"This is how it works!" you hear someone say loudly.
You open your eyes, and the birds that were resting on you fly away. You pull yourself from the fresh green grass you were resting on. [Where?]
More shouts are coming from somewhere behind the bushes in front of you. [What is that?] You crawl forward and look through the bushes.
There are two teens, a boy and a girl, standing behind an elderly lady. They watch as she loudly lectures them about laziness and also how she's going to kill the cow she's currently struggling against and that they can watch. Though, to you, it does seem like she has the upper hand, so the cow will surely die.
Your attention goes back to the teens, who are walking away from the scene, and towards the house behind them. You decide to also head closer to the house, still on the other side of the bushes. [No need to watch something struggle to live.]
"Where you going?" the boy says, following behind the girl.
"Inside, I'm not watching this," the girl replies, already on the porch. She pauses before reaching for the curtains covering the door frame entrance. She turns and faces the boy, "Are you staying to watch?"
"...nah, let's go inside and sleep," the boy answers as he makes it up the front steps and follows behind her into the house.
It's too hot out here, and that house looks interesting, [it has so many windows.] You follow them into the house without making a sound as you trail behind them through the house's hallways and down a flight of stairs. You fall behind a bit, for the floors are unique, but you see the room the two go into. You look at the floor again, there are steel hallowed out squares in frames here and there, large enough to let light through, small enough for people to be able to walk on them without falling through or getting their feet stuck, while others are what you'd know as normal, closed concrete or wooden floors. [how cool, but weird, and definitely scary.]
A bit scared to look down, you rush into room with no door that the boy and girl had gone into. They are in the bed and seem to be sleeping. There is another one of those thin curtains surrounding the bed, covering it, but letting light flow through. [that's odd.] You think: [why are they sleeping in the morning?]
You gently move a part of the curtain away, and see that the boy sleeps facing the wall to your left, while the girl is on his right near the end. You look up, and notice that there is something missing. [no roof...only a bit of ceiling, but mostly gone?]
After staring at the hollow ceiling that allows streams of light to flow into the room for a bit, you decide to get into the bed as well cause you feel somewhat tired. You get onto the bed, and sit on top of the blanket, placing yourself in the middle of them. You are facing the opposite way, your head lays down where their feet should be. This way, you can see the open doorway, and [the pretty curtain.]
But as soon as you lay the rest of your body down and stretch your legs, the girl quickly sits up when you do so.
"Hey!? Who are you? The old woman's kid?" she says.
You give her a questioning look in return. "You guys aren't her kids?" you ask.
Then the boy you thought was still asleep slightly turns his head to the right away from the wall, glances at you, and grumbles, "No way. Obviously not, we're just sitters," and then turns back towards the wall.
The girl seems to think you look confused, and continues to clear up your thought. "We aren't her family. We were hired. We're just crashing here... I suppose you're here because the old woman let you stay as well?" she says.
You give a blank stare, since you don't know. You don't remember asking, and you did basically follow them into the house. [And that is probably not something most do.] So instead you say: "why are you sleeping in the morning when it's still daytime? There is still light outside."
Now the girl looks confused, and utters a "Huh?" And now the boy is also sitting up and says, "Are you serious? You don't sleep at night or you must be an idiot."
[I'm not an idiot. You guys are weird.] And you start to protest, "I-" before getting cut off by the girl.
"Someone's coming. Get to sleep," she says before quickly laying back down on the bed, and the boy returns to his former position, facing the wall.
You decide to do what they're doing, and lay back down, still opposite of them. You close one eye, keeping one open, and act like you're asleep. A figure is at the door, and it's coming closer, approaching the bed. You hear the cow struggling outside still, so it's not the woman, and it seems to be shorter than the elderly lady outside. The figure's hands are starting to reach for the curtain, so you shut both eyes and act asleep as the hands move and part the curtains in front of you that cover the end of the bed.
"What the heck? Who are you people? This is my bed," a light voice exclaims. [A little kid?] You are still acting asleep, because you don't know what to say. The figure moves and you turn your head to watch. [That's a cute bow. It's a nice pink color.] You see the small kid part the other curtain covering the side of the bed closest to the girl.
"Hey! Wake up! Answer me!" the kid yells as he pokes and starts to shake the girl. Then the boy loudly mumbles, "sitters. now stop."
The little boy groans. "Dang it. Whatever, I'll sleep in the other bed! Sheesh!" the kid sighs.
You watch as the small kid walks to the other side of the room and starts to climb down a steel ladder. You sit up and watch as the kid goes down the ladder, and then you notice how close the water level looks. [scary.] But at least there seems to be a catch net. [though it's still scary.]
Then, you put your attention back to the kid. You see that the kid is almost to the floor below, but then the kid places a foot on the railing, but it's wet, and they loose footing. You watch as the kid freezes in horror as they fall. [oh, but there's a net.] But you watch as the kid misses the catching net, falling near the open edge of the net, and failing to grab and fully hold onto the net. A wave comes, and the kid hits their head against the steel ladder, tearing the net opening further as they landed and sunk down straight into the water.
You gasp and start to panic. Before you know understand what's going on , you're already off the bed and have plunged into the water. You hold your breath and open your eyes and see the kid, passed out underwater. You try to grab for the kid, and succeed in grabbing his hand. As you pull the kid closer to you, you face forward, and see a huge looking mass of something. [...garbage?] It's resting in the water underneath the house, then it open's it's eyes, glaring at you through the water. [OHGOSHWHATTHESHITISTHAT!! THATISNOTFUCKINGTRASH!!]
