Haven Falls.
I smile, feeling as though this is some kind of gift from mom and dad. They know we need them now more than ever. I reach for the twenty-dollar bill and feed it into the machine as Blake looks over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going home, Blake. Everything is going to be okay.”
“You’re sure?”
I shake my head, looking up at the kid. “No, but this is all we’ve got.”
Blake looks down at me for the longest moment with his big, too trusting eyes and for the briefest moment, I want to tell him to go home, to have the life he wants and to forget about me. All I’m going to do is fuck him up. I don’t have the slightest idea what I’m going to do. What was I thinking of taking him away from a life of silver spoons when all I’d be able to offer him is a warm smile? He could have gone to the NBA and now…I don’t know. I’ve promised him the world but I have no idea how I’m going to give it to him, all I know is I have to try. He deserves so much more than this nothingness.
Blake reaches past me and presses the button for Haven Falls and then repeats the process for a second ticket. “I guess we’re going home.”
We sit on an old bench, counting down the minutes for the train in an absolute panic. We’re lucky that we got out of the mansion undetected, though I know it’s probably because Lucien was sleeping like a baby after defiling the child he raised with his wife…or should I say the child he bought?
The second they realize we’re gone, all hell is going to break loose. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. I didn’t consider how hard it was going to be being seventeen and on the run from a mobster, not to mention all the dangers that come from being a teen with nowhere to go. There’s going to be people who want to manipulate us, people who’ll try to steal, people who want to hurt us, but we can’t let it happen. We need to be strong.
The thought has me reaching for my phone and taking out the sim before asking Blake to do the same. If we’re doing this, then we’re doing it right. I go through our bag and make sure there’s nothing else that can be tracked and once that’s done, the pressure finally begins to fade off my shoulders.
I won’t go back there. Not now, not ever.
After what feels like a lifetime of waiting and fidgeting, our train finally arrives and we trudge onto the empty car, feeling somewhat free. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.
Being the only ones in this car, Blake stretches out and falls into a light sleep while I find sleep an impossible task. I spend hours upon hours fingering the knife that has remained in my hand since the second Blake handed it to me in his bedroom.
My eyes travel up and down the knife, over the old, worn wood, and across the initials that had been carved into the wood. This thing means so much to me. I can’t believe Blake has had it in some stupid safe, collecting dust for the past few years.
Three hours turns into four, and as the train comes to a stop in Haven Falls, the clock ticks over to five hours. The sun is just peeking up over the horizon and I feel like this is the start of something new, a new beginning, a new life, a second chance at starting over the right way.
The only question is how?
I shake Blake’s shoulder and stand up. My body is cramped from not moving a muscle the whole ride here. Blake groans and stretches his impossibly long arms out, making me have to step around him. “Come on,” I tell him, trying to help him grab his bags. “Let’s go before they close the doors.”
Blake grumbles something in his sleepy tone but thankfully gets his shit together and clambers out of the train behind me. We step out into the early morning and I breathe in the fresh air. This is home. This is the life we were always supposed to have. I probably would have come and gone from this train station a million times if I’d never been taken away from my home. I could have walked these streets, made friends with the local girls and had a happy life. Instead, it was all stolen from me, from us.
We walk out from the train station with our bags on our back and into the station’s parking lot. “So, what now?” Blake asks, looking around and feeling just as lost as I do.