Run for your life

"Do you have any idea how much a door costs?"

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” –Calvin and Hobbes

 

Weary from the long day behind her, Shaun climbed from the open window into her apartment. Cursing to herself when she hit her head on the bamboo blind. She removed the pile of papers from her jacket and tossed them on the floor next to the window and glanced around. In the far corner was her black and blue stereo system with CD’s scattered around the general area; just in front of the music area was a mattress on the floor with set of black sheets and a neon blue comforter draped the short way on the bed. Shaun removed her green jacket and dropped it to the floor as she headed to the kitchen. Her grey hoodie followed the same suit revealing a red, ribbed tank top.

 

She opened the fridge, sprawling heavily on the refrigerator door, she perused its dismal contents.

 

“Let’s see,” Shaun spoke out loud to herself, “I have some left over blood,” she sniffed at it and jerked backwards. “I take that as a no.” She put it back making faces at it. She next shook the milk and heard thunking inside of it. Unwilling to go to the hospital because she smelt it, Shaun put it back, too. She rummaged through her supplies and, thus, finding chocolate that had an odd coloration to it, ramen noodles that were full of darts and small steak knives, a text book of Human anatomy, her cell phone, an empty carton of orange juice, and lamb meat that looked better than it smelled.  The crisper offered nothing better than some form of life that was well on its way of developing its own colony.

 

Inspecting the cupboards, she came up with the same results. “I could clean it out,” she stared morosely at the fridge, “but then, that would mean I have to clean it out. I’ll must… eat some cardboard.” She offered to herself. “Why am I talking to myself? People are going to think I’ve gone crazy.”

 

Glancing at the fridge, she decided to give it another shot. Just in case she missed something that was invisible. She grabbed the handle and her hand went right through. Shaun snatched her hand back, and stared at it; she, then, looked at the handle amazed as the area rippled where her hand had phased through.

 

“What is going on?” Shaun asked no one as she crouched down.

 

A curious person by nature, Shaun reached up to touch it. She paused inches away from the undulating matter. “I’ve seen this movie. This is where the part where the girl touches it and is sucked into a portal and transported to another world where she meets an irresistible barbarian warrior saves me from man eating plants. We fall madly in love and… eat pizza all day long.” Shaun sighed and rolled her eyes.

 

“Like that’s going to happen. With my luck all I’d get was a…” she grimaced at the worst possible scenario, “some more ramen noodles. Yuck.” She stuck her tongue out at the fridge.

 

Standing, Shaun headed for her stereo system strewn out in the corner. Pressing ‘PLAY’ on it, she flopped on the mattress that was next to her music collection.

 

“And through the life force and there goes her friend/ on her nishiki its out of time/And through the portal they can make amends/ Hey would you say whatever were blanket friends…” The soft soulful sings of Tori Amos with the accompaniment of a piano drifted through her speakers. Shaun sat up and loosened her laces on her boots. Once they were slipped off, she flopped onto her stomach, not bothering to remover her mismatched blue and white socks or cover up with a blanket.

 

“Can’t stop what’s coming/Can’t stop what is on its way/and through the walls they made their mud pies…”Smiling to herself, weariness settled into her limbs.

 

“I’ve got your mind I said/ She said I’ve got your voice/ I said you don’t need my voice girl/ you have your own/ But you never thought it was enough of/ so they went years and years/ Like sisters blanket girls…”

 

Shaun let her mind be carried away on the wave of the soothing melody of the music. Her fingers and toes twitched in time.

 

“Always there through that and this/ there’s nothing we cannot ever fix I said/ can’t stop what’s coming/ can’t stop what is on its way/ bells and footfall and soldiers and dolls brothers and lover she and I were/ Now she seems to be sand under his shoes/ There’s nothing I can do…”

 

The words blurred together as sleep settled over her, claiming her.

 

“And now I speak to you/Are you in there/ You have her face and her eyes/But you are not her/ And we go at each other like blanket’s/ Who can’t find their thread and their bare/ Can’t stop loving/ Can’t stop what is on its way/ And I see it coming/ And it’s on its way…”

 

Shaun heard the ocean as she opened her eyes, taste and smell it in the air along with smell of berries; she looked down and saw that she was wearing the same socks from when she went to bed. She looked about her at the small cottage. Drying herbs hung from the ceiling grazing her head, jars with various contents were shelved all across the walls. There was one wooden table, however, that was cluttered with sea shells and drift wood. Shaun smiled as she picked up one of the giant white conch shells with darkened tips. Shaun turned it over in her hands, examining it with her touch, before bring it up to her ear. Her eyes closed, her lips forming a smile. “This is a dream.”

