The Calling (DrTrollinski & Zhai)

[DrTrollinski]

Carl was actually happy that no one answered at first. He thought that they were going to have the chance to go back home at that moment, but then he heard the roaring of a vehicle coming towards them. He slowly turned and looked off, his eyes going wide. Great. A pickup truck. This couldn't be any more redneck, even if it wanted to be. The woman didn't bother him too much, though.


But then he saw her son.


An abnoxious-looking overweight teenager that he knew was going to end up being the dawn of his existence. Ginger, freckled, and probably more redneck than his mother. Carl was really going to have to resist the urge to not say something to either of these two. Town wasn't too far out from this house, but he knew he was far from home. Had they driven down into a Southern State, or something? Seriously, what did the town not too far from here even consist of? A few mud huts?


".. Oh, great..." Carl whispered to Mia after stepping closer to her. He couldn't believe that out of all places, they ended up in a complete shithole with people like this. Mother and Father would be furious if they found out about this, but right now, they didn't have a choice on what they were going tro do.

 

[Zhai]

Mia heard Carl but she didn't have words to return back to him; she was too busy looking between the woman and her son. The Nelsons, from their file. She remembered the woman's name was Lydia and her son was Travis or something like that. Mia was almost certain it was Travis. Trying to remember more information from the file that was stashed in her school bag, she finally came up with a little information for herself. Lydia was a qualified Foster mother after the death of her husband and other son in a car accident coupled with losing their unborn daughter during that stressful time. She'd undergone nearly a year of observation and even Fostered five children after she was accepted by Social Services to be a Foster Mother with her son. Mia forgot that Carl didn't know that since he didn't get to the file first and a part of her felt bad for the woman. Losing three of her family members in less than a week, and then being brave enough to care for other people who'd lose their family, too.


The woman smiled gingerly as she neared the porch, waiting for her son to get closer before giving the obviously heavy grocery bag to him. He easily supported the weight under one arm and walked around the back of the house. There must be another entrance back there, back door or something. She stepped up the porch slowly, her dark brown eyes switching between Carl and Mia. "You're both just in time for supper. I'm making meat loaf. Special occasion having two new members of the family." Her voice sounds like she smoked - or is smoking - a lot of cigarettes and she's missing a tooth on the side of her mouth. There's a lot more wrinkles over her tanned skin than Mia originally thought. The woman was only supposed to be in her thirties.


Lydia's hands reached out, one hand landing on Carl's shoulder and the other on Mia's shoulder. She stood there looking at them, her head turning from one to the other, a smile on her face. Mia couldn't stop looking at her and made the effort to smile back. "Thank you for having us."


Behind them, the door opened and the screen pushed open as her son appeared in the entrance. "Trav, show our family to their rooms." Lydia's hands turned Carl and Mia around to face Travis - Trav - who was silently walking out of the door; he reached for Mia's suitcase, one handing it, and went back into the house. Mia assumed they were to follow him, but her eyes crept over to glance at her brother. Why didn't Travis get Carl's bag?


By the time Mia was going to turn to the officers to thank them, they had already left the porch and were walking to their truck with Lydia in tow. All of them talking and glancing back occasionally.


Mia looked at Carl, now that they were alone for a moment. "It could be worse." Her shoulders drew up in a slight shrug, opening the screen door for her brother to go in.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl wasn't overly bothered by the fact that this boy hadn't taken in his bag for him. It wasn't that that angered him, it was the fact that he took Mia's. He didn't know why it bothered him, but if this fat fuck figured that he was going to try something with Mia, he was going to be losing a few teeth, that was for sure. Carl didn't know what to think of the woman, so he stayed silent and simply nodded with a half-smile when Mia thanked her. I mean, what else could he do?


He followed the boy named Travis into the house and then sighed a little as he stepped in. The smell of tobacco, and maybe even a bit of alcohol was sifting through the air. He was already feeling homesick. He just wanted to go back home to the smell of Missus Greene's cooking. Not this. Not ever this. He didn't want to be here, and the urge to run our screaming was so damn strong it was unreal. But still, he followed.


He decided that he was going to stick around with Mia, though. He wanted to spend some time with her and talk with her, and knowing their luck, they were going to end up in a bunk together, in one little room that had a ten-year-old computer and no TV. He was praying that things would go alright here, but he didn't know. He wasn't sure what to think, and so far, Travis hadn't left a good first impression.


As they got upstairs he took a look around. Nowhere near as many rooms as their own house, and the whole house was a lot more compact. This was something they were going to have to get used to.


"I have to say... It's a nice change of scene. Not something we're used to, I'll say that, but that's by no means a bad thing." He chuckled a little. "You must live quite a peaceful life out here in the Countryside. That wasn't something we really got the pleasure of having." He added. "I haven't read the file on you guys that our Case Worker gave us, so I don't know that much about you - Nice to meet you, though... I'm Carl." He said.

