The Search For Truth

Discovery & Disaster

Why is this happening to me? Why are people evil? These thoughts run circles around my brain as I sprint through the forest. I stumbled and tripped. My head was reeling as I tried to wrap my head around the events of today.

* * * * *

I had just got home from school when I heard a knock on the door.

"Lake! Can you get that?" I heard my mom call from upstairs.

When I opened the door I saw two police officers. They asked if a Shelby Hemming was home. The weather today hadn't been the best so I stepped aside to let them in.

"Mom! It's for you." I called from the foot of the stairs. She came to the stairs and her eyes went wide as she saw the police officers.

"What can I do for you folks today?" she asked in her usual southern drawl.

"Shelby Hemming, you are under arrest." The officers say.

"On what charges?" I ask, extremely confused, and I take a step to block the officers from getting closer to her.

"Miss I'm gonna need you to step away from your captor," A policeman says to me. My heart dropped into my stomach.

"What? She's my mother," I say "She didn't kidnap me."

"I'm surprised it took you this long, I had been expecting them to come after me years ago. I'll go quietly, Officer. Lake, honey, can you step aside?" The woman who I thought was my mother spoke in a voice I had never heard before as she stepped around me and held her hands out to be cuffed. She seemed deadly calm with an expression I couldn't read and I was reeling in disbelief.

The other officer walked toward me slowly and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Lake, was it? Come with me so we can find your real family." she talked to me gently as if I might break.

I backed up and ran out the door, the words "step away from your captor" echoed through my mind.

Why is this happening to me? Why are people evil?  These thoughts run circles around my brain as I sprint through the forest. I stumbled and tripped. My head was reeling as I tried to wrap my head around the events of today.

I ran and I ran, heading towards a secret spot where no one would find me. Somewhere no one would bother me while I tried to figure out what the hell was happening. After I got away from the chaos, and safe in the deep of the woods, I screamed; a shrill, blood-curdling scream. Then, I collapsed, my sleeve collected my tears as I sat on the ground with my back against a tree. I decided I didn't want to go anywhere with the too gentle police officer.

I took a deep breath and headed back to the house. I snuck in through the back door and up to my room. I packed only necessities: food, water, a raincoat, my phone, my sleeping bag from our "family" camping trips, and a few extra sets of clothes. I grabbed my piggy bank which was brimming with cash from my "grandma", who thinks it's my birthday every other month. Sneaking back down the stairs, I headed back to the woods, running like no tomorrow. I would probably head to Bradley's first thing in the morning, but for now, I would head to our secret place.

In the middle of the woods, high in a tree, I found what I was looking for: an old tree house hidden in the branches of a giant elm tree. Bradley and I had spent all of the last summer fixing it up. I climbed up carefully, then pulled up the ladder to the treehouse so it was not accessible and closed the hatch to keep it warmer. Nobody would know I was here and only the person who I wanted to find me would.

I could see the purple sky out the window and I climbed in my sleeping bag and wrapped a quilt from the treehouse around me: lying down on the giant beanbag we had brought up here. I closed my eyes and got ready for the night. My stomach growled and I pulled a protein bar out of my bag, attempting to satisfy my hunger.