Chapter Three

 They beckon me into the small office and I stand with my face still flaming and scurry into the room away from the prying eyes of the people in the main office. When I walk in there's the two cops who brought me here, a nicely dressed man and woman (probably a married couple), another cop behind a desk, and a lawyer.

The female cop, who I know realize is wearing a name tag that says Olivia looks at me and says, "This is Mr. and Mrs. Moonstone. They're going to be your foster parents while we run you through the system."

The lady, Mrs. Moonstone smiles brightly and holds out her hand for me to shake, "Hello Shadow my name's Silvia." I shake her hand and she motions towards Mr. Moonstone and this is my husband Tyler." He holds out his hand and I shake it too.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs...", they give me a weird look,"Umm Tyler and Silvia."

Olivia looks around the room and motions to the other people in the room, "This is Officer Garcia Martez and he's here to ask you a few questions. This is your lawyer Alano Alarico he's here to make sure the process of getting you through the system goes smoothly. And you've already met my partner, Matthew Goldtree."

I nod at each of them not meeting their eyes. What am I doing? I shouldn't be here. What have I done? Can they hear my heart pounding? 

I force myself to smile and the meeting goes by in a dizzy blur and the next thing I know I'm in the car listening to my new foster parents chatter. Then I hear my name and I look up meeting Mr.Moonstones eyes in the rearview mirror, "Shadow? You okay?"

I smile weakly and look away, "Uh yeah. Just a little..." it takes me a minute to figure out what word I should use, "Overwhelmed."

He smiles apologetically, "Yeah I figured it would. But honey?"

My eyes fly up as I hear the tenderness in his voice and he looks me in the eyes and says, "You're safe now." I don't know why those words affected me so greatly but I relaxed and felt like he was telling the truth... Like these strangers were going to keep me safe. I stare out the window and without realizing it I fall into a deep peaceful sleep.