I'm Always Here For You

CHP23: SURVIVE

Next Morning

AJ did what Tam asked and waiting until the morning. Since Jewel was in a deep sleep it would be hard to get her on her feet. All the pills and shots they took in the days they've been held captive made him ill. Waiting until morning would be the best decision. Early in the morning.

After AJ fell asleep and woke up he started pulling and twisting the rope that Tam had cut. He didn't know what time it was so he didn't know how much time he had left. We got to be out by sunrise, AJ thought to  himself. His wrist began to hurt. His body started to fight him and he dozed off. Waking up hours later he began twisting his wrist again trying to free himself.

He felt the ropes grip getting looser and that excited AJ he started pulling faster. The friction from the rope turned his wrist red. Minutes later he got the rope off his hands. He sat there in shock of happiness. He gasp and slowly lifted his hands and he stared at part of his finger wrapped.

AJ quickly untied Jewel's rope. He saw sunlight slowly peeking through the spaces in the window.

"Jay come on. We gotta go come on. Wake up. NOW." AJ said shaking her.

She blinked her eyes quickly trying to focus. She heard AJ's voice but his face was  blurry. He pulled her wrist avoiding touching her hands. Jewel came to and got up on her two feet. 

AJ slowly opened the door and looked to his left and right. He held Jewel's hand as they ran through the empty house and out the back door. They ran out with their faces stitched up and drops of blood on their shirts.

They ran down the side street with their hearts racing. The sun was just starting spread across the city with a golden light. Dogs barked as the sun rised. AJ remembered he had a great aunt who lived in that area. He remembered she had  a yellow humming bird picture on her front door. AJ and Jewel ran for a few blocks when they reached brown door with a yellow humming bird.

AJ knocked on the door quickly.

"Auntie. Auntie Kat" He continued knocking on the door. You could hear mumbling coming from the inside the house. The door open and the elderly woman in a purple bath robe and a bat crack open the door.

"Who the hell is it?" the peeked through door.

"It's me Auntie. It's me, AJ. Little AJ." He said lowering his face to hers. She looked at him up and down and noticed his hand wrapped up. She swung the door open.

"Nephew, baby what you doing here so early? What happened to yall ? Get in here." she pulled them in, AJ and Jewel's wrist here red  and swollen. They both had stitches on their faces and finger missing on their left hands. They were dehydrated, exhausted, and starving.

They all sat down at the table. Aunt Kat asked some question and they gave her answers. 

"You poor babies." She got up and started cooking some food for them. Hours later Brick and Ebone showed up at the house with fresh clothes. They were welcomed with big hugs squeezing each other. No longer looking at the the brown dirty walls of the abandon house sitting in the smell of old smoke. Jewel and AJ were relieved to have made it out alive.

Jewel took a hot shower watching dirt and blood wash down the drain. She let the hot water cover her body and rinse off the two days she was in that chair. Flashes of Paris and Tyrone faces popped in her head. She looked at he finger unwrapped swollen and stitched. She started crying. When she stepped out the shower she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Focusing on the cut on her face that will soon be a scar. Nearly an hour later Jewel walked out the bathroom. She threw her old clothes in the trash.