 

[Zhai]

The house was cluttered looking but empty at the same time. There was a single television perched on top of a make shift television stand. A double set of couches was centered around it, and upon closer examination Mia noticed it was just the same couch probably purchased twice to make the full set here. The floors were a pale wood and there was no carpeting anywhere; what she could see of the kitchen showed aluminum flooring made to look like white tile and the small counter looked dark green. There was a single fridge. No microwave. An oven standing alone in the corner, a small table with four chairs, and more windows than what looked like appliances in there. Mia didn't consider herself spoiled but she thought everyone own a microwave.


The single set of stairs going straight up to the next floor whined as Carl and her put weight on them to go up.. There was no sneaking around this house, was there? Upstairs she saw only four five doors, all of them so close together she was ready to assume they all connected into one large room on the other side.


When Carl when to talk with Travis, Mia opened each door slightly just to peek inside. The door on the immediate left was a bedroom, small but with what looked like a full sized bed. Mia and Carl had those beds for themselves. The room on the immediate right was another bedroom with a single twin sized bed, a cluttered book shelve, and a carpet so small it was hardly covering the middle of the room. The next two doors were open already. The second one on the left had Mia's suitcase in it and the one opposite on the right was open too, and it looked similar to the room she assumed was hers.


Mia walked back to the room that was going to be hers, listening to Carl speak. Her eyes flickered between Travis and Carl. Travis said..nothing. Not a word. He was just staring at Carl like he already decided he hated him, and then he looked at Mia like he hated her, too.


"Your room is over here." Travis's voice was so deep Mia had to look up from staring at her hands just to confirm it came out of him. Jesus, puberty must have hit him with a boulder or something. He moved past Carl, shoulder checking him just barely, and did the same with Mia. She moved against the door's frame, letting him go by and looking back at Carl, shrugging her shoulders.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl walked into Mia's room with her and then took a deep breath, closing the door over once they were both inside. He disliked this place already. Really, he was hating it. You try and be sociable, and look what happens - You get a death stare, and it looks as if people hate you. For no reason. Carl knew how to fight if things came down to it, and that kid would be so out of breath before he even had the chance to do anything to him, that the rest of the fight would be easy. Not only that, but one hit to the back of the head, and anyone would be on the floor seeing stars.


He saw that the doors had internal locks on them. Thank fuck for that. Carl didn't want to get stabbed in his sleep, so he'd be locking his door every night before bed. He didn't know what he was going to say to Mia, but the first thing he did was walk over and sit down on her bed - a cloud of dust shot up from it as soon as he did so, and he couldn't help but close his eyes in disbelief. This was going to be hell. The beds were uncomfortable, and the house had less technology than a museum. How great was that?


".. Well... Nice to see we've had a warm welcome." He said quietly as he kicked his legs up onto the bed and lied down, taking a long deep breath. ".. I've got a bad feeling about this, Mia." He whispered.

 

[Zhai]

"Yeah..." Mia turned in a circle in her new room, looking at the interior fully now. There were spaces on the wall that were lighter colored and in various shapes, suggesting perhaps there were pictures there once. The wallpaper probably used to be white but had turned into a cream color, and the design was smallish faded purple flowers, repeatedly throughout the entirety of the wall. There was no light on the ceiling and Mia searched for the light that the switch on the wall went to; it was a single lamp at her bedside table. She signed long. The bed looked like a mixture of iron and wood; the legs were wooden but the rest of the frame was dark iron. The looked thin and upon pinching it, she confirmed her thoughts. The blanket and pillow looked worn out, the cotton flattened so much that the pillow looked more like a flat surface than anything and the blanket probably wasn't warm.


Of course the floor was pale wood with no carpet; there was an empty book shelf behind the door and that was about it. No closet. No hooks or racks. Not even a trunk. Mia at least expected a trunk in here. Her parents had a decorative trunk at the foot of their bed, and Mother kept the extra bed spread in there to change out between winter and summer.


Mia sat on window pane - the only window in the room, smallish and centered - and she let her school bag finally leave her shoulder, softly lowering it onto the floor. "It could be worse. We could have been split up." That was the worst case. Or they could have been put in a house with a murder or a child rapist in hiding or something. Or a religious family. An overly religious family.


As Mia was about to speak again, she heard the door downstairs close. Thin walls, huh? The muffled voices between Travis and his mother continued for several minutes, and finally the door opened to the room, the woman standing in the entrance. Her expression wasn't the same as downstairs. There was no smile. There was no sensitivity in her eyes. Not even a hint of understanding loss like there was downstairs.


"You both need to get up and wash up for supper. There's no time to make meat loaf, so we're having soup instead." Well her voice was definitely still the same, and she left the door open when she left. Mia could hear her walking down the stairs, the whole house seeming to whine in protest.


Mia's eyes blinked a few times and she was speechless, her eyes gliding over to Carl.

