Chapter 05 - Escape

(I don't own JSR. Thanx to everyone who r+r'd the last chapter! As Disk
knows, I've had some problems with this fic, and good reviews make all the
pain and trauma worthwhile. So pleeease r+r this chapter too! Oh, and
Camilla and Amy are mine, and Koji is apart from the name. Obviously the
Rokkaku family are Sega's. I think that's all - on with the story!)

Amy looked around wildly, heart hammering. Her mind dashed through ideas
as she tried to think.
The cupboard. She ran over, pulled it open and stepped inside,
flattening herself against piles of paper and envelopes. Pulling the door shut,
she gripped it tightly as she heard someone walk into the office.
The figure walked past the cupboard, and she heard a click, and a hum
as the computer booted up. Amy tried not to breathe too loudly. What was
going on?
Could it be Tab? she wondered. On the deep carpet it was difficult to
hear if the intruder was wearing skates or not. No, she couldn't risk it. She
kept quiet.
Her fingers ached from holding the cupboard door shut. She prayed it
wouldn't swing open.
Someone was typing. Amy itched to see who, and what. It was
midnight, for pete's sake, what would someone be doing creating accounts at
this time? But she didn't dare move. She had a horrible feeling that if she did,
she'd end up falling out onto the floor, and then she'd be sunk.
How did I get into this? she asked herself. One minute I'm a normal
kid, now I'm expelled, I have a criminal record, and I'm hiding in the office of
one of the most powerful men in this city listening to someone else doing
something it doesn't sound like they want anyone else to hear about.
Could it be Koji, plotting some more dealings with the Rhinos? Or was
the guy just finishing off some late-night invoices?
Come on, she urged him silently. My fingers are going dead...
And then, at last, she heard a click as the computer was switched off,
and gentle footsteps on the carpet, and the slam of the door, and silence.
She waited. Waited some more. But the building was completely silent
now, relaxed, asleep.
At last she pushed open the cupboard door and stepped out. Everything
looked the same as before.
Suddenly Amy just wanted to get out of there. She turned and dashed
out of the room. She needed to find Tab.
There was only the two offices and a waiting room on this floor, and
Tab wasn't in either of them. Amy reached the steps up to the next floor, and
sighed. She was going to have to venture up into the Rokkaku home, and hope
she found him before anyone else did.
Here goes.
The carpet muffled her feet as she crept up the stairs. As she went, her
surroundings became more decorative. Elegant statues and vases in the
corridors. Hidden bulbs instead of strip lights. She reached the next corridor,
and started to creep along it.
She could hear voices, and light spilled from a doorway in front of her.
She tiptoed forward, and saw Camilla, standing with her back to the door,
jacket slung over a chair, shoes off, and shoulders tense.
"I know something's going on, Koji," she said. "Somebody's -"
A voice cut her off. "Camilla, go take your hysteria someplace else. I
haven't got time for this." It was a quick voice, a voice accustomed to making
snap decisions.
"You will have time when they haul you off to jail for sending assassins
round the city," Camilla spat back at him.
"Is that a threat?" He pounced on the sentence like a cheetah.
"It's a warning."
Silence. Then Koji said, "Jealousy is pathetic in a woman of your age."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Stop seeking attention, will you? Just because I'm the real head of the
corporation doesn't mean you have to stoop to this sort of thing."
"You idiot!" Camilla shouted. "You don't understand! I thought you
cared about this company. I thought you knew we have an image problem. I
thought -"
"You thought? Well, that is a surprise." Koji threw the words at her.
"Get a life, sister dear. Any image problem we'll have now is nothing to what
we'll have if the public finds out one of the Rokkaku twins is a self-obsessed,
lying brat."
It sounded like he meant every word. Amy caught her breath. Ouch.
Camilla said, slowly and deliberately, "You can't treat me like this,
Koji. One day you'll be sorry."
"Can't you come up with anything more original than that?"
Amy backed away down the corridor as she saw Camilla step towards
the door. Quickly she ducked round the corner as the woman marched out of
the door and off down the other way. Koji slammed the door behind her.
Amy looked round the corridor again. There was a large Chinese vase,
as tall as she was and about half a metre wide, next to the doorway, which cast
a bulbous shadow onto the floor.
She yawned. What time was it now? She was so tired. It seemed
