Little Angel

13

Charlie

"Sam?!", I shouted, I turned around a few seconds ago to see an empty chair. My heart dropped into my chest , worrying already that she had wondered off to Adams office or something and some dodgy businessman had hurt her or at least threatened Adam with her.

I had just finished cooking the noodles and she was gone just like that. I was about to run through the door, putting the noodles on the coffee table as I left when she wandered in quickly, hugging Arktos to her chest. I ran to her quickly and made sure she was alright, looking her over. 

"Where were you Sam?", I asked her as she didn't look me in the eyes, looking down to the ground. Something quite normal for her but it was at least a few seconds of eye contact.

"To the bathroom", She said, obviously lying as her eyes were darting back and forth, why was she lying to me? I went down to her level to ask her again, to give her the chance to tell me the truth.

"Sam, where were you, and don't lie", I said calmly, looking her dead in the eyes as they moved back and forth between me and the kitchen. She was a genius sure but she couldn't lie to save her life. 

"I went to the library", She said, now telling me the truth, she's not a very good liar so it's easy to tell when she is telling the truth or telling the half-truth. Which she is doing right now. 

"And?", I asked her as she huffed, holding Arktos tightly. 

"She was with me", Leo said, coming out of the hallway and into the kitchen, as if he had been idly watching us. Anger swarmed my body as I stood up, walking right up to him without a single bit of fear.

"Why? I thought I made it clear this morning that I didn't want any of you assholes near her", I said angrily, causing Sam to hold onto one of my fingers, trying to calm me down. It didn't work as I shook her off, my teeth were gritting together I was that angry. 

"Sam, go to your room and take your noodles with you, don't wander off, I will be there in a few minutes", I said calmly, well tried to. She just nodded her head right away as she took her noodles from the coffee table and headed out of the room, a fork in her pocket as she walked quickly. 

I didn't have the energy to wonder if she would listen to what I said but she wouldn't disobey me for the second time today, she isn't a bad kid but she is naive. I glared Leo right in the eyes as he deadpanned me, unbothered. He never was about anything.

"I'm going to make it very clear to you right now. I don't want you near my sister", I shouted, though not too loud so Sam wouldn't hear. Leo sighed in annoyance and pushed me back slightly so I was less in his face, putting his hands up as if he was mocking me. 

"Ours", He said in a bored tone, as if me being here bored him.

"What?", I asked quickly, my fists becoming tighter, my jaw became tighter. 

"She is our sister, infact she is all of ours sister, she deserves to know her brothers Charlie. What are you so afraid of? That we will hurt her or something?", He asked me quickly, his voice wavering now and again as if I was the one that was angering him. 

"Yes.", I said through gritted teeth as I slowly walked away, grabbing my noodles from the table and heading out of the room, bumping into Chris on the way yet I just ignored him and kept walking. The bowl was burning my hands from the heat of the noodles yet I was too annoyed to even think about that.

I need to know what Leo said, it worries me that Sam will get hurt because of something dumb, or that she figures things out because of Leo. I have always been cautious with Sam when I say things just in case she figures something out from being so stupidly smart, but Leo doesn't know how smart she is, I doubt she even knows what her capabilities are. 

I walked into Sams room to find her sitting at her desk, slurping noodles as she smiles at the odd noise. When she sees me, she puts her noodles down onto the desk and hugs Arktos tightly. 

"I'm sorry Charlie for wandering off, I wanted to see the library", She said quietly yet she still was lying. Why was she lying to me? I just nodded, sitting down on the bed as we both ate our noodles in peace.

"So, what did you and Leo talk about?", I asked her. She stopped eating for a moment as if she was debating whether to tell me or not. 

"He is going to teach me how to play piano", She said quietly. I stared at her for a moment as she slowly ate, as if waiting for me to disagree with her. I sighed but stayed in silence for a moment.

9 years ago...

I was just coming home from school, I missed the bus and my brothers had ditched me, calling me a baby because I asked them to walk me home. I was 8 after all, and they had all gone to the park together because father was working till late tonight and father didn't really like my mother getting involved with us kids, though I don't really know why.

The others make it seem like she does it on purpose, yet I see how he treats her. I know one day she will hopefully leave him, she deserves better to be honest. To be honest, I didn't like my brothers, they all acted like my father, he didn't like me too much either, he tries to act like he does yet I can see how much he favorites Adam and Leo, maybe because their the eldest ones but still.

I know he wanted me to be a girl, it was pretty obvious as they had done a girls bedroom for me and they didn't even bother to change it for me. I remember clearly because that's still my room now and the only thing that has really changed is the bed, and that was just changed from a crib to a single bed. My brothers had doubles, I know bed size doesn't mean they don't love me, but it doesn't mean they can't afford it.

I had walked about half way home when a black van starts to follow me from down the road, it slowed down whenever I did and got quicker when I did as well. It started to freak me out, so I decided to head into the forest behind our house, I knew the route pretty well and I could get home easily.

I set off sprinting for the trees, causing the van to accelerate towards me in a hurry as I ran as fast as I possibly could, my breathe was becoming louder as I ran, running out of breathe because of how quickly I was trying to get away. 

Who were these people? Why were they chasing me? I understand that children got kidnapped sure, but wouldn't they give up as soon as the child runs away from them through a forest! 

I didn't really have to time to think about it to be honest as the doors to the van now opened as I entered the trees and I could hear at least two sets of feet running towards me. As I entered the forest I decided to go the opposite way from the house and head towards my tree house, something I started making a year ago when my father would get annoyed at me and I would leave the house.

I was only 7 yet they were never really bothered where I was, and my mother was always asleep. 

Running faster through the forest was getting harder, the twigs were snapping as I ran so it would be smarter to slow down so they didn't hear where I went, yet I couldn't stop running, I was so afraid that they would end up killing me or even worst. 

It was starting to get dark which would make it ten times harder to make it home from the forest. As I was running, I heard an echoing gunshot fly through the forest, causing me to put my hands quickly to my ears. 

I was nearly there, just a few more minutes, they were right behind me a second ago but they had now lost me, I hidden under a trunk for a few minutes until they decided to look somewhere else for a while, arguing with each other that they had lost a small child.

I was now at the tree house, clutching onto the ladder and climbing up quickly, it wasn't really a house fore say, it was a platform high up in the tree, it was hardly visible because of all the branches. 

I had left a blanket here before and a pillow from when I stayed staring at the stars for the night. What will happen in the morning when they don't know where I went?