A Treehouse Rescue

 Hope raced behind the tree, her heart pounding. For a moment, she considered climbing into the treehouse, but it would take too long and they would find her. So she crouched behind the blueberry bush instead. 

She saw the dark shadow stop in front of her and tried to quiet her raspy breath. The shadow passed and Hope let out a relieved sigh. 

But before she could think, out of nowhere the shadow pounced on her, knocking her back. She let out a screech as the thing started… licking her?

“Lulu!” Hope squealed, pushing the small dog out of her face. “You found me!”

Lulu barked proudly.

“That’s two for Lulu and me!” Amber helped Hope out of the bush.

“No fair! Lulu shouldn’t be able to use her nose!” Hope said. 

Amber laughed. “Come on! The sun is setting, you know what that means!” she said in a sing-song way as she skipped to the back door.

“Pizza!” Hope ran with Lulu trailing behind.

Once they were inside, Amber turned around and locked the door. There, all locked, Amber thought.

“What's that smell?” Hope sniffed. 

Amber sniffed too. 

“Oh no, the pizza!” She ran into the kitchen and pulled out a slightly burnt pepperoni pizza and quickly turned the oven off. I’ve gotta be more careful, Amber thought. Mom would never let me have a sleep over again if I burned Hope's house down. 

“What should we watch tonight?” She walked back into the living room and placed two plates of rather crispy pizza on the end table. 

“What about a spy movie!?” Hope slinked across the room then somersaulted over to the couch “Or a love story where the handsome prince saves the princess from certain death!” she dramatically fell onto the couch. “Oh! Oh! What about-”

Amber giggled. “If you don’t make up your mind then we will never get to watch anything!” she playfully ruffled Hope’s sandy-colored hair.

The two finally decided on a mystery about a missing dog and snuggled up in the living room.

Hope and Amber pulled the blankets around themselves and enjoyed the bright colors dancing across the screen, fully unaware of what was yet to come.

***

“Alright! Time for bed,” Amber said as the movie came to a close.

“Not yet! I’m not even tired!” Hope said, stifling a yawn.

“Hope,” Amber giggled, “Your parents told me to get us to bed by 8:00. And besides, if we stay up any longer, the monsters will come and eat us up!” and with a devilish grin, she lunged for Hope.

Hope shrieked and jumped out of the way spilling popcorn everywhere. She ran around the couch with Amber close behind.

Lulu, who thought this was highly irregular, barked as she watched the girls fall in a jumbled heap.

Out of breath and laughing, Hope slowly stood up.

“Now are you ready to go to bed?” Amber rolled onto her back.

“Okay…Oh!” a thought struck her. “Where’s Nuggs?”

“Do you  mean the cat, or the horse?” Amber asked, sitting up.

Hope, who for some reason found this very funny, burst out laughing again. “The horse, silly! Who would name a cat Nuggs!?”

“Oh, I think you left her in the tree house when we had our tea party,” Amber recalled as she started picking up the spilled popcorn.

Hope stopped laughing and frowned. “But it’s dark out there…”

“It’s okay, I can go,” Amber said quickly and picked up her trusty flashlight. “Can you clean up the popcorn?”

“Roger that!” Hope saluted then dropped to her knees on the floor.

Amber turned to go. “And by cleaning up, I don’t mean eating them,” she added with a smile.

Hope, who was about to pop a piece of popcorn into her mouth, regretfully placed it into the empty popcorn bowl.

 Amber opened the back screen door, and saw Lulu poke her head through her doggie door flap.

“Oh, Hey Lulu!” she waited for Lulu to follow her.

But Lulu only stared. She gave a low whine, almost like a sigh, before turning to go in.

That’s strange, Lulu always comes out with me. Amber thought. 

***

The full moon reflected off the shiny metal ladder to the tree house casting an eerie glow as she climbed. 

Something’s off… Amber thought.

Every step felt heavier, trying to weigh her down, and make her go back.

