Nothing Left

RUN

*6 months later*

"We're gonna be late chlo!" Jay shouted from the kitchen. "Coming dad!" Chloe shouted back from her room while hurrying around to pack her school bag up. She ran out into the living area with her backpack on her back, jay smiled at her and he opened the door so she could run out before him, she smiled and walked out. "Remember I'll be picking you up today" jay said as he dropped her off at school. Chloe poked her head through the car window, "okie, bye love you" she smiled then ran off to meet her friends. Jay smiled and whispered, "love you too" he said it as though she was still in the car even though she was walking into the school. He drove off and headed to work.

Ever since he had taken Chloe in, his life had been full of joy, she kept him busy and she added light into his life that he never knew there was. He had a permanent smile on his face whenever she was around, which was always.

Chloe walked into the school with her friends, "uhhh, what the hell?" Aria said as they approached chloes locker. They all stopped at her locker and stared at what was on it, "well that's not creepy at all" Chloe sighed sarcastically. She picked off the clown mask that had been taped onto her locker door and stared at it in confusion, "it's not even Halloween..." she laughed as she peeled off the tape. She went to throw it in the bin until she saw something on the back of it, she turned it over and read the word 'run' written in all capitals in red sharpie.  She stared at it in confusion and worry for a second but her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the bell, "I'll see you guys later" Chloe smiled at her friends before shaking the mask situation off and throwing it in the bin by her locker. 

                  She tried to forget about the incident this morning but no matter how hard she tried it was stuck in her mind, she had the urge to message her dad but phones weren't really allowed in school and she didn't fancy getting expelled over some stupid prank.  The lunch bell rang and the children filled into the corridor, "over here!" Aria shouted while waving her arm in the air, Chloe smiled and ran over to the group of girls.  They all made their way into the cafeteria and sat down to eat lunch, she tried to looked engaged in their conversation but the clown mask flooded her mind, why would she need to run? Was it even meant for her? Who put it there? Once again the end of lunch bell rang and broke her train of thought.  The girls stood up and went to their remaining lessons of the day, when the last bell of the day rang the girls walked outside and talked before jay pulled up in the pick up zone.  "See you later" Chloe smiled before running off to greet her dad.

"Hey chlo" jay said as she climbed into his car, "hey dad" she smiled at him. He started to drive home when he proposed an idea, "how about we have a pizza night with hails tonight?" He smiled. Chloe nodded immediately, "yes yes and yes" she chuckled. Jay laughed and parked up outside of the apartment complex. They walked inside and went into the elevator while taking about their day, jay had a short shift today which worked out well with the school times. He opened the apartment door and she ran inside immediately, she put her bag down then sat on the couch and started her homework. Jay smiled and left her to it, he got a drink from the fridge and gave her it while getting one for himself too.

After half an hour of her doing school work she looked rather frustrated and jay noticed, "everything okay?" He walked over to the couch from the kitchen. Chloe frowned, "I can't do this" she sighed. Jay got rather concerned at what that meant so he sat next to her, "do what?" He furrowed his brows. Chloe picked up her maths homework and showed him it, "this" she pointed to a row of questions. Jay sighed with relief, he thought she was talking about something worse so he smiled at her and took the paper from her hands. He scanned over the questions then took the pen from her hands, "well you'd do this, then change this one to a 2" he smiled while showing her what to do. She mouthed 'oh' and attempted the next question, jay watched her in case she got stuck again. Chloe moved onto the next question and tried to do it herself, "is this right?" She said while finishing the working out. Jay scanned over the question and smiled at her, "yeah good job" he scruffed up her hair then went back to the kitchen.

Hailey walked through the door holding the pizza box at around 6:30pm, they started the night early. They all sat down on the couch to talk about random things when chloes phone pinged, she looked at her dad for permission to get up and answer since they had a guest but he smiled at hailey then nodded. Chloe smiled and got up to answer the message.
Aria: "hey chlo, I've got the supplies for the group project. I would walk them over to you but I'm currently babysitting my brother..."

Chloe thought for a second, "dad can i quickly walk around the block to aria's house, she's got some supplies I need for our assignment?" She begged her dad. Jay thought about it but saw hailey smiling approvingly at him, "yeah fine, just be quick and don't talk to strangers" he caved in. Chloe smiled and nodded, "okay" she said seriously. She quickly got her shoes on and put her phone in her pocket, "I'll be back in 5" she shouted through the door while walking out of it.

"There's extra glue in there because I know how messy you are" aria laughed while handing Chloe a plastic bag full of supplies as she stood in her doorway. Chloe laughed, "thanks ari" she smiled before walking away. She began walking around the corner when she heard a whistle coming from behind her, she stopped in her tracks and shivered before turning around and seeing who was there. She froze when she saw a tall muscular body stood waving a baseball bat in the air. That didn't so much scare her, the thing that truly shook her up was the clown mask he was wearing. It was the same mask the put in the bin at school that morning, she shook her head and clutched the bag tighter in her hands. She turned and ran, as soon as she picked up her pace so did the man and he began chasing her. She thought she was in the clear since she was fast but so was the man and he was practically only a few feet from her, when she got to the corner of jays apartment complex she realised she wouldn't make it into the lobby without the man catching her so she ducked behind a fence next to the building and hid behind a garbage container.

She could hear the man heavy breathing and grunting as he looked for her, she was so scared so she covered her own mouth so she wouldn't give out her hiding place. She decided that she couldn't listen to the mans grunting anymore so she covered her ears and pulled her knees to her chest as she shook and silent cried, she was terrified of moving.

"Hey, how longs she been gone?" Jay said to hailey as he grew worried. Hailey checked her watch, "uhhh about 15 minutes..." she looked back in worry. Jay frowned, "somethings wrong" he sighed while standing up to get his phone. Hailey agreed and stood up next to jay as he opened the tracker app on his phone, "huh? It's says she's here..." he looked at hailey in confusion. Jay lead hailey out of his apartment and grabbed his keys before locking the door behind him, they ran down the stairs of the complex and stood outside while scanning the area for her. "Chloe?!" Jay shouted in concern as hailey did the same. They got no response but it was quiet so they could hear everything, "do you hear that?" hailey said as small whimpers came from the side of the building.

Jay listened out then nodded, without hesitation he walked over to the direction of the cries and saw a fence. He looked at hailey before hopping over the top since he wouldn't fit through the hole and hailey followed suit. "Over here" jay said as the cries got louder. He stopped at a garbage container where the cries were loudest and looked inside but there was no one there, he poked his head around the back to see Chloe sat on the floor with her knees to her chest, her hands over her ears and she was crying and shaking. Jay looked back at hailey in worry, "chlo..." he crouched down and placed a hand on her shoulder. She jumped at his touch and raised her arms over her head in defence while letting out a small shout of fear. Jay looked up at hailey again, something had clearly startled her for him to have gained that reaction from her.