Wish You Were Here

27

I stayed as low as possible next to the couch and held my breath. My heart was pounding and I tried not to breathe too loudly. Someone had walked into the kitchen and turned on a light.

I could hear footsteps traipsing around the kitchen. I knew it had to be Dean since the waft of stake cigarettes drifted over me. He was opening a cabinet, rustling around. Then I heard him crunching on what I guessed to be potato chips. Shutting the light off, I heard him walk past the couch and go up the stairs. My stomach rumbled.

Cautiously I peered out from behind the couch into the darkness. I walked as slowly as possible, wondering where Grant and Will were. Making my way over to the window, I parted the heavy curtains a bit, letting in a small stream of light.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my shoulder. Before I could scream, Grant's face popped out. He yanked me behind the curtain, closing it around us.

"What are you doing?!" I whispered.

"Me?" he whispered back. "What about you? I thought you were going to wait outside."

"I was," I replied. "Until I heard something break. What's going on?"

"Will knocked over a plant," he groaned.

"Did you find Aaron?" I asked. "Where's Will anyway?"

"We found him. Will's with him now. But then Dean came downstairs and we hid," Grant said softly.

I rolled my eyes in the dark. I thought people only hid behind curtains in movies, not in real life. Although I wasn't much better. I had been crouching down behind the couch. I wasn't exactly a hide-and-seek master.

"Let's go." Grant directed me out from behind the curtains.

As soon as I heard Will's footsteps, I saw Aaron following close behind him. I strained to get a look at his face, but it was next to impossible in the darkness. I just hoped he wasn't too badly hurt.

Slowly we all four made it to the kitchen and as Grant opened the back door, I hesitated. I held up one finger asking him to wait. Quickly I opened a couple cabinets until I found a few empty bags. Will had inches his way over to me and was watching curiously. When I glanced up, our eyes met and he put his hand out.

Handing him a bag, the two of us quietly opened the pantry and refrigerator. We stuffed as much food and water into our bags as we could in a hurry. The bags were overflowing as Will took mine and carried them out the door. My stomach was rumbling. It sickened me to see all the food Gina and Dean had in this cabin, not to mention the gardens we had also found. For them to have all of that within an arm's reach and only feed us stale bread or rotten food made my stomach turn. What type of a person could be that cruel?

We had opened all the drawers, but didn't find any knives or weapons of any kind. The most disappointing thing was that there was no phone or computer anywhere.

I wore a look of smug satisfaction as we left. We had filled up two bags with food and water of theirs, as well as rescued Aaron. As we passed a generator outside, I stared at it. Gina and Dean had found a way to get power to turn on lights and live a pretty nice way in the middle of nowhere. However they had enough money to buy an island was a mystery. But not more of a mystery than why they'd decided to lure teenagers there and hold them there against their will.

No one spoke a word until we had gone far enough into the woods where Dean or Gina couldn't hear us. I showed Grant the flashlight I found, but he would only turn it on a little at a time. We were still afraid of who might be out there and we didn't want to draw any unwanted attention.

As soon as Grant felt it was safe to stop, he turned towards Aaron.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.