 

“Isn’t the best reality, always is?” A woman taller than Shaun appeared by her side; she gently removed it from Shaun. Cradling the shell in her hand she placed it back in the exact same spot on the table. The top and upper part of the sides of the woman’s hair was pulled and tied back with a strip of rawhide. The rest of her tightly curling hair fell around her shoulders and down her arms. With the morning light behind her, setting her hair on fire, Shaun thought that it looked exactly like sunlight. Her eyes were ever warm and kind a few shakes darker than her hair. There was something about her that was kind and homey. She would be the one making the chocolate chip cookies for no reason at all. She wore a simple white dress that flowed with each of her movements from the fluttering hem to the bell sleeves.

 

“Weren’t you the one who once told me that reality is just a state of existence, mother?”

 

“You know full well I told you that. Who else would tell you something like that? Your father?” She laughed daintily. “First, he would have to take the time to actually have a conversation with you.”

 

Shaun smiled though Aishe’s words said one thing her tone stated an entire different matter. The tenderness in her voice bellied the indifference of her words.

 

Aishe straightened the shells, Shaun walked away from the table knowing the signs that her mother always exhibited when she was uncomfortable with the subject being discussed. The subject usually being Easley.

 

Shaun fingered a drying herb in her hand, watching it crumble because of her touch.

 

“You have always been such a destructive child,” Aishe tsked.

 

“That’s how you always scolded me,” Shaun removed the herb from the rafter. “Could this be a reality?” Shaun wondered.

 

“I see you are feeling philosophical, tonight.” Aishe laughed. “What makes you think that it wouldn’t be one?”

 

“A reality is something that’s perceived as a fact. This,” Shaun waved the herb around her, “this all used to be real. I lived here with you.”

 

“But it changed,” Aishe cupped Shaun’s cheek in the palm of her hand.

 

“Yes, but,” Shaun shook her head, “I have no memory of it. I was here and then, I wasn’t.” Shaun glanced around searching for the answer that had been eluding her. “Something…” her gaze jumped back to her mothers, “I did. I changed, why did I change?”

 

“You know the answer to it.”

 

“But I don’t-” Shaun gasped at the red stain, spreading rapidly across Aishe’s torso. “Mom,” she cried as she caught her mother just before she fell to the floor.

 

“Everything ends up repeating... it comes and goes. Mistakes never stop coming,” Aishe raised her head and Shaun found herself staring into Nic’s eyes.

 

The floor boards creaked behind her causing her body to stiffen in response. A lash of white hot pain flashed across her cheek. Her fingers shaking, Shaun touched it; they came away with blood. Like mist dissolving before the sun, the dream dissolved around her into darkness; everything including her mother, the cottage, the sound of the ocean hitting the rocks, and all of the smells with it.

 

Shaun whirled around searching the darkness for any sign of movement, but all there was shadows. There was nothing ominous, nothing alive within them.

 

She slowly rose to her knees, glancing around her seeking for any kind of movement, but finding none. She attempted to stand to her feet only to stumble to the ground. She glanced at the feet seeing them bonded by ropes, grapping at them she stopped at the sight of seeing the same binds around fastening her wrists together.

 

“This is a dream,” she tried reassuring herself. Her stomach rolled over, making her feel queasy, the fear all too familiar. “It has to be a dream. I’ve been here already,” Shaun looked around frantically. She stopped herself and closed her eyes taking a reassuring breath, “done this already.” Unsheathing her fangs, her incisors lengthened; she attacked the rope with a vengeance; gnawing at it. The rough material scraped away at her cheek,

 

“I’m not going through this again,” Shaun vowed to herself, she took a look at the bondage, seeing nothing had changed except for the blood on them. Gritting her teeth against the dull throbbing pain fanning across her right cheek; hunger gnawed at her stomach.

 

“This is all in my head, none of this is real. It’s fake.” She repeated over and over again.

