She couldn’t remember why she was there.
It was all… different. The city bustled without paying any attention to her, moving in a manner not unlike some sort of hive.
A hive of… something.
She couldn’t remember.
She couldn’t remember a lot of things, all of a sudden. It was all hazy, all of it missing. There was something she needed to do, but…
That was lost as well.
She’d appeared on a park bench, feet propped up on one side. Her scalp was itchy, and when she scratched it little red flecks got stuck under her fingernails.
That was bad, probably.
But she couldn’t remember why.
She’d sat there on the bench until the sun was in the far end of the sky, and she got a little hungry. It felt right to walk around a little, but she was still working on what to do after that.
There was a prickling on her neck.
Was someone following her?
Her pace quickened, pushing her to become more evasive, making her start to take a zigzagging path through the streets. The sun was starting to set, more people heading inside.
Rush hour was over.
Abruptly, she collided with someone. A middle aged man in a suit grabbed her by the arm, pulling her with him, talking about how yes, she was being followed and she needed to go with him. She dug her heels into the pavement.
“What? No.” She was english.
“You’ll be safe with me. I need to take you to a safe house.” He pulled her along, much stronger than she was.
“Excuse me?” She yanked on his ear, causing him to hiss sharply and let her go. She took a few steps backwards, but stopped when she noticed they were on a largely deserted street. There was an unmarked van a little ways down, but the man was looking at her now, hard.
It made her angry.
She had fists with her hands. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“Are you on drugs?”
What. “Excuse me?”
“Your pupils are dilated. Are you alright?”
Oh hell no. She frowned, but he didn’t seemed happy with that response, looking around like they were being watched. He moved forward to grab her again, but she leapt back and shouted.
“I’m not going any farther until you explain!”
Abruptly, there was a gunshot, and a piercing pain in her leg. The suit tackled her as more shots rang out in the street, a window shattering behind them. He pressed a finger to his ear, speaking into it with a sudden urgency as he held a hand to her wound.
She’d already zoned out, unable to focus on anything besides the sudden thought that jumped in her head.
A boy, screaming her name.
Artie!
yikes
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