Save me, from myself (Open)

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan was running. Glancing behind him, he quickened the pace as the person behind him was gaining. It had been a long day, and by the looks of things, it would be an even longer night.

He had been wandering the streets for a couple weeks now, and he was finally getting the hang of stealing food...or so he thought.

"Hey you! Somebody stop him!" a man screamed out from behind him, causing people to glance at him as he ran. Their eyes were all for Ryan, and not for a good reason.

"Damn...why hasn't he given up the chase like the others? Why is he still trying to catch me" he thought to himself, scared. He was slowly getting exhausted, but he knew that for his sake, he couldn't stop running.

The man behind him was still gaining, in fact, some guys from the neighborhood had joined him in his chase. Glancing back, Ryan saw this, and quickly turned down an alley.

"All this for just an apple, I can't believe my luck"
He began to turn down alley after alley, trying to lose his pursuers till he came to a dead end. With the people gaining on him, his hope was beginning to wear down.

[ĸara вelova★]

What. An. Idiot.

Firstly, he wasn't very stealthy. If you were going to steal something from a store, you had to be sneaky about it. Second, he resorted to running, instead of talking it away. Anyone could spin a good enough story to worm their way out of a situation like that one, if they tried hard enough. And thirdly, he didn't know the area. Any good thief had ten getaway plans before they even thought about stealing something.

So Kara, the expert kleptomaniac, thought Ryan Alexander was a stupid, sloppy, uneducated child. Her morbid curiosity forced her to watch this episode to its conclusion, and she casually followed after Ryan and his pursuer. The Bronx wasn't an ideal location to start shit, Kara noted, almost happily. Maybe this boy would get himself killed. She was aware of how twisted she was to be excited at the prospect. She wished no ill will toward him, as he hadn't personally wronged her, but he was dumb enough (by her standards) to deserve punishment. Unfortunately for Ryan though, they were in New York, and his 'punishment' might be a cap to the ass.

She watched him run, and her eyes outlined his projected route. Again, she insulted him silently for his idiocy. The girl took a short cut through a gritty coffee shop and down a side alley. She emerged just ahead of them both, and Ryan darted right past her. Kara was just planning to observe, and not get involved, but unfortunately the store employee had other plans. He bowled right into her, knocking her to the ground as easily as an elephant knocking over a blade of grass. She didn't make a sound as she tumbled to the street, catching herself on already bruised palms.

Instinctively her empathy reached out around her for a response, however the Bronx was never reputed for its loving and caring population. She at least expected some sort of emotion from the man who tossed her aside, but he felt no remorse, no regret, no guilt. He didn't even acknowledge her. She may as well have been invisible!

Thoroughly pissed off, she got to her feet and watched them both disappear into a side alley. If she remembered correctly, there was no exit to that one. She forgot about Ryan's idiocy and instead was plagued with the desire to teach that bastard a lesson. So she followed them down the alley, a royally pissed off look on her face.

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan began searching frantically for an exit, somewhere for him to make an easy escape, but his search was in vain. The "dead end" that he had reached, was for the most part, just that. It was a wall over twenty feet high, made out of bricks. Since it were bricks, there was no hope for him to climb over the wall, and even less hope for him to hide, since the alley was empty.

"Oh no...what do I do!?" he thought to himself, for the first time, truly scared. The group of guys were gaining on him, he could hear their footsteps quickly approaching. His mind reflected to wardogs chasing after a fox, about to catch their prey.

His heart was racing, he quickly hid the apple in his pocket, as the people approached.

"Hey you, Kid!" the shop's owner yelled. "How dare you steal from my store? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Ryan flushed red. "He sounds angry, very angry...what do I do?
He was quiet for a moment. "I didn't steal anything!" he said, his voice trying for an innocent
tone.

The shop owner's face went red in anger, veins could be seen bulging out of his forehead. "Don't lie to me punk. Nobody steals from me. You'll be paying one way or another..." the man said coldly, as the other two guys, men in their twenties from the neighborhood, slowly approached Ryan.


"Keep away from me!" Ryan yelled threateningly, his back now grinding against the wall. Stupid yes, but he couldn't help but try and push his way through the wall. Even if it was impossible.