 

[DrTrollinski]

He waited for her to leave, closed his eyes, and then lied back. ".. I fucking hate this place." He whispered gently to her, his voice almost nonexistent. He slowly sat up and onto the edge of the bed, taking a long deep breath. ".. We need to keep an eye out, I think... I'm not sure on all this just yet." He added, and then got up and walked down the hallway to try and locate the bathroom. Once he found it, he stepped inside. There wasn't even a shower connected to the bathtub.


Oh, for fuck's sake. Could this get any worse?





The bathtub was old. The sink was old, and the toilet looked like something that belonged in a 1950's public restroom. Were they really expected to live in this place? Christ, it was a good thing he had his mobile phone and his phone charger with him, or he'd be done for. Not a single video games console, and nothing else but a tiny little TV that probably still played in black and white.


Maybe his phone could record any evidence. He wouldn't be surprised if some bad shit happened here. But that could wait for another time - he had to give them another chance, didn't he? After all, they were apparently going to be stuck with these rednecks for at least another two months, so Carl was going to have to work to get used to it.


If he and Mia decided to stick around for that long, that is.


He realized that he needed to pee yet again, so he went and locked the door, cook care of business, and then went and washed his hands and faced - he looked at himself in the mirror and took a deep breath. The mirror was stained and had cracks all over it, and his own eyes had bags under them, and they were incredibly bloodshot, too. He found it a little suspicious that they were having soup all of a sudden. Due to his love of movies, he knew that that could mean one thing - They were going to get poisoned. (They weren't, most likely. He'd just watched the Sixth Sense one too many times) - Anyway. Once he was done, he made his way downstairs and through to the kitchen, followed by sitting down at the kitchen table.

 

[Zhai]

"Carl, you've got to give it a try. It is either here or a jail cell or something." Mia, honestly, would have rather not had to spend the night in a holding cell. Not only because she would be surrounded by other strange people waiting their turn for whatever, court or something - but because then she'd be separated from Carl. They would have been split into gender based holding cells, and she knew they'd do insane - especially Carl. He'd really lose his shit in there.


When he left the room Mia still leaned against the window's edge, looking around her temporary room again. It was so..old fashioned. She couldn't even remember a time she'd seen a wrought iron bed before or wallpaper this old or handmade quilts or anything! The whole house seemed like it jumped straight out of an Old Western scenario - farm house in the middle of nowhere with livestock and a Mama in her Sunday dress and her son in his overalls, and goats running amok and dinner being called 'supper'. There was even the tall, caramel grass and the bales of hay in the fields, and the crazy family dog and a garden of vegetables. It was all..a lot to take in, even the contents of the house itself were so little.


"Carl! Mila!" Mia straightened a little out of her slouched position, Lydia's voice interrupting her heavy - and getting heavier - depression. Mila? Who's that? She assumed it was her and either Lydia had said it wrong or said it funny. The woman not only had a thick accent but her lungs were probably a shade from being completely black from smoking. Calling their names must signal that the soup is done but Mia couldn't smell anything. No aroma wafting up the stairs and filling the room. Nothing. She could hear the screen door slam shut and hear rough breathing. The dog.


Mia finally left her room after several seconds, immediately turning and walking slowly down the stairs. The dog was sitting in a space between the couches, his saggy face and long ears bunched up on the floor as he laid down. Mia still couldn't smell anything. Where were the smells of...dinner? The evidence of something have been cooked in the kitchen? She didn't have to walk far to the kitchen, and she could see a large pot on the back of the stove and a fire so small underneath that she didn't even think the outside of the pot was hot yet.


Lydia was opening the drawer of a small dresser beside the end counter, and she sat a loaf of bread down on the counter. With a large knife she cut the bread half, replaced the other half into the drawer, and proceeded to cut the leftover half into slices. Mia stood there watching her, thinking of Mrs. Greene. It was so heartbreaking that she wanted to cry, but she contained herself enough that her eyes only watered and her breathing caught for a second.


At one of the chairs, Travis was sat, his eyes staring dead at Mia. She tried to ignore him but it was hard. It's hard to ignore his stare and Mia shifts uncomfortably in place.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl was sat down right beside Mia. He noticed how poor this place was. He wanted to go home to Missus Greene's cooking, not this. He was certain that the food she was dishing up was going to be nowhere near as good as Missus Greene's food, but he knew that he needed to give it a chance. What else could he do? He didn't want things to go too wrong here, but then he saw one thing.


Her disgrace of a son was staring at Mia. She was uncomfortable.


He returned the stare to him, his arms rested on the able and propped up while his head was rested behind his hands. Nothing but his eyes showed, and he was glaring at Travis so heavily that you could swear that lasers were about to shoot out and cut right through him. It was the sort of glare that could turn someone to stone. It was full of anger and fury, and the desire to just get up and send a punch right across the boy's nose. He was expecting anything, so when it came to self-defense, he was all ready to swerve out of the way or block anything that came at him.


"It's incredibly rude to stare, you know." He mumbled quietly to him, his fiery stare still locked onto Travis. He wasn't going to give up this stare for the whole night at the table. He aimed to make him feel just as uncomfortable as he'd made Mia.

