Soul Searcher by D.M. Richardson (novel24 .TXT) 📕

I ran until I couldn’t breath then I ran some more until I finally had to stop. I leaned against a tree trying to catch my breath. My side was aching and my feet felt like they were on fire. I was still holding my shoes so I tried to put them on. It hurt to badly I couldn’t wear them. I stayed there thinking about what had happened. I didn’t know what he was going to do but I knew it wasn’t right. I felt the danger coming off of him in waves. I knew I had to get out of that house as quickly as possible so I did. I felt bad about leaving Katie there but I couldn’t help her while I was trapped there. When I felt okay to keep going I went up to the road and shouldered my back pack.

I walked for another hour. Taking one painful step at a time. Finally I made it back to town. I stopped and looked at all of the buildings. Some houses some stores and restaurants. I was trying to figure out a way to make it back to Jack’s office. I knew it was too late at night for him to be there, but I was just going to wait for him. I took a right at a four way stop and turned left taking a guess. After about five more minutes of searching a cop car pulled up next to me. I jumped when it parked and took several steps back adrenaline flowing through me. I didn’t want this officer to take me back to those people.

The officer was a man and when he opened his door he held up both hands as a way to tell me he wasn’t going to hurt me. He must have seen that I was about to bolt. I met his eyes and relaxed. I knew I could trust him to listen to me before he took me back to that house.

“Hey darlin’ what are you doing out here at this time a night?” he took another couple steps toward me. When he got a good look at me he swore under his breath. “Jesus, you couldn’t be older than five.” I drew my shoulders back.

“I’m six” I said with as much indignation as someone so small could possess.

“Okay my apologies. So what are you doing walking the streets at this time a night?”

“I’m looking for Jack.” I answered.

“Okay do you know Jack’s last name?” I searched my memory.

“Harvest. Jack Harvest.” he nodded.

“Okay he’s my brother in law. If you’ll get in my car I’ll take you to the station and call him.” I hesitated for a moment then nodded. I walked around the car and climbed into the front seat. As he climbed into the driver’s seat he glanced down at my bare feet. This time he swore a lot louder. “Darlin’ what happened to your feet?” I looked down at them. They had long since gone numb, and I had forgotten that they were hurt.

“I ran through the woods.” his eyes went wide but he didn’t question me anymore. He drove us to the police station in silence and took me through the back door. There were only a few other officers in the big room. It was full of desks with computer’s on them. He had me sit at the closest desk as he grabbed the phone.

“Hey Sally can I talk to Jack for a minute?” he listened her response and rolled his eyes. “Yes I know it’s late, and I knew he would probably be asleep but I need to speak with him it’s an emergency.” he listened again “Thank you.” after another few seconds he started talking again. “Hey Jack it’s John listen I need you to come up here right away. I found a little girl roaming the streets a few minutes ago and she says she was looking for you.” he listened for another second then looked at me “Her name?”

“Rayne Nyght” he repeated it in the phone. He nodded. “Yeah she said she was six when I accidentally said she was five.” pause and his shoulders relaxed. “Okay thank you. The quicker you get here the better her feet are really torn up. She said she had run through the woods. Okay see you soon.” he turned to me and told me Jack would be there in a few minutes then told me to stay where I was.

He came back a couple minutes later with a first aid kit. He knelt on the floor in front of me and opened the kit. He pulled out an alcohol pad and told me it would sting. I didn’t even feel it. After he was done with the alcohol pads he pulled out two wraps and started to wrap both my feet. By the time he was done Jack walked into the room. It looked like he had just jumped out of bed. His light brown hair was all messed up and he had dark circles under his eyes from being woken up in the middle of the night. When he saw us he almost ran to my chair. He knelt down next to officer John.

“Rayne what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with the Richards.” I told them both what had happened and John sat back on heels his eyes as wide as saucers. Jack on the other hand was not so composed.

“That son of a bitch! John I want you to get as many officers as you can. I want those other kids out of that house tonight! Now!” John nodded and jumped up running to the three other cops at the other end of the room. They were staring at us because of Jack’s outburst. Jack knelt down in front of me.

“Rayne I am so, so sorry. I had no idea he would try to do that to you. I swear this will never happen to you again.” he looked like he was ready to cry. He rubbed his hand through his hair and stood reaching for the phone. “I’m going to find you another home. A better home I promise with people that will take care of you and not hurt you. I swear it.”

A couple hours later I was standing at the front door of another house. There was a really nice woman named Sandy and her husband Ralph. I was the only kid they had in residence at the time, and they truly seemed like good people.

A week later I slipped up and asked about something in Ralph’s past that I wasn’t supposed to know about. They sent me away two days later.

It went on like that for eleven years. Being bounced from home to home every time I messed up and showed that I knew way more than I should. Jack was my case worker the entire time. He never gave up on me though. He was always there to listen to me. To be my best friend. He kept saying that it was their problem and not mine. But I knew he was wrong. I knew there was something wrong with me.

She sat there next to me as though I didn’t exist. She was leaned back. Her knee propped against the table her leg swinging slightly. Not a reaction I was used to from girls. Her headphones emitted a slight sound though I couldn’t place. She looked totally engrossed in her book just as she had in our last class.

I hadn’t missed the smirk when she looked at the textbook. Just as I hadn’t missed the fact that she wouldn’t look at me if I didn’t have my glasses on. In fact she hadn’t looked anyone in the eye at all that I had seen. She kept her eyes trained on the floor the way someone with bad self esteem would. But she held her body in a manner that exuded confidence. An extreme contradiction and the thing that caught my attention.

I wished I could just reach over and touch her. Find out her secrets. What made her the way she was. To the untrained eye she was the epitome of calm. But I was always good at noticing the little things. Like the way she seemed to mess with her braid when something was bothering her. Like for example someone staring at her like I did most of last hour. And the way her legs were never still. Almost like she was ready to bolt at a moments notice. The way her hands were always fidgeting either messing with her hair, or tapping her fingers, and more often than the others the way she messed with the ring on the middle finger of her left hand.

I looked at the ring. It had a small thin band of silver that wove intricate designs around an onyx stone. She messed with it the most when she was deep in thought. Twisting it around her finger, but always returning it to the right position. It was obviously something that she had worn for a long time.

She had long dark hair plaited in a braid that reached the middle of her shoulder blades. She had an olive skin tone and the darkest eyes I had ever seen. She wore a baggy t-shirt obviously meant for a man with blue jeans underneath. Almost as though she were trying to look as ordinary as possible. Her clothes fit so that it showed very little of her body. Making it difficult to tell whether she was chubby or thin.

As I watched she pulled the braid over her shoulder and tugged on it lightly. She felt me staring just as she had in our last class. I couldn’t help the smirk as I turned to look at the front of the class again. I really should have been paying attention. This was the only class I had trouble with. I flipped open my book to the right chapter. I didn’t bother trying to listen to the teacher. I couldn’t learn that way so I started in on the problem I had left off at.

After the fifth time of erasing and starting over I was pretty sure I had the right answer. Movement caught my attention and I glanced to my right. Rayne was looking at my paper and shaking her head slightly. I raised an eyebrow at her. The only part of my eyes that could be seen over my glasses.

She rose to my challenge and leaned forward putting her book on the table words down to keep her place. She grabbed the pencil out of my hand and pulled my note book out from under my hand to her. She grabbed a calculator out of her bag and looked at the book. When she found the problem I was working on she paused. I watched as her eyes skimmed the page and she set to writing. It took her only a couple seconds and she pushed the notebook back to me with