To Our Future

Breaking Free

With a pen in her hand, Vanessa slowly but surely writes the 3 answers to the riddle Mason had set down for her. She says in her head, "the answers... are Time Cause and Heartbreak-" she realizes that the answers led to her realizing how hurt he really was without her. She broke into tears of pain from the answers she wrote on the piece of paper he left her to write the answers. With a blank stare she laid down in the fetal position crying until she passed out. Mason gently opens the cabin door and sees Vanessa rolled into a ball with her face bright red and sees her eyes red as cherries from crying while gripping onto the piece of paper with her answers written on it. But she ripped a small piece of the paper off before she broke down to write- "I'm sorry for hurting you this way Mason... I'm the cause of you doing this and I'm so sorry...-"

Without hesitating, Mason picks up Vanessa gently in his arms while she is still sleeping with tears coming down her cheeks and lays her down on the comforting bed. He puts her hair back and sees the bruise he left on her a few days ago and sees the pain that he put her through and realizes it was a mistake to do so. He gets up and gets a small rag and runs lukewarm water on it and walks back to her and sits right beside her and puts the wet rag onto the wound and gently rubs her head. She slowly starts to wake up, with her eyes blurry and everything hazy, she starts to clearly see Mason holding onto her in tears.

With a shaking tone, she begins to ask him why he is crying. He says shaking "Everything you wrote was correct...and I'm truely sorry for all of this pain I put you through-" he uncuffs her cold red hands and gently hugs her and carries her to his car. She groans while still being drowsy and her eyes still blurry- "Mason...Where are we going...-?" He sits there quietly and hands a phone to her, she quickly realizes it's her own phone and opens it up to find it being fully charged with messages from everyone...even Rachel- "Vanessa it's mom and dad.... where are you-? Are you ok-? Did he hurt you again-?" She read the one from Rachel- "Mason I know it's you responding as her.... if you so as lay a finger on her I will shove my heels so far up your ass you won't see the sunlight anymore-" She tries to not break down in tears again because she feels her chest hurting majorly from the bruise that Mason left on her days ago. They arrive at her house and she slowly unbuckles herself and slowly gets out of his car. She looks up and sees her parents and Rachel there in tears, Rachel runs up to her and gently hugs her and hold her in her arms and begins to cry on her shoulder- "I miss you so much Vanessa- I'm glad you are safe-" she pauses and sees the burn marks that Mason left on her and walks up to his car, opens his door and drags him out. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO HER YOU ASSHOLE!!! I HOPE YOU ARE PROUD OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO HER!" She screams, and then attempts to slap Mason across the face, but Vanessa grabs her wrist gently before she slaps Mason and hugs her. She whispers in Rachel's ear- "He told me why he did all of this...please don't blame him fully for this....I was the cause of it... so if you are gonna slap someone... please slap me for being naive-" Rachel lets go of Vanessa and takes a few steps back to see her shaking in fear.

She slowly walks back up to her pushes her hair back and puts it behind her hair, turns around and picks her up and puts her on her back and carries her inside. Before she walks in she gently says to her parents, "She will be asleep in my arms, When she wakes up from this... please don't do anything harsh to her... I saw in her eyes what made her do all of this... when you deal with him, it will become clear....-" she turns towards the door and walks in with Vanessa on her back and carries her up to her bed and gently sets her down. Rachel gently rubs her hand on Vanessa's head and begins to cry from seeing all the wounds on her. She slowly gets up and walks out of her room and gently closes the door. She begins going down the stairs and sees Vanessa's parents breaking into tears- "It's all his fault... If we just saw the signs we coulda saved her from him...-" Rachel clenches her fists and runs down the stairs and screams at Vanessa's parents- "I know her well!! She can be easily manipulated you cannot fully blame Mason!!" Her parents turn around in shock and see Rachel in tears.

"She broke free from him!!! And learned her lesson!!! At least she isn't gone!!!" She screamed, then ran out of the house. At the corner of her eye she sees Mason in the darkness with a gun, he aims it right towards Rachel's back and shoots her. Without realizing it she falls to the ground and screams in pain- her parents rush out and see their daughter lying there in a pool of her own blood, they immediately call the cops and tell them what happened. "Calm down ma'am, what's going on-?" The officer on the phone states- "Officer my daughter has been shot in the back and is bleeding profusely!! We have a towel on the wound and putting pressure on it- please can you send an ambulance immediately!?!" She says with tears starting to roll down her eyes, the officer tries to reassure her and tells her- "Ma'am it's gonna be ok the ambulance is on the way, stay on the phone with me and make sure your daughter is still breathing and keep pressure on the wound...-" While breathing heavily, her mom begins to panic and leans in close to her daughter to make sure she is still breathing... "it's faint but she is still breathing officer-" she says in a panicked tone.