How did it get so far?
All night Lee contemplated the same question repeatedly, but no solution was worthy enough to satisfy her pondering.
Reaching deep into her tattered jacket she pulled out a crushed container that held her cigarettes. Cursing silently, she hoped that one stick survived their earlier brawl. Her muscles ached, her clothes were torn and her body was battered, the least she could have was a smoke to satisfy her nicotine craving.
Flipping up the protective lid from her pack she sighed in relief when she spotted a few of her cigarettes left intact.
Reaching deep into her pocket again she fished around to find her lighter. Pulling out the plastic tube, she pressed down bringing the flame closer to the stick between her lips. She inhaled deeply, the smoke from the cigarette flourishing into her lungs.
"How can you even think about smoking right now?"
Lee pulled the cigarettes from her lips to exhale. She peered through her fiery curled bangs at her blue haired sister. The urge to mush her hand into her sisters' face was tempting, but she resisted for the fact they all were on edge.
They were on the run, and it wasn't the best feeling in the world, but it's what they had to do to be safe.
She shook from the cold as she and her sisters leaned against the wall of the alleyway trying to stunt the blood flow as much as possible. They huddled close together to keep the tiniest amount warmth they could manage to between the three of them.
She pulled another drag from her cigarette before exhaling in shaky breaths. This could possibly be her last and final cigarette judging from the way things were headed. She looked to her side at her sisters to see if they were both still alive. The white puffs of smoke coming from between their blue lips was the only indication that they were in fact still alive, but only for so long.
A soft breath passed through the lips of the youngest sibling, May.
She could feel herself starting to drift off to sleep. She tried to keep her eyes open, afraid that if she closed her eyes she would never open them again. Her eyelids became heavier each passing moment before she convinced herself that she would only rest her eyes for the moment.
When her eyelids finally met she was jolted awake with a violent shake against her shoulder, flinching as the throbbing in her arm finally caught up with her sleep addled brain. She pushed away the hands brushing against her injury. "What?" She yelled beside her, not sure which of her two older sisters had irritated her already hurt shoulder.
Obviously Lee was out of the question seeing as one hand was occupied with her favorite tobacco stick whilst the other clenched inside her ripped coat shaking from the cold.
That meant Marie was left by default.
May raised an eyebrow at her sister, the look demanding an answer.
Marie curled her arms around her body, stuffing her hand back into the warmth. "You… you can't fall asleep stupid." She managed to push out through her chattering teeth.
May relaxed herself before leaning back against Lee. She let out a long yawn into the alleyway receiving and echo back. "Geez Marie, I just wanted to rest my eyes a bit."
"Fine then see if I care if you never wake up again you ungrateful-"
Lee took her last hit on her cigarette before mashing it into the ground. Normally she would have slapped both her sisters stupid just for arguing, but it was keeping them from dozing off to sleep so she paid it no heed. Her thoughts turned to the bigger problem at the moment. She was the oldest of the three girls- the responsible one- so why could she not come to a conclusion to keep her and her sisters from freezing to death?
Frustrated, Lee punched her fist into the ground cringing when the pain cycled through her nerves quickly reminding her that she had used her knuckles enough for one day to last for a long while. The urge to hit something boiled in the pit of her chest, but the pain and the cold combined was enough to keep her from making the same mistake twice.
If only she could have learned that lesson earlier.
The urge bubbled up again in her lungs making her breath come out in pants. The air puffing out like she could breathe fire. The anger was going to make her combust if she didn't get it out in some way. She finally settled on tugging on the mesh of red curls on top of her head and grunting out her rage.
May and Marie could only watch as their sister melted into a fit of rage. What could they really do or say to bring comfort? Marie herself was not one for comforting people or being comforted for she always found herself troubled with knowing what to say, afraid the wrong thing would come out.
May, the most sensitive of the three, was better at comforting, but she doubt Lee would want to be comforted by her at the moment seeing as she herself was the reason they were in this problem in the first place. She pulled her knees into her chest making a cradle with her arms to nestle her face. Marie was right… she was stupid. If only she could have been more aware of what was going on then… what? May furrowed her eyebrows deep beginning to become angry with herself. What could she have possibly done even if she knew what was happening around her?
She shivered, not sure if it was due to the cold, blood loss, or the dark thoughts in her mind. She bit her into her lip with her overbite digging deep into her bottom petal making more blood surge out. It put her mind at ease to focus on the pain than focus on her dark thoughts about what could have been.
She was jostled again from her thoughts when she heard Lee shouting. She turned with wide eyes to her eldest sister shaking her blue haired sister violently. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw her sister turning pale with labored breathing. May scurried across the cold asphalt, scraping the skin from her already tender knees. She could smell the tangy scent of fresh blood flowing through the cold air, but she cared nothing for it as she gripped her sisters' cold face between her near frost bitten fingers. She patted her cheeks begging her to give a response.
"Marie… Marie!" May shouted at the girl hoping she would yell back at her.
When Marie's eyes fluttered May released a sigh and held the middle sister close to her giving her all the warmth she could muster. If Marie had died on her—May couldn't even let the morbid thought pass her mind as she pulled her sister closer.
Lee loosened her grip on Marie's worn out jacket glad to know her sister was going to make it… for now. There was no way they were going to survive once the sun had went down. If she didn't find them a place to stay this may be there last night together.
The red curls flopped over her face when she shook her head to clear the plaguing dark thoughts. She was a Kanker woman, and that alone meant she could tough it out to the end.
