Running
It’s after midnight, cold, and wet.  After the rain all day, the streets are a colorful mirror of the bright lights of downtown reflecting off the wet tar in Picasso-like patterns.  As we are walking down Tejon Street a police car screams past Acacia Park.  The sharp noise and bright lights wreak havoc on our senses for a moment before the scene returns to its initial placidity.  
Mark and I watch the car turn the corner and go in the direction we just came from.  I glance over at Mark, but he shakes his head.  He knows what I am thinking.  “We can’t go back Mia.  We can never go back.”  
I turn away, trying to hide my tears, but he knows.  
Turning me towards him, he holds my head in his hands and tries to smile.  “It’ll be okay, I promise.  We just have to stick together.”
I nod my head slowly, trying without avail to smile back.  I can’t help but think about all we were leaving behind.  The last forty-eight hours had been a nightmare, but somehow the whole time I had been able to tell myself that after it was all over I’d be able to go back to my normal life.  I’d get to see my friends and go to work and maybe even call my mom for the first time in three years.  
That wasn’t going to happen.  Nothing would ever be normal again.  I could never see my friends again, I would never be able to go back to work or even pick up my last paycheck, and my mom would continue to think her daughter was lost.  Leaving was for their safety, but I couldn’t stand to think about it.
“We have to go Mia.  They’ll be searching the area soon.”
* * * *
“Amaya, Nathaniel, come here guys.”  I reached down and picked them up as
Mark came into the room.   
“Come on Mia, we have to go!”
“Just give me a few more minutes!”
“We don’t have a few more minutes!  We have to go now!”
“Please Mark.  They’re my kids.”
Mark gave a sigh and went back into the other room to check that they had everything packed.  
“Wow you’re growing big lovely lady.”  Amaya was older; two and a half to Nathaniel’s year and seven months.  I could still hold them both, but this would probably be the last time.  My chest constricted as I tried not to cry.  Shaking too hard, I set them down on the couch.  Amaya started to play with the remotes, but immediately Nathaniel started to cry and raise his arms to have me pick him up again.  I started to cry then and I felt a hand on my shoulder.  
“You’ll see them again, I promise,” Mark said, giving me a hug.  
Nodding my head, I composed myself and turned to my sister as she came in from the kitchen.  “You promise you’ll take care of them?”
“As if they were my own.”
I bent down to the crying Nathaniel and picked him up for the last time.  He stopped crying instantly.  Hugging him tight, I shook with silent tears.  “I’ll come back baby boy.  I promise.  I’ll be here for you as soon as I can.”  Shaking, I handed him to my sister to hold and he started crying again.  Starting to sob, I picked up Amaya.  She looked at me, eyes wide, not understanding what was going on.  “I love you honey.  I love you both,” I said turning back to Nathaniel.  “I promise I’ll come back for you.”  Squeezing her tight, I closed my eyes and tried to remember her young smell.
Derrick’s personal cook house was only about a twenty minute walk away.  It was an old Victorian house on Webber.  He liked to make his own crystal.  It was almost like an art form to him, not to mention he didn’t trust anyone else’s.  Except for me, he was the one who taught me and he let me cook for him a couple times, but truth be told his was a lot better.  I learned from the best, but I was a runner more than a cooker.  
Mark and I stopped a few houses down.  It’d started to rain and we were hoping that would help with our cover.
“You’re sure he’ll be here?”  
“Yes, I’m sure.  It’s Friday night.  No matter what was happening with the Business, I could always be sure he’d be here anytime after eight.”
Mark glared at the house three doors up.  He didn’t like this situation and I felt bad for bringing him into it, but he was the only one I knew that could help.  My big brother had always been there for me.  He was the one who convinced me to stop running for Derrick actually.  When he found out what I’d been doing for the last few years he flipped.  I’ll never forget how upset he was that night after he’d found out I’d been lying to him all that time.  I promised to get out then and there, but there were some major complications.
“Derrick’s not going to let me go easily Mark,” I said quietly.
“I don’t plan on giving him the choice,” Mark replied.  He pulled out a small 9mm from his jacket and checked the cartridge.   
“Do we really have to do this?”
“Do you ever want to feel safe again?”
Sighing, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  “Let’s go.”
Mark checked his watch and pointed for me to go around back.    It was around ten forty-five and he didn’t want Derrick to hear us coming.  The kitchen lights were on, but so was the front bedroom’s upstairs.  Sneaking around the back, I pulled the spare key out from under the bird bath.  There were only a few people who knew where this house was, let alone where the key was.  Derrick was not going to be happy.
Peeking in the backdoor’s window, I could see that the kitchen was empty.  Derrick must be upstairs.  I slid the key into the lock and turned carefully, being sure not to make a sound.  Once done, I returned the key to under the bird bath.  Better Derrick think he had been careless then get even madder at me for using the trust he had once had in me against him.  
Mark went in first, checking to make sure the coast was clear and slipping in noiselessly.  I went in after him, but I wasn’t as graceful, hitting my foot on the cabinet to the right of the door.  Mark glared.  Wiping our feet, we looked around.  
