The morning felt like it took forever to arrive. You had tried to sleep but it was constantly in and out, either from the ropes causing you irritation or Charlie deciding to mess with you.
What surprised you the most is that Charlie stayed with you the whole night, not even switching shifts with Ted like he had planned to. All he did was heat up a cup of coffee before the sun rose, and he seemed fine.
You knew at this point it was almost useless to try and run, so you just sat there, keeping your limbs close together so the tight ropes wouldn't hurt as much. Once all the boys were finally awake, you huffed and looked up at them. "So, when are y'all gonna untie me? These ropes are tight as hell, if you're gonna keep me captive at least make it somewhat tolerable."
All of the boys just stood there a bit surprised for a moment, before Schlatt gave a small snicker. "Listen here, Y/N. We run this little operation. Don't think just because your dad is special that you gotta be treated like royalty."
"I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying I'd like to be untied so it's not as painful. You must've not heard me with all of that scruffy hair clogging up your ears." You huffed out in annoyance.
Schlatt stood there for a moment before his hand smacked briefly across your face, nearly making you fall onto your side. Immediately you felt a slight stinging sensation on your cheek, resisting any urge to let tears flow.
Both Ted and Charlie watched all of this in shock. Ted grabbed Schlatt by his shoulders and pulled him back, while Charlie helped you sit up straight again. "Listen here you little shit, you decide to give me the mouth and I'll give you the hand." He spat, cracking his knuckles slightly.
"Easy there, Schlatt." Ted huffed, before looking down at you. "We can't kill 'em. Remember? The ransom."
Taking a deep breath, Schlatt gave a small nod, before rubbing his hands over his face. "Right, I know." He muttered, before glaring at you, then turning his attention to Charlie. "Charlie, get them on one of the horses. Don't care who. You can cut them free, but if they try anything don't be afraid to take a stab or two."
Charlie just gave a quick nod, not even bothering to say a word to Schlatt. He simply just scooped you up into his arms and headed outside, before setting you down on one of their horses.
Finally after a long moment of silence, Charlie grabbed his knife and cut the ropes that restrained your hands. "Boy, you've done it now.." He muttered, before looking down and cutting the rope around your ankles. "Schlatt's got a bad temper. When he's mad, he stays mad for a while."
"Well so do I, guess we're not that different then, huh?" You huffed out, carefully rubbing your wrists. "Especially since I'm stuck with assholes like you."
Rolling his eyes, Charlie hopped up onto his horse. "I'm just doing what I'm told. No need to bitch at me about it."
"Maybe take some different orders then." You spat out, before rubbing your face. It felt nice to finally have your hands free.
Suddenly the door swung open, and Schlatt stepped out for a moment. "Hey, Charlie! Since you're already out here, mind checking through the woods for some kinda food or some shit? Mr. Dumbass in here left our bag of food at the campsite last night."
Ted could be heard behind him. "Well I didn't mean to! It's not my fault we bumped into the sherrifs kid!!"
Letting out a disappointed sigh, Charlie gave a small nod. "Whatever, I'll see what I can find.." He muttered, grabbing onto the reigns of his horse. "I'll take Y/N with me. They've been bitching enough, I'd rather not hear a speech about 'being stuck here'." He rolled his eyes, before taking off.
His horse was pretty fast, though you had seen faster it was still impressive. But then, it hit you. The two of you would be alone, which would honestly give you a good opportunity to escape.
It would both be challenging and risky, but it was worth it all. When you got away, you could tell your father about all of this, how you had met the bandits, seen their faces, and were even held captive. Not to mention your were still alive and kicking, which was the farthest anyone had ever gotten with them.
Once far enough into the woods, you decided to kick your little plan into action. Quickly you sat up, wrapping your arms around the back of Charlie's neck, just beginning to squeeze as tight as you could.
The sudden action caused Charlie to jump a bit and lose grip of his horses reigns, causing both of you to off of the horse and against the dusty road.
Unfortunately he landed right on top of you which caused you to lose your grip, allowing Charlie to turn and pin you down. "What are you, fucking nuts?! We're speeding through the woods on a horse! You trying to get us both killed?!"
"Just you." You spat out, quickly kicking him in the stomach, allowing yourself to roll on your side and quickly stand up. Before he even got the chance to get up again, you start running.
You didn't know where you were going, but you just ran without looking behind you. It was hard to ignore Charlie's footsteps right behind you, but you just pushed through, continuing to run.
Before you could even considering yourself home free, you felt a strong hand grab onto the back of your shirt, immediately pulling you back and onto the ground. Once there you your rolled onto your stomach, Charlie sitting on your back not caring if he hurt you or not now. "Don't make me regret cutting you free Y/N. I was being nice." He spat out, gripping onto your wrists before tugging your arms back.
