On the Run

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Ellie watched the man called "Alabaster" approach the table, pass out some drinks, sit down and then start to cry silently. She had never seen this man before, but he looked to be older than she was, something that immediately put her on edge.

Who is this guy? How did he know my sister? Why is he crying now? Everyone else, even Drew... Even me... We're holding it together far better than he is. He looks like he could be nearly thirty, so why was he hanging around with my sister? Why is he now hanging out with these kids? I don't trust him.

Ellie wished that she was sat nearer to Damien, but she would have to make do with Cassie for the time being. She leaned across towards the brunette and whispered into her ear, "Who is this guy? How did he know Amy?"
 
Casey was getting a cold feeling from Ellie, maybe she wasn't playing into Casey's 'good girl' act as much as she hoped she would. But it didn't matter to her, she didn't care about how Ellie felt about her. It just hurt a little that she couldn't smooth over everything with a fake smile and words.

"Oh, Drew?" Casey glanced over at Drew, she honestly was concerned about Drew. At first Casey thought the police were right, Drew had to be the killer, but the more Casey talked to Drew and was around him the more she realized he was innocent and she felt guilty for believing it could be him. And he was pretty hot, so Casey wouldn't hold a grudge. "You knew Amy. She was always out at a party and I was always with her. But I had homework one night," Casey smirked, "Yes. I do homework. And Amy went out to a party. Next thing I know she had a boyfriend. I don't know if she picked him up at the party or somewhere else. I'm pretty sure she picked him up somewhere on that night, I mean, I'm with her a lot. Anyways, he's only two years older then Amy and I'm pretty sure he went to our school. Popular. I remember, he was really popular. So naturally he was the type for Amy." As Casey told Ellie the story of Drew, from Casey's point of view, she still held respect in her voice for Amy. Though some of her remarks could have come off to someone as mean or snarky, she only meant them with love. Also, they were facts. Popular, partying, and picking up were three of Amy's qualities.
 
Ellie listened to Casey's story, furrowing her brow as the girl kept talking, without showing any signs of stopping until she was finished. When she was done, she seemed to offer up a smile, as if she was proud of herself, or her answer, but Ellie simply shook her head in response.

"Thanks, I guess, but I had kind of worked out who Drew was. Damien did sort of introduce us a little." Ellie looked towards the older man, still fighting the tears, and then turned back to Casey, leaning in and whispering a second time, "I was asking about this guy. This 'Alabaster'. Do you know him? Who is he? If 'Alabaster' is his real name then it's not one I'd forget if Amy had ever mentioned it. Just who is he?"
 
Casey immediately felt stupid but still smiled. Casey liked talking and didn't mind telling more stories, but Drew was way more interesting to talk about then Alabaster.

"Oh. Alabaster. Ugh," Casey groaned and fluttered her eyes a bit, "he's just," Amy then sighed, "He's a tutor. He tutored Amy and I with school. And Damien, I believe. He was fairly close to Amy, I think. She had more tutoring then I did, after all I studied and stayed at home on occasion. But honestly, I don't know him the best. He's a nice guy! And Damien seems to trust him and that has to mean a lot," Casey stopped for a second and glanced at Damien and got lost a little for a second thinking about Damien, a small smile hit her face for a second. This smile was real but rare, and only lasted a second before she continued, "Damien doesn't trust a lot of people, I believe. So Alabaster has to be good enough. That's what I'm assuming."
 
Damien sat still for a few seconds, eyeing the food in front of him. Despite how hungry he felt, he couldn't quite push himself to take the sandwich sitting on the table in front of him. The coffee, on the other hand, would help him stay awake for a while longer. As he lifted the plastic cup and sipped the boiling liquid, he flinched ever so slightly as the coffee scorched the top of his lips. He pushed the cup back onto the table. The aftertaste of the small amount of coffee he had taken into his mouth was strong and distasteful, but he knew it would keep him alert for a longer while. He couldn't allow himself to sleep. Sleep accompanied dreams, and dreams were accompanied by memories. And at a time like this, the harsher and darker memories were the ones that came to the surface while his mind wandered aimlessly and unguided by his subconscious while he slept. Nightmares. Recently, he had suffered too many of them for his own liking. Not tonight. He sipped his coffee again before looking to Casey and Ellie, whose conversation he had been listening to and had captured snippets from.

