AHH. I restarted my computer foolishly thinking this file had been saved, and I lost most of the writing. That's why this chapter is late, sorry.
"MOMMA!"
"Ah, Henry, ya little shrimp!"
"Whatsa gotta be so whiny for?"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm just scared!" Henry huddled into his knees, only his fox-colored hair poking out the top. "It's just…its hailin' outside and most nights like this I has my momma here to help me!"
Eugene groaned, not opening his eyes. Jack's elbow hung onto his mat, his knee almost jutting into his side. It wasn't like he could really help it, though; the mats were so squished and crumpled together, only the oldest kids had any room at all (and what they had, they had to fight for). The youngest were almost heaped in a pile on the other side of the room.
"A-and when I close my eyes…" Catherine rushed over to Henry, cooing as she wrapped her arms around the youngest boy. He buried his face into her neck, engulfed in her long hair. "I-I see her and Papa in their beds with the Mer…Mer…"
"Merolia?"
"Yeah, that. And they's all pale…and coughin'…and then they's got the blood on their mouth and then— and then our neighbors got it, and then the next house after them…and…"
"Shhh…" Catherine pet his hair, hugging him closer. "Don't think about that. It's okay, I got you…"
"Stop babyin' 'im." Jack picked at his back teeth, flicking whatever he had discovered in there at the back of Lissie's head. "He needs to man up, like the rest of us."
"He's only four!" Catherine spat in Jack's direction. He only snorted.
"I agree with Jack." Robert, a new boy about ten, snapped, poking his head out from his blanket. "I can't get no sleep with him whining like a piglet!"
"I wish that kid never came here in the first place." Jack tugged his blanket back over his body, not saying another word.
"Y-you do?" Henry's eyes watered, his face shrinking back.
"Don't worry." Robert sneered, flipping over onto his back and crossing his legs in the air. "Jack just hates yer guts 'cause you sleep where Phillip used to."
"Oh." Henry leaned against Catherine's shoulder, his voice barely above his sporadic breathing, "S-sorry."
"Ya know Henry," Robert smirked, crawling closer to the terrified boy with his hands bent as if they were beast-like claws, "Phillip was sick on that bed…his germs could be all over it…you could get sick too…"
"NO!" Henry wailed, his legs flying though the air in all directions. His heel swung back, accidentally jamming Catherine right in the mouth as he sprang off the mat. "I DON'T WANNA GET SICK! I DON'T WANNA GET SICK!"
"HEY!" Catherine grabbed her lip, a deep split dripping blood all over her fingers.
"Actually," Eugene sighed, groggily pushing himself off the floor, "They burned Phillip's mat after he died and then replaced it. So no, unless those germs can jump space and time itself, to which I must say, wow, brava!, that bed will be Merolia free."
"…huh?" Henry cocked his head.
"It's clean. No Phillip germs for you."
"Oh, yay!" the tiniest orphan dropped back down onto the bed with a joyful grin on his face.
"Oh, good, Daddy Eugene flew in to save the day." Robert folded his hands, raising them to his cheek and fluttering his eyelids, "And with Catherine actin' like a crybaby mommy, maybe you guys should just get married!"
Eugene yawned, throwing his fists into the air, "No thanks, the last thing I want is for my offspring to be crybaby mommies. Not to mention redheads."
"What did you just say?"
"Oh, nothing, Cat."
Henry cuddled into his mat, quietly sucking his thumb. His eyes closed in sleep once again. Catherine, still holding her bleeding lip, returned to her own bed next to Lissie, who, bright eyed and awake, rocked back and forth on her knees.
"I wonder what's gonna happen if another kid gets Merolia in here!"
"Can we stop talking about the disease?" Another new orphan moaned. He was a boy just before his teenage years, blonde hair still neatly cut and face relatively clean (of course, this would change in a few weeks). "A lot of us already kinda saw it, and pretty up-close."
"Oh…sorry."
The room fell into an uncomfortable silence. Eugene crossed his arms behind his head, looking up at the low ceiling of the main bedroom. The hail clattered against the wood, drowning out any other sounds from the outside. Hail was rare in the kingdom, but unfortunately not unheard of. Someone somewhere was having their roof destroyed by ice tonight, he knew it.
Henry let out a small sob in his sleep, but this time no one went to comfort him. Even Catherine (who, at fourteen, now helped Nan with the younger children far more than she actually acted like an orphan herself) simple groaned and turned over.
