They were all free souls running from themselves. Misfits that kept looking to the stars to find the light again. The worst of this rag-tag group was Kayla. She wasn’t just a free soul, she was insane. Ciara came in a close second, and not far behind trailed Stef. The unholy trinity they called themselves. When together they shined like the light of a full moon. Unbreakable as a group, but past the point of mending as individuals.
Kayla barged through Ciara and her lover, Nick’s apartment door.
"Are you guys ready?" She said looking around the room. She counted four people. Ciara, her two little brothers; Leo, Jay, and Nick.
"Yeah, I think so." Ciara said grabbing her and her brothers’ bags. Nick took his own back and stood up from the couch he was sitting on. The boy was tall compared to Ciara and Kayla; they suffered from being vertically challenged.
"Ok, Bunny is waiting outside. When we get to… the place… she’s got enough food for a few days but-"
"Kayla," Nick said cutting the frantic girl off, "We can worry about that when the time comes, right now we have to go before…" He stopped and looked at the little boys standing beside him, "before you-know-who gets here."
Kayla rolled her eyes and started to leave when she heard the oldest of the two little boys, Leo who was ten, pipe up and ask, “Is Voldemort after us?”
Ciara and Nick laughed as Kayla continued to walk out the door. They got to where Bunny was outside. Leo and Jay ran up and hugged her. While Ciara and Nick said there hello’s to the girl from a distance. Bunny was a spunky girl, she was Ciara, Nick, and Stef’s age, 18. Kayla was a year younger than all of them. Well technically, she was only six months younger than her girlfriend, Stef, but grade wise she was a year younger. Anyway, Bunny, she was the type of girl you’d want to talk to at 3AM with a pizza box on the floor and Fall Out Boy blasting in the background. She was a girl who stood for letting her hair down and being alive in the moment… but not at this moment. She was a very different girl at this moment. Bunny’s dirty brown hair was covering her eyes, her jacket hood was pulled up, and she had her tiny hands jammed into her pockets. She was scared. As stated before, Kayla and Ciara were very short, but Bunny was the shortest of them all. A tiny girl, but her Starbucks Latte, white girl appearance was very deceiving to the hardcore rocker girl that was buried inside. While Bunny and the others chatted, Kayla listened intently until she heard the ear piercing, heart shattering, breath stopping, sound.
"GUYS SIRENS WE HAVE TO RUN AND GO!" She screamed as she began to sprint. The others cursed and began to run with her. The little boys were in front of everyone, Kayla barked orders at where they should turn on the (what seemed to be) never ending sidewalk.
"THIS ONE RIGHT HERE BOYS THIS IS STEF’S APARTMENT!" Kayla said coming to a halt.
"Have you guys told Stef anything yet?" Bunny asked.
"No." Ciara said.
"Oh." Bunny said as she shuffled closer to Stef’s apartment. They could still hear the flaring sirens in the distance although they fled from the scene. Kayla knocked on the door until Stef entered and the gang quickly entered apartment 307. They stood in Stef’s tiny kitchen until she finally spoke up, "Do you guys realize it is three o’clock in the morning." She said glaring at Kayla mostly.
"Stef we need to talk." Ciara said. An immediate look of panic shot across Stef’s face.
"Uh oh." She said backing away.
"Stef…" Kayla chirped up. Stef felt like she recognizing the pattern of this event.
"What did you do?!" She asked her girlfriend.
"I messed up. Big time and we have to leave now." Kayla said looking at her feet.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Stef screamed at her.
"Look I can explain-" Kayla was cut off by Ciara.
"It wasn’t just her, it was me too."
"And me." Bunny added.
"What happened?" Stef asked looking to Nick for some sort of answer, she received nothing. The two younger boys stood behind Ciara not comprehending the problems in front of them.
"Stef please, if you stay here you’ll get arrested too. Please just come with us." Kayla begged. Stef sighed and shook her head. She was not thinking correctly anymore.
"You have to go pack." Bunny said.
"Ok. I’ll pack." Stef whispered as her voice shook. She wasn’t good with these kinds of situations. She especially hated leaving home and not knowing where she was going. Stef went to her room packed a bag and grabbed her guitar. That was it. Good bye Waynesboro, tiny town of terror. This was no longer home for any of them. Home was within each other now. They were accomplices in crime. A team.
