Set Me Free

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 

Kelsie hugged her diaries to her as Clint navigated them out of town. She knew he didn't care for her but right now he was a hero in her eyes. In the twelve years she had lived there, no one had ever stood up for her. Everyone that had heard the way that some of the nurses and the orderlies had spoken about her, or to her, had just turned a deaf ear to it. Anyone that knew what she was forced to endure everyday was blind to it. She was out. She was free.

The voices were buzzing in her mind but she bit down on her lip to stop herself from speaking them.

Clint focused on putting as many miles as he could between that vile prison and Kelsie. His ears perked up when he heard a low rumble echo through the cab of his truck. He looked over at his passenger. She was hunched down in the seat, the notebooks clenched in her arms against her stomach. There appeared to be about a dozen of them. Her mouth was smashed shut and her eyes were darting between the front and side windshield.

"You hungry?" Clint asked her.

She shook her head.

Another low rumble filled the silence.

"You sure?"

She nodded.

Clint sighed. "By the sounds, your stomach is disagreeing with you."

"I'll be fine. I don't have any money."

"I will pay for food. I have to stop soon for gas anyway."

She shook her head. "You don't have to. I want to be able to pay for it myself."

"Right now, your not able to do that so I will gladly pay. It looks like you could use a few extra meals anyway."

Kelsie glanced at him. "I don't....I want...." She stopped and hung her head.

"What is it?"

She licked her lips. "The orderlies, they made me pay for my food. I want to be able to just eat something after paying the right way."

A crease formed on Clint's forehead. "What do you mean, made you pay?"

She swallowed. "They made me do stuff."

"Like?"

"One would make me lick the floor. I had to beg like a dog. And one orderly in particular, he made me......"

Clint ground his teeth together and clenched the steering wheel in his fists, his skin turned white. "What?"

"He would make me give him a blow job before I could eat."

Clint tried to count to ten but the need to turn the vehicle around and go find the son of a bitch pulled at him greatly. His lips thinned into a hard line.

"He never finished. He said I wasn't good at it. But if I wanted to eat I had to. I didn't like the things they made me do but I had to eat to survive. Sometimes I didn't think it was worth it, I just wanted to die."

Clint stayed quiet. He couldn't get anything out past the anger. Several seconds passed without them speaking.

"I can still pay like that. I can give you blow jobs, if that's what you want."

Clint whipped his head towards her. She must of misunderstood his silence. Thinking that he was upset with her. Her head was hanging low and her body was shaking slightly. "You don't need to 'pay' for your food or anything else for that matter. I have the money, your getting food."

She nodded her head.

Clint turned back to the road. A truck stop was less then five miles away. His fists still gripped the wheel with force. His knuckles were going to be stuck like that if he didn't loosen his fingers.