The lost

Chapter 10

The loud honking overwhelmed me, but Victor seemed like it was natural.

"I never knew there was a full-on city here...", I say quietly.

"Neither did I, before an ambulance came and helped me", I with shock and anger said: "You didn't say it was an ambulance!! I thought you were apart of a cool gang or something..."

Victor starts laughing and says: "You seem more of a gang person than me, let's be honest"

"I take that as a compliment", Victor starts laughing once more, but then quickly stops and starts lightly coughing and says: "Let's take you to the hospital, my car is somewhere near, so don't worry"

"A car?!"

"Full of surprises right now, right?", I nod. I never knew there was a full-on city out here... I thought it was woods after woods after woods... We walk to his car, and I sit beside him. He cracks his knuckles before starting the car. I then... notice something... I quickly ask: "Why didn't you report her?! To the police?!"

"No evidence, they said... Honestly sometimes the people that are supposed to do the right thing, just ignore the people that are crying for help", he starts backing away from the spot he was parked in and starts driving.

"Victor... why did you come to the forest?"

"I honestly slept there for a while, because I knew your birthday was soon and... you never knew this, but I heard what promise you made with Hilda. The walls were thin, they still probably are... Anyway, I knew that you one of those days would try escaping and you surprised me when you full on jumped down, it must've hurt, a lot..."

"And it did, I have no regrets", I make a big smile. Trying to make light of a situation that honestly... is pretty fucking traumatic, but sometimes with hard situations, you have to make a light out of it, by any sort of way. Don't pretend like it never happened but accept it as a whole and move on. I probably must do that myself... Since I just escaped a most likely manipulative woman who tried (tries) making people self-exit, by making it a "tradition". The car stops, because of a red light. I look over to the car beside us. Red car, with black leather seats... I wonder how everyone else lives. Is it a good life? A bad life?

I look over to Victor and ask: "Can we not go to the hospital... I can live with the duct tape for a while", Victor looks over to me with confusion. Probably because not a while ago, I was protesting to not put on duct tape... and now... I just don't want to be in a hospital. Having to tell them what exactly happened. Victor shakes his head, and the light turns green. We are driving once again.

"Would you rather risk having an infection? Or – "

"Victor, these are only cuts, they aren't any deep by any chance", Victor nods his head.

"I guess so, I think I might have some spare bandages in my apartment"

"You have an apartment?!", I say loudly, full of surprise. I guess... he moved on with his life after that incident... Thinking about it... I'll also have to do it, but I want to tell the police what happened. Isn't the thing that Mrs. Smith did (or should I say... does) ... illegal??? The cars stops and Victor starts parking the car. He takes out the keys, and sighs.

"Just so you know... I have roommates, 2 of them to be exact. They help with rent"

"Do they know about me? Like what Mrs. Smith did to us?", Victor shakes his head and answers: "I never had the guts to tell them, they'll think I am crazy and stuff", I shake my head and lean more into the seat.

"I mean... One day you got to tell them", Victor nods and opens the car door and walks out. I do the same. We walk into the apartment building and walk up the stairs that feel like these are some stairs towards heaven or something. Then at floor 5, we start walking to Victor's apartment. He opens the door, and I walk in before him. I look around, its pretty, full of plants and stuff.

"My job right now pays me enough to pay the part of the rent that I have. So I'll be pretty busy these days, going to work"

"Where do you work?", I ask.

"Waiter", I start laughing lightly, I would never think of Victor as being a Waiter. Victor rolls his eyes and takes out a med kit.

"Let's just patch you up, alright?"

I nod and sit down on the couch. He takes of the duct tape, and of course puts on some bandages. I lay down on the couch and look up at the ceiling after we were done. I could hear as Victor put on the water in the sink, probably washing dishes. I could hear as two dishes would hit each other. I slowly close my eyes and listen to the sounds. Then I get a notification on my phone. I quickly open my eyes and look, its from the news?! I scroll more and more. I looked up for a moment and there was Victor also scrolling. I normally get notifications from the news, but when I read this... my heart sank:

"An old lady from the orphanage not long from the city, Aetherwind, the city well known for cats roaming around, freely. The old lady said that a kid named: Asha Willow, snuck out one night and that she needs to find her immediately" The news reporter is now showing my face... I can't fucking believe this... Then the video clip ends. My heart still in my throat. Victor looks at me, he heard everything. He sighed and started once more to clean the dishes.

The front door opened then unexpectedly, it was girl with a bag, she has paint stains on her overalls and a little on her face. She has her hair set up in a bun, her blonde pretty hair... Victor smiled and said: "Hey", She smiled back and said the same. Then she looked at me.

"I didn't know that we have a guest, Victor", She kind of side eyed him. Then she immediately froze: "Wait, I think I know her from somewhere..."

"From where?", Victor asked while washing the dishes more aggressively... I think we both know... She started looking on her phone, when another one of Victor's roommates came in. He also looked a little shocked to see me.

"Found it!", the girl said, while showing it then to Victor...