Chapter 15.

Rocky hurried out of the cell not looking back. The hall seemed to go on forever as he made his was into the main part of the house. But the frightened, frantic ninja stopped to look around him.

"Dumb ass, what are you doing? We have the field now move!"

"Shut up!" He yelled aloud at the voice in his head. "I have to find the little girl, she has to get out too."

"Oh smart, exploring a house unknown to you is as good as walking a fucking maze blind folded. Forget the girl and get out of here, you can get help and come back for her." The voice assured.

"Not good enough, what if Maria just takes off and brings Noel' with her... No. I have to find her- Noelie! Noel!" He called out.

Rocky laughed in the back of Sam's mind. "You won't get a response, the girl is deaf, that's why Maria took her... 'she's just like me' don't you remember her saying that over the phone to you?"

The real Rocky lowered his eyes to the floor. He knew that his alter was right. He had to get out while the getting was good. The girl would have to wait. And with luck, Maria wouldn't get very far if she did try to run. "You're right, I have to go..."

Running into the living room, Rocky clutched his shoulder that banged painfully against the door frame in his hurry to get out. He only winced in pain, his mouth wouldn't cry out. He wondered how long he had before Maria woke up. Just how hard did his alter ego hit her?

"I hit her with intent to kill, you should be smart to do the same if I'm not around." The voice continued to speak to him with that same sadistic tone. How could that be him, it made no sense, Rocky thought.

The front door pulled open with a creak. It wasn't even fully open and Rocky felt harsh cold nipping at his legs, running up his naked body. He would never survive out there this way.

Closing the door, the blond looked around the living room for something to wear. Anything at all that would keep him warm until his bruised, thinning body made it into town. Tossing aside chair pillows, he wondered if the girl had a bedroom for herself. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but his body was lithe, he was sure he could fit into something the girl owned. Turning, ready to go up and down the stairs as quickly as he could Rocky tripped falling to the floor. "Ugh!" Scrunching his eyes, he hissed in annoyance.

A smile cracked onto his lips when he saw, folded under the couch, a pair of pajamas! They must be the ones that the girl was going to give to him for good behavior, and as luck would have it the pajamas were made of cotton. That would support him a bit in the cold. Dressing as fast as he could, Rocky looked around the room for shoes. There were none. "I'll have to manage." His courage up, Rocky hurried back over to the front door.

He pulled it wide open, closing his eyes from the stinging wind. "Just go, Rocky." He coached his self, glad to not hear it from his rude inner self. Closing the door after his self, Rocky ran out into the blackness of night. In the window, at the house a little girl looks out the window after the person who had left. A frown on her tiny lips. Noelie pressed a hand to the window, the cold outlining everywhere her heat didn't touch, and silently she mouthed.

"He'll never make it." The doll in her arms clutched tightly for comfort.

Rocky's feet crunched quickly through the snow. He couldn't slow down for even a second otherwise he'd suffer in letting his feet get too cold. The last thing he needed was sickness on top of his other problems, but man the fresh air was doing him some good.

Wwwhhhfffffffffffffffff!

The wind blew cold from every direction, freezing Rocky to the bone. This place was definitely not L.A.

"Whoa!" He tumbled to his knees. The snow soaked through the fabric quickly, wetting his knees and calves. Ignoring the cold the best he could, Rocky pressed on. He had taken a few more good feet when again he fell. He was far to weak for this... maybe he could-.. No! He would not ask that arrogant bastard for help. He couldn't. Mostly because Rocky was frightened at how quick he was to believe the odd boy that claimed to be him. He had no real proof. After all, this boys eyes are green, his hair is a shade darker- not to mention a thousand times longer- there is no way this boy is Rocky. Maria probably did it just to see if he would talk to himself about her.

And another thing, he's noticed that said voice has been quiet since he left the house. So who was crazy now?

"Think again Einstein, I'm trying to figure out where we are... which way town is. And do please keep calling yourself crazy, you're only making things better for me. His inner self said, a voice of pure self love. There was no way this guy wanted to protect him.

"Can you..." He coughed as a cold gust went into his throat. After regaining his composure, Rocky grabbed his arms letting his self shiver hopping to bring up his body temperature. "Can you really find t-town?"

Rocky was quiet for a while then he spoke again. "No problem, like I said, just relax and let it come natural. You can do all this yourself Sam, just believe..."

Just believe... What that I'm some whacko psychic? This is bull... ridiculous.

"Juust tryy!" Rocky wailed, more than pissed off at his so-called better half's lack of cooperation.

Real Rocky had to smile at this. He had actually managed to harass the otherwise mild mannered alter, yet insanely spoken, alter. "I'll try okay... I just don't know what I'm supposed to do, how I'm supposed to relax."

The wind picked up again, snow blew this way and that.

"It's like a... um... three second meditate. You can do it Sammy- come on!"

Sam doubted it, but he tried. He tried to focus on... something... anything he could think of. "A man... I see a man!" Rocky couldn't believe it. At first, he saw nothing. His mind was a blank canvas but then slowly, a picture was coming into focus... it was a man, he was sitting someplace... drinking something that Rocky could only assume was coffee.

"Good, you're got a target." There seemed to be a smile in the boys words. "Keep your focus on the man, don't try to get any larger a picture, just focus on him and walk... you should know when you're getting close." Sam felt his alter smiling, as a smile crept up onto his own face. "You should smile Sammy, you've got good range, who knows where that guy could be. Now go on, I don't know how much longer you have until Maria gets up."

