Anna's Run

By S.A. Murray

Nightmare quickly turns to reality as Anna Ravelle faces an investigation from Social Services gone wrong after a series of false reports places her children in jeopardy. Labelled a kidnapper, Anna leads authorities on a run across the country as she fights to save her children from being apprehended and thrust into a corrupt network of children being sold across the country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S.A. Murray
• Release date: Dec 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301319046

S.A. Murray

Growing up in the greater Toronto area Sarah began writing her own books as a child, designing her own covers, creating her own artwork and developing characters that repeated themselves through book after book. By high school she set out on a more serious journey towards a lifetime commitment to the written word and a determination to become a published author. Her love of books and imagination paving the way towards the creation of worlds far beyond our own. A lover of all things fantasy, a devotion to nature, the Earth, and Animals brought her from an urban upbringing to a rural life. Sarah spends her days enjoying living in the country with her four sons, enjoying fresh air and the outdoors as much as possible. She makes a living working as a trail guide, talking to horses, and passing her love and understanding of them on to other people. All of her writing takes place in the wee hours of the morning when all else in the world lays quiet save for the creations of ones private imagination.

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Anna’s Run

S.A. Murray

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 S.A. Murray

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One

No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get that taste out of my mouth. Taking another slow sip of water I swished it around in my mouth trying to rinse away the bitter copper taste of blood from where I’d bit down on my lip. It always somehow ended like this. It was always one close call after another with someone eyeing me down just long enough to set my adrenalin pumping and my blood rushing through my veins loud enough to send a dull roar ringing through my ears. The man in the diner had been nice enough when he’d sat down at the counter beside us but it was the way he had started asking questions about where I was traveling that set the alarm bells ringing. Whether or not it had been anything to truly be concerned about or not was completely irrelevant. I started out on this path with the same comment to everyone when asked if I was going to far. I’d rather over react then under react and regret it later. It was my kids for Christ sake.

Letting the water run longer just so I could hear the sound of the water rushing through the taps and into the sink I looked at myself in the mirror as I supported myself with my hands leaning on the counter. No one would have recognized me. My eyes were sunken with deep dark circles underneath and the pale almost papery tone to my skin was but a shadow of the former clear porcelain tone it had been before. I wanted to stop running. I let out a deep sob and quickly choked it back ducking my face into my hands, which were once more filled with cold water, to splash away any tremor of emotion that might try to escape. Twisting the faucet shut tight I looked at the off white towel hanging from the back of the bathroom door and instead wiped my hands on my pants and my face off on my shirt. The towels might not look too great but at least the beds were clean for once. To many hotels in too few nights these days and the traveling was starting to take its toll on all of us. Flicking the light off I peeked in on the kids as they lay curled up peacefully together in one of the two double beds. The stress of the current situation that left them for the most part unaffected troubled none of them as they slept soundly. I for the most part lacked the ability to sleep any longer. I continued with the story of what an adventure we were on keeping the seriousness of the situation from them as best I could. Everyday was a safari to see something new and exciting to them. Occasionally they would ask about home, their friends and school. I really had no answer beyond to divert them with the grandness of the next destination. My oldest Nick was getting to be a bit too smart to be put aside by that kind of response. He was nine after all and not one to be put aside from what he really wanted. He wanted simpler things. His old room, with its video games and computer were more appealing then this disjointed inconsistent hop about the country with no clear answers. They had lived a more then comfortable life in the old house there was no question in that.

I sank onto the couch at the end of the room and tilted my head back looking up at the ceiling for a moment before closing my eyes. The events of the day passing through my mind like a silent movie on a reel. It hadn’t really been in my plans to stop so soon after the last town but the kids were tired and hungry. I can’t say that I blame them considering the kind of shape I was in myself. I thought a quick bite to eat and maybe some time out of the car for once would be good for all of us and so when I happened to find a restaurant with a park beside it, it seemed a more then logical place to stop for a break. It was heart breaking to watch them sometimes, making friends in an instant only to leave again in the next. They had the ability as almost all children seem to have of being able to make friends on the spot with nearly anyone their own age. I had always wondered at what point we seem to grow out of it as we become adults. Seems a shame to lose something so simple as the ability to just get along. Perhaps a loss of trust was what it came down to. I know for me that’s exactly what it was. With all the moving along there’s no way I could afford to let anyone in, it just wasn’t safe.

