All the supplies were where I had left them. Non-perishable food, bandages and personal items, some donated clothes, and a small portable heater. I packed them all as best as I could in the box I had picked out, using the clothes to provide a buffer for the heater. Giving the room another look around, I nodded, humming softly as I went to put it in the small storage area in my car. I went back inside and made a quick round making sure all the adorable animals I cared for had food and water. I was going to be gone a for a while.
I pulled my pink hair into a tail and settled into the driver’s seat of my compact hybrid car. I didn’t make a lot working at the animal shelter, but it was enough to pay for the small car. But the area I was going to wasn’t the nicest area of town, so there was one stop I had to make first.
“Are ya sure ya want to do this?” Applejack said. “Ah don’t really see the reasonin’ for it.”
“Everybody deserves some kindness, and they need it more than most,” I said, pulling out from Sweet Apple Acres. “I see no reason not to continue with my decision.”
The blonde crossed her arms. “And ya brought me why?”
“To watch the car,” I said meekly.
She face-palmed, missing my small grin.
I pulled to a stop next to a run-down building in part of Downtown. It was called a halfway house, one that people stayed at when their luck ran out. I had gathered from Sunset that she had stayed at one when she had first crossed through the mirror, though she was reluctant to talk about it, for some reason. She had helped me track the subjects of my care package out, however, and on her first stop. I had a feeling she had stayed here too, but I didn't want to press the issue.
I opened the trunk and hefted the box. Applejack leaned against the car.
“If you get in trouble, just holler and Ah’ll be up there in a jiffy.”
I smiled at her and resettled the box against my hip and started up the stairs. I held my breath a few times at some more unsavory odors, recognizing them from my work with the animals as waste, blood, unwashed bodies. I felt a small twinge in my heart at the thought of those girls having to live here. There was also some green mold fighting the dirty carpet for territory on the stairs, which made me hesitate before stepping on them.
I climbed to the third floor and found the only room with a door firmly attached and knocked. After a minute without an answer, I knocked again, just a bit more timidity. The door popped open in mid-knock and I almost rapped a thin young woman on the head.
“Oh my,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
The girl looked at me with bloodshot eyes, her two-toned hair less vibrant than when I last saw it. Her gaze narrowed into a glare.
“What do you want?” she snapped weakly.
I held out the box, pulling out a can of condensed soup from its depths. “I thought you might need these, and I wanted to make sure you got them. There's food and some warm clothing, and a few other things.”
She was looking hungrily at the canned foods I had brought and I held the box out a little further, squirreling the can of soup away again. “Can I come in?” I said.
She hesitated, but then stood aside and motioned inside. The interior was as slipshod as the exterior, peeling wallpaper, dim lighting, and a faint undercurrent of mold. I could hear the muffled sound of someone snoring in another room as I sat the box on the counter and started unloading the contents, setting the clothes and heater off to one side.
“What is she doing here?” came an angry voice, but lacking any of the menace it had once had. I looked over to see the fiery hair, framing a pallid face that looked more miserable than evil.
“I brought food, warm clothes, some personal care items, and a heater,” I said, fighting the urge to shrink down. I hated that aspect of me, but the reasons were deeply embedded in me, laced into my being like the roots of a Banyan tree. “I thought maybe you could use them.”
The girl frowned, not making any steps to approach the proffered gifts.
“Take them and get out,” she growled. “We don’t need your pity. Or are you going to snap at me like your friend did the other day?”
I felt a thread inside me go taught. “Sunset came and found you because I asked her too,” I said, my voice growing a little louder. "All I wanted was to make sure you had things you needed."
“And I said to get lost,” came the retort.
And the thread snapped.
I leveled my gaze on the girl and stalked forward.
“Now look!” I snapped. “I have been nothing but considerate and polite since coming here. After what you did to the school I would have been well within my rights to leave you here suffering, but I couldn’t bear that.”
The girl shrank under my Stare, and her companion backed out of my field of vision.
“I thought Sunset had been overly harsh in her treatment of you," I spat. "But if you are going to keep old prejudices out of spite, then you deserve to stay here, Adagio.”
The Siren withered slightly, my words biting into her. I advanced another step.
“Now are you willing to suffer through another winter in this place? I brought sweaters and a heater, not to mention food. I might be persuaded to do it again, but not if you are going to act this way.”
I spun around and started to pack the food up again, Sonata looking on in horror and shot a glare at her sister.
“Wait,” Adagio said in a tired voice. “I’m….”
I looked at her.
She just stared back. I resumed my packing.
“Adagio!” snapped Sonata.
“Fine! Fine,” she shook her head. “Thank you for the supplies.”
I smiled at her. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” I asked.
“Don’t push it.”
I left, seeing the two start examining the canned food in my peripheral vision. When I got outside, I took a deep, shuddering breath. I hated using the Stare, as my friends called it. I felt it wasn’t really fair.
Applejack sat up as I approached.
“How’d it go?”
I climbed into the car, starting the quiet engine. I sat there and thought for a moment.
“I think they’ll be ok,” I said. “In time. They have a long way to climb yet.”
