Chapter 2

    “There’s two of them at the front entrance with Rick,” Zeke said to him, closing the door silently behind him. They are now Hiding in the library after the bell rang signaling the end of classes for the day. He then commanded Zeke to scout the entrance while he goes to the east exit, then both boys agreed to meet in the library.            

    “There are 3 of his buddies covering the east exit, so I take a look back exit going to the football field. It seems they did not think to send a guard there, they have not thought that we can jump over the fence.” He said

    After what they did previously, accidentally spilling the whole jug of juice to Rick. Zack and Zeke are now stuck inside the school. Rick and his buddies now waiting for them to go out, to get them, payback after what they did to him on the football field.

     “Then I guess we need to jump the fence behind the bleachers, right.” He said to Zeke, as that is their current obvious plan on getting out. “Yeah, sounds good. Let’s go before they figured that out.” Zeke said.

     The two boys proceeded out the library, to the back door exit heading to the football field. Outside they have not met any of Ricks’ buddies, both boys carefully and slowly walked to the side of the field keeping close to the wall, from time to time looking around them, being cautious as if any of Rick and his buddies could just jump at them any moment. A few minutes passed, they reached the foot of the bleachers, the two boys did not waste any time, they immediately turn to the sideway, to head directly to the Fence just behind it.

     Both of them walked to the sideway, the bleachers towering beside them. As they reached the edge just before the clearing behind the bleachers they stopped and embrace the wall, not yet ready to go out in the open.

    “So far so good Ey Zeke. do you think everything is clear once we jump that fence?” He said to Zeke, gestures at the fence. Both boys do not have any problem climbing the 10 feet fence, as they have already done it in the past when they wanted to cut classes and just play somewhere else. Afterward, the school will notice their absence and both of them will receive in their house informing their parents that the boys cut classes again.

    The iron fence can easily be climbed, the tricky part is going over the torn spikes above. Both boys already know the tricks on avoiding the spikes as they have repeatedly experienced going over it in the past. Before they usually get scratches on their hands and get their jeans torn going over, Zeke also has one long slash on his left arm that left a scar, as proof. But now they can just go over easily enough.

     Both Stopped before the clearing, behind the bleachers. Their back behind the wall for cover, still cautious not to be out in the open for any of Ricks's buddies to catch Them. Zack put out his head taking a look left, from there he saw the entrance of the school, I am still bustling with kids, students walking out, crossing the street, and making their way home. Some students still loiter in the entrance chatting with their friends for a moment, not yet wanting to go home. Just at the entrance, he saw Rick together with two of his buddies surrounding Emma, Talking to her.

    “Oh no.” He said.

    “What do you mean, Oh No?” Zeke said beside him, expecting him to give say that everything is clear, and just give the go signal for them to run for the fence, climb and jump over.

    “They are talking with Emma,” He said to Zeke. “I think he’s asking her to know where we are.” They are classmates with Emma on their last subject before the end of classes, and they usually went home together with Emma if her mom is not fetching her. He is sure that Emma will not rat them out, however, if they figured out that they are not going out with Emma after classes, they might look for them inside.

     “Let me see.” Zeke shoved him stuck his head out to look at the Entrance for what Rick and his buddies are doing. He saw Rick and his buddies stopped talking to Emma and now running back inside the entrance. “Oh no, they figured it out! Rick and his buddies ran back inside,” Zeke looks back at him. “They are still stupid. It’s now our chance to escape.” Both of the boys look at each other with a smile, then quickly jump out in the open clearing then ran towards the fence, start climbing.

     Both boys climbed faster, seizing the moment, knowing that everything is clear and no one of Rick’s buddies guarding outside the fence. They reached the top and easily pulled themselves over avoiding the iron spikes above. Just as they started climbing down, past the iron fence they saw Rick and his buddies running out to the field straight in their direction Shouting pointing at them. “NO!!! we’re going to get you, you little punks!”

    Laughing, both the boys release their hold on the fence and jumped down. They looked back, Rick and his buddies running in their direction almost reaching the bleachers.

