Chapter Eleven – Escape

There was nothing but darkness all around Haleigh as she tried to find her way around the room but after a while she gave up and sat on the cold, damp floor. She tested her arm making sure Gilgamesh didn't damage it too badly; luckily, it only hurt a little when she moved it so it wasn't too serious. Suddenly she heard something scrapping something else but before she could figure it out a bright flame was blinding her vision, preventing her to see who was behind the flame. But for Haleigh she didn't have to see the face of the newcomer, she knew exactly who it was. The newcomer lit a candle and blew out the match in their hand and walked into the light making Haleigh scoot back a little bit trying to get away from her as much as possible. In the small light, Lisa looked even smaller and crueler than the last time Haleigh has seen her. Lisa smiled at Haleigh causing her to flinch away from her stare and presence.

"So, you've decided to join me in my little office, eh?" Lisa asked Haleigh while setting the lit candle onto the desk that was next to her.

"Not by choice, though," Haleigh said through clenched teeth full of hatred.

"Tch—what did I tell you about talking back to me, Haleigh, don't you remember what happened to you the last time you didn't hold your tongue?" Lisa asked Haleigh as she sat onto the desktop. Haleigh didn't respond instead she just scooted further into the patch of darkness behind her, trying to hide away from that evil look in Lisa's eyes. "That's what I thought…"

Lisa hopped off of her desk and walked over to Haleigh, she leaned down so she could see eye to eye with Haleigh. Haleigh tried to scoot back even further but she ran out of room now she's stuck facing this evil girl against a small corner. Lisa started to laugh as she saw Haleigh cower away from her; she could even see tears starting to form around Haleigh's eyes. She just loved it when her victims were absolutely afraid of her but tried so hard to look tough in front of her even though she could see right past there little act of theirs.

"What's wrong? You scared?" Lisa teased Haleigh.

"N-No! I'm not, I don't know what you're talking about…."Haleigh said while wiping some of the tears away from her eyes. She still could vividly remember the torture and pain that Lisa had put her through just to find out information, but Haleigh never slipped a word to her until the day she met Gilgamesh. She thought Lisa was bad but Gilgamesh was even worse he didn't hurt you physical but rather mentally and emotionally, but one day he suddenly started to be nicer to her even though she was the prisoner. She didn't like this good cop, bad cop thing that he was playing, it was messing with her head way too much giving her splitting headaches sometimes if she thought about it too much. Why did this have to happen to me!? She thought to herself. She curled up into a little ball trying to shut out the annoying voice coming from the witch in front of her, but it was no use.

Once Lisa saw what Haleigh was doing she immediately stopped talking and grabbed one of Haleigh's arms and dragged her off to one of the darkest corners in her office. Lisa could fell the strong tugging and pulling that was coming from her prisoner but she didn't even slow down a little bit, nothing could, once she made up her mind. She grabbed the candle off of the desk and continued to walk forward towards her destination. As the light from the candle hit the darkness causing it to run away, Haleigh suddenly stopped squirming and just sat there looking at the scene that was in front of her.

"That's impossible!? How did you find that!?" Haleigh asked completely shocked.

"I have my resources…." Lisa proclaimed.

In front of Lisa and Haleigh was a very ancient tablet that was filled with various unknown symbols and characters that has been hidden from the human eyes for centuries. It contained very important information even Haleigh didn't know, she tried to read it but unfortunately the characters were fading away or were just completely gone all together. The tablet was covered in cobwebs and dirt, giving off a strong smell of dust and mildew. It was standing straight up with barely any support so it could fall over any second if someone so much as blew on it, Lisa let go of Haleigh and walked up to the tablet. She did a complete circle around it until she was finally facing the front again; she dragged two fingers across the surface of it leaving behind two straight lines in the dust. She looked at her fingers and then wiped them onto her skirt; she immediately turned around and started to walk back towards Haleigh.

"So what do you think?" Lisa asked Haleigh.

"What do you mean, 'what do I think'"? Haleigh asked completely confused now.

