Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Kombat nor the MK characters. No flames and R&R!

Warning: In some of the chapters some of the MK characters might seem slightly OCC, but hey nobody's perfect.

On with the story. :)

Chapter 1

In a small school, inside an even smaller classroom sat an entire class of about twenty seven to twenty eight high school students trying, so very hard not to fall asleep as the chestnut/blond haired teacher kept on babbling and rambling the history of how the Pearl Harbor was attacked by The Imperial Japanese Navy as a surprise military strike. It wasn't that boring… it had to do with the fact that this was the class right before lunch. Not to mention that since this was a school for 'Gifted' they had to come at 7:30am only to get out at 4:30pm. So they were exhausted, hungry, sleepy, tired and adding history to the mix didn't quite sound the best of all results. Already half of the class had their heads glued to their wooden desks in a deep slumber, while the other half was trying very hard not to end up in the same crumbled heap of drowsiness.

Everybody was clad in the normal blue and gray uniform. The boy's clothes consisted of gray dress pants with black shoes, a light blue polo with small white and gray lines on the collar and the end of the sleeves. On the left sleeve was the insignia of the school with its name imprinted on it. The girl's was a gray jumpsuit with a long skirt, the same polo as the boy's underneath and black school shoes with either gray, white or light blue socks. Every single student was clad in these except for one single girl in the chair of the last left row. Said girl had dark blue sweat pants with the name of the school sewed on the right leg in a vertical fashion. A light blue T-shirt with the same logo the others had only that it was on the left side of her chest. Black converse completed the look of the physical education uniform.

She had her arms crossed across her chest, leaning backwards and legs resting upon the same wooden desk her companions were now using as pillows. She wasn't really paying attention to class either as she kept on spacing off because of her small epileptic attacks-these consisted on the person that had it to usually not be very aware of their surroundings, walking in a confused or lost manner, staring into space for at list ten seconds and quickly snapping out of it, picking at clothes or any object close and chewing or making smacking sounds with the lips.

It was pure luck that this hadn't developed into full blown convulsions and panic attacks just like the ones her grand-grandmother had – which she at list expected that was where it had come from. She didn't like this very much as it got in her way of her studies at times that concentration was needed and sometimes people would stare at her as if she were the weirdest being… in the school at list. Even though she hid it very well since it wasn't as bad to control as the convulsing epilepsy, there were still one or two persons here and there that would notice and stop to either ask if she was okay or ask if she was retarded. It would depend on what kind of person it was, like maybe a teacher and a cheerleader. The teacher would be concerned for you while the cheerleader would laugh in your face and pass by you as if you were dirt on the way of the expensive snappy heels.

'Crud… I did it again…' she thought to herself as she mentally slapped herself to awaken the unconscious part of her brain. In other words: She Had Spaced Off Again. It made her feel ashamed of herself, not to mention very idiotic.

Her friends were always the ones on the top of the class while she was scrapping the ends with a rock heavy on her shoulders. It gave her stress, pressure and anger. Stress because no matter what she did she always ended last on everything and always got either B's, C's or even at some moments D's and an F in math. Pressure because wherever she went everybody was always telling how she was far behind, how she needed to catch up with everybody, how dumb her answers and solutions had been and of course peer pressure whenever it came to things like 'If everybody finishes on time you get 5 points bonus for your next test' or 'If even one of you is not finished I will send you out 10 minutes late'. Anger because these causes quickly got mixed up with social and emotional problems sending her completely off edge.

She did not get out of school because one: Mom and Dad would be disappointed that their oldest daughter got out of a specialized school on math and science, two: She had her BFFF's here, three: She loves the art class Mr. Cruz gives, and four: It's very close to her house and therefore less money is spent on driving her here - the economy is getting so bad nowadays. 'God why am I always so stupid and useless?'

Glancing to the window she put her chin on her palm as she started making out random figures in the clouds – a very strange habit she had picked up from God knows where. 'Mmhmm… why do the clouds always look like that? I mean people say that they're practically like gas but… could you actually feel them if you touched them, would they maybe feel wetter if they were gray? Perhaps they would I mean how do people even know that? Have any of them managed to have one in their palm? I'm pretty sure they just inquire that they're like that. Logic. Yeah that's probably it… I mean what if th –'

"… Miss Blake?"

