Chapter 4: The roof collapse
Sean runs through the empty streets, chased by someone he can't see. Several times the young street boy looks back to see if he can see a glimpse of his attacker, but the streets behind him are as empty as the streets before him. But Sean knows someone is chasing him, and doesn't stop running. Instead he climbs up to the rooftop of the building on his left.
As Sean runs across the rooftop he can hear the heavy boots of the person pounding on the fire escape, climbing up as well. Sean quickens his speed, and so does the person who's chasing him. Sean can see the edge of the rooftop coming, it's so close. More speed, he has to make more speed if he wants to make it to the next roof.
Just when the street boy wants to ready himself for the jump, strong arms wrap around his waist and pulls him back, away from the edge. Sean feels himself object, rounding on his left heel as his right foot makes a kick to his attacker. Surprisingly, he kicks air. There is no one.
Sean looks around, and around, spinning and spinning on his heels as he searches for the person who had grabbed him, but the rooftop is empty. The street boy frowns confused. He felt arms, he felt them. To who did they belong?
The young boy hasn't time to think, as suddenly his arms and legs are starting to vibrate. It's like something is drilling underneath him. But the strange thing is, he feels it in his arms, his legs, his entire body, but not in his feet. That's weird right, because he was standing on his feet, so if something drills underneath, you would expect to feel in your feet, not your arms.
Then, a very loud meow, somewhere in the distance. Sean lifts his head up, trying to find the cat that's meowing. It's so loud, so near, so much fear in that noise. But why can't he see the cat? Where is the cat?
More cats start to meow, and it sounds like they are all meowing with fear. Sean starts to run, faster and faster into the direction the noise is coming from. "NO!" a girl's voice suddenly rings into Sean's ears.
Sean sits up straight onto his make-shift bed, and when his eyes adjust to the darkness around him, he sees he's in his hideout. It was all a dream, but why did it all felt so real? Just when Sean wants to lie down again, the ground beneath him starts to vibrate again, and he can feel it rumble slightly.
With fear filled eyes, the street boy looks at the glass on his small coffee table – which was made out an old crate – and he sees the water in it tremble. Again, his ears fills with the sound of meows, and that's when he realizes it's coming from the room next to his.
Sean moans a little annoyed. There are so, so many empty buildings in Gotham, and from all of them, the street cats had to choose the room next to his. Why? The rumbles and shaking stopped, and Sean flops back into his pillow.
"You see, I told you it would stop!" a voice suddenly says, and Sean frowns. Is there a girl in the room next to his as well? Why didn't he know he had neighbors? Also, how could she had felt the rumblings and shaking. He could barely feel or hear them. And he wouldn't have if he hadn't a great hearing, or the skills of feeling the slightest movements.
The cats don't stop meowing, it only becomes louder and louder, and the girl keeps trying to calm them down. Sean flops the pillow on his face and around his ears, trying to drown the meows. But then, the ground beneath him starts to shake again. Not as hard and loud as an earthquake, but hard enough for him to hear and feel. Also, the old paint plaster on his ceiling starts to crumble down onto his blankets.
Annoyed Sean sits up, dusting it off, when suddenly in the room next to his sounds a very loud crash, like something big is breaking and falling down. Then, a loud scream echoes through the building, and then everything turns silent again. The rumblings and shaking stops, but a few cats keep meowing rapidly.
Sean sits on his make-shift bed, his heart pounding in his ears. His room is filled with dust, which he slowly starts to breath in. Sean coughs loudly, trying to clear his lungs. The young street boy quickly grabs an old cloth and makes it wet with some water from the bottle beside his make-shift bed. After that, he clutches it against his nose, breathing in slowly.
After a few minutes he feels the burning stings in his lungs subside. Also breathing becomes easier. The entire time he tried to listen carefully if he could hear the girl in the next room move, but all he heard were the cats, meowing miserably. Some of them sounded like they were in pain.
The young street boy starts to doubt whether to look or not. He never wanted to expose himself to other people, because what if they would recognize him? Or what if they worked for the person who tried to kill him and his parents? Until now, he always looked out for number 1. Himself.
'But she screamed,' Sean thinks to himself. 'And she isn't moving or talking since then.' Sean stands up to his feet and turns on the small dim light in his room, noticing parts of his ceiling are missing, but nothing too serious. It was never a nice or save place to sleep anyway.
Slowly the street boy presses his ear against the wall of his bedroom, listening. He can't hear the girl, and some of the cats had stopped meowing, while others meows became softer. Like they for some reason hadn't the energy left to meow. Fear enters Sean's heart when he suddenly remembers the crash he had heard, right before the girl screamed.
"Are you okay?" Sean asks, pounding onto the wall, listening carefully. The cats start to meow louder again. But there's another sound in the background. Soft moans of pain. "Are you okay?" Sean asks again, but the meows are the only answer he gets.
Sean grabs for his flashlight and heads to his bedroom door, opening it slowly. He can see the entire hallway is filled with dust, and wreckage. A part of the roof had come down, and was now lying in the hallway.
To avoid of getting wounded by all the sharp objects, the young street boy makes his way through the wreckages. It's a complete mess, and so hard to get through. But then finally the boy reaches the room next to his. The door is blocked with a large wooden beam.
Sean puts all his strength against it, and it drops to the floor. Then he quickly drags it out of the way so he can open the door safely. As Sean opens the door it's stuck again from the inside. One of the cats, glad to flee to his rescue, slips through the creak of the door. Soon a few others follow.
"Yeah, you're welcome," Sean mutters sarcastically as he watches them disappear into the hallway, not even looking back at the boy who saved them. Then, addressing to the girl he tried to save; "Are you okay?"
