The Many Secrets of Woodland Demars

Chapter 21: 2005: After the Escape

14 year old Lexi Finn and her best friend 13 year old Woody Demars finally escaped a month of torture. They only reason they had escaped was because of two other teens, Jack Thomas and Patrick Jones. The other two had been caught trying to escape with them.

They had been kidnapped from a park in New York. 

Now they were trying to find their way back home.

"Lexi can we stop? My back hurts" Woody asked.

She could hear the whimper behind his words.

Lexi was so focused on trying to get farther away from the Compound, that she had forgotten that her friend had just been whipped.

"Sorry Woody. I forgot about your back"

The two friends were a mess. 

For one month, they endured abuse from their captors. It was either physical, verbal, and/or emotional abuse.

Now they were lost. 

They walked off the road and into the woods. There they found some protection from the sun. 

"Let me see your back Woody" Lexi said.

What she saw was sickening. 

The place where he had been branded, was inflamed and in some areas it was leaking something yellow. What remained of his shirt, stuck to his opened, bleeding back. 

If they didn't get help soon, his back was going to get infected and that's if an infection hadn't already started setting in. 

The only good thing that had come out of this experience was the first aid education that she had received. So she knew what to look for.

Then she remembered what happened on the second day of their captivity.

"Woods I am sorry but I have to ask this. Minus what happened between you and me, how many times were you, eh?"

She couldn't finish.

"Raped?" he finished for her

She nodded.

"Once."

"Was that me or someone else?" She asked as her cheeks turned red

"It was between me and Jack Thomas as a punishment. I forgot to call The Fisherman sir. The man got really angry and grabbed the first boy he saw. This was before I knew who Jack was" Woody said.

At least it was someone they now knew, even though being raped was horrible.

After an awkward minute, Lexi spoke up.

"We tell no one about this Woody. No one except the police. We put this away Woodland. We forget about it. We pretend it never happened. We find away to block it. The only people who will know the full story is the police. We leave the rape part out when we tell our parents"

Woody nodded.

"On a happier note, the day we were kidnapped, I was going to tell you, that my parents adopted Marcus" Woody said.

"Marcus with no last name, Marcus?" 

  Woody nodded.

Lexi hugged him. 

"How is your back?"

"Better" Woody said

"Come on then"

They were once again silent as they continued walking, hopefully in the direction of home.

As the sun was setting on that first day of what would be a two week journey home, Lexi couldn't help but think of the two boys, they were forced to leave behind.

Little did she know how much trouble her two new friends were in and how long it would be before they too were able to escape, The Compound.