2 birthmark
"Keiko, we're surrounded.." She whispered as I nodded my head.
"I know,"
I looked back to the men surrounding us-
"What do you want from us? Who are you?"
The silence was my only reply as the other men in suits came closer and tried to grab Rachel as I jerked her closer to me.
"Get your hands off her!" I yelled as their menacing figures got closer, and swallowed a painful lump in my throat g but helplessness.
What can two ordinary girls do alone in a dark alley surrounded by men in suits?
I pulled Rachel close to me as I backed away from them as quickly as possible, shuffling my feet until I hit the walls of the alley.
"Guess we should have taken the front door huh, " I whispered to Rachel who nodded, tears in her bright eyes, and clutched my shirt tighter as the men in suits neared.
I pushed her behind me, sandwiched between the wall and me, and put out my hands around her, hugging her protectively and closed my eyes. I should have listened to my parents when they told me to stay away from the restaurant. These people must be the criminals responsible for the missing children in the news for the past few years.
I groaned internally and braced myself for the scenarios of the worst possible things that could happen. We could be raped, our organs sold on the black market, and the like, I thought just when I heard a low chuckle and felt the air shift.
Just slightly, I heard the men in suits move. I tilted my head back to see a handsome middle-aged man with a scar on his face walking towards us as the men in suits parted ways for him.
Is he the boss?
"I told them to be friendly and to keep their mouths shut, so you would come with us... But it seems to have the opposite effect on you two, 25440 and 34006." He smiled, his teeth glowing in the dark.
"Who are you people? What do you want from us?" I asked, staring at him as he casually walked over until he was in front of us.
These people... Are they the criminals responsible for the missing children reports in recent years??
"Come with me, and I'll tell you everything, 25440," the scarred man loosened his tie as he spoke and held his other hand out.
I brushed his hand away, as I looked into his eyes. He stared back unflinchingly when Rachel suddenly pushed me away from him-
Rachel?
"RUNNNNNNNN!!"
Her frantic voice hit something inside me as I started sprinting pass the men in suits, somehow dodging them as I climbed up a brick wall in a corner using vines as rope and swung myself to the top.
I tried to retrace my steps from the top to look for Rachel and found her just as her voice yelled out-
"DON'T LOOK BACK!"
I stared as she pushed the men in suits aside as they went for her, like a wild animal. Her normally blue grey eyes glowed yellow as I stood, stunned.
"KEIKO, DON'T LET THEM CATCH YOU!!"
She yelled again when her eyes caught sight of my frightened figure at the top of the alley walls.
I nodded quickly and ran as fast as I could away from there.
--
As I ran, my mind was blank. All I could think of was how to get away from them-the man in suits. The tops of the alleys were weirdly shaped, and it felt like a maze of sorts. I could see the town buildings and the forest at the very edge of the maze-like walls and decided to head for them, in order to lose the men in suits. If I went home from where I was, those men in suits would follow me, and would quite possibly endanger my family.
Panting, I wiped my sweat while sitting on the nearest treetop branch I climbed the moment I reached in order to evade any of my pursuers if they had somehow found me.
I squeezed my stomach tightly, bordering on pain, and I breathed as quietly as I could, my throat desperately in need of water. I winced, looking down when my fingers suddenly felt something wet, and saw blood soaking my shirt.
Must...
Have...
Pressed too hard..
I winced again and gently pulled the shirt away from my body, and searched for tissues in my bag. After rummaging around, I pulled out a piece and pressed it against my wounds.
Thanks to my tomboyish habits as a child, climbing trees were nothing but a piece of cake compared to scaling walls and the like.
As I calmed down, my thoughts gradually turned back to Rachel and the men in suits.
Why are they after us? We were merely ordinary school girls, and I don't remember our families having owed anyone any debts.
Also, the Rachel I knew was a very timid girl who lived next door. She wasn't one to initiate conversations and a strict rule abider. I could never get her to sneak out after town curfew not even once since I met her. Younger than me by a year, but far more brilliant in her studies than I.
Those glowing cat-like eyes I saw back then, they have to be real. Especially those tail and claws that grew out while she was fighting them. I...
I-i...
Never knew...
All of a sudden, I feel so small. It felt like my world was collapsing around me, at an alarming rate. The things I didn't know were piling up to the pressure, the stress in my mind. I was supposed to protect her as the older one, but now she's protecting me.
Worst of all...
I don't even know what's going on.
I tucked my legs in and rolled up, leaning against the tree trunk, depressed. I wonder what I can even do when the numbers the scarred man said earlier popped up in my mind-
25440, 34006?
What kind of codes were these? Was he referring to us, or to the men in suits behind him- Nah it was probably us, none of them reacted...
Wait a minute-
I turned my head as far as I could, to see the back of my left shoulder, a birthmark my parents told me I was born with. Our house had no mirrors, so I never got to see what it was. My parents said it was oddly shaped and it wasn't interesting but thinking back now maybe they were trying to hide it from me.
I pulled my shirt back as far as I could and peeled off the square bandage sticker. I struggled to see clearly the small mass of dark lines on my shoulder.
Narrowing my eyes, I finally managed to make it out, the numbers-
2..5...
440..
25440
Why do I have a code name?
Who am I?
What am I?
