Page 3 of Run Omega Run
Chapter 2
Heather
The door burst open with a bang that made us both jump.
"Miss Heather! Miss Heather!" Loubie Lou stood in the doorway, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks, her one-eared rabbit dangling from her grip. "Bunny's hurt! Bunny's hurt real bad!"
Mom and I looked at each other, and despite everything... we smiled.
"Oh no," I said, sliding off the bed and crouching down to Loubie Lou's eye level. "What happened to Bunny?"
“I dropped him down the stairs.” She hiccupped back her tears. “His arm is floppy... and, and, he's crying!" She thrust the rabbit toward me, her lower lip trembling. “He needs a plaster!”
I took Bunny with all the solemnity the situation demanded, examining his loose arm where the stitching had given way. His stuffing was showing, white cotton spilling out like tiny clouds. "This does look serious. But you know what?"
"What?" Loubie Lou hiccupped.
"I think I know exactly what Bunny needs." I lifted the rabbit to my lips and placed a gentle kiss on his injured arm. "There. That's a magical kiss that soothes any injury Bunny could ever have. It's the most powerful medicine in the whole world."
Loubie Lou's eyes went wide. "Really?"
"Really. But it only works if you give Bunny lots of love and maybe sing to him while he heals."
She grabbed Bunny back, clutching him to her chest and immediately began a tuneless lullaby. "There, there, Bunny. Miss Heather's magic kiss makes it better."
From the bed, Mom laughed—a real laugh this time, not the bitter sound from before. "I'd forgotten," she said softly, "how easy it used to be to fix things."
Loubie Lou skipped out, satisfied that her crisis had been resolved, leaving Mom and me alone again. But something had shifted in the room, some small measure of peace settled over us like dust motes in the weak sunlight.
"You're going to be fine," Mom said, and for the first time in weeks, I almost believed her.
As I left her room, closing the door so she wouldn’t be disturbed, I leaned against the cracked wall outside, letting the sound of the children's whispers from the kitchen wash over me like water. They were probably discussing Bunny's miraculous recovery, or maybe arguing about who’d get to help wash the dishes. I smiled as I listened.
Then I heard a sound that could turn my blood to ice in an instant. Heavy boots on gravel, confident and deliberate, the rhythm of men who knew they owned whatever ground they walked on. My stomach dropped like a stone thrown into a deep well.
The fifteenth. How had I forgotten?
I pushed away from the wall and hurried toward the courtyard, my bare feet silent on the cold floor. Maybe if I got to them first, before they reached the children—
Too late. Three Alphas in pressed suits strode through the courtyard gate as if they'd built it themselves, their polished shoes clicking against the stones with military precision. Theymoved like sharks cutting through water, all sharp angles and predatory grace.
The children who'd been playing outside suddenly burst into motion. Denson, who had been carefully arranging his collection of smooth, colorful pebbles in a neat row, leaped to his feet, sending the stones tumbling in all directions. Macey, crouched low with a stick in hand, her fingers stained with the earth as she sketched intricate patterns in the dirt, dropped her makeshift pencil and dashed off, leaving her designs unfinished. They scattered in every direction, like leaves caught in a sudden windstorm.
The leader was a man I'd come to know too well over the past six months. Tall and lean with silver hair slicked back and eyes the color of a winter sky, he smiled the way a blade might smile. His suit probably cost more than we saw in donations all year, and he wore it like armor.
Behind him, his two enforcers flanked him like bookends. One built like a brick wall with hands the size of dinner plates, the other wiry, with quick eyes that darted everywhere at once, cataloging exits and weaknesses. They'd done this before. Too many times.
Children's faces appeared at windows, pale and frightened, before quickly disappearing behind curtains. I felt their fear with a physical pain in my chest, pressing down until it was hard to breathe.
"Miss Heather," the leader said, his voice as smooth as expensive whiskey. "Right on time. It's the fifteenth."
