Paradise Lost

"I didn't mean to end his life, I know it wasn't right, I can't even sleep at night, can't get it off my mind, I need to get out of sight before I end up behind bars." - Rihanna

A day had passed, meaning it had been twenty-four hours since she killed a man.

The feeling of the metal of his handgun on her exposed back, his spindly fingers on her waist as he demanded the contents of her wallet...

She...she didn't want this to happen. She had wanted to simply scare him and shoot his leg or something.

But here she was, hiding out in her friend's basement - knees drawn to her chest, heavy uneven breaths, oceanic eyes wide and crazed from sleep deprivation - waiting to hear the sirens outside the house and being pulled away screaming for her life.

A pair of quick, light footsteps were heard over the sound of her racing heart and a mop of nearly black hair came out of the stairwell.

"Ray," The voice whispered, and she tip-toed into the light. Even with dark bags under her brown doe eyes, her fair complexion was flawless. Her dark brown hair just fell past her shoulders, and had a natural silky wave to it. Her long lashes were matted together with tears, and her relatively small nose was red.

"We're getting out of here. Now."

"We?" Her voice cracked. She put her arms at her side, dirty nails scraping the concrete, as she tried to push herself off the ground. Her friend rushed to her side, and only then did she realize how bad she was shaking...and the small pack on her friend's back.

"Em, I don't know where-"

"I'm going with you." Her voice was steady and sure as she helped hoist her friend off the ground.

"But-"

"I'm not letting you do this by yourself." Once she was on her feet, she was led up the stairs and through the back door. There was the soft hum of the television upstairs, from Ember's little sister's room. Ember's cat, Storm, was lounging in the windowsil, simply staring at them. Ember quickly turned her head away, and Storm mimicked her before scampering into the next room, as if knowing the choice she had made.

"But I'm not letting you leave this when you did nothing wrong!" Rayne whispered harshly, finally breaking Ember's grasp on her.

The slightly-taller girl sighed before running a hand through her hair.

"Look. We've already been through so much shit, and I would rather die than never see you again. I can handle this, because I know that they'll be safe and...and I know that you'll need me, of course. Because you do stupid shit when I'm not there to watch you, like kill somebody."

Rayne took a step back. "How did you...?"

"Sweetie, the blood on your clothes?" Ember deadpanned, before Rayne rubbed her face in embarrasment.

"Just..." She let out a breath and ran a hand through matted brown locks, "just promise me you actually want this. I don't want-"

"Ray, of course I want to." She gripped her best friend's hand, interlacing their fingers. "Through thick and thin, until the end. You're never getting rid of me, even if I have to sit in the cell next to you or carry your corpse around."

Rayne laughed, and tightened her grip on Ember's hand.

"I'm glad there's only the possibility of bad things happening to me." She gave Ember a look, and the girl simply looked away as if distracted by something shiny.

Ember's sister's footsteps on the staircase sobered them up, and Rayne pulled her out of the house before the small girl could softly call out "Ember?" and cause the girl to go running back.

Ember gave her a small nod of thanks as they weaved through her neighbor's lawn decorations. They didn't know where they were going, or how they were going to survive.

They were only fifteen year old runaways, but they were gone.