| "Pan... are you alright?..." A delicate hand touched her shoulder. Daniel looked at her and she hugged him from despair. She cried. He didn't, but was depressingly silent. Mike came around the corner with the same terrified face he had when she first saw him. "Hey... it'll be alright, you'll see..." But she hated herself for having froze and not found a way on the spot to get to the hospital. She lost sense of concentration and now some cop cars were already going seperate ways. Just then, out of nowhere came a tall policeman who asked to talk to Mike. Pandora signaled him and said "I'll meet you at the hospital, Mike." She looked at Daniel and headed off. She wasn't going to stick around with Mike and the policeman to hear what had happened. No. Seeing Vinny at the hospital as soon as possibe was more important. Besides, Daniel could inform her on certain things while they left to their destination. * * * The bus terminus was full of people left and right, but it had had worse days. Down by one corner were two adolescents infront of the city map. One looked over the map while the other paced back and forth, trying to figure out a way for something. "Well... what about your aunt? She lives close by here, no?" Pandora asked. "No. They're all out. i TOLD you my whole family is out of the province for the week for Sandra's wedding!" He was right. She had forgotten about the family trip, and continued to search the map. "And all you got is a grandmother which can't drive..." Pandora glared at him from the corner of her eye as he continued to complain. "So you're saying there's NO ONE to drive us to the hospital for an emergency!? He might fucking DIE, man!!" "I know, I know!! Stop stressing me!... Wait! Here it is!" She pointed at a certain hospital sign on the board, eight or nine blocks away from where they were. "It's not that far away from here. Common, let's go." They grabbed their skateboards-- now the fastest way to get to the hospital since they had just missed the bus-- and headed for the stairway. "They're over there! Stop them!" Hearing that and seeing two cops running stright towards them convinced Pandora that her day WAS getting worse than thought possible. But she had done nothing wrong... and Daniel hadn't brought up anything about breaking political laws lately; But they were still running towards them. She didn't need this. She had done nothing wrong, therefore started walking faster up the stairs. "Hey you, Stop!" the first policeman ran up and chased her, catching her arm halfway through the pair of stairs. She could already see Daniel trying to release himself from the other policeman's grasp. "Let go! Let go!" she shouted as she was pushing and swinging her arms around wildly, trying to get free. Her skateboard dropped and her left foot slipped on it. As she fell down one or two stairs, all she could hear and feel for the next five seconds was a crack in her ankle. From that little moment, all thoughts of being free and getting to the hospital were let go of. The policeman grabbed both arms and brought her-- more like dragged her-- to the side of a less popular wall. She moaned and swore to herself. "Listen you punk! When yo--" "Hey! What did you do to Pandora!? Let her go!" Daniel screamed at the policeman, then was pushed against the wall. "Hey man, we didn't do anything! What the hell do you want with us!?" The policeman threw words at each other, then at Daniel, then started saying something to Pandora, which turned out to be a bunch of blurry words. The world spun in her head; Vinny; the policemen, the twisted ankle, and the lack of food in the past two days. Her eyes lost focus and she dropped to one side. She had lost consciousness. NEXT CHAPTER |
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