Mask #Wattys2014

Chapter 1 - Captured

I woke up with a scream. I quickly covered my mouth. Even five years later I still had nightmares about that day, the day my mother abandoned me. The day I became an orphan.

I lived on the streets trying to stay away from those that were chasing me. What for? I had no idea. I had no valuables. Only three shirts and two shorts, a short pair and a long pair. I owned one plain black oversized men’s hoody and a pair of worn and a pair of broken sneakers with loads of holes that stayed with me at all times. The only thing really valuable to me was the locket that my mother gave me two days before she left.

There were two groups of people currently chasing me, both from my old orphanage, I had run away from it. They’re two doofuses, Pete and Bob, they’re easy to avoid, sometimes I beat them up because they got too close. But then the other group worked completely oppositely to Pete and Bob, where Pete and Bob hate each other and are noisy always giving away their position to me; this group were like best friends, so close that they are like brothers, they never fight, they work in stealth and you don’t know they are there until you are literally face to face with them.

Your probably wondering why I don't go back to my old house, the one where I lived with my mother. Trust me when I say I had tried, but the men who are chasing me blew it up, the ones that are like brothers, it happened just as I was leaving it with my bag of few belongings, I was six. It was the scariest thing that had ever happened to me. Even the first night my mum left me alone on the streets wasn't as scary. Unfortunately my life had taken a turn down the horror movie road. My once beautiful dirty blonde hair was dull and had dirt mattered into it, occasionally I would head down to the waterfront for a shower, but it was very occasional so I normally look like crap, but I can have ‘baby’ showers in public bathrooms, where I wash myself using the paper towels out of a sink.

Today I was hiding in an ally way on the other side of town from my now ruined house. I tried to avoid that side of town since the day my house blew up on me. Footsteps echoed down the alley where I was hiding.

"C'mon Pete. I think I saw her go down here," I hoped they'd think that I went down the one which I knew to be a dead end and not the one that lead through to Cain Street. "Which way do you think she went?"

"Probably down that one," I peered out and saw one of them pointing down the dead end one. I smirked to myself and got ready to run again. Unfortunately it didn't go to plan, I tripped over a garbage can, curse my clumsiness! Thankfully they’re only Pete and Bob, from the orphanage, and aren’t as fast as the others. I had easily out run them in a few minutes, but as I rounded the corner I stopped short. A crowd, a massive crowd! I was a wanted person, I couldn't just walk through there! "Urgh! What am I going to do?" I muttered to myself annoyed. "I know," I turned around and as I thought the two goof balls were standing a few meters away from me and coming closer quickly. I pretended to faint and dropped to the ground. Suddenly there was a group of people surrounding me. The goof balls, Pete and Bob were the first to get to me. 'Crap, at least it's only the stupid oafs!' I growled in my head.

"Stand back," Bob commanded. "I need to take her home. C'mon Pete, let’s get her back." I felt myself being lifted off the ground, one of them carrying me gently in their arms. "Where’s the van, Bob?"

"Just around the corner here," There was a pause. "Here we are," I was unexpectedly thrown into the back, quite roughly, I might add. Quite the opposite of how they had just been carrying me.

"Umph!" Dang it! I probably just blew my cover.

"Hey, Pete?! You hear something?"

"No, probably just your imagination again. The last one we bought back according to you grew wings, shrunk and tried to fly out the window."

"Well she did..." He then continued to muttered some rather rude and unpleasant things under his breath, which if I was to tell you here this book would have to be placed in the restricted reading section.

"And again, I’m telling you it was just a fly," Bob argued back.

I breathed a silent sigh and settled my breathing back down to normal. I figured they were taking me back to that god damned orphanage. Why me? I can’t go back there, I’ll never get out again!

I settled back down for the long ride ahead. I might even think of a plan to escape along the way, after all, they are only two idiots. They won’t expect me to fight back.

We soon arrived at our destination. A dark grey three story building with the paint peeling, it looked dingy and sad. I knew that inside the bottom floor consisted of the kitchen, office, one living room and the dining room. The second had several bedrooms and the master bedroom, plus another living room and the bathrooms. The third floor was all bedrooms, and there was also an attic, where we 'played'. We mostly sat in a corner trying not to be noticed as the bullies would pick up one kid, drop them in the middle of the room, and make a display of them. Typically it would involve wedgies and a beating for the poor kid. But you couldn't interfere otherwise you'd get it ten times as bad, and I'm speaking from experience. Plus it used to be me they'd pick on every day.