10. Wanna Lay Low

Blood splatters. A pained scream.

"Okay now run!" Alice yells and pulls her pocket knife from the vile man's armed hand. She takes her chance to slap away the gun off his hand. The man curses and glares at them filled with hatred, frantically tries to reach for his gun on the ground.

"Not so fast!"

Julius kicks the gun further and begins to run alongside Alice, who's screaming in fright.

"I stab a man!" she cries. "I'm a criminal!"

"Save your breath!" Julius yells at her and grabs her hand, trying to get her run faster. The two run like crazy and don't even dare to look back. Julius is too busy to run out of fright and steals a glance to the crying girl, whom he thought would really leave him to die.

'She saved my life, Good Lord.' He twitches in disbelief. 'I'm still alive. I thought I was going to die.'

The stops when they arrive at a quite crowded street. Gasping for air, Julius still can't believe the things happened in the last twelve hours; it was all because she came to learn some god damned statistics. Alice cries again hysterically.

"Jesus Christ! I really thought you're going to die, man!" Alice yanks and shakes his shoulders frantically. "I really didn't think it'd work out! My God, I stabbed a man! I'm almost taken away to be a prostitute!"

"Calm the hell down!" Julius yanks her hands off his shoulders, which still hurt from the shot. She shuts up but glares at him tearfully, and he glares back at her still shivering. "I...I really thought you're going to leave me to die..." he sighs weakly. "Your acting is terrifying."

"I'm sorry...your shoulder..." she cringes and eyes his bleeding shoulder. Julius sighs, and then catches the sight of her hands, reminded that she cut her fingers and used her blood to put a fake horror make up on his face.

Alice seems to read his mind, and points at the nearest sink. The two then wash their face, hands, and Alice tries to clean up his wound, saying that he'll get infection if he doesn't at least clean it.

They are calmed down after a while of silence, sitting on the bench, still drenched in sweat cold. Julius facepalms at a stupid idea that he should never leave his home ever again, but then Alice speaks again.

"So...how are we going home, now? I don't know where we are..."

He just realized it as well and glares at his surrounding. She's not joking, neither of them know where they are except that they're far away from their homes.

Alice whimpers and begins to whine again. "Aughh...You're probably too freaked out now and you won't let me hang around again, will you...? You probably think I'm bringing bad luck, aren't you? Julius, I swear, I don't bring bad luck! This is the first time this ever happens, okay? I—"

"Shut up," Julius snaps coldly, and then catches a Police Station nearby. "I have an idea."

~.X.~

Sunday evening. Julius slowly wakes up from his sleep. He had never stayed up until dawn, and he feels terrible. He knows that it wasn't Alice's fault that they had to go through a Saturday night running away from an evil taxi driver, but he can't help and begin to overthink everything. Julius sits on his bed and begins to draw a graphic of his future on his mind.

The final image drawn in his mind completely wakes Julius. Cold gleams in his eyes and he forces his tired body to get off the bed. Going to the bathroom and cleaning up himself, he then gets down. He drinks some water and brew some coffee while trying to find something to eat.

Julius stares at the bread he'd bought from the supermarket. He usually ate that all the time, and after a few days enjoying proper delicious dinners, those breads looked really boring. He shakes his head and begins to eat one anyway.

Finishing his plain breakfast, Julius continues his day and starts to study. He's surprised by how many things he had forgotten and this causes him to worry. The navy-haired teen grabs his coffee mug and sips the caffeine.

It's really irritating when he find himself waiting for no one to fill his mug when it's been empty for an hour. He groans and drags himself up to make more coffee.

"I'm being spoiled..." he mumbles with a distasteful scowl as he watches the fire beneath the kettle.

Other than the ticking and coo coo voices of the antique clock, his house was back into the peaceful silence.

Yet, for some reason, the silence now is killing him.

Julius shakes his head.

"After tomorrow's presentation, I'm never talking to that weirdo ever again." He promises himself.