Red

Chapter 3

Red hurried after the grown ups, who had taken her in. The building was just as grey on the inside as it was on the outside. Red had never seen so mamy childern before. Some stopped and stared, others paid no attention what so ever. It seemed it was mainly the younger childern who took an intrest in their arrivail. The older childern seemed so beaten down and souless, that it appeared they were not even aware of their surroundings. Mindless beings, just making their way from one place to another, showing no intrest in the world arlund them.

Red would be lying, if she said this did not frighten her. She may have been young, but she was aware of their state. It was a frightful state, and Red's young mind began to wounder what had happened to make them that way. Would that happen to her and Ruby? She thought. No! She insisted. She was going to take care of Ruby and nothing was going to harm her. That was her main job now. It was her only job now. Without Red, Ruby would not survive. Her Mother and Father may have given up on them, but she had not.

Refusing to get caught up in fear, Red shook her head and forced her self back into focus. She was being led up different stairs and down narrow and long corridors. The lead woman finally opened a door and into a large room. There were bunk beds right down along the room, on either side. This room could possibly hold up to 40 people. They made their way to the end of the room and the woman stopped at one bunk bed. Red set the basket down on the lower bed and stood back to face the woman.

"This is where you shall stay. Now. Rules. You will be here until you are 12, then you will have to make your own way. Your sister can stay here until she's 12 and then she's out too. We don't usually take childern as young as her, so we have to change of clothes ready now. There is a trunk at the top of the room, full of uniforms. Find what fits and put it on. You go out to the yard with her and stay out of the older childerns way. They have work to do in here. You'll start working here when your old enough too. You do as you are told and do not answer back. We have two daughters who live where with us, in our quaters. If you see them you must move out of their way and yo always refer to them as miss. Now get changed and come down for breakfast," Said the woman.

She turned around and marched out of the room in a hurry, slamming the door behind her. The sudden bang frightened Ruby and she was startled awake. She began to cry, so Red Quickly reached in and lifted her out. She held her closely and began to rock back and forth. She than thought it would be a good idea to sing to her. She knew of a lullaby that some Mothers sing to their childer if they cannot sleep. She had heard the other childern sing it while they were playing.

"Hush my pet,
No need to weep.
It's all in your head,
While you are asleep.
Close your eyes,
And in no time,
The darkness is gone,
When the moon starts to shine," 

That had settled Ruby down and she was sleeping peacfully once again. Red set her back down in the basket and found the trunk the woman was talking about. Everything was grey. She rummaged around for a while, pulling out peices of clothes and holding them up in front of her, to see how big they were. She finally found something that looked like it would fit. She rushed back down to Ruby and changed from her dirty brown dress into the grey pinaform and shirt. She kept her small black shoes. There were no others in her size in the trunk.

She folded her old dress and put it at the end of her bed. She let out a big yawn and was tempted to climb into bed, but she knew that if she did that she would not be able to sleep come morning and her whole sleeping lattern would be ruined. Forcing herself to stay focused she picked Ruby up into her arms and left the big room. They both had to go get blood for breakfast. Not only due to the fact that they were starving, but because vampires have to take a speacail in their breakfast blood to ensure they are immune to spells from witches.

Red simply followed the sound of childern, through the corridors and down the many staircases she had just come up. Once she was back on the ground floor it was not long before she found the dining hall. There was a que of childern all waiting to receive their glass of blood, from some big kids behind a counter. Red stood in the que, holding Ruby close to her. One young boy joined the que after Red and stood next to her as they waited.

"Who are you?" Asked the boy.

"I'm Red and This is Ruby. Who are you?" She asked.

"They're weird names. I'm Jasper. Are your parents dead too?" He inquired as they began to shuffle down, closer to the counter.

"No. My Papa doesn't know where I am because my Mama brought me here before running off with the man in the travelling show," she explained.

"So you still have parents?" She asked in disbelief.

"No. They don't want me, so they're not my parents anymore," Red thought that would hurt her more than it did.

She realiesed that she had Ruby to take care of now, so she could not get distracted. She just had to let that go. At least she was not on her own. Suddenly two girls, dressed far nicer than the rest of the childern, walked right up past the que, straight to the counter. The older kids quickly stopped what they were doing and handed them two glasses of blood and the two girls walked off.

"Those are the daughters of the people who run this place. The small one is Andrea and the bigger one is Bella. What ever you do, don't upset them. Their parents will come find you and they'll make sure you never do it again," he warned.

Red nodded and watched as the poked and laughed at the other childern. She thought of their parents and decided that taking his advice and staying out of their way was probably the best idea. All she wanted to do was protect Ruby. She finally reached the top of the que and recieved her two glasses of blood. Jasped helped her carry them, as she found somewhere to sit with Ruby. He quickly drank his and Red thanked him for his help, before he ran off to play with his friends. Red helped Ruby to drink her blood without spilling it everywhere. Once she was comtent that Ruby was taken care of, she finally drank her own. She was never to grateful for blood before in her entire life. She had been to hungry, her stomach had began to ache and a sharp pain would shoot through her.

She felt the glasses on the table as she saw some of the older kids come around and collect them. She took the now very awake Ruby outside. Childern rushed about playing and laughing. Red deaperarly wanted to go join them, but instead she found a bench to sit down on. The bench was up against a wall so she could lean back. She looked down and Ruby and noticed her little sister smile up at her. It warmed Red's heart right up and she could not help bug smile back at her.

"Are you happy to see me?" Red cooed.

Ruby gave a squealy laugh and wriggled a little in her arms.

"You are, aren't you. Oh, well I'm happy to see you too,"

Ruby would laugh and wriggle everytime she heard her older siter speak to her. Suddenly Andrea and Bella walked over and stood in front of them.

"We want to play with the baby," demaned Bella.

Red's words were stuck in her troath. What should she do. If she let them play with Ruby, they could hurt her, but if she did not let them and upset them, their parents would come from them. Red just sat and looked im far, not knowing what to do. Bella huffed and decided to take matters into her own hands. She reached forward and held onto Ruby. She was about to take her out from Red's arms, when suddenly Ruby gave a high pitched, ear peircing scream. Bella quickly let go and the two girls covered their ears.

"Make it stop," She demanded.

Red quickly tried to calm Ruby down, but it was no use.

"Oh forget it," Bella snapped and the two girla ran off.

Red let out a sigh of relief. She knew in her heart Ruby had done it on purpose. She smiled as she rocked Ruby back to sleep. She really felt like everything was going to be okay.