Antar att jag kan posta del 1 här medan jag väntar på kritik. XD;;

An empty apartment, empty refrigerator and an empty stomach. Cinder tried to blow his bangs out of his face but the purple strands returned when he stopped. Bugger. Lifting his hand to brush it away was too much work. He should’ve agreed when Pierre wanted to give him a haircut sometime last week. Or had it been the week before that? Hard to tell. He couldn’t see the clock from here.

The cold floor against his cheek vibrated with the humming of the refrigerator. Taunting him. Probably on purpose. Or maybe it felt the same emptiness that Cinder did? He wanted to shake his head. Machines didn’t bother with feelings. Pierre said so often enough. Cinder’s lower lip quivered. Where could Pierre be? He needed to refill the refrigerator.

Sighing, to stop his lip from quivering, Cinder watched his hair wave at him. He was cold, but he didn’t have the strength to go and fetch a blanket. At least he wasn’t dizzy anymore. He should celebrate that, not complain to himself about his hair and his tummy.

Almost letting out a groan he moved his leg a little bit. What could’ve happened to Pierre? That guy could take care of himself. Couldn’t he?

Cinder stuck out his tongue to lick his dry lips but he stopped in the middle of the motion. Somebody stood outside the apartment door. Moving his hand, he placed it against the foot of the door. Lifting his head, he stared at the door handle through his hair. Pierre? Or somebody visiting the apartment on the other side of the hallway?

The door handle moved downwards, slowly. It had to be Pierre, finally! If Cinder had a tail he would’ve wagged it. Although, the door didn’t open. The handle just went back up again. That couldn’t be right. Why would he just pull the handle? He must’ve forgotten his key somewhere. Shaking his head, Cinder sat up and pulled a hand through his greasy hair.

The lid to the door’s letter slot opened and Cinder stared at it until it closed. Then he shook his head and stood up on wobbly legs. He could let Pierre in. He knew how to open locked doors. He’d learned how after forgetting who he was.

Cinder dragged his body up and unlocked the door. Staring out at the apartment door on the other side of the hallway, Cinder frowned. There was no one there? Hallucinations maybe. Cinder licked his lips.

A shoe scraped against the vinyl floor of the apartment house hallway. Cinder looked down. It wasn’t Pierre.

A little white dress, with orange hair framing freckles and huge pale green eyes. A tiny girl stood there and stared up at him.

----------

The darkness contained behind the door stretched out of the apartment and met the darkness of the hallway. Riley stared up at the tall and gaunt man. He stared back at her. For a moment, she wondered if he had never seen a kid before. He looked so lost.

Riley blinked and looked down at her white sneakers. Her dad would probably be angry at her for this but she didn’t know what else she could’ve done. She couldn’t reach the button for the hallway light. She didn’t dare walk down the hallway and the stairs down to her babysitter's apartment in the dark.

There was nothing else to do. Swallowing she clenched her fists. She had to do this. Sniffling she pressed her closed fists against her face. Somebody had to help her. She couldn’t do this herself. She couldn’t. Taking deep breaths she tried to calm herself down. It wasn’t working well. She wanted to wipe her hands on something because they were getting wet. "Help sumthin need?"

Sniffling she glanced up at the man through her fingers. He still looked at her through his stripy shoulder length hair. She sniffled again. It was hard to get it out. The words were stuck in her throat.

The man squatted down and looked at her. His face got closer and she could see his eyes. They were really pale. Almost white. She would’ve found them creepy if not for the worried expression gracing the rest of his features. It didn’t seem like he came from here. He talked really strange. Maybe he was from another country. A country she hadn’t heard of before.

For some reason, the lump of words in her throat dissipated and she could finally say what she needed to say. "My, my daddy, my daddy, he’s not waking up."

The man stared at her for another minute and the knot in her throat returned. She had expected him to do something. Not just be squatting there and staring at her.

Then the man patted her head and rose up. Riley stared up at him and took a couple of steps backwards as he stepped out of his apartment and closed the door. Now would he do something for her father? "Him check."

Riley frowned at him through her tears, but she led him across the hall and opened the door to her apartment. The man stared into the apartment hallway and saw her father lying there on the floor. Was that a snort she heard? She followed after him into the apartment and watched the man as he squatted down next to her father.

Rubbing her eyes, she sat down next to the man as he placed a hand on her father’s neck and leaned down to smell his mouth. He glanced over at her and she stared back at him. Her father was still not waking up. "Err, drunk, hard sleeping. Later wake up."

Blinking she stared at him for a moment until she realized that it meant that her father was fine. He was just sleeping. Sleeping on the hard and cold floor of the hallway. He must’ve been tired when he came back from work this morning, to fall asleep on their new carpet. Riley nodded to herself, that made sense. He had dropped her of at her babysitter earlier than usual yesterday. He must’ve worked hard. "I see. Well, that’s good."

The man nodded and then looked at her. She stared back at him. It had been unnecessary of her to ask for his help. She tried to clear her throat, it didn’t work that well, the lump of words grew as she stared at him. Her dad always said that she shouldn’t talk to strangers. She shouldn’t even be close to strange men. This man seemed to be really strange so her father would probably be mad at her. He had even said that he didn’t like the men across from them. He had called them perverts. She didn’t know what that meant but she didn’t think that it meant something good. Because he had said it in a mean way and he had also said that she should stay the hell away from the men across the hall. "Um, are you really really a pervert?"

