Lurking Things~Sky

I saw her again today. She had tried to blend in with her wooded surroundings but failed. I could see her face through the twigs, still striped from winters harsh conditions. From where I stood I could make out the hatred radiating off of her face. A face that should be scarred with burn marks but instead remained flawless, as if no flames had ever danced on the skin.

I was tempted to approach her. Call her name and see if this mysterious person really was the Jade I had known on Eden. Yet something about the harsh expression on her face told me that it was.

"Jade,"I called into the trees. The figure did not move. She stood like a statue, frozen in the grasps of times angry finguretips. "Jade, is that you?"I questioned. No answer. Just the same angry glaring face. The eyes didn't blink as I meet thier glance.

Slowly I walked closer. Carving away at the space between us. Making the distance just alittle bit smaller. She remained where she was. Dead leaves left over from fall rustled on the ground. Like a snake, warning the victum before the bite. Jade was back for revenge. Not friendship.

"Sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!"I heard Zane call in the distance. Coming over to me holding his skateboard in one hand and an egg in the other. I glanced at him for just a second. Then I looked back to where Jade had been standing. But she was gone. As if she had left with the wind that was now picking up.

"Look,"Zane said, holding out the egg with pride. I glanced at it for a moment. Frustrated.

"Do you want scrambled eggs or something?" I asked. Walking towards him slowly. He rolled his eyes. Azul rounded up from behind him. When she approached me, Zane walked away mummbling about an ostrich. Perhaps thats what the egg had been. Yet my mind didn't feel like processing anything other then seeing Jade. He had left the skateboard next to us on the grass.

Azul walked up to me, until she was merely inches away. Then she stopped abruptly. I could smell pepperming gum in her breath. Her jaw moved up and down as she chewed on it. "I saw a photo of me in your wallet. You know the one you stole from the guy with the convertable?" anger seeped into her face as she spoke. I was afraid she was gonna punch me, yet she kept her hands to herself as she continued speaking. "A photo of ME!"She repeated. Pausing then coming just alittle closer, half an inch at most. "You stopped him from finding me."

Once she said that she slapped me on the cheek and walked away. Tears streaming down her face and landing on the tip of her lime green flats. She left me standing all by myself. Walking towards where Jade was now watching us...

Every Day Screws Itself Up ~ (Adriane)

"To put your life in danger from time to time... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities." -- Nevil Shute.

Apparently, Dune can sing. We heard 'Follow Me Down' from the new Alice and Wonderland soundtrack (what is up with that movie? it's like, stalking us) and apparently he can play the lead singer like, scarily well. My voice doesn't really match the girl in the background, but we worked out with it a bit so I didn't sound too much like an injured prairie dog. And you know that song, Good Girls Go Bad? By like, Cobra Starship? (Cobra Starship. What is that? An interstellar snake? What is that?) He can sing like that guy, too.

So, when he finished his hit-singles, I got to step up and sing as many Avril Lavigne songs as I knew (not all at the same time, obviously...) from Nobody's Home to Don't Tell Me to The Best Damn Thing.

Most people were in a hurry to get to, well, wherever, but we got a lot of smiles. Some people clapped, threw coins in the guitar case (like in the movies!) and a couple children dragged heavily-shopping-bag-loaded parents over to listen for a minute.

I'm kind of obsessed with music, so it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. All of those people in the shopping district, a swirl of colors and shapes and sizes and voices, and just us playing guitar surrounded by a bunch of aggressive pigeons who were trying to pull the sandwhich out of Dune's backpack. Dune thought he'd be clever and hold it on his lap so they wouldn't come near, but a squirrel eventually snagged it right out of his hands. Devious city animals, they are.

Well, apparently you need a permit to play music on a sidewalk like that, but no one bothered us. I thought eventually we'd get busted, but we were okay. I don't think anyone thought of us as a pair of heinous teenage criminals. (But we looked pretty snazzy.) BUT. All the weird stuff sort of started when I was thirsty, so I put down my guitar and ended up sneezing and trying to talk at the same time, so it came out as more of a, "Hungry! I mean, I am. Hungry."

