The Sky Never Ends

Escape

  Hours had past since everyone had retired to their beds and the house became silent. Each moment laying in silence Selah could hear the deafening sounds of her heart beat in her ears. They seemed thunderous enough to wake the whole house. 

   Selah was working hard to compel herself to arise out of her bed. She was giving herself mental encouragement that her weak body lacked. It felt as if her body was chained to her bed. 

   She counted to one-hundred silently to herself three separate times before she finally willed herself off her bed, it was time for her to take the first step to her escape. 

   Leaving the house while Noah was sleeping was going to be extraordinarily difficult for Selah. He wasn't known to be a heavy sleeper and there were no heavy winds nor a storm to drown out any of the creaks and cracks of the wood structured house. 

   Selah had left all of her skirts off in a pile in her room, for the next few weeks she wouldn't be needing them. She placed Noah and Sam's note's neatly on the center of her bed. She knew that was where they would look first so she saved them the trouble of going on a quest searching for her. 

   She had on a pair of Noah's russet colored trousers. They were extremely helpful in making sure she silently yet adeptly ambled down the stairs. It was her first time wearing trousers, she couldn't believe how comfortable and liberating they were. Much easier to get around in than layers of skirts ready to trip you up at every chance.

   She would check every few seconds to make sure she hadn't disturbed Noah's sleep then would continue barefoot through the eerily quite house. Her heart beating in her ear was like a rapid metronome, timing how quickly she was going. 

   She tiptoed through the main floor and reached for the back door handle. She prayed to God that the door hinges wouldn't squeak. She'd noticed the hinges squeaking about a month earlier and asked Samuel for some oil to fix it, somehow it got back to Noah and he was sure to fix it and oil the hinges up before that night was over.

  The doorknob was twisted ready to pull and open, Selah looked over her shoulder quickly to make sure she was still alone, then slowly pulled the heavy wooden door towards herself. The faintest squeak rang out through the air and Selah paused. On a normal day it would hardly be noticeable, but in silence in the middle of the night? She wasn't sure. 

She waited for a few moments then ushered herself through the door into the night.

   Earlier, after everyone had eaten and she was washing dishes, Selah left her sack with all her necessities hidden beside the house underneath some empty crates.  She grabbed the burlap rucksack searching through the contents on the top for the heavier men's work shirt she had also stolen from Noah. 

   She threw the shirt on her body leaving it untucked, hiding the top of her much too large trousers that were held up with a thick cord of rope tied in a knot around her waist.

   She didn't have time to brush and detangle her hair to style it into sleek braid, so she settled for separating each half of her hair and rolling them into twist. She pinned either side tightly against her head a few inches above her ears. She threw on Noah's woolen cloth cap that encased her pinned up tresses. 

   Her goal was too look as poor and as many as possible. She was a thin petite girl, a few inches over five feet. Not the most intimidating of humans in this world. She managed to collect a few tools she could use, a few knives, and one machete she could use as weapons that wouldn't weigh her down too much. 

   She looked at her reflection in the window, the moon illuminating her profile. She wasn't quite satisfied, so she bent down and got some soil on her hands rubbing it on her cheeks and forehead. She slid on the boots she'd gotten from the brothel that she'd only worn a couple of times on her feet and threw her rucksack over her shoulders.