Her body hit something cold and hard. Concrete. She made it. She quickly picked herself up from the ground and scanned the area for her brother. A few feet in front of her she saw a white and tan lump of gangly limbs covered with glowing green splotches. She limped over and picked him up. Cold, but that was normal. She held her breath for a bit to focus. His chest was moving slightly.

Still breathing.

Good.

She let go of her breath and hugged him close to her. She didn't know if it was lucky or alarming that he was this light. She tried not to think about that. Right now she had to figure out where they were and where they could go, then she could worry. She knelt down and set him on her lap, pulling her coat off and wrapping it around him before lifting him up into her arms again.

She looked around to try and piece together where they had landed. It looked like an alleyway. It was dark and had a dead end. There were muddy green dumpsters against brick walls and she could hear faint sounds of police sirens and angry shouts. She carefully maneuvered around the broken glass and mounds of trash on the ground, trying to make herself appear as small as possible to avoid being seen.

She peered out of the alleyway to see an empty street. The only person in sight was a man sleeping on the pavement on the other side of the road. The buildings in the area all looked run down, like they were on the verge of collapse.

"Hey there girlie whatcha got there?" She jumped and spun around to face a smiling man about an inch taller than her with a scraggly ginger beard and missing teeth. She stumbled back, almost falling down to the ground before she regained control of her body and bolted. She had no idea what she was doing, where she was going, or how she hadn't noticed the man sneaking up on her, but she knew she needed to leave. This wasn't safe, none of this was safe.

She slowed down. She must have been running for five minutes straight. Her leg hurt, she didn't know how she managed to run on it. She needed to find somewhere to rest.

She looked around. Most of the buildings looked abandoned, but she couldn't just go into any of them expecting it to be empty. Broken or open windows were a bad sign, and so were unlocked doors. Or maybe locked doors were the bad sign and unlocked was the safer option? She didn't know.

She should probably avoid any building that looked like it was in good, or even okay condition. If someone cared enough about a building to keep it looking decent, they probably wouldn't be too kind to squatters, but any building that looked too unstable could be a safety hazard. If she fell through the floor while carrying Danny, they would be completely unable to ask for help. And if she injured herself too badly, she wouldn't be able to care for him. They would both starve.

She wasn't sure what to do, but she couldn't just stand here, out in the open. She carefully approached one of the smaller buildings, trying to ignore the pain in her leg, and knocked on the door.

She heard rummaging, hushed whispers, the sound of a gun cocking, and ran as fast as she could. She could hear someone yelling, threatening to hurt a person named James if he came back. Her leg hurt, but she didn't stop until the yelling did.

She wanted to go home. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want to be so scared. She stopped to catch her breath and looked around. It all looked the same. Every building was still falling apart, there was still broken glass and trash everywhere, and she still didn't know what she was doing. She wanted to stop and cry, but she forced herself to limp over to another building.

It was tall, maybe 7 or 8 floors. Probably an apartment complex. The top of the building was blackened and crumbling, likely damaged in a fire. Most of the ground level windows were boarded up, but a few were completely unblocked.

She knocked on the door, careful to support Danny with her arm while doing so, but there wasn't a response. She tried to open it, but it was locked. She stopped herself from overthinking whether that was a good or bad sign and crouched down on the ground.

She shifted her hold on Danny, resting him on her lap to free her arm. She picked up a brick and tossed it through one of the windows, breaking a hole through it. She stopped and listened after the sounds of shattering glass died down. Nothing. It was safe.

She carefully set Danny down on the ground and grabbed another brick. She stood up, walked closer to the building, and started bashing in the rest of the window, creating a hole she could safely enter without cutting herself. She picked up Danny and stepped through, then looked around.

She was in a hallway. The floors were patterned tile and there was a radiator against the wall. It wasn't emitting any heat though, it likely hadn't in years. She saw two sets of stairs, one leading down and one leading up. She decided to avoid the one leading down, the basement would be dark, cold, and possibly flooded. She adjusted her hold on Danny and began to limp up the steps.

