It didn't take long for the men to be after him. Both reacting with the same gut instinct that any local would. But he had been correct in assuming he could out pace them. With a health lead on the pair and legs with nearly a decade of being chased to his advantage, the thief had it in the bag. Well he would have, and had the bag too, if he had been paying more attention to where he was going rather that keeping an eye on the duo.
No more than a few strides in front of the teen, a small wooden cart, serving as an impromptu wheelbarrow to move the weighty debris of the charred footprint left from fire, came to rest in his escape path. Oh Shyke! Where had that come from? Realising this with only ticks to spare, Eleazar felt his knee collide against the heavy object and surrendered his body to being flipped over the cart by his previous velocity. Half way over the teen extended his arms out in front of him, at least that way his fall would be some what cushioned.
The scrape of the earth against his skin wasn't as rough as he had expected. The fallen ash had rotted over the past few days, creating a softer layer of mud to cushion the contact between his palms and the normally hard packed dust ground. Unfortunately the muck was ideal for sticking to skin, with his feet levering over the cart, Eleazar got a face first experience of this. His feet smacking into the ground completed his fall, leaving the thief filthier than before and disorientated.
It could have gone worse, but his face still hurt like petch. And his lead on his pursuers was as good as gone. In fact it was worse than gone, the two fools were only a chime away. His newly 'acquired' bag has also successfully made it over and lay barely a few hand widths away. Rubbing the muck from his face with a sleeve, the teen ignored the cart's owner's cries of shock, diving for the bag and hauling himself up to run again. His knee protested against this, slowing his sprinting down. They were going to catch him.
His breathes were becoming harder every chime that went past. Their footsteps echoing louder in his ears.
Thud. Thud. Thud. No. Not right now. Focus Eleazar. You can't out run them, but what else can you do. You can do something right? His eyes seemed to spasm in their socket as they zoomed over everything in sight. There was an alley. That would do. It had to do. He almost zoomed right past it, turning in at the last minute, colliding breifly with a wall before scampering away from the main streets.
The thief knew many of the alleys in the city, especially around the Quarters, but in his panic his muddled brain couldn't figure out which one this was. It wasn't overly wide to begin with and was narrowing down. There were no other connections onto it. Just a continuous wooden chasm between the slum's houses. A sudden sharp turn to the left sent the teen into another wall once again before he scrapped down the path again.
All the while in his ears, Eleazar could hear the 'Thud. Thud. Thud.' of the footsteps behind him. Petch. Petch. Run legs, run for petch's sake! Come on just around this corner there'll be.....
The alley can to a dead end. Eleazar's route to freedom was blocked by a wooden fence nearly twice his height.
“Y-You're kiddin' mi. 'ere na way t-that....”
“'at you'll get caught? Or 'at you could 'scape me?”
The teen spun on his heel, slamming his back into the fence. She was back again. Walking daintily over the earth, shoeless feet prowled closer to the terrified thief. He wanted to throw up, to run, to wake up. But, no, she was just getting closer and closer. The innocent expression was still in place, now hinting at something darker attached to a body moving like a dog hunting it's prey. The dark haired child came to a stop some distance from her 'brother' adopting a predatory grin, abandoning trying to look guiltless. Oh shyke. He needed to get out of there now. Flipping around quickly, the teen backed up slightly and took a runner at the fence. Springing off of the ground, he tried to swing his free hand, the other clinging to the bag, over the edge of it. First time round his hand slid off, unable to find a stable grip on the structure. The skin ripped open as it fought against gravity and the wood.
Landing on his arse, a hand found a strong grip on the teen's arm. A sickenly sweet face reared it self over Eleazar's shoulder as he was dragged back. The bag was taken from his grip as the little ten year old girl balled up a fist to throw the first strike.
“Did ya really 'ink ya could forget 'bout
me!? 'bout what 'appened?!”
“'Em....'em....S-Sorry. 'Em sorry!”
“No ya aren't brother. Not yet any wa'.”
Another strike fell, allowing tears to wash some of the ash from his face. A third quickly followed. Then again and again. Having spent the last of his energy fighting off his own mind. There was nothing left for the thief to do but cry, beg and scream. And scream he did.
OOCI'm leaving it up to you guys what actually happened once Elea left the real world. This is me still experimenting with his hallucinations and his various mental issues. So any ideas to add in would be brilliant.
Another note: The little girl is entirely hallucinated. No one else but Elea can see/hear/taste?/touch/smell her. She doesn't really exist. I'll be putting up a plot notes for Elea soon, So she'll get a profile in there. Look it up once it's up. ![Grin :D](./images/smilies/biggrin.gif)