Episode 6

“Sam.” Noah whispered quietly as he gently shook her to wake up.

Sam gasped and woke up with a start.

“How long did I sleep for?”

“Not long, about an hour. We have thirty minutes of driving to do.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry I slept off.”

“You were having a bad dream.”

Sam groaned and rubbed her palms over her face.

“Forget about it.”

“You witnessed something brutal today, you don’t have to act tough.”

“I’m not acting tough, I still don’t know how to react.” She paused and chewed on her bottom lip.

“You could cry it out?” He offered which earned him a glare.

“I mean, the past catching up with my parents? Why could he not let mom go? What was so special about mom?”

Noah chuckled a bit.

“You are so naive to this lifestyle Sam.”

That earned him another glare from the girl.

“I don’t mean that in a ba-bad way,” he stuttered.

“It’s really a good thing that you barely know the real violence attached to all these gang stuff. I witnessed most of this violence stuff happen to my mother and it was not pretty. Gangs are pretty much heavy on revenge, no matter how long it takes they always want to get their lick back and your father drew a battle line when he took interest in your mother. Doesn’t help that he’s from a mafia family as well.”

“Mom never liked him.”

Noah shrugged, “doesn’t matter to them.”

“I detest him.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“What is going to happen to us now?” Sam whispered.

“I have a feeling, or fear that they won’t make it, I heard gunshots Noah.” Sam whispered again and started crying.

“They will be fine.” Noah tried consoling her but he knew that what he said was a lie.

Even without being there, he knew that they would have been outnumbered.

Damn Aaron for not taking his mother’s advice on hiring more security details.

“Why are you crying?” They heard a voice from behind and Sam sniffled and wiped her tears immediately.

“Nothing buddy. You up already?”

“And hungry, how much long do we need to go?”

“Here, have some chicken.” Sam passed the chicken she had remained to her baby brother behind.

“Will dad and mom join us? We’ve never taken a trip by ourselves before.”

Little naive Liam continued and Sam but down the bottom of her lips hard to stop herself from crying again.

“There is always a first time for everything Liam, this weekend will be all about us okay?” Noah came to Sam’s rescue and she looked at him grateful.

The few minutes left of the drive was spent in silence.

Soon they turned up to a familiar gravel driveway that was lined by tall trees.

The cabin they were going to was hidden in between trees and had a river flowing through behind it.

Dad always joked that it was in the middle of nowhere but that wasn’t true. They had neighbors even though the houses were far apart from each other.

“We are here Liam.” Sam announced as she undid her seatbelt when Noah parked in the driveway leading up to the front porch.

“Go on in, I’ll get our things from the car.” Noah told her as she came down from the car and helped her brother out too.

The cabin was protected with a passcode lock, Sam quickly tapped the passcode in and the first door opened to a little passage way.

She pulled back a marble table and opened a tiny box in the wall, taking out a set of keys that belonged to the cabin.

“Come on Liam,” she beckoned to her brother as she opened the main door to their new home for now.

“I’m going to leave you in the living room to go help Noah get our things from the car okay?” She spoke gently to her brother who nodded and rubbed his eyes.

Sam had put on all the lights in the house, her parents always made sure to pay all the bills on all their houses even when they were not there, besides they were here just last month for a weekend.

Sam put in the television for her brother and helped him to get settled in while she goes out to help Noah.

“I told you not to bother, you need to take a bath and rest.” The older boy chided her when she skipped down the steps of the front porch to join him.

He had already brought out most of their stuff from the car.

Sam snorted, “yeah right. I came to grab the food mama packed for us.”

“The house is in a good shape, it’s not dusty at all. Not that it should be, we were here last month after all.”

Noah laughed, “and I was here last weekend with my mom and your dad.”

Sam frowned, “Why?”

“To update the security system dummy. I wanted to tag along, your dad hired cleaning services to get everything cleaned up again. We should be good.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. Could you grab that little bag also on your way in?”

“Sure.”

Sam grabbed the little bag he asked of and the picnic bag her mom had packed for them.

She quickly checked in on her brother, who was still engrossed in his favorite cartoon show and she dropped off the little bag before heading to the kitchen.

She began unpacking the food from the bag, the snacks and everything her mom had packed.

She kept the necessary stuff that had to be in the refrigerator, in the refrigerator and rinsed out some plates to microwave the food in.

She could hear Noah going in and out of the house as she worked in the kitchen.

“Mm, that smells nice.” Noah exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen.

“I know, they were really planning a nice dinner for us tonight before shit hit the roof.”

“What are we going to do now?” She asked exasperated.

“I’m the adult here, stop worrying yourself too much Sam.”

Sam launched herself into Noah’s arms and began sobbing uncontrollably, the tears she had been trying to hold back after seeing her father’s lifeless body hit her hard and she could not control it.

Noah kept on rubbing her head and her back while whispering soothing words into her ear.

“We’ll be fine I promise you, I will protect you and your brother. I promise you Sam.” He kept on saying over and over again.

Sam sniffed and broke the hug.

“I know, but I messed up. I let him see me.” She whispered.

“He won’t be able to find you, I’m sure our parents will make sure of that.”

“But I will find him Noah, maybe not now but one day I will find him and make him pay for doing this to my family. Our family.”

The voice that Sam has taken on made Noah to shiver a bit, it had a hard edge to it and she sounded very cold and bitter. He could see the revenge wheels turning in her head.

‘She’s barely fifteen too be having thoughts like this.’ He thought and was bout to pull her in for another hug when the microwave bell dinged.

Sam pulled alway completely and crossed to the other side of the kitchen, she brought out the chicken and the sauce and put in the rice next in the microwave.

“Could you please go stay with Liam? I’ll serve the food when it’s ready and call you guys.”

Noah shrugged and walked out of the kitchen leaving Sam all by herself again.

She quietly and quickly worked in silence as she let her thoughts wander to her life she sure wasn’t going back to back home.

“Alexander won’t find me, I will find him.”