"Mark stop stealing my pudding!" Jackson whined, watching as Mark put the spoon in his mouth. "______________, go buy your boyfriend some before he eats all of mine!"
"Sorry," I put my hands up, sitting back on my seat, "he's all your's right now. I gotta go give the lab results to Aron."
Peniel tapped his fork onto the edge of his bowl, "That kid better cite all his articles in the report this time. He forgot to put some of his stuff in the bibliography last time."
"We still got an A on that report though," Jackson pointed out, taking a big spoonful of his pudding with his back facing Mark.
"Hey, at least it's better than my lab group," Mark sighed out, admitting defeat by throwing his spoon into the nearest garbage can. "All they do is talk about what they're gonna do over the weekend and ask me about my relationship."

So typical.
I should've known Haylie was going to go all stalker mode on Mark.
Ever since he flat out told her that he had friend zoned her, she's been giving me glares from the side every time I see her.
Like girl...chill out.

"Ohhhhh you got competition," Jackson nudged my arm. I rolled my eyes, picking up the lab packet on the table, "Dude, there's no competition if I already won."
I walked away with my bag slung over my shoulder before I could see their reactions. All I heard was Mark laughing in the background, and honestly, that was all I really needed to hear.

"Here you go," I handed the packet over to Aron, who took it from me with a smile. Even though he looked pretty happy, I had no idea if he actually was. I mean, the day after the Haunting incident, I explained and clarified everything to him. I expected like a least a little bit of bitterness from him, but he only gave me a smile and told me it was okay. I want to believe that he actually is okay, but sometimes, his smile looks seriously forced when he's around me.

"Can you read all of it?" I asked, watching him flip through the pages.
"Yeah," he nodded, tucking it into the folder he held in his hand, "everything looks fine. I guess after an entire semester, I learned how to decipher some of the handwriting in here haha."
"Sorry. We were figuring out the math part at like 2 in the morning. Writing legibly was a bit of a struggle."
Aron let out a small laugh, "It's fine. I can read it don't worry. Thanks for doing the hard part though. I'm gonna go and get started on what's left." He waved then disappeared into the building.
I watched his head bob away from the window in the door, not noticing that Mark had magically appeared behind me at the bottom of the steps leading to the front door.

"Whoa," I ran down to meet him, running my hand through his hair, "why is your hair kinda wet?"
"Cause.....I.....just....sprinted.....all the way....here," he panted, reaching his hands out to steady himself with my shoulders. His chest heaved up and down as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Why'd you run all the way here?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, feeling a sense of urgency and nervousness rise in my chest. Something was going on.
Mark finally stood up straight, his hands still firmly locked on my shoulders. When our eyes made contact, a shiver went down my spine.
I've never seen them look like that before, swimming with fear and concern.

"What the hell is going on Mark?"
"You need to get off campus right now," he spun me around and started pushing me in the direction of the nearest subway entrance. I stumbled forward a couple steps before stopping and turning to face him.
"Why? Mark you're not making any sense. What the hell is going-"

My sentence trailed off as Jackson and Peniel ran past me, both of them stopping next to Mark.
"He's by the Alma Mater, but I would move fast. He could be coming here next," Peniel said. Jackson nodded beside him. I've never seen the two of them look that scared before in their lives.
And then it hit me.

There was only one person who could make Mark this terrified and force him to rush me off campus.

"My dad," I whispered, feeling an overwhelming sense of fear rush over me. "It's my dad isn't it? He's here on campus isn't he?"
The three of them stopped whispering to each other, all of their attention fixed onto me. Mark stepped past Jackson and Peniel, pulling me into a tight hug as if he was trying to shield me from the memories with his arms.
"______________, it's going to be ok. We're gonna get you out of here before he even sees you ok? Just....trust me."

"You two better move your asses then," Jackson looked up from his phone, his eyebrows furrowed with concern. "I just got a text from Eric and he's headed this way right now."
"," Mark cussed under his breath, reaching down to take my hand into his, "but the nearest subway entrance is in the direction he's coming from."
"Then take the one on that corner," Peniel pointed in the opposite direction. "It's not going to take you super close to your apartment but close enough."

Mark nodded then started running, pulling me along by my hand.
I have no idea what was even keeping my legs from collapsing in on themselves. Adrenaline? Fear?
It didn't matter.
Cause all I could actually focus on right now was getting myself as far away as possible from Columbia's campus.

"Everything's gonna be ok," Mark said, his grip on my hand tightening as we ran into the train. "I won't let him hurt you."
"He's dangerous Mark. And the guy's probably drunk or high or something. Please don't try anything heroic. I'd rather you just run with me until he leaves."
"But I made a promise didn't I?"

I couldn't even argue with him there.
Mark was the type of person to swear his life to a promise. He never broke one. And I guess it's a good thing but in this case, I wasn't so sure.
I didn't want anyone to have to fight my battles for me. I don't want to be that helpless princess figure in the stories that always gets herself rescued by other people rather than getting off her lazy and actually trying to save herself.
But when it came to my dad, everything was different.
Everything was hard to do. Even breathing.

We quickly made our way back to our apartment. The second after we burst through the door, Mark slammed it shut and locked it. I finally let my legs go and collapsed onto the floor.
"He's not going to find you here," Mark sat behind me, taking me into his arms. I leaned back into his chest, closing my eyes and feeling my pulse pound in my ears. It wasn't going down any time soon.
"Mark, do me a favor," I mumbled out, feeling his chest vibrate as he responded. "If things start getting crazy, promise me that you won't try anything that would make me hate you forever."
He chuckled, tightening his back hug, "What would that include? You know...just so I don't accidentally do it."
"You figure it out."

I feel like he was going to reply but he got cut off by his phone vibrating against his thigh. He pulled it out of his pocket, and swiped the front screen to pick up the call.
"Hello?"
"He left Columbia," Henry's voice came from the other side.
"You sure?"
"Positive. We all saw him get on a subway literally 3 minutes ago."

A sudden, paralyzing sense of fear shook my entire body.
He got on a subway.
The only reason why he would do that is if...

"He's going after my mom."

Author's Note
chapter title: Runaway-Kara [x]
things are starting to pick up from here guys! :D thanks for sticking with me through the back story parts haha xD sorry if they were a little on the boring side.
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