-Chapter 7-

In Which The Gang Splits

Chastity returned his desperate gaze, searching his face for any traces of doubts. Her mouth remained open in shock. This was the moment she had dreamed of, when she was younger. What she had waited for. If this was what she had always wanted, then...why was she afraid? She gulped and opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Roger, who threw open the door,

"Dodge, Chass, the traps are 'ere! Get yer stuff an-" he stopped, finally noticing their heads were very close together. "Wha..What are you doin'?"

Chassy jumped up and brushed off her skirts,

"Nothing, nothing! Come on, we gotta hurry!" she cried, pushing her way out the door. She hurriedly grabbed her few belongings and shoved them into a bag, amongst the other boys. Dodger finally returned from the room and did the same. Chassy winced as she heard shouts from outside,and banging on the door. She stood up and threw the bag over her shoulder, looking desperately around for Dodger or Charley, but it was hard to tell who was who through the mass of running boys. They took off in all directions, jumping out windows, and so forth. Chassy felt a hand on her arm and she whipped around, half-expecting it to be a policemen. She let out a shaky breath when she saw it was only Charley, he seemed as afraid as she was.

"We get Dodger, and we run far, far away from 'ere and never come back," she said, her voice surprisingly even. He simply nodded and she searched the all the commotion, and finally caught a glimpse of a top hat. She gasped slightly and rushed over, pulling Dodger to his feet and back to where Charley stood, and the three looked frantically around the room for an exit, as the door certainly wasn't an option. At that very moment, a loud crash was heard, and footsteps ran up the staircase. Chassy's heart sunk, the policemen had banged down the door. In a start, she remembered an escape route she had found.

"Follow me!" she cried, leading them to her "sick room", and she pried open the window, revealing a small landing underneath it. She turned to the two,

"There's another buildin' just across from the landin'. You just gotta jump, and 'ope we make it," she said, deathly pale. The two boys just stood and stared at her, and she gulped,

"Guess I'm goin' first, then," she said gravely, and carefully lowered herself onto the thin piece of wood, which creaked dangerously. She took a deep breath and leaped, crash-landing onto the parallel building. She turned just in time to see Charley land next to her, just as gracefully as the former(or, lack thereof). Dodger jumped next, but he misjudged the distance and landed with a thump much further than them. Chassy stumbled to her feet and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his own feet. He thanked her with his eyes, and she nodded once before tearing away, practically jumping down the stairs and into the street. Charley and Dodger followed her, bumping into her in their haste. She paused in the doorway, looking each way to make sure it was clear. A member of the mob saw her and pointed, shouting to the others. Chassy swore loudly and took off, away from the man. She ran to the marketplace, Charley and Dodger hot on her heels. She quickly looked around and dashed off in a random direction, dodging through alleyways and even buildings, hoping to lose the angry mob right behind them. In a flash she remembered the same situation when she was only eleven, of being chased and ducking into the Three Cripples. She smiled in spite of herself at the irony of it all, but snapped out of her trance when a bullet whizzed past her ear. They were shooting at them? She winced as another bang shot out, but thankfully she never heard it find a mark. She searched frantically for a way out, but these thoughts were pushed aside as she heard another gunshot sounded, accompanied by a loud cry of pain. Her heart jumped into her throat and she stopped, turning around. She gasped as she saw Charley slumped on the ground, clutching his arm tightly. She cursed the shooter under her breath and ran over to him, heaving him up and draping his good arm over his shoulder.

"You gotta keep runnin', we're almost there. You're gonna make it, don't worry," she said frantically, more to herself than to him. He merely groaned in pain and they continued on, and Chastity ducked into an abandoned and rotting house in a final attempt at escape. Dodger followed soon after, and they pressed themselves up against a wall and out of view. To their extreme relief, the policemen continued running in the opposite direction. Chassy let out a shaky breath and walked slowly to the front of the abandoned shack and shut the door quickly. She returned to Charley (who had gone deathly pale) and sat him down, taking a breath quickly as she finally saw the wound. She winced and looked at his face, which was contorted with pain. She fumbled around a little and finally tore a scrap of cloth from her dress.

"It's gonna hurt, so...just bite down on this," she said, her expression grave, handing him the scrap of clothing. He grimaced and took it, placing it into his mouth. Chassy took a deep breath and gingerly inspected the wound for a bullet, which she found. She carefully eased the bullet out, and still Charley bit down as hard as he could on the cloth, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Chassy threw he bullet into a corner and Charley hastily wiped his eyes and exhaled. She wrapped the garish hole with another strip of fabric and leaned back onto her heels, her breath shaky. The trio sat in painful silence as the day wore on, and finally retired to bed as the sun slowly set.