JC: Dude....already another chapter?

Me: Yeah man....I'm feeling it again. The PASSION.

Dawn: The LOVE!

Gary: The AWESOMENESS.

Ash: The FOOD!

Paul: The Patheticness.

JC: -_- Really?

Gary: Just ignore him, he's still being all grumpy.

Dawn woke up again, her eyes feeling sore and stung from the dryness. She checked her phone, regretting instantly as the small screen brightness on her crappy phone blinded her already exhausted eyes, shutting them al other way closed. She squinted, checking the time.

5:37 am. About 7 hours of sleep will do for now, she just had to get herself to her mother, who could be anywhere because of her irresponsible drunken father.

Dawn slowly got up, moving the blankets off of her. When did she have blankets on her? She didn't know or care at the moment, slowly tip-toeing to the door in silence. She held her breath as she carefully unlocked the door, wincing as the door opened with a 'click'.

Hopefully the door was quiet enough so Paul or Ash couldn't hear. She locked the behind her before closing it, then silently walked through the hallway and stairs, thinking of how she could get to where her mom could possibly be.

She stood outside thinking, watching the view in front of her. She saw something shifting on the ground, something like paper. It rolled from the gusts of wind blowing by, and Dawn decided to check it out.

She approached it, stepping on it before it could fly away again, and she picked it up. Her eyes widened, and a smile came up on her lips.

"I'm so lucky! Yes!" Dawn cheered, gripping on the piece of paper, which was not just a piece of paper.

She found a fucking 50 bill on the ground. That was pure luck. She shoved it in her pocket with the random change she had in her pocket.

Dawn walked towards the bus stop, which was about 7 minutes away walking. She continued on the sidewalk, breathing in the cold air and looking down at her shoes again.

'POP'

She instantly stopped in her tracks, hearing the loud sound echo throughout the dark morning. Was that a....

'BANG' 'POP 'BANG' 'BANGBANG'

Those were fucking GUNSHOTS. Dawn ran, hearing the noise getting louder, then a couple cars screeching loud from the tires on the road, probably leaving skid marks. She prayed in her mind that she wouldn't get shot.

"Hey! Stop right there!" A voice yelled from somewhere distant behind her, but she kept running, hoping that they didn't call after her.

"I SAID STOP!"

A car skidded sharply and stopped as two guys in black got out of the car, then chased the person they saw running.

"Just shoot em! They probably have money we can take!" The taller guy said as the shorter guy nodded as they ran after Dawn, who realized they were after HER.

"Oh god oh god oh god oh god...!" Dawn repeated under her breath as tears dropped down her face. She took a sharp right through the trail leading into the trees, hoping they wouldn't find her as easily. Gunshots fired, and one whipped past her, scaring her even more. Another one hit a tree just to the right of her, bark flying into her face. She closed her eyes and wiped her face, feeling a couple splinters rub off on her hand.

One more gunshot fired, and it whipped by her ear so close that Dawn could swear that-

Oh my god it HIT HER.

Dawn felt a huge amount of pain shoot through the right side of her head, her ear turning very hot. While running, she lifted her right hand to her right ear that's been shot, feeling that the top of her ear felt gone.

At least it wasn't anything else, or she would've gone deaf in that ear.

As they continued to shout at her, Dawn felt her left foot get caught in a root.

"Dammit!" She yelled, falling into the sidewalk while cursing. Before she could get up, two guys yanked her up, one from the back and the other in front. She screamed, flailing her arms and legs.

"SHUT UP!" Dawn didn't, she was scared to death. What were they gonna do to her? They could do anything, and nobody would know. Oh god this couldn't be happening.

The guy holding her from behind easily held her tightly, her feet far from the ground.

"Give me your money or I'll shoot!" The other guy in front yelled, threatening Dawn by shoving his gun on the side of her head, the barrel pointing straight at her brain.

Dawn was shaking, not knowing what to do since her arms were gripped on and in extreme pain. A hand was gripping on her mouth to prevent her screaming from being loud.

"I said GIVE ME YOUR MONEY OR ELSE I WILL SHOOT YOUR BRAIN OUT!!" He yelled, shoving the barrel of the gun into her skull. Dawn screamed again, but it was muffled by his hand.

