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Chapter 22 - Help me villain!

Jumbo stomped over to Clara . He was even bigger than she remembered. She swallowed hard.

"Are you… are you Ricky?" Clara started. Ricky grabbed her hard and she let out a whimper.

"I'll ask the questions." Ricky didn't have the same accent as his partner from the warehouse. His voice was raspy and bit through her with every syllable.

He squeezed her arm tighter. Clara winced.

"Where is the moon gem?" Ricky growled.

"Woah Rick, chill man she's just a girl what are you doing!" The cashier's eyebrows were tight together and his mouth was wide open.

"I… I don't have it." Clara strained.

Ricky threw her across the room, her body crashing hard into a desk, knocking it sideways and breaking it. She blinked through something wet that was dripping from her head and into her eye. Her vision tinged red. Blood? She reached her hand to her face to investigate but winced at a stabbing pain on her side. She stumbled to stand and failed. She looked up to see Ricky flying at her, a panicked cashier pulling at him to no avail.

"That's not what I asked" was the last thing she heard before everything went black.

When Clara came to, pain pierced throughout her body. Ricky was over her, shaking her body hard. The cashier was no where to be seen. Nows my chance. She tried to summon the fireworks in her hand again but nothing happened.

Vigorous shake. "Where is it!?" Rick demanded.

"It's… it's back at the warehouse. My partner got in touch with Emor and is meeting him there at midnight." Clara lied.

"Don't lie to me!" Ricky squeezed her arm again.

Clara felt like she would pass out again, the pain in her side was excruciating. "I'm… I'm not lying. I was told to… to come here and make sure you wouldn't follow him and wreck his deal again. I was suppose to call him when I seen you but you recognized me before I had the chance."

Ricky patted her body down until he found her phone. He threw it on the ground and crushed it into pieces with his boot.

The cashier barged through the door suddenly. "I called the police!" He announced. So that's where he went.

"I was just leaving." Ricky said coldly and walked out. "I'm not done with you." He said one last time over his shoulder.

Clara's knee burned as she got to her hands and knees to attempt to stand. She wobbled to her feet and looked around. He was gone. She scrambled to the door and entered the main store.

"Miss! Are you ok!?" The young cashier started. "You shouldn't be moving. My uncle hurt you very badly. Oh my gosh I'm so sorry."

"Your uncle? Dude your family is psycho." Clara limped forward. "I need to leave before the cops get here."

"Did my uncle rob you, Miss?"

Clara winced, too exhausted to speak.

"I don't understand much. Just that you were looking for a robber and my uncle recognized you and attacked you. I don't think you would get into trouble with the police for that. You should stay and get checked out. You need medical attention, you're bleeding a lot. This is all my fault." Guilt painted his face.

"What's your name?" Clara managed to say through a painful step. She was now halfway through the shop.

"My name is Chris, short for Christian." He answered.

"Ok Chris, short for Christian," Clara joked, "this is… ow.. not… your fault.. ok?"

He went quickly to her side and helped her walk, holding the uninjured side of her waist and putting her arm over his shoulder. "Let me at least help you walk. Can I drive you somewhere?"

Clara snorted. "Not unless you want to have matching black eyes from a second psycho."

"Protective boyfriend? I don't blame him after his girlfriend gets mugged and then now attacked by the same guy. I'd be pretty protective too."

"Something like that" Clara was in too much pain to correct him and the less he knows the better.

"If you want to help, the best way to do that is to not tell anyone I was here. Your uncle has very dangerous friends that might want to come after me if they knew where I was."

"I won't tell them anything. Man, I should have stayed with you! We aren't allowed to keep our phones on us when we are on the clock so I had to go out here to call the police but… look what he did…I should have tried harder to stop him!"

"It's fine." Clara said through pants. They were at the exit. The automatic door opened revealing the downpour outside. "If it wasn't for you, he probably would have finished me off back there."

"Let me walk you to your car, wait a sec!" Chris let go of Clara slowly then darted to the counter and returned with an umbrella. He put his arm around her again and opened it for them both.

They walked quietly to the car. Chris opened the door, a worried look creased his eyes as Clara slid in the car. "Can I at least have your number to check on you later? I promise I'm not hitting on you while you're in pain and probably traumatized, I'm just so worried! You look like you're going to pass out."

"You're very sweet but I'll be fine, I'm not going far. Besides, your uncle smashed my phone. I'll be ok. Thank you for your help Chris short for Christian. I appreciate it so much." Clara smiled warmly as Chris shut the door for her. He watched as the car hummed to a start and slowly pulled out. He kept watching as she drove off, the tapping of the rain on the umbrella drummed softly as the headlights faded from vision.

Clara's eyelids felt like lead. Her vision was blurry and it felt like a burning sword was piercing through her side every time she inhaled. The windshield wipers swished tirelessly through the pouring rain. Every second felt like hours as she made her way to safety.

She turned off the car and drug herself out of the seat, abandoning the keys in the ignition as she limped and winced through the pain with every step. When she got closer to the door she leaned on the wall to help her steady herself enough to make it to the porch, her drenched clothes weighing her down from her already tired and broken body. The motion detector light turned on above her, dingy yellow lit the path.The world started spinning just as she reached the door. "Almost there", she convinced herself. She crashed into the door loudly and stopped to take a breath. After a moment she reached for the door knob but it opened suddenly on it's own. She felt herself falling forward with no way to catch herself. It was then that an arm reached out and suddenly caught Clara.

"I… I… didn't know where else to go…" Clara's blood and rain-soaked clothing dripped on the threshold, clinging softly. Blackness engulfed her and the arms held her closer. She felt their warmth and nuzzled to an even warmer body.

"I have you my Darling, you're safe. I'm here now." Warm maple leaves and cedar filled her nose as she slipped out of consciousness.

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