"Talk like Yoda, do I so." Dune snickered.

"Pfft. You only wish you were that cool." I rose from my seat and said I'd be back in a moment, taking off down the road. There were some little vendors set up on the street, so I bought a soda and sat down on a bench for a minute, downing it in like, five seconds flat. Then some older guy sat down next to me, breathing heavy like he was about to give birth to a fifty-pound watermelon. He was talking nervously on his cellphone in like, Chinese or Spanish or Costa-Rican or Finlandish. Or English.

I stared at him for a minute, then announced, "Eww. There's something coming out of your ear!"

That got rid of him real fast.

So I enjoyed my Mountain Dew in silence; then stood up and started heading back, hoping Dune hadn't pissed someone off and gotten mugged. You know how in the movies, sketchy stuff always happens in dark alleys? Well, there weren't any dark alleys here. But there was a grimy street wedged between an office building and some high-rise apartments.

I came around the corner, humming some nameless song to myself - it was getting dark now - when I saw a guy, a flash of him - pinned against a wall. I did a complete double-take. The first guy was stuttering skittishly; I couldn't blame him. Another man had him by the throat, the muzzle of a gun pressed to the bottom of his chin.

He pulled the trigger.

There was a bang - not a rattling, throaty gunshot - it must have had some sort of sound suppresser on it. The gut-wrenching noise - that came a few milliseconds after; that was the sickening snick as his head exploded, the splatter as blood and brains pasted the wall.

The body fell - silently, like a tree falls - and folded to the stone, skin sliding delicately off a partially-exposed skull.

The man raised his head; saw me. He smiled. A wild, bloody, pointy-toothed grin. He raised his gun and fired.

If I had not moved a few seconds earlier, I would have been hit. His aim had been sure and would have struck me in the heart. But something was different. Something had changed.

In a single, blinding, instant. Light. It exploded in my eyes, slithered through my bones, fired through my veins and bloomed like a brilliant fire. Like passion and fury, it screamed and burrowed into my head, until everything slowed - everything was painfully clear, painfully easy. The man smelled hot, like adrenaline and ice. Like bone and blood and sweat.

He was inferior! Ridiculous! Standing there, such a tiny, tiny, soft shadow. Defenceless. Slow. Weak. My own arrogance struck me, the power I felt, the storm beating in my heart, the eager, sure-footed way that I bolted across the ground, the way I flew like a wild fire. I could feel and taste the panic that squealed in his eyes, could hear his scream cholking in his throat, could feel the blood pusling and throbbing and flooding beneath my hands.

BANG BANG! He fired, somewhere, but it felt far away. Like something happening to someone in a movie. Only a vague concern. What did he think he was going to do? Shoot me? Ha!

Someone must have whacked me with a cattle prodder; poured water over me and electrocuted my skin. Like someone had opened my eyes and my ears and my nose, flooded my senses with an overwhelming, powerful, exhilerating ocean....and then it was gone. I smelt the blood in my mouth; tasted it. The sun had set, leaving the sky the color of pennies and rose petals.

The man with the gun was on the ground, bleeding. Presumed dead. I did not look at home closely to see his injuries, but turned and ran.

He shot himself, I said. He shot himself with his own gun. I was shaking; something about post-accident shock. He was trying to shoot me, I say. He misfired and hit himself. It killed him. That's all.

I pause on the sidewalk - and look back - just for a second. There is sound from a nearby street, probably someone curious from the noise. And there, in the blood and the dirt, are a set of perfect, wide, pawprints.

I was walking through the city park. Gazing idly at all the flowers, still dead from the Winters fury. My mood was very shaky. I was angry that A-drain came back. I had been perfectly happy without her. I know that sounds awful but I felt more of a sense of relief. Not seeing her ugle face. Slutty eyeliner. Whore-able outfits and all. But nope she just HAD to stumble back to us. HAD TO...