He had to pity the kid, though, as annoying as he was. Merolia had been sweeping though the lower classes of the city like…well, a plague, and filling graves with the poor.
It starts with a slight fever, almost unnoticeable at first. Then, after a week, the person collapses, barely able to move. The fevers skyrocket, followed by coughing fits, blood, hallucinations, and then a slow, painful death. There was a cure, but it consisted of highly expensive herbs from the East that needed to be mixed just right. No one in the lower city could afford such a cure, and instead could only await the inevitable.
And many of these new orphan's parents had.
He closed his eyes, letting the pitter patter of the hail muddle into the background as he drifted off to sleep.
"AHH!" Lissie's legs flew out from under her as she toppled onto the ground, landing right on her bottom with a thump. "Oww…" She blinked her eyes to see Eugene smirking back at her, scrub brush in hand.
"Smooth," he said, continuing to scrub the floors.
Lissie's felt her cheeks flush pink. Why did she always have to look like a fool in front of him? Scrambling to her feet, she rushed to hide beside Catherine.
"Don't worry Lissie," Catherine reached forward to braid Lissie's tangled hair, "I almost fell too."
"You was probably weighed down by those apples growin' on yer chest!" Robert sneered, lying back on his elbows. Catherine leapt to her feet at once, almost knocking Lissie over, and marched over to his mat with every step making a loud tap on the wood.
"What did you just say to me?" she snarled, bending over him with her fists on her hips.
"Ah, that's a good view of 'em." Robert grinned up at her, eyebrows wiggling, "They's more the size of small melons, really."
Catharine's hand snapped forward, gripping his scalp and yanking him bellowing to her level, "Shut up, you filthy little creature!"
"Really Robert, you should know not to call attention to them," Eugene dipped his brush in the pail, sloshing browned water over the floor, "then you can stare all you want like the rest of us."
Catherine stomped back to him with her mouth open as if to say something, but the bedroom door opened before she could.
"Don't worry Catherine, if they stare, it's a good sign," Nan stepped into the room, placing a hand on the little brown head of hair hiding behind her skirt, "Children, we have a new face!"
"Ugh, not another one!"
"We ain't got no room!"
"Where's it gonna sleep? 'Cause it ain't here!"
"Now children," Nan led the girl to the front of the room, "This is Jane. I want you to make her feel welcome. Catherine, will you show her to her bed?"
"Of course!" Catherine took the girl's hand, leading her to the mat, "Here, Jane, this is where you'll sleep, right next to Mary!"
"Hiya!" Mary piped. Jane, eyes swollen red and a slick trail leading from her nose, snuggled into the blanket, sucking her thumb. The other orphans followed, wrapping their blankets over their shivering bodies.
"Nan, can I help you put the babies to bed tonight?" Catherine asked, crossing her arms behind her back.
"Yes, you may." Nan led her out of the room, closing the door again. Eugene scrubbed the last inch of the floor, wiped up the water, and sat up strait, his aching back cracking with every movement.
"Ugh…" he moaned as he flopped onto his mat, finally drifting off to sleep.
"Eugene! Eugene! Wake up!" a pair of hands violently shook him awake. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a covered face looming over him. "Eugene! It's Catherine! You have to wake up!"
"Uh, no." he turned over, ignoring her shakes, "maybe later."
"Please, please wake up!" she wasn't asking now—she was begging him. She grabbed his hand, trying to pull him out of bed, "Please please please!"
"Ok, ok…" he stumbled to his feet, and before he could start walking, she was tugging him down the hallway, breathing rapidly and whimpering. It was just then he noticed the tears streaming down her face.
"...andthenshelookedkindaflushed…andaskedherwhatwaswrong…andshesaidshefelthot…butitsreallycoldoutside…andthenshejust…"
Flinching, Catherine pushed open Nan's bedroom door. Eugene's jaw dropped, his breath escaping his lips in one swift huff.
There lay Nan in her bed, chest heaving and body laced with sweat. Her eyes were squeezed painfully shut, and her entire body shook, fingers gripping the thin sheets.
"…collapsed." Catherine sobbed, smothering her face in her hands.
"Merolia," Eugene whispered, not daring to step into the room. Catherine gave a single nod.
Nan had Merolia.
She was going to die.
"I can't believe it!" Lissie cried, burying her face in her knees, "Nanna's gonna die!"
