Her brunette hair sat in a nest of frizz on top of her distraught face as she stared at the paled faces around her; overcome with bumps and rashes, not a soul in the whole area could muster a breath or their last goodbye. Every wooden work desk, sleekly designed chair, cream carpeted floor, the pens sitting next to notebooks... it all looked perfect, ready for a picture, it was just the lifeless bodies that were out of place.

The girl, Maris, couldn't make a noise for she was too scared...too confused. She didn't know why she was the only one alive in her line of sight, why this happened...what happened. She wanted to puke, there was a horrendous aroma of sickness and seeing all these people was terrifying, but all that came were weak noises and empty coughs from Maris herself.

Maris was stuck in this room of death with her thoughts, jagged breathing, and the distant sound of alarms.

It was supposed to be the day of adoption - where families accepted another child, but instead it had become a day of letting go. Maris couldn't do anything but stare at the catastrophe around her. People slumped over desks, tables, the floor...anything in sight had a person covered in some nasty disease lying upon it.

Maris felt her hand and whole body trembling as she tried to stand up. She eyed the premises for a familiar face, hoping that a friend could be there with her. Someone else must be awake with her.

"Kasey? Max? Hello?" Her voice cracked and she couldn't help the shakiness coming though, "mom?" Maris tried to think of anyone she may have been with that she last remembered, but no one was moving. Maris' eyes widened as she discovered a familiar face. "Mom!"

Her numb legs ran to the crippled body dressed in cashmere and coconut scent. "M-mom! Are you ok? Ca-c-can you he-hear me?" Maris was shaking as she tried to turn her mother's dead weight towards her. She knew deep down that her mother was not to respond, but she longed to hear her voice one more time. Even if it was her telling Maris to stop fooling around with the water jug that provided for the office her school was visiting or to grab her a pen to sign off a check. Her mother's body fell towards hers and she gasped at the sight. Her mom's beautiful, smooth face was covered in gashes and bumps, tainted purple and blue like bruises. Her previously lively and chocolate eyes were bloodshot and white. Her plush lips were thinned and chapped; the only thing that was recognizable were her softly colored clothes and hair.

"Mom!" Maris' whispered lightly and her eyes didn't hold back anymore as she fell next to her mother, struggling to breathe through the pain, tears streaming down her face. Her mother was all that she had known; they were going to adopt a little boy that day, Kevin.

He was born in Hour Seven but was deemed unfit, and just like all the other misfit babies in Hours, they were sent to the Third Hour for nurturers and caring families. Her mother was an avid adopter and Maris had at least four siblings, each from a different Hour and each raised under the caring household that Maris and her mother offered in Hour Three. Maybe, with luck, some of them would have survived this horrific event. Maybe it was something confined within these walls only. Hopefully.

Hope seemed like a word Maris would be clinging onto.

"Mom - I am going to do t-this for you," Maris wiped away her tears and looked into her mother's dead eyes, "Please forgive me for leaving you like this." The lightheaded brunette began to turn away but her body wouldn't move any further. "No no I-I I can't."

Maris wanted to take her mother's body and put her in a place she deserved to be in. Her bed, for all the memories they had cuddled up to movies and cheap television dinners; the tip of the highest mountain, to be close to the sky and freshest of air; somewhere in seclusion, so she wouldn't just look like another dead body - she was someone special and she deserved to be found as that. Maris shakingly stood up and tried to gently drag her mother's body, as if any pain would make her condition worse.

It was hardly a hundred feet through countless other bodies and objects that Maris collapsed and let another cry of frustration. She couldn't carry her mother through this or go farther than the front door. "I'll be back mom. I promise." Maris tenderly kissed her mother's torn face but couldn't find the strength to stand up just yet. She sat on the promise and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

How could she get through any of this without any to talk to? Her mom was gone, Kasey, Max. Everyone. Her mom was too young to die like this. Where did this even come from? She was fine the last time Maris saw. And so was everyone else!

Another sob escaped her parched throat and she began dry heaving. Maris' stomach escaped through her throat and mouth and she sat crouched over the floor. Maris felt like a mess. Her family was gone and she looked horrible. But then she thought at least she was alive.

She was alive.

Why was she alive?

"Mom. Why? Why did this happen? Why am I not with you? I want to be with you? You can't leave me here. I love you mom. Come back...come back mom!" Maris turned back around and shook her mother's lifeless body, sobbing heavily. She felt her knees begin to hurt from sitting in the same position for so long and Maris grew exhausted, finally laying on her mom's stomach, taking in shaky breaths.

Maris sat for countless hours on her last couple words and lost track of time despite the pristine clock resting on a wall ten feet away. Maris sat until she was numb and couldn't think about anything except why she was there and why no one else was.

