In Hiding (Published!)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Austin, what is it? You can tell me." My eyes flickered from his hands tightening on my arms,  to his eyes boring into mine.

  Austin glanced out the window, and it seemed as if everything went in slow motion. One minute, I was sitting in Austin's arms, and the next we were flat on our stomachs on the carpeted floor. Austin started screaming, "Go, Casey, Go!" and my hands flew up in front of my face to block the shards of glass now flying all over my room. That's when I really started hearing things.

   "Austin, who's Casey!?" He dragged my arm out into the hall, and down the front stairs quickly. I tried to pull back, but he was much, much stronger then me. The gun shots were flying everywhere, class was popping out of windows, and the house felt like it was falling apart.

   The gun shots were loud. I ripped my arm from Austin's grasp, and fell to the floor, covering my ears. What was happening?

  "Casey, there's no time! We have to go now! I promise I'll explain everything soon! Let's go!" He tugged at my arms and pulled me back to my feet. He dragged me into the kitchen, and we escaped out the back door. Gunshots were still flying where the eye couldn't see. I saw people running from their houses, thinking who ever was shooting was aiming at them. 

   I followed Austin to the car in front of my home, and we jumped inside.

  "Austin, please tell me what's going on!" I was out of breath, my lungs felt over-worked. But I forced the words out of my mouth, probably using the last good breath I had in me. I shook Austin's shoulder as he sped down the street way past the speed limits.

  "I told you, I cannot explain right now, but I promise you, I will explain it once we're safe." Austin squeezed my hand, and I took my hand off his shoulder. I sat back in the seat with my head down low, terrified. Why was someone shooting at us?

*****

  Miles away, hours away, Austin parked the car in a deserted parking lot in the middle of nowhere. He smacked his hands on the steering wheel, and started looking around the area. He finally sighed, and closed his eyes. I waited.

  "Austin, I'm tired of waiting. Bring me back home. The dude shooting probably got the wrong house. Wrong person. I have to call my mom, where's my cell..." I started feeling around me, on my jeans, in my boots, and on my sweater, and finally I felt a bump in my sweaters pocket, and pulled out my blue cased Blackberry phone. I strolled through the contacts, and finally found Mom's number.

   Austin grabbed my phone, took out the battery, and threw both pieces out of the open window.

 "Austin, what the hell is wrong with you?!" I shoved my hand through the door handle, and was about to run around screaming, looking for my phone, when Austin clicked the door lock, and blocked it from my reach.

  "Do you want me to explain or not?" Austin sounded unreasonably calm. He folded his hands over his chest, and looked out of the window until I finally sighed, and turned back to him. He slowly turned his head back to me.

  "Okay, first things first, you absolutely cannot get that phone back, or any phone back, for the matter. Too easily tracked. Secondly, we're not going back home, ever. That's not even your house. Thirdly, your name is not Rebeckah, it's Casey. Mine? Mine is not Austin, my name is Jess. I know this may sound absolutely crazy to you, and I know you're probably really scared right now, and I understand, because I am too. Oh, and one last thing, you're my sister. Flesh and blood sister." Austin - Jess finished with a sigh, and he turned his head away from me.

 All I could do was stare. I stared at him until my brain started running again, and I could speak.

  "Wait... so you're saying you're my brother? We're related? That's crazy," I giggled. "there's no way we can be related. My name is Rebeckah, and your name is Austin. We live in Miami, we go to Jon Cathreil High school, we're best friends, and we are not related." I crossed my arms, and really tried to force myself to believe it. When Austin didn't say anything back to me, I sighed and put my head in my hands.

  "It's true, isn't it? You're really my brother... and I'm really Casey... you're really Jess...?" I turned my head on the side, so I could see the way his face turned from strong, worthy Austin, to a scared, worried Jess. "Tell me why. What happened?"

  Jess started to tell the story, and I listened without interruption.

 "We were kids. Very young. You were too young to remember, so that's why I remembered, and you didn't. Our dad was on a business trip, so it was just us. You, myself and mom. Well, we decided to go to the park that morning, but we took a different route. A shortcut through the woods. A pretty path with birds chirping, and bugs crawling. We were happy. We were also the only 3 on the path." He wiped the sweat off his forehead, and took a breather. This part seemed harder to tell.

  "After a bit, we heard yelling. A man was yelling something at this other man, and we went a little farther, hoping to ignore it. Mom was trying to rush us through it, since they were speaking in such that was too strong for our little ears, as she used to say." He laughed here, and almost kept the smile on before continuing.

  "We were almost at the end of the path, when we heard shuffling, and the man being yelled at ran out in front of us. He looked frightened. His eyes were opened wide, and he tried to shoo us along faster, as he knew exactly what was going to happen next. But he was too late, he was still in front of us when the gun sounded, and he fell to the ground. Mom couldn't get the stroller you were in around him, so we started to turn around. She ran and told me to follow her as fast as I could. She told me not to be scared. But I was terrified. We went the longer way, so the man eventually caught up with us..." He sounded like he was choking, and I realized he was almost sobbing. I lifted my hand, and rested it on his arm, urging him to keep going.

   He nodded, "You're right, you have to know this. After he jumped out in front of us, mom told me to take you out of the stroller, and get behind her. I did exactly that. The man started asking her what she saw. He was smiling. But it was very evil. Like a madman. She kept assuring him that she saw nothing, and that she had no idea what he was talking about. She asked him to move along so she can get her children home, and rested. Our mother is an amazing liar when she needs to be. She tried to walk around him, dragging me and you with her. He didn't follow, just slipped back into the woods. Well, that's what we thought, anyway.

    "After we made it home, mom started putting things into bags. Not certain things, just our clothes, but she would just open the drawers, pick out a pile, and shove it in the bags. When I asked her what she was doing, she just said we were going on vacation for awhile. When I asked her where, she said Aunt Jude's house.

   I was excited, so I started to help her. As we were doing it, you started whining about losing the sookie out of your mouth, so mom went to fetch it for you. That's when the gunshots started. I was too young to know what they really were, so I just ran to you and mom, she was running toward me. She scooped me up, and then she sent us away. She told us if anything happened to us, we were to report back to Aunt Jude's house, and that would be where she would be waiting. Well, that's where we're going."