Truth be told, I hadn't planned what I'd do once I made my escape. The night was starless and pitch black. The only lights guiding me through the abandoned streets of my neighborhood were the pale glows of porch lamps and the distant flicker of still-waking television watchers inside their cozy houses. A brief fear crossed my mind. What if someone recognized me through the window? What would they tell my parents? A moment later, that dread seemed silly; it wasn't like I would be coming home tomorrow night to find furious parents wondering where I'd been. I wouldn't be going home for a very long time, if ever again.
In the distance, thunder rumbled quietly like the belly of a hungry animal. The approaching storms brought a chill wind with it, along with the musky smell of rain in the air. I breathed deeply as I listened to my footsteps patter dully against the pavement at my feet. Any moment now, that pavement would turn to soft grass, and that grass into twigs and shrubs. I had no idea what I would do once I reached the forest, but it wasn't that important right now. The first step was leaving, not looking back, and figuring out the details as they came to me. The rest was nothing.
Just procedures.
Just precautions.
Securities.
XxxX
It was movie night. Generally, when one thinks of a movie night, they imagine a child and their parents huddled on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a warm blanket over their laps. Sadly, in this case, the parents were out of the picture. More than once a week, mother and father were gone until the wee hours of the morning with a gaggle of their upper middle class chums, leaving the house entirely to Knox and I. On nights like these, regardless of school, I took the liberty to stay up late and pop in a scary movie to pass the time. Tonight's film was some foreign ghost story with a name I couldn't pronounce and probably didn't remember. The plot was vast and quite confusing, but captivating all the same. Gallons of blood didn't hurt either.
Every few moments, when the scene was at its most suspenseful, I would glance over at Knox sitting on the other end of the couch. He had this stone-cold expression on his face. Not once did he crack a smile or a frown or muffle a gasp of surprise, like nothing scared him at all. But all the same, I could see the goose-bumps rising on the back of his neck.
"Hey you," I pushed my bare foot gently against the side of his leg. My voice was muffled by the cherry-red lollipop sticking out of my mouth and clanking awkwardly against my gapped front teeth. Mother always said the gap would grow shut, like it was an imperfection that age would take care of, but her prediction—of course-was incorrect.
"Don't like scary movies?" I asked innocently as he stared with that stern expression he almost always wore. I gave him a faux pout as I teasingly prodded his thigh with my toes. With a shy, ticklish grin, Knox pulled his leg away the tiniest bit, his cheeks flushing pink. It humored me to see him drop his edgy, defensive manner and reveal his more lighthearted side. And all it took was a little tickle.
Before Knox had a chance to retaliate, we were surprised by thump at the front door. We jumped simultaneously.
"Mom and dad must have locked themselves out again," I said with a nervous giggle, taking a glance at the clock. Only one thirty in the morning…that was a bit early even for them.
"Don't pause the movie," I said to Knox as I ripped the lollipop out of my mouth and shoved it into his. "I'll be right back, okay?" Knox stared at me bewildered for a moment in his silence, watching me jump up and flutter across the room towards the entrance hall.
It crossed my mind briefly that something was a little strange. For one, mother and father almost always kept the door unlocked when they left for the night, anticipating their drunken irresponsibility. And like I said, in all my years of knowing them, not once had they headed home before five in the morning on a night like this. Those suspicions passed through my mind a bit too late, unfortunately. By the time I jogged into the dining room and poked my head around the wall to take a look, the front door was already pushed wide open and a trail of large, muddy footsteps were heading inside.
While I watched the rain pouring in onto the carpet, I jumped ahead and slammed the door shut with a heavy push. "Mom?" I said in a hoarse whisper. No one answered.
"Dad?" I spoke up a bit louder, whirling my head around to glance in each room before resting my back against the cold surface of the door. Beside me, in the spot where mother and father left their shoes, nothing was there. Mother's purse wasn't sitting on the kitchen table as it usually did, and father's jacket was still missing from its hanger. To add to these suspicions, one peek out the window would show me that the driveway was still barren and empty.
Mother and father weren't home.
