Running. Running away. Running fast. Running.
Mitchie Torres streaks through the quiet street, her heart beating out of her chest. She has a plain grey hoodie over her brown hair, and a wild look in her eyes.
If she doesn't run faster, she knows it could end in her own death.
Forcing herself to pick up the pace, she hears the rumble of a car coming down the road. Panicking now, she tries to go even faster. Instead, Mitchie is slowing down.
She's going to be caught.
Mitchie looks down at the tattered picture in her hand. There she is with Shane, in love. Little did she know that her relation with him would end up with her running down a dark lane for her life.
The sound of the engine comes closer. Mitchie is ready to scream. Against her will, her legs are slowing down, her breath is running out, and tears are streaming silently down her cheeks.
Shane had promised she would be safe with him, but he was wrong. Wrong!
Mitchie's small purse slipped from the pocket of her hoodie, but she didn't care. She couldn't stop to pick it up, she couldn't stop at all. She had to keep going.
A car door slammed somewhere near her. The street lights cast an eerie glow on the scene, and Mitchie was struggling to draw a breath to keep running.
Footsteps are coming closer, and closer... no way out... no more oxygen...no will to fight...
For Mitchie, it all goes black.
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A black clad stranger picks up the limp form and carries it back to the car. After letting the girl slip onto the leather seat, the stranger drives away.
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Shane tightens his grip on the wheel. He's sweating, and every breath hurts. If Mitchie is injured...
Even the thought makes the eighteen year old shudder. He was too young to be dealing with these problems; the problems that his brothers had caused. No matter how hard it was to allow himself the luxury of going out with such a beautiful girl, he had finally given in. She insisted she would be fine, and as the first year went by of them dating, Shane relaxed.
Promised her safety.
But now... who knew. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach told him she wasn't okay.
It seemed like an eternity, but finally, Shane pulled up to his girlfriend's house. The lights were on, which seemed strange at this time of night. The feeling got stronger.
Shane knocks on the door, but as soon as his hand comes in contact, the wood shifts. The door wasn't closed.
This is even more worrying. Shane looks around and see's broken glass on the floor, and drops of red blood leading up the stairs. The trail leads to Mitchie's bedroom, which is empty. The whole house is empty.
Shane runs out the door and to the street, calling her name. "Mitchie! Mitchie!"
No answer. He hears a car start a while up the road and drive away, but he can't see anything. It's too dark.
The boy follows the street until his foot bumps into something.
Mitchie's purse.
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There's light shining onto Mitchie's eyelids. She had a pounding headache, and no idea where she was.
"Wha...what's going on?" She opens her eyes finally and winces at the brightness.
"First things first, what's your name and what is your relation to Jason and Nate Grey?" A voice says from the corner.
Mitchie opens her mouth to answer, then closes it. Who was she?
Why didn't she know who she was?
"I...I don't know..." She stammers.
"You don't know?" The figure turns, and Mitchie gasps. It's a beautiful girl, with mysterious brown eyes and flowing chocolate colored hair. She's wearing all leather, like a biker.
"I don't know." Mitchie nods, very confused.
"You must have hit your head pretty hard on the road." The girl scratches her head. "Now what do I do?"
"Who are you?" Mitchie asks, wondering if this would help her remember who she was.
"No one of consequence." She waves her hand about. "We need to get you to a hospital."
"Um, okay."
There's a knock on the door. A large man walks in, all business. "Have you got the information out of her yet?"
The girl frowned. "She lost her memory when she fell. I have to take her to the hospital."
With a move faster than Mitchie could follow, the man turned and put his hand around the girl's neck. Her brown eyes widened and her mouth opened to choke in some air.
"You will do no such thing." He growled threateningly. "They'll be looking for her, and the hospital is a public place. Revive her memory somehow else, and if you don't..."
He tightens his hold quickly, then lets go. She drops to the floor, making retching noises.
Mitchie stays silent, horrified but wary now. She better not get on the wrong side of this guy.
He marches out, and the girl looks up. Mitchie see's fear flash in her eyes before they narrow at her.
