Chapter 19

Dangerous Game

A/N Hey everybody! So sorry this chapter took a bit longer to upload than expected. Like, MUCH longer, so I am really sorry. I had a bunch of work to make up from the days I missed of school and I have extra rehearsals for my show starting yesterday. But I tried to make this an extra good chapter! Note to remember it's in Nuala's POV, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing in. hope you enjoy!

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. That is all that was going through my mind as I ran further into the abandoned streets of Brooklyn.

I heard Aoife tell me to run. In our native tongue, we had agreed I would find Spot and get help. So I hopped onto the window frame and fell the few feet down onto the fire escape. I landed hard on my back and I was sure new bruises would form there, but I quickly got up and started to climb the ladder two stories to the ground. As soon as my foot touched the bumpy stone path, I did not even bother to look up at the 3 Queens newsies who I knew were coming after me.

I dodged in and out of streets trying my best to lose my predators. I spotted a couple large stacks of crates at the opening of one alley and quickly went to hide behind them. I tried to slow my breathing down so my panting wasn't as noticeable. One wrong move could get me found so I sat completely still grasping my knees to my chest in a small ball. I heard footsteps and boys voices get closer to my hiding spot, and I sucked in the last of my breath and closed my eye, wanting this nightmare to be over. To my relief the footsteps turned around and the voices faded into nothing. I waited a few minutes when I knew they were gone to let out the breath I was holding and I got up and ran.

I had been running for about 10, 12 minutes and I had a sharp pain in my side and my legs and bottoms of my feet felt like they were on fire. But I did not give up. There's one boy chasing after me, but I am confident that he won't be able to catch me. I hear a thud and turn around to see that he fell. He stands up, but he's still a couple yards away from me so I smirk at him. I continue running and I don't stop for anything, not for the few people who I ran into on the street, or the crates that I encountered at the mouth of an alley. Sucking in a much air as my lungs could take in at a time, I took sharp turns left and right trying to lose the boys that were following me, but apparently, I did a lousy job. I ran into a side alley and looked back behind me. I did not see anyone come after me and I let out a sigh of relief as I continued to get much needed air into my lungs. It wasn't until I turned back around that I realized that my antics were not so great.

At the other end of the alley were Shooter, Pidge, and Bones; the Queens newsies sent out after me. If it was possible, my heart began to beat faster and I could feel my breath starting to shake along with the rest of my body. A million things ran through my mind. What would they do to me? To Aoife? I never made it to Spot to warn him so what is going to become of everybody? Never in my life have I felt so upset with myself. If anything bad happened to anyone, it would be all my fault. I would never forgive myself.

My thoughts were interrupted as Shooter the leader of this little trio stepped towards me.

"Well hello dere Starlight. Long time no see huh?"

It was true, Shooter and I used to have childish crushed on each other, but when he left Brooklyn for Harlem, I had stopped such likings. But he didn't, at every social newsie gathering; he still hit on me and tried to make me change my mind. Of course it was him sent to get my. I bitterly thought.

"Not long enough." I replied back.

"Ho, ho still the same spitfire that you were. See you haven't changed much."

"By change if you mean went traitor on Brooklyn, then no I haven't changed." I said with a scowl. Liam was right; my mouth would get me in trouble one day. Shooter lunged forward and backhanded me across my cheek with such force, my head snapped to the side, allowing my brown hat to fly off my head and my brown curls to tumble down my shoulders. The slap hurt, but I held my cry inside. I would not give Shooter the satisfaction. He reached forward and with a strong grasp, clutched my chin in his palm forcing me to look up at him. He bent forward so his face was close to mine.

"You'se wanna see a traitor?" he said to me before he roughly let go of my face. I brought my hand up to my chin to try to stop the aching in it. "Dere's your traitor." He pointed to where Pidge and Bones were standing. I looked at them confused until they parted and a third boy was revealed. My eyes widened in shock and I'm pretty sure my jaw was hanging open. There in front of me was Echo, standing up straight and erect, yet there was a certain sadness in his eyes.

"Nuala, please I never meant for it to go this far-"he tried to plead with me, but I would not listen. A hundred questions ran through my mind and none of them made sense. I stood my ground and waited for him to come to me, which he did. Once he got close enough I reached out and shoved him back with everything I had. He stumbled back, but I wasn't done. I advanced again but before I could push him, I felt Pidge and Bones wrap their hands around my arms restricting me back. But I still fought and screamed.

"We, trusted you! Spot did, I did! Does that mean nothing to you? Trust?"

"Starlight please try to-"

"Try to what?" I interrupted before he finished. "Here you out? Understand? Well I'll never understand. You told him! You told Blade Aoife and I would be at the warehouse!" I accused.

"Star I never meant for anyone to get hurt!"

"Yeah? Well they did." I finally spat out. I did not believe that he had any ounce of remorse in him, otherwise he wouldn't have done it right? My second thought went to Liam. What would he do if and when he found out? Does he already know?

"And what about Spot huh?" I ask still trying to free myself form the boy's grasp. "You grew up together, he trusted you, respected you and for what? For you to turn traitor!"

