The Orphanage Down The Road / Running Man Animation / Fan-Fiction

Liu

"This is his house," Bato said, pointing at a small building.

It was only a dozen houses or so up the road from the Orphanage.

Sarah felt a small twinge of guilt at the sight. The boy lived so much closer to them than she'd thought. 

She could have stopped the bullying easily. But she hadn't. She hadn't paid attention to the Orphans when they went outside to play and they'd taken the opportunity to harass someone.

She hurried Tess and Bato over and knocked on the door.

For a minute nothing happened.

Bato looked up at her.

"Can we go-"

His words were cut off as the door slowly opened to reveal a boy around thirteen years old, the same age as Bato.

"Hi there. What's your name?" she asked, trying to sound friendly while the boy's curiosity gave way to uncertainty.

"Uh, my name's Liu," the boy said, a tremor of fear running through his voice.

Liu. Why did that name ring a bell?

Why did he look so afraid of them? Was it because he recognized Tess and Bato as the kids who'd been bullying him? Did he think she was here to yell at him?

"Is your sister home Liu? The three of us have something we'd like to say to you both."

"My sister went out before. She said she'd be back in a minute," Liu told her. "Maybe you could just wait here until she comes back. I'd invite you inside but it's really small in here."

I can imagine Sarah thought. It doesn't look like this house has more than maybe three rooms in it.

"If you have other things you need to do though you don't have to wait. You could come back another time."

"No no it's fine," Sarah answered. "We can wait."

And they did. It was only a few minutes later that another person appeared.

She looked about sixteen and had a small basket of crops in her hands. Setting it down she addressed them.

"Is something wrong?"