"Mom!" Rose jolted awake, staring into darkness that loomed over her. It seemed as if she was staring into an eternal blackness. She had been dreaming about the gunshot that ruined her life, the one that took away her parents.
She looked to her left, and saw her little brothers, Austin and Alex, sleeping soundly as if they weren't aware that they had just lost their parents. As the reality of the situation crashes down upon her, she feels numb, too tired to feel anything other than nothing. Sighing, she rubbed her blood shot eyes, climbing sorely to her feet and trying to stay upright without falling to the cold floor.
Silently walking out the door, so as not to wake her brothers, she goes out into the alleyway that she had come to first. Looking around, she noticed that nobody was really around, besides a few shady people, most likely drug dealers.
Crying broke the fragile peace in the night, turning everyone's attention in the direction of the sound. Paling, Rose ran back into the room she left her brothers. Austin was sitting up and looking around, frowning, while Alex was screeching, obviously not very happy.
Picking him up, she tried to soothe Alex, but her efforts were wasted, as he kept crying. Fearing he had drawn unwanted attention, she quickly packed all the stuff up that she had and decided that they had better get a move on. Climbing out a small window she carried her brothers, one in each of her arms.
She walked until daybreak, avoiding all suspicious looking people, which was pretty much everybody. After a while people seemed to thin out, only a few homeless residing in the area. She was breathing heavily, slowly putting one aching foot in front of the other until the burning in her lungs and muscles became too much.
A rickety piece of wood caught her eye, and she turned and headed in the direction of it. A windowsill split the brick building, parting the wall and allowing her entrance. It was on the second story, making it dangerous to climb up to normally, much less with her brothers and the packs.
Frowning determinedly, Rose tightened her grip on her brothers and ran forward, springing off of a old crate and jumped landing halfway on the foot wide, concrete ledge, knocking the breath out of her already shaking body. Yelping, she lost her grip on her brothers who were jolted over to the wall, colliding with a dull thud. Both boys started screaming, filling Rose with dread as a repeat from earlier might happen. Dragging one foot up, she pushed her body up from dangling over the 10 foot drop, leading to what would surely be excruciating pain.
Hurriedly, she retrieved her brothers and walked up the old rotten wood. She came up to the window and carefully climbed in over the shards of glass illuminated in the dull light of dawn. Inside was covered in dust, so she raised her hand and swatted away that in front of her nose. It contained nothing but old scraps of wood, tarps covering broken furniture, and the gaping hole in the wall leading out to the hallway what she assumed to be downstairs.
Her body screaming at her to rest, she searched for a safe place to put her brothers while they slept. What appeared to be an old couch stood in the corner, covered by a worn-out old tarp. Sighing, she walked carefully on the old creaking floor, pulling the tarp up and over the wooden structure.
The sofa was a pale blue color, covered in fabric that suggested it was once a pristine piece of furniture. Faded silver swirls covered the fabric, and it still had both cushions, though one was ripped at the seam and stuffing spilled out of the interior.
Rose was dead tired at this point, craving sleep and swaying on her feet. Pushing the couch up against the wall, she laid her brothers on it, dropped all of the stuff that weighted her down, and promptly collapsed onto the floor.