"Star please! Let me explain.-"

"I don't need you to explain anything."

"I never wanted you to get hurt, or anyone else."

"What?" I asked. We had been arguing over each other and I want sure I heard him right.

"I never wanted you to get hurt." He repeated. I was confused. It's not like he had cared for me, maybe he did as an act but he didn't mean it, otherwise why would he got traitor?

"It's true." Shooter said from behind me. "He went crazy afta' he found out what Blade did. Started chokin' em out."

"Why?" I asked mostly Echo.

"Because it was never meant to go that far."

He stepped closer to me, and I did not struggle to push him forward again. Maybe he was telling the truth?

"Echo I-"

But before I could finish, I was push backwards into the awaiting arms of Shooter. He wrapped one arm around my waist and another around my chest restricting my arms from movement. But that's not to say I didn't try to get away.

"Now, we'se ave strict orda's from Blade ta finish the job he didn't." he bent close to me and whispered in my ear, his warm breath sending shivers down my spine. "An dat's somethin I've wanted foar a long time." He spun me around to face him and roughly crashed his lips on mine.

God please not again! I thought. I'll be dammed if I let something like that happen again so I fought with all my might to get Shooter off of me. With a rush of adrenalin, I shoved him back and landed a swift punch to his cheek. Panting I stood tall and fearless my fists clenched at my sides.

"You always ave been a liddle spitfire huh?" he said slowly waling to me. "I see Blade didn't crush your spirit as much as he wanted to. Well, I bet him I could."

At this, all the boys in the alley, save or Echo, started to walk towards me. They started to close in one me and I knew what they were trying to do. I swiftly turned back to Shooter and with all my might pushed him down. The second I turned around, I ran straight into Pidge's grasp. He's got me now, and I have no idea what to do about it except kick and scream for help. I did a good job of it because I heard him let out a low grunt and he loosened his grasp on me. I tred to make another break for it but I stll had Bones to take are of. Taking me by the elbows he lifs me a bit in the air then ruthlessly h throws me down on the ground, and I can hear the sickening crack that my head makes when it meets the stone ground. I tried to get up but Shooter was climbing on top of me pinning my legs and arms to the ground. I could hear muffling fighting in the background, and wondered what was going on, but my main focus in that moment was getting Shooter the hell off of me. I struggled but ultimately he was pretty much sitting on my torso laughing at my struggle. I shut my eyes not wanting to see the satisfied smirk playing on his face. But I opened them quickly as I felt the pressure from my stomach gone and I saw Shooter being dragged off of me by none other than Echo. Sitting up I looked around and saw the other two boys lying on the ground Bones was clutching his arm and Pidge had a deep cut on his face and his lip was bleeding. Echo dragged Shooter away from me and shoved him to the ground. He started to walk towards me with his arm outstretched to try to help me up.

"Come on, we're getting out of here." He said to me. When I was about to put my hand in his, I looked over his shoulder and saw an angry Shooter advancing towards us.

"Look out!" I yelled but it was too late. Shooter hand Echo on the ground and they were wrestling with each other, rolling all on the ground throwing punches and kicks in whenever they could. But I wasn't going to just sit there and watch. I knew I had to do something and out of the corner of my eye, I was Bones starting to stand up so I marched over to him and gave him a swift kick to his stomach causing him to double over. Then I turned to Pidge and got him in the face. When my work was done there, I looked over to see if Echo had made any progress. To my dismay he didn't. In fact when I looked over I saw Shooter kick him in the side and he rolled onto the ground. Shooter caught my eye, got up and started to walk towards me spitting the blood out of his mouth on the sidewalk.

Echo got up first and tried to beat Shooter and get to me first.

"Don't touch her!" he yelled. Shooter turned around and delivered a punch to Echo's eye

"Echo!" I yelled, he may have been a traitor, but Echo did not deserve this. "Shooter, stop it! Please, don't hurt him." My voice had shrunk into a pathetic squeal that I would never forgive myself for letting out.

Shooter moved his face so it was inches from mine. "Aww, is the little Nuala begging now?" He ran his fingers down my cheek and I tried to bite them. He pulled his hand back and slapped me across the face harder than the first time. This tie, I lost balance and stumbled to the ground landing hard on my shoulder.

"SHOOTER, IF YOU LAY ANOTHER HAND ON HER, I'LL…" Echo yelled. His anger was finally starting to show through. Maybe Echo really is as sorry as he said he was.

"You'll what? You can't stop me so you may as well stop trying. I'm going to stay strong to Queens and to Blade, like you should have done!"

"No. what I should have done was never leave Brooklyn." the two boys squared off and were ready to fight round two. Before the fighting started I noticed Shooter reached into his pocket and put something on his hand. NO! I thought. Brass knuckles. But before I could do anything Shooter punched once, twice, three times.

"Echo! Stop hurting him!" I yelled, my voice hoarse. Shooter let echo drop to the ground and menacingly started to walk towards me.

I then heard a slam from behind me at the front of the alley along with a set of footsteps. Every face except for Echo's held an expression of pure malice towards whoever was behind me.

