Escape

Chapter 1

The first light of dawn shines through the crack between the white curtains and I jolt awake. I glance at the clock. Three white numbers sneer back at me, 4:30. I sigh bitterly.

Then one day she went out to the woods by herself, and never came back. I waited all night. By the morning I figured she just went on another surprise sleepover although it was weird for her not to at least text me. Sometimes it was hard for her to manage her life, as smart as she was she wasn't very organized and got stressed easily. Sometimes it was easier just to run away to her best friend Morgan Livela 's house than to be home.

After that night I got a little worried. Even though she had gone on surprise sleepovers before, she always came home after one night. Hours passed and she still hadn't come home. 'That's it I'm calling Morgan.' I thought. One ring, two rings, three, four..... I hung up before it got to voice mail.

'It's a good thing she lives so close' I thought as I pulled on baby blue sweater and white uggs. On the way over I thought about how perfect it was that our parents were away, they were extremely over protective, and even at seventeen it took work to get them to leave us home alone for more than a day. I got to her house and walked right in.

We had known the Livela's since we were five and they were like family. Morgan was sitting on the couch, texting as usual. Morgan was the most popular girl in our class. "Hey Lynx." she said as she turned off her phone.

"Hey Morgan have you seen Rosemary lately?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, she won't respond to my texts. My stomach plummeted. I flashed back the first day we lived here, my parents told us we couldn't go to the woods alone, that someone might try to hurt us. Chills ran up my spine.

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Until it was written in stone I refused to believe it. But I must have looked crazy because of what Morgan said next. "ONYX, Onyx look at me. What's going on? "Get up". I hissed a lot more forcefully than I meant to. "ONYX, WHATS GOING ON?!?!" "I haven't seen Rosemary in two days so I thought she left for your house but if you haven't seen her............" "All the blood left Morgan's face." "Morgan breath, it's okay, we'll find her."

We searched the woods for hours. I remember how determined we were. I can still see the naked desperation in Morgan's hazel eyes and know I must have looked the same. Every unanswered call was like a death omen. I spent the night at her house and we cried. We tried to talk, but we couldn't. All we did was sit and watch happy Disney movies in an attempt to cheer ourselves up. It didn't work and neither of us could sleep. We finally gave up and went looking again, only to end in a heartbroken funk. I haven't talked to Morgan since. We tried to be normal at first. But after everyone stopped looking, it was impossible. We couldn't hang out without thinking about Rosemary and that was too painful. So I was alone. I knew everyone still liked me, and I could be popular if I wanted to. But I can't forget and every morning I'm in pain as even the smallest things remind me of her. Like her empty bed by mine, and all her art on the walls. I used to think she would someday be an artist, so much for that. But I can't bring myself to take it down. I'm not deaf to the rumors. Everyone thinks I've gone crazy, there not wrong. Life is just so hard. I miss her so much.

I stood in front of the mirror and tried to see what everyone else saw, my "intense real, beauty". What are they seeing? I crept quietly out of the house even though my parents knew I did this every morning it didn't mean they weren't gonna try and stop me which I was not in the mood for.

I never sleep normally anymore but lately it's been worse, nightmares about her and where she might be, haunts me. That's the worst part, not even knowing if she's alive. My mom works at a child abuse center doing emotional therapy on the kids, and there has been many kidnap victims. Just the thought of her going through all that pain, tortures me. She doesn't deserve it. Like I said before she was an angel, so sweet to everyone. School was so much better when she was there. Rosemary was the most respected person in my junior class. No one was bullied when she was there. Even though she could never hurt a fly, no one wanted to piss her off. Now it was sad, all the outcasts she protected are free meat with her gone. I stopped on the way out the door and stared at my rock climbing hanging on the wall. Rosie (Rosemary) and me used to go rock climbing together all the time, It was our favorite pass time. I haven't gone since she disappeared; I couldn't bring myself to do it without her. But I grabbed it on a hunch. I thought the caves were too obvious so I didn't search them too thoroughly. I must have missed one. Hidden away in the cliffs. Suddenly I got really excited, that's why I haven't found her! I wasn't searching the right places!

I sprinted the 2 miles out to the forest and strapped in my harness so i would be ready if i found anything. I walked the rock face and climbed trees to get a better view but I found nothing, nothing. My heart was broken. I hadn't already searched. I threw up the rope and hook onto a far off ledge. I needed to climb, I haven't in so long. When I reached the ledge, I sat down and a familiar wave of anger and sadness swallowed me. Tears fell down my face. Why? Why did this have to happen? I feel so hopeless. I sent an angry, mournful scream into the open air. My head tipped back and I leaned against the rock wall.

     Suddenly the wall collapsed behind me, or not the whole wall but a doorway. I turned around and she was there. Laying on the ground, in a straight jacket. Right in front of me. I found her.

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Thank you to everyone for reading. I honestly have a lot of work of work to do on this book, if you just started it I would suggest waiting for a little while until I send out a message about an update.

:) - Kyndra

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