The Billion Dollar Girl

(Chapter 1)

About half-an-hour later, my boss came down the stairs, and left, tossing me the keys to the gym, and as always, telling me to clean up properly or he’ll fire me tomorrow. What a nice guy. He switched the lights off to “save electricity”, so I had to work by moonlight. Bastard.

There was a thud against the left window. I debated whether or not to bother to go to the window and tell them we’re closed, or to just carry on cleaning. I checked my watch, a watch I got on my twelfth birthday. Eleven PM. They should know it wasn’t open. I just carried on scrubbing the floors, trying to get the mud out.

Smash.

I froze. What was that? It sounded like…smashing glass. Slowly, I looked up. There was a brick next to the now broken window, surrounded by broken shards of glass. A sudden rush of wind came through the broken window, raising goose-bumps on my skin.

My heart thudded so hard against my ribcage my chest hurt. Who did that?

I stood up, cautiously, all my senses in hyper-mode. Oh my God. Someone’s broken in. They were going to kill me. They were going to –

A black shadow came through the window, kind of circular, but bumpy. It took me awhile to realize it was someone coming in.

I slid behind a treadmill, as slowly as I could. My foot brushed against a bucket, and it toppled over. The sound echoed through the gym, resounding beautifully, in a way I could have appreciated, if I were not in a life-or-death situation.

Crap.

The shadow in the window froze as well. The guy shifted into the moonlight, and I saw that he had pale blue eyes the color of the ocean, and my heart started thumping again. My hand went to my chest. What was wrong with me?

“Don’t worry,” a deep, husky voice whispered. My head snapped up, and for a second I thought he was talking to me. “No one’s here. That was just the wind.”

Who was he talking to?

The guy slid in, slowly so the shards of broken glass wouldn’t cut him, one limb at a time. My heart hammered against my chest when I saw the baseball bat in his hand, and as he came through the window, the bat was illuminated just for a second. I let out an audible gasp. The bat had been nailed with dozens and dozens of nails, sharp little twists of metal that glinted subtly in the moonlight.

He was here to do some serious damage.

When he was through, I saw his teeth reflect the moonlight for a split-second – he’d just smirked. His silhouette looked well-built. I probably couldn’t take him.

He walked over to the door, his footsteps echoing around the empty building, and opened the door. Three others walked in.

Whoa. If I thought he was well-built…well, the other three guys were mountainous. Literally. Like the Hulk. But bigger.

And they were all carrying bats.

Oh my God…Oh my GOD!

“Well,” the guy with the pale blue eyes, smirking again, “shall we get the fun started?”

He swung his bat at the treadmill next to him, smashing the plastic.

The rest of them laughed, and joined in.

I closed my eyes, and slapped my hands over my ears, trying to block out the noise. Stop it. Stop it! They can’t do this. I was going to get blamed for it. I was going to get fired. I couldn’t…

Then the sounds stopped. A couple breathless moments later, I opened my eyes. Everything was pitch-black. The moon had gone.

No. I was wrong. Someone was standing directly in front of me, blocking my light.