Now all she does is sit there and mope, while making it very clear she wants a glass of coolaid. VERY CLEAR. LITERALLY. She robbed a convient store! Ghetto drink. But you gotta love that stuff. You can buy a packet and make a whole container of it for 99 cents. Yummy. Anyway....

Sooooooo i was walking through the park and I could have swore i saw a ninja. So i chased after him trying to get an autograph. Turns out his mom died and he was dressed in all black for her funeral. Oops.

Thouroughly dissopointed by that I ambled farther down the sidewalk. Glancing every now and then to make sure the man really wasn't a ninja in disguise. To keep my thoughts from wondering I absentminded started saying the abcs in my mind.

A,b,c,d,e,f,g...thats when another black figure caught my eye. She sat on a bench. A silver knife in her right hand. She was idly brushing it against her skin. Gently as if she was stroking a kitten. Her face held no emotion. I watched as blood trickled down her arm, but I could not see the cut that was producing them. I began to walk closer and thats when I reconized her. She resembled a girl I had seen on Eden. Except then her clothes had been alot lighter and her hair had been a honey blonde. Now it ws coal black and matched her jet black clothing choice.

Before I could approach her she left. Walking away quickly. Out of my view and into a croud of people. Jade. That had been her name. I had seen her from time to time. She had hated A-drain as much as me. I hoped desperately i would see her again. Be able to talk to her.

Then i decided to get some icecream and walked back to our new hideaway.

Blood & Monsters (Part Two) ~ Adriane

The wolf and the rabbit,
The fire,
The flood,
The nightmare inside her,
The monster; the blood,
The wolf, the wolf,
Dire and black,
Lock all your windows,
The hunter is back….
The rabbit, the rabbit,
Roguish and brave,
But a predator‘s lurking,
And guess who’s the prey?

I miss them.

Actually, that kind of surprises me. I mean, most days I want to stuff them all in a shoebox and ring some guy’s doorbell and drop them off on his front step. Then run away. (Far. FAR away.)

But I guess you never miss them until they’re gone and all that crap or whatever.

I even kind of miss Sky.

Even though she’s a crack head. Even though she’s a crack head who wears too much makeup. Even though she’s a crack head who wears too much makeup and often looks like a dead raccoon. Even though she’s a crack head who wears too much makeup and often looks like a dead raccoon and sometimes smells like one, too. Even though she’s a - oh, shut-up. Who am I kidding?! I feel fifty pounds lighter!

Well, actually, that would make me feel really dead…but you know. I feel like I can fly. And stuff. Like, I don’t have to worry about where she is. And stuff. So…yeah.

But I miss Dune. And Zane. And the twins.. And Azul. Even though she gnaws on her fingernails and then spits them out clear across the room with no regard whatsoever to who she’s aiming at.

It's funny losing them, though. Well, okay. Not ha-ha, Sky-just-woke-up-in-a-coma-funny. But weird-funny. If that makes sense.

I am alone. When did that happen?

My eyes are clouded; the air is thick. I feel like I’ve been buried alive. ‘You’re sleeping,’ someone says. No. Can’t be. You dream while you’re sleeping.

Yooooohoo, sleeping-girl? Are you awake?

Blah. I don't even know if I'm dead.

Yooohooo, crying-girl? Wake up! You've got to wake up.

I'm not crying. Am I?

Listen to me...

My eyes fly open.

In the dark they gleam; my pupil narrows to ebony fleck. I am majorly pissed.

I'm lying across a seat, my arms folded beneath my head. I don't sit up right away, but breath slowly - rhythmically - in the darkness. I can see my breath curling like smoke in the shadows.

Stupidly enough, the door is unlocked.

I pull out of the car, squinting in the sunlight.

The sky’s a bloody smear.

Red and orange and indigo round the clouds and streak the sky like broken chalk.
The car’s pulled over crooked in the breakdown lane; someone left the engine running. The highway rumbles like thunder and I wobble a bit from the drugs.