They had been walking for several hours. Through the woods, back paths, valley ways, anything way they could find that was away from the public. Bunny lead the way to their hideout house. She told the others that when she was a kid her and her sister had to hide out in the house for a week because her sister had gotten into some trouble.
Bunny said it was a nice little house on abounded farmland. That was miles away from any civilization. They were all getting tried from walking. It was around 5PM, the gang had started this sly escape at 3AM. That was fifth teen hours of pure walking, sometimes they even had to run if they heard sirens or saw a police car. Luckily they got away without anyone’s notice.
"So when can we stop walking, Buns." Stef asked.
"Soon. We can set up camp for the night and then we will continue walking again tomorrow.
"I’m hungry."
"Yeah, and my feet hurt." Jay and Leo complained as they continued walking.
"Just a little longer boys." Kayla assured them with a smile as she picked up the seven year old, Jay.
"Hey! Why does he get to be carried?" Leo wined.
"Hay is for horses." Kayla said jokingly to the boy. Leo crosses his arms and pouted as they all continued to walk. Kayla looked over to her girlfriend who hadn’t said really anything the whole journey. Mostly because Stef was so disappointed in her friends that they could mess up this bad. She knew Kayla was always one for getting into some trouble, but never this bad. The rag-tag team was still hiking their way through a trail through a park when Bunny stopped everyone.
"We’re gonna set up camp here for tonight." She said; motioning to a medium sized ditch, surrounded by two huge boulders. "It’s supposed to get cold. Did anyone bring blankets?" She looked around to everyone. "Ok, great, we’ll use our clothing."
"Can we build a fire?" Ciara questioned.
"No, we’d be seen." Nick answered. Once everyone had been settled in for the night; wrapped in excessive amounts of their own clothing and all eating chocolate pop-tarts Bunny had brought along, they began to quietly chat. They talked about childhood memories, what a lovely October night it was, how you could see the stars through the trees, high school, but none of them brought up why exactly they were all running away. That was until Leo and Jay fell asleep, then Stef spoke up, "So who the fuck is going to tell me what’s going on?" There was a moment of silence.
"I’ll go first," Ciara said with a sigh and grabbing Nick’s hand. "So, ever since my mother ran away with her latest boyfriend I’ve had one hell of a time supporting myself and the boys," she looked down at her legs that were covered by numerous blouses and band shirts. "So I would steal food from Walmart from time to time."
Stef looked confused.
"But you should get arrested for that."
"But then the last time," Ciara continued. "I tried to steal a ring- you know the ones displayed in the back?" Ciara looked around as if actually wanting a response from everyone. She was actually just making sure no one look too disgusted with her. Even if Nick, Kayla, and Bunny already knew what had happened. "Well, I didn’t quite make it out of the store… And then I made a run for it. I ran to Kayla’s place, the cops were on my tail. So, I hid behind some bushes for a while, but when I finally got to Kayla’s I told her what had happened. Turns out, she and Bunny were already making plans to run away." Ciara leaned against Nick’s shoulder.
"Why did you steal the ring, dummy? And why didn’t you just ask one of us for some finical help?" Stef questioned her in a more gentle time than anyone anticipated.
"Because," Ciara answered. "I thought I could pawn the ring for more than it was worth and have enough money to get the boys Christmas presents. And I wasn’t going to ask you guys for money that’s embarrassing and you all aren’t exactly on the ‘better off’ side of making good money." She put quote marks around the words ‘better off’ with her hands.
"What is that suppose to mean, Miss Independence." Kayla joked in a serious moment. Typical Kayla, taking everything as a joke.
"It mean three additional mouths is a lot to feed and I was stressed." Ciara snapped at the younger girl. Kayla backed off and proceeded to eat her pop-tart.
"Ok, well that was a stupid decision, Ciara." Stef began.
"I know but I-" Ciara butted in but then was silenced by Stef finishing her original statement.
"It was dumb, but I understand how having to support your brothers would be a hard task."
Ciara sort of smiled then laid her head on Nick’s lap and started to fall asleep. Everyone’s muscles were a bit sore and their eyes were a little heavy. Nonetheless, Stef proceeded to ask Kayla and Bunny, “Ok so what happened with you two?”
