Re: [No. 3: Iris & Sam]
Milkshakes and Iris' potential lover were forgotten when the sound reached Sam's ears. She could feel it under her feet, too, the approaching crowd. Because, yeah, she was figuring it for a crowd, even before Iris blanched white like some milk left too long on the stove.
Sam looked down, and even the pebbles on the sidewalk cracks were bouncing. She turned off the flashlight that had, a moment earlier, felt like some kind of security blanket. But if a fuckton of people were coming, then being seen was bad. And, ok, she didn't think for a moment that whoever was coming was GOOD. Nah, man, this wasn't some party or something come hunting for the Alexander girls. But it probs said something about Sam's headspace, yeah? The fact that she DIDN'T immediately think they were like deliberately coming for her. Guilt didn't bang around in her skull that way. It wasn't that she didn't feel guilty about shit, because there was tons of stuff she felt like she'd fucked up BIG. But it wasn't the kind of stuff that would send a mob after her or anything, so, nah, even with the words she heard the mob saying as they neared, she didn't think it was for her.
And, too forgiving maybe, she didn't think anyone was actually coming for Iris EITHER. Before Iris talked, Sam started, words kinda lost in the turn of her head, because she was looking back and seeing lights bobbing in the sky that had turned darker while she and Iris walked. She tried to count the fucking lights - lanterns and flashlights, yeah? - but there were too many. "We can just duck into one of the stores. Let them pass and-" But then Iris said these fuckers were after HER, and Sam just turned blue eyes on her sister in the dark.
"Why?" she asked, but maybe now wasn't the time for that kinda questioning. When they were safe, yeah? And, ok, being pursued was shit, but at least this didn't speak to Sam's own personal fucking triggers. One man, that woulda freaked Sam out immobile. But this, and the fact that they were gonna hurt Iris, that was enough to get Sam moving. She grabbed Iris' hand, and she RAN. She tried to get her phone out of her pocket, to text Cris, but the phone clattered to the sidewalk, the flashlight alongside, and there wasn't any fucking time to stop. Those voices and footfalls were closer, and she saw metal glinting when she turned and looked over her shoulder.
"FUCK. Run. I won't let them get you, yeah? RUN." Toward the pond, past the pond, into the shit part of town where they could hide among cesspools. Did she just hear someone say Ian's name? Don't stop. Just fucking RUN.