I zoomed through the dark hallways, too fast for the built-in cameras to swerve into focus before I was already gone. Unfortunately, I was the focus of the four security guards hot on my tail. My rollerblades skidded across the floor as I sharply turned to avoid crashing into a corner, leaving dark marks in my wake. This gave a camera enough time to stare me down.
"Sorry, no paparazzi!" I smirked, whipping out my nerf gun and shooting it with a preloaded, explosive dart. The maroon smoke and raining camera parts caused enough commotion for the guards to crash into the wall, wrestling each other on the floor like children, giving me more than enough time to escape. Gripping my silver pendant in my fist, I sped off.
Two minutes of rolling went by. I was close, I know it. A drop of sweat rolled down my cheek, leaving tingles in its path.
Five minutes went by. Was I tired from running away?
Ten minutes went by. No. I've been running away my entire life. 15 years old was way too young to want to retire.
I slowed down, looking back behind me to make sure there was nobody on my trail, sliding into a corner too dark to be seen by the cameras - hopefully.
I caught my breath.
Finally, I got to study the pendant in my palm. It was similar to a mini shield, with a series of three intricate, circular designs and a strange shape in the middle - two vertical lines standing next to each other, with a shorter, horizontal line connecting them.
Unfortunately with this limited but quiet time I had, it also gave me an opportunity to reflect on what had happened earlier - I guessed about twenty minutes ago.
I hissed at the man in the prison cell. "Get up! I can get us out of here! I know the way!"
The drugged darts I shot at the guards only lasted so long, but no matter how I beckoned the man, he wouldn't get up. It was almost as if even though I had unlocked the barred door with the keys I stole, I couldn't break him out of the real bars that kept him here.
I didn't find out what those bars were that day.
"Please, Baaba! I can't leave without you! I can't survive-" My quiet pleads were cut short when my father looked up at me for the first time. His eyes were filled with grief, regret, and resignation, but there was a spark of something I didn't think I'd see in him ever again.
Determination.
"Come close, my child." He beckoned.
I shuffled close, my rollerblades already strapped onto my feet and ready to get moving, but I knelt next to him for a moment, before burying my head into his shoulder, on the verge of snapping like a straw.
"Why, Baaba? Why won't you come? I won't make it without you. I can't do it."
"But, my sweet girl, you can. Do you know why?"
I lifted my head.
"Why?"
"Hey, where are my keys?" A guard interrupted, sleep laced in his voice. My eyes grew large as my head went back into 'Alert Mode'. How he woke up so early was beyond my comprehension. But what I could comprehend perfectly well, was that I had to leave. Immediately.
My father understood that, as well. He got up quickly and crouched next to a wall, digging into a crack in the stone wall and pulling out something silver, that glistened sharply even in the dim light. He took my left palm and placed it in the middle, closing my hand tightly.
"Go. Find your mother. Show her this."
"Baaba-"
"You don't have much time. Please, don't worry about me. I was destined to end up here. I'm just glad you weren't."
"But-"
He took his hands and held my cheeks, rubbing them with his thumbs for a single moment.
"Hermes, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me." He kissed my forehead. "Don't you ever doubt that."
"O-okay." I could hear other guards beginning to stir. I must've given them my weaker bunch of darts. I'd have ten seconds tops before they come to their senses and realize two prison cells were open, and one was empty.
"And remember," Baaba said, his eyes glistening with pride, "You are a force to be reckoned with."
I squeezed him, taking in everything I could. Soaking my father's love in for the last time.
And then, I ran.
I was jolted out of my trance by red flashing lights and blaring alarms. The rest of the security guards must have woken up. I jumped up, a renewed determination flowing through my veins, and raced on.
Unfortunately - I began to believe luck would never be on my side - I began to feel light headed. I kept going, pushing my body to its limits. That's when things began going downhill. The lights blared in my eyes, but I began seeing less and less. The alarms fell quieter and quieter; all I heard were muffled blasts of sound. As I zoomed through the hallways, whipping around corners and zooming past doors, I found myself in a clear path towards what looked like an open door, with bright stars on the other side.
"An exit!" I exhaled, too numb to feel any emotion other than an overwhelming relief and pure determination, completely ignoring the signs my body was sending me. Suddenly, a man leaped out of a room several feet ahead of me, blocking the exit from view. My vision blurred until all I saw was his silhouette, but I was determined to make it out of there alive. I saw twinkling lights ahead of me, and adrenaline pumped through my veins. I was so close. I could see the night sky through an open door, right ahead of the one obstacle standing in my way. When I came close enough to him, I tried to swiftly swerve around him, a trick that, done correctly, would be too quick and sudden for him to notice I'd changed directions until it was too late.
Done correctly.
Apparently, it was too fast for my entire lower half to keep up with what I planned to do, because my knees buckled from beneath me, utterly betraying me. My side landed on the floor, but my momentum carried me forward, stopping at his black, shiny shoes. Numb with adrenaline, the only thing I could do in defense was grip the pendant in my hand tightly, keeping it from view. As my vision grew darker and more narrow, I caught a glimpse of the smirk on the man's face, as he picked me up, and carried me off quickly. I collapsed into unconsciousness.