Tyrant (Lazaretto Sequel)

fourteen

April 26, 2094

LAUREN

Following the girl along the sidewalk, she had her arms crossed over her chest with each step leaving a trail of fire behind her from the amount anger she harvested. Every so often she would mumble something, but I pretended I couldn't hear her. Cars and taxis sped by, but she didn't attempt to stop any for help. She just kept walking. 

By the time she had sped-walked about two blocks, I ran to catch up to her and grabbed her shoulder.

"What?" she asked harshly as she turned around to face me. Her eyes were blood shot from where she had been crying, her breathing labored from having practically sprinted the city streets. Her ochre eyes had turned dark out of rage.

"You're going the wrong way," I returned coldly. Her shoulders slumped, and I could have sworn I felt her heart break.

"That's the first thing you're going to say to me? You didn't think that maybe 'sorry' would have been better? Or 'I'm sorry that I'm making your life miserable?' None of those came to mind first?"

I stared at her momentarily as she looked at me expectantly. My hands started to tingle, and I knew my tough-guy façade was starting to crumble. I had to make this quick. "You're going the wrong way. Let's go."

She raked her fingers through her hair and averted her eyes to the street for a few seconds. I watched as they widened in sudden horror.

"Look! It's Val!" she yelled as she pointed behind me.

Quickly turning towards the street, my heart rate picked up speed. I scanned the area in search of my sister, but I didn't see her anywhere. Turning back to the girl to see her nowhere in sight, she had certainly tricked me with the oldest in the book, and I fell for it. Idiot, I cursed myself. 

I heard a fence rattling nearby and turned my head down the alleyway to see her climbing it with ease. I took off running and was there before she could take another step, reaching up and grabbing her around the waist as she began to try and kick me off. Gripping harder and pulling her off of the chain links, the girl fell into my chest.

"Let me go!" she said as she writhed in my hold. I did as she asked and released my grip on her, causing her to land on the concrete with a hard thud.

"Don't do that again," I warned as she stood up once more.

"I didn't think you'd actually fall for it. It's like you're scared of her, too." She kept her head down as she brushed the dirt off of her clothes. I didn't answer her because I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being right. So instead, I reached out and grabbed her arm and started pulling her the way we came. Once again, she jerked out of my grasp but continued to walk. She scoffed as she shook her head.

"Should I at least hail us a cab?" she asked when we made it back out on to the street.

"No."

"We're going to walk all the way back to Boston?" She stopped walking, and I huffed in annoyance as I turned around to see her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

"Yes. Think of it this way, 5001." I internally cringed at the use of her number, but I kept my voice strong. "I'm prolonging your life."

"You're unbelievable." She wiped away a tear as she purposefully knocked her shoulder against me as she walked past, and I bowed my head and mentally cursed myself for being so harsh. 

Turning to follow her as the silence quickly grew thick, I looked over at her to see her facing forward not paying any attention to me. She was rubbing her arms to keep warm from the cool wind, and It was then that I realized I didn't bring a jacket.