Fifth Avenue
Chapter Two

Hartley sat on the back bench of the church staring at the group who had once again returned and taken their usual seats in the front. She was working alone today as Gretchen had become severely ill, just as most the other girls in the orphanage.

Hartley knew she should probably look away since if anyone was to turn they would surely notice her staring but she couldn’t, she thought them strange, different and she wanted to know why.

They didn’t seem to notice apart from the woman who continuously glanced over to Hartley with a light smile playing on her flawless face. Hartley closed her eyes and ran her rough hands over her face in frustration before pushing herself up and walking to the front only to be stopped by Justin who had somehow gotten in front of her. “Hey Blue, where’s your friend?” he asks looking around the otherwise empty church.

“Sick” she replies simply before turning and trying to walk in the opposite direction to him.

“She looked fine yesterday” he says and Hartley could hear the questioning in his voice “They didn’t get a replacement to help you?”

“All of the other girls are sick” she replies bluntly as she cleans off a dusty candlestick “I thought you said no more talking” she says turning around to him with a pointed look.

“Right, it was boring so I’m just going to follow you around until you tell me how you are going today” Hartley huffed blowing a piece of her hair up before it fell back over her face covering her emerald green eyes, which were still filled with so much life.

“If I tell you how I am feeling today will you let me get back to my chores?” she asks a slight amount of hopefulness evident in her voice.

“Maybe” he muses which makes Hartley roll her eyes and once again try and walk away from him “okay how about a 50/50 chance?” he yells “70/30?” before he could continue Hartley walks back into the Orphanage letting out a breath which she had no idea she was holding.

“Harley what are you doing in ere?” Sister Katie asks and Hartley looks up to her startled. “Oh, nevermoind that, Sister Juanita asked me to greb one of the gurls and ask em to go out and git sum medicine, you look foine and I cen’t foind enyone else, can you go down the rod and boy some please?” she asks and after the two minutes it took for Hartley to finally understand what she had said she looked down to see Sister Katie handing Hartley a roll of tattered checks “Please Harley we are desperate” she pleads and Hartley nods ignoring the fact she got her name wrong twice.

“Okay” Hartley nods taking the checks from Sister Katie’s hand “Where is the-” she was just about to ask the whereabouts of the store but when she looked up she noticed she was standing in the hall alone.

Hartley quickly ran up to her room grabbing her old tattered jacket and sliding it on before walking out into the cold damp streets of her home town, Murkeshore.

‘Hartley go back inside it’s not safe’ the voice from the night before whispered and Hartley’s head shot up as she looked around frantically for the source. ‘Go back inside’ the voice ordered once more but Hartley just shook her head trying to ignore it and walks in the direction she believed the store was.

A shiver ran through her spine and she pulled her jacket closer to her looking up as she noticed the sun beginning to set. Hartley continued walking down the street ignoring the awkward stares she got from the people surrounding her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

Hartley turned a corner as the street ended only now realising how lost she truly was, she jumped back with a quiet squeal as a black cat jumped out and circled her legs. She had never been out this late nor had she ever been out alone, she was lost, tired and so scared she was shaking. “Hello” croaked a voice from behind her which made Hartley tensed up in fear.

“H-hello?” she stutters turning around only to replace nobody there.

‘Hartley, run, NOW!’ the voice shouted and she didn’t need to be told twice as she turned around she began to take off running in the opposite direction to where she heard the voice, she was now so scared that tears ran down her face. ‘Don’t cry Hartley, just run’ the voice says soothingly.

“Who are you?!” Hartley screams repeating her question from the other night.

‘You’ll replace out soon enough, but first you must see the world for what it really is’ the voice answers and Hartley stops behind a wall gasping for air, it wasn’t that she was unhealthy it’s just that she’s never had a need to run that much in her entire life.

“What do you mean?” Hartley sobs running her hands through her knotted hair “Please, just tell me what you mean” her legs aching she slid down the wall she leant against too tired to continue running.

“Who are you talking to?” asks a familiar voice and Hartley looks up with her tear stained face to see Justin standing in front of her. Hartley shot up and hugged Justin tightly sobbing into his shoulder, but elated to see a familiar face.

He tensed as she did this but soon relaxed and rubbed soothing circles into her back, calming her. “You alright?” he asks once her sobbing had subsided and she gave a weak nod still clinging onto him for dear life. “Why are you out here so late, do you know how dangerous that could be Blue?!”