"Huh? What?" she asked feeling as her face heated and her eyes burned from embarrassment. The teacher had probably asked her a question and she hadn't been paying attention the whole time.

She saw how all the students snickered and some started laughing as even the teacher seemed tolerant and started giggling slightly to hold in the laughter that was probably building up deep within her chest and threatening to come out her mouth any second now. She in turn felt a bit relieved as nobody was judging her in any way and smiled sheepishly which only caused everybody to laugh even more. "I'm sorry… uh… c-could you maybe… repeat the question?" she said in a low voice.

"I asked: "Who were the ones that attacked the Pearl Harbor?" she repeated but this time it sounded more like a statement.

"The Japanese Navy…" she said sounding unsure.

"Mmmhm, you're off the hook for this one just because you were PARTIALLY listening." She said waving her pointer finger at me and all she could do was smile again the goofy smile which actually represented how embarrassed she truly felt.

'Oh… by the Elder Gods I swear I want to die so badly right now… to get rid of this horrible boredom…' she brightened somewhat as she thought of going back home in the evening to play her favorite game: Mortal Kombat. She had always loved it even if it had so much blood and gore because she knew that it wasn't real. So yeah technically it did not affect her as much as it did to her friends.

Actually when it came to fiction-like things she didn't give a heck but when it came to things that happened in real life – violations, murdering, raping, mutilation, drugs, alcohol, animals getting killed, suicide… etc – she was far more than sensitive. That was why everybody watched the news but her. Claire and Carmen- her best friends – were always rubbing it in her face and telling her about how she needed to live more in the real world and less in her head having strange fantasies. Mostly because she loved movies while they gave critics about them. 'Sure I have to admit I do that too but not as much as they did.'

Claire would always call her the Kznator – K for Mortal Kombat and znator as an add – but she didn't mind that. It was like when Carmen would call her Bumblebee because of her small obsession over Bumblebee from Transformers – the movie in her opinion was far more than amazing. Even though they knew about the game it was only because she talked so much about it when she was with them. Because honestly they did not knew crap about it compared to her who knew most of the characters and most of their life stories. She even had a list of her most favorites and her least favorites:

Favorites:

-Scorpion

-Ermac

-Sub-Zero

-Smoke

-Onaga

Least Favorites:

-Reptile

-Shang Tsung

-Kano

-Baraka

-Kobra

So yeah she was a 'fan' if you could call it that. She started staring into space again and this lasted for about 30 seconds until she snapped out of her trance and silently whined. Spacing off – as she had mentioned before – was not something she was very fond of. She imagined herself in the middle of a volleyball game and suddenly losing consciousness temporarily… which had actually happened before and not ended pretty. The ball had hit her square on the face, causing her to lose balance – she was vey clumsy at times – and thus falling on her rear. Since it had hit her on the nose the automatic reaction of her eyes was to leak with crystal tears. It had been a very humiliating experience and therefore she had gained more concentration since then –

RRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!

She literally jumped in her seat at the corrupting yet so very nice sound of the bell indicating that it was time for lunch… good riddance history, hello sweet hot dogs…

"Parking Lot of School"

~4:55pm~

"CHARLYYYY! COME ON GIRL YOU'RE SLOWER THAN A SNAIL ON A LADDER!" yelled out a slightly chubby, blonde/chestnut haired girl at a black haired much skinnier girl.

"All right, all right… I'm just lazy cuz you know that if I wanted to I would've been back home by now…" murmured tiredly and somewhat shyly, Charly – the black haired one. 'See? This is what I mean. Claire and Liz are always far much more hyper and stand up for themselves unlike me who always spaces off because of the dumb epilepsy…'

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Claire started waving her hands in front of Charly's framed face – by her black bags. She lazily slapped the hand away.

"Of course I was…" she said lowly and a bit distractedly.