"You." Shooter said a shocked expression on his face.

"Get. Away. From. Her. Now." Ryder said, as calmly as he could manage.

I turned around and saw Ryder standing there behind me in the flesh. He walked past me taping me on the shoulder as a comforting sign. But his main focus was the boy standing in front of him. He walked forward and stopped in front of me as if to put a protective barrier between myself and Shooter.

"Well, well. Look who it is. Abandon the fight Ryder?"

"Not a chance. I came to find our girls. And it looks like I'se did a good job finding one. Da question is how's did you'se know?"

"Well we couldn't ave done it without da help of out liddle spy." Shooter said motioning to Echo who was just starting to sit up from the ground.

"I knew it! I knew we shouldn't have trusted you, you son of a…" Ryder was yelling. Before he did something stupid, I ran up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ryder no it not what you think." I told him." He's not a traitor, well anymore." I added.

"What?"

"He helped me. He was trying to protect me from Shooter."

At the mention of his name, Ryder turned to Shooter.

"I'se will deal with you'se later." He said to Echo. "But right now I'se want to finish off with did weasel."

"Ryder he had brass knuckles, be careful." I warned.

"I'll be okay." And that is when he threw the first punch at Shooter. All hell broke loose after that. Shooter had punched back causing Ryder to stumble away, but not until he landed a kick to Shooters stomach. Ryder lost his balance and fell to the ground. Shooter kicked him in the stomach before hovering over him delivering blow after blow to his face. That is when I napped and realized what was going on. The man I loved was getting the tar beat out of hi and I was just standing there. Not even thinking I ran with all my might and tackled Shooter to the ground getting him off of Ryder. We rolled on the ground and once again he was straddling me my arms pinned to either side of my face.

"So, how's about we'se finish where we left off huh?" he bent down I'm guessing to try to kiss me, but quickly I spat in his face. Caught off guard his grasp on my wrists loosened ever so slightly and so I brought my fist up ant punched his face. Then I wrapped one of my legs around his waist and brought it down, causing our positions to change.

"Oh, so you like da top."

That was it for me. I started punching, and punching and punching until Shooter's face looked like a bloody mess. But I did not stop even when he went unconscious. It wasn't until Ryder had recovered, realized what I was doing and pulled me of him that I stopped. But even as I was being lifted from him I still managed to get a kick in.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa fistey pants. Calm down." He said to me. He turned to the other boys in the ally who were too in shock to say anything.

"Whose next?" Ryder asked. The boys looked at each other and like the cowards I know they were made a dash for it. I had finally realized how tired I was and my adrenalin rush was gone so I started to fall in an exhausted heap. If it wasn't for Ryder holding me up I would be on the ground.

"Star, are you'se okay?"

"Yeah I think so."

"What happened?"

"Aoife and I, were in he warehouse, Queens came, Shooter. Aoif told me to run, but, I got caught. Fighting, then you came." I said between breaths. My brain was all scrambled up and I was exhausted so I clearly wasn't speaking right.

Ryder reached a hand gently under my chin and guided me head up. It felt so much better than when Shooter had done it. He pulled my face towards his and captured my lips in a soft kiss.

"I love you Nuala."

"I love you too." I said back to him. "But Ryder, how did you know to come here?"

"Back at the fight Blade was bragging about how he knew that you girls would be all alone in the warehouse. So Spot sent me to find you'se. But it's only you. Where's Aoife?"

"That's the thing. She told me to run and find Spot to get help, but I ran into some trouble. I don't know where she is, but Matches probably took her."

"Nuala, I'm so sorry. We should have listened to you and never left you alone. You'se was better of coming with us. On the night of the party, I promised I would never let you out of my sight, but I broke it, and I'll neva forgive myself."

"Dillon, I love you, and I know you will always be there to protect me."

" Nuala, we have to find Aoife and get back to Spot, he's a good fighter, but I don't know how much longer he can hold up."

"Well what are we standing around for. Lets go!" we were walking out of the ally when a voice stopped up.

"Wait there's something you must know!" it was Echo. His hand was clenched around his stomach and he was limping towards us. "You must hurry, Blade is planning to use Aoife against Spot to bring Brooklyn down. I have made a lot of bad decisions in the past and turning on Brooklyn is at the top of my list. So please let me help and try to undo the past."

Ryder and I looked at each other then back at Echo.

"Take care of yourself, and get to the fight as quick as you can." Ryder said.

He turned to go but I stopped. I had to do something. I walked up to Echo and hugged him.

"Thank you." I whispered in his ear. I smiled at him and walked to Ryder. He took his hand in mine and we raced as fast as we could to the fight.

A/N Whew! My fingers hurt from typing so furiously! Haha but I had to get this chapter done. So Echo had a change of heart? What do you think? And virtual cookies to anyone who got the Frozen reference! To be honest I do not know when the next chapter will be posted. As I mentioned earlier I have weekend rehearsals and 6 hours weekday rehearsals. Plus homework, so yeah I shall try my best! Thank you to those who reviewed keep them coming! Don't forget to review/follow/favorite! Thanks for reading and being so patient!