“Wow…” I mumbled.

“This will be your home now.” I glanced over at Mr. Jones who was done talking on the phone and glancing out the window also, “You are free to wonder anywhere on the grounds but are not allowed to go past the fence unless permission.”

“I see.”

“Tomas. Britney. We are home finally.” Mr. Jones said in a calm tone as both of them yawned and stretched.

“My apologies sir.” Tomas said quickly.

“It is fine. You have been awake since we left. I knew you would fall asleep on the way home. You both did good.” He talked to them as though they were nothing but pets to him. It made me sick to see neither one of them say anything about it. They both seemed to be brainwashed.

The limo came to a stop and we all climbed out of it. I glanced up at the huge house in front of me. It was at least three stories tall and I couldn’t even guess how wide. The driveway was a huge circle and a large fountain was in the middle of it. I couldn’t even see the fence either in the distance. I heard the front door open to the limo and saw a man in a black suit get out. He walked around and opened the passenger seat’s door. I saw two tiny feet pop out. The man put his hand out and helped a little girl out of the limo. She was in one of our elementary school uniforms.

She turned around, “Cloe!”

“Sasha…” I huge relief came over me as she ran over and tackled my waste. I leaned down and hugged her tightly, “You’re okay. Thank goodness.”

“Very good but, let us all go inside and get cleaned up. Britney can show you two to your rooms.” Mr. Jones interrupted as he began to walk up the stairs to the front door.

Sasha took my hand and we walked inside. A huge chandler hung above us and it lite up the large room. There were a few white couches off to the side of the large room. The floor was white marble and a large grand stair case was in the middle of the room. A few larger paintings of people hung on the walls. A large picture of Mr. Jones hung at the top of the stairs.

“Come on. You can get lost if you don’t keep up.” Britney sighed as she began to walk up the stairs. We followed behind her closely. When we got to the top, there were two hallways on both sides with dozens of doors lining the walls. “Girls are to the left.” We watched as Tomas turned right without saying a word or even looking our direction. We followed Britney to the middle of the hallway. This room with be Sasha’s. Your room is four doors down.” She turned and walked to the door closest to the staircase and went inside.

Sasha didn’t let go of my hand, “Will you go inside with me?” She pleaded.

I nodded and opened the door for her. As we opened it we saw the room was over four times larger then the dorm rooms. Sasha jumped and ran over to the king size bed against the wall and jumped on it.

“Cloe, look how big this bed is!” She sat up and ran over to the giant window in the middle of the wall opposite of the door. She got on her tip toes and put her hands against the glass, “Come look at how big this place is!” I laughed and walked over to see what she was looking at. The view was breath taking. The grounds were a lot bigger then what I even thought. The road that lead towards the house was inside a giant forest it seemed. To our left, there was a lake and to our right there seemed to be some sort of garden. “This is amazing.”

“It really is.” I whispered to myself.

********

“Cloe, can I sleep in your room tonight?”

I glanced down at Sasha who was looking up at me, “Of course.” We walked down the stairs and noticed Tomas waiting at the bottom.

“I’m guessing Britney didn’t tell you where the dinning area was?” Sasha nodded, and he turned to his right, “Follow me.” He opened a larger door and looked over at us, “Hurry up, I’m starving.” Sasha and I walked towards him.

“Tomas, you’re home!” I turned around to see a girl at the top of the stairs squealing as she hopped on the rail. I watched as she slid down it and hopped off. She ran over and before she made it to him, he had vanished behind the door. We heard it click as it closed behind him and the girl continued to rush after him. She swung open the door and vanished also behind it without looking in our direction.

“I’m hungry.” Sasha whined as she pulled on my sleeve. I gave her a smile and walked towards the door we watched them vanish behind. I opened it to see another hallway that had windows lining the walls to our left and more doors to our right. At the end of the hallway seemed to be a turn to another possible hallway. As we began to walk down the hallway I listened to see if I could hear anything behind the doors. We finally passed a door that seemed to have multiple different voices on the other side. I slowly opened it to see tables scattered around the room. It was double the size of the bedroom. There was a small kitchen cut off by a large counter. The counter had food placed along it. I noticed Tomas behind the counter in the kitchen grabbing a plate while the girl from before stood right next to him. He looked annoyed but seemed at the same time he was use to her. He glanced over towards us standing in front of the door.