The two men laughed at him as he tried to escape. One came forward, and punched Ryan right in the side of the face. Ryan fell to the ground, blood slowly trickling down a cut that was forming on his cheek. Scared, Ryan looked up at the two men, who didn't at all seem like they were done.

[ĸara вelova★]

Kara hadn't really acknowledged the other two men's presence, and they weren't really important. Just as Ryan wasn't really important. Her focus was on the asshole of a shopkeeper who knocked her down. She walked up behind him, ignoring everyone else, and likewise being ignored. The neighbourhood thugs seemed to enjoy the idea of picking on Ryan. Let them. Kara tapped the store owner on the shoulder. When he turned, her eyes narrowed.

"Remember me?" She asked. He had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"No," He replied, and Kara hated him for his honesty.

"You will," She promised, and her sadistic smile was accompanied with an agonized scream. Her smile faded as her gaze became more intense, and the man was soon reduced to a writhing, shrieking mess on the alley's dirty floor. Kara casually pushed her hair out of her face, the better to see his pain. She could feel it, so powerful, so raw, and magnified it, throwing it back at him in an endless cycle of suffering. His voice increased in volume, and he begged for anything his overwhelmed mind could think of. He begged her to stop. He begged her for forgiveness. He begged for the devil to have mercy on his soul.

Just before he dove over the edge from sanity to insanity, Kara backed off. She wanted to feel his mind crack, she truly did, but she stopped herself. Later she would recognize that the emotion she felt now was pity, but now, with all the adrenaline pushing through her veins, she thought it was satisfaction. The teenager's eyes deviated from her victim once he stopped moving, and flicked to the last three still remaining in the alley.

"Who's next?" She didn't smile, didn't laugh, her voice carried no threat. They were just words, but the man folded into fetal position at her feet spoke paragraphs she didn't need to say herself.

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan was scared. He could see his death in the eyes of the two men who approached him. He could hear footsteps quickly approaching behind the three guys who were advancing on him.

"Someone to help me?" he thought to himself hopefully. To his dismay, the girl appeared to be talking to the shop owner, not at all interested in his situation.
"Leave me alone!" he told the guys firmly, trying to not let the fear show, but it was in vain. The men laughed at him, laughed at how weak he appeared to them and laughed at how they were going to deal with him.

Ryan back up against the wall, and got off the ground slowly. He brushed his fingers gingerly against his cheek, and they came away with blood. "What can I do? These guys are stronger than me...I can't take on two of them, let alone one!" he thought frantically to himself, his gaze falling on the girl.

"Maybe she can help me...maybe..." his thought ended immediately. Gazing at the girl, he saw a dark look dawn on her face. He watched as the shop owner began to scream high-pitched, piteously. The man was in so much pain, more than could be bared. Ryan could feel the man's agony; he could feel the hurt. It pierced his mind, and enflamed his soul.
"No..stop. Please stop!" his thoughts were extinguished as he too began to scream. He had to release the pain he was feeling some way, somehow.

The two men (who were horrified at what was happening to the Shop Owner) turned and looked at Ryan. They were confused at why he was screaming. Partly, so was Ryan.


Ryan felt like his very skin was on fire, that his mind was breaking. All a sudden; he grabbed his head. As soon as his fingers touched his head, a metal pipe that was laying on the ground, flew up and lodged itself into one of the men's head. Scared; the remaining man looked from Ryan to the girl and ran off.

[ĸara вelova★]

The scream took on a double-timbre, something that never happened before. While the shopkeeper's voice was a lower cry, Ryan's scream was a higher shriek in comparison. Kara's eyes snapped up and studied Ryan, unable to explain his reaction. The torturous pain she was inflicting on the man, and only the man, was being reflected to her via Ryan's inexplicable screaming.

Then he flung some metal spike through one of the neighbourhood men's faces, and Kara's face became void of colour. All torturous thoughts turned to panic, but she automatically summoned a calm over herself. This was bad. This was very, very bad. One man was sniveling on the ground, another was dead not ten feet away from her. A teenage boy was clawing at himself, and a witness was getting away. Kara was never good at running, and accepted immediately that the man would get away. Which meant that it was only a matter of minutes before someone came to investigate.

