"Don't you like him?" A young girl's shrill voice breaks through the white noise of our character's mind. With a quick snap of her eyes as her neck stays completely still, she looks at the blonde haired blue eyed girl with sharp jaw lines and long fluttery eye lashes that lead your eyes to her soft bouncy curls that fall in front of her shoulder as she walks, her hips swaying with her movement. Her arms wrap around her chest to hold the denim jacket tightly against her pink blouse peeking out from her collar. Denim skinny jeans reach down her long legs to the suede tan heeled boots on her feet. It's a wonder how how she keeps such a pace without tripping over them to fall to the cement pavement below.Our character lets out a soft laugh between her red stained lips as her eyes fall back to the path and her chin falls just an inch closer to her collar bone. The bangs of her pixie short black hair falling just into her vision. A breeze catches her black leather jacket opening the front to reveal her closely fitted red scoop neck tank top as well as her tanned skin. Her dark jeans are tucked neatly in her laced combat boots.
"Well? Do you?" Gale, the blonde girl asks again, more agitated.
"He's a nice guy." Sara replies softly as she shrugs her shoulders.
"A nice guy? You two talk all the time-" Gale is cut off by the sound of a tweeting bird, as Sara flinches and puts her hand on her phone in her back pocket.
"Aha! I bet that's him now." Gale says with a smug grin on her pretty pink lips.
Sara half smiles in the direction of her overly enthusiastic friend whom she has known for no less than ten years, as she pulls her phone gently from her pocket like she would a robin fallen from it's nest. For a moment her heart skips a beat as she slides her phone open to see who the message is from. As her heart sinks she stretches the smile out for a moment longer so as not to alarm her friend.
"It's him, isn't it?" Gale asks gleefully.
Sara looks up from her ominous message from an unknown number to look back to her friend, giving her a sly wink of the eye. "I've gotta go." She says leaning in to grasp Gale around the waist. This always made Gale nervous because Sara always seemed to embrace her goodbye like it might be the last time, though she had learned to push it aside as it had never been the last time, therefore seemed irrational to consider.
Releasing, Gale from her grasp, Sara bolts across the street without looking to see if there were cars coming, dodging a cyclist as he yells at her but she is long gone into the alley already.
Sara ducks into the darkness of the alley, looking back for a moment to see, Gale walking the rest of the way home, alone. Pushing her life out of her mind, she enters her alternate reality. That which no one could know. Her dark secret kept hidden from all those she cared about, and those hidden from this life she is now entering. It's been a long time now. Amazing what you can accomplish within the darkness in five years. Ducking and dodging people and dogs and even passing planes, Sara shuffles her way across town, knowing you can never to be to careful making sure no one follows you. The sun is getting low in the sky, leaving less time to get to her destination. Those she is meeting will not appreciate her tardiness. And that could be the death of her, if she is not strong enough to prove herself to them.
The town becomes less welcoming as she goes deeper into the east side. Graffiti coats the walls around her. Beer cans lay empty and crushed on the sides, some with bullet holes. A bloody hand print stretches across one of the walls, followed by a stain of what once was a pool of blood stretched across the ground. Sara was there the night the body remained. It had made getting to her destination more treacherous to not be caught by cops. They were searching for the killer, and witnesses, but Sara had no time for such things.
She comes to a stop in front of a long since abandoned hotel. The windows were broken, graffit
i covered the walls, caution tape was blowing in the breeze in front of her. Sara reached for the paneling against the cement of the building, lifting it up to reveal a hole that had been smashed in to get inside the building.
Reaching one foot through the opening, ducking her head, she pulls herself inside. It is dark inside, lit only by dim lanterns hanging on the walls. More discreet this way. She is able to make out the hallway she knew so well, leading left or right. Turning to check the passage and be sure the panel is securely tucked back so as no passerby's would think to look inside, she can see no light coming through the cracks. Now assured all is taken care of, she reaches into her leather jacket pocket, pulling out a red bandanna. She flicks her wrist to hear the snap of the fabric, before grasping both ends to reach around her neck and tie it securely. Once this is done, she takes one deep breath, straightens her shoulders and walks down the right side of the hallway. Her footsteps echo through the empty halls. No windows, only lanterns light the way in front of her feet. One sharp left turn, leads to several doorways on either side of the hall way. Third opening on the left. This leads to a larger open room, with more doorways. Walking a short ways in, there is a large opening on the right. Sara walks in, this room is more lit than the hallways. Between fifteen and twenty men turn to her in expectancy. Her eyes now stone cold, sweep the room. Taking note of the tattooed, muscle built men of all races. Their steely gazes staring back at her, some of them averting their eyes as she reaches them.
The silence grows heavier as her eyes stop and her tongue brushes the corner of her still red stained lips and she shakes her head sternly but slowly. "Someone want to tell me what the bloody 'ell 'appened last night?"
This was her dark secret, that which no one could know. She was the leader of a gang, one of the top three most feared gangs in the streets of St. Louis. To keep this title she could not slip up even for a moment, not show one bead of sweat, never let weakness penetrate her facial expression. Just one wrong move would destroy her. She had fought her way to this rank for many years and gone too far to ever get out now. Her only way out was death. And it would be gladly granted by many who reside here, even her own men, who would die for her, or kill her if they had the chance.
