Chapter 11: The Escape

Sky's Point of View

A few weeks had passed since Nina had joined Sky. Much to her relief, the younger girl had been spared from the worst of the pain. But Sky knew it was only a matter of time before this changed, and she needed to get herself and Nina out of there before more damage could be done.

Sky still wasn't sure if there was anything left worth saving in her, but knew she had to act fast for Nina.

She waited on the beach for Seth to arrive. They met every night in her dreams, she hoped tonight would be the same. She had to warn him of her coming absence.

"Hey there, Cheshire. How are you holding up today?" Seth's voice was soft, comforting. Sky turned to see him approaching her slowly arms stretched wide. She loved him, but he knew how much the last few years had affected her, he knew she needed to always be the one to approach him.

As always, she ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. "Better now."

They stood in silence for a few minutes before she cleared her throat and stepped back to be sure he could hear her. "I might not be able to meet you here for a while. It's time for me to put my plan into action and I don't know when I'll be able to sleep in the coming days. I'll do everything I can to get to you, but you need to make sure you protect Leah, mom, dad and yourself. I don't know how Steve will retaliate. He always said he would do worse to you guys than I could imagine. It's why I never said anything."

Tears were brimming in Seth's eyes. "Oh Sky, I wish you had told us, my dad would have been able to do something. At the very least, he was best friends with Charlie Swan, the chief of police."

Sky sighed. "Yeah, it's easy to say that now looking back. But I had no clue back then that there were other options."

From there Seth tried to get her to open up about her plan, and she held firmly that she didn't want to talk about it. After futile attempts to get her to open up, he settled for just holding her for now.

As the sun began to rise, Sky turned to Seth. "No matter what happens next, remember that I love you, Dragon. And give my love to Leah and mom and dad."

"Please be careful. I need to see you again. We all love you so much. You have a big family waiting for you up here."

As Sky opened her eyes to reality, she turned to Nina who was also stirring in her arms. "Today is the day. When either of them come in here, I need you to close your eyes and keep them closed until I tell you otherwise. I need you to trust me so I can get us safe and get us home."

Nina nodded, scared but willing to do whatever Sky needed her to do. Their eyes went to the door as they heard the floorboards of the stairs creaking, signifying company.

Sky sent Nina to the other bed and nodded her head telling her it was time. Nina laid down and pretended to be asleep as Sky prepared herself for what she had to do next.

"No! Do not open your eyes yet, sweet girl. Just a little longer." Sky stood at the sink scrubbing the blood from her hands. She kept glancing back at Jack's body, shocked that the plan succeeded, but also disgusted with herself for what she had to do.

She was trying to get herself together so the next phase of her plan could go into action.

When her hands were sufficiently cleaned, she threw her bloody clothes into a corner of the room and changed into Seth's old clothes. She grabbed the bag of their stuff, and grabbed Nina's hand. "Keep your eyes closed, but we are going to leave this room together now." Nina was shaking like a leaf but nodded her understanding. Sky was trying to shield her from the trauma of seeing what she had done.

Holding Nina's hand in one and bracing her makeshift weapon in front of her in case they ran into Steve on their way out, Sky opened the door. She didn't let the breath she was holding out until they were two streets away from the house that had been her prison for years.

She gave herself a moment of feeling the sun on her skin for the first time since she was held captive. "Okay, Nina, you can open your eyes now."

Nina obeyed and blinked sharply at the onslaught of the sunshine. "You did it! You saved us! What's next?"

Sky looked around her and took in her surroundings. "Well, we need to find the ocean. From there we are going to follow it North until we reach Washington. Our home is up there waiting for us. We're going to have a family that loves us and will protect us. We just have to get there."

Nina looked up at the older girl, her lips quivering. "I've never had that before, are you sure they'll like me? That they'll take me too?"

Sky kneeled down so she was eye level with the girl. "I would bet my life on it."

This seemed to pacify Nina, and Sky started leading them down another street. Once they hit the beach she was pretty confident they wouldn't run into Steve because he was never a fan of the sand or ocean.

The next person they ran into gave them directions to the beach. Sky counted her luck that they were only an hour walk to the beach.

When the salt smell of the ocean hit her, she felt like she could finally breathe. They both took turns at the nearest water fountain, drinking to their hearts content. Sky led them next to one of the public restrooms and they cleaned up before heading out on their first long day of many to come.

It had been 5 days since they first made it to the beach. They had spent the days sleeping under the shade of piers and stealing food from other people's bags when they would see whole groups head down to the water for a swim. It had been surprisingly easy as no one looked twice at two young girls walking by.

These chances for sleep meant she never got the chance to reach out to Seth. To tell him the plan seemed to be working. Or even to ask him to send help their way.

The two girls chose to do the majority of the walking during the night as Sky didn't feel comfortable letting her guard down when so few people were around. She knew from experience that bad people didn't like a crowd so she figured they were more likely to get unwanted attention at bight and she wanted to make sure she was awake and ready to fight back should the need arise.

Nighttime was better for the walking as well since the crisp early spring air would have led them to a lot of huddling and shivering. Might as well get there body's moving when it was already cold than risk getting too overheated during the day.

"How much longer will we need to keep walking for?" Nina sounded tired when she spoke.

"We should keep walking until the sun starts to come up, then we can rest under the next pier."

Nina stopped and Sky turned to her in the moonlight. She hesitated before speaking. "No, I mean how long until we get there?"

"Oh." Sky thought about how to answer. "Well, I'm not really sure. I think we started somewhere near San Francisco." The sun was staring to rise which gave her just enough light to kneel down and draw in the sand. "Have you seen a map of the United States?" Nina nodded her confirmation. "I think we are about here, and we need to walk all the way up to here. " She dragged her finger along the coast to indicate the path they were taking. "I think it will probably take us a few more weeks to get there."

Nina's shoulders sagged in disappointment but she nodded and kept walking. Sky stood and followed. They were silent for a while before Sky noted that the beach appeared to be ending and was being replaced by cliffs.

She stopped moving and tried to think of the best way to continue forward. Finally she eyed a stairwell that seemed to be leading to the top of the cliff, and to what looked like a small pull off for sightseers.

Nina looked back at Sky when she realized she was no longer moving. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, sweet girl. We just need to go up those stairs next and follow along the road for a little while." She grabbed Nina's hand and they started their climb.

Stopping half way up, Nina exclaimed, "This has to be the largest staircase in the whole world!!"

Laughing, Sky responded. "I think you might be right. Come on, almost there."

It wasn't until they reached the top of the stairs that Sky even thought to worry about whether they would run into Steve driving on the road and force them back.

Her heart seized when she saw a truck waiting for them at the top of the cliff in the lookout. She held her breath and drew Nina behind her, fearing the worst as the door creaked open.

Author's note: So sorry for the delay, I hope you all enjoy!!