Fifth Avenue
Chapter Nine

In Doc’s room Bullet and Shooter sat in front of a very angry leader. His face was red and his knuckles white from the amount of force he was using to clench his hands together. “he didn’t know who the main leader was, but we are almost certain Prince was the supplier of this drug” she explains.

“Did the people in the town die the same way as the kids in the orphanage?” he asks and both Bullet and Shooter nod. Slowly Doc pulled himself from the broken bed without even a grimace at the pain that shot through his torso “replace Prince, bring him to me” Doc orders.

“Sir with all due respect Prince has been missing since-” Shooter stops “he has been missing for 4 years, we aren’t even sure of where he could be, or if he is actually alive” Doc raises his hand and Shooter groans in frustration “Whatever you say sir” he says through gritted teeth before both Shooter and Bullet walk out of the house.

Hartley, Justin and Kit were in charge of placing the prisoner in the basement. “You take his arms, I’ll take his legs?” Justin offered, Hartley sighs and nods as she looks down to the unconscious male who lay on the brown grass, she leant down and took hold of the man’s skinny and sweaty wrists and once she was sure Justin had hold of his ankles they lifted.

Hartley groans “this guy is a lot heavier than he looks” she pants as they slowly wobble towards the door; Kit followed behind them smiling at the fact he didn’t have to touch the man.

When they finally made it to the basement Hartley and Justin were coated in sweat, the hot weather not helping their current heated condition. Kit walks over and grabs the man’s wrist and handcuffed him to a metal pole which stood from the roof to the floor “We should hear him whine when he wakes up” Kit says before walking over and taking Hartley’s hand, looking up to her with his overly large eyes.

Hartley smiles at him but Justin frowns walking from the room with a red face “I think he likes you” Kit whispers to Hartley making her laugh at his adorableness “I’m not kidding, don’t think me innocent simply because I am only five Hartley, many have made that mistake before” he says his face scowling slightly which made Hartley nod. “I can that he likes you by the way he always looks at you when he thinks you are not looking, he blushes at things you say but because of the light tan to his skin only people who truly pay attention can see it” he smiles proudly “and whenever we talk he always replaces a way to make it about you” Hartley now found herself to be blushing and she pushes the ring around her finger.

“You must be imagining things little one” Hartley jokes patting his head “now will you teach me to sue that thing you were using earlier today?” Hartley begs and Kit nods, allowing what they were speaking about earlier to be dropped and forgotten.

An hour later Kit sat on the desk beside the laptop Hartley was trying to use “Come on Hartley, this isn’t even one of my weird creations this is literally just a laptop!” Kit says annoyed “Do you at least remember how I taught you to turn it on?” he laughs at Hartley’s confused face “You’re not very bright Miss Faye” he froze and covers his mouth.

Hartley raises her eyebrow “Faye?” she asks quietly “What’s that?” Kit looks up to her with wide eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Promise you won’t tell Doc I told you?” he begs and Hartley nods leaning against the desk in interest “W-well Doc, he told me about some stuff, he was a bit vague, mainly just mumbling really, something about your parents and mumbled your full name” he says, “Hartley Abigail Faye” Hartley sat back shocked.

She places her hands on his small shoulders “Did he mention my parent’s names?” she says in a whisper, but Kit looks down and shakes his head.

“No, I’m sorry, he just kept mumbling about them being good people, just confused, wasn’t their fault and stuff like that” Hartley sighs and smiles pulling Kit into a tight embrace “No matter your past or your future, just remember in your past you have a new family who will stay with you forever” he whispers into her ear, Hartley nods wiping the tears which were brimming in her eyes.

“You really are aged beyond your years” she smiles and tussles his hair making him giggle. Someone clears their throat and both Kit and Hartley look up to see a bored looking Justin leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed tensely. “You okay Justin?” Hartley asks jokingly and he nods before ushering her to follow him, she sighs and follows him “you’ll be okay Kit?” Hartley asks pausing at the doorway.

He nods waving her off before returning to the laptop she had just been attempting to use. “Come on Hartley!” Justin shouts and she jumps following him “I was just wondering if you wanted to escape this dreary place, or something?” he asks and Hartley frowns, last time they had gone somewhere to escape this place he had ended up deserting her.

