Middle School Miniature

chapter 9, Crossing the gap

Before the chapter, Thank you for your interesting and inspiring comments, and thank you to those who have followed and supported me so far. I wouldn't have got this far without ya.  Shout out to DatZeldaFanGurl.

:) Have the day you have.

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Ugg, just my bad luck.

'There is only a small chance that I could get by that huge opening on the way to the door without being noticed. Almost smaller than me,' I thought bitterly.

The hallway is clear on my level so there was nothing I could try hiding behind. looking up the hallway wall, there were a couple of pictures and an empty coat rack by the door. It would be impossible to climb around this problem.

I walked towards the opening along the hall, on the side closest to where the giant dinner was, and peeked around the corner just so I could see into the other room.

There was the boy who had been my captor on the far side of a giant table, but there were three more people. The oldest was a girl, I assume the mother. Also, there was another girl. An older sister maybe? There was also a younger boy, probably two years or more younger than myself.

The youngest glanced my way and I quickly pulled myself out of sight. I heard the mother asking the bunch what they learned in school today and then heard the groans of three kids unwanting to answer the age-old question.

No matter what, I had to get out of here and the door was the most visible way, so I decided to make a run for it. I set my eyes to the frame of the opening into the kitchen which made a small ledge that should provide a bit of cover if anyone came out to investigate. I held my breath and waited to hear voices and hoped that the family would be distracted enough with dinner and conversation not to notice my suicide run.

I heard the mother start speaking again and without even listening to the words, I took my queue to go. So I ran. I sprinted as fast as my small legs would allow.

Disaster.

I could hear chairs scratching on the floor and dishes being 'clinked' together, I was in plain sight if anyone looked up. 25 feet away, I chanced a glance at the giants to find that no one had noticed me, relief washes over me. 15 feet away, I'm so close to safety that I push to go even faster. 5 feet away, I can almost touch the wall, I sneak one more glance at the giants and find that the youngest is walking this way ... poop, but he had not seen me yet. The boy that was my previous captor meets my eyes and the world seems to freeze. He had seen my movement and was startled in the middle of stacking plates. He starts to go towards me... double poop.

I make it to the ledge and press myself to the wall and do my best to slow my breath. I am virtually out in the open, only shielded slightly on my left.

The young one thuds by me, but turns down the way that I just came from. I wait in anticipation of the older brother, but instead, I hear the beautiful voice of the mother asking, "Max, could you put those dishes in the dishwasher please?" No response came from the boy, but I didn't see him rounding the corner and catching me. He had been blessedly stalled.

I breathe a breath of relief and speed my way towards the door.

I reach the front door to find a rubber flap around the edges of the door. I push at it until I can start squeezing myself through when I see a giant boy come around the corner and lock eyes with me once more.

I pushed with all my might through the rubber, almost taking my shoe off in the process, when I emerged and ran to the start of the one step from the house down to the front lawn. I practically jumped off the step immediately to the right and lunged for a dark inlet under that one step.

I heard loud footsteps approach in pursuit of me, but I cloaked myself in the safety of the darkness.

I stayed still, trying to quiet my hard breathing and pounding heart. I need to work out more. The front door squeaked open violently. The footsteps came to a halt above me and I felt the quizzical presence of Max searching. For a brief moment, all was silent.

Then the hand appeared.

~Ema