Salvation

01

Gotham City; the layers of crime seemed to dwell in any crevice and space, clinging on like a limpet to coral it was stuck on any building, guaranteed that even the alleys between buildings had something nasty lurking within the dark shadows that called those spaces home. The layers of the city built up from the darkest slum area, with its less than desirable people along with any undesirable business in which they conducted and took part in; to the petty thieves and low level criminals. The higher up in the city you were, chances are the better the view and the people that inhabited the space too. The highest buildings tended to house the upper classes, those that did not tend to spare a thought on the people living a level below them in the dank city. The tall sky touching buildings didn't just house people, they were worked in too. These were often office spaces, these offices however were sometimes owned and run by some of the most powerful and well known companies within the city or the world; no company which worked in these offices was unknown.

Adelaide Carter, and her family, were not one of the lucky ones to live up there with the sparkling lights of the city. They lived in the darkness, with the other struggling families and possible forgotten citizens.. It wasn't the perfect place to live, nor was it a perfect place to grow up. Yet, it was the only place Adelaide knew.

"And then he asked me to go to prom with him!" A cheery voice exclaimed. June, Adelaide's sixteen year old sister.

Adelaide looked away from the grimy window and lowered the curtains. "Really?" She asked disbelievingly. Not calling her sister out to be a liar, but June did sometimes have the uncanny ability to stretch the truth. Only because she was popular at school and could seemingly get away with anything, it didn't mean every word that came from her was the gospel truth.

"Are you calling me a liar?" June raised an eyebrow at her older sister. When she didn't get an answer, June simply flipped her brown hair over her shoulder and strutted off. She was also very good at doing that. That whole teenage strop thing for attention, which Adelaide did not give her. June was old enough to stop acting like a spoilt child. Her ideals of how she should act and her life were so far removed from what they actually were. Her sister maybe a bit of a liar, but she was also a dreamer; an idealistic, delusional even.

"No," Adelaide answered, although it was too late. Hearing the front door open and shut she walked around the corner of the living room and watched her father. He walked through, barely giving her a glance. Behind him several men followed. Adelaide pulled a face and slunk back into the living room. Her mother peeked out from the kitchen and pulled a unamused expression too. Her father, as much as Adelaide hated to admit it, was a part of a gang. Not just any gang, he was involved with Sal Maroni's gang. It wouldn't be such a big deal, Adelaide often pondered, if he was a part of a pathetic small gang. But the severity of it all, all stemmed down to his boss. Adelaide had never met Maroni, she'd briefly seen him, never met him. She was most thankful of this. Throughout her childhood she had heard of the men who came home with her father say that they'd had "The Boss," round. Adelaide never, ever, wanted "The Boss," in their home.

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Being spontaneously shoved into the family car, still half asleep, Adelaide held onto June when she kept firing off random questions. Their father shouted at her to shut up, her mother then told him to not shout at their daughter. Adelaide was confused, she never voiced anything unless she needed to, and now, when she really needed to talk, she couldn't. Her confusion for the moment out weighed her need to speak. Watching the slum area which she called home fly past the window she frowned. She never liked her home. Her home was horrible. The sun never reached down there, it wasn't very safe to even venture through the area to get to a place where the sun shone.

Adelaide perked up when her mother started interrogating her father. "What are they going to do?"

"I don't know."

"We can't just run away!"

"We have to!" He shouted back.

June and Adelaide exchanged a look, neither of them intervened. It was not worth the risk. Adelaide stiffened in her seat, it all made sense. It was jumbled, but it made sense. Her father returned home earlier on looking strained and uncomfortable. The men following him looked smug and over confident with themselves. "They're coming for us." She whispered, June's eyes widened and she gripped onto her arm. "Aren't they?" Adelaide asked quietly while moving June's hand from her arm and took to holding it. "Why?" Her father narrowed his eyes in the mirror and looked at her, not answering. Clearly he was not going to answer. "We need to know!" Adelaide exclaimed confused, yet her father still did not answer.

He kept his gaze in the mirror and his eyes were staring at her with a slightly upset glint in them. The two looked at each other yet came back to reality when her mother screamed. Her father barely registered what was going on, and yet, when he did it was too late. The small family car got careered into by a much bigger, heavy built vehicle. The small car didn't stand a chance as it shuttled onto its side and went rolling down the road. Other cars blared their horns and swerved to avoid the ricocheting car. The heavy vehicle which had crashed into the small car quickly made a hasty get away. It was gone down the road in several seconds.

Eventually, after what seemed like years, the car stopped. The air bags wheezed and deflated, the horn was blaring. Adelaide hung upside down from her position for several moments. Unmoving, silent. Suddenly gasping she opened her eyes and winced, the wincing soon turned to crying and the crying led to her screaming. Looking around in her upside down position her eyes, or the one eye which her visibility wasn't bad in, landed on June. Adelaide reached out and shook her. "Hey, hey! Wake up!" She shouted, voices echoed behind her, turning and looking down when a face peered through the broken window she watched as the man disappeared. Letting out ragged breaths she slid her hands to the seatbelt and undid it. Bracing herself, she crashed down against the ceiling of the car. Reaching an arm out through the broken glass, she ignored the searing pain from the glass and pulled herself out. Each pull ended up in her crying more and gritting her teeth.

The man from earlier on helped her out more, "Stay here. We've called the emergency services, we're gonna try getting the others out." He laid Adelaide down and a woman knelt by her side, swiftly putting her coat over her. Adelaide let out an unearthly cry when the car sparked up. It was amazing, and shocking, how quickly it went up in flames. The woman by her side gripped onto her, Adelaide's cut up bleeding arm reached out, reaching out to the car which held her family within.

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(Edited: 21/Jan/2020)