"I guess I’ll go." Bunny said, looking at Kayla for her to say otherwise. "Ok well, my sister fled the country a few months ago and left me a note. It said something about paying back these guys and if anyone knocked on my door about it, that I should get out of town. So, sometimes last week I got a knock on my door and these two shady looking men asked if my sister was home. I told them she had moved away and… Well… They didn’t take that very well." Bunny lifted up her shirt to show everyone her bruises. They all gasped, that was everyone but Ciara, who was fast asleep at that point. Even Kayla and Nick didn’t know this much of the story.
"God Bunny, what did they do to you?" Stef asked.
"What does it look like?" Bunny laughed lightly. "The pushed me down and beat me up. Not too horribly back, but got a few bruises on my face too. Good thing I know how to use cover up."
"Why didn’t you call the police?" Kayla then asked. Bunny looked at her curly haired friend and took at drink from her water bottle.
"These are very bad people Kayla; they are going to kill me if they find me… You know that right?" Kayla nodded. "They would kill me even if I wasn’t the one buying drugs, and who else knows, from them. That was my sister, Ryden, let me remind you all."
"I’m sorry to hear that but I guess we’ll all be safe now…" Stef said.
"I hope so." Bunny replied.
"And you, miss. What the hell could you have done in the time you left my apartment to the time you walked home?" Stef said, turning to her girlfriend who was smiling ear to ear.
"Well you see… Um… I stabbed someone at the gas station." Kayla mumbled.
"KAYLA!" Stef screamed.
"It wasn’t just anyone. Jesus, I’m not a mad man… well…. mad… woman."
"How the fuck did you get a knife, and why did you- who would- why, why, why, why?!" Stef rambled on for a while, almost silently cursing Kayla.
"Look, Stef I stabbed my dad." Kayla said casually.
"Oh my god we’re all screwed." Stef cried out.
"Yeah I know that’s kinda why we’re running away."
Kayla’s dad was a very powerful man; he owned a very successful company and was very well known in the business industry. With great success comes wealth and sometimes and ego to match. He abused Kayla terribly, to the point where she ran away to live with Stef when she was sixteen.
"So why was you’re dad in that part of town?" Stef questioned. Nick’s soft snores and Bunny curling up into a ball to go to sleep interrupted the couple.
"My dad was looking for me. He said he had some big interview with some important guy and that I needed to be home. Then we got into the topic of ‘how did you find me?’ And ‘why do you need me there?’. Well it turns out he knew where I was going the moment I left, where ever you were," Stef sort of blushed. It was a coincidence running into him at the gas station, of all places. Anyway, he needed me home because the man had wanted a photo shoot with the whole family to prove how much of a great guy my dad was. I guess it would make my dad look bad if I wasn’t in the picture, God knows why." Kayla rolled her eyes. "When I said no, my father freaked out. Grabbed me, started pulling my hair, calling me worthless, you know the normal fuckery with this man. So, I got out my switch blade and stabbed him." Kayla finished with a nod of satisfactory.
"Why is that you’re fault it was self-defense?"
"Let me refresh your memory, my dad is the guy who paid my mother to not talk to him for an entire month. He can pay his way out of anything… And if he found you back home, he would have blamed everything on you for ‘making me gay and dirty.’ I just couldn’t let that happen. So anyway, with my dad bleeding on the pavement and me standing there in shock, I decided to make a run for it. When I got home, Bunny was crying at my door and, well, you know the rest. I’m sorry I fucked up, I know." Stef moved in closer to Kayla, she wrapped her arms around her, cuddling her hardcore.
"If I wasn’t so sleepy right now, I would probably be a little more pissed off." Stef joked. Kayla smiled and kissed her girlfriends head. "Besides, dating a criminal is pretty hot." They both laughed and looked at the stars until they fell asleep.
Ciara was up in the morning before anyone else. Her muscles and joints aced. She got up stretched and walked over to Bunny, stealing her bag, and retrieving a box of Gold Fish. She sat down and looked up at the sky. Ciara was terrified; she had never wanted this for anyone. Not her, not Stef, and definitely not her brothers. As she munched on the Gold fish she took from Bunny, she realized how ashamed she was in herself. Things got messy as she thought about how fucked up her lie would be for a while; she choked back tears as Stef started to wake up. The red and black haired girl opened her eyes; her head was resting on Kayla’s stomach. During the night she must have stolen her girlfriend’s clothing-blanket, because she was covered in both her own and Kayla’s clothes.