“If you want food just go over and grab a plate.” A guy turned around and looked at us, “If you don’t eat now, you won’t be able to eat till tomorrow for breakfast. Also, you should both take off those school uniforms. You won’t need them anymore and it paints a target on you for some people.” He turned around and began to chat with a few others at his tables.

Sasha walked forward and pulled me along with her, “Come on.” I could tell she was afraid but I didn’t know what to tell her. I was still trying to get a grasp where we were and who these others around us were. They all seemed to know one other and it felt very similar to our school cafeteria. When we got to the counter, Tomas had already walked back around the counter and held out two plates towards me. I grabbed them and handed one to Sasha. I looked over at the food on the counter to see there was some salad, chicken and bread. I helped Sasha put some of the food on her plate and grabbed a little of each for myself too. I glanced around and saw a table no one was at. Sasha followed me, and we sat down at it. We ate in silence. Hundreds of questions rushed through my head. Sasha looked care free though and quickly ate all the food. I ended up not touching any of my food at all. Everyone had left the room and Sasha and I were the last remaining people. I grabbed Sasha’s plate and walked behind the counter. I noticed everyone had just through their plates in the sink. I noticed the washer next to the sink and opened it to see only one or two plates already inside.

“We have people to wash the dishes for us.” I turned to see a guy on the ground. He looked around my age.

“Okay.” I closed the dishwasher and set our plates in the sink.

I turned around and began to walk around the counter towards Sasha, “You’re Cloe right?”

I turned around, “How do you know my name?”

“Everyone has already heard about the two new people. Especially since you are both Black Match users.”

“Where you bought?” I couldn’t hold myself back from asking.

“No. Mr. and Mrs. Jones take in Match users found on the streets and offer them room and food if we do small jobs for them. You two were the first one’s he has bought. He usually goes to those events to watch who the buyers are.”

“He compares us to being his pets.” I said coldly.

“We are pets. I mean look at you. You were already…”

“John.” I turned to see Tomas and Sasha standing next to him. Tomas looked at me, “You should go back to your room for the night.” I looked back to see John standing up now brushing off his pants.

“Have a good night.” John passed all of us and walked out the door.

Tomas sighed and turned around, “Have a good night. I have to go do other things.” I walked towards Sasha who latched onto my hand quickly. She yawned and rubbed her eyes then with her other hand.

“Come on. Lets go get some rest.” I picked her up and we walked back to my room. We didn’t run into anyone in the hallway or the stairs. I opened my door to see it was a sister room to Sasha’s. I noticed Sasha had passed out while I was carrying her and chuckled. “To think, you have so much power inside you.” I laid her down on the bed and took off her shoes. I sat them beside the bed and yawned. I walked around the bed and sat down. I glanced out the window and saw the sky was clear. I looked down at the ground and saw the boy’s body on the ground again. I closed my eyes and covered my face with hands.

“I couldn’t help him.” I felt tears against my hands. I tried to take a deep breath. I wiped my eyes and looked at the ground again to see the body was gone. I glanced over at Sasha who was snoring quietly. I stood up and walked around the bed. I moved some of the blankets and began to cover her up.

“Cloe?” I looked down to see Sasha rubbing her eyes, “When are we going back to school?”

I combed her hair with my hand and smiled, “Soon.”

“Cloe?”

“Yeah?”

“They killed Mr. Rogers.”

I tensed up and froze in place, “How do you know?”

“I watched them dragging his body out and throwing it in the harbor while Tomas took me to the Limo. He wasn’t the only one, but I didn’t know who the others were.”

“We have to leave now.” I said suddenly as I stood up, “We have to warn the school what is going on. It’s our job as student council members to protect everyone.” 

“What if they kill us before we get back?”

I grabbed her hand, “I wont let them hurt either one of us.”