Ties to Lies

The Past

"But Mum," I pleaded, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the phone tighter."You need to come home; everything's falling apart without you! Dad's left us again, and  no matter what I do he won't talk to me. He hates me-he hates me so much." I forced out, trying to keep my sobs under control.

"Honey, you know I can't leave. I've built a life for myself here-how could I ever abandon Kevin?" My Mum's voice spoke back through the phone's speaker.

"Just for a few days?" I whispered, my hand immediately moving to my swollen red cheek. "Miranda's been hitt-" I was cut off by the sound of a smashing bottle on the other end of the line.

"Hey baby," I heard my Mum say. "I've got to go, Kevin's home."

"What's going on?" I asked before she could hang up. "Are you ok?"

Before she could respond, I heard a deep voice shouting and heard my Mother's scream as a violent slap could be heard through the phone. 

"You dumb bitch!" Kevin's voice boomed, as my Mother's sobs of terror grew louder.

"Mum!" I screamed as I held onto the phone even tighter, my hands shaking as I continued to yell out for her.

"Don't you ever call this number again." Kevin said, his deep voice terrifying me to my core. "If you call this number again or try to call the police, I'll kill her. Don't you dare tell anybody about this phone call."

Then the line went dead.

**
I woke up from my horrific dream with a start, an awful feeling settling in my gut. As I recovered from my horrible memory, I looked around to see where the hell I was.

Before I could fully process my surroundings, a horrible pain spread through my scull, creating a second heart beat in my head. When I attempted to stand, I was shocked to find my arms and legs bound by rope. Ignoring the pain in my head, I looked around absorbing as much information as I could.

I was in a large van, which continued to rattle along the road at a ridiculously fast speed. When I went to kick my legs out in order to get an idea of much space I had, I heard a muffled grunt.

Ghost van.

Although I felt like I'd swallowed cotton balls, my voice still croaked into the darkness. "Hello?"

"Mhhhhhmmm." The person quickly responded.

Without hesitation, I quickly crawled towards the noise, grasping at the darkness until I felt someone flinch at my touch. I blindly felt around for the person's face until I found a piece of cloth stuffed into their mouth. With fumbling fingers, I untied the gag in the person's mouth and threw it to the floor.

"Thank you." A painfully familiar voice croaked.

"Nina?" I whispered, practically shaking at the absolute horror of having one of my best friends stuck in this horrible situation with me. "What are you doing here?"

She started sniffling as she forced out the words that would haunt me for the rest of my life. "They took me instead of Lily. All I saw was smoke then I was being dragged to my feet and thrown over someone's shoulder. I wouldn't stop screaming so they gagged me. They threw the rest of the girls in another van-" She stopped as a sob racked her body before continuing. "They said the others were going to be taken to the Camps. I don't know where we're going Evie, but at least it's not there."

I had to take a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart before speaking. "I'm going to get you out of here Nina. I promise that I'm not leaving here without you." As I wrapped her up in my arms, and began rubbing her back to calm her, the van we were in came to a stop.

In seconds, the doors at the back of the van opened and we were blinded by light.

"Bring them through the back exit, we can get them properly dressed before they're presented."

And with that, two sets of arms reached into the van and dragged Nina and I out kicking and screaming.

**

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