Jade of Kame's
Chapter Two:

Ready, Set, Run Fast

Ten minutes later I was knocking on Brenda’s apartment door. She opened it and met me with a huge grin. “Glad to see they let you off the leash!”

I rolled my eyes. She always said my parents kept me chained down like a dog (I thought it was kind of true- but I’m never going to tell her that!) and I needed to chew my way through the tough metal. Which I had successfully done with some help from a filer called Cathy.

We were planning on going to see a new action movie on at the theatre but we had at least thirty minutes before we had to leave. For some reason, Brenda insisted that I change clothes. She claimed by tee shirt and camo pants weren’t ‘sexy enough’.

“Hey! I really like my camo pants!”

“All I’m saying is that there’s gonna be guys there and we want to look our best.”

I huffed. “I really don’t care what guys thinks about my body.”

Eventually, I was forced to give in but I managed to wiggle my way out of a dress and get tight black pants and a light green and blue shirt that wasn’t too tight. By that time it was time to go. We climbed into the back seats and Brenda’s dad drove us five blocks to the theatre.

“Why can’t we walk?” I asked as we got out of the car.

“Well, we could,” Brenda mussed, “But it’s a lot safer for someone to drive you this late a night.”

I nodded my head and followed my friend in silence. I figured since I didn’t know much about city life I had no room to talk.

The time in the movie theatre went by extremely slow. I walked out of the building griping Brenda’s arm tightly. I had been blissfully unaware that we were going to see a horror until we were smushed between about twenty people on all sides. With nowhere to go, I curled into a ball in the seat as best I could and plugged my ears. Didn’t help much but it was better then watching the screen. Now I was really tense and antsy.

“I’m sorry Cal, I didn’t know you didn’t like horrors,” Brenda tried to apologize, “I just assumed… Anyway, I’m sorry.”

“No prob, I’ll just take deep breaths and try to not let the shadows scare me,” I said sarcastically. Brenda chuckled, knowing I was trying to cover up my fear.

Suddenly I noticed we weren’t heading for her dads car. Or any care for that matter! We were just standing there.

“Um, Brenda? Where’s your dad?”

Brenda looked around and sighed. “Do you have your cell on you? They probably forgot.”

“No. Mom has the cell for tonight. Do you have any change for a payphone?”

I felt a rock drop in my stomach as she shook her head. “Nope. Spent it all on snacks.”

“Me too,” I said with a huge sigh. “Guess we’ll have to ask to use the theatre’s phone.”

I walked over to the doors and pulled. They were locked.

“HEY!” I yelled and banged on the glass door. One of the snack bar people looked up but motioned that they were closed. I growled. “I know that! Please let me use the phone! I need too!” He shook his head and went back to cleaning. I clenched my teeth but forced myself to control my temper. I tried again, using less forceful gestures but the guys still said no. He even went as far as to flick us off when Brenda tried to use the phone.

“Why that--! I’ll kill him!” She seethed and readied to kick the door in. I grasped her arm and patted her shoulder.

“We’ll survive. Besides, I don’t want to be charge with breaking public property,” I reasoned with her calmly.

“It’s not public property though,” she protested. “It’s a theatre.”

I shook my head and laughed. “You know what I mean. We’ll just have to walk to your house.”

Her head snapped in my direction. “We’ll have to what?” She held up her hands and started to back away. “Nuh uh! No way! I talk tough but I’m, in no way, looking to get raped!”

I cringed at her words. Rape was not something I had on my list of ‘Fun Things I Want to do in Life’. But I was pretty sure if we stayed there we’d have a better chance of getting caught and made to do things neither of us wanted to and told her so.

Brenda’s shoulders slumped. “Probably. I really don’t want to do this…damn it! Why isn’t dad here already?”

“We’ll just have to run for it,” I said as I tightened my shoelaces. Brenda violently rejected my idea.

“No! We’ll cause more attention that way! We’ll walk as silent as possible and stick to the shadows.”

“I get walking as quietly as possible but if we walked in the shadows wouldn’t we run a higher risk of bumping into those we want to stay away from?”

“…Right. We’ll walk quiet and stay away from alleys and doors.”

“We’re gonna walk in the street?”

“Just follow me!”

“…Alright.”

We made slow progress but we managed to keep nearly completely silent and we avoided the large alleys and run down looking doors. I thanked God that Brenda didn’t live in the really bad part of New York or else we would have been screwed the second we stepped out of the theatre.

But there was still plenty to be worried about as I found out.

We were still about two blocks from Brenda’s place when noise from an alley ahead of them caused Brenda to squeak. I slapped my hand over her mouth to keep her from giving us away. I held my breath when voices reached my ears.

“So where are we hit’n next boss?”

“A store called Shoppers Dreams. A jewelry place I think.”

Brenda gave me a startled look. I returned it with the same horrified expression. We just overheard a gangs plan to rob a jewelry store! If they caught us now they’d do more to us then use us for testosterone release! They’d kill us!

I motioned for us to back up. We slowly took a step back. Then another and another. We were almost to were we could get away unnoticed but fate decided to throw us a curve ball.

I stepped back and froze as the sound of crushing metal echoed off the buildings. Brenda swiveled her head at me and looked down. I had stepped on a soda can..

The sound from the alley had stopped. I threw an urgent look at Brenda and motioned to get ready to run. She nodded and we continued to back up. I had already released the breath I had been holding when a shadow emerged form the alley. It turned and we froze.

“Well, well, weeeell. Hey boss! Looks like we’ve found some entertainment!”

The breath caught in my throat.

Other shadows followed. Brenda took in a sharp breath. Her body tensed. She was ready to run and so was I.

I took a step back as they moved forward, giving us catcalls and making rude comments on everything they would do to us, as well as saying how they'd kill us when they where done. We continued to move back until we were by an alley I knew went straight through to the other street. I took a breath and bolted.

We ran like hell down that trash littered alley. The swearing coming form behind us egged us on. The only thought I had was to run as fast as I could and get as far away as possible. If I was forced to do something I wanted the satisfaction of knowing I put up a damn good chase!

With Brenda on my heels and the gang on hers, we ran blindly down the streets and alleys. I turned a corner and saw a manhole cover off and construction horses were around it. I grabbed Brenda’s arm and pointed to the cover. Her eyes widened but she didn’t protest.

I looked around franticly as she descended. When she called up to me, I climbed down a few stairs. Knowing I had little time, I grabbed the cover and dragged it over the hole as far as I could then dropped to the ground.

“We should still keep moving. They’ll figure out where we went. It’s obvious,” I rasped out.

“Y-yeah,” she pointed down the sewer. “Which way?”

“Don’t care…Lets…go…this way,” I pointed to the right. She nodded and followed me.

We tried to remain as silent as possible while we moved away from the manhole. If they were listening to us they wouldn’t get the pleasure of knowing which way we were headed.

“BOSS! DOWN THERE!”

I swore under my breath and grabbed my friend’s hand. We walked faster.

The gang’s voices started to get louder and I knew we were in trouble.

“We need to run! Now!” Brenda whispered to me, eyes darting around like flies.

“If we run they’ll find us faster,” I hissed back.

“If we don’t we’ll be rapped, stabbed then killed! And nobody will find us! At least we’ll give them another chase before we go down.”

I looked at her for another second before nodding. I had wanted to do that in the first place hadn’t I? I took a breath and tried to calm myself for the run.

“Ready? I whispered.

“Ready” She smirked at me and I smirked back.

Then we ran.

Is it just me or can you tell Brenda is the one who always looks on the dark side of things? You'll find that she is going to be like that most of the time.