Dreamcatchers ACT 1

Chapter 1: Prologue Part 2

"I hope you learned to not stare at beauties after this day without their knowledge, but let's talk money now. By next week, give us... seventy-five bucks... each." The sudden amount slowly churned words of disbelief but I couldn't seem to say it, weakly moving my head back and forth in defiance. I could feel his grip tighten as his other hand smacked me across the jaw, feeling the imprint that it left. 

Just like that as if he grew bored of this, he let go of me and stood back up with his entourage behind him. "Bastard like you better have the money by Monday, or Cadell here will have to tutor you for the rest of the year." I was still trying to regain my composure as my fingers glided against the bottom of the chain-link fence, hoping for a miracle. Wishing for something to come true, as my hands caught a large line of broken links. 

The destructive kids love to crawl under these fences, I see them doing it sometimes and, as I guessed, there was an area where you could move the chain links aside and slither through. Even though my stomach, chest, and face burned with pain, my legs were fine and if I could just get a running start, I would be out of here safely. I couldn't just wait either as Taylor had a glare in his eyes, whispering in Jose's ear while gazing at me with the beautiful girl beside him.

If I knew these guys at all, I know that he was trying to convince Jose to teach me another lesson just in case. With my fingers primed to raise the breach in the fence, I managed to grab ahold of a sizable rock in my left hand and silently chucked it into a bush nearby, making sure that Taylor couldn't see as he was the only one looking at me. All of their gazes except for his were on Jose, allowing the rock to wrinkle the bush and cause a squirrel that was hiding inside to scamper off.  The sudden sound of the creature jumping away caused them all to shift their gazes to the animal, allowing me to lift the breach and crawl under. The sound of Taylor padding Jose's shoulder was loud enough to even clue me in that he saw me escaping, which only slowed them down for another second. Once they caught on though, I could hear them gasping and charging at the fence. "Where do you think you're going, bastard? Now this means you haven't learned your lesson yet and need some more today."

I don't know what was swirling in my head, maybe it was because of the concussion I must've suffered, but the words, "Just so you know boyos, she has a nice smackable backside." As I spoke the words, I could feel Taylor's hatred grow tenfold for me. Now was the time to run as far as I could, my legs picking up speed as I ran toward the town before me. Through every little turn, I could hear the stampede of footsteps behind get closer, their screams fading away with the open air but echoing with urgency. If they caught me now, I would surely be dead by tomorrow, especially with what I said earlier. 

The roads were empty too, no one here to save me but it wouldn't matter anyway. What could they do to save me, yell at them? Where I lived was too far away too, I wouldn't be able to run that long with the amount of pain I was in. I had to hide somewhere and lose them, but where? Not knowing where to go, I began to turn every handle of each building I came across, all of them locked. Just my luck that this part of town had security locks on each doorknob, and there wasn't enough time to wait for them to open the door for me on the other side. Then fear crept up as shadows loomed around the corner I was near to, seeing the figures rapidly grow in size...... I was going to die.

Turning around, I dashed to an alleyway that lay bare except for two large trashcans that were almost full to the brink, hearing one of them behind me yell, "There's the bastard." Without thinking, my hands grabbed one of the trash cans and knocked it to the side as my eyes caught one of them only a few feet away. How are they so fast? I know they aren't in track. As the trash can tipped, the one who caught up to me smashed into it with a sudden crashing sound as he fell to the ground surprised. 

Not only that but a resident raccoon sprung out with revenge glinting from its eyes, jumping onto the alley wall and charging at the second nearest person. I guess today really is my lucky day as I ran away with a little bit more time to find a good place where they won't find me. It has to be an old building where stupid security protocols haven't been placed, suddenly seeing my prized location. An old rickety shop with the words, "Antique store." Painted on a wooden sign. The 'Q' was backwards, and the paint was peeling off, which made it perfect as an open sign was visible through its dusty windows. 

