Michelle gasped as the table crashed into her.
Satara steadied it with both hands and made sure the older woman was pinned to the wall before she ran to the door. She exhaled her relief as the handle turned and it opened. No hand cuffs. No locked doors. You trusted me too much and I'm sorry that everyone else you deal with from now on is going to have a harder time because of it. She caught a glimpse of Michelle's shocked expression, heard the horror in her voice as she called out to Satara, and then shut the door. But I'm not worried about them. Not when Sin and Jayce might be on their way here already.
She twisted the small safety lock directly beneath the handle. I need to get my bag back first. She forced herself into a brisk walk as if she knew where she was going and had every right to be going there. She couldn't remember her very first visit to the police station clearly but knew she hadn't carried anything with her at the time.
They must have a storage room for people they arrest. Or at least somewhere to look through people's belongings. I can't search the whole place but it's not like I can't leave without my bag either. Sin's card is in there. She paused as someone backed out of a room on her left with a handful of papers. A flash of deep blue beneath black hair caught her eye and the corridor was surprisingly free of other people. Most were probably interrogating or being interrogated. She had several seconds to think of everything that could go wrong as she walked up behind the young woman and grabbed the nape of her neck.
“What in the world –?” Despite her light tone, Ashley tensed up as soon as Satara secured her left wrist behind her back and pressed her against the door she had been about to lock.
The papers fluttered to the floor around their feet and she was about a header taller than Satara, who lightly menaced the area next to her jugular vein. “Where did they put my stuff?”
Some of the tension left Ashely's arm and neck. “Satara?”
So she knew who I was too. Satara swallowed but kept an eye out for any onlookers. “Answer the question.”
The other woman raised her left hand with the door-key above her head. “Can I ask why?”
“No.” She's stalling.
“Okay.” She drew in a shallow but steady breath. “Have you already been inte – have you already spoken to a detective?”
“Yeah.” It was hard to watch both her captive and their surroundings. Any minute now, someone was bound to catch her manhandling the trainee. “Hurry and tell me –”
“I am.” Though she didn't raise her voice, Ashley's voice struck her like a fire-bolt. “Was there a mirror in the room?”
“Yeah.” Satara's face warmed. I probably look like a kid copying someone from an action movie.
“It's probably in the room next door.” Is she still stalling? “They normally keep it there in case they need it during the session.”
“Why don't they bring it in straight away?”
“Some people can't focus when they see someone else with their stuff and that's not always helpful.”
Satara relaxed her fingers long enough to spin Ashley around, gently placing her hand against her throat and switching her grip to her left elbow. “You want me to go back to the room I just came from? Do you think I'm stupid?”
“You know I don't.” Ashley's gaze flitted down to the papers and then roved her face, half hidden by both her hair and her partially lowered eyelid. “Which is why I don't understand what you think you're doing right now.”
“I don't have time to explain why.” Her grip tightened around the trainee's arm. “But you have to come with me.”
“Ah really? I just got told to make copies for this evaluation and I'm going to be in trouble if I don't –”
“Please Ashley.” She held the other's stare as it returned to her eyes. Oddly enough, the word didn't leave a sour trail in her throat. “I wouldn't do this if I had a choice.”
The throat against the edge of Satara's palm moved.
“I'm sorry you feel that way. Honestly.” Ashley lifted her free hand slowly and patted the offensive fingers. “This kind of hurts so what do you need me to do?”
“Take me to my stuff and help me get out of here as fast as you can,” she replied.
“All right. Your best bet is to hide while I –” She laughed self deprecatingly as Satara's eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah. You're one of the smart ones. Let's go. It might look better if I cuff you.”
“You just said I'm –” Footsteps and conversation came from around a corner several feet away and Satara lowered her hand from her neck. “Do you have any?”
“Nope.”
“Then what –?” She barely withheld a hiss as Ashley twisted her arm up behind her right before Michelle appeared with another female officer. “You –!”
“Don't,” said the trainee. “You're stronger than me and I know I'll be the one to suffer more if you fight back.”
“Not if there are two of you.” She pulled her wrist free easily as Ashley lowered her voice
“You can get away at any time. See?” Her fingers crept around Satara's upper arm on the opposite side. “Just play along for now, all right? I'll get you out of here.”
Why though? Satara leaned away from her whispers. What's in it for her?
“Don't even think about tricking me,” she rumbled under her breath. Not that I could do much about it even if she did.
“Satara!” exclaimed Michelle. “Why did you run off like that?”
