Callie
The further into the city I got, the more packed it was with people. It was a good thing. The more people there were, the harder it would be to spot me.
As I walked out one of the narrow streets, I pulled on a dark blue shawl hanging on a clothing line. I glanced back as I wrapped it over my head and kept moving. The cars were off the hill which meant they were now in the city, and I had no idea if I was close to them or not.
I had attempted to ask several people for help, but with my appearance and our language gap, no one would help me. The only option I had at that point was to keep moving, find somewhere to hide out, and get myself clean enough so that I could go in and use a computer somewhere. I didn't have a wallet, an ID, or even a passport. I had no way to prove to anybody who I was. I couldn't even go to the consulate to get help. I was in a bad situation, and with the witches looking for me, it was only going to get worse if I didn't get somewhere out of the public eye, and fast.
As I reached the end of the street, moving with the crowd, I turned and stopped. Up ahead, the black cars pulled to a stop and several of the witches got out, spreading in all directions. I immediately put my head down and wrapped the shawl around my face, turning in the crowd moving back around to the side of the building. I pushed my way through until I reached the alleyway and dipped in, just wanting to get out of sight. I hurried down, finally slowing my pace as the shadows took over. A lonely ray of light shone through between the buildings but the space was small and there were clotheslines hanging above me, blocking out most of the light.
When I reached the end of the alley, I peeked out but quickly moved back, seeing more witches moving through the crowd, searching everyone. I leaned against the wall and slammed my fist into it, angry that I had gotten myself into that situation. In reality though, had I? All I did was throw my best friend a birthday party and suddenly I was snatched away. I was in a strange city, and a strange country, being hunted by the witches, and I had nowhere to go. They were drawing closer, so I moved back into the alley and ducked down between two narrow dumpsters wrapping the shawl so that it covered my nose. I hoped that even if they walked by, they wouldn't see me in the shadows.
I was no match for magic though, nor did I know if I could even hide from it. That was the safest place that I could be at the moment, so I hunkered down, pulling my knees to my chest. I leaned my forehead against my knees and thought about home. I thought about the library, the one I always loved to go to as a kid. I thought about my bookshop and my friends. Suddenly, the people I rarely talked to felt way more important than they had when I was back at home. And Willa… She seemed even more important. Maybe she was right. Maybe if I had just started doing things, being spontaneous, I wouldn't have thrown her a surprise party. Instead, I would have taken her out for a night on the town, and neither one of us would have been at her house when the big lugs came to steal me away. Or steal her away.
"Pssst."
My head shot up and my eyes shifted back and forth, trying to figure out where the sound had come from.
"Pssst. Look straight ahead," the voice whispered again.
I leaned forward, narrowing my eyes as I stared across the alley at an open door cracked just enough for me to see a small flickering light shadow dancing across the ground. I looked back and forth, making sure there were no witches in the alley. "Who's there?"
The door opened further and from the darkened doorway, I could see a shadowed figure standing there, waving his hand at me. "Come in here. Hurry. They'll be coming around the corner any second. You can hide in here."
I raised a brow. I wasn't prone to randomly follow creepy people into darkened random buildings in the middle of Rome. Not only was that dangerous in itself, but I knew it could be a trick. I glanced around the corner again, quickly pulling back as two witches stood at the end of the alley talking to each other. The dark figure stepped back, holding perfectly still until the two witches moved on, disappearing around the corner.
My heart was beating so hard that I could feel it in my head, and I knew I didn't have any other option. If I stayed there, I would definitely be cornered and found. So, despite my reluctance to follow creepy characters into strange buildings, I looked both ways and hurried across the alleyway and through the door. I raced forward and turned around, pulling down the covering on my head. The dark figure rushed and closed the door, sliding a large bolt across the top. The sound of the lock was not comforting, but I swallowed my fear, hoping I had made the right decision. My options were pretty limited at that point.
Go back to the witches and be magically disappeared… Or go into the old building with the shadow man and possibly be dismembered before anyone could find me. Really, it was hard to pick. As the figure turned around, I could see that they were bent forward, the spine on their curved back protruding like spikes but covered in a black robe. Their voice from the alleyway had been aged and quiet, but that quickly changed.
My heart beat faster as I watched the figure suddenly straighten, all the curves of his back completely gone as he rose up to nearly seven feet tall. I backed up, knocking into several large canisters. The figure slowly turned around and all I could see were small red orbs in place of its eyes and nothing else. Within the hood that covered its head was nothing but darkness.
From my left, through the doorway, another one of the dark creatures stepped out and moved toward me. I turned and backed away from them both, putting my hands out. "Please, I'll just leave. I'll let the witches take me. They're looking for me and they can sense me. They'll come here and cause you problems. You can just let me leave."
Neither of the two of them said a word to me and just kept moving closer. I backed up again, backing myself up against another robed figure. I gasped and tried to jump forward but he wrapped his long arms around me and held me around the chest. I thrashed back and forth, picking my legs up and back down, trying to find any way to get away from him, but it was no use.
Through the doorway, in the pitch black of the building, a voice flowed from the darkness. "Yes," it whispered in the snakelike manner. "Bring her to me. She will fit nicely in my collection."
I shook my head. "I am definitely not a collectible."
As the dark figure lifted me from my feet, I thrashed back and forth, screaming out. I thought in that situation just calling out for help would've been my first choice. But to my surprise, the name that left my lips was the first one I thought of. "Shade! Help me! Help me!"
I screamed at the top of my lungs, over and over again, hoping whatever magic he had enabled him to hear me screaming from blocks away, down an alley, inside an old, abandoned building. Shade may have been the first person that I thought of, but I really hoped he wasn't the last person. The witches were looking more and more inviting the further the dark figure dragged me. It was starting to get really old being abducted from my abductors. But I had a really good feeling that if someone didn't help me, that was the last time anyone was going to take me. Being part of someone's collection did not sound like something I'd be doing in a living state.
It seemed that whatever luck I'd had before, it had finally run out.