Her day had been going well... She had pretend breakfast in the morning across from a coffee shop, with pretend Bacon and pretend eggs, (That were really just parts from a launchable she'd stolen the night before) and a pretend latte what was really just a discarded, expired juice she had found in the trash behind the store in an empty to-go coffee cup. She was having breakfast with her newest, most favorite friend Mr. Stardust, who was a stuffed unicorn she had found on the ground in a park. He was missing his horn, but she didn't care.

The small empty hat on the ground next to her had been slowly filling up with spare change, and a few dollars here and there. She carried on a soft conversation with Mr. Stardust as people hurried past until her Lunchable was empty and her juice was gone. Then, it was time to move. 

After having packed her stuff away and heading off to a different area of town, her day got significantly worse. At some point, a large white van had appeared and appeared to be following her. She turned a few corners, and doubled back once, but... nope, still there.

She thought to cut through a fenced alley to get away, but her luck turned on her. 

Hence why she found herself huddled against the cold metal side of a van as it thumped along toward its next target. Her wrists were tied together with stiff rope, and a strip of ducktape had been slapped over her mouth. She was terrified because they people who had nabbed her hadn't said a word. Was she gonna die today? Were they a part of one of the families? Had her mum sent them? 

A million thoughts flitted through her head as she sat there, shivering from fright, and tried to think up a good escape tactic.

The next person the grabbed made a bit of a scene. 

Like... A lot of a bit of a scene. The number and creativity of curse words that could be heard inside that little van would be enough to make a seasoned sailor blush. This was in conjunction with the sound of two grown ass adults trying to club her like a baby seal to shut her up and being vastly confused when it wasn't at all effective. After a while they gave up trying to knock her out, managed to get a bit of a gag on her, tied her up sloppily, and threw her in the back next to some other girl.

Where she sat. a grumpy look in her eyes for a while, and then... Well... A kinda bored one.

She turned to look at her fellow prisoner, gave her an up and down glance, rolled her eyes, and then finished chewing through the cloth in her mouth enough to loosen and spit it out. 

"Great. This really wasn't how I was planning in spending my day... Any idea who these assholes are?"

She muttered, more annoyed than anything else. 

They both got in the front, It was two older men, looked like contractors turned kidnappers. They started talking about how it was 1500 per head, and trying to figure out where the drop off point was again.  She tried to make out more details of their faces through the grate in the way of the front seat area. Nope. She knew they both had dark hair, one was taller and skinnier, one was shorter and fatter. Both thought they were in charge.

Neither of them were.

She looked over to the scared little girl again, blinking a few times. "Oh, quit your crying, we're gonna be fine." She grumbled, shifting in her binds for a moment. "You able to get out of there? They clearly weren't experts at tying knots, and I could use a hand."

The van slammed to a stop. Eisley went rolling like a petrified armadillo from one end of the van to the other. Shouting could be heard outside, but she struggled to pinpoint what was being said due to all of the other noises and her bad ear.

By the time she was able to recognize the sound of another young female voice, the doors had been thrown open and someone else was tossed inside.

What commenced then was nothing short of horrifying and... confusing. Confuifying. Eisley watched as both of the grown men tried to subdue the other girl, and it only seemed to make her angrier. It eventually ended with another tied hostage in the back, while the men climbed up front to get back on the road.

"Great. This really wasn't how I was planning on spending my day... Any idea who these assholes are?"

The teen swiveled her head around oddly for a moment until she found just the right spot to make out what was being said. She's only heard half of it... but enough to hazard a guess at what was being asked. She shook her head mutely while working on separating the tape from her face with her lips and tongue.

"Oh, quit your crying, we're gonna be fine. You able to get out of there? They clearly weren't experts at tying knots, and I could use a hand."

Eisley fixed a doe-in-headlights look at the girl and sniffled pathetically, before attempting to calm herself down. She took a long look at her ropes, wiggled her wrists a bit, and discovered they really weren't all that tight. It just took a little... pressure... and BAM! One hand slipped out, a little red and raw but free. She removed the tape from her mouth a moment later.

