The door swings open, unleashing a gust of air that breathes before it.
But the real show is yet to come. With a burst of energy, a girl bounds inside, her long black hair a wild stream behind her. Any hint of boredom or dismay is banished in an instant. "I'm homeee!!!" She declares to the empty room, her smile reaching from ear to ear as she raises her hands triumphantly. It'd be hard to believe she was carrying a rucksack over half the size of her entire body considering her massive surplus of energy.
She had dark skin, wearing a worn brown coat, evidently a size larger than she should wear, a plain white buttoned shirt matched with a black skirt reaching just above her knees, her thick leather brown shoes and white socks something you'd expect to see on an old man.
A soft voice cuddled the entire atmosphere from the end of the corridor, although not too much more than a couple of steps away. "Oh, Valeria, welcome home." A wrinkling white woman stood with a smile of pure innocence; a long white sleeveless cloth in the shape of a dress covered her body, even more decrepit and worn than Valeria's entire attire.
"Good evening, Mama!"
Valeria chuckles, "And good evening to you...Bro!" As a javelin, Valeria spears herself towards the idle coat rack, which is not too far in front of the old lady.
"Gah! How'd you get me? I swear it was foolproof this time." A young male version of Valeria, around 12, scrambles in her grasp as she ruffles his hair.
"I did tell you it wasn't enough, Jasper." The old woman chuckled.
"Howww thoughhhh?!"
"You just can't defeat me. It was a mistake bringing Mother into this. I can see the dusty carpet through the living room door from here; Mother will never leave a job half done, and the shoes scrambled across the floor.
It's obviously intentionally placed to make me think you'd hide there. So the only other option was the coat rack which was made impossible to see any cheeky little toes that may have been sticking out from my angle, with that long ass coat no one has touched in centuries.
Don't worry; wait a good 30 years, bro. You may have a chance then."
"Valeria."
"Yes, Mama?" Valeria responded, Jasper still encased within her grasp.
"Your intelligence really knows no bounds; stuff like this is nothing near your potential."
"Haha, thanks but I ain't allat."
"I'm serious, Valeria. Leave this country; I've been saving enough money that you should be able to flee by boat, we can pay off a smuggler. You're just being held back here. You can become a lawyer like you dreamt."
Jasper's body relaxes into Valeria's arms like a cushion for a moment. "Mama isn't wrong...your life doesn't deserve to end here just cause of us."
"Mama, stop; I told you not to bring this up again," Valeria demands, her eyes fixed on the ground, evading eye contact, gritting her teeth.
"If it's Jasper, I promise I can look after him well enough on my own-"
"I said stop! I'm not going. What will it be worth if I abandon you and Jasper here?" Valeria releases Jasper and whips to her feet.
"This is yours and Jasper's medicine for the month," Valeria states, the cold warmth of her voice causing shivers, shoving a paper bag into the woman's hands as she storms forward.
The distress echoes stronger than the words she calls, "Valeria! How much did this all cost? You know you're only meant to be buying weekly." Mother says watching the bag filled with satchets of tablets in shock.
"It's fine. I put in some extra work. Things around the country have been getting worse I cant sit back and do nothing; and we don't know what could happen, and we don't know when this medicine could no longer be available."
"Alot of the jobs you do are unpaid aswell. Valeria, sometimes you're too kind for your own good; things can also happen to you. I get we're family, but please remember to love your neighbour as yourself. Not more than yourself."
Valeria turns her head to the side for a moment, yet refusing to look back, she continues up the stairs in ruthless silence.
Valeria rests her body on her bed, yet the one thing preventing rest is her relentlessly spiralling thoughts dancing around her mind. Her room couldn't fit much more than a bed; it's closer to synonymous with a box rather than a room.
Suddenly, a muffled thump, like someone slamming a heavy metallic door, bellows in the distance. Valeria catapults out of bed, rushing to the window, almost losing her footing on multiple occasions in just a few steps.
Outside the window, nothing. Apart from the depressing buildings, some cracked whilst others were demolished entirely, unkept coarse sandy roads, the few citizens visibly consumed in worry.
After a few seconds, the smell of rotten fruit mixed with rubber invaded Valeria's nose, followed by a faint burning sensation in her eyes and a tightness in her chest, her nose feeling ready to run like a waterfall, every breath of air feeling heavier and heavier.
"It's sarin gas." Reaching the revelation, she can still save everyone.
Valeria throws herself through the door mindlessly, ready to pull the door from its hinges.
"MAMA, JASPER!"
Mama and Jasper sprint from the living room door. Looking up at Valeria from the bottom of the stairs, Jasper shakes. "What was that?"
"Don't worry about it," she reassures, I'll get the gas masks."
She darts into the living room, skipping most of the steps, and flings open a wooden cabinet attached to the wall.
The mouthpiece of one of the gas masks dangled to the right, barely grasping on by only a few frail strands of plastic. If any of these gas masks were unlikely to save anyone, it was this.
Suddenly, two pleading knocks slam against the front door.
The door creaks open on Mama's accord.
His words scrambled over one another; a young man stood at the foot of the door, eyes bloodshot and breathing heavenly, pleading, "Please, I didn't bring a gas mask; please help me."
"It's fine. We have an extra one. Valeria calls from the living room." Although looking up at the cabinet, she had already realised her lie.
Momentarily becoming a statue, her breath leaves her, and she stands staring up.
Mama takes a troubled step forward. "Valeria...what's wrong?"
"Nothing, we're all good now, don't worry. Good investment, right?" Valeria's smile not only emits glee but a stark reassurance you'd be incapable of refusing. "Take this." Valeria proceeds to hand out the masks one after another.
Raising the masks to their face, Jasper makes out a glimpse of Valeria's faulty mask.
"Valeria! That one is broken."
"It'll still work, so don't worry."
A stream of tears ran down Jasper's face. "If you're not wearing the good one, I'm not either!"He cries, launching the mask to the ground like it was worth nothing but a large stone.
"Don't be stupid!"
A sudden blast explodes into their ears, and anything and everything else is completely silenced. The tears, the cries, the pleas.
The smoke eventually clears into a mist, revealing Valeria kneeling over her brother; whatever was left of her strength was sacrificed to her quivering arm, pressing the last working gas mask against Jasper's face—Valeria's entire face, naked behind her hair.
Valeria's chest tightens, her lungs tangled behind her rib cage, her throat gradually compressing; any spit of air seems like nothing less than a dream.
Every one of her senses felt like they were in an ongoing, relentless warfare against each other. She began sweating profusely; it felt as if her body was shutting down.
A spray of vomit and blood ejected from her mouth as she collapsed to the ground.
"VALERIA!" Someone had screamed for her.
"VALERIA!" Was it the same person?
"VALERIA!" Her increasingly hazy vision rapidly depleted her sense of thought, her mind entirely oblivious to anything existing within the outside world.
"VALERIA!!!"
But they're all okay right?
And within those final moments.
Valeria's life flickered out.