Warmth was the first thing he realized as he started to wake up. Where ever he was it was warm and oddly comfortable. There was a smell of must and Loam in the room but he could not tell why, not without opening his eyes. And right now Gabriel did not want to open his eyes or face the day. He wanted the whole ordeal to have just been a bad dream and that he had fallen asleep waiting for the board to reach a decision. Soon someone would tap him on the shoulder and tell him that the board had voted and he was still CEO no strings attached. But the part of him that was waking up knew that he was not in his home, office, or car. He was someplace else.

Opening his eyes slowly he looked around, a child stood nearby looking at him. a wild, untamed, beastly looking child. Slowly he sat up trying to move away from the child. It looked like it might have rabies or some disease like that. Its hair was natty and filthily. Its eyes seemed to bug out of its head like it was afraid of something, and its skin… was that dirt all over its skin that made it that color or was it just naturally dark? No it had to be dirt, what child with that hair would not have dirty skin. Slowly he looked passed the kid trying to figure out where he was.

“where are your parents? Where is this?” he said it slow thinking that any child this dirty had never seen the inside of a school before, let alone learned how to talk properly. “go scamper off and get your Mummy or Daddy.” He waved his hand to the opening that seemed to be a door.