Arella watch the small blonde man walk casually into the building, his hair becoming slightly ruffled by the crisp Christmas wind. She hadn't seen anything that cute in a long time. Just before he stepped in the door, Arella got out her invisible Kodak camera, and had her own private Kodak moment as she snapped a picture of him.

He was such a sad individual. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he had seen a lot of things that he would rather not have seen. He had seen death, she knew that much, and he had almost seen it again with what happened to his friend this morning. And now, only a few hours later at the most, he was walking into a meeting on Christmas morning that would decide his financial future! His life peaked her interest greatly. Arella could only hope to become a more significant part of his life.

As she turned back to start her car up she jumped at the sight on her windshield. The homeless man cleaning her windshield wasn't out of the ordinary, but she hadn't just expected him to be right their either.

"Hey! Buddy! D'ya mind?" she hollered. His torn beanie rolled back a little on his head to reveal an unshaven late middle aged man that for some reason or another was missing his right ear. Probably some war or something. Though she honked the horn for him to get out of the way, the man simply motioned back to the large towel he was wiping the car down with. "Harah" she cursed to herself. "Just the way to top of my day." Underneath the dirty towel was a pistol. A Sig-Sauer no less. This guy couldn't have just picked this up off the street, this was quality merchandise here. Maybe he was only dressed as a bum. It was a possibility, but either way Arella had no choice but to reach for her purse. She checked outside her other windows to see if anyone was around. Of course not, it was Christmas. And of course she hadn't brought any money today; she wasn't planning on driving Mark to an interview or whatever the heck it was. Man this guy had picked a bad day.

Arella slowly rolled down her driver's side window to break the news to her robber. The man's eyes grew wide with an emotion Arella couldn't quite distinguish. Anger, fear, frustration? He looked as though he were going to say something before motioning for her to step outside the car. "Oh what does he want now?" she thought to herself. When she was sufficiently out of the car, the buffoon stepped into the vehicle, rolled up the window, and closed the door. No. There was no way he was thinking of stealing her CAR! Her BABY? Something had to be done about this.

In a violent rage Arella ran full boar at the automobile until she launched every ounce of her being into a kick that shattered the window completely. She thought she felt her heel connect with the man's head inside, but she was wrong. The thief had put up his hands just in time to deflect the kick slightly, though she could see her heels had grazed his forehead. Arella leapt into the driver's side of the car and began to punch the crook as hard as she could wherever she could: ribs, face, shoulder, arm, testicles, knee, and stomach. Then she remembered, and a little too late at that, about the gun. Between strikes, the crook-now-turned-gunman shot a single shot from the underneath his left arm. The bullet ripped through the sleeve in his jacket, pierced the shoddy metal on the door of the car and entered Arella's right thigh. She screamed in agony as the driver began moving the vehicle. Arella threw herself outward and rolled on the pavement as the forward momentum threw her across the ground. "Ben elef." She swore again. As her precious car turned the corner, all she could to was watch in pain on the pavement. Of course no one would come from any of the apartments. None of them would want to get involved, especially while eating Christmas dinners and what not. That meant that there was only one hope left for her. Arella, attempting to forget the pain in her leg, spun slowly around and began to drag herself off the street toward a bench on the sidewalk. She thought of pausing there for a second, but she couldn't waste any time. Mark was her only hope now, so she dragged herself further over to where his bike had been chained up next to the Buzzline building, and passed out.


Notes: Yes Arella is swearing in Hebrew. If you want to know what they mean I found them on a really neat website actually. Other than that sorry I have not posted in awhile. My computer has been in the shop for months and I just got it back… so very very very sorry times a billion, but thanks for sticking with me.