Car after car rockets by, the wind and the whoosh and the roar sounds like a railroad station. The air is clear and sharp, but exhaust ghosts across the ground; a truck honks in the distance.

There’s a strip of grass by the car; trees and brush growing between the lanes soaks in the sunlight. It spills over their branches, casting shadows at my feet. Drake is standing a ways away, shielding his eyes from the glare. There’s two other guys beside him. Both of them are talking quietly and staring at the sky. I feel like I can bolt down the highway and they won’t even notice. Or care. But knowing me, I’d probably get squashed by a tractor trailer or something.

I limp/saunter over to them, furious.

“Stargazing?” I snarl sarcastically.

He sees me out of the corner of his eye, but doesn’t look over, or move. Or do much of anything. They're still chatting.

So I stand there, tapping my foot on the ground, so mad I’m almost frothing at the mouth. And they just keep talking! Lalalaa. Lalala. Hello? Lalala. Done yet? No? Lalaa. UGH!

So I take the last few steps forward, spitting, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

And he STILL doesn’t do anything. Just completely ignoring me. “Dude,” I growl. “I’m talking to you.”
No reaction. I reach over and grab his arm as if I’m about to hit him. This triggers a response.

In the time it takes me to blink, there is suddenly a sickening CRACSNPAK!.

That would be my arm. Ow.

He twists around so fast my eyes can't follow the movement - a swift, but accurate strike like a leopard lunging from the underbrush. The storm settles and I look down, blinding pain firing in my arm. It's twisted around backward, his fingers curled around my wrist like the fangs of an adder sunk into the skin. His face is suddenly inches from mine.

"Yesss?" he hisses softly.

Our faces are inches apart. I want to shrink from his gaze but I will not let the fear conquer me. I glare back; eyes heavy with hatred.

"What do you think you're doing?" I repeat.

Looking faintly amused, he released my wrist and pushed me roughly away, smirking lightly. "Kidnapping you," he admitted calmly, turning back towards the sky.
(Well, duh.)
"Impatient little thing, aren't you?" he added, as more of an after-thought.

I opened my mouth to say something snarky, (isn't that a cool word? it reminds me of an elephant.) when he reached into his pocket and tossed me a box of jelly beans. I snagged it out of the air in utter disbelief. What?

BUT OH MY GOD. I was so hungry and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like jelly beans. I sniff them suspciously.

They were still staring at the sky. "That cloud looks like a bunny," I add helpfully, pointing towards the vague direction they are staring in.

One of the other guys sighed. "Why are you so annoying?"

"Why does your mother still dress you?" I snapped back.

His face started to look a bit purple. Drake snorted.

And that's when things started to get strange. My head began to pound even faster - my blood began to beat beneath my skin, like the sway of an ocean tide. The world became fuzzy and soft, colors swimming and fading beneath my gaze. I reached out to grab something as if to catch my balance, but I couldn't think....I...everything felt so...far away. I began to fall, vaguely aware of Drake catching me...vaguely aware of...

"She's going out..."

A russet-colored cat let out an excited squeal, drinking daintily from a tea cup. "Ooohooh!" said Sky eagerly. The garden was sparkling with tea lights, a ten-layer cake balancing precariously in the center of the tablecloth. Azul as usually, was stuffing her face. Zane and Dune had kicked up their feet and were resting them on the table, while the twins licked frosting from their fingers.

"What are you doing here?" scolded Sparrow. "You can't be here. Look at the sign - ," she says, pointing. "You can't show up without a friend."

"And where's your hat?" added Zane. "Everyone has to wear a hat!"

It was true. Everyone was, even the little brown cat had a baseball cap dripping over his ears. "Oh, ssssh!" the cat hissed. "Don't be rude. It's not her fault she hasn't got anybody."

What is going on? "I need to go," I manage to say. "Why?" laughed Sky. "You can't get out of here. You can't do anything right. Nothing to do but sit here and eat cake."

Raven sprinkled some salt into his tea; the cat giggled madly.

