fierce ↠ sweet pea [1] [✔]

|| FIFTEEN ||

Her breath grew thinner, her legs aching, but she kept running. Lauryn hoped she could get to the apartment in time to outrun the threat she could sense following after her. If there was one thing she'd learned living on the Southside, it was to go with her gut.

Living there, one could not tell themself they were merely paranoid, or stoop low enough to take that chance. It was all about survival.

Lauryn took her phone out of her pocket to call Sweet Pea, just to hear his voice and feel less alone on her journey across town, but her phone died the second she hit his name. She'd forgotten to charge it while she was asleep. "Damn it."

The main road constantly swarmed with mercenary jeeps cutting through town that time of night was what Lauryn wanted to avoid the most, so she decided to cut through an alleyway to end up across the road from Jared's. 

As she jogged through the darkness, passing trashcans and abandoned beer bottles, she took a breath, nearing the exit back into the light of the street. Before she could emerge from between the two buildings, she felt a hand clasp her wrist.

Dragged up against the wall with a sharp blade poking at the skin of her neck, she let out a gasp as she clenched her eyes shut. "What do you want from me?"

Her hand slowly drew towards her pocket, and she slowly opened her eyes to see a hauntingly familiar face glaring down at her.

"Surprise, little lady!" he jeered, cackling loudly. She felt his breath on her cheeks. "I heard what your little boyfriend did to Skye, and it appears that he underestimated what the payback would be."

"Malachai, get the fuck off of me!" Lauryn commanded, deliberately wriggling just to make her arm bending towards her jean pocket less obvious. "You already drew blood from me and got your girlfriend to stalk us, isn't that enough?"

"No, it ain't," Malachai replied bluntly, shaking his head. "You Serpents have done nothing but interfere with the Ghoulies' plans, and this week, you've been the main cause, princess."

Lauryn went to scream but felt the pressure of the blade poking further into her neck, scaring her to silence as his eyes met with hers, absorbing the fear out of them.

"It seems that Skye already left her mark," he purred, running his other hand down her neck to her shoulder. "Shame she couldn't finish the job. I was talkin' with my friends, and we've decided that we want you dead. You're Serpent legacy, you and your dad."

She took the chance and flicked open her switchblade at the very mention of her father, and in seconds, she'd turned the tables holding him tightly against the brick wall. Rid of his former cocky expression, she watched his nostrils flare as he breathed frantically. His knife slipped from his grasp onto the concrete.

"And how do you know that I don't want you dead?" she hissed. Though she had him in the perfect position to get revenge for what he did to her, she couldn't bring herself to insert her blade into his skin. She'd once lived for the spilling of blood, but now, she couldn't stand the thought of it.

"You and I both know you don't have the guts for that anymore, sweetheart," he taunted, knowing he'd be able to get to her very soul with his words. He chuckled as her expression changed, but then a fire sparked inside of her and she threw a punch to his nose.

"Don't call me that," she warned him, stepping back to watch him cradling the blood gushing out of his nostrils as she winced. "I had the guts for that, didn't I?"

He looked up, his dilated eyes reuniting with hers as his shoulders began to heave with rising fury. Despite the switchblade in her hand, Lauryn felt oddly defenceless, and she couldn't help but display part of her uneasiness as he stood up straight to lunge at her.