Hold Me Close

Chapter Two.

I turned as fast I could, I tried and tried to make my feet run but they refused to obey my minds commands, instead I stood there in the empty hall staring into the direction of the running, I was scared, I didn't know if it was the government coming for me or just another student skipping class.

A tall boy ran around the corner, his eyes met mine and stayed there, I had never seen him before and to make this encounter stranger, he wasn't wearing the plastic covers on his muscled arms. He kept up his pace till he reached me and to my surprise he grabbed my arm and pulled me with him.

"Let go" I resisted, I pulled my arm back but his grip on me was strong, I could already feel the bruise it was going to form on my pale skin. "They're here for you" he struggled to say through rushed breaths, "who are?" I gasped, but I already knew who was, and I knew why, they wanted both convicts, not just Chris. "My father",  "who,  who's your father?" I cried out,  he stopped and stared at me,  "the man who took Chris".
I woke up unable to breathe,  I took heavy gasping breaths and tried to stop the tears from falling I looked around the class to see everyone staring at me, "are you ok?"  Miss Garter questioned looking concerned, I nodded and looked down at my papers and hoped that focusing on them would keep my mind away from the terrible night terror.

"Are you ok?" the girl sitting next to me whispered, I nodded, feeling a little ashamed that I had never bothered to learn her name, yet there she sat concerned about my well being. I sat through the class blocking out everything, the teacher, the class and most of all my feelings, the truest downfall to every human. School finished in a blur, nothing was mentioned about Chris over the intercom, but that was no surprise, people usually tried to ignore the people who went missing, it was a safe way to pretend that it wasn't going on, but no one can truly escape the terrifying truth.

The rain began to pour down on my walk home, I allowed it to fall freely down my face, it always mesmerised me, the feeling of the water crashing against my skin, it reminded me I was real, and that was all I needed sometimes.

"Where you going sweetcheeks?" a boy around eighteen howled from his car window, I chose to ignore him and kept on walking, my pace becoming a little faster, "it's starting to get heavy, do you want a lift?" he laughed, "no, no I don't" I shouted unable to contain my feelings anymore, his howling laughed raced through the streets but was covered by his engine taking off. I kept on walking down the familiar road, watching the people rush by to get out of the rain, others like my self just walked on.

"How was school pumpkin? " my dad called from the kitchen. His back was to me as he flipped food at the stove, I stared at the back of his head long enough to notice that the back roots of his jet black hair had begun to turn grey." same old" I sighed, I dropped my backpack to the ground, and began to roll my shoulders to get feeling and warmth back into them, it had been a long day, a real long day.

"Well thay sounds exciting" he chuckled, still not turning to face me, "where's mum, she's usually standing next to you waiting to tell me about how I forgot to make my bed again" I laughed to my self, picturing all the times she would reenact the way you make a bed. leaving an unmade bed really bugged her.

"She's around at the fosters, they got some news today" my father's voice dropped into a low hum, all traces of humour had left and taken its place was a dark low hum amd utter seriousness, "is Chris back?" my voice went up a pitch,  I allowed my self to be contained by hope, and that was the flaw to being sixteen, you still had that touch of naive in your soul. His head bowed and his mop of midnight hair shook, I watched him carefully as he put the spatula down and turned to face me. Now I knew why at the beginning he didn't dare turn around to speak face to face with me.

My fathers tall masculine figure looked broken and weak, his face has lost all colour, around his popping green eyes were red swollen rims, as if they were holding his eyes in place, like they didn't want to see this world no more, and I couldn't blame them.

"What happened dad? " I could hear the tremble in my voice, could feel the quake in my throat, my hands followed its lead, they trembled uncontrollably, fear had taken complete control over my body." Lets go in the lounge to sit and talk pumpkin" my father tried to smile, and what a pathetic attempted that was, his cheeks didn't lift with his lips, they remained in place, stiff.
I shook my head, I wanted to know now, I needed to know what was happening right now. "Just say it" my voice held no emotion, it was straight to the point, no feelings attached.

"They found a body".