The hallway on the second floor was lined with doors. She tried to open one, but it was locked. She wondered if they all were. She tried with another. Locked. Another. Locked. Locked. All locked. She moved up to the next floor. It wasn't until the 7th door that she found one that would open. The metal strike plate was missing and the wood where it was supposed to be was rotten. The deadbolt broke right through the frame when she pushed on the door to open it.

The room was completely bare. There were cigarette burns on the wallpaper and indents on the blue gray speckled carpeting where furniture used to be. The linoleum flooring in the kitchenette was peeling and broken at the corners, the plastic texture patterned windows in the cabinets were cracked, and there was a single wood plank lying on the floor, stained red on one side.

The white paint on the radiator was chipped and rust spots bled through. A gas pipe was sticking out of the wall far more than it should have. Wires were dangling from the ceiling where a light fixture should be.

And it was cold, far colder than it should be. It was only September, it shouldn't feel this cold. And yet, she wouldn't be surprised if the pipes were frozen. On second thought, the pipes would likely be shut off. How would they go to the bathroom? How would they get drinking water?

And what about Danny? He was still hurt. He wouldn't be able to recover in a place like this. She still needed to get him help. But without access to the Far Frozen, there was nothing she could do. If she brought him to a hospital, he would be treated like a lab rat, and she would be arrested for her parents murder. He was going to die here and it would all be her fault.

Unless, Danny usually healed up fine from big injuries. This was definitely not the worst he's had. It's bad, but as long as she takes care of him, he should heal up fine.

She set him down on the carpet then sat down next to him. She'd have to get supplies. They couldn't just stay here forever with what they had, they'd freeze to death, or at least she would. She didn't know if Danny's ice abilities prevented that from happening to him. But they'd both need food and water.

She stood up and walked over to the kitchenette. She turned one of the tap handles, but nothing came out. So the pipes were shut off. And if the pipes were shut off then they couldn't use the toilet here. Maybe one of the other apartments were unlocked, or able to be opened like this one was. Maybe they could use the toilet in another room to prevent the one they were staying in from stinking. Maybe she could find out if she could turn the water back on, or find out if there were public restrooms somewhere. But that still left the issue of food and drinking water.

She'd have to steal. Danny would be better suited for that with his powers, but he wouldn't be able to in his condition. She had no idea how she was going to do it, she wasn't a very sneaky person, but she'd have to. And she'd definitely have to get some clothes for Danny. Their parents didn't leave anything on him while they performed their 'examination.'

She walked back to the carpet and crouched beside Danny, reaching into one of the pockets of the coat wrapped around him to see if she had left any money in it. Instead of grasping paper or coins though, she grasped something cold and metallic.

She pulled it out and walked to the other end of the room before sitting down and looking at it. It wasn't very large, about the size of a handgun. It seemed that her parents had forgone the usual green panels on this one. It was slightly heavy for its size and something green seemed to glow between the crevices in the dark grey metal.

She didn't remember dropping it in her pocket, but then again, the entire situation was kind of a blur. The only clear details were two loud bangs, her brother's open chest, the scramble to make everything fit, and the sizzling hole in her father's side. This must be what did that. She must be what did that.

She really didn't mean it. Yes, she's thought about the what if's. What if their parents were dead and they were given to another, better family. What if her parents just left on a ghost hunting trip and decided not to come back, and she could take care of herself and her brother in peace. But those were nothing more than just childish fantasies, stories she'd make up in her mind as a little kid before she went to bed. This was real, she had made it all real.

She should feel sad, she should be mourning, tearing herself apart in guilt, but instead she just felt empty. Like nothing had happened at all. Her mind likely hadn't processed all of this information. It hadn't even been a day since this had happened, maybe four hours at most, it would make sense that she hadn't processed it yet. Death of family members was a very difficult thing to accept. But somehow, she didn't think that was it.

Even if she hadn't accepted their deaths as truth yet, she should at least feel some sort of hurt. Guilt, regret, anything. But she didn't. She wanted so much to feel regret, to wish that she hadn't killed two people, to be a decent human being, but she just couldn't. It must be because she's in shock. Everything's kind of numb right now, so it makes sense for the reaction to be delayed.

So why was she glad she did it?

Just wanted to say, Invader Johnny, thanks for the comments. I always look forward to them and tbh, the fact that you leave one on pretty much every fic is one of the main reasons I still post here.