Into The Night

A Chapter by Mickey Hyde

Chapter 6

Jamie spent the rest of her weekend thinking about Seth and the day they saw each other at comic shop.. She'd also spent a great amout of time thinking about the bruise he had covered as well.

"So what, he was trying to hide it?" Lauren asked from across Jamie's room later that night after Jamie returned from shopping with Kragen.

"Yea.. You know how he has semi longish hair? He kinda combed it over the right side of his cheek.. But I still saw," Jamie explained , sitting at her bed and entertained herself with pulling threads out of her pillow, not knowing that Lauren sat at her computer desk watching her.

"Oh, my God.." Lauren muttered.

"What?" Jamie asked her, now sitting up and trying to figure out what was wrong with Lauren.

"You're so falling for him and you barely even know the guy!" Lauren grinned.

"Oh shut it, I am not. Look, I'm not the type of girl to just snoop around some random guy's life anyway... however he gets so beat up all the time is his buisness...." Jamie said, trying to not only convince Lauren, bu herself as well. "I mean, I have my own life to worry about too you know."

"Mhm." Lauren said as she smirked and went back to reading her magazine.

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He lay in his bed at night, staring up at the ceiling although it was dark and he couldn't see a thing. He wanted to leave.. to runaway and never be found. He wanted to go someplace to be alone. To escape from his life. He wanted his mother. He wanted a real father. He wanted a life he could love, and a family he was happy in. Instead, he was a lost boy. He was someone no one wanted.

He was abused, and to Seth, that was all that would ever be. He was sure that if this continued he'd most likely be dead sooner or later.. one day or another.

So he'd leave. He'd save himself since there was no one else to save him. He'd run and never be found, he'd be alone, but happy for once in his life. And that was exactly waht Seth planned on doing.

Looking over at his alarm clock, he read '12:37 p.m.' . His dad was at the gas station now, buying yet another case of beer. Seth knew his dad's routine. He would always drive to the store; look into the rearview mirror to see if he looked obvisouly drunk. He'd fix his hair a bit, walk straight into the store and move along to the back, romaing the freezers until he spotted his favorite drink. He'd grab the case, go to the counter, present his I.D.and pay for it before going back to his truck and relaxing in the parking lot. He'd drink one or two beers in his truck before heading home. And Seth had once counted the minutes before hsi father arrived home.

'He'd be gone for eleven minutes.. He'll be back in only six.' Seth thought to himself.

Seth jumped up from his bed, grabbing his backpack and dumping his homework out of it, along with it's other contents. He opened a drawer and threw in some socks, underwear, a couple shirts, and a pair of pants before heading into his closet, turning on his light and grabbing his stash of money he hid.

"One hundred and sixty-seven dollars..." Seth whispered to himself while slipping his shoes on and grabbing his hat.

He closed his closet door and looked into the small mirror that hanged from the wall.

'Show time.' he thought, as he headed towards his window and jumped to the ledge. He looked down and jumped to the ground, falling over to his side before getting up and running into the night...