 

The shadows swirled and writhed in front of her. It moved upwards creating a shape that slowly morphed into a man. The darkness took on a lightly tanned hue with black hair tied back. His face revealed itself with strong cheek bones, an arrogant jaw line, and a lilt to his eyes common among the orients. His eyes were whiskey brown that were so emotionless, that they made her wary. He wore black slacks, a beige shirt with the top few buttons open at the collar, and a matching jacket.

 

Shaun glared at him. “Now, this doesn’t bring on feelings of déjà vu.” She drawled sarcastically, “What the hell is my subconscious thinking making me dream this up? I know I didn’t have any pizza before going to bed, so what are you doing here?”

 

She wasn’t surprised when all he did was stand there looking menacing. He turned and disappeared into the shadows.

 

“What does this have some kind of poetic meaning that my brain had concocted?” Shaun yelled out, immediately regretting it when her lip split.

 

A hand grasped her shoulder, twisting around she met dark blue eyes. “Grey?” She questioned. It was him, yet he was different. His eyes looked dead, vacant. His hair didn’t have the wave, but was rather straight past his shoulders. His clothing was different for one he was wearing a soft brown leather pants that seemed off the set of some Robin Hood movie, white pirate shirt with a vest matching the pants. In his upraised hand above his head, he held a blade. Nothing special about it just had a black handle with no ornamentation. “My fears aren’t going to chain me,” she told him, conviction in her voice.

 

The blade arched downward at her and passed right through her…

 

“You think you can come around here/all up in his face/ all up in my world/ you better know you/ better know/ I’m at your door…”

 

Startling upwards, Shaun glanced around the room confused, her breath heaving from her lungs. There was a heaviness weighing down on her chest and she left like she had walked right into a brick wall or at least a somewhat stable wall (hey, when you are used to phasing through stuff it can happen). The dream had already started to fade from her mind. “At least the chainsaw man wasn’t coming after me.”

 

“You got a  right you got a  right to know/ me and my teenage hustling/I’ve been working it/ since I was fourteen/ me and my teenage hustling/ it’s going to save me/ from your dirty dealings/ you are a dirty girl/ you are such a dirty girl/ you better know…”

                   

Rolling out of bed, Shaun listened to half an ear of the music from the speakers pounded out a staccato piano with the accompaniment of drums.  That’s when it hit her like a freight train. The niggling sense of familiarity in the back of her mind, she finally remember where she had met Jiraiya Greyson from before.

 

And she had a word or two to ask him about that.

 

I’m at your door/ you better know/ I’m at your door/ maybe the riddle of this accident/ goes back to your gossip/ with a ferocious gossip…” Tori Amos sang out ‘Teenage Hustling’.

 

With a purpose in her step, Shaun picked up her jacket and stared morosely at the muck on it, the hoodie seemed to be in no better condition. Deciding on giving it a shot, Shaun concentrated on the garments and phased the muck out of them. She made a face at the mess on the floor, sighing she figured that the much wasn’t going to clean itself up.

 

“I'm at your door/ You better know/I'm at your door/ Maybe the riddle of this accident/ Goes back to your gossip/ With a ferocious strategy
You play wounded in his cockpit/ But I think that you forgot my days/ Of Teenage Hustling/ You better know/ I'm at your door/ You better know/ I'm at your door/you got a right to know…”

 

Humming to herself, she put them on, all too happy that they were somewhat clean. Unfortunately, she couldn’t entirely get rid of the smell that permeated her clothes from the muck.

 

“It’s going to save me/Save me/ from your dirty dealings/ Now, I don’t mind a Dirty girl/ I don’t mind a dirty girl…”

 

Shaun’s ears perked up at the sound of people usually the sound of people clomping around outside would not have made her wary. Unless of course said sound of footsteps stopped right outside her door. Shaun paused in the middle of her ‘living’ area jacket unbuttoned, listening.

 

Giggling sounded from the other side of the door.  Shaun’s eyes narrowed, giggling she was fine with, but when there was high pitched giggling… that was a whole entirely different matter. High pitched giggling meant younger girl, younger girl usually meant someone who most likely watched a TV show involving staking vampires.

 

There was a loud knock on the door followed by more high pitched giggling. Shaun eyes narrowed. This was so not good for her. She grabbed a black case next to her fridge just as the door exploded inwards.  

 

Gasping, Shaun protected her head and phased her body through the objects flying through the air at her. Without waiting for the dust to settle Shaun ran and phased through the wall. Not even stopping when she hit the fire escape. Her arms flayed in the air as she fell a few stories, trying to keep on her feet and not land on her butt.

