The World Through Various Eyes

[9] Escape (Jade's POV)

I whipped out my cell phone and turned the brightness setting to maximum to guide the way. By then I had gotten my fill of the bleak darkness that had surrounded me so much in the previous moments. Fairly ironic given my childhood dream, wasn't it?

Thought so.

By then I hoped my mother wasn't worrying too much about my absence. The thought crossed my mind at that particular moment for the first time since I awoke. You'd think that would be the first thing that occurred to me upon waking up, but I guess not. Getting my priorities straight should have been one of those priorities, but I had others to attend to.

I kept messing with my phone, frustration breweing everytime I gave it a command and it didn't respond accordingly. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, but at that point, I didn't care. I was desperate. I didn't know much about how my phone worked, let alone any technology, so I guess I was hoping for a lucky breakthrough. As part of me predicted, nothing ended up working.

"Well that eliminates that possibility," I muttered under my breath.

Christopher whipped around, looking over his shoulder and flashing me a quizzical look. To answer his unspoken question, I responded promptly.

"No reception," was my reply, begrudgingly gesturing to the lack of bars in the left corner of the device.

Stashing my phone in my pocket haphazardly, I continued in the way of the exit, my steps followed by the usual clomping of the tall leather boots. Christopher followed nervously, tugging on the strings of his hoodie and coughing intermittently while trailing behind my lead. His confidence seemed to be a transient matter, and at this moment, it had obviously passed. It was most likely that he could only keep the act up for so long. Sometimes he'd act all confident and sure of himself, and it was almost enough for me to be sure of him, too. But it was times like this that made me see through his facade.

He sure was a confusing one.

It was sort of adorable, watching him try to appear all arrogant and reassured, when I knew it wasn't truly how he felt all the time. How did he feel all the time? It would be fascinating to know his thoughts, see what goes on in that head of his, and understand his reasons for compensating.

Weird, but fascinating.

Not too long after, we reached the double doors. Besides our cell phone back lights, the only illumination provided came from the bright, artifical green light shiny above the doors ahead.

Christopher caught up with me and stood at my side, resting his arm by gripping his opposite elbow. Moment of truth. I extended my scrawny, thin arm and applied pressure to the horizontal pushing mechanism attached to the door.

Victory! I, Jade Randolph, heaved a monumental sigh of relief as the door on the right opened just as I planned. This made things a lot less complicated than they could have been. As usual, Christopher shuffled silently.

The brisk cold immediately whipped my face, the harsh wind being the driving force to my body's sudden drop in temperature. A sliver of a moon was visible above, with stringy clouds overlaying it as they passed by the only illumination obvious in the sky. The door closed behind us with a click. I checked, out of sheer paranoia, that I had my bag.

There it was, right on my shoulder, the strap going across my chest and the bag ending at my hip. Exactly where it should be. And thank God for that!! I had a feeling that the library had locked behind us the second I hear that click, so even if I had left it, there would be no option to retrieve it until morning.

And there we were. I rested my dry, bony hand on the buckle of the purse. My dark brown eye shifted its focus to Christopher, while my green one stayed looking straight ahead. He was now walking parallel to me, his hands shyly stuffed into his hoddie pocket.

"It feels weird... being out this late," the male to my left responded, breaking the silence that had previously been filled by the sound of the howling wind, and the bare trees that it rustled.

I glanced at my watch. 12:24am. Great, I no doubt had sufficiently scared my mother by my lack of return.

"Do you live close?"

"Not really. Do you?" his voice mused in a light and friendly tone, emphasizing that last word.

I shrugged, simultaneously kicking a pebble with the toe of my boot.

"I can walk, I'll be fine."

I started towards the direction of my house, but Christopher stopped me abruptly, extending his hand and lightly reaching for the inner part of my arm to get my attention.

He released my arm once he had it, and blushed a bit, hiding his face in his collar. The street lamps to the left of our shadows illuminated his figure, which contrasted with the bright landscape of vibrant green grass in the background.

An electric blue flash of eyes frozen in time bore into my gaze, watching intently.

Neither of us moved- neither of us dared to break the silence held between our eyes.

Hey reader! Thanks for reading my latest chapter in "The World Through Various Eyes"! If you enjoyed it, make sure to comment your thoughts about the book's plot so far, and your opinions on it in general. Also, if you think it deserves it, make sure to vote for it! Thanks again!

~DistantDreams (Claire)