Annie and her siblings walked the streets till way after dark, the only thing their bellies had enjoyed was the late afternoon snack courtesy Jon.
Now all that they desperately needed was a place to lay their head. They'd walked all evening and still hadn't found anything.
Annie was beginning to despair.
'Why had life decided to kick them in the ass' she thought.
Their parents dead in one night, their helpers burnt to death. Now they were reduced to hungry helpless homeless orphans.
She felt as though they had somehow offended the god of luck or probably in her past life, she left the earth with bad karma and it had come back to haunt her, in the process, bringing her siblings into the mess.
Jon was the first person who caught sight of it.
A dilapidated building, left mid construction. It was as though the contractor or the owners decided against it, changed their minds entirely about the building because it was just above window level, one of the sides roofed, with the entire parts left naked, no plaster... just bricks and wood.
Annie followed the direction of his eyes.
"hell no" she thought then she remembered she had used a harsh word again. Her mother would have washed her mouth with bleach if she heard her utter such words.
Though they grew up with luxury, their parents ensured they were properly brought up and spared no expense in ensuring that, not failing to correct them when necessary.
Annie once again felt an ache in her heart. Her eyes watered. She missed them dearly.
She switched her thoughts back to the situation at hand.
"No way we're sleeping in that" Annie said, setting Bertha down.
Jon eyed her and smirked.
"provide a better solution sister"
Annie threw him a death glare then she looked around. It was getting late, this much she knew as she had looked through a store's transparent show window to check the time when they passed by.
She knew it was already late. When she checked, it was 9 pm but that was hours ago.
It should be past 11 by now...the streets were beginning to get dry.
The last passersby were beginning to get off the streets.
The Hart kids stood on the sidewalk and contemplated their options. Being found on the streets past time was not a good idea.
Annie considered their options. They had none.
As much as she detested them spending the night in the shabby looking place, who was she kidding.. it's not like they could sleep on the sidewalk anyway.
Jon kept looking at her as she contemplated.
He just shook his head and began heading in the direction of the house. Annie was done with hesitating. She and Bertha followed behind Jon.
The gate leading to the building was hanging open.
Apparently, who owned it hadn't bothered to lock it or it was broken into once upon a time, perhaps by people who had committed the same offense they were about to commit. Trespassing. The chain used to hold the gates in place we're loosely hanging on it, joined at the tip by a rusty old lock.
They easily slipped through the gate and entered into the compound. It was covered with unwanted plants except for the parts that had interlocking tiles.
These had growths too but they were not as pronounced as the parts which had none.
The kids walked silently in the darkness under the illuminating glow of the moon to the main entrance of the building..well at least it did look like the main entrance...they weren't so sure as all the entrances looked open just the same way. A person couldn't tell the difference but that wasn't their problem.
They didn't come to study architecture.
They entered into a large area which they assumed to be a living room as it was bordered by lots of doors and had a staircase with no railing leading upwards to the next set of rooms.
Annie was thankful for the illumination the moon provided. It would have been utter darkness if not that. She let go of Bertha's hand and they each tried a door attempting to get it open. There were 6 doors in total and they were all locked save one. Jon found it and in elation, they ran to the room but got slapped in the face with disappointment when they found a large dump of human excreta smack in the center of the room and food packaging littered across the floor.
"holy cow..." Jon exclaimed and shut the door forcefully.
Bertha and Annie held their noses in disgust.
it was beginning to look like they might end up sleeping in the large open room afterall. Jon on the contrary had other plans. He instantly headed in the direction of the staircase, the moment he slammed the door shut.
"Jon you don't even know if the stairs are strong enough to carry a person's weight" Annie called as he walked towards it. Jon gave her no reply but when he got to the first step, he put one foot on it and stomped before he placed his second one and jumped on it then he turned to his sisters.
"see..." he said, stressing the word as he tapped his leg.
"safe"he added then he turned and ran up the stairs.
Annie felt her heart leap into her mouth with each step he took. he was jogging up the staircase.
He got to the top and spread his hands wide, inviting them to come up too.
Annie held Bertha and climbed her way up, not without first checking the durability of the stairs. After the first two, she felt confident enough to continue.
They repeated the same thing upstairs... checking for doors which were left open. They tried each, at least this floor had more open rooms than the ones downstairs Some rooms had food wrappings, decayed food particles and human dump.In some of the rooms, the stench was overbearing. Annie felt like pukeing, Jon and Bertha just walked on without a care in the world.
Even if the stench caressed their nostrils, they didn't show it.
They eventually found one manageable room at the end of the floor. Apparently, someone had used it as a makeshift sleep spot as it was neater than the others even with the empty food wrappings and graffiti that decorated the wall.
Annie let out a long sigh of frustration. They locked the door and went to the next floor where they explored more rooms and tried more doors. In 5 minutes, it was clear where they were going to spend the night.
They went back down to the first clean room they found.
They worked with their legs and shoved trash to one corner of the room so they could find space to settle down. The only useful thing they found in there was a piece of aluminum coloured wrap and even that couldn't do much.
It was Jon's idea to spread it on the floor and have them lay on it.
Even as they tried, only Bertha could lay comfortably on it. Jon lay halfway and there was no space for Annie. She let them stay while she moved to the door and lay in front of it, on the cold harsh cemented floor. The chill of the night didn't take it easy on her as it combined with the effect of the floor to make sleep near impossible.
"Jon" she called to her brother but all she got in response were little breaths. Apparently, they were asleep.
She turned her eyes upwards...hot tears fell down her cheeks and she choked back a sob.
'what now' she thought. They had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. They'd found a place to sleep tonight, what about the coming nights and the coming days, how were they going to feed. She looked at her shoes and that of her siblings. The damn things had it worse and were beginning to wear out. What would happen when it does wear out and their clothes too....she sighed miserably and let the sob escape.
She let her tears fall. There was no one to hold her and wipe her tears so she held herself.
She held herself as her shoulders heaved and she bit her lip to prevent her sobs from getting louder. She didn't want her siblings to wakeup and find her in such piteous state.
Right there, she swore on the deaths of her parents to deal with the men who put them in this situation.
She didn't know how long she cried but her eyes felt heavy and hot. She prayed for sleep to come, but it apparently was deciding to elude her this very night.
She was still deep in thought when she heard a shrill scream.
Her eyes flew open instantly and she turned to see Bertha thrashing wildly at the invincible phantom hunting her dreams.
Annie ran to her and shook her violently awake. The poor girl shivered in her arms, eyes wide.
"shhhh" Annie muttered softly holding her sister in her arms.
"you're awake now berth...it's me Annie.... I'm here"
Jon got up and rubbed his eyes as he wanted to know what the noise was about.
He found a hunched Annie rocking a crying shivering Bertha.
He got up from his sleeping position and ignoring how stiff his legs felt, went to them and enveloped them both in a hug of his own.
When Bertha had quieted down and fallen asleep, Jon was in the land of dreams too and Annie moved her back to lean on the wall. Cradling Bertha's upper body in her hands, her eyes grew tired and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.