Through A Lost Soul ✔

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

A/N from here on out it will occasionally switch between Sophie and Charlie, but will mostly remain in Charlie's point of view.

Sophie's heart had been racing for minutes now. She heard Charlie and Jackson. They were there with her. They were helping her escape, but as the opportunity finally showed itself, she couldn't figure out what to do.

Amanda and Julia were nowhere to be seen. They'd disappeared just before Charlie and Jackson walked down the stairs.

Then she heard a voice. Not Austin's, or David's or Violet's, she could have handled herself if any of the other captors came down. It was the leader. The mean one had found his way downstairs and started yelling at Charlie and Jackson. All the air around her seemed to refuse to let her breath as she imagined the brutality he could use.

Charlie, still separated by a door from Sophie, looked around the hallway frantically.

"Get the pin code, I'm going to try for the key," Jackson whispered as he started running up the stairs. Brave or stupid, he couldn't tell. Bold, yes. It was bold, and brave and stupid.

"Get back down," he heard the deep voice from the stairs yell. Next thing Charlie heard was a hard thump, probably Jackson falling, but he obviously got back up and went back at it.

"Sophie?" Charlie called out. "Is The Ghost with you?" he asked. It took a long moment for her reply. "I'm kind of in a hurry."

"No," Sophie responded. "The Silent Ghost hasn't been with me for a while." She looked around. "Why?"

Charlie pushed on the door pointlessly, hearing Jackson make it past the man on the stairs. "She might be able to show us the pin code."

They both, on either side of the door, tried bringing The Silent Ghost to them, but it was no help. Charlie still stood there pushing on the door as if he pushed hard enough it would come down. Finally, he had enough. "If The Ghost shows up, call for me as loud as you can. I'm going to help Jackson."

Before Sophie could respond, he took off. Up the stairs he went, and he wondered if he would be able to hear Soph from such a distance. He shrugged off the thought, thinking about his and Jackson's destiny if they couldn't help Sophie in time.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he saw Jackson had locked himself in the office with the window. The screen behind him still showed the captures. One to each room. Jackson held a set of keys up to show Charlie, and the man slamming his fist against the locked door followed Jackson's gaze to Charlie.

Just then two other guys walked out of a hallway. One he recognized as Austin, but didn't spend much time thinking about what that meant.

"What's going on?" Austin asked, he looked tired but was waking up pretty quick.

"What do you think is going on?" the man slamming the door asked. "These kids think they can escape. Get the other one!"

Austin looked between the violent one, Jackson, and Charlie for about a minute. Charlie could've sworn that had this not been such a serious situation, Austin would be humored. "David," he said in a low voice, turning Charlie's attention to the guy next to him. "I know you're passionate about second chances, but being involved in this isn't going to help you."

"It is helping me. I thought you understood," David replied, pushing Austin's shoulder so he faced him.

"It's not. You were released from jail and now you're using your second chance to do bad." Austin didn't touch David.

"What are you now? Some priest?" the violent one trying to get to Jackson asked mockingly. "Go get the other kid like I told you!"

"And you. You took a place in this gang thinking you were fighting expectations. You've just created more expectations for yourself. Worse ones, in fact. All the captures are terrified of you." Austin crossed his arms as he distracted the violent one.