Track Blues Part 1

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I waited patiently at the start of the track and squatted one leg to gain an advantage. I could feel the sun beating down on my back – practically edging me to run far away from its rays.

Jack was standing at the end of the track, shaking in his jacket as he crossed his arms tightly. His straight dark black hair could be seen just beneath his light blue beanie. He brought the whistle up to his mouth with a trembling hand.

I would have rolled my eyes at how being dramatic he was being, but didn't have time to do anything when the whistle blew loudly.

I wasted no time, sprinting as fast as my legs could carry me. I could feel my shoulder length light brown hair bob up and down in its high ponytail.

"Take proper aim."

"You left track-"

I shook my head at the unwelcomed memories that resurface in my mind. Letting out a small shaky breath, I lost control of my breathing.

That wasn't good – I had gotten frazzled, not even being halfway down my lane. I knew deep down that I wouldn't beat my time. Today was going to be bad – those unwanted memories that suddenly popped into my head were an omen.

A bad omen.

The track jacket I was wearing was crinkling loudly and madly as I brought my arms up and down in a rhythmic pattern. I held in my breath and only let go of it halfway down the track. I could barely feel my legs in their black thermal leggings. My face and body had grown numb due to the combination of cold weather and my running speed.

Some people might think running in twenty degree temperatures was just asking to get sick.

I would agree...

Usually, I would...but after spring break the top scores would be announced.

Right now Lindsay Chamberlain was ahead of me by approximately three seconds.

I needed to beat her score – I felt that deep down her height and weight definitely gave her an advantage. She was just below six feet. Her damn long legs must have gave her a leg up.

Obviously.

But that just might be my jealousy speaking.

"You're not good enough."

I ran past Jack who clocked my time on his phone and looked down at his gloved hands. I let out a few pants at being exhausted with my power sprint and placed my hands on my waist. I tried to catch my breath, and knew that I would recover in a few minutes or less. "So?" I breathed out, having swallowed before I asked him.

I was getting impatient to know what my time was.

"You're two seconds faster..."

I slumped backward at hearing his voice. I stared up at the now overcast sky. I sat down on the track and rested my back along its cold, asphalt surface.

I spread my arms out to my sides and wanted to scream.

Of course, it was during lunch hour and that would only cause the teachers to come out and wonder what was going on. That's attention that I did not need in my life right now.

"Come on Ari, don't be like that," Jack gently spoke, as though he were comforting a toddler. I gave him a glare and sat up as he squatted next to me. His next words were spoken deliberately slowly. "It's an improvement."

"But it's not enough," I argued back and ran a hand through my hair in frustration. In my irritation, my hand ran into the tie. I took it out in a huff and let my light brown hair fall down on my shoulders. It was slightly moist from the short run I had done.

"I was top in the state until she came around!" I seethed, scratching my head in irritation. Luckily I had my fingernails trimmed to the shortest length – it made clenching my hands in anger towards Lindsay Chamberlain that much easier...

Jack stared at me for a few seconds and draw a small frown on his face. He didn't like to hear me vent angrily towards the girl that had been number one on my shit list for the past year. My anger didn't calm down even after catching my breath for a few moments.

He shrugged, and I already knew that he would try to change the conversation – to direct my attention to something other than Lindsay Chamberlain.

"Why don't we go back inside the gym?" He suggested. "There's still twenty minutes left to lunch."

I waved him off and crossed my legs while leaning back, placing my hands behind me to prop myself up. If I took a small break and went back to training...it might actually help.

Plus, if Bella knew that I skipped lunch again today...she would talk to our dad about it.

That was also attention that I didn't need.

At my continued silence, Jack let out another frown. "Babe..." He called out, and I let out a loud huff. "Look, I think maybe some protein will do you some good," he quirked an eyebrow. "Right now you're basically running on fumes."

"Or," I spoke purposefully slowly, "Maybe if I lose a few pounds then..." I paused for a half second. "I can match Lindsay Chamberlain's speed," I continued thoughtfully with a slow smirk.