"We don't know that," Catherine said, holding Mary, Jane, and Henry in her arms, barely able to sit upright.
"Don't lie to them, Cat."
"Eugene!"
"Of course she will." Eugene stood, walking into the middle of the circle of orphans in the main bedroom, "if she's going to get better, she needs a doctor. Unless you have a damn big load of cash you never showed us, Catherine, then she is going to die."
"Wait!" Lissie leapt from the ground, a smile breaking though her tears, "I know! One time, I went with Nan on an errand, and she stopped by at a friend's house, who's a doctor!"
"Lissie," Eugene fell to his knees, gripping her shoulders with his nose almost touching hers, "where is this man?"
"Heh…he's…uh…" Lissie's mouth hung open, her eyes wide.
"Move back, Eugene," Catherine whispered.
He did, rolling his eyes. "Where, Lissie?"
"Near the Crossover Street," she finally said, before rushing back to her seat.
"I'll go find him." Eugene said, the orphans staring up at him with hopeful and respectful eyes, "And I'll get him to help Nan."
Cheers filled the room. Eugene grinned, finally feeling somewhat like a hero…but as he glanced over to Catherine, cooing the children wrapped in his arms, he began to wonder. Was he a hero to these kids, or a father?
He hoped it was the former.
The man was the only doctor in the lower kingdom. His home, though still made of wood like the rest of them, was smoother and better kept, with actual glass in the windowpanes and shingles on the roof. It was about a block down from the Crossover Street, just long enough for Eugene not to feel the tinge of humiliation from the past year creep back into his mind.
He climbed up the front steps, knocking on the door.
A grey-haired man opened it just a crack, his icy blue eye peering though, "Who goes there?"
"Just me. I'm from the orphanage."
"Ah." The man opened the door wider, allowing Eugene in. His brown linen shirt was spotted with colored smudges, a few with a suspicious dark-red color, "You are one of Angelica's kids?"
"Angelica?"
"Oh, I forgot, you kids call her Nanna." The man chuckled, leading Eugene into a room with a few wooden chairs set around an old table, "My name is Dr. Frederickson. Do you want some tea?"
"No, thanks." Eugene sat down next to him, sighing, "this is actually an important visit. Nan has Merolia."
"Oh." The man stared down at the table, crossing his fingers, "I see."
"I need you to cure her."
"I can do it. "
"Great!"
"For 80 coins."
Eugene gaped at him for a moment, barely able to breathe. After a few silent moments, he was finally able to squeak out a single word.
"What?"
"These are hard times, boy, and I'm too busy to work for free. Even for an old friend." The man poured himself some tea, ignoring Eugene's gawking face.
"But…but how?" Eugene breathed out.
Dr. Frederickson sighed, setting down his teacup. "How old are you, boy?"
"Thirteen," he said, "But I don't know what that has to do with—"
"Young man, allow me to show you something." The doctor stood, taking Eugene's shoulder and leading him down the hall. His hand paused at a heavy oak door at the very end, and his ghostly eyes gazed into Eugene's own.
"I want you to be prepared for what you will see."
"I think I am, sir."
The door opened.
Inside were stacks and stacks of thin bunk beds, each one holding a groaning man, woman, or child in a fit of coughs, or sleeping soundly, or wiping a spot of blood off their mouths, but most were simply groaning in pain. A spicy smell of sweat and rusted metal wafted though the air, stinging Eugene's nose with the unpleasant scent. Many were begging the nurses in gasping voices for water or painkillers. One tiny girl, no more than four, cried out about the vipers crawling up her bedpost and trying to bite her, her face white in terror.
Eugene shut his eyes tight, but the image still flashed in the darkness. He could still hear the groaning and gasping, still hear the little girl's horrified screams and the group of nurses shushing her. He could smell the dried blood and the burning ashes from outside, all that was left those who did not get cured fast enough.
"All of these people need my care just as much as Angelica does, and they can afford it."
Eugene opened his eyes again, looking into the room and saying nothing.
"It's a brutal world out there, young man. You can't make exceptions when there is this much at stake. In the end, you need to eat or be eaten. Do you understand now?"
Eugene nodded softly, "Yes. Yes I do."
"Run along now. Tell Angelica that she's in my prayers."
"Load of good those will do," Eugene left him, walking down the hallway.