She allowed herself two seconds of, Shit, shit, shit! before she collected her thoughts into something more strategic. Using her empathy, she shot the same dose of calm she gave herself into Ryan. Hopefully it would sooth the pain she'd unintentionally inflicted upon him earlier. She still couldn't figure out how that happened; she'd been so specific with her attack! But she chose not to dwell on that now, and instead focused on how she was going to get herself out of this mess.

"Hey Aladdin," She spoke, mourning how conversation was necessary, "This is what happened. The man who ran away killed him," she gestured carelessly to the dead man, "and wounded this man, who went insane from seeing the murder." But there was a flaw in this plan... the man she was speaking about was beginning to recover. And Kara wasn't sure how to incapacitate him again without hurting Ryan too. Not that she cared about Ryan's wellbeing, it would just be a better idea to have another person on her side when authorities arrived to question them. She could easily reduce the psychologically imbalanced guy to a vegetable, but if Ryan was a useless piece of meat, Kara was the only one whose word could be counted on. And her record wouldn't say very nice things about her if asked.

"Go... find a magic carpet and get out of here," I have to deal with something, and you shouldn't be here, "And don't wait around."

He should appreciate her aide, however self-centred it was. Kara did spare him an emotionless glance however, eying him up and down to make sure he was in good enough condition to run.

[Ryan Alexander]

Completely unaware of what was happening, Ryan suddenly felt calm. Looking up at the woman in front of him, he slowly regained his normal composure. He lowered his hands down from his head, and noticed that there was a bit of blood on them; "What happened...?" he wondered, but as he felt his face, he realized. While he was clutching his head in pain, he had scratched both sides of his scalp. Now, three lines on each side of his head could be seen, bleeding.

"What happened to that man? Who are you?" he asked the girl, trying to make sense of it all. "I'm so confused..."

Ryan listened to her explanation; and although he knew it wasn't the truth, he understood that it's what NEEDED to be the truth. He nodded as she spoke, so that she would know he would collaborate her story.

Getting up, he dusted himself off. "My name's Ryan. I think you are right, we should leave before this becomes a public scene. Thanks for helping me. I was scared that..." his voice trailed off, he was worried. He didn't know who this girl was, or if she was going to harm him out of fear. He knew what she could do, and he was partly worried that she would try to "silence" him or something.

"What do I have to worry about...she did save me. Even if she didn't mean to, I should be grateful" he thought to himself.

"What's your name?" he asked her; his eyes glued to her, waiting at her directions on how they could possibly avoid trouble.

[ĸara вelova★]

Oh great. She'd made him so calm that he was comfortable having a casual conversation with her in the middle of a murder scene. Instinctively she added a bit of healthy urgency to the calm signal she was pouring into him, though not enough to set him off into a panic that wouldn't help either of them.

"Look, you're never going to see me again. If anyone asks, stick to that story." She pointed down the alley, though her eyes anxiously flit to the man who was slowly but surely recollecting his senses nearby.

She also feared Ryan would become a lost puppy and just cling to her. That was something she just couldn't have. The thin brunette shot another pulse of hushed exigency through their empathetic connection, to encourage him to run. Maybe he needed a some more verbal help.

"Get the fuck out of here!" She refused to be his guardian angel; Kara was anything but. Even though she warned the boy that he'd never see her again, if she got in trouble for his stupidity, she would drag him down with her. Right now she needed to put this sucker into a coma, and if Ryan was too close he would be reduced to a whimpering, twitching idiot with nothing helpful to say in her defence.

Oh, and did she care that his name was Ryan? NO! Ryan wasn't going to learn her name, that was just another thing he could use against her if it came down to it. He looked naive enough to trust her, maybe she should take advantage of that. He was dumb enough to rob someone in broad daylight. Maybe he would be easily suckered into taking the blame for all this. After all, it was all his fault. In fact, the kid would be dead if it weren't for her interference. Perhaps he realized this and that look of expectation was something akin to admiration.

[Ryan Alexander]

As Ryan looked at her waiting for directions; a bit of unease slowly spread through him. He knew that they only had a few minutes to leave the scene, his adrenaline now started rushing. "We have to leave...or we'll get in trouble for this"

He was shocked when the girl said that they wouldn't see eachother again. "What do you mean? Why not? We have to stick together!" he said excitedly, his voice getting slightly higher filled with emotion.

