Chains

Bonus Chapter 1 - Part I

Chains - Bonus Chapter 1 - Part I

A/N:  I've been meaning to write a bonus chapter to Chains, something involving Lucy & Rafael.  Here it is; although I'm afraid it has taken a right turn right from the start.  I hope it ends up being about Lucy and Rafe.  Please enjoy!

Oliver POV

"You stay here, Gracie," I told my little sister; we were in the cellar of a fallen-down, abandoned wreck of a building in London. "I'm gonna go out and see if I can find something for us to eat."

Gracie is my four-year-old sister and I love her with all my heart. She is the only family I have left, and I'm all she has. We are two orphans living in a big, scary city that we don't know very well. Gracie was safe as long as she stayed in the cellar since nobody else knew about it. It was cold and dark, but at least it was dry, and we had some old blankets that mum had got us to keep us warm at night. Sometimes, when we were out, we ran into other homeless people, and the way some of them looked at us scared me, so I made her stay here whenever I could because I didn't want anything to happen to her.

We'd been staying here ever since mum brought us to London a few months ago. Before that, we moved from town to town for as long as I could remember. Ever since Gracie was born. Now that mum was gone, I was doing my best to keep us safe; mum told me to take care of my little sister and I was going to do it. We were both hungry and I needed to get some food. The last time I was able to get some food for us was two days ago, when I climbed into the dumpster behind a fish and chips restaurant. I barely got away from the dishwasher when he came out and caught me going through the trash. The next day, there was a lock on it so I couldn't get any more food there.

Getting food was harder than when mum was here. When I asked people for money, like mum did, they wanted to take me away to "get some help". They never did that when mum asked them for money. I was doing my best, but still, we hadn't had very much to eat in the last two weeks since mum died. I was getting better at scrounging through trash to find stuff that other people wasted. People didn't know how lucky they were to have food to waste, but I was glad that they did. I usually found enough so that our tummies didn't grumble too much when we went to sleep, but yesterday rained really hard and Gracie didn't want me to leave her alone, so we were hungry all day.

It wasn't raining now, but it was still cold. Even colder than the cellar, I mean. I tried not to think about mum when I went through the alley where she died. Some men had come and taken her away after they found her. There was a fuss about finding a dead woman, and some bobbies had had been around asking questions about her, but since she was a nobody, and nobody here knew her, the fuss went away after a few days. I swiped away a tear that snuck out from my eyes when I passed the spot where she died and hurried away as fast as I could.

<Flashback>

Me and mum were going back to the cellar we were living in with a loaf of bread and some peanut butter mum bought with money that she got from a stranger in the street. Mum hated begging for money, but she did it when we needed food. She was a proud woman, but she would do anything for me and Gracie. She didn't want to come to London but told us was hoping that we could find a better place to live here than in the other places we lived before.

We were walking down an alley that wasn't too far from our cellar when another homeless woman grabbed the bag of bread and peanut butter from mum's hand. Mum snatched it back, but before we could run away, the woman stabbed mum with a broken bottle. She took the bag and scurried away as mum fell against a wall; she was bleeding really bad. There was a piece of broken bottle sticking out of mum's side, and lots of blood was coming out.

"Mum," I cried. "Are you okay, mum? Mum, please be okay." I was really scared, nothing like this had ever happened before. Mum was holding her hand over the piece of glass that was sticking out, and when she looked up at me, her eyes were sad. I didn't know what to do, so I held her hand and begged her to be okay.

"Ollie, it's up to you to take care of Gracie now. Can you do it for me?" My mum asked me, it was hard for her to talk because blood was coming out of her mouth.

"I will, mum, I promise. I'll be a good big brother for Gracie." I promised mum as tears rolled down my dirty face.

"I know you will. Be brave for mummy, Ollie, my sweet little boy," she whispered. "I love you and Gracie, Ollie. I love yo..."

That was the last thing mum said before her eyes closed and she sighed quietly as she stopped breathing. I knelt there for a few minutes, crying, until I heard someone coming down the alley and had to run away. I had to leave my mum there, with blood all over her, knowing that I couldn't do anything for her and that I had to take care of my little sis. I had seen dead people before and I knew that mum was dead. Being homeless and living on the streets, death was no stranger to us.  That night, Gracie and I held each other as we cried ourselves to sleep.

<End Flashback>

There weren't a lot of places close by for me to find food since the fish and chips place put on a lock, so I went further away from the cellar than I usually did. I did my best to stay out of other people's way because they didn't like seeing a dirty little boy hanging around them. I saw a nice lady coming out of a school ahead of me, but she didn't get into a car and drive off like all the other mum's leaving their kids at school. She kept walking by herself like she didn't have to worry about little beggars like me. She had a pretty blue dress and black shoes on, and she had a little purse in her hand.

When I saw the purse, I thought that it might have some money in it, and money could buy me and Gracie some food that didn't come out of a trash bin. Before I even thought about it, I ran towards the lady and snatched the purse right out of her hand and kept running as fast as I could run. I had only been in this area a few times with mum, but I knew that there was an alley that I could hide in further up the street.

"Hey," I heard the lady yell as I ran away. "Hey, stop."

I didn't expect that she would run after me. All of the ladies I usually saw didn't run. Goodness, she was fast! I could hear her behind me and when I sneaked a peek over my shoulder, she was a lot closer than I thought. I dodged around some trash bins and into the alley, but she followed me into the alley too. So, I kept running instead of trying to hide. She was getting too close, so I dropped the purse, hoping she would stop and pick it up. I ran around the corner and just as I thought I got away; I felt a firm grip on my arm. I fought to get free, but she was too strong and held me tighter. I was really scared now, shaking all over; my only thought was to get away and get back to Gracie.

"Would you look at you." A kind voice said in a strange accent, as the lady knelt down in front of me. "What is your name, honey? Shh, I'm not going to hurt you."