"You heard him. I'm in big trouble, and it's all your fault!" She was working herself into a rage; Mitchie could tell. "So you better get your memory back!"
"How?" Mitchie made the mistake of talking.
Her captor crossed the room and in one fluent movement, struck Mitchie across the face. "You don't speak unless spoken to. You don't act unless acted upon, and you will not, I repeat, will not ask any questions. Got it?"
Mitchie nodded, a tear escaping. A purple bruise was forming on her cheek where the girl had hit her.
"Come with me." She helped Mitchie up, and noticed the mark she had left. A sympathetic look flashed across her face, but then her expression hardened.
Nodding again, Mitchie allowed herself to be dragged outside to a car. She tried to get a better look at her surroundings, but she didn't recognize the place at all. Were they in a different town? Or worse... a different state...?!
She's pushed into the back seat and then the door slams closed. The girl gets in the front, turns up some kind of weird music very loud and then they're driving down the road at forty miles an hour; way too fast for a residential area.
Mitchie knows this could be her last chance at escape. They're driving down a dirty lane at a very high speed, but she has to risk it.
Fast as lightning, Mitchie Torres openes the car door and lets herself tumbe out. She feels her leg break as she makes impact with the hard road, and her wrists snap as she tries to keep her head from hitting anything again.
Broken and bruised, the dirt finally settles. The stranger obviously hadn't noticed her escape; the noise her radio was making must have stifled the noise. But now she had to run.
Mitchie forced herself to stand. A sharp cry tore loose from her throat as she attempted to put weight on her broken leg.
Tattered curtains were pulled back, and shady looking characters stared at the hurt girl with interesting looks. Mitchie didn't want to know what they meant. She dragged herself to the side of the narrow alley. What now?
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Shane, eyes wild with rage, pushed his brother against the wall. "What did you do? Where is Mitchie? WHERE IS SHE!"
Nate held his hands up in surrender. "I didn't do anything, Shane! I swear!"
"I know you've been dealing. What happened? Tell me!" Shane gave him another shove.
His brother sighed in defeat. "We didn't pay the guys."
"What?"
"We owed them a couple thousand for the weed, and the people we sold it to didn't pay us all they promised. We still needed a thousand, so Jason went to poker to earn us an extra grand. But the other guy cheated, and we...we lost."
"You mean you're broke?!" Shane let go of him to pace back and forth. "Why would you borrow money from one of them?!"
"Because we had no other way! We knew you wouldn't cough it up... so we borrowed some money from Mitchie. She thinks it's for rent."
"You got her involved?!" Shane ran his hand through his hair.
"And we payed them the two thousand she gave us, but they said we owed them more. We argued, and they threatened us, but we didn't take them seriously. We left." Nate stumbled when he tried to take a step away from Shane. "I'm sorry."
"You're high right now, aren't you?" Shane said in a dangerously soft voice. "The girl I love has been captured by people who might kill her, and you got high."
Nate looked up slowly. "So what if I am?"
"Nate, what happened to you?"
His brother turned away, then unexpectedly turned around and slammed his fist into Shane's eye. "Leave me alone!" He shouted. "This isn't my fault."
Shane watched as his brother disappeared out the door, his left eye throbbing and his heart aching with guilt. He knew he never should've let Mitchie get involved with him. Now she was probably hurt, confused, and it was all his fault.
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The girl rapped with the radio as she drove. She had captured Shane's girlfriend, who had apparently supplied the two idiots with cash. Now she needed to cough up some more before things got... ugly.
Of course she felt a tiny twinge of sympathy for the girl, but it wasn't really her business. For her, it was do this or get hurt, possibly be killed. Her parents died in this business, and she had sworn never to get involved. But here she was. It was really a long story.
The stranger glanced in her review mirror to check on the prisoner. All the blood drained from her face.
She was gone.
Our captor swung the car around immediately and started back, her heart beating wildly. If she was the one responsible for this girls escape... the consequences were dire.
Her phone buzzed, and she gulped as she answered. "Hello?"
"I know you are in the middle of transport, but I thought I would check up on you. How's our little money maker?"
"She's escaped." The girl winced as she said it.
"She what?!" Oh no, that wasn't a good sign.
