A Normal Life S.C. London

2

Zak sat on the same bench that Amelia had the prior day. He sat there with his right ankle on his left thigh. He waited for nearly an hour on the bench. The sun had not even come up before he had got there. At approximately 7:14 the first golden ray of sun shot into the sky behind Zak's head illuminating the sky and the mountains in the distance. From a view of say, a little song bird in a tree, he looked rather odd. A young boy, sitting in near dark, seemingly for no direct reason. As more sun came into the sky, the back of the boy's head was illuminated casting dark shadows across his face and along the floor. Even after the first person arrived at the park, the boy did not stir. Even after the second, and the third, and the fourth. By the time the sun had rose about one fourth of the way of the sky, the boy still had not moved. But a particular person did cause a change in his movements.

"Look who's late this time? Hmm?" Zak questioned Amelia. At first Amelia was hesitant to answer, looking a bit awkwardly at him, but finally answered,

"Oh, uh hi. Why are you up so early?" Amelia asked half-mindedly, as if she was thinking elsewhere.

"I don't know, I was tired of being late. How does it feel? Wait, don't answer that. Now what is on the agenda today?" Zak asked happily. He was hoping he was disquising his anxiety for his little idea.

"I don't know. What is? So umm." Amelia still seemed absentminded. Just then, a chill went down Zak's spine. And what happened next was probably very odd for Amelia.

"Oh another call. Good, I don't mind. You can answer this one. We'll just hang out next week." Zak said, with a fake smile. He wasn't sure why he said that, it was just like he felt like she was going to get a call.

"Zak? Are you alright no one is cal—," just then Amelia's phone buzzed just like Zak had expected. Amelia looked at Zak quizzically. Zak just grinned. Perfect. Zak's plan was going just as planned. After a few more seconds of Amelia's awkward staring at Zak, she answered the phone.

"Hello?" Amelia said still looking at Zak.Howdidyoudothat? Amelia mouthed. Zak shrugged.Ihavetotakethis. She said and Zak nodded she walked off nearly out of ear shot, but he could hear her perfectly fine,

"Okay. So were collecting him tomorrow. No. So, what are we going to do? He has been snooping around here quite often, and umm, I don't want to go anywhere again. I like it here for…" Her eyes flashed toward Zak "… a lot of reasons." Zak just looked away. After Amelia had finished her conversation, she walked back over to Zak.

"No, you can go. I don't mind." Zak said before Amelia said anything.

"Oh, uh, okay. How did you know? That's a bit creepy. You stalker!" But she smiled.

"Oh, I'm not a stalker, I'm just…smart," Zak said nudging her with his shoulder. Zak stood up and stretched. He had been sitting there for nearly two hours. Maybe he was a stalker. No defiantly not. He reached his toes, and popped his back. "Okay. I'll walk you to your bike." He said. He walked to their usual bike rack. "Here I can come with you. Where ever you go." Zak said. He had never suggested something like this sense the first time she gotten the phone call.

"Oh, you really don't have to." She said sternly.

"No, I insist." Zak said as equally nonchalantly.

"No, it's fine if—,"

"I insist," Zak said as he finished un chaining their bikes. "Lets go." And without waiting for her he road off in the same route that she had the day before.

"Hey hold up!" She said jumping on her bike after him. Zak rode down past the trees and across the street like before.

"Where are you going!" Amelia asked. Zak didn't answer for a while, as the two rode down the street,

"It seems like you already know." He looked at her cocked his head and smiled.

"You followed me!" She tried to sound moderately angry, but she sounded more relieved. I turned down one of the alley ways.

"Maybe…just a little," Zak said sarcastically, but he was also kind of worried.

"You are a stalker!" Amelia said laughing. Zak sighed, knowing that he wasn't in trouble. Zak turned down the ally behind the building that he almost caught and skidded to a stop. He grabbed the back pack that he had stashed.

"This is as far as I know. So what are you doing? Coming all the way out here? What are you… doing?" It was kind of awkward for Zak to ask but he was quite curious.

"Uh…" She shifted nervously on her feet. "I kind of…can't. I made some promises." Amelia said. Zak couldn't read her face. Mostly because she was looking down at her feet and her amber bangs were covering the rest of her face.

"Promises to who?" Zak inquired.

"Well you see, that's kind of what the promises are about. I was supposed to be doing this tomorrow. But…no, I can't say. You won't believe me." Amelia replied. In the distance, Zak heard what sounded like a little bird squabbling and chirping in anger. Zak just looked at her for a little while. Then he said,

"Wait…you were talking about me on the phone?" Zak asked, exasperated. "Maybe you're the stalker." Zak added to lighten the increasingly tense moment.