 

Shaun ignored the sharp shooting pain that laced up her shins from the contact with the concrete. Resisting the urge to check over her shoulders, to see if whoever blew up the door was following close behind her. She ran down the familiar alleyway, jumping over the bags of spilled garbage and not breathing through her mouth should the smells bring on a case of the gags.

 

She ran through the oncoming traffic, hoping that it would slow down whoever was chasing her. Horns honked with the squeal of drivers slamming on their brakes. Shaun set out a mental ‘sorry’ to all of them who nearly had a stroke because of her when she phased through the front end of their car.

 

Pumping her legs furiously and lungs screaming at her as she dragged in every breath, she headed down another alleyway and right through the brick wall at the end that usually signalled a dead end which however meant nothing to Shaun. She phased right through the wall, though she left behind her black vinyl case for later findings.

 

Shaun faced the sudden thought that she should’ve started jogging a few hundred years ago. Then, maybe now she wouldn’t be in the current situation that she is in, now.

 

Or maybe bicycling, Shaun thought to herself as the echoing of running footsteps drew nearer and nearer.

 

One solution might work… they may be able to blow up stuff… but I bet that they can’t walk through them.

 

Adding even more speed on, Shaun headed for a dilapidated looking building, with old band posters plastered on the side of the building. She ran right through the wall and kept on going without stopping to get her bearings. She skidded to a stop in the second room and pulled back a fist. Closing her eyes, knowing it was going to hurt like she wouldn’t believe, Shaun punched the plastered wall.

 

She allowed herself one muttered curse before using the hole as a way for her to place her foot to propel her to the ceiling. She phased her arm through the ceiling and quickly unphased her hand when in reached. Groaning with effort she pulled herself up onto the second floor. She felt and heard one of the walls exploding on the level below her, as she crouched down on the floor glancing about.

 

Dirt was everywhere including the peaces of animals that she didn’t even want to begin to consider, dust motes dancing on the sun beams that managed to shine through the grim covered windows. Along with yellowed newspapers that could’ve been left behind from squatters. Shaun knew from experience that places like this were being shut down, and demolished so something new and exciting could be put in its place. Something that new born vampires would be proud to call it their own. Shaun knew it would be something bright and flashy and gross. 

 

Figuring she didn’t have much time left, Shaun took off in the direction where the sun streamed in, hoping that her chaser didn’t figure out her ploy onto the second level. Shaun had no time for regrets when she hit the landing outside and ran into the railing, knocking the breath out of her. Holding her abdomen, Shaun climbed to her feet, using the metal railway as a way to help her stand to her feet. The black paint peels bit into her palm, but Shaun ignored them, fighting her way past the adrenaline, the panic that clutched at her heart, and the breathing. Taking a breathe, holding, and, then, releasing it; Shaun imagined herself on some deserted beach sipping on martini glass with blood that had a cute little umbrella sticking out of it.

 

Unfortunately she was shocked out of the little fantasy when she heard the giggling once again on the other side of the wall.

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Shaun groaned as she jumped over the railing, again.

 

Though this time, something grabbed her ankle upsetting her balance. Instead of being prepared to land on her feet, she was trying not to land on her head. Shaun squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on just phasing though, the concrete. Luckily, she felt her body phase through the concrete. The unlucky part was when her body stopped phasing.

 

The loud clanking of someone climbing down the fire escape was just icing on the cake. Shaun reared her head back trying to pull herself out of the concrete before the chaser managed to get to her. Her face came cleanly out of the concrete; however, the rest of her body wasn’t so lucky. Shaun tried to pull out her left hand, but the concrete wouldn’t let her go. Her hand didn’t as much as stay in the concrete as much as the concrete stayed on her hand. The whole thing reminded Shaun of her first experience with silly putty. How it always stretched no matter how far you pulled, except this time it was sticking to her hand. The same happened with her other hand, and with her knees. No matter how hard she tried to extricate herself, it stayed there.

 

With a loud clap, Shaun knew that her chaser had jumped to the ground and was slowly approaching her. If I can’t do up… then, I should just do down, Shaun thought pressing her body into the ground and was relieved to see that it actually worked. However, this time she didn’t float through the ground at all. No, this time it was a nightmare.