“I-I was out t-to get medicine b-because everyone was sick and t-then I got lost and it got dark and a cat came out and then I heard this v-voice which was scary and then I h-heard another v-voice in my head t-telling me to r-run” Hartley stuttered and Justin’s eyes go wide.

“You’ve been hearing voices?” he asks worriedly “Are you a schizophrenic?” he asks and Hartley shakes her head.

“I-I only hear one voice, I think I’m going to insane” Hartley says finally releasing Justin from her death grip.

“Female?” he asks and she looks at him confused before slowly nodding “that hypocritical woman” he mutters just loud enough that Hartley could hear.

“How did you know that?” she asks wiping her face with her long sleeve and he looks up serious face.

“One second” he says holding his finger up, he pulls out his phone with his other hand and dials a number. “Hello Bul- I mean Alecia” he all but spits ad Hartley hears another voice on the other line but can’t make out what it’s saying. “Don’t where are you me Alecia, you know exactly where I am, you’re seriously the biggest hypocrite I know, telling me to back off the entire time and you were-” he pauses looking down to Hartley “You know what we’ll talk when I get home, bye” he says hanging up.

“W-w-what was that a-about?” Hartley stutters once again on the verge of tears, Justin had no reply, he never handled well with crying.

“Blue, please don’t cry” he begs softly grabbing the small girl’s shoulders “Um” he said looking around before his smile and eyes both went wide “Ice-cream!” he shouted excitedly which made Hartley look up to him with questioning eyes “Come I’ll explain everything over some ice-cream” Hartley looked down and Justin began leading her out of the dark alley-way.

“What were you doing in the dark?” Hartley’s quiet voice squeaked, Justin didn’t answer her but instead protectively snaked his arm around Hartley’s not wanting her to break into tears again.

“Have you ever had ice-cream before?” Justin asks after ordering two triple scoop ice-cream cones with three different flavours which made Hartley look up to Justin with a bright red face of embarrassment.

“Sister Juanita says sweets are gods work and only sweet children gets sweet foods, everyone there is convinced I am the Anti-Christ” Hartley says chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

“Well” Justin grabs the ice-creams handing one to Hartley “Get ready to have your mind blown with one cookies and cream, choc mint and chocolate triple scoop ice-cream!” he laughs and Hartley licks it warily before savouring the immediate sweet taste which rushed through her senses. Her eyes go wide making Justin laugh even more. “Good, isn’t it?” he asks taking a giant bite of his.

Hartley nods to busy devouring the sugary treat before her.

Justin walked over to the window taking a seat with Hartley taking a seat with Hartley taking a seat with Hartley taking the seat across from him. “Now” he clears his throat “I think you’re confused and I’m willing to clear some things up for you” Hartley looks up to Justin with innocent look. “Explaining it won’t be easy-”

Hartley cuts him off by raising her hand “You’re stalling” she squeaks nervously, he glances up at her giving a slight nod before looking out the window watching the cars drive by.

“Are you religious Blue?” he asks and Hartley shakes her head “Don’t you live in a Catholic Orphanage?” and with this Hartley smiles “So, what do you believe in?”

She sighs quietly as she looks down to her now half eaten ice-cream, she then silently replies “I believe that things happen as they should, not fat or anything just that if something happens it happens, no religion or any greater power” Hartley shoves the rest of her ice-cream in her mouth ignoring the instant brain freeze, a sudden course of confidence passed through Hartley “Now can you please tell me what I came to hear so I can go and but medicine to give to annoying people I pretend to care about” she says giving a fake smile.

“Okay, well do you believe in – the – uh how do we call it?” he pauses “Superheroes?” he answered slowly as if asking himself a question.

“No, I’m not five” she chuckles but stops as she notices his serious expression “W-what are you implying?” she stutters and Justin groans stretching his arms behind his head.

“Well would you believe me if I told you, you were a super-” he stops again “You had special abilities like one of a superhero?” he asks with no hint of sarcasm in his tone.

“I’d say you were more insane than I am” Hartley answers with a dead tone, her smile had disappeared but curiosity fluttered within her.

He clears his throat and runs his hand through his hair “what if I was to say I was one?” Justin looks up not breaking eye contact from Hartley.

“Is this a riddle or are you just making fun of me?” Hartley asks in a slightly offended tone “I’m not really in the mood to do this right now, I just want to get the medicine and go home now” she says shyly, and although she was irritated couldn’t leave as she had no idea where to go or where she was.

