"I love you." This is not the first time those words have crossed my lips, but it will be her last chance to say them back. My bottom teeth pull at the already torn skin of my upper lip, as my eyes rest on her face. She looks away and answers my confession with the same cold silence she always has. My knees tremble and my fingers dig into my arms, pulling them tight to my chest. She doesn't love me. It shouldn't hurt. It's nothing new; a truth I've known my entire life, but at this moment her normal silence is too loud; deafening.
"Come," a voice behind me says. Time has run out and my guardians are impatient. I turn around to face the four women tasked with bringing me safely to my new home. They are ready in their dark robes, hoods up to shield them from what I was told is a terrible world. I glance over my shoulder one last time and my eyes search her face, but nothing has changed. She will not speak the words I so desperately want to hear and will not come with me or beg Azar to let me stay. I turn back to my chaperones and face my fate with all the courage of someone who has no choice. Because of my training I can ignore the horrible pain I feel in my chest. I can force air in through my nose and out through my mouth in slow streams. Each breath releases the sorrow, the anger, the fear and the panic. If I have a meltdown, if I shed even one tear, they will know they made the right choice in sending me away.
We walk through the smooth white archway, the gateway and when we step through it, we step into a cold and dark world. The ground is hard and black, matching the sky and something big with lights swerves and nearly hits us. The guardians hurry me to a lighter colored path next to the black ground and begin walking. I walk between them and try to look around, but it's too dark to see very much. There are lamps here and there that light things up, but many of them appear to be broken. Despite the darkness, somehow the guardians seem to know where we are going.
They turn down an alley and the two in front stop dead in their tracks after we've followed them halfway in. There are two men in front of them. One is twirling a chain, the other has nothing in his hands, but it does not mean he isn't dangerous. I don't need to know anything about earth to know that they are trouble. A terrible mix of anger and amusement radiates off of them in a way that reminds me of him. These are the type of people he likes. The contrast between the auras of my chaperones and these men is heaven and hell; these are bad men.
"Well, well, well. What are you freaks doing in our territory?" the man with the chain asks. I sense three more people with similar auras behind us. They move forward forcing my guardians and I to step forward. The men ahead of us move back, allowing their friends to herd us to the end of the alley into a clearing of more black pavement between some large buildings. There are white lines on the ground and a few big metal vehicles, much smaller, but similar to the public transport at home. Five men surround us.
"Keep your hood up." The leader of my chaperones, Ragalira whispers. "Take her hand." she told the woman next to me, Miral. She actually does grab it, which is surprising. There have been very few times at home when anyone dared to touch me. They were all too afraid of Trigon, afraid of being cursed, afraid that I am evil… I glance up at Miral, she looks down at me for a moment, a look of determination on her face. The bad emotions in the air grow stronger. Two more men show up from the alley behind us. They all sprawl out now an impenetrable circle around us. They look similar, dark hair and few parts of their heads shaved, black clothes that are ripped and torn in places, pale skin that heavily contrasts with the dry blood of old cuts and wounds scattered across faces and arms. Their hands reached for knives at their belts. One of them has a metal baseball bat.
"What do we have here?" Their apparent leader smiles as he steps into the circle and walks around us. He pauses in front of Ragalira and swipes her hood down. She had been okay until now, but I sense fear. The man grins and puts a hand under her chin. "Looks like you ladies stepped into the wrong territory." His words earn him hoots and hollers from his men. Ragalira moves out of his grip. He doesn't like that, but he continues to smile. He points his knife at her and what was only a little fear, is now a lot. All of my chaperones are scared, as if her rising fear is contagious. In Azerath we preach against violence, but these men will not be turned away by words. My chaperones will not fight with their first and even if they wanted to, they don't know how... We're in serious trouble.
"Take off your hoods." The leader orders. We don't move. I can feel Miral's body stiffen next to me. My own legs shake and threaten to cave out from under me. He puts his knife to Ragalira's throat. Miral removes her hood first and then the others follow her action. "Search them. Take any valuables and deposit them to the safe."
"You gonna let us have any fun? I think we deserve a reward after how we took out them joker wannabes downtown." One of the men shouts and others agree with him.
