I Choose You

Chapter Forty Five - Something New Begins

[Goals for the chapter: READS - 1330 // VOTES - 85]

I looked out the window as our truck drove away, speeding down the dirt path. I turned to face Jake, who was laying strapped to a gurney, and smiled. He squeezed my hand as we hit a bump, his leg flying up before plopping back down again. "It's okay," I whispered, watching him.

"I have a secret," he said, eyes darting around. I nodded, "Closer," he said, his lips straining to come closer. I leaned down and put my ear next to his lips, his warm breath tickling my ear. "I," he said, then paused. I looked at him. He shook his head.

"Please," I begged, smiling. I leaned close again, listening to his breathing as it hitched here and there.

"I'm transgender. . ." he said, his face automatically turning bright red.

"Have you seen my YouTube?" I asked, totally brushing off what he had told me.

"Well, yea."

"Then what's to worry?" He shrugged, his face contorting as he relaxed his shoulders. I smiled and looked out the window again at the trees passing by. They blurred together in one mass of green an brown showing just how fast we were moving. I looked back at Jake as he swallowed, tears welling up i his eyes. I shook my head and watched him for a while, taking it all in.

The scene of what happened at thew camp replayed in my head over and over, sending chills through my spine. The dirty disappears all over the floor and the children screaming: everything out of order. The door swinging open and the Black Mask appearing, the way he attacked Jake so mercilessly and lifted him by his shirt and tossed him against the wall so hard that the pictures fell. Then he just left him there and went on hi way of trying to figure who done it instead of worrying about the children and how he treated us or them. Why did it have to be like that? Why did people think they were higher than others just because? I don't want to live in a world where people think they are better than one another. JUst because you're white doesn't mean blacks are lower; just because you're heterosexual desn't mean that you're better than homosexuals; just because you have money or a job doesn't mean you deserve to rule. It doesn't matter who or what you believe in, what sex you are or where you live, you're a person, and a person is a person and that's it. Why can't people understand that? There is so much pain and so little love, it's unbelievable. This isn't the first and won't be the ladt time something like this happens. What if no one cares enough to see it, though? What if it all goes unnoticed? We can't have this, we just can't.

I jumped at the sound of my phone ringing in my pocket. I yanked it out and held up a finger, then let go of Jake's hand and went to the other side of the truck, holding the phone to my ear.

"Hey," someone said - John.

"Hello," I said into the reciever, peering over my shoulder at Jake. He laid there, still.  

"We got news back here."

"Yea?" I asked, biting my nail. It could be a variety of things, and endless list. They could have found someone dead, the could have found Phillip, they could have a real lead, they could find more survivors and so on. There were endless possibilities.

"Actually, good and bad," John said, his voice sounding even.

"Tell me!" I said, trying to hold back the nervousness i was feeling from eaching my voice.

"Well, we found your mom."

"Seriously!?" I asked, standing on my toes.

"Yes. She wants to say hello," he said, then air filled the line.

"No. This is crazy. No."  sound, my heart going at a million beats per second.

"Alex," I heard. I kew that voice anywhere: it was mum. I sucked in a breath, listening to her voice. She sounded scared and tired, but she was there. She was alive.

"Mum," I said, my eyes getting watery again.

"Oh, my God, I'm so happy you're okay. I love you. I, I'm just so happy." she said. I could see her in my head: the way she was pounding her chest where her heart should be and her eyes red because of the tears forming as she tried to hold them back but failed. Gosh, I missed my mum.

"You, too, mum. I love you."

"I love you more, honey. See you soon." Air filled the line again and i took a deep breath, feeling renewed.

"Bad news?" I jumped, John's voice startling me. I felt like I could take anything, that I was the most powerful being - although I new I was not - and that nothing can knock me down. Everything was okay. The camp was freed, everyone was okay, my mum and sister were freed, the children will be cared for as well as everyon else, there was no more on-the-clock work to e done. I felt like the whole universe had been freed, thatall the doves went flying to where they wanted and were no longer kept for magic tricks. That was not the case, though. Just because these people were free, their memory would forever be ingrained wth this nightmare of a reality, and there are so many other people in thid world who are suffering whom I couldn't free. We all have to start somehwhere, though, right? This was one of my starting places. If we could free this many poeple we could do anytghing and crack this case open wider than we ever had before. I know we could.

"Bring it on."

"We haven't found Phillip. . .we think he fled." I felt my stomach drop and my heart skip a beat, but i breathed. We could conquer anything.

"We'll find him, I have no doubts."

And I really didn't.

[A/N: Thank you so much for 1.3k reads & not failing to astound me. I love you all. Thank you, I can't express my gratitude for this, really.

This book is getting closer and closer to the end and it does make me very sad. I really enjoyed writing this and I'm glad I started. I never in a million year thought I'd have over eighty votes and a thousand reads. I was looking at my instagram and saw a post from about 19 weeks ago where I was asking for people to read this because it only had 78 reads. Nowlook at it. Wow. Thank you so much.

-->Feedback?<--

++Do you think they'll ever find Phillip?++]