Never Stop Running

Running. That was all Lily had ever known, and as far as she knew, ever would.

Poor Lily had only been ten when it had happened, when her cause to run, to forget, had formed. And she, as well as father and probably her mother, regretted it deeply. There had been no way to stop it, of course, but she felt she could. The blame was on her, she was who all signs pointed to. In everyone else's eyes, she had been the one. The one to kill.

~Flashback~

The young girl swung her feet back and forth on the couch, humming as she pointed the remote at the T.V., flicking through channels. Nope. Nope. Definitely not. She thought these words, in the same pattern each time, as she searched for a show of interest. So far there was nothing. She mentally whined. Why is there nothing good on?

A sudden scream shattered the almost-silence of the house. It ended quickly, as if forced, when a loud pop! rang through the air, leaving the girl's ears ringing. She stood up immediately, shifting from socked foot to socked foot as her head swung back and forth, trying to decide where the sound had come from. Another pop! made her decide. The master bedroom.

She rushed in, stumbling and tripping over the shag carpet in her haste. Each time she fell, she scrambled to her feet once more and took off again. When she reached the bedroom, she found it was empty, save for her mother, and a shiny metal thing - which she recognized as a gun - left on the floor near the girl.

"Mom?" She whispered quietly, stepping forward. She mentally winced as her foot landed in something warm and sticky. Looking down and holding her foot up to inspect it, she saw blood. "Shit!" Her hands flew over her mouth as soon as she said it, but there was nobody to hear it. Slowly, she relaxed, and started to check out her mother.

There were two holes in her body, one in the left temple and one in the chest. Both were bloody and looked fresh, and they had soaked the clothing around with that dark, terrible liquid that the girl would - not that she knew this - encounter, and even cause, many times.

She forced herself to look up even higher, at her mother's face. Her eyes, once a bright and beautiful blue, were now dull and clouded over. Her thin, pale lips were wide apart in a soundless scream.

The girl bit her lip so hard she drew blood, turning around so that she was looking at the gun. She held back tears, those just wouldn't do. Mom had taught her to always hold her feelings in, to be strong, and she was determined to do just that. She's just sleeping. She thought to herself, though she knew that if her mother was indeed sleeping, that she was never to wake up.

She reached down slowly, wrapping her small, frail hands around the gun's handle. She was careful with it, knowing that she might accidentally shoot it. She had no practice with a gun, none whatsoever. With her luck, she would probably shoot her own foot, which was something she did not want to do.

"L-Lily?" The girl, Lily, turned, her pale green eyes wide. Standing behind her was her father, with a look of shock and sadness clear on his face. "How could you?" He dropped to his knees, staring up at her with eyes that were dull, but this time with grief. "She was your own- your own- your own mother!" He rose, his expression morphing to his first stage of anger: a slight frown. As Lily watched, it slowly contorted his features until they were unrecognizable. She gulped, fearing for her own life. She had never, never in her ten years of life seen him this angry.

Lily stood for a moment longer, staring at her feet, not meeting the eyes of her father. She looked up and spoke four words. "I didn't do it." Then she ran. Out the room, into the living room, then the den, and out the back door. She ran through the short stretch of woods, into the city itself, and ducked into the nearest alley.

And she brought the gun with her.

~Flashback over~

Over the years Lily had fought off cats, dogs, hobos, and even pigeons, whether it was for a box to sleep in, bread crumbs, or a fallen hotdog. However, this was possibly her hardest task ever. And she had hitchhiked before, which wasn't a fun experience. Neither was walking across the country.

She was doing none of those things now. Now she was trying to sneak onto a delivery ship headed, according to some of the workers loading things on, to London, England. Normally she wouldn't attempt this, but this was a special case. She had been caught robbing a McDonald's, so she had run for it. This was the third time she had been caught, and the media was starting to become aware. Normally she would just lay low for a while, but she was getting tired of this country anyways, and she had heard from Dan The Hobo that a delivery ship was headed away from here. She would miss him, but she needed a change of scenery. She had promised to be back - with fish and chips. Geez, it's not like I killed the guy - or even shot him! All I did was point a gun at him and ask him to get me the biggest burger he could find! Lily thought bitterly, reflecting on when she had gone to McDonald's for the first time in, well, ever. Or at least a while. The last time she had gone was nine years ago, when she was ten. Before mom died. Before she ran.

Stop that! Lily mentally scolded herself. This was no time to be thinking about the accident. She had to get onto this ship. After a while of thinking, she realized that the boat would be leaving soon. It was time for a Fuck-life-you-only-live-once moment. Lily vaulted over the crate she had been hiding behind, racing towards the ship. She darted up the plank that led up to the loading deck, shoving past several crew members and pushing open a door to the right of the center. She went down the stairs as quickly as possible, skipping the last step. Her eyes darted around frantically, searching for a place to hide, before she decided to climb over some boxes in the far east corner and hunker down.

Lily's eyelids drooped after what felt like an hour of hiding. She checked the watch she had stolen about a year ago, struggling to read the time with the little dashes and the cracked cover. Ten thirty-one PM, she finally decided.

