H is for Hiding

Hello!  Welcome back!  I hope you are ready for the next blog post in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you missed the last blog post, definitely go read that one.  Click here, or you will be very confused in reading today’s installment.

For this story, I am participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I felt that this was a really good opportunity for me to not only express my creativity, but challenge myself to building a very long story that could be cut up into multiple parts.  And for it all to make sense!  So if you want to follow along with other blog posts in the challenge, check the hashtag #AtoZchallenge to follow along.

This story would be categorized as Dark.  Thank you so much and I will see you tomorrow for the next installment.  Enjoy!

H is for Hiding

Aspen slowly made her way to a row of bushes behind a small neighborhood.  She crawled into the dirt and laid down on a blanket she had purchased.  It definitely wasn’t comfortable, but it was a something.  And she was hidden, something that was needed now that she was on the run.  But all she needed to do was relax and hopefully get some much needed rest.

When Aspen set up on the street corner, she didn’t know what she needed to really do.  All she knew was that she needed to sit there and hope that people gave her money.  It was all how other people felt.

She had been sitting there for a couple hours when she saw a police car in the distance.  She quickly stood up and made her way away from the corner.  Her feet started taking her down the sidewalk and to an unknown location.  Aspen felt her heart start racing as she walked down the street.

Aspen looked over her shoulder to see the police car turn the corner toward her.  She started walking faster and turned into a small alleyway behind a Wendy’s.  Her body turned and she leaned against the wall, trying to look like she had been there for a while.  She covered her head with her hood and peered around the edge of the hood for the police car.  The car drove by the alley without stopping and Aspen let out a sigh of relief.

She carefully walked out of the alley and back onto the street.  She started following the police car in hopes that they wouldn’t notice.

Suddenly she jumped as the loud cry of a police siren cracked through the hum of the busy street.  Aspen spun around as saw a car coming down the street right for her.  She tried to keep her cool and turned into a store along the street.  It was a furniture store, but it seemed like the perfect place to hide.

As she started to wander through the store, she saw two police officers walk in.  She tried to hide behind an armoire, hoping it was big enough to conceal her body.

“Have you seen this girl?”  This was a low voice, presumably one of the officers.

“No officer.  I can’t say that I have.  Did she do something wrong?”  The smooth female voice of the clerk filled the store.  Hopefully this woman would help Aspen stay hidden.

“Do you mind if we look around you store?  We have reason to believe that she may be in here.”  The officer with the low voice spoke again.  Aspen started freaking out.  She had to find an exit but she didn’t know where to go.  Her eyes scanned the entire building and saw a door near the back.  She took a deep breath and slowly started walking toward it.

“Sure.  Go ahead and have a look around.”  Aspen felt herself sharply take in her breath and she started to walk a little faster.  She had to make it to the door.  She had to make it outside before people got suspicious.  Aspen waded through the maze of furniture and reached out for the doorknob.

“Excuse me ma’am.”

Aspen froze.  Someone was standing behind her.  Did she try to run or just play it off?  She slowly turned around and kept her head low.   “Uh…yes?”

“Are you finding everything okay?”

Aspen slowly brought her head up to see a young man standing there, he wasn’t an officer but a worker for the store.  He innocently grinned, almost like he had no idea what was going on inside the store.  She swallowed.  “Uh…yes…everything is fine.  Thank you.”

The boy grinned.  “Okay.  Well let me know if you need anything!”

He turned and walked away into the store.  She let out a sigh, thank goodness.  Her body turned toward the door and she slipped out the back exit.  Once she got past the parking lot she let out a sigh of relief.  She had somehow gotten away from the cops.

She wandered around the city until she was physically exhausted.  Her body fell onto a park bench and she put her feet up on the bench to take some weight off of them.  It had been a stressful day so she just wanted to rest.  All she wanted was to forget about what happened.