"How did you find me?" I whispered trying not to show the fear in my voice.
"Don't you want to know why I'm here?" he asked.
"I want to know why you haven't left yet"
"Now, now, do as Joey says, don't you want to know why I'm here?"
"why are you here?" I sighed, I had to do what he said, cause no one was here to stop him except me and the last time I tried that someone got hurt.
"good, riley sent me, is that a why I hear?" he said mocking me, "because riley thought that we would get along just perfectly until he managed to get to you"
"well riley thought wrong" I hissed.
"play nicely Hopey" he smiled slyly though most of his face was concealed by shadow, I felt his grip tighten as he turned me around to face him completely.
"now what shall we play next,"
"tag" i smiled hitting his shoulder before turning and running as fast as I could down an alley, I wish id have know it held a dead end before id gone down it.
"oi get back here you little bitch!" I heard Joey yelling, my footsteps echoed of the claustrophobic walls of the alley his copying mine close behind.
I tried to keep hidden but my feet were giving me away.
He was close enough to grab a hold on my hoodie and take me off my feet.
That's when I hit the wall, I felt a pressure on my windpipe as I was suspended from my hood.
"let go of me" I struggled.
"not until ive showed you a lesson"
"I don't need anymore lessons Joey put me down"
"but we wouldn't want you doing a runner would we Hopey" he said growing more violent.
"what do you want?"
"you need someone to teach you a little lesson" he said throwing me down against the wall so that my head jerked back smacking against the old bricks.
"now then where to start"
"please don't" I said, there was nothing left I could do, I was going to have to beg.
"please don't" he mocked me delivering a hard kick to my ribs.
"Joey think about this"
"I have been since you left" he answered delivering anther kick to my sides knocking the air out of my lungs, from there on it was just pain, everywhere, I lost my sense of awareness, I couldn't tell where I was or where the pain was, it was just there and I began to take it in and accept it.
"hope, hope where are you?" I heard a woman yell, Tracy? No it wasn't here voice, I didn't know this voice, "hope, are you out here?" this time it was Tracy.
Suddenly it stopped, the constant pain stopped, or at least the cause did.
I heard footsteps fading out and two voices speaking at the end of the alley.
"have you seen a girl, her names hope, she's 14 about this tall looks like this?" asked one woman.
"no, I'm so sorry, have you looked round the station you get loads of runaways down there" said Joey politely and sympathetically as he guided the search party of two away from my limp body.
Clearly he thought he was causing more pain for me, clearly he was wrong, didn't he know id ran for a reason, I didn't want there help whether I needed it or not.
I wriggled into a corner behind a silver bin and rested my head against the wall, I was lucky it was a warm night as I drifted into a dreamless sleep.
XxXxXxXxXxX
My eyes fluttlered open and swiftly snapped shut as the morning sunlight blinded me and stung my eyes.
I went to raise my hands to rub the sleep from my eyes but a sharp pain in my right wrist forced me to return it to its relaxed position and try to stand instead.
As the memories of last night returned to me I shivered knowing from the limp in my left ankle and the pain that I couldn't erase from my eye and mouth that I had to get back to elm tree and face up to whoever it was who had been looking for me last night, afterall they might have saved my life.
I pulled my hood up and began to walk as fast as I could back in the direction of my new 'home' as Mr. social worker had called it.
The drive was full, for some reason there was a big black car parked behind Tracy's, the front door was unlocked, perhaps they were waiting for my return, either way I was hungry, cold and in pain and needed a mirror to see how much damage Joey had done.
I hoped it was nothing too obvious but I knew that with my luck it would be.
Closing the door quietly behind me the overwhelming sound of breakfast at the dumping ground surrounded me and I decided I was going to have to be extremely quick if I wanted to get any food that morning, I ran upstairs and into the bathroom, when I looked in the mirror though a sudden wave of pain over threw me and I realised I was definitely going to be missing breakfast.
Around my left eye a bruise had already formed in a shade of deep purple and most of my right arm was bruised and scratched, I had a bloody scratch across my jaw line and there was blood all in the back of my hair from where I had hit my head.
The sleeves of my top were stained redy brown and my jeans were also showing sighns of blood.
