Caged In

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

            A bullet whizzed past Alyce’s ear, but she refused to look back. It would only hold her back from her freedom. She ran recklessly, not even paying attention until suddenly an arm grabbed her and started to tug her sideways. She started screaming, but it didn’t matter, because whoever was holding on to her put their other hand over her mouth.

            “If I let go, promise me you won’t scream?” It was a boy’s voice. A teenage boy’s voice. Before even thinking, Alyce nodded, just relieved it wasn’t the old man who was holding her. The hand moved slowly away from her mouth, and Alyce turned around to face the stranger. He had short brown hair, and was wearing a white tank and jean shorts. “So what is a girl like you doing in the woods?”

            Alyce wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by ‘a girl like you’, but she ignored it. She stopped staring at the boy and realized that she really was in the woods. “It’s a long story. You probably wouldn’t believe me anyways.”

            “Oh yeah? Try me,” he challenged, crossing his arms.

            Alyce sighed. “I barely know you.”

            “Okay, fine. My name’s Cameron, I’m 15, and I go to Ridgemont High School. Your turn.”

            Alyce wasn’t even sure where to start, but she all she knew was that she wanted to get out of the woods as quickly as possible. “Could we maybe go somewhere else?” And before she knew it, she was in standing in front of a mansion.

            “Home sweet home,” he sighed.

            “This is your house?” Alyce pointed.

            He rocked back and forth on his flip-flop covered feet. “Yup.”

            Alyce laughed a short laugh. “Wow. It’s amazing how you can say that so casually.”

            “Whoa, look. I’m not getting such a great vibe from you. If you want, you can just go run back off into the woods.”

Oh yeah? Well I’m not getting such a great vibe from you either, she wanted to say. But she didn’t. “I’ve been through a lot already today, okay?” She paused, and looked to her right. There was even a golf course right next to the mansion. “How about we go over there,” she pointed to the golf course, “and I’ll explain.”

            “Alright.” Cameron grabbed her wrist as they walked over to the golf course. He sat down and patted the ground in from of him.

            Alyce sat down and sighed. Suddenly, piles of words were tumbling out of her mouth. Cameron sat back and just listened as Alyce went on for 5 minutes explaining her life in the man’s basement. “I don’t even know how long I was there. What’s today?”

            Cameron tugged his smartphone out of his pocket and clicked a button. “April 10th.”

            “Well, last I checked it was February 4th. And last time I had a calendar was the day he took me.” Alyce laughed. “I didn’t even know whether I was still 16 or if I’d had a birthday!”

            Cameron leaned forward so that he wasn’t leaning back on his hands. “Well, are you still 16?”

            “Yeah. My birthday’s June 14th.”

            “So, this guy has like 20 kids in his basement?”

            “Yeah, I know. Crazy right? But I can’t help feeling guilty that my friends are still there.”

            “We could help them, but then I think we would both be trapped. Either that or dead,” he said, pulling a pack of Skittles out of his pocket. He ripped it open and popped one in his mouth. “Want one?” Cameron asked, sticking the Skittles up to her face.

Alyce laughed. “Careful, let’s not cut my open my eye with the thing.” She took a red one a crunched on it. “That’s a lot better than what we had to eat in the basement. You can only have a grilled cheese sandwich so many times in your life.”

            Cameron laughed. “How did he even have that much bread and cheese to do that? Why would you want to do unnecessary work?”

            “I don’t know. I have this feeling that after he took me, maybe he wanted to just get rid of us, but he figured we might tell the police and have him arrested once he freed us.”

            “Well, now that you’re free, couldn’t you do that?”

            “I don’t even know how far I ran, Cameron,” she sighed. She grabbed another Skittle. “I don’t know the address or his name, either.”

            “Oh.”

            “Yeah.”

            They sat in silence and finished off the rest of the Skittles within 5 minutes. Alyce stood up and felt lonely again. What was she going to do? Live in the woods for the rest of her life?

            As if an answer to her question, Cameron asked, “Want to live at my house? I’d have to keep you a secret, but I could make it work.”

            Alyce thought the idea over. Couldn’t she just go home? She could give Cameron her address and…no. Alyce was supposed to stay a secret. Then she realized, maybe going home would just cause problems. Her mom would probably hit her harder and longer than she had before. “Yeah. I’ll live with you.” She smiled. “Thanks, Cameron. It means a lot.”

            Cameron flashed a smile. “No problem.”

            It was then that Alyce realized that Cameron’s smile looked exactly like Blake’s.