"We're ready." Said Chase. The two girls were standing in the foyer.

"Finally."

They decided to leave Story home since she was already asleep. Snow was falling again. The wind swirled the feather-like snowflakes through the dark streets.

"Aren't you cold?" Chase asked Skittery. Both girls held onto his arms so they wouldn't slip on the icy street.

"No," He said.

"You have a jacket, right?" Spark questioned.

"Yeah but I left it at the lodging house." This was probably the first mildly friendly conversation he'd had with either of these girls since he met them.

"Was Spot angry when I called him?" asked Chase.

"A little." Skittery said.

Chase looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. Spot was never just "a little" angry.

"Did he throw anything?" From Spark's nervous tone, it sounded like this was a regular thing with the Brooklyn leader.

"No, he was generally calm about it."

"That's good."

They walked on. The streets were dark. Some of the street lights were lit but that did little to penetrate the black night. The snow only made it harder to see what was ahead of them.

The girls slipped a couple times as they crossed the bridge. It was really icy.

"What I wanna know, Chase," Skittery said as he helped her up for the third time. "Is how you and Spot stay together. You're always fightin' and gettin' on each other's nerves."

She thought for a second. She guessed that word of her outburst the other day had made it back to the Manhattan lodging house. "It's love." She said finally.

"You're serious?"

"Yeah," she dared him to say something about it. "From the moment I saw him for the first time, I knew there was something about him... I- I really can't put it into words. I love him and he loves me. We're mad for each other." She smiled out into space.

"But you fight so often."

"I know," she said. "And I hate that he's always trying to control me. Always trying to protect me. But at the same time I couldn't imagine a day without him." She really had been missing him all the time she spent avoiding him and selling with her brother. She wanted him to understand how she felt and she didn't know any other way to teach him his lesson. But even speaking with him on the phone gave her uncontrollable butterflies and the desire to hold him in an embrace and kiss him. She would have to forgive him sooner or later.

Skittery opened his mouth to say something sarcastic but then he stopped. Someone was following them. He could hear the footsteps. Skittery glanced behind them but he didn't see anything.

The girls could hear the footsteps kept going, at least a block. And the person still followed them. Skittery could feel both of the girls grip his arms tighter the farther they went.

As they approached the second block, another set of footsteps was heard.

"Skittery," Chase whispered, her eyes were wide.

"Shhh... " He said.

The footsteps got faster.

"Come on," Skittery broke into a jog. The girls had to fight to keep up with the taller boy.

The footsteps got even faster. This was not right.

"Run!" Skittery pushed them ahead.

The girls took off in the pitch black, no idea where they were going. They just had to get out of there. It was difficult for them to run because it was so icy and Chase was still getting used to running.

"Ahhh!" Spark couldn't help herself from screaming as she slipped on a patch of ice.

"Spark! Are you ok?" Chase searched for her friend in the darkness.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. I think I just twisted my ankle."

Skittery stood in the middle of the street as he tried to gauge where their pursuers were. They were getting closer. And then all of the sudden they stopped.

"Where are yous?" He called into the darkness. Nothing.

Chase reached out to help Spark up when someone grabbed her by the waist, dragging her through the snow.

"AHHH! SKITTERY!" Chase cried, throwing blind punches and kicks at her attacker.

"Chase?" He turned toward her screams. Suddenly, someone took a swing at him. He received the full force right in his eye. It blurred his vision, and making it even more difficult to see. He threw a punch and then another one, missing both times. His opponent stood back silently and watched as Skittery struggled for a few moments.

He (she could tell it was a man) threw Chase over his shoulder and started in the other direction, laughing evilly as he went. "SKITTERY, HELP!" He was too strong for her.

Realizing it was no use to fight his unseen enemy, Skittery stood up running toward Chase's voice.

He promptly encountered another hit to the jaw. This time it was harder, so hard he could feel blood starting to gush from his lip. As Skittery turned to fight back, he slipped on a patch of ice and hit his head on the curb. His vision went black as the sound of the girls' screams echoed through the street. Skittery tried to get up, but his body gave into the pain. He blacked out.


"Chase!" Spark called. She attempted to stand, the icy ground and the fact that her ankle was already swelling made it almost impossible. As she tried to rise a second time, someone caught her from behind. It didn't feel like Skittery's grip at all.

"Let go a' me!" Spark raged, just as Chase had. She received a smack in the face as a response, it stunned her for a second. Just long enough for her captor to drag her off the street.

The girls were taken into a building and down some steps into a dark room. They knew they were someplace in Manhattan, but they had no idea their exact location.

They were both thrown violently onto a bed that creaked under their weight. Chase and Spark huddled together, holding back tears as they heard their captors approach.

"There ain't no need to cry, Doll Face." Chase recognized that voice all too well.


A/N: And so it begins! This is such a short chapter but I hope I did well enough to convey the suspense. What do yous think?