We walk up to the store in a cluster, all the boys standing behind me and Paul besides Ben who stays by my side, our hands occasionally brushing past one another. We stepped through the door with a cold gust of wind shooting directly at us sending shivers up and down my spine. Paul grabs a cart as we walk past the second set of automatic doors and into the store. The one good thing is that we're in public, he can't hurt me in front of strangers or at least I hope he won't.
He leads us towards the produce section, I try to fall behind so I can talk to Ben but every time I get close to him Paul gives me a look that advises me to stop. I am not going another second with him, I need to find a way to get out of here.
"I need tampons," It's not something I'd like to talk to my father about, it was hard enough dealing with my brothers when I first got it.
"Take Liam and Chandler and be back quick," it was still weird hearing Chad being called Chandler again but the weirder part was that he told me to take the bus with me. Did he not think we would try to leave? He knows we wouldn't leave Peter, Theo, and Ben behind.
I lead the boys towards the Isle titled 'feminine products' and am suddenly bombarded with hugs.
"I thought we'd never get out of that place," I hear Chad's voice muffled by my hair.
"How are we gonna get out of here," I say and feel my eyes begin to water and try to hold back tears.
"For now, we wait," says Liam as he releases his grip and Chad follows,"He has the upper hand in this situation and we can't do anything about it if we try to escape it'll only make things worse." I focus on his black eye, it's covered up with something but I can still see the faintness of the purple and green colors. A pit falls in my stomach and I touch his face with my hand, he grabs it and places my fingers with his, "We're going to get through this." I look down and the floor and he lightly grabs my chin, "I promise."
I grabbed a box of tampons and we went back to where we left the group, they weren't far from it. I made sure I took very small footsteps so I didn't have to be near him for as long as I could, eventually I made it to him and he gave an odd smile as I rolled my eyes and turned the other way.
A tall man in all black came rushing towards me he rushed past me and to Paul, "Sir, we seem to have a problem."
"What do you mean by problem?" As the words came out of Paul's mouth, all the TV's lit up with a news network displaying pictures of a large group of boys with a girl standing in the middle, it was me.
"The police are currently on the lookout for 6 missing teen boys and a girl, they are believed to be with the recent prison escape Paul Graham who is the father of the children. They have been last seen on the outskirts of New York City up in Utica and are suspected heading North West. The ages and details of the teens are up on our web page please call 911 with any known information or sightings." The woman on the news ended her segment on us and the TV went black again. I heard the faint noise of sirens as a wave of bodies pushed me towards the exit. I could hear Paul scream a certain bad word that starts with an F as he guided us out the way we came in as he abandoned the cart.
I ran past the doors and was greeted by cloudy skies and falling rain. The van we came here in was brought up to the front of the store by the time we got out there and I was immediately rushed into it. Once everyone had gotten inside, Paul pounded on the gas peddle causing me to fall forwards and hit the seat in front of me. Chas grabbed my arm and helped me back into my seat while I kept putting my hand up to my pounding head.
We drove for what seemed like hours, with police sirens buzzing behind us. I couldn't see them when I looked through the window but I could hear them. Suddenly, I noticed the black and white card with beaming red and blue lights slowing getting closer and closer. Before I knew it, the car made a quick turn off the road and into an area of trees. All I could see was the car flipping over, then everything went black.