 

[Zhai]

"It's rude to speak when no one is talking to you. Speak when spoken to..Carl." Travis broke eye contact long enough to stare back at Carl, both of their blue eyes locked onto each other. It's hard to tell who has the better poker face, and Mia sat in the middle, can't stop looking between Travis and Carl. It's apparent this isn't a staring-no-blinking kind of contest, and Mia's hand slides across the table, squeezing Carl's bicep for a short moment, her eyes staring at him. "Carl, please." It should have been all she needed to say to her brother, her eyes doing the urging for him to stop. They hadn't been in the house four hours and already the boys were having a dick-shaking contest at dinner. Mia didn't care about Travis staring, she cared about Carl fueling the fire.


Lydia kept quietly dipping her bread into soup Mia hadn't even dunked her spoon into yet. The woman methodically dipped a piece of bread into the soup, at the bread, took a spoonful of soup, and did it all over again until she was almost done with her second slice. At some point Mia guessed she noticed the tension in the room because her head whipped up and her hands slammed on the fragile table, "Would you stop it Carl? Please stop provoking Travis. Eat your supper." What? Mia's eyes widened a little, shocked that she assumed Carl started it. Although Carl wasn't exactly easing the tension by staring back, he certainly wasn't the only one with a problem here at the table.


Mia squeezed Carl's bicep again, forcing his hands to break away from his face; her hand slid back to her side of the table, taking the large spoon in her hand. Her eyes discreetly examined the spoon's cleanliness and satisfied, she dipped it into the soup to find that the soup was actually quiet chunky. Lifting the spoon from the bowl and taking a sip, expecting it to be hot, she frowned and withdrew from her taste test. The soup was hardly luke warm and was more cold than anything. The broth tasted of salt primarily and there was another strange tangy taste.


She opted for the bread, eating the pieces frequently until she'd finished her two slices entirely. Mia was trying to think of an excuse to not have to finish the soup when she looked up and saw Lydia staring right at her.

 

[DrTrollinski]

A slow and sly smile slowly stretched across his face. He gave a gentle and sarcastic wink at Travis and then ran his eyes across to the woman that had slammed her hands down on the table. He didn't even flinch. Did she really think that Carl was that easy to crack? He was the master of rage and slamming around, and she thought that she was going to be able to make him submit? Hah, no such luck. He was already fueled by hate. He didn't need anyone to shout at him, anyone to slam around - he'd already gone the whole nine yards.


"Provoking? Me? Never..." He smiled a little and then stared down at the soup for a moment. He didn't know what to think of it. He took a bit of the bread and ate it dry. He wasn't interested in the soup just yet. ".. Mia was simply... unnerved, by the fact that Travis was staring at her. I hate to nitpick, but I'd much prefer if we could all settle down and have a nice peaceful dinner, especially after the effort you've put into preparing it, wouldn't you?" He said softly. Now, no one could argue with that logic. He turned that into a mere friendly comment.


The soup was still off-putting, but he'd eat it soon.


"Seeing as myself and Mia are going to be here for at least a couple of months, I'd be much happier if we could all just settle down, have a nice conversation, get to know each other, and most of all... leave no one feeling uncomfortable or... intruded, hm?" He said, and then took another slow bite of his bread. "Let's move on from what we were talking about, shall we? Let's clear the air... Lydia... What do you do for a living?" He asked softly.

 

[Zhai]

What. Is. He. Doing?


Mia's eyes looked over towards Carl, knowing that he was being - in no other words to describe him - a smart ass right now. The way he was smiling and looking between Travis and Lydia, how his body language had went from angry to sarcastic. She sat back in her seat, her spoon dipping in and and out of the shallow bowl of soup, watching everyone's reaction to Carl's words and then back to watching Carl.


Lydia didn't skip a beat, continuing to spoon soup into her mouth until she'd reached the bottom of the bowl. There was the clicking of the spoon at the bottom of the bowl as the women tried to get every bit of the meal, and finally she wiped the spoon on her napkin, set it on the table and rested her forearms on the surface, looking at Carl. "Carl, I do not want to hear your mouth until your dinner is done. Neither of you will leave this here table until your supper is finished! I wanna see the bottoms of them bowls," Lydia's eyes switched between Carl and Mia before she took her dishes to a stand alone sink, dropping them in a pool of water, and retreating from the kitchen through the back door by the table.


Damn. Mia sighed and let her head lean on the back of the chair. She supposed she'd have to prepare for a long night sitting at the table, or have to somehow pour he soup out without Lydia or Travis noticing.


What made Mia look up from her increasingly depressing stupor was the slurping noise coming from Travis's side of the table, and when she looked at him, she saw the boy with the bowl to his lips, downing the entire thing. Mia could have sworn all of them had vegetables or whatever chunks were in there; but here was Travis taking everything in one swallow.


