Beautiful Casualty

Chapter Six

I had some trouble breathing that night. Lee seemed to be fast asleep so she wasn't able to help me. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to remember how to breathe.

Inhale.

Wait.

Exhale.

"Breathe," I whispered to myself as I exhaled. This had happened once before at Dave's. I was laying down in bed beside Ray and, somehow, I'd forgotten how to breathe.

I turned my head to stare out the window which was covered with prison-like bare so no one would try to escape through them. The moonlight was shining through and it reminded me of when I was a little kid.

I barely had good childhood memories, but the ones I had were impossible to forget.

My favorite was when I was about five-years-old and my parents had a decent relationship--it wasn't perfect, but it was better than their relationship now. We went to the lake to camp out for the night and when we all laid down in the tent, me between my parents, all we could see was the moonlight seeping through the top of the tent.

I stared at the moonlight, remember the good ol' times until I feel back asleep.

Waking up in that morning was probably the worst feeling in the world. All I really wanted to do was turn over, pull the cover over my head, and go back to sleep. I was tired and I felt sick.

Sometimes--all the time--I wished I would've just died already, it's not like anyone would care anyways. I didn't have any friends or family that truly cared about it, so what was the point? If I were to be found hanging from a rope, no one would shed a single tear. And that's what really got to me. I hated knowing that no one cared. It's like having a baby and throwing it in the dumpster, imagine what baby would feel. Neglected, alone, confused. I mean, it's not like I wanted to be unwanted, I didn't ask for it, it wasn't a choice I'd made. And yet, I see people joke about it everyday like it's some kind of punch line, but it isn't. If anything, it's a nightmare.

"Hey," I heard a voice day. I felt someone shaking me a little bit before the voice spoke again, "Come one, we're leaving." I opened my eyes fully to see Lee standing over me.

"What? I asked, sitting up and rubbing the tired out of my eyes.

"Shh," she whispered. "We're leaving. Get your shit and hurry up." I got up and followed her out of the door without thinking twice about it. I didn't have any 'shit' to get, not even shoes. Plus. I wanted to leave, but I wasn't exactly sure how we were gonna do it. How Lee plan on sneaking out of this place--the place had alarms, after all, which were set before we went to bed.

Lee slowly and carefully the door's lock with something I couldn't identify in the dark--a bobby-pin maybe--and opened the door. She tip-toed out, signaling for me to follow her. We crept along the wall, ducking every time we encountered a door window. When we got to the door that led to the main hallway, Lee dug in her pocket and pulled out a small, rectangular card and put it up to the door scanner. Where the hell did she get that? I thought, but didn't ask. The door popped open.

"Ta da," she whispered, smiling at me. She pushed the door open a little bit and we both snuck though. Once Lee stood up straight, I sighed, feeling relief wash over me. The hard part was finally over, now all we had to do was make it through the front door.

Once we were finally outside, I felt like I could breathe again. But there was still more running to do. And, so we ran as fast as we could until we were sure that no one from that hellhole could find us.

"Alright," Lee smiled, proudly. "You did great for a newbie, thought I was gonna have to leave you back there."

"Um, thank," was all able to get out. I had no idea what to say to her--I had no idea why she let me breakout with her in the first place.