"Oh, really? Then what was I saying just now?" Claire countered putting her hands on her hips and putting on a knowing, obnoxious smirk showing off her purple braces.

"You were saying that… you love me and you are so very anxious for… something… about s-s-something that I can't r-really remember…" she silently cursed for stuttering but she always got nervous when it came to interrogations or oral reports – aka she had a phobia for talking in public - even the stupid ones she received from her blond friend. Speaking of which she saw her sigh and repeat what had previously said.

"I said that we still need to wait for Carmen therefore we can do our math homework so that we don't have to – hey! What… do you… think you're doing?" Claire could only stare dumbly as Charly walked over to a rusty, old bench. Throwing her black backpack covered with skull that had either X's, circles or hearts in the place of its eyes, nonchalantly on the ground beside it and sitting on it. That wasn't what surprised Claire of course, it was the fact that she got out of her backpack a rainbow beanie, covering her face with it and laying down completely outstretched on the brown seat as if it was her bed, in her house. Her left leg was lifted upwards and over the top side of the bench while the other one was left straight.

"Sleeping." Was her short and quiet response.

"Get your lazy bum out of that bench it looks like it's really dirty." Claire replied making her face turn to one of pure disgust and making a small 'ew' sound.

Charly had already dozed off however and she probably would've had a much deserved nap if Claire hadn't been shaking her crazily with not five minutes after she had closed her eyes.

"Charly! Charly wake up! Hurry! I think someone's here." Claire hissed/whispered practically in her face.

"What? Oh Clay you're probably just paranoid." She said as she stood up and stretched putting on her beanie and standing up as she looked around her and then at her watch.

She nearly freaked out when she saw how late it was. Her black and red watch read 7:05pm.

"OhmyGod!" she squeaked out as her brown eyes widened.

"What? What? What?" Claire yelled frantically trying to get Charly's attention.

"It's already seven! Carmen never came!" she yelled a bit more loudly than she had expected – hence she practically never yelled – and had to stop when she heard a branch snap.

"What? Are you serious? How did time fly by so fast! I mean maybe she could've just left while we waited here like big – mmphjjmpp" Charly ended up covering Claire's mouth so she could listen better since she was kind of freaked out.

"Ssshhhhh! didn't you hear that?" Charly whispered trying to sound as calm as she could but fear dripped from every single syllable she uttered.

"No. Why? What did you hear?" Claire asked looking around.

"Um… never mind… probably just paranoia kicking in… you know how I don't like the dark too much…" she made up excuses as she strolled over to her slightly heavy backpack and swung it over her small shoulder – not before discreetly getting out a flashlight she had in for any special occasion like this one, she didn't favor darkness so she always carried it around with her. "Let's go. You can call Carmen from your cell phone." She said quietly as she grabbed Claire's much healthier looking forearm with her boney fingers. She didn't have a cell phone so Claire was gonna have to call their older missing friend.

"Okay! Why the sudden hurry anyways?" She asked as Charly let go off her arm and the both of them started walking along the pathway and at times even through the street itself since there were no cars passing by.

"Nothing… it's just… mom and dad are probably going to be pretty pissed about me being late and I'm really, uhh not in the mood for being grounded… again…" she said trying to make up an excuse that didn't sounds as lame as the truth which was that she had a small phobia of the darkness. Though it wasn't as bad as her fear of water and snakes. A shiver ran through her spine at the thought of these.

"Carmen! Oh, thank goodness you're okay!... No it's just that we kind of doze off and didn't realize how late it was, by the way how did… oh, ok your mom came for you? Mmm all right well were on our way now, yeah don't worry about us we'll be fine." Charly heard Claire talking to Carmen. Good, so that meant she was okay. She tuned out Claire as she spaced off once more and was snapped out of it when…

CLANK!

"What was that?" she said too fast for Claire to understand as her heart started beating fast in her chest. Clutching her chest with her right hand she felt a strange hot sensation course through her making her body feel slightly numb and she was very sure that her face had drained off color. Her left hand which had been holding the black and red lantern forced itself forward automatically turning on the light and directing it toward an empty alley which they just happened to be crossing by. Nothing but a tabby came scurrying out and perhaps a rat or two. She started forward to enter when a hand suddenly landed on her right shoulder.

