The girl fell to her side, trying to quiet her breath as she leaned against the wall, clutching onto her right shoulder blade as her brown eyes focused on the huff of breath trailing in the chilly winter air.  She looked around at the dimly lit alley, hidden by restaurant trashcans and brick walls. A rat scurried once in a while across the path, darting through empty soda cans and half eaten desserts.

Her clothes were tattered, her black shirt now a mushy wet scrap of cloth hanging by a strap over the left shoulder as red seeped through deep gashes and scratch marks. Her left pant leg was cut up to her thigh while the other pant leg hung limply around her knee. Blood dripped under and mixed with dirt, clumping around her fingers and showing that she wasn’t the only one to get hurt in the exchange.

 Police sirens screamed through the air and the lights reflected on the mist, a low fog spreading over the streets and scattering the police lights, the cars racing through the city streets as people moved out of the way and then formed together to make a noisy crowd. Footsteps got closer to her hiding spot, gasping, the girl brought herself up, taking a look at a strand of her once brown curly hair matted and dirtied.

She stabled herself before jumping the fence gate next to her and started running again, ducking behind a wall shielding herself from view once again and she continued, sprinting across the street and back to where she left the suitcase. 

She swooped over a ledge and into a small air vent, stretching her arm long enough to grab the suitcase lodged in the fan, as her fingers swept the case she finally got a firm grip on the handle and curled her fingers over the handle tightly, roughing bringing it out and checking the coast clear. As she was about to walk out something was pressed to her head and she widened her eyes, cursing herself for checking better.

            “You thought you would be able to get away? How cute.” He hissed, his breath fanning against her neck and she shivered, she knew she was in trouble.

“Turn and face me.” He spoke, and she turned around getting a good glance at a familiar figure. He had blondish white spikey hair and deep brown eyes girls go wild for. His posture was firm, and he was a tall intimidating man, he was about 20, one year older than the girl before him. His attire consisted of a bulletproof camo vest, low black pants, combat boots, and fingerless gloves with spikes on the end.

“Much better.” He smirked out, slowly looking the girl’s body as he circled around her; she stood rigid, ready for any oncoming threat from this man.

“Just like your sister.” He said, watching her reaction as her posture didn’t change, but that wasn’t it, he laughed as soon as he saw it, just barley the clench of her jaw. He clapped, tossing his gun to the side and bringing her collar up to where her eyes met his lips as he spoke low enough for the girl to strain to what he said.

“Look, I got a reaction from the emotionless bi-.” He started, but his eyes trailed down to the suitcase, his hand molded over her and her grinned.

            “Hand it over.” He said but the girl shook her head. The man laughed and shook his head.

            “You have no choice, unless….” He started and his other slid lower than her waist, the girl bumped her forehead against him and slid out of his grasp, tossing the suitcase to the side and pulling out a knife, kicking the gun off of the roof and down to the alarmed citizens, wondering where the gun came from. 

“We settle this. Now.” She huffed out as she circled around him; he grinned and kept in his place, waiting for her to lunge.

Her eyes trailed to the briefcase she kicked where it slid over to where she was walking, she quickly moved toward the briefcase and made a run for it, jumping over the side of the building and landing on another, before jumping again to land on another rooftop, seemingly doing parkour to make her escape, she turned around to him walking toward her with amused face that quickly turn to shock as she dropped down one of the spaces in between the buildings.

As she dropped down she tumbled on one of the umbrella’s and crashed onto the floor, making friends with the trash bags that only helped so little with the fall, she groaned and rolled around on the floor, she heard footsteps and decided to make herself unknown by taking a huge gasp of air and diving into the trash bags, keeping her nose to the wall as she looked up at a trash face obscuring her view. She calmed herself down, talking to herself in hushed whispers to get her breathing to par. 1…2…1….2…1…2...In…Out…In… Out… In…. OUT!

Her mind screamed at her, telling her body to quiet itself before more trouble began, as the footsteps yet again waned she crawled out of the trash bags and then making her way out of the alley, finding herself in front of McDonalds. As she limped by curious people brought out their phones to either record or to call the police, worried that the girl in front of them might either be trouble or in trouble. Both are right.  

The mist settling on her wounds stung as she brought her left hand over her eyebrows, as if blocking the mist from her eyes, to keep herself from squinting and missing everything. Her heart thundered inside its cage, desperate to break out and break the bars restricting its movement. She bent over with her left hand over her heart, gasping for a much needed break before she limped a couple more steps, repeating the process until she could finally walk five minutes without hanging on the previous breath.

“Excuse me ma-am, let me help you?” A fair-skinned boy asked, his brown hair ruffled in a way that would’ve made the girl faint if not for the situation she was in. His brown eyes concentrated on her, brows knit together in a frown. Probably wondering how she ended up this way.

“No….No... I’m fine.” She said and nearly screamed when the air was knocked of her breath as she leant forward and smirked.

“I didn’t really ask.” He chuckled and looked around at the still staring people, picking her up bridal style and waving to the crowd.

“It’s okay folks, I’ve got her.” He said and the crowd clapped as he carried a struggling girl away in his arms. No one seemed to notice this, except for a boy who glared down at the boy. He had neck length straight blonde hair; he looked more like a girl than anything, except for his build. He was lean yet muscular for his age.

He pushed through the crowd, tailing the girl he saw earlier and the boy who took her. As he scanned them he notices her clutching the suitcase tightly, still trying to wiggle and squirm her way out of the suspicious boy.

“Stop it!” The boy yelled down at the girl, his smile left from his face only aggressive intimidation to silence the girl into submission.

As the girl rolls her head to the side she sees him and a light bulb goes off in her head, she remembers him.

This time, it’s he who will save her.