MIRABELLE BLASTER.

Chapter: 6

****

SORA:

The rain wouldn’t stop, and it had been hours. I was freezing; so was Beauty. We had no roof over our heads. The only place I could find was a rotting building. The roof was dripping, the walls were falling apart, and that smell that probably came from a dead animal made it so hard to breathe.

I held Beauty in my arms, shielding her as much as I possibly could, but we were both wet, and all our belongings were drenched by the rain. My arms ached from holding her for so long, and we were both really hungry.

“Papa…” she whispered. Her body was shaking. I pressed a kiss to her forehead, and my heart dropped instantly. She was burning up again.

“No… no, please,” I muttered. “Don’t do this to me.” I tightened my hold on her. I had no money to get her food or even medication. The only thing I could offer her was my warmth, and even that felt totally useless.

Her small body in my arms was shivering, and she was burning up pretty badly. I hoped and prayed in my heart that the Goddess would look down on us with her eyes of mercy and protect my child. I used my jacket to cover her and protect her from the cold, but that was useless because the jacket was already half soaked.

I rocked her back and forth like I used to when she was a baby.

“Papa…” she whispered.

“I’m here,” I said, fighting back tears. “Papa is here, okay?”

“Can you sing me the honey song?” she said, her teeth chattering together.

“Of course,” I said, and as I started singing, she joined in, her voice shaking and weak. I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. They ran down my cheeks.

“Don’t cry, Papa,” Beauty said, her voice really small.

“I’m not,” I said quickly. “I think it’s the rain,” I lied.

I felt my daughter dying in my arms, and there was nothing I could do about it—only hold her and cry. She was the only thing I had left.

“Goddess, please, if you can hear me, I don’t want to lose my daughter.” I rested my head against the wall, letting the tears roll down the side of my face.

Little by little, the rain began to reduce. I closed my eyes and went back to that night — the night I met her father. It's been almost five years, and I had been so drunk in his pheromones that I was willing to risk it all. Everything had happened so fast that I couldn’t even remember his face. Had I even seen his face? Right now, he was probably in his luxury mansion, sleeping in a warm and comfortable bed while his daughter was dying.

Is he even alive?

“Papa,” Beauty said. I snapped my eyes open and from the back of the building, someone walked toward us, flashing a bright light in our faces. The light was so blinding, I lifted my hand to shield my eyes.

“What are you doing here?” the man said. “This is private property.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment, but then I said, “Sir, it’s an abandoned building. No one is using it.”

“I said it’s private property. You miscreants need to leave.” I stared at the man, who looked like he was in his mid-fifties. There was not a single ounce of compassion in his eyes.

“Please… please, we have nowhere to go, and it’s already so late. I promise by morning we’ll be out of here. My daughter is sick, please.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. The sound of rain on the broken roof was the only thing we heard. Then he spoke.

“You only have tonight.”

Those words shocked me.

“Thank you… thank you… thank you, sir.”

He didn’t reply, just walked back the way he came.

We’d be here for tonight, and I wasn’t sure where we’d be going tomorrow. I wasn’t even sure if we would survive until morning. I pulled Beauty closer to my chest, my body curling around her like I could shield her from the entire world if I tried hard enough, but I knew that wasn’t possible.

Her breathing was shallow and uneven. Every rise and fall of her chest terrified the hell out of me. The rain reduced to a drizzle. My body felt numb, and the cold had seeped so deep into my bones. I was literally shaking.

I wasn’t sure how long I could stay awake, but I was afraid that if I closed my eyes, something horrible would happen, and that was when I heard it.

The sound was faint at first, but with every minute that passed, it became louder. It was a car. The headlights suddenly cut through the darkness, shining through the broken entrance to where we were.

I tightened my hold on Beauty as panic began spreading through me. I raised my hand to shield the blinding light, then the car engine stopped. My heart instantly dropped when I heard footsteps heading toward where we were. The man must have called the owner of the property to come kick us out.

When I lifted my head, I saw a woman who was impeccably dressed. She had on a long coat and held an umbrella. Her shoes looked like they had never touched the ground before.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a soft voice.

“Please… please, we don’t have anywhere to go. I promise by morning we’ll be out of here.”

She paused for a moment before she asked. “How long have you been here?”

“Two days,” I said, clutching Beauty’s almost lifeless body closer.

“She’s sick, isn’t she?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She walked closer, staring at Beauty, who was now completely pale.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll get you shelter.”

I was stunned by her words, but every nerve in my body told me not to go with her. I wondered what a woman like this was doing in a place like this at this time of night, but then again, she could be the owner of this place and had been called upon by the man from before.

“Are you coming or what?” she asked, a bit irritated. “I’ll get her treated, but first, you both need to get out of here.”

“Ma’am, I’m not sure I’ll be able to repay you for that. I really don’t have anything with me.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I’ll get you a job.” She smiled, but it didn’t look genuine.

I stared at my daughter, and all I wanted was for her to get better. I was probably overthinking things. Maybe this was the Goddess answering my prayers. With the last strength in me, I got up with Beauty in my arms, and we walked to her car. When we got in, it was warm, and it smelled so good.

She got into the front seat, and in no time we were moving.

“Ma’am… I didn’t get your name.”

I saw her reflection in the mirror. She had a smile on her face. “My name is Mirabelle Blaster.”