Softly, barely audible, the girl coughs and moans before whispering with a dry throat; "Help."
"Don't worry, I'll be there in a second!" Sean says, pushing the door further open, but it's still blocked by something. Then there is no other choice for him them squirm himself through the creak. With a lot of effort the street boy finally had pushed himself through the half open door.
Sean beams with the flashlight through his new surroundings. It was not bigger than his own room, maybe even smaller. There was lots of mold on the walls, and the ceiling. Well, on the parts of the ceiling that was still intact. Other parts had collapsed as well, blocking the door.
There's a small table in the corner of the room, which contains some money and a knife. There was a large matrass lying on the floor, covered with ruin and dust. The girl was nowhere to be seen. Sean quickly spins around, trying to find another room. Maybe she had a bathroom or something, but it turned out she didn't.
"Where are you?" Sean asks, scoping his surroundings. A soft, shallow moan comes from his left, and he quickly turns his head alarmed. It sounds like it's coming from the spot where the mattress is lying.
Suddenly realizing the roof must have come down when she was still lying on her mattress, Sean rushes toward it, moving things aside. He tries his best to not touch the things that supporting the other parts of the ceiling, otherwise that might fall down too.
Sean moves bricks aside, and suddenly a blur of red and white rushes past him and across the room, hiding behind other collapsed stuff. Yellow eyes sparkle from the darkness and Sean realizes it was just another cat.
'How many cats does this girl have?' Sean wonders as he moves beams and bricks out of the way. Suddenly he sees a black leather gloved hand, and her fingers twitch slightly. Sean grabs her hand and squeezes it firmly, and the girl squeezes back. "You're going to be okay, be strong," Sean says firmly as he lets go.
The girl moans, which quickly turns into painful sobs. Sean quickly removes more ruin, and suddenly he can see her stomach, and soon her legs as well. Then, the young boy sees a big flat piece of wood, and when he removes it, the street boy sees her face, covered with dust and blood.
The girl swallows, coughing loudly as she tries to clear her sore and dry throat, trying to form the word she tries to say. "Help," the girl says then, barely louder than a whisper. The red and white cat had crawled away from her hiding place and cautiously walked up to the boy and his owner.
"You're going to be okay," Sean says again, moving more stuff aside so she can try to sit up. Sean tries to help her up, but she shakes her head rapidly, her face turning into a painful expression. "Come on, you can do it! Come on!" Sean demands.
With a lot of effort the girl finally moves away from the spot she had lied for an awfully long time. Sean can see one of her ankle is blue and bleeding. Quickly the young street boy uses a piece of wood as splint so she can stand on her leg.
Then Sean helps her to hobble to a much saver spot where they sit down. The girl wraps her arms around his neck and, coughing loudly as she tries to say the words that are burning on her lips. Then, finally she whispers; "Thank you, thank you so much for saving me."
"No problem," Sean whispers back, still feeling the adrenaline pump through his body as the girl starts to cry softly. Sean rocked her back and forth until her cries subsided and she looked up at his face. Her tears had washed most of the dust away, and that's when Sean sees two very familiar eyes sparkle in his.
"You," they say both with a gasp, staring at one and another in shock. The girl, who happens to be Selina, quickly unwraps her arms and moves away from Sean's lap, who also lets go so quickly, like she's on electricity.
"Yeah, uhm," Sean says awkwardly, darting his eyes from left to right, trying to find the words to say.
"I, eh," Selina stutters, feeling a little embarrassed about the fact she cried in Sean's arms, like a childish, little girl. Well, everyone would cry if they had been in the same situation as her, but it was still awkward. The young cat-girl tucks a curl behind her ear, but it immediately jumps back. Sean can't help to chuckle as she tries to tuck her curl away for a second time. "Again, thank you for saving me."
"It's fine," Sean mumbles, getting a little red in the face. It's the first time in his life, he's getting so close to a girl. Especially to a girl he doesn't know enough about, but yet can't erase from his memory. Sean wonders why?
"My cats," Selina suddenly says, wiping some blood from her face and tries to stand up, but fails since her ankle still hurts too much. Though, that won't stop her. "We need to find them."
"Yes, I'll help," Sean says, standing up to his own feet. The morning sun already starts to lighten up the room through the broken windows. "But one other thing first." And with that, Sean starts to propel himself though the broken roof materials to the other side of the room, taking the money and the knife from the stand beside the mattress.
Carefully the street boy scrambles back to where Selina is, handing her the knife, and then with a bright smirk on his face, Sean Ornelas stuffs the money in his own pockets. "I think this belonged to me, remember?"
Selina cocks her head with a angry sparkle in her eyes. Here she was, sitting on the floor with a sore ankle, and her room completely a mess, and still that boy has the nerves to steal the money back, she stole days earlier. Okay, she has to admit, she would have done the same.
"So, how many cats do you have, because eight or nine of them ran through the door when I came in," Sean says, helping Selina to get up her feet. "And I think, an red and orange one will be around there, somewhere."
"Where they wounded?" Selina asks worriedly.
Sean shakes his head; "Not that I could see."
"Well, that's a relieve," Selina says with a sigh, scrambling over to piece of wood to lean on. Soon as she puts her weight against it, it starts to slip. Luckily, it stays in place when Sean drags her out of the way.
"You know what, I'll help you to the next room, where you can stay while I search for your cats." Selina nods agreed. An hour later, Selina is reunited with all her cats, though some are wounded, but a little TLC will do the trick.
So, what do you think of this chapter? Let me know by review. I love to hear your thoughts:D
