The sky was shrouded in grey, clouds suffocating the once-hopful sun. The air carried a damp, almost metallic scent, as if the world was bracing for something. A chill breeze stirred intermittently, teasing the grassy feild, which stretched endlessly behind the orphanage- an abandoned sanctuary for those like Ringo, who knew nothing but thier own solitude.
Ringo, along with her companions-Voule, Alberto, Kakuri-found themselves outside despite the oppressive atmsphere. In contrast, Attouki and Neuzea though not living within the orphanage's walls delt with thier own issues. Either way, they joined Ringo and the others daily, undeterred by the darp mist sky and the creeping mist.
It was a place where the boundaries between normalcy and the strange blurred, yet none of them could excape it's pull. The orphanage wasn't a home in any real since, but it was were they remained, bound by forces beyond thier comprehension. And today, like all others before, they played. "Pass the ball already!" Alberto's voice rang out-sharp, commanding. His crismson hair rippled in the wind, almost as if it, too, sought a break from the tension in the air. His eyes-one as dark as a void, the other an unnervingly bright yellow-flashed dangerous intensity, a reflection of his personality.
" We're not on your time," Voule said, his voice low, clipped, like he was holding back a hundred better insults, and knowing Voule he did, but instead he settled for the most efficient one. Alberto scoffed, but didn't respond. Maybe he knew better,-actually, he probably was just to busy pretending not to care. The football passed from Voule's hand to Attouki's without ceremony. Like a transaction. A burden. Something to be gotten rid of. Attouki, for her part, caught it awkwardly and smiled-a soft sunshine kind of smile that didn't belong in a sence like this.
"Thanks," She said, and she ment it. Voule didn't acknowledge her. He turned and walked away, hands shoved deep into his pockets, his face unreadable in that practiced, distant way of his. He looked as if boredom clung to him like a second skin.
Attuouki stood with the football like she didn't quite understand it's purpose. Sports weren't her element. Neither was anything that involved speed, strength, or strategy. She had the frame of a ballet student and the presence of someone who still believed people were basically good. It didn't help her here. Alberto rolled his eyes hard enough to make it feel like a statement. He crossed his arms. Waiting. Judging.
Then, somehow, Attouki threw it.
Her dark pink hair lifted slightly in the breeze as she launched the ball. It wasn't a great throw-not by any objective measure-but it was better than expected for Attouki. The football arched, clumsy but genuine, before dropping with a hard thud, several feet short of Alberto.
He started at it like it had just insulted his intelligence.
"Good one," He snapped, drenched in sarcasm as he jogged after the ball rolling gently across the grass, propelled by the steady drizzle that had crept in unnoticed.
"Thanks!" Attouki's dark purple eyes beamed, as if she won a medal. She always lit up like that, like the world was somthing worth smiling about. Sweetness like hers wasn't built to survive in places like this. Attouki wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with.
"That was a good throw," Ringo said cheerfully a few feet away from Attouki.
Ringo was lieing of course, the throw was terrible. But it was the kind of lie you told someone like Attouki, not to deceive them-but to protect the thing they belived in.
Attouki and Alberto continue to throw and catch the ball, but rain started the way certain lies do: softly, like they mean no harm.
A drizzle, thin and quiet, seeping into everything unoticed until it's already there, so they desided to call it a day. Walking pasted the black car. The one always there- parked wherever they happen to be. But the only two places they went to was thier treehouse and the feild where they where just hanging out. Kakuri's white as snow eyes, eyed the car, a sense of a weird unease filled her.
Her white silver hair blowing in the wind, Whatever. Kauri thought. It looked like it was out of gas and wasn't touched in a long time anyway. It's probably one of those cars the teachers at the orphanage say are going to be broken down and reused for parts, they just don't have a place to put it, thus moving it around to different places looking for a place to store it for the meanwhile. But it still gave her unease.
The others didn't notice her hesitation, leaving the feild, Ringo, Voule, Alberto and Kakuri started walking to the orphanages doors.
"Bye guys!" Ringo chirped, all cheer and obliviousness, waving at Attouki and Neazua. Attouki picked up the bouncy ball Alberto and her tossing. "Byeeee!" Attouki shouted through the wind as her and Neuzea were leaving through the gate. "Bye.." Muttered Alberto, not even looking back at Attouki and Neuzea as they enter the orphanage doors.
*****************
Ringo finishes her dinner- technically what bearly passes as nutrition-soggy artificial rice and artificial chicken that she had grown accustomed to or at least, shes gotten accustomed to the fact that complaint is a language the adults long-since stopped listening to or even acknowledged. Ringo finishes her water that was at least cold but metallic tasting.
