As the three neared The Crow, they decided to ditch the car.

“I think it would be best to go on foot from here. I'd like to keep the element of surprise. What do you think, Anna?”

“Oh I'll follow any order you give, handsome.”

Anna winked at Stu. Kari sighed again. She knew she couldn't stop her mom so she just had to deal with it. They started on the same path that Del had brought Kari out on. Hoping that the back entrance would be less guarded. This plan relied far too much on hope. Kari wished they'd had time to gather the friends her mom talked about.

They moved silently through the dark. Stu had promised a distraction. As long as her mom wasn't involved, it wouldn't be over the top. They got in view of the alley. It had seemed like a lifetime ago that she'd escaped, though in reality, it had only been about two weeks.

The new name was on a billboard. “Simple Pleasures” it was called. Kari hadn't heard anyone call it that. Del and Stu still called it The Crow. They waited in the shadows for a moment.

“There's movement out back. It looks like they are taking out the trash.”

“Look again, Kari.” Anna had seen something different.

Upon further inspection, Kari noticed they were bringing out bodies. There had to be seven or eight of them.

“Well”, Anna added, “It looks like they are going to do our job for us.”

Stu chimed in, “I can only dream that it could be that easy. I somehow doubt we have the whole story.”

They waited until the men stopped coming back outside and moved in closer.

As they moved in closer, more gunshots screamed into the night. Stu held position so the others followed suite.

“What the actual hell have we walked into?” Kari was confused. The other two didn't seem to have any better grasp of the situation.

“Well we will hold up until we know something. There are only three of us and that's a lot of gunfire.”

Anna and Kari nodded in agreement.

After half an hour of silence, Anna had a different approach.

“Ok. I can't...