“No riddle” Justin says, “think I’m crazy if you want but I can prove it to you if you want me to” Hartley sighs “I guess you’re not ready then, Doc was right” he says before silently cursing under his breath “Alright I will take you home” Justin grips Hartley’s shoulder and her body starts to go numb.

“Wait what’s happening?” Hartley asks still confused.

“You’ll replace out soon enough” he smiles and everything surrounding Hartley went black, she felt something hard move beneath her and she forces her eyes open a crack to see Justin smiling over her “I’ll see you soon Blue” she hears him whisper.

Hartley shot up with sweat covering her body, she looked around quickly only to notice she was in her bed surrounded by the other sleeping girls. “What the-” she looks around confused.

“Was it all a dream?” she thought, it felt so real. Hartley gulps and lies back down starring at the roof, it couldn’t have been. Confused Hartley crawls onto the roof the cold breeze instantly calming her down, she needed answers.

“I know you’re here, where are you?” Hartley asks looking around.

‘Closer than you think’ the voice responds.

“Are you connected to Justin?” Hartley asks, her eyes scanning the area around her “it couldn’t have been a dream, it was too real, too detailed to be a dream” Hartley stretches out her sore arms and as she does she catches sight of a figure standing at the window in the building across from the orphanage, the figure facing in the direction of Hartley. “I’m sick of all these secrets and riddles, just tell me the truth, please” she pleads, her voice becoming weak as she ended the sentence.

‘You’re not ready’ the voice responds.

“That’s exactly what Justin said” Hartley says releasing a shaky breath “Who is Doc?” she asks, “I guess you’re not ready then, Doc was right” the voice didn’t respond but looking at the window she knew the person hadn’t moved.

‘You need to see, you don’t understand yet’ the voice answers ‘you will replace out soon enough Hartley, I promise. See you soon’ Hartley’s eyes go wide as she sees the figure wave to her and as it turned to leave its face catches the light showing something Hartley didn’t expect, it was the woman from the church, the one in the couple.

The woman gave Hartley a small smirk as if noticing her expression before disappearing.

‘What is happening?!’ Hartley thinks running her hands through her hair ‘Go to sleep and replace Justin tomorrow’ Hartley nods to herself before crawling back down into her bed and attempting to fall asleep, not that’s he ever got things that easy. Instead of sleeping as she wanted she lay in bed awake counting each crack on the broken ceiling.

The morning took forever to come around, as the nuns came around that morning to rush her out of bed Hartley played ill and since every nun was too afraid to take her temperature they left her lying in her bed.

Once she was sure nobody would come back up to her room she crawled out of bed already fully dressed and snuck down the hall, hiding behind the wall whenever a nun walked past, when the coast was clear she snuck into the church, but found it dark and deserted.

Sad, Hartley found herself sneaking back into her room. Her only idea was to go into the streets and hopefully replace him in the ice-cream parlour in which he had taken her last night, it was a long shot but it was the only one she had.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced to her bed which had a terrible and lumpy pillow person she had made before she crawled out of the window so she could crawl down the long wall.

Unaccustomed to crawling down after exiting the window Hartley misjudged her footing and slipped causing her to land awkwardly on her feet, a jolt of pain shooting up her legs.

Hartley walked in the same direction she had the night before trying to recall where she had gone. She stopped where she had heard the croaked voice that night and looks around, even in the early morning the alley-way looked pitch black and eerie, ignoring the clawing feeling she had in her chest she continued walking down the alley-way hoping it was the right way.

“You look a bit young to be wondering these parts” a voice speaks, the same voice that she had heard the previous night “and much to pretty to be doing it alone” the voice chuckled and Hartley turned in circles looking much like a dog chasing its tail, but was still left unable to replace the source of the voice. “Are you lost pet?” the voice whispered into her ear and she jumps turning around only to see nobody there.

“W-who are you?” she stutters trying her best to sound confident.

“Nobody important, just a lonely man lost in a big town unable to replace his way home” the voice croaked the amusement clear in his voice. “Are you alone pet?” the voice asks and Hartley although trembling replaces her voice.

“N-no I-I came here with m-my boyfriend, I’m just waiting for him” she answers running her tongue over her dry and cracked lips, her eyes darting in every direction and her vision beginning to become blurred with tears.

