Taken Away

A Normal Trip to a Normal Store

A/N:
Date 6-25-17

Yay! The chapters are back to a normal length! I like it better when they're shorter, but a lot of the time they end up longer XD

Word Count: 2573

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Chapter 34: A Normal Trip To A Normal Store

It only took about 10 minutes to get to the store, or so I thought. I had no cell phone or watch to tell the time, since Ash broke my cell phone during the bus crash incident. I never had gotten around to asking Ash about that. I wondered if Ash had just lost control. And I wanted to know if anyone was seriously injured in the crash. At least I knew that I was the only one who died. I pushed away the questions and told myself that I'd ask Ash another time, when things had calmed down some. We had been running through the woods in a pretty straight forward path. I could probably find my way back to the cabin if I tried really hard.

It turns out that we were only about 8 miles away from a town, which wasn't too far for a vampire to run. We slowed down and started walking normally when we entered the town. The sun was out but it wasn't bugging me and it wasn't glaring down. It felt good along with the cold wind in the air. That's when Ash decided to explain what we would be buying. "Obviously, we need some food. You definitely need clothes so you don't have to keep borrowing mine. And I guess Zane needs some clothes too."  Ash said that last part not too happily. "I don't have any money with me." I said to Ash, feeling completely lame.

He smiled and said, "Don't you think I already know that? I can give you some money and you can pick out a couple of things." I nodded and replied, "And I can get money from my house when no one's home to pay you back." Ash stopped walking and his smile dropped away. "Alicia, I don't think it's a good idea for you to return home. It wouldn't be safe." "Not even when no one's there, just to grab some money?" I questioned. Ash shook his head. "It doesn't matter, you don't have to pay me back. I have plenty of money saved up."

I could tell Ash was trying to change the subject, so I let him. "Okay, I can probably get a job soon so I can buy my own stuff and help with groceries. Since I assume I have to stay with you for awhile?" Ash kept on walking and I easily caught up. "We can talk about that later." I saw I'd accidentally stumbled onto another subject he didn't want to discuss. So it looks like he wants to keep me away from all people, not just my family. I sighed in annoyance but didn't say anything.

I looked around our surroundings, realizing I hadn't studied it for potential threats. I needed to start doing that, just in case. The town had started off with a few tiny neighborhoods, but then branched off into a busy street setting. It looked like a little downtown area with buildings lining the street. They were older looking than I was used to, but I didn't mind. I wasn't ever a girly girl. I enjoyed the city, but didn't need it because I liked the countryside too. We passed a couple of small stores before we got to the biggest one. It was a Walmart.

It struck me as funny that even way out there, wherever this was, there was a Walmart store. I liked that little piece of normality in a small town surrounded by woods. I was just on a normal trip to a normal store, which made me happy. I didn't pay any attention to the small stores on the way to Walmart. "So, what else do we need? Do you need any special shampoo or something?" Ash asked me when we were almost to Walmart. I noticed there weren't too many people out that day, since it was windy and cold. "No." I said incredulously. I couldn't believe he'd just asked me a question like that. Did Ash think I'm a girly girl?