A/N Ooh-hoo. Chapter Three. Here we go! I am preparing to get quite cruel to the readers in the next few chapters. Muahaha-ha! I am currently too tired to check for errors, so I'll have to trust good ol' spellchecker. I say good, it's actually quite bad. Meh. Rating may or -may not- move up soon. ;D

Chapter Three

Arthur Layton was laughing at her.
"Stupid woman," he was jeering "did you not even need us? I'll take her off your hands." He winked from under the greasy strands of hair that fell across his left eye and chuckled.
"Guess I'll see you around then, babe." And then he walked away from her. She didn't know where to. Retreating to the back of her mind, or walking away for ever. Alex Drake didn't care. She found that she usually had horrible dreams involving Arthur Layton in this messed-up world. She reached for her pillow.
"Come here," she growled. Growling at a pillow, Drake? She thought. Yep, you've lost it. Mind you, never had "it". She assumed that the pillow had fallen off the side of the bed but woke up slightly when she realised that, instead of her springy 80's mattress, her hands were met by...straw?

It was hot. Very hot. And itchy. Something was itching Alex.
"Gerroff me," she snorted into whatever she was lying on. All sorts of weird noises could be heard from her surroundings.

It is a curious thing, to wake up and not know where you are. Alex felt completely disorientated. She shot her eyes open, only to have them start to water by a blinding sun. It was very warm.
"Oh god" Alex groaned. She felt as if she was going to be sick from the foul stench that she could smell. Despite this, there was the relaxing sound of water gushing. Like a small stream was nearby, happily moving along its business. Alex groped around her, trying to grab something to pull herself up, but could not see temporarily due to the blinding (and scorching) sun. Alex shrieked as she toppled off whatever it was she had been lying on and landed face-down on the ground, luckily managing to use her hands to stop herself, but still landing on the floor. She lay there for a bit, assuring herself that she looked like an idiot.
"Ow," Alex croaked, realising how dry her throat was.

"Get up, you silly cow!" Someone was nudging her gently in her side with their foot. "Get up!"
Alex struggled to get her legs to work so that she could stand properly. It was like they were tangled together. The first thing Alex noticed was her surroundings. A river to her right, rows and rows of houses to the left and she was stood on a bridge. A middle-aged woman stood there staring at her as if she had fallen out of the sky; leaning on the broom that was in her hand, hair scraped back and serious expression tattooed on her face.
"What do you think you're doing, lying on the floor like a pillock? Haven't you 'eard what's been going on?" She had an annoying cockney accent, but her voice sounded slightly concerned. But that didn't really interest Alex. She couldn't remember anything. She couldn't remember what she had been doing last night, who had been lying next to her last night when she went to sleep. Alex was silent, as if she couldn't even remember how to talk.
"Well, gonna say sumfin? And don't look at me like that." The woman scolded. Alex quickly averted to her surroundings once again. That river. It seemed so familiar. It made her smile. Alex was only a few steps away, so she wandered over to it, lifting her feet as if they each were lead weights. She looked in the river and gasped. The annoying woman began to talk again whilst Alex stared, bemused, at her own reflection.
"I know. Bloody shocking, isn't it? How many is it now? About three murders right here, well around abouts here, in the last two weeks, I'd say. Mind you, they do a good job of coverin' up, don't they?"

Alex was still not taking anything she said in. She was too busy staring at the woman in the water. Her brown hair was waved all over. She seemed to be wearing a ridiculous turquoise-green velvet dress that just passed her knees. Oh my God, she thought.
"I look like a cabbage patch doll." Alex whined to herself under her breath. She didn't have any shoes on, though. That was strange.
"Well, I don't know. It's like anarchy. I blame Labour. Everything was fine as it was, if you ask me. Now there's people dying, people disappearing, people l-"
"What year is it?" Alex interrupted seriously, watching the woman in the water's mouth match the movements of her own.
"I beg your pardon, love?"
"The year. What is it?"
"Erm, it's 1997..?" The woman replied, glancing at her watch. Alex dropped the strand of hair that was in her hand.
"What?" She demanded, her voice low and dangerous.
"1997, love. Do you want me to take you home--hey!"
The woman's broom was flung out of her hand as Alex pushed her out of the way and began to run. She shouted at Alex, yelling for her to come back and calm down. Her yells faded off into the distance soon enough.