'Paul...' Dawn could only think his name, the person who had saved her countless times from anything and everything.

But not today. It was over.

"Guess that's that." The guy smirked as Dawns eyes widened. She heard a click, and she closed her eyes, a tear slipping out and dropping on the ground.

'pop'

They all froze, wondering why the gun hadn't worked. He tried again, trying to shoot Dawn in the head.

'popopopopopopopopopop'

"Dammit! We're out of bullets!" He hissed in anger as he shoved the gun back in his pocket. Dawn too the opportunity to kick him as hard as she could right in the center between his legs.

"DAMN!" He yelled, clutching as she kicked him in the face, making him stubble and fall to the ground.

The guy holding her wrapped his arm around her neck, trying to choke her. She pulled on his arm, attempting to get air, but wasn't strong enough to get his arm off. So, there's one idea she had in mind.

Dawn chomped on his arm as hard as she could, and a high pitched scream echoed through the air from him, dropping her from his clutch.

Dawn ran instantly she hit the ground, running away from the two men who she successfully escaped from. She heard them yell and their footsteps, but they kept fading away, outrunning them.

Dawn slowed down, breathing heavily from the exhaustion. She leaned over, setting her hands on her legs from the tiredness.

"Oh my god, oh...my...god." Dawn breathed out, feeling too many emotions running through her. She felt too lightheaded, her body felt limp, her mouth tastes gross, and her ear still rang in immense pain.

She almost died back there. She almost DIED back there.

Dawn pulled out her phone and called the person she trusted most right now besides her mother, praying that they'd pick up.

After a few rings, Dawn felt her hope drop in her stomach. Nobody answered.

She checked the time, seeing that it was only 6:02 am, and the sky was still pitch black. She didn't know where she was, and it scared her to death. Deciding to do anything but stand, Dawn started walking slowly through the dark forest, trying to find a trail to walk on.....

*in Paul and Ash's apartment*

'THUD!'

Paul woke up to the loud irritating noise, groaning loudly as he knew it was Ash falling off his bed again.

"SHUT UP!" Paul yelled, tossing in his bed and faced the other way.

"I'm okay! Sorry Paul!" Ash yelled in his room, his voice muffled by the walls and doors closed. Paul didn't reply, instead he shut his eyes, attempting to go back to sleep.

He shot up, wondering if he had woken Troublesome up.

"Dammit." Paul muttered as he saw his phone light up with a notification from earlier, so he grabbed it as he started walking to where Dawn had fallen asleep. He read his notification on his phone as he was in the hallway.

'One missed call from Troublesome'

He froze in his footsteps. Why would she call at this time? It had been only five minutes ago too. He walked faster than he had been, and looked at the couch that had been previously occupied, was now empty.

"Dammit Troublesome where the hell are you?!" Paul angrily hissed at himself, grabbing his keys and shoving his Nike running shoes on. He didn't have to change since he just slept in grey sweatpants and a black v-neck t-shirt.

He quickly locked the door behind him and closed it, running down the hallway and stairs while on his phone. Since he did have an app on his iPhone that tracked calls from people, he instantly went to that to try and find her location.

He stepped outside, reading where the app supposedly said where the call was around.

How the hell did she get somewhere 25 minutes walking distance away?!? In some random area of the woods? That's not right. Why would she be there?

Well, this is Troublesome after all, she could probably be anywhere.

Paul shook his head, then started to take off in a fast pace jog. Well, guess he was getting his morning run in today a bit earlier than usual....by about a few hours at least.

It took him about ten minutes jogging instead of running to the spot where his app lead him to. He looked around his surroundings, disliking how dark and uncomfortable it felt. There was no trac or sidewalk near him, so it was even more strange.

Paul kept walking, each step crunching on old leaves that dried out. After another long five minutes of seeing nothing, he barely saw a tiny figure walking alone in the dark. He started to slowly jog, not realizing his pace was getting faster each second.

"Troublesome!" He shouted, seeing the tiny figure stop and look around.

Dawn heard that name, and she instantly froze and looked around for the person with that voice.

"Paul?" Dawn whispered, hoping that it was him, not just a fluke to catch her off guard. She saw a figure running towards her, and she couldn't tell who it was at first, until they were about 20 feet away.