"I do trust him, to some extent," Damien confirmed after swallowing the coffee, as Alabaster sat quietly at one of the chairs at the end of the table. "I don't know much about him but I do know that he helped Amy when she needed it. Lessons, revision, the lot. Whenever she wasn't with her friends, she was studying with him. Considering that he was willing to give Amy a helping hand before she passed away, and that he is willing to give us a helping hand after, I think that we can trust him."

Once Damien had finished speaking, he thought back to what he had said. Passed away? Had he really said that? 'Passed away' was a phrase somebody would reserve for their grandmother or an old aunt. He thought about what else he could have said instead. 'Departed.' No, that seemed as if she would be coming back. Amy was gone. And she wasn't coming back this time. She hadn't passed away or departed. No, she was murdered. That was the truth.
 
Ellie nodded, listening to Casey and noting that she seemed to talk about Damien as much as she talked about Alabaster. It was probably because he knew Alabaster better and, through Casey's own admission, she was only able to repeat what Damien had said. Unfortunately for Ellie, Damien's trust in Alabaster wasn't enough to convince her.

Damien leaned across and reiterated that he trusted Alabaster, so Ellie gave a shrug of her shoulders and nodded. She had whispered her question to Casey specifically so that no-one else would hear it, but the girl had just talked back. A quick glance said that Alabaster was still distraught, so maybe he hadn't overheard what was being said, but Ellie couldn't rule it out as a possibility. If he had been a good friend to Amy, then Ellie didn't want to insult him by insinuating anything else, whilst, if he wasn't someone that they could trust, then she didn't really want him to know that they were suspicious of him and his intentions. Ellie thought back to what her sister had said once, about how Casey wasn't the best person in the world for keeping a secret, maybe this was what she meant by that.

In either case, Ellie still didn't trust Alabaster. This guy couldn't have just been a tutor of Amy's, because to be in the state that he was in, surrounded by relative strangers, something more had to be going on beneath the surface. She shuddered at the thought of what that might be and then tried to squash those thoughts down into the deep, dark depths of her mind.

Without Drew around, Ellie felt more at ease and was able to sit upright a little more, scanning the table and the rest of the coffee shop. Damien appeared to be the leader of the three kids, whilst she wondered how Alabaster had become involved. They were apparently meeting him here so that they could go and stay with him, but who suggested such a thing? No, thought Ellie, it would be much better if they stayed with her. They would be safe, then. Outside the shop, she could still see some people bustling around, despite the late hour, and the odd flash of lights as a police car or ambulance drove past. Neither one was an uncommon site in this city; it had the usual gang-related problems of any city and even if they were quiet, there was always at least one idiot that had drunk too much and started picking fights.

Ellie's coffee cup was empty. It had been empty for a while, but, as she looked at the drinks and sandwiches that Alabaster had provided, none of which had really been touched yet, she got the impression that they might be staying here for a while. "I'm going to go and get another coffee," she said, before sliding her chair away from the table and heading over to the counter. Whilst standing there and waiting to be served, she angled her body in such a way to keep an eye on the table where Damien, Casey and Alabaster were; she suddenly felt very responsible for the kids and felt the need to make sure that nothing happened to them.
 
Drew left the bathroom to catch the tail end of the conversation, and more importantly, to retrieve his coffee. He took a mouthful. Perfect. There wasn't too much milk in it, meaning that it was good and strong, which was exactly what he needed. The coffee in the police station had been disgusting. Strong, yes, but definitely not worth it to try and stay awake. But the Starbucks coffee was good.

He wanted to contribute to the conversation, but he was sitting right beside Alabaster, so he didn't want to say anything that might upset the guy. He accidentally caught Ellie's eye and quickly lifted the coffee to his lips, taking a mouthful.
 
Casey let out a sigh, tired of the conversation already. She decided she wasn't hungry or thirsty, 'I don't deserve to eat. Or be happy. Or be around friends. Not when Amy should be with us. But she can't be. Can she? God. I can't do this.' Casey shook her head slightly then turned to Damien and spoke quietly, "When do we leave? I have a bad feeling about being out here." Casey wasn't sure if she actually had a bad feeling about being out in the public's eye, but she needed a better reason then her own selfish reason to push leaving here.
 
Damien had just about finished his coffee when he heard Casey's question. Although he knew that she most likely didn't have any bad feeling about being here whatsoever, he did. He could notice people at various tables turning their heads and whispering to one another, their fingers pointing in their direction, and he was avid that an older woman had uttered the sentence, "That's the prick who stabbed that teenage girl." Damien turned to Drew, who was seemingly oblivious to the murmuring around him, and was innocently sipping from his cup. His first thought was to stand up for Drew and argue with these people but he didn't want to cause a scene. Not like he had at the funeral. He stood up abruptly, turning to the others and speaking quietly, "Casey's right, it's about time we make a move now."

