Dream Continuation

There wasn’t a single light shimmering in the parking lot as a young man and his sister tip toed along the ice cold pavement. The darkness forced them to tread carefully even though the man would rather sprint through. His heart pounded in his chest like a jackhammer but he kept his shoulders squared and his jaw clenched. His sister clasped his hand and kept it locked like his jaw. Her skin was speckled with goosebumps and it took all of her strength to keep her teeth from rattling. Buses were scattered about the lot. Their yellow detailing was only visible in the dim moonlight. The pair slunk by one with a dent the size of a bowling ball in its bumper. The young man ghosted over the imperfection with his finger tips as they passed and his sister jumped as she caught her warped reflection within its glow. It was large and distorted to her. Both were. It was funny how something so familiar could feel so…foreign.

Right as she was about to speak, the older boy hushed her and the two froze in place. There was a loud and labored breathing sound disturbing the air. It wasn’t their own, but he hadn’t expected anyone else to be on the premises this late or rather, this early. School wouldn’t start for another four or five hours. There was no disputing it though. Someone else was here and they were struggling to breathe. Loudly. The sound was a painful scrape of a dull knife against a tattered sidewalk.

The young man peeked around the corner of number 12 to try and spot the source of the noise. It’s dark but he can make out a silhouette of a man. It’s large but curved in odd places. He squinted to determine what it was that was making the man’s shadow appear so wonky. The little girl beside him stole his attention however as a loud yelp escaped her thin lips. The young man didn’t have a chance to shush her. A strong callus hand squeezed his shoulder before he had the chance. They were busted.

An hour passed and the young man sighed as he crossed his arms against his chest. The men’s watch seared into his skin as they gave him and his sister a once over. Their expression held a mixture of confidence and skepticism. Confidence that they could easily brainwash the young man into following orders and skepticism that he was any threat to them at all. His own mother didn’t take him seriously. His sister had been the only one and look where they’d ended up. A worn down bus garage.

“Don’t worry, sis…I’ll get us out of this,” he whispered.

One of the thugs glared at him. “shut your mouth. can’t you see we’re talkin?”

The jingle in the mans step annoyed the younger man. He’d worked hard to get that money and he wasn’t going to let some security guard best him.

“I say we just drive them out and leave them stranded. There’s no way they’d find their way back in the heat of the day. The buzzard will be feeding by nightfall,”

The other guard shook his head. “No, we should just kill them. I don’t wanna take any chances,”

The boy’s sister whimpered and looked at him pleadingly as the guards began to argue. The young man looked over at his sister and scooted closer for support. As he moved closer, he felt his back brush up against something jagged. Without hesitation he began to wiggle his wrists against it. The sound of rope tearing was drown out by the arguing men so they didn’t notice as the young man’s arms came free. Within a few moments, he had his sister free. The security guards were shoving now and the two captives tried to sneak away. Unfortunately one of the guards stumbled back into them. The young man scooped up his sister and sprinted down the hall leading into the school with the guards in hot pursuit. The boy and his sister rounded a corner and slipped into a room. He locked the door and heard the men dart past.

All fell silent as the waited. His sister looked frightened and he wrapped his arms around her genly.

“everything’s gonna be ok…i’m here for you,” She smiled at him and the two drifted off into a peaceful slumber.