Ride on (freewrite)

They're hiding in the grapevine and they hope no one will hear. They're crouching, almost, because they thought they saw somebody coming earlier and they wouldn't want to risk it, they wouldn't want to be found, not now, not when they're so close to freedom. They can practically feel it.
No, that's an understatement they felt it that first moment, standing on the porch of their uncle's house, feeling the breeze run over their cracked skin. And as they stood there, feeling the air fill their every pore, caress all their loss and worry, they swore they would never be bound again.
They know they should be moving soon, but they can't seem to agree. The older boy thinks they should run far and away, so that their uncle never gets to hurt them again, while the smaller boy thinks they should stay where they are, that nobody will think to look for them so close to home.
They're hiding in plain sight, he keeps telling his cousin, but the older boy doesn't seem to hear. The air has turned him mad and now the words are all a-jumble through his head. And it hurts to think. He's been strong for so long, he doesn't feel like he can be strong anymore.
The small boy looks up at his cousin, his brother, his tome of existence and sighs. He's always been the weaker of the two. The small boy squats down low and gets under the leaves, that way, nobody can see him, at least not at a quick glance and he has a feeling nobody's gonna check thoroughly. Not when there's two kids on the loose.
Their uncle's gonna go berserk, thinking they've run away, somewhere far, maybe to the cops. Their uncle knows they'd have plenty of reason to go to the cops, and that he's got plenty to lose, if that happens, so the younger boy, whose name is Eric, thought no one calls him that, think he isn't gonna waste much time checking under the grapevine.
Whoever heard of that?
But the older boy, whose name becomes matterless in only a few seconds, doesn't get under the grapevine. He doesn't get to safety while he can and when he sees that his cousin has disappeared, he panics. He never saw Eric crawl under the grapevine, or at least he doesn't think, and so the older nameless boy begins to run. He's going to go far and get away, it's each on his own, now. Each on his own.

The older boy never had it in him, maybe because terror has a way of sticking as you get older, it gets harder to shelf it atop a high mountain in your mind. So, he never quite got over that. So, the older boy runs and that proves his downfall.
But no, let's not say he got...caught, not by his uncle, because that would be too cruel, even for us. No, the boys' uncle is away, for now, and he shall stay away for a very long time. But the older boy, he runs out of the field, as he sees an oncoming car, thinking to stop it, to maybe make the driver go back and look for his cousin.
But he never gets to convey that message, for the driver speeds through him, blowing him up to bits and putting an end to his short lived freedom.
Buh-bye, kid.

Eric watches from under the grapevine as the shoes come closer, the sounds growing louder in his head. The man whistles as he goes and Eric knows this man is not his uncle. He knows it by the shoes. He's spent a good long time polishing his uncle's shoes.
'You better come out now,' the man says, 'I ain't gonna hurt you.'
And Eric makes his way out, not because he trusts the man, but because he knows he doesn't have much choice. He looks up at the tall, broad-shouldered guy standing with his back to him, white shirt and short cropped hair, staring off into the sun.
'Who are you?' Eric's voice rings loud and clear, louder than it has in months. His uncle was never one to stomach disobedience. And a loud voice is a most clear sign of disobedience, as the boys well knew.
And the stranger turns to look at the boy.
The stranger is eyeless, Eric sees. However, that is not to say that he is blind, simply that there are large black holes where the man's eyes should be. And yet, somehow, he appears to see Eric clearly.
He seems to study him for a long time.
'I'm your future, kid,' he says and flashes a milky-white grin, 'we're gonna go far, you and me.'

As he gets into the stranger's car, Eric sees nothing. If he'd looked closer, he would've seen the bloodstains still on the front of the man's car, but he does not.

Today's prompt was 'grapevine'. Check out @mariannewest if you would like to join our freewriting community.

Thank you for reading,