Before they could comfort me anymore there was the sound of the doorbell ringing.
"Did you not cancel the football plans for tonight Linda?" Mark asked.
"They must not have checked there voicemail." Linda said.
"Mm-ore giants." I said stuttering.
"Hun it's okay we will get this straight ok? Even if they stay, you know we won't let anything happen to you." Mark said.
Linda walked over to the door and looked through the hole to see outside the door.
"It is them and Tim and Marsha brought the girls." Linda said while still looking out.
"The girls?" I asked has Mark stood up out of his chair with me.
"They have two daughters, Natalie and Gracie." Josh said.
"How old?" I asked terrified.
"I think they're about four or five." Josh answered again.
"Oh no." I asked and I started hyperventilating.
"No no Hannah it's okay calm down. I promise I won't let anyone else touch you ok? Does that make you feel better? " Mark asked and I slowly got control of my breathing.
"Children scare me at this size I'm sorry." I said.
"It's okay dear I understand." Mark said.
"Alright I'm opening the door, is that okay?" Linda asked me.
"Yes ma'am. I said and she opened up.
"Hey football time!" The man shouted has he walked through the door wearing a football jersey.
I flinched at his loud voice and Mark looked down at me apologetically.
"Hey man you got to keep your voice down please." Mark said.
The man was very confused and then he looked down and saw me in his hands.
"Are you babysitting or something?" He asked. His wife looked very confused and then she saw me has well.
"Look mom she's the size of my dolls!" One of the girls shouted excitedly.
I almost broke down cried right then and there.
"Now she is small but she is still a person just like us ok?" Linda said gently.
"And to answer your question, no we are not babysitting, we adopted. This is our new daughter Hannah." Mark said.
"Mommy can I hold her?" The other little girl asked.
I frantically looked up at Mark from his hand, desperately trying to hold back tears, and gave him a pleading look that said that I didn't want to be held by her.
"That's not my choice Gracie." The woman said.
"Gracie, I'm going to keep Hannah with me ok? But we have plenty of toys in the back room so why don't you girls go play?" Mark said.
"Alright come on Natalie." Then the girls ran back down the hallway.
"Well let's introduce this girl to some football." Tim said and walked over to the living room and started trying to find the game.
"Are you okay with that Hannah?" Mark asked.
I nodded because I didn't want to tell them that I actually already knew a lot about football. I used to watch it all the time back home but at this moment I was to scared to say that I was a fan.
Mark walked back to his chair and carefully sat down. He held me against his chest has he gently rocked back and forth.
Linda and Marsha, the wife, walked into the living room and sat on the couch with Josh while Tim sat in the other recliner.
"Have you watched football before Hannah?" Josh asked from the couch.
"Y-yes." Was all I could manage to get out.
"Wow do you like it?" Mark asked.
I turned around and craned my neck upward to look at him and he was smiling warmly at me.
"I do." I said and tried to smile back.
They all sat there and watched the game and I was still tired from earlier so I laid in Marks hand and started to close my eyes.
----
Marks POV.
I felt Hannah lay down in my hand and I knew she must be exhausted.
Our team got a touchdown and Tim jumped up and screamed with excited. When he screamed I felt Hannah jolt in her sleep but she didn't wake up.
Linda saw my reaction and saw Hannah so she walked over and stood behind my recliner.
"Hannah deserves her rest dear why don't we go lay her down." Linda said from behind me.
"Your right dear." I said and I stood up.
"Hey we will be right back, we're going to lay Hannah down." Linda said has she followed me back into the spare room we were going to use has Hannah's room.
When we got in there we has Natalie and Gracie playing in the middle of the room.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Clark." The girls said.
"Hi girls." Linda and I said has we walked around them to the corner of the room where we bought Hannah a little house.
Linda lifted the roof and I gently slid her into the bed and covered her with a blanket.
"I'm going to stay in here just in case she wakes up and is scared." I said worriedly.
"Honey it's okay. She will be fine." Linda said and then turned around to the girls.