“You wouldn’t lie to me would you” the voice muses “I get angry when people lie to me” a cold hand brushes over a clear spot on Hartley’s back making her tense “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” she could feel it’s cold breath on the back of her neck but she was paralysed in fear unable to move “Hartley” the voice finishes before his laugh echoes through the alley, this was enough to get her legs working and she began to run down the alley aimlessly trying to run from the shadowed person.

“Help!” she screamed as she could feel somebody following her and hear footsteps bellowing behind her coming closer and closer.

“Don’t run Hartley!” the voice says with high amusement in his tone “my mother always taught me to never play with my food” he chuckles as Hartley reaches a dead end.

‘Why did I leave today? I should be in the church doing enough chores to last me the entire day, I’m only 15 I’m too young to die’ she thinks as she curses herself, her hands replaceing her way to cover her now tear stained face.

‘Hartley, you have to listen to me’ the woman’s voice says and Hartley just sobs ‘I know you don’t trust me but you need to do this to by time, so do what I say’ she orders and Hartley nods.

“Just help me please” Hartley sobs as she hears the footsteps come closer.

‘Clear your mind can you do that?’ the voice asks and Hartley nods taking in a big gulp.

“Okay”

‘Is your mind clear?’

“Y-yes”

‘Okay now close your eyes and concentrate, your emotions, try and focus on them, try and connect to that power’

“W-what?” she asks confused “You’re joking right?”

‘Not at a time like this Hartley, do it!’ the voice yells but Hartley shakes her head and grips her hair tightly.

“I can’t, I’m going to die” she sobs.

‘You’re not going to die Hartley, just wait’ the voice says confidently but Hartley paid no attention and instead looked up to the towering figure which stood over her. It appeared to Hartley like what she imagined a demon to look like, his body was long and thin, dark grey cloth hung barely covering his skeleton like body, his eyes had no colour but instead looked like endless pools of black mist, to his side he had a hand which looked human but his left was nothing but bone which looked to be decaying, held tightly by that hand was a scythe which glimmered in the small amount of light that peeked through the dark alley-way.

The creature’s eyes followed her ever movement like a predator watching its prey “Don’t be afraid pet” it says in a masculine tone which allowed Hartley to determine its sex, as the creature smiles he shows off his razor-sharp teeth “I just want to ask you a few questions” he leant down and brushed his flesh covered hand over Hartley’s sweat and tear covered face. “so, sweet and young” his hand moves down slowly, allowing his fingers to trail lazily behind before he reached the neck.

His hand tightened around it as he thrusts her body against the brick wall behind her “tell me, have you had a visit from Fifth Avenue?” he says in loud and angered voice.

Hartley’s hands move to his arms as she tries to pry him off of her, her mouth opening as she attempts to gasp for air and her legs kicking wildly hoping to land a crippling hit which would send him back. “I-” she gasps “I don’t know what you’re talking about” she says as tears began to flow down her cheeks, but she didn’t care.

“Don’t lie to me!” he says raising his voice, his other hand moving up and clasping the blue strands of her hair and he brought it towards his face inhaling its smell “I can smell them all over you pet, and I’m not in the mood for your-”

“Reaper put her down!” a voice screams loudly interrupting Reaper’s verbal attack, Hartley watched the creature, Reapers face too afraid to look to her could-be-rescuer, his mouth turns to a scowl and he throws Hartley into the asphalt before launching himself at the other assailant.

When she found the strength, Hartley looked up to see Justin standing against a wall, he was panting, his skin was paling and his t-shirt was stained with blood.

He seemed to move unnaturally fast as he dodged Reapers scythe.

Justin’s eyes seemed to catch eye contact with Hartley and within milliseconds he was by her side, holding her arms tightly “Brace yourself Blue” he says, his eyes fought the urge to shut from the loss of blood.

Reaper snarled as he turned to face them, his pointed teeth now dripping with salvia “Don’t you d-” in a blink of an eye Justin and Hartley were in what looked to be an empty store room, with one dim light overhead giving Hartley just enough light to see empty and destroyed boxes surrounding them, small splatters of blood coating the walls and ground.

Hartley turned and saw Justin passing in and out of consciousness beside her, the blood from his shirt now joining the blood which was already on the floor where she was sitting. “Justin?” Hartley says worriedly and drags herself closer to him, when he gives no reply she places her hands on his shoulder and shake him lightly, but still earned no reply.

