Kenny's POV

Michelle finally moved all her stuff in. I mean it wasn't a lot, but it looked like she wanted to be organized.

"Your stuff should be in the closet." She said, not looking up from her folding. I have stuff? I walked to the closet and saw 10 outfits. Each of them looked like the common Jeffery from Fresh Prince of Belair uniforms. I looked over to Michelle to see if she had those too. Apparently this guy didn't care for boys and girls clothes because Michelle had the same outfit. I looked at them, they were all identical.

"Underwear and socks are in the top drawer. One sweatshirt in the second. My clothes will be in the last two so do not touch those." Michelle informed. I walked over to the drawer and everything is where she said it was. Since I didn't really have anything to pack I just sat and watched Michelle. She didn't seem to mind.

Just before Michelle finished folding a knock on the door came. I got up and opened it. A little girl who had the same complexion as Michelle, but lighter stood there. Her hair in messy braids her eyes dark. Tall for her age, but she looked extremely young. That's when I realized, this was Nya. She was shaking and looked terrified. I didn't think I was the person she wanted to see and stepped aside.

Michelle looked to see who it was and ran to the girl when she saw the girl. She dropped the shirt she had in hand and scooped Nya into her arms, lifting her up with ease. She walked over to a corner of the room and sat down, rocking the girl slightly.

"What's wrong Nya?" Michelle said in a quite, comforting voice.

"I had a nightmare, I saw them again." A few tears escaped the young girl's eyes. Who was them? I sat quietly and listened to their conversation.

"It's okay squirt you know it wasn't your fault. Why don't you tell me what happened this time?"

Nya took a breathe, "The badman was their again. I - I , I could've stopped him. If I just gave him the - the number they would be alive. But I didn't and he shot them all again. And - And it's my fault!" Nya broke down. Michelle rocked her and rubbed circles on her back.

"You know it's not your fault squirt. You didn't know what he wanted. Do you wanna hear a story?"

Nya sniffled and nodded her head. I was eager to hear one of Michelle's stories so I listened too.

Michelle cleared her throat. "Ok this is one of your faves, but I'm sure my new friend Kenny would like to hear it." Nya looked up at me, I smiled and waved. She waved back.

"Hello." Nya sniffled.

Michelle cleared her throat. "Ok well back long ago their were wizards, elves, goblins, ogres, and fairies. You know the story, wizards make magic, Elves are pretty forest creatures. Well this is the story of Goblin who wanted to be as powerful as a wizard, as beautiful as an elf, and as small as a fairy. . ."

Michelle told the story, which in my opinion was very good. Michelle's voice was perfect for telling a story. It was the right speed, and she added pauses for effect. She had a narrators voice.

Halfway through the story Nya had fallen asleep again. Holding onto Michelle as if she'd fly away. But she looked peaceful, forgetting about the nightmare she had recently had. Michelle lifted her up and walked her back to her room. She left our door open so she could hear if she woke up again.

"What happened to her family?" I ask when Michelle walked back into our room. She flopped down on her bed before explaining.

"When she was 12 a man broke into her house. Demanding something from her parents. He threatened to kill all the children if he didn't get what he wanted. She shot her mother first. Then her two younger siblings. The man was about shoot her but her father took the bullet instead. Her father used the last of his strength to shot the intruder. Effectively killing him, but leaving Nya all alone. She has nightmares a lot about the night. She's truly a broken kid." Michelle sighed. That was basically a superhero/super villain backstory.

"Wow. . ." I breathed out.

"Yah. Most of the people here were just kidnapped when they were in there 20s. They know their family is safe. Me, I have no clue, and hers are dead so I spend a lot of time with her." Michelle added sadly. It was the first time I had heard sadness in her voice.

Michelle clapped her hands together, killing the silence. "Well that was super depressing." She chuckled. I just rolled my eyes.

"Yo newbie, we should probably go grab our chore list." Michelle suggested. I was falling asleep while listening to one of her stories.

"Our what?"

"Our chore list. It's what we have to do around the house. We have to do them everyday unless Master gives us something else to do." She stated.

"Ok." I crawled off the bed. Michelle jumped off and went to the door. We walked to the large double doors which lead to Master's room. Michelle knocked on the door.

Master opened it after a minute and smiled when he saw us. "Hello my favorite pair. For what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"We came to retrieve our chores list sir." Michelle said, not breaking the eye contact.

"Eager to get to work I see. Ok just a moment." Master walked back into the room, we stayed by the door. He came back after a minute with a piece of paper. "There you go." Michelle raised her hand to talk.

"Master May I suggest getting a small bed and put it in my new room that way number 68 ( Nya ) could sleep near me. It'd be easier to help her that way and she would disturb less people."

"Hmm we'll try it out. I'll get to work on getting a bed ASAP. Will that be all?" Michelle and I both nod. Master closed the door.