"Morning." Ciara greeted her best friend dully. Stef rubbed her eyes and sat up from Kayla. As she got up to get a drink of water from the thermal mug, then she recovered her girlfriend up with the clothing-blanket.
"What time is it?" Stef asked as she drank from the sliver colored bottle in her hands.
"About six, I think. I mean look the sun’s just coming up." Ciara said as she looked up to the beautiful pink and purple sky.
"Oh God, Kayla would love this. Then, she’d probably go on saying something really deep but totally just sounded like the white girls on Tumblr." They both quietly giggled at how accurate Stef was. Then they sat in silence, listening to the leaves fall from the wilting trees or the remaining fall-time birds chirp.
"Can I ask you something?" Stef asked, after not being able to stand the silence for much longer.
"Shoot."
"How did you all end up getting in so much trouble all in the same night and why did Nick come with you?" Stef was still very shocked at how much her friends could manage to fuck up in one night.
"Well for starters, I knew I would get caught eventually, Kayla needs anger management, and Bunny is just prone to having bad luck. How we managed to do it all in one night? Well, who knows, we’re the queens and kings of the bottom." Ciara snorted. "That was sexual." The dirty joke seemed to be very amusing to both girls because they ended up not being able to stop laughing for a good while.
"Ok, ok," Stef said settling down, "And what about Nick why did he come along?"
"Well he loves me, he knew I did what I had to do for a reason. Just like Kayla and Bunny, we aren’t bad people, we all had valid reasons for running away. The main reason being, we did what had to be done to protect the people we love or to protect ourselves." Stef nodded in agreement.
"I guess you’re right. I’m just not… I don’t know… I’m still tired." Stef sighed.
Once everyone had woken up and gotten something small to eat, they started traveling again. Of course, they could have taken a car, but that would have made it easier for the police to find them. That’s also, why no one could bring his or her cellphones.
Everyone was complaining about the horrible sleep they had had, when Nick announced that they needed to start moving.
"But why are we trying to runaway in broad daylight?" Kayla said packing her things in her leather backpack.
"Well if we wait here now it’s going to be just as harmful. We might as well be on the move- swiftly." Bunny said as she took her middle finger and applied Chapstick to her bottom lip. Stef picked up her guitar case and her bag. Kayla took the guitar case from her.
"I’ll carry it for a while, Stef."
"If this is your attempt and trying to apologize, you’re going to have to step it up." Stef said smirking at Kayla. Then the short curly-haired girl leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. Stef blushed at the physical contact of the two bodies.
"I love you." Kayla said putting the guitar strap on her shoulder and slinging the case behind her back.
"If you break my guitar, I’ll kill you." The older girl said in all seriousness.
"The normal response is, I love you too." Kayla said sarcastically. Nick walked over to the two girls, "Once you two are done, are you ready to leave?" He asked.
"Yeah." Both girls said.
The day was long and cold; they spent most of the day walking through the woods, miles and miles away from their hometown. Leo and Jay were being very difficult to deal with as well. Jay had a melt down because he was tired, Leo was hungry and started to cry, not to mention they started to fight with one another, and they were scared. The ‘grown-ups’ of the group did their best to entertain the boys, but nothing they did seem to work.
"Bunny," Nick said walking up to the girl. "Are we anywhere close to being there yet?" Although, the kids may have verbally expressed their feelings, the ‘adults’ were feeling just as stressed, tired, and hungry. Good was being rationed due to the lack of it. Bunny was supposed to bring enough food for a couple of days, but had made a terrible estimate at how much food seven people could eat in the course of a day. No wonder she almost flunked out of school. They walked until the late hours of night and gotten lost a couple of times delaying their trip even more but then finally it was all over. They had reached their new home. Or as Ciara called it, The Runaway Home. The house was a mess, a beautiful fucking mess. From the white paint that was chipping off everywhere, to the half crumbled chimney, don’t forget the four windows (two on the bottom level and two on the top) all having broken glass, and the rotting front step that Ciara fell on as she made her way up to the front door. Also let’s not forget all the grown weeds and trees that engulfed the back of the house. The front of the house was just an over grown felid. Weeds were everywhere and some of the grass was as tall as Leo. The good news was there were still crops in the fields at various spots. Of course, these crops hadn’t been tended to in years, due to this farm land being abandon but they still made decent food, was it actually safe and good to eat? Looks like the group would have to find that out. In the distance, they could see nothing but wildlife and woodlands. It was the perfect hiding spot; it would be there perfect home for a very long time.
