𝙍𝙊𝙏𝙏𝙈𝙉𝙏: 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙇𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

A/N: This takes place about five months after the fire.

It was another busy night in New York City and cars were out on the road while the streets were bustling with people, the city noise was enough to keep anyone awake. However, in a more lower area of the city was a building, an orphanage. There was children fast asleep in their beds, boys, girls and even toddlers were sleeping as each of the kids were separated by gender and put in large rooms full of beds.

In the girl's sleeping area, there was one little girl wide awake and on her knees on her bed, wearing a long sleeve shirt, navy blue shorts along with ankle socks on her feet. Her name was on the foot of her bed on a metal plate: Lillie.

She was looking out the window as the moonlight was pouring in, shining on her soft beige skin, showing off her bright orange eyes that were glimmering like citrine gemstones, she was a redhead with long locks of fluffy flowing dark orange hair with one strand of her bangs having a dyed red streak.

Lillie took a silent breath but sighed gently as tonight was the night, she was going to escape yet again. She quietly but carefully got out of bed without waking the other girls and slipped her shoes on before reaching under her bed, grabbing ahold of her sling backpack.

"It's time." Lillie mumbled to herself, she put the sling bag over her shoulders and then grabbed something she had kept hidden under the mattress, it was a climbing rope she fashioned herself using jump ropes along with a stick.

Lillie quietly made her way to the window which led to the fire escape and knew that the headmaster always shut the windows, luckily only one was left unlocked thanks to his carelessness. Lillie lifted the window open with all her strength and then grabbed the stick, using it to keep the window open as she climbed out onto the fire escape and shivered at the cold night air.

"Coold..!" Lillie whispered, she got back up onto her feet and held the window up with one hand and used the other to grab the stick as she threw it aside. She then carefully but quietly shut the window as she gave a gentle sigh.

"Now, rope don't fail me now." Lillie tied one end of the tied off jump ropes to the fire escape and gave it a tug once it was secured, she looked down at the alleyway below and got nervous.

"T..that's pretty far down.." Lillie gulped but shook her head as she then began to climb down the makeshift climbing rope she made and she looked up to make sure the rope didn't come apart. Once she was halfway down, she felt the rope jerk and yelped as Lillie looked up and the knot she tied didn't hold and came undone.

Lillie gave a small scream and fell but to her luck, she landed in a nice soft pile of garbage bags and gave a soft whine as the makeshift rope landed on her lap. "Owie, not the best landing.. but I did it..!" Lillie cheered herself and then crawled off the garbage bags as she got onto the ground, she secured her sling bag straps.

Lillie then began to walk as she got away from the orphanage as far as she could go, she looked around her surroundings quietly as she got a bit scared and gripped her straps before she took notice of some stairs leading down to the subway.

She went down the stairs and heard a few voices of people as only a few trains were running that night, Lillie looked around at the people going in and out of trains or walking.

She noticed the turnstiles and she gave a soft whine since she didn't have a pass/card to allow them to open, she had to look around as Lillie crawled under the turnstile thanks to her small frame. Lillie then made her way over to the station as the next train arrived and she didn't exactly know where it went but she wanted to get away from the orphanage as far away as possible, she saw the train stop and the doors open as she dodged a few people who got off the train.

Lillie then followed the people getting on the train and she got a bit nervous about the people but focused on her task, the train doors shut and headed to the next location near Times Square.

Lillie held onto one of the poles so she didn't get thrown around by the shaking of the train, after a while or so the train arrived and the doors opened as Lillie got out and looked around before making her way to the stairs to head up top.

Lillie gave a small pant as she jogged up the stairs and she looked around, seeing that there was more sparkling city lights and she gasped a bit as her bright orange eyes lit up. "Wow, so many pretty lights..!" Lillie chimed, she then shivered at another breeze of cold air before she began to walk and had to find another place to sleep for tonight.

The child kept walking and searching as she then found an alleyway to hideout in, she walked down it and found a few discarded flattened out cardboard boxes, old tarps and more different items thrown away in the alleyway.

"It'll do for now." Lillie said, she then started to put together a makeshift shelter and used one of the torn tarps to lay on the ground, she then used some cardboard to lay down and layer it on the floor.

Lillie then used one of the jump ropes as a rope to tie another tarp up to make it a sort of canopy to protect her from the elements and create privacy, using some milk crates that had been thrown out to create walls and she eventually finished making her shelter, going into her shelter as she sat down on the cardboard bed and grabbed a throw blanket she stuffed into her sling bag. "Papa's survival tips really helped, I wish he could have seen it." Lillie sighed.

Lillie then grabbed an old cushion that she found that had a case on it but she removed it so it was clean, she used the cushion as a pillow and then grabbed two more things from her sling bag: A photograph and a bunny plushy.

Lillie set down her plushy, the bunny plushy had meadow green fur, dark green fur on its stomach, in its ears and paws, a white cotton ball like tail, it had a few tears in the fabric or parts of the plush had been stitched up, even one of the plushy's button eyes was missing. The plush had seen better days.

Lillie unfolded the photograph as it was of her, her father and mother. She gave a soft sigh and felt a few tears pricking at her eyes but wiped them away as she sniffled. "Goodnight papa.. goodnight mama.." Lillie said, she hugged the picture close to her for a moment and then she folded it again as she put it away in her sling backpack.

Lillie grabbed her bunny plushy and held it close to her as she then pulled the throw blanket over her body, she shivered but tried to maintain as much body heat as she could and nuzzled her bunny plushy.

"Maybe tomorrow will be a better day." Lillie mumbled, she slowly drifted off to sleep and a few silent tears pricked at her eyes as she curled up into a tight little ball.