Jack gave me a pointed look that just said 'are you serious' and I rolled my eyes.

"Of course I'm going to eat," I muttered out in an exasperated tone. I reached out a hand to him while he happily grinned. Even though he was my boyfriend, he was more so like my mother. He cared about my dietary habits. One time he noticed I wasn't getting enough sleep and insisted on an eight hour sleeping schedule.

Jack really was the best.

He noticed my raised hand and hauled me up gently. I stumbled forward a step, catching my balance, before I smiled. "Know what's good on the menu today?"

Jack pulled out his phone and nodded. He was about to pull up his messages with a quick tap of his thumb on the screen. I took a step, my hands going to his shoulders to peer over them at his phone. "Yeah..." He narrowed his eyes at the screen, trying to decode his best friend's texts since they were a mixture of memes and emoji's. "Chris said that there's hamburgers and..."

There was a loud noise, almost sounding like a gunshot. I perked my ears at that, and looked around the desolate country fields around us. I removed my hands from Jack's shoulders as he began to look around as well. There were a few cows that lifted their heads up from eating the grass.

Even they were disturbed.

We resided in a small town that was in the middle of Florida -- it's mostly flat and farmland. There was a river that connected it to a state park. It wasn't unusual hearing gunshots, especially in the area that we were in.

"It's probably just..." I paused, "Just some country hick shooting..." I muttered, not being able to shake a foreboding feeling that was rising up in my chest. I was trying to convince myself more so than Jack. It might have been normal hunting gunshots, but...that didn't sound like any of the gun shots that I was used to hearing.

It almost sounded like-

"Take proper aim...That's right."

My heart dropped as that woman's voice entered my mind again. Another shot rang out, and Jack pushed me protectively behind him. I stumbled a bit and grabbed his right shoulder with a tight grip. My fingers latched onto his warm sweater.

"What the hell..?" He asked, and collective screams and shouts rang out, causing me to clench his shoulder more tightly. There was a cluster of students as they began to run out of the school. I could see a crowd of them start to run towards the track and field area, where we were.

"Babe. Behind the bleachers. Come on."

He grabbed my arm without looking behind him. I let out a shaky breath I wasn't aware I was holding in – I didn't know what was happening – or why this was happening – and I kept getting small, repressed flashbacks...!

"J-Jack, B-Bella is in there!"

Isabella was my younger fraternal twin.

I couldn't live without her – I couldn't forgive myself if she ever got hurt.

I kept my eye out for her familiar pink cheer sweater within the crowd of scrambling students. My eyes darted from one student to the next, my grip becoming even sterner on Jack with each passing second. I nearly stumbled over my feet as Jack led us to the right where the steel bleachers were.

"Bells...!" I breathed out in a desperate plea.

Jack turned to me with wide eyes as we made it safely behind the bleachers. I let out a shaky breath, and it could be visibly seen in the air as the steam came from my mouth. It was tense for a moment as we stared into each other's eyes. I could hear the rushed and panicked student's footsteps behind us, but for the moment Jack was the only thing I was concentrating on.

Everything was happening in slow motion-

My heart was thumping loudly in my chest-

I wanted to scream and yell at the same time.

A few other shots rang out and my eyes became teary as I embraced him. "Please. Please. Please," I chanted barely above a whisper. He grabbed my cold cheeks with his gloved hands. "B-Bella..." I closed my eyes and started to sniff.

My nose was running, and I could soon hear another group of heavy footsteps. Students were scrambling over each other. I thought I could see two or three of them trying to climb over the chain link fence that enclosed the area from the pasture fields.

"Shh, babe..." He pulled my head into his chest, and I opened my eyes to see another collection of students running away. Some had blood on them, and I couldn't turn my gaze away. Jack started to soothingly run his hand in my hair, and it made me feel only slightly better.

"You're not good enough."

The urge to puke from the building stress was hard to push away.

