Chasing the Streets

Chapter 2

I woke up in my bedroom. The walls were pink. My mom had picked out the color. She always got me pink things and skirts. She wanted me to be girly. I went with it. I didn't care, I liked girly things. I was a girly-girl, nothing wrong with that. But now that I think about it, some part of me wants to rip the walls apart and scream at my mom. Why? There's nothing wrong with pink. Pink is too girly. What's wrong with being girly? Everything. Everything is wrong about it. The skirts, the dresses. The pink. Get over yourself. I'm kind of you, so that's impossible, knucklehead. What?

"Shhhh, she's awake." I sat up and realized there were other people in the room. There were two men in black suits. They looked like officials of some sort. My mom and dad were standing with them. They got more! They're gonna give them to me again! Danger! Stay away from the feds! I backed up into the wall and began to breathe heavily. My mom and dad backed up into the wall too, but the men stood up and walked towards me.

"It's ok, Emily. We won't hurt you." They said it in soothing tones. They both smiled and reached their hands out towards me. I reached mine out slowly. Lies! I quickly pulled my hand back and watched them warily. They looked at me, concerned. They nodded towards the door and a couple of men wearing scrubs walked in with a syringe and a couple of pills. No! They're going to drug me! Dirty pills! I began to hyperventilate. The doctors reached my bed and reached towards me with the syringe. I leaped up and knocked it out of their hand. "NO!" I screamed. The men in suits tried to keep me down, but I wouldn't stay down. I kicked one in the head, making his nose bleed. That's for what you did to me last time. I grabbed the other one's arm before he could land a punch and threw him over my shoulder and into the doctors. That's for drugging me with your dirty pills, you pedophile. I jumped off the bed and gave my parents dirty looks. They cowered in the corner.

I ran up and grabbed my dad's collar, holding him up in the air and shaking him. "What are you trying to do to me?! Why are you doing this to me!" I glared at him. He just stared at me. I growled and shook him harder. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. my mother began to cry and she grabbed my arm. "Stop it, don't do this to us! We don't want this!" I shook her onto the ground, but she grabbed my leg, pleading with me to stop. The men in suits had gotten back on their feet. I dropped my dad and spun around, shaking my mom off.

"WANT A PIECE OF ME?!" I yelled. They glared at me. One pulled out a gun while the other got his fists ready for a fight. How amusing. I don't want to hurt anyone. It's a bit late for that, sweetheart. Years too late. I jumped onto the back of one of them and led him to the one with the gun, knocking their heads together. The doctors ran out, terrified. I grabbed the gun and aimed at the unconsious men. My parents sat in the corner, holding each other and crying. I looked at them. My arm lowered. They were hurt, I hurt them. They deserved it. They never undertood me anyway. They loved me. Why do you think that? They got me dresses, skirts, a room. Why do you think you only got girly things? I paused.It was true, I had never gotten a single pair of pants in my life. I hadn't had anything to do with guys either, my parents paid a lot of money for me to go to an all girls school.

I raised the gun, except this time, I aimed at my parents feet. They began sobbing even louder. "We thought you had changed, what happened to the Emily we used to know?" My mother cried. I grimaced and raised the gun higher. What do you mean 'used to know'? I've always been this way! I glared at them. "You changed me." I sounded like a maniac, but I didn't care. My alternate self was influencing me. I couldn't help it. "What did you do to me." I grumbled. I almost didn't sound human. They looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. Neither one of them spoke. "It didn't help. She hasn't changed a bit." my father said. He choked back tears as he stood. I put both hands on the gun and he stopped. "Explain." I demanded.

"We used to live in Seatlle. It was nice, your mother and I met on the pier there. We married and then had a baby girl, you. We raised you in the right way, got you dresses, taught you how to be nice, made you the perfect little girl. And then, you went to school. I don't know if it was because you were small or because you were a girl, but some of the boys were bullying you. Pretty soon, you were coming home with bruises on your face. We got scared. We were almost going to pull you out of school, when one day you came home with no new wounds. That continued for awhile and then we came to visit, and found that you had started changing into pants when you got to school. You were hanging out only with boys and you had your own little gang. It was unnerving. We kept you there and in middle school, you became part of a real gang. We were so scared, we didn't know what to do, so in high school, when it got the worst it had ever been, we called the government. It turns out that they were researching a new way of getting delinquints to stop at a young age. They gave us pills and told us to give them to you every month."

I looked at them in disbelief. "So, those pills you gave me in the morning, those weren't vitamins?" I asked. My dad just looked at me with a sad look. I backed up towards the door. "You did change me. I was right." I said. He walked towards me, but I pointed the gun at him. "I'm going back to Seattle. Don't follow me, don't tell anyone I'm going there. I don't want to be your doll." I slammed the door and ran out into the kitchen, grabbing my backpack and packing as much food as I could. I grabbed a knife and some blankets and went out the front door.