for them. By midnight, it will be too late. I couldn't just sit back and let her-"

He looks at me again before he sighs and sits down beside me, resting his arms on his knees.

"Look, if I lose my rank in the guard that's fine, I never cared about the damn position in the first place."

"You think this is about your job? Julian, they'll know what you did. They will come for her, and they'll come for you."

"I know." Julian presses his fingers against the top of his nose. "That's why I didn't go home. They know where I'm stationed, it's the first place they'll look."

"Yeah, and I'm the bloody second, Julian. You don't think they'll question your own brother?"

"Of course they will." Julian looked up at his brother. "But you keep a low profile, no one knows where you are. You don't leave a trail. It'll buy us some time."

"I keep a low profile because I like being alive, and now you've gone and fu-"

"Language." Julian cut him off.

The other man glanced at me, his eyes were the same as Julian's but with more anger in them. He looked back at his brother.

"You've made quite a mess of things."

I look at Julian, his fingers are pressed against the side of his forehead. His black hair looks mussed. Probably from all the times he's put his hand through it tonight. Julian's skin is tan, like my friend Eduardo's at school. The other man has tanned skin too but his black hair comes down to his shoulders and he's a little bit thinner than Julian.

"Just let me stay here for a few days, Damien. That's it. I just need somewhere safe to keep her."

Damien looked at me again. His eyes were still angry as he said. "Five. You get five days, Julian, and then that's it. You have to go. I will not die because you've screwed us out of our eternal lives."

His brother left the room. Julian looks at me, he doesn't say anything. He just stares at me and I stare back. We keep looking at each other until my tummy breaks the silence. Julian stares down at it.

"You must be hungry."

I didn't even notice. I had been quiet for so long, that it felt weird making any kind of noise, so I just nodded my head.

"Stay here, don't move. I'll go out and find you something to eat alright."

My lips unseal as I separate them to speak. "But what about…" My head turns to where Damien stormed off.

"You'll be fine, he won't hurt you. He's all bark I promise." He gave me half of a smile as he rose from the couch.

I didn't know what that meant and it must have been clear on my face.

"He's a big softee, you just scared him a bit." Julian chuckled as he smoothed the hair at the top of my head.

I scared him? That was funny. I gave Julian a small smile back and then he sighed, glancing at the front door.

"Just stay in the living room, okay? I'll be right back."

He walked to the door, gave me one last look, and walked out.

And then I was alone.

Her parents are hunters, Damien.

By midnight, it will be too late.

The clock on the wall read 11:04. What did he mean it would be too late? Too late for me to go home? I hoped not, I already missed my Mommy and Daddy. Lori Lockland at school told me her parents went hunting. She said they even hunted a bear. My Mommy and Daddy don't do that. I know cause they would have told me. So, what did that mean?

"The nearest fast food place is about 12 miles away." My head snapped toward the other man, Damien. Standing across the room like he'd been there this whole time. Maybe he had. "You're probably hungry now."

"Here." He walked over to me, holding a wrapped chocolate bar.

"I'm allergic to nuts." I say looking down at the bar. I know that candy is off limits cause Daddy keeps a pamphlet with pictures off all the candy I can't eat, and I have to look at it when I pick candy out at the store.

"Damn." Damien whispers as he quickly draws the bar back toward himself.

"How old are you, kid?"

"I'm almost seven."

"Son of a bitch." Damien sighed. And I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat. Mommy and Daddy never use bad words around me. "He bloody kidnapped you. You know that, yeah?"

Damien was starting to scare me. I felt the tears start to sting my eyes. I didn't wanna be kidnapped. I wanted to go home. "What's your name, kid?"

"Keeper." I sniffled back, remembering Julian's name for me and my Mommy's number one rule.

"Keeper?" Damien asked, raising one brow. "That's a name?"

I shrugged my shoulders because I didn't know what else to say. I wasn't going to give my name to this stranger.

"Would you like to watch cartoons, Keeper?" He asked, running his hand through his long hair like Julian did.

I nodded my head.

He grabbed the remote from the coffee table and switched on the TV. He flipped until he found my favorite show, Adventures in Wonderland.

I stared at the screen, watching the cartoon characters run away from the Bandersnatch. Was I in wonderland? It was all starting to feel like one long dream. Would I wake up like Alice did at the end of every episode? I hoped so. I sat back on the soft couch and let my feet curl up on the cushion beneath me. My eyes begin to drift close. I was sleepy again. Before falling completely asleep, I felt a soft fabric drape over my shoulders, covering me.

"Thank you, Damien." I mumbled, snuggling deeper into the couch.

"Hm." He responded. I didn't know if Damien liked me or not, but at least he was trying to be nice. I let my eyes close and let my mind drift into dreamland.