She still sniffled as snot threatened to escape from her nose, but held the waterworks in. She looked to the other girl's ropes, reaching out with shaking hands to try and un-knot the rope. A few fumbled moments later she was crying again because she couldn't get the knot undone.

"Ah dod do watdo doooo" Her nose was definitely leaking now. And her eyes. Oh god, it was everywhere!

The observation was 100 percent accurate. The seemingly younger woman did not appear to be the least bit afraid of the situation they were in. Why? She didn't seem it because she wasn't. What did she have to be afraid of? She was, however, massively inconvenienced. She tried to get the ropes off again.

Yup, nothing doing. Her binds were sloppily done, yeah, but enough monkeys typing in a room might write lines from Shakespeare with enough luck. She grumbled, and then her eyes widened in excitement for a moment when the other girl slipped from her rope prison.  


"Excellent! Now all you have to do is untie me, and we can get out of here." She turned toward the teenager, a confident look on her face that slowly degraded into a look of disappointment as the weepy child failed to undo her binds. She sighed heavily and looked back to call her an idiot to see that she was bawling her eyes out. "Oh jees, really? Settle down, now, we're going to be just fine... You just have to do exactly what I say... Okay?"

She looked around quickly... The two men were talking about taxes or something, too busy to notice the helpless kids in the back up to something. Next her eyes fell on her dress... There was a little tear in it from when they'd grabbed her. It was small, but they could work with it.

"I keep a pocket knife in a very safe place... I need you to grab it and set me free, okay?" She motioned toward the tear. "I need you to rip this open... You will see a hole... In me. My pocket knife is in there. If you want to escape, you need to buck up and grab it, okay?"

The blond was calm, and it helped to settle Eisley down. She wiped her nose and eyes on the back of one sleeve, keeping quiet as she responded. "Okay..."

The teen listened raptly, good ear tilted toward the girl as her eyes darted from the girl to the backs of the men and back nervously. She had a knife, they could cut the ropes and... escape or something. She wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing that yet.

The knife was in a pocket or something. She struggle with the meaning of what the blond had said. She didn't see any pockets. Maybe an inside pocket? She reached for the fabric of the dress with a guilty expression on her face. It was a nice dress too. Shame to ruin it.

You will see a hole... In me

The fabric split, tearing easily. All thoughts that there was a hidden inside pocket were dashed when her big ole doe eyes landed on...that.

Eisley paled considerable, jerking away without making much sound and slapping a hand over her face. She panic!gestured silently at the girl and toward her stomach as if she didn't know there was a huge gory hole in herself.

After having turned and had a little freak out silently to herself, she caught sight of one of the men starting to turn to check on them. She was back in her spot in flat second, hands tangled in the loose rope so it would seem she was still tied up. She didn't even have to sniffle because she was going through the various stages of disgust denial and finally acceptance of what she was going to have to do and it sounded the same.

The guy gave them a once over, before turning back and making himself comfortable again.

When Eisley thought it was safe, she turned back to the girl and that guilty, frightened expression was back. "... It.. doesn't hurt, does it?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

Whatever the case she was going to have to do it, wasn't she? She edged closer, her trembling hand reaching for the tear in the dress and what laid beyond it.

One awkward moment of reach and grab later and she had a knife in her palm, and was actively trying not to gag too loudly. 

Trying to get past her own repulsion she flipped the little knife open and quickly set to sawing through the girls bindings.

The girl agreed to the task at hand surprisingly easily... L wasn't sure if she'd heard her clearly.  She'd asked her to- Rip! 

The blubbering brat saw the whole scope of what L was asking and freaked the @#$^ out. There it was. The daintily dressed mean girl had a flat look on her face as she mentally prepared herself to play a game of 20 questions after this. Again, not how she'd wanted to spend the day.

She looked away from the man as he looked back, opting not to move much other than that. They both didn't really seem intelligent enough to figure something was up, so she, again, was very nonchalant about the whole thing. 