Brilliant, I was gonna get away with this easily. I thought as I returned to my room where a girl with long blonde hair was going through my box.
"hello?" I asked, why was she here she hadn't been before.
"oh I'm sorry, I thought maybe I could have this room as the person in it isn't here anymore" she said she had a really strong accent that I was struggling to recognise.
"well shes here now and shed appreciate it if you kept what you saw in that box to yourself" I said gesturing to the door for her to leave, as she did she looked at me again in confusion.
"what happened to your face?" she said, I glared at her but then felt guilty and smiled.
"nothing keep that to yourself to yeah, sorry for being pissy"
"its okay, maybe we could share a room, its just I have to share with electra and she seems to hate me"
"youll have to speak to mike I don't think he wants people sharing with me until ive settled in, I only arrived yesterday"
"oh okay" she smiled before leaving, "you don't have any straightners do you?" I shook my head and closed the door fishing around for some clothes, make up of some sort to cover my black eye and then went to the shower rooms to wash the blood from my body and hair.
xXxXxXxXxXx
I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen slowly to hear Mike talking to Gina and Tracy about searching for me again today.
I took an apple again and thanked them for their trouble but, "it really isn't necessary to search for me when I'm in the house"
"Hope" Mile started.
"my office?" I asked heading toward the door and taking a seat in the chair opposite his desk.
"what were you thinking?" he asked raising his voice.
"dunno" I shrugged his question off.
"where did you go?"
"into town"
"were you meeting someone?"
"who would there be to meet?"
"anyone how should I know?"
"finally he admits that he doesn't know something about me"
"Hope, calm down, I need to introduce you to the others and I don't want to do that when your already angry"
"why you afraid that electra might piss me off?"
"Hope!" he snapped, the door opened behind me I didn't bother to see who it was.
"so this is the runaway is it?" asked a man who already sounded annoying.
"this is" I said still not looking at him.
"not now" said mike to whoever this man was.
"I don't think so this is my care home too"
"Dennis please, I'm trying to sort out Hopes files"
"Mike I think that youll find that's my job"
"this is not the time, please leave me and Hope to discuss the terms of her care"
"god Mike just tell him to get lost" I said rolling my eyes.
"look here missy I don't like your attitude fix it or youll be moved on, got that"
"yeah but I don't believe it for one second how gullable do you think I am?" I smirked as I caused the man to turn red with irritation.
"Mike whatever punishment this girl already has make sure its doubled until she fixes her attitude"
"Hope isn't being punished"
"but she ran away"
"well here we like to give kids a second chance"
"there speaks the voice of inexperience how long have you been working in care Mike?"
"he's been working in care my whole life" I stated, I could back that up easily, this was where I had stayed the very first few months after mum and dads death.
"well I could double that" said Dennis clearly thinking that was special.
"and?" I asked, "can I go now?"
"no, we have to introduce you to all the other kids first"
"let her do it alone Mike"
"no we support the young people in our care Dennis perhaps you should too" said Mike leading me out of the office into the living room.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
The room went silent as we entered, there were so many pairs of eyes on me that I wanted to turn and run there and then.
"everyone, this is Hope, she arrived yesterday but we had a minor predicament" said mike, I held my hand up as if to wave awkwardly.
"by the way, its house policy we have to tell them why you're here at some point this week" whispered mike, I turned and looked at him as if he was crazy, my eyes widened in fear, he couldn't do that, he couldn't.
"hi I'm Carmen, this is Lilly and this is Tee" said a Spanish girl smiling at em, she was probably a few years younger than me but she seemed nice and I supposed it meant she wouldn't kill me or anything weird so I smiled.
"Hope"
"you're the girl who nearly set electra off" said Tee.
"I did?" I asked, obviously she had a short temper.
"yeah she went mental after you left"
"oh" I said smiling to myself.
"so where did you go yesterday?" asked the boy who had followed me yesterday.
"nowhere"
"you ran?"
I nodded and looked down.
"why?"
"I don't have to tell you that"
"shes a gooden this, int she frank" smiled liam his accent coming on really strong, it reminded me of home, before the fighting.