A burning sensation tingled in the back of my throat as I thrust my head forward and released it in one large scream. My eyes shot open and I let out choked gasps as the strap of a seatbelt suddenly restrained my heaving chest from going any further.

"Woah, kiddo, are you okay?" A deep voice asked me.

My eyes twitched as I looked around at where I was. I was in...the police car? "What happened?" I asked.

He chuckled. "You fell asleep!" I looked to my left. The same cop still drove the police car down the road. This road looked a lot more familiar from the one I remembered.

"You're not dead? He didn't come back for me?" I double checked.

He pressed his lips together, raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "Nope. We haven't stopped all night."

I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. The sun was up, and the road was wet from a rainstorm the night before. My mouth hung open. "Huh..." I muttered. "Then I had the most bizarre dream..." I shook my head and looked back at the officer. "Where are we?"

"We are just about home, Ava. About five minutes."

I nodded and returned my gaze to look out the window. The scenic view blurred by us, greens and browns in an overabundance. We finally arrived back to my home. My mother burst out of the house, her dark hair flying behind her.

"Ava!" she exclaimed. "Oh, my baby!"

I got out of the cop car, only to be pummeled by hugs and kisses. My uncle ran out of the house as well and embraced the two of us in his strong arms. All the emotion that I had kept built up inside me over the past two days finally let itself go. I burst into tears in their arms, hugging the two of them back with all of my might. The cop walked over to us.

"She's perfectly in tact, there was no harm done to her." I mentally shrugged to myself. There were still the events of Taco's lair that the police will never know about.

"Thank you, so much," my mother breathed as she stroked my hair. The police man nodded.

"I was told that the police department already informed you of what miss Lane had told us?" My mother and Uncle nodded their heads. "I would suggest keeping her home for a few days, but don't keep her completely isolated for too long, or else she might have relapses."

"Don't worry, we'll take very good care of her," my uncle reassured.

The cop nodded. "I have to go back to the south-side. But if anything further ensues, I encourage you to contact your local police station." He turned, got back into his cop car and zoomed off.

My mother and uncle urged me inside of the house. The door shut behind us as we walked over to the couch and sat down. They took a seat on either side of me. "Sweet heart," my mother cooed softly. "Are you sure that you're alright?"

I nodded. "I am completely fine. Nothing happened."

"Why didn't you tell me that that boy did those things to you? That he..." she stopped, pursing her lips together. "I won't even say it."

My eyebrows curled up as tears started to form in the corners of my grey eyes. "Because..." my shaky, high voice trailed off. "Mom, he threatened to kill me!" I buried my head in my hands. "And I knew that he would! He's killed before, he is completely capable!"

"That Luther boy has killed before?" my uncle exclaimed. I nodded my head. "Who?"

"When first moved in, remember that girl who supposedly crashed her car?" I asked. They exchanged a horrified glance. "Yeah. That was no accident." I removed my hands from my face and leaned back into the soft couch. "Not only that, but he's killed at least thirty people, or something like that, I don't remember what he told me. And on top of it all, he's killed his parents."

My mother brought a hand to her disgusted face. "He murdered his own parents? That's so...writhen." I gulped as I nodded.

"And Gomez didn't know about it either. He wasn't involved in this, he just sort of got...sucked into it," I half-lied. Gomez was the entire mastermind behind my abduction. If Gomez hadn't rescued me from Luther in the bathroom, I likely would've gotten away and called the police. But instead, I got taken to a far away place that only Gomez knew of, and of which he took us two.

"Your friends have all been worried sick," Uncle Michael stated. "Especially Nate. He somehow feels like all of this is his fault."

I shook my head. "No. Why would any of this be his fault?"

He shrugged. "He thought that maybe his ex-girlfriend scared you away, and that's when Luther had the opportunity to take you. When you were alone and vulnerable."

I tilted my head to the side. "Perhaps that was part of it. But, it really wasn't his fault. It's not his fault that his ex rolled around at a very inconvenient time." I sniffled a little bit, calming down. "I think that starting tomorrow, I want to go to school and try to recuperate." My mom and uncle exchanged a concerned glance.

"Is that something that you really want to do?" my mother asked me. "There are going to be a lot of people who will ask what happened. That might be a bit traumatizing for you, don't you think?"

I looked her in the eyes. "I'll be okay. I just need to get my mind off of Luther one way or another. Plus, it's my senior year. I'll already have missed two days of school this week. I don't wish to miss any more than that."

"I don't see why not," my uncle interjected. "It will be healthy for you."

After a few more minutes of talking, we all went upstairs. They let me go to sleep in my bed, as did they, for they had hardly slept at all since I left. Sometime in the late afternoon, they brought me my favorite soup and ice cream to eat as I sat around and watched Jane Austin movies all day. In the evening, they came in, said a prayer with me, and left me to sleep. And I had the most peaceful sleep that I had had in two weeks.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hey so I'm going to be on vacation the next few days, so updates may be a bit slow...however! I do want to submit Outlawry into the watty awards! I am going to try to finish it by mid-July, if not sooner. The book is pretty close to being finished, with only 13 chapters left, and they should take no time at all to write. I just can't wait to be done

Please vote and comment! Your support is greatly appreciated!