"Oh yah. So… maybe we can talk about this tomorrow." She said trying to back out of the conversation. She was shaking her hands in front of her body. Just then there was a largecaw! Then another, caw! Amelia instantly looked for the source. She stopped shaking her head when she found it. Or at least Zak thought she did. Her eyes widened. Zak followed her gaze behind him where a man stood. Upon closer examination Zak saw that he was quite short. Zak was taller than him. His bright purple(Wait…purple?) eyes peering directly at them, looking where to strike. Another blood trembling croon came from somewhere. Zak twirled around and saw the same man on the other side of the ally. What? He turned back the other way and saw the same man on both sides of the ally way, blocking all escape. He realized that they may be twins. They were both wearing the same pin striped suit, with little polished dress shoes. But then what really hit Zak was that they were blocking the. Who were these people? Creepy.

"We should go." Amelia said after a few minutes of creepy bird noises and weird teleporting men. Amelia grabbed Zak's hand and pulled on him, urging him to go. Just as Zak was turning around one of the men spoke,

"Wait, why don't you…tell us your name? Now you don't want to get hurt do you? The weird little man said. Zak instinctivlely took a step in front of Amelia. "Come on, just say your name, that's all we need to know, then we will be gone." Zak was thinking of possible escape routes, and he supposed they could climb on the dumpster and jump over the closer man. After not saying anything for a few minutes, the man took a step forward and said, "You, know that dumpster isn't high enough to jump over my co-worker, boy," howdidheknow… "Fine, we will just take your name!" Zak didn't really know what he meant by that but the man had started running towards them. He didn't seem to have a weapon of any sort, and Zak was much taller, and by the looks of the scrawny little man, much stronger, so he though he could fair well against the man. But what really worried him was that there was two pairs of foot steps. He couldn't protect Amelia from both of them. Just as the man was about to be upon him there was smashing noise of metal and muffled yell behind, him where Amelia was.

"Amelia!" Zak was turning around, and half way around, a metal trash can was flying through the air in front of him, and crunched into the little man. Zak saw one of the little men buried under three trash cans and piles of junk.

"Let's go!" Amelia screamed grabbed Zak's arm, turned and ran. Zak and ran as hard as he could. He took one last look at his bike. He figured he would never see it again.

Just as Zak came out of the ally way Amelia's hand grabbed him and pulled him to the side. She pulled him in front of her, pushed him forward and yelled, "Go! We have to hurry!" Zak started run, not really to any where in particular.

"Where are we going?" Zak asked. Amelia didn't answer. Zak slowed down so he could follow Amelia. She was just running down the street, dodging pedestrians. "Amelia! Where are we going!" Zak tried again. He was getting tired of just running straight down the street, with no destination, and he was fairly sure that those peculiar men couldn't be following them.

"You know where the movie theatre is, right?" Amelia finally answered inbetween her heavy breaths.

"Sure," Zak replied. He had been to that only theatre in there little town plenty of times with Amelia (Not like that).

"Well, you know the apartment building next to it?" Amelia asked,

"Yes."

"There's your destination." Amelia said. Whythere?

"Um, why exactly? And what who were those men. You seem to know a lot," Zak asked.

"Just wait 'till we get there. I'll explain everything. Not like I have a choice now. He found you," Amelia said, the last part more to herself then to Zak.

"What? Your not making any sense, who found me? Some one found me?" Zak asked, growing tired. He was cramping up, and was not sure he could go much longer.

"Listen just wait, I will—," Amelia screamed and jumped to the side, and Zak followed suit, narrowly avoiding (to his surprise) a black bird. The bird plowed into the side walk, stood up, and screeched. A business man behind it, who was talking into an ear piece, stood there, and then dropped his suit case, along with his jaw. The bird ignored the man and set its sites on the two kids running along the street.

"What was that?" Zak asked. Amelia just looked at him sternly. Zak would've thought that, if he was ever in a situation like this, he might been freaking out and going relatively crazy, but he was unusually calm. Or is scared a better word? He had really just started to realize that weird men just attacked him and crow's were chasing him for unknown causes. He looked ahead and saw that they had to cross the street and then on the end of the block was the apartment building. Again, the crow came out of nowhere. He barely dodged it. He didn't feel so tired after the bird missed for the second time. Just as they were half way across the crosswalk, there was the screech of tires a thud. Zak dared to glance behind him and saw a little car right behind him. Unconscious on the hood, was one of the little men. So maybe he and Amelia were wrong about each other being a stalker. Maybe the little purple-eyed men were the stalkers. Zak backed up and tripped over the curb, and landed on his butt. The man started waking up, shaking his head and moaning. The woman inside was screaming and about to get out, when the man stood up and pushed the little car back into the hood of the car sitting behind the first car.Didhejustpushthecar? Maybe Zak didn't have such a good chance against the man. He scurried to stand up, and twirled around, nearly tripping on his feet and started to run towards Amelia, who incedntlily was trying to pry the apartment door open while the other man was running across the parallel street towards her.

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