Chapter 4: Escape

Lethea cracked her bedroom door open a bit to hear if her parents were still up. But she had heard complete silence.

So she opened her door slowly so she had enough space to get her suitcase, that she got from under her bed, out the door, as well as her bookbag and herself without making any noise.

She went downstairs carefully and saw that her mother's purse was in the middle of the kitchen table.

She gently let go of her suitcase. Lethea had planned to get some money from her mother's purse. But before attempting her plan, Lethea thought about it for a good five minutes.

Lethea thought that if she did this that she couldn't come back. But she also thought about how her parents are not her real parents. And she wasn't planning to come back.

So she grabbed the handles slowly and quickly and got five hundred dollars from her mothers wallet.

She knew this was not a smart thing to do. But now she really had not choice. Lethea had to take a risk.

She carefully put her mother's purse back like no one had touched it.

She slowly tip toed out the house trying not to get spotted. Then Lethea went outside closing the door slowly behind her. She turned around to find a rocky path that lead to the city part of Pennsylvania. She walked off the porch with her bookbag on her back and her suitcase in her hand. Lethea started to walk the long rocky path.

It took her the rest of the night to get to the end of the rocky path. She felt weak and she didn't have the strength to stand. She fell to the ground with her bookbag hitting the back of her head. Lethea tried getting up but she couldn't.

She saw that a man was in front of her. The only thing she could see was his hand. So she grabbed it then she saw nothing but darkness.

She woke up in a bed. She felt dizzy and so confused on what happened. She saw that a door had slowly opened. A child peeked through the door. He had brown hair and bright blue eyes. He just looked at her for two minutes until he said "Dad, I think she's looking at me."

As Lethea sat up, thinking about talking to the kid, a man opened the door even more, and for some reason Lethea know he looked familiar. He sat in a chair that was next to a bookcase.

"Hello sweetheart. Are you feeling ok?" He said in a really deep voice.

Lethea didn't know what to say. She had so many questions but she didn't want to say all of them at the same time. She know she was only going to get answers by asking.

" Umm....I'm fine. What happened? For some reason I can't remember anything. But you look so familiar." Lethea said rubbing her head.

He smiled and grabbed the blanket from the bed I was sitting on.

"Honey, you passed out. You closed your eyes after you grabbed my hand." He said folding the blanket.

" Oh...well can I please get my stuff and leave? It looks like you already have a child to take care of." Lethea said looking at the child.

"Oh..well it wouldn't hurt to stay for dinner. It's dark out there. I don't want you getting hurt." He said holding her hand and petting it.

Lethea pulled her hand away.

"Umm...no thank you. I'm not hungry. But I can leave in the morning if you're that worried about me."

She said.

"Ok great...your stuff is under the bed. I'll give you a minute to settle in." The man said getting up from his chair. He walked out of the room with his child following him, and he closed the door.

Lethea looked under the bed she was sitting on. She saw her bookbag and her suitcase. She also saw a box. It was red and had a picture of a creepy clown on it.

She pulled it out and hesitated to open it. When she finally popped off the led, she couldn't believe what she saw.

She saw a bag of blood, a knife, and a picture. When she looked close to the picture she herself sleep on the bed.

"That must have been when I passed out" she whispered to herself, so no one would hear her.

"Is that my blood?" She asked herself.

Lethea looked at her arm and saw that someone had stole some blood from her and she had a pretty good idea on who did it.

She grabbed her things and opened the door. She saw the child that looked thirteen years old. he looked at me, confused.

"Hello. Where is your father. Shouldn't you be with him?" Lethea asked in a really nice voice.

For a moment he just stood there in silence. Then he spoke.

"My dad is in the basement. He said not to go down there." the child said.

"In the basement? Do you know why he's in the basement?" Lethea asked the boy.

"I don't know. He goes in wearing white gloves. But then he comes out with red gloves. I ask him what happened to his gloves but he says it's just a wonderful magic. He probably dumped his hands in red paint." He said rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, I think it's something

else." Lethea thought to herself.

" Oh." He said thinking.

"Listen. We both have to get out of here. You need to come with me." She said.

"What? No. This is where I live." He said.

"Wait here than. I'll show you why we both have to leave." Lethea said.

Then she went back through the door behind her. She looked under the bed and grabbed the box with the knife, blood, and picture in it.Then Lethea went outside the door finding the kid sitting on the floor. She opened the box and showed him what was inside.

"What the heck is that?" He asked concerned.

" It's my blood. That's a picture of me. Your not safe here, and neither am I. That's why we have to go before your father comes back." Lethea said closing the box.

"Okay Fine. But you better not be tricking me." He said with a serious face.

Lethea put the box in her book bag. They both headed to the front door. But a deep voice startled them.

"Where are you to going?" The man said as the both turned around to find him wearing red gloves.

Lethea didn't speak and neither did the child.

"So are you guys going to just stand here or something? I mean I cooked for all of us. Son, what's going on here?" The father asked looking at his child.

"I'm going to show her round the neighborhood. Is that okay dad?" The child asked.

"I guess a little tour wouldn't hurt. You two be safe. Young lady, look after my son. See you guys

soon." The father said with a weird smile.

They both went out the door. They walked down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

"Are you okay?" Lethea asked.

"No. My dad lied to me this whole time and I didn't even know it." He said with an upset face.

"Trust me. I know what that feels like. Stay strong. What's your name?" Lethea asked him.

"My name is Jason ." He said.

"Okay Jason. Just stay with me and you,ll be fine." Lethea said smiling at him like everything was going to be okay. Even though she knew things would only get worse.

They tried to get far away from the house as possible.

Lethea was trying to look around to see where they can stay and hide out for the night. Lethea then realized that she just took a child that was mostly a teenager from their home.

She turned around to him.

"Jason I'm am so sorry. I should take you back to your dad's house. He's probably worried sick about you." She said walking the direction to his father's house.

But then Jason started to speak and she stopped.

"I don't know your name. But for some reason I feel like I can trust you. I really don't want to go back. And if you think your kidnapping me. Then I want to say that your not. If I want go with you then that's not actually kidnapping, if you think about it."

Lethea thought of what he said.

"Jason, my fake name is Lethea. But my real name is Autumn. But you can just call me Autumn." She said smiling.

Lethea liked her real name. So she decided to change it. Now she went as Autumn and now she wasn't the only person trying to survive.