Little Sister

Chapter 7

After minutes upon minutes of running through what felt like an endless forest of grey bark and sunset coloured leaves, I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
With my aching legs, dry throat and exhausted body, we had finally made it out of the woods and back to civilization.

With the girl still hunched over my back, I grasped my buckling knees and took a minute to pant and regain part of my stamina.
When that minute passed, I made use of the adrenaline rush that I still had and made my way down the sidewalk that led to my school.

The streets were almost empty and the sky was starting to clear up. I knew it wasn't the best idea to stop as the fear of the deranged man suddenly popping up again consumed me.

"Hey..." I said in a hoarse voice. "Are you holding up well back there?"

"Mhm." Replied the girl.

I nodded and ran the whole way back to my school.
I still have no idea why I didn't decide to just stop at one of the houses and ask for help. All I was focused on was finding refuge at school and contacting the officials.

When we did finally reach the school gate, I came across our dear old friend, Security guard Joe.
He lazily sat at his post, snoozing like a large grizzly bear.

"Big Bun-Bun." The girl whispered.
"Big Bun-Bun?" I asked in utter puzzlement, unsure of whether I wanted to know more.

She hopped off my back and skipped towards the sleeping security guard.
She grabbed Security Guard Joe's hand, which dangled off his chair, and she violently shook it.
I was worried the guard was going to wake up and begrudgingly chuck her out of the school like a rugby ball.

However, I was wrong. While trying to wake him up, the little girl told me how Security Guard Joe treated her on the very first day when the girl and I crossed paths.

"He left me to sit right outside of his little small Security guard house!" She started
"He brought me sweets! And- And- Then we played tictactoe!"

"Wow." I could clearly sense her enthusiasm returning as she talked about him.

"And then, when I talked about how much I missed you, he kept saying that you'll come back for me! And you did!"

I blushed for a second and chuckled as if it were an involuntary response. As you can already tell, I chuckle at most light hearted things that I have no idea how to respond to.

Less than a second later, I was brought back to the reality of our situation. We were probably being hunted down by God knows who those people are.

I looked at Security Guard Joe's bearded, bright red, sleeping face and raised my hand.

Like the mighty guillotine, my hand swashed down and smacked the man out of his dreamy Wonderland and back into reality.

In all honesty, that slap was extremely satisfying.

His eyes opened wide in shock, then turned to unbridled fury when he looked at me, then into amazement when he saw me with the little girl.

"Security gu-... I mean Mr Joe! May we please use your-"

"It's Mr Big Bun-Bun!" The little girl interjected.

"Whatever. May we please contact the police! We are being hunted down by mon-... I mean maniacs!"

Security Guard Joe eyed both of us and handed me an old telephone.
Without wasting a second, I hurridly dialed the police.

I didn't fill them in on everything. All I basically told them was that there were a bunch of deranged maniacs that lived in a house in the woods and they were out to get me and this little girl.

The woman on the other end of the line reassured me and told me the police will be there in a few minutes.

"Great! We will be safe now" I said to the girl with a hugely content smile.

The little girl was clearly not as reassured as I was.

"Big brother?"
"Yeah?"
"Will they take me away too?"

Everything went quiet for a second. I wasn't thinking straight.

Everything was moving so freakishly fast before reaching the post that my brain was in scrambles when I finally had the time to actually think.

"I-... I don't know. But I'll be with you through it all" I responded.

"Okay." She said with solemn eyes. I failed to reassure her.

One minute passed.

The little girl and I were just idly standing in Security Guard Joe's tiny post while he attempted to fall back to sleep.

Two minutes passed.

The awkward silence made me feel uncomfortable. I was probably the only one who was bothered by the silence, but in that minute I thought it was best to think of what to talk about.

Three minutes passed.

"Hey," I addressed the little girl after recalling how crazy the morning had been.
"That woman in the house... She said she was your mother. I thought you said you didn't have parents."

"I don't." Responded the little girl bitterly.

I figured it would be best to leave the questions to the police when they arrive.

Four minutes passed.

Security Guard Joe lazily lifted himself off of the chair and got a plain paper. He then sat on the floor and started drawing something which, by the little girl's giggles, clearly entertained her.

I ,however, did my best to continue staring outside as I waited for the Police to arrive.

5 minutes passed

I tried my best not to ask myself questions that would soon be solved but I failed. Questions whizzed through my head and I almost got a headache trying to process it all. However, only one question made my heart ache. Surprisingly, I wasn't the first one to ask it. It was the little girl.

'After all this is done, will they take her away?'
That's the one question I didn't want answered.

6 minutes passed.

The faint sound of crumbling gravel was easily heard outside, and all three of us, like alerted bunnies in a field, had our ears shot up.
I was the first to rush outside, then the little girl right behind me and then Security Guard Joe.

Outside were two police vehicles. Out of one of them stepped a young officer who I later found out was called Officer Lennant.

I always chuckle at the fact that there may be a day where he'll be promoted to Lieutenant.
Then people will have to call him Lieutenant Lennant.

Jokes aside, he is a very kind and sincere officer.
When I saw him step out of the car, his serious eyes shined of ocean blue, and strings of his blonde hair dangled from his dark blue cap.

With a proud stride and his badge shinning brighter than his focused eyes, he approached us.

He showed me his hand and gave me a confident but reassuring smile.

"Officer Lennant reporting for duty!"