The Girl From the Gang

I Move Away From Home For the First Time

Thanks for reading. If you enjoy it, let me know. I'm always happy to hear feedback!-Mikayla :)

The room is dark. I walk around and start to notice details starting to come into focus. I see a well worn sofa and a side table. I walk to sit on the couch and I see a TV across the room. I look around to see a remote laying haphazardly on the floor. I pick up the remote and use it to turn the TV on. The TV lights up and the local news begins playing. I look closer to see the stories for the day. It's from the day my father was murdered. It showed the police from the day, I see my mother crying, and I see myself. My face was caked with dried tears as I watched my father get put into a body bag, and in the background I see something coming toward me. I want to scream out at the me on the screen to tell her what's coming, but she ignores me. The thing coming towards me starts looking like a human, a very familiar human. It's the soldier in charge of me, the one who helped kill my father. He pulls out a rifle, the barrel sleek and polished, and points it toward my head. In my ear, I hear the click of the safety and I look to my right. Suddenly, the man wasn't just in the TV screen. Now he was right here next to me. I see him smirk as his finger begins to pull the trigger.

I wake up suddenly and realize I'm on a bus. I look over and see Veronica still sleeping soundly. The sun was just breaking over the mountains that were in the distance. I hear a couple of snores of the other people on the bus, but it looks like most people are already awake.

"Hey sleepy head." The guy from yesterday says. It looks like he's been awake for quite a while.

"Hey." I groan. "How long have you been awake?"

"Oh, about two hours. As you have noticed, these seats aren't very comfortable. You look awful. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just had a nightmare. That's all. Has anyone left in the night?"

"Yeah. The one girl from two seats up and the guy who sat in the middle couple of seats."

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I'm thinking about Texas right now. We've actually been making really good time. All of us are going to get there a day early."

"Really? Well, that's better than being here an extra day. What state are you going to again?"

"New Mexico. Some really rural town. Do you know where you are going?"

"North Dakota, but I don't really remember exactly which city." At that moment Veronica woke up and rubbed her eyes.

"How long did I sleep?" she says groggily.

"Longer than I did, that's for sure. Want to watch a movie?"

"Sure. Does it matter which one? I don't really feel like watching an action movie this early in the morning."

"Doesn't matter to me. Anything is better than nothing." We end up watching a chick flick. It was distracting and two hours later the movie was done and we were almost to our next rest stop. I was happy to get up and stretch my legs. My hair and face looked like a mess, as I haven't been able to shower since the day before when I left prison. My hair smelled like chemicals from the dye Veronica used on my, and I realized I needed to take the contacts out from my eyes or else they might hurt them.

I get up and slowly make my way up the aisle towards the bus driver. "Do you think that we can stop and use the restroom soon?"

"Sure miss. I think there's another rest area a couple of miles up the road."

"Thank you sir." I walk back towards my seat and look at the people in the other seats as I walk. I see that there are only about five people left on the bus.

When I get back to Veronica, she is munching on the beef jerky that we bought yesterday. "The bus driver said we only have a couple of more miles until the next rest stop." I say, looking down at her in the seat. "You might want to get ready to leave."

"I'll be fine darling." She looks at my hands and shudders a little. "How long have you had those tattoos?"

"For like a year. The mafia branded me with these so I would know I could never escape them." I see tears start to form in her eyes. "Why are you crying?" I ask.

"Oh, darling. It's just so awful. The more I get to know you the more I know the horrors that you had to go through. I am very happy you are getting out" She grabs my hand and looks at me. "I hope that after this you can find the happiness that you deserve."

"Thanks." I say as I sit back down in the seat. "I hope I do too." The bus lurches to a stop and I file down the row to rest from the long bus ride.

The rest of the bus ride was very uneventful. I quietly talked with Veronica and the guy who sat in front of us until he left for his location. After a while, we were the only ones left on the bus. It took about two days from when the boy left until we got to where our location was. I was tired, and hungry for some warm food.

As I stepped off the bus, I saw the rolling hills of green grass stretching for miles and miles as far as I could see. I look back at Veronica for her to lead the way to where I would be staying. She lugs all of our luggage off the bus and the bus pulls away, ready to head to the next location to pick up other Witness Protection Program members. Veronica begins rolling the luggage toward a small path big enough for a small car to drive down. We walk for a while, and I begin to see in the distance a small cottage.

The house wasn't particularly memorable. The shingled roof was a deep red, and the walls of the house were a light tan. The garden in the front of the house was abloom with flowers different shades of blue and pink. It looked quaint, like if I wasn't a city girl I would have lived there. Veronica unlocks the door and then steps aside, acknowledging that I was the main person who was living there, not her. Inside, the house was decorated like a quaint little cottage, with all of the necessities one would need in a house. It was much cleaner than my apartment back in New York, and I liked it a lot. Veronica looks at me with pride in her eyes. "Darling," she says "I have to leave sooner than expected. I have to leave in about five minutes instead of staying a couple of hours with you. Before I leave, I have a couple of instructions for you before I leave you." she continues. "There is about a thousand dollars in the drawer next to the fridge for spending. You have to go out sometime tomorrow and get some groceries. There is a phone in the money drawer too, for emergencies only. School starts in two day, please do your best to blend in and act normal. Your life may be counting on it. I think that's all." she reaches in her bag and pulls something out. "I know that blending in may be hard when you have those tattoos on your hands. These are for you." She hands me a pair of glove, the nice fancy kind not the kind that you would wear in the winter time. They were crimson red and looked as if they would match anything that Veronica packed for me. "Hopefully these will help. I wish you the best of luck." I hug her.

"Thanks Veronica. I couldn't have done this without you."

"I'll see you soon darling." And she walks out the door towards the car that had been waiting for her outside the house. Now I was alone.