ON OUR WAY TO HEAVEN

5

Elsa

Jumping out of a window with a possibly infected wound and a bullet buried in my stomach wasn't a very smart course of action. I would have asked to use the front door like a normal human being but even the heavens knew I wasn't even close to being normal. I was a wanted half dead criminal. Of course I was anything but normal. But still, it was very dumb to have jumped from a window. As I trod in the dark with a paralyzing pain searing from my side down to my left leg and with each step I took, my mind gave me a thousand reasons why I should just give up and sit and wait for the police to find me. The map I had checked earlier on Kelly's phone (I got her name from the trophy on the lock screen) showed that I was half way across town with over 4 miles between me and home. Most of the streetlights were not working. I stumbled a lot in the dark and with each fall I broke, I felt myself get closer to passing out from pain. I didn't even know if I was going in the right direction. I just kept walking, and falling and walking and falling again. I was about to finally give up when I came up on the main road. The streets were still a bit busy. I finally knew where I was but still, I was far from the terminal where I would get a bus home. I had to take a taxi. I felt my pockets and that was when I found out that my wallet and my phone was gone.

Cashless, phone less, and injured wasn't actually a pretty combo. I had no option but to do the next thing I did. I was not about to use my legs anymore than I already had. For the next action, I had to be very vigilant and careful. I peered down the two sides of the street to make sure there was no cops around. Then, I checked again to make sure the street wasn't crowded anymore. With that done and confirmed, I now had to find a prey and just after a few minutes of standing, I found one. He looked like a clergyman with his ridiculously huge suit and glasses that was way too big for his face. I looked around to see if I would find someone else but the streets were getting scanty by the second. He had to do. He was coming right towards me, muttering somethings to himself. I started walking towards him too, briefly looking at the mirror of a packed car and confirming that I looked shitty enough. As soon as he got close enough to me, I fell to my knees and started wailing or atleast pretending to wail. And of course he stopped and bent to my eye level.

"Oh what's wrong dear?" He asked placing a hand on my shoulder. He smelt strongly of cigarettes and bleach.

"Oh God! What am I going to do now? Please help me good sir" I said still crying as convincingly as I could.

"What happened dear? Why are you crying?" The man said trying to lift me to my feet. He accidentally touched my injured area and I felt all the air in my lungs knocked out. I gasped. "You look so pale child, are you alright?"

"It's my mother, kind sir. She is very sick. I went to buy medicines but I was a dollar short" I said still trying to work through the pain. "I don't want to lose my mother. Please help me kind sir"

Normally whenever I pulled this kind of stunt, the victim of my trickery often would offer me a dollar or more or few times, less. Not in this life was I prepared for the next thing the weirdly dressed man said.

"Then heavens be praised child. I am actually a physician. I can help your mother" the man said grinning, exposing a dentition horribly stained by tobacco. "You just have to take me home with you"

Like I said, I wasn't prepared for his reply so I was knocked speechless and confused for a second.

"Oh heavens be praised indeed" I replied forcing a smile now while trying to figure out how to get myself out of the sticky situation. "I will lead the way"

"Very well child" the strange man replied still smiling.

I began to walk towards the way I had come from earlier while the man trod closely behind me. The streets were empty now with few taxi's driving past us. Few steps later, I stumbled and fell. The man ran to my side, helping me stand up again.