Promise: The Scarred Girl by Maya Shepherd

Nevertheless, she felt ashamed to return like a mangy dog. Honestly, she wanted to return after five minutes. She wanted to make him feel as she did after one of their arguments where he would be gone for hours or days. She wanted to show him how it felt when you worry about others and if you would ever see them again at all. Miro should feel what she has felt a thousand times. He should care about her. He should miss her.
    The sound of fast approaching feet on the floor pulled her out of her thoughts. Several people came running in her direction. They were not yet in her vicinity, but Nea could literally feel the floor vibrating as they approached her. She looked around, but there was no corner or niche where she could hide in this dark alley. So she ran to the end of the road. She felt her heartbeat quicken with every step and suppressed the urge to look around. She did not know if the noise she heard was her own heartbeat pounding in her head or the fast approaching footsteps. Just when she had nearly reached the end of the road, she reached to pull on the handle of a house when a man placed his cold hands on her mouth, preventing her from screaming and pulled her inside another house. She held her breath and looked into Miro’s sparkling blue eyes. Sweat stood on his forehead and he was out of breath. He was so close that she could feel his chest rise and fall with the effort. He took his hand from her mouth and instructed her to be quiet with a hand gesture. Outside loud male voices could be heard, “Where is the bastard?”
    “This experience can be a nasty surprise.”
    Miro pointed to the rotten ladder that led to the attic of the small house. Horrified, Nea shook her head. She had a fear of heights and ladders have always been her enemy.
    Miro leaned so close to her that his lips brushed her ear, “I’m right behind you.”
    Instead of obeying him, Nea became like a stubborn donkey and stepped further away from the ladder.
    Miro pulled his lips back to her. “Do you trust me?” he whispered in her ear.
    Nea looked into his eyes. She knew. She knew she trusted no one more than she trusted Miro. He’d never let her down. Whenever it mattered, he was at her side. She nodded.
    Miro pushed her toward the ladder and held if firmly as she climbed the first rung.
    “He must be here somewhere.”
    “Maybe he’s hiding in one of the houses.”
    Nea took the rungs faster and faster and tried not to think about the ground they left so far below. She climbed and climbed and several times kicked Miro with her foot, who was climbing right under her, but he did not complain once.
    Once they reached the attic, Miro rushed past her to the next window. The windows were already broken, but not enough to be able to climb through unharmed. He quickly looked around for an object when suddenly they heard the door on the lower level fling open. Both of them froze in their movement and listened to the silence. They could hear the feet of the stranger on the creaky wooden floor. If they moved, the stranger would hear it as clearly as they could hear him.
    “Miro, where are you? Come on, I want to talk to you,” the man purred from below.
    “It really was not fair, touching Ricko’s girl like that, you know. But I can understand, she really is a hot and sexy lady,” he chuckled. Nea felt the anger rising in herself. It was a heat that began in her stomach and ascended up into her forehead. She sent flashes in Miro’s direction, but he just shrugged his shoulders innocently. Again, was this predicament they found themselves in his fault? She was hoping he had missed her but instead he had simply gone to be with another woman. She wanted these men accusing him to devour him.
    The creaking of the ladder could now be heard. If they did not hide now, the stranger would discover them soon. They had to use its sounds to cover up their own. Miro gestured with his head toward a pile of blankets right next to the window. As soon as the