CHAPTER ONE:

"HATHAWAY!"

I kept running, I couldn't stop. My feet pounded against the hard pavement, the chill winds of fall piercing into my skin, and my chest ached from the lack of oxygen I was giving it—but I couldn't stop. Glancing behind me, I saw Oksana was only a few feet away, jogging almost idly. Her eyes were sharp as diamonds, trained right on me, and not moving. Even if she did, it wouldn't matter, not if the walkie-talkie in her hand had anything to say about it. She spoke into it and it crackled back its response, something about "right around the corner".

I was out of time. But this wasn't over.

With renewed speed I honestly didn't know I had in me, I tore off around the corner, knocking over a crate of fruit to buy me some time. I could run all I wanted, as fast as I wanted, but as soon as that car got here, I was screwed. So now I had to scramble for some time before that happened. I knew there was a staircase nearby, hidden behind Mr. Drozdov's new sunglasses display. Who knew working part-time during my vacation could actually pay off? I had about two minutes—possibly even less—before the backup would arrive. I didn't have to look to know Oksana was right on my heels. So saying a prayer to whoever could save my ass right now, I inhaled and leaped.

Surprisingly, I didn't crack open my skull or even scrape anything. My feet landed on the metal dumpster evenly, although loudly. "Shit," I hissed and slide off, hiding behind the smelly box. Oksana's footsteps soon followed. I could hear the sirens in the distance. Double shit.

"You're really pushing it this time, Rose." She said into the afternoon, knowing I was close, but not just how close. I thanked my luck. Waiting a few more minutes, Oksana's presence soon disappeared, but the sirens never did. I took the chance and got up, running as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

My "fastest" apparently wasn't very fast. Mark, Oksana's partner/husband tackled me as soon as I appeared from the alley. This time, I did scrape my cheek against the asphalt. Fan-freaking-tastic. As the handcuffs came out, I knew it was time to work my magic. This left me no other option, but my best defense: bitchiness.

"You can't take me back there!" I growled, struggling against Mark's tight grip on my arms. Oksana tried to approach with the cuffs, but it was to no avail thanks to my kicking legs. Her expression showed her dissatisfaction. "Lissa needs me! Don't you understand? They're hurting her—they're doing horrible things to her! You have to let me go! You—"

"Wait," Oksana stopped, letting her hand drop from where it was about to strap on those damned cuffs. Let me tell you, no matter how pretty and shiny they can be they hurt like a bitch. You do not want to wear handcuffs, ever. Oksana frowned, studying me. "What are you talking about? Whose hurting Lissa?"

I was then reminded that Oksana and Mark weren't the bad guys here. I was, in a way, but that didn't matter right now. The fact was they wanted to help me and Lissa. I tried to work with this, though I did prefer the chasing part to being held down. "Her parents," I spat out the word through my teeth. "Daniella and Nathan don't give a damn about Liss. They never did, but the Agency was too blinded by their fucking bill to see it! Both of them, especially Nathan, abuse her all the time. She has bruises all over her body from being pushed down the stairs or beated with Nathan's precious leather belts!"

I swallowed, trying not to remember the images. Not only had Lissa shown me the welts and cuts, but I had actually seen them hurt her. Though, after I attacked Daniella (and kicked her spoiled ass, thank you very much) she never did it in front of me again. I breathed and looked into Oksana's eyes, pleading. "Please, she can't stay there anymore. I have to help her!"

Mark sighed and let me go, cautiously of course. Oksana took a deep breath, thinking hard. "Okay, okay," she said after a few silent moments. "We'll figure this out. But, we still have to take you to the station, Rose."

I wanted to protest this, but really, she was right. I had broken out and assaulted three Agency members on my way out. At least the station was better than the actual jail cell. Didn't need a repeat of that.

"Come on," Mark said as Oksana had gotten into the car, talking to someone on her phone this time. He helped me into the back seat. Yes, the one with the bars separating us. I sighed and Mark chuckled, buckling his seat belt. "Hey, at least the siren's not on."

Oksana started the car, racing off into the dim streets of Portland. I watched the passing cars, the pedestrians that saw me in the backseat of the police car. I wondered what they saw. A troubled teenage girl being taken to rot in prison? A young criminal that would never see the light? Or a foster child, confused and angry, trying to help her only family?

I knew which I was. And they never would.

*waves* K, as you probably know, this is my first ever story on FF, so I'd appreciate keeping the flaming/critism to a mininum. If you did enjoy this though, I'd love to hear it! Anyway, the deal that's up with the story is that Rose and everyone from VA are humans in our world. This is a alternate universe story, obviously and will be as different as possible from the actual books. Almost all the characters are going to be already existing, like Avery and Adrian and whoever that would normally be coming in later on will already exist, unless you know, they're not in the story yet lol. And yes, I did get inspired by GoldenIvy's story If They Were Human but this will be nothing like that, I promise.

This is just something fun to do while we wait for Last Sacrifice =D REVIEW POR FAVOR!

BTW, Nathan and Daniella are not Adrian's parents in this story. He has his own, different life you'll see later on.