The man stared at her for a while before he answered.

----------
Grimaldy rubbed his eyes and looked around. His brain tried to wring itself inside out but he could still recognize his own hallway. Run down, just like the rest of the apartment building, but the only apartment he could afford. He must’ve fallen over when he removed his shoes and then fallen asleep. Curses. He needed to drink some water and visit the bathroom.

Trying to get up from the floor his stomach and brain argued the movement and he laid down to rub his head. He didn’t want to puke over his new carpet. It had been expensive.

He had things he needed to get done today. Looking around the room, he saw Riley’s jacket on the floor and he wondered about the time. Stretching on the floor, he could just about see the clock on the wall above his bedroom door. 3 pm or 3 am he didn’t know. Or even if it was the same day.

His daughter should be home either way. Her jacket was home and he was pretty sure she brought that with her when he dropped her off. Sure her babysitter lived in an apartment downstairs but they were going to go grocery shopping. Or was that the day before yesterday?

Not sure he tried to get up again but the walls started to move. He had to stop moving. Laying on his side on the floor. It was kind of cold. That carpet didn’t warm it much but it wasn’t supposed to. It was supposed to gather all the dirt from their shoes so he could just shake it off outside later. Grim curled his eyebrows into a frown.

Shaking his head, and regretting it moments afterwards, he noticed something at the fringe of his vision. Moving his head slightly, a carafe of what he presumed was water filled his vision. There was no glass there but next to the carafe was a piece of paper.

Grim didn’t bother about the piece of paper for the moment, he turned over to the other side and reached for the carafe. The water was lukewarm so it must’ve been standing there a while. Getting a sip of water meant that he would have to sit up. Would he be able to do that? Well, he could only try.

Slowly sitting up, he rubbed his pounding head and then he lifted the carafe to his mouth. It wasn’t just water. It tasted like it contained c-vitamin powder as well. Wearing his usual frown he took another sip. Who had left the water here? Had Riley gone back to her babysitter when she had found him sleeping? He hoped so, she was a bright girl.

Reaching for the paper next to the carafe he picked it up and looked at it. He was still a bit woozy but that did not explain the fact that he didn’t recognize the handwriting on the note. It wasn’t Ms.Cavanaugh’s handwriting and it wasn’t Riley’s handwriting.

"Riley across hall." It said in sloppy handwriting. Even Riley wrote better than that. Then it hit him what the note said. He slowly put down the carafe and then he tore the paper to pieces. The perverts across the hall. The blood pounding in his head started burning and the room stopped spinning. Everything turned red.

----------
The sound of the toy brick hitting the floor disappeared in the loud pounding on the door. The lump rapidly grew back in her throat again. Though, that lump had been there ever since her mom died. Sometimes she was surprised that she could even eat with all those words in her throat.

Who was it? Was it a bad man pounding on Cinder’s door or somebody that Cinder knew or was it her father. Was he very mad at her? What was she going to do? Had she been a bad girl? She had only wanted to help him. Was that bad? She didn’t think so. Cinder didn’t think so either.

Cinder patted her head. Picked up the toy brick, handed it to her and then he stood up. Riley watched him walk over to the door. She didn’t want him to open it. But her tummy would hurt too much if they had to listen to the pounding anymore.

To her surprise, Cinder moved his head quickly after the door opened and a fist appeared where Cinder’s head had been just moments ago. Cinder moved a bit and Riley saw that it was her father. Her father looked up at Cinder, for some reason it amused Riley that he needed to look up. Before she always thought of her father as a giant. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING JUST BRINGING SOMEBODY ELSE’S DAUGHTER OVER TO YOUR APARTMENT YOU PERV!"

Her father pushed Cinder out of the doorway and noticed her. He glared at her and Riley squeezed her toy brick hard. Well, Cinder’s toy brick actually. "YOU! COME OVER HERE NOW! WE’RE GOING HOME!"

This much anger was new to her, the annoyance visible on his face before had been for other people. Never her. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to go home, she wanted to stay with Cinder, but she didn’t want to make her dad even angrier. She didn’t want him to be angry with Cinder. Her fault too.

Her dad stomped towards her and Riley almost jumped backwards. However, Cinder grabbed a hold of her father. So she didn’t have to. For a moment Riley worried that they would start fighting, instead her dad puked.
Riley rubbed liquid salt from her face and watched as her father tottered to the floor. He laid there. He didn’t move. "What’s wrong with daddy?"

Cinder looked up from her dad and stared at her for a moment. Until he looked down at his own sweater and the mess that her father had left there. "Prolly faint."

Riley continued to rub at her face glancing down at her dad. Her tummy was hurting and her mouth didn’t taste well. What could she do about this? Were they just going to let him lay there again? She didn’t like that. She looked up at Cinder and saw him scratching his own neck and scrunching his nose. His clothes were probably stinking. It was her fathers fault and, therefore, her fault.

With a sigh, Cinder bent down and picked up her father from the floor. She stared at them as he started to carry her father away. "Where are you taking him?"

Cinder looked over at her with a strange look in his odd eyes. "Stink."

Nodding she let go of the piece of brick that she had been holding and watched as it fell to the floor again. Her hand hurt. She felt it now when her tummy and throat finally stopped bothering her.

Ohh 8D Ska ta en titt senare!