The streets were darker than usual as we left the concert hall. My girlfriends and I had just attended a concert by our favourite group, and we were all exhausted from our cheering, but high on excitement as we headed home on foot.
"That was the best concert I've ever seen!" Tanya exclaimed.
"It was definitely a damn fine birthday present!" I grinned, "Thanks so much you guys, tonight was awesome."
"Well happy birthday again Jill, god are we all now over 21? You mean we can all go to the states and drink now?" Tanya laughed.
"The guys looked so good! But I swear I could've died when Danny touched my hand." Carol sighed. She ran her fingers through her dark blonde hair and twirled it up into a bun on the top of her head.
"Why didn't you? Then he could have gone to your funeral." I joked. Carol shot me a dirty look and we both started laughing.
"Me die? No, I don't think so." Carol laughed.
"Shut up you guys, I hear something," Tanya hissed. Carol and I quieted down, and sure enough we could hear voices behind us.
"Who is it?" Carol asked curiously.
"This is a back street we're on, nobody but a gang would be here." I said in a worried voice.
"Right, that gang that hangs around our house." Amanda finally spoke up.
"I thought you lost your voice screaming for Joe." I sighed.
"I did, but it's coming back now." Amanda agreed quietly. Her mousy brown hair fell around her shoulders and covered the sides of her face like curtains. The voices were growing louder behind us. A heavy lump began to form in my stomach.
"It's not the Black Bloods. I don't recognize any voices, especially since Jay was running with them for a while. I know their voices now." My voice sounded full of fear and I glanced at my friends to see if their facial expressions matched my voice. They did.
"We're coming up to an alley. If we cut down it fast enough, maybe whoever it is behind us won't follow us anymore." Carol suggested.
"No way, not that alley. The Black Bloods own that alley. They'll collect our butts for trespassing. They've hated me ever since I pulled my brother out." I argued.
"When did you pull Jay out?" Amanda asked.
"Three months ago, he was getting in way over his head in trouble." I replied and listened for the guys behind us. They were definitely getting closer.
"Shit. Those voices are sounding closer every second." Tanya told us worriedly as she began to twist her deep red ringlets around her fingers.
"Let's speed up." Carol announced. We all agreed and quickened our pace. We walked in silence until we came to the alley that Carol had spotted earlier. We stopped so I could take a quick look down into the dark depths between the old abandoned buildings.
"No sign of them. You guys want to risk getting beats from the Black Bloods?" I asked with a trembling voice. I looked over my shoulder at the guys who had been following us. There were no streetlights, so all I could see were four tall muscular looking figures.
"Stuck between a rock and sharp place." Carol decided with her usual dry humour.
"We're taking the alley." I concluded and pushed my friends ahead of me. We broke into a run as I realized the four behind us were still following us. My friends and I were drowning in the darkness of the alley and I was beginning to wonder if I'd made the right choice.
"Jill!" A guy screamed as he threw himself out in front of us.
"Shit! Jay! What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to hang with these guys! Didn't I tell you they were bad news?" I demanded.
"Shut up bitch!" Jay snarled and slapped me across the face. I lunged for him and wrestled my brother to the ground.
"Knife! Hellraiser!" Jay yelled and those two and the rest of the Black Bloods immediately surrounded us.
"Jay! I'm your sister for crying out loud!" I screeched as the guys grabbed my friends and began to attack them as well.
"Yeah, and I'm supposed to care big sis?" Jay retorted and punched me in the stomach as he pushed me off of him. I fell onto my back and Jay pounced on me. He threw his fists into my stomach one after another. I began screaming at the top of my lungs and tried desperately to block my brother's fists.
A few seconds later Jay was yanked off me and thrown into the wall of the building. Two hands slipped under my arms and I was pulled to my feet. Carol, Tanya and Amanda were standing up with guys guarding them too. Jay came after me again and the guy who had helped me up took care of him. Jay was thrown into the wall again, much harder this time. He hit his head on the cold brick and fell to the ground, unconscious.
"No!" I screamed and ran to my little brother's side. I shook him by the shoulders and then a hand landed on my shoulder firmly. I looked up to see a shadowy face looking down at me with a warm smile. It was so dark that all I really could see was the smile. He helped me to my feet and led me away from Jay's lifeless body.
"Just leave him, I'm sure he'll be fine. I didn't throw him that hard." The guy said gruffly. I looked back over my shoulder to see Knife picking Jay's head and shoulders up and dragging him over to a doorway.
"C'mon, let's get out of here." Another guy said loudly and the four guys who had been following us led my friends and me out of the alley.
"Who are you and what do you want with us?" I demanded, as it seemed like we were about to be kidnapped or worse.
The guy smiled. Okay, kidnappers usually aren't that friendly, to save you from one fate and take you to a worse one... so who were these guys?
"I'm Jill, what's your name?" I asked him curiously. He cleared his throat and looked over at his friends uncomfortably. They looked back and shrugged.
"I'm John." The guy told me. I watched him suspiciously and decided he was lying.
"These are my friends Tanya, Carol and Amanda." I introduced them as I pointed them out.
"And these are my friends, Robert, Peter and Jeff." The guy lied again. I nodded and saw Carol mouthing something to me. I looked over at her curiously.
"What?" I mouthed.
"They're lying!" She mouthed back. I nodded again and we turned left onto University Avenue. It was well lit so my friends and I had a better chance of checking out our escorts. We instinctively headed for McDonald's.
"Um, you live over here?" Robert asked worriedly, not really disguising his voice. It sounded so familiar it was driving me crazy that I couldn't think of who he sounded like.
"Yeah, but I thought we could stop in at McDonald's first. I could use a bite to eat, and a bathroom to check out the damage done to my face." I explained almost cheerfully.
The guys glanced at each other with unsure looks on their faces.
"Oh, okay." John put his hand on his forehead and shook his head back and forth slowly.
"What's wrong?" I asked slyly, knowing that if they came into the restaurant, their faces would end up being seen and we'd figure out who they were.
"Huh? Nothing." John replied quickly.
"I see." I mumbled, hoping he would have revealed his true identity before we got to the restaurant.
Carol, Amanda and Tanya headed inside quickly to go and check out their bruised faces in the mirror but it took some urging to get the guys to come inside with us.
About five minutes later, we were all seated at a large table, eating our food.
"Excuse me, I've got to use the phone." I stood up and glanced at Carol. "You got Connie's number written down?" She nodded and stood up too. We headed for the pay phones but detoured into the ladies' room.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked my best friend urgently. I looked at her in the mirror as I rubbed the bruise forming on my left cheek tenderly. I rinsed my hands and ran my wet fingers through my spiky blonde and red hair.
"They're lying about who they are, that's obvious. But that one guy sounded so familiar, like we know him really well. Sort of like Hank."
"Yeah! I knew I knew his voice! So how're we supposed to figure out who they really are? How're we gonna get them to tell us?" I asked curiously, figuring Carol would already have a plan up her sleeve.
"Well we could get them to laugh. You can't really disguise your laugh if you're caught off guard." Carol explained.
"Yeah, that's true. Plus you know the guy with his hood up? He's got a tattoo on his left ear." I said excitedly. We both looked at each other suddenly as it clicked in as to who the guys were.
"No. It couldn't be." Carol snorted.
"Couldn't it?" I asked. She shrugged.