"Mom - I am so excited to meet Kevin! Kasey, remember Kasey? Well, her mom works at the adoption center and she told me that Kevin is adorable!" Maris was practically bouncing off the walls in excitement of their fifth adoption. As the Third Hour was characterized for its nurturing and loyal hearts, each family had extensive family members and adoption numbers. Plus, babies were the only known people to successfully travel through Hours, so it was truly special in Hour Three to adopt someone new.

"I know Mare." Maris' mom turned to face her daughter and looked at her with excitement, "I stopped by after work yesterday and looked at him." She cracked a small smile and looked at her daughter with matching chocolate eyes, "He has jet black hair, the most adorable eyes, as dark as the night, the chubbiest little arms, and one of the cutest smiles you'll ever see."

"Oh mom! Everyone else will love him, yes? We haven't adopted a baby from Hour Seven yet."

"Honey, everyone will love him!" Maris' mother truly did love providing a home to babies from other Hours and she hoped one day to own her own franchise of an adoption center.

"Jax may be hard to convince, he is from One after all. I still remember when he tried to fight me because he thought we adopted another Hour One newborn. He said I would get favorites!"

"Well Jax is more grown up now and even though Sevens are known to be a little harsh and serious, they are peaceful overall and under our care, Kevin will grow up to be that and more. Besides, you've seen Jax go from wanting to always fight and being the best, to being accepting and more caring." Maris' mother gave out a warm smile and thought back to when they first adopted Jax, he was their first adoption and a risky one, being from Hour One. Luckily, and this probably being the reason for his need for adoption, he was easily persuaded and grew out of those morals.

Maris and her mother continued walking into the bland office building and went to her mother's cubicle as other familiar faces were met. It was a school field trip day to the biggest corporation in the Hour, and because Maris' mother worked there, she could spend the day with her rather than the class. Most sixteen year olds in the Hour weren't as close as Maris and her mom, but they were also one of the few families where their husband or father left.

It was rare, but sometimes people left their Hour to try and be successful in another; Maris had never heard  of  success  with a background who wasn't a baby being specially transported, but she hoped her father could be the outlier. He deserted them, but he didn't deserve to die.

"Maris! Maris!" Maris drew herself back into reality and looked around for the voice. "Maris! Over here!" Maris looked towards the water jug and saw her best friend, Kasey. She was so deep in thought she had forgotten to say hello to her friend.

"Kasey! You are already here?" Maris excused herself from her mother's side and bounded forward and circled her arms around the soft blonde hair that belonged to Kasey. She was a pureborn and her family didn't adopt any babies since they ran a whole facility, but her family was one of the most respected and caring in all of Hour Three. It was hard to be valued over others in this Hour, but they were and it was well deserved.

"Yeah! My dad had to come in a little early to fax some papers from the center, so I just came with him." She fixed her hair from where Maris previously was and continued talking, "I saw Kevin! He arrived about a week ago and let me say - for a Seventh Hour, he is pretty adorable! Maybe even cuter than your baby from Hour One!"

"Well, the babies from Hour One have to grow into the models they are today. Besides, I wouldn't say any of the Hours have the best looking babies...some just have more hair or a better smile."

"That's called being better. You even used the word better." Kasey jokingly rolled her eyes and grabbed a cup to get some water. It came out really slow, as if it needed someone to push it with words of encouragement. Maris stared at it, pretending to have magical powers that would force it out faster, but of course it didn't work and she began to get a tad restless. She wanted to return to her mother's desk and sit down with Kasey and talk, she walked the entire way to the office and it was almost a mile from her house.

"Here, may I try to help?"

"Sure, but I don't mind waiting for this slow water, I'm not too thirsty." Maris took over the water squirter and started to repeatedly push it, trying a different method than Kasey with hopes of a faster outcome.

"Maris! Stop you look foolish." Kasey started laughing and accidently moved her water cup, splashing the water onto the carpeted floors.

"Girls! Watch the water, you don't want to make the janitorial staff do more than the honestly have to!" Maris' mother happened to look at the perfect time and called them out for the silly behavior.

"Sorry mom!" Maris called out. The two girls snickered at each other and stopped playing with the water, leaving Kasey to drink the remaining centimeter in her cup.

Then it went black.

Maris looked back at the bodies and blinked, hoping it was only a dream and the walk made her light headed, but nothing had changed, no lives given back, no furniture moved - only her ragged breathing and headache of thoughts. "Please forgive me when I leave mom, it's only physical for I could never forget you." Maris wiped away a stray tear and found a new strength to push herself up and walk through the despairing crowds of dead bodies. She walked through the same route that brought her to the room, but nothing felt the same.

It felt like a new world, every wall seemed taller, door farther away, and breath more displaced and out of the ordinary.

The light shone through the glass door that exited the office building, awakening Maris beyond what the horrors inside could have ever brought her to. She was blinded for more than a minute and finally found a way to blink away the rainbow and black dots that clouded her vision. But looking at the outdoors, she wished she could bring the clouds back. "Holy Time Keepers."