She was clearly trying not to limp. Satara wanted to look away from her searching gaze.
“I thought she looked a little bit sus,” said Ashley. “I guess she's one of yours?”
“A runaway.” Michelle sighed. “It looks like she's developed a bad habit.”
Satara's urge to lower her eyes vanished. I can hear you, you know.
“Which room were you in? I don't mind taking her back.”
“No worries. We can take it from here.” Michelle nodded at the woman beside her who stepped forward and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
Satara stiffened but the thumb around her upper arm pressed closer to her skin in a silent message.
“I was just about to look for you actually,” said the trainee. “Chief Marion said she needed to talk to you. Something about Jake and some evaluation forms?”
“Right now?” Michelle glanced at the papers scattered on the floor.
“Yeah. She doesn't look like she's feeling too – ah – great either.” In her peripheral vision, Ashley's hand moved towards the ceiling before it wrapped around Satara's arm again. “You know how her hip is. She said it's definitely going to rain today.”
Some people really can just lie, can't they? Satara scowled but Michelle seemed to have misinterpreted her frustration.
“Okay. Christie, can you go with them?” Michelle shook her head with another sight. “I'll be back as soon as I can.”
“Oh, before you go, is it okay if I chat with her until you get back.” A smile slipped into Ashely's voice. “I've got like seven minutes until my shift's over and Satara might not be here tomorrow.”
“Why do you want to talk to her?” The detective's brow crinkled.
“I'm working on an assignment about runaways but my last case study got taken out of town. I've been looking for replacements but all we've had for the last week are druggies and rap-” She faltered. “Not runaways.”
“You've got five minutes.” Michelle gestured the woman beside her. “You can take them now.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Okay.” Christie reached for Satara's arm as the older woman hobbled away from them.
“I've got her,” said Ashley. “Do you mind bringing those papers for me?”
“What? Why should I –?”
“Thanks,” said Ashley over her shoulder.
“This bi-”
“Wasn't that a bit obvious?” murmured Satara as Ashley led her back to the room she had just escaped from.
Her heartbeat seemed to come from inside her stomach instead of her chest.
“Maybe but it won't make a difference.” The trainee entered the room with Satara but didn't sit down.
“Why not?” How did she know which room we were in?
“Because we're going to be here when Christie comes, doing what she expects us to be doing.”
“What?” Satara didn't sit either, lingering by the other's side. Am I going to have to punch her?
“So when I ask her to do something else, she'll expect the same thing the next time she comes back.” Ashley waited by the door for a couple of minutes and opened it right before Christie could turn the handle. “Oh, you're here. Could you do me one more favour?”
Satara grasped the cuff of her sleeve in a silent warning as the older woman started to push the door open. “What the hell are you-?”
“Do you mind grabbing us some water?” Ashley took the sheaf of papers from her. “All that running's made her thirsty.”
“Get it yourself,” muttered Christie. “I've been on my feet all day.”
“But I've only got five minutes with her.” Ashley checked her non existent watch with a small, taut smile in her voice. “Four minutes now. Please?”
“Okaaay,” groaned Christie.
“There's a fountain that wa-”
“I know where the bloody water fountain is,” she snapped. “You're not the only one with a brain around here, okay?”
“Of course.” Her submissive words didn't match the faint disbelief in the half visible tilt of Ashley's mouth. “Thanks again.”
She closed the door again, waited several seconds, then glanced at Satara before peering out. “Looks like the coast is clear.”
They crossed into the next room and Satara swung the bag onto her shoulder instead of embracing it. She turned as something made a clinking noise and her companion raised both eyebrows at her.
She nodded. “Let's go.”
She walked in front again with her arms behind her but they had each by the wrist. She tried not to tense up whenever someone passed them in the corridor.
“There's a fire escape this way,” said Ashley under her breath. “Lucky for us, there's a bathroom in the same direction. If anyone asks, you needed to pee.”
“I only ran away,” said Satara. “Why're they acting like I killed someone?”
“I guess they just don't want your parents to blame them for letting you get away again.” Ashely's laugh faded into a sigh. “Speaking of which, are they the shouty type or are they just going to liquefy me with their eyes?”
They probably won't care that much either way.
“They're not here,” she said. A green sticker on the wall pointed them in the right direction above a blatant toilet sign. She wasn't lying this time.
“Your mum and dad?”
“Yeah.” She shook her head. “Michelle said they were on the way.”
“They weren't there when you were speaking to her?” A familiar hardness lined her tone.
