Run. Just Run.

Chapter 8

James and Ashley stare at each other wide eyed as they hear the gunshot. They look into each other's eyes and stare deeply.

"We've gotta go see..." James says apprehensively. Ashley nods knowingly.

James takes Ashley's hand as they slowly, quietly walk toward her Aunt's house. Maybe those men came back and found that Ashley wasn't there, or..... They didn't want to consider the options. So they walked in silence toward Ashley's Aunt Margaret's house. When they got there, they slowly circled the house, looking to see if anyone was around. They didn't see anyone, so James slowly entered through Ashley's bedroom window. He quickly looked around the room.

"It's safe to come in." James whispered to Ashley. "Just be super quiet."

Ashley climbs in the window and follows James as he slowly goes to her bedroom door. He slowly opens it, and it creaks. They freeze. Not moving an inch, straining to hear any commotion from the front rooms. Not a sound is heard, so they quietly go from room to room, checking each room. They go through the entire house, expects to find someone in the next room, or around the next corner, but there is nobody there!

"Whew." Ashley breathes a sigh of relief. "I don't like my Aunt Margaret, especially that she was planning with those men to do something to me, but I didn't want to walk in here and find her dead or anything."

James nods in agreement. "Hey, let's look around real quick and see if we can find anything that'll give us a clue of why they wanted you!"

They both start carefully searching in all the drawers, in the filing cabinet, under the bed, in the desk, anywhere where they might find papers with something useful written on them. They find absolutely nothing, and they give up.

"We're not gonna find anything here." Ashley groans in boredom. "There's absolutely nothing helpful."

James takes one look at her sad face and says "Hey, I know what we should do! Let's go back to my house, and we can get some lemonade and we can play cards! I know a fun game I can show you!"

Ashley perks up at the idea, anxious to get her mind off anything pertaining to her Aunt, and looks at James.

"Race ya there!" She says as she takes off running.

"Hey you got a head start!" James yells playfully. "No fair!"

James runs as fast as he can, trying to keep up with the girl in front of him. The girl that kept looking back over her shoulder and smiling teasingly, almost like she was daring him to catch her. She looked so pretty, running carefree around the trees and through the woods. Wait a second. Did he just call a girl pretty? A girl?!? What was getting into him? He needed to shake that thought out of his head, and he had an idea of how.

Ashley is running , and about to turn to look over her shoulder again, almost hoping James had caught up with her, when she felt hands around her sides. Then the hands start moving in a weird way, and she bursts out laughing.

"Stop it, Jay! You're tickling me!!! Stoppp!!!" Ashley cries, half in excitement, half in desperation, not really wanting it to stop at all. "Ahhh come on, James! Please?"

James slowly stops ticking her, with a huge grin on his face. He puts his arm around her shoulder.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." He says teasingly. "You're just so.... So...." James trails off.

"So what? I'm so what?" Ashley says with a smile.

"Oh, nothing. I wasn't gonna say anything." James feels his cheeks getting red.

"You were too! You tell me right now!" Ashley demands teasingly, playfully stomping her foot.

"Uhh...I..." James stammers. "Well I was just gonna say I couldn't resist cause you're just so cute when you're laughing. I mean, you're not only cute when you're laughing. I mean... You're cute at other times too, I mean....."

Ashley reaches up and puts a finger on James' lips, silencing him. "I know what you're trying to say." She says with a wink. "And thank you." She blushes as she looks up at him. "I think you're cute too."

And with that she grabs James around the waist with one arm, and he slowly wraps his around her shoulders, and they walk up to James' house, both blushing and smiling harder than they ever have before. As they get close to the house, though, they can tell something is wrong. James opens the front door and sees something and dashes in the kitchen.

"Mom!" James yells.

His mother is laying face down on the kitchen floor, bleeding.