    “Yo!, Rick, we’ll take a rain check ok!” He shouted back at them, then with a smile, both boys backed away from the fence, ran far away as possible away from the angry Rick.

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    How long has he been running now? He grasped the book tightly close to himself. In his mind he only thinking of getting as far away from the mansion as possible He can’t even stop and catch his breath. he doesn’t know if Shar survived or how long she can hold Randell off for him to get as far away as possible. He knows that he should be reaching the edge of the forest by now, looking ahead he was right. He can see that the trees are ending and a paved road just outside the forest. Jonathan took a quick look back, trying to see if somehow Randell has gotten past Shar and cached upon him. There was no one, he was glad, he knows that Shar might have given Randell a hard time. Hoping that Shar won so this nightmare would just end, wishful thinking.

    He finally reached the end of the forest, his hands on his knees steadying himself, he stopped to cached his breath, he felt tired, his breath fast and heavy. It’s been too long since he ran that far a distance, lately, he has been neglecting physical training and just focusing on training the freshmen, now he is paying for it. He can hear he hear his heart beating very fast as he stooped down. He looked to his left, to his delight far away he saw the headlight of a vehicle approaching. He stood up trying to stand up straight so that he won’t look that suspicious to a passing vehicle, although he is only wearing his pajama bottom and naked on the waist up.  A few moments past, the vehicle comes closer to view, it’s a big cargo truck. Jonathan quickly lifted his free hand, trying to hail the truck. Please, stop. Please stop. Jonathan muttered under his breath as he continued hailing the truck. Finally, he saw the truck slowing down, Lights from the truck shines on him, it slowed down to a stop just in front of him.

    Jonathan quickly pointed his finger on his bare chest drawing figures and mutters some incantation under his breath, then a worn-out shirt magically appears out of on his torso, covering his naked chest. Just in time as the door of the truck opens.

    A face of a smiling truck driver appears in front of him “Howdy stranger? What are you doing around these parts? Are you traveling on foot?” he said as the trucker examines Jonathan, with his unkempt black hair, worn-out shirt, and dirty Pajama bottoms.

   “Hey there, I’m pretty down on my luck here man. Could you help a fella? You help drop me by the next town?” he said trying to hide his exhaustion.

   “Well that would be Crowsdale I think. Just about 8 to 10 miles from here.” The Driver replied.

   “Yeah, that’s about right.” He said. The driver gestures for him to board “Get in then, by the way, it’s frank.” The Driver said offering to shake his hands as Jonathan climbed aboard the passenger seat.

   “Nice to meet you frank, oh boy, you are a lifesaver.” He said closing the door, Frank switching gears as the truck moves on, heading to Crowsdale.

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   “Joe over here!” Zachary shouted calling over his youngest brother, who just stepped outside the entrance of his elementary school. On their way home Zac always fetches his younger brother Joseph Pogromca first so that both of them can go home from school, this is tasked to Zac by their mom so that Mrs. Pogromca can just focus on preparing for dinner once the boys got home.

     Joe Saw him and Zeke waiving at him, he smiled and walked towards them. “Zack, we watched a short video today about the history of our town. It was creepy and awesome.” Joe said approaching him. “There were these legends of witches and monsters and stuff that our ancestors that first settle here have.”

     “Yeah Joe, we know about that too. Those are just legends though, did your teachers said that it’s not real.”

     “Yeah, miss Hathaway said that no one have proven those stories to be real. Probably just to scare kids to sleep or to go home early and not loiter around after dark.”

     “Hey, why is it only the two of you today? Did Emma’s mom fetch her today?” Joe noticed. “Umm no, we just got on ahead to fetch you first, we’ll just meet with her on the way home. We can surely wait for her on the corner of Green Elm street.” He said back to him.

    The three boys went on, going home. Crowsdale is a small town in the middle of a valley. It’s filled with a Suburban, quiet and neat neighborhood. It’s a sidewalk full of lush full green trees. Back when Zac and Zeke were in elementary school they usually ride their bikes to school, now growing up, after they started high school they prefer on just walking along with the peaceful and beautiful, suburban neighborhood that is Crowsdale.