She looked to his shirt and lightly pulled up the material to see a huge dark red hole on his torso.

‘Back away Hartley’ the voice tells Hartley before the lights in the large room began to grow brighter and the group from the church all emerge in sequence, looking like a scene from a bad movie.

The man with the burnt face approached them but paid no attention to Hartley instead he leant down and placed his un-gloved hand on Justin’s wound, to Hartley’s amazement the wound began to seal up and the blood started to dry and crack. “There, Kit and Shooter if you could please take Justin to the infirmary I’ll be there in a few minutes” the blonde man with the cigarette and the little boy both nodded and walked towards Justin pulling him towards the two large doors on the other side of the room

Hartley looked up and noticed the man with the burns and the woman in the couple looked at her oddly and she raised her blood-soaked hands up in surrender, “What are you doing?” the man asks “Put your hands down and follow me” he says turning around and following the blood trail which Justin made as he was dragged away.

The woman gives Hartley a small smile before following Doc, deciding against her better judgement Hartley followed the strange group slowly but her pace picked up as she noticed a red light on top of the door begin to flash, just making it through before the doors slam loudly closed and lock.

“Hi, I’m Kit!” a little voice chirps and Hartley jumps turning around to notice the little boy standing there with a wide smile that looked too big for his tiny face.

Hartley smiles shyly “I’m Hartley” she whispers and he giggles adorably.

“I know that silly” he says humoured “it’s so nice to finally meet you” he says reaching out his hand, Hartley eyes it curiously and Kit pulls it back when he realises she wasn’t going to shake it. Kit’s eyes wonder to her hands which she had folded neatly in front of her, the blood from them beginning to soak into her oversized t-shirt. “Oh, here take this” he says offering her a grease covered hand cloth, thinking it would be rude not to accept she politely took the cloth from his hands and wiped the quickly drying blood from her hands before handing it back.

“Thank you” she mumbles and he shrugs like it was nothing, but that small act of kindness still shocked Hartley. She leans down to his height so he didn’t have to continue looking up to look at her and he smiles even wider, if that was even possible. “So, what do you do around here?” she asks trying to make conversation with the young boy.

“I do all the repairs” he says “and computer” he paused and taps his little chin “computer work?” he says in questioning tone which Hartley didn’t think was purposeful.

She nods and waits for him to continue “you meant the group, didn’t you?” he says and she smiles lightly “oh well, I’m not supposed to say” he says in an apologetic tone, “but hey I can still introduce everyone, so we have names if you would like?” he asks, although this wasn’t the information Hartley had hoped to replace she was still curious enough to replace out at least the names of her saviours.

“Well I’m Kit” he says re-introducing himself “the couple over there” Kit points to the man and woman who seemed to be caught in their own world against the far wall “the man, his name is Shooter and the girl, her name is Bullet” Hartley looks at him, not completely certain he was being serious about their names, but by the look on his face he wasn’t joking. “the man in there” he says pointing to the silhouette of the man in the room beside them “he’s our team leader of sorts, we call him Doc as he does all the doctor stuff” Kit looks back to Hartley “and well, you’ve already met Justin”

Hartley stands back up as her legs began to numb and she looks to her surroundings, all the walls and floors were made of grey concrete, wires were strung from every available area and dangled dangerously from the roof, computers and desks were awkwardly placed against most of the walls and awkward black char coated random places on the walls in a circular shape.

When Hartley looks back to the front of her she was shocked to see Bullet instead of Kit. “Hiya” Bullet says smiling overly wide, ’there must’ve been something in the air ducts’ thought Hartley “I’m Bullet” she says pulling Hartley into a tight hug “ugh I can’t wait for us to be best friends” she says pulling away.

“You’re the voice” Hartley states silently and Bullets smile falls slightly “but how?” she asks and Bullet taps the top of her head lightly, making Hartley fell more like a lost child than an equal.

Without answering Hartley’s question Bullet turns on her heel and skips back to her boyfriend, or husband, Hartley was going to follow after her in search of an answer but was stopped as a tall man, Doc, touched her shoulder and she turned to face him.

Doc didn’t smile like the rest of his team did, in fact Hartley found it hard to replace a hint of any emotion on his face, “You’re Hartley, am I correct?” he asks in a droll tone, his face as close to hers as he leant down to her height and she felt the warm fan of his breath against her cheeks “I’ve heard so much about you” he says placing his head under her chin and moving her head as his doing some sort of inspection over her. A small flash of what Hartley thinks is disappointment flashed through his eyes as he releases her “You’re not ready yet” he says loudly.

