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We're still here

The lights flickered on, revealing a warehouse. Corrugated metal boarded around patches that light came trough, led ceiling lights dangling down, only just giving enough light to show the room. It was spacious. Their voices echoed slightly as they spoke. Towards the end of the room was a table with folders tied together, a photo album, stamps and a clipboard laid out. Around it was ageing black, leather sofas, springs popping out of them where they could.

There was a small screen at the other end of the room, which showed the faces of people, a fact-file on them and a status. Underneath was a black, wooden cabinet with a glass door. Alexander approached it, eyes sparkling at the view of the vast space. He pressed his hands against the glass, peering into it. Inside the cabinet was a barbed baseball bat, a broken chainsaw, a range of syringes full with chemicals that are labelled but what caught his eye was a wooden box which presumably contained a pocket knife. He stared at it, not drawing his eyes to anything else.

"She's a beauty huh." Hiro looked at him. Alexander nodded "So beautiful..." the knife had a gloss, navy blue wooden handle and a silver blade which folds back into the handle. "I need it. It's perfect..." he stared at the pocket knife, the light glistening off the blade.
"You'll have to work for it." Hiro raised his eyebrow, looking at Alexander.
"What? Why can't I just have it!" Alexander kept his eyes on the knife.
"It's not just a knife, it's the sharpest blade we've ever had. Most dangerous handheld." Hiro replied, keeping his position firm.

Alexander groaned and backed off, walking to the doorway "I'm going to my room. Shout me if you need me I guess." He continued to walk to his room. In there, he took out his bag what he ran away from home with and opened it. He took out an old diary, paints, an old sketchbook and cheap paintbrushes. At the very bottom was a frame. A picture was inside.

Tears welled in his eyes so he shoved it back in and closed his bag, shoving it under his bed quickly. He opened his diary to a page the night of what happened. "Dear diary, this is meant to be a dream journal but I can't sleep. I get a feeling of dread surging through my body like an electric current. It doesn't go away. Something isn't right but it's my mind playing up again. I know it. I don't know how long I'll be keeping note of how I feel in here before I drop dead from lack of sleep or I kill myself." Alexander sighed and turned to a blank page, pulling out a pen.

"Dear diary, I know why I can't sleep but I dread to hold on. I hate to think of what's ahead for me, if there is an ahead that is. It plagues my mind and won't go away. I'm starting to forget who I am. I barely know my name but I knew it like the back of my hand not long ago. This scar doesn't help. I suppose it's making me man up but is it worth it." Tears drop on to the page "is it worth risking my life for someone who treats me like shit. Constantly being berated, hit, patronised. But after all, that's life I suppose. Dear past self, don't lose hope. It will all seem like you're going into an endless abyss but you'll be okay. I just won't be. Not until everything is answered."

He closed the diary, wiping tears from eyes, sniffling. "How am I still holding on? Is there.. something there for me?" He stood up and walked over to a mirror, leaning on a dresser to look into it. His eyes were a vivid amber, the stitching flaking away from his mangled scar from his forehead, down to his neck, ending at his collarbone. His left eye was bruised, cheekbone swelled and grazed, a light scar on the bridge of his nose, lip and right cheek, fresh cuts on his jaw and a bruised graze on his chin. He looked at his arms, wrists scarred and salmon pink.

Hiro shouted him and Melissa for food and he reluctantly tore his eyes away to join them.

Food barely passed his lips during dinner. Alexander just poked at it with his fork.
"What's wrong with you? You've not eaten!" Hiro furrowed his eyebrows sternly.
"I... I'm not hungry..." Alexander muttered. Something wasn't right. Hiro glared at him "What do you mean. You can't just eat nothing."
"I've... lost my appetite." Alexander stood up and walked to the doorway, shoulders hunched, head down.

Days passed, Alexander could feel himself get weaker by the day but he thought nothing of it, he just continued to only drink fruit drinks and water.

Another file turned up through the door in the base. Hiro opened it, glancing at it. "Avid drinker, abused family, children. Two accounts of sexual harassment, one account of being drunk and disorderly and possession of a class-A drug. She is quite the chick."

It didn't take long for them to find her. A fair skinned young lady with long, wavy light hazel hair and a thin body structure. She was in a nightclub alone as her party had just departed. Hiro waited until the bouncer had to leave and quickly grabbed Alexander and Melissa by the wrist, dragging them inside. Inside was a large group of people, ranging from women to young men and adults. The putrid smell of perfume, cologne and alcohol wafted around the club. Most people were drinking, the odd couple kissing at tables. Music blared through the speakers of overplayed pop songs, the bass vibrating the floor, disco lights scattered around. Women were dressed in skimpy dresses, short skirts, crop tops and a variety of skirts, shorts and heels.

Alexander covered Melissa's eyes throughout. The woman they were looking for stood out like a sore thumb. She was stood on a table, dancing seductively to Britney Spears, clearly intoxicated.
"How in the fuck do we do this. We can't just swipe her." Hiro looked around. Alexander moved over to an alarm, pulling it. As everyone was running out, he stuck his foot out and tripped the girl, causing her to fall on the ground unconscious.

Everyone fled, leaving Hiro, Alexander and the girl. Before security could arrive, Hiro quickly pulled them both out of sight. Little did they know, Hiro had staged that the girl was abusing drugs and had passed out from alcohol as he had placed someone else's drugs into her purse.
It didn't take long for security to wake her up and confront her. A few minutes later, police arrived and arrested the girl while she thrashed around, screaming for them to unhand her.

Alexander snickered, putting his hand over his mouth.

Hiro pulled him away and took him back to the base. "That. Was close. Now. Melissa's father is in town, coming to the area."
Alexander bit his lip "Ah... Hiro... she told me that he's abusive. That he hurt her." Hiro looked at him, then at Melissa who was sat doodling on paper.