"Aaaahhhh!" she shrieked as she jerked away from the touch and was preparing to throw the lantern at the owner of said appendage.

"AH! Don't scare me like that! Sheesh! What's gotten into you? Charly I just didn't want you going in there. You always manage to one way or another get into trouble and your mom wouldn't be very happy if I came home alone or dragged only half of you there you know!" Claire reprimanded Charly in the same fashion their history teacher had done earlier at school. Only that her chubby fingers looked really cute and funny and therefore she never took her very seriously. She might have the worst temper in the world but Charly could never stay mad at her no matter how hard she tried. Even though at times she kind of annoyed her since she treated her like a little kid who needed babysitting all the freaking time. 'Only because I'm ONE year younger than her. Of course I can't say I wouldn't blame her. My curiosity always got the better of me at every single time. I was always the least talkative out of the three of us, especially at parties.' She would be like the black rose among the red ones. Always sitting in a small corner. But when it came to things that called her attention she was all for it. This one time she remembered her, Claire and Carmen were having a stroll by a park a little ways away from the city and they happened to come across an abandoned house, or more like mansion.

- FLASHBACK -

It had a black, tall, iron, gate with leaves and vines growing up the rusty metal. It was like a hill up to the mansion itself. The grass all around it – without counting all the bushes and trees – was about 4' tall while the gate was like 10' high. The mansion had broken glass windows even though the door seemed like it was shut. 'Me being the curious mess I am wanted to go inside yet Claire and Carmen were terrified not only because of how creepy the house/mansion itself looked but it was almost midnight and so it was pitch black out. I didn't really care because the full moon was that night and there were no clouds. Therefore it created some small artificial light over the mansion making it look almost heavenly.'

She had a small bag with her in which she had a lantern – as you already knew her phobia among others – so she got it out as she tried moving the gate to open but since it was so old, and had been there like that for probably quite some time – not to mention that at the time she didn't really have the strength enough to do so, not that she could've don't it now anyways – the gate didn't even bulge.

While Claire and Carmen started making up excuses that were like 'Oh look at that it didn't open! We should probably go now Charly!' Charly mere took off her little bag while placing the hand that had the lantern through one of the spaces between the big bars and throwing the lantern to the other side.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Carmen putting her hands on her hips and glaring suspiciously at Charly who was by now grabbing a tight hold of the bars and one foot on one of the horizontal ones.

"Climbing… what else?" she responded with a small voice yet with a big toothy grin placed on her lips as she looked back to the older two stricken girls.

"Charly don't you even dare take one more foot up…" Claire threatened in a low menacing voice glaring hard at the boney, younger teenager. Just to tease her Charly put both feet on the same bar above the ground while giggling at her friend's face. Oh how she loved bothering her. Don't think she was the bad one though. Whenever she would do something wrong or be inattentive she would always receive a smack from either older girls.

"You can come too if you want to you know." She said turning back to the task at hand and started going up higher.

"Whoa! Wait Charly what if you fall?" asked Carmen with concern obvious in her tone. Charly merely shrugged and replied with a,

"I'll 'break a leg then!" smiling big at the small joke and continued till the top. Once she reached she swung on leg over the top of the pointy ends – which she had not realized were that dangerously looking from below – but when she tried to pass the other one her skinny jeans got caught on the one of the small black blades. She yanked and pulled but the metal simply wouldn't let its iron grip on her blue pants go. She heard her friends yell at her but she wasn't listening, she was too busy trying not to freak out about the fact that she was 10' feet high with a leg sticking out and the other one stuck.

Finally she managed to yank it free but as consequence her other foot slipped. Letting out her biggest shriek as she fell down she closed her eyes waiting for an impact that would probably mean the end of her. Every single bone of her body felt like they had broken. A horrible pain shooting up her body, its prominent source being her skull.

