Meet Me Halfway (EDITING)

Chapter 9: When They Met Halfway

"Guys, wake up! It's already seven o'clock! We were meant to be out of here by seven, not at seven! Come on, we still have to pack all this up!" Chuck nagged, ripping off Jay and Nate's blanket off, revealing the bodies to the cold and fresh morning air. He threw Vince's dad's watch in Vince's face, in hope to wake him up, although he didn't budge. It just slid down his stomach and onto his side.

"What?!" Jay questioned, suddenly wide awake by Chuck's waking speech. Chuck's dragged his feet against the wooden floorboards. They listened as they creaked under his rocking weight.

"Quick, Vince, we have to go!" Chuck pressured, kicking Vince softly in the leg. Vince rolled to his side, unable to open his eyes.

"Vince! Seriously, man! Hurry up!" Jay yelled, slapping him gently across the cheek. Vince sat up instantly, looking around at the boys one by one.

"Vince, it's seven o'clock! Pack up your things now, because we have to leave to see the house! Then we can get Sarah and go!" Jay scrunched up his blankets and shoved them in his bag unfolded, leaving them with creases and crinkles. He was so sure that she was in there and he was ready to fight the kidnapper, if he was awake in there, too.

"Well, how do we know that the kidnapper isn't in there already?" Vince asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, it's really early! So hopefully he's asleep. I mean, it doesn't look like he's employed if his house looks like a freaking dump!" Chuck stated, dragging his blankets in his own bag.

"It's just to check it out and hopefully to grab her and go! It'll all be in a quick minute if we can manage..." Nate added, hoping to get Vince's attention.

"Come on, man. If I want to be a cop then I would have to do this sort of stuff every day!" Nate said convincingly, looking Vince in the eye.

"Alright," Vince finally stood up from sleeping inside his hidden blankets, and threw his in his bag.

Fifteen minutes later...

The sun seeped through the curtains and the vivid colours in the sun's ray shone in the dark lounge room, straining Sarah's eyes and waking her up from her demeaning, atrocious and awful sleep. She was so uncomfortable and awkward sitting in the chair for hours on end. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sunlight when she heard footsteps coming closer from the hallway.

"Good morning, sunshine," the man said, seething through his chipped and yellow teeth, not to mention earlier that one of them was gold. Her eyes squinted at his figure, which stood in front of the window and the poaching sun. She didn't respond. All she did was give him a death glare. She looked over to the clock that hung crookedly on the wall. The clock ticked to '7:15.'

"Well, it already seems as though you have broken my door. As a punishment for that, I am going to go out and buy a new door, but I will feed you when I come back. I'm already fifteen minutes late. So if you want food, you're going to have to stay put," he ordered, throwing in a chuckle during his speech. He was so disgusting. His idea of kidnapping kids was so fetish. After having a normal and perfect life, Sarah was now his hostage. She looked at him as he made his way to the boxes which he had stacked up after she kicked the door down.

"I'm starving," she mumbled, in awe that she actually had the guts to say that to him. She looked over to the bench, wanting to gesture her way over there. The only thing that was food-related was the same bottle of milk, almost facing the window. Great. Warm milk.

"Oh. Ok," he said in response, letting out a small chuckle. He seemed satisfied that she sat there for the whole night, filthy, famished and parched. That was it? Oh, ok? Her stomach rumbled aloud awkwardly. He made his way on the outside, stacking the boxes up once again as a dead end to keep her locked up inside. Really? If she escaped the chair then she was pretty much out of here. He carelessly threw the last box to shut the gap of air.

The last she heard of him was a mumble of something that sounded like, "That should do it." With an instant, he was off blunderingly, pretty much leaving her free. Well, not entirely free as you could say, but better off than she expected for now.

She rocked on the chair, hoping that her hand could slip out from the tied up knot. She swayed from left to right, trying to balance so she wouldn't fall. She felt weak and unable to move with strength. Her wrists were dripping beads of sweat and the brushing against the rope made her wrists itchy. To her relief from the sweat, one hand had slipped out from the knot. It looked as if she had a tight hair tie around it for a week, cutting off her blood circulation. It kept aching and the numbness didn't ride off straight away.

"Yes," she muttered, blessed that she was able to use one hand. She uncomfortably and awkwardly tried to look behind her to assist her other hand. Suddenly she felt the tightness had been consumed. She was captivated for the first time in more than twenty four hours. She was content when she realised this was her time to run.

She had both of her hands vacant now. All she had to do was untie her feet and she would be free. She would be going out astray. She would be united with her mother in no time. Except she didn't know the way out of the forest. Hopefully she could follow a pathway out, or even better, assist help to any houses nearby - if there were any... She ferociously untied her feet, running her fingers along the surface of her rashes. She could feel them stinging, but once she removed her fingers from them the stinging was no longer in existence.

She finally stood up from the chair, cracking the arch in her back. She straightened from the hunchback, looking over at the warm milk on the bench. Instead, she backed away from the milk. It looked as if it sat there for a week and had been curdling in the sun with lumps forming inside. She opened the cupboards, ready for a breakfast snack before she ran. She needed energy.

She skimmed and scanned through until she found a fresh-looking bright yellow banana in the corner. As much as she didn't want to eat it due to the fact that she didn't know where else it had been, she pushed the thought away and ate it due to the lack of her hunger. Her stomach had slightly been filled, and she started to kick the boxes out of her way swiftly.

All in one moment she heard a thud from the roof. Something had thumped above her. She moved apace, unaware of what was up there, that could possibly be watching. She peeked at the roof, only seeing a few old cracks in the corners with nasty cobwebs covering a few of them. A strange sense came over her, and she felt the need to quicken her movements and pace. She frantically shoved her way through the last boxes in horror, fearful that someone else was there; ready to stop her from escaping. She ran past the wooden fence and the garbage that was scattered all over the man's front lawn. Well, not like there was much of a lawn...

She ran past dozens of trees and up a small hill that led her to being in the centre of another few dozens of trees. She made her way across a pathway, which looked like a small road that led off into the concealed distance, although it was obvious no one drove on this road.

She walked past another few trees and lost, broken and torn off branches to find the little green cabin she had seen before. She remembered it was around here somewhere when she tried to escape the first time. Hopefully this was the last time she would be running away from the dump yard. Hopefully someone was in sight that she could assist help to. She opened the door, and slammed it right behind her - only to see that infact, she was not alone.