She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked the short distance. Even though it was dark and late, she kept on moving, never looking back. She knew cops followed them, and because they hadn’t caught every single person involved in her and Noah’s kidnapping, more cops were on the streets. She saw them in cars on the streets, men walking, and just everywhere.
It helped her to feel safe, or at least gave her a sense of safety.
She hadn’t been back to the creek where it all started. Where she and Noah were talking about his homework. He’d been doing so well, but it was like he’d changed. At the creek, instead of him doing the homework, he wanted her to do it as he got tired of trying. Noah had the ability to do whatever he wanted. At least, the old him had thought that. Since getting back home, she didn’t know what he was like at all.
Running fingers through her hair, she tried not to think too much of their time away. Her parents just kept telling her to talk to a shrink, to talk about her feelings with someone, anyone, who would help her.
She didn’t want to. To her, it was a waste of energy. Noah knew what happened.
Talking to a stranger just meant someone else knew what had happened, and she didn’t want that.
Entering the store, she gave a quick smile to the guy at the register and walked down the aisles. She took her time, not wanting to rush. Going back home would just result in more talking, in more expressing of her feelings, and she was growing so tired of all of that shit.
Running her fingers across the candy bars, she couldn’t make just one purchase as they all looked good.
She wasn’t greedy though and took only two.
Since being home, she’d not indulged like she thought she would. She stared at the chocolate ice cream at home and had reached for it, only to not take it. She refused to give in, to cave to that need swirling inside her that she couldn’t make any sense of herself.
Taking the two bars of candy to the counter she pulled out her purse and handed him over some bills.
“You’re that chick that was taken,” the guy said.
She looked up at him and didn’t like the way he stared at her.
“I’ll just take these.”
“I would recognize you. We had your picture and that guy you were with. Some guys thought you had run away together. You know the whole teen romance shit that people like to fill their heads with.”
She wondered why he still kept on talking.
“You hadn’t though, had you? You guys survived a lot together.”
He held out her change, and she shook her head, taking the bars. “Keep it.”
“If you ever want to go out sometime let me know. You’re a celebrity now.”
She ignored him and headed outside.
Unwrapping the first bar, she took a bite. The chocolate melting on her tongue was a delicious pleasure she hadn’t allowed herself to feel in such a long time. She had missed eating chocolate.
She didn’t linger outside of the store. People wanted to talk to her.
The last thing she wanted to do was talk.
Walking back home, she nodded at the cops, who held their hands up in a wave, and she arrived to her front door in record time.
She’d been warned that there was a chance she and Noah could be taken again, or one of them. Whoever had taken them hadn’t left behind a single trace, but they didn’t want them to get too comfortable and make mistakes in their safety, as the next time, they may not make it out alive.
Her parents had been so angry with the cops’ bluntness, but she knew what they were saying. She and Noah had spilled the beans on the house’s location, and they saw enough to know, it was making a fortune. Not only that, it meant they were the enemy now, and with it, they were going to want revenge, which meant she and Noah were potential targets.
Opening the door, she froze when she saw Denison in their front room. She kept her coat on her, just in case she had to run.
“What are you doing here?”
“Your parents were worried and upset,” Denison said, standing up. “They have a right to be.”
“I went out to get a candy bar. We didn’t have any.” She held out the wrapper for them to see.