"Now girls if you hear any noise from this house you immediately come out to the living room and get Mr. Clark or myself ok? Don't come over and check for yourself because Hannah is still very scared of us since we are bigger than her." Linda said gently but sternly.
"Yes ma'am." The girls said.
I still had a bad feeling about this.
-----
Third person POV
When Mark and Linda left the room Natalie and Gracie were left to play with there dolls and other toys.
"I really want to play with her." Natalie said.
"I do too." Gracie pouted.
"You know I don't think she would be that scared if we just played with her for a minute. I mean we do take good care of our toys." Natalie said.
"And we do always play nice."
"Come on let's get her!" Natalie said and they made there way over to the dollhouse.
----
Hannah's POV.
I woke up and I thought I was still in a nightmare. The roof above me moved and I was alone, no idea where I was, and terrified. The two girls from earlier were staring at me through the open roof.
"Come on let's play!" The girl, who was Natalie I think, yelled has she reached in and grabbed me.
"No please, please leave me alone!" I cried out has her fingers wrapped around me.
"Gracie get that pretty dress." Natalie said has I was lifted out of the house I was in.
Natalie walked over to the piles of toys and I noticed that even their dolls were bigger than me. I was small for my age let alone for these giant girls.
"Alright we need to make you pretty." Natalie said has she sat down and spread her legs out with space in between so she could set me down with no way to escape.
"Please can you just go get my parents?" I pleaded but it was weird already calling them my parents. I couldn't help it though, I was terrified and they were the only people I could trust.
"No your our doll and we want to play." Natalie said sternly then her hand started coming towards me again.
I was wearing just a plain dark blue t shirt, jeans, and some old tennis shoes that the orphanage gave me.
"No please stop!" I yelled but that didn't stop her from taking her huge finger underneath my shirt and lifting it up over my head. Then she nudged me with her finger which caused me to fall on my butt, which then led her to grab my pant legs and she started pulling on them until they came of. She used two fingers to stand me back up and I felt completely embarrassed to be standing there in only my underwear in front of these girls.
"I just want to be left alone please." I felt the tears start falling down my cheeks but my pain was ignored when I felt the dress being put on me.
"Aww you look like the rest of our dolls." Gracie said.
I looked around at the pile of dolls behind me and she was right. I was just shorter.
Then I saw one of there hands coming towards me, I immediately started back pedaling to get away.
"Mom! Dad! Josh! Help me please!" I yelled has loud has I could.
-----
Marks POV
We were watching the game and I still had this unsettling feeling in my gut that something bad was going to happen.
"Mom! Dad! Josh! Help me please!" I heard very quietly, almost like I only imagined it but I knew it was real.
Linda heard it to and for the briefest second we locked eyes and all of the color drained from both of our faces.
"Shit." I said before getting out of my chair and running down the hall faster than I have ever moved before.
With Linda right behind me we ran to the spare room, well now Hannah's room, and pushed open the door.
I first saw Hannah's roof on the floor and then I my eyes scanned over to Natalie and Gracie. Gracie held one doll and Natalie held a smaller doll and they had both dolls pressed tightly against each other.
Then I realized that Natalie wasn't holding a doll, she was holding my daughter.
"Dad! Mom!" Hannah screamed again, not realizing we were standing right there.
"Put Hannah down now." I said sternly has I walked over to the girls.
They looked shocked that we were there and Natalie dropped Hannah. I heard her land on the floor and luckily she was barley above the ground. I got down and sat on my knees and reached my hands out.
"Come here Hannah." I lightly called to her and she sprinted over to me. I could tell it was has fast has her little legs could carry her.
When she reached one of my hands, she threw herself against my thumb and hugged it. She started sobbing to the point where I could feel that her whole body was shaking.
I gently scooped her up and held her against my chest then I used one of my fingers to lightly stroke her hair.
"Your safe little one, it's alright." I tried to calm her but she still sobbed.
"You girls should be disappointed in yourselves." I said before I turned around and walked out with Hannah held closely to my chest.
