Life After Escaping By Katlyn Johnston

Winter's Point of View I wish things were different. I miss my parents. It's been eight years. Eight years of torture. Eight years of being a slave. Eight years since he kidnapped me. My parents still haven't found me, and I'm afraid they never will. I'm brought out of my thoughts to the doorbell ringing. "Winter, go to your room, and don't you dare make a sound!" Jonathan sternly tells me. Autumn comes out of the kitchen, hearing the commotion. "I'll go with her to make sure she keeps quiet," she says meekly. "Fine, just not a f***ing sound, do you hear me?" He raised his voice in a threatening tone, making sure I know what will happen if I disobey. "Yes master." I say softly while slowly bowing my head. "Don't worry my dear it will be as if we aren't here at all, and you're all by your lonesome with no one at all." she says winking at me. As we get to my room, Autumn immediately shuts the door and locks it. I give her a weird look because she always insists that we try to listen to what he, and his guests have to say. "Listen Winter, we have to go to the tunnels before he realizes what I've done," she says in a voice no louder than a whisper. "What do you mean? Autumn, what have you done?" I looked at her in shock, almost afraid of her answer. "I called my brother so he could distract him. He'll be punished for all he's done to you. I never knew how cruel my husband was until I realized what those bracelets are made of. I thought he was just being nicer, and I thought maybe he stopped taking his anger out on you so much. I never once liked that he would beat you, even for the littlest things, but I could never convince him otherwise, but those bracelets are constant torture," she says, looking sad. "How will we carry our stuff?" I ask puzzled. I know if we get caught, he'll end us both. "Leave your stuff here. We don't need anything dragging us down aside from a change of clothes. I'll replace all of your belongings. When we get to coals, I promise I know it's not much, but it's still your stuff," she says. When we reach the exit, I start to get worried about the bracelets still being on. "What about these?" I ask, knowing we need a key. She only smiles as she slowly raises the key in her hand. She quickly unlocks them. We ran to the tree line. As soon as we get there, she looks at me and asks me if I can shift. I looked at her in terror for a few seconds before I snapped out of my trance. "Autumn, you know I can't." "Sweetheart, I need you to try. The only way he wont be able to track us properly is if you shift. He'll be able to track your human scent and any vehicle we use," she says. "But you wont be able to keep up," I say worried about her knowing what he'd do to her if he caught her trying to help me escape. He'd k*ll her for sure. "Oh, just wait. I have a surprise for you," she says, giving me a weird smile.