Dark Places

Chapter Four

I run my fingers through my hair. I’m a mess, I’m tired, I’m cold, and I’m sure I’m probably starving by now. It was stupid of me to run away without more supplies.

I’m pretty sure running away was the right decision for me, though. Maybe I can humor this guy for a while, and when he turns his back I can sneak away. I’m pretty good at sneaking. I’ve had lots of practice. I had to sneak around for a couple months before I couldn’t take Raymond’s crap anymore and I left.

Now I sneak around, hiding from the police and people. I let out a soft sigh. “Okay, I’ll come.” I say as I grab my backpack and push my arms through both straps this time; I don’t want anyone to snag it again.

“Okay, good. I was worried you would say no.” He turns and starts walking, towards the street. I follow behind him, but keep a good foot and a half between us.

He stops and turns around. He shakes his head, like he’s confused. “What? But I didn’t hear you behind me….” He definitely sounds confused. “How’d you do that?”

I twist my fingers in my hand, nervously. “Um… I’ve had lots of practice. I guess walking quietly all the time became a habit.” I say softly. I’ve always needed to keep quiet; so Raymond wouldn’t know where I was in the house.

Most of the time it didn’t work, he found me anyway. Sometimes, when he wasn’t really looking for me, he wouldn’t find me.

“Who taught you?” He asks.

“Taught me what?” I realize after I asked that that he’s asking who taught me how to walk so quietly. “Oh… um… my father did.” I say just above a whisper. I can’t keep all the emotion from my voice as tears well up in my eyes.

When we were playing hide and seek he taught me how to keep quiet when I walked so I didn't give away my position.

Letting my hands fall to my side, I push down the emotions swirling around my head; threatening to impale the wall I’ve put up.

I’m not sure if he heard the emotion in my voice; if he did he doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, he holds out his hand to me. I hesitate once again.

“With you walking so silently I can’t have you getting lost or getting too far behind. I’d like to know where you’re at.” He pauses. “Ok, that sounded kind of creepy.”

I almost chuckled, but instead I grab his hand. Without saying a word, he tightens his grip a little and we start forward. “It’s not that long of a walk; only about ten maybe fifteen minutes.” He glances down at me. “Think you can handle that long of a walk?”

I don’t think he’s mocking me; saying I’m too fragile to walk that long. He sounds genuinely concerned.

“I’ve gone farther.” Way farther. Wait, I shouldn’t have said that.

He’s silent as we walk out of the park and onto a sidewalk beside the street, only a few cars pass. “How far?” He asks quietly.

My heart stops as I consider between answering him truthfully, ignoring him, or telling him a lie. “Few hundred miles.” I say quietly, I’m not sure he heard me because he’s quiet again.

“That’s pretty far.” He says. I trip on a bump in the sidewalk, but he catches me before I fall. “You know, for a girl who can walk quietly, you aren’t very graceful.” He teases. He rights me and pulls his arm away from my stomach once he’s sure I’m stable, grabbing my hand again.

“I never said I was graceful.” I mumble.

He snorts and begins walking again. After a few minutes he speaks up. “What else can you do? Besides walk quietly.”

I think about his question. I can’t do a lot of things. “I used to be able to play the cello.”

“You quit? You don’t seem like the quitting type.” He states.

My father taught me how to play the cello. But I stopped. Not playing the cello for a couple months has made me somewhat forget how to play.

“Yeah… I quit.” I speak over my thoughts. I don’t really want him to know about my past. I ran away from it. End of story.

I thought he was going to ask me why, but, once again, he surprises me. “Did you like playing the cello?”

I think back to all the music concerts I did. I think about my music teacher; she was nice, I think about the friends I made; or thought I made. They turned out to be real jerks when I needed them the most.

“Yeah.” I answer back as simply as possible.