All it took was five extra minutes for the train to come and order was destroyed. Simply five minutes of a shift and the world butterfly effect-ed into certain doom for Amber. The walk home in the cold would've been her better option, or even more so if she had just worked the extra hour she had promised her boss the week before after breaking his computer monitor. Nevertheless time had trapped her in the five minutes that from it spilled agony and with it left her seeing how much escape routes she really had.

~~~~~~~~

Grasping the worn leather strap on her bag, Amber's cheeks reddened as a mound of copy paper fell out. Glancing from side to side and stuffing it back in she said a breathy goodbye to her blonde coworker, Josh, and headed out the door with the pack slung around her shoulder like a purse.
Amber could never afford to buy supplies for the things she didn't gravely need, like a ream of paper to print a college application, so occasionally she would snatch some supplies from her office and hope no one noticed. It's not like the boss would pay any mind to the fact that he had to spend an extra twenty on supply usage that week. Judging on the wages everyone was payed he had plenty enough for a hot tub and a six story mansion as well as the occasional stack of paper.
Her old flats clacked on the concrete stairs to the exit and, shoving it open with her shoulder, Amber escaped into the cold air leaving behind a rush of frost inside. Early fall was upon the small city of Marina and everything about the time of year screamed 'gloomy'. Clouds hung around for days and the sun when shining didn't help thaw the earth from the dull time spent without it. Farm and food workers wore themselves down on double time, getting as much fruit and vegetables as they could to continue living comfortably in the winter. Some worked at the ports during this time but it wasn't a common sight considering the seasons for growing crops and having them imported overlapped each other.
Amber continued along a busy city road and the salty smell of the sea followed her- the town wasn't named Marina for nothing. Making sure there was a break in the stream of endless traffic Amber bounded across a busy road and descended some rather dingy stairs to the city's subway system. For her it was not only the best way of transport but the only way of transport considering she didn't own a car and wouldn't plan on buying one. Checking her watch she realized she still had time left until the train arrived and settled on a neglected metal bench that sat in the corner of the silent room. It wasn't yet rush hour and considering the noise of passerby's when it became rush hour would wake her up... a little nap wouldn't hurt. Resting her head behind her so her pale neck stretched upward she took a deep breath and closed her light violet eyes.
In what felt like an instant sleep lost its grip on her and she sensed a presence far too close to her for comfort. Not wanting to seem alerted she kept her breathing slow and tried not to flutter her eyelashes.
"Probably someone wishing to pickpocket me" She reasoned, though her heart sped up with the thought of someone having bad intentions. "Or... just another commuter" Brushing off her first thought she settled on the latter of the two and tried to quietly pull her bag a bit closer. The shifting of it made a small sound on the metal bench and she could almost feel her mental tormenter smile.
"Awake?" The person asked. Amber's heart jumped into her throat and she subconsciously measured him up.
"No clue on weight... male... about her age, early twenties..." Not much of the collected information seemed to help and she pulled the bag onto her lap.
"Go away." She growled in a hopefully intense way, trying to sound old and proud not young and scared, yet her eyes still sealed tight shut and the protective movement of her bag gave her away all to easily. And then fingertips were grabbing on her shoulder and pulling her upward, causing her eyes to snap open and her long raven hair to float upwards as if it were submerged in water. A shriek was glued in her throat but came out as a breath, as the shock and panic warranted her voice useless. His other hand clamped her mouth and in despair she wished that all he wanted to do was walk away with a couple extra dollars. Shoving her down a hallway a couple of feet away she felt his hand move from shoulder to hair and she was spun backwards. Alarm coursed through her struggling form and she stomped on his foot, kicked his shin, and swung around to no avail. At this point no other options remained, so with eyes like lavender slowly closing she jumped. Cool blackness surrounded her like a polished piece of obsidian and with shaking knees Amber reveled about how long it had been since she jumped. Her sense of vision was stripped from her in the blackness and she knelt on the marble feeling ground in silence. Her heart slowly started to calm, from racing beats to a normal steady thumping in her chest. It was so weird... when people thought of supernatural things, shadow-jumping was the last thing that came to mind. Yet here she was, a shadow. Hushing her racing thoughts Amber listened intently for signs of his exit. Footsteps scrambling into the distance bounced off of the concrete walls and into her ears and her stomach dropped. When people got frightened about things they told others and the more people who knew the harder it would be to convince them it was just a rumor.
"God..." She whispered in a quiet prayer for her safety.

~~~~~~~~

Loud knocks interrupted the peaceful dream Amber had been enveloped in, causing her to begrudgingly open her eyes and groan. A blurry image of her glowing red digital clock told her it was four thirty. She still had an hour to sleep, and for no reason was it proper in society to wake someone up before dawn was even breaking. Messy hair, old pajamas, a deep scowl, she had it all going on but it wasn't a bother to the sleepy girl- at best it would be a deterrent to whomever was at her door. With a small fire in her mind she marched over to the dull gray door at the front of her apartment and whipped it open fiercely, ready to give anyone who dared bother her slumber the angriest glare they had ever seen. That so well planned glare, however, faltered into a look of bewilderment at the sight of a man donned in a crisp black suit, standing in a very stiff manner at her doorstep.
