We walked up to her door and she pulled a set of keys out unlocking it. We walked across the lobby and got in the elevator, Rose pushed the button for the 9th floor and the elevator doors closed. Some jazzy elevator music played as we stood in silence next to each other watching the number count up to 9. The doors opened to reveal a stylishly decorated hallway with four apartments on either side.
Rose walked out so I followed trying not to express my awe at my surroundings. I my self had grown up in a Foster home about three streets from here. It wasn't a bad place, everyone was treated well and all but the sergeant was very strict. He was the one in charge, Sergeant Eric Wilmslow, he was a retired army veteran but he made sure everyone knew that he served so that we could live. He made every child over the age of seven partake in military exercises in order to 'build character'. This had forced everyone in the home to fall I line, it was a very good tactic.
I had 3 friends in the home with whom I shared a room: Cole, Oscar and Mike. Cole was of American decent his parents had moved to England for a fresh start when they found out they were expecting. He was a taller guy reaching 6 foot 6, he looked very intimidating as he loomed over most people. His parents had died in a fire when he was six, luckily he had been at daycare when it happened so he wasn't killed. Whenever we played together on WoF during our free time he was our designated Mage. He enjoyed using fire magic the best which most people thought was a coping mechanism to help with what happened to his parents.
Oscar was a short, stocky fellow, he was only 16 but he could pass for a 20 year old with his full face of hair and deep, distinctive voice. He got these traits from his father who had died during the Afghanistan war due to a stray bullet hitting him in his head. He had died before Oscar was even born and his mother had died during child birth, this lead to him being raised by the sergeant. He looked up to him as he was the only male role model that he had ever had, he had a deep respect for him for serving his country just as his father did. When we played online he would starlight as the Main Tanker as he liked to have a giant HP pool meaning he could take a lot of damage for his teammates, this made him feel indestructible.
Lastly was Mike, he was a little damaged. He had entered the Foster system when he was 11 after witnessing his own father's murder. His father had been out late drinking one night and had slept with a whore, when he came home the next morning he found his wife sitting at the dining room table waiting for him. She asked him where he had been and he replied with a cocky tone that he had spent the night with a hooker and he didn't regret a single second of it. This lead to a large argument which soon escalated and ended with Mike's mother stabbing his father 42 times in the chest with a steak knife giving her life in prison. Mike witnessed the entire thing frozen in fear at the top of the stairs, he was traumatised for around a year and wouldn't speak to anyone. Then one day he just came up to me Cole and Oscar and asked of he could sit with us. Of course we said yes and we had been as thick as thieves ever since. Whenever we played online he would be our Secondary Tanker but he had a a lower defence and higher attack compared to Oscar so he could help out more when he wasn't defending.
As I was reminiscing over the battles we had won over the years under our guild banner of the Guilty Thorn I didn't realise that we had already arrived at Rose's door and she had already opened it and walked in. She turned around noticing that I was just standing in the door way and told me to come in. She walked towards a set of stairs on the back wall which presumably led to her Mother's bedroom, I quickly shut the door and followed her up.
As I got to the bottom of the stairs I heard a weird squeal followed by a clang of metal coming from the open door at the top of the stairs so I bolted up to see what was going on. I was met with Rose and her mother hugging each other, there was a frying pan on the floor that explains the loud clang I heard. She must have been lying in wait up here with the pan just incase someone had come to rob her during the chaos.
My eyes suddenly met hers and she let another squeal come from her lips, this one a little more shrill. "Rose run there's a strange man hear, he must have followed you up from downstairs to have his way with you! Go on I'll stop him just run!" I looked in confusion at the woman as she pushed Rose onto the floor and grabbed the frying pan, running at me. I grabbed the frying pan from her hand and twisted her around so I had hold of both arms "I'm not some creep from off the street I'm just a friend of Rose's. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't jump to any conclusions." I said to her while looking straight into her eyes, our faces mere inches apart.
She loosened her grip on the frying pan so I let her go and she automatically retreated a few paces back to where she had pushed her daughter on her butt. "Is what he says true Rosie?" she asked whilst being careful not to take her eyes off of me for a single second. "Yes mum he's a friend who helped me come back here, if it wasn't for him I would probably be dead right now." she said whilst blushing slightly as she spoke her words.
Her mother finally relaxed and stuck out her hand to greet me "I'm Natalia, Rose's mother. I'm sorry for misjudging you." she said with a renewed smile on her face. "Don't worry much about it, I would have done the same under the circumstances. My name is Ezekiel but my friend call me Zeke." I replied to her whilst grabbing her hand and kissing it lightly. This was the correct etiquette when greeting a more well off lady, if I had known that Rose was so well off I would have greeted her the same way.
" Well then, I'll put the kettle on then shall I? You two go and sit in the front room and then you can explain all of this to me." we heeded her words and went to sit in the front room. The room was decorated quite nicely with paintings hanging on the walls and a large flat screen sitting on a unit facing towards the couch and armchairs set up around the centre coffee table. It gave off a sense of hospitality even though each object in the room probably cost more than my entire gaming system. Natalia walked over to us with a tray and started pouring tea for us, we talked for around an hour about the new world and how everything had changed and what was best for us moving forward. We decided that we would take the top floor of the apartment block as our own as only one other room was being rented and the tenants were on holiday in Barcelona.
I suddenly got an urge to ask them a question "If you don't mind me asking, what is your surname?" I asked. I had a feeling that Rose's Dad was a very rich man if they could afford all of this. "Burnham," Natalia answered with a smile "my husband is Andy Burnham, the Lord Mayor." I was ready to get shocked but I held it back as I didn't want to look stupid in front of them.
I stood up from my seat "Okay I'm going to go and get my friends will you two stay here or come with me?" I asked them as they stood as well. "We'll come with you of course." Rose said quickly cutting off her mother before she even had a chance to speak. I noticed this and said "No, I think you should stay here to protect your mother until I get back. Make sure that no one comes up here, block the elevator and the stair case and make sure that there's really no one in the apartment at the end of the hall." Rose looked at me with puppy eyes for a second nearly making me lose the stern face I was holding but she stopped an nodded her head." I'll be back in around two hours with my friends make sure that you don't go anywhere okay?" I said before heading for the door. "Be careful!" Rose shouted as I walked out the door "I will!" is houted back to her before closing the door and heading to the ground floor from the elevator.