BLOODY HORIZON

CHAPTER NINE

°°° Bad Decisions °°°

     Sean could barely sleep throughout the night. He kept having recurring dreams about the snatching event.

      Either he was crushed under the wheels of Melvin’s car, sandwiched between Melvin’s car and the store, stabbed to death by the slow one who’d intentionally dropped his pace so as to take him unawares, broken his head, neck, or spinal cord from his double flip stunt, missed the tree and fell endlessly, or the one with the bag shot him dead.

The dreams woke him up almost every eighteen minutes into each sleep.

He heaved a sigh of surrender and decided to use the opportunity that sleeplessness presented to pack up his things.

      In a few minutes, he was done. He wore a black hoodie over a white inner shirt. His dark blue jeans looked black in the absence of light, as did his dark brown footwear.

      He walked to Jason’s bed and took a picture of the napping boy, laughing softly at the funny face he was making in his sleep. He quietly walked out of the attic bedroom and climbed down the stairs.

The door to Dan and Ann’s room was open. Both were fast asleep.

"Goodbye," he mouthed and walked past their room. He then stopped and turned to Andrew’s room. He was going to miss his spirit.

     He sighed and quietly opened the closed door. Andrew was curled up like a ball on the ground. He’d probably been crying in that position when he went to sleep. Sean smiled and shut the door gently, ensuring not to make a sound.

     Seeing as it was about thirty minutes to six, Sean turned off the alarm system and walked out the door, his duffle bag in his hand. He wasn’t scared that someone would break in without them knowing because this wasn’t Philadelphia after all, and it was practically morning already. The Whites would be up any moment.

~~

"Dad," the rather scared voice of Andrew was the first thing Dan heard as he was shaken out of sleep.

"Huh? Yeah? Andy… "It’s not yet six, is it?" Dan grumbled, still sleepy.

"It’s Sean," Andrew tried to keep himself from yelling and waking his mom up. "I think he left the house."

     Dan's eyes and mind cleared at that. He shot out of bed in a frenzy, then stopped, realizing he couldn’t afford Ann finding out what was going on. Stress was one thing she didn’t need right now.

"Come on," Dan whispered, shoveling Andrew out of the room and into the hallway. He turned and slowly pulled at the door, slowly closing it. He heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Andrew. "What do you mean, ‘left the house’?" Dan asked and immediately ran up the spiral staircase, with Andrew running after him.

"Jay, get up," Andrew called out immediately after they walked into the room. "We can’t find Sean."

"What?" Jason yelled, but Dan reached him in time to shut his mouth."Keep it down… "We don’t want to wake your mom," Dan’s voice was stern and serious.

     Jason looked in his eyes, and he knew this wasn’t a trick to wake him up. He only saw his father with such an expression when he had a project with a deadline at work. Sean really was missing.

"Andy, check for his things." "He probably went for an early morning run," Dan instructed, trying to remain optimistic. "An early run?" This early? Would he even think of that after yesterday’s events? His heart immediately murdered his hope, and Andrew disintegrated the ashes of his hope when he showed him the space where Sean’s bag was meant to be."Get your keys, dad," Jason shot out of bed. "I think I know where he’s headed."

~~

      The wind was awfully cold this morning. The skies were still dark, but the street lights lit up the entire road.

      Sean shivered from a breeze that suddenly blew at him from nowhere. The whistling winds weren’t at all alien to him. He was used to being outside, back in Philadelphia. Ever since his father’s passing, he built it into a habit. Any day that he wasn't able to wake up early enough to go out for a run or just sit under the morning wind, he was usually grumpy and easily irritated.

He looked at his wrist watch; it was five forty-five already and still no cabs on the street.

He sighed softly, "The city really is fast asleep," he said, and resolved to walk to the Greyhound bus station.

     He took out his phone and opened his GPS app. He hadn’t used it in months, and it was still reading Philadelphia. He shook his head in frustration and opened his browser. He then typed "720 W Muhammad Ali Blvd, Louisville, KY 40203, United States" into the search box. He had memorized the bus station’s address on his way to Kentucky with Sarah.A map popped up on his screen, and he stopped working. He wasn’t so great at reading maps, so it took a while before he located the street he was on.

     After a minute, he had memorized most of the turns he’d need to take to get to the Greyhound bus station. He immediately turned back on his phone’s flight mode. He didn’t want anyone calling him until he was in the bus, and it was too late to turn back.

With a sigh, he dipped his right hand in his pocket and picked up his duffle bag with his free hand. He had barely walked for a minute when he noticed a car driving crazily fast from behind him.

"Drunks," he shook his head and stopped walking, facing the car to know how to avoid getting hit by it in case the driver loses control.

The headlights of the car made it hard to know what car it was, but it was a high car, as he could tell from the height of the headlights.

      Getting closer, Sean could now see better, thanks to the street lights. It was a black SUV. The vehicle zoomed past him, its glasses tinted so he could barely see the interior, but he was able to see the manly silhouette of the driver with someone besides him in the front passenger seat. They weren’t looking drunk, so he figured they must just be in a hurry.

     The car suddenly came to a stop a couple meters away from him, just as he was about to continue his journey. His brows furrowed in confusion. In a moment, the vehicle was reversing.

Sean looked around. great time and location for a kidnapping. Judging by the time between the stopping and the reverse, there was probably an argument.

"They were probably arguing over whether or not to give me a ride," he thought to himself as his heart pounded harder and faster. "Or they were pulling out their guns and masking their faces," his pessimistic side wasn’t allowing him to think. He was about to break into a run when he saw something that calmed him down momentarily before he realized his plans had been thwarted. Mr. White sighed in defeat.

The car pulled up across the road, and Jason’s head came into view, winding down the window.

"Need a ride, mate," he said with a terrible British accent. He smiled and signaled with his head for Sean to hop in.

      Sean looked at the road ahead and then at the ground. He couldn’t outrun them if he tried, and running would be simply weird and quite foolish. With slow, reluctant steps, Sean walked across the street and into the car.

Dan looked at him, trying to say something, but the atmosphere wasn’t right for anything that came to mind. He couldn’t scold Sean for wanting to leave. After last night, he would also have left if he were Sean. He just turned on the car’s music player and turned the car around.