"I mean, are you going to translate it for me or are you just gonna sit there like a pile of bones!?" Lisa said somewhat annoyed.

Haleigh just sat there complete dazed, she couldn't believe it, now Lisa was asking for her help, what is wrong with these people!? Haleigh thought. She kept sitting there staring off into space until Lisa couldn't take it anymore, a small vein pop in Lisa's head and she stomped over to Haleigh. Haleigh snapped out of her daze and flinched away as Lisa got closer to her; Lisa grabbed Haleigh by the shirt and started to drag her towards the tablet. Once they were in front of it Lisa violently threw Haleigh onto the floor in front of the tablet. Haleigh yelped in pain as her body slammed into the ground, she slowly sat back up and looked at Lisa standing behind her waiting impatiently for her to translate the tablet. So that's what she wants me to do…, Haleigh thought. She stumbled to her feet and lightly touched the tablet with her fingers making sure not to put too much pressure on it that would cause it to fall over. She wrapped her hands around the edges and picked up the tablet to set it on its back so it wouldn't break when she wiped off the dust so she could see the characters better.

"Wow…" Haleigh mumbled to herself in complete awestruck from the details in every line.

"What did you find out?" Lisa asked as she leaned a little closer to Haleigh as if the suspension might kill her if she had to wait any longer.

"Well…first here," Haleigh said while pointing at one of the lines that looked barely readable. "It states that in order to find the treasure you have to first find all of the pendants and have the person who was chosen by the sword in order to find the portal that links to a dimension.

"And!?" Lisa demanded while getting impatient all over again.

"What? There's nothing else…" Haleigh said while staring at the tablet again.

"You're lying, there's supposed to be more information on where this chosen person might be on that tablet…" Lisa argued.

"Like I said, there isn't any more information on the tablet," Haleigh said again but this time more firmly. But in her mind she knew exactly what Lisa had wanted her to tell her. Lisa wanted her to say how and where they could find this chosen one and if she did end up giving that information to Lisa, she probably end up killing the chosen one after she was done use him/her. So I have to keep that information away from Lisa as long as possible until the chosen one reveals himself/herself and finds out the real truth, Haleigh thought to herself.

"You better watch yourself there, dearie, or you might end up living back in that small cell of yours and I will personally ask the Kraang to use their little experiments on you again," Lisa said sternly trying to put Haleigh back in her place.

Suddenly Haleigh eyes got bigger and she started to back up, accidently bumping into the small table the stone tablet was on. She looked behind her just as the table started to tip over with the tablet free falling to the floor.

"NOO!" Lisa screamed while running towards the falling tablet.

There was a loud CRASH as the tablet hit the floor immediately fragmenting into millions of small pieces that were near to impossible to put back together. Lisa leaned down onto the floor and stared at the pile of stone that used to be the tablet. She outstretched her hand and lightly touched the stone fragments, her body started to shake with anger. She slowly got to her feet and faced Haleigh with her head down, shading her eyes from Haleighs view.

"Why you…WHY YOULITTLE BRAT! YOU ARE DEFINITELY GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!" Lisa yelled while giving Haleigh the most threatening, scary expression ever. Lisa stomped over to Haleigh making Haleigh cower away from her. Haleighs legs were shaking so badly she could barely keep herself standing, but somehow she got the strength and turned and fled from Lisa's grasp. She stumbled around in the dark since the only source of light was behind her but she didn't stop, she just kept running and tripping over things as she tried to find the door handle. She blindly swung her arms around the in the air that was in front of her until she felt the familiar cold metal handle; she turned the nob, hard and yanked the door open. A blinding white light greeted her and blinded her for a couple of seconds; she threw her arms up in defense to shade her eyes from the overhead lighting. She thrusted forward and ran down the hallway. She didn't know where she was going but she didn't care at that moment she just wanted to get away from Lisa's blinding rage as fast as possible. After a couple of minutes her lungs started to ache from the excessive exercise there were getting, her breaths were becoming shorter and shorter until she could breathe anymore. But she didn't stop she just kept running and running until she came to a small problem, a dead end. She came to a stop and started to catch her breath; she looked over her shoulder to see if Lisa was coming after her.

