Aria's POV
The night was suffocating, thick with silence and dread.
Aria's tiny hand was trapped in her father's iron grip, the roughness of his skin biting into her flesh, cold and unyielding. She didn't understand why the man who was meant to protect her now dragged her like a prisoner into the darkest corner of the city.
Two figures waited beneath the flickering streetlamp their faces hidden in shadow, their eyes cold as knives.
Her father's voice was low and strained, the kind of voice that no longer sounded like a father's but a man broken and lost in his own desperation.
"Don't cause trouble," he whispered, words like a curse. "Take her and be done."
Aria's breath caught in her throat. Her sea-glass eyes searched his face, looking for a flicker of kindness, of regret but all she saw was a void where love should have been.
One of the men pulled out a thick envelope, the bills inside pressed flat and cold, sliding smoothly as they exchanged hands.
"Three thousand," the taller man said, his voice heavy with greed. "Quiet kid. Won't cause any hassle."
Her father nodded, swallowing hard. "She won't talk much. Won't be a problem."
Aria wanted to scream, to cry, but no sound escaped. Her voice was buried somewhere deep inside, lost beneath years of silence.
The men's hands were harsh and rough as they took hold of her.
"Once she's gone, she's gone," the taller one warned, eyes glinting darkly. "Don't come looking."
Her father looked away, shame staining his face like ink on fragile paper.
Aria's world tilted. She was pushed forward, swallowed by darkness, her last glimpse the distant glow of the streetlamp and the shadow of a boy who had once seen her, really seen her.
Elijah's POV
Elijah stood frozen behind a crumbling fence, the rough wood biting into his palms.
He saw it all the money, the exchange, the betrayal that shattered his world.
"Aria…" His voice was barely a whisper, caught in his throat like a fragile bird trapped in a cage.
He should have moved sooner. He should have done something.
But by the time his brain caught up to what his eyes were witnessing, they were already walking away with her his Aria, limp and silent in their grasp.
She didn't scream. She couldn't. But her sea-glass eyes wild, terrified met his for the briefest, soul-shattering second.
And then she was gone.
"ARIA!" Elijah roared, launching himself from behind the fence.
His legs pounded against the pavement, lungs burning as he tore after the two men and the little girl between them. The alley was narrow, the air thick with the stench of oil and rot, but he didn't care.
He ran like something feral had taken over him. Like the world would end if he didn't get to her in time. They didn't notice him at first. They were too focused on shoving her into the backseat of a dented gray car parked near the corner.
Elijah was thirty feet away.
Twenty.
Fifteen.
"HEY! LET HER GO!"
One of the men turned with just a flick of a wrist, Elijah saw the glint of something metallic. A gun? A knife? He didn't stop to think.
They shoved Aria into the car and slammed the door.
"No - NO!" Elijah shouted, pushing harder. He was almost there - almost there -
The car engine coughed to life.
"ARIA!"
Tires squealed. The car jolted forward.
Elijah sprinted until the soles of his shoes tore on the gravel. He slapped his palm on the rear trunk just as the vehicle pulled off. He clung for a breathless second, then lost his grip and hit the ground hard.
Gravel tore into his skin. Blood bloomed across his forearm, but he barely noticed. He scrambled to his feet.
The car was disappearing around the corner.
"No. No, no, no." His chest heaved. His vision blurred.
He had lost her. Again.
But even as the car vanished, Elijah didn't stop running.
Aria's POV
The door slammed behind her. Darkness closed in. and the seat was rough it smelled like sweat and old cigarettes. She was thrown against it as the car lurched forward. No seatbelt. No voice. No help.
One of the men grumbled from the front. "Little thing's not even crying. Think we got a mute."
The other chuckled. "Good. Easier that way."
Aria's fingers shook against the cold leather.
Her lungs begged to scream, but she couldn't. The panic was a scream inside her chest that had nowhere to go. She looked out the window blurs of alley lights and darkness.
Elijah's voice echoed in her mind.
She had seen him. He had come for her.
He hadn't given up.
She couldn't either.
She looked around. The handle was broken. The window crank didn't work.
But something sharp glinted by her foot - a loose metal screw, jagged where the seat had split open.
She grabbed it. Her hand shook, but she gripped it tight.
She waited. The car turned left. Then right. Faster now. The driver was trying to lose someone. Maybe Elijah.
Please, please be chasing us, she prayed.
The man in the passenger seat leaned back slightly.
Now.
Aria plunged the screw into the seat seam right behind the driver's arm. Not hard enough to hurt, but sharp enough to make him jump. "What the!" the car swerved. Then she did the unthinkable. She reached for the gear shift from the back and yanked it. The car lurched. Screeched.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"THE KID, STOP HER!"
But it was too late. The driver had lost control. They crashed through a chain-link fence, skidded sideways, and slammed against a concrete pillar. The airbags didn't deploy and the smoke filled the air. One of the men groaned in pain.
Aria's vision spun, but she was already unbuckling herself or rather, falling out of the tangled seat. The window was shattered causing an escape route for the little girl she crawled through it despite of blood running from her temple but she at that moment didn't feel it as she managed to crawl through glass and broken weeds, the sound of yelling behind her from the men, boots scraping against metal.
"GET BACK HERE!"
But she was already running.
Elijah's POV
He didn't know how, but the smoke led him. One street over broken fence, crashed car.
People were gathering, shouting.
His heart stopped, "Elijah," someone said, "you can't" but he shoved past them, tearing through the crowd. He saw one of the men slumped against the door, blood dripping from his nose while the other was limping away and in the distance, further down the alley a small figure was running with her hair wild, dress torn.
"Aria," he whispered to himself. He knew it was her but she was gone again, swallowed into the maze of the city.
He dropped to his knees, breath burning in his lungs, heart pounding like war drums.
She had escaped.
She had survived.
And she was out there.
Still running.
And this time, he wouldn't stop until she was safe in his arms again.