Subject 12

Chapter 2

I ran through a forest and dodged trees as they jumped up in the middle of my path. Clouds covered the night sky and obliterated any light source that tried to help me see my way through the tall pine trees. My lungs burned as they tried to keep up with my fast pace, but I couldn't stop. They would get me. Four legged figures ran beside me, their howls following behind. There growls and howls echoed through the moonless night sky. One jumped across my path and I stumbled trying to stop myself from running into it. I hit the ground, but sat up quickly. I looked around wildly at their hungry eyes glowing through the trees that surrounded me. They were on a hunt, and I was their prey.

    I held back a scream as I sat up quickly, covered in a layer of sweat. I looked around quickly and started to take deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. Looking around again, I took in my surroundings. Soft early morning sunlight filtered in through the two windows below me in the living room. In my small loft was my makeshift bed, the blue backpack that I stole yesterday lay beside it. I sighed and pushed the palms of my hands into my eyes groaning, trying to push the sleep out of my mind.

    I huffed, deciding to get up and ready for the rest of the day, and dragged the blue backpack over and looked through it for the wallet again. Taking it out, I ignored the money and looked through it, finally found what I wanted and shoved the wallet and soft sweatshirt that I used as a pillow. back into the backpack. I crawled over to the railing and quickly pulled on my socks and shoes. I grabbed my black hoodie and tied it around my waist before grabbing the blue backpack and climbed down.

I pulled my hair out of the braid and tried to run my fingers through the knots as I walked towards the kitchen. Almost everyone was up and standing around, waiting for someone to tell them what to do. The only acknowledgement I got from them was a nod before continuing what they were doing before.

"Sang!"

The deep voice was followed by heavy footsteps. I internally groaned and narrowed my eyes, but didn't turn towards the person. I slowly worked out all the knots in my hair, deliberately ignoring him, and quickly put it back in its braid before turning towards a fuming Caleb Talley. His dull brown eyes glared down at me since he was a head taller than I was and his dark brown hair needed a haircut as it hung in front of his eyes. He wore an old faded red t-shirt with ripped jeans, and a silver chain around his neck.

"You bellowed?"

I heard a few snickers around me, but it soon became quiet again as Caleb swept his glare around the room. My smirk grew as I saw his two goons step up behind him. I leaned a little to the side and nodded at the two of them.

"Hello Markis." I looked to Markis on the left of Caleb, who gave me a small smirk and a nod back, and then turned my gaze to the right side of Caleb. "Duncan."

Duncan just continued to glare at me as my smirk dropped, replaced with a hard glare of my own. Duncan and Markis Johnson were twins, both towered over me and both had black hair. One of the differences between the two was that Duncan had brown almost black eyes and Markis had beautiful light colored amber eyes. The other difference was that I actually like Markis, we were civil with each other, but his brother was a different story, Duncan bullied the smaller kids here and both him and I had a mutual hatred for eachother. Duncan also followed Caleb around like a lost dog.

I looked back at Caleb as he starred at the backpack on my back.

"Whatcha got there Sang?"

I took a step back from him and crossed my arms over my chest as his smirk grew into a grin.

"Nothing that i'm going to give to you Talley."

Caleb's smiled dropped and his eyes blazed with anger. He absolutely hated when I used his last name. He took a step towards me, his fists clenched.

"Give me the bag. Now."

Caleb growled out the words. I took another step back, taking the bag off my shoulders and dropped the bag on to the ground next to a boy. My hands hung by my sides, ready for the fight that was coming my way.

"No."

He walked forward and tried to push past me, but I kicked my foot up and hit him between the legs. He dropped to his knees, his hands in between his legs, and I grabbed the back of his head and brought my knee up to meet his face. He yelled out and dropped to the floor, one hand clutching his jewels and another trying to stop the blood coming out of his broken nose.

I heard footsteps quickly advancing towards me, but I didn't have time to block before Duncan's fist hit the left side of my jaw. My head whipped to the right and I hit the ground. Recovering quickly, I kicked my foot out and hit Duncan hard in his left knee. He dropped and hit his head hard on the ground, quickly going  unconscious. Focusing on Duncan, I didn't hear Caleb get up.

"Sang watch out!"

Marcus's voice called out, sounding panicked. I tried to dodge, but wasn't able to move out of the way quickly enough. The knife swiped across my stomach and side, and although I couldn't see the cut the knife had made through my shirt, but with how much blood instantly started to coat my t-shirt, I knew it probably needed stitches. I grunted in pain and jumped away from Caleb, he smiled maliciously at me. Caleb swiped again at me and I managed to dodge out of the way in time. Before Caleb could swipe at me again, I grabbed the blue backpack and high tailed it out the door.

****

I stopped running when I thought I was at a safe enough distance from the apartment building and Caleb. I leaned up against a wall in a deserted alley and dropped the backpack to the ground. Lifting up the bottom part of my shirt that was covered in blood, I sucked in a breath. A long deep slash ran across my side and ended a couple inches above my belly button. It wasn't bleeding very heavily, which was probably the only good thing about it. I quickly zipped open the bag and dug through it, trying to find something to help. I pulled out the soft sweatshirt from I used earlier and I sighed, this would have to do for now.

I found a pair of scissors and cut a long piece off the sweatshirt before throwing back into the bag. I grabbed a bottom part of the shirt that didn't have blood on it and bit it so I could work with both hands and keep the shirt out of my way. I quickly wrapped the cut sweatshirt material around my stomach, on top of the wound, and pulled it tighter around me before tying it. Tears pricked my eyes at the sharp pain, but I ignored it and let the shirt drop before putting the hoodie on to make sure no one saw the blood on the shirt. I grabbed the paper with the address of it and zipped up the bag. Picking up the bag to put on my shoulders, I grunted as a sharp pain ran up my body, starting from the wound.

I walked slowly, trying not to move my side to much because every time I did, it caused a sharp pain to run through my body. I looked down at the address again and then at a nearby street sign and almost shouted out in joy. I was finally on the street! I moved quickly, forgetting the pain in my side as it had started to grow numb a while ago, and turned down the street looking for the right house. The houses on this street looked almost exactly the same, except for the different lawn ornaments each house had.

"240, No.....238, No.....236, No..." I mumbled looking from house number to house number. "Yes! 218!"

My grin grew as I slowly ascended the steps and dropped the blue backpack off at it's rightful owners address. I quickly descended the steps and made my way back down the street again, sighing happily now that I had finally returned the stolen bag. I looked around at the houses and the picket white fences and thought about what it'd be like to live like that and how those people didn't know how lucky they actually were. I began to get light headed as a warm liquid started to go down my stomach and through my hoodie. I stopped walking and softly touched my black hoodie in confusion and brought my hand up to look at. It was covered in blood. I heard someone calling out at me, but I couldn't focus as everything blurred together, colors shapes, and then black dots started to fill my vision. I heard myself hit the ground and then there was nothing. 

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Dun Dun Dun! What do you thinks going to happen next!? Thank you all for the amazing feedback! I'll try my best to update regularly.

                                      ~M