Erich and Baylee came back from the store. They said that on the board of missing kids, Anne, me, and Lucy, were up there. They somehow got our pictures and put it up there. 

“My dad wouldn’t care enough to call the cops and tell them, his 'beloved' children are missing, would he?” I asked Erich while we sat on the roof, smoking a cigarette. 

“I thought at first that my parents did care, till I met Olivia, she told me that, that is probably not true. If he abused you once, he is gonna do it again,” He said as he smoked. 

I nodded and turned to silence. 

The silence broke when Erich said this: “You want to head out tonight? Like get away from here for a few hours.” 

“Olivia would never allow it,” I said in some smoke. 

“Who said Olivia had to know?” He asked and knitted his eyebrow at me.

I shifted uncomfortably, I had the police after me, because I was missing, I didn’t want Olivia upset on top of that. I just shrugged, but he obviously knew that was a no. 

“C’mon I will bring extra cigarettes for us to smoke, plus we will leave after everyone is asleep, and we will be back before dawn,” he said.

I went to protest, but I noticed there was no way he was going to take no for an answer. “Fine…” I said softly, giving into him. Erich was really protective of me and Lucy. I never knew why. To be honest he was like the older brother of mine, so protective. 

It was around two thirty when we left. Olivia was asleep in the lobby of the abandoned apartment building. We made sure not to wake her. When we got outside, Erich handed me a cigarette. I took and lit it with my lighter. I some smoke in and blew it out. 

“See not so bad,” Erich said, walking beside me, smoking his own cigarette. 

We walked for about an hour, before I started to get cold. Erich must have noticed, because he took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders. Okay, when a boy does that, doesn’t that mean, he likes you? I asked myself, but my thought was cut off, when I realized my ears were getting red. Luckily it was dark out, and he couldn’t see it. 

We were far from the apartment building by now. I kept insisting to go back. He kept calling me a scary cat. Yep, totally flirting on me. I said to myself. 

We kept walking. We walked for about five minutes, when Erich handed me something. It was a switchblade. It looked normal, black handle, and when I flicked it open, the blade was shiny. “Use that if you are in danger okay,” he said to me. I nodded and slipped it into my back pocket.

I finally got him to turn back around, when I stopped moving, and wouldn’t move unless we went back. We turned around, and there was six people wearing all black, so they just looked like shadows. 

“Do you see that?” I whispered to him. I looked closer, I found out they were shadows. We spun around and saw six men wearing black jackets, and ski hats. I was either seeing things or one of them had a gun, and another had a knife. 

They surrounded us. “Well, I’ll be. Two little kids, running around, at three in the morning!” the one with the gun said. 

I noticed they all had guns. 

I saw Erich reaching into his pocket of his jacket. I reached to my back pocket, But I was soon slammed onto the concrete ground. I winced badly. He reached into my left front pocket, and took my only twenty-dollar bill. Whoever did that to me let me go. I quickly got to my feet, and saw Erich throw the guy who was on me. Another man wrapped an arm around Erich’s throat and slowly started to choke him. 

Everything went red, and the next thing I knew, the man who was choking Erich, was on the ground, gasping for air. I saw him clenching his chest. Blood poured out of the man’s mouth, and he died. 

The other five men, ran away. Erich’s skin was as pale as mine. I just murdered someone. I dropped the pocket knife that was covered in blood on the ground. 

Erich quickly picked it up. “C’mon, let’s hurry back, it’s almost sunrise,” he said and wrapped an arm around my back and lead me away. I looked back at the man I just murdered. Blood dripped onto the ground. 

“You what!” Olivia screamed at Erich more than me. You would think, that she would be madder at me than Erich. I killed the man, not Erich. 

“Why did you go out in the first place!” She screamed at Erich. Cassy, Anne, Bobby, and Lucy, were peeking from a different room. 

“We just wanted to get some fresh air,” Erich lied. 

“Or you just wanted alone time with her, now she is gonna be wanted for murder!” Olivia shouted at him. My ears turned red. She let out a frustrated cry. She started to walk out of the room, pinching the bridge of her nose, and left the room. 

Erich let out a heavy sigh. “I’m so sorry Kylie, this is my fault.” 

“Am I murderer?” I asked him. 

“Yes,” he said plain out, no regret, or sadness in his voice. 

I don’t know why, but I got mad. “Thanks a lot! That makes me feel better!” I said sarcastically. I crossed my arms and stormed out of the room.

I went to my room and grabbed a pack of cigarettes. Lucy walled in. I sighed heavily. 

“Did you really kill him?” She asked me, like she didn’t believe two people, saying I did already. 

“Yes,” I said not looking at her. 

“Why?” 

“He was gonna kill Erich, I couldn’t let him,” I said. I looked at my hands. Underneath my bitten-up nails (I got nervous) there was blood, my victims blood. “Sis, I’m gonna go have a smoke.” Lucy nodded and left me be, she went over to her blanket and laid on it, hugging Brownie so tight that if it was alive, it would have died.

I went up to the roof, where I found Olivia chain smoking cigarettes. She was stressed out just as much as me. Could you blame her? If the police found me, they would find the rest of the runaways, and send them back to their poor homes. 

I sat down next to her. Her hands were trembling. Then I saw something, I haven’t seen before. She was crying. I bit my lower lip, I didn’t know what to do. She sniffed and wiped away her tears, and let out a shaky breath, along with some smoke. 

I put a hand on her back and tried to soothingly rub her back, my hands were shaky too, I needed a cigarette really bad. She took a long drag of her cigarette, maybe a bit too long. She coughed and dropped her cigarette. I stopped. 

I lit my own cigarette. I in some smoke.

“Why did you leave?” She asked, her voice was shaky. 

I didn’t know how to answer that. Why did I leave? I was safe here. “I just wanted to leave, I don’t know why.” I said with a shrug. Then a question entered my mind. “What is going to happen to me, when they find me?”

“If they find you,” she said. “They will either give you life in prison or, execute you.” 

That didn’t make me any happier. “Okay what do you mean by, if?” 

“We won’t let you get hurt, we’re a team, we don’t let people hurt us. If the cops find you, they will find us too, and we will be forced to go back to our parents, or worse, a foster home,” Olivia said and reached out her hand for me to give her a cigarette. 

“What is so bad about a foster home?” I asked giving her one. 

“They are just as bad as abusive parents, trust me, I have been in one,” she said smoked her cigarette.

I turned to silence after that. I had finished my cigarette, I got up and left.