     They arrived at the corner of Green Elm street the sun almost sinking down the western mountains, this is a path that the three boys and Emma usually took going home. They stopped, waiting. He expects that any moment now Emma will just appear around the bend with a frown on her face, probably surprise first since she did not see the boys come out of school the same time as her, they will be angry at Zac and Zeke leaving her behind and not waiting for her. In his mind, he is already imagining what will happen when she sees them waiting for her.

     He started thinking about what excuses he will say to her. Honestly, they really have been quite occupied and busy escaping Rick and his buddies. Despite the fact that he is hiding his feelings towards her, he still sometimes gets sad when she is angry at him. Feels something is missing when she ignores him, usually at instances such as this, which is totally by accident, not his fault. Why did he always make mistakes, he thought? He really needs to start fixing himself and Zeke. They should stop doing crazy things. They are not kids anymore, they are already grown-up teenagers.

     A couple of Minutes passed by, yet there still no sign of Emma. He started to worry.

     “What’s taking her so long, do you think she arrived here earlier than us, then just went straight home by herself?” Zeke was the first to speak out, sitting on the grass beside them with Joe. “She probably passed here earlier when we go to fetch joe.” He looked at joe, blaming him for missing Emma. “Can you like just text her dude?” Zeke asked him.

     “Ok, good idea.” He pulled out his phone searched Emma’s contact and started texting her. (Where are you, we are waiting for you at the corner of green elm?) he sent. His phone rang back, it’s Emma. (This is Rick, I got your girl right here, you don’t want anything to happen to her, do you? Meet us at Devils Dive.) he was shocked, Rick got Emma’s phone. He probably got Emma and holding her hostage. He did not think that Rick will go so far as to hurt someone else just to get back to him. “Oh no, Rick got her. What is that dumb jock, thinking?”

   “What?!” Zeke shouted, standing up. “He would not dare to hurt her, this is stupid. This is kidnapping, we could report this to the police, and get his stupid jock head in jail for this.”

   “What happened to Emma?” Joe his brother stands up as well, looking at him.

    He looked at Zeke “It’s ok, no ones gonna get hurt, this is just some macho stunt that he is trying to pull, to scare us.” He said to Zeke. “Let's just face him then, I am not afraid of him.”

    “Dude! There’s like, six of them. And we are just two and a half,” Zeke said pulling up his fingers in front of him gesturing back to Joe.

    “Hey! Watched it, Zeke.” Joe said. “I can handle myself not unlike you guys getting bullied by these guys.”

    “You don’t know what you’re saying little man,” Zeke said crouching low to face joe. “These are big football guys that could just crush you without a sweat. You can talk big, but those guys can just pound you to burger patty flat, joe.” Zeke punching his right hand down to his left open palm, trying to make joe imagine how Rick and his buddies will pound joe to the ground.

   “I’m not afraid of them.” Joe stood up, putting out his chest. “Are you scared of them Zeke?”

   “I am more, afraid of them pounding you into a pulp, little man.” Zeke continues teasing Joe.

   “They can try.”

   “Damn right they will. You turn into dust, joe.”

   “Cut it out both of you,” He intervened. “There is not the time to be quarreling, it’s ok we need to face them ourselves.” He looks at joe. “You can go on ahead home, joe. Just tell mom Zeke and I stayed with Emma for a while doing some schoolwork.”

   “No way I’m going home Zack, I will be going with you to rescue Emma, or I will tell mom that you got into trouble again.”

   “Ok fine, just come with us, I can just text mom. That you went with us to do some school stuff.” He surrendered, not wanting to argue further and waste more time. “Don’t worry I have a plan,” Zac assured them. As the sun slowly sinks over the western mountains. Slowly darkness crept over the valley, as one by one the houses on the valley opened up their lights that shone on their window, street lamps light up, a signal that night comes.