After that she didn't hear anything, almost as if she was deaf or something. Everything around her was a blur. Colors mixed, distorted and separated. Everything was black except for the light and soft touch the moon had against her still body. Something strange and foreign seemed to surge through her and the colors turned into one, single, bright, white light. Afterwards she felt like she was floating, mind and body numb she thought that maybe she had died. That thought died as soon as something seemed to pull her back to real life, literally. A shock went through her body and she jerked awake hitting her forehead on something hard. As her pale, small hands went up to clutch the injured place she looked up to the worried eyes of her friends who were now towering over her. How did they get there so fast?

"Charly? Oh my god! I thought you were dead!" as the words left Carmen's mouth she soon found herself in said girl's vice-like grip – which was actually supposed to be a VERY BIG bear hug. Charly blinked a couple of times before realizing that Claire was clutching her forehead just like her and rubbing it.

"Wow. For someone as skinny as you, you've got a pretty hard head." She said as she looked around looking for something.

"Why do you think I'm so stubborn?" she replied with a smirk yet also rubbing the bruise forming on her head. How did she survive a fall like that?

"How on the name of God did you manage to stay alive after a fall like that? Not that I'm complaining but you took it pretty hard." Carmen said finally letting the poor, slightly shocked girl.

"How long was I out?" ignoring her friend's question she started getting up.

"About 15 minutes." Claire said nonchalantly picking up something from the ground then turning around and revealing Charly's precious lantern in her hands.

"Fifteen minutes? You mean to tell it took you all that time to get on here?" she exclaimed shocked. She could've died by then.

"Well we found a small hole in the gate a bit farther away so yeah… to get Claire unstuck took about half of that time." Carmen replied not noticing Claire's glare or choosing to ignore it.

"Of course I should've known it was that, especially since I'm so much of a psychic." Charly sarcastically replied. She was glad that they didn't just left her but as she said before, she could've died.

"Stop your whining and grab this so we can out of here. It's giving me the creeps." Claire said faking Goosebumps.

"What? Are you kidding me? After that fall you think I'm just gonna go back home? As if! My effort is not gonna be wasted!" Charly replied defiantly, kneeling down to grab her dark blue beanie, placing it on her head and walking casually up the hill to the front door of the house.

"Charly! Charlyyyyy! Waaaiiitttt! Don't just leave me here!" Claire yelled dramatically, throwing up her arms and running to catch up with her skinny friend while Carmen stared wide eyes and then scowled.

"Great… now I'M gonna have to babysit the BOTH of them…" she yelled to no one in particular and also going up the grassy, leafy pathway.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

As soon as Carmen heard that scream she recognized it as Charly's and ran wildly up the rest of the pathway thinking something bad could've happened to her friend.

"What? What? What's wrong? Why are you… screa… ming?..." Carmen trailed off as she saw nothing out of the ordinary… except for Charly in Claire's arms – just like Shaggy would with Scooby Doo or vice versa – practically choking the chubby blond as she held on for dear life.

"Um… What's going… on?" she asked mostly to herself than to the girls.

"Please… get her (choking sound)… gah… off… of me!..." Claire said trying to gain some more balance as she swayed from side to side.

"GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" Charly shrieked in an unnatural high pitched voice with chocolate eyes wide as saucers and staring hard at a spot in the ground.

"Get what exactly away from you?..." Carmen asked somewhat confused and trying to find the source of the girl's fear.

When Carmen saw Charly's lantern on the floor she picked it up and as she turned it on she saw what Charly was so scared of.

"You have got to be kidding me… are you serious Charly? And I thought I was a sacredly cat…" Carmen said looking perplexed at the small frog that seemed to be paralyzed in the wet grass. All of a sudden it made a loud 'Ribit!' the lower mouth of said amphibian rising and then lowering back to its rightful place.

"EEEEEEEKKKKK!" Charly let out a loud squeak/shriek that surprised both Carmen and the unbalanced Claire. They had never heard Charly make such a sound. She was always lazy, careless, a bit of a tomboy and pretty much a combination of a rock/punk girl and a hippie. She hadn't showed much girly attitude in the years that they had been together until that single night. Carmen and Claire did the only thing either of them would've done in such a situation…

…they burst with endless laughter.

