What A Long Hard Life Bless' Story

Chapter 6: It's Not All Bad

Thanks for the reviews, SwiftShadow123, Cora Roz and Omega!

Shade and Bless were hiding between a few piles of rubble. (How many time have I said the word 'Rubble' now!) They were nicely hidden within them, so if GUN started up the search again they wouldn't be found that easily. Shade was sitting against one of the piles, his eyes looked lifeless, his body limp, though he was alive. Instead of crying, he went into a deep depression. A nice quiet way to deal with the death of his mother, Bless was doing the absolute opposite though.

She was kicking the nearby wreckage, breaking it even more, and crying out like a child, though, she was a child. "It's not fair!" she screamed out, eyes still flooding with tears. "It's all his fault! I hate him! Why couldn't he at least be here for that! He could have saved her then!"

"Be thankful that you were the only one who wasn't shot okay?" Shade said angrily, pointing to his leg which was bandaged with one of the sleeves of his T Shirt. "You know what I think… I think it would have been better if you were shot." he said, baring his teeth.

"Why? How could you say something like that!" she sobbed.

"You wouldn't have died… you have Dad's immortality! You would have been living, and none of us would have died!" he shouted in frustration.

"No… I'm not immortal… I'm not… she didn't do that for nothing… please Shade… she didn't." Bless said, becoming delirious.

"I'm not gonna lie to you… it's true…" Shade said, closing his eyes and folding his arms. "Why else would Mt Towers have his eye on you… and the commander go to shoot you… when he killed mum, he didn't seem too happy… he didn't want to kill any us Bless, and he was going to shoot you!"

"NO!" Bless screamed. "I'm not immortal… I'm not going to live forever… I'm not… please…. No…" she shook. She ran to Shade and buried her face in his tummy. Shade wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry." he said calmly. "But you are… but that's a good thing… isn't it?"

"Dad didn't like being immortal… he said so himself." Bless said still crying. "And he passed his curse onto me…"

"At least now… I won't lose you… the only relative I have left…" Shade said, hugging Bless lovingly, tears started al fall from his eyes now.

"But… this means I could lose you-"

"You won't lose me… I will do everything possible to make sure I stay alive for you… for mum."

"How are we going to survive now… with no food… no money… nothing." Bless asked, wiping her tears.

"We could go back for our stuff… but that's a huge risk… besides… mum kept the money in her pocket…" he said, holding back another urge to cry. "We're going to have to steal…" he said, thankful that he was still in his hoodie, and that it wasn't lost. Bless looked worried. "Well, I'll haveto steal…" he corrected himself.

"But mum said-"

"It's the only way Bless… do you want to starve?" Shade said. "It should be easy with this…" Shade said, taking the gun out of his pockets.

"You're not going to use it, are you?" Bless asked, looking afraid.

"No… but if I point it at people, they'll give us what we need… and if things go out of hand, I'll run… it's simple… but I'm sure just putting things in my pocket will work just as well. Do you want something now?"

"No… I don't feel like eating…" Bless said, cuddling up to Shade again.

"Me neither… I'm too sad to eat…" he sighed. Bless wasn't listening though, she'd fallen asleep. Shade decided that it would be best if he slept too, so he closed his eyes and waited for the sleep to take over.

Bless didn't have such an easy sleep though. The corrupted father of her imagination had taken over her mind yet again. "Oh… Maria…" he said sounding truly hurt. "How could you do this to my Maria?"

"I… didn't do it…" Bless shook.

"It was you he was trying to shoot… it really should have been you to take the shot! You're so selfish!" Shadow cried out, he leapt at Bless and pinned her to the floor with his clawed hands. "I'll teach you to kill me wife!"

Bless screamed out, there was no way she could be stronger than her dad. "Please… don't hurt me!" despite her plea, Shadow began to strangle her, she struggled to get out of his grasp, but it was no use. She was getting weaker and weaker. She screamed out as loud as she could, but it wasn't very clear as her airways were blocked.

The dream world started to fade and the real world flashed before her, she gasped out, pulling away from Shade, she started to breathe heavily. "Whoa! What's wrong?" Shade said, pushing himself to sit upright. "Did you have another one of those nightmares?" Shade asked, rubbing his eyes. Bless shook her head slowly, looking to the floor, making no eye contact with him. "What are these nightmares about anyway? You've been having them ever since this disaster and you never told anyone about it…" Shade said gently.

"I don't want to talk about it… it's silly…" Bless said, shutting her eyes tight as if it would keep everything out.