"J-Jack! Ari!" Chris whispered over to us. He ran behind the bleachers and crept over to where we were. I pulled away from Jack to meet his best friend. "Y-You're safe!" I nodded with watery eyes. I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand. He let out a small pant and wiped the sweat from his face. "Oh, thank god..." Chris breathed out. He kept his voice low. "Jesus. Like...I can't believe – what the fuck is happening!!"

Jack placed a hand in mine with a small smile. It was forced. We were all scared, but he was putting a brave front on for me. He then looked at Chris. "What the hell is going on?" He asked, and Chris shook his head with wide eyes.

"A group of masked men – they -- they just showed up out of nowhere. They have guns. Like..." He paused to think of a word, but his body was trembling too much. I could hear chattering of teeth, and I looked to see Chris' mouth agape slightly. "Guns. Call of Duty guns, man."

My breath hitched in my throat – Isabella.

Where was my sister?

Was she okay??

"Did you see Isabella anywhere?" Jack asked for me. I gave his hand a small squeeze in thanks. I couldn't think of anything except for the safety of my sister.

Chris shook his head, and I sniffed loudly and placed the back of my free hand up to my mouth. I prevented a whimper from escaping. "She went to the bathroom in the middle of class and then everything..." He breathed out. I could see how pale his face had become. "E-Everything just all went to shit." He looked over at me and gave me an apologetic look.

It took him a moment to compose his words. I was scared, too, I couldn't stop trembling. Chris opened his mouth, his bottom lip quivering. "I'm so so sorry, Ari...I-If I s-saw her I could have...I might have been able to-"

A gunshot went off followed by mad, sadistic laughter.

Everyone that was running around us stopped in their tracks. I looked over to the man donned in all black and holding a machine gun.

Chris was right – that was a gun. It was something that was straight out of an action movie, except they weren't the good guys and we were their targets. That, and this wasn't a movie. This was real life this was-

"Take proper aim."

I clenched my eyes shut tightly, desperately trying to remove that haunting voice from my head.

"Everyone to the front where I can see you!" The masked man ordered. I quickly opened my eyes, looking at Jack and Chris with wide eyes. Chris gave Jack a hesitant nod and started to walk out to the field.

I gave Jack an adamant shake of my head, while pulling the hand that I held back. I was silently telling him that we should run – that we shouldn't expose ourselves.

"Babe we gotta do what he says," Jack said emotionlessly. "It's our best chance."

I knew that -- I knew that we had to comply.

He gave me a small pull forward, and I shook my head again.

My feet felt like they were numb – I wish I could move them.

I was so used to running away from my problems – but now I felt terrified and completely frozen. There might have been a time where I would have ran face first head danger, but...

That was a different life.

"I can't move," I whispered out, looking at him with raw panic in my eyes. "I-I can't..."

"I'm right here," Jack lowly said, and I nodded slowly while looking into his eyes. "You're going to be okay – We're going to be okay." He took a step forward and pulled me along. I scrambled to follow after him, and when we were in front of the bleachers there were two masked men now.

They were standing at the front of the track – someplace that used to represent freedom for me was now something that I would never want to stand on again. I doubted that if I survived that I would be able to look at a track the same ever again.

"You two!" The one who spoke before turned towards us. I flinched at the harsh tone the man used. Jack held his head up high at being addressed and gave the gunned man a hardened glare. The man gave a scoff in return.

"Lovebirds, aren't you?" He asked with borderline disgust. He didn't expect a reply from us, and we knew better than to talk back to him. "I don't have time for hormonal teenage bullshit -- get to the front!"

Jack let out a small growl from being ordered around, but did as he was told. I was holding his hand in a death grip the entire time and couldn't breathe. My heart was pounding a mile a minute, but I still couldn't find it in me to let out a breath.

I had exceptional breathing control when I ran, but this was something that you couldn't train for. Something like this was never supposed to happen in a country town like this one.

