Not a problem for Eva, she had faced far scarier opponents even before school had started.
“Hey hey, where you going girl?”
“Finally,” Eva hissed under her breath. Drawing her hands up to her chest and hunching over slightly to make herself look smaller, Eva turned around and prepared to channel Shalise. “M-my dog ran away. I c-can’t find him and now I don’t know how to get home.”
She would have tried some tears, but doubted that it would be very effective with the blindfold in the way.
“Your dog, huh?” He glanced back at the other two. “Don’t worry, my boys will help you find him.”
Eva tried to keep the frown off her face. So far, she had twelve separate people honestly try to help her find her dog. Twelve people who had steered her away from dark alleys and had been nothing but kind while she led them on a wild goose chase.
In the end, she had led them to a subdivision before ‘recognizing’ the area and running off towards her ‘home,’ thanking them for their help as she ran.
“Of course,” the lead guy said, “we are going to need a little payment first, you know?”
One of the guys behind him let out a short burst of a laugh as he leered at her.
Eva almost sighed in relief. She had her suspicions before, but that almost confirmed that they weren’t going to be the altruistic sort.
Rather than sigh, Eva tensed up. “W-what kind of payment?”
“Payment,” he said with a laugh. “I know a place where we can talk about it, why don’t you follow me for a bit, huh?”
“B-but my dog,” Eva said, turning slightly away from the group.
“Yo, one of my buddies just called me up,” one of the smokers said. “He saw one of them seein’ eye dogs down the street. Said he’d pack it up and bring it with him.”
The guy in the lead shot his ‘boy’ a look. A sort of ‘what the hell kind of fifteen year old would believe that load of garbage, when were you supposed to have time to call, what if she runs off now?’ kind of look.
At least, that’s what Eva assumed the look said. She was thinking much the same thing. Or did she look younger? She was trying to make herself look as small and nonthreatening as possible. Maybe they thought she was only ten.
“You found Scooby?” Eva said, perking her voice up a few notches from the frightened child it had been a moment earlier.
The smoker just shrugged at the leader. “Sure thing, my buddy said its name tag said Scooby right there on it.”
The leader pressed a thumb to his forehead and shook his head slightly. “See? Everything is fine girl.” He clapped a hand on Eva’s shoulder. “Come on, we can take you to your dog.”
With only a modicum of resistance, Eva allowed the men to lead her away.
Contrary to her expectations, the men were not leading her back towards the trailer park. Eva decided that not going back was probably for the best after a moment of thought.
The walls in the trailer park were probably not the most sound proof things around.
After a short walk up the street, they pulled her into a van driven by a fourth thug. Roughly. Eva actually let out a short yelp as one of the thugs picked her up under her armpits. Whoever had her made no effort to avoid knocking her knees against the van’s floor as he shoved her inside.
Had she still had her old knees, she might have torn off his face then and there. As it was, she barely felt the impact against her chitin-covered legs. Eva was even willing to ignore just where his hands had maneuvered themselves to.
It was one of the last things that he would feel.
“W-where are we going?” Eva asked, keeping up the timid act.
She had half a mind to end them all right where they were, but curiosity was getting the better of her. Just where were they going?
Also, the van was already in motion. They had peeled off with squealing tires before the door shut. Eva couldn’t see the speedometer–it was behind a pane of plastic that her cloud of blood couldn’t penetrate–but she had the distinct impression that the thugs were not following the speed limit.
While she could probably find a way to survive a medium-high speed crash, she wasn’t so certain about the thugs. Unfortunately, she needed them alive.
“Don’t you worry girl. We’re just going to the warehouse your dog is at.”
Settling back in her seat, Eva put on a small smile. “O-okay. Thanks for going out of your way. You guys are really nice.”
“Hey hey, you hear that? We’re nice guys,” the leader said with a laugh.
The journey didn’t take long. Maybe ten minutes at most. There was a bit of winding around. At one point, Eva was certain that they made four right turns in a row. Maybe they were trying to lose anyone that might be following?
Eva didn’t care all that much. By the time they arrived, Eva was just glad that the leader had to take his wandering hands off her shoulders for a few minutes.
