Dancing with Fire

Chapter Eighteen

I sit there numb, Donnie's diagnosis ringing in my head.
Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. Just 1 year to live? I know Raph is shaking me, but I'm too numb to care.
"Racheal?" He asks me faintly. I stand up, and look at the both of them. Something in my eyes stops Raph from holding me.
"I'm going out for an hour or so. Don't follow me. I promise I'll be back." I said, standing up. Raph starts to protest, but I'm already out the door, and then out of the lair.
I'm running through the streets of New York now, to the subway. Panting, I take the blue line out of the city a little ways. It takes me about 10 minutes, and then I get off. Coming up from below grounds, I breathe in fresh, cleaner air. I take the bus to the all-too-familiar bus stop. I stare up at what I used to call my home.
Circling around to the back of the house, I find the tree that I used to sneak in and out of the house. The window still sits there, part of Amy's room. I search the ground for a second, and stand up, a couple if pebbles in my hand. When I try to toss them however, the tree stops its path. Dang the tree, I forgot it did that. Sighing, I begin to climb, finally resting in between 2 branches. I knock on the window, but there's no movement from inside. I knock again, and breath out, excited now that Amy's up. She starts towards the window. When she opens it, I'm almost positive that she'll yell at me. Unfortunately, I'm right.
"Racheal! Where were you?! You disappear off the face of the planet, and don't call me, or Charlotte! What on earth could you possibly want?!" She whisper-yells.
"We need to talk." I say, starting to climb down. Amy stares at me. I motion for her to follow, and she sighs, following me down. We walk a couple blocks, to where we can yell, and no one will here us.
"What? What is so important that you need to talk here?" Amy asks, crossing her arms. She's ticked off right now, so I cut to the chase.
"I passed out this morning." I throw out in the open. Amy's jaw drops.
"What?" I ask.
"Hey stranger." I hear. I turn around, grinning.
"Charlotte! it's so good to see you!" I shriek. She doesn't smile though.
"I want to hear this." She says, scowling. I look down at the ground.
"I passed out this morning after beating the crap out of a punching bag for 4 hours." I say. There's no reaction from either one of them, so I continue, slightly altering my story.
"My boyfriend took me to the hospital, where they pumped my slow-beating heart full of caffeine to keep me alive. Then the doctor came in, and took some blood. I sat for a couple of minutes, and he came back. He told me..." I trail off, fighting off tears.
"What? What did he tell you?" Char asked urgently.
"He told me I had cancer." I whispered.
"How long?" Amy asked. I looked at her, confused.
"How long?" She repeated.
"A year." I answered. Char sat down heavily, and I followed suit.
"So that's why you didn't go to Julliard." Amy said, almost to herself. I nodded. She sat down, and we had a group hug. Out of the darkness, I heard a menacing chuckle. Chills ran up and down my spine, and the hair on my scalp rose. I was officially creeped out. The sad thing was that I didn't know the voice.
"Who's there?" Char asked, trying not to be scared.
"Aw, sweet cheeks, don't be scared. It's just little 'ol me." He said mockingly. He and a bunch of others slide out of the shadows, the moonlight glinting off of their weapons.
"Aw man!" I complained. Purple Dragons. The leader snarled.
"You're coming with me." He said, and lunged at us. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse.