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On the Run By Morpheus I sat up straight in my chair and stared at my enemy across the table. Neither of us said a word as we just stared each other in the eyes, waiting for the next move, waiting to see who would flinch and look away first. Finally it was Jack who blinked and looked away first, while I laughed out, "I win!" "Darn," Jack sighed as he rubbed at his eyes, "I almost had you too..." "Did not," I grinned. Jack just grinned back, "Did too..." For a moment I just looked at my best friend Jack, as though I hadn't done that enough during our little staring contest a minute earlier. He was 12 years old, the same age as me, with shaggy brown hair that probably needed to be cut. Jack was my best friend, and had been ever since I had come to the orphanage 5 years earlier. Then I frowned, not wanting to think about when I'd first come to the orphanage. With one car crash I'd lost both my mom and dad, as well as everything else in my life. And as if that wasn't bad enough, I'd been sent to the orphanage where the only good thing was that I'd met Jack. "Hey Ethan," Jack called my name, "you wanna go out and play tag? We can get a couple of the others to play..." "Sure," I shrugged. It wasn't like we had much else to do. A few minutes later we were out in the large yard out back, having easily found a half dozen other kids who were eager for something to do. The game pretty much went as normal, with the two kids who were a little older than us being the fastest, while the kids who were younger than us were easy to catch and avoid. "You can't catch me," Jack yelled out, taunting one of the older boys, which was ironic because that same boy had tagged him just a short while earlier. And after that Jack had touched one of the younger kids, who had managed to get the older boy only after he had tripped. "You can't catch me..." "Quit your yelling and run," I yelled at Jack, laughing as he tried to do just that. I laughed even more as the older boy continued to chase Jack down, even when there were easier targets. However, with Jack's constant taunting, it was easy to see why he was a favorite target in the game. Later it was my turn. I was 'it' and trying to find someone to tag. I glanced at Jack, thinking about going for him, but he had already been 'it' more than anyone else. I could have run for one of the smaller kids who weren't as fast, but that seemed almost too easy. So instead of going for one of the easy targets, I felt ambitious and decided to go for the 'big game'. I wanted one of the older kids. So far the only times that they had been tagged during this game was when one let himself get touched, or when the other had tripped. At first I ran for my chosen target, though it soon became obvious that he was too fast. But instead of going after someone slower, I grimaced in determination and 'tripped', falling against a tree and then collapsing to the ground. I didn't move as I lay there, playing 'possum' and pretending that I was unconscious. "Ethan?" Jack cried out and came rushing over to me. The others did the same, gathering around me to see if I was all right. And then, out of the corner of my mostly closed eyes, I saw what I had been waiting for and struck. My hand lashed out and grabbed the ankle of one of the older boys. "Tag," I grinned as I sat up, "you're it..." "Hey," my victim complained, "that's cheating..." However the other older boy just laughed while Jack grinned, "You sneaky bastard..." Just as I was getting up to continue playing, I noticed a white van parked on the side of the street across from the orphanage. But what really caught my attention was that there were two people standing next to it and watching us play tag. There was a man and a woman, both of whom were wearing dark suits and sunglasses, as well as grim expressions. But after staring at the two people For a moment my attention was torn back to the game by Jack's yelling, "Hey... are we playing or what?" And since I didn't want to get tagged back, I immediately gave my full attention to running. Several hours later the game of tag had been long over. Most of the kids in the orphanage were either busy with their turns helping to prepare dinner, or goofing around with a game of Monopoly that had been going on for a little while. Jack and I had helped get dinner set up the night before, so we didn't have to help with those chores again until the next day. And since we had nothing we had to do and a little time to burn until eating, the two of us went out to the yard to play a little catch until called. "Okay," Jack clutched the worn football, "I'll throw it and you run for a catch..." "Alright," I agreed, already in motion. Unfortunately I dropped the ball, but I was still able to pick it up and start running back towards Jack, while he aimed to catch me before I touched the tree which according to our rules, meant that I won the point. However I wasn't fast enough this time and Jack was able to grab me. "Gotcha," Jack laughed as he pulled me to the ground. "And I've got you both," a man's voice suddenly announced. Jack and I both jumped to our feet, then froze in surprise as I saw a man standing just a dozen feet away. It was the same man that I'd seen by the van a little earlier. And he opened his jacket enough for us both to get a good look at the gun in his holster. "Which one?" the woman that I'd seen earlier asked as she came closer. She had a gun as well, but hers was in her hand rather than still in its holster. Fortunately it wasn't quite pointed at us, but that was small comfort at the moment. The man stared at Jack and me from behind his dark glasses before responding, "Both of them." Then he patted the bulge in his jacket where the gun was and told us, "Come along quietly. Not a word." I just stared at the man in fear and confusion, wondering what was going on and what he wanted with us. I quickly glanced at the woman as well, but there were no answers there. Jack paled and was just about to scream, when the woman quickly put her hand around his mouth and growled, "NOT A SOUND." She glared at me, and all I could do was silently gulp my understanding. "Now MOVE." With that we were unceremoniously marched to the white van that I'd seen earlier, pushed and shoved a bit when we weren't going quite fast enough for them. I gulped in terror, glancing back at the building, hoping that someone saw what was going on through the window, though I didn't see anyone looking. "Oh God," I whispered in fear, unable to believe that I was actually being kidnapped. That Jack and I both were. "Get in," the man shoved us both inside, then climbed in with us. He pulled out his gun and held it ready, though not actually pointed at us. Still, it was obvious that he meant business. The woman however put away her gun and quickly climbed in front into the driver's seat. And without a word she started the engine and we were moving. I had no idea where we were going, where they were taking us or why they had even kidnapped us in the first place. I wanted to ask but was afraid that they'd get mad and shoot us. Or gag us... Or gag us and then shoot us... But Jack stammered, "Are... are you going to kill us?" "Maybe," the man responded with a shrug. Then the woman snapped back, "Don't scare them... We don't want them shitting their pants while we're in here with them..." The man just grunted but didn't say a word. Jack and I were both scared, too scared to do anything except glance at each other and draw comfort from the fact that we weren't scared alone. The man didn't say a word either; neither did the woman up front. Instead, she just drove, though I couldn't see to tell where to. We were moving for what had to be about twenty minutes before the van finally stopped and they gestured for us to get out. I saw that we were in front of an old house that looked like it hadn't been taken care of in years. "We're at the safe house," the man stated into his cell phone while the woman used her gun to gesture for us to go inside. I gave Jack a nervous glance, having a bad feeling that things were going to get even worse. And I could tell from his expression that he was thinking the same thing. I was definitely scared enough to fill my pants and it was a near miracle that I hadn't done so already. Once we were inside I saw that there was sort of a doctor's examination table in the middle of the living room, along with a video camera and a bunch of strange looking machines. I gulped, my heart racing in fear. Fear and confusion. "It looks like a mad scientist's lab," Jack commented weakly, obviously trying to cover his fear with a show of bravery. "Are you guys trying to make Frankenstein?" "Actually," another voice started, "Frankenstein was the doctor... not the monster." The newcomer was an older man with white hair and wearing a blue turtleneck sweater. "Who... who are you?" Jack stammered fearfully. "You may call me Dr. Frankenstein," the older man responded with an almost pleasant smile of amusement. Then he turned to the man and woman who had kidnapped us, "You were supposed to bring one boy." "We didn't know which one to bring," the man shrugged in embarrassment. The old man... the self proclaimed Doctor Frankenstein sighed, "It doesn't matter..." "What are you gonna do?" I asked in fear, then quickly added, "Please let us go... We won't tell..." However the Doctor didn't pay any attention to me. Instead, he gestured for the two kidnappers, "Hold them both." The man held me tightly, ordering, "Don't move." "It'll be easier if you cooperate," the woman added, holding Jack just as tightly. Then the Doctor went over to a table and started messing around with something, saying, "Fortunately I have enough for several doses..." As the Doctor turned around, he held up a needle... a syringe that was filled with some sort of bluish liquid. "Hold still," he ordered, "this won't hurt much." With that the grip that held me grew even tighter, even as I struggled to get free. However he was way too strong and held me too tightly. I yelled out as the needle went into my arm, but even though it stung, it wasn't quite as painful as I'd feared. Once he was done giving me the shot, the Doctor went back and took out a second syringe, which he filled up from a small container. Jack actually started screaming as though they were trying to kill him when they gave him his shot, but for all I knew, maybe they were. "Lock them in the room," the Doctor told his two Igor's as he began to clean up. A minute later Jack and I were led to a room and unceremoniously shoved inside. And as the door shut, I could hear the clicking sound of a lock. But even though I already knew that it was locked, I couldn't resist trying the door anyway, finding that I was right. "They locked us in," I said unnecessarily. Then I turned and slowly looked around the room. It was a fairly small bedroom, with a single bed against the wall and a dresser next to it. There were windows, but they had bars on them. "Oh shit," Jack cried out as he sat down on the bed, "what are we gonna do?" "I don't know," I whispered, sitting down next to him. "What was in that shot?" Jack demanded, his eyes filled with the very same worry that I felt. "I don't know," I repeated quietly. Jack took a deep breath, then blurted out, "Maybe it was poison... Or maybe... maybe it was drugs." "What?" I blinked at that. "Maybe they're gonna make us into drug addicts," Jack exclaimed, "then they'll make us sell drugs for them..." For a moment I just stared at Jack, not sure that his suggestions made any real sense, but since I didn't really have anything better, I just grunted. The two of us just sat there in that room and shook in fear for some time, not sure what was going on or what was going to happen next. However, when they didn't come in for us, we both calmed down a little bit. Not much... but a little. Since there wasn't anything else to do, I decided to start looking around in the room. I looked under the bed, in the closet and in the dresser. They were all empty. There wasn't even a deck of cards for us to play with. Eventually the girl 'Igor' came in and set a plate with a couple plates with sandwiches down on the floor in front of us, along with a couple cans of soda. "In case you're hungry," she said with a shrug before leaving again and locking the door behind her. "I'll bet the cops are already looking for us," Jack whispered to me, as though he were afraid that they might overhear through the door. "I'll bet they called the cops and told em we were kidnapped right away..." "Maybe," I responded quietly, then added, "but maybe they just think we ran away from the orphanage..." It certainly wouldn't have been the first time that kids had run away from there. And I didn't think that runaways would be real important to the cops. Not as important as kidnappers at least. At one point I heard some voices talking right outside our door, so I moved closer and tried to hear what they were saying. I couldn't get most of it, but I did hear a little. "Do you know how long this is going to take?" the girl 'Igor' asked. "No idea," the guy 'Igor' responded. "I just hope it's soon so we can get out of here..." That was as much as I was able to hear before they'd moved too far away for me to make out anything more. Unfortunately it didn't really answer any of my questions, only giving me more instead. Though Jack and I were stuck in that room, our kidnappers were at least nice enough to let us go to the bathroom, which was right across the hall from us. Of course they kept a close eye and wouldn't even let us close the door when we had to go, which made it pretty hard to take a leak. I guess they were afraid that we were gonna try escaping or something. I just wished that we could. When it was time for bed, Jack and I shared it, neither of us taking off our clothes. It wasn't like we had any clean clothes to put on anyway and I didn't want to take a chance of our kidnappers coming in and catching me in my underwear. In the morning I was horrified to wake up and find out that it hadn't just been some bad dream. Jack and I were still prisoners, though we still didn't even know why. The only good thing was that they seemed happy just to leave us locked up in that room. After they brought in a couple bowls of cereal... without the milk for our breakfast, Jack and I sat back, wondering what was going to happen next. My fear was partly gone as there didn't seem to be any immediate threat other than boredom, though it was still there in the background. "Think they're gonna give us another shot?" Jack asked me nervously. Then he stood up and in a show of bravado, announced, "If they try it again, I'm gonna kick their butts. I'll break that big guy's nose..." "Uh huh," I nodded, rolling my eyes. Jack did have a tendency to exaggerate a bit. Sure, I would have loved to beat them up, but I was realistic enough to know that they were all bigger and stronger than the two of us, even that woman. And that wasn't even mentioning their guns... I frowned and went to the windows, tugging at the bars, though they seemed stuck in there pretty good. That just made me sigh, then wander around the room again, not really sure what I was looking for, but looking again anyways. When I had the empty closet open and was looking in it again, Jack came up beside me and kicked at it angrily. "Stupid room." I paused as something seemed a little odd... There was something about the sound when Jack had kicked the back of the closet... I frowned and carefully knocked on the back wall... It sounded hollow... "Hey," I gasped as I hit it again even harder. It wasn't even a real solid wall either. It looked more like some sort of really thin board or something. "Hey Jack," I grinned excitedly, "let's see if we can break through..." Jack and I kicked at the wall and it began to break in. However it was making a lot of noise, so we stopped for the moment in fear that they would come bursting in and catch us. But that didn't stop me as I grabbed for one of the loose edges and began pulling, with Jack quickly joining me. "It's coming loose," he exclaimed in delight. I had to shush him and remind him that we didn't want THEM to hear us. Once we had made a hole, I could see through to the other side and realized that it was another close. Jack and I grinned at each other a bit before climbing on through to the other closet and the room that it was a part of. A room that did NOT have bars on the windows. "We've got to be quiet," Jack said, a bit unnecessarily and perhaps a bit louder than he should have. Just a minute later though we had the window open and slipped on out. We had escaped from the house, and now only had to get far enough away and call the police. I couldn't wait to watch the cops show up and arrest those jerks. Jack and I were really careful as we made our way around the house, staying down low and hoping that all of the big bushes and stuff would keep them from seeing us. I was terrified, but felt a lot better to at least be doing something rather than just sitting still and waiting for them to do whatever it was that they were going to do. "Just like hide and seek," I told Jack with a weak smile. Suddenly the woman came running out of the house yelling, "Shit shit shit..." I immediately froze where I was then ducked down in the silent hopes that she wouldn't see me, while Jack did the same. "What's wrong?" the male Igor demanded as he came up behind her. "They escaped," the woman spat out furiously. "I just went to check on them and they got through a hole in the closet..." She looked around frantically, obviously trying to find us. "How long ago?" the man demanded. "No idea," she shook her head. "Damn..." There was a moment of silence before the man slowly said, "We'll have someone watch the orphanage in case they return there... And I'll call Murphy and have him watch out in case they try to contact the police..." "So we're going to have to call in help?" the woman asked not sounding pleased by that at all. "But how long before..." "I don't know," he scowled, pulling out his cell phone. "What I do know is that we have to abandon this safe house and start the search for them. We have to get them back unharmed..." With that the man went back inside while starting to talk to someone on the cell phone, while the woman went back to searching for us around the area. Fortunately she started off moving away from us, so Jack and I took the opportunity to get further away from the house. "Oh shit," Jack gasped once we were out of ear shot, "they're waiting for us to go back to the orphanage or call the cops... What are we gonna do?" "I don't know," I gulped nervously, trying hard not to think about how afraid I was. "I guess we just try to hide for now..." Since Jack and I didn't know where to go, we just hurried away from that house as fast as we could. All I knew for sure was that I... that we had to get as far away from those people as we could. We went past some more broken down old houses, then a bunch of old shops and stores as we moved closer to the main part of the city. I didn't even have any idea where the orphanage was at, knowing only that Jack and I were completely and truly lost. When Jack and I finally stopped, he stammered, "Maybe we can call the orphanage and have them pick us up..." "But those guys said they were gonna watch the orphanage," I pointed out fearfully. If we went back, those guys might just grab us again. "But if we called the cops..." "No way," Jack shook his head. "You've seen the movies... Those kind of people always have cops working for them... In fact, the main bad guy is probably the police chief or something." I just nodded at that, remembering what they had said about someone called Murphy watching in case we went to the police. At the orphanage, they'd always said that if we're in trouble we should go to the cops, but Jack was right... Nearly every movie I'd ever seen said that was a bad idea. Suddenly I gasped and bent over in pain... It felt like my guts were on fire... And I felt so cold I was shivering... It had all hit me at once, without warning. "What's wrong?" Jack asked in concern. I just bent over and groaned loudly, shivering even more. And as I collapsed to my knees, it all started to go away, just as quickly as it had come. "Ethan?" Jack asked fearfully, putting a hand on my shoulder. For a moment I just remained where I was, taking deep breaths and feeling better... but confused. "I felt sick," I told him uncertainly as I got back to my feet, "but now I'm better..." "I bet it was that shot," Jack told me, scowling deeply. "Maybe," I frowned back, afraid that he was right. After several minutes of just standing around, Jack and I decided to start walking again. We still didn't know where to go, at least not until we found a park. That seemed like an okay place to hang out for awhile. They had a bathroom, some bushes to hide in and even a guy who sold hot dogs. It had everything we'd need. "Maybe we can stay here," Jack grinned at me excitedly, gesturing to a big cluster of trees and bushes. "We can build a tree house to live in and maybe go hunting for food... I'll bet we could do great..." Somehow I didn't think that Jack's idea was very realistic, but that didn't mean that I didn't like it. It sounded so cool. And it sounded kinda fun. However I doubted that we'd be able to keep a tree house secret, and as for hunting... even if we knew how to hunt, I didn't think that there was much around to hunt except for squirrels and pigeons. But since I didn't want to be left out of all the planning, I pointed out, "Maybe we should build an underground fort instead... I mean, if we dug our own cave or something, no one would be able to find us in it..." "Sweet," Jack grinned. With that Jack and I continued with our 'plans', growing more and more outrageous and unrealistic with each one. It soon got to the point where we were even talking about inventing our own helicopter house and becoming super heroes or something. Jack and I hung out around the park for hours, but by late afternoon, we were both getting pretty hungry. Unfortunately though, reality had begun to settle in. For the first time there was no one there to make us dinner. Nor did we have any money to buy anything from the hot dog vendor. Then things suddenly got worse. I saw THEM. It was the man who'd kidnapped us... the guy Igor, along with some other guy who was wearing a dark suit. And they were walking towards us. "They're here," I cried out, perhaps a little too loud as one of them looked up at that and suddenly exclaimed, "they're here..." "RUN," Jack yelled as he grabbed my arm, already in motion himself. I didn't need any further prompting to run like hell. Jack started running off to one side, but I glanced towards the large cluster of trees and gasped, "In there..." Maybe we could lose them... My heart raced as two grown man chased after us, though I didn't feel quite as afraid as I thought I should have. Perhaps it was because Jack and I had already been kidnapped and managed to escape from them, but I figured that it was probably because we had a good head start on them and I was confident that we could lose them in the trees. I hadn't gone very far into the trees when it suddenly hit me again... My insides knotted up and I stumbled, hitting the ground and rolling up in pain. It was just like earlier, with my skin feeling icy cold while I felt like I was burning up in my guts at the same time. I had no way to really explain it, onto to gasp and groan. But while I was on the ground, my head start had been taken away and it only took a few moments for the guy who'd first kidnapped me to catch up again. I had no idea where the other guy who had been with him was at, but figured that he was probably chasing Jack. "It's all right," my kidnapper said as he stood above me, "I'm not going to hurt you..." Of course I didn't believe a word of that with the fact that he'd kidnapped me once already at gunpoint and stood above me right then with a gun clearly visible in its holster. In fact he was responsible for my being sick as it was, so there was no way in hell that I was going to trust a word that he said. The pain quickly began to recede, and though I couldn't do much, I was able to grab a hand full of dirt and then throw it straight into his face as he bent over me. And just then Jack suddenly jumped out of nowhere with a big stick in his hands, yelling, "I'll save you..." And with a loud crack the stick hit the man in the face and knocked him backwards, but that wasn't enough for Jack who immediately started grabbing rocks and throwing them at him. "C'mon... hurry," he told me urgently. "DAMN," the man groaned as he started getting back up, only to be hit in the head with another small rock. Jack grabbed my arm and urged, "C'MON," pulling me to my feet. Since the pain had already receded enough, I just grimaced against the rest of it and ran after Jack. Within a minute we had completely left him behind and lost them... or at least I hoped that we had. But when we emerged out the other side of the trees a minute after that, we still didn't stop running. After going about two blocks more, Jack and I were both too tired to keep running. I was breathing so hard that I was half afraid that my lungs were going to stop working. And it was all made worse by the fact that I was still terrified by those people chasing us. "What if they come after us?" Jack gasped out between breaths. "We've gotta hide..." I looked around frantically, trying to find any place that would work. Then I looked back in the direction that we had just come from and saw a truck that we had just passed a moment earlier. It was a pickup truck with a flat tire... and a camper shell on the back. Without saying a word I went back to the truck and nervously looked around, hoping that no one saw me. And to my delight, I found that the back of it was unlocked. "We can hide in here," I exclaimed, already climbing inside. Jack immediately followed me and after we closed the back up and got down as flat as we could, so as not to be seen through the back window, we both let out a long sigh of relief. I was sure that they wouldn't find us there. "What if the owner comes and wants to drive off?" Jack asked me in a quiet voice a minute later. "It has a flat tire," I pointed out. That satisfied Jack, and we remained where we were in silence for at least half an hour before we relaxed a little, sure that we had lost them again. But still... there was no reason to take any chances. "Hey look," Jack finally grinned at me, "I took this from that guy we knocked down..." With that Jack held out a leather wallet, looking rather proud of himself. I took it from it and opened it up, smiling as I saw all the money inside. There were a bunch of twenty dollar bills and even a couple fifties. There was several hundred dollars in there. Then we looked through the rest of the wallet. There were three different drivers' licenses, each one giving a different name for that guy who'd been chasing us. The main one... the one in front so you could see it really easily said his name was Martin Jones. However after looking through the licenses and credit cards, my attention went right back to the money. I could tell that Jack was staring at it with the same thought that I had. We were both hungry and now we had money to buy food with. Unfortunately though Jack and I were both scared that they might find us... too scared to leave the relative safety of our hiding place. So with that, we settled in to where we would end up spending the night. *** Jack and I had a somewhat uncomfortable, but relatively safe night as we hid in the back of the pickup truck. However, when morning came, we knew that we couldn't stay there any longer. The owner could come back at any time to fix the flat tire, and we didn't want to take the chance of him catching us. And of course there was the fact that we were both even more hungry than the night before. Now thanks to the wallet that Jack had 'found', we had enough money to buy breakfast and then some. After we had stopped off at a 7-Eleven for something to eat, we wandered around, still not sure where to go. We didn't know the way back to the orphanage, and even if we did... those guys were looking for us there. So that was out of the question, just like calling the police. "It's just us now," I told Jack with a long sigh. There was no one else that we could rely on... that we could trust except for each other. While we were wandering around without a destination, I saw the white van... or at least I thought that it was their white van, and we had to duck down and hide before they could see us. "Why are they after us?" Jack had demanded after the van had gone, "They look like the Men in Black or something..." Then his eyes got wide as he nervously asked, "You don't think they're aliens... do you?" "No," I responded absently. But Jack wasn't about to let the subject go just yet, "Maybe they are the Men in Black and they think that WE are aliens..." I didn't say a word to that, though I did absently scratch at my arm as I glanced at Jack. My skin had been itchy off and on since the night before, though fortunately I'd only had one more of those periods where I got all sick and stuff... and that was right after waking up that morning. "Maybe I should go to the doctor," I told Jack nervously, wondering if it was going to get even worse. Maybe I was getting really sick from whatever they'd given me in that shot, sick enough to die even. Maybe I was allergic to it. "Haven't you been sick at all?" "No," Jack shook his head, "I feel fine..." That didn't do much to comfort me since I was a bit envious of Jack feeling fine while I felt like shit. But that just reminded me of that saying about misery loving company. Then again, I was sort of glad that Jack was all right at the same time. I didn't really want him to get all sick and stuff like I was getting. As we continued walking, we saw several more people who were wearing those dark suits and glasses, who looked sort of like the guys who'd been chasing us. Fortunately, since we knew what to look for, we were able to duck down and hide the moment we saw them. Unfortunately our luck didn't hold out forever. We had just been going to a store to buy some supplies at my suggestion, when suddenly a car slammed to a stop in front of us and a man immediately jumped out. This newcomer didn't look at all like the rest of the guys who'd been after us... They had all been wearing dark suits and stuff, but this guy was wearing a pair of black leather pants and something sort of like an orange Hawaiian shirt. But the one thing that was very much like the other guys was that this one had a gun in his hand and it was pointed straight at us. "You're the ones," he growled out, quickly glancing between Jack and me. Then without another word he pulled the trigger. Somehow I had managed to jump to the side as soon as he started actually aiming it at me, so he'd missed. But I didn't think that I was going to get that lucky again and yelled, "RUN," to Jack. Fortunately we were in a parking lot, because I was able to jump behind a car, even as he shot several holes into the other side of it. I gulped and ran behind another, keeping low and silently praying that he wouldn't hit either me or Jack. "I thought they wanted us alive," Jack gasped in fear as he caught up with me. "I guess they changed their minds," I whispered back. "Fucking brats," the man yelled out. Then he suddenly let out another burst of profanity as he was nearly hit by some car that was tearing around the corner. I glanced at Jack and gestured for him to move, taking advantage of this brief distraction. While the guy chasing us pointed his gun at the driver of the car that had almost hit him, me and Jack slipped off halfway across the parking lot, keeping real low too so that he wouldn't see us. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Jack gulped, pale and in terror. I clamped a hand over his mouth and whispered, "Quiet..." Somehow, even though I was just as terrified as Jack was, I was able to stay a little calmer and kept him from going into panic mode like he was obviously about to do. Instead I glared in the direction of the man chasing us, feeling fear... but also anger. Of course the man didn't just give up after losing sight of us. He cursed as he slowly walked across the parking lot, trying to find us. Fortunately, there were a lot of cars to hide behind and he couldn't see us. Still, when he got closer, I gestured for Jack to stay quiet and not scream. He nodded his understanding, though the terror was visible in his eyes. The two of us climbed under one of the cars and lay flat as the guy with the gun slowly walked right past our car. Then he stopped, just several feet in front of us. I had to put a hand over Jack's mouth to keep him silent. My heard was racing with fear, fear that he would look down and see us... that we wouldn't even be able to run from where we were at. Losing that option was the price of being able to hide. Just then, there was a loud noise, followed by cursing from the man. I looked out and saw a bus driving away from the nearby bus stop. "Fuck," he spat, "those brats hopped the bus on me..." It was all that I could do not to let out a sigh of relief at that. He thought that we'd escaped by getting on the bus. Honestly though, I just wished that I'd actually seen the bus at the stop and had thought about that. But instead of immediately running off, the man made a quick call on his cell phone." I spotted the targets but they escaped on the city transit..." He paused for a moment. "Of course I'm going to chase them... then terminate them." I gulped at that, my eyes going wide. It had already been obvious that he wanted to kill us when he started shooting, but now he was saying it out loud. That made it somehow seem even more real... as if the bullets weren't real enough. Now there was no way he could explain those away as mere 'warning shots'. "Yeah," the man continued on the cell phone, "two boys... twelve years old..." Then he went on to describe exactly what Jack and I were wearing. Then before the man had even finished the conversation, he was already walking away from us, causing me to let out a long sigh of relief. He was obviously in a pretty big hurry to catch the bus that he thought we were on. A minute later he was in his car and gone. "Is he gone?" Jack asked hopefully. "I think so," I responded slowly, though I wasn't completely sure. Just to make sure, I remained where I was for another minute before slowly climbing out from under the car. I looked around nervously, trying to see any sign of that man or the car that he had been driving. But to my intense relief, there was none. "He's gone," I told Jack, who climbed out from under the car as well. "Thank God," Jack gulped, his voice shaking, "I thought we were dead... I can't believe he was shooting at us..." I just nodded at that, feeling intensely relived that he was gone as well, not to mention confused. Those guys had made such a big deal about wanting us alive, and now they were trying to kill us. Maybe they were afraid of witnesses... While I stood there, just being thankful for our lucky escape, I absently scratched at my arm and adjusted my clothes. They felt a bit uncomfortable... sort of tight. They hadn't been when I'd put them on, though I didn't give that much thought. "I... I guess we showed him," Jack said, trying to put on a brave face to cover how afraid he had been a couple minutes earlier. "We sure did," I gave him a weak smile. It was then that I was hit with another wave of that pain... of the cramping and burning guts and cold shivering skin. Jack gasped and held me, keeping me from falling over and onto the ground. "You're gonna be all right," Jack told me, the worry clear in his voice. "You've got to go see a doctor..." But when the pain passed a minute later, I shook my head. "No doctors," I whispered to Jack. That was one thing that I was very sure of, though I couldn't say exactly why. I stood took several deep breaths to help me regain my balance and tried to figure out what we were going to do next. We had come there to get some supplies, and I guessed we could still do that since the guy with the gun was gone. However I figured that it would only be a matter of time before they found us again... "Damn it," I shook in fear, then bit my lip and tried to think of what we could do to get away from those guys. While I was thinking, or at least trying to, I silently scanned the area, my eyes picking up nearly every detail. Then I froze, my eyes going back to the pair of large metal dumpsters in the corner of the parking lot. They were clothing bins, places where people could drop off clothes that they were going to donate to charity. A lot of that kind of stuff ended up in the orphanage. In fact the clothes I was currently wearing could have been in one of those bins at one time. After a moment I took a deep breath, then slowly told Jack, "I have an idea..." "What?" Jack asked. However I was already walking towards the clothing bins, my eyes locked clothes that overflowed from the opening, and the several garbage bags of clothes which just sat in front of the too full bins. I stared at the bags in silence, feeling a bit uncomfortable with what I was planning, but knowing that it was a good idea. "They're looking for two boys with clothes like ours," I finally told Jack. "So we change clothes?" Jack asked. I shook my head, "Sorta... They're looking for two BOYS." I took a deep breath then blurted out, "But if we dress up like girls..." Jack just stared at me as if I were crazy. "You're kidding..." "No," I pointed out, "they're looking for boys, so I think we should disguise ourselves as girls..." It was obvious that Jack didn't like my idea, but then again, I didn't particularly like it. However, as embarrassing as it might be to dress up in girl's clothes, I figured that it had to be a whole lot better than being shot. And after ten minutes of trying, I was able to convince Jack of that too. We dug through the clothes, taking most of the loose bags and stuff behind the bin where we wouldn't be easily seen and could get some privacy. Then we began to really look through them. By the time that we were done, Jack was wearing pair of white pants that were a little too large and a pink hooded sweat shirt with a picture of a big kitten all over the back. And with the red baseball cap that we'd added, he looked a lot like a girl... or at least a tomboy. Since we only had a limited amount of clothes and it was my idea... I got stuck with the dress. It was a red dress with some white flowers on it, that was a little too big for me. However I was able to pull it up a bit and got it so it was workable. And a red scarf that I found went over my short hair and helped finish the image that I was a girl too. "Man this is embarrassing," Jack complained. "I'll die if anyone at the orphanage sees me like this..." "You'll die if those guys see you WITHOUT it," I pointed out, which quieted him down a bit. And then I added, "And how do you think I feel? At least you get to still wear pants..." I looked down at myself, a bit embarrassed by the clothes, but satisfied that I'd probably pass for a girl from a bit of a distance. Of course we could probably improve our costumes a little better... "It's just a disguise," I muttered, as much to myself as to Jack. "It's like a Halloween costume..." "Now what?" Jack grumbled, looking more like he was pouting. I shrugged, then pointed to the store, "We finish getting our stuff..." Walking through the store all dressed up like a girl was REALLY embarrassing. There was one woman who gave us both a really odd look, though most of the people didn't pay enough attention to us to notice that we weren't really girls. That was something of a thrill... and a relief since it meant our costumes were working. The first thing that I did was go to the sporting goods section to pick up a backpack to hold the other stuff in. Them I grabbed a Swiss army knife, because I thought that might be useful, and a couple other small things. However when we went to the food section a couple minutes later, things got a little more complicated. Jack kept grabbing for all the chips and pop, and even though I wanted that stuff too, I figured we should get some more regular food instead. Then came the toy section... Jack exclaimed, "Cool, I want one of these... And one of these..." He grinned at me, "Now that we're rich, we can buy anything..." "We're not rich," I pointed out, realizing that maybe a couple hundred dollars might not be quite as much as it had seemed at first. "And besides," I pointed out, "we're not gonna be able to carry that stuff around... And how would we even plug a video game in? We're not at the orphanage..." It took some convincing, but I managed to talk Jack out of all the toys that he had been interested in, though I had to ignore a few that I really wanted to buy too... That was really hard since I finally had the money to buy that cool new Spybot Man action figure, but I couldn't do it. It didn't take long before I was really tired of walking around the store, and not just because of all the cool stuff that we couldn't let ourselves buy. But unfortunately my feet were beginning to hurt... My shoes felt so tight. I guess it was that growth spurt thing again. As much as I hated having to spend money on brand new shoes, I figured that I'd better if I was going to keep walking so much. On the way to the checkout, I decided to grab just one more thing. I picked up a little bit of makeup, thinking as soon as I saw it that it would really help with our costumes. "C'mon," I told Jack after I'd paid for everything, gesturing to the customer restrooms that were at the front of the store. "I wanna check out how I look..." "Sure," Jack grumbled, but as I started for the boy's restroom, he reminded me, "Um... we look like girls..." I blushed at that, "Oh yeah..." After we had gone inside and made sure that there was no one there, I paused for a moment feeling really embarrassed. I'd never been in a girl's restroom before and it just felt wrong... I had a feeling as though someone were going to come in at any moment and start yelling at me and calling me a weirdo or something. "Let's see," I reminded myself, going for the makeup that I'd just bought. "You're not thinking... ?" Jack gasped in horror. "It's like Halloween face paint," I told him with a scowl. "Now stand still and let me put it on you..." I was really careful while putting the makeup on Jack's face, trying to keep it light enough so that it wouldn't really be noticeable. And when I was finished, I was satisfied that he definitely looked a lot more like a girl. "Holy shit," Jack exclaimed as he moved to the bathroom mirror and stared at himself. "I do look like a girl..." But as Jack reached up to touch his face, I warned him, "Don't touch it... You'll mess it up..." With a nod Jack just continued to stare at himself, finally asking, "Where'd you learn to put that stuff on so good?" I just shrugged, "I watched a couple girls at the orphanage playing around with it..." Then at Jack's look of surprise, I blushed, "I was bored..." It was only then that I turned to really look at myself in the mirror, pausing a moment to blink in surprise. I definitely looked different, and that was without any makeup yet. Even my hair looked darker, though I figured that had to be because it was so dirty. I probably needed a haircut too as it was a little longer than I'd realized. "I guess it's my turn," I sighed, using the water and paper towels to wash my face and dry it before beginning. Putting makeup on myself proved to be a bit more difficult than putting it on Jack, since I couldn't really see what I was doing, other than in the mirror. I grimaced the whole time, feeling pretty embarrassed, but when I was finished, I had to admit that it definitely made me look a lot more like a girl too. "Ugh," Jack grimaced, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you really were a girl..." "That's the point," I grumbled with a mixture of pride in my costume and embarrassment. Since Jack and I were both about as ready as we could be, we left the store and hurried on, deciding that it might be a good idea to get away from there before the guys who were chasing us realized we weren't ever on the bus and came back. I just wished that I'd thought of that earlier, rather than hanging around for so long. Once we were a good ways from the store, we both relaxed a bit, though I was still pretty nervous. And it didn't help when an hour or so later we saw the white van again... with that Martin guy whose wallet we had in the passenger seat. I gulped at the sight and shook with fear that they would recognize us. "It's them," Jack squeaked out. However the instant that he did, I quickly grabbed his arm and ordered, "Don't run... Don't even look at them..." I knew that doing either of those things would get their attention, when the smartest thing would be to hope that our costumes worked. Still I crossed my fingers for luck and finally let out a breath of relief once they'd gone. "They didn't see us," Jack gasped in obvious relief. I just nodded in agreement as that had been the whole idea of wearing those stupid girly costumes. And the fact that they'd worked actually made me feel a whole lot less embarrassed about wearing a dress. After this Jack and I just wandered around for a bit, and sat around since we were both kind of tired of walking. It was worse since we didn't even know where we could walk to. We pretty much did this for the rest of the day, since we didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do, or least anything other than hiding from those guys. It was pretty late in the afternoon and the two of us had ended up hanging around the bus station. There were a few other kids around there too... though they were a few years older than us and I think that they were homeless. Then again, I guessed that we were too now. As I looked around those older kids, I suddenly realized that we were going to have to start thinking about what we were going to do for a place to sleep. It wasn't something that either of us had really had to think about before then. Sleeping in the back of that truck the night before had worked pretty good, but it had been kinda uncomfortable and I didn't think that we'd be able to do that again. Then again, I knew that we might have to. "What are we gonna do?" Jack asked me with the worry clear in his voice. "I mean, we can't go back..." He was beginning to cry, though he tried acting like he wasn't. I knew exactly how he felt. "I don't know," I whispered in response. We stood there in silence for a couple minutes, as if waiting for an answer to just drop in our laps, though none came to me. I couldn't think of a thing, except maybe finding another empty truck or something. Maybe we could find an empty car and sleep in the back seat. But as the two of just stood there, Jack started to look at me with an odd expression. He stared at me, then finally announced, "You look different..." "Well duh," I rolled my eyes. "I am wearing a costume..." "No," Jack said slowly, a look of concentration on his face, "it's something else..." Then he abruptly gasped, "You look taller..." For a moment I was about to tell Jack that he was being silly, but then I looked at him and had to suddenly think twice. We were standing face to face, and I had to look down a little bit to see his eyes. We'd always been about eye level before... with him being maybe a tiny bit taller than me. "What?" I blinked, looking down at our feet and seeing that we were standing on even ground and we were both wearing sneakers. I looked back into Jack's face, but there was no doubt. I was taller than him. "Well," I said slowly, feeling a bit confused, "that is a bit weird..." Jack nodded as he stared at me again, "Yeah, but you still look different..." I just frowned, not wanting to think about anything like that. It was just too weird... Besides, I was just having a growing spurt was all. Anything else was just my costume and Jack's imagination. The people at the orphanage always said he had an active one. "So where are we gonna sleep tonight?" Jack asked a few minutes late, sounding pretty worried about that once again. I didn't blame him, since I was worried about it too. "I don't know," I repeated the same answer that I'd given him before. "Maybe we should go back to the orphanage," Jack whispered, giving me a look as if hoping that I'd say yes. But as I was sure Jack expected, I shook my head. "You know THEY'LL be there." "I know," he sighed. "But where are we gonna sleep?" Suddenly a new voice intruded from behind us. "I couldn't avoid hearing you young ladies saying that you needed a place to stay..." I jumped and that and turned around, seeing a tall man. He was Hispanic I guessed, with long hair pulled back and a bit of a goatee. His clothes were kind of weird though. They were kind of bright colors and reminded me a little bit of a clown's costume. "So you two young ladies ran away from an orphanage," he continued with a sympathetic smile. "It must have been a horrible place..." "Um... sort of," Jack mumbled. The strange man just smiled more, though something seemed a little wrong with it. "I was just thinking that I might be able to help you two..." "You can?" I asked cautiously. "Sure," he grinned at us, "I can give you a place to stay and a couple jobs... just perfect for a couple grown-up ladies like you. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" "A place to stay?" Jack started to grin. "Really?" However something seemed REALLY wrong about this guy, and the whole situation. I quickly grabbed Jack's wrist and said, "Thanks, but we're not interested..." "But," Jack started to protest, going silent at my glare. "Thanks anyway," I smiled at the strange man and pulled Jack away. "What's you do that for?" Jack demanded, obviously annoyed. "We could have had a place to stay." "I don't know," I told him with a scowl, "but he was up to something and I know it wasn't anything good..." Jack continued to complain, but a moment later a girl came up to us. She looked about 15 or so, with dark blonde hair that was mostly hidden under a stocking cap. The older girl was also wearing mostly boy clothes, and kind of old looking ones at that. "Good thing you didn't go with that sleezebag," the girl told us, gesturing to the man who was giving almost the exact same speech that he'd given us to some 16 year old girl who seemed to have run away too. "Yeah," I smiled weakly, "I didn't trust him..." "Good thing," she shrugged, "Miguel likes getting girls hooked and then having them do tricks..." "Um... okay," I nodded, not sure exactly what she meant but having a bit of an idea, and that idea was not a good one. "I'm Carrie," the girl introduced herself. Then she gestured to Jack, "Is she your little sister?" "Little sister?" Jack started in surprise. "No," I quickly told Carrie, "we're just good friends." "Well anyway," Carrie continued, "I know a place you can stay." Then she smirked, "And no tricks..." I hesitated a moment and Jack took the opportunity to exclaim, "Sure..." And after I nodded my agreement, the three of us were off. *** I felt a little nervous as our new friend Carrie led us down the street and into an alley. I gulped, feeling even more nervous at the sight of the dark alley, but Carrie gave us a reassuring smile and went in first. Jack didn't even hesitate before going after her, so I followed as well. Carrie went around a dumpster and gestured to some stairs that went down to a door. "A bunch of us runaways crash in the basement..." And with that she nearly ran down the stairs and threw open the door, vanishing inside. Jack and I both gave each other a nervous look before going down after her. The basement was decent sized, though a little smaller than I might have expected. It was also a bit darker than I would have expected, with most of the light coming from several small windows that were up high and opened on to street level. I also saw a Coleman lantern sitting in the middle of the room, though it wasn't turned on just yet. With how close it was to sunset, I didn't think that it would be long before it was on. Of course the basement wasn't empty either. There were about a dozen kids sitting around, the youngest one being about my age, while the oldest one was about 17. And from the sleeping bags and blankets that were spread out on the floor, it was pretty obvious, even without what Carrie had told us, that they had been staying there. "We've been crashing here for a month or so," Carrie announced. "Good thing no one's found us down here yet..." "Cool," Jack grinned. I grinned back as well, though a little more nervously. "Yeah." Not only would it be a place where we could sleep, but I was pretty sure that those guys who were chasing us wouldn't be able to find us there. After this Carrie introduced us to a few of the people, though I didn't really pay much attention to their names. Some of them were pretty strange and I was sure that a couple of them were on drugs or something. But most of the kids in the basement seemed to be all right. However, when Jack started to talk to one boy, I had to whisper in his ear, "Remember... you're a girl." Jack glared at me, then gave an understanding nod. I noticed that he did start to act a little more girly again after that, which made me smile. I just wondered how girly I was looking. It would definitely be nice though when we didn't have to wear those stupid costumes anymore. While Jack was busy making friends, I just sat back by myself, scratching a bit since my skin was still itching. However now it was itching even more around my chest... and feeling kind of funny there too. And when I poked at my chest, it felt sort of fat and swollen under my dress. However I glanced around nervously, feeling a bit embarrassed as I remembered that I was supposed to look like a girl and it would be kind of funny looking for a girl to be poking at her chest like that. With a grimace I clenched my hands and tried not to think about the itching. "How long have you been on the street?" Carrie asked as she came back over to me and sat down. I shrugged, "A couple days..." "Why'd you leave home?" she asked me, then quickly added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to... I had problems with my step dad." She grimaced at that. "He liked me too much and I was afraid of what might happen if I stayed..." Since Carrie was so honest with me, I felt kinda bad for having to lie to her. "We didn't have any choice," I told her, deciding that this wasn't really a lie. Carrie looked like she wanted to ask me more but realized that I didn't want to talk about it. So she just nodded, "Okay..." We sat there for a bit longer and talked, though Carrie did most of the talking. She talked about how bad it was getting at her house and what it was like for her after she'd run away. She told me about 'tricks' that she and other homeless kids used to get food and money, as well as other things that just seemed to come at random. I listened and did a lot of nodding, thinking that as much as I disliked the idea, some of that stuff could come in really useful. After all, I couldn't go back to the orphanage and had nowhere else