His Runner

Are We Safe

Rose had taken us to her house about 35 minutes away from the bus station. I was relieved that she didn't live close to it just to be safe. There was something about her I just couldn't put my finger on. She wasn't a wolf, but she didn't quite smell human either. Now that we are in the car and closer to her, I can feel the difference in her. The only non-human I have ever met was a witch, and Rose does not smell like a witch. She doesn't have the smell of rotting flesh so she can't be a vampire either. When she looked at me it was like she knew all my secrets.

During the last 10 minutes of the drive, I began to question if I did the right thing or not. By the time we left the bus station, Rose said the car rental shop would be closed by now. She offered us a place to stay at her house for the night. It took her a good 15 minutes to convince me to go with her. I finally gave in when the kids started to fuss about being hungry.

The drive was beautiful. There was a forest on both sides of the road. Every now and then you could see huge open fields with cows or horses. She finally turned off onto a dirt road and stopped at a gate for it to open. I could also see a camera by the gate. I'm glad they will have some type of security.

As we pull up to the house, my mouth hangs wide open. It is a beautiful home. Looks just like a dream farmhouse; it was an older house but so well kept. There was a wrap-around porch with two swings on the ends. I'm sure in the spring the flowers and trees blooming would be beautiful. There is a big red barn off to the side, and I can see a few different types of animals near the fences. Behind the house, you can see that there is a big open field that runs into a forest. Big hills that lead up to a mountain. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Until...

I see a very large man come out and stand on the porch. He must be 6'6 if not taller. He was very built even for his age, which his salt and pepper hair gave away. He looked like a lumberjack, right down to the plaid shirt, suspenders, jeans, and black work boots. I can feel my eyes go wide and turn to look at Rose. Panic sets in.

"Don't worry dear, he is more like a giant teddy bear. I had the same look on my face when I first saw him too. 35 years together and he still makes me mushy on the inside," She said with a little laugh.

Rose was definitely in her late 50s, a little older than my mother would have been. Please don't let this be a mistake I silently plead to the Goddess in my head. As soon as I open the door, I can smell him. Wolf. His eyes lock on me, and I know he can smell me too. The potion must have worn off now.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry I don't think we can stay here," I say closing my door quickly. I can't help the panic that comes out with it. We are rogues now. He could kill us just for being here. Rose walks around to my side and opens the door.

"Now hun, listen, I could smell you all before you even walked in the door to the bus stop. We truly mean you no harm and are here to help you all. I can tell you are on the run, catching lies is my specialty. Jed will not harm any of you and will protect you all. Please, come inside so we can talk about this?" I look back at the kids, I know they can see how scared I am. Conner starts to fuss now, and I know he needs to eat. I nod my head to Rose.

"Girls, I feel like maybe we can trust them. Maybe this is a blessing from the Goddess?" I say.

"Don't worry momma we can be brave for you," Sara says and squeezes my hand a little. Goddess, how did I get such amazing children? As we get out Jed walks over to the car.

"Can I help carry any bags?" he says in a burly voice.

"No this is all we have thank you." I quickly tell him.

"Well, I'm not as good of a cook as my Rosey but there is some warm "breakfast" for dinner on the table if you are all up for it." He said with a warm smile. The girls gasp and look at me with pleading eyes. I know how hungry they are as we have barely had any food, mostly junk food from gas stations.

"Thank you, Mr.?" I try to say.

"Jed, just call me Jed," he smiles at me.

"Thank you, Jed, we would love some warm food, right girls?" The girls do a little happy dance and run up the steps. Conner is now in full crying mode as Rose ushers us inside.

"Let's get you all warmed up with full tummies now," Rose calls out from the door.

Dinner was amazing. The girls ate more than I have ever seen them eat before. Even Conner was eating some eggs. He may be one now, but slow going when it came to food. I ate enough to be full but I could feel the adrenaline coming down from the last few days and it was making my stomach upset now.

The conversation stayed light. Jed and Rose talked mostly to the girls about some of their favorite things. I could see by some of their reactions to some of the things the girls said that they understood they did not grow up in a "normal" setting. Thankfully they didn't say anything.

Jed commented on how nice it was to talk to kids without having a tablet or phone in front of three faces. I did giggle a little at that because I knew exactly what he was talking about. The girls didn't really understand but it just made his point even more. It was wonderful to see the girls open up to them a little. They have been very limited to who they could talk to all their lives. Tilly was pretty shy with Jed until he showed her how to put whipped cream on her pancakes.

I could see that Sara wanted so badly to break fully out of her shell and talk about anything and everything, but I could also see how she was still hesitant with them. After dinner Jed had the girls help him clean up everything and help wash the dishes. They have grown up pretty much living in their room, so washing dishes was not something they knew how to do, but Jed made it fun. I'm sure it took him more than double the amount of time to clean up than it would have if he had just done it on his own.

Rose took me to the guest room and pulled out some old clothes of hers and some of her grandkid's clothes; that way we could wash what we had on tonight. They had two rooms for us to use but offered an air mattress to use in one of the rooms so we could all sleep together. With how fast my guard was let down, I decided to err on the side of caution and just all sleep in one room. Just in case; I hadn't felt uneasy since we had been here, but we still didn't know these people.

After we had the room set up with lots of extra blankets, Rose sent us down the hall to the bathroom to get the kids ready for bed. I washed up the girls together first then quickly washed Conner. By the time they were dressed and brushing their teeth, they could hardly go 30 seconds without a yawn.

There was a rocking chair in the room, so I had the girls lie down while I rocked Conner to sleep. I am not a good singer by any means, but Sara always loves it when I sing songs to them. Once they were asleep, I put Conner down on my bed and made sure he would not roll around or off the bed. I slipped out of the room quietly and leaned against the door for a moment. I knew that Jed and Rose were waiting for me. I knew there were going to be questions, I just didn't know how much to share.