When he was done he sat the bowl down on the table and looked between Carl and Mia. There was a hint of a smile of some of kind on his face, a tint of dark humor in his eyes, and he finally stood in silence, put his bowl in the sink, and went out the backdoor, too.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl couldn't help but laugh a little. She wasn't very sociable, it seemed. Try to make friendly conversation, and look what happened. God, it was no wonder she didn't have a man of her own - She was a bitch, no doubt. Carl knew that he wasn't going to be able to stay here for too long, or he was going to completely blow his top and then he'd end up getting violent to the point where he wouldn't be able to stop himself, and no one would be safe. He knew just by the way that Travis looked at Mia earlier on that he was going to be one of those people that were going to try something at one point when the defensive big brother wasn't watching.


"Yes, ma'am." He said softly, and then took another bite into his bread. He wasn't going to be able to eat this - well, he might have been able to, but he could smell how fucking salty it was. You could probably smell it from a mile away, and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to take that much salt. It was essentially a heart attack in a bowl. When she and Travis got up and left, he winked at Travis again when he saw the dark smile that he flashed them. Oh, shit was going to go down if they didn't get out of here, he knew that.


He looked across at Mia and gave a long-winded sigh.


"Mia. We can't stay here." He said quietly. "This whole place was a fucking lie right from the start, Travis looks at you like he's going to take whatever chance he can get to stick it to you, and it doesn't look like these people know how to manage a civil conversation. I don't know about you, but I'm done here." He said in a whisper, and then took a small mouthful of the soup. Honestly, it wasn't dreadful, but the saltiness to it meant that he was going to be sitting here and eating it for a while.


On the upside, at least the vegetables were freshly picked.

 

[Zhai]

Carl was right. Lydia and Travis weren't exactly sociable nor did she think they were fit to be a Foster family. Not for them. Not for any one! The house was livable but hardly comparable to home. Travis was...Mia couldn't really put her finger on it but there was something off about him. The silence was the worst part about Travis and his blank stares, especially towards Carl. Lydia wasn't as silent as Travis but they were she directed her anger at Carl - even when it was her own son starting the staring contest - didn't exactly sit well with Mia.


What did Carl mean 'done here'? Leave and run away? Contact the Case Worker to get a new foster family? What did he mean? Mia looked at her brother's face, searching for what he could be thinking about because she only had two options in her mind - well three, but the third one meant staying here and putting up with the Nelson's shit for the next couple of months until the court hearing. However she didn't think he meant he was done trying to be nice and would just ghost around the house. When Carl normally said he was done, it meant he was going to leave; and Mia was going to go with him.


Instead of immediately plotting to escape the Nelson's house, Mia decided to ask her brother what he meant and what he had in mind. "What do you want to do, Carl? We can't exactly just tell Lydia we're leaving and if..if we run away, they'll send the police after us."


Mia leaned closer, folding her arms on the table; her eyes look quickly at the backdoor, just in case Lydia or Travis came rushing back into the house in the middle of their conversation.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"You know what all the gangsters and songs say? They say 'fuck the police'." He snickered a little and took a bite of his bread. "I know a way we can disguise it. If we leave, I mean. We can make up a reason. It won't be pretty, but it'll work. If this bitch has ever fostered other kids, I feel sorry for them. I mean, look at this place, and look at the food." He whispered, and then shot a glance off towards the window just to make sure things were fine, and then took another slurp of his soup to make sure he was disguising himself alright.


He had a plan. A violent one. But a plan. It wasn't violent towards these people, though, not unless it needed to be. It was violent towards themselves, but more physically violent towards Carl. He had a perfect idea. It had to be the perfect idea - It would help them avoid prosecution, too. In fact, it would get her prosecuted, and it would make sure Travis went to a decent home with values and good morals, and a good lifestyle with good food.


Actually... He'd end up in prison, too.


"We can walk out right now. Get our bags, and run for it. Run into the forest, they'll never find us." He explained, and then slurped up some more soup. "Or we can sneak out in the middle of the night, but I'm not waiting around to see when that woman will starting hitting us, and I definitely don't want to test whether or not fatass out there will try to rape you or not." He whispered, and then went back to eating. He needed to get this at least somewhat out of the way.

 

[Zhai]

"Is that what they say?" Mia stifled her laughter with her hand, her eyes looking at the door just in case Lydia came back and scolded them for having fun. The smile on her face stayed from her brother's little joke. It probably wasn't best to take advice from hip hop artists who'd probably been to jail several times after their little 'fuck the police' stunts. They were trying to get out of this house and avoid being thrown in jail, not antagonize the police to make it into their cells faster.


Listening to Carl's plan slowly erased the smile on Mia's face, not because of the running away through the woods part but when he started naming the possibilities of what would happen if they didn't leave. Rape? Abuse? Travis was definitely rough around the edges and had a certain aura about him but Mia didn't think the boy was capable - nor wanted to - rap her in the dead of the night. Plus the floors and doors gave away every noise and he'd hardly make it from his room to hers without waking up the whole house, especially Carl. Abuse? - Lydia didn't look capable of physical abuse but the woman probably a mouth on her deadly than a snake's venom. She could probably degrade them mentally but to physically hit them? - Mia questioned it. The woman was small and fragile. Hell even Mia probably packed a bigger punch than her, so the physical abuse wouldn't sell in the court.


