Author's Note: Results: 2 votes for Hope, 1 vote for Lightning.

We will return to Hope. So if that's what you wanted, here you go! But if you wanted to see more of Light, don't worry, we'll come back to her next time.


A grunt sounded from deep within Hope's throat as he backed as far as he could from the body. Did he do that? Was that man dead because-because of him? It had to have been. No one else could have done it.

Why does this keep happening? This was the second time in this town alone. What was the point of all this killing? He knew his invader wanted his friends dead. Why not just kill them and leave it at that? Not that he wanted them to die, but he knew they would rather die than let a bunch of innocent strangers die instead.

He breathed heavily, but tried to stay as silent as possible. No one could know. Not until he could figure out what happened.

Unfortunately for him, there was a witness.

Dani was only nine years old, but this wasn't the first time she'd seen a dead body, and not the first time she'd seen a murder, as sad as that was. The world was not kind to Dani, but in this case, her knowledge would get her out of trouble.

Sort of.

"I saw it." She said. "I saw the whole thing."

Her fellow jailbird jumped at the sound of her voice, and at the words her voice made. He turned his head to her, but kept his body pressed against the wall. "What happened?" He asked quietly.

"What? Are you testing me? I know what I saw." She wrapped her small fingers around the cold metal bars holding her back. "What're you gonna do now?"

He took some more deep breaths. "...I don't know."

Dani stood up on her tiptoes, keeping her grip on the bars. "I know what you can do."

"What's that?" The killer rasped.

She stuck her head as far through the bars as she could, which was pretty far. "You could leave. Escape."

"What would that solve?"

Dani rolled her eyes. He was one of those people. "Whatever. Then help me out of here. I know the way out, I just need a little...help."

Eyebrows were raised at her. "How many times have you been in here?"

"Irrelevant." She whispered quickly. "Are you gonna help me or not?"

Silence came from across the hall. Dani didn't give up though. She might not have been able to read words very well, but she could read people like a novel. Whoever this guy was, he was a good person under all of that rude murderer stuff. He would help her. Might take him a while, but he would help her.

Even if only because he didn't want to die.

"You don't have much time." She said as loud as she dared. "Max'll be back any minute. If you're still here when he does, you'll never get out of here alive."

He muttered something. Too low for her to hear. She counted the seconds in her head.

Three... Four... Five...

"What's the plan?" He said.

Dani smirked.


"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Hope mumbled to himself.

He reached his hand through the bars of his cell and curled his fingers around the lock. The smooth metal contraption wouldn't be hard to get through.

He pressed his fingers into it, crushing the lock into a rough ball. As he yanked it free, the sharp squeal of ripping metal met his ears. The little girl shushed him from her own cell.

He ignored her, and gently pushed open the door, which thankfully only emitted a small squeak. Setting the remains of the lock on the floor, he proceeded to do the same thing to her lock.

"Quieter this time." She whispered.

'You're the one talking.' He wanted to say. But he didn't. He just let her out.

The door was hardly open when she slipped out. She took off her shoes and her bare feet danced on the cold stone floor. She gestured for the crushed lock.

He gave it to her. She turned it over in her hands, felt for the shape that was no longer there. Vanille's eyes looked up at him. "How did you do that?"

"If we manage to get out of here, maybe I'll tell you." He answered. "Lead the way."

She nodded, and slipped the lock in her pocket. "They won't need this anymore, anyway. Come on."

She practically flew down the hallway, making no noise except for the barely discernible patter of skin on stone. Hope followed close behind, trying not to think about just how wrong the situation was. He was helping a little girl escape from jail. What would he get himself into next?

She didn't speak but tugged him in the right direction, leading him away from the cold stone cages and toward the exit. Which, unfortunately, was on the other side of a small office with windows creating the top half of the walls; and on the other side of that was another room, also with mostly glass walls, this one filled with chairs. There were three men talking loudly in the office, one being the man who had stormed out of Hope's cell earlier.

"Are you sure this is the only exit?" Hope whispered.

"If there was another one, we'd be there." The little girl replied. "We just have to get past them. There's no one in the other room."

"This is the part of the plan that you didn't tell me." Hope stated.

"Just watch."

Dani padded slowly and quietly past the office, keeping as low as she could. A few boards creaked under her weight, but seeing as she was very small, the noise was hardly louder that a mouse's sneeze. She made her way toward the empty room, and Hope lost sight of her.

Though, he didn't have to wait very long to find out what she was up to. Maybe a minute after she entered the room, a large crash sounded, like a bunch of chairs falling onto each other. Hope pressed himself against the wall as all three men left the office to investigate. Another handful of seconds passed, and the front door opened slightly.

Knowing this was a signal, Hope took a few steps forward and glanced into the room. All of the men were surrounding a line of plastic chairs. It looked like they used to be in a stack, but were pushed over. Smart. Wasting no more time, Hope sneaked past, keeping low.

Once outside, cool, fresh air entered his lungs, and he breathed deeply. Freedom felt oddly good.

"C'mon!" The girl hissed. "We're not out of the woods yet.

So he followed her for a while. He wasn't sure how much later, but eventually they reached a small, run-down shack. She slipped in through the door, and came back almost immediately with a chunk of bread halfway in her mouth. It was oddly adorable, seeing this dirty little girl greedily eating the bread, her curious eyes open wide. She swallowed and said, "Thanks."

"Sure."

"So. Are you gonna tell me how you smashed the lock?"

Hope chuckled. "I said maybe, remember?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, the first thing she'd done that seemed appropriate for her age. She was sure to have an interesting story.

"How about this." He said, "I'll tell you how I did it, if you tell me why you were in there."

She considered it. "Well, let's just say that I, um, borrowed things that don't belong to me."

So the girl was a thief. "What's your name?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you."

She momentarily scrunched her nose. "Dani. Yours?"

"Mister is fine."

"Okay then. Tell me how you smashed the lock, Mister."

Hope squatted down to her level. "I'm really strong."

She poked him in the nose. "That's not an answer."

"You wouldn't believe the truth." He told her.

"Try me."

He chuckled. "You won't give up, will you?"

"Nope." Her green eyes showed her mischievous nature.

She looked so much like... He began to slip. He caught it early and kept control, but even still, he knew he had to leave. He couldn't risk hurting a kid.

He stood up quickly. Dani's expression flashed quizzical for a moment, then became normal.

"Goin' somewhere?" She asked casually.

Hope nodded.

Dani shrugged. "See ya, then."

"Sure." Hope watched as she went back into her little shack, shutting the door behind her. He would wonder why she didn't run home, but something told him that that beat-up old shack was her home. Where were her parents?

He mentally shook himself. It didn't matter. He'd be leaving her behind. Without thinking further, he began to leave. He left the town of Cidra behind.


Dani watched him leave through a small hole in the wall. He walked in the opposite direction of town. There was a certain finality in his action. He'd made a decision. He was leaving this town and his actions behind.

She didn't entirely know why, but Dani decided to follow him. She told herself it was because as soon as she stepped back in town she'd be back in that jail cell. She also told herself that it wasn't because she wanted to know how he pulled off the lock with no effort. And it certainly wasn't because he reminded her of her dad.

She grabbed what little she had and slipped out of the shack after him.


So, what do you guys think of Dani so far?