The Yellow House

Chapter 10: Return

Dan’s POV

We’re still running, but I can’t hear anything over the pounding of my heart in my chest, our feet making dulls thuds as they hit the ground, and our rapid, panicky breathing. Kait is in front of me, sounding winded. But Anna’s trailing behind, I can tell. Whenever I look around, she’s falling further and further behind us. Until I look around, and she’s not there, someone caught her.

“Kait!” I cry, hardly able to talk through my fear.

“What?” she calls from in front of me.

“Anna’s gone.” I say, slowing down to a walk.

“WHAT?” She asks, spinning around, as she stops running. “What do you mean?”

“Whoever was chasing us…” I wheeze. “They got her.”

“Oh no.” Kait says, and she runs back in the direction of the way we came.

Reluctantly, I follow her, and I watch her run into the trees, shouting. “Anna! Anna! ANNA!” She’s calling for her, and though I can only hear a trace of emotion in her voice, what I can hear is fear. She’s afraid.

And then it happens. “Anna! ANNA! An-.” Her cries are abruptly cut off. Before I even know what I’m doing, my feet are propelling me forward, towards her and Anna, towards whatever lies just beyond the tree line. And I must go, I must save Kait.

And Anna. I think to myself.

I run into the trees, blindly looking around for any sign of either of them. But all I see are footprints, and the marks of someone being dragged. I get the eeriest feeling that I’m not alone. No, there’s something or someone else here. Not just me. Then as I’m about to open my mouth and yell for the two of them, something hard hits me on the back of the head. I black out before I even hit the ground. Because whoever got Anna and Kait… has got me too.

I wake up in a silent room, and the view out the window is one I’ve become all too accustomed to. I groan to myself, not sure if it’s out of annoyance, or the throbbing pain in my head causing me to be unable to think clearly. But where are-? I hear a scream, it sounds too high to be Kait, so it must be Anna.

Anna.

I sit up, looking around. I’m in the orange bedroom, and the door is closed. I’m not chained to the bed. In fact, I don’t see any restraints or anything. What’s going on? Then the door opens. A sneering man with a scar stretching down his face, and a sneer that could scare a grown man, dressed all in black, opens the door.

“Hello Mr. Sawyer, we’ve been waiting for you to wake up.” He says in a voice that makes my skin crawl.

“Where’s Kait?” I ask, determined.

“Stop talking and stand up, Mr. Sawyer. You’re coming with me.” He says calmly, paying no mind to my question.

“I want to see Kait.” I say.

“Oh you will. Soon enough.”

I warily follow him down the hallway, to the door to… the master bedroom. Of freaking course. I think. Damn.

Inside, chained to opposite walls, are Kait and Anna. It’s like being in a horror movie, only I can’t escape. Kait doesn’t seem to have any new wounds, but Anna… “Oh God, Anna!” I say. I turn to him. “What did you do to her?” She’s beaten, although not too badly.

“She resisted. She fought back. We don’t like feisty little girls.” He said.

“Well.” I say, determined not to look at my blood-stained, bruised and battered friend, because if I do, I’ll be sick. “You clearly chose the wrong two females in the world to mess with. My girls are the feistiest ones out there.” And despite myself, I smile.