"Okay, so say we do go with your plan." Mia was careful not to just say 'escape plan' or 'running away', just in case someone walked in on that exact moment. "How the hell do we make it out of this place without everyone hearing?" For emphasis Mia shifted her body so her legs were from beneath the table, and she took one foot and pressed it against the floor, the whining from the wood loud despite how little weight was on it. If they were going to sneak out, they better get some Tinker Bell dust and float out because walking out was out of the question.


"And we can't exactly run far with out suitcases. They're fucking heavy. At least mine is." Mia leaned her side against the chair, sighing at their defeat in her mind. There were a hundred factors they probably hadn't thought of that prevented or made it harder to leave. What if the Case Worker came back tomorrow to check on them? Or the police made a surprise visit, all 'hey-where's-the-kids'? That would really spark the search to come looking for them. What if Lydia was collecting a check or something for being their Foster mother? If they left, she wouldn't get the money. It would be her motivation to keep them.


"I don't fucking know." Mia's hands threw up and she gave her brother an idea-less expression. What now, huh?

 

[DrTrollinski]

"You brought your backpack, right? Stuff that full of all the shit you want tonight, if anyone asks, just say you're sorting out clothes for tomorrow." He said. "I'll do the same, we pack everything we want, and then, in the middle of the night, if we creep really close to the wall, the floorboards will be stronger there. They won't creak as much." He explained, and then paused and thought for a moment.


There were better ways to do things.


"Or we could go and pack our bags after dinner, and then bring them back down... Leave them at the shoe-stand by the door, and then, when they're all out of sight, they'll be there for when we leave." He explained. "Now, once we get up during the night, we'll have less weight to us, and then we can sneak through the house just like I said - sticking to the walls. If we hear anyone shouting out, we say we're getting a glass of water." He said, smirking just a little.


He looked off at the window in search of Travis. God, he hated that guy. He saw the look in his eyes when he was staring at Mia, and it only spoke trouble. These windows were all single-pane, too, meaning that even if they couldn't get out of the front way, they'd have no trouble climbing out of one of the downstairs windows.


"I'll have money... I brought money with me. We'll buy clothes, good food, and you know what...? We'll find our parents. We know them better than anyone. We know all of the fancy restaurants they go to, all of the big hotels they stay in on road-trips, and so on - The police don't know that. Do you want a normal life again, Mia? Or do you want to be stuck in a place like this until you're eighteen?" He asked.

 

[Zhai]

Carl was making sneaking out of this noise trap like it was piece of cake and he did it all the time. When was the last time they had to sneak around in their own home? Or sneak anywhere for that matter? They didn't have crying floorboards or screaming carpet that alerted everyone when they moved. Getting out of here in the middle of night - to Mia - seemed next to impossible; however she listened to Carl's suggestions. Considering the pros and cons, and mentally going over what could go right and wrong. Setting their things by the door could be a good idea and it did take weight off of them creeping bodies but what if Lydia did some nightly sweep or something? What is Travis saw them and hid their bags somewhere else or took them? What about - the dog?


"Carl that sounds good and all but what about the dog?" Mia's eyebrows lifted, waiting for her brother's genius response to that. Already the dog was outside barking somewhere around the house like he was going mad. The damn thing had been barking off and on since they arrived, and she suspected that if they even opened the screen door, the dog would bark or even worse - chase them. They weren't exactly frequent visitors and how's the dog supposed to know not to bite the foster kids in the ass?


The window in the room; she thought about going out of the window of her room, provided that there was something outside the window like a roof or tree, and not just a straight drop to the ground. Even throwing the mattress outside the window to the ground first and then jumping wouldn't provide a good enough cushion. What could be worse than staying here or their failed escape, was a failed escape and having to stay here with some broken bones.


At Carl's question for going home, Mia perked up. Of course she wanted to go home! To find their parents, to get Mrs. Greene back, to regain their lives that had turned upside down in literally two days! Hell, Mia didn't even have her phone and the vacancy in her back pocket where it normally is was unbearable. "You know I want to go home. That's a stupid question." Irritated not with Carl's inquisition but with her indecisive and over-calculating nature, Mia stood out of her chair, pacing the small kitchen. "I just...Shit." Her hand flew up and started nervously twisting a lock of hair between her fingers, all while still pacing the kitchen and tossing the ideas around in her head.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Of course. The window.


"The patio shelter, Mia." He said, surely, a wide grin slowly stretching across his face. "We keep all of our stuff, climb onto the patio shelter, and then sneak away the long way." He said. "At least that way we'll avoid the dog, and that'll be just it, won't it?" He chuckled gently and drank down some more of his soup. As time went on, the taste gradually got better. Heh, he adapted to shit cooking pretty quickly, didn't he?