to go, so that made Jack and me homeless too. After awhile I noticed a rough looking 17 year old boy talking to another boy just a bit younger. The younger boy was handing the older one something small, and the older one was giving him some money. I stared a little more carefully and realized that the young boy had given him a credit card. "I'll try to find more credit cards for you tomorrow," the younger boy said as he eagerly stuffed the money into his pocket. "Hmmm," I smiled thoughtfully, deciding that this might be good for me. I cautiously went over to the older boy and said, "Um... I saw you buying a credit card from him..." "That's none of yer business," he growled back at me, obviously not interested in talking. However I decided to make him interested by holding up two credit cards that I'd taken out of the wallet Jack had swiped. The older boy's eyes immediately went to them and then to me. "Will you buy these ones?" I asked, seeing the look on his face. The boy frowned. "Depends. How old are they?" At my blank look, he sighed, "When did you swipe em?" "Today," I lied, "about lunch time..." "Kinda old," the boy frowned, staring at the credit cards. "Might have been canceled already..." Then he sighed again. "I'll give ya twenty bucks each..." For a moment I thought about mentioning that there was still one or two more credit cards in the wallet where they had come from, but I thought that might be a bit much. Instead I nodded my agreement and gave him the cards, smiling as I took the money in return. When I went back to where I'd been sitting, Jack sat down next to me and asked, "What were you doing?" "Making some money," I told him with a smug grin. Jack blinked, "Huh... ? How?" "Nevermind," I grinned at him. A minute later I noticed that Jack was staring at me again, and at my asking him why, he told me, "You look... weird." He shook his head. "I don't know. I guess everything is getting weird." "I know what you mean," I sighed. With that I curled up in one of the blankets that some of the others had lent Jack and I for the night. The floor was hard, though still a bit more comfortable than the back of the truck. And with a nervous scratch of my itchy... and swollen chest, I let myself drift off sleep. --- I woke up a little late in the morning, or at least I assumed that it was late, as most of the other kids in the basement were already gone. They had probably gone out to beg or steal, which seemed to be how most of them survived. I was just a little surprised that so many of them had gotten up and left without me having even heard them. After a minute of just silently looking around I scratched at my chest again. It was still itching a bit. But when I scratched at it, I paused, gulping as I realized that my chest was bigger. It stuck out further than it should and felt really weird. "Oh man," I gulped, suddenly feeling quite confused and afraid. Though I had no idea what was wrong with me, I knew that it had to be that weird shot that those people had given me. I was allergic to it or something. That was the only thing that I could think of that really made any sense. They'd given Jack the same shot, but he was fine while I kept feeling sick. "Just great, "I grumbled, deciding not to think about it anymore. And with that, I shook Jack, "Wake up..." "Huh," he groaned as he sat up. "Time for breakfast," I told him, reaching into my backpack for some of the food that we'd bought the day before. However I immediately noticed that about half our food supply was gone. Obviously someone else in the basement had decided to help themselves while we were asleep. With a sigh I began pulling out some breakfast bars, those boring nutritional things that I'd gotten because I figured they would be easy to carry and could last awhile. They tasted horrible, but at least they wouldn't smoosh all over or anything. However while I was handing Jack his breakfast bars, I noticed that he was staring at me. There was a strange expression on his face too. "What is it?" I demanded. Jack hesitated a moment, then gulped, "You look weird... I mean... weirder." He took a deep breath before slowly telling me, "You look older... more like a girl..." "You... you're imagining things," I gulped out, more than half afraid that he was right. That shot was doing something to me, and I didn't want to think about what... "You're just wrong..." "But..." Jack started to respond. I turned away from him though, not wanting to hear anything about it. I grimaced and began eating my own breakfast. It wasn't nearly as good as Captain Crunch... or even that oat meal they liked giving us in the orphanage, but it was a breakfast. After this I got up to go to the bathroom, thankful that they had one in the basement... even if it was all dirty and gross. I didn't think that anyone ever cleaned it at all... even with all the kids who were there using it. Really gross... but if you've got to go... I hadn't even gotten to the bathroom on the other side of the basement though when someone stepped in front of my way. It took me a moment to recognize him as the same boy that I'd sold the credit cards to the night before. And from the way he was looking at me, it was pretty obvious that his getting in my way wasn't an accident. "Hey girl, I didn't get your name last night," the boy said, smirking as he looked me over. For some reason he kept staring at my chest. "None of your business," I told him, moving to step around him so that I could go to the bathroom. Unfortunately it didn't look like he was going to let me go that easily. "It is my business," he gave me a smug look as he stepped sideways to get into my way again. "I like to know who I do business with..." But again his eyes went to my chest... "Just leave me alone," I growled, tensing up. "I just want to get to know you better," he told me, "a pretty girl like you..." And with that the boy grabbed my arm. I didn't even think about it as I instinctively shifted my position, twisting until I had his wrist in my hand, which was followed by a loud crack. It had all happened so fast that I was barely aware of what I'd done, only that the boy was howling in pain and clutching his wrist. "I told you to leave me alone," I said, not sure of what else I could say. "My God," Jack gasped as he rushed up next to me, "how'd you do that?" "I..." I blinked. "I don't know." Then Jack grinned excitedly. "Well it was kind of cool. You should have done that when Megan Kelly went and beat you up..." I grimaced at the reminder of how I'd once gotten beat up by a girl. Sure, she was two years older than me and a lot bigger, but she was a girl, and it had taken me a long time to live that down. "Um... yeah," I muttered, still not sure exactly what it was that I did do. Since the boy that had been blocking my way no longer seemed interested in me, and was in fact quickly on his way out of the basement, I decided to finish what I'd started trying to do in the first place. Namely, going to the bathroom. I went into the bathroom and grimaced, wincing at the smell. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I couldn't see everything in a lot of detail as the light bulb was kind of dull and flickering a bit. Still it was enough light for me to do what I had to do. But while I was taking a leak, I couldn't help noticing something that made me feel very uncomfortable. My weenie... my penis was smaller... And my nuts were... they were gone. It was all flat underneath. "Oh man," I whispered, gulping and wondering if maybe I should go to the hospital after all. Whatever was happening, there was no doubt that it was something very wrong. But at the same time, I was pretty sure that there was nothing the doctors could do about it. Then I poked at my chest again, a bit confused by the way it stuck out. I took off my dress enough to see my chest a bit better and was startled to see that I had two big bumps pushing out. But what was even sca