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"Hey, where you going four eyes?"

"We're gonna get-cha!"

Whoops and hollers followed the girl as she ran. Her feet skidded on the concrete. Her breath rasped in her chest as she ducked down an alley and bolted through yards, trying to lose her pursuers. But it was hopeless. Her short, thin legs, hampered by her dress, would not keep her ahead of the larger boys for much longer. They always caught her.

She gasped, fighting the stitch in her side as she barreled across the back lawns. The whoops and hollers were getting closer.

"Hey four-eyes! Where are you?"

The girl skidded down an alley, her mouse-brown hair snapping behind her. But she had made a mistake. The alley ended in a wall. The girl stumbled to a halt, her chest heaving.

A small murmur sounded, low to the ground. The girl shook her head, her eyes wide behind her glasses. "No. You'll get us in trouble." Then she darted forward. "Come on. Behind the dumpster."

Footsteps pounded against the asphalt.

"Where'd she go?"

"Hey cry baby!"

"Come out, you little four-eyed chicken!"

The girl rocked in the darkness, her hands wrapped tight around her knees. Her eyes were wide, the eyes of a rabbit who smells the fox.

A shadow fell across the light beyond her hiding place. There was a low growl beside her, weird and bubbling. The girl shook her head.

A grinning face appeared in the gap. The boy stood."Hey guys, I found the twerp!"Then he bent again, hand reaching . A sound chirruped out.
"Do it," the girl breathed.

There was a low warbling noise. Four lines of bright red opened along the reaching arm, scoring from wrist to elbow. Blood jetted out, spraying the wall and the girl's shoes.

That was when the screaming started.