Alone

Chapter One

I love the autumn, from the rainbow of leaves that surround me to the crisp, cool air. It takes away the scorching heat of the summer, but brings the freeze of the winter. Autumn means it's last few times that I can gather any food I will need for the freezing months to come. I don't want to steal from the small neighborhood nearby.

Quickly, I jump off the tall tree branch that my body was previously resting on. I proceeded snatching my drawstring bag and walked through the woods admiring the tall, skinny trees surrounding me. Pulling out my Swiss Army knife, I carelessly open the blade and start carving my name, Paige. Paige, meaning 'Young Servant', I know this because my father reminded me nearly everyday.

No. I can't let myself remember that pain. I won't allow him the power to make me upset.

Snapping myself out of the pain, I scold To myself, "Get over yourself Paige, complete your mission. Emotions are a waste of time. Survival is what's important"

I start hiking towards the tiny city of people who don't even know I exist, grabbing any edible food I come across.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I placed my stash of food in a place I'm sure no one will find. After I crossed the small field that separated my home from the village, I hid in the shadows of the town as I always did, until a large man ran straight into my small frame.

"Why are you on my property?" The man stared down at me suspiciously. I recognized him instantly, we had bumped into each other many times before.

"I was just... Passing by" I say, attempting to look innocent. 

"Where are your parents? This is the third time this week you've ran into me."  He says sternly in his southern drawl.

"Umm... I um..." I stutter trying to come up with a lie

"Yes? Now don't lie to me, I'll know if you do. "  He looks at me as if I'm the scum of the earth, like he can see I'm lying. Only, he believes that it's for the wrong reasons.

Slowly, in a low voice, I force out, "They're outta town, leave me be"

He gives me a look of disgrace. I hated that look, if my parents are gone they're gone and that's that. With that thought of my parents, I start to get distracted with the word funeral, as I can't let myself get distracted by the thing itself.

Why does funeral have the word fun in it? They aren't fun in the slightest. Who came up with that term anyways? Who come up with anything? Is it that a guy woke up one day and said, 'Hey world, I came up with stuff. Listen to me, I know everything.' How does language even happen?

Hands snapped his fingers in front of my face, snapping my out of my daze of questions that can't be answered.

"Hello? Are you okay? Little girl? Little girl!" He tried to capture my attention, and I tried to not give him an ounce.

Unfortunately, I have to look at anything that moves, and when I stared at the motion his hands were creating, he realized he had captured it.

"You okay little girl?" He questioned carefully.

"I am perfectly fine" I say in a slightly confused, snappy voice. Does he not understand people get distracted by the many questions of life?

"What's your name little girl?" He watches for my reaction curiously, as if he's trying to figure out what I'm hiding from him.

I talk in a terrifying monotone voice, looking him straight in the eye emphasizing each word as if they were a sentence of their own, "I am not little," and follow up with a yelling rant, "I'm twelve years old! I'm almost a.. What do they call it? Oh yeah, a teenager! Who even is they anyways! Some secret organization that decides words! I don't get it-" 

He cuts me off from my rant laughing slightly at the end, and proceeds with a wave of questions, "Why'd it take you a second to realize what a teenager was called? You know what? Never mind that. What is your name?"

All I give him is silence in return. I can see him growing more and more frustrated with me. He reached his large hand deep into his worn down jeans, and pulls out a phone.

He stares and slowly commands, "Tell me your name or I'll call the police."

Steadily I reply, "Wouldn't you call the police afterward anyways? Then I'd be in even worse trouble then. They'd know my name and go lookin' for me, don't you think?"

He looked slightly stunned for a moment after he heard what I said, and hastily regained composure. Suddenly he grasped my skinny arm in his hand and pressed numbers on his phone.

A split second before calling, he whispered, "Well, the names Brooks. Carter Brooks, and I have a feeling we'll be seein' a lot more of each other."

Sighing, I replied nearly silently giving up. It's just a name right? "Paige, my names Paige."

"Well Paige" he began, "are ya hungry? I have cookies in the house." He had already been on the phone with the police for a fair few minutes, seeing my boredom.

"Can I trust you?" I asked a question that I knew the answer to.

"Of course you can trust me, after all, you do know my name." That's no reason to trust him. I won't trust him, I can't.

My mouth betrays me, "If the package is unopened and we are outside... Oh! And you can't kill me or rape me or hurt me or-"

He cut me off with, "I ain't doin' none of that, and I have a pack of unopened Oreo's you can try. I mean no harm to you Paige."

It took me a second, but I started questioning why his accent changed as he kept talking.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a long wait of eating delicious Oreo's until the pack was gone, me eating most of them, a police car came into sight.

The man slammed the car door and stalked out as if he owned the place for a hundred years. He stared at the two of us and the stocky, dark young man asked "Is this Paige?"

I start to think about how tall both men where. Maybe it's just me. Am I short?
Or is it just because because they are boys? Why would boys be so much bigger? I snapped out of my endless daze as I heard the police man say, "I guess I'll just have to take y'all to the station for now."

I halt in my place, everything around me became frozen. Me? No, I can't go to the station. No no no no no no no I can't do that. I look between the two men and nervously say, "Thanks  for the Oreo's, but um... I have to go now bye!" Words rushed from my mouth as I attempted to escape.

I failed miserably. The very second I tried to run, the police officer gripped my bicep and dragged me over into the back of the police car.

"You're coming with me, Paige."