Fight or flight. Given that in this situation the two men at the bottom of the staircase was shooting what looked like lightning out of their hands I felt my body react with flight. I turned on my heels and ran down the corridor. Grabbing a tighter hold of my camera as I pushed open a door at random. The door slammed shut behind me and I fumbled with the handle desperately trying to lock it. As I spun around my eyes scanned the room and instantly gravitated towards the window. I dash over to it, twisting its lock and pushing it open. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the fire ladder on the outside, without any further consideration I lifted my camera strap across my body and onto my shoulder, grabbing hold of the window sill and crawling out of the window. The height made me doubtful for a split second, a quick question about how wise it was to climb out of a window passed through my head.

A cold hand grab a hold of my wrist, I instantly felt a wave of energy pass through me. It was too strong, almost blindsided me. The person dragged my body back in through the window as I was frozen in fear. The man with the crow black hair, pushed me up against the wall. His dark eyes bore into me as his forearm pressed up against my neck, trapping me.

"Don't think you can run away from me, Vortex," he hissed.

I stared at him in confusion, my mind felt like it was swimming in something. The energy from his body was rolling over me in deep waves, it felt like someone had drugged me.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" his voice was rising in anger at my lack of reply.

I felt my stomach turn and my hands shake, as a sickness crept up from my stomach to my throat.

My eyes flitted over to the door as I heard the commotion from that side of the room. The blonde hair guy bolted into the room, his hair ruffled in the wind whipped up from the blue orbs of energy in his hands. I spotted him a split second before the crow haired man, when he looked around it was already too late. The flash of blue lightning had already struck him.

As soon as the weight of his arm was off my chest, my feet sprung into action. I threw myself out of the window, only just catching hold of the fire ladder before sliding down to the concrete floor of the narrow back street. As soon as I had put some distance between me and the crow haired man my mind instantly felt like it had been lifted out of a fog. I felt adrenalin surge through my veins as I ran as fast as I could. Maybe I could double back and grab my bike?

As I turned the corner, the blond haired guy materialised in front of me. I stared at him, apart from a slightly wrinkled suit he looked as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened to him. I backed up turning the corner back to where I had come from. I felt the volume of my heartbeat raise into my ears.

"I won't hurt you," he said softly as he approached.

He was walking very slowly towards me, as if I was a wounded animal in the wild ready to run at any moment. I felt my legs twitch when the thought of running passed through my head. But something about the soft waves of energy emanating from him, kept me still. I could almost see the thin blue waves of them through the air.

"What you did was very dangerous," he continued. 

My head felt lighter as he moved in closer. I backed up, feeling my back hit the wall of the house.

"Do you know who you took that power from?" he continued, his eyes shining with a light blue colour as he spoke.

"I don't know what you are talking about," I stammered.

His hand rose up to my face, index finger extended and gently stroked it across my cheekbone. His touch sparked a wave of electricity, surging into my face and storming through my body. For a second a tornado of light engulfed us both, stronger than anything I had ever felt before. His intensely blue eyes locked on me, as he gasped in surprise.

My mind suddenly felt incredibly sharp as thoughts rushed through it at lightning speed. What am I doing here? I felt a wave of panic grip me, instinctively I pushed him away from me. He stumbled backwards as I set off running, seeing one last glimpse of his shocked face as I turned the corner. My legs propelled me forward faster than they had ever done before. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my bike and rushed towards it, unlocking it as quickly as I could and throwing myself onto it and out into the busy Mayfair street, narrowly evading being run over by a black cab. The horn from the angry driver echoed through my ears as I hurtled myself forward, weaving through the cars and down the street.

The buildings towered tall on either side of me, opening up to a busy square. My eyes locked on the lushly green park in the middle of it. Crossing the lanes without even a glance over my shoulder, a jumble of glaring horns erupted as the traffic screeched to a halt behind me. I threw down my bike and ran the small gate and into the park, hoping that the tall trees would hide me in case he was chasing after me. Stopping at the other side of the park, I hid behind a bush as I tried to get my bearings. The metal taste bloomed in my mouth as I breathed heavily, trying to locate my escape route. My heart skipped a beat when I realised I was not that far off Oxford Circus. Darting out of the park and across another street, I ran as fast as my legs would take me.

When I hit the corner of Oxford Street, the moving wall of people slowed me down. The long line of stores with glossy window displays always created a trailing crowd. I weaved between the people, pushing forwards as I approached the underground station. If I could get on a train, maybe I would be able to escape? A sinking feeling in my stomach hit me as I realised I didn't have my oyster card with me. This was not the station to try to jump the barriers but it couldn't be helped, I had to get out of here.

I rushed forward through the subterranean corridor and pushed past a crowd of Japanese school girls, who swarmed back into a cluster behind me whilst chattering loudly. The underground staff was milling around in their yellow high visibility vests. I had to get down the escalators and onto a train before they could catch me. The crowd of people queuing for the barriers snaked its way around the station. My feet picked up speed as I started running, pushing past people. My eyes locked in on the barrier as I cut in front of someone, a surge of energy jolted through my body and my legs hummed with power as I leaped. Before I could even considered what had happened, my legs had carried me forward. My movements were so quick and fluid I barely heard the security guard scream at me before I was half way down to the escalators.