I felt so guilty for letting this happen. I was supposed to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt and hearing about what her dad did to her, she doesn't deserve to be hurt anymore. But she called me dad? She actually called me dad.
"Take her to our room Mark, I'll get her normal clothes and I'll be right there." Linda said from behind me and I just nodded.
Has I was walking towards my room I heard Hannah from my hand.
"I'm sorry." She said has she kept crying.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for Hannah. Nothing's your fault darling I promise." I said.
"Your not mad that I called you dad?" She asked softly and so innocently that it felt like a knife was stabbed into my heart.
"I loved that you called me dad little one." I said softly to her.
We made it to my room and I set Hannah on the mattress. I sat on the floor next to the bed so we could be at eyes level.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you at all?" I asked her while I was trying to look her over to see if there were any marks, well new marks.
"I'm okay." She said while sniffling.
"Darling you got to tell me if your hurt so I can help." I said gently.
"I'm not physically hurt." She said while not looking at me.
"What do you mean?"
"I wasn't a person to them. I was a play thing and I couldn't do anything about it." She paused and looked up at me.
"I was smaller than their dolls." She said and I saw the tears slowly begin to start falling from her eyes again.
Before I could say something Linda walked in.
"Alright dear I got your clothes." Linda said and then she saw Hannah crying.
"Thank you ma'am." Hannah said between tears.
"Oh honey are you hurt?" Linda asked.
"No ma'am." Hannah said.
Linda set Hannah's clothes down next to her and then Hannah tried to get the dress off.
"I can't get this stupid dress off." Hannah said frustrated.
"It's okay Hun we will get it off ok?" I said gently.
"Please, I don't want to be a doll anymore." Hannah said sadly.
"You are not a doll Hannah. Your a beautiful young girl." Linda said.
"I was shorter than their dolls." Hannah said looking down.
"Your still a person Hannah, you know that." I said gently.
"How can we even get this dress off?" Hannah asked.
"We might have to just rip it." I said.
"I just want it off." Hannah said.
"I'll rip it off, I think it will be easier since my hands are smaller." Linda said.
Hannah walked over and stood with her back turned towards Linda.
"I'm ready." Hannah said and looked like she was bracing herself.
"It's okay Hannah I'm going to be has gentle has possible. The top part of the dress looks really tight so you need to let me know if it hurts ok?" Linda said.
"Yes ma'am." Hannah said and then Linda started ripping.
She went slowly through the bottom fluffy part, but with ease, and then she made it up to the tight part of the dress.
"Alright Hannah I'm at the tight part so I want you to take a deep breath and try to breath out all the air you can ok?" Linda said softly.
"Yes ma'am." Hannah said and did has she was told. She took a deep breath and let out all of her air and then Linda ripped through rest of the dress.
Then Hannah shrieked and fell to her knees. When the dress was pulled away I saw one of Hannah's whipping wounds opened up and she was bleeding very bad.
"Linda go get a wet paper towel and something for the cut quick!" I said and scooped Hannah up in my hands.
"Hannah take some deep breaths for me ok? I know it hurts but it's going to be okay." I said trying to comfort her.
"It's not her fault." Hannah said with her eyes closed and in between deep breaths.
"Just focus on your breathing." I said and used my finger to gently rub her head.
"This isn't the first time I've done this. I have a pretty high pain tolerance." She said has she kept her breathing under control. I could feel the blood running down my hand.
"Jesus Hannah this is bad." I said has the blood kept coming.
"No this is nothing." She said has she kept sitting up in my hand so her open wound wasn't against my hand.
I then saw her fall back a little and then she put her hands down so she could keep herself up.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"I'm getting dizzy." She said with her eyes squeezed shut.
"Your losing to much blood. Shit we need to get you to a hospital." I said quickly and I lifted her up towards my chest and I felt her grip my shirt and hug it tight.
"I'm sorry dad." She said has she hugged my shirt tighter.
"It's not your fault Hannah. I'll get this straight little one just stay awake for me." I said quickly has I walked towards the living room.
