An icy chill ran down my spine as I shivered. The air seemed to be especially cold tonight, maybe it was because I was nervous, or perhaps because I hadn’t brought my winter coat, and so there I stood on the concrete front steps with merely a pair of black jeans, a white T-shirt, and a tight dark red jacket. My eyes shifted back and forth from the window, to the front door, to the empty, charcoal black, street behind me.

Suddenly, with a rush of noise and wind, a sick jet-black car sped down the road. Feeling more terrified of a simple speeding car than was necessary, I gently tossed my hair in front of my eyes and tugged my hood over my head. A light flickered on inside of the building before me as a dark figure appeared and splashed its shadow across the light that streamed through the windows. I strained my ears to hear his footsteps, the sounds slowly moving towards the front door. He opened it just a crack, and slipped out from the lit house and into the darkness that surrounded me.

“Not a word, just follow me.” He ever so faintly whispered in my ear. I nodded, stuffed my frozen hands into my pockets, and tip toed along in his shadow. We silently made our way through the yard and into the darkness of the trees behind his house. With my best attempts, I brushed past branches and carefully stepped over rocks and other various objects strewn across the ground, imitating his every move. After we’d finished navigating our way through the thicket, the path ended and came to a road which contained nothing but a van that you would see a carpenter or construction worker use.

“Is that what we’re driving in?” I asked, slight annoyance in my voice.

“Yes, we don’t want to stand out. If you have a problem, you can leave, I don’t have to help you with this, I can do it perfectly fine on my own.” Jack replied in a tone that meant he was dead serious, in fact, he would probably leave me standing alone, helpless on the side of the road. How pathetic would that be if I were to call up my parents and explain that my flawless plan to run away had failed, and I needed them to come pick me up?

“No no, that won’t be necessary, this should do just fine.” I said quickly after giving it some thought.

“Good, then give me all you’ve brought. The rest of your things are already loaded in the back, we’re just waiting on Becca and Ryan.” As Jack spoke those words, the two of them appeared out of the forest lining the street opposite us. They crossed quickly and Ryan opened the door to the van, him and Becca then hopped inside and shut the door.

“Well hello to you too Ryan and Becca.” I muttered under my breath, a little peeved at their obnoxious entrance. I took out my wallet from my back pocket, I’d managed to squash all of my money, every last cent of it, into that thing. After handing it to Jack, I climbed into the van and sat down in the back next to Becca.

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this, running away, leaving everything behind us.” I whispered softly to Becca.

“You just have to think of it as a chance to start everything over new. Let your old life slip away behind you, and seize the opportunity to do your life over.” she whispered back to me. I turned my head to stare out the side window, watching the life I once knew pass by my very eyes as the car lurched forward. As though it were nothing more than one of the hundreds of trees that lined the road for miles, seemingly so insignificant when compared with the millions of trees in the thicket. I slowly dragged my eyes away from the window, and let it all go, I just let it slip.