The doors of the underground carriage closed behind me, I breathed a small sigh of relief as the train pulled away from the station and rushed into the blackness of the tunnel. I looked around at the people, some sitting down and the rest filling the narrow corridor between the seats. We were packed tight, like fish in a barrel. I felt the sweat on my forehead, as the stale warm air started to affect my body. Usually I hated the packed trains, being pushed up against strangers always unsettled me. But now I was glad of it. The crowd of people surrounding me felt like a human shield. Even if he followed me down here he wouldn't dare try to grab me in front of all these people or would he?

I let my eyes scan the faces, making sure his was not one of them. As I mentally crossed people off the list I started to feel confusion tiring my body as the adrenalin subsided with each rocking motion of the train. What was going on? What were those guys?

The train pulled into Liverpool Street station and I knew I had to run again. If I could just make my way home, I would be all right. The doors open and I filed out, following the crowd of people moving down the corridor. As I approached the escalators, I started climbing up the steps keeping to the left and moving past the line of of those standing.

I rushed upwards, past the crowds of people and towards the barriers. Yet again I would have to figure out how to sneak past. Pushing forward, a energy surged through my legs. For the second time, the strange feeling of almost flying as I leapt across the barrier. I propelled forwards out into the big station, hearing the shout of a security guard somewhere far behind me. But the energy in my body launched me forward. In this moment, I didn't question the strangeness of the sensation but was merely thankful that this weird burst of energy was helping me escape. I rushed up another set of stairs and out on the pavement. My legs carried me quickly across the road and I narrowly missed being hit by a bus, as it screeched to a halt.

I hurried down one of the side streets, and turned a left. I knew this part of London like the back of my hand. If I kept this speed up it wouldn't take me long to get to my flat.

I threw a quick glance over my shoulder, behind me everything was empty and quiet. I stopped and walked up to the corner of the house, peeking around it and looking down my street. I was half expecting him to be standing by my front door. As I stared for a second, but no one was anywhere to be seen.

I grabbed hold of my keys and scurried down to my front door, pushing them in and turning the handle as I could feel my heart hammering away in my ears. In fast panic I locked it behind me and rushed for the stairs. Once both doors were locked behind me I felt a bit better.

I collapsed on my bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. I pulled the camera strap off my body and set it down on my nightstand table. What on earth was going on? I tried to make sense of what I had seen. Maybe they were part of some criminal gang? Maybe they tried to catch me because I had seen something I shouldn't have? That almost made sense to me. I closed my eyes and all I could see was those flashes of lightning from their hands. I rolled up into fetal position and buried my face into the pillow. Maybe it was some kind of laser weapons? I settled on that explanation, but something in my stomach turned as I tried to convince myself. The wave of energy and adrenalin that I had ridden this far had crashed against the shore and was pulling out, leaving me stranded with the exhaustion and confusion. I pushed my face further into the pillow, closing my eyes and letting the darkness take over.

"Cara!" someone shook my shoulders.

I felt myself drift towards consciousness "Cara!" the second shout of my name pushed me back into the land of awake.

"Huh?" I rubbed my eyes and groggily stared into Matthew's face.

"Have you been sleeping all day, Cara?" he said sternly and gave me a grave look, as he released the grip on my shoulders.

"I guess so," I admitted as my eyes went to the window, the darkness outside confirmed what he was saying.

"Come on, get up."

He started walking out before adding, "I told Tanya that we would meet her for drinks."

I pulled myself off from the bed, as Matthew left my bedroom. Any other night I would have jumped on the chance to catch up with Tanya and Matthew over drinks. But not tonight, I wanted to stay in the false sense of security my bedroom was giving me. I sighed as I pulled a brush through my unruly red hair. I knew I could not just stay cooped up in my flat forever, I needed to go out at some point. I might as well start tonight.

"Are you ready?" Matthew shouted from the hallway.

"One minute!"

I quickly jumped out of the black dress, throwing on a pair of worn jeans and the first top I could grab.

"So when did you make plans for us to go out with Tanya?" I asked as we walked the short distance over to one of our regular hangout spots.

"Around lunch, silly," Matthew's voice had that teasing tone to it. 

He looked both ways before ushering me across the road.

"I texted you three times about it," he added.

"Sorry, I must have been asleep," I replied. That was my excuse and I was sticking to it.

We passed through a smaller street and turned the corner, seeing great big letters of 'The Blues Kitchen' on the brick building meeting us. Tanya and I had fallen in love with the quirky venue and its huge oval bar in the middle of the room. The doorman gave Matthew a small nod and shot me a smile as we passed in through the familiar doors.

"I'll find Tanya, you go get us some drinks!" Matthew shouted into my ear, over wall of sounds.

Laughter, music and snippets of multiple conversations all mixed in my ears as I pushed through the groups of people standing around talking and drinking.

I made my way over to the great oval bar and leant against it, standing slightly on my toes to make myself as visible as possible. My eyes focused on the staff behind the bar, searching for someone to take my order. That's when I felt the air around me change, it was like someone had turned down the volume and I felt a wave of energy roll towards me.

"I know what you are," he whispered into my ear as I felt his power crash towards me and absorb in through my skin.

Thank you so much for reading this chapter. I would really appreciate your feedback on this story. So please tell me what you think in the comments. If you are enjoying the story so far - please share it with a friend <3 

Song: Flume & Chet Faker - Drop the game