A tinies heart

Ch. 11 - How do you disappear?

Ana stepped into the city mall and went straight for the nearest bathroom. Stepping inside each rest room had their own mirror and sink. Seeing a clear reflection of herself almost made her gasp. The other restrooms weren't empty so she had to be quiet while working. Her face and clothes were covered in dirt, her hair was tangled and shot out in every direction like branches from a tree.
She did her best with washing her face and clothes, but the hair was too much of a mess to fix. 

Getting out of the bathroom, a bit nicer than before, she walked at a fast pace to minimize the chance of getting recognized, but her eyes still wandered around her surroundings. There were plenty of people doing their shopping at this hour, but what caught her was their eyes. Those carefree eyes sparkling from the kids and the relaxed faces showing in the adults walking by. 

Some eyes started meating hers and she realized that she had been staring at them from a standstill for too long. 
“Great job holding low profile,” Ana thought to herself. She did an one-eighty and walked away before it would turn into a scene.  

She made it inside a supermarket, the biggest in this mall, and walked towards the food section. Many options bombarded her, almost begged her to consume them. It was inticing and it took every fiber not to do it. Ana didn't have any kind of money on hand and asking for money would just make her situation worse. Instead she just took what she could get. Free samples, tiny pieces from opened food packages, it wasn't the most ethical but not really illegal. 

It was enough for Ana's tiny stomach, who at that point craved anything other than berries. Now to get down to business. The real reason she entered the mall was because it has a library. There, visitors could use a computer, free of charge.
She found an empty one and began her researching.
At first she looked at varies local newspapers to get updated and see if they had made big headlines.
One of the big news from the last few papers had been about her. Missing reports had been featured in all of them. Ana checked and there were even articles about her on the bigger papers. She didn't have the guts to read any of them as they all had a segment about her parents. It was pretty obvious what they had to comment and that would not help with her conscience.
Trying to brush it off she began searching for their thief, Micheal Begg. He wasn't on any paper so information was pretty scarce.
“If he is with the police, then maybe the local police departments website have something useful?”
That was her thought process, looking through countless files from different police departments but it gave nothing. Nothing on his name, nothing…

“It’s hard finding anything on him right?”
The voice was close behind her. She looked and it came from a teenage boy, maybe a little older than her, but he looked nice. He was looking down at the screen reading the result that came from searching “Micheal Begg” on the 15’th page.
“I have been looking for him for a while too,” he continued. “Still got just as much as you do.”
“Really, why are you looking for him?” Ana  asked.
“It’s an interesting story, two people from the same little town goes missing only a few weeks in between both. One was a girl who happens to look a lot like you…”
Her body started panicking, but she had to answer quickly.  
“I-it’s not me, what are you talking about?” she tried, laughing it out.
“Yeah your right, I’m sorry Ana,”
“It’s no problem, don’t worr-” 
She stopped mid sentence and realized her mistake. His face was beaming trying to hold his laughter which he failed in less than 5 seconds.
Ana tried to calm down and think about the best way to get out of the situation. She had to admit something, but still lie about the details.
“Okay you got me,” she said in defeat. “I am the missing girl from the reports. I can’t go into detail about why, but regarding him, I’m looking for him because I’m worried. We have known each other for a long time, but then he suddenly disappears. No message, no reports, it scares me. And if he is in trouble then I wanna help him.”
She looked at his face and he seemed to take it all at face value. He gave her a last look before sitting on the computer beside her.
Still staring at his screen he asked “So what did you find?”

He was powering through typing and scrolling faster than what she thought a human could read. He was looking for any report about Micheal on the police files, but it seemed to be non-public files. She didn’t know how, but he had somehow hacked into their database.
Ana was sitting, now looking between his screen and the people around them. She was getting paranoid,off every look she got back, at every phone call she saw. If the dude beside her could recognize her then it was just a matter of time before someone else would.

“Got it!” he exclaimed in a whisper. “I’ll print it out for you. Just a sec,”
A loud whistle bombed her eardrums, but looking around no one seemed affected while she had her hands covering her ears. It had to come from Alan, but what was happening?
Just then a police officer entered and started looking around. Ana ducked behind the screen keeping an eye on him and for an exit.
“What’s wrong?” he asked worried, holding the printed report in his hand.
“If they ask then you don’t know me.” she answered in a stern, but scared voice.
“What is going on?”
“IF they ask then you don’t know me!” she repeated, but still low as a whisper. “Thank you,”

She took the papers from his hands, turned her back and headed for the other exit hoping they only sent the one officer, but since Alan gave her a warning, that would not be likely.
Her fear came true as the mall was filled with cops guarding all exits. At this point she only had one way out and it was to barge through. She walked to the exit and as soon as one would try to stop her, then she would run.
“Hey you come back here!” the officer commanded and the chase began.