No One is Innocent

Chapter 7.

We walked for hours in silence. We stopped in the woods and made up a fire. Hannes took his mask and threw it in the fire. 

''I'm done with that crap,'' he said held my hand gently. 

We slept by the fire that night. The next morning I heard someone yelling. And I realized just seconds after who it was. Dad. He had probably followed us. He came to us and started to drag me out of the woods. 

''You're in a lot of trouble, young lady,'' he roared and then turned to Hannes. ''And you... stay away from my daughter, or you'll regret it.''

I tried to run away, but dad's grip on my wrists was too tight. 

Hannes fell down on his knees in tears and watched me get further and further away from him. I tried to scream, but dad let go of one of my wrists and covered my mouth.

And he wasn't joking this time. He tied my arms and legs with ropes, and put silver tape on my mouth. Now he really reminded me of Marcus, and that was not a good thing. He threw me in the car and slammed the door. 

''You little piece of shit,'' he mumbled and hit me from the front seat. ''How dare you get together with my biggest enemies's worker.''

If my mouth wasn't covered, I would've spit on him. I just wanted to kill him. If I killed him, all my problems would be solved. Kill or be killed. That described my whole situation at that time, because I doubted that dad would hesitate a second to kill me. But then I remembered, I still had my sword hidden behind my shirt. If I just could take it, and kill dad, I could escape and go back to Hannes. But the ropes around my arms were too tight, and dad watched me probably more than the road in front of him. 

''By the way,'' he said while he drove. ''I found a tracker in the toilet yesterday. I thought, why not put it to use again? We'll fix that when we'll get home.''

My whole body froze. He found the tracker? If he was going to do what I thought he would do, I could already kiss Hannes and my future with him goodbye. 

After a couple of hours we got home. I had never been so sad to see my house before. Dad carried me on his back. And the second he got into the house, he rushed upstairs so I almost fell out of his grip, and threw me in my room. And to my surprise, a pillar had been built in the middle. He untied the ropes around my hands and then tied them again, but around the pillar. He did the same thing with my legs. Now it was useless to even try to escape. Marcus wasn't the bad guy anymore, my dad was. And dad was turning even worse than Marcus. When dad tore off the tape from my mouth, I saw the tracker in his hand. And before I could say anything, he had forced the tracker into my mouth. I coughed in an attempt not to swallow it, but dad slapped me hard enough so that I finally did. 

''Why?...'' was the only thing I had time to say before he put the tape back on. 

Then dad walked out of the room, and locked the door. But one thing I wondered, where was mom? I knew that she would never accept this behavior in her own household. But then I heard her voice and dad's just outside my room. I tried my best to listen.

''She's in there,'' dad said. 

''Great,'' mom said and then sighed. ''Now we just gotta find that... Hannes?'' 

''Yes,'' dad replied quickly. ''Last time I saw him was in the woods with Toni, maybe he is still there. Oh, and I also called Marcus and I managed to team up with him, so now we, plus Marcus and his workers, are looking for Hannes.''

And then they both laughed and I heard their footsteps down the stairs. Great, mom was now also involved, in a bad way. And many people were searching for Hannes, which meant he was in great danger. But after a while of sadness, I realized something. Dad forced me to swallow the same tracker Hannes had given me. Which meant that Hannes could still track me! I almost burst out crying of happiness. We still had a chance to see each other again. But only if he was quick enough before I starved to death, because I doubted that dad would give me any type of food. And also if Hannes was careful enough, because of all the searching for him. 

That day I learned one thing. Don't trust anyone, because... No one is innocent.