"She's gone. I don't know how..."
"Look, I don't care how she's gone. You're obviously worthless."
The boss hung up. She got a text almost as soon as she pressed the end button.
It was from one of her close friends in the business, and the message made her gulp.
Run.
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Mitchie used the duct tape and wood pieces she had found to make a sort of cast. It wasn't something she had thought would come in use from girl scouts, but here she was now.
This time, the pain was only a dull throb when she stood up. She began to limp away from where she had fallen, sure that the girl would come back looking for her eventually.
A couple of guys were leaning on one of the dingy buildings, their eyes dark with hate of... what?
They were all smoking something, and as Mitchie grew closer, she could tell they weren't using cigerettes.
"Hey you." One of them called out as she passed. "Wanna come over here?"
"N..n...no thanks." Mitchie tried to keep her voice calm, but she could hear it waver. This was scaring her out of her wits.
"Aw, come on little missy. I'm sure you wouldn't mind a little one on one time." The group started coming towards her. "Or three on one time."
They all laughed, a gravely, hoarse sound that shook Mitchie to the core.
Mitchie tried to limp faster, but there was no way she could run from three men who, lucky them, were not sporting broken legs.
They closed in on her, and Mitchie closed her eyes, not wanting to see what they were about to do to her.
"Hey!" A guy who looked a little older than her appeared. "You three! Get away from that poor girl!"
Startled, the men backed up.
"Come with me." He grabbed her hand and pulled her away, before the group came to their senses.
Stunned, Mitchie let him drag her to his car. She wasn't so sure about him, but he had saved her from getting... voilated. She didn't want to think about what would've happened if he hadn't showed up.
The guy opened the passenger door for her like a gentlemen, then got in himself. He waited for her to put her seatbelt on, and then pressed on the gas. Soon the little alley disappeared from view.
"Who are you?" Mitchie asked.
The guy glanced at her before returning his gaze to the road, as if making sure it was safe to tell her his identity. "My name is Justin Russo."
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She had only driven so far until she had to ditch the car. Sure, it was handy to have a vehicle, but it was tracked, and the last thing she needed was for her boss to know where she was. Her friend had been risking her life, telling her she had to run.
But it saved her life.
The stranger grabbed her purse and got out of the car, leaving her phone. That was tracked to.
As soon as she had got the warning, she had deleted the message. No way was her boss going to find out she had found out she was on the hit list.
One simple mistake, and now she was being hunted like an animal.
She had no where to go but one place... and that was one place she had sworn never to go. Ever. A place she had been banned from, but had left on her own will anyways. A place where bad memories would haunt her and where she would be looked at as trash.
But it was a safe place, she had never told anyone about it. Right now, it was really the only place she could go without being... well, killed.
The girl set off in an easy run, wondering if she would get to see tomorrow.
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The car finally stopped in front of a nice house.
"This is where I live." Justin explained. "You can stay here for now."
During the drive, MItchie hadn't said a word. Luckily, the guy seemed to understand. He had said his name, and that was all. The silence was comfortable, but also slightly akward.
The two got out and Mitchie followed him to the front door. They were met by a boy who looked around fourteen, thirteen.
"Hey Justin, who's this?"
"A guest." Justin gave the boy a look, then turned to Mitchie. "This is my younger brother Max. Don't mind him."
"Hey..." Max started to protest, then shut his mouth at another look from Justin.
"You can sleep where my... where someone else used to be." His lips formed into a thin line. "Come with me."
Mitchie nodded, and followed him up some stairs to a girls room. It had obviously been tidied up, but it wasn't really Mitchie's style.
On the other hand, it was a place to sleep, and for that Mitchie was extremely grateful.
"I'll leave you alone."
Justin retreated into the hallway and shut the door behind him quietly. Mitchie let herself fall onto the bed, her eyes automatically closing and her body relaxing into a sleep it really needed.
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The stranger finally reached her destination. She allowed herself a couple deep breaths, then she marched to the front door and knocked.
It took a minute, but finally the door opened. A guy stood behind it, and his eyes widened when he saw her.
"Wha...?" He started.
"Hello Justin." She said grimly.