"I have silly dreams sometimes… please tell me…" Shade said.

"No… I can't…" Bless said. Shade sighed, laying back again, he had decided to give up and leave her alone. "Shade… I'm hungry…" Bless complained. Shade sighed and tried to get up.

"Oww… I can't get up… my leg hurts too much when I move it." Shade said and grasped it tightly to stop the pain. He grunted in pain, crying out a little, a few tears escaped his eyes.

"Shade… oh no… what do I do to help you!" Bless yelled in panic.

"You don't do anything… I'll just wait for the pain to pass… it's ok…" Shade grunted, "Oww! No… it's not going to go away! The bullet's still in there!"

"We need a doctor!" Bless squealed.

"No! No doctors! We can't ask for help… or we'll be captured!" Shade said. "I'll have to get it out myself!" he said, unwrapping the bandage. He have out a masculine cry of pain as he did so, "I can't believe I'm going to have to do this!" he yelled out, he stuck his little finger into his wound an started to fish out the bullet.

He cried out in agony, he had never felt this much pain before. Bless watched in horror as more blood poured out of his wound, then the bullet, it popped out of the would along with his finger, rolled off his leg and made a small clinging sound as it hit the floor.

He stopped screaming, and went silent, breathing heavily. "It's over… finally…" he said, calming down. He covered the wound over with the bandage again, tightly so it would stop bleeding quicker. "That actually feels a bit better… but it still hurts like hell…." he groaned.

"I guess there wont be any food then… but that's ok… I don't want you to be even more hurt." Bless said an sat down by him.

"Oh… this is going to be a long night… or day… I have no idea what time it is… I wish I had a watch…" Shade said. "This constant darkness thing is really annoying…" he began to fidget with this t shirt, looking nervous. "I really wish I could walk right now…"

"Why?" Bless asked.

"I have to… you know… go…" he said, his cheeks turning red.

"Oh…" Bless said, having no idea what to do about it.

"I have to get up…" he grunted. He slowly got up, keeping his wounded leg off the ground. He began to lose balance. Bless ran over to help him stay up. "Aww… thanks Bless…" Shade said and smiled. She helped him walk over to an appropriate place to go. "Thanks so much… you can… you know… go now… I think I can stand by myself." he said, so Bless walked a distance so Shade didn't feel as if he was being watched.

She also helped him back to sit down. "Okay now?" Bless asked him, as he settle down again.

"So much better… thanks…" he sighed with relief, "Maybe… if I sleep a few more hours… my leg will heal better." Shade suggested and laid back, trying to relax. "I hope the pain calms down enough for me to sleep…" he groaned. Bless began to shiver, she was only wearing a thin T shirt. Shade took his hoodie off and gave it to her. "There… that's nice and thick… put it on… I'll want a turn later though." he said and gave it to her. Bless smiled at him and put it on, she cuddled into him again as they went to sleep, both of them feeling a bit better in each other.

They stayed in that area for a couple more days, until Shade could walk again. He was now able to get some food, he would have to plan this well, and not get caught so he didn't have to run, his leg wasn't fully healed yet.

He went into one of the safe houses with his hood up, so we wouldn't stand out in the crowd, he went into the one of the food shops and pretended to browse. When no one was looking he slipped a small loaf of bread into his pocket, it was a big pocket at the front of the hoodie, and left.

He ran back to Bless, he's been successful, no one had seen him. All was okay. They shared the bread between them and moved onto somewhere new, he couldn't keep robbing the same shop or they would get into him.

"Shade… don't you feel bad for doing this?" Bless asked, looking sad.

"To be honest… a little bit… but no one wants to treat us right… so they brought it upon themselves." Shade said, a bit of anger in his eyes.

"You're mad at everyone?" Bless asked. Shade nodded. "Like I'm mad at dad…"

"Yeah…" Shade sighed. "Bless… I think I'm starting to agree with you on some levels about dad… if what mum said was true, that he does care about us then not so much… but, because he's not here for us at this awful time, I'm kind of annoyed with him." he said sadly, he couldn't believe he was finally agreeing with Bless about this, even if it was only a bit.

Shade got out the bread and they began to eat it. It felt so good to eat again, even if they didn't have drinks to wash it down with. After having a few slices each, Bless started to complain, "Shade… I'm really thirsty… we need something to drink…" she groaned. Shade rolled his eyes and got up.