"Can I go in?" Kayla said turning to everyone as she put her hand on the rusty doorknob.
"Go for it." Ciara encouraged. With one dreadfully slow movement Kayla turned the doorknob and then stopped, she smiled as everyone yelled at her to open the door- typical Kayla being an asshole- then after waiting what she presumed to be an appropriate amount; she flung open the door and ran inside. The little boys following not far behind her then the others made their way in with their bags.
"Wow." Stef said as she looked around. The door opened into a hallway, to the left was (what looked to be) a sitting room, to the far right was a small bathroom, and at the very end was a big kitchen that lead into a living room. In the living room, there was a staircase with a look over which lead to the second level. Despite the outside looking not very safe and friendly, the inside held together pretty well. Sure, the walls had some cracks in them and the wood floors creaked and moaned but it was a fully furnished house. The furniture was covered by white blankets that they would have to peel off later, so they could adjust things to how they would like it to be.
"How many bedrooms are there?" Stef asked Bunny.
"I don’t remember, want to go check?" The other girl replied.
"Sure, I guess so." Stef said laying her bag on the floor in the living room where everyone else was standing.
"What’s this?" Kayla said to Nick and Ciara as she pointed to a door in the wall on the right side of the kitchen.
"I don’t know." Nick said wrapping his arm around Ciara.
"Open it up. It’s probably-" Then the door was being opened.
"It’s the cellar door, creepy." Kayla said as she closed it again.
Leo and Jay were in the bathroom trying to play with the sink then realizing no water was coming out.
"Kia!" Jay yelled for his sister, which was one of the many nicknames Ciara had. Sometimes it was Ciara, other times it was Kia (mostly just by Jay and Stef), and Kayla even called her Chia from time to time.
Ciara went to where her brother was calling her.
"What’s wrong?" She asked concerned.
"The water doesn’t work." He wined.
"That’s because there’s no electricity and it’s not hooked up to anything right now, but Nick and Kayla will try their best to fix that." Ciara said hugging her little brother.
"What will Kayla and I be doing?" Nick asked coming up behind Leo and giving him a noogie.
"Oh… Ah," Ciara chuckled and smiled, "will you and Kayla try to see if we can hook up water here or something? Like, this place has to be hooked up to a well somewhere. So is there any way to get electricity for like, flushing toilets and cooking?" Nick laughed thinking Ciara was joking with him but then understanding after seeing the expression on his girlfriend’s face this was, indeed, no joking matter. He huffed.
"Do you know how hard this is going to be? I’m not even sure if this house ever had electric light. Besides the shove is most likely a fire shove and I’m sure we can figure something out with the toilets. As for light at night we can use the fire place out in the living room."
"But the fire place is broken, did you not see the outside of it, and how can we get wood?" Ciara said running her hands through her hair.
"Yeah." Jay said trying to be funny and act like Ciara. Nick didn’t find his humor funny.
"You can leave that up to Kayla and me." He answered.
Nine days is about the length of time it took to get everyone settled into the Runaway House. They had each taken it upon themselves to do separate jobs to fix the house. Nick found a way to use pressure to pump water from the old well the house was hooked to, Ciara found a way to boil the water so it was safe to use for anything (drinking, cooking, bathing in). Stef found various ways of entertainment, her guitar being one, an old record player she found in Nick and Ciara’s rather large bedroom. She ended up bringing the record player down to the living room. Of course, the record player had to be cleaned, along with the Frank Sinatra and Donny Hathaway albums found with it. The needle desperately needed to be replaced and the records were scratched and skipped around the songs sometimes, but at least it (kind of) worked. Although, Stef was the one who had found- and fixed- the record player Kayla and Bunny used it the most. They would dance around like fools for hours on end. Stef had grown very jealous of the amount of time Kayla was spending with Bunny. The only person Stef had to blame for this was herself, however. While Kayla and Bunny danced together downstairs, Stef would be sitting behind closed doors in her and her girlfriends room mapping out murals to paint on the walls. She didn’t have any paint at the moment, but she did have a notebook and a pencil. Stef figured she could make paint out of berries that she would get during there next night shift. What the gang called a “Night Shift” was them going outside (only at night hence the name) and picking fruit off the trees. Most of the time Bunny and Nick went out in the dark to pick fruit and such, as Kayla and Ciara cooked with the fire stove. The fruit scavengers wore a lemon scented remedy that Ciara came up with. This kept the bugs off of them as they when to the back of the house in the dark. The whole group learned a lesson about bugs the first day they were in the house, everyone was covered in bug bites, but the lemon remedy kept the bugs away.
