familiarity

The choice is yours

Riley Stevens, a troubled 13 year old kid, found herself walking towards a corner on pilson all alone at around 7pm on a boring Friday evening. She has long straight, brown hair with emerald green eyes and a dash of freckles kissed against her cheeks with pale skin. She's small in both height and structure as she stands at around 5 foot tall, and she's rather thin.

She used to be a bubbly kid who loved doing anything and everything but now she's tired and unmotivated to do any simple task, she has her reasons, personal reasons, but she finds herself stuck with no energy to do anything nowadays. Not because she's a lazy kid, but because everything tires her out, she's very malnourished and gets a full meal, maybe two a day max. That's where her family situation comes in...

Snap out of it, she thought to herself as she approached a bunch of kids her own age, who she didn't consider her 'friends', but accomplices more like. She took a deep breath before speaking to them as she came to a halt on the corner in front of a tiddly corner store, "you got the product or what?" She sighed. One of the bigger kids nodded, "cash first" he huffed. Riley tilted her head but pulled out some cash from her jacket pocket, "same time next week?" She raised an eyebrow as the pair exchanged hands.

The boy nodded, "mmhmm" he put the cash into his pocket, but that's where everything spiralled downhill. They small group were startled by two cops which were running towards them, "Chicago PD, get your hands in the air!" The male cop shouted. They all panicked as the group split up and ran off in different directions but Riley, who was the last one to make a run for it, became the target since she was the last one in sight. "Kid do not run..." the male cop warned her. Riley sighed, she had to...

She swivelled on her heels and ran back in the direction she came from, "dammit" the female cop huffed as the pair began chasing Riley down an alleyway. Riley kept running and running, taking turns here and there in hopes that she would lose them but that all came to a halt when she ran into a dead end. The only way out was over a wall so she began the climb, it wasn't a large wall but for Riley, who was a short stack, it was a fair battle.

The two cops caught up to her as she reached the top of the wall. Riley jumped out of her skin when the growls and snarls from two very angry German Shepards below her on the other side of the wall started snapping at her ankles, "the choice is yours" the male detective caught his breath back. Riley contemplated it, would taking a few dog bites be worth it? Probably not, "I know what I'd pick kid, just come down" the female cop saw her indecisive thoughts and sighed.

Riley sighed but gave in, she surrendered and slid back down the wall the way she came, "have you got anything on you that could possibly harm or injure us?" The male detective raised her hands and began cuffing her. Riley nodded, "back pocket" she huffed, the male detective exchanged glances with his partner to let her take it. The female detective patted Riley down and sure enough she found a pocket knife stashed in the kids back pocket.

"Am I under arrest?" Riley sighed once her hands were cuffed behind her back, the female detective shook her head, "not if you come down to the station and have a chat with us" she smiled sadly at the realisation of how young the kid actually is. Riley nodded as the male detective guided her back out of the alley way and over to his car which took them a minute or two since she did lead them on a wild goose chase. Now she wishes she never fled, that she'd just stayed still, because she's fatigued and dizzy.

She was helped into the back of a black pickup truck as the two cops got into the front, she's been in this situation multiple times before, so it wasn't anything different to her. She rested her head against the car window and looked out blankly, she just watched as the car drove past ordinary people going about their day.

Jay looked back into the backseat through the rear view mirror and saw the kid staring out of the window looking rather emotionless, like she had no life left in her, and it broke his heart. Hailey also noticed how empty she looked and made conversation, "what's your name?" She looked back over her shoulder. Riley kept her head against the window, not even fazed that her hands are tied up by cold metal, "Riley" she spoke quietly.

Hailey smiled sadly at her partner as he just frowned, the rest of the car journey back to the district was silent. Riley had a large puffer jacket on and some leggings with some scuffed up trainers, she was warm at least.

Back at the district jay pulled up and opened the car door, he helped Riley down since she was rather tiny and he was slightly taken aback by how light she was, he bet that if he pushed her, even with just a little bit of force, she would've stumbled over, but of course he wasn't going to attempt it, that'd be cruel. "We're gonna go upstairs and chat okay?" Hailey smiled, Riley kept her head down and nodded as she was guided up some stairs, still with the handcuffs on.

Jay held her arm gently since that's what they do with every offender but he noticed her feet dragging up the stairs slightly, "are you okay?" He spoke sadly but once again Riley just kept her head and but nodded, even if she was lying. She was dizzy and tired but she knew she wasn't gonna get out of here anytime soon so she just pushed through it and followed hailey up the stairs and into a rather bland room.