"Pick one and them take em' to the warehouse." The leader says. "Some big boys have an auction coming to town soon and you can buy way more fun after we get paid." He grabs Ragalira's arm and starts walking off with her.
The men start grabbing at my chaperones, taking the two in front of us and dragging them away.
"Run." Miral looks down at me and all but screams the word as one of the men grabs her arm. "The big blue house down that road, make a left when you pass three corners and you'll find it." she speaks fast, almost too fast for me to keep up.
"What about you?" We hear one of the guardians scream and I can still sense all of their fear, even though they're farther away. It's louder than anything I've ever felt in Azerath. It's too loud to ignore.
"We'll be fine" she says as he pulls her so hard her hand is ripped from mine and she nearly stumbles. "Go, so we can tell Azar we did our job."
"What are you gibbering about?" One of the men asks.
"What about the little one? He ain't gonna be able to scrap a kid." the other one says. He stands in front of me, but doesn't move to grab me. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need to.
"Shut up, you don't even know what you're talking about." the other man slaps him on the back of the head.
"Run." Miral repeats, but I can't. I can't just leave them. I glance around the alley and look for something, anything I can use to help us. I take a slower breath and concentrate on a rock and pick it up, throwing it at the bigger man's head.
"What the fuck was that?" he rubs his forehead where the rock hit. I pick up other stuff on the ground: cups, paper bags, glass bottles and anything else I can see on the black pavement, throwing it at both of them as hard as I can. They back away then and I grab Miral's hand, running towards where they had dragged the others away. They're around the corner. One man is holding one of the women with a knife to her throat and one arm behind her. The others have the other woman on the ground. Her head is bleeding and one of them is hold her arms over her head while the other seems to be wrestling with her clothes. This sight turns what was fear in a rage that almost burns. They were trying to do what he did to her.
I scream as loud as I can and reach out with my powers, grabbing a big metal stick with a red hexagon attached to it. I swing it at the men and they back up from it, forced to let her go. I keep swinging it until one of them pulls out a new weapon and it makes a big bang and puts a hole through the hexagon. They keep shooting at it, as I try to hit them and when that doesn't work, they fire at me. I'm surprised, but I manage to raise a shield to protect myself.
Someone else is here. A man in dark clothes appears behind the men. Ragalira is standing next to him and he has their leader in hand by his shirt collar, knocked out. At the sight of us, Ragalira runs to the other guardians. The newcomer makes the other men panic. They had been afraid of me, but now they're really scared and then angry. They don't stop firing at me and three of them try to fight the newcomer, but he beats them up with such ease I would believe it if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes. He goes after the two still attacking me next.
"Run!" Miral tells me again. I start to shake my head, but something in her eyes warns me that I better listen. I sprint away as fast as I can and try to remember the directions, she told me, but once I get out of the alley, I stop. I can't leave them... I should wait in case there's more trouble, in case they need my help again... I hide behind a big metal box that smells worse than anything I've ever smelled in my entire life. I plug my nose with my fingers and breathe out of my mouth. There are a few long, loud, high pitch whiny noises that go by a couple times, but otherwise the night is eerily quiet.
I wait for a long time. A really long time. A man enters the alley and pees on the side of the wall across from me. Thankfully he leaves quickly after. They don't come. Did they make it away from the men okay? Did they go to our destination without me? Are they looking for me? I bite my lip and hug my knees a little close to my chest. She told me to run and I remember the way, sort of...
Feet land softly, but still audible on the black pavement. It's not the men. I sense nothing bad, except a little anger, but anger wasn't necessarily bad. This person is also a little worried... It might be Miral? Is she mad I didn't follow instructions? I peek out from behind the dumpster and immediately regret it. It's not Miral.
"Hey, easy. I just want to help," It's the man in dark clothes. He has some sort of bat logo on his chest and a mask that covers most of his face. The cape around his shoulders reminds me of our cloaks, but he's not one of us. He's a stranger and I was warned many times not to talk to any strangers once we crossed the portal. I concentrate and teleport as far as I can, which is only to the other end of the alley and run as fast as I can where Miral told me. Rain pours from the sky, but I don't let it slow me. I turn at the right corner, too quickly and end up on the ground. My knee hurts, but I get up and run towards the blue house. I cross into the gates of the large front yard and the door opens before I reach it.