Run [Stereo Kicks/ James Graham]

Chapter 15

Although I had fallen asleep for a while, I was now dozing against James, music still playing in my ear so I couldn't hear the background of the motorway but wasn't making it too loud to sleep with.
"We've got another hour on the road, lads, settle down." I heard Tom scolding them as I slipped in and out of dreams. Just then, there was a smash, and I jolted upright, as sharp flecks rained down on me. "Really?!" James was just stirring so I sshed him gently, glaring at them all to be silent until he fell asleep again. We pulled over, as one of the windows had been smashed into fine splinters, which had then covered us and the car.
"Why the actual hell is one of the windows broken?" I hissed at the boys, seeing them looking sheepish, apart from Casey, Jake and Tom, the former two still with duct tape around them.
"Someone's on her period." Someone muttered and everything fell silent as I trailed my eyes slowly to Chris. "Sorry?"
"For your information, I actually believe myself to be infertile because of the fact I spent three years living my life in the slums of London, sometimes living off food that cheap restaurants and cafés deemed inedible and threw out. I spent that time with little water, no sanitation and I can remember the occasions on which I took a shower."
"I'm sorry." Chris lowered his eyes, not looking at me.
"Back to the point, why is the window broken?" I looked around the potential culprits.
"We didn't mean to, we were just messing around and must have knocked it hard or something." Barclay apologised.
"Heavy security glass? Really? The only way that could have broken is if..." Suddenly, I trailed off, falling as silent as the rest of them.
"If someone tampered with it?" James suggested from where he'd woken up behind me.
********************
Minutes later, I had taken the entire of the bottom of the window out and was examining the car. "It's the window regulator." I pointed to the gears. "Because it's an electric window, an electric motor is used to move the gears to get the window to go up and down, whereas if it were manual, the movement would cause the worm gear to go around and-"
"Amelia." Reece cut me off gently.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Grinning, I clicked the gears around. "Basically, one gear is too big, and I can tell it was very recent because of the ease of getting the panel off. The glass would've bent."
"And then the slightest force shatter it?" Charlie asked, and I nodded.
"How'd you know that much about cars anyway?" James asked as we sat down at the side of the road, waiting for another car to arrive incase there were more complications with the one we were using.
"Guess." My voice came out as a bitter murmur, earning myself sympathetic glances. Jake sat on my lap, hugging me, as he was unable to express verbal support. "Thanks."
"Well... Did you get any good rides?" Reece nudged me with his shoulder, making us all laugh, as I shook my head, a smile back on my face.
"Shame that." Tom scratched his beard thoughtfully, or what he called a beard from where he'd been forced to shave it for a photoshoot - I probably had more of a beard. "Personally, a good Ferrari."
"And the police on that?" I raised an eyebrow.
"What's the best you landed?" Chris translated Casey's babble.
"Are you seriously going to ask me about the cars I stole?" Casey shrugged at me as I shook my head disbelievingly. "For the sake that I'd get thrown in jail for everything I've done, none. No cars at all."
"And?" Charlie inquired casually, kicking at the dirt on the floor.
"Skoda Octavia, probably." Their laughter filled my ears.
'So you can drive?' Jake texted me.
"No, I carried the cars to the dealers." I told him sarcastically. "On my bare back and all."
"Tell us more." James demanded (but not harshly) as we leaned back against the bank. The car and other people were a good hundred feet down the road so I accepted, as they couldn't overhear.
"I once stole a cat." Sadly, I picked at the grass. "Beautiful creature, too. There was this guy who'd-"
"What?" They all echoed, minus Reece who already knew.
"Not like that. I was never desperate enough for prostitution. Well, I was that desperate but I starved until Leo found me and saved my life. I'd never..." A shudder ran down my spine. "No, there was this guy who'd trade with me."
"You found a random dude who'd trade?" Barclay asked, looking over at me from the sky, which we were all watching. It was quite pretty actually, with a rainbow arching over us.
"No, when I was... Like, kidnapped, the man who'd took me dropped me off at his doorstep. You know, he might have taken me, but if he hadn't done that, I would be dead by now."
"Or he could've stayed away from you in the first place." Reece commented lightly, but I could sense the underlying threat.
"How'd you even get kidnapped in the first place?" Charlie murmured quietly.
"Erm. I'd gone out to get a book from the car, which was parked on the opposite side of the street. He told me not to move or I'd die, etc. Then told me to meet him there at seven o'clock or he'd k-kill Reece."
"It's okay, he ain't gonna get you or me." Reece wrapped his arms around me comfortingly, and I closed my eyes, calming myself down and assuring that he was alive and well.
