"Straight. I thought we were going home?"

"Oh," his tone said that he'd forgotten. "Oh *right*—that's right! I forgot. I gotta run a errand. Y'know?"

"Oh. Okay. Well I really just wanna get home."

"Come with me. It'll only take a little bit—an' you'll be safer."

"No," I said firmly. "I want to go home."

"Just real quick. Your parents won't never even miss you."

No, I thought in a dryly iced-over. They wouldn't.

But, objected another part of me, your brother—and Amley!

Already I found myself following Aidan. He kept a secure, loose grip on my hand. I felt safe, even though I barely knew him, and he could have been leading me anywhere. We crossed two streets before he turned halfway down the third block...into an alley.

“Wait,” I stopped dead.

"What?" his tone was irritated. In shadow from a lamp a few shops down, I could just make out his ugly expression—I wasn't supposed to stop him.

"I need to get home," I spoke with all the firm authority I could muster.

"Yeah yeah. We'll get there."

Ice down my spine made a violent shiver race through my every nerve. What the he!l was going on? Abruptly, cutting into my shiver, he yanked my arm. I stumbled into him and was without warning flung into the air. I took a shoulder into my gut and the air in my lungs was replaced with fireworks in my eyes.

Bumbumbumbump!

The body beneath mine was running. Aidan was running headlong into the unlit alley.

Where was he taking me? I took in a breath but choked on a scream. With a violent shrug, the ground met my back in brutal force and the ride was over.