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“Be careful, Harlow,” Matt warns, but it’s not the threatening kind of warning, is more like the concerned kind of warning. He stops at the door, his hand already resting on the doorknob when he turns around to look at me one more time.
“Good luck,” he says, just loud enough for me to hear it.
“Goodbye, Matt,” I murmur, not sure when or even if I’ll see him again.
The door closes, and I’m left in the large empty hospital room on my own. Loneliness and dejection creep up on me, like shadows in the night, trying to pull me into darkness. I try not to let them get to me, knowing that this is only a momentary state. I am not really alone, not as long as I have people who love me out there waiting for me, probably worried sick about me.
I wait about twenty minutes before I start moving. This is probably long enough for no one to suspect Matt helped me in any way. Grabbing my empty food tray, I stick it under my armpit and grab two boxes of orange juice, that I saved from breakfast. Opening them up carefully, I walk to the door, holding them in one hand, and grabbing the shiny silver doorknob with the other.
My pulse is racing, and my knees are shaking, but my mind is sharp as a blade. There might be some truck-sized men on the other side of this door, but my determination to leave this place is stronger than any two-hundred-pound man.
Sucking in a deep breath, I let the plan run through my head one final time.
Then, I open the door.
I step outside and find two guys sitting on the other side of the corridor looking up at me simultaneously. “I need a nurse right now, this juice is bad,” I complain like I’m an angry customer in a restaurant, and they are the managers.
“Go back in there,” one of them growls at me, not hiding his annoyance at my request.
Instead of following his orders, I grab on to the tray under my arm and throw it at his head as hard as I can. Like I had hoped, I catch both of them completely by surprise. With the tray flying through the air and both of them distracted, I bolt.
As I sprint down the hall, I drop the two boxes of juice behind me.
“You fucking brat!” One of them yells after me.
Concentrating on making my legs move as fast as I can and nothing more, I continue forward. When I hear what sounds like someone slipping, followed by a loud thud, and a string of curse words, I know my plan has worked.
I can’t help but smile at this small triumph, even though I know damn well that I’m not safe yet. My sock covered feet pound against the hospital floor as I let the bright red EXIT signs guide me to freedom.
Since I don’t know who my father has paid off in this place, I decide against stopping for anything or anyone until I’m outside. I pass a few shocked and confused nurses and patients, but I don’t stop. I continue running through the blinding white hospital hallways like a madwoman on a mission because I am.
After what seems like an eternity of running through the maze of halls, I finally make it to a pair of sliding glass doors. Through them, I can see a parking lot, cars, people… freedom.
I’m so close to escaping, so close to being free.
Creeping toward the doors, I finally glance behind me to see if I’m being trailed. When I find no one, my shoulders almost sag with relief. The sliding doors open, and I dart through them. Fresh air caresses my skin, and sunlight warms my face as I take my first steps outside. I want to stand there for a moment; to catch my breath and enjoy these feelings coursing through me, but I know I need to keep moving. I need to get as far away from here as I can. I’m not safe, not until I’m back with the brothers.
Ignoring the throbbing of my shoe-less feet with each bang against the concrete, I race toward the main road. Not wanting to waste any time, I cut the corner sharply, too sharply it seems, because as soon as I round the edge of the wall, my body comes crashing into another person. The impact knocks the air from my lungs, and if the person wasn’t holding on to me, I’d probably have fallen on my ass.
Before I even look up from the guy’s chest, I know who it is. The familiar smell of forest and rain tickles my nostrils, and like a small child, I wrap my arms around his middle and bury my face into his chest.