We walked back to our room and looked at the list.

1) laundry duty
2) garden duty

"Cool we got some good ones." Michelle exclaimed. These seemed easy. We could've gotten stuck with cleaning duty or something. That would've been gross.

"Should we do them now? Or do we start tomorrow?" I asked Michelle. She pursued her lips in thought.

"I guess we could get a head start and finish tomorrow. Come on I'll show you where everything is." She walked out of the room again, with me close behind. Michelle checked Nya's room quickly and found the girl still asleep. She must really care for the girl. She talks to her like a mother. Or at least a big sister. Hopefully I can help her too if she's gonna be moving into our room.

We walked downstairs and turned down a corridor. Some other people were there working. Some waved and said hi, Michelle said they'd all come to our room tonight so they could me. It was like a tradition to something. Go to the fresh meets room and get to know them. I waved, and continued walking.

After a quick walk we reached the laundry room. There was another pair inside working.

"Hey Michelle." One guy said.

"Hey Phillip. This is Kenny my new partner." Michelle gestured to me. I waved awkwardly.

"Hello there Kenny, I'm Phillip. And this is my partner Alex." Another male peeked his head above the washing machine.

"Hey." He said then got back to work. So partners aren't boy girl. It can be any gender with any gender. Good to know.

"So are you guys coming to our room later?" Michelle asks the two.

"Oh course I don't think anyone gonna miss meeting the new guy." Phillip answered. It didn't seem like Alex talked much. That's was okay Phillip talked enough for both of them. I stood awkwardly while they talked. I saw the pile of clothes on the floor and began to sort them. White with white. Black with black. Lights with lights, darks with darks. I remember the time I turned my entire houses clothes baby blue because a pair of blue socks got in with the whites. My mom was so mad. So I made it a habit to carefully sort everything before putting it in the washing machine.

Michelle eventually ended her conversation with Phillip and came to where I was working.

"Whatcha doin' Newbie?"

"Sorting." I said, it was pretty obvious.

"Why are you doing it so slowly?"

"Because I once turned my entire family's clothes blue because I didn't sort carefully." I heard laughter coming from behind the washing machine, it was Alex.

"I did that once except I turned all the uniforms pink!" He laughed. I laughed too, I liked Alex.

"Well alright then." Michelle began putting the sorted clothes into machines. With the two groups working the job, it got done quickly.

Michelle took me to a door which led outside. But the walls were to high to climb over, there goes yet another escape plan.

The garden was quite large, but it'd be easy to maintain. There was mainly food. But there were some flowers here and there. Michelle grabbed two watering cans and handed me one. I went left and she went right. We spent a good 20 minutes watering all the plants. After we finished our chores we went back to the room.

Some time passed. I truly don't know how much because I was asleep for a lot of it. But when someone knocked on the door I was awake. I assumed it'd be Nya again. But it was Phillip and Alex and ton of other people.

"Great your here. We can start the ceremony know." Michelle smiled. Wait a ceremony, what kind of ceremony? Do I have to take some blood oath or something?

"I'm gonna go wake up Nya, and then we can get started." Michelle called while walking out of the door. Everyone who was outside filed in. Some sat on the beds, most on the floor. Some sat on each others laps. I was pushed to the back wall and I just stood there while they talked amongst each other.

Michelle and Nya returned and everyone fell silent.

Michelle cleared her throat and began to talk. "Hey Guys thanks for coming. As you can see we have a new pal, which means. . . ."

"New Guy Ceremony!" They all said in unisons. Everyone quieted down and Michelle spoke again.

"So new guys tell us your name, age, where ya from. And some funny stories from your past. Ok? Ok go." Michelle explained.

Now I'm a pretty social guy. But this was kind of nerve wracking, I collected my thoughts though and answered the question.

"Hi my name I Kenny Rogers. I'm 18 and from Detroit." Detroit got a few 'yahs' so a few were from there too I assumed. "Umm funny stories. Well there was this time me and my best friends 'ran away' we were really little. There were 4 of us, we packed big bags and walked out together. We got far before we got tired. We all sat in front of a building and fell asleep there. Our little selves didn't read what building it was and fell asleep in front of a Police Station. Short ending we drove home in cop cars." That got a few laughs. It felt good to talk to them. They all listened and related to things I said. I really hope when we all escape I can keep in touch. My kidnapped buddies.

"Now it's your turn to listen Kenny boy. This place may be a living hell. But it does have some funny stories." Michelle glanced at Alex who smiled nervously. "Who'd like to go first?" A ton of hands shot up.

I listened to them all. A lot of them included Alex and Phillip. Like when Phillip tripped down the stairs right on top of Alex who was the current new guy. That's why Master chose them to be partners. None of the stories included Master because if you did something like that to him, you'd probably be punished. But they were all quite funny. Yah when I escape I am totally keeping in touch with my kidnapped buddies.

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