Deep Waters

Chapter One

A lot can happen during a lifetime.

Actually, a lot is supposed to happen during a lifetime. That's just how it is. But, at this point in time, I was beginning to think that my life wouldn't follow that norm. Honestly, how could it when my life is filled with so much chaos?

As of right now, I was thinking that maybe my whole life would be spent running from the man that wanted to kill me. He's dedicated—I'll give him that much credit. He's been at this for a long time now and doesn't seem to want to stop anytime soon.

It's been over a year since he killed my mother. Three-hundred-eighty-six days to be exact. It has also been one-hundred-fifty-seven days since my father, Charles Rose, was caught and arrested for his crimes. But it has only been thirteen days since he stole keys from a prison guard, escaped his cell, and ran for it—injuring thirteen people on his way out. Then, he completely disappeared without leaving a single trace.

How did he do it? I don't know, and I don't think anybody does, at least not yet anyway. But this was the second time in thirteen months that this man had managed to disappear, and the thought chilled me. After escaping from him, I had been able to live the last five months of my life in peace. But apparently, it wasn't enough because he was after us once again.

My friends and I were currently on our graduation trip. We were traveling from state to state, stopping every time we came across an interesting attraction. Usually, you plan in detail exactly what you are doing on trips like these, and you pick out all the activities and attractions you want to do and see, then you go. But you see, we didn't plan this much at all. Between myself, Gavin, Aria, Holden, and Kason, we couldn't agree on anything. Each of us had picked out a few places that we wanted to stop at, like a haunted hotel and a zip lining course, and we were just going to make sure we did them within the next week while stopping spontaneously at attractions we passed on the highway.

While we were all excited, Daniel wasn't too keen on the idea of letting us go on a trip by ourselves right after Charles escaped. He tried to stop us from going and planned a little celebration himself, but his idea of a graduation trip was a short bonfire behind his house. Now while a bonfire sounds like a lot of fun, it isn't exactly what we had in mind when we said we wanted to take a little vacation after we got out of high school. After a short while of arguing, and a whole lot of persuasion, Daniel agreed to let us go on a graduation trip, but there was a catch. We were being followed and watched by two undercover policemen. He didn't want us out of his radar, but with everything that had happened and what was still going on, I couldn't really blame him.

"I can't believe we leave for college in two months," Aria's voice admitted through the speakerphone.

"Less than two months," Kason corrected her.

Kason and I were currently riding in his black, Dodge Charger, following Holden, Aria, Gavin, and Marla in Holden's Jeep. Originally, we were going to rent a bigger vehicle and all ride together, but all our luggage wouldn't fit in one car, thanks to Aria who filled three tote bags with her stuff, so we decided that two cars would do us just fine. Half the time we were on the road, Kason had our friends on speaker phone, which was constantly draining his battery. Daniel had already chided us twice for having a dead phone while he was trying to contact us, but Aria insisted that we remained on the phone with them, so it was like we were all in the same place. Kason didn't seem to mind the nagging from his dad; if anything, he chose to ignore it ninety percent of the time.

"Gavin, have you and Delilah decided on anything about college?" Holden's voice came through the phone.

Well, somewhat. We both had been accepted into a couple of universities, Gavin with all honors, but neither of us knew what we wanted to study, so we never compared colleges or accepted any admissions. Furthering my education should have been a thought that had been lingering in my mind for the past four years, but I had always been living in the present, trying to find a way to save myself and my brother.