"Wha… what… what are you guys laughing at?" Charly asked looking from Claire to Carmen and vice versa.

"Oh my God! I can't believe it! THE Charly is actually afraid of an inoffensive, cute, little frog! Hahahahahahahaha! Do you have frog-phobia or something?" Carmen let out in a fit of giggles and snorts.

"FYI, it's Ranidaphobia and yes I don't like frogs, or salamanders, or lizards, or snakes… or -" she was cut off.

"Okay. We get it! No reptiles! Happy?" Claire asked in a snobby kind of way which Charly tried her best to ignore.

"No. Frogs are actually amphibians and salamanders can be considered that too." Charly said raising one finger up while smirking at Claire. Oh how she loved bothering that blonde.

Of course bothering her had its consequences…

"Auugghh!" yelled Charly as she was dropped to the ground by Claire.

"Let's just get out of here already." Carmen said making her way down the pathway.

"Hey! Wait up!" Claire yelled while making her way down as fast as her chubby legs could carry her.

"Hey… wait! I never got to go inside!" Charly whined trying to get her friends to listen to her but they were already half way down therefore didn't hear a word uttered from the girl's lips.

Sighing she bit onto her lower lip while up at the magnificent beauty just a couple steps away from her. Damn her blasted curiosity…

Looking back quickly to see where her friends were she saw they hadn't made it to the bottom yet. Taking this chance as an opportunity she snatched her lantern from the ground and made a mad dash for the front door of the old mansion.

Hesitantly – as to not make much sound – she stepped carefully onto the wooden stairs listening to the gentle squeaks it would make as her weight was placed upon them. Tiptoeing till the old door she looked to see that the handle was that shaped into the form of a silver dragon with ruby red eyes. Making an 'ooh' sound she lightly stroked it with her pointer finger noticing that even though dusty it wasn't rusty at all – unlike the rest of the house – making it a smooth and cool surface. Gently taking the dragon into her hand she turned it and opened it, wincing at the loud sound it made – it had a resemblance to black painted, sharp claws dragging along a board – as it echoed in her sensitive ears.

"Whoa…" she said to herself as she stared with big, sparkly eyes at the inside of the mansion. She walked inside with a giddy expression you would usually see on the face of a child who had just walked in a candy store.

A beautiful black and silver chandelier was hanging in the ceiling above. This just about proofed just how big the mansion was. Therefore it gave her all the more reason to call it a mansion. The chandelier had sparkling diamonds – some of which were broken, dented, or missing –, spider webs, and dead roses. As she stepped below it a black petal fell from one of the rotting roses and slowly descended until it graced her white left cheek. She raised her appendages and saw how the dark red with black blotches stood out contrastingly against her pearl skin.

Her brown orbs gazed deeply onto it she couldn't help but let a smile graze her small, pink lips. It might of have looked rotten, old, disgusting maybe to other people – like Claire – but to her it was like the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She sighed sadly as she thought about how she wished somebody could give her even a single, small rose like these one. No boy ever really had any interest in her. Sure some perverts here and there but those were the ones who could hit on anything that moved as long as it had long legs and what they needed to please themselves. She interrupted her thoughts by shaking her head, black locks moving along. She didn't need to be thinking about pigs like them. They weren't worth it. Letting the petal slip from her fingers she continued on exploring, quite surprised that Carmen and Claire hadn't come barging in to look for her – not that she wanted attention, it's just that they were always really bossy and were sometimes as annoying as a babysitter or your mother could be.

'Wow… I wish I could live here…' she thought gazing at the expensive, antique and rare items that seemed to appear at every corner. On her opinion she loved it. Taking out her camera from a small, black and purple, side bag and taking a few pictures here and there. She made this quick as she knew her friends were bound to come and drag her away any minute now.

As she was about to live a sudden light blinded her eyes slightly. Turning her head away she looked around for the source until her eyes fell upon a wooden chest. On top was something that seemed to reflect the light caused by her flash light. Walking over to it she picked up the object replacing the empty space with the long forgotten lantern. Gazing onto it with glittering chocolate eyes she found herself looking at a beautiful, rare gem. It was a strange clear color that seemed to change colors when she moved it – it looked clear yet multi-colored. It was attached to a single golden string. The gem itself wasn't very big, yet something about it seemed to be calling and pulling at Charly. She looked like she was lost in a trance staring at it for who knows how long.