After rearranging a couple boxes, she managed to lay down, though in her dirty, holey jeans and ragged, over-sized tee, she was quite cold. Her bare feet were the coldest, but everywhere else was becoming numb. Damn concrete floor! Were Lily's last comprehensible thoughts before she slowly, slowly drifted into a light but undisturbed sleep.

When Lily woke up, two faces greeted her, but only one was human. She instantly shot up, hands searching wildly for her gun. The human, a man, smirked and held up a familiar-looking pistol. "Looking for something?" She frowned, trying to stay calm. She took a deep breath, hoping she didn't show fear. She could fight just fine with her gun in normal circumstances, but a burly man and his dog? No way. That would be suicide. She tried to put on an innocent facade.

"Can you give that back, please? I'm just a lonely little girl who's lost and a long way from-"

The man interrupted her, placing one hand on the dog to hold it back, although it looked more excited than angry. Either way, it was freaking Lily out. "Bullshit. What are you doing here?"

Lily tried to sound braver than she felt. "What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be up in the Captain's Quarters? And why is that mutt down here?" If the dog was insulted, it didn't show it. She knew the man was the Captain, because he had a bright and shiny badge telling her so.

His mouth moved soundlessly for a minute before he spoke. "I ask the questions. But, if you must know, I prefer to sleep down here. It's much quieter. Also, my Nessie-poo isn't a mutt." He knelt down, setting the gun on one of the boxes, and started to pet the dog. "No she isn't, no. Not at all, my darling." He cooed.

Lily's hand inched towards the gun. It was so close she could reach out and touch it, but she didn't want to draw the captain's attention. After taking a deep breath, she snatched it up, but a growl escaped Nessie's lips as soon as her fingers wrapped around it. She immediately dropped it as if it had burned her.

The captain let out a deep laugh, turning towards Lily and sitting on the box. the gun had landed on. He picked it up, studying it. "Nice gun you got here. Quite old, though. What's a young lassie like you doing with a weapon like this? I'm Captain Hernadew, by the way. Captain Matthew Hernadew."

"Self-defense." Lily snapped, giving no sign she'd heard the last part of his words. "Now give it back."

He tutted her. "I need a few things. Tell you what, Miss..." Hernadew pretended to think hard, hinting that she should give her name. Lily decided it would do no harm, since she would be gone soon.

"Lily."

"Ah, yes. Miss Lily. Mind if I call you Lilsworth? Of course you don't." She opened her mouth to protest, but he ignored her. "Anyways, this voyage is going to be long. You won't survive two days without food, and I can help you there. You work around here, help us out, and provide entertainment, then at the end, you can get your precious weapon back. Deal."

Lily raised an eyebrow, feeling suspicious at the word 'entertainment'. "One thing. What do you mean by entertainment, Hernie?" Hernadew rolled his eyes at his new nickname, answering her question with words that she was relieved to here.

"Dancing, singing, that sort of thing."

"...You've got a deal, Hernie." Lily extended her hand, and they shook on it.

The next day, Lily was taken above deck. She was introduced to many sailors, cooked, cleaned, helped navigate, even hoisted the sails at one point. She was down at the mess hall, eating her 'grub' as quickly as possible, when Hernadew suddenly grabbed her wrist, yanking her onto the center table. "Sing."

On the inside, she panicked. "Um...um..." She glanced around, noticing with a sudden strike of fear that all eyes were on her. Her mother's words flashed through her mind. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Imagine the audience in their underwear." That had been when she was seven, when she was the lead role for a school play about recycling.

Lily decided on a newer song, one she had heard recently from a radio she had stolen from an electronics shop. The battery had died shortly after that, but still. She chose Runaway. She opened her mouth, beginning quietly but getting louder as she progressed.

"I am more than you know,
Street lights and open roads,
I am more than just a face,
Stuck living in one place,
So call me California,
Call me what you will.
'Cause I am so much bigger than this place,
And so far from alone."

Her voice flowed strong and clear from her lips, echoing in the wooden area. The rest of the words, she sang without realizing, until the last verse.

"And maybe I could call this home tonight..."

The sounds of whistles, cheers, and claps suddenly exploded in the crowd, moving from sailor to sailor until everyone was showing some form of approval. Lily grinned, taking a bow. "Thank you, thank you!" She hopped down from the table and made her way back to her seat, sitting down on the wooden bench and once more shoveling the food into her mouth in a hurry. At least she had done a good job on it.

Notes

Hi! :3 So, this isn't my first story, but it's my first One Direction fanfiction, so I'm pretty excited ^^ This is just the prologue, explaining some stuff, and blah. Chapter 1 will be coming soon :D For now, let's show you a couple things =3
Captain Hernadew
Delivery ship (IDFK why there's a captain if it's just a delivery ship, but deal with it)
Nessie
The gun

That's all I have for you for now ^^ Updates may be delayed, by the way. Also, I promise she'll meet the boys soon :3

Also, also, because I keep forgetting stuff, I and my story are open to critique ^^