I don't know how long we were sitting there. All I could feel was the house shaking and my brother's cries against my neck.
Then it stopped.
The house stopped moving but the lights were still off. I no longer heard glass breaking and things crashing down. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that it was still dark. I slid my foot across the ground slightly and felt that it was covered with dust and dirt.
My head shot up when I heard Roger's voice, but I couldn't see him.
"Victoria! Are you okay!?" I could hear his careful footsteps in the hallway.
A light flashed through the hallway after he spoke. I squinted and my eyes adjusted to the light to see my father and Roger standing next to each other. They both had a flash light.
After they spotted Johnny and I huddled in the corner that was right outside the bathroom, they ran to us.
"Bunny, you okay? Did anything hurt you guys?" Dad squatted next to us and checked my face. He then looked at Johnathon who was wrapped up in a towel. He was still holding onto me tightly with his face in my chest and I could still hear him softly crying.
"Was he in the bath when it happened?" Roger asked and I nodded.
Dad tapped on Johnathon's shoulder and Johnathon jumped. Slowly, he turned away from me and looked up at dad with his red puffy face.
(sign) "It's okay. Come on. Let's get dressed." Dad signed to Johnny.
Johnathon looked around where they were sitting and saw the dirt and pieces of wallpaper and ceiling that was scattered all over the floor.
Dad didn't wait for Johnny to respond and instead put his flashlight in his mouth, picked him up and wrapped him tighter in the towel.
"I'm about to go get him in some clothes. Victoria, if you're good then Roger needs help putting up the lanterns and candles." He then he warily walked through the hall being careful to step over the paintings that fell off the hallway wall. They then disappeared into Johnny's room. I wonder how it looked in there.
After I watched Dad and Johnny walk off I looked up at Roger.
"Hey, are you sure you're good?"
I blinked a couple of times and wiped the tears and dirt off my face before nodding. He reached down and ran is fingers through my hair and I jumped. What was he doing!?
"Oh sorry. You just had dust and ceiling paint in your hair." He awkwardly laughed and stepped back.
Oh. Ceiling dust.
"Well. if you're good then you wanna help me set these candles and stuff up? Or do you need some water..or something?"
I stood up and almost tripped, but he caught my arm and stood me up.
My voice was shaking as I spoke, "W-what was that?"
"Earthquake. Last time we had one was when I was six. I'm surprised that we didn't get a warning for it. It's like it came out of nowhere." Johnathon shook his head, but his eyes widened as he grabbed my arm again to stop me from stepping on broken glass that came from a broken picture frame.
He then noticed I wasn't wearing any shoes, "Hey....I think you should get something on your feet before I end up being the one pulling glass out of you.''
"Yeah, you're right." I nodded and was about to start tip toeing to my room, but Roger stopped me again.
"Come on. Get on my back."
I stared at him wide-eyed and appalled. He ignored my expression and walked in front of me.
"Hop on."
I hesitated before I jumped onto his back and wrapped my legs around his waist for stability. My face turned crimson red as he made his way through the hall and into my room.
I peeked over his shoulder and saw how the earthquake affected my room. The lamp that was shaking earlier had fell and the bulb was now nothing but shattered glass on the wooden floor. There were pieces of the ceiling that had crumbled onto my bed and floor and my mirror had a large crack in it. I observed the walls and saw that there were large cracks in the paint and some looked like they went deeper into the wall. Other than that, my room looked pretty good compared to the bathroom and hallway.
Roger walked around the broken glass and sat me down on my bed. He then grabbed my shoes from across the room and walked back over to hand them to me. I stared at the shoes and back at him. I mind was everywhere and I didn't even know what specific thing I was thinking about. My thoughts were scatterd.
"Would you rather me put them on for you?" Roger smiled jokingly once I didn't take the slides from his hand.
Oh shoot. I snapped out of my thoughts and grabbed the shoes from his hand as I shook my head, "No I-I got it."
" I was just joking. And when you're done with that we're going down stairs to get all the lights."
After I finished putting on my shoes we went out into the hall and gingerly made our way down the stairs that were covered in debris. When we made it to the cafe I saw Anna and aunt Nina sweeping up the disaster that the earthquake caused. I looked around and saw an unfamiliar face. There was a tall man with red hair helping out with the cleaning. He was wearing a hospital mask, so I couldn't really see his features, but I could see that he was very tall and very muscular. I looked around and noticed that everyone was wearing hospital masks.
I turned to ask Roger who the man was, but noticed he went to the back of the cafe where the kitchen was to get the supplies they needed.
Once he came back he handed me a mask and put one on himself.
"Here, you need this. You don't wanna breath in any of the dust."
I nodded and put it on and leaned over so he could hear me while he handed me some lanterns and a broom, "Hey, who's he?"
Roger chuckled, "That's my dad." he then ran his fingers through his ginger hair, " You didn't notice?"