"I'm just resting my eyes." I heard her say quietly and then I felt her lighten her grip on my shirt.
"No baby come on keep talking to me, I want to hear that little voice of yours. Please baby come on." I said and I reached the living room.
"Man what happened!" Tim said has he saw Hannah bleeding in my hands.
"I don't have time to get into that with you now, you and your girls need to get out of here now. Linda! Come on we need to get to the hospital now!" I yelled, not has loud has I could but enough to make sure I was heard.
Tim and his family rushed out of my front door and Josh and Linda ran out to the living room.
"Oh my god." Josh said has he looked in my hand.
"Linda you drive and everyone out to the car now!" I said quickly and we all ran out to the car.
Linda started the car and quickly drove off.
"Here are her clothes." Josh said from the back of the car and handed them to me.
"Thank you. Hannah, come on baby you got to stay with me." I looked down at her and she was barley keeping her eyes open.
"Sorry." She said and took a deep breath.
"You don't need to be sorry, I'm going to get these clothes on you ok?" I told her and I gently got on her pants, without buttoning them because that would be impossible for my huge fingers, and then slid on her shirt.
"Hannah, what should we cook for dinner tomorrow?" I asked just trying to keep her talking and awake.
"Sorry." She said again and then her eyes shut.
"No! Shit, Linda you got to hurry her eyes shut. Hannah, baby don't give up on me please." I said frantically.
"Dad call the hospital and make sure they're ready for her when we get there." Josh said from the back seat.
"Good idea." I said has I pulled out my phone and dialed the hospital. All keeping Hannah in one hand and the phone in the other.
"Hi can I ask your....." The lady started but I cut her off.
"I have my human daughter here and she has an old wound that opened up and she has lost a lot of blood. She just lost consciousness in my hand." I frantically said.
"What caused the old wound and how big is it?" The lady asked.
"Her biological father used to whip her so she has these long gashes all over her body. The one that opened up was one that stretched across her entire back." I explained.
"How far away are you from the hospital?" She asked.
"We are only a few minutes away." I said has I looked around and saw where we were.
"I will have the doctor and bed ready for you when you arrive." She said and then I hung up.
"Dear god Hannah please be alright." Linda said quickly glancing at her.
"Everything's going to be fine, they will fix her right up I'm sure of it." I said more trying to convince myself than my wife.
"Alright get ready to jump out. You need to get her in there and Josh and I will be in after I park the car." Linda said and I unbuckled my seat belt. Has soon had the car stopped I jumped out and ran inside the hospital.
"Help please I just called about my daughter!" I yelled right when I entered the door.
"Sir right here please lay her on the bed." A doctor said quickly has he rolled up the bed. I laid Hannah on the mattress and it was so mind blowing to see her small frame on the mattress that was made for a man like me.
"Please wait here and a nurse will be keeping you updated on her status." The doctor said.
"Please take care of her." I said has he walked away but he didn't hear me, I just had to stand there and watch the nurses and Doctor took her away.
I took a seat in the empty waiting room and after a minute Josh and Linda ran in.
"Where is she?" Linda asked.
"They took her back." I said.
Then Linda and Josh sat down next to me in the waiting room.
"Hey dad?" I heard Josh ask.
"Yea bud." I said.
"Is she really going to be ok?" He asked me.
I looked over at him since he was sitting on the other side of Linda and I patted the seat on the other side of me. He then got up and sat next to me.
"Hannah will be fine ok? She is a strong girl and these doctors and nurses know what they are doing. I'm happy to see you are worried about her but Hannah will be better in no time." I said.
"Of course I'm worried about her I mean what those girls did to her was awful." Josh said.
"Your right but we will work that out later." I said and he was about to get up when I grabbed his hand.
"Josh hold on a second."
"Yea dad?"
"You know that Hannah will never replace you right? I still love you more than anything in this world. It's just that Hannah needs some attention. If you ever have a problem or feel neglected you got to talk to me ok?" I said.
