Her head turned towards the man, fluidly stretching to her full height. All she could think of was how she was going to get Grand Mae out of there and keep running to lead them away.
A familiar cut of brown hair caught her eye and she nearly forgot how to breathe.
No.
Flashbacks were slamming into her fast and painful; image after image tearing another layer of her walls down. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. Her eyes were wide and glazed slightly, her lips parted in silent horror and denial. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t possible.
She needed to move.
She needed to move!
Rebecca’s limbs trembled as they fought to do as her mind commanded but her joints were locked and stiff. How long did it take for a vampire to move? Less than a second. The fact that he hadn’t moved yet showed that he was taking a lenient approach. Expecting a weak fragile girl. Her mind sucker punched her with an image of her former self crying. Weak frame, curled and submissive, dirty hands clutching at scraps of clothes, bruises on her neck and pleading words tumbling from her mouth as rivers of tears poured from her eyes that held a shattered gaze.
The reaction was immediate.
No.
Her cold façade slammed back into place and she hurled a heavy book at him while spinning to run, other arm tucking a book to her side in case she needed another distraction. She breezed through the maze of shelves and zeroed in on the back door that led to an alleyway. That was her way out. Her window of freedom. Movement behind her pushed her faster.
Everything was so sharp, every sound, every smell, every sight. Her mind was a machine, cogs swiftly churning and spinning, mapping out the alley and it’s vantage points. Door, back room, door, fire escape, rooftop. Rebecca threw the door open and slung herself through the threshold, free hand grasping the doorframe so she didn’t lose momentum.
Someone was yelling.
Feet were coming after her.
Feet that were too light, too poised, too fast.
The hum of adrenaline sang through her veins and she slipped past the last of the storage to grasp hold of the outer door and fling it open. Fight or flight. Survival. Those were the only thought patterns racing in her brain. Her boots almost slipped on the wet concrete as she raced out into the open air; the act of balancing herself wasting precious seconds in her getaway. Her goal was the metal fire escape across the way.
She didn’t stop to see if the pursuer was still there or how close they were, she didn’t pause at all as she launched herself at the ladder rusted into a permanent position where to only way to reach it was to jump and hope to god you caught a rung. Metal collided with the palms of her hands and she gripped hard, letting it slide as she swung and curled herself upside-down in a flip and slid through one of the spaces between the rungs above her and onto the main platform of the contraption with a solid ‘clang’.
Movement caught her eye and she swung up the metal construct with her coat billowing behind her as if it wanted to join the chase as well.
Faster. Faster. Faster.
Rebecca felt every step vibrate up her frame as she flew towards the roof. The roof meant escape. Escape meant leaving Him, Them-- she winced as pain shot through her but pushed faster. Safety. Safety. She needed to be safe. Get safe. She rounded the last corner of the fire escape and realized she’d have to propel herself to the roof farther than she usually had with the other escapes she’d scaled. Doubt twanged through her but she shook it from her mind. There was no room for her Not to make it.
“Credo.”
With a powerful flex of her thighs she sprung onto the last bar and then bounced into the air. Wind streamed past her, whipping her hair into her face and pulling at her form. She landed lightly, in a similar crouch as the one that had landed her in the roof with her coat flared and swaying around her. It was an eerie feeling. Somehow she knew that she shouldn’t have made that leap. Yet then again-- she shouldn’t have made it out of There either.
Her silver eyes flicked to sky, gleaming. It was still a good while before night fell. She had time. Had time for several things.
A few minutes later she landed in a grimy alley way several blocks away from Mae’s shop. She’d head back later at her closing time to make sure she got out okay. Rebecca straightened and ran a hand through her hair, taking note that her hat had fallen at some point in the chase. “What had that been?” she murmured.
Before her eyes flashed the guy from the store. She gave a sharp hiccup of a laugh.
Now that she thought about it the guy hadn’t looked all that much like Him at all. The brown hair had been more gold tinted than anything. His eyes had been a black not an amber …and his arm…
Memory flashed before her.
There had been a tattoo snaking up his wrist.
He didn’t have tattoos… A shiver went through her. She’d seen every inch of Him and He didn’t have tattoos.
Her form seized up and she forced herself to breathe. ‘10...9...8...7...’ slowly the pain faded and she could feel her finger tips again. She blew a breath out and shook her hands. A weight in the crook of her arm drew her and she looked down.
There, in her hold lay a thick leather book. No title. No print on the cover. Curiously, she ran her fingers over the material and found that it was bound with some sort of string. ‘Old…’ the book was ancient almost. Exactly how Mae picked them out.
Clicking her tongue, she flipped the book over and found the back cover just as blank as the front. Well… she could read it tonight after work and get it back to Mae tomorrow… she grimaced. She would probably have to bring her something else as well to apologize for today…
Her lips curled downward.
Who had that guy been anyways? He wasn’t…him… but he wasn’t normal either. Far from normal. And if her ears had been telling the truth he hadn’t been alone. Looking at the book one last time she shoved it into an inside pocket and followed suit with her hands on the outside as well. Her feet began walking and in a few moments she had reentered the main streets.
~*~*
Sorry about the wait my computers being wacky and now the screens shot to hell but I still managed to upload so ^^
Hope you like. Sorry for the wait