"Troublesome!"

"Paul!"

Dawn ran towards him, jumping onto him and hugging him tightly. Paul stood there shocked for a second, but then slowly wrapped his strong arms around her, resting his head in the crook of her neck.

"Why the hell are you out here?! You've got a fucking explanation to say!" Paul angrily mumbled, gripping her as close as possible, her feet not touching the ground.

"I-I'm s-sorry." Dawn whispered, not even attempting to hold back anything as a stream of tears ran down her face and onto a part of his shirt.

"It's not safe, you could've been kidnapped or injured, maybe even shot-"

"I-I know P-Paul, I won't do it again. It scared me to death."

Paul slowly put the girl down on the ground, then put his hands on her shoulders. "What did?"

Dawn couldn't even speak as she pointed a shaky finger to her ear, watching his eyes go from hers to her ear, his eyes widening slightly.

"What the hell?" Paul asked as he touched her ear, feeling a large gap on the top. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight and aimed it at her ear. His mouth was open slightly at the horrible sight of a completely bloody ear, the top leaking blood from where it was terribly injured.

Dawn started crying out loud, feeling her emotions too much to handle at that point.

"T-there was t-two g-guys w-who t-tried t-t-to sh-sh-sh-" Dawn breathed out, sniffling too much between her words.

"Tried to what?" Paul asked, his eyes filled with anger and confusion.

"T-to sh-sh-shoot me. I j-just w-want-ted to get b-back to my mom." Dawn managed to say, hiccups interfering with her words. Paul just stared at her, not believing that someone tried to hurt her like that.

"Those bastards." Paul gritted under his breath, trying to think of how to get Troublesome to her mother, even though both of them had no idea where she was. Paul could only think of one option, and he wasn't too happy about it but it'd be better than nothing.

"Follow me Troublesome." Paul said as he started walking back, Dawn following him on his right side.

He pulled out his phone and stared at the contact, hesitating for a few seconds. 'Fuck it' Paul thought as he sent a message to the person he knew would always help him, even though he wasn't really wanting to be around his positively happy attitude like always.

After quite some time, the two made it back and were now standing in the front after Paul had cleaned Dawn's shot ear and wrapped it with some white wrap stuff. A familiar blue minivan drove up to them, and Paul just rolled his eyes.

"Paul! I've missed you so much! Haven't seen you in a few weeks my little brother!" Paul groaned as his older brother hopped out of the car and ran up to him, giving him a bear hug.

"Get off!" Paul yelled, his face being shoved into his brothers shirt from the death grip he was receiving. After a minute of wrestling, the older brother finally let go of the now pissed off younger brother.

Dawn looked up at the taller person, noticing the similarities. He had longer, darker purple hair tied in a low ponytail. He had a big smile plastered on his face with his positive attitude.

"Who is your friend Paul?" The older brother questioned, looking at the tiny figure beside Paul. He bit the inside of his cheek, looking at the condition of the girl was in.

"My name's Dawn." She quietly said, showing a small smile.

"My name's Reggie, I'm Pauls older brother. So Paul asked me to give you guys a ride and stuff, so hop in!" Reggie said as he zoomed around the van to the drivers seat, leaving Paul Rollin his eyes again.

"Let's get this over with." Paul muttered as he opened the door for them, then sitting down in a seat.

"Where should we start heading Dawn?" Reggie politely asked as he got himself comfortable. He glanced back to see Dawn behind him and Paul on the other side. Paul glanced at Dawn, who had no hesitation on where she believed that met mother could possibly be.

"I need to check the main hospital."

Gary: Wha- WHY IS IT A CLIFFHANGER?!? *groans in frustration*

Ash: Aww man! I have to probably wait another tree more months now!

Me: HEY! It's not my fault, I blame JC

JC: WHAT?!? Nuh uh man, hell no!

Dawn: Hopefully an update will come around soon, so just hang on! No need to worry guys!

Paul: Hn, whatever.

JC: See you later peeps.

Ash: Peeps? Those gooey marshmallow yummy delicious colorful sugary fluffiness shaped in bunnies and chicks?!?

Paul: *facepalm* No...