strange that she was still the same person who'd watched rudies skating in the
rain days ago.
She sat down next to the vase and sighed.
"Where are you, Tab?" she whispered, hoping Koji couldn't hear her.
Suddenly someone rose out of the vase. Amy just managed to suppress
a shriek. It was Tab.
He gave her a mock bow, and said, "You called?"
Amy put her finger to her lips, and indicated the closed door. A
silhouette could be seen behind it.
"Let's go," she mouthed.
Tab nodded. Amy helped him out of the vase, which was wobbling
precariously, and onto the floor. Then they hurried to the steps, down to the
next floor, back to the fire door, and out.
"Some happy family," Tab said as they made their way back down the
fire escape. "You heard 'em?"
"Koji and Camilla? Yes. What do you make of it?"
Tab shrugged. "Could be Camilla hates Koji so much she's seeing
things that ain't there. On the other hand, someone must be doing the Rhino
thing, and he seems a likely guy, right?"
"Yes." They reached the ground, and started to walk down the street.
Amy told Tab what she'd heard in Koji's office.
"Who d'you think it was?" he said. "I never went in there."
"I don't know. There weren't distinctive footsteps or anything.
Someone put on the computer..."
"How'd they walk?"
"I didn't see, did I?"
"I mean how'd it sound?"
"Oh...slow..." Amy realised what he was getting at. "Not like they
wanted to be heard."
"So it could have been Koji...doing something Rhino-related...or
someone trying to find out, like we were."
"I just don't see what we can do," Amy said gloomily. "We don't know
enough! What are they planning? And why? And how can we stop it?"
"I don't know," Tab said. "But don't worry. We're the GGs. We
stopped 'em before, and we can do it again."
"I hope so. I'd better get home," Amy said, yawning.
"You don't have to go," Tab said. There was concern in his voice.
"You could stay in the garage."
"I've got to face her sometime. Might as well get it over with." Amy
swallowed. Every cell in her body was telling her to accept Tab's offer. But
she knew that she'd have to speak to her aunt again sooner or later. May as
well make it sooner.
"You want me to come with you?" Tab said.
"All right. But don't come in, it'll just make things worse."
The streets were empty and the shops were dark. The small hours, Amy
thought. A good name. Nothing big seems to happen. Everything's dead. I
shouldn't be out here now. It's all wrong.
"I lost the necklace you gave me," she said, suddenly remembering.
"Onishima made me take it off."
"Don't worry about it. I can get you another."
"You don't have to."
"I want to."
And now they'd reached her house. Amy suddenly felt very sick. She
didn't want to go in here. If her aunt was asleep, she'd leave a note, and then
burn straight back out again. If her aunt was asleep.
Tab squeezed her shoulders. "You sure you want to do this?"
Amy nodded, but she couldn't speak. She kissed Tab, wanting it to last
forever. But no dice. Soon she had to break away. Hand shaking, she knocked
on the door.
Silence.
"What if she ain't in?" Tab asked.
"She will be." Amy knocked again. Her hand shook as she did so.
Come on, she thought, answer, why don't you? Don't make me wait
like this!
Third time lucky. She banged on the door one more time.
Then she heard the click of the bolt on the other side being pushed back.
She swallowed, and motioned Tab to hide. He gave her a thumbs-up, then
ducked behind a lamppost.
The door swung open. Amy stepped inside, and turned to face her aunt,
who was standing behind the door. It slammed shut as she began to speak.
"I went out tonight," she said. "I put a tag on the school. A graffiti tag.
I got arrested. I got expelled. I was freed by a benefactor. I'm now a dropout
with a record. And I'm leaving."
She could smell whisky. Her heart froze for a beat. Her aunt didn't get
drunk often, but when she did...the last time had been a few months ago, and
Amy still hated to remember it.
Her guardian's face was dead-white, and her hand shook as it clutched
her dressing gown. Amy turned to walk back out the door, and cried out as her
aunt's hand caught her on the side of the head.
Then she was being shaken, shaken violently, view breaking up as it
happened, then dropped suddenly...she fell onto her knees and felt a foot catch
her in the stomach...curling up, she tried to keep a hold on her insides, felt
tears spatter her skin...more kicks, it hurt so bad, please stop, just let me catch
my breath...her nose was bleeding, she could feel the blood running down over
her lips...she couldn't handle this...she couldn't...dimly she saw hands
grabbing the mirror that hung in the hall...it was coming towards her...quickly
she threw her hands over her head...
CRASH
And the view danced one more time in front of her eyes, and then faded.