The perfect place to run inside, I wasted no time in checking any of the other buildings as my legs began to feel wary. Feeling the doorknob and hearing a click as I turned it, my relief turned into ecstasy as I busted in to see old objects from varying ages clattered around in an unorganized fashion. A single man stood behind the cashier cabinets, simply smiling and waving in a weird slow way. He hardly had any hair and his clothes looked tattered, waiting behind the counter for me to say something.

Without hesitating, I quickly said, "Please, I need somewhere to hide. I'll pay or something, just please," in which he continued to smile without changing his gaze. Actually, his eyes were closed, and he never once opened them up. After I frantically began pleading again, I heard the doorknob turn as he finally opened a small door leading to the other side of the counter. I didn't even notice his hands move as both of them were now flat against the small wooden counter, but he still allowed me to duck behind the counter and quietly close the door. I could hear the entrance of the store open up, panting following soon behind as I covered my mouth in hopes that they wouldn't notice me.

"Hey old man, you see a scrawny boy here? We just need to tell him to hurry home." The man didn't say anything, only raising his hands and shrugging with a strange sluggish speed. Then as I was looking up at him, his eyes slowly opened to reveal clear white pupils, a very light grey color shifting about where there would normally be the iris... This antique store owner was blind, I think, as he stared off into the ceiling. As they talked, his head hardly moved to each kid who was talking, just continuously shrugging. Eventually, after some insults slung at the owner, the delinquents left in a huff, obviously mad that they couldn't find me. Before I got back up though, one of the boys, I think it was Jackson, walked back in. He stood against the counter and stared at the old man, being only a few inches from me as his fingers were over the lip, almost brushing my hair.

"Damn, you're creepy." He said as he turned around and left, permanently this time. I still waited a few minutes before getting up to make sure that it was safe this time, thanking the antique store owner and looking around at what he had. All he did was wave again, was he shooing me away? I don't know, everything he did was creepy and meticulous in a weird way. Still, I was thankful that he saved me from certain death. Something caught my eye before I left though, a bedazzling crystal or gem of some sort. I think it's a ruby or something like that, it was dark red with the light elegantly bouncing off of it. 

I'm not that fascinated by shiny rocks but this one was astonishing, a perfectly flat shape with a slight bump in the center, and it was about the size to fit in my pocket. I wasn't thinking of stealing it though, I wouldn't but it was beautiful. My heartbeat slowly calmed down as the feeling of throwing up overcame me, everything becoming sick and distorted. The adrenaline, it must be. I wasn't that good with exercising and now running a marathon under my belt, I wasn't doing so hot. Still, I persisted out of the store and made my way home, seeing the sun setting. So what, it must've been almost five or even six, has it really been two hours since school got out? Maybe that's why they gave up, they're still kids who probably had a curfew or something like that. At the very least, it was something that struck fear into their hearts more than their hatred for me.

The thirty-minute walk home felt longer as I opened the front door, seeing my dad sitting on the couch watching tv. "Where've you been, out kissing a girl?" I didn't even have the energy to rebut what he said, trudging up the stairs and falling onto my comfortable bed. My backpack slumped to the side of my arm and fell carelessly to the ground, reminding me that I had homework I needed to complete. Even if I did the work, I didn't want to go to school tomorrow in case they were there waiting for me. 

Staring at my hand and seeing the dirty crevices of my palm, I thought about what I should do. Was it worth it, I made a mistake and now they'll actually kill me the next time we meet? Tears welled up in my eyes and I dug my face into my pillow, scared, alone, what am I supposed to do? No, I'm not mentally broken enough to throw away my life because of some kids. Getting up with newfound determination, I walked over to my desk, grabbing my backpack, and taking out my homework. 

The rest of the day, I simply finished what I needed to get done, cleaning myself up with a black washcloth and Neosporin. After some time after I settled down, my dad walked in to check on me. Of course, I made sure he didn't see the forming bruises on my body, looking down at my homework the whole time he was talking. Soon enough, he left to get ready for tomorrow as I finished everything that was necessary. My eyes felt like anvils barely being held up by a feather, passing out almost instantly as I landed on my bed.