Maybe they're right. I head towards the garden, pushing through the bushes, until the teaparty is out of sight, but only end up right back at that stupid table. Everyone laughs at my attempts. "Do it again!" cheers Dune, clapping.

"See?" says Azul. "You're such a screw up. Pass the sugar, please."

The world fades again. There's a man standing over me, looking rather sick, kind of blue. (Hey! Get purple-faced guy back out here and we can start a rainbow!)

But this time it isn't a dream.

"She's losing a lot of blood...,"

I wake up, this time for real, on a street corner not far from the house we're staying at. It's in the middle of the night, and rain sprinkles the sidewalk. I pull myself shakily to my feet, rubbing my neck. In my wrist are a few small pricks where the noses of needles penetrated my skin. I barely have time to make it to a dumpster before I vomit a bucketfull of blood.

Drugs, I think as I sink to my knees, wiping the blood from my mouth. That's all I can think of. Drugs.

I remember almost nothing.

But what was it all for? Was it just Drake, or was the company involved, too? He did something to me. Something.

I don't know what.

But I have a horrible, horrible, feeling that I am going to find out.

Blood & Monsters ~ (Adriane)

The wolf and the rabbit,
The lion,
The doe,
The faster you run,
The farther you go,
The rabbit, the rabbit!
Stormy and spry,
Flighty of paw,
And glassy of eye.
The wolf, the wolf,
Follows her home,
Tears through her blood
And leaves nothing but bone.

Dune and I were talking.
Not about much. Not about anything important. Not about us.
Just talking.

“You feel very far away just now,” he had suddenly said. Said that - right out of the blue.
Before, we had been discussing the advantages of paper clips over staplers or something. And then suddenly - WHAM! And it hit me real hard, right in the face, because I had been thinking the same thing.

It’s like, wow. Where did that come from? Who did Dune borrow the perspective from?

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. I tilted my head like a puppy raises an ear. Smiled a little bit.. Kind of sadly. “You’re pretty smart sometimes, you know that?” I told him.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh. Good. I was hoping that didn’t sound lame and sentimental.”

I laughed lightly. “Yeah. Just don’t do it too often. It’d ruin your reputation.” He feigned a miffed expression.

It - then - had been before dawn. You’d think - wow, you wake up before then? Well, no. But neither of us tend to sleep much these days.

Can’t imagine why.

The sky was lightening, yet the city had never slept. The darkness softened and the color from the shadows began to drain.

“I….don’t really know where I am right now,” I had admitted.

“Yeah. We need to get out more.” He smiled wryly.

We were perched above, near the second floor, on some old crossbeams. Like pigeons or rats. Except pigeons or rats don’t laugh nervously every time the beam shakes a bit.

I took a slow, deliberate bite of my apple; then twisted around so I was standing - like on a balance beam. (You know.) (The kind that float a few stories above the floor.)

Sunlight slid between the cracks in the roof, dappling the wood around us in watery, sallow fragments of light. I stood up straight, for a moment a shadowy silhouette, dust billowing like smoke around my jeans. I tossed the apple to Dune, who took a bite and looked thoughtfully into the distance. “You’ll be okay. We’ll all….be okay,” he said softly. Ah.

I may feel far away, but I do not feel alone.

We talked, again. But he left, after a bit. I guess he thought I might need some time to myself. I watched him go. Should’ve followed. Didn’t.

I scaled to the top of the warehouse - the windows had been blown out, the glass sprayed across the floor like ashes from a flame. Everything was rotting, everything was broken. Which means the windowsill was a perfect place for perching, and there, now five or six stories up, surrounded by broken bottles and graffiti, I watched the sunrise. I do not know how long I was there, staring at the cars rushing beneath me. I would guess an hour, although time had slowed and the world had faded to me.

Pigeons fluttered from beam to beam, their soft cooing stirring the air. The room was flushed with golden light.

Something creaked behind me.

I slid off of the windowsill, chinks in the ceiling streaming a hazy fog across the floor. I proceeded warily, not just because I was afraid that the floor would collapse beneath my feet. I chewed the rest of my apple, then threw the core aside, letting it roll and bounce into a pile of rubble. The room opened up, the eaves low and ragged, like gaping jaws and broken teeth.

