I shuffled through the shadows of the looming buildings of the city.
I always loved the city at night. It's as if you took your life in your own hands by just walking through it.
The danger excited me.
I neared the block in the center of town where our small apartment was located. It was in the busiest part of town; in the morning it was crowded with the daily work commuters and merchants in the market place. But at night, the streets were crawling with drug addicts, prostitutes, and criminals of all sorts.
I entered our building and climbed the creaking stairway to the eighth floor, where our two-room apartment was. When I reached the door, I inserted the key in the lock and pushed the door open.
On the two mattresses in the first room sat Jack, Zack, and Rian, my best friends and the only family I knew.
I guess, I forgot to tell Wendy I was an orphan.
"Alex!" Jack yelled as I closed the door. "What took you so long? Whatdya bring back?"
"Aye, you go out next time if you want it so bad!" I snapped at him jokingly. I squatted down on the empty space next to Zack. I opened my coat and revealed two loaves of bread. Their eyes all filled with hunger as I tossed it to them. "You should be fully grateful. I almost lost my arm and my right eyes for these!"
"Oh, you're so dramatic, Alex," Rian laughed.
"Everyone shut up! I need to eat or you will lose an arm!" Zack said as he scrambled for a loaf.
We divided the two equally and shoved it down our throats.
"Man, I can't remember the last time we ate that good," Zack hummed with a dreamy, far off stare.
"I can't remember the last time we ate," Jack whispered. Rian put his arm around our friend as he stared blankly.
Orphan life in the city wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
I broke the awkward silence that had fallen on us. "So, guessed who I happened to meet?"
"Who?" Jack perked up, very intrigued.
"I met the princess."
"No way! You're making that up! She's guarded by the toughest men in the kingdom, around the clock! You couldn't have!" Zack scoffed.
I looked at him with my signature stare and cocked eyebrow.
"You did?"
"Why would I lie to my brothers?" I gestured to the group with a wide smile.
"You met Wendy?" Rian asked innocently.
I nodded hastily.
Jack grinned, cheekily. "Damn, shes a babe."
We all burst into laughter.
"What the fuck?!" I screamed with laughter.
"It's true. Don't deny it!"
"I'm not," I wheezed between laughs, "I completely agree."
"Yeah, well, keep your hands off her," Jack snapped.
"Whoa, dude. What are you going on about?" Zack yelped.
"I mean, I did call her," Jack shrugged.
"When did this happen?" Rian couldn't contain his laughs. None of us could.
"I did! See-," Jack's whining was interrupted by the sounds of the gas alarms going off in the building.
"What the hell? This building is so poorly built! It's probably some idiot smoking some-" I opened the door to find a gray gas permeating the halls.
It flooded through the open door.
Jack, Rian, Zack, and I all scrambled to the open window with our shirts over our noses.
We filed down the fire escape and to the front of the building.
We stared in shock at what was out on the front lawn.
Men in uniforms pumped gas from trucks into the house as others pulled different people away from their families. We watched as one man pulled his unconscious wife out of the front door. Nobody helped him until a guard came over and ripped her out of his hands and threw her in the back of a truck.
I noticed a guard ripping two crying children from their mother's arms.
I ran to the guard, "What the hell is your problem? Give them back, they didn't do anything wrong!" I screamed in his face.
"By royal decree of the king, we are to arrest and imprison all suspects who have been charged with the abuse and consumption of illegal drugs and substances. We have no choice but to arrest them. Now step aside, sir, or you will be arrested too," he barked back.
"No! These people are innocent! There hasn't been a resident in this building to use that in years!"
"You have one more chance to step aside, sir," the guard warned.
"No! I will not step aside! These people are innocent!"
Before I had the chance to grab the guard, I was tackled to the ground by more uniformed men.
"Hey! Keep your hands off him!" I heard Jack yell as he, Rian, and Zack ran to help me.
But their efforts failed, when they were each tackled to the ground by other guards.
We were all pulled up by our hair and thrown in one of the prison trucks. The two children who were pulled from their parents were thrown in, as well, landing in a heap on top of us.
The older of the two, a boy, crawled into my arms. "Thank you for standing up for us," he whimpered.
"It's okay, buddy," I said with a warm-hearted smile. "It'll all be okay."
Jack and Rian were calming the little girl down with silly faces and jokes. I smiled at their silliness.
"Will I ever see my mommy and daddy again?" the little boy asked with hopeful eyes.
I snapped my attention back to the little boy, picking the right words to make him feel better.
I was about to answer, when I overheard a guard say to another, "Burn it."
Orders were shouted out and the apartment complex soon went ablaze.
I looked at the other guys - their expressions were all the same.
Shock and depression in an unhealthy mix.
Their eyes were a reflection of the flames climbing up the floors.
Fifth floor: gone.
Sixth floor: gone.
Seventh floor: gone.
Eighth floor: I could the room through our window light up like a Christmas tree.
The truck rocked and slammed us all against the left wall as it pulled away down the street, away from the only home we ever knew.

Notes

hellooo
update yay ^.^
but its kinda sad v.v
oh well
hope you like it!!
leave me comments and subscribe and shit xx
~Caroline