Blubber face chimed in again, asking a stupid question. "Yeah, I put things like knives in there because I get off on pain. This'll be the highlight of my day. " She deadpanned sarcastically, and muttered again, "Now hurry up before they notice. They can't be too slow if they know how to operate a motor vehicle, though knowing NYC they're barely passable in both respe-. oookay." Yup, she had someone's hand inside her. This was way less awkward when she was doing it herself.

Why had she opted to use her stomach hole for storage? No one was ever willing to search it. No one was even pervasive enough to think to go there. It would be, thankfully, a surprisingly dry place. It was as if the whole system was pretty much shut down in there. Where ever this provided access to, it didn't seem to go into the foody parts,luckily. 

The unpleasant experience ended, and she relaxed from the one moment of this whole experience in which she'd actually been pushed out of her comfort zone. Whala. The girl had the knife, and was quickly cutting through the binds. Snap!

She was free. She struggled for a moment to get everything off, and then sat up. Normally, people rubbed their reddened wrists. She did not seem to do this at all. The whole thing would seem strangely alien to anyone watching. It was as if she were a little doll, devoid of feeling, incautious, and in this moment, immensely powerful. She walked on over to the back, and tried to open the door... It was an old latch, and she wasn't strong enough to trigger it. Maybe no so powerful. She grumped, put her hands on her hips, and pointed at the door while looking at the other girl. 

Eisley stared at the girl for a moment with her eyebrows up. What did she expect her to do, magic it open with her mind?

She glanced back at the men, then to the door, to the blond, and back to the door again. It was just a latch. Nothing special about it. She reached out and tugged on the latch and it swung open easily.

What wasn't easy was the road that greeted them. They were easily going about 40 on a highway. She wasn't sure exactly where without being able to spy a street name first. The door flung open and she spied the road whizzing past below them

"Woah!"

What was the next step of the plan?

The guys up front finally noticed and started turning in their seats to see. The van jerked a little to the left and right. "Ay! Close that damn door!!"

Eisely panicked. "Crap!" She didn't usually swear, but this was a drastic situation.

The door swung open with a dramatic increase in sound. That wasn't getting past the two stooges up front. She glanced back at them, and saw one of them looking back at her. 

Shit.

They needed to act quickly. The girl was actually smaller than her, though she looked a bit older... What she had in mind would probably work... Probably.  The man said something. Before too long they would swerve to a stop. They needed to act before that happened.  She grabbed the girl's hand, and looked into her eyes, her blue eyes with brownish flecks trying the best they could to be comforting and reassuring as she said. 

"This will probably hurt, but everything is going to be fine."

The invincible girl then wrapped her in a big hug, and dove out onto the road.

They hit the pavement like a sack of bricks, landing right on L's spine and spinning rapidly off to the side in the direction she had jumped. L took the brunt of the impact, but it would probably sting a lot. Scraped knees aside, L would already be standing by the time the girl started to recover. Her dress was in shreds, but hanging on by a small assortment of threads.

"Get up! We have to get out of here before they turn around!" She would attempt to help her up, grab her hand, and run to the nearest cover. They could figure things out from there. 

The girl looked at her and her eyes conveyed all the proper things. Then her mouth started saying them, but Eisley didn't hear a word of it over the roar of the air rushing past and the men yelling behind. She had trouble picking apart normal sounds during the day... this was a bit much.

Still, she was able to gather a few words from staring at the girl's lips. Something would hurt and be fine. What on earth did that m-

She was enveloped in a big hug and managed a screech of surprise as she was dragged bodily out the door. They were going to die! She was going to die! The other girl had survived a hole in the stomach she would probably survive this too! But SHE was going to die!

Everything blurred together into a drop and then spinning. She didn't register the pain of scraping her skin on the ground so much as she registered how solid it was.

Ignoring the pain she was scrambling up into her feet shortly after the blond girl. The van had screeched to a stop moments after the fell out so there wasn't much time.

As they ran she twisted this way and that looking for street signs and familiar landmarks.

She knew where they were.

"Follow me!" She took the lead then, ignoring a protesting knee as she ran. They were close to one of her escape routes. She commonly used it when stealing from the discount shop down the street.

