《At the Top of the Food-Chain》Chapter 4 - Apartment 1592
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AN: Sorry, meant to post this yesterday. I have been working on the art for the characters and creatures section I am planning on adding.
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I step up to a white door marked 1592. I reach out my hand and turn the door handle. It's locked. The whimpering from inside went quiet not long ago, but I can still hear uneven breathing. With my hand still on the handle, I push the door, trying to force it open. There is a small cracking sound. I put my other hand over the one on the handle and push harder. More cracking sounds, this time from both the frame by the handle and by the hinges. I push harder in one aggressive burst. I fall forward as the door frame gives and smack my face on the part of the door that's still standing.
I drop the door handle and the chunk of door attached to it. My face hurts. There is blood trickling from my forehead. I heal my face, but don't bother trying to clean it. I am already covered in mud and blood. It's actually quite uncomfortable. While I'm here I should clean up and look for new clothes.
I pull on the edge of the door and it swings outward. It probably would have been easier to pull it open instead of pushing it. I step into the apartment. It's dark inside. I turn to my right and look at the open kitchen. I can hear muffled breathing and a racing heartbeat. As I walk toward it, the heartbeat speeds up and the breathing becomes more haggard. I walk around the island and stop in front of the sink.
Whatever creature is in the cupboards, it is now holding it's breath. I lean down and grab a hold of the cupboard's handles. I hesitate. Whatever is in there, it might try to hurt me. I sigh. I've already come this far. I might as well figure out what this noisemaker is. I quickly fling the cupboard doors open.
“eep!” The creature tries to shrink it self farther back into the already cramped space. My face scrunches in annoyance. It's a human.
I sigh dejectedly and sit back against the island. I was hoping that I would find something more interesting here. I look over at the noisemaker. It is a little girl. She is wearing a pink dress and has her curly brown hair up in pigtails. There are rainbow colored hair ties holding her hair in poofy shapes. She is shaking.
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Well, she probably can't hurt me. I doubt she has a gun. “Hey, Noisemaker, come out here.”
She flinches and peaks out at me. Her eyes are so puffy they look bruised. She looks at me surprised and snaps her head up, hitting it on the top of the cupboard. It looks like it hurt a lot, but she starts to smile. Then she starts to cry as she quickly crawls out from under the sink toward me. I have no time to react before she grabs a hold of me and starts trying to squeeze me to death.
I quickly push the noisemaker off of me. A look of fear crosses her face. I glare at her and put my arms in front of my body to protect myself. We sit like that for a moment.
A look of confusion crosses the noisemaker's face. Then she looks surprised. She finally speaks, her high pitched voice full of emotion. “D..don't worry... I.. I won't... won't hurt you.” She smiles and reaches out her hand. “H..Hi. My name is Daisy. What's yours?”
I look at her hand suspiciously. “Rain.”
Her smile brightens. “My Mom says you're supposed to shake someones hand when you meet them.” Noisemaker Daisy moves her hand closer to my own hand.
I put my hand next to hers. She grabs it and shakes it up and down a few times before letting it go.
Daisy looks at me for a long time before speaking again. “How old are you, Rain?”
I don't know what she means by that. “I don't know. How old are you?”
Daisy gives me a funny look. “How do you not know how old you are?
I feel a bit insulted by the way she asked that. I just shrug at her.
She sighs. “Well I'm ten, so I'm sure I am older then you. Normal it would be my job to look after you, but... you seem really strong Rain.” She puts her hand on her chin. “Are you a superhero?”
The noisemaker apparently wants an answer. “What's a superhero?”
Daisy looks really shocked. “You don't know what a superhero is?!”
I shake my head no.
“How can you not know what a superhero is! Don't you know Superman?” I shake my head no. She looks even more shocked. “What about Batman and Robin? Spiderman? Hulk? Wonder Woman? Ironman? Static? The X-men? Ms. Marvel? Thor?” I shake my head at all of the names.
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Daisy jumps to her feet and runs out of the kitchen. I get up to follow her, but she is back before I can even make around the island. She shoves a plastic figure toward my face, and yells super loud in her shrill voice. “Do you know who this is?! Do you know Aquaman?”
I twist my head and look around the toy at her determined face. “No.”
She looks even more shocked and frustrated then before. “Have you been hiding under a rock? How can you not know any superheros?!”
She is clearly upset. “Are these people that all humans know?” I ask.
She looks at me with blank stare, opening and closing her moth a few times. Heh. Fish.
Daisy puts on a serious face. “Rain. You are human right?”
“No. Do I need to be?”
Daisy looks away. She seems to be thinking. She turns back toward me. “No. Superman isn't human. Neither is Martian Manhunter. Thor is a god, and Aquaman is only half human. All you need to be a superhero is powers, and to defeat the bad guys.” She seems happy now.
A piece of dirt falls into my eye. I go to wipe it, but since my hands are still dirty is doesn't help.
“Ah! Don't rub your eyes! Your hands are all dirty.” Daisy grabs my arm and pulls me to the sink. She turns on the water and starts washing my hands and face. After a while the sink looks just as muddy as me, and Daisy looks concerned.
“Rain, you need a bath... actually a shower would be better. Come with me!” She pulls me down the hall into the bathroom. Its pitch black. She pulls me back to the living room. “Wait here for a second.”
After rummaging through the kitchen drawers for a wile, she comes back with a flashlight in her hand. She turns it on and slowly pulls me back down the hall, making sure to light every dark corner as we go. Once we are inside the bathroom, she turns on the shower. She takes off my backpack and shirt. Then pushes me under the running water. The cold water feels good.
I clean myself with the soap like Daisy instructs, and discover that soap can be used as a weapon to blind people. When I am done, Daisy gives me a towel to put on and tells me to throw away my pants. We then go and search for new clothes for me. Apparently hers are the only clothes that fit me. Her Daddy's and Brother Dominic's clothes would be too big. After a while of searching, she hands me a plain black T-shit that is too big, bright pink cargo shorts that come down to my knees and a sparkly bejeweled white belt. She also tries to give me shoes and socks, but I refuse because I like having bare feet.
I tell Daisy that my bag has a whole in it and she lets me have one of hers. The woman on it is apparently Wonder Woman. While I pack my bag, she packs her own. She already changed into jeans with pink flowers and white T-shirt with a cat head on it. Her backpack also has this “Hello Kitty” on it.
I don't know how I feel about her coming with me, but she seems useful. She has been to many of the toy stores in town, and has been telling me about a lot of other entertaining things. Unfortunately, a lot of those things require something called electricity, which we need special adult humans to fix. I hope we can find some of these type of humans, but for now we will focus on things that don't need electricity.
Daisy says that I am defiantly a superhero. She asked me to go save her dad and brother. At first I didn't want to, but she said they might know more stuff that will entertain me, and probably know how to get the electricity back on. So right now we are preparing to go to her older brother's school. Daisy says he is a high schooler.
I ask daisy what school is and she explains it to me as a place where you learn stuff and play with friends. It sounds interesting. Daisy says the reason she wasn't in school is because of some sort of teachers meeting, whatever that is.
I stand at the broken front door and look out to the silent streets. I am glad I met this noisemaker. I turn and look back at Daisy.
She smiles at me. “Lets go!”
I give her a half smile. I shake my head and grunt it reply. We set off toward her brother's school.
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