In The Stars (Original)

(Prologue) Silent Swimmer "Where it all went wrong"

Pulling into the leisure centre carpark, she sat in her seat listening to the violent rain banging onto her car. It was a Sunday at 1:37pm and she planned to be their until 4:30pm, maybe 5pm, she hadn't told Zack where she was going in the heat of the moments leading up to this.

Paige stepped out of the car with her gym bag in hand, after having a fight with her boyfriend Zack she needed to work out. The pool was closed for maintenance and the gym was empty except for one person who wore all black and had a hood pulled tight.

Stepping onto the treadmill, she set her speed and started to work faster and faster, working out all that pent up energy and anger. The gym was shutting for the rest of the week so this was her only chance to go until the maintenance had been done.

Feeling eyes land on her, she felt shivers go up her spine feeling uncomfortable, slowly she turned around, discreetly looking at the person on the machine behind and saw him quickly turn his head away. Shaking off the weird feeling she had, she focused on excercise.

The uneasy feeling swooped on her again, stronger than the last time, she ignored it, thinking it was just her anxiety. Eventually she had had enough of this feeling, she checked the time, 3:37pm. She decided to call Zack and apologise and say where she was.

Picking up her phone, she clicked on contacts and scrolled down to 'Zack💕😘😍' tapping on it, her finger hovered over call and as she pressed she felt hands over her mouth. Her eyes popped in her head, struggling to breathe, the hands held her bum and squeezed it.

She hated the feeling of their rough hands run up and down her body, trying to fight off the person pulling her towards the door she bit his hand. Causing him to strike her hard in the face, stunning her. "Do not make a sound, walk normally, don't run BITCH." The gruff voice grunted.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognised that voice but it didn't register who, or that she should scream and run. Not risking it, she acted as calm and possible and followed him into the woman's changing rooms, nobody was there.

As soon as the door shut, they slammed her into the wall and stripped her down into nothing, holding her tightly. "Please! Stop!" She begged crying, she gasped in pain as she felt them enter her, struggling to push them off she failed.

"No! I don't want it!" She cried again, they laughed, "I don't care what you want!" They roared, keeping their face hidden. Everytime she struggled they hit her, she had gone into a stunned, numb silence, as they groped and handled her. Hands running and stopping over her breasts.

She felt them pushing kisses up and down her collarbone, harshly entering their tongue into her mouth, forcing it down, despite her desperate attempts to stop this. The tears kept streaming down her face, how desperately she wanted someone to come in and save her.

When they had finished their 'fun', they threw the clothes at her and told her to get changed, he stared at her, disgustingly licking his lips. When she pulled on her clothes, she felt some blood running down her legs, her black leggings sticking to it tightly.

Grabbing Paige's wrist tightly, the figure dragged her to the pool, they grabbed her by the neck with both hands, strangling her as she tried to fight them off. They slammed her into the wall again and again, slapping and punching her repeatedly in the stomach and chest.

Knocking any air left in her lungs out, the bully got a blade and drew on her arms, leaving a painting in red as she choked on a scream of pain. Repeating this action she went numb, falling silent, as she began to slowly bleed out, they took from her arms to her stomach.

Her last thought in her moment of terror was 'My baby' before the strangling began again, only this time it was much tighter, dragging her to the poolside.Eventually they let go, dropping her into the water. A shock to her system as she went from no oxygen to water.

Choking underwater, she desperately tried to push herself up but she was too weak after everything, flailing about. Her ears roared, her skin burned as the chlorine and water mixed with her bloody cuts, why was this happening to her. 'Suicide' entered her mind.

They were trying to make it look like suicide, she felt so tired, her eyelids drooping but she fought hard to push herself up to the side. Resurfacing at the edge she gasped for air, then she cried as the hands held her head under. Smacking at the hands, she attempted to escape.

But she couldn't, she was trapped, she wouldn't see her baby girl Allie, her boyfriend Zack, she couldn't apologise, her sister Chloé, her best friend Mia. The last thing she said to Zack ringing in her ears, "I fucking hate you, I don't even know why I'm with you." Before she stormed out.

The last words she heard from someone she loved, her boyfriend being, "Why can't you just fucking try! You have a sister who loves you, you're the last thing she has! A best friend who is the closest thing you could get to another sister! A daughter who adores you!"

"And me! A boyfriend who wants to spend the rest of my life with you, have more kids, get married, and be with you! Because that's all that matters to me! You! All I care about is you! And you do this! Throwing it all away!" He had screamed.

The whole argument went round and round in her head, for her last moments, he had found old blades in a bag hidden in the bathroom and confronted her. Not liking the answer he recieved, she used to be depressed when she was 13, she had gone to self-harm and never told anyone.

"I stopped, I haven't done it in years! I forgot I had them!" She had sobbed, this argument continued until she left sobbing. Now she realized that she was possibly never going to see anyone she loved again. 'My unborn baby.' She cried in her head.

Pushing herself up she choked on her words, begging the figure to let her go, "Have mercy! Please! I'm pregnant! I have a daughter who needs me! I won't tell anyone! Please I promise! I'm 18! I haven't lived! I'm in university to become a nurse! Let me live! Let me save!" She begged.

They laughed bitterly and just dunked her back in, she had no energy left and gave up, her phone was dropped in the changing rooms dead. There was no way of tracking her, finding her before it was too late, she choked on water.

Eventually she shut her eyes, took her last strangled breath of water and her body began to slowly sink. Little did her loved ones know, they would never see her alive again, that she was gone, that she took a baby with her.

Nobody had known she was pregnant, she had found out that morning and had planned to tell them later but didn't because of the fight.