All you did was try to kick and scream, just hoping someone was somewhat nearby. From the amount of pressure put on your arms you felt as if they couldn't snapped at that moment, which caused most of your screams to be caused by the pain.
But, to your surprise, Charlie soon let go, immediately standing up and grabbing his pistol. Pulling you to his feet, he shoved you behind him before shushing you and taking a look around. "Hold on. Did you hear somethin'?"
"Only you bitchin' at me." You spat out, only this time lowering your voice a bit. You had heard something, a noise that definitely didn't sound human.
Quickly Charlie aimed his gun around, cursing under his breath before whistling for his horse. "Basil! Here girl! Come on, don't leave us here like this!" He called out, grimacing slightly.
He didn't get the chance to say anything else before a huge grizzly bear came running through some bushes, right towards the two of you. You wanted to scream, hell, maybe even push Charlie and run for it. But you just stood there, frozen in fear, while your legs began to shake.
Charlie nearly dropped his gun as he turned and grabbed your wrist, immediately making a run for it. You didn't hesitate to follow close to him, there was no way in hell you wanted to be caught by that thing.
The bear was honestly pretty fast, letting out a powerful roar, baring it's teeth as it followed close behind.
Curses were pouring out of Charlie's mouth as he ran, there was no way the two of you would make it away from this thing.
Out of nowhere Charlie screamed as he lost his balance and tripped, his grip on your wrist taking you down with him. The bear took this moment to attack while both of you were down, but without hesitation Charlie quickly got in front of you, taking a powerful scratch right to the face.
Luckily the damage didn't seem like too much, mainly more paw instead of claw, but the force was enough to knock Charlie back into you, causing you both to lay there on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, you just laid there in silence, hoping and praying that playing dead would just convince the bear to leave. And luckily for you, it did. After sniffing both you and Charlie a few times, the large creature let out a slight grunt, before turning and making its way back through the woods.
You laid there a little bit longer just to make sure the creature was fully gone before sitting up, letting out a long, relieve sigh.
Glancing at Charlie you couldn't help but wince a bit, though. He had a few long cuts across his face, each of them beginning to ooze with fresh blood. What made it worse was that he was out cold, so you were practically stranded there alone.
Cursing to yourself, you carefully began shaking him a bit. "Hey, uhm.. Charlie, was it? You need yo get up.. come on.."
Silence. Letting out an aggravated sigh, you stood up and dusted yourself off. "Right, I can't believe I'm doing this.."
Carefully you grabbed him from under his arms and began to drag him along the ground, you didn't want to just drag him like a sack of potatoes but there wasn't much you could do.
It took a little bit, but finally you managed to get him up onto a trail, allowing you to take a short break to catch your breath. And just as if it was on queue, a man on a horse was making his way down the exact same path.
Quickly you held your hands up and waved him down, watching as the man grabbed the reigns of his horse, slowing to a stop. Letting out a relieved sigh, you slowly approached him. "Excuse me, sir.. if you wouldn't mind.. what's the closest town from here..?"
"Stronghowl's the closest place, I was heading there now actually. Need a ride?" The man said softly, looking down at you, before glancing at Charlie. "What happened to your friend there?"
Friend. Right, because that's what he was to you. Totally. Rubbing your face, you frowned a bit. "We were traveling on his horse when a bear charged at us out of nowhere.. he jumped in front of me and took one of the attacks.."
The man seemed to believe you for the most part, sitting there quietly and nodding his head. "Those damn bears, my son was attacked by one not too long ago. Nearly lost his arm. Seems like you're friend here got lucky."
Before riding off, the man helped you get Charlie onto his horse, before continuing his journey, now bringing the two of you along with him. The trip wasn't too long, after about 10 or 15 minutes you all soon arrived in Stronghowl.
"Once again, thank you so much sir.." You spoke softly to the man as he stopped in front of an inn. "It means a lot to me.."
Nodding, the man smiled a bit. "Ain't a problem, dear. Both of you take care now, alright?" He said, before riding off.
Now it was easier to bring Charlie around with you, his arms wrapped around your neck. He still dragged along the ground, but at least it was his feet this time, and not his whole body.
Walking into the inn was harder than it seemed. The keeper was concerned about Charlie's condition, even offering you a free stay at one of the rooms so he could recover. You refused and still paid, though she only requested half of the price, just to take it easy on you.
Laying Charlie down on the bed in your room was almost a relief. You finally felt relaxed in a way, as if you didn't have to worry about anything for a while.
Humming, you proceeded to grab a small rag, heading over to a bucket full of fresh, clean water, dipping it in. After ringing out the cloth, you walked over and sat next to Charlie, carefully beginning to clean the blood from the cuts on his face.
Hell, he had just saved your life. Why not help him out with his?
~
(Ayy new chapter bb)