There was a clatter in the kitchen. I jumped and stifled a frightened gasp, backing up into the corner as my only defense mechanism. My eyes followed the intruder's footsteps from where I stood onto the dark kitchen floor, and finally to a dim shadow moving around ten feet away. Whether or not it saw me, I wasn't sure. But when regarding the squeaky floorboards beneath me and my not-so-silent patterns of movement, it was decidedly so.
The noises stopped. I watched with bated breath as the shadow standing before me paused in its tracks and stood up tall. He turned his head slowly. I couldn't see his eyes, but something in my instincts told me that they were staring right into mine.
My actions go to show that I wasn't too smart when it came to fear. Rather than taking a second to evaluate the situation, I ran like hell the second the intruder took a step towards me. Tripping over my own feet and nearly knocking down half the house on my way, I scampered into the living room—but Knox was not there.
"Knox!" I screamed, whirling around in the darkness with my heartbeat pounding loudly in my ears. I swallowed my heavy breaths somewhere on the verge of hysterics. There was no answer, only the eerie creaking of floorboards from everywhere in the house.
All at once, there was a crash and then a bang and then another. It sent chills up and down my spine. My feet wanted nothing but to run up to my bedroom and barricade myself in, but my ears deceived me with the endless sounds of violence emanating from everywhere and nowhere in particular. I was trapped in place.
In a moment of desperation, I dropped onto the floor with my knees on either side and my face buried in my hands. Something in my subconscious was telling me that if I made myself small, I would become invisible. I would disappear and this whole ordeal would just go away forever.
The sound of breaking glass from upstairs dragged me out of my other world. I stared up at the pitch-black ceiling, my glassy green eyes full of tears and red around the edges. A second of silence ensued, and then the shatter was followed by a heavy, wet thump against the pavement outside. I closed my eyes tightly, trying not to imagine what had happened, as I waited for someone to find me. For once in my life, I begged mother and father to come home soon. For once in my life, I wanted them to be parents.
Pressure fell down on my shoulder. Startled and terrified, I jumped to my feet and fell straight back down on the floor, fully prepared to beg and plead for my life. Nothing exited my mouth but a pitiful whimper.
Suddenly, I saw a red-gloved hand extend to me, and my heart rose. It was only Knox. In the dim light from the television, I could see his sweat-drenched face staring back at me from the dark. One eye was bruised dark red and a tiny cut on the corner of his lip was slowly oozing a thin trail of blood down to his chin. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up with a bit of struggle, limping on one tender leg turned red with a deep gash across his calf.
Without a word said between us, I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist and nuzzled into him. For minutes, I didn't let go. And Knox never asked me to; he simply placed a be-gloved hand on the top of my head and laid his face gently against my hair. I could feel his cheek, hot and throbbing painfully, as it settled against my forehead. He was warm…so much warmer than mother or father. Hugging him was like quenching a long-tormenting thirst. I hadn't felt another person's warmth in so long that I was almost afraid to let go.
Finally, I loosened my grip. "I'll get you a bandage," I said quietly to my Pokémon companion.
I popped up on the tips of my toes and gave Knox a gentle kiss on the cheek as a sort of consolation. He didn't say anything to me or return the gesture, but judging by the glazed-over look in his wide eyes, he was feeling a little complicated. I gave his arm one last squeeze as I walked past, turning off the television with one hand and holding myself up against the wall with the other.
I didn't see Knox, but I could feel his eyes on me from the second I turned around to the second I disappeared up the staircase.
XxxX
It was raining again, just like it had been three years ago when Knox first saved my life. Underneath the protection of the forest trees, the occasional raindrop fell on my face like a reminder of what waited for me out in the open. I imagined every danger I could face—people, Pokémon, natural disaster…I was basically defenseless.
I had never known what it was like to be without protection. In that, I had been spoiled. Perhaps it was selfish of me to go looking for Knox after everything he did for me and all the trouble he went to just to keep me safe. I almost hesitated to keep going.
Then I remembered the day my father kicked him out of the house, and the look in his eyes when he glanced back at me for the last time. It wasn't just duty that kept him with us.
We aided one another all along.