Suddenly his phone began to vibrate again. It was the same unknown number. He answered it and moved the phone to his ear, before saying in an aggressive tone, "What do you want?"

'I thought I stated my intentions beforehand,' the voice told him, softly and calmly. 'And I imagined that that statement was very clear. I wish to speak to Mister Lazzara, please.'

"What do you want from him?" Damien said, raising his voice. "What do you want from us?"

'Mister Lowe, you will not be able to protect him forever. I do not intend to do any harm to him. I just wish to speak to him.'

Damien turned to Drew, contemplating whether or not he should hand him the mobile. Drew looked pretty shaken and exhausted, as they all did, but he had taken the stress the worse. Not that anyone could blame him - being wrongly accused for the murder of your own girlfriend can do that to someone. Damien decided that it would be best if Drew took the call himself, after all, how much damage can one call do. There was nothing the man could say which nobody had said before. He placed the phone in Drew's hands and signalled to Casey to follow him out, as she had wished.
 
Drew could hear the whispers. He could almost feel people staring at him. People recognised him from the news reports. He kept his eyes on the table, sipping his coffee. He had just about finished it when Casey suggested they leave. He nodded, putting his cup down on the table. Before he could stand up, however, Damien's phone rang. Drew watched the exchange for a second or two, before looking back at the table. He could see the ends of his scars above the sleeves of his jacket. Would people still talk if they knew? Probably. But the word "asshole" would probably be replaced with "psychopath" or "mentally unstable". When they said locked up, they'd mean in a mental hospital instead of a prison. He pulled the ends of his sleeves up to make sure that they were hidden.

He looked up at Damien as he raised his voice. A few moments later, Damien handed him the phone. Drew stared at it, before sighing and putting it to his ear. "This is Drew Lazzara speaking."
 
Damien stepped outside and instinctively placed his hands in his pocket, only to reemerge with the carton of cigarettes. He looked long and hard at the six cigarettes in the box and, without further thought, pulled one out. He placed the cigarette between his lips and returned the cigarette box to his pocket. Pulling out his lighter, he flicked it and lit the cigarette. He took a deep puff. He was somehow saddened by this habit - he had tried his first cigarette on his thirteenth birthday, having shared it with Amy, but he had given up smoking for the most part. At least until her death. He had become stressed and the occasional cigarette was no longer an option. He had to have more and more to fill that empty hole that had been torn into his life.

'Mr Lazarra, we want to help you. I am a leading member of an established business and I wish to help resolve your issues. I believe it would be in both of our interests to meet up sometime in the immediate future.'
 
Drew stared at the table, or, more accurately, his sleeve that hid the scar on either wrist. He could still hear the whispers, all talking about him. He curled his free hand into a fist, but kept his tone light hearted. Making a joke of things to hide how he really felt. A habit that Amy had hated. Joking about his dad's cooking when really he just hadn't wanted to eat. Joking about being attacked by a dog for weeks, no, months, until he worked up the courage to tell her the real story. She'd known everything about him. Everything.

"If you know how to contact me, then you know that I have a lot of issues at the moment. So you'll have to be a bit more specific before I agree to anything."
 
Alabaster wiped the salty liquid from his eyes. He looked up at Damien. "You said that..." He was interrupted by a fit of coughs. His chest and throat burned. After several seconds, he stopped. His brain began pulsing. 'More migraines...' He thought. "You... Said that you needed somewhere to stay... Correct? Here." Alabaster handed him an envelope. It was thick, presumably filled with money. "Go to Riverside. There is a hotel. Tell the guy up front that Alabaster sent you. You can stay for about 5 months with that money and the discount. I've gotta go." He got up and stumbled out of the Starbucks, migraine still pulsing through his skull.
 
Ellie had been watching the scene unfold from the counter, where she was waiting for her coffee.

Damien's phone had been ringing, but the call was for Drew.

Casey and Damien stood up to leave.

Alabaster then had a coughing fit and forced something into Damien's hand before staggering out of the coffee shop.

Casey and Damien then finally left the Starbucks and stepped out into the cold night air.

