Path To Realization (Fighter's Den, #4)

Chapter 3 - Asher

"No, sir." The fat one says in a kind voice. It's so fake. "He was trying to make a run for it."

"And it's no wonder. He has red marks on his arms from how tightly you were holding him." The man reaches me and stares at my arms. I look down and see the marks he was talking about. It's not that big of a deal to me. This always happens. I don't know why he's getting mad about it. "What are your names? You put your hand on my foster child and I will be seeing you in court about it."

Court? I know that place. It's how I ended up in the foster system. Court ruined my life. This man is going to ruin my life.

"No." I whisper. The man looks at me. His face changes and he looks nice now. How did he do that so fast? Is he faking? Is he pretending to be good like the others during visitation?

"Don't worry, Asher. It's going to be okay." He says in a nice voice. I don't buy it. He's pretending. They all do. Nobody is ever nice. Everybody likes to hurt me and I won't fall for this guy's act.

"No!" I scream. I won't be weak.

His head goes back in surprise. Good. He should know now he can't mess with me. I won't let him!

I take off running again toward the house. I need a place to hide. I run faster when I hear voices behind me. I need to find a hiding spot right now or they'll catch me. I can't let that happen.

I run between the house in supposed to live in and the house next door. There's a big tree in the middle that I can climb. It's perfect.

I go up branch by branch. I'm really good at climbing trees so I get to the top real fast. There's even a balcony that I can reach if I jump from the highest branch. I leap and land on the small balcony, backing up until my back is against the glass doors. I take a peek through them. It looks like a room. There's a bed with Scooby-Doo bedsheets and I roll my eyes. I'm ten-years-old, not six. I like Iron Man much better.

There's even a TV in there! Is that mine? I've never had my own TV before. Is this part of their plan? To make me want to stay here? I turn my face away and ignore the room. That trick won't work on me, no matter how cool the TV is. It probably doesn't even get that many channels.

"Who are you?"

I gasp in surprise and feel my palms turn sweaty like they do when I'm scared. They found me already. How?

Except...it's not the bad men. It's just a girl.

Great. The view from my room is a girl with crazy red hair and nerdy glasses. That's just gross. Couldn't any boys live around here?

"None of your business." I tell her and make my voice extra mean. That should make her cry. Girls always cry so easily.

"Too bad!" She stomps her foot. She looks mad. Why isn't she crying? "I've never seen you before and you're this close to my room so you're my business whether you like it or not, jerk."

I blink my eyes. Did she just calls me a jerk? No kid calls me that. All the kids are scared of me.

"Keep your voice down, stupid." I hiss. "Or they'll find me."

Her eyes grow big and she looks around.

"Who's going to find you?" She whispers really loudly.

"The bad men." I answer but I don't know why. Didn't I just tell her I'm none of her business?

"There's bad men here?" Now she looks kind of scared. "That's not good. What makes them bad?"

Why should I tell her that? What if she uses it against me?