After All This Time

Chapter Twenty-Nine

We chased her through the city. Dodging people and trees left and right. Five had a grip of the fur on my neck and held on tightly with his legs. Everyone was screaming, and running inside to the nearest building as we ran through the streets. I'm sure the city's famous roaming panther was scary enough, but to also see a strange boy on the back of it, must have been even more so. Lila was barely in my sight, somehow running faster than us. But her scent, I could for sure keep track of her. We followed her around, left, right, and another left. I was starting to get tired, especially with Five on my back. And then I heard police sirens in the distance, I couldn't stop now. I could just change back into human and nobody would recognize me, but they knew what Five looked like.

Thankfully after only a couple more minutes of running, I tracked her scent near an abandoned warehouse next to train tracks. I slowed down and we peeked our heads over a piece of cement, only to see Lila grabbing a metal pipe and shoving into a door's window, shattering it and opening the door from the inside and entering the building.

Five got off of my back, and I shifted back into human. Five jogged across the gravel with his back hunched, and I did the same. We jumped up the curb and peeked through the window, we didn't see anything and he didn't hear anything. But I did.

"She's running down the hall." I said in a hushed tone.

Five grabbed my hand and blinked us inside, behind Lila.

I didn't realize how tired I was until now. I felt dizzy, out of breath and was sweating like crazy. Adrenaline was keeping me going. Running for 20 minutes straight in Dallas with black fur was not a good idea. But I had to push through.

"What's your game now, crazy lady?" Five called out to her.

She turned around and looked at the both of us. "Your little girlfriend isn't looking too good. Besides, you said if you saw me again, you'd kill me."

Five thankfully didn't pay attention to her first sentence.

"Oh, I remember." He sarcastically grinned.

"Well, come on, big talkers. Let's get this done."

"All right."

I bared my fist ready. And then in a split second Five blinked behind her and tried to foot sweep her, but she roundhouse kicked his face, knocking him to the ground. When she turned around I punched for her face, but she dogged it and kicked my shins, making me fall to the ground. Lila started laughing and running away. Five wiped the blood from his mouth and got up and started running after her.

I stood up in a rush right after him, but stood up so quickly that I started feeling light headed. I stumbled around for a second and watched Five run down the hallway, I closed my eyes for a few seconds and stopped the dizziness. I opened my eyes and everything was back to normal, besides the heat flushes I was getting. I couldn't see them anymore, but I heard them running down a hallway, fast.

"Great, more running." I said to myself.

I took off down the hallway and made a right, to see Five kicking her chest, separating them. Lila cartwheeled over a table only to come face to face with me.

"Miss me, Dora?"

I roundhouse kicked her back, in revenge for Five. She recovered quickly and grabbed my leg, and I got out of her grasp. She landed a good punch to my temple and knocked me back. And then a kick to my stomach.