We were stranded. No place to stay, no weapons, no food, nothing. Of course this had to happen! When do things ever actually go our way. Daylight was slowly rising above the city as we aimlessly walked around the dying streets.
"I can't believe Saida knew all of those people." Jet was in shock. None of us could really comprehend what was going on.
"No, I can't believe Dr. D was married! That's the real concern here." Ghoul corrected, trying to find a laugh out of this very dire situation.
"Guys, the sun is coming up. Isn't that supposed to be a bad thing?" I commented, bringing everyone back to reality.
"Yeah, what was up with that?" Asked Party, who also seemed very disheartened when thinking about our current state.
We couldn't really think of how we would ever be able to get back into the base. Surely, Saida would never change her views on us. I did love that house, though. It felt like a real home, even if we were only there for a bit.
The sun had finally settled over the light blue sky, but it wasn't as welcoming as I had hoped it would be. There were no signs of life except for the chirping of a few birds and the occasional ferrel cat. I was able to place exactly where we were in the city. We were close to my old house. Everything seemed to be burned to a char, but I recognized the coffee shop that I used to go to after school, and the city funded library where I went to daycare. We passed down the wide streets of my neighbourhood, and slowly we became covered by huge elm trees, hiding away a lot of the daylight. Back when I lived there, the trees weren't this grand. Now, it was like a deep forest, and it only made me more cautious.
"Where are we?" Party asked me, his boots splashing in a puddle of water.
"This is my street." I responded quietly. I felt like a stranger in my own neighbourhood, but I knew exactly where to go. I stopped suddenly, turning to face an intact front walkway.
The house was exactly the same, asides from the broken windows and scorch marks lining the outer white walls. My father's once tame garden had reached the front of the yard, weeds everywhere. The oak door was completely gone, leaving the small bungalow exposed to the outdoors. I couldn't bring myself to move towards it. I was scared that if I stepped inside, it would crumble to a pile of ash. I felt Party's hand lock on to mine, giving it a soft squeeze. He didn't need to say anything. That was enough to let me go in.
The group followed behind me as I stepped into the house. There was plenty of broken glass that crunched under our feet. Some of my old furniture wasn't even in the house anymore, and must have been taken. Family pictures that hung on the wall had tumbled to the hardwood floor.
"Hey, is this you?" Ghoul reached for one of the busted picture frames, holding one of my old school photos. Curiously, I took it out of his hands.
The photo was from grade nine, only months before the fires. The picture had a chubby little girl with light blonde done up in some messy hairstyle I thought was cool. My mother had dressed me that day, and the pale purple cardigan made me look fatter than I used to be. My braces stood out in my attempt at a smile, and my makeup looked like it had been running, probably because I cried a few minutes before the photos over a boy.
"Oh lord." I cringed, looking away from the picture.
"Let me see!" Kobra demanded, snatching the picture. Immediately, he began to snort with laughter. Jet grabbed it next. He held the picture next to my face, trying to compare the two.
"I can see the resemblance." He teased, before handing me the photo. Without looking at it again, I placed it back down on the floor with the rest of the broken frames.
Party was wandering down the narrow hallway, peering into different rooms.
'Oh god, my bedroom. No.'
I hurried after him, passing him in the hallway before he could get to my room. He seemed startled when I positioned myself in front of the door to my room, but couldn't help but laugh.
"What is it?" He grinned, peering his head over my shoulder. I pushed his forehead away with my hand. There was no way in hell he was going in there.
"Party, it's a shit storm in there." I warned, piecing back together all of the details of my childhood bedroom.
"Oh please, let me see it?" He pleaded, clearly curious. I looked behind me, catching a glimpse of the room before standing aside.
"Okay, but don't laugh at me."
Posters. Posters everywhere. The walls were plastered with pictures from magazines of different bands. My bed sat in the corner of the room, still the same mess like how I left it. My bookshelf reached the ceiling, filled with all kinds of literature. An old Crosley record player sat on the floor underneath my pink desk. My laptop was of course, gone. My plants on the single windowsill had since died. The white carped was stained with god knows what.
"Okay, well, it's not that bad." Party scoffed, looking around.
"It's a disaster." I sighed, rubbing my thumb against my temple.
"It looks exactly like my old bedroom too. Don't worry about it." He smiled, walking out of the room. I stared at him as he walked away, realizing that his childhood was a mystery. My friends now had access to my entire life as a kid, and I knew nothing about them.
Was it even worth asking?
Coming back out into the living room, I saw the hand slumped onto my black leather couch. They were exhausted, as they should be. Ghoul was already falling into sleep. We were hungry, but I didn't dare open the fridge. After all these years, surely nothing good could come out of that. Instead I sat on the couch next to Party, leaning my head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around me, his fingers absent-mindedly tracing shapes on my hand as he too started to drift off.
(Guys I'm almost done writing this oh my)
YOU ARE READING
Without a Whisper //Danger Days//
Fanfiction(Book #3 of the Danger Trilogies) ::COMPLETED:: "When they poured across the border, I was cautioned to surrender, this I could not do. I took my gun and vanished. I have changed my name so often, I've lost my wife and children, but I have many frie...