The patio shelter was the way out. It had to be.


"Think... That's something. We'll make our way home, retrace our steps, find out where our parents are... The first place to look is their computers... I don't even know what State we're in right now, but it certainly don't feel like Georgia. Maybe it is, and we're just a little further down South." He sighed. "We need to get back to Clayton... We can get everything we need there." He whispered. "So, what do you say, Mia? Climb out of the window onto the patio shelter, take all our stuff with us, and then make a run for it?" He asked, smiling just a little as he shoved the last of his bread into his mouth.

 

[Zhai]

Carl's evil genius grin is, to say the least, hilarious; but Mia doesn't laugh out loud about it and keeps to just smiling against her knuckles. He looks like he's planning a mastermind escape from an inescapable prison, and his plan is arousing him to the point of delirium. Mia stopped pacing the kitchen long enough to think about jumping out of the window...again. Her first thoughts weren't good ones and resulted in a broken leg and no mattress on her bed that she already hated. Now, jumping onto the patio cover seemed better than jumping onto a paper thin mattress but not too much better.


Again her over active mind played a variety of scenarios - Carl and her jump out of the window and onto the patio cover, but then one or both of their weights make the fragile cover sink in and crash!; both of them have bruises, broken bones, and are stuck in the house longer but at least together. Or what if Lydia was having a late night smoke on the porch, heard the thud over her, saw them jump and make a run for it? Surely if the woman was collecting a check for taking in two kids then she wasn't about to watch nor let her money run out; that woman would sooner chase them down herself rather than calls the police first. What if she had a shot gun or a tranquilizer? She'd shoot them down and get her cornfed son to take the bodies back.


Then again, Mia could just be going over too many scenarios in her mind except the good ones, where they actually sneak out of her with feather weight feet, make no noise, and run for the hills; or they jump the window, onto the patio cover, and run for the hills. Successfully. Maybe even the dog would run with them, show them the way or something. Or a magically fairy would sense their distress and help them. Or better! - The Genie himself would show up, give him a magic carpet ride, and then they're home. All in a night's work, right?


Mia supposed she was just going to have to go with her brother's gut rather than her own, because listening to herself would result in them staying him longer to wait for a real opening and not forcing one. "Yeah, why not?" She tried to get some enthusiasm in her voice but it was hard. Impossible; because her mind was still playing the bad and not enjoying the possible good. She was seconds from doing probable causes and percentages on their plans and success rates.


When she was returning to her chair, the front door screamed on its hinges at being opened and slammed shut immediately after. Lydia came stalking in, her boots heavy against the floor and causing more distressful noises to escape the wood. "Still not done with that soup, huh? It's looks like you're going to have a long night down here, Hun. I'm not letting you out of my sight until you finish it!" Lydia's voice was more hoarse than before suggesting that she'd been recently smoking - plus there was an overwhelming smell of cigarette that followed her into the kitchen. Turning out of the small kitchen, she went to the connecting living room, pushed the television on, and got comfortable on one of the couches.


Well damn. This just got harder. Mia signed deeply but quietly in her chair, her hands making gestures towards the ceiling to be saved, and her eyes staring into the soup. Maybe if she stared long enough, her hatred would heat the soup up and add some meat.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl rolled his eyes and then took a deep breath, and then started drinking down the soup using his spoon. Yeah, it was salty. Really salty. But it was better than nothing. He looked across to Mia and took a deep breath, and then leaned over to whisper something to her. His logic was questionable, but it made sense - he'd realized this only recently: They wouldn't be able to run far on no sleep and empty stomachs. The soup may have been horrendous, but on the upside, it wasn't vomit inducing, and it definitely wasn't poisoned like Carl had thought it was.


".. You need to eat it, sis... We'll need the energy..." He said, sighing a little as he reached over and gently patted her on the shoulder. She could see it in his eyes. He was hating this as much as she was, but it wasn't something they really had a choice on - Carl didn't want to take the risk of seeing whether or not Lydia was actually willing to hit her foster children.


Carl was kind of glad that there were fresh vegetables in this soup. It took away the saltiness. Slightly. He wondered where Travis was, and what he was doing. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if they went upstairs to find him sniffing Mia's panties.


God, Carl. Get a hold of yourself. He's just a bit odd... He's not a pervert, nor a rapist... Is he?


This is a redneck home, after all - anything can happen.

 

[Zhai]

Mia smiled at her brother - as polite and sweet a smile she could produce in this fucked up situation - and shook her head. Leaning back over the table to her brother, she rested her hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eyes, "I'm about to run away with you through woods we know nothing about, in a place we don't even know, and on top of that...I have to maybe jump out of a window and not break any bones. I'll do all of that with you but I'm not eating this shit." There. Mia was confident in her words and decision, and just to let Carl know, when she leaned back into her seat she scooted the bowl further away from her.


