A WAY OUT

chapter one

Florida, Tallahassee

Five days ago.

Scarlet came back from her office; an

interior designing company she started

three years ago, two hours earlier than

she's supposed to. Although, she had

sold the company to her mother's friend

she still worked there but will soon be

leaving. It was time to do that, she

decided.Today was Memorial Day, and

she wanted to come home early to

surprise her mother.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday to

honor and mourn our fallen heroes and

her father had been one of them. He

was a high-ranking officer and served

as the Lieutenant General in the United

States Army. He had died in the line of

duty in Afghanistan.

In the morning, her mother had

pretended that she was fine but she

saw the sad look on her face. She

wasn't as happy as she was when he

was alive. Her father was a good man.

She drove into the huge compound of

her stepfather's house. God, she hated

this place. It was too huge. When her

mother had married him and they had

to move here, she was still in high

school, but she got lost in the house

many times than she could count.

She loved a small house with a white

picket fence. That was the one she was

going to have when she got her own

home, with her husband and two

children. She smiled as she parked her

car and removed the key from the

ignition. She'd get the car to the garage

later. First, she had to cook something

and have dinner with her mother.

She pushed the massive front door

open and stepped into the hall. The

house was silent as if no one was at

home, but it was expected. It always

seemed that way when the staff are off

duty and they were having a party;

which they did most of the time.

Her mother was a Senator, and her

stepfather was a businessman. He

owned one of the largest

pharmaceutical companies in the U.S.

so parties were inevitable.

She hung her jacket and went into the

kitchen. She dropped her bag on the

kitchen counter, pondering on what to

cook. She wasn't even sure her mother

was home.

She took out her phone from her bag

and texted her mother. "Mom, where are

you?"

It didn't take a second before her phone

buzzed with a reply. "I'm on my way

home, Red."

Scarlet smiled. "Okay. Any special

request for dinner?" She asked.

"No, Red. Anything is fine by me."

"Okay then.

She dropped the phone on her counter

and went to bring out the ground meat.

She also took out a plastic bag of finely

sliced parsley leaves, two eggs,

grounded black pepper, grated

Parmesan cheese, a milk jug, some

breadcrumbs, and a pack of spaghetti

She would make some meatballs and

spaghetti bolognese.

She sang a song she used to sing with

her father as a child as she cooked. It

was a song by John Denver, Take Me

Home, Country Roads.

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah

River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growin'

like a breeze

Country roads, take me home

To the place, I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

She loved singing the song as a child

with her father wherever they played

around her mother's office, pretending

they were on a battlefield, screaming at

the top of their lungs.

When she finished cooking, she decided

to go up to her room to have a quick

shower before her mother come. She

picked her phone and her bag and went

upstairs.

The shower took her five minutes and

she changed into a worn-out sweatpant

and one of her father's old t-shirt. Thank

God she didn't need bra most times, so

she could be comfortable. But she

couldn't wear anything revealing or

comfortable like a short or a tank top

She hated the way the creepy old man

looked at her when she does. She had

learned to be comfortable as time goes

on.

As she rounded the corner that led to

the stairs, she saw that her stepfather's

office door was opened a notch. She

peered in to see him sitting at his desk

across his son, Richard the second.

They were speaking in a hushed tone.

Scarlet didn't mean to eavesdrop, but

she did, and what she heard scared the

hell out of her.

"Dad, I need time to get more people for

the lab test. The guys handling that

can't get people of that age rangeas

easier as they usually did anymore, so it

takes time."

"I don't care, Richard. You know what we

do here is a great service to humanity

and to the people of the United States

of America. We help people with the

genetic disorder by getting series and

series of tests done on complete

subjects, and study them as a whole

human in order to clone that same

genetic and insert into them." He said,

referring to complete subjects who

were the human they kidnapped and

used as lab rats.

Scarlet didn't want to hear what they

were anymore. As she turned to flee,

her phone dropped and she heard

Richard, the son said. "Dad, I think

someone is there."

Richard the father said. "It can't be

Sharon. She's three minutes away.

Could be that nosy daughter of hers."

"f**k!" Scarlet muttered. She tiptoed

slowly down the stairs, praying they

didn't see her. She would pretend she

was just coming up the stairs, but the

last thing she heard was.

"Dad, what if she heard us?" Richard the

Son, asked.

"Don't worry. I will take care of it."

Richard the father assured.

Scarlet got into the kitchen and looked

busy, all the while her heart slammed in

her chest.

What should she do about this? Should

she go to the police? That wasn't very

good. First, she had no evidence,

second, she couldn't soil her mother's

name like that. It would drag her in the

mud and ruin her years of a political

career. Third, they would kill her if she

went to the police and they came to

investigate but didn't find any evidence.

They would kill her as soon as the cops

leave.

The best she could do was to disappear

She knew that he couldn't touch her

mother, so she was rest assured that

she was safe.

She would wait until the dead of the

night after her mother was asleep and

pack two bags with her clothes and a

few shoes, withd raw the money in her

account, send her mother a text telling

her she had to go out of the country for

work, break her sim, and she would

disappear.

On her way out of town, she would go to

her old college mate and he'd help her

change her car's plate number, get her a

new identity with a new surname. She

loved scarlet too much to drop it.

She would pay him off and disappear.

That was the best thing to do. Although,

it was selfish but that was the safest

and sanest thing to do.

She knew that her stepfather was a very

dangerous man anyway. She had also

remembered that she had seen him do

something before when she was a little

girl but she couldn't remember what it

was exactly.

Like she had thought before,

disappearing was the best thing to do.