The rain poured down in sheets, lightning crashing overhead. That's when she spotted it..the mouth of the tunnel not far from where she stood trying to protect herself from the water pounding down around her with a soggy newspaper over her head. She dashed towards the tunnel, slipping and stumbling in the mud. Once she crashed heavily to her knees, the muddy water soaking through her faded blue jeans.
Once inside the tunnel, the girl who looked a lot younger than her nineteen years, shoved her sodden red hair out of her eyes which were the color of new leaves in springtime. "Fucking hell.."she muttered to herself, shaking what water she could from her clothing which stuck, dripping with wet, to her cold skin. She'd lived through worse and she figured she'd live through this too. It was just a matter of trying to stay alive in a world which was so cruel to her and always had been as far as she was concerned. Shaking out her sleeping bag, which was wet through, she laid down, wrapping her arms around herself as she shivered on the cool sand that lined the floor of the tunnel. She watched the rain slowly come to a halt and the moon came out, shining in the darkness like a silvery white orb. Blinking, she tried to stay awake but her fragile body was too exhausted and she dropped off into a dreamless sleep.
She thought she was safe. She thought nobody had seen her enter the tunnel. But somebody had.
"Mouse...I thought you were going above." Father said, looking up from the book he'd been reading as Mouse passed by him on his way back to his chamber. Mouse nodded.
"Was going up. Couldn't. Wanted to go through the tunnel in the park but there was somebody there." Mouse explained, shoving a handful of his wispy, straw colored hair out of his face. Father looked grave, concerned. They'd had transients in the upper tunnels before but they'd never stayed long or caused any trouble. So far, their underground world hadn't been discovered.
"Tell me." Father instructed him and Mouse perched on the arm of a chair, his body tense with the constant nervous energy that ran through him like electricity.
"Looked like a girl. Sleeping. She was all wet. Musta got caught in the rain." Mouse told him, his hands clasping and unclasping each other. "Might get sick. Real wet, everything dripping, soaked."
Father nodded, pushing his glasses back up on his nose from where they'd slipped down.
"Alright...we'll keep an eye on her. But don't approach her, Mouse. I know how you can be sometimes, when somebody seems to need help." Father warned him, smiling with good humor. Mouse nodded, his hair falling into his eyes again.
"Won't. Be real careful." he assured him and disappeared around a corner, as quiet as...well...a mouse.
The sun peeked through the mouth of the tunnel, waking up the girl who sneezed violently several times. Although she wasn't nearly as wet as she'd been the night before, she wasn't completely dry either. She rubbed her freckled nose and groaned. Her stomach, empty for several days, growled anxiously and she frowned. She hadn't eaten in three, maybe four days unless you counted the scraps she'd managed to glean from the fast food dumpster before the manager had chased her off. She raked her fingers through the tangled and matted curls that hung down nearly to her waist, reddish curls that were once a carrot color but now dulled with dirt and grease from being unwashed for too long.
"Who..who's there?" she hissed, spinning. She'd heard something, a footstep perhaps. She knew she had to watch her step, that maybe she'd trespassed into somebody else's territory and they were preparing to beat the snot out of her for it.
"Just Mouse." Mouse said softly, coming out of the shadows into the light. Cat stared hard, trying to figure out just where he'd come from. He'd seemed to pop up out of nowhere, like a magic trick or something.
"What do you want?" she asked, cautiously getting to her feet and preparing to back out of the tunnel, to run as far and as fast as she could even if it meant leaving her few possessions behind.
"Don't want nothing. Give you food, that's all. Thought you might be hungry." Mouse walked up to her, slowly, carefully. He dropped a bundle wrapped in faded cloth at her feet and backed away several feet. Cat kept one eye on him as she knelt and untied the bundle. Inside was a thermos of soup and a small round of the dense, chewy Ezekiel bread the tunnel community made so well. She uncapped the thermos and inhaled deeply, a small tear running down her nose. She was so hungry, had been hungry for so long. Eagerly, without a word, Cat drank the warm soup and nibbled at the bread. After a few moments, she paused.
"Thanks." she whispered, her eyes shining with gratitude. Mouse came a little closer and sat down.
"S'ok. Saw you were wet, probably hungry too. Needed it. Brought it." Mouse explained simply as she continued to eat until every drop of the soup was gone, every crumb of the bread vanished.
"What's your name?" she asked, wiping her mouth with the back of one grimy hand. She shoved a handful of hair out of her eyes in order to see the stranger better.
"Mouse." he replied with a shrug.
"Mouse?" Cat asked, her face filled with curiosity.
"Uh huh. Because I scurry scurry through the tunnels below, like a little mouse." Mouse said, the best explanation he could give. Cat nodded and stuck out her hand, wiping it on her pant leg first to try and remove some of the grime.
"My name's Catherine, but everybody calls me Cat." she said. "Nice to meet you, Mouse."
Mouse shook her hand, nodding, a grin lighting up his face.
"Sorry if I invaded your space or whatever. It was raining SO hard last night, yanno? I..I didn't have anywhere else to go." Cat said, wrapping her arms around her bent legs, a shiver running down her back. She sneezed miserably and wiped at her nose with the back of one hand. Mouse reached into one of the many pockets on his tunic and pulled out an old linen handkerchief, embroidered with a small brown mouse. Cat accepted it and blew her nose, a loud honk emanating as she did so.
"You keep. Need worse than me!" Mouse giggled and Cat couldn't help but smile.