Hartley looks down and fiddles with her hands “What am I not ready for?” she asks silently, Doc tenses as she asks the question and looks back down to her, he didn’t say anything, he just gave her a small smile before turning and walking away from her.

Something Hartley had never felt before started to bubble inside of her, like a rage she felt she couldn’t control, “What am I not ready for?!” she asks again, but this time in an angered tone, her voice came out loud and sounded more demanding than she had expected it to.

Doc didn’t turn around this time, he didn’t even talk directly to Hartley “Take her home” he tells his team, Hartley run forward and grabbed his arm yanking him back to face her.

“You can’t just bring me here and not tell me!” she yells at him “Why would you bring me here is I wasn’t ready?” Doc looks at Hartley for a bit before he replied.

“We didn’t bring you here to tell you anything” he states, “we brought you here because you were stupid enough to leave the safety of your orphanage and get attacked by The Association, and in rescuing you we got one of our own team members hurt” Doc spoke responsibly, not raising his voice as he spoke.

When he was finished talking he walked up the stairs, and Hartley thought over what he had said, his words feeding the anger inside of her.

Shooter cautiously stepped forward and placed his hand onto her shoulder “I like you kid, so just calm down and we’ll take you home carefully” he says slowly, he moves his hand away when she turns and he notices the colour of her hair begin to turn from bright blue to a fiery red.

“Sweetie” Bullet says, “sweetie your hair” Hartley reaches up and pulls her hair down in front her face, her anger quickly dissipated, the colour drained from her face and she took a step back so fast she tripped over herself.

“What did you do to me?” she asks in concern.

Bullet walks forward and leans down to Hartley’s eye height “Hartley, I know telling you this will probably get me in trouble” she says very quietly “Hartley, you can do things, things I’ve never seen before” Hartley stops as her back hits the metal staircase.

“How would you know?! I’ve never done anything out of the ordinary, I’m just a normal girl, I’m a freak sure but I don’t have special abilities nothing about me is special, you’re crazy, all of you!” unknowingly to her Hartley’s hair starts to turn from red to grey before going back to blue.

Shooter took a step to his partner and drops his cigarette from his mouth crushing it with his foot before pulling Bullet into his arms and whispering something into her ear.

Hartley squeaks as she sees Justin walking out of the infirmary, looking as if he hadn’t almost bled to death just half an hour earlier.

He smirks and rests his hand on her shoulder “Not again” she pleads. He adverts his eyes from her.

“Sorry Blue” he apologises before his smirk returns and he looks her in the eyes, they were twinkling in a way which Hartley found mesmerizing “maybe next week” he pulls Hartley into his arms like he was hugging her “close your eyes” he whispered into her ear before she felt a large gust of wind blow past her, she kept her eyes closed even when she felt Justin let go of her and only opened them once she had felt a second gust of wind.

She was back in her orphanage room, it was empty but the beds were now all undone and messy. Looking down Hartley noticed her shirt and coat were soaked in blood and her body was shaking wildly.

Hartley heard the sound of feet in the hall and dashed to her bed covering herself with her blanket, just as she did Sister Juanita walked in, remaining at the doorway “So I eard you eren’t feelin well?” Sister Juanita asks looking at Hartley and she looks at her confused “Whoy dud ou lie taday? Ya foine, I know ya are cause I nu ya aven’t eatin any of our food in deys which means ya cen’t be sick loike da rest of dem” Sister Juanita storms into the room and grabs Hartley’s face tightly in her hands “So whoy dud ya lie taday kiddo, were ya wif dem?” she asks and Hartley gulps, her body starting to tremble.

“W-who is them?” she stutters.

Sister Juanita snarls “I am not as stupid as ya think kiddo” she says “I wull foind out, just you wait nd see” with that Sister Juanita released her and dusted off her black dress “Fa sneakin’ out ya go ta bed wifout suppa, nawt loike that’s much of a punishment for ya” Sister Juanita flashes Hartley an unnerving smile before closing and locking the door behind her.

Right now, Hartley wished more than anything that she had never gotten the church chore that day, she wished that she had never spoken to Justin and that she had never snuck out today, she preferred it when her life was just, normal.