Chapter Fifteen

Aria

I woke for the second time in a few hours, to the immediate realization that everything would not seem better in the morning, because I woke up just as someone carefully tried to pull my backpack out from under my head. I shot up and whacked my head on the branch again, and spun around, just in time to see a young kid, wearing a stained white hoodie and ball cap, running away with all my worldly possession.

Oh no, you don’t.

“Hey! Stop him!” I bellowed and jumped up, taking off after him. Oooff, the night on the ground hadn’t made me faster at all, and my leg immediately began to throb as I ran. It was still early, only a few commuters were making their way through the park, and they simply stared at me as I ran after the kid, like a possessed woman. “Stop him, he’s getting away!”

I rounded a corner and stopped dead. We were out of the park now, and the small street we had run to was deserted. I couldn’t see a single sign of where the kid might have gone. I listened as carefully