Chapter 5

    Alita was startled, moved into the bin box, and began to check for her brother's contact,  she mentally praised herself for getting him a phone about a month ago if not she would be as scared as hell.

  Well, the fact that he never carries the phone around might be a problem for her. She texts his number, hopefully, it might not be in the toilet or the kitchen this time.

    Carefully, she removed the lid and looked to see five men, one on the floor the rest standing, just watching him.

    Her eyes drift off, she recalled something she never wanted to see again, something she fears. She saw her father staring blankly at her in his pool of blood, next to her mother.

     Fear grip her, it felt like everything was happening again as she held her bag to her chest, in an attempt to hold Gio well.

    Her phone vibrated then began to ring aloud.

   Immediately it starts ringing, Alita switched off the phone and put it in her bag, she could hear distant talking as she felt someone walking close to her.

    She didn't dare to look up as she had mistakenly dropped the lid when her phone started ringing. She just fold herself and stayed still, waiting for the person to come here.

    She closed her eyes as Ricardo's face appeared, in his pool of blood with a gun hole in the middle of his head. She closed her eyes as her breathing began to raise, she was such the person around could hear her heartbeat as it threatened to jump off her chest.

    "What do you find, Cage" a voice she could identify as Bone's asked, "What the fuck did you find?"

     "Nothing" cage shouted, he turned sharply to where a rattling noise came from and walked there, "I think I find something"

   Alita went dead, she buried her face in her palm and began to shed tears, there was no type of prayer she did not make, even hail mary she had refused to learn since she was still a child, she said it.

     After what seems like a deafening silence, Cage shouted, but this time a bit away from her than the last time he spoke.

    "It's a fucking cat" he chuckled.

   "Cats don't have ringtone" a stern voice replied causing Alita to flinch and all attention on her, "I told you so. Fish it out and kill it"

   Kill it!?

  Fear gripped Alita as she began to search her bag for something, just anything she can to defend herself. She could hear nothing but footsteps, walking in her direction.

     She heard something click and immediately, she recognized the sound. It seems to even be the sound she would never forget, the same clicking sound that went before the loud one that killed the person she hate to love.

     "Please!" She said, she noticed they stopped and she got hold of her perfume again "I am just a poor girl, returning from work"

   "We hear that all the time," Cage said "Why not make it simple for us, you come out and we give you a painless death or we make you suffer?"

   Alita stiffen, she closed her eyes tight as she began to think of anything to do. She wasn't willing to die or let someone kill her here as her parents died. If they succeed, they die for nothing.

   Alita took deep breaths, then did what no one would have thought about, She threw the bin box down, the bottom facing them then crawled out slowly.

    "Please don't shot" she sniffed "Ricardo was only trying to take me and -"

   She dashed in a dark direction filled with dirt and many trash cans. She kept running and not looking back, hoping she would see a police van and be saved.

   Gunshots pursue behind her and she was so surprised that none had hit her.

    She could hear the running after her and cussing. If she keep running it would be easy to find her so she did what she knew, hit, she found a bigger trash can and dived in.

    What's up with all this trash can!?

She didn't bother to close the lid as she closed her nose and mouth, so she could breathe loud and won't die of a bad smell.

   Ewww!

Got hold of a used sanitary pad and almost scream. She forced her mouth close as she began to hear their voice again.

   "She is not far," the stern voice said.

  Silent followed as she conclude they might have split, to circle her or get her fast.

    "Quella cagna è qualcosa" a strange voice yelled as it became faint "lei è un perno nel culo"

    She almost giggled at such compliment, at least, who won't be a pain in the ass when she was almost raped by her ex she still loves, who got murdered in front of her and the killers are looking for her to kill her too.

    "I know you are in there" the stern voice hushed "But let's make a deal, and I might want to make you live"

   Fear engulfed Alita as she heard his footsteps, he seems to be moving around her hiding place, ransacking everything he touches. For a moment she thought he must have seen her but if he knew she was there, why would he keep searching everywhere.

    "You must have videos of what happened, I only want the video and you will go free for an hour," the person said again.

   Anger swept through Alita's vein, the person was not even trying to be nice at all. How could he let her go free for just one hour? She might as well not make it home.

   She began to search her bag for her phone, if she could tell Gio to go meet father  Lorenzo she would feel much better. After few seconds of searching, she discovered that she must have dropped it while running.

      "Ti ho trovato" he grabbed her hair and pulled her out the trash can "You smell like hell"

   Alita couldn't just admit what just happened, she kept kicking and struggling, trying to break loose. Just as pathetic as she always act, she lifted her hands to his face and squirt the perfume on his face.

   Surprisingly, he yelled and threw her, rubbing his eyes. She seize the opportunity and made to run but heard a gunshot, not far from her. She felt the hot bullet brush the skin of her left arm and she fell.

    She yelp as she hold her arm, whimpering in pain, she looked at it and sigh, at least it wasn't a deep wound.

   "Where is your phone?" The stranger said, walking closer to her.

   Alita bent her head, not just in terror, but so the stranger won't be able to recognize her in the day. She looked around, searching for what to use or what to do.

   She caught sight of her open bag and sigh as she noticed her perfume bottle. What else can she do with it? Before she would be able to crawl towards it, she might as well already have two bullets hole in her head and might be getting cold in her own pool of blood just like Ricardo.

   She heard the gun click and she closed her eyes, waiting for hell.

   "Hand over your phone" he commanded.

  Alita shrugged, she couldn't tell him that she lost it so he might not go looking for it. She would prefer the police to do find it so she could get her death case investigated.

   Their head snapped to a direction where voices were coming from, Alita went white, she would prefer to die now.

   "Do it" she summoned courage, she hesitated as the stranger went silent "Fucking do"

   She looked up and meet the cold blue eyes of the stranger. For a moment the earth and everything in it went still.

    Those haunting blue eyes!

Snap out of it, anyone can have blue eyes, but this one seems different. She thought.

    The emotionless eyes stared back at her scared green one confused. It was like he had seen a ghost or an old friend.

    "Alita?" That came out hoarse.

   Fear gripped Alita the more as she felt she might be having one of her Christmas bad dreams again, but this one felt too real to be fake.

   Many things began to run through her messed-up mind. Who is this person! How did he know her name? Why does he look so familiar? Why hasn't he killed her?

    They both snap their heads in the direction she was hiding before, where her phone began to ring. They both went still like they were under a spell.

   Alita was the first to break out, she gingerly picked an empty bottle from the floor, broke the bottom, and threw it at the blue-eyed stranger who dodged immediately.

    She sprang up and ran as fast as her shaky foot can carry her.

   The stranger stood still, watching her. He couldn't just get himself to see the face he had been dreaming about for years in reality.

   "You lost her?" Someone asked.

  He turned to the person surprised, his brows twisted as the corner of his lips crooked.

   "You heard the shot long ago," he said dryly and frowned as the person nodded "Then why didn't you come immediately?" He waited again but nothing came, he was about to say something when the person brought out her phone.

   "I found this, sir," he said.

   The stranger stared at the phone for a long time, looking at the picture she had used as her screensaver. A smirk spread across his emotionless face as the phone began to ring again, showing fratellino Gio!

    "Follow her" he ordered "Don't kill her yet, just let me know where she stays"