Chapter 19: The Risks of Fate

Dash's POV

Morning broke slowly. Throughout the night, I was fully awake. My mind was locked staring at the hole in the wall of my cell, taunting me with thoughts of freedom and escape into the outside world. Never had something before been able to keep my attention for such a long period of time. I was in a daze, staring mindlessly at it for the entire night, contemplating my current situation with the amount of remaining energy I could muster. With the lack of food that continued to sit in the corner, the energy to even blink my eyes was starting to deplete slightly. However, the lack of food or sleep might have been the reason behind that.

Within my shadowy prison, I could only think to myself about my life and what I missed from it all this time. What was being taken away from it now that I was locked up in here. I've thought profusely for the past two weeks, talking to myself about what happened, feeling sorry for myself, wondering what people were thinking of me and the latter. All i was doing was thinking about it from one side of the spectrum.

What if.

Spending that night staring at the wall started to make me consider a different train of thought on the whole situation. The world outside of this place was still going on as it typically did, even without me needing to be there. People were still going to work. My friends were still attending school. Sure, my imprisonment may have caused a few things to change. Danny's friends were most likely struggling to return to classes. My folks may have lost their jobs due to their association with me, the so called, "Casper High Killer". No one would want to hire the parents of someone who the town thinks killed somebody weaker than them in a cold blooded brawl. The world was still going on as it does. Without me. The world doesn't need Dash Baxter to run as it does everyday. Life goes on. People move on. Eventually, this case will be forgotten, and I'll be forgotten too.

My mind felt like it was going the speed it would during a major test. I've never been the brightest person on the face of the Earth. But suddenly, it felt like everything in my mind was piecing together in some strange, quilt of possibilities. What if, what if, what if…

Thoughts I'd had a hundred times continued to eat at my mind.

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

"Dash, get up!", Moby called from the opposite side of the door, jingling his keys getting ready to come into my cell once again. "It's time to transfer."

I shot up out of bed quickly, causing the blood in my body to rush to my face. Strange. I could feel my heart suddenly start to beat quickly, but it wasn't from the sudden change in blood pressure. Was it the lack blood sugar in my system? Or my nerves?

"I'm up…" I groaned, feeling the blood stir. Moby walked in and looked at me, shaking his head.

"You didn't eat, clearly." He sighed. "I'll have the staff at the Hall give you something to eat when you arrive. Wouldn't want you getting sick during your first night in Juvie."

"I'm already sick," I growled, clutching my head as the blood was settling down in my brain; something a lot of people joked about saying I didn't have one back in school. "I'm sick and tired of sitting by myself in the dark. I'm tired of waiting for responses and court date changes. And I'm really getting tired of revisiting my guilt every other second of the day…"

"Luckily for you, you've been granted yard privileges, so at least you'll be able to see people your age and talk to them during yard hours. Plus, it gives you the chance to have a little bit of exercise again! Bet you've been missing that."

He was right about that. Exercise used to be my stress reliever. But being cramped up in this tiny little cell had really made it impossible for me to let out my frustrations. I've been too scared to move 90% of the time up until now. Now, I felt agitated from the lack of food, sleep and free will. I killed someone, and I know I shouldn't really be given any kind of liberties. But for some reason, my tensions felt like they were at their breaking point. Officer Campbell broke the silence.

"I understand that you must still feel out of touch from your incident with Daniel, and that you're revisiting the crime in your head every time you blink your eyes, but I hope you understand that I'm trying to be the nice guy here. Bryan has been very hard on you ever since Daniel was pronounced…you know. But I want you to know that even though you're in a lot of trouble, there are people out there who sympathize with you and don't believe what the news and papers have said about you."

"The media thinks I'm a monster…." I muttered, starting to feel a tad bit impatient with Moby's speech. Ever since I was admitted here, Moby has treated me not like some kind of animal. He's treated me like a person, just like any other. However, I couldn't believe him about people sympathizing now that the reality was finally starting to settle in with me about what I've done. I caused someone to die. Their ghost has come back from the grave to haunt me, telling me to "Seize the day". His uncle has threatened me with my life, which honestly is probably worth about as much to him as dirt on his shoes. My friends, his friends. My family, his family.

They'd all be better off if I was gone the same way as Danny. Forever.

I didn't like to think about it that way, but it was true. If I wasn't around, then they wouldn't have to deal with the trial, the case, the heartbreak. Danny wouldn't be too happy with me if I'd suddenly taken my own life however, seeing as he would probably just torment me forever if we were both nothing more than a couple of ghosts.

Moby interrupted my internal rant. "The media can be a very tricky substance, Dashniel." He mumbled, putting his door keys in his pocket. "People pick up the tabloids, knowing that they carry lies sometimes and still believe every word from cover to cover. How the media perceives the truth isn't always legitimate. They could say you're actually a wolf man, and I guarantee people would believe that too. Your trial is the place where you can prove everybody wrong."