I was beginning to feel a little dizzy. Jack gave my hand a small squeeze to calm me down and stabilize me. It was something subtle that wouldn't draw further attention to us. I kept my head down, not wanting to look up at the masked men.

"We're going to collect a small sum of you," the man spoke, and shivers went through my body. I found it difficult to keep standing after hearing that kind of information, but kept it together. I had to keep it together. "We're only going to pick the strongest out of the group. Rest assured, the other men are in different sections of the school doing the same thing." The man let out a chuckle and raised his arms to his sides dramatically. "Rest assured, no one's getting left out of the selecting process!"

"What do you want with us?!" Asked Bryce. My eyes widened and my head turned stiffly to where he was standing. Jack let out a quiet scoff, while shaking his head in disappointment.

Bryce was a classmate of ours for the past couple of years, we had known him since he transferred to our school in the eighth grade.

He was from California and was pretty outspoken.

It seems not even in a hostage situation like this one did he find it in himself to keep his stupid mouth closed.

The man strode over to the group of students, Jack and I took a step back to let him through. The rest of the students did the same until Bryce was left standing by himself. He wore a hateful glare on his face, but his hands were trembling.

This was a situation that was above him.

He should have just kept quiet -- please, God...why didn't he just stay quiet?

"What is that stupid idiot doing...?" Jack whispered, shaking his head again.

The man with was staring down at the dirty blonde haired kid. There was an intense stare down before the man hit Bryce with the butt of his gun that was strapped around his shoulders. I flinched and turned my face away from them while burying it into Jack's chest.

I caught a glance at the odd and bent way that Bryce's nose had deformed to – and the blood that gushed from his nose was a good indicator that it was most likely broken.

"W-Why...?" I whispered, tears wanting to fall down again.

Why was this happening?

I did my best to muffle my quiet sobs with my free hand. The man glared at each and every one of us. I did my best to not look at him. I was desperate to not bring attention to myself – but my trembling wouldn't stop. My fear just wouldn't go away no matter how many times I tried to calm myself down.

Jack stared directly at the man and that made me nervous even more.

Jack...!

The man turned around when he reached back to the front. Jack was lucky that the man didn't want a confrontation with him. My eyes couldn't help but wander to the other man. He was eerily silent and hadn't even moved from his spot once.

"What do I want with all of you?" The man reiterated what Bryce asked. I wanted to look at Bryce to see how he was doing but didn't want to chance catching the man's attention myself. He let out a sick, terrifying laughter.

I flinched again as chills swept through me.

This couldn't be real.

"I want to sell you all and collect what you're worth."

This had to be a nightmare and I would just wake up.

"We're going to be human trafficked!"

Wake up, Ari!

"T-This can't be happening!"

A collection of murmurs and panicked whispers erupted all around us. The man smirked while the other masked man stayed a few steps behind him. He was now turning his head silently, eyeing each and every one of us carefully.

Because Jack and I were in the front, he looked at the two of us. He first looked at me, then changed his gaze over to Jack. I stilled and then let out a small, barely noticeable exhale. Then, his eyes swept back to mine – they lingered on me.

I quickly turned my head away and looked at the ground.

I could still feel his eyes digging into me.

I tried to make myself even more non-existent -- I felt that if I did that then he would leave me alone. If his attention was directed towards someone else that might challenge him, then he would leave Jack, Chris and I alone.

It was the best way of getting out alive.

"Listen up!" The man yelled, causing all of us to become silent again. My eyes flickered over towards the man that had been speaking the entire time. "I'm going to be looking at the back first and make my way to the front," he informed us. "My buddy Aidan over here will be watching you all to make sure you won't try anything stupid!" He began to walk through the crowd and it parted for him slowly. We all didn't want to start any trouble by bumping into the man.

"Word of advice: don't do anything stupid."

It was eerily quiet and I chanced a look at the other man – Aidan. I couldn't see any defining physical characteristics because of his disguise. He was in an all-black suit with silver pieces of plated armor along his body.

Even if someone

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