Ryan listened as she told him to run away, tried to shoo him; but his conscience conflicted with him. "I know I should run away, but I can't leave you here to face what I took part in. If we're going to leave, we should do it together" he said adamantly.
"Besides...you saved me. No one has ever done anything remotely nice for me. You can't just abandon me now..."

As he spoke to her, his mind trailed away. A brief stroke of sadness flooded him as he flashedback to his mother, and the abuse he endured at her hand. "I didn't think that anyone would care...not now, not ever. I thought that all I was, all I was good for...was something to be beaten. Broken. Abused. Maybe it's not true..."


Ryan stared at her intently; worried that she would vanish in thin air. Hearing a strange noise, his eyes darted to the ground. The man who the girl had earlier incapacitated was now stirring restlessly, as if he were about to wake up. "I think we should kind of deal with him first though...."

[ĸara вelova★]

Oh fuck. He was pulling some musketeer crap on her. She did not have time for this!

"No, we're not sticking together," Kara said, a definite air to her words. His excitement disgusted her. "Don't try to be noble. I need you out of here so I can take care of this," She glanced back at the guy who was struggling to sit up. Though she was panicked, she kept pumping a steady stream of calm through her system so she could keep a level head. It was a practice she'd learned since discovering her gift, and used on a daily basis. That repeated use was all worth it, when in an awful situation like this one she could keep her heart rate down. The groan coming from her left indicated the man was still on the move. He was crawling away from them, and through the empathetic connection she could feel his confusion and his escalating anger.

Kara's eyes narrowed on Ryan.

"For some reason you... when I..." She was still trying to figure out what could possibly be different about Ryan, why he also felt all the negative feelings she shot through his pursuer. Even though they didn't have time, she looked straight at the man who was nearly on his feet, and experimentally shoved a jolt of terror into him. She was extra careful to contain the emotion to one person, but instead of watching her victim, she looked at Ryan, studied his face to gauge his reaction.

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan frowned when Kara said that they wouldn't be sticking together. He didn't understand why she was being so resentful towards him, it made him slightly upset, but he was careful not to show it in his face.

Ryan took a step closer to her. "Listen...I know I probably caused all this with my stealing, but it was just so I could eat. It's been a long time since I had anything to eat, so I'm sorry I got you involved..." he said to her; sincerity in his words, matching his eyes. He watched as her eyes darted between him and the man who was trying to get away, and he frowned.

Ryan saw the slight confusion in her face. "I did something when she did something? What does that mean? What is she talking about?" he thought to himself, puzzled.
The girl didn't answer him, he watched as her eyes fixed on the man; merely staring at him.

Suddenly; he felt different. Ryan felt scared. His mind couldn't comprehend it, nor did he understand where it was coming from. All he knew was terror. He backed up against the wall; his eyes pleading with the girl. "Help me..." he asked her. "Save me!" he said, his words going from a whisper to almost a scream.

[ĸara вelova★]

"Yeah yeah, I don't need to hear your sob story," Who cared if he was hungry? He'd never know loneliness and starvation as she had, "Just... shut up."

That was when she hit the guy with the horrific emotions. That's when Ryan suddenly registered the terrifying feeling. And everything clicked.

"You're an empath," She said, immediately shutting off the dread. Kara rolled her eyes at his cry of desperation. Even when Kara experienced genuinely horrible feelings like that, she didn't cry out. Then again, Kara was a freak, and wouldn't scream if she was being beheaded. Judging Ryan by comparing him to herself wasn't fair.

"Okay, I have no time to explain," She could hear voices getting closer, and the curiosity and excitement and the fear were increasing with every step the crowd took. "I just need you to get out of this alley, and I swear I'll find you in two minutes."

She figured he wouldn't leave without her, something about his innocence boasted nobility and chivalry, two qualities she both respected and despised. So she promptly vanished, cranking up the invisibility to make it look like she'd simply disappeared. She took a couple steps away from him, in case he thought it would be a great idea to reach out and check that she was really gone (a strangely common reaction, she'd noticed through study). Her steps brought her closer to the man who was now standing on his feet, but leaning heavily against the wall.