The street was collecting small drifts of snow when he stepped out. Eugene dug his hands into his pockets and dragged his feet down the road, barely aware of what he was doing. One tiny flame of hope that Nan might live, and it was snuffed out like it was nothing.
It was then he realized he was going the wrong way; he was at the Crossover Street! He was about to turn back when, though the corner of his eye, he spied a richly dressed man standing by an upper-kingdom jewelry stand.
"Wee ho, this is a magnificent diamond!" The man pointed his spectacle at a shimmering crystal, about the size of an almond.
"Thank you sir, I hope to sell for riches to help give my daughter a good dowry. She's at that age, you know," the store keeper said, not-to-subtly lifting his eyebrows.
"Oh, in that case," the rich man dug out a heavy bag of coins, deliciously jingling in the silk pouch, "Here. Get your daughter a good man!"
Eugene's heart raced. A perfectly good bag of money, money that could be used to get Nan the cure she needed, was going to be thrown away, wasted, for a girl's dowry? He could barely believe it. That money—it could be the key to her survival. Who cares if some girl can get a rich enough sucker to marry her?
His fingers twitched, a strange itch coming over them—he wanted that bag.
"Why thank you, sir!" the man cradled the coins in his hand, until a sharp, nasally voice cried out behind him.
"Roger, come help me measure this ruby!"
"Yes, Lydia!" He placed the bag on the table, turning away and disappearing into the stand.
Eugene's mind reeled. Wasn't stealing wrong? But he needed to save Nan! Was he going to get caught? Not if he just slipped in and slipped out…
His senses racing, his hands trembling, his thoughts battling within his brain, he rushed forward and swiped the bag right off the counter.
And then it was over.
He pounded through the streets, clutching the bag for dear life in his paled knuckles. No one paid him any attention as he ran; only indifferently stepping out of his way. His breaths heaved and his fingers still shook as he hopped up the steps of Dr. Frederickson's home.
He rammed on the door, switching from foot to foot until the doctor opened it.
"What are you doing back here so soon?" he asked, glancing down, "Is…is that…"
"Money. Here." Eugene held the bag up, and the man took it. "It has to be enough."
"It sure looks like it." The doctor opened the top, gasping, "This has to be at least one hundred coins! Where did you get this?"
"Why does it matter?" Eugene said, "Like you said, we need to eat or be eaten. And I'm eating."
Frederickson stared at him few moments, considering the boy's words. Huffing, he stuffed the bag into his pocket. "Very well. I will work on Angelica."
They had gotten help just in time. Nan was still in the early ages of the disease, and Dr. Frederickson was able to cure her in two weeks. She was already sitting up and talking well when he decided to leave for the last time.
"She still needs plenty of rest," he said, packing up his supplies, "but soon she will be good as new. Goodbye, children."
"Goodbye, Dr. Frederickson!" They sang, before rushing past him to meet at Nan's side, pushing and shoving to get a place in the tiny bedroom.
"Thank you for all your excellent care, my children," she said, sipping at some warm broth Catherine had been given after cleaning another woman's house for a week.
"We just want you to get better, Nanna," Lissie said, folding her hands.
"I'll tell you what," Nan put down her broth, a grin on her face, "As soon as I have the energy to get out of bed, I'll take you all to the Christmas festival in the square!"
"The upper kingdom?" Catherine gasped, glancing slightly at Eugene, the boy rolling his eyes, "Aren't we…not really supposed to go there?"
"Damn those social barriers!" Nan exclaimed, punching her fist into the air, "I'm taking you to the festival if it kills me!"
The orphans rejoiced, cheers and hoots and high-fives clamoring through the hallways. Lissie and Henry danced through the room, frolicking and laughing until they bumped right into Robert, sending the entire group down into a giggling heap. In the distance, the church bells rang through the clear black night. Eugene stood by the door, watching the moment with a smile on his face.
This wasn't exactly a negative consequence for his thievery. Heck, how could they give you one if you didn't get caught? They can't; you'll be gone free. He knew he should feel guilty, but he didn't. Not at all, no way, not ever. Not for this.
Snow swirled in the wind as the orphans skipped through the streets of the lower kingdom, lined up behind Nan. The stars glittered in the dark night above them, and the crisp snow crunched under their tattered boots. The army of children broke through the Crossover Street, most clapping and hopping with excitement over finally leaving their filthy neighborhood. Just for one night, they got to be normal children!
