Scarlet Prison

Chapter 1

The moment the lights flooded the outdoor basketball court, I knew we'd been caught. Some of the others floundered uselessly in place, maybe hoping the lights had been triggered by some sort of electrical malfunction. But I knew better. I grabbed Novashi's wrist and pulled her into a sprint toward the outskirts of the court. I released her once we were running at full speed and spared a glance over my shoulder. The police were already converging on the stupid ones, their feet picking up chalk from the carefully drawn Naroekoo boards and leaving a trail of white footprints on the cement.

One of the officers spotted Novashi and me and pulled away from his colleagues to pursue us. I turned my gaze away from him and focused on doubling my speed. Novashi got the message and pushed harder. She stared forward in concentration as her blond hair whipped wildly in the wind. She should have been angry with me, maybe muttering "I told you so's" under her heavy breath. But she was too tolerant of my willful personality for that.

"When we get to the wall," I paused to gasp for air. "Dump your backpack in the plants."

She gave a nod. "What about us?"

"We'll hide further down."

She didn't question my plan, and I tried to not question it either. The wall had been erected around our town three hundred years ago, and the foliage along it was largely unkempt, meaning it had been given plenty of time to grow thick and wild. The plants would conceal us well, but we had to get far enough ahead of our pursuer so he wouldn't see us diving into them.

"This way," I announced, impulsively taking a sharp left down a street lined by closely knit houses. After a couple blocks, we took another left. Now we were running in the opposite direction of the wall. Well, technically, we could run in any direction and eventually meet the wall, but we were not currently heading for the closest section.

"I don't know..." big breath "...how much longer I can..." another breath "...do this," Novashi said.

I gave a quick nod and dove to the right at the end of the block. Then we took another right, only this time it was through someone's yard. Hopefully our route had been erratic enough to keep the officer from guessing our destination. Now all we could do was keep up our speed as we performed the final stretch, recklessly dashing across streets and through yards and setting off a cascade of barking dogs. Oops. The good news was that they weren't exactly giving away our location since most of the dogs in the neighborhood were now barking in response to the dogs that had been barking at us.

We finally reached it. It seemed to tower over us with outstretched matronly arms. Novashi threw her backpack into a cluster of bushes. We didn't stop to watch how it landed. We ran along the wall, distancing ourselves from the evidence.

"Up there," Novashi said, indicating a particularly thick patch of vines and bushes.

I glanced backward. The officer hadn't caught up to us yet. We were safe to hide without being seen. I hadn't actually thought we would get away. I almost let out a giddy laugh, stopped only by my need for oxygen.

The hiding place was in arms reach now. I was already bending over to dive into it, relief flooding my exhausted limbs. Then something heavy slammed into my shoulder. I only caught a glimpse of her before she shoved me into the wall. She was a huge, beefy woman. She handcuffed my wrists together behind my back and continued pushing me in a way that forced my cheek flat against the wall. Novashi was slammed into the wall, next to me, by a male officer. We were mirrors of each other, staring helplessly at our reflections. My reflection was looking back at me with frightened blue eyes. Her reflection was probably almost seamless with the night, with long, dark brown, almost black hair and the eyes to match.