Chapter 4
Margret and I entered a large shop with lots of Venice nick nacks strewn on all the shelves. Margret held me by the wrist, so as not to let me escape. Lucky for me she found something interesting. Once she entered into a conversation about the piece with the store owner her hand loosened and slipped from my wrist. I waited till I was sure she was engrossed by the man's story I slid quietly out the door. Rodger had gone off somewhere and said he'd catch up with us soon.
As soon as I got out the door I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. I soon came to a large fountain. I took my hair, and pulled it into a messy bun trying to disguise myself the best I could. I sat down to catch my breath.
"Why are you running?" said a sweet voice. I looked up to see a young boy with an equally sweet face. He had blond curls that fell to his chin and blue eyes of a deep blue as the sea, eyes that I'd seen somewhere before. I smiled a little bit and replied "I'm trying to get away from bad people." he cocked his head to the side. "What kind of bad people?" he asked. "My evil foster parents." he looked at me and his soft fingers touched my nose. "Did they do this to you?" he asked examining the rest of my face. "Yeah." I said. "What's your name?" he asked changing the subject. "I'm Onyx. How 'bout you?" "I'm Bo." I grinned at him. "That's an odd name. I like it." I said. "I like yours cause it's pretty." I chuckled a little at that. "You know you probably shouldn't be talking to me. You should go back to your parents." I said.
"Bo what did I tell you about talking to strangers!" came a sudden voice. I looked up and saw a boy approaching us. He had brown hair that fell to his shoulder his eyes were the same blue as Bo's, and full of worry. It was the boy I'd seen the that girl the night before. He grabbed Bo up in a hug. "I've been looking all over for you!" he said putting Bo down and looking him in the face seriously "Why'd you leave Hornet?" he asked. Bo looked over to me. "That girl was crying, I wanted to make her feel better." I wiped my face and realized I had been. The boy stood and looked at me. "I'm sorry I didn't mean any harm." I said. "It's ok." he said looking at me. "Prop! She's running from her foster parents. Can she come with us? Please?" Bo said tugging on the boy's jacket.
"I don't know if that's a good idea I mean.." I said but 'Prop' interrupted me. "Why are you running from them?" he asked with a serious expression. Before I could answer, however, Bo did. "They hit her. Look at her nose, and her wrists." he said pointing at the cut and the bruises on my wrists I had been given by Rodger. "Is that true." Prop asked looking back at me. "Yeah but it's really none of your business. I.. I'll just go." I said turning. "Wait." the boy said grabbing my wrist. The touch was not as hard as when Rodger grabbed me. This was a loose hold that I could have walked away from if I wished to, but instead I turned. "We can help." he said letting go of my wrist. "I don't want you to go to your parents. They'll just send me back and then I can never leave." I said. "What parents? We're orphans. I'm talking about taking you to the hide out." I looked at him questioningly. "The hideout?" I asked. He just smiled.
"Come on." he said motioning his head sideways. I smiled and looked around.
Then I saw them. They were standing about forty feet away looking around, looking for me. I turned my head sharply trying to hide my face. Prop saw this and looked over. "Is that them?" he asked eyeing the large man in the black. I just nodded. "Here," he said taking off his jacket and handing it to me. "Put this on otherwise they'll recognize you." I quickly took the jacket and pulled the hood over my head. Prop turned and took Bo's hand motioning me to follow them. I followed looking back at my foster parents.
Just then strong wind blew threw and my hood fell. I quickly pulled it back up but it was too late. They'd seen me. Prop turned his head at the loud "There they are!" and saw them start to run towards us. "Hurry." Prop said and grabbed my hand. We ran to a nearby alleyway we weaved threw the alleys as fast as we could. Prop picked up Bo and swung him over his back and took my hand again.
I looked back and saw they were hot on our trail, only about twenty feet behind and gaining. I pushed myself to run faster, my legs aching.
Eventually we came to a loading dock for a ferry. It was leaving so Prop and I gained speed and jumped. We landed on the deck with a thud. When we stood up we saw my foster parents yelling at one another because they had finally lost me.