Red Shoes and the 3 Realms

Chapter 9://That Guépard

*SCREAM*

"what the hell Jeon. I could've died back there."

"but you didn't." and we continued to run. This buffoon thought it would be a good idea to jump from his window, 4-stories high but thankfully our fall was broken by the tent of the bakery on the ground level. Phew! That was a close one.

We were running for our lives, literally and there was no doubt that I was starting to regret my decision about trusting him. We ran through the city trying to lose our tail. During our wild-goose-chase I learned how to jump on & off from rolling carts which carried fruits, veggies, toys and several other exotic items. FUN!! Do note the sarcasm! But that one stall which sold fresh popsicles and lemonade would always haunt me. There was ice and glass on it...and lots of it...and we smashed it pieces. Jeon needs to be reminded that I'm a ballerina not a psycho running through the streets. And worse, I was in pointe shoes and a dress! Through our process of getting on it and smashing our way through it, the sound of fabric ripping was added to the list of ongoing yelling and other chaotic noises. I ignored the sound...well, truth be told, I had to ignore it because Mr. Jeon refuses to slow down and I had to keep up in order to survive.

Once we got off from the stalls' table with a very unpleasant jump and feeling for the feet, we continued to run. After causing a lot of damage in the marketplace, we soon sought our way into a place with less tables but more people. And by that, I mean A LOT MORE people. If I didn't know any better, this could either be a good place to lose the trail which has miraculously doubled or a good place for us to get caught because these people were really crawling their way to their destinations.

Soon we jogged our way into the crowd, camouflaging ourselves amongst the others. People weren't walking, they were dragging themselves and with us being squished, there was a high chance that were to get caught up with the goons. Amongst all this commotion, I had an intuition that I had been ignoring for a while about getting separated. Unlike me, who wore a white dress with bright red and orange flowers printed on it, Jeon blended quite well in his sand-like shirt and pants with dark brown shoes. I tried very hard to stay behind him, but it seemed as if every time I blinked, I lost sight of him. I began to slow down because I only had so much stamina to keep up with that guépard.

"Jeon! Jeon! Wait up...slow down!!" I was vigorously panting and speaking in this position was like putting a delicious cherry on top! I called out to him several times to slow down, but he couldn't hear me over the loud public noise. The distance between us grew larger and larger until he was completely out of sight.

The sun was up, and the heat was scorching. For a second, I forgot that the sun has recently rose up instead of it being the middle of the afternoon; the prime time for it to that hot. My throat was dry due to dehydration, and I was famished. Realization hit me like a truck that I hadn't drank or eaten anything since I entered the realm! As if on cue, my stomach growled, and I quickly placed my hand over it. With my other hand, I wiped the trickling sweat from underneath my bangs, and decided to pull my hair up. I use the hair tie on my wrist and pull my black hair into a...hold up!! Black hair?? Since when?! I was a redhead!! But now wasn't the time to think about this. I just simply put my hair into a high bun, whilst making a mental note to myself about inquiring Jin about this sudden change in appearance. Unwrapping the scarf from my neck, I pull my bangs back while placing the scarf on my bare forehead and the hair themselves and tie it behind my neck. When the wind blew, it felt nice and breezy. A bit too breezy. When I looked down, there was a giant rip in my dress which exposed my right leg to mid-thigh. And then pieces fell together into the puzzle. The ripping sound from earlier was from none other than my own dress. I quickly overlap the separated pieces and hold them, so I don't flash anyone, nor draw any sort of unwanted attention.

I was just beginning to make my way into the ground when I spotted the man who I keep running into; the bastard from the market. I prayed to god that he doesn't notice me because like I said, I don't exactly fit in with the others. Curiosity taking over me, I kept standing there to know if he will notice me or not but before I could stratify my quench, somebody pulled onto my wrist and dragged me behind them. I was too busy trying keep a solid grip on the slit of my dress to carefully observe the stranger dragging me behind them. All yelling, screaming and resistance went in vain because 1) NO ONE GAVE A DAMN IF YOU WERE GETTING KIDNAPPED and 2) THIS DUDE WAS HELLA STRONG!

It wasn't long until the said stranger pulled me into a very narrow alley. The moment we came to a halt and the man let go my wrist and revealed himself by removing the cloth from his covered face which noticed now.

"who are you and what do you want? Because let me tell you, if you mess with me, you will regret it!" the stranger rose his eyebrows at me?

"you really think I can't throw a punch, huh? Fine, come at me then!" I spoke in irritation.

"I don't fight girls, especially a ballerina with a very gorgeous taste in fashion" he says while eyeing me up and down, a flirty smirk forms on his face. My hand involuntarily reaches the slit and overlaps them so nothing in exposed.

"of course, you don't fight gir- WAIT WHAT! How did you know about me being a ballerina? tu pervertissez!" what a creep!!

"a certain street rat told me to fetch his little dancer for him so here I am fulfilling his wish." He bowed low but I couldn't care less. The name 'street rat' rang a bell but I couldn't figure out who it referred to. As if the man before me read my thoughts, he spoke again.

"that would be your knight in shining armor, milady"

"Jeon sent you! But I thought I had lost him in the crowd."

"that you did. But I'll explain once we are safe at my place. That's where you'll meet your knight! C'mon follow me." The voices of my predators were beginning to get closer and the stranger once again covered his face, grabbed my wrist and started running. but this time it's different. We were running on the stairs attached to the building, and that's when my fears came true when we hit the dead end at the 5th floor. And it was too late to go back down because my trail had already started its search in that area.

"I'm sorry but I have to do this. You can beat me as much as you want when we get home, ok!" that's when I was lifted off the ground, into the arms of the arms and soaring through the sky. 

***

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!! Freedom has never tasted better and because this extra shot serotonin, adrenaline and oxytocin (this is somebody else's doing but I'm still going to include it) I am going to start working on the book again and I am also working my way to something interesting too ;)

I hope you all enjoyed this on-the-run chapter, so don't forget to hit that vote button and lemme know y'alls thoughts.

-Annabelle