"Hello, father," Nora said as she and Ann entered the main hall where Father Francis Christopher, along with several other volunteers assisted in what few ways they could.
The older, bespectacled man smiled and replied, "Nora. It's good to see you again." His gaze turned to Ann. "Oh, friend of yours?"
Nora nodded. "This is Ann. She and I met a while ago."
Ann looked up to the Father Christopher, despite his advancing years, seemed far more active than his age suggested. Ann, however, looked away and instinctively walked behind Nora. She didn't know whom this person was. The only person she could talk to was Nora. And that's how it was going to be.
"Your friend alright?" he asked with genuine concern.
"She was alone a lot. She only speaks to me," she said with a shrug, but smiled when Ann took her good hand from behind and held to it fast.
He nodded his head in understanding. "A lot of children from around here are like that. That's very kind of you to look after her."
Ann frowned. She was the one that was taking care of Nora. It made Ann feel good that she was finally doing something good for someone that actually cared for her.
Her anger was kindled when he asked her kindly, "Are you taking good care of Nora?"
She paused for a moment before she nodded and whispered, "Nora's my friend."
The answer seemed to satisfy him as he went back to the desk with some of the usual handouts that were given to children on the streets. When he returned with a pair of bags for their lunch he handed them both to both girls and said, "you two get cleaned up and then have this. We were able to get some fresh fruits from the market uptown."
"Thank you, Father Christopher," Nora said happily as she slowly took her bag with her good hand.
Ann, on the other hand, accepted the bag and looked to it in shock. No one had ever given her anything before. It felt nice. She looked to the bag and back to him and whispered, "Thank you."
He nodded again, the warm smile on his face never diminishing as the two girls went to the bathroom to clean up with a few other children that were there.
Our Lady of Perpetual Vigilance was a small, but sturdy church that had been built half a century before. Its ownership had changed repeatedly when the surrounding areas became slums and it eventually because a rescue for abandoned children, battered girls, lost boys, and more. It was run entirely by volunteers who would, at the risk of their own wellbeing, come once a week to help in what small ways they could.
Francis Christopher was once a wealthy businessman who felt the money that he had spent most of his life accumulating had become more troublesome than it was worth. While his fortune was substantial, he felt empty. His friends had called him crazy when he had sold off his trading business with the newer colonies that were being established after the end of the First Contact War and went into volunteer work.
He told them that while he knew doing this held risks, helping people had become a greater reward than all the money he had fought tooth and nail for. While he still had a steady flow of income, seeing the faces of children like Ann and Nora granted another chance made it all worth it.
He was also part of a community adoption program in hopes of seeing the lost children of Old Los Angeles put into worthy homes of families that would show them the love they were bereft of. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of bureaucracy he had to deal with in order to give these poor children homes made the process sluggish and unwieldy. Not to mention that there had been a few children who were killed in gang fights before they were scheduled to be sent to these worthy homes.
The hardest thing for him to ever say was Nora had been screened and cleared for adoption on more than one occasion. However, no one ever chose her. He had been so brazen as to ask a few people why when Nora, despite her youth, was as mature as a child her age could be. They would never answer him straight, but he knew better. It was because of her Proteus Syndrome. The various tumors that had rendered her a cripple had made her an unwanted subject. Not to mention that extensive treatment and surgery she would need if she wanted any hope of surviving in society would be too much for even him to intervene. He bowed his head and prayed that the Lord would watch over her, because he knew that he wouldn't always be able to the way he had.
He took off his spectacles and rubbed his eyes to get rid of the exhaustion in them as he saw Ann and Nora return, a bit cleaner than when they had left. Their supplies of clothes for these children had always been strained, but at least they'd have a pair of shoes and socks to tide them over until their next shipment. Heaven knew how many blisters their feet had from a life of constant running.
He looked at the clock on the wall and back to the children coming back with empty sacks but full stomachs. For now, anyway.
"So, do you two want to join in with the other kids in the class today?" he asked.
Ann's eyes went to Nora in confusion. The latter nodded eagerly, then grabbed Ann's wrist and pulled her as much as she could to one of the rooms where half a dozen other children worked with simple arithmetic and coloring books, led by another volunteer.
When Ann looked to the book in front of her, she had no idea what to make of it. She wasn't even sure what a book was as Nora eagerly took the crayons and filled in the pictures of the horses with vibrant colors. Things like these were a luxury to kids like her and Nora.
