Three's a crowd

34

It's hard to describe how paralyzing fear can be. How crippling and catastrophic one emotion can be to someone. For me it sucked the air from my lungs, making each breath harder than the last.

I couldn't escape him. No matter how hard I worked to avoid him, he was always there. His face taunting my every move.

I had finished gym and decided to run some laps around the track until Riley was done with practice. Running was never my first choice, but it helped the time pass.

I was on my third lap around the track with my headphones in when I felt someone grab me from behind. Perhaps I should have screamed or yelled,but the only person that knew I was out here was Riley, and for some strange reason I had assumed that was whose arms wrapped around me until a smelly white cloth was placed over my face.

Blackness followed soon after.

I don't know how much later, but the blackness was replaced by the nauseating sight of an unfamiliar bedroom through a dizzy haze.

There was a bed with dark bed sheets in the middle, a desk at the side and a door I assumed led to a bathroom. It smelled like teenage boy, the scent of body odor and hormones encompassing the entire room.

I lifted my hands up to massage my aching temples as I tried to get rid of the nausea in my stomach.

I got up from the floor and tried to open the door. Of course it was locked. I tip toed across the room to the window, also locked. I didn't recognize my surroundings and I was desperately trying not to let anyone know I was awake.

I didn't know what I was doing here, wherever here was, and I didn't know why. What I did know was that I needed to find a way out of here.

I wiggled at the window and realized it was loose just as I heard a key turning in the lock. I quickly laid back on the floor beside the bed and closed my eyes, pretending I was still unconscious. At least this way I could hopefully get myself some more time to escape.

As I laid there I remembered my phone was tucked in my bra under my arm pit. It was on silent so I knew it wouldn't ring or vibrate but I felt slightly better knowing it was there.

I forced myself to breathe even and steady as if I were asleep, I had to sell this for it to work and it was my only chance to escape, to go home.

As the footsteps got closer, I could feel my body racing with nerves, the scary kind that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

I heard a sigh before that bone chilling voice pierced my ears and I willed my body to stay completely still.

"Oh Britt, Britt Britt Britt." His voice rang through my head, like a warning siren that lets you know danger is fast approaching.

"You silly, silly girl. If only you would have realized sooner. If only you could have seen how perfect we were for each other from the beginning, but you didn't." He continued rubbing his fingers on my face and in my hair.

It took every single ounce of determination not to move, not to scream. All I could see behind my darkened eye lids was Riley's face. I had to get out of this, get back to him.

"You forced my hand Britt, and when you wake up I'm going to show you more than you could ever imagine. You may have convinced yourself that he was your forever, but once I show you how much better I can make you feel, you'll see it was me all along!"

When he was done he kissed my lips and got up. I didn't dare to move, afraid it was a trap. When I heard the key twist in the lock and the foot steps echoing down a set of stairs I knew I was safe.