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quickly as her huge amazingly thin heels would let
her, sweat breaking out on her brow in tiny little beads. Her hair
whipping around her face, and full blown panic waiting in the
wings, she tottered down the road.
    Tonight was not
a good night!
    Tonight she’d
heard the whisper.
    Amongst the
crowds, in the dark, bodies pressed and heaving against each other,
the flashing neon lights turning every move into a jerking,
old-fashioned cartoon motion.
    Then in the
midst of the jumble, a voice she didn’t know had spoken softly in
her ear, a breath, a kiss, a dire warning.
    The brothers
were coming for her.
    Fear in her
eyes, she’d looked around. It could have been anyone of the dozen
or so closest to her, but no one was looking her way. And she
daren’t ask, couldn’t ask, fear had sealed her mouth. She’d barely
been able to breathe, never mind speak.
    Heart pounding,
she reached the corner of the badly lit street. Which way… Which
way to go. Left? Right?
    Think… Think…
For God’s sake, think.
    She chose to go
right, not because she’d thought it through -- her mind was a mess
of panicked jangled thoughts, thinking straight was virtually
impossible. It was slightly better lit, though, and would lead to a
place she could take sanctuary in. Five yards on and the heel of
her left shoe caught in the crack between the paving stones.
    'Bastard,' she
screamed as her foot twisted. Teetering forward she fell crashing
to the path, taking the skin off her palms as well as her knees.
The pain made her yell again, even though she knew she should be
quiet. How am I ever gonna escape them making so much noise? Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears she thought it was
going to burst at any second.
    Grabbing the
shoe with both hands, her fingers slippy with blood and rain, she
pulled as hard as she could, but the shoe stubbornly refused to
budge. She pulled and twisted but it was stuck fast.
    'Shit, shit,
shit.' Tears of frustration and fright were streaming down her face
now.
    Why did I ever
got involved?
    Stupid…
Stupid idiot that I am, thought I was so cool. Get in, get a story, get out.
    There was only
one thing she could do. Flicking her black hair out of her eyes
with an irritated gesture and kicking off her other shoe, she
jumped up, ignoring the pain in her scraped knees. Tattered strings
of flesh dangling and blood running down her shins, she legged it
as fast as she could.
    She was of
small build but had been a good runner at school. That was eight
years and God only knew how many fags ago though, and long before
she had inherited this terrible debilitating disease.
    Fifty yards
along the deserted street, the pavements shining with the rain that
seemed to have been falling for weeks, and she was fairly feeling
the strain. Chest heaving, her breath rising in clouds before her,
she knew she had to slow down.
    She couldn’t
stop though.
    She daren’t
stop.
    To stop would
be the death of her.
    She cut her
foot on a rusty bottle top, the jagged edges going in deep. Each
step she took drove the bottle top deeper and deeper into her
flesh, but in her utter panic she felt no pain. She felt nothing
but sheer dread. She knew what was coming for her, what the
consequences would be. Terrified, she pounded along the pavement
towards Mary Street.
    Why the hell
had did I choose Berwick-on-Tweed of all places to run away
to?
    Why didn’t I
run to London or Edinburgh, like just about everybody else
does?
    People have
rows all the time, say things they don’t mean, sometimes out of
sheer pig-headedness trading insults, they run away.
Families, who bloody well needs them!
    She’d come up
with a grand scheme to make money, when she’d heard the story. Oh yes, hadn’t I just!
    I should
have ignored it, gone down south, that was the first plan.
Why the hell did I listen to the drunken ramblings of a
fool?
    Only the fool
had been right!
    Warned to keep
the secret, told what would happen if she didn’t, she ignored the
warnings