Come on, Ryan! She thought desperately to herself. She needed him to run and get out of his empathetic proximity. She had no idea how far he'd have to run, so she slammed a spectacular force of immediacy into his body, coaxing the urgency to claim every cell that could feel.

Come on! Come on! The man was steadying himself now, shaking his head. Fly, Aladdin!

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan frowned as the girl shot him down. True he shouldn't expect her to care about his life, but he did hope for some sympathy. "It's childish I know..." he told himself.

While he was being hit with the wave of terror, he could remember begging her for help...then it suddenly ceased. "What just happened?" he thought to himself. He heard a strange word from her mouth, empath. "I'm a what...?" He asked her confused.

Listening to her, the girl was right. There was no time for explanations now. He could hear people approaching, and knew that it spelt trouble. "Fine." she obviously wanted him safe, he thought she did anyway. He listened as she promised she would come find him.

"You will?" he asked her hopefully. "Please don't let me down..." he said softly, staring at her; in almost an admiring way. No one had ever promised him anything nice, let alone to help him out. He watched as she vanished in thin air; a sinking feeling spread out through him. He reached out in front of him, trying to see if she was still there. "She's really gone..." he said outloud, partly in shock.

Suddenly as he heard the people again, he felt urgency. He began to run; far away from the scene. He wouldn't stop running till he was a little bit more than three hundred feet away. The last words he uttered before running; were both desperate and pained. "please come back for me..."

[ĸara вelova★]

Ugh, Aladdin was going to try and guilt her into keeping her promise. Kara lied all the time, and the only way she would reunite with Ryan was if she got in trouble. She watched him run off, and she expelled any guilt she might feel for lying to him. Then she turned to the man who was now staggering toward her. She filtered back into visibility, and she would be the last thing he saw before his mind turned to mush.

She couldn't stifle his screaming, and the hideous shrieks echoed throughout the alley. He was back on the ground in an instant, clutching his head, trying to rip the unwelcome emotions out of his skull through brute force. She felt the excitement and the fear grow from the oncoming crowd, and used that to fuel her emotional attack. When the man dissolved into hysterical, incomprehensible laughter and squealing, Kara knew her job was done. She turned on the invisibility just in time for the crowd to see nothing but the twitching man on the ground, and a dead man a few feet away.

She inched her way around the group until she was comfortable enough to pretend she was part of them. Kara stood up on her tip toes, slowly coming back into focus as another curious bystander swayed to the side. It looked as though she'd been there the entire time, as she craned her neck to get a better look at the mess. When it was safe, the pretended to grow bored and left after a couple others. People had their cell phones out, clearly determined to make the local police station a hell hole for the answering officers.

She walked casually right by Ryan, and she gave no indication that she saw him. Internally she cringed, having hoped he would have run further than he had. That way she could avoid him. But now the lost puppy wanted comfort and explanation, two things she was more than reluctant to offer.

She tried walking faster, but her inept style of escaping caught up with her and she stumbled, catching herself just before she would have fallen flat on her face. Cursing inwardly, she straightened up with as much dignity as she could, and shot Ryan a furious glare. With a jerk of her head, she indicated that he should follow her.

Fuck my life.

[Ryan Alexander]

Ryan ran a short distance. He ran far enough away from the situation that he felt comfortable. Eventually, people casually walked by him, obviously they had seen the scene and were leaving it. He over-heard some of them talking; mostly about how the cops were on their way and that they assumed the crazy man had killed the other guy.

Breathing a sigh of relief; he looked around waiting for Kara. Eventually, he saw her walking up, although she didn't seem to quite be looking out for him. "Hey" he said softly with a smile, greeting her like a friend. "I was worried you weren't going to come..." he said; then he murmured out a final: "I thought you were going to abandon me.."

Ryan watched her carefully. He had so many questions to ask, and hoped that she would answer them. She cast him an angry look. "Maybe I did something wrong..." he thought to himself. He was worried that he would offend her, and she would begin to torture him as everyone else did.

However, as he continued to watch her she gave him a motion that clearly said "follow me". As she did this, his heart lept for joy. "Maybe I'm wrong...she obviously wants to help me" he proceeded to walk after her, a bit excitedly. After all, she was the first person EVER in his eyes to give a damn about him.