Selfless

~Chapter 4~

Cindy woke up with a yawn and was very confused about why she was laying in a bed and why Magnar was on a couch in the same room. Then she remembered, running away and going to the hotel.

"Good, you're up." Magnar told her.

"What time is it?" Cindy asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"About 10 high." Magnar told her.

"10 high!?!" Cindy exclaimed, her eyes wide open. She had never been allowed to sleep past 5 high back at her stepfather's.

But now... she was on her own. She got to make her own choices. Whether it was sleeping till 3 low or 8 high, she got to pick. 

"Yeah, that's late for you. But I'm not surprised, you had a long day yesterday." Magnar said.

"Yeah..." Cindy said. It had been a long day. 

Cindy looked around the hotel room, as she had instantly went to sleep as soon as they had gotten into the room the night before. The walls were white, as were the beds. But the paintings on the wall were what colored the room. There were landscapes, abstract art, almost every color was used in at least one painting. 

"Pretty, huh?" Magnar said.

Cindy nodded, staring at one particular painting of a colorful forest. That meant it had to have been painted by someone who was before all of the nuclear disasters happened, or someone with a remarkably good memory. 

Magnar's gaze landed on the painting as well and he smiled, probably trying to imagine what life would've been like then.

"So..." Magnar said, tearing Cindy's gaze from the painting to him. "What's next?"

"I think that we should probably eat breakfast." Cindy said, hearing her stomach growl.

"Oh, yeah. Good idea." Magnar said, grabbing the room key and opening the door.

Cindy stepped out and eagerly pressed all of the elevator buttons. 

They walked to the breakfast buffet and Cindy's widened as wide as they would go.

There was so. much. food! Pancakes, waffles, fruits, juice, cereal, milk, yogurt, sausage. She had never seen so much food in one place before, not even at the grocery store. 

Magnar chuckled at her shocked expression. he had seen this amount of food, no doubt. Probably even more.

She ran over to the plates and grabbed one. She piled every single option on it, wanting to try everything. 

Once Magnar got his plate, they both sat at a table towards the back. His plate barely had anything on it. Cindy stared in shock at him.

"What?" He asked, his mouth full of food.

"How could you put so little on your plate?" She asked.

"Uh, I don't like to say this but, I ate quite a bit of food growing up." He said, and Cindy could tell from his eyes that he felt guilty about it.

"Yeah, you're right..." Cindy said and continued to eat without saying anything.

"So, you're the boss of this whole thing. What's next?" Magnar asked her when they finished eating.

"I think we should definitely get some clothes." Cindy said. 

Magnar nodded. "Yeah, let's go." 

He fished the car keys out of his pocket and led her outside into the car.

"Phillip is probably overjoyed that we're gone." Magnar said.

Cindy nodded. "Or he could be getting punished because Cornelius has nobody else to punish." She said hopefully.

Phillip deserved to be punished after every thing he had done. When Cindy's mother passed away, he laughed. After that he had done everything that he could to tease her or make fun of her. She actually had a scar on her hand from when he had sliced her skin with a pin.

"I doubt it." Magnar said, looking only at the road.

"You're right." Cindy sighed.

"We're here." Magnar said, parking the car at a store and pulling the key out of the ignition.

Cindy hurried out of the car and ran into the store, leaving Magnar behind. When she got into the store, she decided to wait for him.

"Wait for me next time." Magnar said. Cindy rolled her eyes and skipped off to the women's clothing. She picked out a few outfits and then followed Magnar as he picked a few. 

They checked out and Cindy got an idea. "Hey, we should look for more people like me. There has to be some more. I can't be the only one."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's go." they walked out of the store and went to the car.

The drove around for a while, and Cindy got bored of the view until they finally stopped at a crowded street.

Magnar gestured for her to follow him and they went into a pub. 

Inside was gross. There was trash all over the floor, bugs and mice. The cups looked like they had never been washed and the tables had so much stuff on them. Cindy even spotted mold on one of them. 

"Hey, are there any people around here that are a little..." Magnar paused, as if looking for the right word. "Different." 

"Yeah, there's Raylee Jones. Strange girl, seems to disappear. Lives on the streets, both her parents died." The bartender said. 

Magnar nodded and grabbed Cindy's arm. "Come on. Let's go find this Raylee girl."

They looked around for hours. When they stopped to ask people where she could be, they often ended up paying something in return. They had already payed 20 Treasures. 

"I really don't know where she could be." Cindy said, sitting down on a sidewalk.

"Me neither." Magnar says, sighing and sitting down next to her.

"But I do." A voice said from the shadows of the alley behind them said.

"Who said that?" Cindy said, springing up, ready to fight whoever tried to hurt Magnar.

A girl with long blond hair and green eyes emerged from the shadows, smirking. "I've heard you're looking for me."