A back alley would lead behind a few apartments, past a laundromat, and eventually to a small shop that had closed down a few months ago. It was boarded up but squatters tended to use it for quick rests. A small, hidden entrance behind a loose piece of plywood let them in. She would close it behind her once they were both inside.

Much to L's surprise, It was the weepy girl's turn to take charge. She followed without question, honestly slightly impressed that the girl knew where they were; her leg probably hurt a bit too, but adrenaline had to be taking over.

"Do you live near here?" She asked as she followed, figuring that was a reasonable explanation for her knowledge of the area. Great, they could hide behind her parents, and call the police. Then she could go home, make home hot pockets, and tell people on World of Legends that people tried to kidnap her today. Would they even believe her? Most of them questioned if she was really a woman, or a little boy. Still, they were people to talk to, so... Yeah.

Jesus she was so sad.

"We can go to your house and get the cops over here. Did you get the liscene plate, by any chance?" Her mind was racing as she looked around while following the girl through a series of back alleys. Slowly her feeling of relief ebbed; This girl was taking them to a pretty shady part of town... and... into an abandoned shop.

"Uh... You don't... have a house... Do you?" She reluctantly climbed into the terrible smelling, cobweb infested hole of a shop, a look of disdain plastered on her face.

She hung out for a moment, looking around quietly before the smell started to get to her... People probably peed in a corner here. "I, uh... The probably don't know where we are, right? Why don't I..." She looked over to the girl quietly for a second, and then sighed. "We... Can go to my house. Get you cleaned up. I probably need to stop for medical stuff on the way, seeing as I don't really keep band-aids around."

Was she really suggesting this? She didn't even know this kid... "Hey, where did you put my knife, anyway?"

Eisley heard bits and pieces of what the girl was saying but ignored it. Nothing was more important than getting somewhere safe. When they were safely inside the building she turned her good ear to the girl and blinked at her from the corners of her eyes.

Did she have a house?

The teen glanced down at herself, old dirty jeans and a clean but torn in a few places t-shirt... Dirt stained backpack. She was pretty sure there were rats in her hair and dirt smudged on her face. Did she look like she had a house? Silently, Eisley shook her head and moved to plop down on the ground so she could insect a new hole in her pants and the freshly scraped knee under it.

"I, uh... They probably don't know where we are, right? Why don't I... We... Can go to my house. Get you cleaned up. I probably need to stop for medical stuff on the way, seeing as I don't really keep band-aids around."

The teen had her head angled in a funny way so that she could hear the blond aright. The moment she mentioned going to a house her face whipped around and she stared at the girl with eyes as wide as saucers. Has she just heard that right? No way... people didn't just invite people who looked like her into their houses. Not unless they wanted something.

The teen gave the girl a perfect cow eye for a moment, weight options in her head. She wasn't very strong if she couldn't get that door open before.... and Eisely didn't really have anything she figured the girl would find worthy of stealing.

"Hey, where did you put my knife, anyway?"

A sheepish look crawled onto her face and she ducked her head. Oops! Eisley climbed to her feet and reached back to retrieve the knife from her backpack. When had gotten put in there? She was really good at swiping things, that's when.

"Eheh... Sorry, habit." She held the knife out for the girl to take. Gulping, the teen turned her eyes away so that her rattled nerves wouldn't show as much. "You don't have to be nice. I'll survive. I've had worse done before and walked away fine."

She snuck a glance at the girls torn dress though. It was practically hanging on by a few threads. "Are you gonna be alright though? How are you gonna get home by yourself like that? People in this area are really mean to girls like you."

Then again, she had petty much fallen out of a moving van without a scratch. What was it she had said before?

"Do you get off on that too?" She blinked innocently up at the taller girl.

Sarcasm was not something she had ever learned in one of her shows.

I mean, yeah, this girl was all sorts of @#$^ed up, for sure, but for all L knew she'd been a hostage for some time, right? Nope, she just went around looking that way. Ew. Nope, don't you judge, Ellalouise! This poor girl is just a product of the system built by the bourgeoisie! Yes, she was a victim of class injustice, and it was the responsibility of people like L to lift her up!

But not to stop being rich, because she really preferred to  be comfortable in her big house... Hypocrite? Where?

