The Stars, Sun and Skye

Stranger Danger

When the figure was on the edge of the neighbour's roof, he jumped. Jumped right towards their second floor bedroom window. He had one arm on the window ledge and the other hand on the side of the window. Both of which was trying to support his skinny body into their room.
"Help me get in!" He sounded exhausted, as if he had been running for ages.
Eava grabbed Evie's hand and didn't help him in but she was not scared. Evie, on the other hand, was not sure what to do. They were told never to let strangers into the house but if she didn't help him, he would drop two whole floors and probably break several bones.
She didn't help him. Instead, she took a proper look at the boy since he could see him better now. He was skinny and looked slightly older than she was. He had long untidy brown hair, messily ruffled. Not tall but neither short. He had a scar running through his face, from his left eyebrow right down to his left cheek bone and he had scratches all over him. He also wore a strange blue wristband with a logo of what seemed to be a swirl.
The boy had made it into their room. Skye was still snuggled up close to Evie, but she could sense there was something dodgy about this boy. He was panting and even sweating in this cold weather and was only wearing a thin hoodie.
"I'm sorry I had to barge in like this. The names Heili. But people call me Helium," He said, wiping the sweat off himself, "I have a present I want to give the two of you. Put it on when you get it alright?" Evie and Eava looked curiously at each other. What would a complete stranger want to give them? They would soon find out what he wanted them to wear. He dug into his front pockets of his hoodie, "Dang it. Must have fallen out while I was looking for you all."

Them all? Who was he referring to? More people like Evie and Eava?
Evie was speechless. Eava spoke first, ignoring Helium's odd behaviour, "My name is Eava and this is Evie," She introduced, not bothered about the fact that he was a random stranger that had just jumped Into the room through our window.
"What are you doing here?" Evie said to Helium.
"Ah, well you see," he brushed his hair out of his eyes, "There was someone chasing me."
"Why were you being chased?" Eava asked curiously.
"That isn't important right now. Right now I need to go home," Helium said.
A young woman shouted from the ground floor, "Evie, Eava! I hear noise! Go to sleep now before I throw you out of the house!"
"Who was that?" Helium asked quietly.
Eava's voice reduced to a whisper, "Our foster mum, Karla."

It was the usual time Karla would go to bed, close to three in the morning. She stayed up late at night and was partying the rest of the time. She earned her living off her part-time job at the club and a significant amount of money as well for taking care of them. It was most probably the only reason she even agreed to foster Evie and Eava.
Helium grinned, "Whaddya say we run away together?"
"Let's go with him Evie," Eava said enthusiastically.
"What about Karla?" Evie asked.
"She'll never even notice we are gone," Eava said disappointingly.
Evie considered it, "Where will we go?" She asked Helium.
"My home of course," Helium answered.
Evie didn't say anything. She got out of bed, put on a coat and took Skye with her.
"So we're going with him?" Eava asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Evie asked rhetorically.
"Great. Follow my lead. I'll bring you home," his voice lowered, "Our home."
"Did you say something Helium?" Evie asked.
"No no. Nothing important. Let's get going."

They crept downstairs and out the front door. The door opened to a beautiful night sky. Evie took in a big breath, smelling the cold night air.
Helium noticed this, "Beautiful isn't it?"
She ignored him, "Eava, come on."
"You're going to need me you know?" Helium said.
"No we won't," Evie said.
"We most likely will Evie. Just telling the truth," Eava said truthfully.
"Two little girls and a cat ain't going to be able to survive on their own. How'll you be able to get food? Where'll all of you sleep? See? You need me," He said.
She accepted the hard truth and followed him. Most of the walk was in silence. The streets were quiet at night other than the infrequent laughter from a house or a dog barking as they walked by.
They walked down dark alleyways, past places they had never realised had been there before. Soon they were so far away from home, they couldn't have found their way back even if they wanted to. The big clock outside parliament house chimed. It was distant but Evie counted twelve chimes. Meaning that it was midnight. In other words, Christmas, or her birthday.
Finally, Helium walked towards a rundown store.

"Is this the home you speak of?"

Helium replied with a simple, "Yes. Welcome to the Whirlpool."