Stolen Treasure

Chapter 8

I ran as fast as I could, pushing through the people shopping in the street, sometimes knocking them or their items over. Most of them shouted obscenities after me, but I didn't care. They would survive. I, on the other hand, might not.

I took a quick look behind me and saw some of the pirates trying to push through the crowd. They were having a harder time than me; I was smaller and able to maneuver around people better. I turned back around and focused on putting as much distance between me and them as possible. It was working pretty well, until I saw one of the pirates appear at the end of the street in front of me.

I took a sharp turn into an alley that led to another large street. It looked extremely similar to the one I had just been in, but it had a lot less people in it. I kept running, but at the end of that street another pirate appeared from around the corner. I dashed into another alley. This repeated three more times. I was quickly running out of steam, and knew I couldn't keep this up for much longer.

As another pirate emerged from around the corner, I once again ducked into an alley. Except this one didn't lead to another street; it was a dead end. And at the end of that alley were two pirates. I quickly spun around to try to run back into the street, but found the entrance blocked by three more pirates. They all stepped forward until I was surrounded. I didn't see this ending well for me. But I took a chance and tried to dash between them. Unfortunately, they were prepared for this. One of them grabbed ahold of me with his tentacle arms.

"No! Let me go!" I shouted. I struggled as hard as I could, but couldn't shake his grip. I didn't have any energy left to fight, so I stopped struggling and sunk to my knees on the ground.

I looked up and saw Alex standing in the alley's entrance. His face looked calm, but his frenzied eyes betrayed him. He was clearly furious. I shot daggers at him with my eyes, but on the inside I was terrified.

"Let's go," Alex ordered.

The pirate holding me lifted me to my feet and led me out of the alley. He kept my arms secured behind my back, wrapped tightly in his tentacles. However, I was surrounded on all sides by pirates, so from the outside you couldn't really tell I was being held. But people in the street still looked at us curiously, though I wasn't surprised. A bunch of big, gruff-looking aliens encircling a girl who had just been running for her life in the streets; it's hard not to notice. I just prayed that one of them would do something. At the very least they could call the police! But everyone returned to their business after we passed by. I let out a barely audible sigh.

When we got back to the ship, the pirate shoved me into my room. I barely kept myself from falling flat on my face. I whipped my head around in time to see Alex give me a cold glare before slamming the door shut. I heard a click and knew he had locked it, but tried opening it anyway. Sure enough, it was sealed shut.

I let out a scream of frustration.

I was so close! I thought.

I didn't dwell on it for too long. I just had to shake it off and try again later.

I mean, did you really expect you could escape just by running? You had nowhere to go! the little voice in my head told me. But there had been hope in me for a short time that I could lose them in the crowd and contact someone who could help me.

I looked around the room, trying to find something to do. Unfortunately there wasn't much in there that could keep me busy. It was early afternoon, and I knew I wasn't going to be let out anytime soon. I was going to have to entertain myself for the next several hours.

When it started to get dark out, a pirate came in the room and dropped off a plate of food. I was starving, since I hadn't eaten all day, so I ate ravenously. That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened to me that afternoon. Other than that, I laid down on the bed staring up at the ceiling, lost in my own thoughts. Mostly I replayed what I could have done so that the situation could have ended better. I should have run into a shop and hid or asked someone to call the police, I told myself. Then at least someone would know where I am.

After what felt like forever, nightfall arrived, so I started to get ready for bed. I felt the ship move under my feet and knew we had launched away from Kinapis and off to who-knows-where. I sighed despairingly as I pulled on my pajamas. I climbed into bed and stared at the ceiling. Just like the night before, I couldn't fall asleep. Only tonight, I couldn't stop thinking of Jim.

I need to sleep so I can have my wits about me the next time I see a chance to escape, I thought. I turned over and imagined Jim's arms enveloping me to help me fall asleep.

I dreamed that Jim and I were dancing under a starry night sky. There was nothing beneath my feet, but we weren't falling. It was like we were walking on an invisible floor, or perhaps a floor made of glass. He was smiling at me lovingly, his eyes full of care. I smiled back at him, and felt like nothing in the world could ever destroy this moment.

But then storm clouds rolled in around us and a figure from my past materialized from the shadows and stole me away from Jim. I tried to cling to him, but the shadow was stronger and ripped me away from Jim. The moment I was torn from him, all the stars blinked out of existence, plunging me into total darkness. I stumbled around, searching for Jim in the dark. I couldn't see where I was going and accidently walked off a cliff. I was just barely able to grab on to the ledge. There was a flash of lightning and I could see Jim in the distance. He must have seen me too because he started running towards me, but he was moving so slow. Every second my hand slipped a little bit more. Just when he made it to me, I lost my grip and fell. Jim reached over the edge towards me, but it was too late. I screamed his name as I fell into an endless black abyss. It was the maniacal sound of a familiar laugh that finally jolted me from my nightmare.

I bolt upright in bed and found that I was panting and sweating. I waited for my heart rate to slow down before I took in my surroundings. I pulled the covers back and silently tiptoed over to the curtains on the neighboring wall. I opened them to reveal the wall of windows and discovered it was morning. Actually, I couldn't tell if it was really morning, seeing as we were in space and all. But there was light outside, and the clock on the night table next to the bed led me to believe it was early morning.

Going through the closet and drawers, I realized that since I wouldn't be leaving the room again for a long time, I might as well keep myself busy by trying on all the different clothes in the room. It would be a shame if all of these never got to be worn, I thought to myself as I held up a black corset-like top.

So that's exactly what I did for at least the next two hours. I was wearing a red lacy top with a short black skirt and admiring myself in the mirror when I heard the click of my door being unlocked.