“Clive, you have to get out of here”
My names Clive and I’m eight years old. I live with my parents, and am currently sat with them on their house’s living room floor thinking. I seriously am rubbish at descriptions of myself.
“What do you mean?”
My mother looked up at me, a scared expression on her face. “Just get as far away from this building as you can, please!”
I didn’t understand what she meant, but my mother could be quite strict if I disobeyed her, although she looked quite the calm and caring sort, so I got up and walked to the door. “Clive, as fast as you can!” she shouted at me.
I ran out into the hall, and then started pulling with all my strength on the front door handle. The problem was, I was pulling so hard, the door wasn’t opening. Calm down, Clive, calm down, I though, and after taking a deep breath, I managed to open the door.
I stepped outside, and everything was just normal, except, as soon as I took about three paces, I just heard a BOOM. I turned around, and then panicked. The boom was an explosion, and my house was gone, and my parents were still in there. I tried to run back, but a man of around 25 pulled my wrist back. It hurt, but made no change into how much I was crying. “NO!” I screeched. “My mummy and daddy are still in there!”
“Pull yourself together boy!” he shouted at me. “If you go in there, you’ll die too!”
He had his arms wrapped around me, loose enough so I could move, but tight enough so I couldn’t escape. My head was on the top of his arm, just under his shoulder. He turned around so I couldn’t see anything around there, and slowly started walking away. “No! Nohoho!” I cried.
*
We walked in silence for around ten minutes, until we walked up to a restaurant. “Look, I’ll get you something to drink; and then well figure out what we’re going to do with you” he said.
The restaurant was empty, apart from one woman, but she left just as we walked over to the door. The man opened the door, and I walked under his right arm. “Hershel? What’s the matter?” a woman, not the skinniest I’ve met, looked at the man with curious eyes, her head tilted at a slight angle.
The man sighed. “Claire…” he said faintly.
“What about Claire?” the woman asked.
“She’s gone…They were working on an experiment, her, Bill and Dimitri. Something must have gone wrong as the whole place; and the surrounding buildings, were just rubble when I got there. This kid here would have been a goner aswell if I hadn’t dragged him away; his parents were some of the victims”
“I’m so sorry Hershel…”
“I loved Claire, but we all have downfalls. I’ll cope”
The woman looked at me with sad eyes. “Poor lad” she said.
Then her gaze looked over to the top corner of the windowed entrance. I turned around to see there was a small black and white television there, which suddenly changed from a really confusing bed advert onto Breaking News. A Man around 35-40 pushed his glasses up his nose and then began to report. “An explosion has happened in London half an hour ago, 10 victims have been named, many more injured” he said. “The following images may be upsetting to viewers, if so, look away now”
I quickly turned my neck around; I couldn’t bear to see it. I covered my ears with my hands, but I could hear myself screaming, the man trying to calm me down, everything. “It’s stopped now” the woman said.
I looked up, but I was pushing my hands into my ears so hard, that I could barely hear anything. My ears felt as if I was under a swimming pool with no surface, and it hurt like mad. I lost the two people I loved in about 3 seconds, I mean, how much worse can it get?
I put my head on the table and sighed. What was going to happen now? I had no close relations alive, all my grandparents were dead, and my parents were both only children, so I had no Uncles or Aunts either. The woman looked at me, then the man. “So, what are you going to do with him?” she asked.
The man thought for a second. “I don’t know” he said. “If Claire was still here I would have considered adopting him, but since she isn’t…” he stopped. “The only option is have him sent to the orphanage”
That word was one I regretted hearing. Orphanage.
