Chapter Eighty-Five

AURORA AGE FIFTEEN

Seconds pass, and I'm still as ice, unmoving. I hide better, my gaze peeking behind the trash bin where I could be sought out.

Another man comes into view with a girl I recognize, she was at my school last year. Hanna is her name, she is in college now, studying a course too much for her. She's dressed in a pretty white dress that's now coated in droplets of blood. Hanna is pleading when she gets dropped next to the other girl. One of the four men I saw smoking a joint from a distance drags the other girl up, pushing her ahead, he only gets a few steps away from the men and one follows him. The girl is pleading too, calling out to Hanna for help, the man that dragged her slams her up against the wall and she screams, startling me. My heart beats faster, my fight or flight instinct kicking in but not knowing how to react right now. I don't trust myself not to scream so I cover my mouth with both my hands, trembling beside the trash can, my breathing too loud for my o