Chapter 5
Mindy eyes flashed with fear, and she bolted through the backstage space, shoving people out of the way toward the exit door at the end of a long hallway.
Tessa stumbled after her, with Esmie hot on Tessa’s heels, bent over trying to stay out of sight.
Esmie noticed the band ahead of them about to exit.
She sped up, giving up stealth for speed, catching up to Mindy as she arrived at the heels of the band members.
They exited into a dark alleyway. The band banked right and fled into the dark.
Several other people exited to the left.
The girls paused, skidding on some remnant glass, which was probably why the cops were inside.
“Which way do we go?” Tessa’s head snapped back and forth.
“We need to go the way we came.” Mindy pointed to the left. Esmie caught her arm.
“No, wait. The police might have that way blocked. We need to avoid the area, even if we have to go out of the way a few blocks.” Mindy crossed her arms and opened her mouth, about to argue, but a commotion from the left stopped her.
At the end of the alley, there was a scuffle with police swarming the opening, forcing people onto the ground. “Run!” Esmie hissed.
The girls swiveled on their heels in the opposite direction.
Esmie had only taken a couple steps when the back door swung open and Chad stumbled out, carrying a brown paper bag.
With the sudden opening of the door, Esmie’s momentum carried her into Chad.
They collided, the brown bag falling onto the concrete floor, spilling its contents.
Esmie tumbled forward, landing on the ground face down.
Something pricked her eye. She yelped in pain.
Chad, who had caught his balance on the opposite wall, swore at her, dropping onto the ground.
Esmie’s right eye watered. She panicked when she couldn’t see out of it.
The noise from the end of the alley grew louder.
She needed to move. Esmie sat up, rubbing her eye, trying to stop it from watering.
In the haze, she thought she saw several purple specks scattered on the ground.
Oh Elohim, she hoped she hadn’t touched any glass.
She carefully stood, checking the area to ensure she hadn’t touched any.
Her hands and face appeared to have landed in a glass free area.
Some clung to her tulle skirt. She slid her hands in her jacket and used the fabric as a barrier to quickly wipe the shards off of her.
Glancing back, Chad was still on the ground hastily scooping up purple dots into the brown paper bag with gloves on.
“Stop,” a deep voice bellowed from the left. Chad froze, looked up, then sprinted off in the opposite direction. Esmie’s throat choked up as she attempted to see the blurry policeman approaching. The next moment Mindy and Tessa grabbed her arms, yanking her with them.
“We have to go, now!” Mindy shoved Esmie forward as they slid on the glass, running after Chad as fast as their heels, and Esmie’s eyes, could take them.
Tessa helped steer Esmie, who kept rubbing her right eye, hoping to clear it, Mindy leading them forward.
Pounding of feet and crunching glass sounded behind them.
Picking up their pace to keep up with Chad, he cleared the end of the alley.
When they exited, Mindy collided with a man in a uniform.
She pushed him to the ground, using him for leverage to propel herself forward.
Tessa and Esmie grabbed her hands to steady her as they raced across the street and down another alley.
Tessa released Esmie when they got some distance from their pursuers, but with her eye still watering, it was difficult for Esmie to see the twists and turns of the alleys.
Several times she tripped over bumpy brick walkways and curbs.
The neon lights that flashed at them when they traversed between alleys on the street, only made it worse, and a small headache bloomed.
The girls were tiring, hampered by Mindy’s and Tessa’s heels, and Esmie’s bad vision.
With the footsteps closing in, Esmie knew they needed to find somewhere to hide, and fast. She forgot about her watering eye and focused her left eye on their surroundings.
Recognizing this part of town as being closer to Brookshire State University, she remembered an abandoned apartment that was above a restaurant her father used to take her to, before her mother disallowed their visits this far into the city.
The restaurant owner stated he refused to rent it out because of past issues with tenants either not paying or causing issues at his restaurant.
It was only a couple blocks from their location.
She gripped her friends’ shoulders, steering them around the corner.
“I know a place where we can hide. Follow me,” Esmie panted, sprinting ahead, hoping her blurry vision would guide her in the right direction. She found the restaurant and cut diagonally across the street, making a beeline for it, before running past and around the corner down another alley.
“What are you doing? We have to get out of here,” Mindy’s voice rattled from behind.
Esmie ignored her, locating the dumpster she was searching for to lead them up to the apartment.
Locating it, she climbed on top of the dumpster, then balanced herself on the edge.
Jumping up and she grabbed the cold iron bars of the fire escape.
With a couple tugs, it groaned down and landed on the dumpster with a clang.
“There’s an empty apartment up this way.
We can hide there until the police stop following us,” Esmie called over her shoulder, already climbing up the cold, slippery metal bars.
Her friends didn’t answer. She glanced down to find them still standing below, shivering in the cool night.
“Come on! Or do you want to be arrested?” she commanded, pulling herself up to the first landing.
After sighing deeply, Mindy and Tessa helped each other up onto the dumpster.
Esmie hurried to the stiff window, whose paint flaked off upon her touch.
Grunting, she tugged it open as Tessa and Mindy stumbled onto the landing, their heels clutched in their hands.
Tessa jumped at the loud voices of the police coming from the street.
“Let’s go.” Esmie shimmied inside, then turned to help Tessa and Mindy through the open window.
They ducked down as a siren blared closer.
It rounded the corner beneath them. The dust on the worn wood floor swirled around them, coating their clothes and hair.
Esmie covered her mouth to stop from coughing, not daring to touch her eye as it shed more tears from the irritating dust.
Neither of them moved as they waited for what felt like hours before the noises around them finally died down until all that was left was the familiar sounds of the city.
“I think it’s safe to leave now,” Esmie whispered peeking out the cracked window. They each squeezed back out, making their way down the ladder to the alley below, covered in dust. Mindy surveyed her appearance.
“Great. I totally ruined my dress,” she pouted.
Esmie rolled her eyes. “You would’ve ruined it in jail too, so pick your consequence.
” Ugh, she sounded like her mother. “Besides, that’s the least of our worries.
We have to find a way home. I don’t know if the bus is still operating.
” She walked to the entrance of the alley, peeking out to ensure no one was there when a dark figure grabbed her arms tight.
“Gotcha, you little punk!” A small scream escaped Esmie’s lips. She squirmed but couldn’t escape the firm grasp of the man who held her tight. Her life was over.