Framed

Chapter 2: The Running Begins

When she woke up the next morning, Elizabeth had no idea where she was. she sat up and stretched and rubbed her eyes before she started to look around. Before she could even think, the memories of the day before came flooding back to her memory. Elizabeth sat up and stuffed her blanket back in her bag and then set out in the way she had been going the day before. The plan was to go as far from the city as she could and then cut back and then hopefully sneak back into the city past the cops and then the start to clear her name would truly begin.

As she walked, Elizabeth started to think about where her mother could be. In a cage? Tied to a pole? In a dark sewer somewhere? She had no idea. Where should someone even start looking when they lose someone. Just then all the memories of the games she used to play on her mom's phone came back. The games where the main character would lose her uncle or dad or boss or someone close to them and they would have to search for clues. Was this exactly like that? So now her life is a video game, except there is no free trial and you don't have to pay money for the full version. This is one she would have to finish. If not for her mom's sake, then it is for the fate of her future. At about 2 in the afternoon she came across a small subdivision.

'I'm going to need food soon,' she thought to herself.

And then she saw it. The perfect place that she could possibly find food. A place that didn''t look like it had television or much technology at all but it definetly had someone living there. It was an old, run-down house on a farm. She took off sprinting towards it. The pain from being hungry was so strong she thought her own somach would eat her alive. Yesterday at school during lunch was the last time she had eaten so it had been just about 27 hours.....maybe 28? The hunger pains made it hard to think.

When she arrived at the farm house she knocked on the door. A little old man in overalls answered the door.

"Why hello young lady. What are you doing out this far? It looks like you have had a rough day" He smiled at Elizabeth.

'Boy he had no idea about my day.' she thought

" Hi. My name is Elizabeth and I ran away from home. I haven't eaten in over 24 hours and I was wondering if you could spare me some food." She tried not to seem like a criminal.

"Oh of course, you poor dear please please come inside. You can clean up a bit if you'd like?"

"A bath sounds amazing right about now." She didn't want to admit it to herself but she was filthy.

He led her into the house and up a rundown flight of stairs and then down the hall to the bathroom.

"Towels are on the shelf there,"he pointed."and yes the lock on the door works. I'll go fix you some lunch." He smiled and then left her alone.

Elizabeth propped her backpack againt the bathoom wall and then turned and shut and locked the door. She stripped out of her dirty clothes and slipped into the nice warm bath. Time slipped away from her and before she knew it the bath was cold. Elizabeth hurried up and washed herself and then climbed out and put on some of her clean clothes from her bag. Before she left the bathroom, Elizabeth hung up the towel and put her shoes on again.

Grabbing her bag she retraced her steps back to the front door and then followed the smell of bacon to the kitchen. the old man looked up from the stove at her and smiled again.

"I was starting to think you drowned, have a seat, lunch is almost ready. I wasn't sure what you would want so I made you bacon, eggs, and grilled sandwiches." He motioned towards the table and Elizabeth inched into a chair. Could she trust him with who she was? She didn't actually kidnap her mom. If all else failed she could run out the back door while he called the cops. Elizabeth decided that telling him could actually help her so she started planning when. The old man placed her food onto an old glass plate and set it down in front of Elizabeth. Without hesitating, she hurried and ate every last bit of food on her plate.

"My word you were hungry, would you like some more?"

"No thanks, there's actually something I need to confess" he gave her a puzzled look.

"When I told you I had run away from home that isn't entirely true. You see my parents are divorced and it is only me and my mom for miles around. Well yesterday while I was at school, someone broke into my moms work and kidnapped her. Me being the only relative, I was blamed. Now the police are after me for something I never did." She paused to let that much sink in. The old guy looked shocked beyond belief.

'Please don't call the cops. Please don't call the cops.' she begged in her mind.

He blinked a couple times. "Oh my, well this much is for sure. You can't live off the streets. I don't get many cops out this far. How would you like to stay with me? I could give you rides back into the city when you need too and in exchange, you can keep an old man company. It's lonely out here since my wife died. So what do you say?" he gave her a hopefull look.

'He has a point' she thought.

"oh what the heck, this is a lot better than the streets." Elizabeth smiled at him.
"In that case, my name is Butch" He held out his hand and she politely took it and shook it. Then he led her back upstairs and down the hall again to the room across from the bathroom.

"This is your room, unpack if you want or don't dinner is at 6. Hopefully you will be hungry. I'll leave you then, I'm sure you need time to think" he turned to leave.

"oh Butch!" he stopped in is tracks. "thank you."
He turned a little bit, "you're welcome Elizabeth" he smiled and then turned and left her alone.

Elizabeth spent the rest of the time before dinner trying to think of a plan to clear her name. Then she wandered around the house trying to find an excape route in case the police showed up and found an old, half broken stair case so she carefully climbed down them and opened the door at the bottom only to find herself in the kitchen downstairs. That would be her emergency excape.

Butch was in the kitchen cooking dinner so she sat down at the table and started to make small talk. Small talk led to a full conversation and before she knew it she was laughing so hard her sides hurt. After dinner, Elizabeth went back to her room and got ready for bed. It was only about 8pm but she was exhausted so she decided to fall asleep for the night. She slept better than she thought she would.