Page 71 of A Wise Prince

“Here,” she says as she holds up her diamond-studded watch.

“What time is it?” I ask as she leans down to saw on the plastic around my wrists and then my ankles.

“Uh, three in the morning. Almost…got it,” she says triumphantly.

“Fuck, we’ve been gone a long time. But they may not realize it until tomorrow morning,” I mumble as I climb through the door. I hear movement downstairs.

“Hurry,” I whisper.

I pull the armoire a bit before shutting the door, hoping they don’t notice it for a while.

It’s pitch black in the tunnel. No lights at all.

“I can’t see anything,” Ashlyn whispers.

“No shit, Sherlock. Feel along the walls.”

We walk slowly, our arms outstretched as we walk. It seems to take long minutes to go only a few feet.

“I feel a door,” Ashlyn whispers. “Should we go in?”

I reach for her, and she grabs my hand, placing it on the door. I lean against it. It’s quiet on the other side. I slowly open the door. I peer into another bedroom. I slowly open it and walk inside toward a window. I grin. Yes. This window is over a small roof that’s next to some bushes. We can get down.

“Ash,” I whisper. She starts to move across the room when suddenly I hear the voices getting louder. The staircase creaks under the weight of whoever is coming this way.

“Fuck. Come on,” I murmur as I push the window open. It’s a tight fit, but it opens farther than the one in the other room. I squeeze through, and Ash follows me. We jump off the roof, landing in prickly bushes.

“Ouch,” Ash whimpers.

“You OK?” I ask her.

She nods. I look around. We need to get to the woods, now. I grab her hand, and we take off running. Just as we get to the edge of the forest, I see lights turn on outside what looks like an old stone house that we’ve just come from. I don’t think, I just drag my sister behind me, and we start running.

Branches scratch my face and arms as we run. I hear Ashlyn yelp with pain.

“Come on,” I urge.

“My ankle,” she sobs.

“Ash, we can’t stop!” I say. I slow slightly but keep us running. I have no idea where we are, the only light is from the moon, which is partly hidden by clouds.

I stop. “Do you hear that?” I ask her.

She freezes and shakes her head.

“It’s a stream,” I say to her.

“So?”

“So, dumbass, it’s going to lead to a bigger source of water and eventually people,” I say as though this is the most obvious thing that I’ve ever said.

We walk toward the sound of the running brook. It takes about a minute to locate it but the sight of it gives me hope. We continue walking along it for long minutes. I lose track of time, but I don’t bother asking Ash for it. At this point, time doesn’t matter, but distance does. And we need to put as much space between us and that old stone house as possible. Eventually, we come to a river, and a few minutes later a road.

“We should stay off to the side, in case they come looking for us,” I say to her like I’m some sort of professional wilderness guide who can lead us to the safety of a nearby village.

By the time the road widens, the early morning light is beginning to change the color of the sky on the horizon. “Damn, what time is it?” I ask her.

“Almost six,” she says.

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