Double the Trouble and Twice the Blessing

The streets were black and dark. The acidic rain stung and was cold on our soaked figures. My twin was holding onto my arm as we ran and our bare feet sloshed through the mucky puddles. It was quite disgusting actually. “Where are going to go, we can barely see our hand in front of our own face?” Nicole hissed under her breath. She didn’t like my brilliant idea to run off in the middle of the night to find a better place to find shelter.

At this very moment, I didn’t even like it. We were both hungry, let alone it we were now wet from the rain and our feet were coated in mud and small chunks of gravel. I could hear my stomach growling from the two days of starvation. Out here, there was hardly anything for food. The only people that had food were the Lords. They had everything in life as everybody else suffered. Nicole and I hadn’t done to bad on our own.

I ran one of my hands through my sopping wet hair and sighed. “We’ll find something, there has to be a building around here we can break into.” I said and rang out of my worn down shirt – the water pelting the ground, along with the rain. Nicole sighed and rubbed her stomach. At this point, either of were willing to do anything to get out of the wet and mud, into somewhere dry and warm and to get something to eat.

I leaned against one of the abandoned cars and looked around. It was impossible to find anything out here right now. It was pitch black – our eyes only able to adjust to a point and make out certain objects. “Korie, c’mon, I’m shaking!” Nicole complained as she tried to warm herself up – moving her hands up and down on her wet and slick arms.

I pushed my hair out of my face before walking over to my twin and linking arms with her. “We’ll try the road up here.” I said as we began to walk aimlessly through the streets – trying to avoid as much of the trash that lined the roads. “This was a stupid idea.” Nicole grumbled as she let me pull her along beside me. I continued walking and the trash seemed to lighten, before it became nothing. “What the hell is this, the trash just stops?” Nicole said as she looked around dumb folded.

“I guess. No one is really on this side of town anymore, it’s a lot quieter.” I continued walking and I saw an iron, barred gate that surrounded the property of something. It was at least twelve feet high and the top was lined with metal points.

“Look, there is a building, we just have to get through the gate.” I mumbled as I began following the gated wall – trying to find the latch that opened it. “What if someone is in there?” Nicole hissed and pulled my arm back.

I shrugged her off, “do you see any lights on?”

She didn’t reply.

“Exactly. There is no one here. It is vacant and if it is locked up, that must mean there is somewhere we can sleep and get warm till morning.” I felt the latch between my cold and nimble fingers – it was unlocked. “It’s not even locked!” I grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the gate before shutting it.

“What if there is a guard dog?” Nicole muttered.

“Then I guess we are dog chow.” I grumbled and lead her around the side of the house. I was looking for one of those basement windows that I could kick opened. I really just wanted to get inside, get warm and find something to eat. I could care less about what I had to do to get those three things. We walked along the perimeter of the house and I kept looking for a window – there had to be one, I mean, what house doesn’t have a basement window?

I felt and indent in the stone wall and I looked down, and there it was. “Found it. I’m not completely hopeless.” I muttered as I got down on my knees and looked at it. It wasn’t huge, but it was not tiny either. Nicole and I could slide through. I looked around for a rock or something, I would prefer if I didn’t have to use my hand or foot to break it opened.

I felt around and found a rock that was about the size of my hand. “Are you sure we should do this?” Nicole asked as I held the rock – ready to smash it through the window.

“Well, we could always just stay out here in the rain all night.” I said sarcastically.

“Fine,” she grumbled.

I smashed the rock into the window – having a sickening crack come from it before it shattered into pieces. I held my breath – listening to see if anyone had heard, or if anyone was even there. After a moment of silence, I began knocking the shards of glass – that still were lodged into the frame – out.

I stuck my head through the window to see if anyone was there and it was empty, dark
and quiet. “No one is there, we get in.” I said quietly as I began to climb through. There was some sort of crate or box right in front of the window that I could climb onto. I felt a searing pain run through my side. “Fuck,” I cursed and pulled myself through the window and onto the crate. I could feel the warm blood pooling through my clothes. “Come on through, and watch your sides when you climb through.” I said and I saw Nicole’s figure beginning to climb through the window.

I held my hand firmly on my side and waited for her. She appeared beside me and let out a breath of relief. “At least it is warm in here.”

I laughed a bit. “We should probably find a light switch and see if it actually works.” I slid down from the crate and felt the cold, wood floor under my feet. I heard Nicole’s feet hit the ground and follow behind me. My hand that wasn’t holding my side, smooth around on the wall – looking for a switch of some sort. “It’s over here.” Nicole said from the other side of the room and the white light flicked on, causing me to squint my eyes in pain and have them blur.

I blinked a couple times and saw her standing across from me – her blonde hair disorganized and dripping wet, her clothes were wrinkled, wet and muddy. “Well you look like shit.” I said as I continued eyeing her.

“I could say the same to you.” she smirked and pulled her hair forward and to the side. I knew I looked exactly like her – we were identical twins, she just didn’t have a gaping cut in her side. “You okay, you look a bit distant?” she asked as she yanked off her soaked sweat shirt.

“Hmm, oh, yeah I’m fine, just tired.” I lied – ignoring the searing pain in my side that was slowly beginning to fade.

“Well let’s see what is upstairs.” she walked towards a door and twisted the door knob – only to find it locked. “It is locked.” she stared at it before turning to me. “I can probably pick it, just let me breathe for a minute, at least we aren’t in the cold.” I said as I sat down on a chair.

The basement itself was nothing special. It was large, but it was empty. There were a couple couches and a few arm chairs, all black leather. The walls were a gray color and there were boxes and crates scattered everywhere.

“I swear I heard something from down stairs!” I heard a male voice. A loud male voice coming from upstairs. “Oh dear God.” Nicole said and looked at me in fear. I looked around the room quickly and saw a closet. “Get the light and there is a closet we can hide in.” I got up and pulled her towards the closet after she flicked the light off. I opened the closet and we both scampered in and closed the door – beginning to push ourselves as far as we could in the closet.

I was pressed flat against the wall. My heart hammering against my chest and my breathing low and rigid as we listened in silence as the voice became louder and another one was made audible. I could hear them talking amongst each other.

“Well someone is here, or was here, the window is broken.” The first voice I heard said.

“No. They’re here. They left their sweater behind.” The second voice spoke in almost a growl.

This was not going to end well.