In His Refuge

Chapter 7: The Sheriff

"Ma'am, the flight has landed" 

Ellie groaned as she was lightly shaken awake by the flight attendant leaning over her with a red-lipped smile. Ellie felt very disoriented after a six hour long flight but regardless, she nodded her head at the attendant, unable to form words at the moment.

She then gathered her things, which was basically only her handbag before getting up and following the attendant towards the exit door.

"Thank you" Ellie said with a small smile to the flight attendant which she returned before Ellie got off the plane.

Ellie noticed that her luggage was already placed outside by the other male attendant.

She got down from the final stairs and walked towards her luggage, grabbing the handle of the big suitcase. 

She looked around and her anxiety kicked in seeing the unfamiliar surroundings. She turned back around to look at the plane and was met the sight of the engines kicking in as the plane raced forward to take off, almost deafening her in the process.

She wasn't at an airport as she'd thought she would be, instead she was stranded in the middle of god knows where in a new state that she knew nothing about. The reality of the screwed up situation was setting in her and it made her eyes glassy with tears as she looked around yet again.

She didn't see anyone there to pick her up and it was still dark out.

She did however see a station type thing of sorts in front of her, a few steps away in the distance. 

She started walking towards that station, blinking her eyes again and to get rid of the tears that had gathered. She felt so alone.

Once she reached that station, she pushed the door open entered.

Inside, she was relieved to see a uniformed officer sitting behind a desk and even though he was sleeping, with his hat on his face, still, it was a consolation for Ellie to see another human being in this stranded place.

Ellie approached the desk and hesitated before tapping on the desk in an attempt to wake the officer up.

It didn't seem to work so she tried again a couple of times before deciding to call him out.

"Excuse, officer" Ellie said loud enough for the officer to stir and just as Ellie thought she was going to wake him up he grumbled a few words and went back to sleep, it made Ellie pout in frustration.

The man slept like the dead.

Ellie went around the desk and shook him awake from his shoulder.

"Jeez, who is it?" The officer finally took off the hat from his face and looked at Ellie with a distasteful grimace on his face.

"Umm... I was told to look for Beau Bennet, do you know where to find him?" Ellie asked.

"Damn, you Amelia Maslow, kid?" The officer asked, getting himself together and getting up from the chair.

"Umm.. yea" Ellie replied, trying to get used to her new temporary name.

"Right, I am Beau Bennet, I'll be taking you to the safe house" Beau was tall and in his fifties by the looks of it with a white mustache and wrinkles around his eyes that gave him a naturally smiley face.

Ellie let out a small sigh of relief knowing that she found the person she was suppose to meet.

"I had been waiting for quite a while, sorry I fell asleep" Beau said, he was expecting Amelia Maslow to be a little older or at least a little more mature but this girl in front of him looked like a Bambi.

Who would want to hurt a wee thing like her so  much so that she had to be put under witness protection program?

"You have no idea how relieved I am to find you, this is my first time coming to Cali that too, to a strange town and strange place, it's like I am in the middle of nowhere" Ellie said and the officer gave her a kind smile.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to your designated safe house, come on" Beau said leading the way out, dragging Ellie's suitcase behind him on wheels while Ellie followed suite.

In no time they were in front of a a police car.

Ellie noticed that she'd been riding in the back of police cars a lot lately, even though she isn't a criminal of any kind, far from it.

Riding in the police car might have stemmed cool to Ellie as a child but at the moment, she never wanted to see the interior of a police car ever again.

Ellie got in while Beau loaded her luggage in the car before getting and kicking in the engine as he pulled off the curb.

"So I should probably let you know that I am the Sheriff here in the town of**, have been for about over 13 years now" Beau stated as a conversation starter with the nervous looking girl.

"Oh, that's very nice" Ellie said, finally noticing his Sheriff badge from the rear view mirror.

"I guess I can't really ask much about you and even if I do, I know you are not permitted to let me know anything about you" Beau said making Ellie sigh.

"That's true, it sucks, I can't even use my real name. Things I have to do just to stay alive" Ellie replied making Beau chuckle at the way she pouted.

There was comfortable silence for a while after that as Ellie admired the scenery. The sun was rising and Ellie noticed the it was 5 in the morning on the digital watch display that the car had on its dash board.

There was also quite a lot of greenery around the area which made the sunrise even more beautiful. 

Living in New York, with the kind of hectic, work, work, work, schedule Ellie had, it had been a long while since she stopped in her fast life to actually admire the sun rise or the sun set for that matter.

"So how much longer? And this safe house, whose is it?" Ellie asked, she prayed that it was a girl.

"Not long just a few more minutes lass and you'll be staying at Jason Parker's house with him, it's a very nice place and don't worry he is a trustworthy man, he will also be able to protect you in case you needed since he is an Ex-Marine Seal, you have nothing to worry about with him lass" Beau told her.

"Oh" was all Ellie could say.