She gave a suspicious squint as the girl fished out her knife, and she put it back in her tummy hole, which she noted after today's experience was going to he a her-only access place from now on. Having someone else in there was just a bit too odd. 

The, what, ten year old or something, told her she would be perfectly fine on her own, and L made a bit of a face as she went on about L herself being messed up, and wondering how she was going to get home okay with all the perverts and muggers about. She fell on her face when she asked her about getting off on it. "W-WHAT?!"

She paused for a second, and then turned a bit red. "Oh, right. Yes. No, that was a joke. Are you thick or something? Do you know about sarcasm?" She self assessed for a moment. She wasn't great at detecting these things when she was ten, either. "Nevermind. You're just fine. Ignore me. But yes, It's incredibly dangerous out there for a girl like me. You will simply have to escort me to my home."

She couldn't stand the smell of this place any longer. Without another word, she turned and walked out. A few steps in, she realized she had no idea where she was. Still, she didn't turn or look... 

"Can you take me to 5th and Madison? My car is there."

The teen jumped at the outburst but kept her owlish eyes on the blond. Sarcasm? She'd heard the word before but didn't know a lick about what it meant. Still, she flushed red in the face at being called thick. She wasn't thick! She just didn't know some things!!

Then the girl switched directions again and told her that she needed to take her home. So... okay then. Eisley supposed that if it meant she would get home alright, she could help her out. She'd been hoping that maybe the girl had a phone and could just call someone, but whatever. Hopefully her parents wouldn't yell or throw things at her.


"Sure... I guess." Blondie started to head our, barking out directions. Eisley was so focused on picturing a map in her head to figure out which way to go she nearly missed the car comment.

"You have a car?!"

She let go of the piece of swinging plywood in her surprise, banging herself in the side of the knee with it. She hissed and hopped around for a moment with a little tear in one eye until the pain resided. "You have a personal driver or something?"

While waiting for an answer she hicked her backpack up and headed off toward 5th and Madison, keeping her good ear angled at the other girl.

L steadily slowed her pace so that the other girl was walking aside her, and then in front. She had no idea where she was going, so she sure as heck wasn't going to lead the way. She had a double take at the girl questioning her ownership of a car. Her face pinched up a bit and she replied dryly. "Yes I have a car. I have a drivers liscence, and a credit card, too. Crazy, right?" She reminded herself again not to get mad. She was just a kid. If an adult questioned her at every turn like this she would have found a way to hurt them by now. 

On the topic of a driver, her eyebrows lifted a bit. "That's not a bad idea, actually." She didn't reply any further. 

"So... How long have you been out here?" She tried to make conversation. Honestly, she wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, but her therapist had told her to seek more opportunities for social interaction, so... You know, this counted, right?  She followed the girl, keeping an eye our for that van as she went. They needed to get to some of the busier streets, where there would be too many people for someone to try something.

"Do you get kidnapped a lot out here? Is that a Tuesday thing, or was this a break in the routine?" 

Her eyes bugged out of her head a little at the notion that the blond had her own credit cards and a drivers license. You could get them that young?! She had thought it was an adult-only kind of thing. "Woah... that's so cool."

She led them along quickly through familiar pathways and sidewalks, avoiding areas where other street people tended to hang out. She didn't want anymore unpleasant interactions for the day. One was enough.

"Uhh..." She replied eloquently at first, scrunching her face up while thinking about it. How long had she been out here? ... A long time. She hadn't really been counting. She wasn't good at keeping track of days and had never really learned how to keep track of weeks and years. The best she had was a few calendar clippings from specific days so she could keep track of specific events.

She wasn't sure when she had left home, or how old she had been. Someone at the hospital had mentioned something about her age once but she hadn't really been in the mood to listen.

"I dunno... Um... like... eight summers?" She held up eight fingers, which she had been counting off of.

Her nose scrunched again at the implication that she was abducted a lot. She wasn't sure if it was a joke, or serious. "I'm pretty good at avoiding people usually... but snatchers been really active a lot. Lots of kids've been getting picked up."

She turned her head to blink at the girl. "What's a routine?"