Verbena

Chapter 1

  I can feel my heart pounding throughout my entire body as I run as fast as my short legs will carry me. I can hear their footsteps not far behind me. I take a look ahead and see a small alley way and make a sharp turn down it. As soon as I turn, I immediately regret my decision as I see it's a dead end. The fence at the end of the alley isn't that tall, so I speed up even more than I thought was possible for me, in fact I'd say it was a new personal record. The fence was probably ten feet tall and right before I hit it I jump as high as I can and within seconds I'm at the top of the fence. I look down for a split second to see the two guys starting to climb the fence, then jump back to the ground on the opposite side. I turn to run and I immediately recognize the neighborhood I'm in. I'm not far from home, just a few blocks away. The quickest way would be to run straight but then once those men get over the fence they could easily spot me from a distance, so I take a detour that twist and turns. I don't stop running until I'm home, which is just an abandoned storage building. I live here with 4 other kids. We're all either run-aways, no parents and refused to go into the foster care system, or are on the run.

   "Bena! Is that you?!" I hear Darco yell worriedly from the other room. "Yeah, it's me." I respond out of breath. "Where the hell have you been? It's 2 in the morning!" Darco yells at me. Darco is the oldest of the five of us, He's about 6'4, is 17,  has really tan skin, skinny, long black hair, bright blue eyes that are as cold as ice, tattoos running up and down his body, with a few piercings here and there. Darco is basically out leader, even though we claimed we didn't have one. "I got in a bit of a bind." I replied. I walk to my part of our "house" and sat on my small bed and look into a mirror I have leaned against the wall. In the mirror I can see that Darco followed me. "What kind of a bind?" he asks. I look down at the ground and didn't answer "It was them again, wasn't it" he asked. I just simply nodded and looked up to see his eyes full of anger.  "I'm gonna kill them" he said and them stormed off. Darco is super protective over all of us. He's like our big brother. He'll kick anyone's ass if they'd try to hurt us.

    I think the reason of why he's so upset is because he couldn't protect me from them the first time. About two years ago, right after I had run away, the same guys were following me around; I didn't really think anything about it. As I was walking around trying to find a place to sleep for the night, they continued to follow me, which is when I really started panicking. I quickened my pace, but so did they. I broke out into a run and they went after me. I was pretty far ahead until I tripped. They easily caught up to me after that. The more muscular one kicked me in the ribs as I tried to get up, then the skinnier one punched me right in the jaw. They continued going back and forth for what seemed like hours. Finally when I was barely conscious one of them lifted me up, and started to carry me somewhere. My entire body was filled with excruciating pain. I could tell multiple bones were broken. Right before I passed out I heard a gunshot, then I felt my body hit the ground. I don't remember anything after that.

   When I woke up I was in the storage building I now live in today. I wasn't sure what happened, how I had gotten there or how I had gotten there, but the one thing I did know was that I needed to get out. I tried to sit up but an immense amount of pain ran through my body. I could tell a few of my ribs were broken for sure, and who knows what else. "You're finally up" I heard a deep voice say. Instinctively I tried to move in the opposite direction it came from, but of course it didn't work. I just caused myself more pain. "Calm down will you." Said the voice again. I looked around until I found the owner of the voice. "I'm Darco, what's your name?" I was too petrified to talk. He laughed to himself and said under his breath. "It's not like anyone around here uses their real name anyway" he looked at me and said "Mind if I call you Verbena? It's just a type of purple flower." I realized he was referring to my bright purple hair that probably needed to be re-dyed. I haven't looked in a mirror or seen any king of reflection of me in over a week, so I can't even imagine how bad I look, a 14 year old with bright purple hair, that's probably a wreck right now, cuts and bruises covering my unshowered body, which is so skinny, it's getting to the point to where if I lifted up my shirt you could probably see each individual rib and which ones were broken. I haven't eaten or showered in a while. "You never answered me" Darco said. "Huh?' I say confused. "Do you mind me calling you Verbena? Bena for short?" he said. "Oh, um, I guess not" I said my voice shaking with fear. "How did I get here?" I asked slightly more confident. "I was walking around and I say those two guys beating the shit outta you so I shot my pistol in that direction, not to actually shoot them, just to scare them off. And when I saw how injured you were I brought you back here to fix you up" He said. "Do you live here alone?" I asked him. "No, Me and my little brother, Fang. Our parents died when he was 6 and I was 11 and there was no way in hell that I was gonna allow us to be put into the foster system and have the chance of being spit apart , we've been living her since. A few others have come and gone but right now it's only us. You're welcome to stay awhile if you'd like, Fang loves company, and I wouldn't mind any either. He's 10 and I'm 15 now, what about you?" he says. "14, where is Fang anyway?" I ask, "Sleeping. He loves meeting new people, he stayed up just about all night hoping you'd wake up so he could talk to you" he says with a chuckle. Soon after that Fang woke up and I talked to him for the longest time and I decided that I actually did want to stay there. Darco was right; people did come and go, except me. It's been over two years since that day and those men still come after me, but now I've gotten a lot faster and a lot stronger. I still have my purple hair to because it fits me and also it goes with my name. To this day Darco and Fang still call me Verbena, or Bena. In all honesty I don't think they even know my actual name. I'm 16 now and besides my hair I've changed a lot. I'm no longer as skinny, I actually look like I eat now, I myself have a few tattoos and piercing, and my eyes are still the same boring brown. My hair now goes to about mid waist, I have pale skin, and if you saw me on the street you'd probably just think I was just another teenage girl, if only that was the case.

   There's me, Darco, Fang, and then there's Phoenix and Kitten. None of us go by our real name. Usually when we show up Darco gives us a nickname. I'm not sure how Darco and Fang got theirs, and I'm not sure what their real names are either. Phoenix is called that because of her naturally red hair, and Kitten got her name because of her curiosity and she's reckless. At first she hated it but she got used to it overtime, because once Darco gives you a nickname, that's your name.  Our storage building is basically a home for misfits like us. Kitten is on the run from the cops for countless things, so a few months ago we let her crash here for the night and to our surprise she actually came back the next day and has stayed here since. Phoenix is a runaway like me, and then Fang and Darco lost their parents. We're all in out teens except for Fang, who is 12.Pheonix is 14, me and Kitten are 16, then Darco's 17. A lot more people have come through but usually this is just a temporary home until they can find a place better or need to be on the move again. Sometimes they stay for one night, sometimes a few weeks' maybe months, or in mine, Darco's, and fang's case, this is our home.