"This cat?" Tom broke the tension.
"Oh, he asked me to bring a cat so I could have some food and water. Pointless actually, because Leo turned up with a huge box, dumped it on me and left before I could repay him. Apparently, he'd heard that crime had risen, which was obviously me and probably a few more homeless people, I met a few in my time." I shrugged, picking idly at the grass beneath me.
"When'd you meet Leo?" Chris asked me.
"About three days after I was taken. Obviously, I was too young and naive to know what to do after being dumped in freezing cold London and just crawled into an alley to die as soon as I possibly could." Noticing the tears in Reece's eyes as I said this, I curled into his side comfortingly before continuing. "No shelter against the weather or disease, no food, no water, no sanitation. He found me and poured some water down my throat and forced food down my neck and gave me his jacket which he then grew out of."
"That's just... Depressing." Casey tore a bit of tape so he could talk.
"It's the reality of what happened to everyone there." I muttered, eyes glazing over in memory of one of the few things I hadn't told Reece.
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(Flashback)
It was freezing cold, but the ice had just started to thaw and I shivered, pulling the threadbare jacket tighter around myself as I moved from restaurant to restaurant, seeing if there was any edible food I could scavenge. So far, I had found nothing, but carried on searching as I didn't have a lot left.
Some birds were squawking in an alley, so I curiously ventured down, seeing one fly down from the roofs to behind a skip. Knowing it was potentially of interest, I walked over to where they were, just as my foot nudged something.
A hand was laying on the ground and I stifled a scream, looking up in horror to see the corpse with a few birds on it. She was still clearly identifiable as a human who had recently died from cold, starvation or disease and I gagged at the hideous smell that suddenly overpowered me. I'd kicked her hand, and tears rose in my eyes. That could have been me laying there.
Horrified, I ran from the alley, abandoning all thoughts of finding something to eat and sprinting straight back to my hideout, tears falling steadily down my young, dirty and hard-worn face.
**********End of Flashback**********
"You sound like you're remembering something." Charlie murmured.
"I am."
"What is it?"
"Something to terrible to recount to any of you." I said briskly, standing up and brushing my jeans off. "I think the new car's here."
"It can't be that bad." Barclay prodded.
"The world's more terrible than you realise."
"Leave her alone." Reece muttered, wrapping his arm loosely around me. They understood the protective threat and fell silent as we walked to the new car.
"This one's been checked for faultiness, lads, lass." An old-ish man chimed as he opened the door for us. "I'll hope this ride goes smoother for you."
"Thank you." We chorused as we filed past him into the minibus, taking our respective seats.
"I don't think any of us are tired anymore." Tom declared as Jake, Casey, him and Barclay turned around to face us so we were sitting in an almost circle. "So we can do a variety of things to pass the time."
"Not tired, are we?" I drawled, yawning and stretching exaggeratedly before dramatically flopping over into Reece's lap, snoring as loud as I could. Soon enough, I started to cough, getting a responsive laugh. "Very funny. What do you propose we do, Mr. Mann?"
"Never Have I Ever." Tom settled.
"I'll start!" Casey volunteered. "Never have I ever been to Asia." Chris and Tom put down a finger.
"Sssssdddd!" Jake whined at the duct tape. Smirking, I pulled my pocket knife out of my pocket and carefully slit the tape, before ripping it off. He let out an agonised yell and I giggled as I sat down.
"Hand that over." Tom held his hand out for the knife.
"Excuse me? It's mine." I rose an eyebrow. To be precise, it was mine with emotional value and I wasn't going to give it up without a decent fight.
"And it's illegal for you to carry it." James put in quietly.
"Since when have I done anything legal?" Rolling my eyes, I heightened my senses to spring if they tried to take it from me by force.
"You can have it at home, but not out, Amelia. C'mon, it's not a big deal." Reece gently persuaded me, knowing I was about to brutally murder the others.
"I'd like to see you try to take it." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I..." Suddenly, guilt washed over me as Reece lowered his eyes, turning away from me. "Fine, keep it."
"Sorry..." My whisper was inaudible as an awkward silence fell.
"Just give it to one of them." Charlie murmured.
"I don't want to." Shrugging sheepishly at him, I lowered my head to the ground, watching the car floor as we continued down the motorway.
The next second, arms were grabbing me, wrestling me into a submissive position as a hand snaked inside my pocket. A piercing scream left my throat as I reacted violently, lashing out with inhuman force and breaking their hold, automatically doing a flying leap out of the window and rolling across the ground so I didn't injure myself. "Think I'll go back in a bit, boys." I whispered, sprinting away.