Chapter 2
My eyes popped opened just as my alarm clock start to play some random song off the radio. I leaned over and smacked the off button on top to shut it up as I threw my legs off my twin bed. With the alarm off, the rest of the house was quite and peaceful. Though, that could have been because it was 4:30 in the morning, and all the people in my small family of four were sound asleep. Everybody but me, the weird girl who gets up at 4:30 to go run three miles. I walked across my small room, to put on the black shorts and pink sports bra I had laid out the night before, pulled my waist length hair into a high pony tail, put on my running shoes, and I was out of my room.
I made sure my sister Hayley and my Mom were ok and asleep before heading out of our old two-story town home in Tennessee, to go run the three mile track at the local high school. As I made my way to the track, I tried to keep my head as clear as I could, but it was damn near impossible. My thoughts kept shifting back to my dream last night, and how much worse the pain had been. It never was that bad, ever. Those goons have never broken bones, or hit so hard before. They especially have never beat me with a wooden pole before. That was something new, as was the knives.
Those simple facts scared me more than anything, what if it was going to be that bad from now on? Could I survive that? I used to try to not fall asleep, but that was before Steve, my ex step-dad, left Mom when she was eight and a half months pregnant with Hayley. But did I really want to try not to fall asleep? No, especially not after the talk I had with him, with Luke. With my beautiful brown hair, brown eyed dream boy, who could make everything bad disappear with just one look. He actually told me his name, Lucas. Lucas, but you can call me Luke, he had said. His actual name, he gave it to me. He could have been lying, but I didn't really believe that.
I took a deep breath, as I reached the field/track, and kicked my running into high gear. I run track for the high school, in fact I hold the record for long-distance and fifty meter dash, and I need to hold those records and try to get any others I can if I am going to try and get a track scholarship. As soon as my feet hit the pavement, I took off full speed, non-stop. I had a mile and a half to go, and was getting close to beating my old record for long distance when a bright white flashing light off to the side caught my attention for the briefest second, before I tripped and hit the hard, unforgiving pavement knees first. I rolled a couple of times, before landing on my back disoriented.
I hadn't hit my head, which was good, but I was still pretty dizzy from falling, and my left knee looked scraped up pretty badly. I guess that's my cue to stop, I thought as I pulled myself up and brushed the dirt off my butt and stomach before looking over to where I saw the flash of white light, next to the concrete bleachers. I walked over to the gate entrance, in hope to get a better look. I didn't see anything unusual, so I started to walk away, and tell myself to just forget about it. Anyway, I needed to get home and wake Mom, then go take a much needed shower. But, I could have sworn I saw someone in the shadows.
Correction, not just someone, but one of the Mobs security guards on steroids from my dreams, to be exact. I shook my head slightly trying to shake the feeling of being watched, and glanced back one more time. I sighed to myself, you're going crazy Jocelyn, there is nobody behind you and that wasn't one of the freaks on steroids. I shook my head one more time, in attempt to help clear it, before jogging the rest of the way home. I needed to wake Mom then take a shower, and get a band-aid on my knee. I jogged up the last couple of steps to our front door, prepared to use the key we kept under my Mom's favorite rose bush, but saw that the lights inside the kitchen were already on, and the door unlocked.
I let myself in and walk through the living room, and around the corner into the kitchen where my Mom was sitting at our small dinning room table that sat in front of a bay window, drinking a cup of coffee. I smiled slightly, and walked up behind her and hugged her.