Ann took a seat beside Nora, but her look of perpetual confusion would not leave. She looked to the book and then to the box of crayons that Nora had opened. She looked to her friend to see her carefully coloring the horse a lighter shade of purple, while its mane was a much darker shade. She looked back to her own book and still found it difficult to comprehend what exactly it was Nora was doing.
"Hello, dear. Need help?" the older woman with graying hair, but the same kind smile that Father Christopher had asked as she knelt beside the bemused Ann. She looked back to Nora for help. While Nora knew these people, Ann did not. She had no reason to trust them, but Ann did. She froze and her eyes began to widen as though she were ready to panic.
Nora saw this and smiled at her friend. She nodded at Nora, who then turned back to the elderly lady and nodded herself.
Happy to see Nora's good influence on another child, the volunteer took a seat beside Ann and slowly began to explain what the coloring book was. Ann listened as much as she could as the volunteer started to color in one of the fruits on the page to give an example. A lot of the words she used went right through her head, however, the example in front of her gave her enough of an idea as to what she was to do.
Carefully, she took the yellow crayon in her fist and slowly hovered the tip over the colorless drawing of the banana. She then placed it against the paper and slowly started to rub it back and forth across it. It was an unfamiliar sensation to Ann as she slowly, but eventually filled the picture of the fruit as both Nora and the volunteer looked on.
When Ann was done, she looked to Nora, then back at the messy attempt of drawing within the lines of the picture. 'Did I do it right?' Ann asked with her eyes. Her friend smiled and then used her good arm to reach over and hug Ann. She assumed she did well as she happily hugged back her friend, much to the delight of the volunteer.
The older woman stood and gave both girls a warm smile. To her, and the rest of the volunteers, Nora Shepard was the cherub of the slums. She always seemed to find children that were the most desperate and bring them here. And more often than not, the children she had brought often were able to find homes.
Except Nora herself.
It was a damn shame, the woman thought as both girls went back to coloring more of the pictures.
"Is there nothing we can do?" the older woman says to Francis as they watch the two girls leave the church for the night to find some dingy place to sleep.
He shakes his head. "I keep putting up for an appeal for Nora's case, but the Alliance Parliament won't allow her. They say she's 'too much of a liability'."
"That's a bunch of bullshit and you know it, Francis!" she swears angrily. "Those damn insurance companies just don't want to fit the bill for her treatments. She can still get-" she catches herself and looks down despondently. "Sorry."
He pats her shoulder reassuringly, "Don't be. I've been putting small amounts of money on the side for a treatment for the girl. It'll take a while, but hopefully, she and her friend will have found a home by then. Once that happens, she can start treatment and perhaps, be able to live a normal life."
"And her friend?" she asks, wondering of the silent partner Nora had brought in with her.
"With luck, she'll go with Nora. The poor child seems to be lost without her. Wouldn't surprise me if Nora was the first friend she ever had," he says as he takes his glasses off and takes a handkerchief to clean them of residue.
She folds her arms over each other. "I hear rumors about that girl. She seems to be one of the kinds that Nora was able to bring in, in time. Would have gone feral hadn't it not been for Nora."
He nods his head and puts his glasses back on. "Miracles never cease to happen. Even if we're not always aware of it."
Ann saw herself alone. She was in the city, but it was completely deserted. There was nothing to find. Nothing to see. No one.
Then, she heard something. She walked to the edge of a building to peek past the entrance and saw shadows moving. Curious, she tried to move and catch up, however, her stomach growled loudly. She was so hungry.
She fell to her knees and held her stomach as it groaned in pain. She wanted to stand, but her hunger had taken her strength. The shadows she tried to follow returned again, but this time, they were accompanied by a the sound of something large. Something heavy. Something hungry.
She looked up to see herself. However, it wasn't herself. The other she was grown. However, to a horrid sight.
She was heavily scarred, draped in red colored skins, and bleeding from many cuts. Her breath was hot, her teeth were sharp, and she reeked of blood.
The horrifying sight was offset by her eyes. They were alive. Vibrant. Warm. And dangerous. She pushed herself to her feet to run away, but the taller Ann reached out and grabbed her ankle. The blood covered version of herself opened her maw wide, as if to consume her.
And it did. Piece by piece, she was eaten.
Ann screamed and scrambled from the makeshift bed she and Nora had shared that evening. She tumbled onto the ground and crawled to the corner.
A startled Nora looked to her friend and asked, "nightmare again?"
Sobbing, Ann nodded and held her legs with her arms again as Nora slowly padded to her and hugged her again, as though it were the only thing that could keep the demons away.