Random "Eye"

Mia let out a nerves laugh, "I've seen that done sooo many times in Italy... But I have toa saya, Amaricao officers are MUCH more galibule!" she said.

Mia looked around with a 'Now what' kind of look on her face. Then it hit her hard... What she was going to have to do... "I'm going to have to get you back to Italy..." she said materafactly. "If I can get you to your fauther's peolpe you'll be safe..." Mia trailed off becose she wasn't compltly sure if she would be. Lauran's fauther's company hated Mia's and odds were they wouldn't be so kind to her.

She shook thoughs thoughts out of her mind, non of that was emprtent, only getting Lauren to safty was emportent! "Lets find a safe place to stay the night..." Mia said, "we're botha exsosted..."

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold on," Lauren stopped walking and held up her hands in the universal gesture of wait. "Italy? Why do I have to leave? They're after you, not me. I have nothing to do with this." she shook her head in disbelief. "I-I don't even know you. I don't need to go anywhere," Lauren took a step back, staring at Mia as if she were an alien.

Mia stopped and looked back at Lauren. How was she going to keep her calm and exsplan all of this at the same time. She took a deep breath and let it out, "Lauren... They didn't even know I was here... Those men were really after your blood, and if you don't come with me they will find you and they will kill you..."

Mia watched as that sunk in for Lauren. She stepped closer, "I have some money and two good fake IDs your Padre gave me. We should be safe."

"You aren't making any sense. Why would two complete strangers want to kill me? I've never associated with them in my life. Hell, they were Italian for Pete's sake. My ancestors may be Italian, but I've never even been to Italy! And I know they were not American." Lauren took another step back, wanting to get as far away from Mia as she could. "I've only just met you, why should I trust you? And how do you know my Father? He was a businessman, not a...a.." she paused, searching for the right word, "whatever it is you do." she waved her hands in the air exasperatedly.

"Your fauther was not a bissness man..." Mia said wanting to use her calming voice but her voice cract. "He worked for the AISI..." she said, "He was on a classifyed branch that was commited to shutting down the eye."

Just as she said that a gun shot rang out from what Mia juged to be two blocks over. Then peolpe started to screem. Mia maniged to grab Lauren's hand and pull her into the croud of peolpe now screeming and running, some in mear cercels... Mia just had to keep Laurea's hand, the croud was so large no one would be able to spot them. "Those are nota even the sameo men!" Mia said to herself. She could hear the diffrince in the sound, but she KNEW they had to be with the eye!

"The AISI? What even is-" Lauren was interrupted by the gunshot and she felt her heart drop into her stomach as Mia yanked her away. "Let go of me!" pulling her hand from Mia's grasp. "No one was after me until you came along!" she began running as fast as her feet would carry her away from both Mia and the gunshots. She refused to be associated with those kind of people. She was just a college kid who liked books and was too much of a goodie two-shoes to break laws and lie to cops; both of which she had just done today.

Mia screemed for Laura to come back, but she was already lost in the croud. She ran in the direction she though Laura had gone praying to find her before the eye did.

The man with the guy grabed Laura by her hair and throw her to the ground. He stated yelling at her in Italian, the only words Lauran would have picked up on would be "Padre". He reached down and picked her up by the neck of her shert, "Mia can't help you know can she?" he hisst. "That peace of shit... I knewa something was wrong with hera when wea stolla her when shea was cinque!"

Lauren screamed as she felt herself yanked backwards by her hair and landed on the hard pavement with a resounding crack which within moment developed into an extreme pain in her head. She lay there for a long moment, unable to breathe, unable to think, not even able to hear the man right over her yelling at her in a foreign language. Suddenly, she was yanked upwards and she could just hear the man speaking in heavily accented English. She felt tears escape her eyes as the man's foul breath hit her nostrils hindering her already difficult breathing. "What do you want from me?" she said weakly, trying to push away from the man.

"Whata doa I want from YOUA!?" the man screemed aimming his gun to the sky. He let go of one bulit then prest Lauren hard aginst a near by brick wall. "I want that son of a gun's spon off the facea of the Earth!" he growld at her. He presst his gun aginst Lauren's cheek, smilling.

Just in the nick of time Mia showed up. She was able to pull the gun out of the man's hands with out any harm coming to Lauran. She shot the very last bulit into the air then through it back at the man nocking him out. Lauren fell to the ground.

Mia didn't waist any time, she grabed Lauran and pulled her into a darkend ally, so no one would see them. She found an abandind bilding and got Lauren inside, shutting the door behind them. She layed Lauren down and looked her over. "Is your head okay?" she asked desiding weather or not she'd have to put stiches into Lauren's head or not. She knew how to do that, if the need was there....