The square opened up to them, lantern lights gleaming against the snow and holly hung from every rafter. Bells chimed and violins strung as the townspeople danced together, twirling and circling around each other along to the music, leaping into the air with cries of happiness.
Eugene had never seen anything more magical in his life.
Catherine, her blazing hair sprinkled with snowflakes, was the first to dive into the dance. Taking her place among the women, her skipping feet flew through the crowd and stepped just in time with the music, the grin on her face growing with every note.
Before he knew it, Catherine had run up him and grabbed his hand, pulling him into the dance.
"Come on!" she exclaimed, and his hand wrapped around her waist as they bounced along with the rhythm, laughing and hooting with the rest of the dancers. He spun her in his hand, casting down the line to meet her on the other end. They joined hands again, switching sides, and clapping with the beat as another couple pranced down.
Then, the violinist played the last note, and the dancers roared with applause as they said goodbye to their partner. Eugene turned to Catherine, about to give a joking bow, when she did the most unexpected thing.
She kissed him.
It was over almost as soon as it began, but it remained to tingle on his lips. She gasped slightly, covering her mouth. He gaped at her, wide eyed, and she was gone in a flash, leaving a deep trail of footprints in the snow as she ran off.
Eugene stood alone in the square, jaw still on the ground. Of all the people in the world to give him his first kiss, Catherine? She acted like their mother all the time, who knew she could think of any of the boys romantically?
Did he like it? He wasn't sure. It's not like he brought it on. Or did he? No, he didn't! He was just dancing with her as a friend! But did she know that?
Shaking his head, he left the dancing, the kiss relentlessly replaying in his mind. He forced it back, though, and focused on the people at the festival as they wove in and out, blissfully unaware of their surroundings. Eugene's hand brushed against the woven wood of a small bread cart, the owner's back turned. Like clockwork, a warm bun was in his hand and he was lost in the crowd, cart out of sight and himself out of danger of being caught. He took a deep bite, the sugar sticking to his lips.
Hey, he was an orphan, and he was hungry. That baker probably gets a hot, substantial meal every day, and he only gets gruel. He deserves this.
Right?
Eugene licked the last of the bun's glaze off his fingers, his stomach now begging for more.
As he leaned against the stone wall of an upper-kingdom home, a certain redhead finally approached him, hands gripped tightly behind her back.
"Uh…Eugene, about what happened…"
"When you randomly planted one on me? Or another crazy, insane, totally out of line thing you did in the last five minutes?"
"I could use without your sarcasm right now, Eugene," Catherine snapped, her fists planting on her hips yet again.
"Hey, I just don't think of you that way."
"Well neither do I!" she crossed her arms defensibly.
"Ok, then."
Catherine started to relax, but paused. She sniffed the air, her nose scrunching up, "Why does your breath smell like cinnamon?"
"I've been chewing on a wreath."
"Eugene!" she gasped, hitting his arm with a swift slap, "did you steal something?"
"What if I did?" He finally turned to look at her shocked face.
"Then I'm going to tell Nan!" she was just about to spin around when he grabbed her arm, tugging her back in front of him. He was about to beg her not to like Armond did Lissie, but stopped, thinking for a moment. If Catherine knew the urgency such a threat gave him, it might just motivate her more.
Instead, he gave a mocking pout, lips slightly pushed out and shining amber eyes looking up at her with upturned eyebrows. "Hey, don't," he said.
Catherine breathed in and out; closing her eyes and opening them back up. "O-okay. A-as long as…you don't do it again." She didn't giggle like he thought she was going to, but hey, he didn't mind.
"Of course," he lied.
Slowly, she walked away.
Eugene turned back to see Jack holding back a large laugh.
"Oh my God, that was great!" he snickered, punching Eugene in the arm.
"What? She was just helping a friend."
Jack leaned in closer, an amused smirk still on his face, "No, that wasn't helpin' a friend. That was helpin' the guy she just locked lips with."
Eugene chuckled, "Seriously?"
"Face it, ya ain't exactly a bad looking guy. If you could get all girls to drool over you like she was just doin' then, you could rule the world."
"I wouldn't mind that too much," Eugene laughed out loud, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning back on the wall behind him, the cocky smile never leaving his face.
I think this is the beginning of an era, he thought.
Sorry again for being a bit late!
No, this is not the end. There's still plenty more story in my mind. ^^ I'll try and get the next chapter out by next Tuesday, and after that winter break starts, so I'll have plenty of time!