Chapter two

Oh, you are still out there... why don´t you come on in and take a seat? This might take a while...

And don´t forget. There is always the possibility of strong language, violence and nudity...

The city, again. Oh yes, it´s the very same city, but this time, for a change, it is not raining.

In fact, it is summer now. Summer in the city. It´s blazing hot, the air itself tries to escape to the skies and leaves the streets almost as liveless as the rain did before

Only the occasional cab, assisting some anonymous citizen in his attempt to run from the heat, hastily steers through the streets and avenues

Speaking of running, what do we have here? It seems like not everybody uses other means than his feet to escape from... whatever

Let´s take a closer look. Ah, it´s a little girl... wonder what she might be running from...

Should she not be at school at this time of the day?

"Move it, she is making ground!"

Oh well. Two teenage boys are chasing her, that is good enough a reason I suppose. Let´s call them Basecap and The Other One for now, shall we?

Strangely, she does not appear to be even half as scared as one might imagine

With even strides, she keeps on running until she reaches a beaten door, where she stops rather abruptly

Frantically she rattles the door... but in vain, naturally. This may be a rundown part of town, but this still does not mean that the bars are open all day- all night, more likely, but- 

well, no luck for our little runner

Way to shortly afterwards, the boys arrive

To their obvious disapointment, the girl is nowhere to be seen

"I don´t get it, she was like, right in front of us a sec ago? Maybe we... "

"Shut up and keep looking, that little piece of shit can´t be far. Must be round here somewhere"

What a sweatheart Basecap is, right? Unfortunately for the girl, he is right, too

"Dontcha move... I heard something..."

The girl was indeed hiding close by, trying to catch her breath. Now, she is jumping up like a deer and breaks into a run immediately... I will spare you the words Basecap uses to express his admiration here. I am sure you can imagine them very well

They will catch her any second now, surely? Oops, no, in fact it seems like she is gaining advantage once again. Much to Basecaps dismay who, I may add, is breathing very hard by now

Hm. Seems she is used to running... what do you think? Little rabbit...

The Other One´s breath is ragged, too, but with a light sidenote of whistle. I would place a bet that he will not last much longer

But Basecap shows no signs of planning on quitting yet, although his threadbare shirt is soaked already and sweat is trickling down, accumulating at the small of his back

The kid keeps up a steady pace that leaves me under the impression that she knows where she is going. Could it really be that she is no stranger to these streets, these abandoned factory grounds?

As she turnes into a hardly visible gap between two of said buildings without hesitation or slowing down right now, I guess the answer must be yes

And again, she is wasting no energy as she just goes as far in as she absolutely has to in order not to be visible from the street she just left

Her breath is already calming down

A cloud dims out the sun just in time to hide the girl even better as she cautiously watches her persuers from the shade of that rusty fence

What to say? At times it can be an advantage to be a little less than completely focused on one thing only...

So what might our little friends be discussing right now?

"Shut the fuck up you whimp! Tell you, only place she mightave gone is right here, and I am not gonna let her get away with that tab of mine, so we ARE GOING AFTER HER NOW gottit?!"

Ts. Little charmer alright...

"But... it´s not even your tab, technically, you only took it from..."

"Shuddup"

Girl has seen and heard enough. She turns on her heel, to sprint on

Only to find that she has not been half as alone in this alley as she thought... literally, as she is facing a man now who must have been watching her for a while now

The situation is weird to say the least. Both adult man and pre-teen girl appear to examine each other in complete silence

Or maybe not that complete, as the voices of the boys start to trickle down the lane as they come closer

A decision is made. The man points to the old containers next to the factory wall with a hardly visible, still silent movent of his chin only

The girl does not need a second calling. Like said small rodent she jumps for cover while the man awaits the newcomers with a crossing of his arms

Surprised to find not a small child but a, I should tell you, rather tall man the fab two stop and stare at him undecided, trying to figure out what to do next... Hm. If I had to make an educated guess now...

"Listen old man, this is none of your business- where is she? Hand her over"

Ah well, to late for guessing. Basecap, you are so- predictable...

The girl in question eyes the man she has never met before... and for some reason only known to herself, she decides to stay right where she is and wait this out

As the stranger shows no reaction to Basecap´s elaborate little speech so far, our charming friend seems to grow a little impatient... whereas The Other One looks downright petrified by now

No one speaks, but Basecap's face starts to contort into a scowl

Oh right, I see it now- this is a piss contest, right? Excuse me, I am female, at times I have difficulties to grasp things like that... 
Is that a smirk I spot upon the stranger´s face?

The clouds are racing across the sky now, causing a constant change of lights that adds an unreal feel to the whole situation

The pale kid seems to be well aware where things are going and ever so inconspiciously starts to move away from the contestants

And as was to be expected, Basecap looses his calm first and stomps over, closing the gap between him and the man. 

He may not be the sharpest tool on the shelve eventually, but he knows that he is tall and strong for his age, and this gives him the confidence... ehm... that he should better not have right now

"Are you deaf or mute or dumb or what? WHERE- IS- THE- LITTLE- BITCH"

"Stevo, the bum..."

"Shut up man, I am busy with that dipshit right now"

"Stevo, the guy has a frigging blade!"

"... wut?!"

Funny, I was so sure I had seen a faint smile on the man´s face before? Must have imagined it, certainly. Or even if I did not, he is far from smiling now as he is rising a nasty looking short bladed hunting knife for everyone to see

"A knife. A blade attached to a handle. Want to take a closer look, punk? Feel freel. It´s your party anyway"

Needless to say that even our little friends are not that stupid, right?

In fact they are running as if the devil himself was coming for them, or whatever they fear most at the moment

The man watches them leave without the slightest attempt to hinder them in any way... finally, the sound of their running feet dies away in the distance

"You may come out now, they are gone for good"

The girl sides the man, carefully avoiding to get caught in the mass of brambles on her way out of hiding and quiet obviously totally unimpressed by the knife he is still holding

"Yes... thanks for your help, that was close"

"May I use your toilet?"

Alright, that caught him by surprise, no doubt about it. Blinking, he turns his attention away from the next lane and look at her directly

"What?"

"Listen Mister, I know this is awkward... but I have been running from these creeps since lunchbreak, and it´s a long way home, and... I really really need a toilet now... and I guess you live here, so..."

What a cheek. At least she is blushing a bit

"What?! No... just, no. Listen, this has gone way to far already. Go. Go! Just leave, ok?"

His voice is so hoarse... not as from smoking, more like he is about to come down with a cold, or maybe like he did not speak for a long time

The girl is getting more desperate now

"Mister I am sorry, but I really need to pee, badly!"

"... so if you won´t let me in, could you... at least turn around and let me, eh, go behind the containers, you know?"

Oh dear. The poor little thing, look how her face is turning deep red now while the man is still staring at her, disbelieving

Finally, he exhales with a frustrated hiss an puts away the knife

"Alright. I´ll show you to the toilet... but I have to warn you, it´s not even a real toilet, more of a bucket. Come on"

And with that remark, he turns to enter the opposite building without looking back

The Girl shoots him a contemplative look before she follows him after only the most brief of hesitations

"Hey, thank you Mister"

Did I hear him snort at that? Not sure...

"Hey Mister"

"What!"

"You are not going to try some creepy stuff on me, are you?