New Home, New Hope (On Hold)

For my own safety

Annabella

“Windle, have you noticed the black truck behind us?”  “Of course I have Anna, it’s not once even attempted to go around us.” It’s so strange, I think to myself. Soon enough though, we had changed busses and forgot about the truck. That was, however, until it started following this bus, and Windle and I were the only two who switched busses. “Anna,” Windle looks behind us, then back at me, “the truck. It’s still following us” I try to convince him otherwise, “I’m sure it has nothing to do with us, it’s probably just someone who has to go this way to get home.” Although at this point, I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince more; him, or myself. Thankfully, he didn’t answer right away, giving me just enough time to switch the topic. “So, how are your classes so far?”, I ask him, knowing it’s a topic no where near what he actually want to talk about, but he understands, and complies anyway. “They are good, I really like Mrs. Kelogg and Mrs. Runge. They teach history and science so you know that makes them even better.” Of course I knew, Science was his favorite subject, just like mine was History. “Well what about Math? You still holding your own in that class?” I ask him. We continued to talk about school, and even made our way to friends, his friends mostly, considering I don't really have any. We continued to talk about random things until the bus came to our stop. We get up, and being the gentleman Windle is, he let me out first. We started the walk home, continuing our conversation from the bus, and before we knew it, we were at our house. It feels weird to call it my home, because even though I have lived here for three years, I can’t consider it home. Home is where I last saw my parents alive, home is where I got to see Windle grow up, and where I grew up. Not just somewhere where I live now. As we turned to head in the house I saw the truck out of the corner of my eye, and I froze. But I quickly kept moving, hoping my observant brother didn’t notice, but of course, I should have known better than that. “Anna, go inside and stay there, I need to take care of this.”  “Windle! Wait! Please don’t go over there, you don’t know who-” Wait, I could see the driver…. “Camden!?”  Winde looks at me, telling him i need to explain further. “Camden, the guy from church i told you about today…. that’s him, in the truck.”  He looks at me, before firmly saying, “Annabella, go inside, stay there. I have to take care of something.” All I could do was nod my head. I went inside, as he walked over to the truck. As soon as I got inside, I rushed over to the nearest window, and watched as Windle got in his truck. Oh Windle….. please don’t do anything stupid, you need to be ok. Finally, I can see Windle heading back to the house, but my focus is on the truck still. I watched as Camden slammed his fist on his steering wheel, and then reached down and grabbed something, and I watched as his facial expression changed to a calmer look before driving off. Almost immediately, my phone started ringing, and I look down to see him calling. I was about to answer until I heard Windle’s voice in front of me. “Anna, don’t answer that phone if it’s him. I told him to stay away from us, from you. You don’t need another Nick. Not again. I may be younger than you but I know that this is for your own safety.”