Ringo finished her glass of water that was at least cold but metallic tasting. While Kakuri was taking a shower in the girls shower room, Ringo had already taken her shower, her red hair still damp, hanging in wavy strands that smell strongly of artificial green apples.
And so Ringo got up from the long table where the other orphans were eating. Ringo felt tired so she decided to put on her slippers, already wearing her rather old night gown, frayed at the hem, the color faded into an interminate grey, it hangs off her like it once belonged to someone a bit taller and larger-probably did.
The dormitory is dim. Now that Ringo thought about it, it always was dim, no matter the time of day. One light flickers in the far corner, a stuttered rhythm of failing electricity.
Ringo slipped into her bed, the one right besides the window. Her mattress creaks as she climbed in. Some of the springs are broken in the bed, poking and twisting out in a dangerous angle. But as Ringo was still pretty small she could avoid the springs and curled herself knowing the choreography by now,into the blankets, legs tucked tight to conserve warmth and space.
Through the cracked, surprisingly clear window, she saw the stars still visible.
Ringo noticed that some kids here cry. Some rage. And some fear. But, despite being eight-years old, Ringo did neither. She falls asleep looking at the beautiful glow of the stars.
The stars faintly showing a message, there's no one coming for you.
BOOOOM...!
The sound split the night like a scream in an empty cathedral.
It startled Ringo so much she bolted upright. This was real. The room was real. The cold was real. And the fire-very real. And she didn't have to wonder where the fire was for long,
her bed was right besides the window so she was able to see the fire blazing around one of the houses in the tiny neighborhood that was about a half a mile away.
The neighborhood Attouki and Nazuzua lived in.
Ringo's heart dropped. The room was full of the cold of night. Heart racing, she quickly got up and looked out the window and the other kids soon followed suit, but Ringo only needed to glance out the window to see what was happening. Everyone watched as fire swarmed and was swallowing houses down, with pale panicked expressions plastered on their faces. Kakuri quickly is by Ringo's side, looking wide-eyed at the fire just like Ringo.
Behind her, the other kids stirred like startled birds. Whispers. Footsteps. Faces-paled, frightened. Kakuri was right at her side.
Just like always. Eyes fixed on the blaze, mouth set in a line too still for a child.
"We have to get Volue and Alberto." Kakuri says, no hesitation, taking Ringo's hand and dragging her out of the room, running.
" I dought they're still asleep after that, even Alberto can't sleep through something like this."
Kaurki nods, but sleep wasn't the issue, because before they could get outside their own dormitory, they were pulled into a group of kids by the staff at the orphanage who were like ghosts with clipboards. They all look tired, and shock plastered on there faces. Adults to whom Ringo thought had long since stopped looking surprised or shocked by anything.
Ringo heard a loud tsk from one of the staff.
"Everyone!" Barked one of the female staff that looked like she'd been old even when the world was young. She eyed all the kids that were by now all out of their dormitories,
"Get into line!"
But everyone was way too busy chattering to each other, worried, confused and sleepy. But eventually, chaos slowly congealed into seven crooked rows of children. Some crying, some arguing about dumb things and some just quiet. The staff counted all the students,
" 97…98….99..100..101…102.."
One staffer counted, voices monotone, methodical.
" 196, 197…198..199, 200.."
staff muttered, then, finally, reaching
"...209!"
They declared, marking it down on their clipboards.
" All here!"
Another staff comes out of the right hall with a walkie-talkie, her face white like paper. "Everything's fine.We're fine, send them all back to bed." The lady said, though her facial expression didn't quite match her words. The other staff nodded, then the old lady turned to the children,
"Everyone back to bed!"
The staff member who looked to be a thousand years old barked.
Again.
Nobody moved at first.
Everyone was still muttering to each other about their confusion and annoyance. "What happened?" Voule muttered quietly, his black tired eyes looking like two big voids. "Yeah, what happened?" Snapped Alberto, less patient, rubbing his eyes, tired. His hair looked like a bomb had gone off on it.
Ringo swallowed.
" There was a fire," She said. "I only saw a little bit of what was happening, through the window; before me and Kakuri went to look for you guys..."
Voule tensed and Alberto uncharacteristically said nothing, both of their eyes elsewhere, doing calculations in silence.
"Where?" Voule said,
" Where was the fire?"
Alberto added on, both looking at Ringo.
Ringo blinked. " It started-or at least it seemed to have started in the neighborhood down the road… The one about a mile away."
"Attouki and Neuzea's neighborhood" Kakuri sppok up.
All their faces paled.