Rocky ran as fast as he could toward wherever he felt a pulse run through his brain, there seemed to be nothing at all when he went in the wrong direction. With a few trips, rolls and stumbles along the way. Rocky vanished completely in the blizzard.

A well lit diner, open all night, played a country song on a jukebox in the corner of the large wood floored room. The people inside were few, a restless looking crowd that seemed either to work at this hour of day or simply went off to think because of a fight they had at home. No one expected the doubled wooden with a long glass in the center doors to pull open, revealing a very wet and disheveled teenage boy.

His breathing was erratic, his eyes wide with fear as he skimmed the place for something.

The woman, large in size with a slight mustache coming in at the corner of her lips, looked the boy over as he staggered to the counter.

"Please, don't let her find me..."

"Who find you?" She asked with little interest. Did this boy think he was the only person who came in here with a story to tell, starting it with a flare of drama for effect. It was three in the morning, many nuts come by this time of morning.

"This woman- no... I need to use your phone please. Pleeease... Where is it?" The blood on his frost bitten, chapped lips dripped down his chin and he quickly wiped it away. Rocky was receiving what felt like a million different stares for there only to be a handful of people in the room.

The woman chewed her gum, in disbelief that the boy was in that much need of help- granted he looked pale as a ghost and a little beaten. But still, like she said at this time of morning any nut could come in. "Over there." She points with her pencil.

Rocky looked over his shoulder, spotting two phones in the corner protected by a wooden wall. "Thank you." Walking through the tables on cold, wet and shaking legs. Rocky's hips made contact with a table or two producing a pained grunt from him.

The ninja paused seeing a man at the table in back, drinking a cup of coffee. It was the man from his vision! Maybe... there was something to what his alter and Maria were telling him. Maybe there is something buried inside of him. He didn't have the time to think about this right now. He had to call the cops.

Reaching the phones, he snatched on from the receiver pressing it to his ear with a grip that said he was afraid of dropping it from his shaking hands. I don't think the cops around here would believe me... I better call someone though... Who could help me...?

Without his consent his finger dialed nine, then a cell number. Rocky gasped. "Who are you calling?" He asked aloud.

"I called Robbie." Rocky laughed.

Rocky's eyes went wide. "Are you crazy! What did you call him for!"

Everyone in the place looked at the boy when he raised his voice, sounding as though he were talking to his self. He looked completely crazy.

"You know, you don't have to talk out loud to me. I can hear you when you think. How do you think I know everything about you?" Rocky mumbled. "You're making yourself look like an idiot."

"Yeah well, it's not everyday a guy gets this great opportunity to have a self verbal voice in the back of his head!" He waited out the rings looking around. "Shit." He slammed the phone down on the base when he saw a light coming from outside. Followed by this light was the bony blonde girl Maria.

"Shit..."

Rocky dropped down, running along the tables saying to anyone he passed. "Please... please don't tell her I'm here." He said over and over. "Please."

The group of people watched as Rocky wandered out the back door of the place. The doors in the front pulled open with a force that seemed inhuman.

"Where is he?" Maria screamed.

"Honey you have some nerve-..." The woman behind the counter began.

"Shut up bitch! Where is Rocky Douglas?" Maria waved her hand carelessly, and as if a bear had thrown it, a table shot across the diner.

The small crowd, regardless their sleepy demeanor, gasped in horror. They had never seen anything like that before. When another table flew across the room, the small group ducked screaming.

"He went that way!" A man with a red hat called out, his finger rising above his hiding place, pointing toward the back door.

A crooked smile curved on the girls lips. "Thank you... but just so you don't get bored." Raising her hands, the girl knocked the jukebox over, laughing as the song sputtered to a pitiful halt. "Enjoy all, and thank you." Passing through the room, the people who came in her path hid again further away. She no longer had use for them, she was going for a much bigger prize.

Rocky turned off his flash light and hid in the woods. A large tree his only cover from the demented girl. I'm panicking Rocky, what do I do?

"Just think about something outside... try to... try to think about birds or something."

That's not much help. Please... I... Can you do it for me, I just don't trust myself when-... His words echoed. He didn't even feel the change that time. Rocky, how did you-..?

"You wanna get us both caught? Just hush, or she'll hear you." Slinking further back into the trees, Cocky Rocky watched the girl walking out of the place. His mind was complete wall. Nothing could break it. He had made it so, after what had happened to the host when he was younger. Rocky tended to call the body, his physical self, HOST as it was what the body grew to look like. Being of his own electron, Cocky Rocky changed his appearance to his own liking the stronger he got. Hence the hair and eyes, it suited him. He liked it this way. If Sam wished to look like the host than who was he to stop him.

Maria stalked the grounds like a panther. Her mind pricked onto its highest hilt. She was ready for the slightest slip up in atmosphere. Maria had no idea how Rocky managed to mask himself from her, but he couldn't do it for long. She had felt his brain, his honey mind, and it was not that developed which is why she took him. To nourish it and make him hers.

Rocky... Sam sounded scared. His voice hard and panting. Rocky something's wrong... I keep... seeing something... someone is touching me!

"Sssh!" Rocky warned.

Sam's panting didn't stop, he must have wandered to far, he must have...

"Oh shit!" Rocky knew why he was freaking out. He must have wandered into...

"Gotcha." Maria loomed, moving aside some shrubbery.

Rocky's blue green eyes looked up at the girl. Busted...