Alex was running alongside the river, bare feet slapping against the hard concrete. She didn't know how far it went, or where she even was. She remembered about what her life had been like. It had been hectic, chaotic, busy and some parts had been sad, and lonely and horrible. But it had been her life. And no one had the choice to take that away from her. But they didn't choose to did they? Someone very close to her had shot her accidentally.
"Gene." She whispered the name to herself. As soon as she said that name, the one that had anchored her to that time, she remembered all of them. Gene. Chris. Ray. Shaz. Viv. Everyone. Alex could see their faces. The thought kept her running, she didn't know how long for and she didn't know how long the river was. The only thing Alex didn't take into account was where the river led.

When she eventually ran out of both breath and adrenaline, Alex stopped running and tried to keep her breathing circular to soothe her tattered nerves. She had a stitch in her side and walked on alongside the relaxing river, clutching her side. She remembered what her old P.E. teacher used to tell Alex and her classmates from a young age.
"You'll only get a stitch if you stop running!", the woman would shriek in a nasal voice. No mercy, that one. Alex closed her eyes and smiled. Yes, she acknowledged. I have gone insane. I'm insane, but sane enough to know that I have actually gone insane. She thought for a moment. Hooray!

Alex wasn't panicking much, to say she had just gone back eleven years in her past. Her life was very different eleven years ago. Or, at least, Alex thought it was. The little parts she could remember. It was like parts of her life in 1997 had been examined and chopped off like a butcher's knife chopping off pieces of unnecessary fat on a piece of meat before selling on his produce proudly. Like someone had decided that parts of her life in 1997 were poisonous and had to be removed.

"Is that why I'm here?" Alex demanded of herself "To re-live this part of my life so I don't make any mistakes this time around?"
She waited for a moment.
"Or to see him again?" She whispered rhetorically, fearing what the answer may be. She was sure that she was just overreacting. Any little nudge of emotion would send her into hysterical laughter or into a complete breakdown. Or both.

Alex could hear footsteps behind her. Quite a distance away, but she felt like she needed to hide; or she maybe just wanted to. Taking cover by the side of a nearby bench that overlooked the water, she listened to the footsteps. They were slow and steady. Determined. They were headed in this direction. You imbecile, she told herself mentally. You'll look insane if someone finds you sitting on the floor by a bench like a child playing Hide and Seek.
"I thought you already were insane?" A familiar little voice asked her arrogantly. Alex scowled. I know what I'll do. She placed her foot on the bench heavily, as if tying her shoe laces. Alex then realised she had no shoes on her feet, never mind laces to tie. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, she was repeating to herself. Instead, Alex resorted to inspecting her foot, as if for a blemish of some sort. Now the footsteps were about level with hers, coming down the few little steps behind her. The person who was coming down the steps was sniffing to themselves, as if trying not to cry.

Alex heard a thump. Of something being dropped onto the floor. Then running footsteps. Her eyes widened and she made to run, finally realising at last what the old cockney woman had said about murders. Murders! But it was too late. Someone was grabbing her shoulders and turning her around to face them. Alex kept her eyes clenched shut.
"OK! Don't murder me! Please!" She pleaded hysterically, half-sobbing. There were some things Alex felt she had to live for. The person grabbing her was laughing. Not out of malice, either.

"OH MY GOD!" They near enough shouted in her face. "I knew it! I'd recognise that arse anywhere!"

Alex wrenched her eyes open.


I know it's being silly, but I'm waiting for more reviews before I put up the next chapter. =D