Suddenly, just as she reached the top, she heard a noise from inside the house, like a thumping. Amber tried to shrug it off as she searched for Nuggs, but it still worried her.

Hope’s probably just playing a game. Somehow, her thoughts didn’t help. 

Ah ha! Amber picked up the floppy plush pony.

Amber heard a crash, glass shattering, and Lulu barking. She dropped the pony and scrambled down the ladder. 

It was deathly quiet. Then, a single sound pierced the air.

A scream.

Hope’s scream.

***

“Hope! Hope?” Amber dashed across the lawn. She ran through the screen door, through the kitchen, into the living room, and stopped. 

The front door was ajar on broken hinges, the glass pane broken into a thousand tiny pieces on the floor.

The cool night breeze coming through the splintered doorway sent chills down her back as she watched in horror a black van squeal backward down the driveway and barrel down the road.

“NO! STOP!” Amber screamed, running out the door. She screamed until her throat felt so dry it hurt. “Hope!” 

***

Kidnaped.

Amber’s first thought was, this can’t be happening. Then, I can’t believe I let this happen. And lastly, Hope’s parents are going to KILL me!

She found Lulu had been stuffed in the coat closet and quickly opened the door. Lulu let out a frustrated howl like she too felt like she failed her job of watching over the girls.

Amber heard another car pull up into the driveway. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was Hope’s parents. But as much as she wanted to run into their arms and tell them everything, she couldn’t. Because the same-looking black van had parked in front of their car.

She watched Mrs. and Mr. Patterson step out of their car and a man step out of the van.

A man with a gun.

Amber ran from the doorway and into the kitchen. She knelt behind the counter as she heard them come in. She heard the glass crunching underneath their feet as they stepped through the doorway.

“So Mr Patterson, I’m aware that you have a court date on monday,” a gruff voice with a spanish accent said.

Amber peeked around the coroner. As she suspected, the voice belonged to the man with the gun. 

“Mm hm,” Sam Patterson cooly ran his fingers through his brown hair.

“And that in that court date you are to testify against Big Corp, for… several blackmailings,”

“Such as this I assume,” Sam eyed the gun in the man’s hand.

Mrs. Patterson stood frozen in fear clinging to Sam’s sleeve.

“Well we don’t like that. So here’s the deal; you're going to say everything is fine and your investigation is over, and we won't bother you again,”

“And why would I lie in court?” He laughed. 

“Because we have your daughter,”

Sam’s smile faded.

“So if you want your precious daughter to live, you will do as I say,” the gunman smiled wickedly.

I whipped my head back behind the counter. It took all my strength to keep from screaming in terror. 

***

I heard the muffled sobs of Hope’s mom and could almost see Sam’s look of seething wrath.

“Now listen carefully; you have fifty-nine hours until we will pick you up and bring you to the court date. Until then, you will stay inside this house. We have confiscated your phones and cut your electricity. And if you leave the house or try to contact anyone, Your little girl will be…how to say…exterminated,” the man explained. “Do I make myself clear?”

“What’s stopping me from telling the court you blackmailed me after I get my daughter back?” Sam asked through gritted teeth. Any calmness that was there before had evaporated.

“We kidnaped her this time, we can do it again,” he replied simply.

Sam said nothing else.

I knew it was time for me to go. As quietly as I could, I made my way to the back screened door.

“See you on Monday,” the gunman walked over the glass and shut what was left of the front door.

I rushed across the yard up the ladder and into the tree house. Collapsing on the floor, I sobbed bitterly. 

This is all my fault! I wanted to shout. 

I was scared and ashamed and angry. Angry that Mr. Patterson had such a dangerous job, angry Mrs. Patterson had thought I could take care of Hope while they were away, even angry that Hope hadn’t  been outside looking for Nuggs!

I knew it was all selfish and wrong, and I felt even worse blaming it on them.

There was nothing I could have done, they would have taken me too. I sighed and wiped my eyes. My brain was jumbled up into a useless, fearful mess. But I summoned all my courage and sat up. 

I knew one thing, I was going to save Hope.