"Bailey" the word echoed through their mind as the dream continued. Looking up towards the sun, they could almost feel the warmth on their face from the glowing embers. "Bailey" the voice said again. Bailey looked around to see where the voice was coming from, but all they could see was black.
"Bailey" they breathed in forcefully as they snapped back to consciousness. Disoriented, they whipped the sleep from their eyes, and called back "ma'am?." "its half past eight and you were supposed to be ready by now." the irritated voice of her mother echoed through the decrepit structure of a house. "Okay, one minute" Bailey stood up and stretched their sore back from another night sleeping on their glorified wood pallet of a bed. They slipped on socks with the least number of holes, then their best pair of boots, then their new jacket they had received from uncle Frank on their birthday the week prior. They then found their already packed satchel on the other side of the bed and began their descent from the rafter to the first floor.
Bailey made their way across the creaky wood floor to their sister who was sitting in her tacked together crib. "Hey there little one." they said lifting her up from her crib and patting down the rats nest on her head. "Play with Sky Sky?" She said, looking at Bailey with her sage green eyes. "Not right now Skyler, we have to do our morning routine, remember?" Skyler squealed with excitement as Bailey moved on from her sister's rat nest to the bruise Skyler had received from falling over a broken board the night prior. "Ouchy, huh?" she exclaimed, touching the bruise. Skyler yelped in pain, and flung her hand over the afflicted area nodding at Skyler. Bailey made her way to their mother to show her how the injury had begun to develop, but their mother cut them off before they could get a word out. "You two ready? Let's go." "Wait, where's dad?" right as they finished their phrase, a piece of metal slid to the side revealing Frank and their father.
"Let's go ladies." Bailey's mother handed them a flashlight, and a blanket to cover Skyler, then pushed them through the hole in the wall. Bailey turned around just in time to catch the smallest glimpse of the kitchen as their father pulled the metal sheet back into place. As the metal sheet clanged into place, darkness and silence consumed the once dim tunnel with only the echo of the metal sheet remaining. They sat in complete darkness for what felt like a minute before their Frank and father turned on a dim red flashlight. Frank looked at Bailey and gave them a big, warm hug. "Long time, no see kiddo." The flashlight produced just enough light for Bailey to see that this tunnel was not intentional. Wires and piping lined the walls and ceiling of the long, dark tunnel. "I'll check the tunnel, be back in a jiff." Bailey's mother nodded and turned to her pulling the blanket up over Skyler's head "There's a lot of dust and water in here. Don't want her to get sick." She then tied the loose ends of the blanket around Bailey's shoulders creating a cocoon for the little one. Frank reappeared giving the all clear symbol prompting Bailey to pull their hood over their head. Their father grabbed their arm and said "Stay between us." Bailey nodded and moved forward slowly into the darkest.
We made our way to the old pub, and knocked on the door in a pattern, the old man opened the door and pulled is inside, then pushed the door closed.
"How are you Frank?" My mom said, he was usually a very upbeat person, but I could tell that something was wrong, for when he turned around to face us, I could see pain in his eyes, pain that can't be expressed by words.
"L-let's go talk" my dad said pointing at the door behind him that led to the back room, Frank nodded, and started to walk towards the door.
"Stay here and take care of her" my mom said to me, I put down Maggie, and helped her take off her jacket.
"Where's mommy going?" She asked tracking her all the way to the back room.
"They need to go talk to Mr. Frank, so we have to stay here okay?" I explained. She turned back to me and said,
"Can we play dance?" I smiled, and stood up to turn on the small music box behind the counter. The beautiful song began to play, and I got on my knees to dance with Maggie, she put her hands on my shoulders, and began to move around, and spin in circles giggling the entire time,
I love my sister so much, she's the only sign of innocence I've ever seen in this literal hole, she doesn't know anything about where we are, or what's happening, and I want to keep it that way, but I just don't know how.
"I love you." She said pulling me in and hugging me.
"I love you too" I said putting my arms around her small frame.
There was a huge crash behind me, and laser came in the window,
"Cassie!!" Maggie screamed as I picked her up and jumped behind the counter, the forgetters started shooting at me, and the glass above my head started exploding as the bullets crashed through them.
"Mom!!" Maggie yelled,
"No hush be quiet, they'll hear you" I whispered putting my hands behind her head and pulling her against my head. The door to the back room opened and I heard many gun shots, and then a large thumb. My chest dropped, and I felt like I couldn't breath, the men walked out and I heard the air craft fly away, I stood up telling Maggie to stay there, and jumped over the counter, to see both of my parents laying on the ground, my father was dead, and my mom was barely breathing,
"Mom!!!" I got on the ground beside her and pushed my hand on the opened wounds,
"Take care of her, your stronger than me, you can do it," she said looking up at me with tears in her eyes. She lifted up her hand and pointed to my chest
"I-I'm h..." She said breathing out heavily, and dropping her arm.
"Mom, mom!!!"
