A girl walked down the sidewalk, it was a cold cloudy October night with the only light coming from the streetlights under which the prostitutes gathered and the barrel fires that the homeless crowded around. The girl gave a small shiver and wrapped one of her arms around herself tightly. She was a small pale girl, only four feet and seven inches, with a thin frame and a flat chest. She wore thick glasses hidden behind the strands of her mousy brown hair that fell in front of her face. She wore a dark blue sweater under a black jacket and faded skinny jeans with a pair of grey and silver tennis shoes, one of her arms hung by her side holding a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper.
"Watches! I've got watches here! Yo! Hey doll, this shit'd cost you six hundred dollars in the store!" A black man in a dirty brown coat and ratty jeans holding a suitcase full of what had to be fake Rolexes yelled at her from a door step.
"Umm, no thank you sir" the girl answered in a small voice while keeping her head down.
"Aw… Whatever watches!" The girl kept walking and the man went back to hawking his wears.
The girl kept walking and passed a prostitute in a yellow sports bra and scandalously tight yellow track hot pants, a second after she passed the prostitute, she jumped as she felt two hard smacks sting her bottom.
"Eeeep" the girl yelped, nearly dropped the case of Dr. Pepper in her hand, and looked back at the prostitute, who gave her a predatory grin.
"Little girls who stay out too late need a spanking, come here baby and momma will give you one on the house." The girl kept her head down, gripped her jacket harder, and walked a little faster away from the prostitute.
"Hey honey, isn't it past your bedtime?" A tall black haired African American woman in a tight purple tube top, a short purple leather skirt, and a mischievous smirk stepped out in front of her with her hands on her hips.
"n-n-no, please excuse m-me m-miss" the girl stammered out and moved to walk past the woman when a hand shot out in front of her, stopping the girl dead in her tracks. The girl looked up at the prostitute to see the mischievous smirk turn into a look of genuine concern.
"Honey, I'm serious, a girl like you shouldn't be out this late, it's dangerous. There are a lot of people out right now that you do not want to run into at night." The woman looked down at the small girl and thought, poor thing, she wouldn't last a minute if she ran into some Vice Kings or Rollers.
"I-I'm fine, I live just a few blocks d-down." The girl twisted a strand of her hair and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the woman's shockingly high purple heels.
"Where do you live sweetie, I'll walk you." The woman spoke in a warm, but firm voice.
"O-oh no, th-that's not necessar.." the girl looked up and shrank back, the look on the woman's face told her it wasn't an offer that she could refuse.
"Fuck you think you're doin'?" a yell came from down the street where a group of men in yellow and blue were arguing.
The girl and the woman stared at the gangs arguing for a minute until one of the men in blue struck one of the men in yellow with a base ball bat.
"Come on sweetie; let's get you out of here, you don't need to be around this." The woman grabbed her by the shoulders and began to turn her around, and as the girl saw one of the men in blue fall collapse next to her as he ran, she no longer felt like arguing with the prostitute and allowed the prostitute to begin guiding her in the opposite direction of the gang fight. Then three men in a red car with no roof pulled up to the curb.
"Hector says buenos noches" the man in the back of the car stood up holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle and the man in the passenger seat pointed a submachine gun at the men in yellow and blue, then they both opened fire.
"Move, now" the girl dropped her twelve pack as the prostitute began pushing her across the street as the men in yellow and the men in blue began to return fire. She heard a yell and turned to see the man in the dirty brown coat grab the prostitute in yellow, for a split second she wondered if he was trying to rape her, then she realized that the man was using the yellow whore as a human shield. Two seconds later she heard the prostitute in yellow scream again and out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw two of the missed shots had caught her in the stomach and chest.
"God damn it Shaniqua" the girl heard the woman mutter under her breath as she shepherded the girl across the street. This was when the fear hit her, the girl began hyperventilating and nearly stumbled, but the woman caught her and held her tighter, abandoning the hold that she had held on the girl's shoulders to wrap one arm entirely around the girl's small frame and drew her closer.
When they were across the street the headlights of the car heralded it coming up the road, and the girl heard the rattle of another assault rifle behind her, the woman took off at a dead sprint, dragging the girl along with her, and for a second one insane thought entered the girl's head, how the hell can she run so fast in those heels.
"Get down" the woman screamed and pushed the girl forward and dove forward.
The girl landed hard on the concrete and the air was knocked out of her, her sweater and jacket only slightly cushioning the impact, her glasses flew off her face and landed somewhere that she couldn't see.
The girl rolled over and propped herself up on one of her elbows. She looked around and couldn't see the prostitute who had been helping her. She looked up and saw the flaming wreckage of the red car and one of the men in blue walking up holding some kind of assault rifle, she couldn't tell much, everything was blurry without her glasses.
The man in blue laid out a few rounds into one of the men in red that was crawling out of the wreckage. The girl saw a black man in a yellow shirt and white tank top walk up behind the man in blue with a pistol and put a bullet in the man's head. The man then walked over to her and aimed the gun directly at her face.