Now you're panicking and looking around in the water for help. Which is useless, since there's no one else to help. And as you flail around with a one hand grip on the kid, you can see that there are other monster like things underneath the other houses as well. You start to freak out, and then notice that the monster in front of you is slowly starting to move towards you. You clutch the kid close to you and scream, but you're underwater and when you open your mouth, water rushes in and it hurts. You don't know what's happening, but you're choking, still panicking, and your hands let go of the kid as they try to cover your mouth.
In your state of almost drowning, you had let go of your hold on the kid, who is already sinking further down. You open your mouth again at this realization and close it again before chocking on some water again. Then you quickly swim after them and grab the kid's hands, but as you try to pull them up, your arms get weak and the kid feels heavy. You're eyes are starting to close, but then, you hear a small plunging sound.
The boy and girl from before are hauling you and the kid back to the surface and into the house's lowest surface floor not flooded with water because they can't climb the ladder. They ignored the gaze of the monster, who went back underneath the house before glaring at you once again and closing it's eyes.
Now you're half unconscious, in a daze, just lying on your back on the wet floor while the boy and girl are trying to resuscitate the kid. As you lay there, you access your condition. Your chest hurts and your throat feels stuck. Your nose burns and your eyes sting. [...painful.] Your clothes are wet and soggy, drenched in water, and your hair is a tangled mess. [ugh. that's gonna take long to dry.]
Still lying down on the floor, you turn your head to the left, there's no floor, just a broken net, and plenty of water you don't want to dive in again. You turn your head to the right, there's just a wall, no chairs or furniture, nothing to sit on, plus, the wall is a bit far. You lift your head up a little to the front. You can see that the boy and girl succeeded in reviving the kid and are currently making him cough up water. But you also notice that there is no furniture on that side of the room as well, and the wall is definitely farther than the wall on your right.
You lay your head back down onto the wet floor, groaning at the squish of your hair against the wet floor. After a second or two of lying on floor, you stretch your neck back and look behind you, and there's a wall. [that's not too far.] You sigh and try to lift your chest up with your arms. Your arms are heavy, but they lift you up enough to shuffle the rest of your body backwards towards the wall. Now you can sit up. You take a deep breath of air, "ugh."
The boy notices that you've moved from your originally spot they'd laid you, and that you're somewhat conscious and awake, and he quickly walks up to you. He bends down in front of you and stares, looking you up and down. You just stare back.
Then he stands up and starts to loudly speak, "What were you trying to do back there?! Get Killed!?"
You just continue to stare up at him. [throat,...hurts.]
"Hey, answer me you-," he starts until the girl, one hand holding the kid's, places her other hand on the boy.
"Calm down Eloy," the girl says with a sigh and turns to face you.
"Seriously though, what were you thinking? You should have let us know what was going on before just throwing yourself into the water. We're fellow sitters you know?" she reasons as she stares at you, waiting for a response.
You decide it's best to say something. But there's more you want to know, and you think about the monster you saw below that probably was trying to kill you.
"...what..what were those...no, why were there huge monster looking things under the houses?" you ask like you're out of breath.
All three of them just stare at you in shock.
Then, you hear the old woman's voice. She says, "Children? Where did you go? Bain?"
"We're down here mam! Your net broke, but don't worry, we got you're kid, he's safe," the boy, [oh, his name is Eloy], responds.
The elderly lady yells back from the bedroom floor, "Oh goodness, Bain! Are you alright!"
The kid, [the small kid's name is Bain], responds, "Yeah I'm alive Granny! I fell off the ladder and then in the water though, so I'm cold and soaking wet!"
The elderly lady says, "It's good you're safe Bain! I'll got fetch some more rope and another net for you sitters to fix the broken one then. I'm grateful you sitters were able to get the job done and my grandson safe. You guys come up when you're ready. The towels are in the hallway closet, on the same floor as the shower's, which are on the fourth floor! I made some lemonade, but I'll boil some water for hot chocolate or tea. I'm going to the store to get the net and rope right now though, so when you hear the teakettle whistle, make sure to turn it off, I'll leave the ingredients for the drinks on the counter. Bain, help them if they need anything!"
"Yes Granny!" the kid yells in response. [oh, I meant to say Bain]
The elderly lady, Bain's Granny, yells back, "Kay then! Thanks again sitters, I'll be back in the afternoon, there's other things I need to pick up!"
"It was no problem," the boy Eloy replies, along with the girl who says, "You're welcome miss." As the elderly lady leaves the bedroom floor above us and heads to wherever it is she's going.
When she's gone, all three of them turn back to face you.
The boy Eloy turns to the kid and sighs, "Let's get you back upstairs."
Then he turns to you. "Let's go. If you need explaining, we can tell you what you need to know." He pauses, "What you should already know." Then he let's the kid hop onto his back and goes to the other side of the room and starts to climb up the steel ladder to get upstairs, leaving you and the girl, whose name you don't know yet.
You're still leaning against the wall, and she stairs as the boy and the kid go up the ladder, then back at you. She sighs, "Come on, let me help you up," she says as she grabs your hand to hoist you onto your feet.
"...sorry," you whisper.
She sighs again. "It's alright. But my brother isn't wrong, you know too little to have survived this long," she says as she leads you across the other side of the room and to the ladder while you nod slowly in response. Thinking over what she said. [Is that so? Too...little?]
She stops in front of the ladder and lets go of your hand. "Well, let's get up this ladder, you can take a shower then," she says with a smile as she heads up the ladder.
You follow behind her up the ladder in silence. [Know to little..huh.]