That is until a sudden CRACK! Outside made her drop the stone onto the black wooden floor, the jump and sudden jerk she made caused the flash light to fall onto the ground and roll, pointing itself in the direction of the doorway in which stood two stern looking girls.

'Whew… it's only them…' she honestly didn't know who or what she expected it to be, but for once she was glad to see the glares of her two friends obviously irritated by her. She didn't mind because she knew they were her friends even though they fought a lot.

"Charly…" Claire said in a low, warning voice while tapping her shoe impatiently and crossing her arms over her ample chest. Sometimes Charly doubted that she was truly sixteen, because she looked like a woman of twenty.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry okay. My curiosity got the better of me-"

"Again." Carmen finished for me as a simply grinned like a fool and bent down to snatch the flashlight… secretly taking with me the stone and placing it inside my bag along with my things.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go ladies!" Charly said bounding after the leaf filled path with brand new energy…

-End Flash Back-

"… ening to me? HEEEYYY! EARTH TO THE DUMB ONE!" Claire yelled probably leaving poor Charly deaf for life.

"I'm listening, I'm listening… sheshh!" Charly gently rubbed her ears as her forehead twisted into a frown.

"Gosh girl! I understand you got epilepsy and all but you have got to have some control over it you know!" she said not realizing how much her words truly hurt her. 'I already know I'm retarded… you don't have to rub it in my face…'

Remaining silent she started going into the alleyway with a hysterical Claire behind her tale.

"Oh Charly… you know I didn't mean it that way! Come on I'm serious! Talk to me already!" she said as she came next to me and grabbed one of my shoulders shaking it roughly.

"Cut it out! You already know what I told you and Carmen about that and yet you practically yelled it away for the whole world to hear!" she turned and kept on walking after that small reaction.

They walked in silence after that and suddenly Charly felt bad about snapping at Claire like that. Sure the girl could drive you crazy sometimes but she herself could become an annoyance without even noticing this.

'Charlotte…'

"Whatwasthat?" Charly said snapping her head in all directions, eyes wide, hands shaking.

"What? I didn't hear anything." Claire looked around like Charly except more calmly.

"I could've sworn I… never mind" sighing she kept walking till coming to a dreadful realization… it was a dead end.

Claire seemed to be oblivious to Charly's ragged breathing as she looked around the dirty trash cans.

"Told you it was a waste of time. Come on let's go." Claire started pulling Charly back toward the entrance of the alley.

SSRRRHHHRRSSSHHRRR

A horrible sound resembling that of Freddy Krueger's when he passed his metal claws against some pipes to scare Nancy resounded and echoed throughout the entire place.

Gasping Claire said, "W-who's there?" she screamed as Charly grabbed onto her arm for dear life. Claire could've sworn that even though the girl was practically all bones she had a grip that was cutting off her circulation.

"What are two little girls like you doing in such a dark place like this…" whispered/sneered a voice as spine chilling chuckles came from the dark. Charly had turned off the flash light in fear of seeing who was there but Claire defiantly snagged it away from her smaller hands and jerked it violently toward their harasser with a sneer on her lips.

"I am SO NOT a little girl!" she yelled placing one hand on her hip and the other one pointing it toward the owner of the chilling voice.

More chuckling came and Charly felt like throw out her insides from the nervousness and fright building up inside of her. Even with the immense light created by the object in Claire's hand they still couldn't see who it was. Claire moved forward slightly, followed closely by Charly. When the sound of metal against the concrete reached both the girl's ears again they both felt a bone chilling shiver shoot up their spine.

As the intruder stepped into the light painfully slowly… Claire and Charly both gasped, yet for completely different reasons.

Only one thought managed to reach Charly before Claire passed out and left her there trembling more than a chicken trying to hide itself from a ferocious coyote…

'…Oh… crap…'

R&R!

=^.^=