“Sir, sir! I m-mean Your Highness,” Shane was panicked.
“Yes, Shane?” King Julian frowned. Shane looked nervous. He could only be bringing bad news.
“‘It’s Jake and Aaron, sir! We’ve lost them! We were m-monitoring them at those peasants’ house – ”
“Watch your language, Shane. That couple may be horrendous, but fate made them find the boys and agree to keep them.”
“But we put the boys on their doorstep! And begged them to keep them!”
“Be that as it may, they were the only ones whose house was easy to monitor.”
“Yes, Your M-Majesty. As I was saying, we were m-monitoring the boys with our m-monitoring spells when they left the boundaries of the house!”
“They probably went shopping or to a party.”
“But Your M-Majesty, they have been missing for over a day! And those horrible people never take them on vacation!” Shane was almost yelling now.
“Are you telling the truth, Shane?”
“Yes, Your Majesty” Shane said.
“Send our best trackers on the trail! We must catch those boys!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
He hurried out.
King Julian frowned. This was bad. War time was getting closer. The boys needed to start training. Immediately. He could only hope the trackers would find them in time.
——————♦———————–
Jake felt good. Really good. After years and years of being abused by Gabe and Angie, he was finally free. It had been a day since they ran away and it was easy. Aaron had thought of stealing some money, and they had plenty of food. They bought some blankets and slept on park benches.
He laughed. Life was much better here than at “home”. Aaron was feeling the same, but a thought occurred to him.
“Hey Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering. What are we going to do?”
Jake frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we can’t really go on living on park benches, right? We need a home, and a place to stay. What are we going to do?”
Jake’s happy mood was ruined. What were they going to do? Then he got an idea.
“Aaron, I remember reading about an orphanage, down in Sacramento. We can try to travel there. It has to be better than home. There were a lot of good reports on it,” Jake said.
“But how do we get there?”
“By train. We have enough money.”
With a goal in front of him, Aaron didn’t feel lost any longer. He was a man on a mission.
There was a high chance that this trip would be a success. Maybe there really was a happy ending for them after all. Maybe -
“Aaron, move to the side. And get in that antique store. Now!” said Jake, pulling him out of his trail of thought.
Aaron moved in the store as Jake said.
“I think that man in black is following us. I don’t know why. We need to get out of here.”
Aaron was curious. “Let’s keep walking a few blocks. We’ll see if he is following us. I think you’re just imagining it. After all, who would follow us? It’s not like Gabe and Angie would actually send someone to look for us!”
“You’re right. We’ll walk one block and take some turns. If he is following us, we escape.”
So the boys agreed and walked off. They headed down the block and took a turn. Then they walked a few more blocks.
“You were right, Jake. He is following us.”
“I told you. Listen, we’ll sneak into a store and escape from the back. Then we run.”
Aaron agreed. They snuck into an old pet shop. In a muddle of noise and low light the pair escaped through the back door and ran out.
They saw the man still following them. They started running. The man started running after them. The boys picked up their pace, running down blocks, taking turns, and going through stores.
“I- think-we-lost-him” Aaron wheezed out.
“Who was he? Why does he want us?” Jake was confused.
“Let’s hope we never find out” Aaron said.
They set off into the night, trying to find a place to rest. They finally found and old playground with some park benches on which they slept.
Jake sighed. Aaron was lucky. He had already gotten over the shock of being chased and had been chattering about a happy future and their plans for adulthood. Jake was the more mature kid. He worried more. And he was filled with worries now.
Who was that man? Why was he following them? Was he some kind of kidnapper, who would make them work for him? Maybe running away was a bad idea after all. Maybe they should go out.
How could he have let Aaron convince him like that? Now they were both in trouble. He would talk to Aaron tommorow. The two of them would figure something out, as a team.
With that comforting thought in mind, he fell asleep.
———————♦——————–
The next morning, Jake woke up early. He waited for Aaron to get up. Soon he did, with a yawn.
“Aaron, I want to go home.”
“Well good morning to you to, Jake.”
“No, seriously. We need to go home. Did you see that guy chasing us! It’s dangerous here, Aaron! I’m going home.” Jake was shouting.
“Listen, Jake.” Aaron said comfortingly. “We’ve gotten this far. And we escaped from that man. We can do this Jake. We can do anything. We just need to do this together.”
Jake felt soothed by Aaron’s words. Maybe they could do this.
“Alright, Aaron. We can do this. But if one man, one more man, comes after us, I’m leaving. For good.”
“Deal. One more man and we leave.”
So they set off, cautious but confident.