Just One Sip

Chapter 1

"Aunt Cassie could you pass me the milk?" I was late for school, but if I couldn't have breakfast, milk would have to do for now. I quickly poured myself some milk, tossed the carton into the fridge and chugged the glass down.

"Leah slow down! You're gonna choke yourself." Aunt Cassie scolded.

Rolling my eyes, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, placed the cup on the counter, and tossed my bag on my shoulder. Kicking the door open, I ran to the bus stop as fast as I could.

"Great." I muttered, letting out a deep breath.

I skidded to a stop and looked up, considering my choices. The bus had decided to head to school early today. Seeing that the public bus wouldn't be coming anytime soon, my only choice was to run to school. Mrs. Johnson was going to kill me for being late, but I didn't have any other choice. Besides it was about a twenty minute jog, but if I sprinted I could easily arrive in ten.

I was almost there and out of breath. I stopped for a second to wipe the sweat off my brow. The feeling of uneasiness fell over me. Someone was following me. Frowning, I looked around. The sidewalk was strangely empty. Then I looked to the left, also empty. This street was always busy. People pushing each other trying to make it across the street, drivers yelling at each other to get out of the way, and little kids always playing hopscotch on the side of the road, but today... nothing. I stretched a little, prepared to run for a while and that's when I heard it. The sound of heavy footsteps. Not a hint of wanting to hide their identity. Two people dressed entirely in black appeared a few meters behind me. It was hard making out their features because of the thick morning fog, but I could make out that one had a ski mask on while the other didn't even bother with covering his face. He was smiling at me showing off his crooked teeth, and had a murderous gleam in his eyes. He was holding something that looked like a needle. A syringe.

The one in the mask was holding a knife, sneering at me while brandishing his weapon. I could feel the blood pumping in my ears. I took deep breaths to try to calm down but it was no use. I started screaming, but no one was around to hear it. Already out of breath, I tried running again. My foot caught on something that I didn't see, making me tumble to the floor. I bit my lip and steadily stood back on my feet and kept on running, but it was no use. I was out of breath, cold, and exhausted, unlike the two black figures who looked just about ready to eat me alive. My heart pounded against my chest to the point it was painful to breath. In the back of my mind, I knew fighting them off was useless but I took out my swiss army knife out of habit. The sneer on the man holding the knife grew into amusement. He reached for my arm, and forcefully pulled me against him. He smelt of alcohol and the dumpster a few streets down. His touch sent shivers up my spine, and it took everything in me not to vomit. Tired and exhausted, I weakly jabbed at the man's arm with the knife and it worked. He howled in pain, his humor quickly replaced by rage. He backhanded me across the face, making me fall over and drop my knife. My head throbbing, my eyes felt heavy and the next thing I knew I was passing out not knowing what I would awake to.