“I need to think” he said to Jake’s parents who were now on their knees, leaning around him. With that he stood up and walked calmly and collectively away from Jake’s house.
He walked to wherever his feet would take him, all the while running over recent experiences in his head. Over and over again the memories rolled around and around whirling repetitively around his head. He remembered details which he had forgotten and tried his very best to piece everything together in the right order to develop his understanding of his life and the lives of those around him. There were so many thoughts, feelings, emotions and questions flying through his brain. “Why is this happening to me?”, “What have I done to deserve this?”, “Why has Jake ran off?”, “Where is Jake?”, “Is he ok?”, “God i hope he’s ok”, “I don’t know what I’d do without him”. The thoughts were endless. He was so deep in his own thoughts that he was completely unable to concentrate on where he was going or what he was doing. People stared quizzically at him as he charged blindly past them on the street but he didn’t notice, it was all happening so fast. He stopped. Suddenly and randomly out of nowhere a thought occurred to him.
“The abandoned farm, I bet he’s gone to the abandoned farm”.
Just outside of the town where Daniel and Jake lived, there was an old abandoned farm. The two boys used to sneak away sometimes after school or in the summer holidays to the farm and mess around like kids do. They had shared many great times there through childhood and through their early teenage years whether it be playing gun fights or chasing each other around, or as they got older just going and chatting about things. It was always looked upon by both of them as a place where they could escape to, where they could get away from the madness and the rush of the town. It was quiet, peaceful and tranquil. Every time either of them felt like they needed some time alone, or they wanted to spend time with each other, they would always got to this secret, hidden, out of the way place which seemed to hold some kind of mystical heeling power for them.
With that thought, Daniel spun instantly on his left foot to face the opposite direction. He couldn’t be sure that Jake would be there but it was his best bet, so he began to jog gently in the direction of the farm. He jogged back down the same street, retracing his footsteps. He was determined now that he had to find his best friend, had to know that he was safe and that no harm had come to him. The very thought of anything happening to Jake made his skin crawl. His jog turned into a slow run and the pace kept increasing as he got closer to the junction leading to the main exit road of town. He could see the road now; it wasn’t far to the edge of town. He reached the junction and ran straight around the corner onto the main road out of town. The farm was not far from where he was now and he could almost hear Jakes voice calling to him as he got ever nearer to his destination. He continued to sprint, he was tired and out of breath but he couldn’t stop now, he was nearly there. A familiar sight appeared around the long bend in the road. He saw the barn where he had spent so many hours of his short life. He was almost there now and so started to slow down a little to try and catch his breath a little. He reached the barn and collapsed against a wall. Slowly his breath came back and he could breath again. As soon as he could, he moved on in his quest without hesitation.
“Jake!” he yelled out at the top of his voice. “Jake buddy are you here?”
There was no reply. Daniel walked slowly towards the enormous, heavy, brown, wooden barn door and began to push it open. The door opened with a deafening squeak. Daniel entered the barn and the heavy door forced itself shut behind him. It was gloomy and musky in the big, empty, old abandoned barn. Daniel glanced around searching for any sign of life. There was none. The barn was definitely empty. He turned around to leave the barn and look elsewhere. He searched the door with his hands. To his horror, there was no handle of any kind on the inside of the heavy barn door. His heart began to race as he tried desperately to find a way of getting out. He pushed against the door with all his might but it wouldn’t budge. He was trapped.
“Help!” he cried out.
There was no response.
“Help, please I’m trapped in the barn! … Is there anybody there?”.
Nothing.
There was nothing he could do. He was stuck. He figured he would just have to wait and pray that somebody would come looking for him. The problem was, he was on an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere. As far as Daniel knew, there was only one person other than himself who knew that the place existed. Jake. Daniels chances of escaping depended solely upon the very person who was the reason for Daniel being in the situation in the first place. It looked bleak.
The light started to fade as night fell over the abandoned farm. It was quiet and peaceful, and usually Daniel would have relished the peace. This time though, peace was the last thing he wanted. He was scared, he was cold and he was alone. He longed for someone to find him, someone to be with him, to hold him and to comfort him. He longed for Jake. He began to shake uncontrollably as the temperature dropped. He decided that he should get up and search the big empty barn for some way of keeping warm. He slowly struggled to his feet and began to glance around. The barn was empty apart from an old rusty tractor in the far left hand corner and some bales of straw behind it. He knew the straw would be itchy and uncomfortable but he didn’t care, he had to find some way of keeping warm. He walked over to the bales and began ripping them apart. He led down on top of one of the bales and grabbed hand full after hand full of the straw and pulled it over himself. After about 10 minutes of doing this, he was feeling much warmer due to the exercise and was sure that the straw would keep him warm enough to survive the night. All that was left to do for Daniel now was wait.
***
Morning.
Daniel woke up with sunlight pouring through the many cracks in the walls of the old run down barn, onto his cold, numb face. He was itchy all over from the straw and in places, his body bled from where particularly sharp, hard pieces of straw had been digging into his delicate white skin. His body ached all over and he was in pain. He struggled to his feet making bits of straw fly everywhere, tumbling like a waterfall off of his fragile body. He stumbled carelessly back across to the big wooden doors, hoping and praying that in the daylight, he would be able to find some way of escaping his prison. There was no handle on the huge wooden door, and no way of getting out. He tried everything he could, he pushed, pulled, rammed, tugged and battered but it was no good. He was definitely trapped. He felt completely hopeless. “Oh why do these things always happen to me” he thought as he fell to the floor and began to cry into his hands.