No Turning Back

Chapter 2: Promise

Chapter 2: PromiseSix hours later, Ash shone the flashlight on her watch. She’d run about two hundred yards away and stopped, still in the woods. Even though her plans were way behind schedule, she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t help Dayna and Kevin. But she had to wait until their parents were asleep to go back.

Now the house stood dark and silent; the car in the driveway a warning. She crept to the back and sighed with relief at the sight of the rope ladder still hanging from the bedroom window. After a deep breath, she climbed up again.

Dayna and Kevin were sleeping in the same bed. In the moonlight, Ash could see Kevin had a black eye. Blood stained his nose and lip. Dayna lay curled up, facing the opposite direction. They were both too skinny.

Ash’s eyes stung and her throat felt raw. She pulled a wash cloth from her bag and tried to wipe the blood from Kevin’s face. He bounced up and Ash jumped.

“You came back,” he whispered.

His sister sat up slowly, looking at Ash with her mouth half-open.

“What happened?” Ash asked.

“Kevin’s got some bruises, but I don’t think he has broken bones or anything,” Dayna said. Her eyes looked haunted, but maybe it was just the shadows.

“Dayna’s got cuts all over her back,” Kevin said. “And some of her back was bleeding, but I helped her clean it up. Our dad locked me in the bathroom and—”

Dayna pushed him and glared, then got up and walked towards the north window as if every step caused pain. She pulled the rope ladder inside and Ash noticed a dark spot on the back of her shirt.

“I think your back’s still bleeding. Can I look at it?” Ash asked.

Dayna shrugged. “I guess. But we can’t turn on the light in case Tom and Jean notice.”

“She means Mom and Dad,” Kevin said.

Dayna sat on the edge of the bed. Kevin lay down, but kept his eyes open.

Ash wet her wash cloth in the bathroom, barely turning on the faucet. Then she sat beside Dayna and lifted the back of her shirt, revealing dark bruises and b****y scratches.

“What did he hit you with?”

“Whatever he could grab.”

Ash tried to keep her usual emotional distance, but it was impossible. She cried as she dabbed the cuts. Dayna cringed, but said nothing.

“I should have stopped him,” Ash said when she was finished.

Kevin cuddled his stuffed animal. “No one can stop him.”

“We weren’t supposed to leave the house, and it was my idea to sneak out and go to school,” Dayna said, eyes downcast.

“Oh, you know it’s not your fault,” Kevin said. “Nothing we do is ever good enough. If we get in trouble just for going to school, then Mom and Dad really must be crazy.”

Dayna nodded.

“Well, I know the only reason I met you is because I snuck into your house, but no one deserves to be treated this way, especially by their own parents,” Ash said, her voice rising. She clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. After a tense silence to make sure Dayna and Kevin’s parents were still asleep, she whispered, “I wanted to come back and tell you that…if you want to…you can come with me.”

Kevin and Dayna looked at each other solemnly. It seemed to Ash they communicated without words.

“We still don’t know your name,” Kevin said.

“Ash…short for Ashley.”

“You can sleep on the other bed,” Dayna said. “I don’t have a blanket for you, though.”

“You can use mine,” Kevin said.

“It’s all right, I have one. So, what happened when Kevin was locked in the bathroom?”

“Let’s just go to sleep,” Dayna said, curling up and pulling the covers over her head. “Tomorrow we’ll talk.”

* * * *

Rain rapped the windows when Ash awoke. She looked around in confusion, and then remembered where she was. Kevin and Dayna were sitting on the other bed, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

“I wonder if Mom and Dad went to work,” Kevin said.

“I doubt it.” Dayna walked to the south window. “Their car’s still here.”

“So what do we do?” Ash asked.

“Who knows?” Kevin asked, flailing his arms and jumping out of bed. His hair looked like an explosion of red and gold fireworks. “They might come up here. They might ignore us all day.”

“If they come upstairs you have to hide, Ash,” Dayna said.

“I won’t hide again.” She stood over Dayna and Kevin. “If either one of them tries anything, I’m older than you two are, and I’m bigger.”

“But our dad is still bigger than you,” Kevin said. “Besides, if he or mom sees you here we’ll all get in trouble.”

Dayna nodded.

Ash sat down again in confusion. Dayna and Kevin seemed almost cheerful. Well, Kevin did anyway. Dayna just seemed resigned to their fate. Ash’s heart felt like it was burning as she thought, They’re used to this.

“You might be bigger than we are but you can’t be that much older,” Dayna said.

“I’m thirteen,” Ash said. “How old are you, about ten?”

Dayna glared at her. “I’ll be twelve in July,”

“Oh.” Ash’s face grew hot. A closer look revealed Dayna didn’t look ten after all; she was just short.

“It’s okay.” Dayna shrugged. “Everyone always thinks I’m younger.”

“I’m eight!” Kevin said, shoving eight fingers in Ash’s face.

“Well, I’m still older, and I still think I should do something. Kevin, you have a black eye and your lip is swollen. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“I don’t think so.” Kevin twisted and turned his body. “These other bruises are old.”

“What about you, Dayna? Can I see your back again now that there’s some light in here?”

Dayna looked at Ash out of the corner of her eye, and then nodded. Ash grabbed a clean wash cloth. There was no soap in the bathroom, so she used her own bar. Afterwards, Dayna went into the bathroom to change clothes. Kevin changed in the middle of the bedroom. Ash averted her eyes, but when she heard Kevin’s stomach growl, she grabbed her bag.

“You guys want some breakfast?” she asked.

Dayna reentered the room with her mouth open and Kevin spun around with his shirt stuck over his head. Dayna yanked his shirt down and they walked to Ash with wide eyes.

“You’ve got food in there?” Dayna asked.

“Well, yeah, I took a few things from the place I left,” she said.

She pulled out a squashed box of doughnuts. Kevin exclaimed in delight and even Dayna’s eyes lit up. Ash’s face burned. She let them eat as much as they wanted. When they’d had enough, Kevin walked to the toy box and rummaged around, humming. Dayna sat on the floor beneath the rain-smeared north window.

“Do you have any bags you can pack?” Ash asked, pacing. They sure didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, and she wondered if they’d changed their minds.

Dayna pointed to the red duffle bag and green backpack she and her brother had been carrying the day before, still on the floor beside the tangled rope ladder. “That’s all we’ve got.”

Kevin emerged from the depths of the toy box, his mouth smeared with chocolate. He raced to his backpack and picked it up. “Why don’t we just go now?” he asked, green eyes glittering.

“Be quiet,” Dayna whispered. “We can’t leave right now. Besides, I have an idea.”

Ash stopped pacing.

“Kevin and I have talked about running away before, but I’m still not sure if we should. Maybe we could go to someone for help at school.”

Ash felt as if a weight had dropped into her stomach.

“They won’t help us, they just make us do homework,” Kevin said.

“I always have to go to the principal’s office and answer a bunch of questions. Doesn’t your teacher ever ask why we miss so much school or anything?”

Kevin nodded. “My teacher asks me all kinds of stuff. I always say whatever Mom and Dad tell me…or what you tell me.”

Ash fought to keep her expression neutral. “If they’ve been trying to help, then what’s stopping them?”

Dayna shrugged. “Last year Kevin and I showed up at school with black eyes and our parents had to meet with the teachers. We were both in elementary, then. Tom told them Kevin and I had gotten into a fight with each other. But maybe we could just tell the truth. I’ve thought about it before, but I was too afraid.” Now she was the one who paced. “There’s no way we can stay here anymore. I’ll go to school Monday and tell the principal everything. They could help us, and maybe they could help you, too.”

Ash had been expecting one of them to come up with this idea, but still didn’t know what to do or say. She sat on one of the beds with her head bowed.

“Don’t you think it will work?” Kevin asked.

Ash glanced up as Dayna and Kevin sat on the other bed.

“What is it?” Dayna whispered, wide-eyed

“If you tell someone, the two of you might get separated,” Ash mumbled, wishing she didn’t have to talk about it.

Dayna frowned. “How do you know?”

“Because…the reason I’m running away is so I can find my brother.”

Dayna and Kevin gasped.

Feelings Ash hated overwhelmed her; she tried to speak calmly to keep the pain from tearing her apart. “My parents died in a car crash three years ago.”

Kevin gasped again and Dayna shushed him.

“I was ten and my brother was seven. We got put in a foster home. Last year they split us up. I don’t know why they couldn’t keep us together.” Fire burned in Ash’s chest. She hated talking about it. She hated thinking about it. She hated feeling it.

Rain drummed against the window and thunder rolled.

“What’s your brother’s name?” Kevin asked.

“Matt. He’s been in the same place for a while, but I get moved around a lot.”

“Do you ever get to talk to him?” Dayna asked.

“We e-mail, write letters, talk on the phone. We used to visit each other but now I can’t see him until I stay out of trouble for a while.”

Kevin scoffed. “That’s stupid.”

Ash nodded. “It doesn’t make sense to me, either. I just want to be with my brother! Our social worker keeps telling us she’s going to find a way for us to be together, but I’m sick of waiting around. I know Matt’s foster mom would take me in if she could just hear my side. And if she doesn’t, Eddie and Val will…they’re the foster parents I left.

“I made up a code a couple weeks ago and e-mailed it to Matt. Then I sent him a letter in the code and told him I was coming to get him. I got directions to his house online.

“Anyway, that’s why I don’t know if you should tell the people at your school or not. Maybe you guys can just come with me and I’ll help you. The only thing is—”

“We’ll go with you,” Dayna said.

“I’ll be your brother too, Ash,” Kevin piped up. He grabbed his ragged stuffed animal and squeezed it. “We’ll find your brother and I can be your brother and then you won’t have to be so sad.”

Ash sighed. “I shouldn’t have ditched you guys yesterday, but I told myself I wouldn’t get close to anyone again until I found Matt. I barely talked to anyone at the foster home I ran away from. I want my family back.”

“You and your brother don’t deserve to be split up after what you’ve already been through,” Dayna said.

“And you don’t deserve to be treated this way by your parents,” Ash replied. “I just don’t know—”

“Let’s make a promise,” Kevin said, bouncing on the bed. “We’ll run away from here, get Ash’s brother, and no one will ever find us. Deal?”

Dayna grinned at Kevin and said, “Deal.”

Ash smiled. “Okay, deal.”