Left To Survive

XXXV

꧁ Jaden ꧂

30 June

"Oh come on! Just a quick turn around the block, it will take three minutes tops!" I tried to convince Alisha. She looked hesitatingly at me. I had proposed to show her my car, that I just got from my parents.

Or at least, that was what I told her. The truth was that it was just my parents' 4 year old car, and I happened to be able to drive. But she didn't have to know the truth.

"Fineee" she finally gave in, going to sit down in the front seat of the car. A wide smile appeared on my face as I walked around and sat behind the wheel. "Alright, here we go!" And I started the motor.

I looked behind me in the mirror of the car, and saw that Alisha's ghost friend, Yara, had taken place. She was looking straight at me, not breaking contact, and narrowed her eyes when she saw me looking at her. I quickly looked away, but the seed of doubt had been planted.

I kept on feeling Yara's stare at me, but tried to ignore it. "Alisha..." I heard her say, and I saw how Alisha held her head a bit to the side, to show that she's listening. She didn't know I could see and hear Yara too.

Instead, I started up a conversation with Alisha, so that she wouldn't listen to Yara.

"What'd you think about Max's presentation in English today?" I asked her. Alisha looked distracted at me. "What?" We never talked about stupid stuff like that. "Oh," she continued, "It was stupid, you could see how he didn't even study his text, he just invented everything."

Alisha kept on staring through the window. I heard Yara say "Lisha, there is something wrong. Look around."

Shit, that bitch did not just-

I saw Alisha squinting her eyes and turning towards me. "Jaden, you said just around the block... Where are you going?" No time to lose now.

꧁ Alisha ꧂

His smile had disappeared as I said those words. Something suddenly felt totally off, Jaden seemed like he was about to ride into a tree, out of anger. "Jaden, can you" I fell still when he suddenly speed the car up and passed cars and all restrictions and rules of maximum speed.

I was getting really scared at this point. He said just around the block? I grabbed the handle to the door of the car to keep my balance when he took a turn, still speeding.

"Jaden, can you let me out please?" I asked him. "Jaden?!" I said half screaming, but there was no reaction from him. Instead of his warm smile, that always seemed to stay on his face, it had taking a dark turn. His face was cold, unmovable. I had never seen him like this.

I took his arm, and yelled again. "Jaden, please let me out! You said just around the block!" Still no reaction, and I was scared that I would cause an accident if I moved his arm too much. "Just let me out, please, I'm scared." This changed something in Jaden's face, and he slowed down and took a turn in a smaller street with no cars.

I turned my head to the back of the car, to see Yara keeping her eyes on the road in front of her, then switching to me. "Lisha, this isn't-" but she didn't finish her words when her glance switched to Jaden. I saw her gasping, and when I turned back to him I could only feel a moist and cold cloth against my face and nose. I tried to find some air and struggled to get out of Jaden's grip, but he held the back of my head firmly in his hand. His other hand was covering my face with the cloth, and I could feel myself slipping away slowly into a darkness.

ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ

I woke up and felt like a truck had hit me. Fatigue and pain washed over me, and for a few minutes I didn't understand where I was.

Slowly I took my surroundings in. It was dark, I was sitting on something hard. A soft light came from above me; a light bulb.

I took a look around me, slowly because of my stiff neck, and my heart beat faster when I came to the realization. Cement walls all around me, me sitting on a hard chair, no windows; I was in a basement.

And my hand were tied to the chair. Fuck fuck fuck. What the hell happened?

Slowly the memories started coming back; Jaden, the car, speeding... Falling unconscious.

I heard a soft moan behind me, but I couldn't turn around to see who's it from. "Who's there?" I asked, wanting to sound confident and brave, but my voice was rather soft and you could hear it cracking from the tears I was trying to keep to myself.

"Lisha..." I heard. Was that Yara? But how- How could she be here? She's a ghost, you couldn't trap ghosts, right?

"Oh my God, Yara!" I exclaimed, "How are you-" I heard a soft mumbling coming from her. "What are you saying?" I asked, a bit loud, because I was annoyed that I couldn't see her.

"That bitch got me!" she said, louder this time. "Jaden?" I tried. Yara scoffs. "No, Santa. Of course Jaden! That idiot, how did he manage-" The sound of chains tangling.

I wanted to ask Yara more, about how Jaden managed to get her here and about what happened after I passed out. But at that moment we could hear a door open and I had to squint my eyes because of the blinding light.

"Well well well, look at you!"

Jaden.