Eternity

protective (7)

“Aaron have you seen Steff?” Faith asks pacing back and fourth

“Not a word from her” he says “baby calm down”

“I can't!” she says waving her arms around a bit “she's never taken more than a hour to write back to me let alone a week”

“Maybe her and Harold are doing it or something” He tries to assure her.

Harold walks in and Faith looks at him

“Harold have you seen Steff?” Faith asks

“I just came here to ask the same thing she isn't answering my messages” he admits

Faith's heart rate increases and Aaron darts up and goes to her holding her up as she faints. He lays her on the bed and Harold helps him. Aaron grabs some water and splashes her face making her jerk her body forward. She wipes the water from her face and swallows hard. He wraps a towel around her and she looks at Harold.

“Harold when was the last time you saw her?” Faith asks

Harold takes a deep breath. How is he supposed to say she ran off because he cheated on her with a stripper he's known since high school? He takes a deep breath.

“Not since I went to work. I was so busy that I stayed there overnight.” Harold lies

Aaron grabs his laptop and Harold watches as he types Steff's number into the database. He pinpoints her location and his jaw drops.

“What?” Harold asks him not understanding the map

“She's in her hometown about 6 hours from here” Aaron explains “why would she go there?”

Faith worries and so does Harold.

“Come on lets get out of here and go save her” Faith says

Aaron nods and they slip past security and run to Harold's car. They get in and he turns it on driving out of the parking lot.

Steff sniffles as she walks to the burned remains of what used to be her house. She lets her fingers brush against the blackened wood as she enters the house. She sees the wall still has a picture of her family on it and she looks at the slightly burned picture frame. She walks upstairs and goes to her old room. Her tears flow as she looks at the charred remains. The water damaged the roof so her room has water laying on the floor. She remembers when she heard about it being caught on fire. She never was brave enough to come and see it for herself. She goes to the corner she hid in when she was little. She sees the drawing she drew into the wall of her family and sniffles resting her hand where the handprint she left is. She gets up as she hears a car pull up and looks through the charred window and her eyes widen seeing Harold's car. She sets her phone on the stand in her room and runs downstairs and runs out the back door sliding through the fence and continues to run. She finds an abandoned house and goes on it's yard. She sits in the bushes and watches through a peep hole watching as her friends and ex boyfriend search the yard and house.

“She has to be around here somewhere” Aaron says “her signal was dinging right here”

Faith looks around in the basement as Harold goes to her room and spots her phone. He picks it up and realizes she saw them pull up to the driveway. He hears Aaron and Steff go outside and finds her old diary and slides it into his pocket. He goes to walk but the floor creeks. The floor caves in and he screams a bit and grabs a hold of a weak board. He yells for help.

“Help somebody!” he shouts desperate for one of his cries to get out

he sees somebody extend a hand out and he grabs he hand weakly as the board starts cracking. The person pulls him up and he squirms away from the hole fast to the exit. He looks up at the person who saved him and Steff looks back at him. Her usually bright hazel eyes clouded with darkness. She runs out of the house fast and slides into a hiding spot. He looks around for her but doesn't see her and looks at the diary in his hands before he walks to the car and drives with her friends to a hotel to stay at. She walks to her car that she parked about a mile away from her house and gets in before letting her tears flow. She looks outside as the rain trickles down her windows. She turns on her car and drives out of the town. As she gets to a nearby town, she goes into a hotel and gets their cheapest room. She sits on the tiny bed and takes a deep breath writing in her diary.

'I don't know why I saved his life. I should have let him die.. but I just couldn't live with myself if he died' she writes in her diary.

She rests her diary with her on her pillow hugging it tight as she falls asleep.

Harold reads the diary to himself as he sheds some tears. It's completely about Steff's constant fighting for her own life. He reads to the last page of the book and sets the book down taking a deep breath. He sets it under his pillow and rests his head on the pillow. He looks at the ceiling and thinks about when she saved him. He doesn't understand it. Why didn't she let him die? He broke her heart. If somebody hurt him as bad as he hurt her he'd let them fall. But she saved him. Was it to torture him? He just can't understand it. He falls asleep hours later to the sound of birds chirping in the night.

Steff wakes up trembling at 4 in the morning. She had another nightmare. She sits up and packs her few things before she walks out of the hotel. She goes to a near by diner and grabs a piece of paper. She fills out the job form and hands it to the lady before she orders some food. As she eats she tries to figure out how she's going to afford everything. She doesn't have the money to pay for a lot of things. She's a poor girl. A girl on the run no less.