Lauren winced at the gun fire, leaning away from the man. Why was this happening to her? She cried out as the man lifted her from the ground and slammed her against the wall. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from her vision when she heard the unmistakeable sound of a gun being cocked. A second later, she felt the surprisingly hot barrel of the gun against her cheek. She shut her eyes and held her breath and braced for the shot that would kill her any second. She felt a rush of pain as she pictured her mother watching the 10 o'clock news and finding out about her own daughter's death. She felt a tear escape her eyes just as she heard the shot.

She cringed, waiting for the inevitable pain that would come any second now; yet...it never came. Lauren let out the breath she'd been holding and opened her eyes and was surprised to find herself on the ground again, the man only a couple feet away. She jumped when she realized she was being pulled away. She struggled, not realizing it was Mia. She looked around in confusion as Mia let go of her and realized they were in a building now. "My.. head?" she touched her hand delicately to the back of her head and moved it in front of her eyes and saw it was glistening with blood. "Oh...I'm bleeding." she laughed and went cross-eyed, feeling like she was going to faint. She'd never had a strong stomach for blood.

"Wo, wo" Mia said supporting Lauren's head. Mia had to be good with blood, since she saw it a lot. She picked carfuly through Lauren's hair and saw that the brak in the skinn was too small to need stiches. "Head ingerys always look worse then they are..." Mia said slipping her jacket off and ripping off a strip of it. She rapped the cloth around Lauren's head.

By now it was pitch black outside and Mia was finding it hard to see. The peolpe outside had setted down. Mia geussed the athoritys came and collected the man who had been working for the eye. Mia knew that the Eye would only become even more inraged with her now...

"Here..." Mia said putting her now tatterd jacket under Lauren's head. "You should rest... I need to try and make a phone call..."

"Okay," Lauren said feeling extremely woozy. She shut her eyes and tried to wrap her mind around what had happened to her in the last couple hours. Had it all really happened? Or was it just some strange dream her mind had come up with after her latest adventure book. She opened her eyes and leaned over to pinch herself, then realized how dumb this was since there was a throbbing pain on the back of her head that should have already proved to her that it was not a dream... yet she STILL didn't want to believe this could be real. She'd thought life had been complicated before, now it was just insane.

Even though she was living it right now, she was still having trouble believing it was real. She barely knew her father, but she'd always thought he'd told them everything they need to know. He was a good businessman and brought in a good income. That was that. Suddenly a realization hit her and she snapped up into a sitting position, her vision went black and she moaned, laying back down as her lunch decided now would be a good time to make an appearance. "W-wait," she choked out as Mia dialed whoever she was calling. "If...if those guys are really after me. We-my mom. What about her? Will they go after her too?" she said feeling extremely panicked.

Mia looked up from the small disposibul cellphone she bout right after she got to the US. "The Eye only cares about blood relation..." she asherd her, "They never go after the spouse." Mia stood up to try and get better reseption. "The AISI will most likly retreave her once you are safe with them..." she asherd her.

Mia put the phone to hear ear and begun speeking in Italian. "My name is Mia Moretti and I have Luca's girl. She is safe... She is at this moment the Eye's Ememy number one. I will be bring her to you safly, no strings attatched..." before the person on the other end could respond she hung the phone up. Mia then through the phone to the ground and further smashed it on the ground.

Mia sat down near Lauren and offerd her a week smile. "I'm sorry this has happend to you... It's been my nightmar for most of my life." she confest not sure if Lauren was even still awak to hear her.

Lauren let out a sigh of relief and shut her eyes, trying to calm herself down. She only half listened to Mia's conversation and didn't really think anything of it....until she heard banging noises. She opened her eyes tilted her head to see Mia crushing the phone with her foot. For a second, she found it strange but then she remembered a scene exactly like this from a book she'd read and shut her eyes again, no longer thinking anything of it. When Mia spoke, she opened her eyes again and stared, unsure of what to say. "Er...It's not your fault....." she said quietly, phrasing it almost as a question

Mia took out a small freezed dryed bag from her pocket. She pulled a string and it emeditly began to worm up. She sat it down inbetwean them. She began telling Lauran everything. "About a week ago I was inprisend by the Eye." she started, "You Padre was posted as my gard... It was amasing how much he talked about you." Mia said, "Your a strat A student and you made validvictoren." Mia smilled weekly, "He was your biggist fan and he wished he could have been home more like the other Papas."

Mia picked up the bag and opend it. Inside was some kine of waird mush. "It's suppost to be Chinken...." she said shaking it a little and then handing it to Lauren.