She pulled off her coat and the blast of chill hit her as though she had been shot by needles. Her immediate reaction was to place the jacket back on her frozen skin, but her sisters' pale face reminded her why she did not need it. She stomped the reaction down, mustering every nerve to obey her mind and stop shivering.
She caught the attention of May who still panicked over Marie. "Take this and make sure Marie stays warm." She bundled both her sisters as much as she could with the worn out material.
May wanted to refuse, but she too looked at Marie and knew that she needed it more than any of them. She nodded and wrapped her sister up tightly. "What about you Lee, what are you going to do?"
Lee tried hard to keep her shiver under check to keep her sister from being concerned, but she could help to cross one arm over her body to ease the chill. "I'm fine May, I'm going to look for somewhere we can stay for the time being." She was lying, and May knew too.
Marie let out another shaky breath. She tried to open her eyes enough to stare at Lee. "Then you better hurry up or we'll all end up goners." Though her consciousness was fading in and out she still managed to put fire in her voice to convince them both she would hold out.
Lee nodded her head and pulled her curls tightly over her eyes again. She never liked for anyone to see her eyes, but she could see everything through the thick mass of curls. She brought up a shaky hand to her head and saluted to her sisters before leaving their hiding place.
May watched Lee disappear down the alleyway, whispering a small wish of carefulness to her sister before returning to Marie who gave her a weak reassuring smile.
"It'll be fine May, Lee will know what to do."
Though she said those words May was not sure if she could completely believe them. After all who they were running from was still out there looking for them.
~Misfits~
Ed trudged with Eddy through the cold hauling a box full of supplies in their arms. Eddy grumbled as he shook from the cold cursing Ed each step they took back to their home. "I don't understand why you just couldn't have this stuff mailed to the apartment." He pushed through chattering teeth.
Ed adjusted his black rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose before he turned to look at his best friend who now stood eye level with him. "Because Ed wanted to start this project as soon as possible, Eddy." He referred to himself in third person. "Besides I couldn't wait to get these new supplies."
Eddy grumbled again and adjusted the box against his shoulders. "That doesn't explain why we were waiting in that long ass line in front of the comic book store for an hour, lumpy."
Ed lips curved into a wide lopsided grin when Eddy called him his childhood nickname. He reached over tugging his best friend over and giving him a tight squeeze. "Because you love Ed, Eddy." He teased, once again noting himself in third person. No matter what he may have said Ed knew that Eddy enjoyed all their time together and just liked to complain. After all who knew Eddy better than he himself and of course he could not forget their beanie wearing best pal, Double-D.
Eddy chuckled and ruffled the red heads ear length hair. "Sure lumpy, whatever you say let's get back home I'm sure Double-D got somethin' warm waiting for us to drink."
Ed bit his lip with glee and trudged faster towards the complex the three shared with one another.
~Misfits~
Shit, shit, SHIT! Lee cursed in her mind as she ran as fast as she could down the side walk. The sun had set an hour before and she had yet to make it back to her sisters. The snow was starting to collect on the ground and her heart tremored at the thought of her sisters freezing to death.
She rounded the corner of the dark alleyway where they were stationed and squinted from behind her hair. She could see the silhouette of May huddled over, clutching what she hoped was Marie close to her.
With a tentative step forward she approached her youngest sister. A soft heave left her lips followed by a whimper which cause Lee to stampede forward faster.
May heard the louds steps making haste towards her. The tears that were already coming down her face flowed faster. They couldn't have already possibly caught up already. She gripped Marie tighter ready to drag her away if she needed to.
"Is everything okay?" Lee called out to her sister in shaky intervals.
May brightened a bit, her sisters rough voice had never sounded so pleasant to her ears. She uncurled herself from Marie making out the taller girls form in the dark. Her happiness dwindled when she remembered her comatose sibling in her arms. "It's Marie, she's bleeding too much and I can't get her to warm up. What do we do Lee?" Her tears came back again with renewed vigor.
Lee hauled Marie over her shoulder, shaking off the snow starting to build on her still body. She reached a helping hand out to May. "Come on, I found somewhere to get her warmed up." She pulled the girl along only to meet resistance. She turned her confused gaze to back as she watched May shake her head. "Come on!" She again tried to pull the stubborn girl, but she only resisted more.
Finally dropping her hand out of her cold grip Lee whirled to her sister frustrated at her stubbornness. "What is your problem do you want us to freeze?"
"I don't wanna go out there, what if they find us?"
Lee softened her gaze proceeding to wrap her arm around the young girls shoulder.
She gave a reassuring squeeze to her quaking form before passing a smile. "They won't find us… And if they somehow do, I'll make it a night they'll regret."
May wiped the freezing tears out of her eyes before walking with a small bit of confidence. 'Of course I don't need to be worried, I have both my sisters to protect me.'
On wobbly legs May grabbed onto Lee's arm to offer what little support she could give.
The snow began to blow harder and the cold more intense when they left the protection of the alleyway. At least when they were back in the alley the buildings had been able to block the onset of wind, but now it struck against them in full haste.
May looked at her sister with admiration. Lee had bested the weather through the entire day without any protection for them. Her heart swelled with warmth to know she was cared for.She promised that when it was her turn, she too would return the favors both of them had given her.
She gave Lee a reassuring squeeze to her hand to let her know without words, that she trusted her completely to get them to safety.