Derrick had already set up the kitchen.  There was a hot plate already glowing red on the island along with a mass of house hold chemicals such as ether, brake fluid, cold medicine, and alcohol.  Mark looked around disgusted, picked up one of the jars and glanced over at me.  I could see the disappointment in his eyes and I hated it.
Turing away, I headed down the hallway towards the stairs.  “Might as well get it over with,” I mumbled.  
Before I got to the stairs however, Mark grabbed my arm and pulled me back, I looked at him confused, but the look on his face stopped me from arguing.
“I should have never brought you here.”
I jumped when I heard his voice.  Turning, I looked into the dark living room and I could barely make out Derrick standing next to his sound system, sliding in a CD and pressing play.  The soft sound of an orchestra flowed from the speakers and Derrick took a step towards us.
Derrick was not like a lot of meth addicts; thin and meager looking with the druggy air.  No, he was well built and clean.  There was no disguise for his flagrant pride and power.  He had strings and connections in every section of town and he knew it.   
“You must be Mark.  Too bad we didn’t meet on better terms; you might find that we have a lot in common.”
“We have absolutely nothing in common,” Mark replied scathingly as if just the thought of it made him dirty.
“We both care for your lovely sister here,” Derrick said coolly, glancing over at me with a smile.  
“You don’t give a crap about Mia; all you care about is your damn drugs.”
I flinched at Mark’s anger.  I wasn’t used to him being like this.  
Derrick remains calm however and started walking towards us again.  Mark and I back into the kitchen a few steps, but before we get backed into a corner Mark pulled out his 9mm and trained it on Derrick.  
“You’re done terrorizing my sister.  You’re going to let her walk away from this clean and clear.  No more threatening her or her family, no more of any of this.  Send some kind of mandate to all of your friends and tell them she’s out.  No going near her.”
“No one walks away from Meth clean,” Derrick replied.  He stopped, but stayed calm, not seeming to mind the gun aimed at his chest.  Looking to me, he smiled.  “This is what you really want Mia?”  He walked around the island, picked up one of the jars and started mixing some of the chemicals together.  Placing it on the hot plate he looked up at me carelessly.  
“Derrick, please, just let me go.  You don’t need me.  I won’t tell anyone anything.  I just want out.”
“You know better than that Mia, doll.  No one ever gets out.  And now,” he said almost sadly, “and now you’ve brought your brother into this too.”
I glanced at Mark in horror, but he wasn’t scared, he was even angrier.
“Do you not see who’s in control here?”  He yelled roughly.  “Who has the gun?”
“Shit,” is all I say as I remember Derrick’s little secret.  Mark looks at me confused, but before I can explain, Derrick pulls out a desert eagle out from the island drawer.  I’d found it there when we were cooking one day, but all he did was put his finger to my lips and shut the drawer smiling.  
“Now who’s in control?”  Derrick asked loudly, starting to show some anger.  “You brought a pansy 9mm to threaten me?  Are you joking?”  He says almost laughing now.  “This is not a &^$*ing game Mark!”  I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but I do not play around!  Plus, hell!  You’re gonna shoot me while I’m next to at least three gallons of flammable liquid?  Are you dumb?”
Mark was pissed and losing control fast.  His face twisted with anger and bitterness.  If I didn’t think of something fast, this would turn out very, very bad.
    “Derrick?”  I asked in a pleading tone, picking up a few bottles myself and mixing them carefully.  “Please don’t do this.  You know I have a family.  Please, just let me go.”
“Mia…Mia, Mia, Mia.  Come here my beautiful girl.”
Mark glared.  “Don’t move Mia.”
Glancing down at the counter as if thinking, I found what I was looking for on the other side of the island next to Derrick.
Dam it I thought.  Silently apologizing to mark, I slowly walked over to Derrick.
“Mia!”  Mark said angrily, but I had to ignore him.
I stopped within arm’s reach, but Derrick pulled me in and took one of my hands.
“You know I love you,” he said kissing my hand.  “But I just can’t let you break my trust like this.”
Raising the gun, he pointed it directly into my stomach.  I heard Mark shout, but all I could think of was the jar of battery acid sitting on the counter next to Derrick.
Pulling him and the gun even closer, I whispered, “I’m sorry,” and poured the battery acid over Derrick’s head, spinning away before he could fire the gun into my abdomen.
The acid burning his skin, Derrick screamed and fired the gun anyways.  I was behind him already, but the shot went through the jar on the hot plate and its content went everywhere.  The spilled chemicals caught fire from the hot plate and kitchen started to burn.  Derrick was on the floor, writhing in pain as the flames started to spread to the rest of the house.  Mark was by me instantly, pulling me out of the back door and away from the house.
As Mark pulled me down the street, I continued to look back at the burning house, not being able to believe what had just happened.
“Mia, we have to get out of here for a while; out of town.  We’ll leave Amaya and Nathaniel.  They’ll be safe.  But it’s gonna be a while before everything cools down.  Will any of Derrick’s friends come after you?”
I barely heard him.  “No, no, they’ll be too busy trying to save the business.”  
Guiding me away from the house, we walked towards Acacia Park.  The rain had stopped and the eerie clam gave me hope that the storm was over.