It was a lot to follow and it all seemed to happen so quickly, almost as if the trigger had been Ellie getting up. She shook her head, the phone call was definitely nothing to do with her, but the rest... maybe? Alabaster's difficulty in walking made it seem as if he might be drunk, which, coupled with his earlier crying, seemed more and more likely. Ellie hadn't been sat close enough to him to smell him, as it was tough to smell much beyond the aromas of coffee in the air, but if he was drunk, then it might help everything else to make more sense. It certainly explained why he seemed so emotional; perhaps he was upset over the loss of a student, that seemed reasonable enough in Ellie's mind, but if he was drunk then that would explain just why he seemed so very cut up about it all. She didn't know what else was going on his life, either, perhaps Alabaster had been tutoring Amy on the night of her death and had been treated as a suspect, too? He could just be distraught from the way the police treated him; they weren't really known for being friendly around here.

She looked back at the table, Drew was pretty much sat with his back to her, so Ellie couldn't get a read on his face, nor could she hear his voice. Maybe he had lost his phone, and this was just his parents checking in with him? Ugh. Whilst Ellie knew her parents would be ringing constantly if she was the prime suspect in a murder case, the thought of Drew's parents checking up on him made him seem like just a boy, instead of a man. It made Ellie feel older still, and therefore even more responsible for the group.

"Here's your coffee, sweetheart," said the one male barista that was working tonight. "Anything else I can get for you? If you can't see anything you like, my shift finishes in ten minutes..."

Fortunately, he hadn't put it into a mug, so Ellie pulled out some money and thrust it into his hand. She definitely wasn't in the mood for his misguided attempts at flirting, so she just grabbed the cardboard container and headed outside to find Damien and Casey. They were both pretty quiet, whilst Damien was smoking a cigarette.

Ellie shook her head and leaned against the doorframe. "Amy would have killed you if she caught you doing that," she said, nodding in Damien's direction. "So, what's going on? Where did Alabaster run off to?"
 
"I haven't got a clue," Damien sighed, as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and eyed it. "But he did give me something before he ran off. An envelope, he said it had enough money for the three of us to stay at a hotel for about half a year."

Damien pulled out the envelope, having only just thought about the brief exchange, and opened it. There were two very thick rolls of notes held in place by an equally thick elastic band, and he took out a single roll and showed it to Ellie. He wasn't able to understand why Alabaster had done so great a favour for three people he had barely known. Sure, Damien remembered him from a few of his classes, and yes, Alabaster had promised he would do his best to help them out. But this way above and beyond the call of duty. If he had been a more malicious person, Damien could have ditched Casey and Drew, got into his car and returned home to his parents without a single care in the world with the money acting as a gateway to anything and everything he had ever wanted. But he wasn't. He could never ditch them in their time of need, and company helped him through his own. In addition, he was hardly on the best terms with his parents, and if he had brought Drew to the house, his dad would have probably called the police on the lot of them.

"Do you want to go two's?" he offered, as he exhaled the silver-blue smoke through the corner of his mouth.

'I am talking about your more relevant issue, Mr Lazarra,' the voice said, quite frustratedly, on the other line. 'The fact that you are responsible for the murder of a young girl, in the eyes of the police. Miss Harold's death has had a negative impact on our business and we want to resolve the case sooner rather than later. We are offering you a way out of facing suspicion. If you are more interested, you can find me through this mobile number.'
 
There was something very strange about this whole thing. Presumably, they hadn't called him on his own mobile, due to the fact that his phone records could be called up at any stage by the police. And how could they just offer him a chance to escape the suspicion? But nonetheless, he was considering it. His own goddamn father had his suspicions about him. He couldn't go anywhere without being stared at and whispered about. He stared at the coffee table in front of him. Was this the coward's way out? Or would cowardice being too afraid to confront it?

No. This wasn't the coward's way out. He had told the police he was innocent, they couldn't find any concrete evidence, but they still suspected him. Being too afraid to try and get himself out of this mess was cowardice. And he was not a coward.

"Wait. Okay, I'll do... Whatever the hell you want me to. Once I can get myself out of this mess."
 
Ellie scrunched up her face, wrinkles appearing on the bridge of her nose as she stared down at the rolls of cash in the envelope.

"Even if you went to a really cheap motel, you'd still be talking thirty-five bucks a night," said Ellie, shaking her head. "That's just for one room, too. If he thinks he's covered you for six months, then..." her voice trailed off as she ran the numbers through her head. She was good enough at arithmetic to get by, but hardly great, so she rounded heavily. The cost dropped to thirty bucks per night, and six months became one hundred and eight days, until...

