Come Along

27

In this world, little six year old girls don't really have a place to go, or live besides family. Aiyanna had no idea where she was going, but instead of running she decided to hide. She quickly ran to a next door house, and while searching frantically for somewhere to hide, she saw a tarp laying on the ground near the garage. Without thinking she threw the tarp over her head, and laid down. It was about a good 15 minutes until she heard footsteps near her. Her heart started pounding, like someone was using it as a drum. Was it the neighbor? Was it Lito? Angela?

"I was SO stupid," a voice that had to belong to Lito said.

"It's fine, Lito," Angela tried to comfort Lito. Aiyanna started to calm down as the footsteps sounded like they were going farther and farther away. Aiyanna waited until they were completely gone, so she could get out from under the tarp and find somewhere else to hide. She slowly lifted it over her head to see whether or not anyone was near enough to see Aiyanna and bust her. Aiyanna was lucky enough to have no one outside except people out on the lake that won't see her anyway. She quickly got out from under the tarp, and looked quickly for somewhere else to hide. She knew that she couldn't go much further to look for somewhere, because the Caraan search party was looking desperately for Aiyanna. To Aiyanna, there were many hiding places to go to, but she had to pick the best one. A perfect hiding spot would be comfortable, not someone else's property, and wouldn't get her caught, but realistically, there aren't many hiding places like that. Eventually, Aiyanna did find one that wouldn't get her caught, and wasn't a neighbor's, but it sure didn't look comfortable. Aiyanna started to hear footsteps, which made her heart beat at an alarming rate for her age, and she quickly hid at the hiding place. The hiding place she chose was a tree log near the lake. When Aiyanna got in, she could barely fit inside the log. When she was in the log, it felt like time had stopped or had become nonexistent. For Lito, it felt like time was going by faster than half a millisecond. When you lose someone dear to you, each moment you're not with them kills you inside. Aiyanna had no clue how much Lito loves her even though they aren't really related. He can see past her messing with toilets too much, he can see past her annoyingness, her being six years old. Lito loves Aiyanna like he would love her if she was related to him. Even though he might not always want to play with her, or just hang out with her in general, he does care for her deeply. Aiyanna, on the other hand sees Lito as a father figure instead of Daven, who is an actual father. Lito was there for Aiyanna whenever she was sad, and he was smart, and just made Aiyanna happy. Not like her own father at all.

Thoughts like these ran miles in her head. If Aiyanna could think that much in a log hiding from her foster family, who knows how much Lito can think looking for his lost foster-sister who ran away because of him.

                  -Kai