Sophie had felt worried all day. She got that feeling that her friends at her old school had gotten often when they were being stalked. But not the 'there's a boy at school and he likes you so he stalks you' feeling, the 'someone not-so-good is followin' you around and it's gonna end badly' feeling. Of course, she had been getting that a lot lately but it wasn't something that was easily ignored. Not that anything in her life was easily ignored.
It seemed having supportive friends wasn't enough to soothe her nerves. Manny and Frida kept asking her what was wrong, but she would just grunt 'nothing' and keep walking. Manny and Frida would shrug it off and keep walking as well.
That's when she saw him.
Sophie froze. Manny ran into her when he didn't notice her stop, and Frida behind him. Manny, annoyed at running into her but then noticing her scared, frozen state. He asked what was wrong.
"He's here…" Sophie muttered.
"Excuse me?" Manny asked, confused.
"He found me…how did he find me?"
"Who found you?" Frida asked.
"Don't you see him? He's right there. In that alley."
"What? Who's there? I don't see anyone." Manny asked, confused.
…
"You wouldn't be able to see him, but bottom line is we're not safe here. We have to go." I grabbed both their arms and led them away from Nezznus and into an alleyway across town. They were deeply confused, I could sense it. I looked over my shoulder to see that Nezznus wasn't anywhere I could see, but that didn't mean he was backing off. He would be back soon.
"Look, you guys aren't safe here. You have no idea about the power that Nezznus possesses. He could kill you in an instant without you even realizing it, bring you back to life and kill you again just as quickly." I warned.
"Who's Nezznus?" Frida asked. She sounded scared because of the way I described my crazy father. But it was no time to calm my friends down, because we were all unsafe here.
"My father." I explained.
"So why are we running from him?" I could tell they had been friends for a long time, because Manny asked this question when Frida had been asking the questions.
"He's not the daddy that you'd think he is." It wasn't exactly enough to make them understand. But I didn't care.
"Well where are we going?"
"My house."
"Why? Doesn't your dad know where you live?"
"You wouldn't understand."
I could tell they gave up on trying to understand what was going on because they stopped asking questions.
Soon enough, we arrived at my house and I kicked my shoes off quickly.
"Mom, we have guests," I first explained, to make sure nothing 'angelic' was going on. Then I led them into the kitchen, where I knew my mother would be.
"Mom, he found us. He knows I'm here. He knows we're in town, what do we do?" I asked, panicked. My mother glanced behind me to see Manny and Frida, but I ignored this and waited for her response.
"So why are those two with you?"
"Because, you remember what happened at the last school. I don't want that to happen to this school." I could sense that from behind me, Manny and Frida were confused.
"Well you know they have to go back to their homes. We have to solve this on our own."
"NO, mom, they'd be in danger if they went home! You know that dad would just kill them to scare me." Manny and Frida were very frightened now, I could tell.
"What?" They asked from behind me. I ignored them.
"I guess you have a good point there…here, kids, there's somewhere in the basement you can hide." My mother quickly led us to the basement door and down the basement stairs. Manny and Frida were scared and confused, I knew, but now was not the time to console them. We were all unsafe.
"W-where are we going?" Frida asked. I ignored them.
We came to the very lowest point in the cellar: the panic room. Steel walls, floor and roof of the panic room provided protection from any type of disaster; natural or otherwise.
My mother guided them inside the panic room and pushed them in before her.
"Wait, why am I hiding out in a stupid panic room? El Tigre don't need no stinkin' protection. I'm all the protection I need!" He exclaimed. I saw Frida nudge him and clear her throat in an insisting way.
"a-and her." he added quickly. On the inside, I smiled. They're cute together.
"Well you do when it comes to Nezznus. You have no idea what he's capable of." My mother explained. That seemed like a lousy excuse in Manny's eyes, but he didn't know my father. No one knew my father like I had the…opportunity, to.
"Oh, and Ryan will keep you company in the meantime, won't you Ryan?" I said as I saw Ryan walk in from the portal to the angel realm. It was a good thing Manny and Frida are in the panic room, so they didn't see a bright light and a brief glimpse of a bunch of angels before the door closed. Otherwise that would be bad.
"Ryan? Who's Ryan?"
"A friend. We'll come get you when it's safe…" I paused, "enough to escape Miracle City and let you live an alternate life somewhere far away from here." the end to my sentence shocked them. I shoved Ryan into the panic room, gave him a smile, shut the door and ran back upstairs to help my mother come up with a plan.
Well, I missed writing over the weekend. I would've updated sooner, but (…did I say this already?) I was on vacation for the weekend. And I will be this weekend D: so that's more time I don't have to update. (but time for reading stories, cuz luckily my phone has internet access everywhere XD) anyways, review!