Leaving Nick in charge of his brother I took the youngest of the three who was less than two years old into the diner with me to pick up an order of food to bring back to the picnic tables. There was no line up at the counter so I made my order quick then placed William on one of the old fashioned swivel stools next to me so I could spin him around while we waited and watched the others through the window. My back had been turned towards the entrance but I heard the chime on the door and the slow deliberate footsteps as they approached the counter behind me. I continued to play with William as he giggled and spun pulling a napkin over his head and face, but my eyes and all my attention and focus was now on the reflection in the window of the man standing behind me. He had seemed nice when we spoke that much was true but he seemed too disinterested in what was on the menu. He had stood behind me for what must have been a mere moment before the waitress came to ask for his order but the fact that his attention had first and foremost been on me was enough to tip me off. His initial surprise at being addressed was probably not even noticeable to any casual observer but I caught it immediately in his quick glance across the menu without reading the items listed and his easy smile as he finally just settled on coffee.

If ever there was one thing I wasn’t comfortable with it was unwarranted attention from strangers but worse still was when they were sitting directly behind me. As he seated himself on the stool beside mine I scooped up William and set him on my lap handing him a coffee stir stick while I kept my eyes out to the park and scanned the benches and parking lot for any other adults that seemed out of place. The stranger had proceeded to try and make small talk but was asking to many questions I didn’t like. As soon as our food was ready I snapped it up and got the hell out of there. I had to gather the kids up quickly which was even more difficult because I had told them they could play but I was too scared to stick around anymore. The feeling of being watched whether real or imagined was pushing me over the edge. I had cursed myself violently in my mind as I realized how stupid I had been as to let the kids out of my reach. It was the one rule we’d had as a family since all of this began months earlier. Never ever split up. If we stuck together then it would be harder for anyone to get the jump on us. Still I knew it was something we couldn’t keep up forever and the fact that it could have been anyone who sat down beside me earlier that day terrified me. The fact that I had gotten lucky and nobody had been in the park waiting to take the kids was a relief but at the same time it tore me to shreds as the reality hit home that this was the kind of fear I had been living with. The fact of the matter was, every day my fear grew stronger as I knew they were searching for us. They were searching for me and somehow I had become a fugitive.

I rolled over onto my side and curled up under the small blanket looking at the blank TV screen without bothering to turn it on. I longed for my bed. For relaxation, days spent in the back yard, dinners spent in the kitchen, movies in the living room, being together, friends popping by to visit, but most of all I just missed our life. It wasn’t ours anymore and I didn’t know how it ever could be again. Hell I couldn’t even figure out how it had gotten so far out of control when there had been nothing wrong in the first place. On the outside, most often, I think I felt numb and I put on a good cover when I needed too. I felt guilty for the fact that I didn’t have as much to give the kids anymore emotionally because I was so drained. The numbness was something I was thankful for because the reality was the minute I let myself begin to feel it was nothing but an agonizing pit of despair that stretched so far within me it threatened to swallow me whole. The darkest corners of my mind and heart had taken over long ago and the only thing that kept me going any longer was fear and some sort of ongoing will to survive. An instinctual panic mode to protect my children was what kept us moving from day to day while the powers that be continued to make use of all the means they had available to find us.

There had been a mass email circulated the day I left that I happened to catch wind of through an old friend. Someone had put together a police report saying there were three missing children, from our area, which included all our info. If that wasn’t bad enough it continued on with a description of the possible abductor along with her description and the vehicle she had been driving at the time. Of course they left out the pertinent information that the abductor, being me, was actually the children’s mother. There had been no mention of anything other than missing kids and a kidnapper and a request to keep the email circulating and forwarding it on to everyone you could. It had even been posted up at local convenience and grocery stores.

