Was it because he broke into that abandoned hotel?
Was it because of the items he’d stolen from it?
Or maybe it was because of the destruction of property he’d caused on his way out of it?
…was it the graffiti he’d marked the place with?
It was probably all of the above. But did that really matter right now?
No. What mattered was finding a good place to hide!
“Woah!” He skidded around a corner and teetered on his tiptoes for a precarious moment. Then he dipped into sidestepping around an elderly man. “Sorry!”
He charged on ahead, swerving in between people like some sort of aggressive dancer, half twirling around a pair of teens. “Excuse m- oh shit, watch out!” A woman pushing a stroller came out from a side street, and he jumped aside and forward. “Comin’ through! Sorry!”
People ahead noticed his reckless charge and began to part for him, but an old lady dropped her bag and suddenly became a low wall he very nearly crashed into. “Woah, woah! Careful! Sorry!” He spun around her and dashed ahead, jumping over a few boxes and dodging a few streetlamps.
But he stopped. Looked back. Imagining the old lady struggling to gather her things and get back up again.
Without even a cuss under his breath, he hurriedly backtracked, leaping back over the boxes and skidding to a stop beside her.
“Here, lemme help,” he said, already crouching and scooping up what he could reach of her lost items.
“O-oh! Thank you, I don’t know what happened, I lost my grip on this darn bag…”
Some of her things had rolled a little distance away and mingled with the moving feet of pedestrians. He made quick work of lunging after the belongings and returning them to the thankful woman. Pushing down his urgency in order to be gentle, he eased the woman back to her full height once everything was in order.
“No problem, have a nice day, Ma’am!”
The words rushed from his mouth, a call back to her as he resumed his sprint and imagined police dogs nipping at his heels.
Another jump over the boxes. A swing around the streetlamp and down the next busy path.
He slid through the gaps in the walkers as expertly as a professional driver switching multiple lanes.
“Sorry! S’cuse me! Woah!”
Curses and shouts were thrown his way but faded quickly as he ran along the streets, the wind rushing through his hair and past his ears. He took a sharp corner into a narrower street in the hopes of throwing off his pursuers.
Left. Right. Left again.
Were they still after him?
He slowed to a stop, his lungs burning and begging for a break. He swiped the back of his hand along his forehead as his eyes darted around the street and his ears stayed alert.
There didn’t seem to be any police officers nearby, none emerging onto the street with quick, probing gazes trying to seek him out.
With a deep breath in and out, his shoulders eased.
Maybe he could just blend in with the crowd now?
“There he is!”
…Maybe not!
Like a startled hare, he jumped back into a quick run, once again swerving and weaving in between the people walking, doing his utmost not to bump into or knock over anyone.
He turned down an alleyway and gave no pause to the wire fence cutting it off. Charging at it, he jumped and clung to the wide mesh of it, pulling himself swiftly up, scrambling over it with an ease that only came from far too much practice.
His feet hit the concrete hard, but he used it to propel himself onward, no time for wincing or swearing at the shot of pain.
Left. Right.
Where to now?
The place was a veritable maze.
He stopped at a junction, chest burning and legs aching.
The shouts and hurried movements of law enforcement whipped through his ears. They were close! How!?
He groaned and rubbed his face, head turning to peer down each option.
At the sight of a stack of crates and a fire escape, he ran down the left alley towards them. He hopped up on the crates, jumping from one to the other and launching himself up. His heated hands caught the cold metal of the fire escape and pulled it down. With a flurry of movement and a near slip off it, he made it to the top.
Not wasting a moment, he threw himself into climbing the remainder of the building with haphazard foot and handholds. In a pull that strained his muscles, he gained the roof. He crouched low and searched the area to get his bearings.
Perfect.
Just ahead, an old set of buildings formed an alleyway containing a few large dumpsters, and one of those dumpsters faced out from the corner of the dead-end, leaving a large triangle of space between it and the walls. If he could just get there, he could hide behind it and no one would notice!
He kept low to the roof but moved quickly, jumping down to the next building and springing onto the next. The triangle of safety fast approached.
He slowed down, but just as he vaulted down onto the dumpster’s heavy lid with a solid thud, a large blur flashed across his vision. His shout of surprise was cut off and muffled as he crashed down into the space behind the dumpster.
Pain exploded in his lower back and the side of his head. His hands and forearms felt the rough sting of the concrete as they tried to prevent his fall. He swore and blinked to clear his vision, struggling to his feet within the small space, bumping his shoulders on the wall and metal.
When the white and blurriness faded, he blinked again.
She was still there.
A young woman, short, with wild, purple hair and the look of someone agitated, was there beside him. Presumably, she was the blur that had distracted him as they’d raced to the relative safety of the spot.
“Y-you can’t hide here!” he told her, eyes wide while his hands seemed to gesture for her to get up and out of the place, “I got here first!”
What was she doing running around like a lunatic for anyway?
this is probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever seen in your life. and yet. i am using it to express my love affection and friendship for you. because. YOU MEME A LOT TO ME. ((I’m sorry i can’t help myself XD thanks for putting up with me for LITERAL YEARS siv you’re the best XD))
Wait Ari, I love this so much! I am so undeserving and THANK YOU for dealing with me for so long! ♥