The reason the stove could only be used at night was due to the smoke it spit out of the top of the house. When used during the day it was a dead giveaway, but when used (in moderation) at night, the smoked was practically invisible. That was a rule that also applied to the fire place that Kayla fixed, and the candles that were found in the basement. Although, the gang did have fruit and some vegetables from the crops, they had only access to a fraction of the farmland. The only plants they could pick from were the ones located at the very back of the house. These plants contained, lemons, apples, and wild berries. This was so no one went too far and got caught or lost in the night. Ciara and Kayla couldn’t make much with the crops at hand, luckily they had enough oatmeal and other dried foods to keep them for a few more weeks.
They would have to stay low for a couple months, because of that they couldn’t run into town and get more food stalk. Bunny had arranged for her friend to bring food up to the house every first Friday of the month. His name was Sam. He was an old childhood friend of Bunny’s. This was a critical part of the escape plan, the accomplice, they called it. Bunny had texted her friend, very detailed, instructions to carefully bring them food. Apparently, he had just come back into town after having to lay low for a while, that’s why the others hadn’t really known about him. Kayla remembered having a class in middle school with him but that was about it. Bunny had told everyone he was a nice boy with very colorful hair. She had said that his hair was the most interesting part about his body. Most of the time it was multicolored and combed to the side, or sometimes he had it in a mohawlk. Other than that Bunny had told everyone they would just have to wait to meet him themselves. As the weeks progressed, the group grew more and more anticipation to meet this Sam. Although they did have Stef teaching them things on the guitar daily and they found old board games and book in the basement, things had started to become dull.
"Ok when this Sam character gets her can I ask him to get me paint for text time?" Stef asked as she came down from her and Kayla’s room.
"I don’t see why not." Nick answered.
"He should be here soon, I’m pretty sure October is almost over." Bunny said looking up from the record player that she had been messing with.
"You’re going to break that even more than it already is." Stef scolded the girl. Bunny backed away and let the music play on its own. "How are you guys getting that thing to run with no electricity?" Stef then questioned. Nick stood up and pointed to wires that were connected to the outlet that ran outside through a tiny hole.
"It’s basically solar powered electricity." Nick smiled as he poked at the wires.
"Impressive." Stef said as she looked around the living room. "Where is Kayla and the boys?"
"They’re the fun room." Ciara answered as she sat on the couch and moved into Nick for warmth. The weather had been dropping more and more as the days went on. It had seemed winter would be nearly impossible to survive without some sort of heating system. Stef went to the fun room, but first making a stop at the kitchen to pick up some crackers that were left- food was running extremely low at this point. She knocked on the door to the ‘fun room’, which was originally the fancy sitting room. Stefanie heard the pitter patter of feet and then the voice of a tiny human say, "Come in…. If you dare!" Then giggles, this was either Leo or Jay- obviously. Stef opened the door, "If you scare me I will cry," She warned.
"Why would we scare you?" Kayla said from behind the door with a big smile on her face. This caused Stef to jump and smack the other girl on the arm.
"Ow, rude." Kayla said as she rubbed her arm.
"Fuck you; you know I hate being scared." Stef said tears forming in her eyes. Soon Leo and Jay came out from under the sofa and love seat. They grabbed led army men from off the coffee table and started playing with them.
"I’m sorry." Kayla said rubbing her hand up and down Stef’s arm.
"Mmhm." Stef said turning her head away from her girlfriend.
"I AM!" Kayla said still smiling and moving so Stef had no choice but to look at her. "Look how cute I am. You can’t hate me." Kayla was about to lean into kiss her girlfriend when there was a knock on the door. Everyone froze.