 

She felt everything, and they were alive. From the cars driving down the busy streets, every pedestrian strolling down the sidewalk, each fly that swirled around the garbage lining the alleyways; and each and every molecule as they pressed and moved against one another. It was all there, she could feel it broadcasting itself. She wanted to scream, to tear at her hair to yell to do something to make it stop, but she was unable to. Instead, she bared her world of torture knowing full well that if she surfaced she risked the chance of getting blown up by her pursuer. Feeling parts of her die piece by piece as she struggled against the urgency to surface, to escape.

 

Finally, till she thought her head was about to explode; Shaun struggled upwards till she was on her hands and knees gasping for breath. A hand grabbed her shoulder, surprising a yelp out of her and which caused to whirl around swinging.

 

Grey moved his head slightly to his left, feeling the fist whoosh just past his face.

 

“I take it this is not a good time?”

 

Shaun blinked up at him, not really believing that he was there. “Are you stalking me again?”

 

“No… I was on my way to the negotiations.”

 

“There are negotiations today?” Shaun asked pleasantly surprised, she withdrew her arm to her side and stood.

 

“Of course, if what you call all that yelling and screaming negotiations.”

 

Shaun smiled up at him as she climbed to her feet. The lethargy that had settled over her limbs reminded her of the reason why she was in the alleyway. Jumping around, Shaun looked down the alleyway and up the fire escape, searching for her pursuer.

 

“Is everything all right?” Grey asked unsure if she had gone totally crazy.

 

“I was… there was someone after me.”

 

“Someone? Were you able to see them, to get a description of them?”

 

Shaun turned, frowning at him, “I was a tad bit busy running for my life. Besides knowing how close they were to me would’ve have been that good for my mental state. They could blow up things.”

 

“Blow up things.” Grey asked, mind racing.

 

“That’s how they got in my apartment. Blew up my door.” Shaun made a blow up noise and gestured wildly with her hands.

 

“Were you hurt?” He asked genuinely concerned.

 

“Nope,” Shaun answered walking past him and down the street, her legs feeling wobbly.

 

“You ducked for cover?” He asked following her.

 

“Nah, I just phased through my exploding door when parts of it came flying at me.”

 

“Oh…” Grey frowned at her. “Then, how did you escape?”

 

“I went through the wall.”

 

“But…”

 

“Don’t worry, Grey, I generally have an excellent sense of direction.  Besides I knew something was up when I heard the high pitched giggling on the other side of the door.”

 

“The giggling clued you in?”

 

“No, it was the fact that I heard giggling on the other side of the door.”

 

“Come again?”

 

Shaun sighed morosely, “No one uses my front door. If anyone stops by my apartment they use the fire escape.”

 

“Why the fire escape?”

 

“Because my apartment building doesn’t have a stairwell.”

 

“What?” Grey asked jerking backwards.

 

“Well, the staircase leading to my floor is rotted away and everything. It doesn’t mean that the other tenants don’t have a way to get to their apartment.”

 

“Fire escape.”

 

“Nah,” Shaun shook her head, “most everyone on my floor either levitates or they have this ability to climb walls. It’s actually pretty cool to watch. It wasn’t like I’m not used to hearing people in the hallway, but the visitors I usually get can’t really do either. So, they use the fire escape and my visitor somehow got onto my floor without using the fire escape.”

 

“Frightened?”

 

“Sort of peeved, irritated, and a dash of scared.” Shaun admitted watching each of the passing pedestrians watching to see if any of them were giggling. “It’s one thing to just come at me, but to come at me while blowing stuff up? I’d have to be stupid not to be somewhat scared.”

 

“What about the peeved and irritated?”

 

“Dude, whoever it was blew up my door. I have to get a new door, now, and do you know how much a door costs?”

 

“No.”

 

“Neither do I.”

 

“Looks like we’re in the same boat,” Grey smiled down at her. He finally glanced around to see where he had followed her to. “Where are we going?”

 

“You know, when your world is threatened and you’ve gone through a somewhat traumatic experience there’s just some things that a girl has to do.”

 

“Like what?” Grey asked warily.

 

“Well, not so much as do rather than eat.”

 

“Why am I suddenly afraid?” 

 

Shaun grinned slyly at him.

 

Reviews

[Yaooooooo]

Very well written..
Keep up the good wrok and feel free to send me a request...
Thanks for sharing,
One!