Justin notices her tense state and lets out a small chuckle “I won’t ditch you this time” he offers and Hartley sighs but nods. Justin grabs her hand and with a gust of wind she found herself to be in a beautiful forest.

The sun was almost gone and the trees swayed in the soft blow of the wind. A butterfly flies, past and Hartley stares at it’s simple beauty.

Justin takes Hartley’s hand in hers and leads her further into the forest, following the small amount of sunlight still peeking through the tall trees before they arrive at a small blanket laid on the ground.

Hartley’s mouth falls open and Justin chuckles “I just thought I should properly apologise” he says nervously “is it okay?” Hartley turns and hugs him tightly, a wide smile across her face.

“It’s beautiful” she whispers happily before turning and sitting down on the blanket, they discussed random things for hours, but once the sun had properly set they stared up at the stars in a comfortable silence. “How come everyone has a false name, except you?” she asks, “Like Bullet, Shooter, Doc and Kit, I sincerely doubt those are any of their real names” Hartley looks to Justin and he looks to her before his gaze returned to the night sky.

Justin smirks “who said Justin was my real name?” Hartley looks to him to see if there was any hint of him joking but she found nine.

“Is it your real name?” before he could answer Hartley felt a stab of pain in her head and groans falling back onto the blanket, she shouts in pain as she gets another stab.

“Hartley! Are you okay?” he asks worriedly “Hart-” Hartley lies back looking up to the sky “I-I’ll get Doc, stay here” he says stuttering before disappearing.

Just as the gust of wind passes over Hartley a bright white light flashes in front of her.

Hartley gulps and stands up but as she looks down to her flickering hands she knew this wasn’t real. “Harrison James Daniels” a woman’s voice scolded “you get back here right now and apologise to your sister” all of a sudden, a little boy comes running past Hartley laughing as he held the body of a decapitated barbie doll.

“Hawwy!” a little girl cries “Please give her back!” she whines and soon a little girl, who was slightly bigger than the boy, came running past Hartley chasing after the little boy who had seemed to just disappear. Hartley had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing as she realised it was both Justin and Bullet when they were kids.

A middle-aged woman comes running and stops panting in front of Hartley. Her chest was heaving heavily and she could see how tired the woman was, her hair was like straw and put up into a messy pony-tail, her face was oiled and her eyes sunken in. She was unwell. “Children” she smiles leaning down as young Bullet and Justin run into her frail looking arms.

With another flash, she was in a dark room “Come on Harry, please at least stay for dinner, it’s Christmas” the mother’s voice begged over the phone.

“Mum I-I can’t Alecia and Brett are still missing, I need to replace them, I need to put things right” Justin’s voice replied through the line.

The woman sobs and falls to the ground “Please” she pleads “Please don’t leave me too”

“I’m sorry mum” he replies, “I need to replace them” the line goes dead and Hartley holds her chest as she sees the woman curl into a ball and sobs.

The room flashes white and Hartley hears the sound of rain and grunting causes Hartley to turn around, she sees two men fighting and with closer inspection she could see is was Justin and Reaper. “Tell me where they are” Reaper growls to Justin, he now had him by the throat against a bricked all “tell me now!” Justin’s shaky hands try to pull Reapers from his neck, his legs kicking for dear life but nothing was happening.

Hartley tried to help him but she stepped straight through both of the men, the sound of a gunshot made her jump and she sees Reaper drop to the ground, his blood mixing with the water on the road.

“Don’t touch my brother” Bullet’s voice ordered.

Justin looked up to his sister with teary eyes “I knew you were-” he stops and clutches his chest as he screams. Bullet watches him, her face void of any emotions, but her eyes showing slight sympathy.

They begin to fade into shadow and voices echo through Hartley’s head until everything comes to a halt, she sees Justin sitting beside Candice, they are kissing deeply and Justin flips her over so he was standing over her, Hartley looks away and covers her eyes.

When she uncovers, them she replaces herself standing in front of the orphanage, there was nothing surrounding her, she stood alone. “No!” somebody screamed and she ducked the sound of a gunshot echoing loudly.

Hartley sat up and she found herself back in the forest, alone.