I turned a corner - the air was noticeably cooler in the shadows. Stale papers blew across the floor, and the glass crunched underfoot. On one side of the open hall was a shelf, the hinges rusty. It had long been wrenched open and the bottles and contents had been strewn across the floor. I kicked one with my boot, and it rolled and listed away with a soft tinkle. Some were labeled, but most had been smashed to fragments. There were dark stains, showing where the liquid had once seeped through the floor.

I flipped a few over with my toe; tried to read the inscriptions. ROHYPNOL. SECOBARBITAL. BEMEGRIDE. ADRENALINE.
The adrenaline one was empty.

Click!

I whirled around so fast I barely had time to blink. Something sprung like a viper and grabbed my arm, pulling me close to it - breathing fast - can’t see- prick. I let out a hiss of rage as a tiny, burning, howling dot of pain slid into my neck like the stinger of a wasp.

It was him. Dune was long gone. No chance. No one with a crowbar. No one to save me. Ugh! I am so stupid! Stupid!Stupid! I was mentally banging my head into a desk.

I tried to fight, tried to move, but my head was getting foggy and the syringe…a syringe?? He had it…holding it over me, filled with clear liquid - the point of it had been pierced through the surface skin by my neck…. I hadn’t even…hadn’t even…
Terror surfaced through my veins, howling along my throat. Everything roared: RUN RUN RUN RUN. Blood screaming, my heart beating faster and faster and faster and….

And suddenly I could not feel it beating at all.

{Someone’s coming!! I’ll close the laptop now…more tomorrow! Promise!)

Corny~Sky

Zane stood in front of me his face looking rather nervous as if he had just "accidently" flushed someone's bra down the toilet...again. "What?" I snapped. He blushed looking like a tomatoe, I tried very hard not to laugh at his facial expression.

"You...uh...wanna go to the movies with me?" he stammered.

"No," I answered quickly then smilied and punched him playfully in the arm. His face relaxed. He knew me to well by know to be taken aback by my sarcasm. "Coming?" I asked walking towards the theatre. He trailed behind me like a lost puppy for awhile before he caught up and was able to stand beside me.

For a long while we walked in silence as we ambled down towards the theatre. I started watching the cracks in the cement and avoiding the tiny ant piles that lay around the broken sidewalk, each grain of sand had been carefully gathered by one tiny creature and I didn't wanna mess that up.

After a long pause of silence Zane finally started rambling again. "I want a pet ostrich," he said his voice even and very serious. I laughed to myself thinking of how much A-drain would flip if we brought one back to the abondoned house we had claimed for now.

"Do you see any ostrich farms around?" I asked him. He sighed and took my hand. It felt warm next to mine but not all sweaty and gross.

"Well then what about a...a...PANDA!" this time he was joking. I didn't bother answering because we were already downtown where the movie theatre was. It took little effort for us to sneak in through the guards. I felt like water slipping through someone's open fingures. I even managed to snag a huge container full of popcorn. I was to busy though to notice that same man as before, still wearing that yellow coat and smiling eerily into the distance.

Slowly we entered the showing room, picking a seat close to the back. There was an old man sitting directly in front of me. His shiny bold head blocking my view. I sighed with frustration as it began. The beggining of Alice In Wonderland bored me to tears and it didn't seem to get much bettter so I began people watching. Zane waited a whole half an hour before yawning and putting his arm around me. I hated that move even in the movies. It seemed like every single guy always tried it just like that. I was determined for the kiss to play out differantly though so right as he began to edge in closer I grabbed a handful of buttery popcorn and threw it right at the bald mans head. Hoping that at least alittle popcorn on his shiny skull would cause him to lean back in the chair alittle more. He didn't. I heard him mutter a curse word and seat up alittle straighter.

