Disclaimer: Angel & Collins aren't mine, duh; Angel just lives in my head. They belong to John Larson.  All other characters were made up by me

                                                Chapter One: Into the Night

Lillian Dumott paced across her spacious bedroom. She glanced at the clock. 11:55. Five minutes and her internet friends would pull up. Then she'd run. For the tenth time, she tested the security of the rope she'd made from her bed sheets. Good.

To keep her hands and her mind occupied, she scribbled an entry in her journal. She didn't have time to finish it because her phone rang. She knew who it was.

"Yeah?" she breathed.

"We're ready fo' ya, Tiger Lily." The harsh voice of a man she knew only as Smack answered.

"Cool. Pull around to the side of the house. Number sixteen. I'll be at the window."

She hung up with him and threw her duffle out the window. The lawn was damp, so it didn't make as much noise hitting the ground as she had feared. She looked out the window and debated whether or not to go through with this.

I can't do this. I have to do this. My parents will freak. Since when have they ever given a shit about me? He might not even be there. He has to be there. I can't do this. I have to do this. I can't. I have to…

Too late to back out now. A beat up station wagon was pulling up. Smack leaned out the driver's window.

"Come on!" he called.

"Not so loud!" she whispered.

She climbed out the window and down her ladder. Then, grabbing her bag, she sprinted across the lawn, slamming the car door behind her.

In her haste, she'd forgotten the journal lying on her bed.

"Punch it!" she shouted, and the car sped away. She felt an amazing sense of euphoria as her house shrank and finally disappeared. After four years of loneliness and being misunderstood, she was free.

"Thank you," she sighed to the man in the front seat.

"Ah, don't even worry 'bout it," Smack said. "So yo' now officially a runaway. Yo' screen name's Tiger Lily. What's yo' real name?"

"Lillian," she answered in a disgusted voice. "But everyone just calls me Tiger Lily."

"A'ight, so yo' Tiger Lily. I'm Smack, as ya know. Next to ya, that's Cookie."

Lily smiled nervously as the obviously bottle-blonde girl next to her shot up.

"Yo," she said flatly, withdrawing the needle.

"And next to me here, this is Jake."

A skinny redheaded man turned and smiled stupidly at her. He was missing his left front tooth.

"Howdy, Sugar Drop." His voice was thick with a western drawl. "This your first time in the ol' NYC?"

"Yeah," Lily said.

"Well, let me tell ya it's somethin' to see. The skyscrapers are a sight. Ya wanna see mine?"

"Fuck you!" Lily cried.

"Exactly."

Smack slapped him roughly.

"Let the girl alone, cowboy."

"Aw, well, you'll cave eventually."

Lily flipped him off but said nothing. As uncouth as these people were, they were her ticket to independence.

"So, how old are ya?" Smack asked.

"Eighteen," she lied.

"I seen yo' crib. Why'd ya wanna leave a ritzy place like that fo' a one room apartment in the East Village?"

"No matter how ritzy it looks it's a prison flat out. I left because my parents were probably gonna throw me out when they found out about me anyway.

"Oh, don't tell me, yo' pregnant."

She shook her head and told him the truth. He nodded.

"I got ya. So why New York?"

"My best friend lives up there. I haven't seen him in four years and I'm hoping to find him."

She smiled at this thought. In truth, while he was her only friend, he was her cousin.

 Oh, God, please let him be there. Please let me find him. Please let him understand and help me.

"So, Lily." Smack's voice cut into her prayers. "We kinda got this rule that all boarders gotta get a job so they can help pay the rent. Think ya can find one?"

"I think so," she replied.

But she wasn't thinking about jobs. All she could think about was the reward that (hopefully) waited for her in the so called 'Big Apple'. She kept imagining the last time she saw him.

He had been playing the drums and she had been writing a poem to go with the beat. They had been so happy, and then just like that, he was gone from her life. She'd been eleven, he sixteen. Her family had gone to his house for dinner and it had surprised her that he wasn't there. When she'd asked where he was the whole room had gotten real quiet. Then in a tight voice, his mother had announced that they had disowned their son because he was a homosexual. They didn't know that he had told Lily this over a month before. But the shock of their reaction was too much for her. Suddenly, the room had begun spinning and she was lying in a heap on the floor.

They had secretly written each other for about a year, but when Lily's parents found out, their relationship had been destroyed. Ever since then Lily had been determined never to love her family and to make them pay for tearing them apart.

Where are you, Angel? She thought. Have you forgotten your Tiger Lily?

She leaned back against the seat and savored both the memories of her friend and her new found freedom.

Lily didn't know that freedom came at a price.

                                                                  l

Tom Collins rolled over as he heard his lover moan. He shook him lightly.

"Angel?" he whispered. "Babe?"

But Angel was dead asleep. Again he whimpered.

"No, let me in...Lily…Tiger Lily…Let me in…No…" he mumbled.

Sleep talking was a habit of Angel's. Judging by that first remark, Collins deduced that he was dreaming about the night his parents threw him out, which was a dream he had often. But he'd been asking for this Lily for three nights now. Who was Lily? There was nothing Collins did not know about his lover but Angel had never mentioned a Lily.

Angel let out another sob and Collins gathered him up in his arms like a child.

"Come on, baby," the philosopher whispered, rocking him. "It's all right. I'm here."

Slowly, Angel stirred. He opened his eyes and looked up at his lover.

"I woke you up again," he said in a small voice. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he assured him. "You okay?"

He nodded, snuggling himself into Collins' frame. Brown arms wrapped themselves around him and the drag queen felt warm despite the lack of heat in the flat. He went back to sleep and Collins kissed him. He knew something was wrong and he desperately wanted to know what it was.

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