"Wrong time, wrong place dawg" the man said. The girl looked around for a second, wondering if there was any way she could run, she looked at the man wondering if she could knock him down, she realized that she only had one shot.
"Gyaaaah" The girl closed her eyes and dove at the man's legs; she felt the man go down and heard a pistol shot, to her surprise when she opened her eyes, she was neither wounded nor dead.
"You okay Playa" The girl looked up and saw a black man wearing a leather jacket over a purple shirt and a black beret.
"Julius, let's move" a man in a purple shirt with a pistol stood behind the black man.
"Come on Playa" the black man, Julius, offered his hand to the girl and helped her up.
"Agh! m-my leg" the second the girl put weight on her right leg, a sharp lancing pain shot through her leg from her ankle.
"I gotcha Playa" Julius wrapped an arm around her to help her keep weight off of her foot as they began moving out of the parking lot.
"T-there was a woman with me, a prostitute, purple tube top, s-short purple s-skirt, s-sound familiar?" The girl looked around and saw the black man who had aimed at her, blood was flowing out of the large hole in the man's head.
"Julius, weren't Shaniqua and Kallika working the corners tonight?" The guy in the purple shirt looked back at them as he spoke, without her glasses she could not get that good a look at him, but now she could make out that he had brown, obviously gelled, hair and a mustache goatee.
"Aww, nice of you to worry bout me Troy boy, but I'm fine, concussed, but fine, Shaniqua didn't make it though." The woman, Kallika, who had tried to get her out of the gang fight was walking up behind them, she had some road rash on her stomach and had her heels in one hand, but she seemed relatively unharmed. As they moved down the street an explosion came from behind them as the red car ended it's death throes.
They went down the street until they were a block away from the carnage, then Julius set her down on a quiet corner under the dim glow of a street light.
"That don't look so bad, just a minor sprain, you should be fine" Julius examined her leg.
"T-thank y-y-you" she said meekly, the fear was catching up to her again and she felt an asthma attack coming on.
"That's Troy, you can thank him later." Julius gestured at the guy in the purple shirt. He gave her a nod.
"And it sounds like you know Kallika" Julius gestured at the woman.
"Sup kiddo, oh yeah by the way, these landed near me, figured they were yours" Kallika produced an item from that had been tucked in her cleavage, when she handed them to her, the girl realized they were her glasses.
"T-th-thank y-you" the girl brushed her hair out of her face, revealing a pale face with thin lips and high cheekbones, her glasses magnified her stormy grey eyes. She fumbled through the pockets of her jackets to pull out her inhaler, she brought it up to her face and pushed down on the top just as the attack was really hitting, as she breathed in the medicine she felt her throat loosen.
"What's your name Playa?" Julius watched as she tucked the inhaler back in her jacket.
"O-o-oh, uh my name, E-E-Emma, Emma W-White" as she spoke, Emma hoped her stutter would hide her lies. She pulled her wallet out and flipped it open to show her I.D.
"Ok Emma White, what's your real name?" Julius's face remained the image of calm as a he called her on her lies.
"W-w-what, I'm n-not, uh, f-f-f-fine, A-Amelia E-El-Elizabeth A-Alexander" Amelia looked down and tucked her wallet back into her jacket.
"Good, listen Amelia, the Row ain't safe no more. We got gangs fightin' over shit that ain't theirs, and you in the way. They don't care if you representin' or not." Amelia had to admit, Julius was impressive, he managed to make ghetto Ebonics sound elegant.
"Julius, this is no time to recruit" Troy appeared to be in a hurry to get further away from the scene of the gang fight.
"Plus, the poor thing wouldn't last a minute in a fire fight" Kallika looked over at Amelia.
"No offense sweetie."
"N-none taken"
"We need all the help we can get people." Julius turned to Troy and Kallika as he spoke.
"No we need to get our asses out of here" as if to punctuate his sentence the sound of sirens began to echo in the distance.
"In a minute" Julius turned back to Amelia, "look the Row's got a problem" Julius stood up and looked down on her.
"Come to the church when you want to be a part of the solution"
"Come on Amy, I'll walk you home, where do you live honey?" Kallika wrapped an arm around Amelia and helped her up as Julius and Troy walked off.
"Oh, it's an apartment building just a few blocks down, I can make it on my own if you want to get going." Amelia said, though how heavily she was leaning into Kallika implied otherwise. Even without her heels on, Kallika was about a foot and a half taller than her, leaving her at about eye level with Kallika's breasts.
"Sweetie, with all that's happened, you'll be lucky if I don't put you to bed and tuck you in myself." Amelia's head was lolling to the side fell right into the niche between Kallika's arm and shoulder. Amelia let out a small giggle.