"Uh.. uhm... I haven't scheduled any meetings with the FBI..." Amber blundered in her not fully awake state, confusion washing over her in tidal waves. The man in return nodded at her curtly and seemed to ignore her odd remark.
"Amber Castillo, you are under questioning for... supernatural happenings... at 5:30 pm in Marina Central Station 5." The officer quickly addressed Amber in the way she had been worried he would, with the mention of the attack at central station when she jumped. "Now of course this seems ridiculous but one of the cameras seems to have caught you... disappearing."
Amber plastered on her best 'confused girl' face and addressed him like any normal citizen would- by launching the door shut with a slam that would most certainly wake up her neighbors.
Trudging back to bed feeling even more tired and scared than when she first saw the man, her groggy mind figured the problem was solved. However, a sharp knocking on the door said otherwise.
"Persistent man..." She growled and curled into a ball under her thin bedsheets. Obnoxiously, though, it seemed his persistence was beyond what Amber expected. Maybe it was because she was tired and annoyed, but next thing she knew she was yelling a very colorful variant of 'get lost' at the dull grey door and the knocking man who resided beyond it. The knocking stopped.
~~~~~~~
Five thirty appeared and with it washed a fresh wave of agony due to a restless forty five minutes of sleep. Painfully dragging herself out of bed, Amber threw on clothes and grabbed her leather bag, knowing she wouldn't have time to eat- she never did. It was a little embarrassing to her that she relied on her coworkers for morning sustenance but the other option was to wake up earlier- Amber knew that was hardly a possibility. Combing her dark hair through quickly and then rushing to the door the girl reached for the worn bronze handle and softly opened it. She was greeted by a face that made her stomach drop to the floor- the man was still there.
"Amber Castillo if you do not cooperate we will have to take you into custody." Amber swallowed hard and backed up a few steps. If they found out what she was she would have to start planning her funeral, and at this age she knew she would probably accidentally make it a party of sorts.
"Amber."
It suddenly came to Amber's awareness that she was so busy thinking about playing Alesso she had forgotten she was being questioned.
"I asked, can you explain what happened at Marina Central Station?" The agent's words were as harsh as his expression when he looked at the raven haired girl that she was taken aback. It wasn't in her nature to be a good lier.
"I ran off from him." Amber said quietly. Thoughts of her attacker made her anxious and she intertwined her fingers together, refusing to look up from her chipped nail polish and face the man questioning her.
"For some reason I don't believe that, Amber. And for another I do believe you warrant to be taken in for questioning." He stated to her shortly. The thought of being 'taken in for questioning' made her sick and she fell back again. This time the crisp suited agent advanced on her and grabbed her wrist. Wrenching it away Amber blinked back terrified tears. She was dead. She backed up some more, flinging items from the room futilely. She was dead. Backing into the couch, she fell onto her back and felt the finality of handcuffs around her wrists. She was... caught.
Her chest heaved up and down as she was pulled to her feet. Amber felt... nothing. No pain, no hurt, no fear, nothing. Suffocating silence blocked out her hearing and blackness consumed her vision as she stumbled out into the parking lot and into a vehicle. The numbing of her senses pounded in on her in waves and she stared out a window with blurred trees. It was then that she heard hope. She didn't see it but it resounded loud and clear and left her ears ringing- it was a gunshot. Two more sent their black BMW screeching and swerving to the side of the highway they were on and shattered the windows. Instinct unbuckled her seatbelt and laid her flat on the ground, heart pounding in her throat less than a second before the doomed car hurtled into an unsuspecting pine tree with a sickening crunch. The blow shoved her into the seat in front of her where something hard collided with her kneecap causing her to yelp out in pain. Favoring the other knee she feebly reached out toward the handle on the door to escape the suffocating smoke. Her hand fell onto the latch and opened it while her body collapsed onto the car floor, gulping in fresh air. She shifted forward the slightest bit and cried out as pain like daggers stabbed into her knee. A fractured kneecap? Most likely, she concluded with a grimace. Just then a young boy of about her age walked into her view of the car. When he saw her his stormy gray eyes widened in shock, but he regained his composure.
"Amber Castillo, shadow jumper?" The young boy asked. Light violet eyes wide and terrified she reached her shaking arm out to him.
"That's me." She whispered so quietly she wasn't sure if he could hear. And as he clasped her small, pale hand in his dark calloused one, Amber could feel the tides of her fate changing.

A/N:
IM BACK TO WRITING!! I wasn't gone because of writers block, nor disinterest, just a lack of time! But recently I've had a ton of time offline and found this in my drafts. Sooooo.. here we are ^^
I'm going to be doing a contest entry soon as well, hopefully.
Pretty please give feedback, and have an awesome day!!!!!
(P.s. This song was the instrumental of my demons by starset. The dynamics seemed to line up perfectly with the song~)