Giving up on the movie I leaned closer to Zane kissing him. I was satisfied that at least it didn't happen like that in most boring movies. "Wanna ditch this movie?"I wispered in his ear. It took him less then a second to stand up and off we went. Obvoius to the man in the mustard yellow jacket following us all the way back to the abondoned house. Now the creep had a reason to grin.....

Trapped~Sky (written by)

We stood on the side of the road, beside the stolen convertalbe that I had refused to ditch. Its red paint shimmering even against the dull gray sky. Rain was gushing out of the sky in sheets of falling tears. For once the water felt good against my nervous skin.

People walked past us in clusters, holding thier shopping bags alittle more tightly as they passed us. One man in a yellow rain coat stopped beside us and looked at Azul in a creepy way, curling up his lips in a smile. I was prepared to smack him without mercy if he took another step closer. Instead he pivited on his foot towards me. The smile remaining. I saw Zane reaching for the gun held in his pocket. Yet it wasn't needed because the man bent down on the ground and picked up a shining copper penny before my foot. I couldn't resist the urge to stomp on his hand. Instead of yelping he just stood up. Staring at me for a few minutes. "Good day,"he said in a sinister voice that sent a chill down my spine, and he walked away.

Zane had drapped his arm around me in a pertective way. I liked the feel of his limb against my back. Adraine and Dune stood in the corner, not touching but still fairly close. Behind us on the side of the street the twins were splashing in a puddle that had accumulated because of rain. They were laughing despite the danger that lurked ahead. I evied them as they splashed throught the piles of water, happy and somewhat clueless. Yet how could i not be happy for them? Zane turned his head towards me and whispered in his soft voice that it would be alright. I wasn't convinced, niether was he.

A huge building stood before us. It was gangly and its size made me shudder. The whole brick mass was tilted to the right like a huge tree about to fall. "Are you sure this is the right place?" I asked A-drain, she nodded her head calmly. None of us were sure what lurked inside this vast empty building but we had recieved notes demanding we meet someone in here. The threats to risky then the actaully thought of the person behind them. I wasn't sure but at the middle floor of the building I thought I saw a spark of light, almost as if the building was aflame. But of coarse that was crazy and my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

Adraine lead the way towards the structer. I gulped as she turned the knob opening the door. She slowly walked inside. Dune still close behind her. Zane let his arm fall but grabbed for my hand in exchange. Azul followed popping bubbles with her bubble gum and complaining about the dirt that caked parts of the walls. The twins just followed not saying to much about anything.

"This is sooooooooo lame," Azul said her voice annoyed. I looked back at her and rolled my eyes.

"Do you have a better idea?" Adraine snapped cursing under her breathe.

"Yup," Azul said letting a huge pink bubble pop and stick to her face in a sticky. mess. She couldn't say much else as she peeled the goo off her face.

The halls were empty and the front room looked to be an abondoned service desk. "Lets just leave," Sparrow said, her voice full of warning as if she could sense something we couldn't.

Thats when the explosion happened. Banging against the walls like a trillion guns shotting at the same time. Fire was started to smolder towards us as we began to sprint towards the exit. Yet the door we had entered in had been locked.

"SPIDER!!!" Azul screamed, jumping up and down trying to avoid it. If smoke wouldn't have been starting to enter the room I would have laughed. Azul had a tramatic fear of spiders due to an expirement that had happened to her. The scientists had used a trantala.

Zane tugged on my hand pulling me towards a window, there was nothing to break it with so I watched him use his spare elbow. The glass shattered into tiny fragments as he helped me out.

Sirens started to ring down the street as we could hear a fire department coming. By the time they approached the building we had all safely leapt into the stolen convertable and sped away from the scene...

This Sucks! ~ Adriane

Today was a total mess.

We really, really, need to stop stealing cars.

Azul found this really cute top hanging in a storefront window. And It's Azul we're talking about. And she just hadtohadto ABSOUTELY HAD TO - have it. and instead of waiting for someone to buy it for her, she went inside and everything was fine until she was about to leave and suddenly this nasaly little voice called...

"Miss? I'm going to need to go through your bag."

