Lucilla pops up and she jumps out the window to our right after me. I was counting on there still being trash in the dump underneath our window so we had a safer fall, but they finally took out the trash. We landed in the dump with a thud but I think we’re both okay now. Or well, at least me. 

“Hey, you okay?” I look at Lucilla grabbing her arm to help her up. We need to get out of here before the officers come down and grab us. They are probably about halfway down the stairs by now. I look her in the eyes, but it isn’t her that looks back. She has red, puffy eyes and her breathing is really heavy. She is back to her alternate state. Great, just what I need. I can’t leave her or else she will get arrested and I will lose her for good. But if I stay and try to help her we will get caught and she will get arrested. 

“You don’t intimidate me, come back to me, please. We don’t have time for this.” I try to shake her back to reality but it doesn’t work. “Do you want more blood? Here let me find a knife, just come with me.” I get out of the dumpster and my thigh cuts alongside the metal dumpster. I take my finger and get a decent amount of blood on my finger and wave it in front of Lucilla. 

“ See? I’m bleeding now.” But it doesn’t seem to do anything this time. I decide to make a run for it. I know that Lucilla could kill me if I don’t get out of here. Not even a minute later I hear gunshots. 

“Crap, what did I leave Lucilla in. Is she okay? I would never forgive myself if she got shot because of me.” I stop and listen to see if I can hear anything even though I am probably too far out at this point. 

Nothing. 

I can feel the blood running down my leg, but I don’t know how bad it is. Touching the cut with my finger probably wasn’t the best idea but it was the only one I had. I go into a restaurant nearby that I knew would be open at this hour and collapsed on the floor due to pure exhaustion. Everyone saw it and rushed over to help. 

“Hey, lady. Are you okay? What happened?” My eyes are getting so heavy and I am having a hard time understanding what people are saying the longer I am away. Eventually, I stopped trying. 

I woke up in a hospital bed 5 hours later. I did not care what was wrong with me, I needed to figure out where Lucilla is. If she got shot, she would probably be in the hospital with me. But she could also be in the station. Maybe she escaped and is back at our apartment. Is she back to normal? I need to cure this curiosity. I get out of bed and head to the nurse’s station even though I should be laying down in the bed. Hopefully, nobody sees me and starts questioning me. 

“Can I see a patient list?”

“Yeah let me pull it up.” The nurse says without looking up to see who I was. “Patient name?” 

“Lucilla Rose. I’m not sure if she is a patient here, I just need to make sure if she is or not.” I think that confused her because she looked up at me for the first time. 

“Oh honey, you need to go back to bed. “

“Please, I will. Just tell me if she is here or not.” She let out a big sigh and started typing. 

“I’m sorry honey but she’s not here. Now can you please get back to bed?” Before I could even think about arguing with her she started taking me back to my bed. 

Luckily there wasn’t anything wrong with me and they let me out of the hospital by the end of the day. 

The first thing I did when I left the hospital was grab a cab to the nearest prison. I would have driven myself but my car was back at the apartment. 

When I got there I ran up to the first person I saw. 

“IS LUCILLA ROSE HERE” I practically screamed at him. 

“Calm down, do you know who you’re talking to?”

“Sorry, sorry. I just can’t find my girlfriend and she was being chased by the law earlier and there were gunshots and she’s not at the hospital and I don’t know where she is. Do you know where she is?”

“Oh yeah, I remember her coming in. She had red eyes and it looked like she wanted to rip off everyone’s head.”

“Did she get shot?” 

“Unfortunately yes, it had to come down to that.” 

“Is she okay? Can I see her?” 

“If you really want to, you just have to be careful. And of course, supervised. We will put you in the room with the rest of the visitors so you have to wait an hour. You can sit in the visitor’s room and wait if you wish. If not, see you in an hour.” I couldn’t leave here knowing she was somewhere, in pain. Thinking the world was against her. 

“Can you show me to the visitor’s room?” 

“Follow me.” 

It felt like days that I was waiting for her, but eventually, I heard the buzz of the door. 20 people walked in. Lucilla wasn’t one of them. Why is she not here? I was getting uneasy but then she walked through the door. She held her stomach like her guts were about to spill out. She limped over. That must be where she was shot. I stood up and waited for her to come to me, just in case she was still out of it. Before she got to me she stopped walking. Did she not want to see me? I did leave her behind and was the reason she got shot and arrested. But it wasn’t me that made her pause. Someone was talking to her. 

“Well well well, long time no see.” A man said to her. He was maybe 60 or 70 years old. He had an overgrown beard and was also in an orange jumpsuit. Who is talking to her? I ran through every person in my head that could know Lucilla, and more importantly who could be in prison with her. Do they want to hurt her? I have so many questions. But I need to listen to the conversation to understand their relationship. 

“Fuck off,” Lucilla responded. YES! You tell him, girl. 

“Oh no no, Is that how you talk to your father after all this time?” HER FATHER?! This is bad, this is very bad. I know the relationship she has with her father. If this continues, someone will get hurt. I walked over to Lucilla and wrapped my arm around her shoulder and whispered to her, “ You should sit down, you don’t look too good.” 

“You think? I was shot!” 

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. But I had to weigh my options and if I stayed with you, you might have killed me and you would get arrested. I needed to get out of there. I came as quickly as I could, but I spent the night in the hospital.”

“Wait what? I don’t remember any of that, and it doesn’t matter. But you were in the hospital? Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” 

“I don’t want you to worry about any of that, at least not now. We need to focus on getting you out of here.” 

“How do we do that? There is so much against me, I doubt I could win a court case. And if you broke me out, well where would we go that we wouldn’t just be running from the law? There is no good option here. You just need to face the facts, I’m stuck here.” Hearing her say those words, broke me. Knowing she had given up on everything made it hard to keep trying. But I wasn’t ready to give up. 

“What if I kissed you right now?” 

“What? In front of everyone? In front of the guards? That’s a terrible idea.”

“Yeah, do you think they’d stop us?” 

“For sure, but is that going to stop you?” And with that, I stood up and walked to the other side of the table. 

“Hey! You two can’t be on the same side!” A guard yelled across the room. I didn’t even stop to acknowledge what he said. I was so hungry for her lips. I sat down next to her with my legs on opposite sides of the bench. I reached my hands out to her cheeks and pulled her in closer. We have kissed many times before, but this felt so different. It was electrifying to be a rebel. To know that the guards were running over here to tear me off of her. To know that I may not be able to come back and visit her. 

And with that, I was being pulled away from Lucilla. Is this the last time I get to see her? I don’t even know how long she is staying there? Is she going to be tried for death?

“I told you that was a bad idea Riya,” Lucilla shouted at me. 

“I’ll come back for you, I promise. I’ll find a way.” I shouted but I was so far away I don’t know if she could hear me.