Shivers

Agony

The Hunters were here. And not one thing any of us could do would change that. My heart was still beating - soon it wouldn't be... 

As we three stood and stared wide eyed at one another, the men just walked closer. They were coming up the stairs. At this rate, they wouldn't need to lunge to catch us. At this rate, we were dead. "So, which one of you lovely girls is Alice? Come on now, no need to be afraid. We aren't going to hurt you. Yet." They made sure to add the 'yet' and I made certain to take note of it.  

"Come on now, we don't have all day. Your brother wishes to see you. If you love him as much as you say you do, you would step forward - or he dies - your choice." I winced and almost screamed that I was the Alice they were looking for. The silence was terrifying as they stared us down. Glaring, they took another perilous step towards us. 

Just when I could have sworn they were about to snap, SHE did the most unimaginable thing in the world; I'll give you a clue: it wasn't purposefully breaking her nail. She took a minute step forward and murmured, "I am the Alice you are looking for." As soon as she said it, she shot a glance towards me and placed the broken pair of glasses on her face. Well, tried. Riley stared in disbelief and shock at her - if he didn't like her now, then he was sure to in the future, after all, she had possibly just saved my life. 

"Then who are these people? Your sister? Your friend?" They enquired, probably checking to see which others of us they needed to slaughter. 

"I am their lodger. They allowed me to sleep in their hideout - childish really. Now bring me to my brother." she demanded, even though she had no brother that I knew of. 

"Now for their names, Alice." the ugliest of them all told her. 

"Is that really necessary?" she was beginning to look feeble and scared as they tormented her. 

"Their NAMES!" they were starting to become uncontrollably impatient as Alice stalled her way through the simple, but revealing question. 

"Right! Okay! Um.." 

"HURRY UP!!" they were getting too impatient now; I din't think that they had much left. Of course, they would have been thinking it would be a simple job: a small girl, all alone and with no friends to deal with. 

"Um.....Well...This-this is Al-Rosella and this is um....Peter." Peter?! Seriously?! I suppose she was caught in the spot. Improvisation was nothing to be harsh about. 

"Rosella Martine? Well we have heard alot about you and your dead family. Social services were being a pain! Are you sure this is Peter? We thought that it was Riley Pierson." We all gawped. It couldn't be helped. The game was over. My brow furrowed as I began to brew a plan; I knew what to do. 

That's when I did the unimaginable. I grabbed Riley's hand, and Alice's, and dragged them over to the window. Hugging them tight, I smashed into the glass with all my force and all of a sudden, there was no ground beneath my feet as we plummeted to the ground... 

I awoke seconds after the fall, my head ringing with an incessant screeching. Alice lay beside me, coated in blood. I dreaded to think of what I looked like right now. I could feel the glass embedded in my fingers and face. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Riley, conscious, but also painted in crimson and glass. "Thanks you! We need to run! Is Alice awake yet?" I turned back to Alice's once pristine face and noticed that her perfect eyes were still shut tight. I shook my head. "We'll have to carry her then." Riley hauled himself up and lent me a blood-swathed hand. Pulling myself up, I couldn't hold back a cry of pain from my leg. A large piece of glass was lodged into my skin, paralyzing me. "Easy." he saw the cause of the pain and pulled it out ever so carefully, making sure I wasn't hurt any more that I needed to be. Thanking him, I changed my attention to Alice. Nudging her arm, I crept forward and eased my hand under her torso. I wasn't sure how I would do this but adrenaline was a strange thing. Blood seeped through my fingers, cold and thin. "Riley. Help me." I called over to him and he helped me with her. 

He took out all the tiny pieces of glass until there was only one piece left. It poked out from an odd place - an impossible place. I froze. Riley stopped cold too. We both knew why she wasn't responding. What we once thought reflective glass, was actually a rather glacial knife - and it was in her chest, near her once beating heart. Her body was slack in my arms as I lifted her face up to mine and yelled at the top of my lungs:" Wake up! WAKE UP! I HAVE NEVER LIKED YOU BUT i STILL CARE! STOP THIS PRANK! STOP THIS DREAM!" 

A whisper came from her lips. It was barely audible. "Alice. I never liked you either but I just want you to know that, from how much you don't want me gone that I......I love-" a silent breath escaped her lips. She was gone. I yelled and lashed out, not noticing my throbbing leg I leapt up as Riley fought against me, attempting to calm me down. "NO!" that was all I managed before something knocked me on the head, silencing my pleas...