"Uhm. Uhm? Uhm! Why would you need to do that?" she blurted out, twisting the ring on her finger.

Raven had been outside, smooshing his nose against the glass until his breath fogged up the windowpane and...well, he looked pretty retarded. But he stiffened at the approaching danger and scurried away, leaving Azul gaping as if she was trying to swallow a bowling ball.

"I'm sorry miss," said the very clueless guy working there. "We have a strict policy here and I just want to make sure everything is okay, but I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

Azul's smile was shaking. "Oh! Oh, well yes. I can see that. Of course. But you know, you know...you really don't want to do that! YES! No. Because, you see, I have...ahm...personal things. Oh, yes! Personal things. GIRL things, in my bag here, things that you would know nothing, nothing, about. No, really. You have no idea. It would just be so awkward."

He didn't look like he was buying it. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I just have to double-check; real quick." And he leaned over to grab her bag, when she jumped back screaming, "PIGEON MITES!!"

"Uhm. What?"

"Oh, the pigeon mites! I have such horrible pigeon mites! When pigeons land on your windowsill, sometimes they shake off the mites, and they get caught up in your clothes and things and they ITCH so bad! And you don't want to come near me or you might get them too, and they can be dangerous... because....THEY MAKE YOUR DOG'S EYES BLEED!!"

"I don't have a dog."

"Oh."

There was silence. He stared at her. She looked at the floor.

"Did I say dogs?" she squeaked. "I meant children. And old people. And people with diabetes. And those kids with Up's syndrome."

"You mean Down's Syndrome?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Again, silence.

"I still need to look in your bag."

And that moment Azul howled, "OH, BUGGER!" (what?) And tossed the bag behind her and started making out with the guy.

Now let's get this straight. Azul's like, fifteen. The guy had to be maybe sixteen, or seventeen, although not very attractive. I doubt whether he had ever made out with a girl in his life. And Azul is far from ugly.

So in the mean time, Raven was following the usual "Team Plan" and trying to find a way to rescue her. Except, you know, the idea of a twelve year old boy who still likes flushing barbie dolls down the toilet and is petrified of clowns is to pretend to help an old lady unload her groceries and then jump in her running car and drive it through the store window. Well, he meant to park it outside the window. But I haven't taught him to drive yet.

Which allowed Azul to duck the raining glass, the guy jumping back and swearing and an alarm going off and the car's headlights flashing and an old lady screaming from the parking lot.... But she wasted no time, jumping into the car, spitting furiously and yuck, yuck, yucking all the way to the passenger's seat.

She still made it out of there with her stupid tank top.

I think that's ridiculous. If we're going to break the law, we should do something really cool, like vandalize the Hollywood Sign. Or, you know. Something.

Well, anyway. We changed hotels. We changed cities, actually. Still on the run. Still can't go to the police. Still too scared to fall asleep at night.

I saw him (again) on a street corner. He didn't say anything; just sort of smiled and tilted his head. I lost him for a moment in the crowd, but when the people cleared he was gone. I might have seen him disappearing, but a guy barrelled through the crowd, knocking a lady aside and almost trampling my toe to pulp. "Hey, mister!" I hollered after him. He stopped; disgruntled. "You forgot your wallet." He pushed back through the crowd like a trout swimming upstream, tie billowing in the wake. I thought of the way he had shoved that lady away. I hope he thinks about it, too. When he finds his wallet empty.

I feel like we should worry more about our morals. We'll work on it. So much else to deal with right now.

{(Alright guys. Heads-up! This post is speial. None of us are great experts on computers...I just signed up for some free blog site and hoped that people would read this. Hoped that people would believe us.

You probably don't. But still...if you are reading this, please let us know. Please comment. You don't have to say anything just be like, "'" or "hi" or whatever. We don't know what to do, we don't know where to go from here. If you know of a place we could be safe for a while.... We just don't know. We're confused and freaked out and very, very, alone.

If you're there, please say something.

We need you.)}

Adriane/ Signing out. (bye!)