If someone had been walking down Seacourt Road, they would have passed many dilapidated houses. The worst of which was Number 23. And had such a person listened close enough, they would have heard soft cries of a child floating on the wind. Depending on the person, maybe they went to investigate. As it was, no one was on the street, or even passing such a neighborhood, so no one found the little abandoned girl crying in Number 23.

Her silvery-blonde hair shone brightly, even though it was tangled and matted and it didn't look like it had been washed in several weeks. Her eyes were a midnight blue with swirls of silver deep within. She was pale, and extremely emaciated. This little girl had been abandoned a few weeks earlier by her many older brothers. She had two ones and two tens of them1. They ran a drug and human trafficking business, which seemed pretty normal to her. However, what she didn't know was this was a very illegal business, and all her brothers had to run for fear of arrest. Not one of them remembered the little girl sleeping in her room as they hurriedly removed any and all traces of evidence of their presence there…Except for her.

Just then, the sounds of sirens reached the ears of the little girl, who sobbed harder than ever. Her oldest brother, Mickey, had told her any time she heard that sound, it meant the police were after her because she'd done something wrong. As she wailed, she tried to figure out just what it was that she had done. The sirens got closer and closer until they stopped right outside her rundown home. The little girl tried to stand but was too scared and tired to run anywhere so she just fell back to the floor, shoving her fist into her mouth to stop crying and not give her position away.

Footsteps were heard all around as policemen searched the surrounding areas before tightening in on the house. The child whimpered as feet softly treaded the stairs and moved, whisper soft, closer to her room. Her breath hitched and she shrank closer to the wall and further into the shadows. The door opened and a man with a gun held in front of him walked into the room. The girl made a small noise as she scooted further back into the shadows, and the man swung around so that now the gun was trained on her. It was too much and she burst into tears again.

The man put the gun down, blank astonishment written across his face. He turned back to the door and walked out before calling down the stairs, "There is absolutely no one upstairs except for a little girl. Why in the world is she here, Carlos?" Another man appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"What do you mean, a little girl? If she's one of them, wouldn't they be protecting her?" The man, presumably Carlos, made his way carefully up the stairs, which looked as if they might collapse any minute.

"I highly doubt she's involved. She can't be more than four or five, and she looks absolutely terrified. Maybe she's part of the ring?" The other man inquired as they tread their way back to the little girl's room.

"I don't know, John. Maybe, maybe not. You said four or five?" They entered the room again, where the little girl was still crouched, tears falling quickly down her face. Carlos whistled softly. "Poor thing, looks like she hasn't bathed or eaten in a month. Hey, go tell Jordan what we've found, I'll try and convince her to come with us." John nodded and left, with Carlos watching. After John's footsteps faded, Carlos turned back to the little girl.

"Hey, there, little one. Are you okay?" He asked gently. The girl whimpered, and Carlos moved forward slightly. She scuttled back. "What's your name, sweetheart? Can you tell me that?" She shook her head. "Why not, honey? Why can't you tell me?"

"Mickey said no. Mickey said Alena should never talk to police because they are bad people. Mickey said Alena won't get food for a week if she disobeys Mickey. Alena's hungry and doesn't want to go without food." She recited. Her voice was soft from disuse, but clear and pure. Carlos smiled gently at her.

"So you're hungry? Would you like something to eat?" Alena's eyes widened and Carlos could tell she wanted to say yes but her face fell impassive quickly.

"Mickey said no. Alena can't leave house without Mickey or Victor's pem-pers-prem-"

"Permission?" Carlos asked gently. The girl nodded. "Okay. How about I bring you some food here? And is your name Alena?" The girl's eyes were immediately hooded by fear.

"How did you know what Alena was called?" She whispered fearfully.

"You keep referring to yourself in third person, sweetie. So do you want me to bring you some food?" Carlos had eventually sat on the floor, mainly to make himself less imposing, and secondly, his feet hurt. Alena watched him closely but warily nodded.

"Yes, please. Alena would like some food."

"Alright, honey. Give me a second, and I'll be back with some food."

"What are you called?" Alena asked curiously.

"Carlos, honey. I'll be right back." The man smiled at Alena before turning the corner and carefully going back down the stairs. Several of the other men on his team were waiting downstairs, including John, who seemed to have told them the news. "No one go up there. I mean it. I was able to get her to trust me enough to tell me her name and I inadvertently got two others as well. If anyone goes up there, they could potentially destroy any chance we have of one, getting her out of here, and two, getting more names. She's extremely insecure. I'll be right back, I'm just going to get some food for her."

"So what's her name, man?" Carlos looked at the door and saw the captain of this mission standing in the doorway.

"Alena, sir. The other two names I got were Mickey and Victor, sir."

"Good work. Get her some food and try and get her down from there as soon as possible; the place looks like it'll collapse any minute."

"Yes, sir." Carlos nodded to the captain and walked out to his cruiser, where he had a homemade lunch, courtesy of his wife, waiting for him. Carlos sighed, wishing he didn't have to give up such wonderful cooking, but the child clearly needed it more than he himself did.

Just then, a crash was heard from inside the house, as well as a lot of cursing. Carlos rushed back in, lunchbox in hand, only to notice that he would be unable to get back upstairs, as the stairs had collapsed. "Alena? Can you hear me, honey?" Carlos called over the loud cursing of the fool who had decided to go up the stairs, Nicholas.

"Yes, Carlos, Alena can hear you. Did the stairs fall again?" Carlos winced, not liking the again part.

"Yep. Is there another way for you to get down? We think the house is about to fall down."

"Alena can get down, yes sir. Alena can get down through the window or by jumping from the landing. Would you rather Alena go the faster way?"

"I would rather you go the safer way."

"Both ways are equally safe and equally dangerous, Carlos. Should Alena come down the faster way?"

"Whichever way you prefer, honey."

"Then Alena will come down the faster way." The men waited to hear footsteps upstairs, or see dust falling from the ceiling as the floorboards protested, but absolutely nothing was disturbed as Alena swung over the railing, shimmied down, and dropped soundlessly to the floor below. All of the men stared at her as she dusted off her pristine white nightdress and hands.

"Do you still want some food, sweetheart?" Carlos was the quickest to recover.

"Yes, please." Alena watched everyone warily as Carlos stepped forward and handed her the food. "Thank you, Carlos." Alena looked down at the food curiously before tentatively taking a bite. Slowly, she ate first the sandwich, then the chips, and finally the cookies. "Thank you, Carlos." She said again. She moved less than a centimeter closer and tossed him the bag before stepping back quickly.

"Alena, can you please come with us? This isn't safe for you to live in at the moment, and we don't want you getting hurt."

"Alena is used to pain." She replied simply enough to Carlos' question, but it was stated so blatantly, it made every one of the officers wonder just what the child had seen and been through in her life.

"I understand that, honey, but it isn't safe. We want you safe, not just unhurt. Will you please come with us?"

"A closet is not safe." She answered. Carlos tilted his head and stared at her.

"What does that mean?"

"Life is not safe. Alena must take chances and deal with the consequences." This time, she paused and watched all of the men. It seemed as if she made eye contact with each and every one of them, even though she barely glanced over them. Her gaze returned to Carlos. "Alena will come."

Hi! So, yeah. This was keeping me up all of last night, so I thought I should write it down and post it. It's relevance to Harry Potter will hopefully become clear in the next chapter. Please tell me if you liked it! Review! Also FLAMES ARE WELCOME!!!!!

Thanks,

pixi-styx1221 :-P

ps. 1) Alena can't exactly count yet, so that's her way of saying twenty-two. And yes, all of them are biological.

pps. Alena's age will come out in the next chapter.