“What does it mean?” asked Satara. “If they're not?”
“Aah, it's always best to have a child's parents or guardian present during things like that,” said Ashley. “It saves us from having to deal with a load of problems later on.”
“I'm not a kid.”
“You're not an adult either.” Ashley's voice slowed to a drawl. “Not that it matters. Age is just a number, after all. Unless someone tries to get too friendly with you. Then you can use it like a hammer.”
Her rambling sounded like a ploy. Giving her time to organise her thoughts seemed like a bad idea.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because I don't want you to break my face.” Her open amusement appeared playful. The station noise made it harder to track the rhythm of her breathing.
“Yeah but you agreed too quickly.” She paused as a man approached them. He winked at Ashley and waved but didn't stop to talk to her. Was that a signal? No, it can't be. She hasn't had time to plan anything with anyone else and I doubt she's thought of a way to deal with something like this before today.
“Because I didn't want you to hurt me and I didn't need time to work that out,” said Ashley. “Not really sure why anyone has to think about it, to be honest.”
“It guess it depends on what the other option is.” Satara adjusted her grip on the hand nestled against the small of her back between their bodies.
“Meaning?” An illuminated sign above a pair of green door appeared at the other end of the corridor they turned into.
“Sometimes you have to choose who gets hurt, don't you?” said Satara. “You can't always pick the other person.”
“Ah right. Makes sense.” A moment of silence passed. “Is that why you ran away? Because you don't want to hurt your parents?”
Don't answer her. She doesn't need to know anything else about me. The absence of a mental distraction for the trainee loomed over her head like a threatening hand.
“I can't hurt them,” she said, opting to be cryptic instead.
“Why do you think that?”
If she's going to change her mind about helping me, now's the time to do it. Two fire extinguishers stood beside the wall behind and in front of her. A open room yawned on her left. She looked away from the legs of a nearby chair.
“Because –” – they're already dead. She couldn't tell her that. Why bring up her own history when there was a chance that the other young adult only knew her as a runaway. “– they're better off with me gone.”
The phrase was cringe-worthy but true. Nothing good would happen if she returned to the Langs, even if they honestly wanted her to. Wherever she went, people ended up getting hurt and sometimes they couldn't recover from their wounds.
“What makes you say that?” The faint mischief faded from Ashely's questions.
“Why do you want to know?” They passed the doorway.
“I'm helping you get away from them,” she replied. “I'd just like to know what kind of damage I'm going to be held responsible for, that's all.”
Satara hesitated and didn't want to know the answer even as she asked, “Are you going to get into a lot of trouble?”
“Only if they find out I let you escape on purpose.”
“You don't have to lie to me,” she said. They left the row of chairs behind them.
“I know.”
“But you're going to anyway, aren't you?”
“I said I'd help you get away. I'm not lying about that.” Ashley paused before she spoke again. “And that's only because you've probably got a good reason for running.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because most non-adults are better off with their parents unless something's very wrong,” she answered. “And they know it, even if they're not particularly clever.”
“The La – My mum and dad haven't done anything wrong.” The last thing I need to do is make them look guilty of something worse than taking me in.
“Then who did?”
A third of the corridor stretched between them and the fire escape. Ashley didn't sound like she was planning any last minute tricks. Her breathing was even but Satara still found it difficult to not look over her shoulder.
“What?”
“People don't just leave other people for no reason. Especially not family,” she said. “If they didn't do anything to drive you out of your home, something or someone must have made you feel like you couldn't stay there.”
I knew I shouldn't have said anything. Satara stifled a grimace. “Do you have a family?”
“Yeah. My little brother.”
“What about your mum and dad?” Why is she answering me so easily? She glared at the last fire extinguisher as they walked past it. She's probably lying again.
“He lives with them.”
Then why didn't you mention them at the same time? “Why don't you?”
“Live with them?” Satara confirmed her guess with a soft grunt. “Hmm, because I had something I needed to do.”
They stopped in front of the green doors briefly and her companion mirrored her movements as she checked their surroundings for witnessed before leaving through them.
“So do I,” said Satara once the heavy door closed behind her and they had released each other.
“You have something to do?”
She stepped away and faced the trainee with a nod. If there were any cameras in the cold stairwell, they had probably been installed with subtlety in mind.
“That's why you ran away?” Ashley hummed to herself. “I see.”
“That's why I can't stay here.” Satara steeled herself. “And why I can't have anyone chase me straight away.”