Lauren looked down at the strange bag from Mia's pocket, but was suddenly too exhausted to question whatever it was. If she found out what it was, cool. If not, she'd live... well maybe. Lauren looked away from Mia as she spoke of her own father, trying not to blush. Her reputation often preceded her, but never in this way. "What...exactly is the Eye? I don't understand how my father ties into this. He always told us he was a businessman and I've never had reason not to believe him. Despite you knowing so much about me, I'm still very inclined not to believe you. You lied so easily to the police, how do I know you're not lying now?" she said, choosing each word carefully. "Besides, I know how easy it is to Google myself. How do I know you didn't just do that?"

She finally looked up at Mia, watching her face carefully for any of the telltale signs of a lie. She knew now the men were obviously after her now, that had been proven in the events just prior, but she still couldn't find herself able to believe that there was a whole spy-type agency. It almost seemed more likely that maybe her father had not provided a good deal for some other company and maybe they were hiring hitmen to take care of his family and maybe try to change her mind. It struck her how odd she felt believing more in the fiction that were her books than the facts that were staring her in the face.

Mia looked Lauren in the eyes, "Your Papa ust to call you Baby Bare." she said, "When ever he came home, in every Birthday card, in every letter." she said, "He gave you the nick name becose your favret childhood book was Goldylocks and the three bares." Mia reached back into her pocket and pulled out a slightly crumppled up envilope that remained sealed. Over the seal was Lauren's first name in her fauther's destinct script. "I'm not lying Lauren..." she said as she handed the envalope to her.

"The eye is a group of peolpe who collect intell. They also believe in a superior rase, making them highly dangrece." she blerted. That information sounded normel to her, but she knew to Lauren it would some unbelivibule. "Your Papa worked for the AISI, a Goverment run group who are incharge of stopping the Eye at any means neccary." Mia exspland, "He was working behind enimy lines when he found me... He saved my life, and now, I am trying to save yours." and there it all was... laid out for Lauren to take in.

"I can nota read..." she admitted, "So I can nota google you..." she added

Lauren looked away again as Mia got every detail right. She still didn't want to believe her, but she could no longer think of any reason to not believe her except.... she took the envelope from Mia, holding it delicately, as if it were a bomb ready to explode at the smallest provocation. She stared at it, not making any move to open it. As she listened to Mia's explanation she realized more and more that her life was turning into a book series she'd read not too long ago. She noticed a strange pattern in the verbs Mia used when speaking about her father; everything was in past tense. With a sinking feeling she began to piece together an awful idea that made her heart sink. She took a deep breath and summoned the courage to speak the question she didn't want to know the answer to.

"Mia, where's my father?" she asked quietly, still looking down at the envelope.

Mia took in a shaky breath; she had known Lauren would ask this at some point. How many times had she tried to erase the images from her memory? Pulling her knees up to her chest she closed her eyes allowing the terrifying picture to flash before her mind’s eye once again.

“Listen to be Mia…” the man said holding her shoulders. Mia looked up at him. “What ever happens, do NOT look back, do NOT stop running, and do NOT surrender.” He spoke with an intense urgency. He looked her in the eyes, “Do you understand?”

Mia didn’t even remember what happened in-between that moment and the moment they were running outside, and the gunshot… Mia looked back despite the instruction not to and saw him fall. Adrenalin kicked in and Mia turned back around and made a run for it. That was when she made her silent promise to find Lauren before the Eye had the chance to take her life too…

Mia opened her eyes again, but they were filled with tears now. Mia tried at first to find the English words she needed, but when she could not she simply said it in Italian. “L'hanno sparato” hoping Lauren would just get it…

A false hope began to lift her spirits. She didn't know any Italian, and though she knew minimal Spanish she couldn't think of any similar words. All she could figure was that the words were the name of a town."Was he captured? Is that where they're holding him?" Lauren asked. A sudden stroke of bravery allowed her to stick her thumb into the gap of the envelope and begin ripping the seal carefully.

Mia buried her head in her knees. She couldn’t remember her own father and in spite of herself, Lauren’s Father had been a bit of a step in father while she was in prison. She had told him things too… About her friend she share a cot with when they were six until they ware 9… The one they shot for steeling food. About the times they sent her out into hostile crowds because it was too dangers for the adults, the hundreds of tunnels she was forced to navigate --and so much more… At this point, Mia felt like she had lost her dad too, and Lauren was a long lost sister.

“No…” Mia said weekly to Lauren’s question about her dad being simply captured. “L'hanno sparato” she said again. “Theya do nota takea prisoners theya have no use fora…” her voice cracked and she went back to her heavy accent.