"Take more bread if you need to while I'm gone." he sighed an went back in. He felt even more uneasy this time, he may be recognised. He started to look at the drinks, he could get milk again, but that was getting boring, and this shop had bottled water, great! He looked to see if there was anyone else on the aisle with him, there was jus one turned the corner to leave him alone. Perfect, he shoved two small bottle of water in his pocket quickly and slowly made his way out, so it didn't look like he was running away.

He'd been successful again. "I hate this…" he sighed when he got back and gave one of the bottles to Bless. She started to gulp it down. "Hey, slow down!" Shade yelled. "I'm not going back in there… it has to last…"

"I couldn't help myself…" Bless said looking sad.

"It's okay… you still have some left… let's get a move on…" Shade said and helped her up. "If I get used to this, maybe I can steal you a treat." he enticed her and they began to walk again, carrying the bread and water with them.

"Shade… will we ever stop one day?" Bless asked.

"No… we can't… unless we find someone that we can trust. You never know who's going to reveal us to GUN."

"But this is tiring…" Bless said. "We have to walk every day… and it's making my legs hurt so much." she whined.

"Well get used to it… once we find another safe house to steal from, we'll settle down again for a couple of days, ok?" Shade said. "I wish I knew where we were… we could be in station square right now… but there's no way to tell… everywhere looks the same! We could be getting closer to GUN HQ for all we know!"

"I hope we're not… and if we are… you still have that gun, right?" Bless asked, Shade nodded. "They all do what we ask when you have it. But you're not going to use it… are you?"

"I may have to… but only if I need it as a last resort… for the sake of our survival…" Shade said with determination. Bless didn't like the sound of it, but she had to accept. She hoped they wouldn't be in a situation like that ever.

They carried on travelling for days, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, which brought them to a much loved time of year. Christmas. Where ever they went, that had inhabitants, they saw Christmas decorations. They were happy to see the beautiful colours for one, all they were seeing all year was grey, brown and orange.

By now, fires as died down, to leave wastelands and in lower grounds lava pools formed. They had to keep on high ground, or they would meet a terrible fate.

On they day that they guessed was Christmas eve, they began to think of their parents again and how they missed them, they would always give them presents and a lovely Christmas dinner. It looked like no one was having a big Christmas this year, as most people were only just able to buy the food.

Bless went to sleep, hoping she would have a nice dream this time, one about Christmas, about opening presents, or for her dream father to treat her nicely for the holiday.

She was in the world of emptiness again, only wearing a Christmas hat this time. Something the would never have a in the real world. Then she saw him, Shadow, the evil corrupted one she knew. He was sneering at her, getting closer and closer as he walked up to her. He snatched the hat off of her head and ripped it in two. "Why celebrate with the rest of them… you have nothing to celebrate! What are you going to celebrate? The fact that you're all alone this Christmas!"

"I was just trying to have some fun…" Bless said, trying to hold back her tears.

"Stupid girl… you're not getting anything this Christmas… but it's not because there simply isn't anything left to give no… it's because you're pathetic…" Shadow spat. "You don't deserve anything… not even this hat!" he said and threw it behind him.

"You're a- a monster!" Bless screamed. "I hope you're suffering this Christmas too!" she screamed out, but then she felt him fade away.

"Bless, wake up! It's Christmas morning! Look what we have!" she heard Shad say excitedly, he was shaking her gently.

"Wha…" Bless said sleepily, opening her eyes. Then she saw it, piles of food and a few toys in front of her. "How!" she squealed with joy, she got up and ran over to the pile, there was sweets and a few plush toys, simple gifts, but much appreciated.

Shade watched her and yawned, Bless saw this yawn, he looked really tired. "You did this… didn't you…" Bless asked curiously.

"No… it was… Santa…" he yawned, then smirked, so did Bless "Ok… it was me… stayed up all night… I was just going to get a few supplies to we could have a nice feast today… but one of the stores was giving things away for those who didn't have much… like us… they don't know who I am though, thankfully." he smiled. "So, we have a happier Christmas than expected." he cheered and hugged her tightly.

"I wish I could have gotten you something." Bless said sounding guilty.

"No… this is for both of us… just pretend you helped me get it… besides, seeing you happy is enough for me." he said, he walked over to the pile and took out a bar of chocolate, "Let's start this… you in the mood for chocolate?"

"YEAH!" Bless cheered. They opened up the packet and started their day with a treat.

Sorry if you think the Christmas thing is a bit out of place. I just wanted something to lighten the mood.

Lucy Labrador