"If the town can even accept what i have to say now that I'm locked up in here…" I sighed. Officer Campbell sighed in defeat, grabbing my cell door and opening it wider.

"Well, I suppose we'd better get going then, shouldn't we? Wouldn't want to be late for your briefing." I nodded my head leaving him to walk out of the cell with me following right behind him. My mind started to race again as I heard the door of my cell slam shut right behind me. It happened again. For the second time in a row now.

They forgot to put me in hand cuffs.

Did Officer Campbell really trust me enough that he didn't think putting me into cuffs would be necessary?! I understand that for the first few weeks I've been here, I've been absolutely terrified, scared and alone. But now, for the second time since I'd been arrested, I felt nothing more than…free, staring down at my naked wrists and looking around to see that I was finally out of that locked cell.

As we walked through the precinct, my mind turned back immediately to thoughts to escaping. I thought of the crack in the wall of my cell, how much energy I had, what would happen if I somehow managed to escape custody? I totally could without having any restraints on me. I can't believe that Moby was so naive, that he was literally letting a person who killed a man walk around unrestrained. Then again, I couldn't believe that Stevenson had done the exact same thing. Are they thinking that just because I'm a kid, that I'm not going to run away now that I'd been caught red handed? Why weren't they using backup?!

Question after question flew through my mind about how the officers could have forgot to restrain me. In the middle of every question, my mind thought of another, and another, and another. I felt like my head was going to explode from the scenarios of stupidity. However with the end of each scenario in my mind, one outcome always remained.

I needed to get out of this place.

If I escaped, I could never face my family or friends again. This I knew. But maybe I could flee and stop this from completely ruining my life. I wouldn't be able to go to college, buy a house, or really do anything I wanted to do with myself before all of this happened. But maybe vanishing off the face of the Earth for a while could help me stop myself from facing the harsh reality of what was about to come for me. I wouldn't need to deal with my trial, my imprisonment for life, the faces of those who I've hurt. I could just run away from my problems. The worst they could do to me if I got caught would be to just throw me in Juvie anyways. This could be the risk that could save me from having to face the consequences of my actions. It was a huge risk, but a worth one in my opinion.

I continued following Moby to the door at the back of the building, which lead to the parking lot where we had been nine days ago to head to Danny's funeral. Looking around, it seemed that not a lot of actual officers had come into work yet for their shifts. I'd only spotted two as we walked towards the back entrance that lead to the parking lot. I quick glanced at Moby's belt, spotting no gun, but a taser and flashlight as his only weapons. There was no way that this could have been anymore perfect. Even with the little amount of energy I had, guaranteed I could still manage to outrun Moby with my track star training. I was the fastest runner in Casper High, so beating a middle aged man like him in a foot race wouldn't be any problem. By the time he could call for back up, I could already be three blocks away, and by the time they get a car rolling, I could be another three.

I had to take this chance.

After a few moments of thinking about what I was going to do, we finally managed to step outside of the building. Moby began walking down the small steps to reach the asphalt, and he began walking towards his vehicle, whistling to himself. As my foot hit the blacktop of the parking lot, I started to step to my left, watching Moby intently as I continued stepping away from him.

Two feet away.

Six feet away.

Ten feet away.

He hadn't noticed yet. Once I had stepped roughly twenty meters away from him, I turned away from him, digging my right heel into the ground as I suddenly flew into a full sprint. The sound of my feet hitting the ground hard as I ran finally alerted Officer Campbell to my actions. He started chasing after me, but my focus was on the road in front of me that lead out of the lot. I was terrified, excited, and numb all at the same time, as my adrenaline pushed me towards the exit of the parking lot.

"STOP!" Moby called out from behind me. I could tell that I was losing him by the sound of his feet becoming less and less loud. His yelling became less and less loud as I managed to run to the end of the lot, taking a turn down the sidewalk to my right in a blatant panic. Now that i was actually on the outside of the precinct, I suddenly lost all train of my thought. I had no idea what the heck I was doing. My plan had fallen apart, but my instincts told me to run. By the time I'd turned onto the next street, I faintly heard Moby behind me at the parking lot entrance,

"We've got a 10-98 in front of the precinct heading towards Casper High,"

"Dash Baxter is on the run."

Greetings everybody. It's been a while hasn't it? 2 years. And I apologize that it's taken me so long for me to get this chapter out. Before the hiatus, I had chapter 19-27 written, but they were deleted from my computer after a routine virus scan wiped my laptop clean. Then in the middle of it all, I graduated high school and now I am almost graduated college. After seeing the overwhelming amount of support I've gotten over this story, I've decided to continue it after all this time as thanks to you awesome people. I will be writing chapter 20 when I am done with work this month, and will be writing periodically over the winter break as well.

If you like what you've read, please Read & Review!

-ReapersSenator2121