Five Nights Till Freedom

Hide and Seek

The movie was called, No Light in Darkness.

It was a movie; to put it simply, that was about a group of teenagers that went looking for their missing friend deep in the woods, where they find this abandoned house that they get trapped inside.

It was truly cringy and predictable.

Thomas on the other hand, I noticed was finding the movie quite intriguing.

His eyes were wide and the popcorn in his hands were quickly disappearing into his mouth as he watched.

I found myself unable to concentrate on the movie, only on my watch which I could barely see under the light of the projector screen.

I watched as the clock went from  nine, to ten, to eleven........

The credits had finally started rolling down the screen, white letters against a black screen along with eeiry music in the background.

Thomas' eyes were wide in amazement, while his hands clutched his empty popcorn bucket to his chest. As the lights began to slowly brighten up the dark room he turned to look at me, a lopsided grin forming on his face.

"That was a good movie!" He laughed softly as he made the statement. Both of us slowly stood up and began to follow in a line behind the rest of the people that were exciting the theater room.

I walked in front of Thomas and I could feel his presence behind me as we walked out of the doors and into the main room of the theater, where Thomas had gotten his popcorn.

I was starting to get a little nervous, it was about time for me to make my escape, but I didn't want to hurt Thomas. He was only doing what everyone had told him to do. It seemed wrong that I was about to trick him this way.

"Hey Rachel?"

My blood ran cold as I felt Thomas' hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me and waited for his arm to fall back to his side.

It didn't.

"I know that we haven't known each-other long but I really had a great time with you," He smiled at me as he emphasized the last part of that sentence. With the hand that wasn't on my shoulder, he began tot rub the back of his head, "It's sad sometimes. I think back to before you took this job. I was a lonely guy that dropped out of his first year of college, who thought he had a great life working at a little kid's pizzeria."

He gazed at me sadly, his grip on my shoulder tightening.

There was a look in his eyes that was scaring me. There was a deep sadness too, but every so often you can see a hint of a look Bonnie often would give me.

My heartbeat was quickening and I was deciding how I should handle this situation. I don't want to cause a scene but I have to get to the pizzeria before twelve and it's nearly an hour drive to get back.

I started to shiver, feeling as if spiders were crawling up my back.

Thomas was looking down at me, and I could feel the gentle pull of his hand on my shoulder.

He was trying to pull me closer to him.

"Rachel, I've never had anyone that really liked me and ever wanted to spend time with me. The only friends I had were Fred, Ben, Felix, Margo and..." He paused, tears seeming to dot his eyes, "And Chloe, but I lost all them to the Puppet."

His hand then trailed down my arm and I had to force every ounce of my body to not to bound away from Thomas as fast as I could.

His hand found mine and he gripped it in his tightly. Thomas' head fell to his chest and I could tell he was looking at his fingers that were intertwining with mine.

I quickly glanced at the digital clock that hung above the popcorn station. The time read 11:25

Damn...... How am I going to get out of this?

"You're planning to run back to the pizzeria aren't you?" My thoughts were stopped cold as the words flowed almost silently out of Thomas' mouth.

"Thomas, I...."

He let out a sigh, cutting me off, "I'm smarter and more observant than you think Rachel. You think I wouldn't notice the tension you have around me, and the fact that you constantly were checking your watch to check the time." 

He shook his head softly, gazing at me in disappointment, "I really thought that I could stop you..."

Slowly his hands fell out of mine and were back at his sides.

I stared at him in shock.

What was he saying?

"Rachel, I'm not going to stop you from going back to the pizzeria. I can see how desperately you want to help them rid of their curse," He paused, "I do too. So during that movie I decided I would drive you to the pizzeria myself and we're both going to walk in there and solve this together." He gave me a sad smile.

Almost as if it were instinct, I wrapped my arms around him and gave him such a tight hug, I was worried his organs might collapse on themselves, "Thank you Thomas," I muttered softly.

Thomas had gasped in surprise but I heard a light chuckle from him, "Don't think a thing about it Rachel. It's my duty to help my friends."

He then muttered something under his breath that I didn't catch.

"What did you say?" I looked at him to see a light pink toning his cheeks.

"I...uh, nothing. I just said even though I want one of those friends to be more...." He lightly chuckled as I suddenly became very interested in the color of my socks.

Constellation socks if you were wondering.

Slowly Thomas began to walk out in front of me and I had to look up to see that he was walking toward the theater exit. 

"It's time to make our great escape Rachel," He slowly extended his arm in front of him, a smile on his face, "Let's make our exit count."