Forever Running

Forever Running | Chapter Seven

"We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

***

My eyes fluttered open.

My vision blurred slightly causing me to blink several times.

Where was I?

What happened?

Did I blackout?

I remembered the sharp pain I got on my left arm. The hands that attempted to strangle me.

The boy's face.

I sat up straight from lying on the ground. It was no longer cold, and I didn't have the familiar feeling of my bag on my back. Wherever I was, it was pitch black. I tried to feel around the ground, but my hands were tightly tied together. I tried to move my feet but they were also tightly tied. I attempted a scream, but my mouth was taped shut.

I was trapped, robbed and kidnapped. My mind began to wander instantly. Thinking both rationally and irrationally. I started to think of the many ways my life would shortly end. I was hungry so I would say I would die of hunger in about five days. I hadn't drank much water so cut that into three days. If the boy came back for me, he could either rape me and murder me, or just murder me. So down to a few hours.

I heard a large door open and close. I froze in fear. Okay, I'm going to die in two minutes then, I thought.

Footsteps made there way in front of me. I heard some kind of shuffle, assuming my murderer just sat down. This was followed by a long pause of silence.

The lights turned on.

It took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the light. When I got a clear vision, I long chill slithered down my back. The room was small. About the size of a bedroom. Along the walls were young people standing against it. By young, I mean young. They all looked under the age of sixteen. They were all different. different ages, races, heights, weights. But what they all had in common was how they all stood still and watched me with the same eager look in their eyes. What shocked me even more was that some of them were armed. Children, armed.

The boy was sitting in front of me.

The same one who attacked me.

I shuffled backwards, trying to get distance between me and the boy, as if that would miraculously save my life.

He looked about sixteen or seventeen years old. As he moved closer I saw his eyes. Green eyes. So green, they could pass for emerald. They matched perfectly with his dark blonde hair. His eyes seemed bottomless yet strangely intense. I stared back at him with a great amount of fear. For a second, I thought I saw them soften a bit, almost as if he was regretful of what he'd done by kidnapping me. But the look disappeared as fast as it came, leaving hard and returned intense.

He turned his head to the door but kept his body in the same position. He mumbled something to a girl near the door. She nodded her head and left the room. He turned back to me and gave me a small smile. He had full lips that curved perfectly when he smiled. What stood the most was that on his perfect face was the small scar on his right cheek.

His hand, that once held a death grip on my neck, touched my cheek. I flinched but he lifted his hand and slowly waved it letting me he meant no harm...yet. He was wearing a muscle shirt that exposed his well built arms. They had bruises and scars scattered across them. They proved that he had to fight to get we're he was. It showed strength and power, The two aspects you needed to survive.

The two aspects you need to kill.

His hand touched my face again. He began rubbing my cheek. The children lined up against the wall watched closely. I tried to move away again but he didn't stop. I noticed he was trying to rub off the dirt from my cheek. When he got enough off of me, he moved even closer. I began to shake, imagining the unspeakable thinks he was about to do to me.