FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Escape

I gave what I thought was a convincingly sleepy groan and turned my face away from him.

            “Alright,” he chuckled, “I guess you must be pretty exhausted. I’ll leave your breakfast on the nightstand. I’m gonna take a shower.”

            To my immense relief I heard him walk into the bathroom and the door clicked shut. I sprang to my feet as soon as the shower started running and snatched my night gown off the floor, bolting out the door and down the stair case, taking two steps at a time. 

            Thankfully the front hall was empty, and I made it out the door and down the icy pathway without anyone seeing me. I stopped in the tiny parking lot and looked around in dismay. What was I thinking? I didn’t have a car here. How was I going to get away? Where was I going to go anyways?

            I looked down at my phone. Charlotte still hadn’t answered, and that decided me. I needed to know that she was okay. And I wanted to know if the other girls were gone. I looked up, startled, as another car roared up and took a spot beside the black van that Loki and I had arrived in. A woman and man got out and began unloading luggage.

            I glanced back at the house, at the windows on the second floor. No one was peering out searching for me, but I had better stop standing here in the middle of the parking lot like a dumb-ass.  Finding a taxi service was easy enough, I just punched in a search on my phone, and in no time I had a voice telling me I’d be picked up in five minutes.

            Five minutes. Enough time for him to discover I’m gone. Should I hide?

            I settled for walking all the way down to the end of the driveway. You couldn’t see the house very well from the bottom of the hill. If Loki started walking down the driveway I would spot him though, and run like stink.

            He’s probably still in the shower. But boys don’t shower that long, do they? Maybe he’s out by now, walking around in a towel…

            I realized I was picturing Loki in a towel and felt annoyed at myself. The guy was probably sent to kill me and here I was dreaming about him, imagining him glistening wet, steam rising off his tanned skin…

            Stop it.

            The shushing noise of a car rolling through the slush announced the arrival of my taxi. I climbed into the back gratefully, glancing at the meter I realized I’d have to go home to get something to pay him with before we went to the school.

            “I need to get to 10213-99 street . You take debit cards, right?”

            The driver, a swarthy dark man with a sullen face nodded and turned back to the road. We started away from the bed and breakfast, and I allowed myself a sigh of relief as it grew smaller and smaller in the back window.

            The ride back home was long, and I watched the meter climb higher and higher. I didn’t have much in my bank account, and it made me wonder what I was going to do. I would be able to cover a couple taxi rides no problem, but what if I did have to run away, back to California? Could I get a job and get more money that way? Would anyone even hire a sixteen year old?

            At last we rolled to a stop outside the house. Janet’s shiny new car was parked in the driveway, but the truck was gone. Not a surprise. Dave was probably out looking for me, he was probably in a total panic. Janet, on the other hand, would be sitting at home gloating.

            “Wait here,” I told the cab driver, “I have to get my wallet, and then if you can take me to Grande Prairie High, that would be awesome.”