It was further confirmation that I’d made the right move though. Really if the social workers had nothing planned then how would they have known so quickly when the kids didn’t show up for school? And how could they have known that I was gone? The fact of the matter was that there’s nothing abnormal about a parent taking their children away to a cottage or something for the weekend and yet somehow there had been an order out for my arrest by that very night. It was obvious looking back what they were up to and I praise whatever gods are above that I moved before they did. The fact that they had nothing to go off of beyond ridiculous statements was nothing to them apparently. I can’t blame the people around me for thinking I had gone overboard and was being paranoid or for thinking something else was going on, when the reality is had I not been living the situation myself I never would have believed it possible. I never knew the extent of the corruption that lay beneath the surface on so many counts until I was finding myself face to face with it and no escape was available. Well no escape save the path I’d chosen and even then it was going to be an interesting ride to see how that turned out.

The soft whoosh of the occasional car going by on the highway and the gentle sound of the kids breathing was familiar even though it was a new place. Like the slow steady ticking of the clock on the end table they were sounds common to all the hotels we had been staying in and they were slowly becoming the sounds of home. It was an odd pattern of moving, as we never set much of a record pace no matter where we had been going. I had originally wanted to get the hell out of the country but I didn’t have time to get passports together and by now getting through any sort of customs was next to impossible. Or maybe it was possible who really knows but the fact of the matter was I didn’t have the guts to try it.

The first move had been up to Thunder Bay to my brother’s house. It was so far north I figured nobody would find us there but the problem was it was predictable. I knew it would take them a while to figure out who my family was and where they were so I could definitely head up there, but even had we been welcome to stay I knew it wasn’t going to be a possibility. It was quite a hike from Toronto indeed, especially given the wandering route we had taken to keep from being found and the fact that none of us were used to traveling very often so it led to frequent stops to keep us from losing our minds.

I shifted my weight trying to find a comfortable angle to lounge but ended up giving up and sitting back up again with my feet on the floor. With a sigh I leaned forward and with my elbows on my knees put my head down and locked my fingers into the back of my hair. It always seemed to bloody quiet at night. The day time to loud and rushed and yet the night was something unsettling in a different way. The thoughts running through my head suddenly became loud enough that they couldn’t be blocked out with any other distractions. I lifted my head and spotted the rotary dial phone contemplating picking it up and dialing. Who is there that’s even worth calling at this point? I already knew I couldn’t risk using the phone regardless of whether I had anyone to call or not. I had a cell phone that an old friend had ghosted off of someone else’s line. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it gave me access to a phone when I needed it and so long as I didn’t run the minutes up no one would be the wiser. It also made it impossible for anyone to track me by looking at the old cell phone service. It was more or less just the attraction to being able to do something thoughtlessly simple like using a regular phone again that was interesting. I never thought there’d be a day in my life where something like that could be risky. Unconsciously I sat flipping my own cell open and shut in my left hand listening to the quiet flip and click as I did so while I absently chewed on the nails of my right hand as I drifted in thought.

When I’d had enough I finally shook my head clear as if coming awake from a dream and quickly stuffed the phone into my back pocket. I got up and checked on the kids once more to make sure they were all asleep and then carefully slipped out the front door onto the sidewalk for some fresh air. I breathed in deep as the sharp smell of winter hit my nostrils reminding me that the snow wouldn’t be too far off. Another simple part of life that I used to take in stride was looming ahead as a new obstacle. Winter would make traveling slower, riskier and more difficult. I was not looking forward to it this year. The gravel crunched loudly beneath my feet as I walked to the car that I’d parked directly in front of our doorway to see if I could scrounge up a smoke. I had never been a big smoker but when I was stressed out I was a big fan of escapism. Since having kids and especially given the situation, drugs and alcohol were out so cigarettes were what I had to settle for. I shuffled through the glove box and then down