Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 33

Samantha POV

I lay on my bed and cried after Jenna told me that they had known Stanley had escaped. They knew, and they sent me to school anyway. They knew he was going to do something and they went and sent me to school. Where Gillingham had found me, knocked me out and taken me to spend a week being beaten up and reminded how useless I am by Stanley.

I'd learned how to cry silently when I was with Stanley, so when Jenna knocked on my door and told me she was going to take a shower, she didn't know I was crying.

I couldn't stay, I thought. They said they'd protect me and they hadn't. They knew Stanley had escaped. They lied. They lied that they would protect me.

Maybe that article was a lie too. Maybe Stanley wasn't really dead. Maybe Gillingham wasn't really in prison and even Jake was lying.

I couldn't trust anyone! I didn't know what to do, but I knew I couldn't stay here.

I grabbed my backpack and threw in some clothes. I opened the door to my room and I could hear the shower in Tyler and Jenna's room running.

I went downstairs, put on my boots and jacket, grabbed a hat and mittens and left. I wasn't sure where I was going to go, but I headed towards my old house. Maybe I could see if any of it was true and if so, maybe I could stay there for a little while until I figured out what to do. I knew the house wasn't far. I'd run here that first night back in October.

I wiped tears from my face as I walked down the street and turned out of our neighborhood.

It took longer than I thought but I found myself in front of my old house. There was police tape all around it, but I didn't see anyone around. I walked behind the house and down into the basement from the garage entry. There weren't any lights, but that was okay. I didn't want anyone to see lights anyway. I used my phone flashlight and looked around my basement room. There was something dark on the floor near my bed, and splashed on the bed, too.

I went into the bigger part of the basement and went over to the couch. Stanley sat here and drank when he was home. Besides my bedroom and the laundry area, the basement was off limits to me. It was Stanley's space. Just like the rest of the house was.

When my mom was alive, I had a room upstairs. But when she died, Stanley moved me down into the little basement room. He said the house was his domain but I could have that small part of the basement as long as I kept it clean. I never could keep it clean enough for him. He always found something out of place. Any reason to beat me, he found it.

And just when I'd had enough, had run, and had wound up somewhere I thought I was safe, I found out that they knew when Stanley escaped.

I curled up on the couch and cried again. I had no safe place to go. I had no one I could trust.

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Tyler POV

Josh and I got home from dropping Brendon and Sarah at the airport and Josh went upstairs to start packing. He was planning on flying back to California after having spent two months with us.

Jenna was in the kitchen pulling out dinner ingredients.

"Hi honey," I said, coming into the kitchen and kissing her.

"They get off okay?" Jenna asked.

"They did. They'll text when they land."

"Great. It was so nice having them here in spite of everything we were going through and what they've been through."

"Bad as it might sound to say, I think Samantha's abduction and Christmas were good distractions for them. Jess has only been gone a few months, and Christmas was going to be hard enough on them," I said.

"I know. It's weird to say our own daughter getting kidnapped was a good distraction for them. Speaking of, where's Sam?"

"Up in her room."

"Is she okay?"

"I think so. We were talking and she just got up and went upstairs."

"What we're you talking about?" I asked.

"We called Jake to let her know that Gillingham is in fact in prison, since she was worried she had seen him at lunch, and we were just talking about how in the end, he did the right thing and got her back to us, even though he was the one to take her in the first place."

"She knew that though," I thought.

Jenna shrugged.

I told her I was going to go upstairs and check on Samantha.

When I got to Samantha's room, the door was closed. I couldn't hear anything in her room, but she was never that loud. Unless she was low or high sugar and defiant because of it.

I knocked on the door.

"Sam? Can I come in?" I waited for a response. None came. She may have been asleep, I thought.

"Sam?" I knocked again. "I'm coming in, okay?"

I opened the door to an empty room. Drawers were open and clothes were coming out of them. This is not the way Sam leaves her room. I looked around the room, trying to figure out what else was wrong. I looked in her bathroom, and saw nothing missing there. I went back into her room and looked around. Something was missing and I couldn't figure it out. I took stock of what I knew was usually around Sam's room.

Her bed was made but rumpled a bit. Her night table looked the same. Her desk had her computer and printer on it, plus a couple of books. And on her chair ...

Her backpack. She hung her backpack off her chair. It was gone.

I ran downstairs and threw open the closet door. Her jacket and boots were gone.

"She's gone," I said running into the kitchen. "Jenna, Sam's gone. What exactly did you talk about?"

"What do you mean she's gone?" Jenna said. "She was in her room when I went to take a shower."

"Her clothes are all over the place. Her backpack is gone and so are her boots and winter jacket. What did you talk about when you talked about Stanley and Gillingham? Before she went upstairs?"

Jenna's eyes widened. Her face whitened.

"I told her I was sorry we didn't protect her better. I told her we knew Stanley had escaped. But that we didn't think he'd be able to find her at school because he couldn't have known we transferred her schools."

"Dammit!" I yelled. "Jenna, she's run away. She doesn't feel safe because we let her go to school that morning."

Jenna started crying.

"I'm sorry!" She cried. "I'm sorry!"

I wrapped my arms around her. I didn't blame her. But she seemed to think I did.

"It's okay. We'll find her. I'll call Jake."