"Hm hm, I am tired, like fucking exhausted, and weirdly happy." Amelia let out a loud yawn and unconsciously wrapped her arms around Kallika.
"First gang war?" Kallika kept a close eye on Amelia to make sure she didn't trip, the girl seemed like she was about to collapse.
"That obvious huh?"
"A bit, your tired because your adrenalin has been pumping for a while and now you want to curl up into a ball and sleep for a week, but you're also feeling the yay I'm still alive rush of dopamine, which is why you feel so happy and don't have too many inhibitions right now."
"Wow, you are really smart for a…' Amelia caught herself before she accidentally insulted Kallika.
"What, I'm really smart for a whore, prostitute, slut. Don't worry kiddo, I know what I am, and as for the smarts, while I didn't sleep my way to the top of my classes in S.U. well, not in most of them any way." History had not been a good subject for Kallika, the professor on the other hand had been a very good subject for her.
"Sssooo wait, if you went to college, why do you do the whole, gangbanger, prostitute, thing?" Amelia felt like she should shut up, but for some reason she just kept babbling.
"It's a long story kiddo; stick around long enough and maybe you'll hear it." Kallika ruffled Amelia's hair and looked down to see Amelia's face resting on her breast with her eyes down to slits, the girl was barely awake. The rest of the walk passed in silence until they reached an old rundown brick apartment building.
"Oh yeah, here it is, my place is on the top floor, you can come in if you want." Amelia let go of Kallika and started up the stairs to the building.
"I think I'll walk you up, considering you were basically sleepwalking for most of the walk to your place, you're just as likely to fall down the stairs." Kallika planted a firm hand on the small of Amelia's back and followed her up the stairs to the top floor.
Amelia fumbled through her jacket for her keys and unlocked the door. Kallika followed her in and was mildly impressed by what she saw, the loft was small, but very clean with hard wood flooring, a small kitchen that was over to one side, a living area with a small couch set up in front of a fairly large flat screen televeision and a stereo system, a door near the kitchen she assumed was a bathroom, and what really drew her eye was the desktop set up in front of one of the windows, it was an obviously high tech computer with three flat screens set up in front of a key board, underneath the desk was a slim tower server.
"Nice place for a runaway" Kallika said as Amelia slipped behind a privacy screen in the bedroom area, a small part of the apartment, with a wardrobe, a vanity, and to Kallika's amusement, a white queen sized canopy bed with a realistic giant stuffed octopus sitting in the middle of the pillows.
"There's no use denying it is there?" Amelia tossed off her jacket and sweater before unsnapping her bra, a plain dark blue one, and kicked off her shoes.
"Not really, how old are you hon?" Kallika said as she inspected the computer, it was certainly top of the line, she wondered how Amelia could afford any of the things she had.
"U-um seventeen" Amelia's stutter returned as she tried once again to lie, her instincts driving through her exhaustion.
"Huh-uh sweetie, try again."
"Sixteen" Amelia said as she pulled off her panties, to her immediate shame she noticed that she had wet herself during the fray, she tossed the white underwear in the hamper and grabbed the white double XL tee shirt that she used as a night gown.
"Hmmmmm" Kallika crossed her arms and gave a stare that could be felt even behind the screen.
"in seven months" Amelia admitted resignedly, she looked at her underwear drawer and debated whether or not to put on a pair of boy shorts, she usually just wore the tee shirt to bed, and since she figured that Kallika would leave soon she decided not to.
"There we go sweetie, so how long have you been on your own?" Kallika watched as Amelia emerged from behind the privacy screen, the tee she was wearing hung on her like a drape, making her look even younger than she already did, and looking like that Amelia could pass for a nine year old.
"Can we save the questions for later, like tomorrow at the church or something, I reeeaaaly want to get some sleep." As if to emphasize her statement, Amelia let out a loud yawn.
"Wait a minute, the church, Amy, are you sure that you want to do that. Joining the Saints is a big deal, just getting in is hard enough." Kallika thought of her own canonization when she joined. The idea of a girl like Amy getting the shit kicked out of her did not appeal to her.
"D-don't worry about it, I'm just going to listen to Julius, a-and i-if I l-like what t-then I'll go f-from t-there." Amelia felt her stutter return, she wasn't used to people showing much concern for her and Kallika worrying about her made her feel… strange.
"Ok, how about this, I'll pick you up around ten tomorrow morning; you can ride with me to the church. Just make sure you know what you're getting into" Kallika started to turn and leave, but paused a second before turning around an enveloping Amelia in a hug. Amelia just stood there for a second, stunned, then she returned the embrace.
"I'm really glad that I met you tonight Kallika"
"You too Kiddo" she pulled away and headed for the door "night Amy".
"night Kallika, see you tomorrow" Amelia watched her walk out and stumbled over to her bed.
She was out the second her head hit the pillows.
Ok guys, this is a small little side project, I started. I hope you enjoy, and please remember to review.
Big thanks to River NightRunner for her help on this.