"Four... five... six...

Just a few more steps...

Seven.... eight.. nine...

Almost there....

Ten.. just need to stay put and hide until morning now.."


Like always, Sek was right. Well, she wasn't always right but Sa'idah didn't really care. Her friend and her were safe for now and that's what really matter. The alley that Sek draged her into was old and dirty. Old bottle and broken crates, the perfect hide out for a runaway.. and also the strongest cliché Sa'idah could think of.

Sa'idah alowed herself a brief sigh.
After hours of running, hiding and more running she finaly felt safe.
Earlier today a power surge alowed her and Sek to escape that rotten hell hole. She didn't know why the emergency power didn't set in but she didn't cared enough to stay and find out.
"We must be the luckiest girl in all of London right now..."

"Lucky? You call running away from the police, being wet to the bones and cold like a corpse lucky? I think I could find a few thousand girls more lucky then us in this city!"

Sa'idah sighed and smiled upon hearing her closest friend word. Like always Sek was exagerating things to look like a martyr. But she did had a point.

Alright, let's look around to see if we could find something to keep us warm or at least hidden from the rain...

Sa'idah looked around the alley, looking for anything that could be usefull.

*cling*

Broken pieces of glass, probably from a window near by. Has Sa'idah looked down she caught her own reflection looking back at her in the broken window pieces.

.......

"This could be usefull if someone finds us tonight" said Sek bending over the pieces to take a shard in her hand.

"No offence Sa'i, but your too soft for your own good. If we don't find something to shelter us we should take it from one of the homless around here. We're gonna put it to better use then them anyway..."

Sek cared for Sa'idah deeply, but sometime she found the girl a bit to soft. The World didn't cared if you died in a dark and dirty alley. Life would go on with or without you. But Sa'idah knew this already. Sek just wished that she'd put that knowledge more often in action.

"And don't you look at me like that, you know it's true!"

Sek sighted. How could Sa'idah stay so calm and caring after all that happen was a mistery to her. She would had have all the good reason to be a selfish, chaotic and uncaring person, but still she kept her calm and was ready to go out of her way to help an other. Of course not to much out of her way, Sek made sure of that.

"Alright.. we'll do it your way... but don't cry to me when you wake up in puddle."

"Really Sek, after al this time, I would tought that you would have become immune to my "Stare of disapproval""

"Well I am. I just didn't feel like getting into an argument. Were both to cold and to wet."

And in a really bad mood.. but you already know that. God I would kill for a dose of Agony right now... and Sa'i's probably thinking the same has me... we should never have started to take that damn drug.. but it was the thing we needed back there...

.......

"Karim?
You there?"

Strange, Sa'idah tought. He should be back by now.

Sa'idah closed the door and headed to the kitchen. A note on the fridge told her that her brother was out and wouldn't be back for supper. Great, an other night alone with dad she tought.

She sighted has she putted the camera on the table.

Since her mother left them a month ago things were going downhill fast. Her father started to drink and was drunk half of the time. The other half of the time... he wasn't at home. She mentaly got ready for the fight she would have with him again. Every time it ended in a fight. Her father couldn't stand the fact that her mother left him and not the other way around. And since she was the only other "women" he knew, he lashed out at her.

Well she didn't really care. In less then half a year she would be gone from this place! School was going well and she had been accepted oversea. She had found a photography college in Germany. Half a year until she was compltly free.

"Uhm.. maybe this is a bad time for me to be here.."

Sa'idah turned around and looked at here friend with a serious look.

"You finally have the time and guts to meet my familly and you decide to back up? Not this time Sek. Sunlord! We've known each other since we're 6 and you never met my parents! This might not be the best time but I don't think any "good time" will present it self.. not with my father always drunk and pissed."

Sek seemed like she was about to say something when a sadly familar grunt came from behind Sa'idah.

"You crazy girl, who are you calling drunk?! I'm per...per..perfectly sober! Only have 6 beer in me. Damn you, your just like she was, criticizing about everything I did..."

And here we go again... She didn't want Sek to see this but she wasn't about to roll down for him.

"You are drunk you ape! Look at yourself! Did you even go to work today? Or were you to busy crying over how your life is ruined now. For god sake your supose to be a cop! I can't even bring one friend home without you embarasing yourself and me! You are a pitefull man, really."

She turned around to see Seks reaction to the fight but didn't find her. Typical. In the last 10 years she never been able to make meet anyone. Being so shy couldn't be good for her...

Sa'idah never saw it comming. Her fathers hand connected with her face so hard that she fell to the floor, confuse. He never had resorted to violence before!

"You bitch! That's the last straw! You use the same words your mother used! I had it. I'm gonna teach you to respect me, no i'm gonna force you to respect me... I'll make sure that you won't ever, ever again raise your voice when speaking to me. I'm gonna educate like a girl should be educated! Starting now!"

Before she could say something or even try something, he grabed her forearms and trew her acros the room. She landed against the door of her own room , wich opened in a lound bang. The mirror on the other side had broken and glass was litering the room.

Her room was Sa'idahs little heaven. The walls had tons of picture she had taken herself. Mostly close shots of people eyes and faces. Sa'idah had always belive the saying that only the eyes could never lie. However, her heaven had become a nightmare. All of her mother pictures were burned and/or cuted. Her father must had done that while she was at school. Every single picture she had of her mom were destroyed.

Her father entered the room and closed the door behind him swiftly. Sa'idah still haden't recovered from her inital shock and couldn't resist him. He forced her on the bed and then forced himself on her. Sa'idah couldn't belive what was happening, she was numb from shock, numb from grief, numb from sadness, numb from hate and numb from pain. Time seemed to stop and every color in her room seemed to loose it's brightness. For the duration of the torture her father made her look at herself in the broken mirror on the back of the door. Eventually she realised that they weren't alone, Sek was there.

Sa'idah couldn't remember exactly what happened next. The only thing she could recall was that Sek offered herself to her father to save Sa'idah. Once Sek had things going with her father she remember Sek taking a shard of the broken mirror and stabbing Sa'idahs father again and again and again... The both of them ran away that night, knowing that friends of her father would go looking for them. They never left each other side since then.
.....

Sek shook her head softly. She didn't need to remember that right now. The first night after the incident they started to take that drug. It was the only thing that alowed them enought peace of mind to fall asleep. Soon then both were hooked up.

"There, that looks like a dry enough place... we better have some rest now.. Things are going to get interesting tomorow."

Without a word both of them sat down. Soon sleep came, but without the drug, both of them knew they would not have good dreams.
.........

The old man looked at the sleeping girl in the middle of the alley. Well that one was a strange one! Speaking to herself like she wasn't alone. Ah! Speaking to one self was a sign of intelligence, but answering was clearly a sign that something didn't go right in that girls head.