Tracked

Chapter 6

(Edited)

"Becca, come on, be rational. A teenager going after a murderer, you're kidding right?"

"No, I'm serious." I reply, looking him in the eye.

"Becca, that is a job for the police station, not for a teenage girl. This person, whoever they are, has admittedly killed your mother and is planning to do the same to you." Dan states, touching my arm.

"Dan, this isn't going to put me in harm's way anymore than it already would. Think about it, if X is already looking for me, me doing what I can to learn about him is only going to help me."

"But the part about you bringing him down?"

"Well, I'll get to that. But first, it's just about learning all I can about X. Don't worry about it."

"Of course I'm going to worry about it Becca. Of course I'm going to worry because you're involved. Becca, losing you because you went looking for this person that wants to put you six feet under, that's not an option. Please, I can't lose you...you're...everything..." Dan gulps and casts his gaze down, shifting away from me. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..."

"Dan, don't worry, I'm glad I finally know how you feel about me, that makes things easier to understand." I bite my lip, trying to decide if I should tell him how I feel, but I don't just want to say how I feel to piggyback off of him spilling his heart to me. "um...I'm getting cold, can you come back?" I ask, trying to make it obvious that I really want him to stay with me because I love him, but my tongue won't work with me to voice those feelings.

"Of course," he replies, smiling a little before moving back beside me.

"I want to keep reading the file, can you help me hold it?" I ask, causing Dan to glance curiously at me.

"Are you sure Becca? I don't want to see you upset again."

"I'm sure, I want to learn as much as I can." I reply, nodding my head. A sigh escapes his lips, but he leans over to the coffee table and grabs the papers anyways. "Thank you." I mumble, taking the file from his hand and leaning the back of my head against his chest. Taking a deep breath, I open the file once more.

While I read, the warmth from Dan's body spreads over me and the drowsiness from crying begin to make my eyelids droop. As this begins to happen, Dan reaches around to help me keep a grasp on the file. Even so, keeping my eyes open is a struggle and eventually, I succumb to the exhaustion that envelopes me.

'My eyes open wide and I look around, trying to figure out where I am. Quickly, the rusty beams above my head and boxes surrounding me help me to understand that I am in an old warehouse. But what's going on, my brain comes up with nothing. To my left I see a ramp down to the main level of the warehouse and I walk down it into the maze of boxes. Running my hand across them, I feel the dusty coat my fingertips before yelping as a piece of wood penetrates my skin. Looking down, I use my teeth to wrench the splitter out of my index finger. A door slams shut, and I spin around as an adult man walks towards the middle of the building. Taking a second glance at the face of the man I gasp. MY DAD! My throat tightens as I'm about to call out to him, to figure out what's going on when a door closes off to my left for a second time. Dad turns around, his eyes widening in surprise, his gun raised.

"Sarah! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here." My head whirls around and I whimper, tears brimming around my eyes, but I blink them back. My mother stands less than 15 feet in front of my father. He lowers his gun and returns it to his hoister. My mother rushes over and into his embrace, which I watch from behind the boxes, two aisles behind them. "You have to leave now. I'm going to take care of you, nothing is going to happen to you Sarah, I promise. Wait a second-how did you find me?"