2:13a.m.

I woke up to cold fingers grasped around my throat and a hand over my mouth. My first instinct was to fight against it but I knew better than that, I lay there as the adrenaline rush slowly trickled away down my arm and through my fingers. It was dark, far too dark to make anything out clearly. I definitely knew that there was a person on top of me though. After a few minutes of both parties remaining still, I decided to find out who it was. Slowly I checked to see if my bounds were still at play around my wrists, they weren’t, Harley probably knew that I wasn’t going anywhere without them. This helped out a lot in fact. I knew that if it was Harley, they would be heavier, and probably feel more muscular, but this person felt fragile. They had no tremor in their breathing either, which meant it wasn’t Quinn. Ah, the process of elimination. I think it was a girl though.

I don’t know what she thought was going on but her right hand came off my mouth while her left one slipped behind my neck and grabbed the hair to keep me still. I had no idea who she was, so now would be a really good time to clarify.

“Who are you?” I whispered, I couldn’t see her just yet.

“My name is Dang but you can call me red.” She whispered back, she was Asian. By then my eyesight was still terrible but I saw her outline.

“What are you doing?” I continued, remaining still in my seat. My back was still sore so I didn’t want to push my luck.

“All in due time” She remarked smoothly. Personally I don’t feel like that was going to cut it.

“Are you here to save me or not?” I responded stubbornly. She shrugged.

“I can save you, but you have to help me out first. Make this guy here think I need their help.” She told me. I questioned this to myself, who in the hell shows up in God knows where to save someone without actually getting them out of there? How did she get here if she can’t just take me now?

There was a pause and then silence. I followed her out of the car, getting up and out with my blanket still wrapped around me. When I got out of the car it was easier to see her, there were no clouds covering the light from the moon. She was shorter than me, I was only average height for a 17-year-old. Her hair went down to her waist and was a straight black texture while her hands were wringing together nervously in front of her. I looked at her from top to bottom, we were just standing there looking at each other. There was silence. “So, your name’s Dang, yeah?” I decided to start up with that to try and get into a conversation. Now that we were out the car, she had switched completely into a different character. As if she were acting, I don’t know who she was trying to fool but maybe this is how she wanted to be if Harley saw her.

“But you can call me red,” she said quickly. I nodded, and then continued.

“So, what are you doing here?” I continued cautiously, many things went through my mind but it stopped at rabbit. That’s what she reminded me of, a rabbit. They were nervous creatures, very jumpy, probably very chatty if they had the chance.

“I’m here to help you out, but you gotta stay quiet, they told me a lot about you, anyways so I have to tag along with you for a bit, I’m here to just get info and then get you out of here, I’m sure you can do that yourself though.” She said with a small giggle and then lightly punched my shoulder. Or at least, I think it was supposed to be light, she actually almost pushed me over.

“Oops, sorry, it’s the nerves and everything, this is my first go at having a go you know?” She said giggling a little again. So, they sent a rookie, to ‘rescue’ me if I didn’t need saving, apparently. Meaning, they sent her to get experience knowing I’d look after her, or to get her out of their hair. I don’t exactly know who ‘they’ are.

“Who sent you? And why are you acting so weird?” I responded.

“I can’t say right now maybe later. Is that ok? I know you understand, you know.” She said twirling her hair between her fingers. I sighed.

“So what’s your plan?” I asked her.

“I will pretend I’m lost and then tag along with you lot for a bit.” She said slowly.

“And who made this plan?” I continued.

“I did” She said flashing her teeth.

“No wonder,” I said with another sigh. Her smile faltered. “Ok, so here’s the deal, say that you… can’t remember what happened, only fragments of the car journey and then something happened but you can’t remember what. You woke up, all the way over there” I said, pointing in the direction that we came from, “and now you’ve found us. Ask for help, got it?” She nodded, mouth slightly open, how the hell did she end up here. “How did you end up here anyway?” I asked.

“I can’t remember, all I remember is fragments of the car ride and I woke up over there,” She said pointing in the direction I had earlier. Her lips were trembling and her voice cracked. I rolled my eyes, another question for another day.

“Ok so I need to fix you up a bit, I’m not going to hurt you too bad ok?” I said. She nodded and the next minute she was on the ground and I was shaking my knuckles.

“Ouch,” I said. She looked up horrified, blood was trickling down the side of her cheek, she wiped it onto her sleeve, but she understood. “I’m really sorry about that, actually, I feel like a terrible person.” I admitted, throwing away the stoic facial expressions. She smiled at me and started rubbing the dirt through her hair and over her clothes. She was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and leggings with some worn through purple sneakers. I stood there looking down at her and by time she was finished she looked like a mess. We made a good team.

“Good, now I’m going to wake Harley up, just lean against the car over here.” I said, she did as I told her to. I sat back in the car and shook Harley awake.