I nod. “Yeah. My husband runs this hell hole. I’d spent a long time in an abusive relationship with him until I ran away, that’s how I met Dean. The car crash was my husband’s fault. I thought I could run from my demons, but it turns out they were a lotquicker than me.”
My throat tightens at the memories of the crash. The screeching metal that reverberates around my head on a daily basis as I smashed into the barrier.
Stepping out of the small coffee shop, the summer sun low over the horizon, I bring Ellie in for a hug, her familiar floral scent invading my senses.
“I’m so glad to see you’re alive, and happy too!” She says, her face so full of love.
“Me too. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” I say into her flame hair and she squeezes me tightly. “Don’t be silly. You don’t owe me any answers. It’s in the past now and you’re here, alive, and that’s what matters.”
I nod before pulling back and grabbing my phone from my back pocket, noticing a text from Dean to let me know that he’s already on his way back from work. A smile passes across my face before I slip my phone back into my pocket. I’ll send him a text once I get in the car.
“I better go. Jake’s taking me out for dinner. Please let me know when you’re home, yeah?” Ellie says with her keys in her hand.
“Yeah. I’ll let you know.”
Giving her one last hug, I walk across the quiet road to where I parked my car and slip in behind the wheel to let Dean know that I’m on my way home. Once the text is sent, I place the phone into the centre console, buckle myself in and head out.
The roads are pretty silent at this time with the odd car cruising along the quaint streets until a larger vehicle pulls up right behind me, its headlights blinding in the rearview mirror. I try to swerve to the side to let the driver go but they stay put behind me, almost bumper to bumper. I’m driving a littlebit over the speed limit so it’s not as if I’m holding them up, so what’s their deal?
Turning the wheel slightly, I pull further to the side to see if they will pass, and again, they don’t, which immediately has my anxiety on high alert, causing me to grip the steering wheel tightly.
Pressing down on the accelerator, I decide to speed up a little bit to see if I can lose them, then swiftly turn down a street that takes me onto the highway. I haven’t driven this way before but at least it’s a longer stretch of road that I can hopefully use to put some distance between us. The rough streets quickly turn into smooth tarmac as I join onto the highway, as soon as I’m safely into a lane, I push my foot down further, hearing the Chevy’s engine roar to life as I speed down the smooth road.
The metal barriers and treelines whip past in a blur with no sign of the blinding headlights behind me. Maybe they were just lost? I keep my hands firmly on the wheel when a harsh light blinds me from the rearview mirror, causing me to squint my eyes from the intrusion and I pull into another lane, quickly overtaking another car.
My stomach coils tightly with anxiety as the large vehicle rapidly finds its position behind me again, this time even closer than before to the point where I’m being nudged up the road. Panic and fear strangle my lungs and I pull into the closest lane near the metal barriers, my knuckles painfully sore from gripping onto the wheel, fearing for my life. I try to keep my eyes on the road and the mirrors at the same time to watch the vehicle follow me into the lane that we’re now both sharing.
There’s no way of me losing this vehicle without causing a crash, and this stretch of road seems to be going on forever.
Did I tell Dean that I loved him? I can’t remember.
I hope he knows how much I love him because I know deep in my gut that my demons have finally caught up with me. No one else knows that I’m living here, that I ran away from my husband, and now he’s here for me. I knew the dream of me and Dean would swiftly come to an end, almost too good to be true even. But, if this is the end, I’ll die happy, knowing that I had those few short months with him and that’s more than I could ever ask for.
Releasing one of my hands from the wheel, I quickly grab my phone and type a message to Dean. He needs to know that Ricky has found me. That I didn’t die for nothing. I press send on the phone but it slips from my hand, dropping heavily into the footwell before sliding under the passenger seat, and that’s when it happens.
The car whips like a fish out of water across the tarmac and I shove my foot onto the brake then turn the wheel in hopes that I’ll stop the car from flipping but I’m too late, it’s all going too fast. Bright lights flash across my eyes as the vehicle behind me clips the back end of my car again, causing me to flip into the air, leaving everything to move in slow motion. Sounds whoosh out of my ears before I hit the tarmac with a sickening thud, instantly the scraping of metal against tarmac stabs into my ears like a blade.
Round and round I flip, the car spinning at speed and I’m thrown around inside like loose change in a washing machine. Glass shards pierce the air before embedding themselves into my skin, my face smashing against the steering wheel with a crunching thud and the world falls silent again, just the ticking of the engine can be heard through the throbbing pain in my head.
Am I dead?
“Ana? Are you alright?” The sound of Emily’s voice sounds sofar away as the hellish memory fades back into the recesses of my mind.
“Um. Yeah, sorry. I just..” My words fail me as exhaustion takes over my body.
“It’s alright. We’ll make it out of here. I promise.” She says as her hand caresses my shoulder.
I smile at her words, and her faith that we’ll get out of here alive but in the back of my mind I know it isn’t true. I almost want to tell her that we’ll die here, but the look on her face has me keeping quiet. I can’t do that to her, so instead I cover my hand with hers and fall into a fitful sleep as blood dries on my back.
Each day turns into a blur, the hours and weeks pass by into nothing. The days are endless. They say time heals all wounds yet my time here is just creating more wounds that will never have the chance to heal.
Everyday we’re subjected to brutal acts from men who think they rule the world. That women are nothing but shit on their shoes, a product to be used and sold to the highest bidder. I haven’t seen Ricky since that time in his office, but I can’t count my blessings just yet for it’s only a matter of time before he decides to come and collect me again. The girls he spoke about with Nico arrived this morning. Well, I think it’s morning but I can’t be sure. Time is irrelevant in hell.
I know the guards separated them off into smaller groups, throwing three into our living quarters. They’d dragged morecages in through the night to accomodate the new prisoners. Girls who don’t even look old enough to walk to school on their own, nevermind be subjected to a place like this. I could feel my heart breaking at the cries and wails from the younger ones as the guards pulled them into the small basement room, all of them kicking and screaming in an attempt to escape.
“Please! Please, don’t do this!” One of the girls cried out as her bare feet scraped across the filthy concrete floor. The guard simply walked on with this hand planted firmly into her blonde hair before throwing her against one of the cages. She landed with a heavy thud before crumpling down to the floor in a fetal position, her shoulders shook with fear as she cried for help. Help that would probably never come.
“Let me go. Please, please let me go.” She whimpered into her arms but I could tell the moment the guard had had enough of listening to her when he removed his baton from his belt and swung it across her face, sending chipped teeth flying across the floor like a shattered cup.
