A Hero's Journey

Chapter 7

    We were walking around this dirty old warehouse for about 10 minutes after taking down James before we heard weird noises coming from one of the rooms. Aaron and I shared a look then took off in the direction of that room. As soon as I approached the door, I tried opening it, key word TRIED. It wouldn’t open. Aaron tried opening it by ramming his shoulder into it. I knew that if I didn’t stop him then it was going to affect his career later on in football and being able to play is music. I grabbed his shoulder to stop him, 

“Hey, let's do it together?” I almost questioned. 

He gave me a nod and we both stepped back. We counted to 3 then both ran out shoulders into the door twice before it opened. I laughed and hugged Aaron to which he instantly responded by hugging me back. 

“Come on let's go find your best friend,”  

“Yeah, let's,” I say hooking my arm in his. 

We look around the room. There was no one in here. We were about to leave we a hole in the wall caught my attention. I pointed it out to Aaron. We decided to go check it out. 

We walk to the tunnel entrance. I go in first with Aaron following me. After being in the tunnel for a while we came to another room. 

“Wow, a room inside of a room, how original,” I say sarcastically. 

“Aren look” I turn to Aaron and see Makaylah tied to a chair on the floor, “Oh my, Makaylah! Are you okay?” 

I help Aaron sit her chair up and untied her. As soon as we got her untied, I pulled her into a hug. 

“Aren, I m-missed you so much,” She sobbed. 

“Come on let’s get you home,” 

“No there are others we can't leave them.” 

“Okay do you know where they are” she gave me a nod. 

“Okay then let’s go get them.” 

As she starts walking that’s when I realize another hole. We go through the tunnel and no we are in another room. Dang, how many tunnels are there with secret rooms. In the room, I saw 6 people. Two I would say are about 7 and then one maybe 12 another 14 then the last two 16 or 17. He really is a monster. We made sure that they all are okay. We go back through the two tunnels and rooms. 

As we are walking down the hall to the warehouse's main door, we hear a noise. It takes me a minute before I realize it’s the police. I look over at Aaron confused, 

“When you were talking to Makaylah I called them.” He tells me clearing up my confusion. 

“Thank you, it helped a lot. Now let’s get these people home to see their families.” 

We walked out to the main entrance where all the officers are. They saw us and told us to come over. I went and told them everything about what happened. Some of the officers took all the other kids home so now it was just Makaylah, Aaron, and me. The officers wanted to go over my statement. I told them about what I think should happen to James and they agreed with my suggestions and said that’s what they are probably going to do now. 

After about an hour of questioning and going over statements, we were able to go home. We all said our goodbyes before I hopped into the driver set with Aaron in the back and Makaylah in the passenger seat. We drove for a little while in the silence. When I looked back at Aaron, he was sleeping. I looked over at Makaylah. She has her arm on the armrest while looking out the window. She suddenly spoke out of nowhere, 

“Thank you,” 

“For what?” I ask looking at her confused. 

“Without you, all of those people and I would have still been there, and he probably would have gotten more kids and teens.” 

“I should have done something long ago when this all started, I'm so-” I start to say but she cuts me off. 

“You did something, that’s what matters. So, don’t you dare ever apologize for that.” 

I laugh “What is it with people interrupting me all the time” she started laughing at that too.  

I missed this. I missed us. I honestly don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t find her. But now my life seems so clear to me. I know what I have to do for the first time in my life. I know no matter who or what nothing can get in my way. I'm not going to stand down to my dad anymore. I'm going to stand up, and I hope he won't argue but stand with me.