Run. Just Run.

Chapter 2

Tap. Tap. Tap.

James slowly crawls out of bed, irritated at being woken up but also slightly apprehensive about opening the window. What would he see? Slowly he opens the window and the cool night air rushes in against his chest, sending shivers up his spine.

When he gets the window open, the first thing he sees are a pair of deep blue eyes looking back at him in the darkness. He instantly recognizes the eyes, he's looked at them enough to know exactly who they belong to.

"Ashley!" James whispers. "What are you doing? Why are you here in the middle of the night?"

Ashley takes one glance at him shirtless and then dismisses it as she says "Come with me! There's two men here talking with Aunt Margaret and it sounds like they're fighting!"

James looks at the girl, notices the terror in her voice, and says he'll be out in a second. He turns around, throws the nearest shirt on, puts on a hoodie over it, and jumps in his tennis shoes. Then he goes back to the window and climbs out of it.

"What took you so long?" Ashley whispers hastily.

"I had to get dressed!" James retorts. "I couldn't just come like I was! I'd freeze!"

The two of them quickly and quietly make their way through the trees and in no time at all they're climbing into Ashley's bedroom window. James could hear some loud talking coming from what he figured to be the living room. Ashley slowly opens her bedroom door and walks down the hallway, motioning for James to follow.

"I don't care WHAT you say, you are going to tell me the truth!" A deep, angry voice yells.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" A voice that belongs to Aunt Margaret says adamantly. "And even if I did. I would never tell you two." She hisses.

"That's it. We aren't going to work for you anymore!" A second mans voice says angrily. "I'm sick of you always calling the shots and making us do all the dirty work!"

Then there is a silence. Ashley turns to James, her eyes wide. "Dirty work?" She mouths. James stares into her eyes and shrugs. Ashley turns back around when Aunt Margaret's voice starts speaking.

"Oh, so now you're just going to leave? Just walk out on a quarter of a million dollars? That's what each of you would get if we completed all this."

There is another silence and they seemed to be thinking it over. James and Ashley look at each other. A quarter of a million dollars?!? Twice?!? Aunt Margaret doesn't have that kind of money! She must be planning something that will give her a considerable amount of money, to be paying these two like that. All this is being said without either of them saying a word, just by looking at each other's face.

"Fine." The deeper voice says. "We'll do what you want us to do. Only it better be as easy to get that Ashley kid as you say it will be."

James quickly puts his hand over Ashley's mouth to stop her from gasping. He quickly pulls her back into her room and closes the door behind them.

"Did you hear wha-"

James puts his hand back over Ashley's mouth. "Shhh!" You're not supposed to be awake, much less talking! They might hear us!" James whispers into her ear. "Come with me."

James leads her to the window, and pushes her out first before crawling out and quietly shutting the window behind him. Then they creep over to the edge of the woods, and suddenly Ashley takes off running. James sighs and follows her.

"Slow down, Ash!" James whispers at her.

Ashley keeps running, paying no attention to the boy behind her constantly trying to get her to stop. She keeps running till she feels what feels like her feet being yanked out from under her, and she falls and rolls end over end down a hill.

James sees Ashley trip on the tree root, and jumps over it to try and catch her. Then she's falling. Down the hill. James doesn't think about anything and instinctively runs down the hill as fast as he can. He finally sees Ashley, curled up in a ball, laying on the ground sobbing. He runs over and rolls her over.