Criminals

Chapter 3: The Darkroom

                 I kept walking around for a while and got closer to the heart of the city where you could feel the pulse of life the most. And I hated it, it was annoying. My brain was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at any moment hating all the sounds, longing for silence. I put my earbuds in and my hood up. I was sure that by now the teen must have called the cops unless he's dumb as hell. Like seriously if he didn't his boss would probably fire him cause it had looked like he had stolen the money. Not that the police would believe him. He was only a few years older than me.

                  I kept walking and my palms would get sweatier each time I passed a person. I could feel all their eyes looking past my disguise straight into my soul. I passed a mom and a child and though I couldn't make out the specific words the little girl said I could tell she was asking her mom something about me.

                   You're just some random 15-year-old girl with short purple hair and a hoodie and a backpack on. You look innocent. No one suspects you.

                    I kept repeating that in my mind so I wouldn't go crazy.

Ah!

                   I fell to the ground on my butt. I rub the back of my neck and lookup. There was a boy doing the exact same thing. "Ow........" He groaned.

                    "Are you ok?" I stood up and put out my hand to him. The first nice thing I had done in a long time. He grabbed it. His hands were rough from long days of hard work. I looked down at his shoes as he stood up. There were red and blue as if he was trying to be spiderman. They were also worn out. Another signal he works hard. My mom would always tell me that the look of some shoes tell a story.

                      "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" He brushed his hand off on his dark green sweatshirt and blue jeans.

                     "Same here. Sorry, by the way." I didn't wait for him to reply. I started to walk past him but before I made it far enough to breathe again, He grabbed my hand and put a paper in it and turned, and walked away.

                      I kept walking, scared of what the note said. I crumbled it and stuffed it in the back left pocket of my jean shorts. My hands got sweaty from not opening it. But I was too scared to do so. My brain started racking around in my head. My vision went blurry and all the sounds around me got louder. Friends laughing. Kids screaming and playing tag. I stumbled over toward a bench and sat down. A small blurry shape walked in front of me. It was connected to a bigger blurry shape to the left of it. "Is she okay?'' said the small figure.

 Black

                         That was the last thought I had.

                          I woke up in bed, not mine though. A small twin bed. A thin blanket was over me. I quickly kicked it away with my feet. I was in a small dark room. There was nothing else in the room but me, a window, the bed with the blanket, and a door.

                           A door! Of course!

                          I ran over to the door and turned the knob.

                          Locked. My mood dropped back down and the small sliver of happiness crashed and shattered.

                           I went back and sat on the bed trying to find a lead to how I got here. And how to get out. The last thing I remember was a boy. A boy gave me a paper. I hurriedly reached into my pocket and pulled out the paper he gave me. My hands trembled. I opened it slowly.