Gen 3- Runaway

*Adam* 

"What have you guys got?" The boys sat around with sullen looks on their faces. They were all trying to decipher some code that would lead us straight to Ande. The only problem was that the code had difficult branches.
 All sorts of ideas were tossed around the table and one of the main ones we talked about were ballet studios. Of course I'm not talking about a real code but a code that we ourselves have come up with.

 "So, this site says that the best dance studio in the entire town is...Madam Elizabeth's dance for young women."

Gabe ran his finger down the screen in one sweeping motion until his finger stopped on the name Elizabeth Manning. "43rd and Ralph street."

"I'll go. I've had enough disappointment, people here have seen her...just not recently." I ran my hands over the map of Bridgeport and located Madam Elizabeth's dance studio. "We're gonna find her. She's here somewhere...I can feel it. She's alive."

"Don't get your hopes up too high, buddy." Seth called as I sprinted out the door and onto the street.
Sure, Bridgeport is big but not that big. The things that were said to me by the bar patrons made me see red, though. It was all consisting of  "That girl? Yes! She was hot. Whoever has her now is one lucky guy...or girl." Then they'd laugh and finish drinking they're whiskey or beer.

We were getting nowhere at this rate and wandering around the city wasn't helping at all. I rounded the corner of 43rd street and I read the address off of my piece of paper. I broke into a sprint when a young woman...about 20 something...in a white skirt with a bun holding her hair on top of her head, opened the door to the studio and pulled a cab over.

"Madam Elizabeth?" I called out, trying to reach the woman before she drove away for who knows how long. It could be my only chance.
She looked up at me and a tiny bit of recognition flew across her face and she waved the cab driver on. "What is your name, sir?" She asked with this little bow that seemed to be almost automatic.

"My name is Adam Langly..I'm searching for my daughter...And I can only think of one place that she would be.. I understand that you have the best dance studio in Bridgeport?"

She nodded and sadness took over her features. "You're looking for Ande. Sir, I wish very well that I could tell you where she is, but I myself have not seen her in ages." The tiny wisps of hope that were floating in my heart had gone and even the slightest trail was wiped away.

"Did she say where she was going? When she would be back?"

"Sir, she just didn't show up one morning...this is all I know. Forgive me for I know how it is for a child to want to get away...But Ande should be almost 23 years old by now...isn't it time to let her go?"

I looked at the woman standing in front of me, she was very much like Ande but it was obvious that she really had no clue. "She's only 18." are the last words that left my lips before I turned on my heel and started to run down the sidewalk again...Looking for a new hope.‎

"I talked the a lady by the name of Maggy Barmboard. She told me that not 2 days ago she saw someone who looks a little bit like Ande. She said though, that this girl was majorly skinny, beat up and she was covered in blood." I sighed and put my head in my hands for the 100th time today.

"Did Maggy see which direction she was headed?"

 "North, she was running and crying." I felt a few hands touch my back and push me forward.... "Go on Adam. We'll spread out."

*Ande* 

I sat up against the door of the bathroom in a small cafe, dreading what I might see when I looked at my back which now hurt with such intensity that I could hardly stand anymore.

"If you make it out of this with me...I'm gonna name you miracle."

I talked to my baby and pulled my hand across my stomach then clamped my teeth together as I reached over and pulled my shirt off my back.

The cuts ran from my shoulder to the middle of my back and were still oozing a unpleasant amount of blood and puss. I looked in the mirror and cringed. I gulped and started to clean it up without hurting myself too much but even that was hardly possible with how deep it was and how hard it was for me to reach behind myself.

The pain was too much, I did my best not to cry but I couldn't help it. So instead I just wrapped the bandages around my torso and began to dress. I was working on trying to bend over and tie my shoe but Miracle was kicking her feet off in a tantrum at how I was trying to do it.

 "YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE LONG ENOUGH, BITCH!" A rapid knocking on the door made me jump and the woman screaming at me didn't seem to happy either. I pulled the door open and leaned against the frame.

"Excuse me?"

 "I said...you've been i-"

I took a swing right at her face and knocked her to the ground, pushing past, and making my way back through the diner. "When you grow up...Don't let people walk over you." I touched my belly one more time before setting out on the streets of Bridgeport once again.

The sunset shone over the water and Bridgeport heated up faster than it ever had when I was there. The heat subsided eventually as I walked in the shade, but the hunger never went away.
No matter how hard it was to press on, though, I kept walking. Every now and then I was able to spot a dumpster behind some bakery and give my little miracle something to eat. The nourishment went all to her though and I was slowly diminishing down to skin and bones.

"Boy, you make everything hard, little miracle." I munched on the bread that I pulled from the sack in the dumpster. "Aren't you cramped in there?" I laughed, sure that I was going insane actually asking this baby questions and expecting an answer. "I'm sorry, but you're about to have a really suckish life, living with me."

 I leaned against the brick wall and sighed. Baby Miracle must have heard my last comment because she sent a kick unlike any other. She had me kneeling over on the ground with tears threatening to spill over my cheeks. "What was that for?" I yelled into the dark air but she just sent another...and another...and another. The pain was unlike any other I had ever felt before in my life but it just kept happening. It didn't take the world long at all to realize that I was in distress before sending the rain.

I couldn't stand up without pain shooting up my back and down my legs. I could hardly feel anything but the hard, cold rain hitting me. I was finally giving up.
My dignity thrown into the gutter where I was sure that the last seconds of my life would be spent. Violated and robbed of everything that I had once thought was so precious and dear. I lay there half blinded by the rain and the streetlamp above me.

My thoughts reached around this baby and how I should be trying to save myself for her...But it wasn't worth it. I would live and remember every last moment...too much energy was gone...too much...it was too much...

I began to cry, loud, wet sobs. I was losing control of myself and hypothermia wasn't far away. My desperate cries for help rang out across the alleyway and down the roads....But no one came to my rescue. I screamed out one last time...Holding onto my last breath for as long as I could.
I laid my head down on the ground and let my eyes flutter shut just a few seconds before hearing footsteps...running towards me.

The man leaned down over me and moved my hair from my face. I didn't see what he looked like because my back was facing towards him and my eyes were closed, but I was far too weak to run and get away from him.
I heard him pull something out of his pocket and then a few beeps before a easily familiar voice whispered into the phone... "I've found her..." He then leaned back over and pulled me gently into his arms...

 Maybe if I died, the pain and suffering of life would go away? If all this man wanted from me was the same thing that every other man seemed to want, then he could just kill me and I'd still like that better.

But, this was different...This man didn't throw me over his shoulder like a sack of clothes. He gripped my back and held me close to him so that I could feel the warmth of his body. It was the way he held me that finally made me understand that he wasn't here to hurt me...and right before I fell unconscious I looked up at him, smiled and said

"Hi dad.."