Nothing, there was absolutely nothing behind her. She started to panic, her breaths becoming short and fast again. Even though she was absolutely terrified of Lisa, she was even more petrified now since she doesn't even know who chasing her. She calmed down and looked around at her surroundings trying to find the fastest and easiest exit she could find. But she could only find three doors, all white and plain, giving no identification of an exit.

"Dang it!" Haleigh cursed. "Now what!?"

She was facing a pretty big gamble right now, if she doesn't pick the right door she could end up stumbling into a trap or something worse, Gilgamesh. She took a deep breath and analyzed the doors; they all look the same to her. How the heck does anybody walk around this building without getting lost! Haleigh thought.

OK..OK…I got to pick one, it doesn't matter which one, just pick one…" Haleigh told herself. "Whelp, here goes nothing!"

Haleigh reached for the door on the far right and turned the handle. She slowly opened the door making a loud squeak as the hinges rubbed against each other. She flinched from the sudden noise but kept pushing the door further until it was completely swung open. She couldn't believe it, on the other side of this door was nothing; no one was in sight, it was like they wanted her to escape. She sighed with relief and took off running again. She ran the rest of the way and the whole time she was searching for an exit there was nothing in sight, not even a guard or something. Weird… she thought to herself. She kept running and opening random doors until she found the entrance to the building. She walked up to the front door and looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was following her, nothing again.

"Something's not right…" Haleigh said to herself. "But if it means I can be free finally then…."

Haleigh reached for the handle of the front door, as she did that her hand was shaking so much she thought it would shake her whole body if it kept this up. Just as she wrapped her fingers around the handle, she heard stomping feet racing towards her.

"Tch—I knew it was too good to be true…." Haleigh whispered.

She let go of the handle and ran for safety behind several crates that were just sitting in the lobby for no apparent reason. She huddled there for a few seconds until she heard several feet coming down the hallway she was just in a minute ago.

"Hurry it up! Or we will never catch her!" Lisa ordered her guards that where following her.

"Go figure…." Haleigh whispered. "Just my luck, I get that crazy lunatic."

She scooted closer to the crates as Lisa walked over towards the door. She opened the front door and went out on to the street, she looked left to right and then back again, she scowled and went back inside.

"Where is she!?" Lisa yelled at the guards that were all lined up in a row in front of the receptionist's desk that was neat and tidy. "Scatter and look all-"

"Lisa!" Gilgamesh yelled as he walked down the hallway that they just came through. "There's no need to get all worked up over this."

"No need, no NEED to! Um, for your information that sniveling girl is holding back something vital about Jasmine and you know it, so why are you being so nice to her!?" Lisa talked back to her boss.

"Tch—I thought I taught you better than that to question my orders around here, Lisa. So if Haleigh escaped then she escaped. In fact it's better that she did…." Gilgamesh said while walking up to Lisa.

"B-Better!? How so?" Lisa demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You will see in due time…." Gilgamesh said. He quickly turned around causing his cape to ripple in the air. He walked back down the hallway but then stopped halfway there and turned back around to face Lisa. "Are you going to follow me to my office so I can talk to you or are you going to stand there like an idiot, hmmm?

Lisa growled and started to walk towards him but just as she was about to enter the hallway Haleigh accidently bump into one of the crates causing it to scrape along the ground. She inhaled silently and cursed herself for making such a racket. Once Lisa heard the noise she stopped mid-step and listened intently. Haleigh breathed in and held her breath waiting for Lisa to give up and to follow her boss down to his office. But unfortunately for her, Lisa turned around and started to walk towards her hiding spot, she started to panic and tried to hide as much as possible from Lisa's view. Lisa was about five feet away when Gilgamesh hollered at her to come back which made her stop; she looked at the crates with a threatening look and started to walk back towards Gilgamesh. Haleigh didn't let go of her breath until she could no longer see Lisa or Gilgamesh and the front lobby was dead silent again. She exhaled and relaxed a little when everything was the way it was before Lisa came.