"Five thousand and four hundred dollars?" exclaimed the blonde, before quickly hushing herself, reminding herself that it was late, and this area wasn't exactly the safest. The last thing that these kids needed now was for her to draw a mugger over. She swallowed hard and then looked at the two rolls, "Alabaster's just a teacher of yours, right?" She looked to Casey for confirmation, since that was what she had said earlier, before turning back to Damien and shaking her head. "There's something about this that I just don't like. There aren't many people that can afford to just give away this kind of money, especially if they're not getting anything in return."

She stepped out of the doorway and approached Damien, her eyes moving from the money to the boy's face. Doing her best to ignore the smoke, she leaned in a little closer to him and spoke quietly, although it wasn't done to prevent Casey hearing, but just because it seemed right to do so, "He didn't ask you to do anything, did he?"

What's that thing they always talk about in movies? Something about unmarked, non-sequential notes. So that it can't be easily tracked, or proven to be all from the same payment, I guess? I wonder if that's what this is. Maybe Alabaster's part of some kind of underground operation? That would explain why he can part with the money so freely - it isn't his. Ugh. Snap out of it, Ellie. Yes, it's a bit suspicious, and yes, you don't know the first thing about Alabaster, but you're definitely going off the deep end here. You wouldn't even know how to check if a bank note was unmarked! You'd have to study it just to work out which bit of the barcode was sequential or not!

Ellie cleared her throat and stepped back, not waiting for Damien to answer the question. "Look, it's late, and my place isn't far. You three could come back to mine overnight and then make plans tomorrow. If you do want to go and find a motel somewhere then you can do it during the daylight, instead of just stopping off at the first one you come to." She shrugged her shoulders, looking back at Drew, still inside the coffee shop. "I know it's not ideal, but it is rent free," she added, winking at Damien and trying to lighten the tone a little.
 
'Tomorrow at midday, we will have a man present at the exact restaurant in which you are currently present. He will be alone at the back, and we expect you to come alone too. If you do not turn up after half an hour, we will assume that you were not interested in clearing your name. Goodbye.'

The line ended.

Damien listened to Ellie exclaim, and widened his eyes to indicate her not to blurt it out. He looked around him to see who might have overheard their conversation. Ellie then placed her suspicions against Alabaster down, and asked him whether Alabaster had asked for anything in return. He was about to reply, but she inadvertantly cut him off by clearing her throat and continuing. Damien lowered his head as he saw Ellie wink at him and sighed. She was right. It sounded sensible. Alabaster had mentioned a specific hotel to him... Riverside? Perhaps he would call the hotel tomorrow. But it did sound quite fishy to him too, now that he thought about it. Why that hotel? Was it simply a good hotel or was Alabaster planning to set them up? He'd have no reason to, at least not one that Damien could think of. As far as he could tell, Alabaster was just a nice guy who had given them a free meal, a place to stay and five thousand dollars. In the same hour. It didn't matter what Alabaster's motive was, he had just saved them from more nights sleeping rough in the car. He looked to Ellie and smiled back, knowing that she was also helping them out, although, this also felt quite strange too. Sure she was older than them, but it made him seem somewhat inferior - like a child. So had Alabaster.

"I owe you," he smiled, as he winked back, and then took another final puff of his cigarette before discarding it on the floor and crushing out the sparks under his trainer.
 
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Drew stared at the phone as the line disconnected, standing up and heading outside to where the others were waiting. "My dad had a bit of a falling out with his lawyer. So he was kinda pissed when he called around, looking for me." He shrugged, handing Damien back his phone. Lying came far too easily to him, but he was used to it by now. Hopefully the others would let him out alone to meet whoever it was. "My phone's dead, so he couldn't get me on it. Alabaster left in a bit of a hurry, didn't he? Didn't look that well, either." He remarked, hoping that the change of subject wasn't flagging too many warning signs. He ran a hand through his hair as he looked around.
 
Alabaster walked through the rain, his suit clinging to his skin. Shivers went through him, and his pounding headache only worsened. He walked for a while before getting close to his destination. Alabaster lived in an apartment. He didn't spend much time here, believing that he should save his money. He only spent money on bills and food. Alabaster could buy any neccisity with the small fortune in his bank account, and that money was a good chunk of it. He was short five thousand, so he had... Mmm, lets see, somewhere around 45,000 dollars. And he knew some people, plus he had a secondary bank account, so he could get out of any hole he dug himself into. Alabaster had been so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the crack in the sidewalk. He jammed the front of his shoe into it and fell, possibly fracturing his skull as he did so. The last thing he saw was someone bending over him and staring for a bit before looking up at someone behind him and yelling. Blood ran down his forehead and into his eyes before he blacked out.
 
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