Chapter Five

Kayla

As soon as Varen had let go of me I had hauled a*s.

I backed slowly away from Matt, and dashed down the stairs to my room. I locked the door behind me, and I was shaking so badly I could barely crawl under my bed to get the emergency bag that Varen had gotten me to pack. He had told me it was in case of an emergency and we had to get out of the house fast, and he had convinced me to pack it. I did it mostly to humor him, figuring I could unpack it later, but I had never gotten to it.

I had never gained from my laziness more.

I crawled out from under my bed and said a 2-second goodbye to my room, chocked so full of memories, good and bad. Then I stood at my door and listened for any activity outside. Other than a scuffle upstairs, I heard nothing. I opened the door a crack and looked through, and when I didn't see anything I rushed through into the hall.

And stopped.

I knew there was a side door in the basement, but... I didn't know where it was.

I wracked my memory desperately, trying to remember where we had been when Varen had pointed it out to me. "Want me to show you something?" He had asked as we were playing. Without waiting for an answer, he had pulled back a curtain- a brown curtain- and revealed the sliding door.

I remembered that, but why didn't I remember where it was?

I decided to take a chance and look for a brown curtain. I felt around the walls, feeling for fabric. All I felt was wood when I had made a circuit around the hall, so I ran to the living room and tried there.

I was feeling for so long that my fingertips were starting to tingle when I found the fabric curtain. I pulled it back and saw gray concrete stairs leading up to another door- the only light allowing me to see was streaming through the window in the door at the top of the stairs in the form of moonlight. I slid open the sliding door, flinching when it made a little grating noise, and slinked through. I decided to leave it open so Varen would know I got away.

I climbed up the stairs, the effort sending excruciating shots of sharp pain through my torso, and I doubled over, gasping, half way up. I knew I needed to make it the rest of the way. I had to make it the rest of the way. Only when I doubled over the second time did I remember I was still naked. I told myself as soon as I got outside I would change behind the house.

But that involved getting the rest of the way up the stairs.

Blocking the pain out of my mind (which was a tactic I taught myself in the many instances where Matt had fun with his belt and me,) I trudged up the stairs and unlocked the door, then stepped outside.

Freedom FTW!

***

After I had changed behind the house, I paused. Varen had said to go somewhere. But I couldn't exactly remember where. The park, had he said? I thought so, so I power-walked down the street and around the corner. I was going to continue down that street until it dead-ended at the park.

Walking quickly, I slung the backpack over my shoulders and veered off the sidewalk, deciding that cutting through the thickly-wooded area next to the road would be better. I dodged endless obstacles until the brush cleared and spread instead into a wide, open space known as the park. It was a relatively small park compared to some of which in the big cities; It had a small playground, with one of those metal slides that get hot under the sun and scorch you as you slide down, and a simple jungle jim. This was in a large square that had sand instead of grass at the bottom. There was a mini soccer field, and a baseball diamond. The rest of it, except for a basketball court, was wide open space. You could tell when the open area ended, as it turned into thick woods. I cut a quick, diagonal path towards the woods, and hid behind a tree, planning to wait for Varen to show. He would know I was behind this tree because I leaned my backpack against the opposite side of the tree, and he would recognize it.

I never noticed how exhausted I was until my eyelids became heavy, too heavy for me to keep them up, so I closed them. I tried to fight the sleep that was destined to come, but I didn't have the strength; not after what had happened to me earlier tonight. Sighing in defeat, I let my head lean back against the tree and unconsciousness grabbed me and sucked me into its grasp.