“Whoa, one sec.” Ashley backed up against the door with her hands raised as Satara moved towards her. “You don't have to do anything drastic. I'll just stay here for about ten minutes and then pretend you knocked me out in the bathroom.”
“You don't have to do that,” said Satara. “Just give me the handcuffs.”
“You saw that, huh?” Ashley's eye wandered towards the stair-rails and she smiled weakly when Satara didn't follow her gaze. “I suppose it'd be a bad idea to run right now, wouldn't it?”
“Definitely.” Satara held out her hand to retrieve the handcuffs Ashley had picked up from the two way mirror room, then pulled the older youth over to the steps by her sleeve. “Thanks for not being stupid.”
“You're welcome.” She sat down and let Satara bind her to the metal railing. “Could you do me a favour?”
“What?”
“Could you leave the key somewhere I can reach?” She rubbed her lower stomach as Satara stared at her. “Not easily. Just somewhere I can get to if I stretch well enough. I've got a weak bladder so I don't want to get stuck with no way out if I need to use the bathroom.”
“It's okay,” said Satara as she placed the keys just out of range of the other's foot. “I'm sure if it comes down to it, you'll give everything a shot so you can get out and live with no regrets.”
Ashley searched her dry expression, then chuckled shortly and pointed a finger gun at her. “You're not wrong.”
“I know.” The younger of the two almost grimaced and looked down. “It's starting to become a habit.”
She started down the stairs leading to where she assumed the final fire exit would be, her footsteps extra loud in the otherwise empty stairwell.
“Satara.” Ashley leaned around the rails as far as her bound wrist would allow. “That thing you're supposed to do.”
“Yeah?” She paused.
“Are you looking for someone?”
She fixed her expression before turning fully. “Why do you think that?”
“I know us adults can be unreliable at times.” Sympathy softened the trainee's otherwise piercing gaze. “But some of us really want to keep you safe, you know?”
Black and white wings radiating dark red zai and dripping bright red blood unfolded in her mind's eye and she smiled grimly. “I know.”
“So this thing you have to do … are you sure you can't leave it to us?” For a second, Ashely's hidden eye seemed to glitter through the curtain of her hair. “Are you sure you're the one who has to do it?”
The police can't find Saytarnia for me. Or Xade. And even if they did, what then? A normal prison would be like a playhouse for people like them. Satara dragged her fingertips across her wrist. We're from Chirean. That's probably the only place in the world that can deal with them on the same level.
“I think I'm the only one who can,” she said, even as the scent of burnt tapestries and bodies emanated from memories that weren't her own. “And I don't have time to find out either way.”
“I see. That's a shame.” Ashley shook her head but her mournful smile didn't change. “Once you've done whatever it is you need to do, come find me again. If there's still a chance we can show these doughnuts how to do it properly, I'm willing to fry with you.”
“Thanks.” Satara snorted as she turned away. “I hope you don't need to use the bathroom anytime soon.”
“Me, you, and the cleaners.” Ashley's soft laughter accompanied her down the stairs.
Once she reached the lowest level, Satara pushed down the bar across a green side door with a grunt. Chilled air struck her face like chiding fingers and she blinked in the sunlight. It's morning already? She appeared to be on the other side of the building and paused to work out the direction of both the clinic and Melissa's house. They might expect me to go back there and Ashley might tell them to check the clinic too.
No one in her immediate vicinity resembled a police officer but she slowed her walk until she reached the pavement and tried to look like she had been intentionally released from the station. For now, I just need to go somewhere with no cameras. From across the road, the building didn't seem as large as it had from the front car park, much like a hill she had just conquered. I only got out without anyone else noticing because Ashley played along. I really hope she doesn't get into too much trouble for it.
“Sorry,” she muttered as she swerved around the person she almost walked into.
His raised hand grazed her upper arm before he used it to steady his black fedora. “That's okay, b.”
B? As in babe? The letter reminded her of female classmates and didn't match his formal dark grey, two piece suit. His musical voice also clashed with the silver hair that curled over the collar of his black shirt. She grimaced but didn't confront him about his paradoxical appearance. This witness might actually remember what happens this time. She kept her pace unhurried and tucked her hands out of sight. The town hadn't changed much since she left. Hopefully that would extend to her new destination.
At least one of them should still be around.
<><><><><>
The man she nearly bumped into watched her walk down the road and turn a corner, his head tilted down. The brim of his hat hid the small smile on his surprisingly youthful face from the CCTV cameras around him.
My dear darling, Satara. His dark grey eyes twinkled. You have nothing to apologise for.