Escape From Wicked End Academy

"Nothing happened-" I try saying but someone's yelling cuts me off.

"Char, Matt, come on," Brian calls, standing a few yards away. Matt looks at him with a look of suspicion in his eyes.

"Nah, we'll catch up, we need to talk about something," he says.

"We saw cop cars," Brian says. "We really need to get going." Matt takes my hand and leads me past Brian, who starts walking right behind me. I look up at him and he winks. He lied about the cop cars to make sure Matt doesn't find out. I just turn my head back and see the other guys waiting up ahead. When we reach them, they start walking again. We all walk in silence until we come to an opening in the trees to reveal a town.

"Not L.A.," Zacky murmurs. "But we're getting close." We walk carefully to a parking lot for a newly abandoned motel.

"Do you guys even know where we are," I ask quietly.

"It's a small town, I'm not sure of the name," Brian says. "But I know we'll be safe here while we figure out our next move." Matt opened a random door and walked in with me behind him, still holding on to his hand. Inside, it looked as if the walls to the rooms had been knocked down. The beds were still there, but it was just one big room. Everyone split up to look at different things.

"Electricity still works," Jimmy calls. "Bill must be counted for the next few weeks."

"And the water works," Johnny yells from the only closed off room.

"We could fix this place up and stay here until they give up," Brian suggests.

"We just need some money to pay the bills," Zack says. "That would be easy, though. We won't be getting cable or a phone line so that's only like a hundred bucks a month."

"Guys," Matt says, squeezing my hand. "I think we have ourselves a place." I smile and we all go off to look at everything. There was a fridge along with a stove and sink. Zacky says he can cook, so I guess we have our own chef. After a little while of familiarizing ourselves with our new crib, we sat together on one of the double beds and discussed our money options.

"We can play some gigs," Jimmy suggests.

"But what about the cops," Matt asks. "The nights we're there would-our luck-be the nights that a cop is there that just happens to be involved with our disappearance."

"You know what," Brian says. "What if they think we kidnapped Charlotte?" I stare at him with wide eyes.

"Why would they think that," I ask incredulously.

"He's right," Matt says. Currently we were sitting at the head of the bed and he had his arm around my waist. "Five bad guys go missing along with one innocent girl. If I were them, I would suspect the same thing." I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, ignoring the rest of their conversation. Eventually, I fall asleep.

***

The next morning I wake up on the same bed I fell asleep on, except I'm laying down and Matt's laying next to me. I sit up and look around, able to see the multiple beds in the dark. Jimmy's in one, Zack's in another, Johnny's in one across the room, but the only other bed is empty. I look out the window and see Brian standing in the parking lot, smoking a cigarette. I slowly get up and walk out to where he is, making as little sound as possible. I stand next to him as he takes a long drag.

"What time is it," I ask when he looks at me.

"About three in the morning," he says after he checks his cell phone. I nod and cross my arms over my chest as a breeze comes through.

"You knew what Matt was talking to me about," I say as I stare straight ahead. He nods as he takes another drag.

"I'm not stupid, Char."

"I know you're not, Brian." He takes one last drag before throwing it on the ground and stomping it out with his shoe.

"Eventually you need to tell him." I sigh silently.

"I know."

"When?" I look at him.

"What?" He keeps his eyes locked on mine.

"When are you going to tell him?" I look away toward the road.

"I don't know. I don't know if I'll be able to. It'll hurt me more to say it than it would hurt him to hear it."