My Name Is Talise Knowels, This Is My Story.

Chapter 1: My alley

Chapter 1:

My Alley

We came onto my alley, nobody lives here but me. The alley is just made of tall brick houses of long ago that have been boarded up with metal and wood making it impossible to get inside, and believe me I tried. My house is not really a house, just three large steps leading up to a boarded up door. The door is huge though, so the steps were pretty big too, big enough to sleep on. Everything was still there; my knapsack and my campfire. Nobody ever steals from each other in the alleys, that too is like a sin. Remy did not look impressed at my house, nor did he look repulsed, he just shrugged, set down his own bag and sat on the second step.

“Cosy” he acknowledged. “You can see who’s coming from a mile away”

“That’s why I like it” I said as I sat down next to him. “I can defend myself if I hear or see anyone lurking around”

“So, you sleep on the top step?” he assumed stretching his arms and yawning.

“Yeah, you can sleep on the second step” I replied

“And the fire is on the third?” he asked warily eyeing the fire.

“We can move it to the floor if you like, so you don’t burn yourself when you’re asleep.”

 He nodded.

“Look, I know that you don’t really want me around, but I needed a place to stay and since you’re a girl you needed someone to look after you while these meurtriers are lurking about”

 I huffed.

“But the way I see it, fate might have dealt us winning cards, if we play them together.” He took my hand in his and gazed into my eyes, I looked at my hand in his and then at him suspiciously. He took his free hand and caressed my cheek with it. Panic started to rise up in me; we had only known each other for 1 hour! And he was already hitting on me! I was just about to yank my hands away from his when I felt a slight sensation the back of my neck where Remy’s hand had worked its way around, it felt like my necklace coming undone; and then there was a slight chink of metal. That’s when I twigged on.

The Trick!

“Nice try hotshot” I said as I wrenched my hands from his and clasped my necklace in my hands before he could pull it away from behind my neck. He smiled in defeat.

“Told you I’d show you the trick of how to get it off a woman’s neck” he grinned and leaned back.

“Thank goodness it was just a trick, you had me worried” I replied as I put the necklace back on. He chuckled.

“Nah, too early days yet belle.”

“Early days!?” I asked shocked. He laughed at my expression.

“So what do you do for fun around here?” he asked, stealthily avoiding the question.

“I normally go to the tavern on Down Street” I shrugged.

“That’s where we’ll go then” he concluded as he jumped up.

“What? You want to go now?” I asked him astonished, new blood were not always welcome in there. Especially not before their initiation. Initiation is a traditional thing we do in the alleys to new blood; if you didn’t grow up here you had to fight the other members of the gang to see if you could defend yourself. Nobody could help you. It was just you, your wits plus your fists. There was normally blood involved. A lot of blood.

 Seeing the slight concern on my face, Remy’s own face lit up with mischievousness. “I don’t know Remy, you haven’t had your initiation yet and it could get a bit messy in there, what with all the boys getting drunk and everything”

“Worried Belle? I didn’t know you cared so much. Maybe I did something with that caress, stole your heart instead of your necklace” he teased. Anger seethed into me. I did not care about Remy! And he definitely did not have my heart! Nobody did for that matter! And nobody had the right to say that it was theirs! I stood up to be somewhat level with him, for he had several inches on me.

“I’m sorry, did you get the impression I cared? You can go into that tavern and get stabbed to death by the lad’s then rot in a sack for all I care! No wait, better yet, they might just let you live. Since everybody knows just being you is punishment enough.” I sneered, shoved past him and walked towards the direction of the tavern.

“Uh belle? You forgetting something?” he called after me. I turned back to look at him, he was holding something long and shiny in his hand. Automatically my hand went up to my chest, my necklace! It wasn’t there! My mouth opened to from an o. How had he taken it without me noticing? Smirking he walked up to me, necklace still in his hand. I snatched off him and gave him a dirty look.

“If looks could kill, I’d be dead 100 times over with you belle” he teased again. I thumped him on his shoulder. Hard.

“How the hell did you get it without me noticing?” I demanded. This was all I had of my so called family; Mr. Ailsbury had found it on me when I was a baby and let me keep it.

“Like a magician never reveals his tricks, a professional thief never reveals his ways.” He concluded, rubbing his shoulder vigorously where I had just hit with a smile. “You punch well for a girl”

“You should have seen me this morning, I nearly broke this guys arm thinking he was the traps” I chuckled.

“Traps?” he asked, not understanding Alley slang.

“Coppers, Police” I told him.

“Ah, right” he nodded and began to walk to the tavern. “Oh and that thing you said about me this morning”

“What thing?” I called to him. Running to catch up. I had said a lot of things about him this morning. Not all nice things.

“Where I couldn’t steal a ladies handkerchief, the easiest thing to steal. Well, I can, and a lot more too” he said turning around and throwing me an object before turning around again and continuing to walk. I caught it and looked at it. It was my pocket knife! I had this close to me at all times! How did he get it? Silently cursing to myself and tucking the knife into my pocket, I ran to catch him up.

 You had to admit, he was good at what he did.