On Our Own
Prompt: Home
Characters: Kai and Nya
Summary: It’s been a few weeks since Kai and Nya’s parents disappeared without a trace. Needless to say, they’re struggling.
@ninjago-bingo
There was a knock at the door. As Kai went over to answer it, he glanced back nervously at Nya. Nya only looked up for a second and went back to coloring.
Kai slowly cracked open the door. His breath hitched when he saw who was at his doorstep. There were two men wearing matching blue caps on their heads and black vests. But most importantly, they wore shiny, silver badges on their chests.
The badges read ‘POLICE’ in big, capital letters.
Kai gulped, opened the door all the way, and put on his best smile.
One officer held a clipboard, likely flipping through some of his notes as the other stared at his watch. When they heard the door squeak open, they both looked up... and then down at the young boy with spiky hair.
“Oh. Uh, hello, this is the Ignacia Police Department. We got a call saying someone in the house needed help?”
The other officer flipped through his notes until he reached the last page. “Yes, someone called the police department at 2:19 P.M.”
The first officer tilted his head. “That call was from yesterday.”
“No, this call came in today. Could barely hear what the person said, voice was too squeaky.”
Kai probably shouldn’t have but he tuned out their voices. He had bigger things to worry about than the officer’s bickering. Who had called the police? The neighbors? A concerned stranger? Whoever it was should have been minding their own business, in Kai’s honest opinion.
“Are your parents here?”
Kai took a double take. His parents? It had been awhile since he had seen either of them. A week maybe? Two? But the police didn’t need to know that right?
“Yeah,” he answered shakily. He cleared his throat and started over. “Yeah, they’re here.”
“Good! Then you won’t mind if we come into the house to speak with them, would you?”
Kai fingers latched onto the door tightly. If they came in, they would find no parents and then they would know Kai was lying, and then they would take him away to jail for telling lies, and he would be far away from Nya and have no way to take care of her-
Kai shook out those thoughts. There was no time to think about what ifs and bad things. “They’re busy right now … taking a nap? We don’t want to wake them, right?” Quickly, he began shoving the door closed before the officers could utter another word. “You have a good day now, thanks, bye!” He called out through the crack as he forced the door closed and leaned against it. Outside, the police shared a look but then moved on.
Kai took a deep breath and ran a hand down his face.
“Kai?”
“Yeah, Nya?” came the muffled, exhausted reply.
“Why didn’t you let the police in?”
Suddenly, it all came together in his head.
“Nya,” he said slowly, “did you call the police here?”
Nya looked down and fiddled with her small fingers. “Today in school we learned that if you need help, call 911 and the police will help you. So that’s what I did.”
Kai nearly exploded. “Nya! What were you thinking?”
“We need help, Kai. Right? Last night you said we might be running out of food.”
Kai did remember that. While he hadn’t exactly told Nya, he shouldn’t have doubted that she would have figured it out herself. It’s not easy for a seven year old to hide something that big from his five year old sister.
Still, Kai sighed and waved Nya over to him. She ran over and rushed into his open embrace. “Yeah.” He pushed Nya to arms’ length and looked at her with his warm eyes.
“But the thing is: we’re ... we’re on our own.”