Family Ties (Rewritten)

Gone

Vincent:

My nose fucking hurt, almost as much as my pride after being beaten up by a little girl. Stella stopped at the store and bought me a small ice pack to hold on it until she could treat it properly. Though I was exhausted, I had to keep my head up so the blood wouldn't pour down to my throat. This whole thing had been absolutely humiliating. "Son of a bitch," I wailed, wallowing in my own self pity. "I'm gonna kill that sorry slut when she wakes up."

Stella's eyes were fixed on the road ahead, her fingers wringing the steering wheel.  She hadn't spoken a word since we left the house.  My mind went back to Dr. Greer's theory that she had DID.

In a way, it made sense.  Sometimes she seemed more eager to kidnap Cora than I was, and other times she acted like she would rather be anywhere but with me.  Then again, she had been through a lot of shit in the last seventy two hours.

Being raped, then killing your rapist, was enough to send any woman over the edge.  I had to try to be more understanding of her emotions.

I lowered the volume of the radio.  "Stella, I'm sorry you were thrown into this crazy shit.  I know you didn't want anyone to get hurt, and I should have been more sensitive to your feelings."

Her eyes remained fixed ahead. 

She didn't say a word.

"Do you want to go back?  It's not too late."

"I can't go back," She whispered, "Everyone will know that I helped you escape."

"No, they won't.  I'll tie you up and stash you in a storage room somewhere, then I can make an anonymous phone call to the police."

Her eyes darted to the rear view mirror, filling with tears when she saw the reflection of Hope lying in the backseat.  "She saw me, Vincent.  She'll tell the police that I-"

"I'll take care of it."

"You'd have to kill her."

The silence that followed was all she needed to know that I had no intention of leaving Hope alive.  She turned the radio back up.  "I have nowhere else to go, Vincent.  I'll help you see this through to the end, no matter what it might do to my life.  Besides," She sighed and retrieved her third cigarette since we left the house.  "Things couldn't get any worse for me."

"You're being far too pessimistic.  You're young, intelligent, and drop dead beautiful.  The world is your oyster.  You just have to move on from what those fuckers did to you.  Elliot, Beverly, your Uncle Colin, your god awful parents-forget all of them."

"No," That familiar deepness in her voice sent chills down my spine.  "I will never forget."

We listened to the radio in silence for the rest of the drive.  There was a seedy motel just on the outskirts of a town forty miles away.  Stella pulled into the parking lot and shut off the engine.  I looked up at the flashing neon sign in front of me.  Vacancy-it blinked in pink.  There were only two other cars in the parking lot.  In front of one of them, a ragged red Pontiac, stood five men with beer and marijuana joints in their hands.  I couldn't hear them over the blaring music that played from the car radio, but it seemed like they weren't going to pay us any mind. 

"How much cash do you have left?"  I asked.

"About two hundred bucks."

"Go get us a room for one night.  I'll watch her."

Stella's eyes were fixed on the drunken men.

"Don't worry," I said, "They won't mess with you."

That was a lie. Stella was a beautiful girl, and those men looked as horny as a porn star who's been locked up for ten years.  If they were distracted by her, they wouldn't notice me and Hope.