She walked out of the church and saw not the town in which she had lived for the past 16 years, but a small rural town in the middle of, it seemed, nowhere. She saw the boy running past people without looking back to see if she was following. As he passed a fruit stand, he reached out and swiped a few oranges. The fruit hawker, upon seeing this, started chasing him and waving a huge club he had on his belt at the boy. Olycia thought that the boy was crazy, but he was the only person she knew in this weird town, and he might be able to get her back home. All she wanted to do was sit on the couch with a carton of ice cream, but here she was chasing a fruit stealer through a creepy town because of a gut feeling.
"Remind me never to follow another gut feeling." thought Olycia as she ran.
When she caught up with the boy, he turned his head and threw her a wink and an orange and said "Follow me."
"Great, two thieves' heads I can smash in" said the hawker. Wait, what? He thought she was a thief too? That's not good. She followed the boy into a long alley, but with no exits except a door that was locked from the inside.
"Why did you lead us here?" Olycia yelled. "It's a DEAD END."
"Just wait." The boy said. He put his fingers to his lips and let out a piercing whistle.
"I finally caught up to you!" said the fruit seller, waving his giant club menacingly at the children. He backed the children into a corner and was about to hit them when a blur of blackness flashed by and attached itself to the man's wrist.
"Owwww! Get this damn mutt off my wrist!"
"Sorry." said the boy "He's hard to control" With a laugh, he whistled again and the dog let go and dropped to the ground, still barking and growling at the man, who ran away as soon as he got his wrist back.
"Good boy!" said the boy, scratching the dog's belly while feeding him an orange.
"Are you nuts? You could have-"started Olycia, but a huge hand closed around her neck choking her.
"Is this girl bothering you, Yarxn?" said the mystery man.
Ah, Yarxn. Now I can put a name to the face. That was the last thing Olycia thought before she blacked out.