Messed Up Fairytale.

August 3, 2004
Six years later.

“Get that girl!” Shouted an angry store manager as a young girl with shoulder length black hair that had once been blond bolted out of his store and began running down the sidewalk away from the store. In her hand she held a bottle of orange juice and one of those breakfast croissants.

It was early in the morning in the city of Chicago and Charlotte was acquiring a healthy breakfast for her self.

The girl's green eyes scanned the area ahead of her, what she spotted made her dig her heels in and stop. Two police officers were getting up from a table at a local outdoor restaurant and they were starting to jog towards her.

“Crap” she muttered and back tracked a few steps and then went down the very thin ally way between two stores.

“Stop right there” she heard the burly voice of one police officer order.

Charlotte didn't pay attention, she hopped up on one of the dumpsters, the sound of heavy footfalls from the police officers hurrying down the ally approaching steadily. Quickly she stashed her juice and bun in the pocket of the slightly over sized hoodie she wore.

“I said, freeze” the officer who had spoken before commanded.

“Actually...” Charlotte began as she looked up to make sure the drainage pipe leading up from the bottom of the ally looked sturdy enough for all 110 pounds of her, “you said stop right there” the girl finished. At that moment the cops were only ten feet from the dumpster and were pulling what looked to be Tazzer-guns out. Charlotte made one leap of faith and sealed her hands around the pipe, it held her weight nicely so she began to climb up the wall. She heard the officer speak into his walkie talkie about back up but didn't feel him pursuing her up the pipe. Seemed being big and muscular meant scaling something like a drainage pipe held on only by a bracket every few feet was impossible because it wouldn't take his weight.

Charlotte reached the top of the two story store and rolled over onto the roof of it with a deep breath. Being a thief was a good way to stay in shape and get what you want. Still laying on her back Charlotte took out her juice and downed the whole bottle, it was the middle of August in Chicago and it was humid as hell. Sweat was already beading on her forehead, she ditched her hoodie and the orange juice bottle on the roof because she stuck out pretty bad with the sweatshirt on. Before sneaking into the store from the service door she adjusted her plain white tee-shirt and smoothed her hair down, no need to look deranged in front of the nice customers. Her plan kind of went out the window when all of a sudden the hatch leading down into the store began to rise up, on instinct Charlotte jumped on it and a stream of curses was heard below the metal hatch. It began to slowly rise up and the small girl was lifted with it, seemed like having no fat had its disadvantages too.

The ally way was only six feet wide, used only to accommodate back doors for the buildings around it. The building across this small ally was a little shorter and perfect for landing on. Charlotte almost fell when a big shove nearly opened the hatch and pushed her off. “Now or never” the girl muttered, she took a running start and at the edge of the building she jumped. For a scary moment it looked like Charlotte was going to miss it but then her feet came in contact with the asphalt of the neighboring building and she tucked and rolled to get rid of her momentum. The landing had earned her a big scratch on her knee, easily seen through the new rip in her denim jeans.

“Stop right there!” the police officer told her for the second time.

“Do you really think saying it a second time is going to make me listen?” Charlotte called out, not stopping to say it. Since this building was only one story with an attic it would be easy for her to jump off. She scanned the other side of the building to find the stores dumpster but it wasn't there, when her eyes traced the back of the building she spotted it. “Perfect” she sort of sang and she held onto the edge of the building as she dropped her legs over the edge, once she stopped swinging she let go and landed on the dumpster. She slid off of it and on the the cement ground. The sound of sirens was faint but that still sent Charlotte running as fast as she could, the thought of being arrested scared the shit out of her.

Since she was an orphan she would just be put into an orphanage and then into a family that wasn't hers and a family she did not want. Of course her opinion would never be observed in such a case, “leave it to the adults” they would say. Which left her to her own resources. Charlotte went in the direction of one her hiding places and headed that way.

Once she got to the abandoned apartment building that, luckily for her, had its construction postponed until the end of the year, she pulled back the piece of fence she had cut and slipped in, “there goes the rest of my day” Charlotte muttered as she entered the building and went to the third floor to find a stash of her things for times like this.