Alice — pg. 3

I am not lost. To be lost, you have to know where it is you’re supposed to be, and I don’t even know that.

The red haired woman was breathing heavily as she looked all around for a way out. The window seemed like the best bet, it had frost around the edges and the falling snow outside could be seen in the soft glow of the street lights. She rushed over to it and stood on the toilet seat in order to open it.

Just as her hands reached the window a loud knock came to the door behind her. Her hair spun around her head as she looked back to hear the voice on the other side.

“Miss, I am deputy Sarah Douglas of the Shaver Lake Sheriff’s office. Come on out of there so that we can help you.” Sarah’s voice was calm and tried to convince the girl on the other side that it was safe to come out.

“Ju-just a minute Deputy… I am just using the bathroom…” the girl with fire for hair responded. She tried the window again but the frost was keeping it stuck.

“Damn it please open, I need you to open right now!”

It didn’t seem that the window was capable of reading her thoughts though. She didn’t exactly know why her flight response triggered, but instincts were not to be ignored. She looked up to the vent in the ceiling and stood on her tip toes to try to reach it. Her small five foot two frame wasn’t quite able to reach it though.

She looked behind her at the water tank and started to climb up onto it, her left foot slipping a bit, but she maintained her balance by holding on to the wall next to her. Another knock came and red responded with:

“Just a minute please, go sit down, I will be right out.” Red said to the door.

“Alright Miss, we’ll give you about five minutes okay? You are safe here, no one is going to hurt you, not while I am here. You can trust me.” the Deputy sounded rather genuine.

“Okay… I will be out in a minute.” Red reached up to the vent and started to unscrew the bolts there keeping it up. It was a very narrow space but it was her only way out as well.

When she had the vent open she almost dropped the vent catching it with her foot it hit the garbage can instead. It didn’t make too much noise as there were already paper towels in there from when she had cleaned herself up. She closed those mismatching green and blue eyes.

“That was too freakin close.”

She lept off the water tank of the toilet grabbing onto the edge of the vent in the ceiling and started to pull herself up. She put her bare feet on the window for balance as she worked her small body up into the vent. Her breasts made it a little bit difficult to get past her chest, so she sucked her breath in as much as she could and wiggled back and forth.

Finally she had gotten both of her arms up into the air-duct. Breathing a sigh of relief, another knock came at the door. Encouraging her to work faster she had just pulled her feet into the vent as the deputy entered the bathroom with Terry behind her holding the keys.

“She’s making a run for it!” Deputy Douglas said as she drew her service pistol, but it was too late, Red had vanished from sight into the vent.

Red was scared her heart raced a million miles an hour as she crawled through the small space as quickly as it would allow her too. Meanwhile the Sarah Douglas rushed back out to her patrol jeep and got onto the radio back to their office.

After a short while the woman with the conflagration atop her head reached the outside vent and started to beat her fist against it. It took a bit of effort to knock it out, but she she did she pulled herself out of it, tumbling down into a drift of snow beside the building.

She quickly popped back up and heard the engine of the patrol jeep revving up and the red and blue lights flashed as well. It was a short while later that a spot light shined on the girl from the Jeep and the Deputy began running after her.

Red took off though, she ran as fast as her legs could take her as she ran deeper into the woods. The snow beneath her feet biting at them to remind her how cold it was to run barefoot through it.

“Stop or I will shoot! Stop, Stop Miss please!” Sara said behind her as she rushed after her. She took aim then as it was clear that Red was not going to stop and fired off two rounds. The loud noise made the girl duck, but in the dark and with the snow falling around them the shots didn’t make their mark.

Douglas ran back to her Jeep knowing where the woman was going would let out to she sped off in that direction.

“They’re shooting at us?! What did we do? Run girl run.”

She exited the woods shortly after to once again be lit up by the Deputy’s head lights as she came bounding around the corner and started after her again. Red saw the lake in question up ahead, and it was covered with a layer of ice. She ran her little bare feet over the ice, but found it just as slippery as you would expect.

“Whoa, Whoa Lady! Don’t go out there! Come back, the ice isn’t thick enough for you to be out there! Please come back!” Sara pleaded with desperation. She was a small town cop, never expecting something crazy like this to happen unless it was spring break with all the college students from out of state.

The woman didn’t listen though as she continued to move at a relatively fast pace over the ice. She could hear it cracking beneath her and an eerie sound similar to that of a tight cable being bounced up and down. She didn’t care though she had to get away and the other shore line didn’t look as far as it really was.

“Come back please!” Sarah shouted again afraid to follow her out onto the ice herself. Until she closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She stepped out onto the ice as well, lighting the girl up with her flashlight as she spoke over the radio. “The girl has gone out onto the ice, in pursuit. Please send an ambulance, the fire department and back up to the north shore.”

Red continued to slip and slide on the ice about a hundred meters in front of Sarah. Then the ice growled at her, cracking and crumbling beneath her. She was suddenly pulled under the freezing cold water with a yelp.

End of Page 3. Page four is “soon”.

I love you beautiful creatures.
~Naomi

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