Saving Chloe

Chapter Eight

Before the sun could rise, Calen was waking me up as quietly as he could manage. "We have to get out of here," he whispered in my ear. "We have to go home." Groggily sitting up, I blink my eyes until they finish adjusting to my dark surroundings. Calen didn't let go of his weapon yesterday, as he took first guard duty. Well, that's what he said. He never woke me up for my turn. So now he was going on a second day of no sleep. And not to even mention the consequences when we get back home. Mom, Joshua, and Chloe. They're going to be extremely infuriated. We'd left a note, one for Chloe. She wouldn't show Mom or Joshua, we hoped, but she would be worried sick, I think.

"Let's move," I whisper back as I push off the blankets and reach down for my boots. Tying them up lazily, I stand on my own two feet feeling woozy. Dinner had been a homemade recipe of Mac and Cheese. It was good, surprisingly. Calen didn't eat any of it because he was worried we were being drugged. Yet, he didn't stop me as I scarfed mine and his share down.

"Are you okay to move?" Calen whispered in my ear. I nodded. The dizziness was starting to go away, so I knew I hadn't been poisoned by these strangers. Calen went over to inspect the plastic window and tried to open it as quietly as possible. It wasn't working very well. We both froze as the noise seemed to echo around us, almost as if an icy wind wafted through the house and immobilized us both.

Beat. Beat. Beat. The sound of my heartbeat was all I could hear. Nothing else. Finally, Calen let out his breath he'd been holding and pulled me towards the window. We were, thankfully, not in the upstairs guest bathroom. All we had to do was go through the window, avoid the thorny rose bush below, and then we'll run straight home. Avoiding questions we couldn't explain, being smothered by Mom and Chloe. Joshua would be disappointed in Calen for agreeing to pull a stunt like this. Me? They'd expect this kind of behavior from me. Calen? Golden boy Calen? Not so much. Even though he does far worse than I do, I'm the only one who gets caught.

Just like this time, since it was all my idea: Calen will blame me for everything, telling Mom and Joshua if he hadn't agreed to go with me I'd have run off on my own anyway. Couldn't drug me, could they? So what choice did he have? He couldn't warn Joshua or Mom! If he had, they'd get angry and yell until I end up doing something else stupid to attempt to shut them up. My plans always end up backfiring anyway.

Calen would protect me, like he's been protecting me for as long as I can remember. I trusted him more than anybody else. He would never let me down again. That's why I took his hand just now and slid out the window, the thorns cutting my clothes and straight into my skin. I didn't make a noise, although I could feel the sting. Calen was strong, so strong he pulled me along and into safety without so much as a flinch or letting the scratchy thorns get to him. And man was there a lot. There were so many bushes in their backyard that no pathway was safe. I tried not to flinch, except I couldn't handle it like Calen. He didn't slow down, instead he increased his pace. I closed my eyes, clinging to his backside, when we came to an abrupt stop. I was tripping all over the place.

"You're going to have to climb." I opened my eyes to look past him at the large wooden gate, coated with different types of roses crawling their way up and over the top. My eyes were already starting to water. I didn't even bother to look back or down as I braced myself and started to climb. Calen still beat me, ignoring the scratches all over his hands. I tried to be like him. He was strong. I could be strong. I had to be strong. To survive. I'm strong,

Calen's voice floated up to me from the bottom of the other side. "Jump now, Alessa." I didn't think twice. He caught me, like I knew he would. And then we were off once again. Running as quickly as we could as the sun began rising, turning the world an orangey-red. Not once did we stop or slow down. Not once, minus the two times I fell. We were tired. We were thirsty. We were thinking about how we should've joined track a long time ago. We were afraid. We heard noises. We heard door slams. We heard screams. But not once did we stop. Not until our front door was slammed behind us. Joshua inches away with his gun out, pointed directly at our faces. As soon as his eyes adjusted, his gun lowered.