Chapter Text
She dashed across the empty and narrow streets that were pushed together by compressed houses. Her hair drooped down onto her eye making it hard to see as sweat dripped down her forehead. But there was no time to tuck it back, there was something more important that occupied her hands.
“Come back here ye slimy brat!” an old man yelled at her from an old rundown pharmacy as a group of young boys chased after her, but she was quick and ahead of them all. Just then, from an alley way a tall young man just as grimy as the thugs who chased after her opened his arms ready to catch her but his lanky legs were too obvious not to notice and were spread as wide as possible.
She slid under them as though they were a small tunnel, now ahead of them all. Another one jumped out from a window and landed in front of her, he was short and chubby with disgusting amounts of unwiped snot in his nose, he immediately attempted to grab her but the girl reacted in less than a second with an intense kick to his face which hurled him towards 3 other thugs trailing along behind and they all stumbled turning into a big pile of bodies.
She dashed street to street as her violet peasant dress was trampled by her small and fast footsteps. Her sandals were about to explode from the bulging blisters on her feet, and she limped in an immensely estranged way as though she was trying to keep a steady run while also keeping her balance.
With every dash she took down an alley she noticed that less and less thugs were chasing her, soon enough she was all alone and out of breath but luckily, she had reached her destination. In front of her was a small shop that read “Cordorva’s shoe shop”. Wooden crates were stacked all around it and seemed unopened, like they had been neglected and forgotten about. It was a stubby, two story building and was made of dirty stone bricks and the floors were made of red painted wood and the sign on the front was on the verge of falling off.
Home sweet home.
The girl reached for the door handle and twisted it oh so gently as if something would collapse if she opened the door any faster.
But as she was about to walk in, someone snatched her arm from behind and gripped her throat, holding even tighter as they dragged her into a position where her face was visible.
The girl flailed her free arm, trying to punch away the threat while also trying to obtain her breath again. She coughed and choked, turning side to side until she finally opened her eyes, there in front of her stood a boy just her age. He was young with big oval shaped eyes, he tried to scrunch them up and seem older and more intimidating but there was no gruffness in his eyes. She suddenly stopped moving around and stared him right back in the eye, only she was more gritty and serious, this made the boy loosen his immense grip on her throat.
“Y-you better give me those drugs, or i’ll- i’ll choke you to death!” he demanded sheepishly.
“Why can’t you just take’em? I’m not strong enough to resist your pathetic grip, what's stopping you?” she replied back in a deep and forceful voice
“NO, just! Hand them over and I'll leave you alone!” suddenly the clutch turned into a fearful hold, she had found her way out.
“Well , I'm not giving you them so I guess we’ll be here a while,” she said in a taunting tone.
“Fine then!” he cried, letting go of her throat and about to grab the drugs- but he hesitated for a second ( like she had planned ) and that's when she brought her head forward and slammed into his forehead. He stumbled back in confusion and she dashed towards the wooden crates, pushing them onto the boy. He yelped in pain before passing out in front of the door and lay there with the crates covering his body as a reddish bloody bruise formed on his head, it looked like he had finally gotten some rest. The girl’s head started to drip with a small amount of blood from the amount of pressure she had used to defend herself, although it wasn’t much of a loss for the boy and his thick skull, It was a bit of a problem for her.
She touched her bulging wound gently and quick but it still hurt, what was she to do? There were no bandages in her home and there was only one towel she used to mop the dirty floors in the bakery, but she didn’t want her to get worried. They both had gone through enough although she couldn’t handle the guilt- she couldn’t tell. Another wound hidden under the rug.
She stepped inside the house, dragged her throbbing, sore, stubby ankles up the dusty stairs, and stood in front of a dark, rotting wooden door. She knocked, no answer, like always. Letting herself in, she tipped toed across the creaking floor, passed the closet, to the drawer. Where she heard a grunt, she looked towards the thin bed that towered above the drawer. Through her nervousness, she looked up, trying to form a smile which ended up looking like she was about to cry.
But before she spoke to the figure on the bed, she quickly let her hair down, covering the dried blood and wound. The figure turned gently and slowly, the way they moved felt like flowers rising after a storm had passed by, they faced her.
“How are you feeling mother?” she asked softly
“Just fine, Sofia” Her mother managed to smile through the sickly pale mask that laid upon her flesh.
Sofia smiled back immediately. Through all the pain that flushed through her veins, her mother’s smile pushed it back down into her mind again.