There was a chance they were about to embark on the wildest, scariest, maybe even failed adventure to get home, find their missing parents, and get their lives back on their shoulders; and she was not about to start that adventure off with this 'soup'. Carl had a thing for eating something even if it was burnt, under cooked, or even raw. Mia wasn't like that. She hated to think she was spoiled in those ways, especially about what went into her body. If she had to eat it, why couldn't it be fucking good?!


Just to make sure Carl knew she was serious, Mia crossed her arms and leaned fully into the back of the chair, crossing her ankles under the table and puffing her cheeks out in protest. The cheek puffing was something she hadn't fully quit from childhood but she did it occasionally for fun or just for emphasis that she'd made up her mind.


And she's made up her mind that she wasn't eating this soup. Surely Lydia's old age would get the better of her, or if she drank like they assumed then she'd pass out drunk soon enough. Then Mia could put the soup back in the pot and be done with it.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Carl looked at her and smirked. Honestly, if he had to, he could eat this soup if it was the only thing on the menu. Right now, though, he was coming off of high-quality food ingredients made in a good kitchen with an adequate stove, and he'd jumped straight onto this - Colored water with chunks of vegetables in it that tasted like piss. Yeah, lovely stuff. He got half way through the bowl and decided that he'd had enough of it. He was joining Mia on the protest. He didn't want any more of this... Soup? Right. If Mrs Greene saw this... She'd probably faint. She could make so much better... his mouth watered at the thought of her home-made chicken soup.


Hot, tasty, fresh, delicious, and appealing.


Or maybe it was the high fucking salt intake that was making his mouth water. Who knew.


".. Alright, fine. Maybe we don't need to eat this... I don't think I can eat anymore, or the salt's going to make my heart explode." He said, and then began chewing on another bit of bread. He could swear that the bread was starting to go stale, and they'd only been sat here for half an hour. Christ... Honestly, looking around this place, the social workers must have thought that he and Mia were some kinds of fucking animals, if they honestly sent them to this place. Seriously, why couldn't they have gone to a nice mansion with some parents they'd actually enjoy their time with? Not a single mother and her freak of a son in something that was close to a wooden outhouse.


".. Jesus... Look at this place..." He whispered gentle to her, his voice almost nonexistent. "When we go upstairs... Don't step on the floor too hard. You might fucking fall through it." He grinned. He was trying to lighten the mood, but the sad thing was that what he'd said was probably true.

 

[Zhai]

Mia thought maybe Carl was thinking the same thing she was because his face and head relaxed much the way her own face and head were doing. Thinking of Mrs. Greene's cooking was enough to ease this depressing and fucked up situation. Mrs. Greene's food was always just right - and at least it was always hot. If the woman came in here and saw this soup she'd probably grab at her heart in that familiar way with a dramatic gasp, and maybe even get a little violent, like throwing the soup in the trash and breaking Lydia's hands so she could never make this soup again. Hell, even when Mom tried her hand in the kitchen, the food didn't taste this bad. Mia remembered when Mother tried to make a baked turkey. Not only was the turkey raw in the middle but Mother had the heat so high that it looked done on the outside, and to compliment her seasoning skills the family ate the crispy skin off the turkey while Mrs. Greene was saving the day with baked ham.


This soup here - was not the same. There wasn't something good to take away from it. The vegetables looked stiff and uncooked, like Lydia brewed the broth, plucked some vegetables from her garden, cut them up and threw them in the pot, calling it soup all of a sudden. The bread was stale and probably only days from molding, and Mia felt like she was still chewing even though she'd finished the bread a long time ago.


Having seen that even Carl and his iron stomach couldn't continue eating the soup was reassuring to Mia that she just wasn't being a picky bitch, but there was something seriously wrong with the soup. Travis probably was used to this or had more iron stomach than Carl, because he took his entire bowl in one mouthful and left. It was actually scary thinking that Travis was used to this, but then again they were used to their specific meals, too.


"Well..." Mia started, smiling in her brother's direction and trying to hold back laughter. "You're heavier than me so you be careful. Besides, if Travis can make it around here, then you can."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Heh, ain't that the truth." He said softly. He looked over his shoulder to see what Lydia was up to, and then sighed and deeply slumped back into his chair with a long-winded sigh. He was hating this place more and more every minute. Mom and Dad would be dying right now if they had to go in a place like this - The smell of smoke, alcohol, and shitty, cheap-quality food. Ain't that just fantastic? He actually thought about mom and dad for a few minutes, and then shut his eyes for a few seconds.


The thought of mom and dad being gone forever was quite the upsetting one. He didn't like to think like that, but you know how it goes. The first 48 hours is the time you have to find them alive. After that, all hope's gone. Or was it? The fact that everyone went missing like that was really strange. He looked over at Mia and then gave a long sigh.


".. Do you have any idea what could have happened to mom and dad?" He asked. He discreetly picked up his bowl and walked to the sink, placed it inside the basin, quietly emptied it, and then began washing it out. Once it was all clean, he put it on the draining board alongside his spoon, and then went and sat down beside Mia again. ".. We need to take things into our own hands, you know." He whispered.