𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 | 𝙅𝙅 𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯

     LAST NIGHT I ran until I found somewhere to hide and it just so happened to be that shed I found the day I went missing. By the time I'd gotten there I couldn't hear the sirens anymore but every so often I would hear the odd round. I couldn't tell if it was my imagination though, my ears just ringing because I'd been subjected to hearing the damn sound for so long that it was imprinted in my memory now or not.

I locked myself in the small shed and I hid as far as I could into the corner and pulled my knees tightly to my chest, holding JJ's jumper to my nose and inhaling the scent of it to try and keep myself calm.

I was on edge. I don't think I'd ever felt so anxious in my life and I had to constantly remind myself to breathe normally, in through the nose and out through the mouth. My breaths were rapid, they were staggered and there were several times where I thought I was going to have a panic attack.

I dreaded each hour that passed when I checked the time on my phone, the cell now without a SIM card after I tossed it last night. As I watched the hours pass the sun was rising somewhere, reminding me that the next battle was going to be as twice as hard.

Trying to evade the police in the dark had already proved hard enough but in the light? God, I was going to have to be downright lucky if I was going to have any chance of making it to the dock by the dump without being caught.

Especially on foot.

When the sun eventually did rise I didn't leave the shed, not even when I heard the sound of a helicopter flying over me. Instead I just squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, that feeling of impending doom punching me hard in the stomach.

If they had helicopters out looking for us now we were actually screwed.

I never saw myself as a pessimist but at the moment I couldn't help it. I'd used all my hope and positive thoughts when we were finding the Merchant and her gold, now I'd ran out of that.

I didn't honestly know how I was going to get half way across the island undetected without passing out from lack of food, drink and sleep or being shot dead. My weak legs were a reminder of the lack of rest I'd had, lactic acid swimming around in my muscles from all the running I'd done. My dry mouth reminded me I hadn't had a drink since yesterday morning or food since Wednesday.

It was Friday now.

I felt like the world was against me, like I wasn't supposed to get away from this. Almost as if it was my fate to actually get arrested and go down for murder.

I shook my head to myself and rested my forehead on my knees. My old English teacher had once held me back after the lesson had ended. It was one of those rare days that John B and JJ turned up to school and the three of us just sat at the back of the class and messed around, creating a disruption. When I stood in front of my teachers desk after she released the rest of the class and my two best friends she warned me that I needed to find myself some better people to hang around with. She warned me that if I stayed with John B and JJ I'd find myself on the same path as them.

I understood fully what she was saying to me. I was fourteen so it was only two years ago and it was around the time we started getting caught by security guards for trespassing or something little like that. I remember clearing my throat and telling her there was no way I'd end up on that part and neither would either of my friends because we were better than that.. yet here we were.

All three of us were on said path, John B and I much further down it than what JJ was and we were stuck. JJ wasn't — yet. He still had time to turn around and walk back up that path and onto a right one but for John B and I? Well, the end of the path was life in jail and with every passing second we scooted closer and closer towards the end.