Just Keep Running

Chapter 18 Rooftop Ruckus

TW: Mention of gun 

Luke and I were walking and walking until he stopped in front of a forest filled with green pine trees, birds, and other living things. He then turned to me then his phone rang. He answered it. "What the hell do you want!" He yelled into the phone. He then looked down at me and pointed to a small cabin in the woods and started walking towards it while on the phone. I followed him. "What do you mean? Where are you?" Luke demanded in the phone. When we got to the cabin he then pulled out a pair of keys and unlocked the door to the cabin then opened the door and held it for me as I stepped inside. Luke walked inside the cabin soon after me, still on the phone. "Daniel! I swear if you hurt her!" He threatened. "No. not gonna happen." He said. I sat down on the couch and waited for him to be off the phone. It was a small cabin with a kitchen, a small table near a window, on the other side was a couch, a coffee table and a small box television. I could see there was a staircase but I didn't go up there. I hear Luke sigh and walk over to me. He sat on the coffee table and covered the microphone on the cell phone. "Maddie Daniel is on the phone and he wants to talk to you bu–" I cut him off. "I don't want to talk to him." I say with a hint of anger in my voice. "I know you don't kiddo, but he won't take no for an answer so as much as I hate to say it you're gonna have to talk to him. Just don't tell him where we are okay?" He says, annoyed that Daniel called in the first place. I nod slightly. Luke smiles a bit and hands me the phone. "Hello?" I say as I put the phone to my ear. "Hello Maddie." Daniel says back. "What do you want?" I ask, wanting to end this conversation. "Whoa there sweetheart, you're starting to sound like your mother and Luke." He says trying to get on my nerves. I look at Luke and he has a sympathetic look on his face. "Where is Mom?" I ask, trying to sound threatening. "Oh, you want to know where your mother is? Well she's with me and you could be too if you told me where you are." He responds trying to get information out of me. "Let me talk to her." I say blankly. I hear Daniel sigh on the other end of the line. "If I let you talk to her, you have to tell me where you are, okay?" He asks. "Okay." I replied. "Annie, come here!" I hear Daniel yell on the other line. I put the phone on speaker and place it on the table so Luke can hear too. "Maddie?" Mom asks on the other side of the line. "Hi Mom." I say, relieved. "Annie, are you okay?" Luke asks. "Yes I'm okay for the most part." She replies. "Where are you Annie?" Luke asks. "I'm sorry but um I can't tell you that." Mom replies and the slight smile that was on my face faded. "Why not?" I said, raising my voice a bit. Just then a notification popped up on Luke's phone. Luke looked at it and opened it showing that it was a picture of Mom and Daniel right now. Mom is on the phone and Daniel is standing next to her with a gun in his hand. It looks like they are on a rooftop of some kind. "It's okay I'm fine don't worry about me, just please keep Maddie safe Luke." Mom begged. "I will Annie , don't worry." He replied. "Mom please, you have to tell us where you are so we can come and get you." I begged. "Maddie honey, it's okay I'll be okay, alright? I will get out of this okay? Just stay where you are and stay with Luke okay honey?" Mom said, I could hear her starting to cry. "Okay." I replied, with tears now rolling down my face. I heard some commotion on the phone then I heard Daniel's voice again. "Okay, that's enough of talking to Annie, now Maddie sweetie, tell me where you are." Daniel demanded. Luke looked at me with a smirk on his face and I nodded. Then he hung up the phone and picked it up and smashed it, throwing it into the wall then took out the battery and smashed it too. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. He walked over to me and sat down next to me on the couch. He then pulled me into a hug as I sobbed into his shoulder. "What if he hurts her, Luke?" I ask, still sobbing. He sighs and rubs my back to try and get me to calm down. "Annie is a strong person just like you Maddie and Daniel wont hurt her you know why?" He asked. "No." I replied, starting to calm down. "It's because he wants to hurt me, not you, and not Annie okay?" He said. "Why does he want to hurt you?" I ask. Luke sighs. "Because I took his job away from him even though I was the only one who finally noticed how much wrong we were doing but I should've noticed sooner or better yet I never should have worked for them in the first place." He said getting mad at himself. I pull out of the hug. "He should notice that it is wrong too but he doesn't so now he's taking out his anger on you, Mom, and I, and it's our job to make sure that he stops before more people get hurt." I say smiling a bit. Luke smiles and we both get up off the couch and he grabs the now broken phone off the ground. "Do you know why I smashed it?" He asked me. I nod "They could've tracked the call and then came here." I say. He smiles and nods.

As Luke hung up the phone Annie ran to the other side of the roof away from him. Daniel groweld in anger and put his phone back into his pocket. "Oh come on Annie get over here!" Daniel demanded. "NO!" She shouted back. "Annie Maddie will be here soon I promise." He says trying to convince her. "I don't want Maddie coming here just to see you kill me!" She replied, still shouting. "Annie if you come over here and when we find Maddie and Luke everything will go back to normal I promise." He said still trying to entice her. "NO! It wont go back to normal because I'll be dead and Luke will be dead and then Maddie is going to be stuck with you and then you are gonna do who know what with her but I know what I want Daniel! I want you dead and all your little friends too, then I want to take Maddie and go somewhere other than here with her and she can make new friends and then we don't have to worry about you anymore!" She said,]. Daniel sighed. "Annie, if you jump off this roof that will never happen okay everything you want to happen wont, and then Maddie and Luke will be on the run forever! Is that what you want for your daughter to be in fear her whole life, for her to run away and probably move from state to state, country to country! Is that what you want because that's what's gonna happen if you jump right now. And the last memory you'll have of her will be when she was hurt and bruised you'll never see her again! Is that what you want?" Daniel said. "No!" She shouted back. "Then come over here and you'll get to see her again." He replied. She started to slowly walk away from the edge and towards Daniel. She made it within arms length of Daniel and he pulled her into a hug. She was surprised at the sudden gesture and didn't hug him back. He let her go and cleared his throat. Just then the door opened and John walked onto the roof. "What is it?" Daniel asked. "We found them." Replied John. 

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