A Little Out There

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 (Keeley POV)

A loud bump woke me up just in time for my head to crash into a cold, hard surface. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my head.

Wait, this was not my bedroom, and it sure as hell wasn’t my house, or even a house. It was a van, and from the looks of it, a very old van. There was a long seat in front of me along with a wide open space that adorned bags and piles of junk. I was up on a raised platform, right by the back windows and could see the highway fly behind us. In fact, the entire van was surrounded by three rectangular windows on each side, a slide-to-open sunroof, and a big windshield. The sides were grey, but decorated with stickers of beaches, surfing contests, bands, as well as sharpie doodles and pictures. The roof had little white Christmas lights attached to it; they were centered around the back and stopped just behind the long seat.

“Ah, look who woke up” said a man’s voice from the front seat.

I screamed and jumped farther back.

“Hey, chill, everyone else is asleep” he said. Suddenly I recognized him; he was the one who murdered that kid on the beach. I whimpered and hugged my knees to my chest.

‘I am being held captive by murderers!’ I thought frantically, afraid to make any sudden movements.

“Well since you don’t seem to be in the talking mood, I’m Milo. I’m sorry we had to er… take you with us, but we couldn’t have you screaming murderer… Uh, anyway, we have your bag up here in case you want to change out of your bikini, and it’ll be two hours till we get to a motel. Do you want your bag?” Milo asked.

I nodded vigorously. ‘My phone’s in my bag and I could call Will to come get me and…’ I thought until Milo interrupted.

“Oh, you won’t find your cell phone, we have it hidden. But you can have everything else in the bag.” My bag came flying over the seats and landed right in front of me.

“If you want to change, I won't look, my eyes will be on the road the whole time” Milo said cheerily, a little too cheerily for a guy that just killed someone.

I stayed quiet and draped a towel around myself and slipped out of my bikini top. I quickly put on my warped tour ’10 tank top, and then moved the towel down. I swapped my bikini bottoms for underwear and my jean cutoff shorts.

“Done?” Milo asked from the front seat. I nodded. “Do you wanna sit up front? Keep me company?” he flashed me a smile in the van’s rearview mirror.

I cringed and scooted farther back, shaking my head no.

“Oh, right, I’m still a murderer to you. Whatever, go to sleep or something” Milo’s voice turned from cheery to hard, cold, and hurt. I took his advice and used my bag as a pillow as I lay down on the van’s floor. I closed my eyes, and tried to fight off the inevitable nightmares.

*****

“Hey wake up, we’re at the motel” an unfamiliar voice said in my ear. I unwillingly opened my eyes to reveal the blonde haired, brown eyed face of… surfer-boy, the one who’d been fighting for Layton.

“Layton!” I exclaimed. “That boy! That boy took my sister! What if she’s dead or…” frantic words poured out of me to the point that I have no idea what I even said. 

“Ok, we’ve gotta get you inside, Keeley right?” surfer-boy said. I nodded, in a daze from my sudden panic attack. Surfer-boy wrapped and arm around my waist and helped me out of the van. I hadn’t even noticed it was dark outside until now. I turned back to the van to grab my bag, and stopped in my tracks.