A Touch Of Magic

Chapter Three: Dark Backstreets

Dark Backstreets

 A rush of students ran from the school grounds. They gathered with their friends or grabbed their bikes and zoomed away, however one student didn’t. She was staring at a slip of paper, as she slowly walked.

   Aimée looked up and at the street signs wondering where to go. Emma had given her a slip of paper right before slapping on her skates and rocketing off. “Here is the way to the pub, The Drowning Rat, next to my address. I need to get some spare parts for the tractor so I’ll meet you there later.” Then she was gone, leaving Aimée alone as she desperately tried to find her way around the still very new town.

An hour later, Aimée had taken many twists and turns but still hadn’t found the right street and she was beginning to get freaked out as the sun unexpectedly slipped beneath the horizon. It felt like someone was watching her and with the sun gone, Aimée was beginning to be startled by all the little sounds.

Two men suddenly stepped out from a dark alleyway in front of Aimée and blocked her path.

“Are you lost sweetheart?” one asked.

“We’d better make sure nothing bad happens to you,” said the other, emphasizing the word bad darkly.

Like the smiles plastered on their faces, the tone of their voices was harsh and unsympathetic. The first guy was as thin as a twig with a dirty goatee and stringy hair that was pull back in a short ponytail, his twitchy grey eyes that hungrily looked Aimée up and down gave her a bad chill up her spine. The other was almost the resemblance of the Budda, the only difference he didn’t have the nice jolly look but instead an insanely cruel face. Aimée knew just by the looks of them they were really bad news and that left her terrified.

“N-No thank you,” she said, her voice trembling. “I-I’m fine.” Aimée turned to walk away, but only to find a cloth covering her mouth and nose, and a chubby arm wrapping over torso.  Squealing in fear, Aimée struggled to break free and screamed constantly for help. But the cloth muffled her voice, and Aimée smelled something strange. Rapidly Aimée found her arms and legs weren’t listening to her brain and felt so tired, her struggles decreased shortly before she fell unconscious in the obese man’s arms. With dark smirks, the two men dragged her into the alley and dumped her in the backseat of their beaten up car. Taking their seats in the front, the thin guy started the car and hastily headed to base.

But unknown to them another was watching, one who had been following Aimée from school. The mysterious prowler was Alice Treeroot.

Treeroot had witnessed Aimée’s kidnapping and sprung into action the moment they took off. The forest had taught her more than anyone knew; how could they, when she stayed on the rooftops around school. Racing after Aimée’s kidnappers she used lampposts, power lines, trees and other car roofs to keep up. The chase went on for a kilometre, but Treeroot never faltered and kept the same distance all the way.

“Nothing's going to happen to you,” she whispered determinedly. “I promise.”

*    *    *    *

Groggily moaning awake, Aimée opened her heavy eyelids and found herself in a shadowy room. Blinking rapidly to remove the sleep in her tired eyes and allowing them to adjust to the darkness, her heart skipped several beats at the sight before her.

Six men, looking like stereotypical thugs in their mid-twenties to early thirties, were standing around her, brandishing their switchblades and sharpened wood stakes. Noticing she had woken they all looked at her and smiled, like foxes at a trapped lamb.

Finally aware of her surroundings, Aimee found out why. She was tied to a chair with her hands and legs bound tightly behind her back; there was no way she could get out by herself. A piece of tape was stretched over her mouth, keeping her from screaming for help once more.