Tab heard the sound of shattering glass. For a moment he was paralysed. Then
he rushed towards the house. The door was shut. He banged on it, hands
shaking, hardly thinking, but there was no answer.
"Amy!" he yelled. "Amy! What's happened?"
Silence. Silence everywhere.
Tab swallowed and focused on the glass panel in the door. This was not
gonna be easy to explain, but on the other hand he had to do something.
Quickly he took off one skate, and then, balancing precariously, he
raised it, and smashed the glass.
No one said anything. No one shouted out. In a way that made it worse.
It made it look much more like something was wrong. Carefully Tab reached
down through the jagged hole and opened the door from the inside. Putting his
skate back on, he stepped over the threshold.
It was pitch black inside the house, but the streetlight glittered on shards
of glass and mirror dotted about the floor. Any hope Tab might have had about
Amy being all right was wrecked as he saw her lying there, head lolling, a
bruise swelling up on her forehead.
"Amy?" He dropped down next to her, feeling mirror pieces crunch
underneath him. Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, he implored
silently. He touched her back, and tried to keep calm as he felt the rise and fall
of her breath.
There was a large wooden frame lying on the ground next to them, with
some pieces of mirror still attached. Tab looked from it to Amy to the empty
hook on the wall, and drew the obvious conclusion: the aunt had finally
flipped, and Amy had suffered for it.
Surely she'll agree to do something now, he thought. If she wakes up -
when she wakes up, come on, let's keep positive, when she wakes up she'll see
it's too dangerous. Like I did. Eventually.
But first to make sure she wakes up okay. Now where do they keep the
phone in this place? Tab stood up and looked round the hallway. Zilch.
Oh, well, have to go snooping, then. It's not like it's my fault. He
walked over to the nearest door and pushed it open.
As he stepped inside, a familiar smell punched his nostrils. Someone
had definitely been hitting the bottle. This room was pitch-black but he could
see another unconscious figure slumped on the floor. No prizes for guessing
who.
He flicked on the light, and Amy's aunt moaned faintly. She didn't
wake up, though. Tab was glad of that. He yearned to show her just what it
felt like to get beaten on. Seeing Amy like this was bringing back a lot of nasty
memories, and it all made him angry...
The room looked like a study, and there was a phone on the desk. Tab
picked up the receiver and quickly made a 911 call. Then he headed back out
to Amy.
As he sat down next to her again, she blinked, and looked up at him.
"Tab..."
"That's me, the one and only. How do you feel?"
"Where's my aunt?" A shadow passed across Amy's bloodstained face.
"Off her face in there. Don't worry, she's too out of it to do much."
Amy swallowed, and he saw that she was crying. He asked, nervously,
"What happened?"
"I told her...but I don't think it would have made much difference if I
hadn't...when she's like that she's crazy...she hit me and kicked me...then she
hit me with that mirror..." Amy looked round at the remains on the floor. "I
think it was the frame knocked me out...I can't stay here...I won't..."
"Course you won't. You can come stay in the garage with us."
"You mean it?" For a moment her eyes shone in the darkness. Then the
light faded. "No...they won't let me..."
"Amy..." He put an arm round her. Her shoulder blades and spine
could be felt through her clothes, delicate and brittle, easily snapped. "Don't
be dumb. They'll let you stay, okay? I know they will."
"Thank you..." She sat up a little. Tab scraped the pieces of glass out
of her way.
"I called an ambulance," he said. "Didn't know whether you'd be
okay."
"What'll we tell them?"
"The truth might be nice."
"I can't," she said. "I can't, Tab, she'll be sent to jail or something, I
can't."
"Why not?"
"I - I don't know - I just can't tell them."
"Well -"
"You never told them, did you?" Suddenly she met his eyes. "You
never told anyone about what happened to you."
"No, but that was different." Leave it alone, he ordered her silently. It
was like touching a bruise, thinking about it all.
"It was no different."
"All right! So maybe I didn't. But I'm older now. Older and wiser. I
can see what's right."
"Sure you can," Amy said coolly. "I don't want to tell them, all right? I
thought you of all people would be able to understand that. Let's just go."
"But - are you okay and all?"
"Yeah. I ache, but I'll feel better soon. I'm fine." She sighed. "Look,
if I get dizzy or black out or something I'll go to casualty, okay? The
ambulance can come for my aunt. She doesn't sound too good either."
Tab knew he should force her to wait, but he didn't want to. His heart
was still cold from the fear he'd felt when he'd seen her looking dead. That
had been one kind of loss. He didn't want another.
"All right, then," he said. "Come on. Let's go."

The garage was dark and silent when they got in, sleeping GGs dotted around it
like sculptures. Amy washed the blood off her face in the bathroom, then sank
down against the sound system and tried to sleep. Her eyes were heavy, but it
was still hard to relax.
In one night, her life had been - shattered? - no - she hadn't lost much.
More like shaken. Shaken up to form a new picture. What this picture was she
wasn't yet sure. She knew in the morning she'd be able to see things clearly,
but now it all seemed too strange to think about. No school. No guardian. No
house. But she was safe here. Listening to the others sleep, she still felt
isolated, awake in a world of night-time, but at least she was no longer alone.

(Pleease r+r! I need your opinions *cough and your gratuitous praise cough* Oh, and I'm not pretending I know anything about child abuse, so I hope I haven't offended anyone by my portrayal of it here.)