She slowly rose from her hiding spot and started to walk towards the front door, when she was about seven feet away she broke into a run. Once she was at the door she yanked it open, not caring if it made any noise or not, and took off running down the street leaping for joy.

A young girl was walking down a street carrying several bags of groceries in her hands barely giving her enough room to see where she was walking. She stumbled around a few times but never really lost her balance not until something unexpected happened to her. She continued to walk down the street when all of the sudden something bumped into her causing everything that was in her hands to fly into the air and smash into the ground with a loud SPLAT!

"Oww…." The young girl groaned while clutching her head. "What did I hit?" She looks around at the now scattered groceries on the ground. "Awww, man!" Suddenly she sees a small frail girl laying on the ground holding her head in pain as well, she had a brown long cloak that went down to the ground and also had a hood attached to the back of it. Her hair wasn't in the best shape, it was very messy and dirty from dirt and other various things she probably doesn't know about. The girl's face was a little swollen on the right side like she got punched in the face by someone much bigger than her most likely. But her eyes were the most intriguing thing, they were bright and shining like she just busted out of jail or something of the sort. She got to her feet and ran to the girl's side to see if she was okay.

"Hey…you alright? I didn't see you earlier with all of the bags I had in my hands, I'm so sorry about that." The young girl said.

"Oh-oww…that hurt a lot…" Haleigh groaned. She opened her eyes and saw a young girl that had long red-ish hair that went down to the middle of her back. She had brown eyes and was wearing a black shirt with blue on the top and two blue strips on the bottom of her sleeves. She also wore jean shorts with black and white stripped leggings with a pair of gray boots. "Who are you?"

"Oh—umm…my name is Jasmine but you can call me Jas…" Jas said while standing back up. She held out her hand to Haleigh, Haleigh took it with a small smile and stood up. "And what's your name?"

"My name is Haleigh…." Haleigh introduced herself. "I'm sorry for running into you like that, and you said your name is Jasmine right?"

"Yeah, that's my name alright but why do you ask?" Jas asked Haleigh confusingly.

"Hmm…well, I have been contacting someone who is also named Jasmine but I have no clue on where she is right now…." Haleigh said while dusting off herself even though it didn't matter too much in her condition.

"Ohh…well, I don't think it's me since I have never seen you before…." Jas said, she continued to look at Haleigh with curiosity in her eyes. "So what exactly happened to you?

"It's a long and painful story…." Haleigh quietly said while looking up at the sky in some kind of trance. Jasmine stood there and thought for a minute until she finally made up her mind.

"How about you come with me to my house so I can get you cleaned up, and then if you want to you can tell your story," Jas said with a smile.

Haleigh snapped out of her trance and looked at her for a couple of seconds. Jas could literally see her mind working as she thought about the offer Jas had just suggested.

"…Y-Yeah, I guess I do need to freshen up a bit…." Haleigh said while picking at the hems of her clothes. "Thanks…."

Jas just giggled and picked up the remaining groceries that weren't too badly damaged from the impact to the ground. Once she got everything in order, she started to walk down the street again heading for her house. Haleigh just stood there completely shocked by this girl's attitude towards her even though they just literally met. Jas turned her head to look over her shoulder and stopped walking once she saw Haleigh wasn't following her.

"Are you coming?" Jas asked with a sweet smile.

"Umm…yeah…" Haleigh said as she shook her head to snap out of it and started to walk towards Jas. Once she was by Jas's side, Jas looked at her again and smiled making Haleigh's cheeks turn red from embarrassment. Jas giggled again and started to walk towards her destination with Haleigh soon following behind her.

Again….i am soo sry for taking so long, last week I wasn't feeling real well and my mind wouldn't let me work on this sooo I ended up taking longer than I intended ^^; but here is chapter eleven, it is a little shorter but now by much so I hope you likes :la: