Page 45 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

All of the United States is worried about 17-year-old Louisa Scriver. Hailing from Ash Springs, Nevada, Louisa is apparently on the run with 23-year-old Brendan Connor. What is particularly explosive about this case, however, is the fact that Louisa is said to have been in the hands of the 23-year-old last year, too. He is said to have held Louisa captive in the middle of the Yukon for over two months. Police spokesman Gordon Thompson said the young man who was voted Hero of the Week 52 on the popular entertainment show Hero of the Week late last year, poses a serious threat. He is classified as mentally unstable and is believed to be in possession of multiple firearms and narcotics.

“What the hell…” Brendan whispers darkly. I glance at him sideways, still stunned by the report. With a pale face, he inhales deeply through his nose. I scroll down with stiff fingers so we can continue reading.

Louisa Scriver was dropped off by her 19-year-old brother in Sequoia National Park at the Lodgepole Visitor Center on the evening of June 25. She wanted to spend the summer with the young man. She was last seen by her eldest brother, Ethan Scriver, in Seattle on the morning of July 8, off Interstate 5 near Baker’s Motel. There has been no trace of them for two and a half days. Officially, Louisa has been missing since June 26th. According to the investigating authorities, Louisa is probably staying with her kidnapper willingly. “Nevertheless, she’s a victim,” police spokesman Gordon Thompson said at a news conference yesterday. “She does not grasp the full scope of the context and effects of the former crime and is therefore unable to act accordingly.” Clear words also come from Ethan Scriver, who reported the case to the police department two days ago. “Louisa urgently needs our help. She can no longer think straight. This man must have brainwashed her. He’s a criminal, mentally unstable, and capable of anything.” According to Ethan Scriver, Brendan Connor drugged his sister with a dangerous drug cocktail a year ago and took her to the Yukon in a box in his RV. Ethan Scriver has presented substantial evidence according to Chief Howard O. Conmay, and the youngest brother is currently at the police department making a statement.

More than twenty serious tips have been received so far, but these have come almost exclusively from the hotel guests and staff at the Seattle Plaza, where the two had checked in for several days. Police believe Brendan Connor and Louisa Scriver are heading to Canada, the Yukon. They will prefer secluded areas and avoid official campgrounds. A judge has issued an arrest warrant for Brendan Connor for aggravated kidnapping. The agency put Connor on the list of “Nevada Top Ten Most Wanted” and offered an additional $5,000 reward.

Louisa Scriver and Brendan Connor are currently traveling in a white Travel America motorhome. Registration number: “The Klondike, EVT 372 Yukon.” For relevant information, please contact the Nevada Bureau of Investigation. Phone: 775-639-2450; E-Mail—[email protected]

From one second to the next, I feel sick to my stomach. I jump up and run to the bathroom, sink to my knees, and start retching. It takes a few minutes before I’m empty and I can stand up on shaky legs. My throat burns from the stomach acid.

Ethan betrayed me! That thought sticks in my mind like a fly in a spider’s web. Suddenly, I feel his flat, stinging hand on my cheek again, but that’s nothing compared to what he unleashed with his charge. It’s like a kick to the stomach when I’m already down. He portrays Bren as someone who would shoot harmless civilians with a hunting rifle. Scraps of sentences like in possession of multiple firearms and warrant for aggravated kidnapping swirl through my mind. Nevertheless, she’s a victim!

I am not! Reluctantly, I stare into the tiny mirror above the washbasin. Arrest warrant for aggravated kidnapping. With shaking limbs, I rinse out my mouth, wash my hands, and lean on the sink. My blue-green eyes sparkle wildly. I am not a victim. I am not sick. I’m stunned that Ethan would do this to me.

I’ll never forgive you! You hear me? Never. Forever. For eons. You are my brother, you should love and protect me, not portray me as a criminal that needs to be hunted down! I want to hit and break something. Ethan and his stupid life mission: raise Lou, guard Lou! Tears of anger sting my eyes, but I fight them back with all my might. I don’t have time for it now.

I walk to the front again and stop at the table. Bren sits petrified in the driver’s seat, hands clenched into iron fists so that the veins and tendons stand out taut like bowstrings.

“I can’t give you back, Lou, never again,” he whispers harshly and darkly. “Not again. Not after I know how it can be between us.” He says it calmly, not a muscle in his body twitching. “And yet—you must leave me.”

“No.” The word shatters soundlessly on my lips. I’m stumped. I have absolutely no idea why he is saying that.

He turns in his seat and looks at me through narrowed eyes. “A life on the run, do you even know what that means?”

“Of course I do,” I say, jutting out my chin even though I don’t understand anything anymore.

Bren gets up and walks toward me. “A life on the run means not knowing today where you will sleep tomorrow. It means hardship, fear, and sometimes hunger… I don’t want that for you…”

Suddenly, I’m terrified he’s going to leave me here. “We were going to go back into the wild one day anyway,” I whisper hoarsely.

Bren wipes his mouth and nose, then takes a deep breath. “It’s not the same. Escape is like war. Cruel in a different way. There’s never any rest.”

“Now you’re talking about yourself and the slums. About your escape from Everett. You can’t compare that.”

He seems to be considering my words. “Despite all of that, it’s not possible, Lou,” he finally replies and my heart almost stops.

I quickly shake my head. “No, don’t do that. Don’t send me away again!” I won’t survive it.

His unyielding mouth has become that thin line that tells me he believes his own words. “I have no choice.”

My desperation turns to anger, rising inside me like steam from a boiling cauldron. “Yes, you do!” I yell at him. “You have a choice. We have a choice. You can’t simply decide what I do with my life. You have no right!”

“Lou, don’t make this any harder than it already is.” Bren looks at me unhappily.

I could give him a good shaking. “Stop dictating! Stop making decisions about my life. You did enough of that last year, that’s over!”

He flinches and I immediately regret the words. “I’m not leaving you,” I say softly but firmly. “I’ll never break up with you.” Even if I’m afraid of him at times and fear his fits, I mean every word.

In the twilight, we fixate on each other in the camper like two animals gauging each other’s strength. I still feel the soft, silky bond between him and me, the bond that seems to have connected us long before we knew each other. It beats like the wings of excited birds and crackles like tracing paper in your hands.

“It’s not right.” Bren doesn’t take his eyes off me.

Neither do I. “Right and wrong are no standards for us. They’ve never been.”

“Lou, they’re looking for me for aggravated kidnapping and you’re a minor. That means a large contingent of police, helicopters with thermal imaging cameras, and the use of firearms.”

“Bren, no!” It brings tears to my eyes to imagine him fleeing the police alone in the wilderness and possibly getting caught in a shootout. And the thought of him being locked in a cell with no windows, lost in the horrors of his childhood days is terrifying. That cannot happen, ever. “It’s my life and my decision.”

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