Open Secrets✔️

III

Danny and I started running in between people's houses. It was very dark. He was holding onto my hand so tight, it almost started hurting.

"Danny, where are we going?" I asked.

"Shh. Be quiet. I don't know."

"What about Mom?" I wasn't sure why I asked about Mom. I also wasn't sure if I was even looking for an answer. Danny didn't answer me. We kept running and running. We ran all the way to end of the street. Both of us kept looking around, making sure Mom or anybody wasn't seeing us or following us. 

Finally we stopped running. We started walking instead. Both of us were breathing heavily and it was so chilly that we could see our breath. Having Danny with me, made me feel a lot safer, but being alone in the dark was very terrifying, even with him.

"Danny, where are we going?" I looked up at him, as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"I don't know Chad. Just...away."

"Away from what?"

"Everything. School, Mom, everything. It will all be ok. I promise." That was the first time I had ever heard Danny say 'I promise'. At the time, I wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but I trusted him.

"I'm cold." I say. Danny suddenly stops in front of me.

"Of course, here." He unzipped my bag and took out a small blanket that I had packed. He wrapped it around me.

"Better?" He asked, I nodded. We continued walking.

"Won't Mom come looking for us?"

"Yeah, she will. And if and when she tells the school and the police, they will come looking too."

"Are we going to hide from them?"

"Yes. Run or hide." He stopped in front of me again, Putting his hands on my shoulders.

"Chad, I will never let Mom or anybody else hurt you. You understand. They will not catch us." I nodded.

"Ok." Danny stood up, and grabbed my hand again as we continued walking. After walking down three streets, Danny brought us too an open field. Behind the field was a woods. I figured that was where we were going.

"Nobody will find us in the woods." He said, staring. We continued walking. 

"Danny, what are we going to eat?" I asked. At that point, I was so hungry, even after having the pudding cup. I couldn't imagine how hungry he was.

"We'll figure it out." Danny always seemed to have an answer for everything; although, most of the time they never really answered the question. I started to have doubts, the closer we got to the woods.

"Maybe we should go back."

"NO. Bub we are not going back. We can't go back."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Mom..." He stopped himself and started over, "We just can't." I knew there was something he wasn't telling me. Maybe it was better if I didn't know. I'm sure that's what he thought anyway. We continued walking until we came up to this big tree.

"Here," He said," Let's camp here. Chad, stay there. I'll be right back." I started to walk towards him.

"Where are you going?" He pointed back towards the tree.

"I promise, I'll be right back, I won't go far. I'm just going to set a few traps and get some wood for a fire." I sat down at the tree.

"What kind of trap?"

"An animal trap. So we can get some food. Just stay there, ok?" I nodded. I was very scared. I was hearing different noises the entire time. I started to get really worried that Danny got lost or caught by someone or something.

I couldn't tell how long it had been. Telling time was something I just wasn't good at. It could've been 2 minutes or 20 minutes.

Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. I got really scared and quickly jumped. It could've been Danny, or an animal, or anything. I almost started running, until I seen Danny.

"Its ok. Its just me." He said. He had an armful of wood that he dropped at his feet, "Hopefully tomorrow we will have food." I started to pick up some of the pieces of wood that he had brought back to start a fire.

"I'll do it." He said, grabbing them out of my hand, "Its a lot harder than you think; especially if you don't have a lighter or a match to start it." Danny was very street smart and I had faith that he would do it.

After a while, he was complaining about his hands hurting. I was worried that he wouldn't be able to start it. Right when I was about to tell him to stop, the flame sparked. We both smiled.

"Good." I said.

"That's right." He added, "We have to keep the fire small so people don't see it, ok." I nodded. It was already better having a fire because it gave off light and heat. Those things are what I needed the most. Well that and food. I hoped that Danny set the traps right.

"Well the good thing is that I don't hear anybody or anything other than animals." He said, glancing up towards the trees.

"What if the animals come for us?" I asked. I knew that I didn't word it right. I just couldn't find the right words.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, "Like, if they attacked us?"

"Yes." I replied.

"They won't. They are more scared of you than you are of them." I thought about what he said for a few moments. I knew my fear was extremely high, and at the time, I just couldn't picture their fear being any worse.

I could hear what I thought was ever animal in the woods. I could hear crickets, dogs from town, bugs, wolves howling. My biggest fear was the things that I wasn't able to hear. It was really late by then and I was pretty tired. I glanced at Danny but I couldn't read his feelings.

It looked like he was feeling a bunch of different things. Sadness, anger, worry, panic, lost. I'm not sure if all of those were feelings but I sensed them all from him that night. I was about to tell Danny that I was tired and that I was going to try and sleep, but I seen him staring off into the darkness with panic in his eyes.

"Danny...." I said calmly. He didn't answer, "Danny, what's wrong? Your scaring me." He turned his head to look at me, still in panic.

"What have we done?" He whispered.